The Stronghold captivates the reader's interest from the initial story about early colonial life and those human struggles in a part of our nation that served as the springboard for the rest of us. The author utilizes the "short story" technique to present a variety of life styles, a blend of humor with hardships of the time, and a historical perspective on the role played by this Rappahannock River transportation highway utilized by western settlers.

A very informative book, by a very knowledgeable author. Events both historical and down to earth family life stories. I've read many documents of that region and have found that the author put this together with readable ease. Very seldom do you find a history of a regional area.

In the autumn of 1998, journalist Patrick Rucker returned to Northern Ireland to see how things have changed since the Good Friday peace accord. Interviewing many different people, he paints the picture of a land that is still not at peace, but filled with the bitterness from the long struggle, but too exhausted to keep the fighting up.

This book is quite interesting, showing the reader a side of Ireland that is just not visible in most books. Allowing the people to tell their own stories gives this book a powerful grip, which makes it hard to put down and harder to forget.

My one complaint is that Mr. Rucker focused heavily on the Catholic community, showing their bitterness against the Protestants, the British government and army, and against the IRA (which is painted in stark colors that are not flattering). However, even with those limitations, this is a very good book, one that I highly recommend to anyone interested in the condition of Northern Ireland.

Gripping, inciteful, fast moving account of daily life in N Ireland today. Can't put it down once you get in to the book. Great history lesson and description of how life is lived so soon after all the violence that occurred during the Troubles in Belfast and N Ireland

well researched book good biography. hope to see more detailed book on the same subject. craigavon should also be researched to see his important part in the crisus

A.T.Q. Stewart established his well deserved reputation as an objective, erudite scholar with this small book. Unlike many academic historians however,he also writes well. He treats his subject not as a sounding board for a trendy, modern "ism", but instead as an objective event in the past. He examines not only what happened, but why it happened. This volume examines the rise of Ulster Loyalist resistance to Irish Nationalist "Home Rule", which the Northern Irish Loyalists rightly saw as the short road to independence for Ireland from the Empire. Their threatened armed "rebellion" against the British government so as to (ironically) achieve their aim of remaining British, ultimately set in motion the events of 1916 and later 1968/69, which sadly continue up to this very evening. Stewart treats his subject dispassionatly and with great insight and detail. At the same time Stewart describes events almost as a jounalist would have done. One can almost see the gun runners unloading the rifles off the docks in the darkness from his narration. Ultimately, he also describes how the participants faired. The nascent U.V.F. marched off to meet their doom on the Somme. The peaceful Nationalists were ultimately politically outflanked by Sinn Fein who revolted in 1916, a mere six weeks before their counterparts went over the top in Flanders. The British Officers who threatened to resign at Curragh Barracks rather than enforce what they saw as an unpatriotic law, lost not only their lives but their world. In short, if you are interested in this aspect of British history, this is a book well worth having.

One of the best things about the consistently good Robert Barnard is his ability to delve into unlikely venues as the settings for his mysteries. In this case, he juxtaposes a Roman Catholic parish in the north of England with the world of small-time tabloid journalism. Barnard peoples his parish of St. Catherine's with a variety of eccentric and believable characters and adds a masterly repugnant villain -- reporter Cosmo Horrocks -- to stir up a pot of parochial passions and hidden crimes.

Some of the more memorable characters in "Unholy Dying" are the beleaguered and persecuted Fr. Pardoe, the primly observant Miss Preece-Dembleby, the malevolent Doris Crabtree, and the frighteningly dysfunctional Norris family. My only quibble with the novel is that some of these characters are so finely drawn that I regretted not learning more about them after they made their all-too-brief appearances.

The book has two scenes that are Barnard at his absolute best. The first is the interview between Superintendent Mike Oddie and the Bishop of Leeds. This passage is must reading for anyone who has ever suffered from the arrogance of power and longs to see what happens when it's deflated and derailed. The other scene is the climax of the novel. Although I could see where the investigation of Horrocks' murder was leading, Barnard's terrifying and shocking conclusion caught me unprepared and left me riveted.

While riding a train, West Yorkshire Chronicle reporter Cosmo Horrocks overhears two people discussing the scandalous behavior of the local Catholic priest. Apparently, Father Christopher Pardoe had an affair with nineteen-year old single mother Julie Norris, a parishioner, leaving her pregnant. Also Somebody stole parish money with the Father being the most likely thief. Cosmo, a nasty gossip-mongering "journalist" who would distort any lie to spice up a report, sees a great story in Shipley, England.

Cosmo heads to the small town to confront the various players such as Julie, Father Pardoe, Julie's estrange parents and brother, and other parishioners. After exposing the priest and the teen, an unknown assailant kills the odious Cosmo. Police Inspector Mike Oddie and Sergeant Charlie Peace begin to investigate the homicide. The only problem is anyone who ever met the disgusting man including his family, his staff on the newspaper, and the impacted people in Shipley have motives to wanting Cosmo dead.

UNHOLY DYING is a great police procedural that shows why Robert Barnard is one of the top mystery writers around. His latest work is fabulous because the quaint cast makes the entertaining police investigation so much more fun to follow. The tabloid journalism that attacks Father Pardoe based on rumor and no substance augments a great plot in which everyone except the police are suspects, but the real killer is in plain sight yet impossible to identify.

Harriet Klausner

Many canoeing guidebooks cater to the whitewater enthusiast. Here's one for the flatwater folks. Good descriptions of padding locations, with excellent maps and referrals to additional resources. Not a complete guidebook, but contains enough suggestions to keep the quietwater paddler busy for some time.

This book is perfect for beginner to intermediate canoers and kayakers in the Sacramento and Sierra Foothills. Although the lakes listed in this book are limited to only a handful though-out this area, the discription of those lakes are excellent. Included is trip length,(time and miles), directions to the lake, access, difficulty, size of area, and recomended maps to use. Also included are detailed hiking, camping, historical background and natural history along with some highlights of the area of each lake or river. Special waterfalls and sites to look for or hike to at some of the lakes and rivers are a treat to read about. My only regret is that more lakes in this area where not included.

According to some of three of my friends the book 'Wainwright's Coast to Coast' has a lot to answer for. At a party on New Years Eve, 1994, the hostess passed around the book in question. I just had time to read a bit of the introductory material inside the dust jacket, and look through the photographs, taken by Derry Brabbs. Loads of excellent pictures of the wilds of northern England, taken throughout the year in all types of lighting conditions from blue summer skies to overcast darkness brooding over snow covered mountains.

Before the end of January 1995, I had booked accommodation on the walk for four adults at the end of August. Well my web site lists the trials and tribulations of that long trek in Wainwright's footsteps.

The text of the book describes the stages of the walk, and gives some of the history of the places visited, without going into the actual details of the route in much depth. The book is not so much a walkers guide book, like some of Wainwright's work on the mountains of the Lake District, but rather a coffee table book, which may inspire some brave souls to actually try it for themselves.

The photos are what make up the largest part of the book, and they are indeed excellent. All the best views of the route are shown, plus some which are quite a way off the path, like the pictures of the various ancient crosses in the North York Moors. Although it isn't raining or thick with mist in any of the shots, there are many which show dark clouds, rivers swollen with rain, and some rather wintery scenes with ice and snow. This tries to show the hills as they really, not like the pretty blue skied postcards one so often sees. Although I did wonder how he managed to get shots of some the Lake District areas without any people in them? He probably got up very early in the morning.

September 1998 Paul Gallwey, Manchester, England

According to some of three of my friends the book 'Wainwright's Coast to Coast' has a lot to answer for. At a party on New Years Eve, 1994, the hostess passed around the book in question. I just had time to read a bit of the introductory material inside the dust jacket, and look through the photographs, taken by Derry Brabbs. Loads of excellent pictures of the wilds of northern England, taken throughout the year in all types of lighting conditions from blue summer skies to overcast darkness brooding over snow covered mountains.

Before the end of January 1995, I had booked accommodation on the walk for four adults at the end of August. Well my web site lists the trials and tribulations of that long trek in Wainwright's footsteps.

The text of the book describes the stages of the walk, and gives some of the history of the places visited, without going into the actual details of the route in much depth. The book is not so much a walkers guide book, like some of Wainwright's work on the mountains of the Lake District, but rather a coffee table book, which may inspire some brave souls to actually try it for themselves.

The photos are what make up the largest part of the book, and they are indeed excellent. All the best views of the route are shown, plus some which are quite a way off the path, like the pictures of the various ancient crosses in the North York Moors. Although it isn't raining or thick with mist in any of the shots, there are many which show dark clouds, rivers swollen with rain, and some rather wintery scenes with ice and snow. This tries to show the hills as they really, not like the pretty blue skied postcards one so often sees. Although I did wonder how he managed to get shots of some the Lake District areas without any people in them? He probably got up very early in the morning.

What does surprise me is that Amazon lists the book as being 'out of print'.

September 1998 Paul Gallwey, Manchester, England

Quite simply, 'War and an Irish Town' is probably the finest narative of the Irish Troubles. The Author Eamonn McCann was one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement and his book charts the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement to the armed resistance of the I.R.A. What gives this book the advantage over the others is that the narative is overlapped with a very sharp and readable analysis of the conflict. It gives interesting and often funny insights into the characters and actions that made Derry a European, and indeed World symbol of resistance in 1969.

Another crucial difference that puts McCann's book above the rest is that when you finish the book, you really feel that you have learnt something. The book doesn't stop there. When we look at conflicts around the world from Rwanda to Angola, often the question begged is why, and why are these people doing this? Eamonn with the skill and craft of a skilled journalist leaves you in no doubt that the violence of the last thirty years was neither inevitable nor simply the result of two headless communities at each others throat so often espoused by the media

If you are interested in the politics and history of contemporary Ireland then this book is an absolute must.

McCann's book is a brilliant look at the Troubles and the impact on his home town of Derry. Far too often, all we see of the troubles is stone throwing youths or bombs going off in Britain, with no explaination of how it got to this point. McCann shows brilliantly the historical context from which the troubles were spawned, and in doing so demolishes completely the myth of two tribes with no common ground. Essential reading for anyone interested in learning more about the politics of Northern Ireland.

Deputy Marshall Page Murdock encounters Mounties, Metis, and Cree Indians in a wintertime assignment to Canada. This work is up to Estleman's high standards in plot and character development. It is worth reading but you may want to start with the beginning of the series.

WHITE DESERT is not only a fine western it's a fine novel by any standards. Like Elmore Leonard Estleman takes the reader on a long ride into the human condition of yesteryear, ambushes a number of preconceived notions along the way, and leaves you with a story that stays with you long after the dust has settled.
There's enough humor as well to keep you chuckling and enough well written dialogue and description to make the pages (and Page too!) fly.
Good for you, Estleman and good for us.

For one who lives, as I do, within the heart of the temperate rainforest, I cannot escape the din of poliotically charged rhetoric about what needs doing and saving. And rarely now do publishers resist the temptation of putting out one more tract. That is why it is so delightful to get hands on a slim volume written by someone who is really an ecologist - I do not mean an environmental advocate -- although Chris Pielou has been that too, but someone who has a real grasp of the theory and the natural history on which bona fide ecology depends.

In "The World Of Northern Evergreens" Pielou takes us on a trip into the forest, in order to answer "two simple questions" that really are one: how did this magnificent kind of ecosystem become what it is? She is so knowledgeable about the subject that she can gracefully weave in to an account of some creature or plant, just enough theory or metaphor that you can start to really "get it", and figure out what makes these places work. Only in her brief and wise epilog does she draw explicitly the lessons about the sensistivity, indeed the non-renewable nature of northern evergreen forests. The book has many beautifully clear pen drawings of the habitats and the organisms described. A lynx of p. 142 watches the reader so attentively that it was a bit unsettling!

Put this on you shelf and, more important, sling into your pack when and if you have the good fortune to visit these special places.

This is the perfect book for the serious amateur naturalist or the freshman Natural Historian who will be spending any time in the northern treelands.Pielou uses a combination of clear-non-technical prose and beautiful pen-and-ink illustrations to take us through the key species and ecological relationships of the region. What is particularly delightful about the book is that although one doesn't have to be a botanist to follow the discussions, one feels always that one is in the hands of a master ecologist and writer -there are always the questions behind the questions that lead us to further understand and appreciate what we are seeing. This is the shortest of Pielou's books that I have yet read, but it is just the right size to sling into your backpack as you head off for a field station this winter, or to have by your bed when you get back & want to look up "just whatever THAT was..."

I liked the premise. I thought the author has a wonderful command of the language and constructed beautiful phrases, sentences, paragraphs. But.... How convenient that they would be so deeply cut off from the end-of-the-world experience thus permitting the author to escape from having to imagine much of it. A serious lack of character development, including even Eva. All we know of her is that she's totally obsessed with ballet. Who IS Eli beyond a blank slate, a device there simply to offer Nell a way out?

Some stuff was annoyingly first-novel -- too, too predictable that Eva would be the one to become pregnant; too unbelievable that the father would have taken off the chain brake given their circumstances; odd that he, a principal, would homeschool his kids. These examples, and so much more, just scream "device."

And the so-called lesbian scene -- sorry; didn't buy it. Having just been raped, might sexual contact -- let alone incest -- be far from one of Eva's first choices?

Perhaps a good book club selection as there is ultimately much to discuss, but I would never give it to someone and say, "You must read this."

I found the premise of this book to be eerily fascinating and frightening. It hooked me from the first page and I could not put it down. This was very fast and interesting reading, except for one totally unnecessary scene which those of you who have read it will undoubtedly remember.

"Into the Forest" is what has been called "speculative fiction" and is set in the near-future, focusing on two teenage orphaned sisters. The girls try to survive the collapse, for no apparent reason, of their world and society as they knew it. All of a sudden, tankers do not arrive at gas stations, electricity disappears, law and order become a thing of the past, and there is no communication.

Living in the forest in Northern California, Nell and Eva struggle to survive in an often -alien environment as they try to adjust to isolation. Once they deplete the pantry in their house, feeding themselves is a daily challenge, as is their need to conquer overwhelming feelings of despair.

The author gradually builds the story to the point where the reader realizes that every single action these young girls perform is related to their continued survival. I think that this book provided food for thought, making me cringe at how dependent we all are on today's technology. I appreciated Hegland's knowledge of the uses of forest plants and berries, and of food preservation.

Like Paul Watkins' "Archangel" and Stephen King's "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon", the forest is a major character in the story.

I fear that I would not be a survivor.

"Into the Forest" is the first novel in many years that I've been compelled to read in a single day. Jean Hegland's story of two teenage sisters facing the end of the world as we know it is told in a style that's as natural and ultimately mysterious as the redwood forest that surrounds their home. The descriptions of the gradual breakdown of civilation have a terrible fascination to them -- like news reports of a natural disaster that one doesn't want to see, yet can't turn away from.

Though the novel does contain feminist themes, this shouldn't deter men from reading and enjoying this novel completely. The book is for anyone interested in apocalyptic fiction or stories about survival in hardship, the loss of dreams, and the tenuous bonds linking families and society together.

Nell and Eva's progress from dependence to desperation and ultimate self-sufficiency left me both frightened for my reliance upon the modern world and grateful for what I have and e! njoy. This novel would make an excellent choice for a well-known talkshow host's book club -- and Hegland certainly deserves the recognition it would bring.

Don't wait for the movie (which will surely be on the way soon). "Into the Forest" is a powerful end-of-the-millennium read -- and I suspect the images and emotions in it will stay with me for years to come.