I had ready several LaVyrle Spencer books before reading "Family Blessings" but none touched my heart as much as it did. The story of a widowed mother with three children who loses an adult child and then turns to his best friend for comfort, which turns to love, is an unusual love story. The story is real, the grief is real and the love is very real. Lee isn't a typical 22 year-old heroine whose greatest obstacle in life is getting the man she's determined to marry to say those magic words. Lee is a real woman dealing with grief and kids and life. The love scenes between Chris and Lee are all the more erotic due to the characters' normalcy and reality. The poignant use of Vince Gill's song "When I Call Your Name" still never fails to bring tears to my eyes. The pacing in this story is perfect; you follow Lee and Chris along their path and are as surprised as they when their feelings manifest themselves. You adore those who support them and band together with Lee and Chris against those who oppose their love. It's a book that's unusual, uplifting, heart rending and filled with the one thing equal to love - hope.

I picked this book up on a whim, wondering how Ms. Spencer would run with this story. A woman falling in love with a man who is almost young enough to be her son--and who was, in fact, her son's best friend? She made it believable. These were two people whostarted out with a mother-son relationship...which turned into friendship and an equal respect for each other...and then into something more romantic. They're both very likable and admirable people and I cheered for them all the way. I also enjoyed thedepiction of small-town life and Lee's family and Chris's duties as a police officer. I was sorry to hear that she had recently retired, now that I've discovered her work. I hope her other works are half as good.

Family Blessings is a book I have read 4 times. Even though it is not my "favorite" Lavyrle Spencer book, I seem to never grow tired of it. Each time I read it, I am more in love with Christopher. He has such patience with and love for Lee. He allows her the time she needs to realize how much that love means. I would love to have my own real life Christopher. He really is too good to be true. These two people, with grief, age differences, and family opposition, prove that love conquers all.

This is another one of those that I wish I could rate between a 3 and 4 star. I enjoyed the story. I appreciated Stark being a brainy (nerdy)person with a "great bod", wanting more out of life but not knowing how to go about it. He was great- he just needed someone to care and show him how to love and stop being so analytical about everything. The opening sign was great. Stark was left standing at the alter for the 2nd time. Desdemona is the caterier and is having to console him while she tries to get him to pay the bill. Cute scene. Desdemona was a sweetie. I did get awfully tired of her comparing everything to the Wainwright family. That got pretty "corny" after a while. I enjoyed reading it, though I won't want to read it again. But it was fun.

Krentz is excellent at producing wonderful characters.....Sam Stark seems to be a computer genuis, the nephews eat a lot of cereal, relationships begin and end, values are important, and most important is that Desdemona has an entire family named after Shakespeare's characters. I think this book shifted romance into the computer age. A thoroughly modern spin on romance, and one worth reading.

Like so many other readers, I started reading Jayne Ann Krentz under her other name, Amanda Quick. I quickly devoured everything she had written and was extremly sad when I got to the end of her books. I love historicals, but I also wanted more of Krentz/Quick's writting so I ventured once again into the world of contemporary romance. _Trust Me_ was the first book I read by Jayne Ann Krentz; I picked it out from my library on a whim, but I don't think I could have picked a better book to start with.

Sam Stark was just abandoned at the alter... for the second time. Alone in his office, he is trying to fugure out what went wrong when in comes Desdemona Wainwright, the caterer for his canceled wedding reception. She demands to be payed for her work, even though she feels awful about interupting Stark at such a horrible time in his life. Feeling guilty, she invites him to dinner with her and the rest of the Wainwright clan. At first, Stark is reluctant to except, but he is intriuged by Desdemona, so he agrees. The Wainwright family is a huge clan of mostly out of work actors. They don't like Stark at first... "he's not a theater person". But, as he and Desdemona strike a deal, a passionate love envelopes them, and Desdemona defies her family. But, when a murderer and a blackmailer enter the scene, will Dedemona and Stark be able to find true happiness with each other? Can a precious trust be kept alive or will it be lost forever?

_Trust Me_ is a wonderful book by Jayne Ann Krentz. Desdemona was a heroine I really got to care for. She had a strong sense of family, and although it was sometimes a blind sense, Desdemona was loyal and loving. Stark was a very interesting hero. He is basically a nerd with a body that is too die for. I got the feeling he was supposed to be a handsom Bill Gates. One moment you want to jump into the book and give him a hug, and the next you want to throw the book against the wall in hope of bashing some sense into his head. At times he was very loveable and then thoroughly exasperating. The Wainwright family was delightful! They are definitly odd balls, but you love all of them. At times, they are very protective of Desdemona, and at other times they let her run wild. I loved reading about their side plots, and I think Jayne should wright about their plights sometime in the future. I could really conect with the sense of family, and I appreciated it.

Being a Seattle-ite, I loved the setting of this book. It was great to hear of a familiar place and to have an actual picture in my mind of what that place really looks like. My only problem with _Trust Me_ was that the mystery was a little weak. In all of Amanda Quick's books, the mystery keeps you guessing until the end, but with this book, I had it figured out befor Desdemona and Stark did. But, it is a wonderful romance, and I recomend it to Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz fans alike. Belive me (I would usually say "trust me", but that would be a little too corny), you have to read this wonderful book. It is full of snappy dialogue, quirky characters, and other distinct trademarks that make up a Krentz origional.

This book in my opinion is one of the most overrated texts in science. It is voluminous and comprehensive and perhaps serves best as a reference for topics not easily found in other textbooks. However this text fares very poorly from a pedagogical point of view. The first four hundred or so pages introduces tensor analysis to the reader. The material is presently in overly simplistic terms to the point where the reader is treated as though he/she had nothing more than a first year calculus background. Differential forms for instance are likened to "bongs of (a) bell"; tensors are "machines", etc. The reader is better off with Bishop and Goldberg or Frankel. The lack of rigour and informal treatment of the mathematics sets the tone for the loose, heuristic style that is to follow for the rest of the book. Definitions are imprecise and clear proofs lacking. The boxes and excercises punctuating the text distracts from the reading.

In short, if you feel that a mastery of the material must be gained from precise definitions and rigorous presentations rather than intuitive notions and sketchy derivations this book is not for you. Wald's is much better. For those of you less comfortable with differential geometry I recommend Weinberg's which is also very well written and readable. Misner's will benefit two types or readers. First, if you are a highschool student or college freshman with some calculus background you can gain some conceptual understanding of general relativity and how it works. You may enjoy looking at the the many diagrams in this book and reading some of the boxes. Second if you are already well trained in general relativity you can benefit by using this book as a reference, for it has much material. For the rest you can safely leave this book alone.

This book can be divided into three logical parts. The first part includes an overview of 4 dimensional physics (spacetime physics, chapter 1), an introduction to special relativity (physics in flat spacetime, chapters 2 to 7), an introduction to the tensor calculus (the mathematics of curved spacetime, chapters 8 to 15) and describes in detail Einstein's general theory of relativity (Einstein's geometric theory of relativity, chapters 16 to 22).
This first part is the best introduction to the theory of relativity I have ever read. The mathematics is introduced in a very comprehensive manner, there are lots of exercises where the reader can get used to the tensor calculus. The physical explanations are just brilliant and what is more important general relativity is introduced in the manner Einstein itself viewed it: as a geometric representation of gravity! Other books on this subject formulate general relativity only algebraically (like quantum theory) but this hides the importance of the idea that all gravitational effects can be extracted from the geometry of spacetime. The algebraic formulation may be regarded as more modern by some authors, it must be said however that no algebraic formulation managed to give more physical insight. The algebraic treatment tries to unify the view of general relativity and quantum field theory, but the physical discrepancies between the two theories remain unsolved.
The second part starts with the application of general relativity to stars (stars and relativity, chapters 23 to 26), goes on to the universe (the universe, chapters 27-30) and to black holes (gravitational collapse and black holes, chapters 31 to 34), and describes finally gravitational waves (gravitational waves, chapters 35 to 37) and experimental methods (experimental tests of general relativity, chapters 38 to 40).
This second part is a good overview, but many details of the computations of the applications are not shown. For the readers interrested in the details the two volume book by Zel'dovich and Novikov "Stars and Relativity"/"The Structure and Evolution of the Universe" is much better (but also much longer).
The third part finally describes the frontiers of general relativity (frontiers, chapters 41 to 44). Like part two it gives a good overview not showing many computational details.

The world would be less beautiful if this book didn't exist. What a remarkable feat! The sequence that leads from the very basic concept of spacetime to the computation of the components of Riemann tensor by using forms and the Cartan equations is unparalleled. A lot of mathematical formulas follow from simple reasoning and ... drawings! The introduction of Schild's ladder to motivate the axioms for a (torsionless) connection is very clever. The introduction of curvature by means of geodesic deviation is very intuitive. The derivation of the expression for the geodesic deviation (and, consequently, of the expression for the Riemann tensor) is, again, completely intuitive. The chapter on spinors is very beautiful and useful. Still, I would never recommend this book for a beginner. For it is absolutely non-linear. I have been told that this corresponds to the ideas of Wheeler's concerning learning. Sometimes an argument at chapter 4 (say) depends on something that is intr! oduced in chapter 8. Also, the three tracks (first, second and boxes)interfere all the time, requiring much discipline from the reader. If, however, you already learned the basics (for instance, in Landau, Lifshitz), so that you know what you are looking for, "Gravitation" is unbeatable, of a class apart. I've seen mathematicians adopting the language introduced by them to explain tensors: a slot for each argument of the multilinear machine! Last, not the least, the Index and the References are of the highest quality. This shows respect for the readers. Drs. Misner, Thorne and Wheeler are to be congratulated.

TV comedy writer Lily Benjamin is depressed over the death of her long time friend, mentor, and boss Harry Green. The producers of the hit sitcom Angel's Devils hire acid-tongued Charlie Roth to replace the popular Harry. At their first meeting, Lily and Charlie seem to rub each other the wrong way. Besides his not cutting her any slack over being a single mother raising a teenage boy, she finds his jokes about his physical handicap to be in poor taste.

Lily's world collapses even further when her physically active son is injured during a domestic dispute. His injuries leave him paralyzed with the firm belief he has no future. Only Charlie can get inside his head and help him adjust to his condition. As she watches the abrasive Charlie helps her son adjust, Lily sees and falls in love with the inner being. Charlie also falls in love with Lily, but decides she needs a "complete" male for a spouse. Lily wants Charlie and plans to do whatever it takes to get him.

Readers who enjoy a poignant, passionate contemporary tale hold Iris Rainer Dart in high esteem. Her latest novel, WHEN I FALL IN LOVE, is as deep as any novel ever gets because of the characters. Lily and Charlie struggle to adjust to his being wheelchair bound for life. The abrasive Charlie shows them that there is much left in the future for all of three them to look forward to if they go after it. Ms. Dart leaves her audience with a wonderful message that anyone can do just about anything if they only try.

Harriet Klausner

Author Dart has labored in the trenches of writing television comedy herself so what better protagonists to bring to a story than two comedy writers for a television show? The heroine is already engaged to a handsome heart surgeon when she meets Charlie, known as The King Of Jokes, who is her new writing boss. Any novel that features a heroine who picks a comedy writer hero, who also has a disability, after dumping the heart surgeon, is/was a must read for me! The best love story of 1999.

Sometimes, a reader needs to pick a book because the blurp makes it sound enjoyable, and she needs enjoyable. Sometimes a reader chooses it for the romance and laughter, something she is craving that day. And somtimes, when the reader gets into the book, she realizes that yes, it is romantic; yes it is pleasurable; yes it makes her laugh out loud at times; but, unexpectedly, it makes her think, and that is a wonderful gift she hadn't expected. She finds the words to be magic carpets that transcend time and space, and for a full day she is immersed in the lives of Lily, Byran, and Charlie. She learns about handicaps, emotional and physcial; she learns about beating the odds; she learns about love penetrating prejudice. Her heart is full; her eyes are wet; her beliefs are buoyed; she has read a deftly written book in one sitting and she is most grateful to the author. She thanks Iris Rainer Dart profusely in her review and she encourages others.........If you need to feel uplifted by life again, treat yourself to "When I Fall In Love." The carpet ride awaits!!

Teammates is a story of true friendship. The book centers around three greats from the Boston Red Sox, Ted Williams, Dom Dimaggio, John Pesky, and Bobby Doerr. Their final meeting is used as a backdrop for several stories from their playing days.

The story starts in the final months of the life of Ted Williams. Dimaggio and Pesky are inspired to reunite with their friend before his inevitable death. Bobby Doerr is unable to make the trip because of the health of his wife.

The book is formatted in the same way things were probably discussed in the car that day. The stories build up as each one of the four joins the team with the final addition being Pesky. The book continues as it goes through the teams years as a American League powerhouse. Unfortunately, World War II and the Korean War would be the main factor in preventing these baseball icons for playing in more than one World Series. The Red Sox lost that one World Series to the Cardinals. The play that allegedly turned that series is discussed in detail. The misfortune for which Pesky was blamed is a travesty. Even his teammates try to take the blame from Pesky. Being the stand-up guy that he is, Pesky continues to unjustly accept the blame. The book ends with each playing leaving the team until Williams returns from the Korean War to find all of his friends are gone. This drains much of the fun of the game for Williams. As a consequence he also leaves baseball.

Halberstam really does not write a book as buy as he retells stories from a car ride. This book is certain to become a favorite of those who enjoy baseball or the friendships developed in team sports. It should also be required reading for Red Sox fans.

Many years ago, before baseball's free agency transformed rooting for teams into rooting for individuals, fans could count on having a corps of familiar faces around for years. On the athletes' side, although conventional wisdom warned against it, strong friendships developed (the conventional wisdom warned that today's pal could be tomorrow's enemy).

Pulitzer Prize-winner David Halberstam chronicles more than a half-century of such friendships between four star ballplayers in THE TEAMMATES. Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio shared their youth and glory as members of the Boston Red Sox. They "grew up" together, evolving from the relative immaturity inherent in a lifestyle that allows you to play games for a living, to the pangs of old age that sets in when your professional life ends before you're out of your thirties.

They were all products of the West Coast, playing with and against each other in the minor leagues before reuniting on the East Coast with the Red Sox. As members of the World War II generation, they all lost time from their careers in the service of their country. Williams, a decorated fighter pilot in the War, was called upon again to serve in the Korean conflict, a fate that he accepted as a matter of duty, although no one could tell him he had to like it.

In sports, friendships often end when players go their separate ways, through trades to other teams or retirement. Such was not the case with this quartet.

Halberstam, whose previous books on baseball include SUMMER OF '49 (about the Yankees-Red Sox battle for the pennant) and OCTOBER 1964 (regarding the final year of the Yanks' pre-Steinbrenner dynasty), recreates the feeling of the game in a long-forgotten era, when conditions and lack of today's distractions enabled closer ties between players.

Although the career of each man is given adequate homage in this slim volume, THE TEAMMATES, for the most part, revolves around Williams. He was a grand pal, but that didn't keep him from being a pain at times. Halberstam depicts a fishing trip Doerr made with Williams in which nothing went right. Ted had a well-earned reputation as a perfectionist. In addition to his Hall of Fame career, he was an expert fisherman and had little patience for those who didn't live up to his demanding expectations, no matter how good a friend he was dealing with. But rather than being angry, Doerr, perhaps his closest buddy of the group, felt he had let Williams down with his unlucky day in the boat.

THE TEAMMATES is an undeniably sad tale. It opens with Pesky, DiMaggio and a third party getting ready to make a cross-country drive to see a dying Williams. Doerr, whose wife was in poor health, was unable to join his old friends. "It had come down to this one, final visit," writes Halberstam in the book's final chapter. "They had once felt immortal, so immune to the vagaries of age." But fate had not been kind to Williams in recent years. Once the picture of robust middle-age health, he was now confined to a wheelchair, having suffered from stroke and heart disease, his 6'3" frame withered to 130 pounds.

After driving for three days (in the wake of September 11, none of the men felt comfortable enough to fly), Pesky and DiMaggio --- who might have been an even better fielder than his brother Joe --- arrived in Florida and were shocked and saddened by Williams's condition. They spent another three days visiting, reminiscing about the wonderful times they had together and discussing the problems with the current game. After their farewells, DiMaggio called every day to keep Williams abreast of the Red Sox's doings. Sometimes the man who had been known as the Splendid Splinter would fall asleep in the middle of their conversation. One day, he never woke up.

Williams's life was complex. On the one hand, he had the fame and fortune confirmed upon those with superior talent. On the other, and as is so often the case, his personal life was less than ideal, both as the product of an unhappy home life as a youth and through his failed marriages and difficulties with his own children. But through it all, through good times and bad, he could always count on THE TEAMMATES.

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

Although too short (it left me wanting to read much more), The Teammates proved to be an absultely enjoyable book. Centered around the friendship between for members of the 1940s Red Sox (Dom Dimaggio, Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Booby Doerr) as it takes them from their minor league days to Ted's passing, this was an absolute delight.

At 220+ pages, this was written very well, showing a clear love of the game and the era that produced major leaguers with loyalty to their team, town, and each other. It was filled with examples of the men's backgrounds, their ballplaying days and good and bad times off the field. The book itself centers around the long drive down the East Coast for two of the players and a friend to Florida, where Ted is close to the end.

Baseball has an ability at times to rear up and remind us how much of a pleasure it is to be aorund a game that is wholesomely American, and the joy of our youth. David Halberstam's book also does that much better then many other baseball writers I have read, and for that I give this a rare 5 stars.

I've picked up this book after reading all the great reviews. I can't say that I'm very impressed with the book, only the parts where the myths and legends come in. Ms Susan King must have done loads of research there.

"The Stone Maiden" tells the story of Alainna MacLaren (leader of Laren Clan) and Sebastien Le Bret. Clan Laren was a dying clan as the young men of this clan has been killed by a neighbouring enemy clan through battles and there was not a single child in the clan. Alainna pleaded the Scottish King to pledge a warrior to her as her husband. The King sent Sebastien as he was the best candidate the King could offer. Alainna needed her husband to take her family name in order to prevent her clan from dying out. Sebastien had stated very clearly that he would not do that. The whole story revolved around a 700-year-old spell and the Stone Maiden.

What we have here is a good storyline but somehow, the story is dragged down by too many story-telling sessions by the clan members. The book contains many myths and legends of Clan Laren, so the clan members, after almost every meal, would sit down together and have a story-telling session. It is fair enough if there is a couple of these sessions in the book but there are more than that. There were also too many times that Alainna would go and pray and make some offerings to the Stone Maiden. There was a loop-hole I couldn't figure out why it had happened, was that: before Sebastien and Alainna could agree that who should take who's name, they were already handfasted. I thought that both their family names were extremely important to them. If so, they should have agree on that first before commiting themselves to the union.

Very disappointing!

In 1170 in the Highlands, Clan Laren is dying after generations of a feud and raids from Clan MacNechton. There are no young people left except for the clan leader, Alainna MacLaren. The legend of the nearby STONE MAIDEN is that after seven centuries of protecting the Laren clan, their safety will end unless Alainna marries a warrior willing to adopt her name by the spring.

Desperate for help, Alainna petitions King William for a heroic Scottish husband. William sends Breton Sebastien Le Bret, who has a beloved son living in Brittany, a good enough reason in his mind not to adopt Alainna's name. As Alainna and Sebastien fight with each other and war with their common enemy, they fall in love. However, the surname remains an issue as she believes in the legend and he loves his five-year-old son.

THE STONE MAIDEN is an exciting Medieval Highlander tale that centers on duty, honor, and love. The story line is filled with excitement that picturesquely provides the audience insight into clan life, survival and period politics. The lead couple is a warm pair even though Sebastien's patience with Alainna seems stretched. The support cast augments the tale with a feel for the twelfth century. Susan King shows why she is considered by fans and critics to be one of the monarchs of the sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

I loved this book! In fact, I love the way Susan King writes, and I'm definitely going to get her other books! I read The Stone Maiden very quickly, since I was so wrapped up in the story and came to love her characters, and I did not want to leave them when it was over. The twelfth century seemed very real, not vague or shallow, and I read a lot of medieval settings, especially Scottish, which Susan King is known for writing. The Stone Maiden is a beautiful romance, not only because of its great research, but because I honestly felt the emotions of the characters, and could feel the love between Alainna and Sebastian as it grew. This book will melt your heart. Very special!

Reading Tony and Grace's story is a decent way to pass the time, if that is what you are looking for. I felt that The Midnight Hour lacked the usual depth, and sexual energy that Ms. Robards books usually contain. There was nothing wrong with the plot or the character per se, but then I did not find much right with them either. Tony is your typical modern wounded male (who just so happens to be a cop), who can be found in any number of contemporary romances. Under the tough exterior, he is basically a good guy, with a soft heart who got burned previously.

With Grace, I at least felt like there was something different. She is a single parent struggling to do what she feels is best for her floundering daughter. Parenting is not easy and Ms. Robards tries to show the good with the bad and that we are all human and make mistakes. I think that there could have been a little more interaction between Grace and Tony to show their growing relationship. Circumstances make for a short timeline in this story, but two such blatant antagonists who heartily disapprove of each other as much as they did at the beginning, found a way to relate to one another rather quickly (too quickly).

There is an attempt at intricacy in the plot, though I didn't find it to run too deep. It did not take me long to figure out the general theme of the mystery and what was going to happen. I did find the secondary characters interesting and they added some flavor to the overall story. Too me, The Midnight Hour was an OK book, which is why I gave it an average rating of 3 stars

In the middle of the night, Bexley, Ohio Judge Grace Hart realizes that her fifteen-year old daughter, Jessica, is not home. She calls the police, who promptly respond to her cry for help. However, during the interview with the local police, Detective Tony Marino arrives with Jessica, who is suffering from sugar shock. They rush her to the hospital and Jessica recovers.

Strange things begin to happen to Grace. Somehow, a trespasser continually manages to get inside her home. Grace thinks it is the son she once gave up for adoption. Tony keeps an eye out as he feels he must protect "my girls". Tony and Grace soon fall in love. However, before they can pursue any future together, they must stop the intruder, who plans to kill both of the female Harts.

Karen Robards is a popular author whose romantic suspense novels are, rightfully so, very popular among readers. Her latest tale, THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, has a very absorbing storyline. The suspense keeps growing until the very end of the book. The characters feel genuine especially Grace's concern with her teenage daughter's aberrant behavior. Fans of romantic suspense will heartily enjoy Ms. Robards newest book.

Harriet Klausner

I've been a big fan of Ms. Robards for years. This is her best book yet! I loved every character--Tony, Grace & Jessica were all real, and I wished I really knew them! I didn't want this book to end, but I couldn't put it down--I read it in 4 hours! Don't hesitate-buy this book!

I enjoyed the book but found it a little lacking to the others of his I have read. Possibly it is me and I suffer to many thrillers and serial killers, hard to say. Still all in all a very good story well ploted out with Colorado as a good background and two nice people that deserved more than they had received in life. I would recommend the book actually on its fine readability.

Amy Parkens is a single mom struggling to raise her young daughter. One day a mysterious package containing $200,000.00 appears on her doorstep.

Ryan Duffy is a divorced doctor, his dying father has revealed to him there is 2 million dollars hidden in their attic.

Amy begins searching to find out who sent the money and why.

Ryan begins to search his father's past to find out who his father was blackmailing and why.

The search brings Amy and Ryan together...What is the connection between the two, and is there a connection to Amy's mother's suicide many years earlier?

You will turn the pages FAST to uncover the answers to these questions

James Grippando is an author whose talent for coming up with clever, page-turning plots is endless.

"Found Money" moves at the speed of a runaway train, and the climax is a shocker.

This book is a MUST read!

I am a major fan of Grippando. I read his The Informant and good hooked royally.
Well this book is a fast paced,cracker of a thriller.
You will never know what will happen next.
Grippando has the readers hooked till the end.
Suspense builds up and you will be surprised at the twist at the end of the book.
A real page turner i have recommended this book to all my friends.
Please dont miss this thriller which has everything packed in it.

'Strip Tease' by Carl Hiaasen might be better known through the rather horrendous Demi Moore film 'Striptease', which is a shame. It was because of its relationship to the film that I avoided reading anything from Hiaasen. But the reviews in amazon.com were so overwhelmingly positive I decided to take the gamble. And boy, am I glad I did. 'Strip Tease' is a delight.

'Strip Tease' is a somewhat farcical story of a stripper with a heart, doing her dirty business only to put bread on the table and pay back debts related to a (losing) custody battle with her hoodlum ex-husband over their daughter. Our stripper heroine has the most wacky friends and associates, and is caught up into a political murder/sex scandal involving a rather perverted congressman. Surprising, the story holds together well despite sounding much like a cheap made-for-TV film script. However it is Hiaasen's well-timed one-liners and satiric/sarcastic wit which really makes 'Strip Tease' shine; this book is seriously funny.

Bottom line: South Florida at its worst, and its funniest. Hiaasen puts together a comedic mystery with a nasty bite. Recommended.

of "stripping" and "teasing" if by stripping you mean sex and violence and "teasing" you mean satire and Mr. Hiaasen's legendary caustic political wit. (If Congress ever takes meaningful action to reduce or eliminate the federal "giveaway" sugar price-support subsidies to the big growers, the best-informed average citizens outside of the Sunshine State will undoubtedly be Hiaasen fans who read this book.) But Mr. H. says that the Latino-American sugar barons portrayed in this book are just a figment of his warped imagination. Well, his imagination may be warped, but it tickles me.

This just may be Hiaasen's very best novel. The pacing is nice and zippy. Its story line has all the elements in the right degree: I mentioned the humor and the savagery, and the characters are priceless, including a bouncer who "has a high threshold" and inhales cigar smoke when he lights up, thinking that everyone else does. To an unusual degree with this frequently cynical author, the guilty suffer and the good are rewarded, though sometimes in unorthodox ways. I do agree with earlier critics who found the lady stripper a bit too good to be true. If you can spell, turn on a computer and look good in pumps, a legal secretary earns just as much money, has the drop on the best day-care centers and is about eleventy-seven times more likely to get home in one piece. I just have to forgive Hiaasen his title character's chosen profession; as the folks in the English departments do, write it off as a "convention of the genre," which is academese for "make believe it's so or else there ain't no story."

This is an excellent starter book for neophyte Hiaasen fans (notice I assume that anyone who picks up his books will become a fan); though if you prefer to work up the pace slowly you might consider the earlier, more leisurely "Double Whammy."

I've read all of Carl Hiaasen's books, and although my favorites are "Native Tongue" and "Skin Tight", I choose to review "Strip Tease" because the film did not represent it very well. In all fairness to Demi and company, I don't think Hollywood could ever do Hiaasen's dark humor justice. By now everyone knows the plot line of "Strip Tease": Erin the reluctant stripper becomes involved with smarmy politicians, environmental despoilers, and slimeball ex and inlaws in her struggle for custody of her daughter. Sexploitation, murder, and blackmail ensue, but with the help of a good-hearted Cuban cop and a deranged but devoted doorman, our protagonist prevails. As in all Hiaasen's tales, the climax is upbeat for the heroes while the villains reap their twisted, greatly-deserved kharma. For those not already familiar with Hiaasen, reading this book is a good way to begin the experience. The characters are a little less wacky, the plot a little less zany than his other novels'. But the writing style is every bit as riotous. Warning: Hiaasen is addictive! Like tattoos and chocolate-cordial cherries, you can't stop with just one. And after the insanity of the recent Elian' Gonzales tug-of-war and the rigged election, the reader will realize where Hiaasen dredges up the loony characters who populate his Florida settings. But his genuine love for his home state -- along with his genuine frustration over the rape of its ecosystem -- is evident in all his writings. Those who appreciate Hiaasen's crusade against Florida's political corruption and development & tourism industries will enjoy reading his fine little non-fiction rant, "Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World".

Simply put, "Birthday Letters" is not Ted Hughes's best work. It contains some moving poetry, particularly "Life after Death," but overall it is lax and digressive both in form and in content. Many of the poems assume the titles of Plath's own work, but instead of illuminating her, they merely reiterate familiar images. "Birthday Letters" also exposes a contradiction inherent in Hughes himself: while in many of the poems he seems to abrognate responsibility for his wife's suicide by subscribing to the belief that, in a sense, Sylvia was doomed from the start. In his translation of Alcestis, one senses that the character of Admetos is one with whom Hughes identifies: Look what you did: you let her die instead. You live now Only because you let Death take her. You killed her. Point-blank She met the death that you dodged...

"Birthday Letters" should not be read biographically, for it is art, not a memoir of Plath or their marriage. To obtain a deeper understanding of Hughes and his marriage, one should read the visionary poetry of Alcestis and Hughes's masterpiece, Crow.

Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate to Queen Elizabeth II, is the author of more than forty books of poems, prose, and translation. He has received the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and now the W. H. Smith Award for his Tales of Ovid. However, what first brought him into the limelight was the death of his poet wife, Sylvia Plath - an incident that sent shock waves through literary circles in1963 and had all the radical feminists up in arms against the man who had allegedly driven his wife to a self-inflicted death. Ever since, Hughes has been at the centre of controversies.

Condemned to live on as a survivor, for many years Hughes wrote nothing but children's verse. At the same time he concentrated on bringing out Sylvia Plath's poems, letters (edited by her mother, Aurelia Plath) and journals. And then, when he did turn back to poetry, not surprisingly, he focused on the negative side of life, the darker forces in the universe which are forever threatening man. He did not write of personal experiences. He did not write of his wife's suicide, or of emotional and other disasters he surely must have suffered. And yet the sense of doom crept into his poetry through symbols from the animal world: the jaguar, the the hawk, and the crow - masks from the world of nature that the poet donned to hide the pain he lived through. Meanwhile the Plath myth has grown. It has all the makings of a cult: the love and the hate, the betrayal and the anger, with the sensationalism climaxing in self-destructive violence.

The present volume of poems, Birthday Letters, is very different from the earlier collections. Whereas earlier Hughes liked to assume the role of a sort of wild man of the woods surrounded by his animals and birds, here we have Ted Hughes the man, the husband and the lover, without his mask. These are poems, personal and intimate, addressed to Sylvia Plath, written over a period of thirty-five years following her death.

In order to appreciate the poems of Birthday Letters fully the reader needs to be familiar with the life and work of Sylvia Plath. There are at least three crucial biographical facts that cast their shadow on her work: one, the premature death of her father when she was barely eight; two, the separation from her husband, Ted Hughes, in whom she saw a father surrogate; and, three, her suicide attempts, the first unsuccessful one at the age of twenty-one, and the final successful attempt in her thirtieth year. On these major events of Plath's life is based her major poetry, its cries of helpless rage alternating with gloomy despair, its narcissistic concern with the individual self colouring all themes and subjects she chooses to write of. And these are the events referred to repeatedly in the new poems of Ted Hughes.

Birthday Poems may thus be considered a companion piece to Sylvia Plath's poetry, offering another understanding of it by filling in the background to poems, to the early days of their courtship and the growing intensity of their relationship. A sense of fatality seems to be an integral part of the relationship, right from the beginning:

"Nor did I know I was being auditioned
For the male lead in your drama,
Miming through the first easy movements
As if with eyes closed, feeling for the role.
As if a puppet were being tried on its strings,
Or a dead frog's legs touched by electrodes."

A suicide, they say, kills two people - the one who dies and the one who doesn't. As the survivor who didn't, Ted Hughes has silently borne his private hell over the last thirty-five years. This is what the poems testify. But if writing them must have been a painful process, breaking his silence and compiling them for public consumption could not possibly have been easy. And so he speaks of the
"Old despair and new agony / Melting into one familiar hell."

Images and themes from Plath's work find their way repeatedly into Hughes' poems. "Sam" refers to the time when Plath's horse (Ariel) ran wild. She had hung on to his neck and returned to the stables in a state of shock. The image of the Hanging God from Plath figures several times and is linked to the Daddy figure that, according to Hughes and other Plath critics, was the harbinger of doom in her life. The arrow symbol of "Ariel," the fixed stars governing one's life, the Bronte countryside, the man in black, the stalking panther, azalea flowers, the works of Giorgio de Chiricio - these are images from Sylvia Plath's work that Hughes draws upon and they all testify that for him she is still a presence that he must live with whether he likes it or not.

Perhaps Hughes is trying to exonerate himself. It is not surprising that he talks about Sylvia Plath's life as a struggle to keep in control. Driven by the demons to succeed, she had to pay a heavy price for fame and recognition. In "Ouija," Hughes describes an early premonition of doom:
"Maybe you'd picked up a whisper that I could not
Before our glass could stir, some still small voice:
'Fame will come. Fame especially for you.
Fame cannot be avoided. And when it comes
You will have paid for it with your happiness,
Your husband and your life.'"
Hughes poems are like snapshots frozen in time, best understood by a reader who approaches them without prejudice against the author. They give us the survivor's story of what it was like to be bonded to a brilliant, fiery individual who was to be transformed into a myth, into something of an immortal cult figure, who was destined to live a brief but meteoric life. And who flamboyantly proclaimed that dying was an art: like everything else she did it exceptionally well.

Since Sylvia Plath's suicide in 1963, Ted Hughes had been unfairly demonized by Plath's largely feminist following as an unfaithful domineering bully who allegedly drove his wife over the edge. To his credit, Hughes had always kept a dignified distance from his detractors. He finally broke his silence shortly before his own death in 1998 with this beautiful collection of poems which appear in chronological order as letters of reminiscence about their life together, written in reply to Sylvia Plath's published diary account of their marriage. You only have to read Birthday Letters in conjunction with the Journals of Sylvia Plath to realise how deeply Ted Hughes loved and missed his first wife. Touching and heartbreakingly sad, and very moving.