"Summer Love" is a decent compilation of stories by four established authors. All four manage the novella form well, with believable and appealing characters and good writing.

Janelle Taylor is the editor and featured writer in this compilation with her story "Straight from the Heart." As is often the case with these compilations, her story ends up the weakest. Kim is stranded in a mountain cabin with Stephen, to whom she is attracted. Unfortunately, Stephen's law firm represented her lying husband in her divorce and she still holds onto that resentment. Kim is a decent character, although she seems overly bitter towards Stephen. The hero Stephen is OK, but the story doesn't give much of a sense of him, and their "romance" isn't well-developed within the confines of the novella form. Still, it's a sweet little love story.

"Summer Fantasy" by Jill Marie Landis is one of the better stories in this group. The character of Kylee is especially strong, and the romance between the two is well-developed and believable. A good story with an ending I bought into.

Stella Cameron is a talented author, and the plot of "Early in the Morning" is an interesting one, as it involves aliens seeking humans as sex therapists. As always, Cameron handles her erotic scenes very well, and her writing is very distinctive. This story also works well in the novella format. I'm not sure I always bought into this story, but Cameron's work is always interesting if nothing else.

Anne Stuart's "Sultry" is a decent story. The characters were appealing and the romance believable. The story itself is nothing distinctive or special, but it's a decent addition to this compilation.

All in all, this is an enjoyable compilation, with good writing and charming characters. While some stories are weaker than others, Landis's strong contribution and Cameron's distinctive writing style give it an edge over other similar compilations.

This is my favorite story by her. She used Hawaiian words and described the setting so well it brought back great memories of my trips to Kauai. The characters were magic and I love the description of Rick Pau-he's my dream guy!

I have had this cookbook for a few years and increase my use of it each year. The recipies are simple, not in the American "convenient" way, but in their appeal to the simple tases one associates with a true supper. That said, they are usually easy to prepare as well. I appreciate the author's suggestions for the entire meal, as her choices for go along with recipies are superb. Particular favorites are Avacado and Bacon Salad, Cream of Scallop Soup, Orzo with Fresh Dill, and Almond Cookies.

Marion Cunningham's "The Supper Book" is an old friend in our kitchen. My best friend gave me a copy years ago for my birthday, and it is probably one of the most-used cookbooks of the many that crowd my pantry shelf.

The recipes are, as you might imagine, simple, delicious, and easy to prepare. Yet there's none of the frantic "Dinner in Ten Minutes!" or "Gourmet Meals from Just Five Ingredients!" tone that you see in cookbooks that are trying to make a fabulous meal appear on the table in less time than it takes to read this review. Cunningham slyly makes most of the recipes easy and with minimal ingredients, but she lets you discover this happy news on your own. Her emphasis is, instead, on taste and freshness of ingredients.

The Crabcakes are absolutely delicious and the soul of simplicity. The Celery Soup is a revelation, and a dish in which celery gets to stand up and take a bow instead of being an afterthought as it is in so many other recipes. Speed Steaks is an intriguing idea--you slice the steaks very thin, freeze them, and then fry them while still frozen. The result is a beautifully cooked steak with a lovely pink center. And now that Fish Tacos are all the culinary rage, let it be known that Marion Cunningham first featured them in a cookbook way back in 1992!

Cunningham extols the virtues of calmness and solitude at supper. In fact, she writes, "Sometimes eating supper alone feels private, quiet, and blessedly liberating. You may eat anything you want; you needn't be conventional. I liked a baked potato with olive oil and coarse salt and pepper followed by vanilla ice cream, which proves to me that money doesn't buy a good meal. One night not long ago I had freshly baked cookies and milk, and found that uplifting."

Donnie Cameron's handsome, spare line drawings do much to underscore the overall feeling of calmness and simplicity that Cunningham gives the reader. It's a nice match of author and illustrator, as each heightens the impact of the other's work. This really is a valuable kitchen friend, whether you live alone or cook for a crowd each night.

Before the beginning of this century, the only information we had about Ancient Babylon was from the Bible. Consequently, most of the literature that I have read on the subject (written during the height of Iraqi Archeaology in the 1920's and 30's) has been on a religious note rather than a historical one. This book changed all that. It brought a highly academic subject to the layman. It is a simple, informative account of how the real Babylonians lived. It describes the Babylonians as an advanced people who appreciated art and literature, as well as entering into contracts and having mortgages. It is a great introduction to an ancient civilisation.

THEY WROTE ON CLAY : The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today. By Edward Chiera. Edited by George G. Cameron. 235 pp. Chicago and London : The University of Chicago Press, 1964 (1955). (pbk.)

The civilizational achievements of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians only started to become known over the course of the last century or so. For our new understanding of the past we have to thank archaeology, in particular for its discovery of many tens of thousands of baked clay tablets which have miraculously preserved the complex cuneiform writing system, languages, and literatures of the ancient Mesopotamians, and for the patient decipherment of these tablets and other cuneiform-bearing artefacts by a small and dedicated group of international scholars.

The literature on this subject today is vast, and much of it is accessible only to specialists. Of the studies that are generally available - such as those by A. Leo Oppenheim, Samuel Noah Kramer, and Thorkild Jacobsen - most tend to be aimed at a more scholarly type of audience, the kind of people who like detailed footnotes, precise references to sources, bibliographies, etc., and little seems to be available in the way of a more popular treatment for the general reader.

This is where the present book comes in. Edward Chiera, though a competent and respected scholar, was exceptional in having an ardent desire to share his knowledge by making the results of his research readily and entertainingly available to the general reader. Consequently, instead of giving us, for example, a lengthy and detailed analysis of the religious ideas or political history of the Babylonians, he has chosen instead to offer an absorbing excursion into the common life of this ancient civilization.

Chiera's 'They Wrote on Clay' is both well-written and easy to read since the pages are small, the font used is gratifyingly large and readable, and there are numerous black-and-white photographs and line drawings which illustrate various aspects of life in the near East : people, places, animals, domestic scenes, archaeological sites, buildings, artworks and other artefacts etc. These illustrations perfectly supplement Chiera's written account, and although many are contemporary, they do serve to suggest something of what life must have been like in the past.

Chiera has managed to pack an awful lot into this small book. We learn about the discovery of the ancient cities, the amazing libraries of clay tablets that were unearthed, the exciting story of the decipherment of the complex cuneiform writing system, the worlds of business and religion, of kings, priests, scribes and ordinary folk, and of their multifarious doings, and of much else besides.

The author clearly loved his subject, and it's invariably from such writers that we get the best books. So if you're looking for a well-written, well-illustrated, easy-to-read popular treatment of this fascinating world, a world that is vastly more important to you than you may realize since it is there and not in Greece that the real roots of Western civilization lie, you'd be hard put to better 'They Wrote on Clay.'

And if Chiera succeeds in whetting your appetite, as I'm sure he will, you might go on to read one of the best-loved stories to come out of that world, the deeply moving story of the adventures of Gilgamesh, his friendship with the wild man Enkidu, and his search for immortality. I'm pretty sure that, if you don't already know it, you would very much enjoy that too. One good popular edition of this story that can be recommended is:

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH : An English Version with an Introduction by N. K. Sandars. Penguin Classics Revised Edition. 128 pp. London : Penguin, 1972 (1964) and Reissued.

This is not a guide book for treasure hunters. What it is is an entertaining read. It details several stories of buried treasure from Cocos Island to Mahe in the Seychelles. Providing a good deal of background information on the area and characters involved in each story. Tantalizing details are presented, that almost make you believe that the stories might be true.

The reality is pirates didn't bury treasure, they spent it, some few invested it and retired wealthy, but the vast majority squandered their riches on booze and women. Never-the-less, the lure of money for nothing, just waiting to be dug up, will always have some pulling out a shovel and pick to go hunting. And let's face it, we all dream about it. P-)

I was once telling my Dad, a sea captain, how much I wanted to become a treasure hunter. The story of Mel Fisher was so compelling to me, all I needed, I told my dad, was a few million dollars to get started and some good maps.

He laughed and teased me, then, upon a return trip from Florida, he brought me this book, and old "treasure" map and some fake "tourist" treasure all to get me started.

I was completely fascinated by the accounts in this book. It is a couple of hundred pages long and each of the eleven chapters covers a different treasure. The book covers the history behind the treasure as well as accounts of people trying to find the various hoards hidden, it seems, forever. Or perhaps the treasure was never left behind in the first place, but the idea that "some" of it may still be there is enough to make any treasure hunter feel a bit driven to want to go and see for themselves.

This book is history and story, it is not in any way a guide to go looking for treasure nor do the authors give encouragement to the reader that if they are lucky and resourceful they might make history themselves. But for anyone interested in the history of some great pirate stories and modern accounts of treasure hunting, or for dreamers like myself, I recommend this book. It is fun and well written.

...yes this was the bok that inspired the 1948 crime drama"Force of Evil." While it is a decent book, the blacklistedPolansky did an incredible job of converting it to the screen. If you read the book, watch the movie.

Tucker's People was a book written in 1943. I do not remember the author. It is about a crooked lawyer who was manipulated by a man named Tucker. It was made into an interesting movie staring John Garfield. Is this the same book

I leave off a "star" only because viewing Kentridge's drawings can not substitute the experience of viewing his films. Indeed, looking the charcoal drawings I wonder at what stage of the sequence it is in. Is this the last step in the drawing? Looking at a drawing outside of its time base can also be a positive. I love searching the surface for smudge marks and erased hands and arms. His drawings end up being a record of movement (something that most single drawings fail to capture). For anyone who doesn't know, by the way, Kentridge animates his charcoal drawings using filmic stop motion techniques. The results are amazing. Anyone interested in drawing and painting, the birth of early film, and South African Politics: here is your artist.

William Kentridge is a white South African born in 1955. He is best known for animations, based on large charcoal paintings, which have as their subject the complexity of living a meaningful life in the warped society of South Africa.

Kentridge makes the films by working on the charcoal paintings, then clicking the film camera one frame at a time. He then walks back to the painting and works on it, before exposing another twenty-fifth of a second.

Kentridge is articulate and interesting and has established himself as a great artist in the tradition of Hogarth, Daumier and the German expressionists. His exhibition, which closed here in Los Angeles last week, was breathtaking. This book is the catalog of that exhibition.

Cameron obviously intends with this book to offer motivation for writers, would-be writers, and, interestingly, everyone else too, since she firmly believes that EVERYONE is a writer at heart and everyone SHOULD write. I don't think everyone should be a writer any more than everyone should be a dog trainer (it has nothing to do with talent, by the way, and everything to do with doing what you LIKE). Once you get past that premise, is her advice for freeing up your writing useful? What she terms "initiation" tools include freewriting, positive affirmations, writing postcards to five friends in 15 minutes, listing 50 things that make you happy or 100 things you love, and so on. Though, clearly, such tools are most helpful to writers who aren't flooded by ideas from morning 'til night, it's possible that if you're feeling stymied by your current project, one of Cameron's exercises might unrust your creative gears and help you enter flow (though the novelists and poets I interviewed for my own bestselling WRITING IN FLOW almost never use such prompts themselves, they admit they give them to their students -- so if you're new at this, do whatever works). (But don't limit yourself to listing "things I love." How about "things that make me want to strangle someone"?)

I found Julia Cameron's voice to be strong and true. She has an excellent solution for every problem a writer could possibly have. In beautiful prose interspersed with personal snapshots from her life, she insists that writing is natural and easy.

Can't find a publisher? Cameron suggests self-publishing. Lost confidence because of remarks made by your "friends"? Surround youself with friendly readers. Nothing to write about? Go on Artist Dates to fill that empty well. Can't spell? Use spell check.

Cameron reinforces everything that is positive about writing and strips away any excuses you may have for not writing. By the end of the book, you will be sitting at one of the writing stations you've created following Cameron's advice with plenty of Morning Pages and lists of your proudest achievements and completed writing exercises to draw from, and there will be nothing left to do but write. With Julia Cameron in your corner, you cannot fail.

Whether you're a writer or a wannabe, Julia Cameron's wonderful insights will inspire and enlighten you. And help you along the way in your life's journey to create.

Like many of her books, it will give you the encouragement to celebrate who you are, a unique and creative being, and to write for yourself. Don't worry about the commercial business of writing and marketing. Be true to yourself as you create and, Cameron assures us, your auidence will come.

This is a beautifully-written book and it has profound insights about life, writing and our sacred callings. I was very much touched by the author's understanding of why it is we write.

Cameron focuses in on those golden moments of life, many of them the "little" things we might take for granted, then goes deep inside to probe the meaning and purpose.

Writing brings out your soul's connection to the universe, and it enriches you in a way nothing else can. Creativity is the divine spark we get from our heavenly Creator, and the act of writing is shown to be the sacred way we get in touch with our innermost feelings.

Cameron is like a wise and loving angel showing us why we need to disconnect from our hurried, harried modern lifestyles and to go apart and write. Ignore your critics' voices, whether they are in the form of an inner, nagging thought or another person belittling your writing. Keep a morning journal of your own personal story. Not only do we have the right to write, Cameron admonishes, we have the duty. It brings out our humanity; it enriches our everyday lives.

Every page has a pithy quote of wisdom and insight. Cameron is an artist and a genius. Her descriptions are outstanding. She embraces life and the inner spark of creativity that too often is left untended. We all are writers, Cameron says, and we all must write.

Cameron's prose is profoundly poetic. You will read, and re-read, her chapters again and again. And call yourself a writer.

This is the first book I read by this author and I really enjoyed it. The book has tension, mystery and great characters. I especially liked the hero, Jack Charbonnet. You could almost feel the "cajun" flair throughout the book. I look forward to her next release featured on the excerpt from the back of this book.

I own many of Stella Camerson's books, some where great reads and other's a great disappointment. Not so with FRENCH QUARTER. This is a fabulous book telling the love story of Jack Charbonnet and Celena Payne. Their story is filled with murder, suspense, humor, and a passionate love. Both characters grow throughout the book, learning to trust and depend on one another. Jack's daughter Amelia is a wonderful little girl whose rare adult intelligence is amazing. Other characters such as Dwayne, whose humor is absolutely comical, and Celina's brother, Cyrus, a sexy priest, are also intriguing additions to the story. This is a wonderful read. You'll love it. Trust me!

French Quarter drips with the humid and romantic atmosphere that is New Orleans. Stella Cameron serves it this up with the mystery and intrigue that are her hallmark. Celina Payne is a former beauty queen with a painful past and a dark secret. Hiding that secret becomes more difficult when her employer dies in a sudden and compromising manner. Celina believes in the vision of the late Errol Petrie: Dreams, a company that funnels money from the wealthy to make the wishes of sick children come true. Celina will do her best to keep Errol's foundation alive. Should the way in which Errol died become public, the elite upon whose funding Dreams relies might spend their money elsewhere. Jack Charbonnet is Errol's best friend and a major benefactor of Dreams. When Jack's wife died he was left with questions surrounding her death and a young daughter to raise. As a child Jack's parents' were brutallly murdered. Jack has been on the long, patient road to revenge ever since. Jack wants to preserve Errol's good reputation but at the same time will not allow Celina's secrets, and he is sure she has secrets, to get in the way of his life's work. Can two people with troubled pasts fill the voids in each other's hearts and souls? Can two people survive when powerful and ruthless people decide it is time for them to be silenced forever? If you did not pick this up in hardback, don't miss the paperback. Don't plan on sleeping until you finish reading it either.

Upon completing this book, I was amazed that this was published when it was (1898?). I was expecting a sugar-coated portrayal of Martians invading England - "Oh, I say, we're under attack!", or some such nonsense. What I got was a very enjoyable book that didn't pull any punches when depicting the chaos, destruction, and death that results from this invasion. His portrayal of the Martians and their technology beats anything that I've read in contemporary science fiction.

The only problem I had with the book was Wells' narrative. The story provides far too much detail at points, giving exact times and locations for minor events which I'd think someone who survived a disaster would have a hard time recollecting. With the overwhelming number of locations for events presented to the reader, you'll need a map of the London area in order to stay on top of things.

Additionally, Asimov's afterword is very insightful, and the cover by Roger Dean is great.

War of the Worlds has been around since 1898. I first read the book more than 50 years ago. I have read it again many times since and still marvel at the superb descriptive narrative by Mr. Wells of a county in England (Surrey) that was "ground zero" for the Martian Invasion. A most important factor in the story is the Martian's ability to manufacture the raw materials to build their invasion machines here on Earth. They were, in effect, made from Aluminum - a metal that, before the 20th century, was considered more precious than gold because of the enormous cost of extracting it from the ore. This made the novel very prophetic, and even more so the description of the Martian's "Heat Ray" further advanced Mr. Well's technologial prophecy. Nowadays, we use both aluminum and lasers daily. The book's charm, with regard to the "invasion", was described in detail by Herbert Wells of the evacuation of London and surround areas with nothing more technologically advanced than the railway to escape the advance of the invadsion force. I still find it hard to travel to Leatherhead by train without wondering how it would have been a century ago if it had really happened. A full 5 stars to the man who was a true visionary of technology. A MUST to read. Forget the 1950's movie of the same name. No comparison. Will anyone out there make a TRUE period movie of this event?! I hope so.

Okay folks, this is it. The very first alien invasion novel and it's 101 years old this year. That's right, over a century.

Yet this is still a wonderful book to read. Sure, we know there aren't any real Martians. Put that aside. The straight forward Victorian narrative style is odd and strangely formal by today's standards. But that's part of what sets the scene.

Here is a book that has all the basic elements of the genre - and Wells got them right the very first time. Better, in fact than most modern writers. There aren't any heroic moves we can make to save ourselves. There's no hero that defeats the Martians through cleverness and clean living. The Martians are centuries ahead of us technologically and we're going to lose. Period. Is that realistic enough for you?

How about a writer that predicts tactical battlefield lasers, chemical weapons, armored mechanical fighting vehicles, interplanetary spaceflight and computer controlled robots up to ninety years ahead of reality. Pretty impressive stuff that STILL hasn't come to pass in some cases, even though we can understand such things now. Imagine someone who takes a horse-drawn carriage to town conceptualizing battlefield lasers. That's what Wells did when he wrote this novel.

But most of all this book is there for its commentary on humanity - Victorian imperialism and lack of humility, the arrogance of invulnerability just waiting to be burst. Watch a cultured society crumble in the face of harsh reality. Watch us devolve into elemental things once more, as we learn what it means to be dominated as we have dominated other, less advanced cultures. Wells' book was meant as a commentary on English Imperialism and arrogance, but that lesson still has relevance today, whether you apply it to superpower politics or global environmentalism.

Take the time for this book. It's worth it.

I thought this book gave an excellent inside account of what a new associate undertakes in a corporate law firm. I am not a lawyer, although I have taken law courses in business school and I know a few lawyers who would corroborate Mr. Stracher's experiences as valid. This 228-page book is generally a page-turner and can most assuredly be read in a day.

One of the underlying themes in the book cuts across all occupations: the issue of hourly v. contingently compensated employees. The author discussed the difference between a personal injury lawyer who is often compensated by a percent of ultimate recovery model v. a corporate lawyer who bills hourly and has no problem dealing with smaller issues that require many billable hours to investigate. These models are not good or bad per se; they just highlight the kind of disparate incentive structures and purposes in different law firms and occupations and how they give rise to certain actions and agendas. For example, how many billable hours can I amass (most of the lawyers in the book worked 12+ hours everyday, often including the weekend) v. going after the deep-pocketed insurance company.

Another issue I found quite enlightening in the book was the importance, both strategically and politically, of the request for documents and discovery processes. It seems to me, the lesson regarding document production is that you can either bury the other side with any document that is remotely relevant, or nickel-and-dime them with privilege logs and common interest arguments. One could categorize the former as unduly burdensome, and the latter as purposeful frustration and stingy.

At the end of this book, I really felt as if I knew the author is a meaningful way. I wanted to know about his experiences at his next job as an in-house counsel. Since the book is about his life, and he often includes streams of consciousness, the reader comes away with a fairly good grasp of the author's mindset and goals. Overall, the book brings out some important and ubiquitous issues regarding work and the rest of one's life. These issues revolve around the following: work-family balance; work knowledge v. other intellectual pursuits; work lifestyle and its detriment to healthy living; etc. As a whole, I thought the writing was top-notch, the topic fascinating, and the evolution of the author satisfying. If I were thinking of becoming a lawyer, I would read this book.

As an associate who has practiced with large law firms for 5 years, this book accurately captures the experience of being an associate in a large law firm (even outside of NYC). The majority of the book reflected thoughts and emotions identical to my own experiences. This book should be read by associates, in order to feel the unity of common experience; by aspiring lawyers and law students, as a warning of the price paid by big firm life; and by their families, in order to gain a better understanding of the life that their lawyer family member leads.

I first got the book to read as part of a class I was taking. Even from the very beginning it was interesting and very hard to put down. I live in a small town so it was new to me to find out how law firms in big cities operated. This book was very good at describing in great detail the life of an associate at a big firm. Whether it is true or not, Stracher made it seem so realistic that I'm positive it's true. While I loved the book, I think the title should not have had "sex" in it. There was so little sex in the book, it's pitiful to even mention it. However, I did find the mention of the swivel chair amusing. Overall, a very good book worth reading.