In this collection of somewhat similar stories, Butler ranges from the comic to the tragic. All the characters are Vietnamese Americans living in Louisiana, and Butler did his homework. He's so conversant with the customs and histories of his characters the book reads, in places, like an anthropological study. Highly recommended collection of short stories. A nice break if you've been gorging on Carver or one of the other American blacklung writers.

Butler, whose ear for dialogue is ordinarily one of his strongest assests, also relies here on a previosuly unsuspected depth of descriptive passion. The lush jungles and villages of Vietnam are as easily evoked as the muggy bayous of southeast Louisiana. Butler's narrators all seem authentic; the voices are so strong that the question of whether the author is Vietnamese or American is quickly made irrelevant. The author writes like a dream, and the pace and strength of these stories rise smokelike throughout the novel, culminating in a final paragraph that rivals "The Great Gatsby" for Greatest American Final Lines.

At turns tragic and tender, comic and cosmic, this stirring collection of short stories passes the core test of great fiction: its power is both particular and universal. On the level of the particular, the author succeeds in opening a window on the soul of the Vietnamese, a people whose lives and communities are torn apart by a war not of their own making, a people struggling to assimilate--without disappearing--in this strange new world called America. Yet Butler's vision is also universal: the pain of loss, betrayal, and dislocation, the hope of love, survival, and forgiveness--these are experiences which resonate across the spectrum of humankind, all the more so because Butler effectively balances narrative voices both young and old, male and female.

There is a wonderful contrapuntal force to these stories. As you move through Butler's seamless blend of anecdote, reminiscence, and fairy tale, themes and motifs continually recur, subtly reinforcing one another: the grip of tradition, the power of ghosts, the shallowness of American materialism, the call to ancestor worship, the scars of war, the deep-rootedness of ethnic division. Highly recommended for anyone who cares about: (1) the Vietnam War; (2) the immigrant experience; or (3) great fiction. Read the whole collection, but if you must be selective, my favorites were "Open Arms," a poignant tale of culture clash and true belief, "Love," a laugh-out-loud revenge story, and "The American Couple," a deeply psychological account of catharsis and recovered love.

Good read but Nothing New except excelleent writing and organization of material by the Author. Had I not read every other book in this genre, I would have liked this book a lot better. If you haven't bought a general review of UFOs, Alien Contact, and Secret Government Conspiracy, then I'd say buy it. However, Dr. Paul Hill's Unconvential Flying Objects has lenghty details about the crafts and sightings that will please both the novice and scientist. Brad Steiger's Alien Rapture is in a category all by itself in combining an exciting novel with newly released documents and detailed description of the flying triangle as well as why the government(s) have kept the secret and what is at stake. I've read all three of these selections from Amazon and read all the reviews before buying. For the first timer, this is an excellent general guide to read.

Excellent reading with some really new information. The research, writing and organization of material by the Author is way above average. If you haven't bought a general review of UFOs, Alien Contact, and Secret Government Conspiracy, then I'd say this is a 'must read.' Also, Dr. Paul Hill's Unconvential Flying Objects has lenghty details about the crafts and sightings that will please both the novice and scientist.

And of course Brad Steiger's Alien Rapture is in a category all by itself in combining an exciting novel with newly released documents and detailed description of the flying triangle as well as why the government(s) have kept the secret and what is at stake. I've read all three of these selections from Amazon and I suggest you read all the reviews before buying. For the first timer, this is an excellent general guide to read.

I highly recommend you check out all of Jim Marrs books on Amazon. This is just one example of his amazing writing and research.

This book is not full of rhetoric but loads of reference and witness testimony. It was easy to read as the words flowed and every sentence made sense. Even the skeptic will find credible detail to this controversial phenomenon. There are some surprises as the title of the book suggests. If you want something more than cliche stories of alien abductions and flying saucers, this book will likely do the trick.

This latest Joanna Brady mystery is a fairy tale, at least as far as the central character is concerned. In it, Joanna--who has had her share of tragedy in the past--gets it all: the murderer, a nice man, a use for the jewelry given her by her first husband, a daughter happy with her Mother's choice of boyfriends, understanding inlaws, and professional respect.

And, she gets to be the central character in another mystery by J.A. Jance!

I am a Jance fan, because I enjoy her fine writing skills and tightly-plotted action lines. Usually I like Jance's central characters, too: J P Beaumont has depth in adversity in his battle with alcohol, and Joanna Brady is a woman with a load of grief and guilt. Somehow, though, in this novel Joanna is less real, more fantasy...and because of that she slips into the realm of becoming a stereotypical mystery novel heroine--beautiful, strong, intelligent, and invincible by the normal adversity that would paralyze the rest of us.

Still in all, Outlaw Mountain is a good novel and an enjoyable reading experience, even if the characterization isn't quite as mulilayered as Jance usually develops.

I am both a Joanna Brady fan and a JP Beaumont fan. In the winter rain of Seattle, I especially enjoy letting my mind wander to the heat of Arizona and Sheriff Brady's attempts to keep the peace in Cochise County. JA Jance continues to develop both Joanna Brady and the people who are a part of her daily life. Outlaw Mountain is not just about another murder, but about community and personal issues any of us could face.

An elderly woman is found dead in the middle of a stand of cholla cactus. Sheriff Joanna Brady is called into the case and immediately begins investigating those who were close to the dead woman, including a much younger, somewhat mysterious boyfriend. Also among the suspects are a group of young teenagers who take the woman's car on a joyride across the Mexican border. The subplots in this book are a little more complex than in the previous books in this series and include a mentally challenged man who is found wandering aimlessly, a man in a witness protection program, and a deepening romance for Joanna. Sprinkled throughout the book are the usual problems with Joanna's overbearing mother, and her feisty young daughter. This is a good series to read in sequence, so if you haven't read "Desert Heat" you might want to start there.

Hand me down heartache reads like a movie and, although the story is told from a woman's perspective, the male bashing is kept to a minimum. I liked that! Leo is a character who a lot of guys will identify with, a thoughtful, considerate brother who's at first kicked to the curb because the main character, Nina, is deeply in love with a dog named Maurice, who treats her badly. TJ Butler has crafted a wonderful story about family, life, love and relationships. Guys, do yourself a favor and pick up this book.(FYI: the pink cover is easily removable.)

At first, when you open this book, you think that it's going to be just like Sorority Sisters, which was a good book in itself. But as you get into it, you see this young recent college grad (Nina)watch the decline of her parent's marriage, meet a football player who is very unsure of himself and is cruel to her,a brother who just love the ladies, and a materialistic girlfriend who drops designer names throughout the book with no problem. But as you get into the novel you see these people shine. Nina meets a brother who is very sure of himself and loves her(though because of what she viewed with her parents marriage,almost loses him),The mother go through a terminal illness, the brother decided to get married and do the right thing, and the girlfriend,who suprises me here, shows that she is a true girlfriend and lets her girl know that even though there are real bad examples of marriages and relationships, there are some good ones, and just because you took stuff from a man, you don't have to keep on taking it. The finish ends on a good yet empowering note. I would recommend this book to the young sisters out there. Even some of those older ones too.

College graduation day is a time we all dream of. After years of hard work, finally the big day arrives. But what happens after graduation? This is the question TJ Butler addresses in the novel Hand Me Down Heartache.

Nina has finally earned her degree in journalism, but now she has to grapple with what her life will become outside of an academic setting. As she struggles to find herself professionally, she is also forced to discover who she is as a daughter, sister and woman. Slowly, she begins to recognize how her own parent's relationship has marred her views on men, relationships and marriage. Nina's father has cheated on his wife for years. In addition, Nina has watched her brother cheat on and toss aside girlfriend after girlfriend.

Maurice, who at first sight seems to be the man of Nina's dreams, turns out to be a nightmare. Leo, who is practically a knight in shining armor, seems too good to be true. Which man will Nina choose to be in a relationship with?

When Nina discovers that her mother has been fighting a terrible illness for quite a while, suddenly her problems with men and her career seem insignificant. She realizes that she was so caught up in her own drama that she neglected someone that she loved dearly. Nina puts all of the things in her life on hold so that she can be there for her mother and the two women grow tremendously.

This is a story about growth, sacrifice and acceptance. We watch Nina make good and bad choices and we see her involved in both good and unhealthy relationships. The book is filled with lessons about self-respect, overcoming adversity and personal responsibility. Butler's writing makes it easy to step into Nina's world and identify with her and the other characters. Most importantly we learn that it is never too late to learn from our mistakes and that some things are too precious to sacrifice.

Reviewed by Stacey Seay

As noted on earlier reviews these two, the first "The Iliad", and now "The Odyssey" have become the translations read for pure enjoyment. No longer does one `know' of the classics but never read them, now we read them too. Thankfully, Robert Fagles has produced a translation worthy of the original sense of Homer's great poem. It captures well the suffering and tragedy Odysseus went through in his journey full of trials and tribulations from the great ogre, the Cyclops, to the beautiful Calypso and finally one of his greatest tests, the suitors seeking his wife's approval after 20 years absence from his homeland.

As usual the introduction by Bernard Knox (NB my earlier mistake in the review on The Iliad) is highly informative and shows real depth of understanding of Homeric poetry, an invaluable aid in the full comprehension of the poem. In addition the extra maps of the Homeric word as well as a glossary of terms and a section detailing some of the characters in more depth provide an excellent background which may be missing in a non-classical education. Certainly this is the transaltion to use when teaching of classic poetry in schools since the child is captivated by the flow of the story and the fast pace which keeps one glued to the book, although not as pacy as The Iliad it is a different sort of story. Unlike the Iliad which is replete with battles and war, The Odyssey is the story of a journey and is of a different tune. I once tried to read an earlier translation of The Odyssey a few years ago and found it stuffy and staid, this is no longer true of Fagles work, were it only the case of other great classics. I felt throughout that Fagles kept to the aura of the original even when substituting more modern expressions for the older ones eg "holding nothing back" is obviously a modern phrase but it captures what the poem is saying and that is what is important ie capturing the poem as a whole. This has been ably achieved. An excellent book.

Fagle's translation of THE ODYSSEY in the Penguin edition is an almost perfect act of publishing. The translation itself manages to be enormously readable, highly poetic, and extremely accurate, all at the same time. The Introduction by Bernard Knox should serve as a model for all scholars who are called upon to write critical introductions for classic works of literature. And the book design is is extraordinary; this edition of Homer's classic is easily one of the most attractive paperback books in my library. I had read this once before in translation (in the old Rieu version), and then later translated much of it in a second year Greek class. But in neither instance did I enjoy it as much as reading the Fagles's translation.

Aristotle did not think that people should study philosophy too early in life, and perhaps that is also true of reading Homer. Part of me feels that we make a mistake in our education systems by making students read THE ODYSSEY before they are in a position to appreciate it. If one looks through the reviews here, a very large number of very negative reviews by a lot of high school students can be found. I find this unfortunate. In part I regret that we are forcing younger readers to read this book before they have fully matured as readers. Perhaps the book and the students themselves would be better served if we allowed them time to grow a bit more as readers before asking them to tackle Homer.

THE ODYSSEY is so enormously enjoyable (at least for this adult reader) that it is easy to forget just how very old it is. What impresses me is how readable it is, despite its age. There are very, very few widely read works older than THE ILIAD and THE ODYSSEY. And the gap between how entertaining these works are and those that come before them is gigantic. Try reading THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH or even THE HESIOD and then turning to THE ODYSSEY, and one can grasp my point. This is a very, very old work of literature, but it wears its age lightly. In the end, the greatest praise one can pay THE ODYSSEY is the fact that it can be read for fun, and not just because it is a classic.

Firstly, some of the reviews have given poor ratings to this epic poem because they did not like the story of the Odyssey and not because it was a bad translation. In fact it is the best I've ever read. Pope's translation of course is more poetic but it is not at all accessible. Fagles does a wonderful job in updating the language to modern English so that we can understand the story. Also at the back of the book are notes and a short glossary so that if you are not familiar with any of the references to Gods for example you can look it up and learn more about Greek mythology. Finally Fagles has a great introduction (with maps) that gives you background into the world of Homer.

Northanger Abbey is an overwrought, underpaced book - terribly dull by modern standards. The satirization of the novel of manners and the gothic novel forms is almost entirely lost on the modern reader who is unlikely to have read a single one of the 18th century popular novels Austin is constantly referring or alluding to.

The only thing that saves this book from the dreaded one-star rating is the strong characters. This was one of Austin's earliest attempts at a novel, but already she shows her knack for creating fascenating characters that would reach its zenith in Emma. The three main characters of Catherine, Belle, and Henry really come alive and actually manage to extract some genuine concern from the reader by the end of the novel.

What holds the characters back however, is the incredibly tedious pacing. The plot develops VERY slowly by modern standards. The first 150 pages are used mostly to describe a bunch of society balls and carriage rides, with only very gradual character development - the sparks don't start flying until volume II.

The bottom line is, Northanger Abbey may have been a *decent* novel for its time, but these days it should be read only by true Austin Addicts who are beyond all hope of recovery ;-)

The story describes the development of a young girl, Catherine Morland. She is the daughter of a clergyman, not very rich nor especially handsome or clever. At the age of seventeen she is allowed to go with Mr. and Mrs. Allen to Bath, were all the upper class of England spends the holidays. She meets there a plenty of young people, for example John and Isabella Thorpe, Eleanor Tilney and her brother Henry. They all become friends, but John and Henry take a deeper interest in Catherine. She has to make up her decision: The young student John or the earnest reverend Henry, and soon it's clear. Catherine goes with Eleanor and Henry to stay for a visit at the abbey where they are living with their father, Captain Tilney, while Isabella ingages with Catherines brother James. As Catherine has read many novels about misteries (f.e. "The misteries of Udolpho") she expects to find something puzzling and amazing in this old abbey. Everywhere she looks for a strange thing, but never finds anything. Even Henry tells her once how stupid she is to believe in such things, and now Catherine has a more realistic vue to the world around her. But then she receives a letter from her brother James where he writes that Isabella has left him, and moreover Catherine has to leave the abbey because Captain Tilney has found out that she isn't as rich as he thought and because of that not adapted to become Henry's wife. Through all these experiences Catherine grows up, and at the end of the story she is a very different woman than at the beginning.

Jane Austen was arguably one of the best writers of her time; however, only she took the bold leap into poking fun at the books of her time. Northanger Abbey brings Catherine, the heroine (on whom, among other things, Austen periodically comments from afar) through the joys and troubles of being an eligible young lady with a probing mind and endearing naivete, acquired from none other than the countless novels she has read. The elegance, and at some points speed, with which Austen plays out and then reconciles her young heroine's difficulties is at the very least extremely amusing. The foolish suspense and embarrassed relief which center around the Abbey are no less entertaining when one considers this book against darker novels where the papers in locked drawers have slightly more bearing. Catherine's friend Isabella, her vain (and in-vain) suitor John, and Mr. and Miss Tilney are brilliant foils for her character's development. Overall, I think this book rates as one of the true gems of the 19th Century.

I loved reading this book! From the first page, the author pulled me in and kept me reading until the very last word -- and even then I hated to put it down! This is the only book I've read that puts Jim Morrison's work in the proper context with his personal life, the biggest part of which was his incredible relationship with Pamela. It's such a shame that there are those who would use this book as an excuse to further promote their own outrageous claims against Morrison. A person only has to look at the choices Morrison made, particularly leaving the country with the woman he loved, to see where his heart lay. What a shame people are still fighting over such things after Jim and Pam have been dead for nearly 30 years. What Jim and Pam shared -- what they still share, in my opinion -- can't be touched by the naysayers or detractors. Theirs was a love that transcended the grave and will certainly transcend anyone or anything here on earth. Jim and Pam's story is certainly beautifully and very fairly and objectively presented in this book. A great read.

I have to admit it, I've been intrigued with Jim Morrison for close to 20 years now and, I've read a lot of book which all seem to re-hash the same story. This book was genuinely different though. Perhaps because it was written by a woman and perhaps just because the author did her homework and turned over stones no one had looked under before. Whatever the case, this book gives a unique perspective of Jim, Pamela and, the Doors. It brings to life a much more human side of Jim that seems very hard to convey and yet Patricia Butler has done just that. You can almost feel the anguish and grief Jim must have felt as beinig labelled a "rock star". In the same respect, you can almost feel the anguish and grief Pam must have felt by some of Jim's behavior. This is truly a good book even, if you're not a huge Doors fan, I highly recomend it.

It takes a lot of guts to research and write a book about/connected to Morrison...there will always be an inevitable backlash from some Morrison camps. Fans want to hear more and more about the great velvet menace but they want to only hear what they want to hear. You can't have it both ways guys.

Whether you like the book or not you walk away knowing more than you did before and wasn't that the reason why you read it in the first place?

Personally; I liked the book and having met Patricia in Paris many years ago before she even started writing it, I can say her heart is in the right place and she wrote the book with the truest of intentions.

I have got something out of every book I have ever read about Morrison, even the bad books. Having also enjoyed 'My Life With and Without Jim Morrison' it was nice to see another side of the story.

I think the Romeo and Juliet comparison is fairly apt. They were in love, he spoke with poetry and they both died tragically. Why this comparison surprises people is beyond me.

Im still unsure as to how he really died and how much of a part Pamela played in; a definative factual book on that alone would be great. There was one book that alluded to that but it didn't really tell us anything solid in my opinion. But we love a mystery dont we.

Well done Patricia...you did what you said you were gonna do on Rue Beautreilles that night in '92, I'm proud of ya.

Like all devoted lovers of Jane Austen, I have long pondered why she chose to write this, of all books, at time she was experiencing the intoxicating success of Pride and Prejudice.

The protagonist is a loathesome little priss. Austen herself says so in her letters. Fanny Price is neurotic and oversensitive where Austen's other heroines are brash and healthy. Even Austen's own family found the ending as odd and disappointing as do subsequent generations of readers.

So there's a puzzle to be solved here. The answer may lie in the fact that this book was written when, after a lifetime of obscurity, Austen found herself, briefly, a huge success. As is so often the case with writers, the success of her earlier book may have given her the courage to decided write about something that REALLY mattered to her--and what that was was her own very complex feelings about the intensely sexual appeal of a morally unworthy person.

This topic, the charm of the scoundrel, is one that flirts through all her other books, usually in a side plot. However, the constraints of Austen's day made it impossible for her to write the story of a woman who falls for a scoundrel with a sympathetic viewpoint character.

So what I think Austen may have decided to do was to write this story using Edmund--a male--as the sympathetic character who experiences the devastating sexual love of someone unworthy. Then, through a strange slight of hand, she gives us a decoy protagonist--Fanny Price, who if she is anything, is really the judgemental, punishing Joy Defeating inner voice--the inner voice that probably kept Jane from indulging her own very obvious interest in scoundrels in real life!

In defense of this theory, consider these points:

1. Jane herself loved family theatricals. Fanny's horror of them and of the flirting that took place is the sort of thing she made fun of in others. Jane also loved her cousin, Eliza, a married woman of the scoundrelly type, who flirted outrageously with Jane's brother Henry when Jane was young--very much like Mary Crawford. The fact is, and this bleeds through the book continuously, Austen doesn't at all like Fanny Price!

To make it more complex, Fanny's relationship with Henry Crawford is an echo of the Edmund-Mary theme, but Austen makes Henry so appealing that few readers have forgiven Austen for not letting Fanny liven up a little and marry him! No. Austen is trying to make a case for resisting temptation, but in this book she most egregiously fails.

2. Austen is famous for never showing us a scene or dialogue which she hadn't personally observed in real life, hence the off-stage proposals in her other books.

Does this not make it all the more curious that the final scene between Edmund and Mary Crawford in which he suffers his final disillusionment and realizes the depths of her moral decay comes to us with some very convincing dialogue? Is it possible that Jane lived out just such a scene herself? That she too was forced by her inner knowlege of what was right to turn away from a sexually appealing scoundrel of her own?

3. Fanny gets Edmund in the end, but it is a joyless ending for most readers because it is so clear that he is in love with Mary. Can it be that Austen here was suggesting the grim fate that awaits those who do turn away from temptations--a lifetime of listening to that dull, upstanding, morally correct but oh so joyless voice of reason?

We'll never know. Cassandra Austen burnt several years' worth of her sister's letters--letters written in the years before she prematurely donned her spinster's cap and gave up all thoughts of finding love herself. Her secrets whatever they were, were kept within the family.

But one has to wonder about what was really going on inside the curious teenaged girl who loved Samual Richardson's rape saga and wrote the sexually explicit oddity that comes to us as Lady Susan. Perhaps in Mansfield Park we get a dim echo of the trauma that turned the joyous outrageous rebel who penned Pride and Prejudice in her late teens into the staid, sad woman when she was dying wrote Persuasion--a novel about a recaptured young love.

So with that in mind, why not go and have another look at Mansfield Park!

Mansfield Park is the work of a mature Austen. Compared to her earlier book, Pride and Prejudice, it features a particularly complex plot structure (complex for Austen, anyway) that works especially well in the first volume, and somewhat less well in the second. The book also features Austen's characteristic nicety of interior character description, her really superior ability to follow the subtle nuances of thought and feeling. This ability is raised to a whole new level, however, in Mansfield Park since the heroine, Fanny Price, is a particularly sensitive, selfless, and considerate girl. Austen is up to the challenge, though, and develops stylistic techniques uniquely and perfectly suited to evoking all of Fanny's moral and emotional struggles. It is simply a joy to follow Fanny through all her travails.

The weakness of the book is the structure of the third and last volume. Here, Austen falls back a little to much on the technique of letter writing to move her story forward. This weakness IS offset somewhat by the wonderful scenes in Fanny's hometown of Portsmouth - scenes that evoke one of Dickens' favorite themes, the impoverished family - but overall, the structure here is not up to the standards of the first two volumes.

Another weakness, though this is more a comment on Austen's style than on this book in particular, is the paucity of vivid imagery, of truly original metaphors or similes. Compared to Dickens or Flaubert, two of her near contemporaries, Austen is decidedly inferior on this score. Her strength really lies in her ability to describe the subtleties of the emotional and intellectual lives of her characters with a fidelity and clarity that I think is superior to Dickens and the equal of Flaubert.

Finally, a comment on Fanny's 'likeability'. While I don't want to deny that a character's likeability can influence our enjoyment of a book, I also think that it should not be a consideration in our judgement of the book's merit as a work of art. Madame Bovary, the book by Flaubert, is populated by unlikeable people and there isn't any one we can 'identify' with (or so we hope), yet that book is certainly a great work of art. In the same way, our gut reaction to Fanny may not be favorable, but this should have nothing to do with our assessment of Fanny as a character or the book as a work of art. The only consideration should be, 'did Austen succeed in creating the kind of character she set out to create?'; NOT, 'did I like Fanny Price as a person?', or, 'would I like to have Fanny Price as a friend?'.

Anyway, a good book, flawed only by the somewhat weak final volume. Certainly one of Austen's best.

I am a new reader of Jane Austen and after reading the other reviews of this book, I was a little scared to read this one so I saved it for last. I was so surprised how much I liked it. Fanny, the main character, is someone I could relate to in ways that many other readers apparently have not been able to. Unless you grow up in a home where you are made to feel unwanted, and have a Mrs. Norris as an aunt in Fanny's case or a stepmom in my case, it would be hard to understand Fanny. Take it from me,the character is very real in many ways and not the wimp or doormat that many other reviewers find her. Alot of people said this book of Jane Austen's is her deepest because of the social issues she tackles. I will have to read it again to pick up on more of that, I was so busy focusing on Fanny's situation and understanding her feelings, knowing how her situation affected her responses, that I missed things. I look forward to reading it again. I think others will enjoy it too,don't be put off by the other reviewers. Of course, I look forward to rereading all my Jane Austens.

"Unsinkable" (The Full Story of the RMS Titanic) by David Allen Butler is enjoyable enough, particularly for those who have never read any other accounts. There are much worse versions out there (Pellegrino) but, unfortunately for this volume, there are much better. Walter Lord's two books set the standard and Wynn Craig Wade nicely follows it. There will be nothing new in this volume, other than the author's political conservatism seeping into the account. Much like the recent spate of books concerning the disaster at the Antartic with the expedition of Robert F. Scott, this book tries to preserve the image of the heroic British empire and see these man-made failures as triumphs of the character of the upper class British (and by inference, American) male. The beating of this particular drum can get a little repetitious. The Titanic, though, is always a fascinating and tragic story and the author keeps the narrative moving along nicely.

Mr. Butler's work has been compared (unfavorably) with Walter Lord's classic "A Night to Remember." "Unsinkable" has been slammed as a regurgitation of previously published books about the Titanic disaster--unfairly, I feel. Many of the books on the market about Titanic contain a great deal of the same information--unsurprisingly! The ship *sank* on the first leg of its maiden voyage! There's a limited amount of information on the ship, its crew, and the events of April 15, 1912.

What makes a Titanic book stand out are the small nuggets of information evey autho managesto put into thei text. Each author brings something new to the subject, but it *does* require one to *read* the books, not skim through them.

Mr. Butler has very strong opinions about the Titanic disaster, and there are times when the author's "voice" comes through *very* clearly. After reading "Unsinkable," one will have no doubts at to his views on the events of April 15. He presents his arguments thoroughly and clearly, amd most emphatically. (He is also featured in the IMAX movie, Titanica. There is one portion of his interview that moved me to tears, reminding me that the story of the Titanic is about *people* and always has been.) I consider it a good addition to my library of Titanic books.

See the movie, but read this book. The movie fails to satisfy in the way "Unsinkable" will, as Butler provides us with a richly complete story of a tragedy that still grips the imagination. Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember" set the standard for non-fiction Titanic accounts; Butler refreshes the tale and provides us with even more details, and more information about the role of the Californian.

Since 9-11 it has been fashionable to say that "the world is changed forever." The sinking of the Titanic also signified the end of an era, not just Edwardian times but the end of the rigidly stratified class structure with its built-in inequities. Also, the hubris of technology suffered a blow; we were never so innocent again as to place our belief in "unsinkable" ships, or the infallibility of any work of man.

The human story, and the failure of the "state-of-the-art" ship building, are both skillfully depicted in "Unsinkable". Kudoes to the author. This book deserves a wide audience.

This book was a quick read...Jerry, or Paul, is candid about his feelings about his life and insecurities. We as people posses these....he recognizes he possibly has more of these issues than those that are not in porn and gives them as potential reasons for being in the business. But he also notes he likes to get tail and is a sexually driven person. That's fine. There are some funny tales about some of the actresses, as well as insights on how the business side of pornography works. This was worth the read. Jerry speaks from the heart and doesn't side-step with his opinions about the folks he's encountered.

Jerry Butler's autobiography quotes him:"This is what I'd tell young people about porno: how you can die,or commit suicide,or become a drug addict,or how you can become even more lonely and insecure than you already are". This immature troubled young man couldn't make it as a hockey player due to his temper so tried his good looks in Hollywood to find that he was only good enough for X-rated sex movies. He became addicted to drugs. He was already highly sexual so sex was no problem until he ran into women he didn't like,gay men who annoyed him,etc. This book has a few typos & a lot left out- like what happened to him after 1990 ? It also has more than it's share of lies including certain facts regarding the size of his penis,how many films he made with Shauna Grant,how much drug intake he had,etc. He made no secret of how unhappy he is with the fact that women are more highly paid. He also made no secret of how much he couldn't hold on to a woman due to his emotional problems. His confused rambling didn't seem anything more than a sad story of a man who wrote a book to make money and commit career suicide at the same time. Jerry Butler wants to be a porn actor yet he despises all the ugliness that comes with it so he wrote a book that lets the world know the flaws of many female costars then cheated on his wife then published the book. Thirteen years later in 2003, we are left to wonder WHAT HAPPENED TO JERRY BUTLER ? Somehow we still want to know because he is intelligent & caring enough to realize just how messed up he is emotionally for doing porn. He agrees with Traci Lords & other porn stars= it is better to watch porn than to perform in it & take all the risks.

Well, what can I say. Being 31 years old, I grew up with this guy. I thought he was intense, uninhibited and added a comical element to the industry. Rent one of his movies and compare him to the other male actors around the same time period and see how boring they were compared to this guy. I will say this is no boring read and it is alot of fun to hear about all the people he worked with. Myself, like alot of other people out in the world have fantasized about what it would be like to work in the porn business, and this book is about as close as you can get without actually doing it. It is insightful to the ways of the porno industry, who is a skunk and who is not. He is very candid about sex and the risk of AIDS in the business and he is right to say those things.
However, the feel of the book is that he has an obvious chip on his shoulder and wants to get back at some in the industry with his somewhat vicious commentary. But if it is true, it is true, and if he did it just to sell books that is good too. Either way Paul (aka. Jerry Butler) if you read this review, I liked your book, and I've asked others to buy it and read it. You'll be surprised how fun they think it is.