I started reading The Funhouse Mirror up while I was waiting for a connection in an airport. I got so absorbed in it that I almost missed my plane. It is a collection of stories by prisoners in Washington State. Their pieces are remarkable, but what really makes the book are the interspersed commentaries and stories by the editor, Robert Ellis Gordon. Gordon spent several years working in the prison system as a writing teacher, and the prisoners who wrote these stories were his students. While the prisoners' stories are good, Gordon himself is a far more accomplished and vivid writer. Reading Gordon's own pieces really brought home to me the hell that is our prison system, and the difficult moral and emotional problems that it poses. This is a wonderful, gripping, depressing book that I recommend to anyone who wants to learn about what our prisons are really like.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the criminal justice system or who believes she/he understands it. Author Robert Ellis Gordon taught creative writing workshops to inmates in the Washington State Corrections System for 9 years. This powerful collection includes non-fiction essays and short stories written by Gordon and some of the incarcerated writers who were Gordon's students. Through stories and essays infused with emotional risk, startling humor, and vivid detail, the collection resonates as a testament to the intimate details of prison life. The collection offers no excuses for criminal behavior, but the inmates' writing reveals haunting histories and the daily combination of terror and tedium that makes up time served. In his own work, Gordon reflects unflinchingly upon the qualities of his students, many of whom are repulsive in their crimes (child molestation, rape, murder). Gordon describes challenging his students to "struggle back to life" by engaging in the vulnerable business of creating literature. And the inmates' work included in "The Funhouse Mirror" demonstrates the transcendent power of artistic opportunity. Gordon challenges the rest of us to examine the true nature of our corrections system and the the lives our society chooses to surrender to incarceration with diminishing hope of redemption.

For nine years, Robert Gordon routinely ventured into and out of the prisons of Washington state, teaching intensive fiction writing workshops to inmates while the state's prison population doubled and daily prison life became ever harsher. Gordon elicited students' often harrowing stories, some of which he includes in The Funhouse Mirror. They are stories from within prison and from outside lives that were frequently violent, abusive, impoverished, troubled, despairing, drained of hope. Some are fanciful or exaggerated; many have the ring of truth. They are stories we don't usually hear, even when they are told.

This is a slim book, but also a riveting, searing, big-hearted book, full of the grim realities and refusal, sometimes, to give in that characterize our American gulag. The American public desperately needs to know those realities. We need them not to absolve people for their crimes, but to put a human face on an often breathtakingly inhuman prison culture, to shine a light on our collective heart of darkness. That heart is shared as much by the rest of us as by the prisoners, guards, and administrators in Gordon's book.

One of the many strengths of this volume is that Gordon wrestles repeatedly with the value-laden question of whether it is appropriate to be appalled when inmates who have themselves committed, at least once in their lives, some horrific crime, are in turn subjected to endless years of horrific taxpayer-mandated treatment at the hands of fellow inmates, sadistic guards and administrators, and a fickle but generally vengeful justice system. The fact that Gordon acknowledges these all-too-human conflicts lends that much greater a moral resonance to his book.

It helps both his pupils and his readers that Gordon is an exceptionally fine and evocative writer. Too often, in books with political themes, the writing is lousy, leavened only by the value of the information buried in dreadful prose. Not so in the Funhouse Mirror. Gordon uses the beauty of language to expose ugly, invisible truths. If this book were widely read, we'd be a better society for it.

Like Alan Powers's _Living with Books,_ this beautifully illustrated volume shows you some of the solutions that people obsessed with books have arrived at to house and care for them. Many of the bibliophiles included here are artists, designers, or architects, and they can be counted on to come up with original and striking ideas for the shape and location of book shelves, arrangement of the books themselves. David Hicks has a thing for books bound in red. The Duke of Devonshire has the sort of 19th century English-country-house library you might expect. Loren Rothschild houses his books in a specially castle -- in California. Jack Lenor Larsen has to keep his books out of direct view because he finds them too stimulating otherwise. And who would have guessed that Keith Richards was a dedicated booklover? A number of large and small libraries are included, and there are also sections on bookbinding and restoration, bookplates, how to start a collection, library lighting, and other related topics. A sizeable "Resource Directory" provides lists of book fairs and book dealers and suggests suppliers of library furnishings and equipment.

If you love books, if you love reading, whether you are a serious book collector, have a small library at home or at the office or even if you have a small shelf full of books at your bedroom you should have this book. With beautiful photographs and well written comments about English Country House Libraries, libraries designed by designers, writers'libraries, book collector's libraries and much more,in At Home with Books you will find visual delights, wonderful readings and a Resource Directory that will inform you about Rare-book dealers shops, Book Fairs, Library furnishing and illumination and more ( with web page directions about those topics)I think that every book owner should have a book like this one, buy it!

Great books are rare. Well illustrated books sometimes even rarer. This book is both. This book is truly a goldmine of information for book lovers. It includes details on library lighting, accessories, great libraries of the world, library furnishings, book binders & restorers, book fairs in America & a comprehensive list of rare book dealers in both America & England. One of the chapters I loved the most was about Hay-On-Wye Booktown - a collection of 27 new & second hand book shops scattered up & down the narrow streets of a village along the border of England & Wales, with over 250,000 books. WOW !! Other chapters include an exclusive look inside the private libraries of some famous people, such as Paul Getty, Keith Richards, Robert Stern, the Duke of Devonshire - to name but a few. Finally, the price of the book is worth it, just for the look at some of the most glorious libraries around the world done in stunning full page colour photography. This book belongs in your library - Enjoy !

...it should come as no surprise that BrotherCadfael feels he must pay penance for his, as well. And in this20th--and final--chronicle of Brother Cadfael, Ellis Peters takes us a giant step forward in her characterization of the good Benedictine monk, a man once a member of the Crusades and now wrestling against sin behind the cloth.

In "Brother Cadfael's Penance," Peters permits Cadfael to come face to face with another aspect of his life--a time before his monastic vows. It is 1145 and the great civil war rages on between King Stephen and Empress Maud. However, there is hope. A meeting between the two factions is scheduled for Coventry and Brother Cadfael secures permission from the Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Shrewsbury to attend. Known widely for his skills in diplomacy, as well as crime solving abilities, Cadfael, however, wishes to attend for a very personal reason. He is seeking news of a young knight, Olivier de Bretagne. Olivier is Cadfael's son, from his days fighting in the Holy Land as a crusader. His holy vows aside, he feels he must do all within his power to save his son.

Peters, as always, presents Cadfael as more than human--she gives us a man for all seasons, as it were. In addition, she presents the good brother in a realistic but incredibly humane manner. He is a man whom we can love, respect, yes, even

cherish. Peters' ability to draw out these characteristics is perhaps what makes the series so fascinating. Hers is a series not to be missed. One probably should read them in the order they were written; or at least, read earlier ones before this one, as the poignancy of the meeting between father and son is so much more dramatized when the reader has the background to appreciate such a climactic episode. I cannot imagine a reader being disappointed!

(Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

This book is about Cadfael's son being kidnapped, and held WITHOUT ransom. Those of us serious Brother Cadfael fans love the depth that Ellis Peters uses to describe his feelings upon discovering that his son is in serious danger, and noone appears to be doing anything about it. He makes his decision to go after him himself, and take whatever consequenses for his actions that Father Abbott sees fit - even the threat of being ejected from the order. He must find him; then he must bargin for his release. The book moves right along. There is intrigue, mystery, exciting battle scenes, touching father-son moments, and suspense. I can't wait for this book to be made into a made-for-TV movie, as so many of the others have. I highly recommend this book.

Had Ellis Peters know this would be her final "Brother Cadfael" book before her death, she couldn't have written a better one. Returning to the fascinating plot line of Cadfael's long-lost son, Olivier, she does an excellent job of balancing Cadfael's love for his monastery and his monastic profession with his love and devotion to the son he has only begun to know. Almost everyone in life has experienced the tension of two loves that nearly tears them apart and destroys them. Ms. Peters again does a wonderful job of keeping her characters true to themselves, to their times, and to the interplay developed in the long line of Cadfael mysteries. I very much enjoyed the book!

A young woman is found horribly mutilated in her family's home and a young corporate attorney is forced by his boss to represent the heinous defendant. Unwillingly thrown into the world of criminal law, the lawyer must re-educate himself while simultaneously dealing with the ambitious district attorney who sees this case as a career-maker. In this excellent thriller from Robert Ellis, you will be reminded of the best of Thomas Harris and even Michael Crichton. Having read Ellis' first novel, "Access to Power," I am amazed at the breadth of his writing skills. The first book was a taut political thriller about a cynical veteran campaign consultant enmeshed in a murder. Now, with "The Dead Room," he has effortlessy shifted gears to create a crime thriller that had me riveted to the page. I heartily recommend this book!

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend and after seeing Robert Ellis in a documentary film about books, writing and the search for a lost author. There's so much to like about this novel that it's hard to know where to begin.

First, I found the plot fascinating. The author's imaginative powers are fresh, new and beyond energetic. The story makes logical sense and I found the plot twists, particularly the last which I didn't see coming, raw and powerful. Second, this may be the best character study in the genre that I've read in the past few years. Mr. Ellis has a way of getting inside his characters. There were times when they seemed so real that I thought I actually knew them. Third, I liked the words and the writer's poetic use of metaphor. This book is well written and shows remarkable ingenuity and skill. I could see this story. I could feel it.

But after all this, what I probably like most about "The Dead Room" and will always remember, is that it seems to be about something more than itself. I highly recommend this novel. Although it nearly scared me out of my wits, I learned something along the way. Cheers to good reading and a great book!

Anyone who read Robert Ellis's first book "Access to Power" won't be disappointed by "The Dead Room." But like me, I think you'll be surprised.

This is a wild, unbridled story that kept me mesmerized from page one and never let me down. The story introduces us to Teddy Mack, a young attorney who's just graduated from law school and is forced by the senior partners at his firm to represent a man for the brutal slaying of a teenage girl. As he investigates the crime, each new piece of evidence points to his client, Oscar Holmes. One afternoon while following a lead, Teddy finds a second girl's body that has washed up on shore. The evidence seems to indicate that Holmes is actually a serial killer, and Teddy is devastated. But then he makes a discovery that will change his life forever. In spite of the overwhelming physical evidence against Holmes, there's a chance that he and everybody else is reading it wrong.

Pitted against a district attorney who cares more about winning than discovering the truth, and working for a prestigious law firm that wants to sweep the case under the rug, Teddy takes the heat and digs deep within himself when anyone else would quit. But Teddy can't give up his quest. The horror of the present is dredging up memories of his past: as a boy Teddy's father died in prison an innocent man, and he can't let this happen again. These memories are both gripping and heartfelt, and as a result, Teddy is a truly likable, sympathetic character. Particularly as he gets closer to the truth and becomes the killer's next target, Teddy proves himself to be genuinely heroic.

The writing is crisp and clean. The pacing brisk with short chapters and more than half a dozen wonderful side stories, including one about Michelangelo that I found chilling. The plot unfolds with increasing urgency until it reaches an ending impossible to predict, but also, as crushing and unique as life itself. Every question raised in this story is answered, and every twist pays out.

"The Dead Room" is a remarkable thriller, and will easily make my top ten list as one of the best books I've read this year.

This is a first. This book is a prop that lets you do a magic show for yourself. You'd think that if you're doing the magic show it would be pretty tough to fool yourself. You'd be suprised. As you turn the beautiful pages of this graphic masterpiece of a book and follow the directions, you can't believe the miracles you're seeing. And then once you've performed the book for yourself you can use it on a completely different level to fool yool your friends. This is perfect for almost any age, anybody who likes magic, or really interesting pop-up-type art books. Simply terrific.

... Mark Setteducati and Anne Benkovitz have presented in the simple, yet interactive tricks that create a welcome distraction from the age of high-tech games, computers, and television. The book is presented like a magic show, prompting for audience (or reader) participation. It begins with the cover and does not necessarily end at the very last page, which contains additional props if you want to revisit one of the tricks for a skeptical audience or if you want to add a different spin on one other trick. There is a reset book (to reorganize everything for the next performance) that also consists of presentation suggestions for some of the tricks. "The Magic Show" uses both mathematical and optical illusions to amuse young and old. The tricks can stimulate thinking for the younger audience when they ponder "How did they do that?" If you are a parent or just an adult who is young at heart and appreciates magic, this is an enjoyable book to purchase for yourself or to give as a gift to a budding Houdini.

Mark Setteducati and Anne Benkovitz have provided children of all ages with a wonder of the 21st century today! This magical book reads your mind, makes things change colors and actually makes a character disappear...how many other so-called magic books do that? An incredible achievement for the magical arts and publishing!

Amazing transportantion through words to the land of Osiris. A poetic revalation of the Book of the Death, far from just a translation but the tale of the Gods, whom are awakened within the ones who believe. The book which gives life was beautifully represented by this enlightening work.

This is one of the most incredible books I've ever read. In this "translation" of the Book of Going Forth By Day (the original Egyptian name for the Book of the Dead) Ellis sings the world into existence and exposes the very depths of my soul like no other writer ever has. It is not a literal translation, but more of a contemporary reflection of what the various chapters mean, a very poetic, smoothly flowing meditation on "Becoming Osiris" and living life like the gods we are. If you've ever been interested in Egyptian thought or mythology, you will love this book!
I am Osiris. I walk between the two worlds. I am the maker of myths. I remember all that was and what will be. I am eternal, existing for the millions of years. When you see the sun, remember me, remember your Self.

It is a pity this book is now out of print. It is, without a doubt, the most beautiful and deeply moving translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead there is. Each chapter is a marvel of mystical and poetic vision. It is the kind of book one doesn't just read through; one spends many months savoring each of its chapters.

In this amazing book, Ms. Ellis clearly shows the strength of women, even in the face of the enormous problems they must deal with in the aftermath of the Civil War. At times, the reader may wonder how the simple act of making a wedding dress could possibly improve the lives of these women, and in fact, it isn't the making of the dress that does it, but the determination and strength of character of the women themselves. The book includes a supernatural element that could have seemed intrusive, but instead blends in naturally with the plot and setting. Reading this book is like stepping back in time and getting to know the men and women who survived this dark chapter in American history, came through it, and managed not only to survive but eventually to florish.

Ms. Ellis has penned a powerful message regarding: "Give and you shall receive." Her unselfish depiction of love - for those living, and those lost, is the best I have read in recent times. Her writing is gentle, but it clearly reflects suffering and sacrifice, both external and internal. A sample of her strong and accurate writing is found on page seventy-five. I quote - "There's some of us that are young, and some like me, who only look young, ma'am. None who fought for three years can claim the former." If you ever have pictured yourself in the story you reading, you'll have no trouble getting right in the middle of this one.

Several years ago, a table mate at a community dinner said he had never read a book written by a woman. My retort was that he had missed half the story. Re: THE WEDDING DRESS, men/women who don't read it will have missed the whole story. Any sensitive man will enjoy this novel as much as any woman. Probably more!

It's my understanding that the film rights to THE WEDDING DRESS have been purchased by someone familiar to us all. My hope is that this story will soon be available for viewing in our neighborhood theater. This MAN can hardly wait.

Great work, Ms. Ellis.

The Wedding Dress is one of those books you read more than once and never forget. It's about loss and hope and the strength of women bound together by both. Ms. Ellis -- a war widow herself --has captured something very special here. She's shown the reader how in the wake of pain, life goes on. And healing happens.

This is not a book you want to miss.

Planetary is an underground organization that has the sole purpose of discovering the secret, strange, supernatural and wonderful history of the world. Ellis and Cassaday take the reader along with the three person Planetary field team, uncovering hidden legends and encountering grand adventure and wonder - but just as equally pay great homage (or sometimes cheeky irreverence) to the many genres that have enriched fictional history.

Planetary is such a well crafted comic book that you wouldn't need much to enjoy it. Ellis has a natural knack for pacing a story, and supplying us with interesting and believable characters. Cassaday matches him in every respect with solid storytelling and a fantastic design sense that is almost chameleon like - each issue of Planetary is genre based, and Cassaday's skill is such that each genre is faithfully recalled, without ever needing to recycle designs. I must also make mention of the incredible colours supplied by Laura Depuy and David Baron - comic books have rarely looked this vibrant and it is books like this with artists like Cassaday, Depuy and Baron that will break the comics industry free of stigma as a lesser medium to film or "books".

Still - the full enjoyment of this series will hinge on an appreciation for wonder and adventure, for mystery, for humour, for genre conventions - but rarely is a comic presented to you with such variety and lack of baggage that you shouldn't pass it up.

I know I'm reading a great graphic novel when I'm torn between wanting to read it straight through to the end in one sitting and forcing myself to take it slowly to make it last as long as possible. This is one of the great ones.

Planetary is sort of a cross between the X-files and Allen Moore's *League of Extraordinary Gentlemen*, retaining the "Truth is out there" paranoia of the former and the basic premise of the latter (extraordinary humans brought together by unknown "boss" to solve mysteries). Instead of drawing from 19th century Victorian literature (a la Moore in League), however, Warren Ellis instead delves into Nuclear Age comic book-mythos: 1940s Doc Savage-type supermen, Monster Island, a vengeful, supernatural ghost-cop and a lost, inter-dimensional spaceship requiring willing humans to pilot it back home, respectively.

As a previous reviewer mentioned, Ellis re-casts alot of comic book characters into the mix, few of whom fare too well in this X-Files-esque world(Doc Savage doesn't age,sleep ,eat or presumably go to the bathroom for over 50 years; the Hulk is buried in a 5-mile deep hole till he dies 40 years later; Godzilla, Gidhra and Mothra are all worm food; and the meeting between heroes of 2 dimensions a la Justice League/Justice Society ends with all but one member dead.)

Chapter One introduces us to Planetary's version of Mulder and Scully - one a surly, hundred yr old cold manipulating newbie to the group with a mysterious past; the other a butt-kicking, one-dimensional, A-typed personality whose in it soley because it keeps her from boredom. The group is rounded out by the crazed Drummer (who serves as the wacky yet technologically proficent "Lone Gunman")And it just keeps getting better!

I look forward to more from this series!

Thanks to this collection, I'm finally realizing what a gifted writer Warren Ellis is. Luckily, I already knew artist John Cassaday was good, but he really reaches new heights here.

Planetary is a concept I've never seen before -- that of a team of "mystery archaeologists" -- which explores concepts and archetypes seen before but observed in a new light. If you're a DC Comics buff, think of each of Planetary's missions as a tiny peak at an incredible "Elseworlds" story. Another way to look at it is as a sort of Astro City on a global scale, where familiar themes play out in jaw-droppingly new directions.

All of this may make Planetary sound somewhat heady or academic (which it is in a sense) but thanks in large part to Cassaday's beautiful illustration, even the most cerebral moments are visually breathtaking without becoming mere eye candy. Add this to Ellis's breakneck pacing and you've got a thinking person's action-adventure book.

So is Jerry Ellis in this book, which is a first person account of his thoughts and encounters as he walks the Cherokee Trail of Tears. He blends what he sees and who he meets along the trail with ancestoral stories and beliefs in a way that educates and entertains the reader. He also manages to restore a person's faith in the kindness of Americans.

I use this book as a classroom novel in my high school nonfiction course. The issues that Jerry struggles with in his book are some of the same ones that my students face as they prepare to leave school and figure out where they belong in the world. What keeps me from giving the book a five star rating is that Jerry sometimes gives the reader an up close and personal look at his love life in a way which doesn't really add to his narrative.

Otherwise, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the cerebral slant of an excellent travelogue and who wants to know more about the spiritual traditions and history of the Cherokee.

I just want to say "Thank You" to Jerry Ellis and also Congratulaions to him for such a wonderful, informative book, and for walking The Trail of Tears!!! I just finished reading this book about an hour ago and I loved it. Tears came to my eyes at the end. It was such a touching book. I plan on reading all your books, Jerry. Thank you for such a great one!

This is a wonderfully-written book that helps us rethink our connection to our fellow humans and to all of Nature. Jerry Ellis has the ability to connect to people, causing them to trust him immediately and open up. Because of his encounters with so many during his walk along the Trail of Tears, I am encouraged about the state of our ability to be more tolerant of one another. Jerry also conveys a sense of calmness and patience and it has helped me to stop and take a few minutes to breathe, and look up, and look around. Also, to listen. Jerry writes with clarity and sureness, and it's as if he's telling you this story in person. I highly recommend this book.

This book was extremely helpful to me, being very inexperienced at book collecting. It is written in a very avuncular style, and is very easy to read and comprehend. Just reading the 1st chapter helped me buy and sell books more knowledgeably! This book is a must-have for any person who wants to get started seriously collecting and selling books. I highly recommend it!

If you love to buy and collect new or used books, then chances are you have some very collectible books just lying around. Some may be worth a fortune.

A book doesn't have to be old or a first edition Hemingway to be worth money. There are thousands of highly collectible modern first editions. It's easy to find them, too . . . often at prices far below market value.

The secret: Learn which books are in demand (many are more common than you may think), and then try to find them in first editions. Some may be sitting on your shelf right now.

Often, publishers state "First Edition" on a title page, but far from always. And even if you know you have a first edition, how do you know if it's collectible? Ellis gives detailed information on how to identify first editions and books worth collecting. You'll learn about how later editions can be collectible, too.

There's tons of solid, money making advice on how to become a book collector, even if you're on a limited budget, including tips on "avoiding costly mistakes that many beginners make."

Bonus: A section that lists "Over 1,000 Most Collectible Books and Authors."

Best of all: It's fun. You'll learn how to scout for books at major book stores, used book sales, remainder bins, tag sales and more. If you already enjoy buying books, why not turn it into a hobby that pays?

I started to become interested in book collecting about 2 years ago and this was one of the first books that I purchased. It is an excellent book for a beginning collector. The author describes the history of book production and how books are produced in modern times. There is also a very good chapter on the grading of books, and how to determine if a book is "collectible." Another chapter describes ways to determine if a book by a certain publisher is a first edition. However, if you plan to collect rare, old books then this text may not be the best for you. The focus of this book is on collecting modern first editions.

Although it's full of facts, the book is written in a light, easy-to-read style. The author is an avid book collector and he provides plenty of anecdotes about his experiences.

The author assumes that the reader is interested in book collecting both for pleasure and for profit. He explains in detail how to acquire collectible books as inexpensively as possible by using trade-ins.

The book claims to contain a list of the "1000 Most Collectible Books and Authors." This list is a little subjective however. The author even admits that what may be collectible now, may have little value later. What may be collectible to one person may be just another used book to another. Don't assume that every book on the list will be valuable.

If you collect books, or plan to start a collection, this book should be part of library.