I enjoyed this collection of two short stories. The first story was well detailed with many theatre references. The second story was alot of fun. The characters were a bit stereotyped, but individual enough to be interesting. The story had some nice turns in the plot. Very entertaining.

I thought that this book was an excellent recreation of an infantryman's physical and mental challenges throughout a unenduring war. Nickell provides great description to those of us eager to learn about this historical event.I recommend it to everyone. I received this book through relatives in Nickell's home town.

There are some cases where you only need to read one book to know all there is to know. This is one of those cases. Martin writes thoughtfully and sensitively across decades that changed the world, and his readers come away with their feet firmly planted on the ground, whereas previously they were swimming in the air with all the hearsay that bloomed from the mysticism that was Soviet hockey. This book should be worth 10 stars.

Martin's key point is that in the years previous to WW2, the Soviets played a brand of "Russian hockey," which was somewhat like field hockey on skates. In a monumental move, they then decided to drop this beloved game of theirs, and focus on what they actually called "Canadian hockey," which was the game as the rest of the world plays it. In a brilliant discussion, Lawrence describes how the Soviet hockey that grew out of this blended the best aspects of both games to produce something very special. This book is about more than just a sport. It is about how one aspect of a nation illustrated and paralleled the whole as it sought success in all the avenues that a world power could participate in, flawed as it was from the inside.

If one does wants to read further, I would recommend 'Road to Olympus,' by Anatoli Tarasov. Tarasov was the father of Soviet hockey, and his book, also no longer in print, makes a good mirror to Lawrence's masterpiece, written as it was from the other side of the pond. As well, Ken Dryden's semi autobiography 'The Game,' has an equally brilliant hypothesis on "the secret" of the Soviet's success.

The 'marine Venus' of the title is a statue which was found by sailors in their nets at the bottom of Rhodes harbor and which much appealed to Durrell, who thought of her as the 'presiding genius' of the place. He began this book while assigned to Rhodes as an information officer in 1945, and finally finished it in Belgrade in 1952 while working as a press attaché for the British Embassy. Before publication, it was chopped almost in half by his editor, Anne Ridler. She excised most of the passages dealing with the recent war, and "left the descriptions of the landscape and people....She oriented the book to sunlight, blue skies, and clear sea." [quoted from the introduction David Roessel].

War still clings like a gray film to the bright fabric of 'Venus.' Durrell writes intense, brilliant descriptions of Mediterranean skies and dazzling Greek villages, but as in all of his works that I've read, there is also a submerged longing for past love, past history, past glory.

Some of his most beautiful passages, both in this book, in "Prospero's Cell," and in the books of "The Alexandria Quartet" take place under water. Here, the author goes for a midnight swim in the final chapter of "Reflections on a Marine Venus"---

"The [moon]light filters down a full fathom or more to where, on the dark blackboard of weed, broken here and there by dazzling areas of milk-white sand, the fish float as if dazed by their own violet shadows which follow them back and forth, sprawling across the sea's floor."

Bright surfaces. Submerged longings. There is even a ghost story floating just below the surface of a trip to the Island of Patmos. This chapter has some of the most powerful and eerie descriptions in the book. It brings together the storms of the 'little summer of Saint Demetrius', a lost, lingering voice from the war, and an Abbot who presides over a monastery where St. John was said to have composed the Books of the Apocalypse.

"Reflections on a Marine Venus" is one of a series of travelogues that Durrell wrote about his pre- and post-war experiences in and around the Mediterranean. The other books in this series are "Prospero's Cell," "Spirit of Place," "Bitter Lemons," (which I've just begun), and "Sicilian Carousel."

Ultimately, these books defy the description 'travelogue'. Durrell wrote about the peculiar genius of a place, not bound by any moment in time, but for all time.

This is a lovely piece of travel writing about the Island of Rhodes by a master observer of both the human character and the land- and seascapes with which Greece and its islands always delight us. It is a richly sensuous account of Durrell's years in the British civil service just after the end of WWII and just before the island is handed back to Greece. The eye is feted with descriptions of fields, hills, oranges and lemons, and flowers of every form and color. Sounds range from the rhythm of the sea (alternately savage and soothing) to Greek folk songs to sparkling conversation with Brit expatriates (including Gideon the half-sighted wonder). The author even offers a neat summation of a Greek picnic in tems of smells: petrol, garlic, wine and goat. Intermingled with these delicious attacks on the senses there is the play of light over the island as the sun moves across the sky and its rays are filtered through sea mist, mythology and the grim reality of having to rebuild a nation and an island after Nazi cruelty has left it a shambles. Like it or not, the reader is filled in on some mildly interesting points in the author's understanding of ancient history and the medieval Knights of St. John, who came into possession of the island for a time. The last section is about an enormous cookout in honor of a saint at whose shrine miracles have been know to occur, even raising the dead. It is a stroke of irony that during the festivities a young child is run over by a truck and dies the following day despite the best efforts of Mills, a good hearted but overextended British doctor. All in all, this is a delightful book, highly recommendable for those who enjoy travel writing. But Durrell is no Rebecca West, and this is not an example of the best Durrell. But it isn't bad Durrell, either.

I found Mr. Erdman's suggestions for restructuring the US Congress interesting, insightful, and (above all) technically and technologically feasible. I was also surprised by the book's accessibility - no rhetoric or legalese. Anyone who is disillusioned with the state of the United States Federal Government should read this book

After reading Reinventing Public Education, I believe that the only really hope for the future of American education lies in the contracting approach to public education that the authors describe. This is one of the only books on education I have ever read that understands that the problems with public education in this country have less to do with a lack of standards, poor teaching methods, or inequitable funding, than a system which fails to understand that schools are organizations that can only be successful through organic growth rather than government regulation. This book will appeal to both voucher supporters and ardent defenders of a public education system that is committed to educating all its students

Rejection Junkies is one of the best "Recovery" books I've read yet. Gary Lawrence is a straight shooter and doesn't hold back any punches with his style of presentation. This is a serious issue that everyone can relate to. It explains the root of rejection and how it is passed down and transfered and shows you how to overcome and heal scripturally. I started recommending this book before I finished reading it. Everyone in a position to help others or are seeking help for themselves should read this book.

In this work, Dominique Zahan offers a composite of African philosophy. Religious rites and socialization in many African societies emphasize discretion, circumspection and stoic endurance of pain. Initiation rites, and other religious ceremonies, also emphasize the need for personal regeneration. Maturation and personal development are understood to involve ongoing transformation. Drawing heavily from post-colonial work, including Zahan's own research among the Bambara around the 1960s, this study is a great introduction to "traditional" African thought.

Similarly interesting studies on the same subject are two works by Edward Geoffrey Parrinder--West African Religion, West African Psychology. Parrinder consulted earlier works on Francophone West Africa (e.g., Louis Tauxier's study of Bambara Religion), but his research focused especially on Anglophone Africa--the Ibo and Yoruba of Nigeria and the Akan of Ghana, for instance. Zahan's work was largely on Francophone Africa; his work is only in English by translation. The contrasts and similarities between the two authors are illuminating.

I have read a great deal about the cultural history of 19th-century America. And in particular I have tried to learn more about what was going on musically in our country during those times. Pianist/musicologist Vera Brodsky Lawrence happened upon George Templeton Strong's extensive diaries perhaps twenty years ago and realized that he was a true cultural man about town in New York during the middle years of the century and that his comments on musical goings-on were invaluable. So she extracted his musical observations, collected them into three volumes, of which this is the first, and wrote extensive footnotes that explain references that would have little meaning to modern readers. In the process she has written what may be the definitive musical history of the time in New York.

A side note: George Templeton Strong's son, who has the same name, became an important composer of his own era and Naxos is currently recording some of his hitherto ignored orchestral music.

I'm not one given to this sort of thing, but after I read this volume I wrote a fan letter to Ms. Lawrence.