Critics have often named Saul Bellow and Faulkner in the same laudatory, esteeming sentence. This juxtaposition is most correct in its comparison of the respective artistry of their short story craft. Bellow is a superior novelist and writer.

This is a superb collection of short stories. The Preface is finely and charmingly written by Janis Bellow, which allows us a brief, intimate glimpse of Bellow the writer.

This anthology includes: "The Bellarosa Connection," "Looking for Mr. Green," "Zetland," "Mosby's Memoirs," and "Something to Remember Me By," among others.

Long live the urban Jewish intelligentsia. I also highly recommend Bellow's novels, esp. Augie March, Humboldt's Gift, and Ravelstein.

Those who have enjoyed Saul Bellow's great novels over the years will rejoice at this excellent collection of his finest short stories. Spanning decades, they resonate with much joy and understanding of the human condition, vividly portrayed by Bellow's graceful, erudite prose. Most of the tales are set in Chicago, describing the lives of an intriguing assortment of Midwestern characters, ranging from con men to businessmen. It's hard for me to choose one story as a personal favorite, though the last tale, "Something To Remember Me By", is a hilarious look at Prohibition Era Chicago, replete with speakeasies and references to mobster Al Capone. Without question, Saul Bellow remains one of North America's greatest literary treasures. After reading "Mr. Sammler's Planet", "Seize the Day", "Herzog", "Henderson the Rain King", or the rest of his great literary works, you'll surely want to read "Saul Bellow: Collected Stories".

I am fourteen years old and have been reading avidly since I was ten. I go to the bookstore everyday and I came across this Collection of Stories on the Staff Recommendation shelf.I had no clue who Saul Bellow was, but the cover looked very intriguing, due to my infatuation with oldies cars and Black and White photography. So I had the book held and the next day I came back with my allowance and bought it.On my way home, I had a haircut. Two people in the barbershop said something vague about the author. I didn't take too much notice. When I finally arrived home, I showed my parents the book, and the applauded, explaining that all on my own I had picked out one of the best American authors this century has known. That night I went to bed early and sped through the first two stories; 'By the St. Lawrence' and 'A Silver Dish'. They were both some of the best mixtures of the English language that I have ever read.
I am a writer and so I am very serious when I say that this book is one of the best examples of written art ever painted. If I could, I would give it six-stars!

I first read this almost twenty years ago, and cannot overstate how valuable it was to me then. The methods Mr. Wood taught in the book have given me focus in my academic, business, and personal life, and helped me to achieve many goals. Year's back, I gave away about a dozen copies to friends. I just promised to loan it to another, picking it up after a ten-year absence. Re-reading the first chapter was like hearing from an old friend. In the end I decided to buy another copy to give to the friend, rather than part with mine. Do the exercises: they work.

I have read other books on concentration and meditation but this one is different. It teaches you how to train your mind as a willing and happy student as opposed to whipping your mind into shape as a master over a slave. The methods work and my concentration has improved greatly as a result.

I did all the excercises in the book and it really works. It has helped me through college and now in my professional life.

Once the thesis that Santos are art "is established and proved, the word comes alive, the image reveals itself in all its splendor, its meanings and power amplified, and the reader, who now believes in the beauty and expressiveness of the Santos and is able to participate in the enjoyment of them, wants to continue the 'fiesta', to inhabit for a while longer the temple that the book has built for the carvings." (From comments by Antonio Martorell, artist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, delivered at the Museum of Puerto Rican Art on June 25th, 2003.)

"Is it possible to take advantage of the extraordinary conceptual development of the euro-centric academic disciplines...in order to study...the 'art of the other' (be it in terms of civilizations such as non-european or in socioeconomic terms such as the rural or 'popular')? Irene Curbelo's book represents "the most important Puerto Rican contribution to this incandescent international debate." (From comments by A.G. Quintero Rivera, sociologist and professor at the University of Puerto Rico, delivered at the Museum of Puerto Rican Art on June 25th, 2003).

"In this bilingual edition, with magnificent illustrations, Irene Curbelo questions the way a work of art that obeys canons different from those accepted traditionally in european art is judged and evaluated...In Chapter V, titled Understanding the Santos, this scholar contributes powerfully to increase...the pleasure that contemporary art lovers feel when viewing the Santos...It offers a fascinating account of the whole artistic vocabulary constructed in terms of their function...The reading of this chapter offers an opportunity to observe the Santos more closely as it analyzes the elements that particularize them. It clarifies the ways in which the artists interpreted their world and utilized their artistic materials expressively...As a result, these pieces acquire an expressive value that places them on an artistic plane well beyond the mere artifact." (translated excerpts from the literary review by Carmen Dolores Hernandez published in San Juan by El Nuevo Dia, June 8, 2003, pg. 14).

I'm a Japanese reader and living in Log Cabin. This book provides me with many decoration ideas. I wish to reccomend this book to my friend who are living in Log cabins.

Hands-on Log Homes is our third, full-color, idea design book on the subject of log home architecture. As such, it was also my third opportunity to loop America - cameras in hand - seeking out unique log homes and meeting the people who build them. In this case, those people happened to be mostly involved owner-builders. That is, creative, resourceful people who used sweat equity to help build their dream. Similar to our second book, "The Log Home Book", there is a virtual photo-feast inside. The only difference is that the scale of these homes tends to be more moderate, and the owners themselves share their own unique and entertaining building stories along with practical bits of advice gleaned along the way.

Along with built-from-scratch homes, there are those abodes built largely with recycled materials - old logs, old doors, old fixtures! Perfect examples of turning one man's junk into veritable treasure while often saving money along the way.

Next comes a marvelous chapter on historic restorations. Often "rebuilt" with the help of skilled craftsman, we include these handmade originals as true examples of once upon a time, do-it-yourself ingenuity.

While this is not a "how-to-build" book, Art wrote a final chapter that leads the reader through the practical steps and considerations of building a small log building. Of course, there is also a resource guide in back with plenty of leads for designing, building and decorating the home you plan to build, remodel or buy.

Check it out, and let us know what you think by emailing thiede@sunvalley.net.

Cindy Thiede

I feel I know this book as well as anyone; I designed the book! It is a great book to glean ideas to plan, create and decorate your own log home. The photos are breath-taking. I enjoy the authors' clear but amusing style of writing, and I bet you will, too.

Gregory Woods, in A History of Gay Literature, The Male Tradition, has written a comprehensive examination of gay male literature through the centuries and around the globe. It looks at text and subtext and context to find the gay meaning or the meaning for gays in the annals of historical literature. Along the way the reader will learn new aspects of literature (such as the chapter on African poetry, to name one example from my own ignorance) and new ways to look at familiar books and poems. For all its breadth, it is wonderfully readable and somewhat addictive. It had me searching out various books to read them for myself. The writing is so good that I was equally fascinated reading about the books I had not read or did not even know about as I was reading about the others. This is a very good survey and a fun read.

Poet and author Gregory Lewis has given us one of the more readable compendiums tracing the birth and maturation of gay themes and styles in literature. Many authors have approached this task as a sensational "outing" of famous writers whose true sexual preferences will always be shrouded by the curtain of history. Lewis has chosen to deal with actual portions of writings in a scholastic method that creates a credible case for his choices of inclusion in the lineage of gay writers. Infused with brief descriptions of the social history of the times he is describing (Greek, Roman, Middle Ages, Shakespeare/Marlowe, Melville, Whitman, Wilde, Forster, Genet, Gide, Holleran, Leavitt, Monette, Auden, Rechy, etc), he lays the timely mores for interpreting the written word and in doing so does not preach to his readers. And though this book is heavily footnoted, researched, and extensive in its coverage of known and less known writers, it is eminently readable! Lewis is not afraid to let us know when his "opinion" versus "cold fact" is being stated; he allows us to grow to understand his method of decision making and is generous in his quotations of passages that support his claims. For the reader who wants a gossipy book of "Secrets of the Closeted Writers" this is not the resource. For those who want to examine the works of Thomas Mann, Shakespeare, E.M. Forster, Henry James, Plato, Socrates (the list is endless) in an erudite manner, welcome to the feast. Lewis is a gifted historian, social commentator, and gentle philosopher. And this book is one to read over an unhurried, extended period of time. There are riches here to savour as you read and for later as a reference volume of considerable significance.

This is a very readable book. However I was extremely astonished at the scantiness of space on Japanese same-sex relation. Since after ancient Greek, only Japanese could have enhanced male-homoeroticism to highly ethical valued SHUDO i.e. the way of male love and there is a great number of GAY literature,documents, arts etc. in Japan. I recommend two books for readers THE LOVE OF THE SAMURAI by Watanabe Tsuneo & Iwata Jun'ichi, et MALE COLORS by Gary P. Leupp. And I hope many people study Japanese culture, history and literature more.

I thought that this book was written by one person. This book is a compilation of essays, quotes, and articles by various authorities in religion (Buddhist in particular), psychology, and other how to thrive in the modern world experts. I'm not dismissing the book. I think it's a good collection. I was expecting a sharper focus. This is a good primer for someone just beginning to live as a mindful person today.

Just under 290 pages this is a classic that has just as much meaning in 2001 as it did the first time I read it 20 years ago. A book I cannot help buying, over and over when copies get lent out and the message keeps getting passed on.

15 Chapters. Beginnings; Learning; Intimate Realtionships; Sex; family; Work; Money; Play; Tuning the Body; Healing; Technology; The Earth; Social Action; Inner Guidance; Perils of the Path. Etc.

The subtitle actually explains better than anything what the book is all about. "A Guide to Finding Spiritual Fulfillment in Everyday Life". The Chop Wood Carry Water comes from a thousand year old Chinese Zen Master who spoke of the spiritual aspect of everyday things.

This reminded me (I am not a Christian) of reading where the wife of Billy Graham, Ruth Graham has a small plaque in her kitchen that says "Godly service done here daily" or something to that effect. This is what this book is all about. Along with the sacredness of things like sex, gathering with community to make the earth healthier and fight injustice etc etc.

The Chop Wood Carry Water book has been helpful so often in reminding me that their is joy and honour in doing the laundry, cleaning, paying bills, bathing, cooking, and doing what many people sadly think is boring everyday needs.

In this day and age where people rush here and there and express a sense of loss, because they feel they need to always be doing something noticable, I think this book would be a great healing tool, in teaching people that doing the "chores" of life, can in fact be a relaxing and growth enhancing activity.

This book outlines so many aspects of our daily living and then injects spirituality in a way that synergizes the mundane and the sublime.

Such an incredible source of wisdom for living the practical/everyday in a full-hearted and spiritual manner.

Death of a Transvestite is Ed Wood's sequel to his previous pulp novel, Killer in Drag. As in Killer, the main character is angora-loving, cross-dressing, professional killer Glen Marker who is now sitting on death row. Mere hours before his execution, Glen agrees to provide the sympathetic the Warden with a confession to his crimes in return for one thing. What is Glen's price? He wants to be allowed to meet his fate not as Glen but as Glenda. As Charlie, another sympathetic guard, goes off to ransack his daughter's bedroom for a proper outfit (yes, the entire book is like this and God bless it), Glen gives the details of his sordid final days of freedom in Hollywood. And from there, Wood spins a tale of two cross-dressing killers, a young actress with sadomasochistic tendencies, and hippies (though Wood, unknowingly proving just how endearingly unhip he really was, insists on referring to them as not Beatniks but just simply 'niks). The hippie subplot (essentially having to do with outside agitators slipping LSD to Hollywood teenagers in order to turn them into cop-hating zombies) is perhaps indicative of the style of the book as a whole -- it comes out of nowhere, is obviously the product of an out-of-touch mind desperately trying to make a socially relavent statement, and it somehow works within the demented world that Wood creates in this book. No, this is not an undiscovered masterpiece of a book. In fact, its pretty sordid and at times, one can see signs of the alcoholic dementia that would destroy Wood in his later years. But, if you're an Ed Wood fan, its a must-read. And, unlike Killer in Drag, Death actually does (in its own twisted way) work even if separated from the campy reputation of the man who wrote it.

Death of a Transvestite picks up directly where Killer in Drag ends and features most of the same character but in style, it is a very different book. Written two years after Killer, Death of a Transvestite has a streak of fear and paranoia running through it as well as several caustic and bitter comments on the state of the Hollywood film industry. Whereas Killer featured a bizarre sincerity to its plea for tolerance, Death is almost a work of nihilism. As such, in tone and style, it is far different from the work that proceeded it. In that way, it resembles the first two Frankenstien films directed by another bitter casualty of Hollywood, James Whale. Whereas the first Frankenstien was almost somber, Whale's Bride of Frankenstien, while obviously continuing the story of the first film, was a deliberately insane, middle finger to the Hollywood establishment. The same analogy can be applied to Wood's two Glen Marker books (though he'd, undoubtly, perfer an analogy involving Bela Lugosi's Dracula as opposed to the classic Karloff films). If Killer was one of Wood's last attempts to turn pulp into art, Death of a Transvestite was his final admission that sometimes, pure trash is preferable to both.

L.A. POLICE REPORT #9

Patrolman Kelton: "Why do I always get hooked up with these spook details? Monsters, graves, bodies, drag queens. There's a full fledged riot going on and I have to investigate the DEATH OF A TRANSVESTITE, not to mention a KILLER IN DRAG lying wounded next to him, his blood oozing out like whiskey from a broken bottle."

Lieutenant John Harper: "No doubt about it, that's the ugliest drag queen I've ever seen. He's dead...murdered...and somebody's responsible!"

Patrolman Kelton: "The ambulance is on the way but, with the riot going on, the traffic is jammed up tighter than this drag queen's sweater. Do you think the rioters will let the ambulance through? What do you think will be the next obstacle they'll put in our way?"

Lieutenant John Harper: "Well, as long as they can think we'll have our problems. I don't believe what I'm seeing!"

Inspector Daniel Clay, recently shot dead in the line of duty, is approaching them. He is a huge hulk of a man. Although he was buried in his finest suit, he is wearing red high heels, pink capri pants and a pink angora sweater. Atop his huge, bald head is a disheveled blonde wig. He approaches them in a menacing manner and, acting on instinct, they begin shooting at him. They empty several rounds into him at point blank range, but it has no effect on him.

Patrolman Kelton: "Clay is dead, and we buried him. How are we going to kill somebody that's already dead? Dead! And yet there he stands! I don't believe what I'm seeing!"

Just then a flying saucer buzzes them. It projects a beam of blue light on the scene as an ambulance screeches into view.

Ambulance Driver Criswell: "That flying saucer has been following us since we left the hospital. It guided us right to this spot."

Lieutenant John Harper: "I don't see a flying saucer. I see a weather balloon surrounded by swamp gas, and that's all I see."

Ambulance Driver Criswell: "You see? You see? Your stupid minds...stupid! Stupid!"

What a wonderful trash wallow!!! This represents the best (or worst, I guess) of pulp fiction. It's all here-- the mob, a redhead who gets thrown into the East River in a weighted bag, lots of kinky sex, plenty of murder, and a truckload of hookers with and without hearts of gold. But Ed Wood gives the whole package a new twist with his genuinely fascinating and complex portrayals of transvestites(something not easy to find when this book was written, nor when the movie (Glen or Glenda, and it is essentially the same character) was made.) Ed Wood comes across as a potentially brilliant writer who, unfortunately, never had the chance to develop his craft in a disciplined way. READ THIS BOOK!

Police work involves quite a bit more than fighting crime. There is, and always has been, a political and cultural element to it, as well as the tide of different ethnicities that ebb and flow into and out of a city. This is hardly a recent development; Irish police resented the influx of Italian officers into the New York City and Chicago police ranks during and after the turn of the 20th century; the New Orleans Police Department for years roiled with the uneasy mixing of Italian and French South Louisiana officers, who in turn, had to adjust to the inevitable but overdue influx of black officers into the ranks.

The race of the officers is not the only factor that affects a police department, however. Nor is the size of the city the department patrols. There is a municipality within spitting distance of my residency that has made national headlines by virtue of the fact that it exists solely to support its police department, which writes traffic tickets by the handful, in order to support its police department, which writes traffic tickets by the handful, in order to...well, you get the idea.

Most police procedural novels lead the reader painstakingly through the evidence-gathering process, and while they may touch on the internal and external politics of the department, that touch is light and almost incidental. That is not the case with the Charlotte Justice novels.

Justice is a black homicide detective in the LAPD Robbery-Homicide Division. Her creator, Charlotte Woods, has carved out a series in which Justice and her supporting characters are constantly evolving, making mistakes, paying for them, and moving on. The crimes that are investigated usually take place off the page, though the violence that is transmitted through the crime scene description to the reader is certainly graphic enough. Woods's major accomplishment, however, is to nicely balance her description of the crime-solving procedure against the backdrop of the political and social factors that affect how, and in some cases whether, the crime is investigated and the wrongdoer apprehended.

DIRTY LAUNDRY, the latest of Woods's Charlotte Justice novels, begins with the grisly discovery of a murder in a transient area of Koreatown. The victim is quickly determined to be Vicki Park, an up-and-coming political assistant to mayoral candidate Mike Santos. There is no lack of suspects, from Park's fiancée to members of Santos's campaign staff to, surprisingly enough, members of the Los Angeles Police Department. Park, it seems, was a bit of a maverick, a Korean working on the campaign of a Hispanic mayoral candidate and, as it turns out, did not approve of some of his campaign tactics. Yet, there were other mayoral candidates who also did not approve of his work.

Justice finds that her investigation is hamstrung by opportunists in the police department, political realities (she can investigate candidates, but not too closely) and even, to some extent, her personal life. It is almost a foregone conclusion that solving Park's murder will have some effect on the mayoral campaign. When the identity of the murderer is revealed, it should not be a surprise, but it is a very big one.

DIRTY LAUNDRY even contains echoes of some of Raymond Chandler's best work, in the sense that Woods, like Chandler, utilizes her well-crafted storylines as a vehicle for commenting on the culture of Los Angeles. Reading Woods is like walking down the sidewalk of a neighborhood that you would, at best, only drive through, if you knew that it existed at all. The difference is that, once you take one of Woods's tours, you will keep coming back.

Given the fresh publicity that accompanies the publishing of DIRTY LAUNDRY, Woods can begin getting the attention her work needs and so greatly deserves. DIRTY LAUNDRY is a gritty, haunting work that is intriguing the first time through and that will no doubt stand up to repetitive readings.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

With the city still reeling from the aftershock of the Rodney King riots, the mean streets of Los Angeles have gotten a lot meaner and more treacherous as African-American detective Charlotte Justice of the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide division returns to active duty after serving out a four-month suspension following a previous investigation which had ended tragically. Three weeks away from a potentially explosive...multi-candidate...mayoral primary, LA is a powder keg of racial/political tensions that's ready to blow at the slightest provocation. When Charlotte and her new partners, black lesbian Billie Truesdale and white 'newbie-Tec' Roger Middleton, catch their first case as a team (the cold-blooded killing of a politically-well-connected Korean-American woman whose dead body has been found bound, gagged and dumped in a Koreatown alley), it could well prove to be the high-profile spark that will destroy LAPD's last remaing shreds of credibility and set the city ablaze. Savvy, stunning Vicki Park had been working as a campaign strategist for charismatic, former news-anchor Mike Santos who is running hard and well-ahead of the pack in his campaign to become LA's first Mexican-American mayor. Apparently dissatisfied with the role which she's being asked to play in his race, has Vicki's discontent caused her murder? Charlotte's investigation becomes further complicated by another death...that of a Korean detective who has been serving as her link with the community: was it an accident or was he set up? and she needs every bit of her hard-won street smarts, detective skills and self-control to work her way through a maze of false clues, misleading information and an old-boys' Department network that would like nothing better than to see her lose her badge permanently. Inevitably, as she starts to zero in on the how's and why's of Vicki's murder, the stakes rise, and the final confrontation between Charlotte and a traitorous killer/cop had me glued to the pages until I could safely breathe again.

That's actually the best criteria that I have to praise Paula L. Woods as a fresh, unique and utterly absorbing new voice on the police procedural scene! This lady can WRITE! I came to Charlotte Justice cold, and was excited to the point where I stopped reading after only a couple of chapters (hard to do!) in order to seek out her two previous adventures first. Yes, this novel will absolutely stand-alone, but I quickly realized that if I really wanted to be able to savor its nuances...especially those having to do with the black community: its family values and focus which are so integral to Ms. Woods' plotting...obtaining additional background material from "Inner City Blues" and "Stormy Weather" could and did make an enormous difference in my enjoyment of "Dirty Laundry". I was especially enthralled and impressed by Ms. Woods' 'take' on Chalotte's experiences in dealing with the barbed-wire, racist/sexist climate in LAPD. This novel rang with the fervor of I'll-tell-it-like-it-is-let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may! authenticity, and I can tell you this: whatever she chooses to write in the future, I plan to be right there with her.

Eleven months after the Rodney King Riots, Los Angeles remains fragmented along racial lines and the LAPD is still reeling from the fact that four of their own are going to be on trial. Some members of the community are trying to heal the troubled city by campaigning for the mayoral candidate that they believe will work to unite the racially divided city. Korean-American Vicki Park believes that Latino candidate Mike Santos is the person for the job and works as a campaign strategist on his election team until someone kills her.

African-American LAPD homicide detective Charlotte Justice, a black woman who can pass for white, knows how racially and sexually prejudiced the department is against blacks and women. She is assigned to find out who killed Vicki Park and dumped her burned body in a back alley in Koreantown. Aware of what a political hot potato she is dealing with and just coming off a suspension because she killed a dirty cop, Charlotte must once again deal with dirty police officers and multiple suspects who had ample reason to want the victim dead.

In March 1993, Los Angeles is a city in pain especially the Korean community who lost some loved ones and much of their local shops due to rioters. The police department is still run by the white good old boys, leaving minorities and women losing the fight against an entrenched system that has been in place for decades. DIRTY LAUNDRY is an excellent police procedural that gives a step by step play of a homicide investigation against one heck of a realistic backdrop.

Harriet Klausner

Paulsen writes about seasons in his hometown being determined by types of fish caught down by the dam, under the Ninth street bridge, or in frozen lakes, and not by dates on calendars. When fishing ends, hunting is the obsession for Paulsen and friends he calls "orphans of the woods." He explains, "When we were in the woods or fishing the rivers and lakes our lives didn't hurt."

This book is a nature lover's choice. Paulsen writes of growing up in a small Minnesota town and he intertwines this town's life with stories of adventurous boys. Two of my favorite essays are "Running the River" and "Bow Hunting." The first is a hilarious tale of an overplanned camping trip gone wrong when the boat, full of supplies and boys, sinks, forcing the boys to walk back to town. "Bow Hunting" is a coming of age essay in which a boy, after killing his first doe, poignantly describes his realization that while his life will continue, hers will not.

This book truly brings nature to your fingertips. As a reader, I felt as if I was out in the wild, experiencing everything of which Paulsen wrote. With the descriptive settings and easy-to-relate-to tales, Paulsen makes the reader feel as if they have entered the woods along with the characters in the story. The essays on fishing and hunting in the northern woods are definitely his best work yet! This book is easy to follow, yet has very deep and interesting accounts.
I recommend this illustration to anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. If you want to learn about cold, winter morning fishing excursions, or hot, summer days in the woods, this is the perfect book to help fulfill your curiosity. Father Water Mother Woods is worth your time of reading and is definitely a classic.

This is an excellent book. The book is written in such detail that it is easy to imagine yourself being there. This is a great book for those of any age. It will bring back some good memories of your childhood.