I am really new to the book reading scene but I can say that, for what it is worth, Syne Mitchell managed to reel me in from the opening page and keep me coming back for more till the end. I just finished reading "Light of Other Days", "Armor", and "Expendables". So with my limited book vocabulary, if you will, this is by far my favorite.

I just hope that I haven't been spoiled to the point where it ruins other books I endeavor to read. Just enough details for my mind to paint it's own scenes with the complimentary amount of directing to keep me on track with the author's story.

I really liked this book. I recommend this book highly to anybody reading this right now.

It's always wonderful to find a new author who can tell a great story or create an interesting future or place real seeming characters in exciting situations...Syne Mitchell can do all three. And she can do it while making you think.

I got this book as a reviewer's copy (hot on the heels of a book by her husband, I might add). I'd eyed Technogenesis in the book store, but with so much I HAVE to read, I thought I'd never have time. Imagine my delight when one of my journals sent this to me for a review! Imagine further when I started reading and just couldn't stop. This is an excellent science fiction thriller in a wholely believable future.

I can't wait to get Mitchell's first book. Since Sheri Tepper (personal favorite) only writes one a year, I am so dang happy to find someone who hooks me like she does.

And eventhough I'm not her husband (Eric Nylund--see above HA! There's the guy to go to for an objective opinion) I too think this is a ripping good read! {His books are great too if you haven't checked them out...um, I like this more...Yipe, sorry again Eric!}

Happy Reading!

I've always been a big fan of the cyberpunk subgenre, and, in my opinion, Technogenesis falls squarely into that camp.

The opening is classic. The very "connected" Jasmine Reese is forced off the net due to hardware malfunction. She discovers very quickly that the Beast is watching her. An entire conspiracy starts unfolding, and soon Jaz finds herself in the thick of it, forced to decide--in a typically cyberpunk fashion--between the government and personal freedom.

What I like about Technogenesis particularly is that the decision Jaz faces is not as easy as it seems. The government (the usual big baddie) comes on very gestapo-esque, but their motivations are revealed to be almost benign--perhaps (gasp!) even decent. Meanwhile, the radical scientists who oppose the government are morally squishy as well, and, like Jaz, I found myself unsure whom to root for on occasion. Plus, there's a very satisfying romantic element, and, although Jaz doesn't make the choice I would have, her motivations are true to character.

I'm also a fairly slow reader (thanks to mild dyslexia), and I ripped through this book. It's thoroughly engaging. All and all an enjoyable read. Highly recommended.

This book was invaluable to my husband and I when we planned our wedding in the year 2000, though you will need other sources as well. I was finishing up college and he had begun his graduate program, so we were already extremely busy. With the help of this book we were able to write our entire wedding ceremony ourselves. I didn't have much experience with weddings, and I didn't know anything about the usual structure or components of a wedding ceremony. In the back of this book are many wedding ceremony examples for different religions or for a non-religious ceremony.

I highly recommend taking the time to write your own ceremony. It is such a wonderful time before marriage that you can spend together exploring deeply what marriage means to you and what kind of ceremony you want to celebrate your union with. It helps to have lots of poetry anthologies and books of poetry by your favorite poets. This book is great because it has so many poems about love and marriage. We used many poems from this book in our ceremony. We also used a lot of Rumi poems. We even combined a few Rumi poems to create a beautiful reading that felt personal to us. We began the ceremony singing a Sanskrit prayer that meant "May all beings be peaceful and happy". It was blissful. It was nice to have a ceremony that was personally very spiritual and combined many different religions. We also had two friends compose music to two of "The Dances of Universal Peace" using Indian instruments. During the ceremony we also planted a rose tree.

We always say our vows to each other because they are so beautiful, and on our anniversaries we read through our entire ceremony, and sing the songs.

"The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
How blind I was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along."
-Rumi
(translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne)

Have Fun,
Nissa Vaidehi Howard

This is a fantastic collection of both sacred and secular poems: old (Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert), new (Frost, Larkin, Plath and Stevens) and contemporary (Olds, Milosz, Atwood, Bly). I bought it looking for an intelligently selected group of works, and I certainly found that. What I didn't expect to get in the bargain was an interesting introductory essay on the form and function of marriage in history, and a broad selection of ceremonies, tucked away at the back. In addition to Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and even Zen ceremonies, there was the aptly if somewhat puzzlingly titled, "Non-Theistic Judeo/Christian" ceremony. My fiancee and I had been wondering how to have a ceremony that was formal and traditional, without being either clinical (a civil ceremony) or inappropriate for two agnostics (a religious one). The "Non-theistic" ceremony is adapted from The Book of Common Prayer, but does not refer directly to God or the Church: it's just perfect for us. In summary, a thoughtfully-selected group of poems and ceremonies we'll be glad to have on our shelf, even after all the cake is eaten.

Lots of wonderful readings for anyone planning a wedding, particularly nonsecular readings. During my own wedding planning, I have not found another source for readings so comprehensive with so many beautiful pieces. Shakespeare, the Bible, and modern poets of many different nationalities are all represented, among many others. If you're looking for passages about love, commitment, and/or marriage, this book has something for everyone's taste. It also contains sample ceremonies for different styles of weddings, some of which are more creative than you will find in any "wedding planning" book. If you are planning a wedding ceremony that is very personalized to you both, or you aren't interested in having a "traditional" ceremony and want to write your own, check out this book for inspiration. You will fall in love with some of the passages.

Diapering Changes has much information on what's available to parents today. In the past there were only a few options for parents, mostly pin-on diapers that required a lot of folding. Diapering Changes helps the new parent choose what type of diaper is best for them, and offers an extensive listing of companies that sell cloth diaper supplies, very important since high-quality diapers are usually not available in stores. One note is that the author's descriptions of home washing are much more difficult to follow than the method most mothers use. Additionally, the author recommends cleaning methods for the non-circumcised boy which conflict with the official position paper of the American Academy of Pediatricians.

When baby number 4 came along, we decided to go with cloth diapers. Reading Diaper Changes has actually solidified our commitment. The information on the benefits of cloth are great, and the resource listings are really wonderful. I am currently using the suggestion to recycle old wool sweaters into old fashioned soakers, and loving it!! This book is a must for every parent, no matter how many kids they have had!! I wish I had had it before my first was born almost 9 years ago!!

This is a great book! For anyone wondering how cloth diapering works, this book explains how easy it is. From diaper services to homewashing, Farrisi tells all. I've used a number of her ideas, and ordered from the sources she recommends. (You haven't diapered until you've used organic blue diapers!:)) Lots of great suggestions, experiences, and resources.

An astrologer friend of mine recommended this book to me. I have suffered from depression for years and I was glad to see a psychiatrist who has the guts to write about astrology and mental illness for the general public. I have read some of these reviews before I bought the book and they only made me want to read it for myself. This book is a brilliant new approach to mental health and astrology. It is different in that he doesn't use the traditional astrology stuff we all know and love, but aren't we allowed to grow and learn! I called Dr. Gibson and talked to him on the phone. He is approachable, friendly, and smart, real smart. He made me feel better about my illness and he gave me some real insight on depression from a spiritual point of view. You really got to read this book with an open mind, and if you do you will grow a lot in your understanding of how the planets affect our brains...

Thanks Dr. Gibson!!

After reading Dr. Gibson's book, I began to realize that something new and wonderful had been added to the lexicon of astrology and medicine. Seeing that these two sciences are over 2000 years old individually, I was impressed that Gibson was able to accomplish this feat within a short space of just over 200 pages. The basic premise that mankind and indeed all of reality is affected by a hidden order of forces which is only reflected in the movement of the stars and planets is groundbreaking. In testing this theory, Gibson applies a synthesis of astrology and behavioral science into an astonishly clear and eye-opening new technique which utilizes declinations and longitudinal aspects. He calls this technique "Modern Astrology". This work is sure to create quite a stir within both the astrological and medical fields and quite possibly, terms such grand elevation, binary eclipse, Hidek, and planetary index are likely to become very familiar phrases. The book was informative and very thought provoking. The fact that a psychiatrist came up with a way to plumb the depths of a portion of the birth chart which most astrologers eagerly avoid is a little surprising and perhaps somewhat disconcerting. In a word, the book is brilliant. We may never look at major depression, schizophrenia, addictions, anxiety disorders, or attention deficit disorders in the same way again.

This is a wonderful book, based on the principles of the Magi Society (look for their books !). This sounds like (near-)scientific astrology. Far more medical doctors should learn astrology and write their findings down. If they would bring all this knowledge together, well it would be astonishing to see astrology grow in a scientific way. Mitchell Gibson has studied more than 400 charts and has found statistic significant signatures for some sorts of mental illnesses. This is a brilliant work that any serious astrologer should read. I hope that some computerprograms will incorporate his findings in their astrological software to make this knowledge available so that one can do the tedious calculations in a minute.

If it be a no-brainer adventure or a plot full of relentless debauchery you're looking for, I suggest you avoid this book entirely. However, if you seek a deeply touching novel of intelligence and substance, indeed I urge you to read "Who Has Seen The Wind". It portrays the story of a prairie boy's initiation into the mysteries of life, as he discovers death, God, and the spirit that moves through everything: the wind. The plot details the little things in life that most of the masses overlook, and accurately relates the expressions and deep feelings of a young person growing up during the Great Depression. At the time I read it in school I could relate very easily to the primary character, Brian O'Connal. The novel's greatest strengths lie in its sensitive evocations of Brian's feelings, sometimes associated with his various experiences of death, sometimes with a child's fundamental, inarticulate but insistent curiosity to discover the world within and beyond himself. I was lost in the character's maturation and progression as a person. It is truly a book I will never forget. "Who Has Seen The Wind" definitely has contributed to the way I looked at life in general, as a young person at the time.

The person who rated this book as boring must not have read the same book I did. This is an elegaic portrait of life on the Canadian Prairies in the early 20th century. It captures something significant about the Prairie psyche and the Canadian psyche as a whole. It is, in the final analysis, a sweet, beautifully written story by a master story teller. It is not full of car chases or other amusements for tiny minds, but is a treat for anyone who appreciates a great tale well told.

For all you people who said this was a boring book, obviously you lack the intellect to read a little deeper into the story. On the surface, this book seems to be a fairly simple tale of a boy growing up on the prairie. However, if you read with a little more thought, you will discover many insights about life that we can all relate to, whether or not you've ever seen a prairie. In any case, I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy an intellectual read.

In hindsight, I am a bit shy to admit that I first learned of Joseph Mitchell through the made-for-TV version of this story. Trusting that the story would be better in print than on screen, like so many books, I was pleased to find that Mitchell's account of Joe Gould made for an excellent read. Mitchell is a superb writer in my view. I have read few authors who are able to write nonfiction in such an eloquent and moving fashion. Beyond his technical skills, Mitchell also tells the story of Joe Gould. Gould is an eccentric Bohemian living in the Village during the 20s, 30s, and 40s. Mitchell one day decides to explore Gould's life and profile him in The New Yorker. Gould's profile appears in two forms. The first is "Professor Sea Gull" which appeared in 1942, and the second is "Joe Gould's Secret" which was published in 1964. As we read through the two accounts, we see and feel Mitchell's attraction to the eccentric Gould, his frustrations, his discovery of--and about--Gould's "Oral History," and his patience and compassion as Gould's fellow man. In the end, I think we are left with a book that is much a profile of Gould as it is of Mitchell. I certainly would have enjoyed having a martini and watching these two interact one evening. Since that is not possible, I am pleased that we have Mitchell's account which is good enough to make me think about and want such opportunties. I hope you enjoy this book as much as I have.

Reading anything by Joseph Mitchell is a goldmine of pleasure and "Joe Gould's Secret" is no different: a fascinating profile of a well-known Greenwich Village eccentric. Joe Gould was, for upwards of thirty-five years, a homeless dropout living from day to day on his wits and handouts from any sympathetic ear, whether friends or strangers. The two parts of the book, headed Professor Seagull, and Joe Gould's Secret, first appeared in the New Yorker in 1942 and 1964.The son of a medical practitioner, Harvard-educated Gould arrived in New York in 1916 and soon dismissed all thought of holding down a steady job when he had a flash of inspiration to write what he called "An Oral History of Our Times". He decided any form of regular employment would be detrimental to his thinking. Over many years, Gould would add daily to this work "in progress" ("about a dozen times as long as the bible") even when badly hung over; loading his fountain pen in the Village post office, scribbling in grubby, dog-eared school exercise books in parks, doorways, cafeterias, Bowery flophouses, subway trains and in public libraries, some of these hangouts also serving as places to doss - alternatives to the floor of an artist friend's studio or a subway station. 270 filled notebooks had been stored in numerous drops for safekeeping until the work was completed. When a publisher friend of Mitchell asked to see the material, with a view to publishing a book of selections, an indignant Gould declared that the material would either be published in its entirety or "not at all".

Mitchell, intrigued by the "Oral History" idea, wrote a compassionate profile of Gould showing much patience and sensitivity in his dealings with his subject with whom he spent an inordinate amount of time. Scruffy in appearance, wearing cast-offs, often unwashed for days at a time, all the time dogged by "homelessness, hunger and hangovers", ("I'm the foremost authority in the U.S.A. on the subject of doing without") Gould's norm was to hang around bars and diners in the Village cadging food, money and drinks from friends, visiting tourists and other regular contributors to the "Joe Gould Fund". He survived on a diet of fresh-air, dog-ends, strong black coffee, fried egg sandwiches and bottles of diner-bar ketchup supped off a plate. ("the only grub I know that's free of charge") Once asked what made him as he is today, Gould answered it was all down to a strong distaste for material possessions, Harvard, and years on end of bad living on cheap booze and grub "beating the living hell out of my insides".

Things took a turn for the better for Gould when a secret benefactor, informed of Gould's plight and worsening health, paid for his room and board at a cheap hotel for upwards of three years. When the subsidy was suddenly cut-off without explanation, however, Gould reverted to the flophouses in the Bowery that were handy for the Village. Thereafter, Gould spiralled rapidly downwards. He died in 1957 whereupon Mitchell, who knew as much as anyone about the "Oral History", was persuaded to join a Committee set up to organise the collection of the mass of scattered material that made up "An Oral History of Our Times".

If you enjoy "Joe Gould's Secret", read also "McSorley's Wonderful Saloon", a marvellous collection of profiles of old-time New York characters in a New York that is no longer.

Joseph Mitchell was a legendary, and legendarily eccentric, writer for The New Yorker. Disparate things fascinated him: the Fulton Fish Market, gypsies, bums in the Bowery, New York's architecture, the men who worked the Hudson River. Mitchell would immerse himself in the lives of the people who held his attention, and during the 1940s and 1950s he turned out a series of New Yorker stories that are unique in American literary nonfiction.

"Joe Gould's Secret," the book, is an anthology of two New Yorker pieces. The first, "Professor Seagull," ran in the magazine in 1942. The second, "Joe Gould's Secret" (the article) ran in two parts in 1964. The first was an affectionate profile of a Harvard-educated down-and-outer named, of course, Joe Gould, who was a well-known and much-tolerated bum in Greenwich Village. The second piece expanded on the first, again portraying Mr. Gould, but also detailing the strange story of Mr. Gould's "Oral History of Our Times."

Joe Mitchell turns his acute eye for detail (and his remarkable patience) on Joe Gould, and writes with grace and humor. Mr. Mitchell had an acute ear, as well, and let's Mr. Gould speak for himself for page after page. The pieces in this book are exquisitely crafted, and all the more poignant for Joe Mitchell's secret: Not long after publishing the last word on Joe Gould, Mr. Mitchell ceased publishing. He came to The New Yorker every day, and claimed to be working on a long piece year after year, but never ushered a word of it into print. To my knowledge, no one knows (or at least no one has said) what the piece was to be, and why Mr. Mitchell could not seem to finish it.

An extraordinary book by an extraordinary writer.

After reading this simple book, I was inspired enough to sort through and organize 2 years' worth of stacked papers. Easy-to-read instructions and easy-to-implement ideas make this book a must-have for everyone who is organizationally challenged!

For folks who are already overwhelmed with the chaos and disorganization in their lives, this little book is a lifesaver. You can tell that the author meant the book to be easy to use. The key to getting organized is doing what's easy and what works. This books offers the basic tools needed to start making sense out of clutter. Once the basics are mastered, its easier to design a more customized solution.

Thanks to Melinda Mitchell.

Rise up all pack-rats! Band together all those who have junk drawers that are fast overtaking your kitchen! Melinda Mitchell has written a book that enables us to endulge our habits while putting order to them. Let Me Look in Your Drawers gives the pack-rats of the world guidance by providing a step-by-step plan to take all of our "precious papers" and organize them in a fashion that is simple and in a way that all of us can live with. In her recommendation for "Coming Up For Air" Melinda points out that there is no "right" or "wrong" way for us to organize ourselves, the point is to just get organized in the way that works best for you. I like that. Too many times I try to duplicate exactly what works for someone else when in fact if I would just take the suggestions of someone else and apply them to my own space, I come up with the solution. Melinda presents many suggestions in this book that you can apply to your own situation which will lead to solutions. The world is pretty chaotic right now and to be able to restore order to some small part of it, makes me feel a bit more in control.

Zane Grey was a fixture in American letters when it came to the Western. In fact, one might suggest that he invented the modern form of it (though, of course, there were writers of dime novel westerns before him, not to mention James Fenimore Cooper and his leatherstocking tales). But Grey certainly did someting memorable and lasting with the form, if this book is any measure. I had never read Grey before, so I picked this one up with some uncertainty. Thought I could not count myself well-read until I'd tried one of his books and this seemed to be the one with the most literary weight. It's certainly named well enough. As it happens, I enjoyed the book in the end, but have to admit that it is weak in a number of serious ways. Set in Mormon Utah in the late 1800's, it's the tale of a young Mormon woman who is the sole heir of her father and owner of the substantial ranch he has left her. Because of the significance of her ranch and because she is a rather headstrong young woman, the Mormon elders feel it essential to rein her in and get her married into the fold as quickly as they can. One particular Mormon Elder, a man named Tull, has his eye on her especially, with the support of his mysterious Bishop. But Jane, pious as she is, demurs, recognizing that becoming one more of Tull's wives (in those days the Mormons were still taking several wives) will only strip her of her freedom and clout in the little community (which she has inherited along with her father's extensive ranch). The story opens with Tull and his other pious brethren about to administer a sound thrashing to a young cow hand who has been working for the heroine, Jane Withersteen, and who Jane has been flirting with. Jane is powerless to prevent the beating and worse until the appearance, out of the hazy, distant horizon, of a man called Lassiter. Lassiter proves to be a hard sort and a known gunman with a special dislike for Mormons. His arrival proves salutary and the end of it is he stays on with Jane at the ranch while the cow hand heads out and the Mormons scatter, tails between their legs. Jane sets out to convince Lassiter that not all Mormons are bad while the Mormon elders conspire to bring Jane down by scaring off all her Mormon and non-Mormon ranch hands. Meanwhile, the esrstwhile cow hand (his name escapes me) stumbles onto the secret hide-out of the rustlers who have been robbing the honest folk in the area. There are lots of chases and hiding outs and some gun play. The cow hand finds his love in an unlikely place in the box canyon in which he holes up (hard to believe this man and his intended are together an entire week, feel the way they do about each other and yet never touch one another, but it was a simpler time then, wasn't it?), the gunman hangs around Jane who exerts her feminine wiles to get him to give up his guns before he can hurt anymore Mormons, and the Mormon elders continue their nefarious schemes to break Jane to the halter. Thoughout it all, Lassiter seems oddly passive and inert for the deadly, single-minded gunman he is made out to be. And yet, one of the remarkable things about this book is the rich prose in which the landscape is surrealistically painted, which gives it both its title and the feel that this is more than just a silly story about good guys and bad guys. And there is a strong sense of suppressed sexuality underlying the entire tale here as embodied in the highly visual rendering of the countryside, its canyons, its sage and its sky. The descriptiveness of the narrative is, however, somewhat repetitive and overdone as though apparently reflecting the turbulent emotions of the characters themselves, as though their innermost feelings are laid bare upon the landscape of their tale. The ending is a bit melodramatic too and rather predictable, but, in all, I can see why this tale has the good name it's got. It's intriguing and enthralling (it kept me reading through to the end -- a harder thing these days as my eyes are not what they used to be and I have less patience than I once did for the fictional word). But in comparison with many other works which I have read and enjoyed, I had to conclude that this one is not quite in their league.

Using the amazon "five star" system, I usually reserve five stars for the really good to the great, four for the pretty damned good to the good, and three to the "good but" category. This one is thus a "three" on that measure since it was strongly enough written to carry me as a reader and interesting enough in its unexpectedly powerful use of language but, in the end, that very usage went over the top and slid into the dream-like purple of the sage in which the characters cavort. And the characterizations, themselves, are rather stilted, the tale kind of flat and just plain contrived. I think it is the underlying sexual energy in the writing which really carries the day. "Good but . . . "

In Riders of the Purple Sage, Zane Grey takes the reader to the small Mormon town in Utah called Cottonwoods. The novel is set in the 1870's. The novel is centered on the life of Jane WIthersteen, whose father was the founder and center of the town. Jane faces many troubles in Cottonwoods. The main one is that her cattle have been stolen by Oldring and his gang. Another is that Jane is pressured by the townspeople because she allows Gentiles to live there. She is torn between her feelings and her religion until a stranger, Lassiter, comes riding into town searching for the answers to a secret that only Jane knows the answer to.

Jane is the main character in the book. This book is different because most westerns do not center around the life of a woman. Most westerns are focused on the rough, tough, cowboy who shoots people and lives on the edge to survive. Jane is different. Her father founded the town she lives in and she keeps the town going. She is like the head of the town. She owns almost everything in the town and the landscape around it. She is very wealthy and has no biases. She likes who she likes because of who they are, not what their religion is, like the rest of the town does. The town hates that she acts like that. Jane takes Lassiter in and answers his questions about the secret. I really like that the author uses a woman in this novel because it gives a whole different perspective to a western. Most westerns focus on the cowboy and his journeys, but this book focuses on a woman, Jane, throughout the book and the troubles she encounters living in the West. It gives us a perspective of what women may have been like in the West. It still has the rough, tough cowboy, but he is not the only focus in the book. There is more happening than just the journey of a cowboy.

This book was also a pleasure to read because it does a good job of describing the landscape around Cottonwoods and in the sage. Some westerns give the reader an idea of the landscape, but this book focuses on the landscape and uses it in the book. For instance, Venters travels into the sage and hides behind the rock and in holes in the mountains and terrain around him. The landscape is used throughout the book when the characters are faced with problems such as the one described above with Venters. The landscape helped to hide him. I think it was clever to bring the landscape in and use it as part of the story. Alot of westerns do not use the landscape, they just describe it to give the reader a setting and an idea of the landscape in the book.

The book is a typical western though, because Lassiter is a typical cowboy. He has a deep secret and is in search of answers to that secret. He is a stranger that comes riding into town. He sleeps in the sage under the stars and will not sleep inside. He is on a mission and is not going to let anything or anyone get in his way. Most westerns have the cowboy meet a woman as in this story.

Overall, I think this is a good book for all sorts of readers. Zane Grey is a good writer who includes aspects for all kinds of readers. Riders of the Purple Sage is an action pact, mystery solving, all around good book for anyone who is in the mood for a western.

I had never read a Western, so when I gave it a try I thought I'd start with the best Western author -- Zane Grey -- and read his most famous work -- Riders of the Purple Sage. I think I made a good choice.

One, the setting is beautifully and gloriously described. Rock formations, plains, desert, sage....his descriptions evoke mental images as if you are watching a movie.

Two, the characters are unique, well-described, exhibit growth and development, and interact in deed and dialogue in realistic ways. By the end of the book, you will feel like you know these people.

Three, the plot is absolutely fantastic. It starts exciting, and continues to unfold realistically, yet unpredictably, throughout the whole book to the very last page.

From the opening pages, to the climax...very exciting. I was on the edge of my seat and could not put this book down. I practically cried at the end...it is that good. Highly recommended.

I purchased this book fully knowing what the title proposes. We all know it's the music. I give it four stars because it's about FAS and written by someone who knew and liked him, although it strays a bit from what is a great premise. It's also quite honestly a classy *looking* little volume. The cover won me over as much as the title. Are there design awards for these things? It's been sitting on top of my collection of Sinatra books for a couple of months since I was savoring it, waiting for just the right time and mood to read it in one sitting. It's definately a book for the true fan to have (after I secured my own copy I got 2 others from friends who know my love for anything Frank). I ate up every quote from Frank in the book, and the author's accounts of personal meetings with the man. It seemed to me the author showed us this could have been a much more detailed and thorough biography in the making. At times I felt I could have been in the middle of the most comprehensive account of the singers life and history of the 20th century, and not just reading an essay about why he matters. I was not turned off by this. I just got a good reading on his "times" that I enjoyed but wasn't counting on it. What is in here about Frank is important enough to read whatever some people may think is not relavant. Frank is important enough to music and this country to write about anything connected to him. It is a good read, written and packaged with class by a good writter who knows his subject. Incidently, Hamill is the type of guy that the Sinatra children should seek out next time they need a good contributor to balance out any new cd releases liner notes. I cringed when I saw the intro on the '57 In Concert cd by Kelsy Gramer. Those of you who have it know what I mean. *Any* work put out there about Frank deserves class...

Pete Hamill, beyond a doubt, is an excellent writer. He does a wonderful job here. The book is part bio, part history of immigrants in America, and part memoir. It works on all levels. Hamill treats Frank with the respect he deserves. The book is not a gossipy memoir--Kitty Kelly fans should look elsewhere. Instead, he makes the important arguement that Sinatra gave voice to first, a generation, and then an entire country. His artisty is what matters. The myth of the man is fun and gets most the attention, but that is besides the point for Hamill. And he is right. We all talk about the "Sinatra in a hat" (as Hamill dubs him) and the Rat Pack--but the music endures. It is, argues Hamill, what matters in the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. It is what will stand the test of time and give voice to a thousand broken dreams, hearts, and help us--like Frank after the Fall--get back up and start all over again. Thanks, Pete Hamill for getting it right.

When Frankie died, I felt I had lost an uncle. Not the uncle you hear from when misfortune occurs or fortunes are won. No, the kind of uncle who is there like a guardian angel, guiding and protecting you. For me, Frank Sinatra was my American Uncle, symbolizing the rich, great country I always heard about and envisioned through his music. I remember first hearing him while being tossed toward the ceiling by my real uncle, on a wet, stormy day in Australia. I had never heard a voice like that before, and after I slammed into the ceiling, and the family stood around waiting for me to cry, I simply sat, dazed, still listening to this new magnetic voice. I didn't know it at the time, but I was listening to America. Hamill's book returned me to that never-fogotten afternoon. For Hamill, in his elegant spot-on prose, doesn't just write about Frank, he writes about a country which changed the world. When he states that Crosby was America's Husband, while Sinatra was America's Lover, he hits it right on the head. Hamill writes what I've always wanted to say, about Frank, his times, and the world which Ol Blue Eyes helped to change. From its cover art to its last sentence, this is one elegant piece of work. I'd never read any of Hamill's work before, but now I have a new treasure to uncover, if any of his other offerings come close to this. As Frank would say, "It's marvelous, baby."

..., David Mitchell is obviously a fan of Haruki Murakami. In Number9Dream there are many cameo appearances of the works of Murakami, and the overall theme of the novel seems to be derived from Murakami's stable: disenchanted loner living in the crazy world of Tokyo's youth culture. Haruki Murakami has written some fine material, especially his brilliant The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. How does David Mitchell's Number9Dream hold up in comparison? Not very well.

The story itself, a complex tale of an illegitimate country boy going to Tokyo in search of his father, is interesting enough. Mitchell is most confident in his prose when delving into a side story concerning the yakuza, the Japanese crime syndicate his father obviously rubs shoulders with. But unfortunately our lead character is, quite literally, an avid dreamer. These weird dreams, constantly sprinkled throughout the novel, detract rather than enhance the story. Haruki Murakami is the expert in weaving surreal elements into his novels. David Mitchell fails, quite badly.

However all is not lost. There are vignettes within this overly complex novel which are actually quite interesting, and often the characterizations and the prose work very well. David Mitchell also captures the feeling of frenetic Tokyo quite convincingly. With better editting Number9Dream could have been quite a decent read.

Bottom line: Murakami fans will be appalled at this derivative material by Mitchell. Certainly not a terrible novel, but one has to wonder why Number9Dream was nominated for the Booker Prize?

This book, at 400 pages, is about twice as long as it should have been. I felt as though the author worried that the main issue, that of a twenty year old in search of his father, was too little to go on, so he packed a lot of superfluous stuff into the narrative. Some of it is good, but much of it is not. There is much good prose in this book, and clearly David Mitchell has a gift for good English; but I wish he had striven more to write a powerful book and less to write one that will be remembered for its cleverness.

Is Eiji Miyaki really storming the Pan Opticon skyscraper and breaking into files that finally reveal his father's identity, or is he just daydreaming about it? That is always the question in Number9Dream, David Mitchell's fast-paced new novel which bobs and weaves between its main character's real-life search for identity and his rich fantasy life, between his initiation into a corrupt, money-driven megapolis and his quest for young love. Mitchell, who won considerable acclaim for his first novel Ghostwritten, is sure to garner more attention for this inventive, mysterious book.

By far the most interesting thing about the novel is its Tokyo setting -- rendered as a shimmering urban nightmare, alternately realistic and futuristic. Eiji, a green boy from a remote Japanese island, comes to Tokyo to find the father who abandoned his mother when she became pregnant. Soon, he is adrift in a stew of syndicated crime, private sex clubs and an illegal trade in human organs.

Underneath the surface drama, Number9Dream is also a novel about parents and children. Eiji puts the rest of his life on hold until he can connect with his father. But Ai, the girl he falls in love with, shows him what true strength is. When her parents threaten to disown her if she pursues a musical career in Paris, she chooses the City of Light and lets her mother and father go. Eiji's love for Ai and his own risks and brushes with disaster eventually teach him that not all dreams are worth dying for, and that a young man learns his identity by making his own hard choices, not by trying to recapture a lost past.