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Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "Butler", sorted by average review score:
Japanese : A Comprehensive Grammar (Routledge Grammars)
Published in Paperback by Routledge (March, 2001)
Authors: Yasuko Ichikawa, Noriko Kobayashi, Hilofumi Yamamoto, Sarah Butler, and Stefan Kaiser
Average review score:

Look elsewhere if you want a real grammar.
This is the most bizarre grammar I have ever seen. I have
a strong background in linguistics and have read many, many grammars. This one is not a grammar at all in the usual sense of the word. It is more like an encyclopedia with every entry arranged alphabetically.

Want to study Japanese syntax? Sorry, there is no entry for syntax, instead you must pick through the table of contents again and again to find the scattered references. Want to look at verbal morphology, well, there is a very brief entry on verb forms and then its back to more of the scattered references.

I am keeping it only because its the best I have but somewhere,
there MUST be a real Japanese grammar and when I find it, this
goes to the used bookdealer ASAP.

As good as useless due to complete lack of structure
When it comes to grammars, a carefully designed structure is very
helpful to the advanced student trying to check up on things they
already sort of know and to fill in gaps in their knowledge; it's
completely indispensable for the student (especially the autodidact)
at a somewhat earlier stage of study who needs to get an overview of
what there is to learn and how different topics relate.

So then, how should a comprehensive grammar be structured? This
question is especially difficult in the case of a grammar written in
English for a language such as Japanese whose grammatical categories
are often not strictly comparable to those of English. For instance,
what should be done with the Japanese words that correspond to English
adjectives? Many of them share some (though not all) properties with
what we'd call verbs. Others have (some) properties in common with
nouns. Yet others straddle both categories. How should sections on
these topics be divided? A tough problem, requiring lots of thought
and experimentation and compromise and pedagogical experience and
feedback from readers of drafts etc. etc.

Unfortunately, the compilers of this grammar have apparently decided
to spare themselves all this hard work and simply throw a bunch of
information at us without as good as no structure to speak of. The
actual "organizational" principle of the book is an "alphabetical
order" of grammar. Whatever that means. Many of the entries are just
Japanese words and morphemes. OK. But many others are grammatical
terms as heterogeneous as the following:

"Conjoining by comma";
"Morphology";
"Nationality";
"Sentence types";
"Spontaneous sentences" [??];
"Vocabulary" [!!]

Want to know about the past tense? Sorry, no entry on that. You can
of course go to the index in the back and find 7 different pointers to
"past (tense)". But these pointers don't give any indication of what
they relate to: verbal tense? adjectival tense? sequence of tenses
with "tara"? the use of the past form "hoshikatta" of the word
"hoshii"??? (yes, that's what the index pointer to page 486 is about).
So it's back to: flip flip flip... Honestly, I really believe a more
useful set-up would be a completely unstructured heap of stuff which
was electronically searchable.

What the compilers of course could've and should've done would be:
compromise on some division of topics, put "past tense" sections in
chapters on verbs or adjectives or whatever, and provide ample
cross-referencing. An example of this strategy in action is "Master
the Basics" Japanese grammar by Akiyama & Akiyama (ISBN
0-8120-9046-2): a less ambitious undertaking and not my favorite book,
but at least some thought went into the structure.

This is all such a shame, since it's not as if the compilers of
*Comprehensive Japanese Grammar* are a lazy bunch. It's packed with
lots of examples for every topic, many of them real ones culled
unedited from newspapers etc. A huge amount of effort obviously went
into this, only to be essentially wasted since no one bothered to
organize the results.

One has to ask further, why would the authours bother to release an
alphabetically "organized" Japanese grammar when a one already exists
in Makino & Tsuitsui's *Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar* (ISBN
4-7890-0299-3)? That one at least has some (albeit
frustration-tainted) usefulness, since what it really is is a
dictionary of Japanese "grammatical words" and morphemes, with basics
of word order, morphology (like formation of past tense), etc. put in
a separate, organized 50+ page section instead of being littered
throughout the entries. (*Comprehensive Japanese Grammar* does indeed
cover more material than *Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar*, but
for that very reason it needs MORE structure rather than less.)

Lastly, an open question as to why this alphabetic (non)organizational
principle seems to keep reappearing in Japanese grammars. One wonders
if there isn't some notion that the "exotic" character of Japanese
makes it inherently untameable by the careful organization found (for
example) elsewhere in the Routledge comprehensive and essential
grammar series. But then how exactly does Routledge's grammar of
Chinese (ISBN: 0415135354), also spoken way out there in the
"mysterious East", pull off a reasonable division into chapters on
"verbs", "nouns", etc.? Is it the complex morphology of Japanese that
makes it untameable? But then why does Routledge's Finnish grammar
(ISBN: 0415207053) manage to tame that language's even more complex
(and equally non-Indo-European) morphology? Please.

IN SUMMARY: bought this book, hated it, sold it, found other better
ones (see above). I advise skipping steps 1--3.

One of the best.
This completes the gramatical series they publish, and is the most complete publication I have ever seen.

London for Free
Published in Paperback by Mustang Pubn (March, 1994)
Author: Brian Butler
Average review score:

Don't waste your time and money
Just returned from London, and tried to use this book as a guide. Many of the sites don't exist, and those that I found were generally not worth the time.

Useful
Well, I just returned from London, too, and I found this book quite useful. Lots of unusual museums and parks that I never would have heard about. The book's a real bargain.

get it
The previous criticism is nitpicking; I'm going to London to teach some courses for American students, and I found lots of neat information here, not only about museum contents related to my classes, but also info on sites for my wife and 13 year old daughter to explore. true, thre is no index, but the book is so short, compact, readable, that you don't need one. Just do what i did: highlight the sites you want to see; it'll take you under an hour; you can do it on the plane!

The Templar Continuum
Published in Paperback by Templar Books (24 June, 2000)
Authors: Stephen Dafoe and Alan Butler
Average review score:

The Templar Continuum
Rarely do I begrudge the money spent on a book but this attempt at a new theory for the origins of the Templars is sorely lacking in content. Without any footnotes and no index or bibliography I found trying to accept the authors' theories was a hard pill to swallow. This book deserves only two stars for the interesting ideas that are proposed - certainly not for the amateurish way in which they are presented. The many typo errors only add to the uncomfortable feeling that this entire effort was concocted in someone's garage and thrown out to the public at an outrageously high price.

What a Struggle
This book was a real struggle to read. The authors thank their editor for helping to combine the writing of a Canadian and an Englishman, but as an American, I kept tripping over the excessive use of commas. Coupled with numerous typos, it was very hard to complete this book. While the authors disagree with Baigent and Leigh, I will credit the latter with providing footnotes, a more complete bibliography, and an index, all of which are missing from this book. This leaves me without much to pursue further. The real disappointment is the realization that this book is really only a part 1 of a story and all of the promises made to reveal things are left to the next book. I gave it the second star only because there actually are some original ideas presented here. Too bad the only way to continue to research their ideas is to take them on faith or wait for their next book. I hope they change editors before then and give us the benefit of some real references.

The Illuminati Manifesto Compliments This Great Book!
Indeed, this is a good book. But to get even more out of it, read The Illuminati Manifesto.
The Illuminati Manifesto makes public the secret of the Craft for the first time ever!

The Castle in the Sea
Published in Paperback by Fawcett Books (November, 1990)
Authors: Scott O'Dell and Butler
Average review score:

Not Bad... But not good either.
It is an OK book, but I think O'Dell can do much better then this. Compared to Island of the Blue Dolphins this book has no depth at all. The characters are under developed and the story is very choppy and confusing at times. If you have nothing better to do, this book isn't too bad and it's a quick read. But if you're looking for in depth, exciting reading, this is NOT it.

It was alright
When Lucinda's wealthy and powerful father dies, she inherits the Isla del Oro, a small island off the coast of California, where everything is as it was when her grandfather first discovered it a century before. Lucinda is now the wealthiest girl in the world -- but her guardian forbids her to leave the island, and strange things begin to happen to Lucinda, until she begins to think someone is trying to kill her. But who? Her mysterious guardian? Her handsome fiance? Or the island doctor?

The inheritance of her father's vast fortune and contact with a variety of people with suspicious motives trigger a series of attempts on Lucinda's life in her isolated island home, which is a stronghold of Spain within the boundaries of the United States.

This used to be one of my favorites
I think I read this book a million times when I was a pre-teen. It has a little more drama than some other Scott O'Dell books, such as "Island of the Blue Dolphins," which was a rather quiet book. The main character, Lucinda, lives on a remote island with her widowed and wealthy but insane father. He insists that everyone live as if it is the 19th century -- no electricity, no automobiles.

When he dies, Lucinda is left alone, with very few people she can trust.

Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative
Published in Hardcover by Routledge (February, 1997)
Author: Judith Butler
Average review score:

dilettantism at its worst
The results of Butler's attempt to tackle the very serious issue of speech rights are disappointing in the extreme. With no legal background whatsoever and a myopic philosophical vision which seems ingorant of the liberal tradition upon which the right of free speech is grounded, Butler provides an obfuscted discussion (and that's all it is, a discussion) of the issue that is at the best of times, irrelevant, and at the worst of times, offensively misleading. The book is worthwhile only as an example of what happens when a postmodern thinker in the French tradition tries to tackle a subject outside the race/power/gender/subjectivity canon outlined by the philosophers of the 1960s. If you have an appetite for reading philosophical trainwrecks, then by all means read it. If you want something serious on the issue of free speech, look elsewhere.

Irascible Speech
Several years ago, I saw a film entitled Total Eclipse, which is a dramatization of the complex and ill-fated relationship between Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, two nineteenth-century French poets. In one scene, a manic Rimbaud, played by the pubescently-challenged Leonardo Dicaprio, exclaims that "The only unendurable thing about life is that nothing is unendurable" (I may have misquoted this slightly; as I said, its been several years since I saw the film). As I recall, the film was rather silly by and large, although I found that this particular exclamation had the ring of solid truth (incidentally, at the time I had been an autodidactic devotee of Nietzsche's philosophy). I subsequently incorporated it into my own repertoire of pithy aphorisms, held at the ready the appropriate occasion present itself.
However, by reading Butler's Excitable Speech in tandem with a whole host of other works of a theoretical/critical sort, I came to realize that there is in fact one thing that is truly unendurable for what appears to be just about every latter-day theoretician: viz., poststructuralist discursive determinism, especially the agentless, discursively animated individual that such determinism entails. Hence Butler's insistence upon the fundamental citationality of speech, which strikes me as the continental philosopher's version of the notion of "weak voluntarism" popular among certain ethicists of an Anglo-American bent. Butler's notion of the subject's agency is certainly a qualified one, in that the subject can only exhibit agency in and through language. But nevertheless, it appears that Butler considers this deterministic influence of language to be less than rigidly absolute. Agency does not in fact emerge ex nihilo, because it is impossible to produce positive effects by using absolutely nothing. The subject must have at her disposal something with which to demonstrate her agency, because agency is observed through its effects--just as "government" [an abstraction] is manifested only through people's comportment in a manner understood to be in accordance with the principles of such an abstraction. Language is a medium as well as a matrix. However, if agency is manifested empirically, that is, through effects, then it follows that agency is a posteriori synthetic, because we observers ascribe causal necessity to the action in relation to its source, the performer of the action. Therefore, I remain uncertain as to how these effects point to a capacity for agency that is intrinsic to the subject as constitutive of the subject a priori. Perhaps the answer lies in the distinction Butler draws between "agency" and "mastery," the latter of which connotes an absolute agency which is inimical to the "weak voluntarism" thesis she advances in Excitable Speech."

Embarrassing
Judith Butler has managed to show that it is possible to emerge from the post-structuralist morass in favor of free speech. What's both endearing and disturbing is how difficult and how complicated the endeavor was for her. In 'Excitable Speech,' the (sometimes) eloquent theoretical discussions of 'Gender Trouble' and 'Bodies that Matter' are reduced to a bizarre, idle name-dropping that takes very simple arguments and makes them unnecessarily circuitous.

Butler's concern in 'Excitable Speech' is to critique legal representations of hate speech from a post-structuralist perspective. Why a post-structuralist perspective? It's unclear. Really the only thing that she accomplishes, as far as I can tell, is to put a real-world debate in the vocabulary of a cloistered group of irrelevant intellectuals such as herself.

None of Butler's arguments are "post-structuralist," really at all. Rather than bringing to bear a strong application of her earlier theorization of performativity, Butler appears to abandon her earlier theses all together and just re-hash liberal arguments about free speech. What makes her book unique is that instead of saying, "Legal scholars are wrong to say that hate speech automatically deprives people of their rights," she makes the reader listen to several pages of irrelevant Foucault quotes about the decline of juridical models of power to establish her perspective as being authoritatively "post-structuralist." As if needlessly re-hashing the history of bio-power wasn't enough, she then begins invoking speech act theory (especially the distinction between perlocutionary and illocutionary speech acts) when all she really needs to say is, "Terms such as .... aren't intrinsically injurious." Rather than saying, "Hate speech is an arbitrary category," she has to make those typical outlandish-sounding postmodern truisms ("the real is no longer real!") such as "the State produces hate speech." She then immediately acknowledges how stupid that sounds and explains what she really means (that the State produces the category of hate speech).

What I'm trying to get across is that Butler has nothing profound to say about hate speech. She takes simple arguments for free speech that everyone's already familiar with, draws them out, laces them with Foucault quotes, and tosses in fairly large quantities of postmodern jargon. What's weird is that she herself seems to find the theoretical apparatus she invokes to be needlessly unwieldy. But instead of hitting the "delete" key on her keyboard, she wastes even more of our time by backing away from the rhetorical power (or at least the rhetorical authority) of her initial formulations.

This book isn't interesting. It's nothing you haven't heard before. However, if you think that taking a very significant national debate and translating it into jargon so that you can discuss it with a bunch of Ivy Leage graduate students is a worthy endeavor, then go ahead... I guess.

What a waste of time. I wish Butler would stick to making interested, substantiated arguments instead of throwing out platitudes and saying, "Foucault said something kinda like this in The History of Sexuality!" That's great, Professor Butler. Really. We're soooo proud.

The Bronze Age Computer Disc
Published in Hardcover by Foulsham & Co Ltd (March, 1999)
Author: Alan Butler
Average review score:

Circular evidence
The author aims to prove the use of circular pattern on the Phaistos disk, but manages to come up with circular evidence. Pardon the pun, couldn't resist. The basic observations are valid and useful, such as the 30 fields on one side and 31 on the other, but his conclusions beyond this are essentially unsubstantiated. For example: He is assuming a certain number of degrees on the circle (366), and a certain number of arc-seconds per degree, and furthermore that the length measure is a foot, and that there are 36.6 feet per arc-second. If it is so, then the result corresponds to within a kilometre with the circumference of the Earth, which is remarkble. Since it is remarkble, he concludes that it must be true, which is of course a circular argument to say the least. The book is full of similar units and measures that are unsubstantiated. I can not recommend it.

An easy read and an interesting thesis, but heavy on guesses
The book is easy and enjoyable to read, even for those without an archaeology background. It also combines some good social description with an intriguing hypothesis: that ancient Crete, with a simple round stone, could calculate time, distance and position as accurately as any watch, calendar or map that would be developed in the next 2,000 years. Neverthess, I found the proof a bit lacking in substance and heavy in supposition.

A fascinating and thought provoking read.
The Bronze Age Computer Disc impressed me greatly. As much as a detective story into the ancient past it is a rich and fascinating travelog of a little understood and fabulous ancient culture - the Minoans. The book shows how the mysterious symbols of the Phaistos Disc, found in Crete at the beginning of the 20th century, can be used to demonstrate a fantastic system of measuring time, space and distance, that existed as early as 3,500 BC in the Far West of Europe. This book is an easy to follow read, beautifully crafted, and with parenthesis to sift out the mathematics for people who are willing to take the author's word. The Bronze Age Computer Disc ends with a promise of many more revelations to come. I honestly cannot wait. Within the book lie some of the most incredible assertions regarding our ancient ancestors ever proposed.

Day of Destiny: The Photographs of D-Day
Published in Paperback by Quill (July, 1900)
Authors: L. Douglas Keeney, Keeny, and William S. Butler
Average review score:

Very disapointing
Most of these photos are in many other books. Essentially nothing new. Topped off by some serious errors- casualties on the left flank of Omaha labeled as being at Pt Du Hoe, Utah pics claimed to be Omaha, mention of "cliffs" at Utah beach, and shots from the Southern France landing added in without mention of their correct origin. A waste of time and money.

Great photos, misleading captions.
These extraordinary photos were selected, we are told, from 60 plain gray boxes each containing approximately 100 photos located in the National Archives II. As noted by another reviewer here, the captions leave much to be desired. We are told a DUKW is an amphibious tracked vehicle, which is a landing craft designated as an LVT. In fact, no LVTs were at Normandy, much to the chagrin of Major General Charles Corlett. The three companies of the 2nd Rangers who took Pointe du Hoc (D, E and F) are identified as "two divisions". Equally bizarre is the photo of British soldiers going ashore on "Utah Beach". As excellent as the photos are, greater care should have been exercised in their labeling. But do not let that stop you from obtaining a copy. The book contains 128 pages of great photographs, a number of which are familiar, including those taken by Robert Capa. But many, most in fact, were new to this reviewer. Perhaps if Keeney and Butler had presented more photos and few words, this book would still be in print.

Fantastic military photography and commentary
This book gives you a image tour through what is one of the most amazing and interesting battles of World War II. To graphically see what it was like transports you back to the beaches on that day. The commentary along with the photography give a chlling account of D-Day.

Ceremonies of the Heart: Celebrating Lesbian Unions
Published in Paperback by Seal Press (January, 1997)
Author: Becky Butler
Average review score:

Not so much...
In searching for a guide to lesbian wedding planning, my partner-to-be and I encountered this book at the local glbt bookstore. We were both sadly disappointed by the lack of up-to-date information and the antiquated nature of the content. Perhaps due to the time period in which the book was written, many of the women were estranged from their families and seemingly on the fringes of society. We had difficulty identifying with any of them. A more current version is desparately needed!

A fine mix of history and modern examples.

Further proof that you can have any sort of wedding you jolly-well want, this book features several firsthand accounts of the planning and experience of commitment ceremonies. It starts with a very educational section on the history of lesbian relationships in the Western world, which I would highly recommend to anyone ignorant on the subject.

This isn't a wedding planner and doesn't advertise itself as such, but it's an excellent introduction to the subject of women marrying women.

Coffin's Game
Published in Audio Cassette by Soundings Ltd (June, 1998)
Authors: Gwendoline Butler and Michael Tudor Barnes
Average review score:

The game is to find your way out of this book...
I've read most of the other books in this series, and I've liked them a lot. John Coffin is a curious creature--silent, stalwart, and at the same time romantic and soft. He's an ace detective with a white lap dog. His wife, Stella, is beautiful and talented, and driven to succeed as an actress. She carries designer handbags and tells lies to those she loves, including John.

So, what we have are two enigmatic main characters and a fluff of a dog, several murders, and the usual display of Gwendoline Butler's flakes and perverts. The plot is filled with twists and turns, some of which lead to undisclosed past events and some of which are a result of the characters' own dark secrets.

Do we have a good book? Not exactly. Things do get logically put together in the end, and the motives are sex, money, and revenge. But somehow, there's an integration lacking here--too much of the plot and the characterization seems to be decorations which are not integrated with function. Like lace doilies on the arm of a flowered chintz sofa, there's too much "stuff" to be anything but a distraction.

A Good Writer but Not the Best of Her Work
This latest installment in Gwendoline Butler's Coffin series was a disappointment. The plot was a convoluted mess of kidnapping, misplaced loyalties, a number of secrets, the usual deviants, detectives looking over their shoulders, a group of terrorists, and Chief Commander Coffin who knows all but tells nothing.

Stella Pinero goes on a short R&R to calm her inner demons, the ones that seem to wake her in the middle of a performance and ask, "What are you doing and why are you doing it?" She leaves shortly after two explosions (presumably placed by terrorists) occur in one day in the Second City. Stella disappears for several days, but her purse turns up at the scene of a murder, along with her clothing on the body of the deceased. There is also a disturbing photograph of Stella chewing on a human arm. Even the Chief Commander admits:

"It's like a Victorian melodrama ... The heroine's handkerchief turns up to incriminate her."

Of course, when Stella shows up, she acts as if nothing has happened. Oh, those actresses and their pesky secrets!

The investigation continues, along with much agonizing on everyone's part for having to suspect the Chief Commander's wife. Archie Young tries to get along with Inspector Lodge, a specialist in terrorism brought in to help out with the bombings. Phoebe Astley is as competent as ever, but her boss is worried about who she's sleeping with. But these have little to do with the overall plot and don't really do much to advance the story.

Coffin's "game" turns out to be little more than an investigation technique of walking the witness through familiar places. He turns it into a game of trust between him and his wife, trying to determine whether she will trust him with the truth, and it plays out rather like the melodrama Coffin alludes to earlier as he uncovers once of Stella's secrets from the past.

Butler's focus on her main character is overwhelmingly ponderous throughout the book. Coffin never seems to grow out of his staid isolationism. The seconary characters -- even the criminals -- are more interesting. While it's admirable that the author focuses on people to tell the story rather than the plot alone, it's obvious she didn't give enough attention to the plot in this police procedural. Her die-hard fans will find only a small growth in the relationship between John Coffin and Stella Pinero, but little else of interest.

Fair Warning
Published in Paperback by Grove Press (January, 2003)
Author: Robert Olen Butler
Average review score:

Sappy and cliched story of a female auctioneer
I think this is one of those books that will appeal more to women than to men. It is the story of a forty-year-old New York auctioneer who seems to think an awful lot of herself. She has the usual romantic complications, including a banal liaison with a cliched Frenchman, whose "secret," when we find out what it is, is pretty silly. This is not an offensive book; just not very interesting. There are some lines of dialogue here that will make you roll your eyes and groan.

Not a Repeat of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Readers will be attracted to Mr. Butler's latest effort after being enchanted by 'A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain.' However, Fair Warning, while not without merit, does not live up to the Pulitzer prize-winning Good Scent/Strange Mountain.

The stories in Good Scent/Strange Mountain are told from the perspectives of Vietnamese immigrants, both male and female, living in the United States after the war. Fair Warning is told from the point of view of an attractive, successful young professional woman in modern New York. Neither is the vantage one expects from a white American male. I found this approach astonishing in Good Scent/Strange Mountain, but just entertaining in Fair Warning.

The subject of the latter book is the worthy matter of peoples' relationships to objects of possession. This is potentially its most interesting aspect, but is treated too lightly to be completely fulfilling.

There are moments of wry humor in Fair Warning, but not quite enough to overcome the lack of originality in the characters. I would recommend Fair Warning only as light reading. It is not for the reader seeking emotionally stimulating, thought-provoking literature.

Well Done Romance
Fair Warning is the first of Butler's novels that I have read and therefore, I came to the novel with no expectations, other than the hope of finding a good read. Fair Warning is an enjoyable, quick read--a sort of sophisticated romance novel. I think, based on reading other reviews on these pages, if you come to this work expecting something like Butler has done before, you may be disappointed. If, however, you want to read a romance for grownups, this is your novel. It is the story of Amy Dickerson, a 40 year old auctioneer with some personal issues to resolve--her father, her mother, her failed love life. She becomes involved with two men as the novel progresses and begins to resolve some of those issues. She eventually falls in love. Not much else, but it is a quick compelling read which some readers will probably really enjoy. You just have to be careful that you are one of them.

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