Much more than I expected! I'm not sure what I think of astrology as a "science," but I'll tell you what, this book absolutely described me (through my sign) to a "T," and also correctly identified those I would get along with and those signs that would be disasters for me. Fun reading, and also helpful to produce more reflection on the part of gay men about who they're dating, how it's going, and why. Also very helpful is pairing up each sign with its 12 matches -- and doing this for each sign. For instance, it's helpful to match up Aries with Leo from the Aries perspective, and see how well it would work for the Aries partner. But it's also important to pair up Leo with Aries and see how it would feel from the Leo's perspective! Similar books, like Jill Dearman's Queer Astrology for Men, only match up the pairs once, in shorter sections, attempting to do both perspectives at once.

I have used this book for years and have found Michael Jay's descriptions of the signs infallible. I love to amaze people by having them read a section about themselves. EVERY time they say "oh my god, that's me!" The descriptions of the signs paired up is also very valuable whether for love or friendship. I can't recommend this book enough!

Jay's delightful book is fun to read, fun to discuss, and fun to ponder. Well written, astrologially accurate, Gay Love Signs gives an affirming view of relationships, and of the selves within those relationships. Each sign is dealt with in some depth, and every possible combination of signs is readily available, and from both perspectives. This is a fun read, and a thought provoking book. It may even bring "What's your sign?" out of the cliche and back into popular usage.

This is an absolutely fabulous cookbook, even for those with a little milder palate! I would recommend the Cajun gumbo and the Black Bean and Kidney Bean soup for any meal!

This book rocks! I've made over half the recipes in this book with only 1 or 2 disappointments. Everything else has been "very good" to "excellent". Recipes are relatively quick and easy to make (most take < 1 hour), flavorful, healthy, and function well as a one dish meal. Most recipes can also be toned down for those timid of fire without compromising the integrity of the dish. You really can't go wrong with this one, especially if you like a little spice.

I own several so called spicy cookbooks and this one lives up to it's name and is by far my favorite one. It's chok'ful of delicious one page recipes from around the globe. Great muligitawny and the "Evil Jungle Peanut Chicken" is awesome. For the most part the recipes are easy to prepare and have readily availble ingredients as well as a pretty accurate hotness scale. My wife & I have probably made 15-20 of the recipes already and thats not counting the ones we repeated. You will need a large pan because the recipes make copious amounts of food. I recommend a big wok and a big, big glass of beer to chase the fire down. Oh yeah, you'll also need a towel to wipe the spice induced sweat off your brow. ENJOY!

A fantastic adventure - one of my favorite books as a child! I ordered copies for myself, my brother, my sister, and my mom. It is just as wonderful as I remember. The illustrations are superb, and the story is timeless.

This is a wonderful story, told as a fairy tale, about a king and his friends, each with a unique talent. They help each other using these gifts and are ultimately successful as a team in a situation where any one would have failed. The illustrations are old-fashioned but beautiful. The situations are interesting to children and make this a great introduction to longer fiction.

As a child in the mid 70's I can remember paging through this book for hours at a time before I could even read. The illustrations had a very overcast, eeriely beautiful, hazy atmosphere that haunted me (in a wonderful way) and still do today - thank god for Amazon's used bookstore search option! It reunited me with this old favorite & opon opening it for the first time in 20 years I practicaly had a religious experience from the nostalgia overload.

Jay Poth's compelling and superbly written novel, The Last Cowman, is the story of a nearly broke South Texas cattle rancher, who in his struggle to make ends meet comes across a commodity that could destroy the known world. His old roommate has become a biological virus scientist, and together they could sell the deadly new virus strains to the government, reaping wealth for better living - but at what ultimate cost? The Last Cowman is a gripping struggle of balancing survival and desires with catastrophic threats, and searching for one's roots and values among the tangled morass of politics and commercialism. A tense, original, gripping story.

Quirky characters mix high tech adventures with small town corn in this tall Texas tale. The Last Cowman entertains with each page turn.

This is a fast paced adventure about the antics of a modern day Texas rancher. You stay interested throughout the entire book and you are startled at what happens next. The characters are outlandish and are pure Texan. These cowboys meet up with the best of science and the worst of the crime syndicate and this makes for pure adventure. Capitavited!

Jay Scott's excellent book gives a comprehensive run down of almost the entire Gretsch lineage. Packed with detailed model descriptions, great pictures and a healthy dose of humorous wit, this book is a must read for anyone interested in Gretsch guitars. The book is let down however, by frequent typographical and grammatical errors throughout. Some pictures are also unnecessarily reproduced throughout the book. If edited more fastidiously, this book would be almost perfect.

Jay Scott has undoubtedly devoted his soul to the guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company. In his outstanding book, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, Jay concentrates on the fine appointments and unique styling of each Gretsch Model. He tends to focus on the halcion years of 1950 to the late sixties offering indepth studies of the famous models, namely the 6120 (of which I am a proud owner), the Country Gent, White Falcon, the Jet series and other rarities such as the White Penguin.

There are few books devoted solely to the Gretsch Guitar and, in my opinion, Scott's book is the most comprehensive. The pages contain many photographs and extarcts from original catologues. Also included are some interesting "custom" models (no doubt from Randy Bachman's collection) and hybrids made by Gretsch in their effort to use surplus parts. Scott also writes about the management of the company and the various owners and finally, the demise. It is encouraging that the company has found it's feet agian and is producing fine instruments in the same vein as the originals.

To conclude, any Gretsch fan should aquire this reference to further their knowlege and for pure browsing pleasure. I find myself flipping through the pages regularly gazing at those perferct arch top guitars with their flawless character. This book is a fantastic manual on the epitome of sound and luxuriant quality - The Gretsch Guitar.

This book is an enjoyable, informative look into a classic, American Guitar company, Gretsch. Its picure gallery alone will keep you reaching for it again and again. Jay's passion with Gretsch guitars shows. Of particular interest is the section on the Duo Jet, and its sister, the Silver Jet. The only book like it on the market today. Five stars.

On February 27, 1902 John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California. Now we stand at the centenary crossing, marking the one hundredth birthday of a Nobel Prize-winning novelist who, in the manner of few great creative artists, embodied the fundamental spirit of America's determination to overcome adversity. An ironic note from the career of Steinbeck, someone who wrote with such feeling about common folk overcoming adversity, particularly during the Great Depression,was that some of the most characteristic lines summing up the credo expressed in his writing came not from him but from Twentieth Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, who started his film career as a screenwriter. At the close of the great John Ford film based on Steinbeck's greatest novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," Zanuck, wanting the movie to end on an upbeat note, wrote the final scene in which Jane Darwell in her Oscar-winning performance summed up her feelings. Darwell delivered a testimonial about the survivalist nature of the common folk, with their ability to bounce back in the face of hardship.

Steinbeck is examined by Parini as an author always in touch with his roots. He was a classic example of the adage that a person should write about what one knows best. Doing so often got Steinbeck in trouble, as when residents of Monterey reportedly walked across the street rather than speak to him after he wrote "Cannery Row." Steinbeck later set off a tempest in his hometown of Salinas with the publication of "East of Eden." Citizens who had lived in Salinas for years recognized themselves as characters in the book. Steinbeck remembered the uproar years later when, not long before his death in 1968, he learned that the Salinas library would be named after him. "I wouldn't have been surprised if they had named the local house of ill repute after me," the author quipped, "but I never expected to have the library named after me."

The young Steinbeck tended to be shy and withdrawn. A neighbor became a close friend and helped draw him out, Max Wagner, who later became a film actor and remained friends with Steinbeck during the rest of their lives. Max's brother Jack became a writer and collaborated with Steinbeck later on film projects. The two writers shared a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award nomination for their work in the 1945 film "A Medal for Benny." Steinbeck and Max Wagner each left Salinas to attend Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto. They both left after one year, restless creative spirits who hated confinement.

Parini reveals the painful experience of writing for Steinbeck, who endured numerous ailments from the early days of his career. The biographer reveals the "earthy" propensity of Steinbeck's subject matter, including such an early work as "Tortilla Flat," which revealed the lives of impoverished Mexicans living in shacks in Monterey. Later his close friendship with local Monterey marine biologist, Dr. Edward F. Ricketts, was revealed. The man known as "Doc" to localies was played by Nick Nolte in the screen adaptation of the Steinbeck novel "Cannery Row." In the case of Steinbeck's master work, "The Grapes of Wrath," the author carefully researched California migrant camps, a major element of the story as Oklahomans fleeing the great dust bowl resided in them on the way to establishing their own roots moving westward. Steinbeck had an excellent guide, Tom Collins, who managed the Kern County Migrant Camp and became a friend of the author's. Steinbeck's great novel was dedicated partially to Collins as he wrote: "To Tom -- who lived it." It was a simple dedication which meant so much, so typically earthy, and so typically Steinbeck.

One important friendship Steinbeck formed was with fellow humanitarian and author, Carl Sandburg, poet and Lincoln biographer. Actor Burgess Meredith also became a close friend after starring in the brilliant 1939 film adaptation of Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men."

Long before Cesar Chavez was available to courageously carry the banner of the exploited Mexican braceros, Steinbeck fought tirelessly for their cause along with crusading journalist Carey McWilliams. Steinbeck was a stalwart advocate of the New Deal of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and became a friend and devoted admirer of two time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai E. Stevenson, for whom Steinbeck wrote speeches during his losing 1956 campaign to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Parini provides a solid account of Steinbeck as a man, including defeats as well as triumphs. In the former category there were Steinbeck's problematical marriages and difficulties with fatherhood. The biographer notes the success of Steinbeck's last marriage to Elaine Scott Steinbeck, the former wife of actor Zachary Scott. The two became initially fond of each other after the actress Ann Sothern, who had her own romantic designs on the famous author, brought her friend Elaine along for a Northern California visit. The women stayed at a Carmel hotel and Steinbeck, then living in Monterey, showed them the sights. It soon became obvious that the author's designs were on Elaine rather than the actress. "I don't think Ann ever forgave me," Elaine Scott Steinbeck later revealed.

Parini does a superb job of capturing a man of many parts, an author in touch with America's roots. Steinbeck's works are an evocation of the adventurousness and tenacity of the American spirit.

In my opinion, the greatest American writer is John Steinbeck, and the great American novel is The Grapes of Wrath. So it was a delight to read this fluid, exhaustively researched and insightful biography of Steinbeck by Jay Parini.

From Steinbeck's birth in northern California in 1902, to his death in 1968, the book details the influences and defining moments in Steinbeck's life. There is very little conjecture here. The book is objective, but the details are compelling and the writing is smooth. The complete cooperation of Steinbeck's third wife, Elaine, was, I think, a key the book's veracity as well as its insight.

You'll be inspired by the young Steinbeck's complete faith in his writing ability. He sensed his destiny at a young age, and stubbornly pursued it.

You'll be surprised at how a man with such a deep inner sense of his own gift for writing was, at the same time, so easily devastated by critics.

You'll be amazed at Steinbeck's popularity and influence around the world. The world recognized Steinbeck's genius, while the literary pecking order in the United States threw stones. Why? - probably for two reasons. First, we love to throw stones at those who achieve popular and financial success. It's an American tradition. Second, woe be to the author whose writing can be understood by the masses. Steinbeck was an eloquent writer whose beautiful prose could be savored by everyone, and he wrote a superb story on top of it. The literary elitists prefer writing and a story that can only be understood by literary elitists.

I have only one mild criticism of Mr. Parini's biography of Steinbeck. As I said, there is little conjecture, but he does seem to put a load of psychobabble guilt in the laps of Steinbeck's mother and father. The evidence seems to indicate otherwise. His mother's perfectionism wasn't all bad, and wouldn't any mother be concerned if her 30-year-old son was still living as a near-pauper? And his father may have been a passive man, but he supported his son financially through many, many lean years. The portrayal of John Ernst Steinbeck as a failure is too harsh a judgment.

But that's only a minor criticism. This is truly a marvelous biography about the most talented and compassionate of American writers.

I first "discovered" John Steinbeck back in the mid 50's when I was a student at the Army Language School (now called the Defense Language Institute, I think) in Monterey, California. At that time, all but one of the canneries had been shut down, as the sardines had disappeared from Monterey Bay, and the conversion of Cannery Row to a tourist Mecca wasn't even a gleam in some promoter's eye. I was able to spend my weekends ferreting out the sites dear to Steinbeck while I was reading about them. I particularly concentrated on Monterey, Pacific Grove and Salinas.

Through the years, I returned to Monterey Peninsula when I could and visited the Salinas Library, and later, as they opened, the various centers and museums dedicated to him. All in all, I thought that I was a real expert on Steinbeck. It took Parini's biography of Steinbeck to make me realize just how superficial my knowledge really was.

Reading Parini's biography of Steinbeck, I began to learn about Steinbeck as a flesh and blood human being. I knew of course, that he had a well developed social conscience and that he had never received the critical acclaim that he desired. Parini, however, brought to life a talented, tortured, stubborn, difficult Steinbeck that I hadn't known.

Nowhere are these aspects of Steinbeck's personality revealed better than in his struggles to write a new version of the Arthurian legend, or what he frequently referred to as "The Malory Project." Steinbeck had been fascinated with the Arthurian Legends since he had read, and understood, Malory's MORTE d'ARTHUR, at about the age of nine. It would seem that his life-long ambition was to write his own Arthurian saga.

Parini shows Steinbeck with writer's block, searching for the "right atmosphere," the right paper, the right kind of pens and ink, the right anything to give him the inspiration he needed to fulfill his life's ambition. He even left his English retreat to travel to Italy in search of possible Malory sources. Nothing worked and, in the end, he had to give up the Malory Project. With the abandonment of his dream, his health began the decline that only ended with his death. (His partially completed manuscript and many of his notes about the project were published after his death as THE ACTS OF KING ARTHUR AND HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS by John Steinbeck.

Parini's biography brings to life Steinbeck, the flawed man, and shows him with the courage to return to California's Central Valley after the publication of GRAPES OF WRATH made him persona non grata. It makes the reader feel the pain that Steinbeck felt when he suffered critical rejection. The reader lives through, with him, his marriages, his divorces, his weaknesses and his strenghths. I believe that this is the finest of the Steinbeck biographies.

Again, Peddicord finds a magical way to weave wit, humor, love, surrealism, and darn good writing into a novel with picturesque words that leave you questioning your own obsessively organized views of life. If you can take anything away from this novel, take from it an outlook on life that will inspire you to live more spontaneously, freely, and on the verge on a state of non-reality.

In all honesty, I found a brief portion of the book (towards the middle) that seemed to drag on a bit too long. However, the beginning and ending of the book make up for this somewhat jet-lagged feeling for 50 pages or so.

The personalities and ideals of the characters are so charming, so "out there," but rather brilliant. Towards the end, Jay was a good friend and confidant, and I was just about ready to invite the dog to curl up into bed alongside me.

Again, like other Peddicord novels there always seems to be an underlying message, if one can only take the time to find it. I believe his message in "...Jay Gould..." would be to screw the "American Dream,' the rules and regulations, the clausterphobic lifestyles we're quickly heading into, and courageously swan dive into the experiences life has to offer, regardless of the consequences. This book inspires you to LIVE actively, rather than passively watch as the years pass you by. And if you don't feel inspired in some minute way to do just that, I suggest you read the novel a second time.

If nothing else, you'll fall in love with this incredible piece of work, and perhaps someday be inspired to find your own piece of Paradise.

The Late Jay Gould May Be Alive and Well provides for a perplexing course of affairs to ponder. How refreshing to read a brilliant sense of humor in today's paralytic (or is it politically?!?) correct world. Masterfully defined characters will have your heart leaping and your knuckles whitening with each chapter. This writer left me wanting more - I hope he can write as fast as I need to read.

You probably know the experience of leaving a theater after a thoroughly entertaining movie, shaking your head in amazement and wondering "How did they do that?" But never before reading "The Late Jay Gould..." have I done that with a book. Writing is more dexterous than camera work and words are more nimble than pictures, so we expect literary works to be more efficient and inventive than movies. Even so, as I left this book I shook my head in amazement and wonder and thought to myself, "How did Lou Peddicord do that?" I can answer only by saying that he is a great writer. He has created a world of fascination, joy and heartache with galloping plot and languid rumination, sweeping scope and intricate connections, playful befuddlement and razor-sharp insight that we can only hope some movie-maker will attempt boldly to put on screen. The masses need to meet Jay Gould and Christine Nostrinco, the love of his bittersweet life, as they strive to live nobly and make sense of it all.

Such sad lives were led by the the Bronte's, loneliness, loss, despair, all were experienced and fed into the imaginations on charlotte, emily and anne. This book is a brilliant book by E C Gaskell (who i normally dont really like), it is basically a collection of letters by charlotte and a great narrative, when speaking of the deaths of emily, anne and charlotte, i actually felt tears in my eyes!

Mrs. Gaskell understood a man's or woman's life to be lived within a social and natural context -- and her deployment of anecdotes and impressions of the North of England in the early pages of this book is captivating. But she also understood us to be souls, present to but distinct from God. Hence, even though in a few instances Gaskell's facts may been correctible (which the editor has done for us in this Penguin Classics edition), she is concerned with truth, and this gives readers the opportunity (rarely offered by modern entertainments) to escape from the trivial.

A very nicely written biography by Mrs. Gaskell about the life of her friend Charlotte Bronte, although most of the content was made up of letters written either by or to Charlotte Bronte rather than Mrs. Gaskell's own writings. Still this is a very concise book containing mostly everything that an ordinary reader, or well, a beginner of the Bronte novels, should know about this famous family. Nonetheless at some point of the book, I do find Mrs. Gaskell a bit too subjective, especially when it comes to the depiction of Charlotte's brother Branwell Bronte and his downfall. But consider the fact that this book was written only within one and a half year, with Mrs. Gaskell herself alone traveling all the way from Manchester to Haworth, and then to Brussel, doing all the necessary researches and interviews on her own, I must say that this is just an awesome piece of work!! And just as what Patrick Bronte himself had said about this biography, 'It is every way worthy of what one Great Woman, should have written of Another...it ought to stand, and will stand in the first rank, of Biographies, till the end of time'.

One more word though. From a more scholarly point of view, however, I think so far the 'best' biography on the Brontes should be Juliet Barker's 'The Brontes'. If, after reading this biography written by Mrs. Gaskell, you still want to know more about the Brontes, then I will say: go and buy this other book by Juliet Barker and you definitely will never regret it!

Going to Lincoln Park for the first time (in the early 70's) was one of the best family outtings we ever had. We were there as part of a special Polaroid day, and the special "Polaroid passes" we had tied to our wrists allowed us kids to ride on everything in the park for only 50 cents!

Unlike the modern theme parks, we were allowed to bring in our own food. Dad set up a home base in the picnic area where he cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on a portable grill. The folks spent all day chatting with the other Polaroid employees while us kids went nuts all around the park (I was still young enough to enjoy the colorful rides in Kiddie Land, yet old enough for most of the adult rides (except the big Coaster...!)). That day started a yearly tradition (either going with the Polaroid group or on my birthday in July). But, 30 years later the park is gone (and Polaroid pretty much is too!)....

This book really brings back a lot of memories! You'll re-discover attractions you may have forgotten about, and you'll learn quite a bit about the park. It has a lot of pictures and you'll go through this book very quickly!

Overall, the book is a treat, but you'll find yourself wishing it was longer. It leaves you hungering for a bit more. I would have liked it to include pictures of *all* the attractions, and maybe an overhead plan/map of the park. (It was kind of hard trying to picture where everything used to be located.) But, this is the only aspect of the book that I found was lacking.

I'm really glad I bought this book, and if you have a Lincoln Park story to tell, you'll be glad you did too! You'll then be compelled to write about what the park meant to you! (We should turn these review pages into "Lincoln Park Remembered - Part 2"!)

I have missed Lincoln Park so much since it's demise. I was so afraid this wonderful place would be lost forever. To see it come to life again in this book brought back so many happy memories. My grandfather used to take my brother and I every Wednesday during the summer. The pictures and stories stirred memories,smells,sounds, and smiles long forgotten. If you ever had the privilege of going you would also enjoy locating the video "Lincoln Park Remembered", with photographs and film clips. How nice to be able to step through the gates again!

Lincoln Park Remembered is one of those special books that from the moment you receive it you just know you will never part with it. The publisher was able to obtain hundreds of remarkable photographs from members of the community who wanted very much to see that very special place honored and remembered. I remember long Summer days spent there as a child with my parents and grand parents and how everyone was able to find things to do that suited them to a T. This book is like a personal photo album and I look forward to introducing and sharing Lincoln Park with my daughter, who will just have to trust me when I tell her the place was holy.

The story is laid out above (Editorial Reviews). So I'll just add that I liked it. It was pleasantly different than most legal
mysteries in that it was about regular people in a rural town, not your wealth blahblahblah clients who can and do buy and
manipulate everything and everyone in sight.
This is the third book by Jay Brandon I've read and enjoyed.

The only blooper I found was that the lawyer went looking to see if the defendant was wearing a ring. Everything is taken
from you when you are processed into jail.

Wicked. Cool. Sorted. Jay Brandon is da man. Aiiight! Boo ya!

Jay Brandon is the man... and I've only read one of his books. Cool cat - good courtroom stuff. Excellent. Wicked. Aiiie! Boo yah!