I hardly ever read a college text straight through, but this book was so informative and lucidly written, I could scarcely put it down. I imagine "Volcanoes" is used as a freshman introductory course, as there is very little geological mumbo-jumbo about say, the differences between a reverse dip slip fault and a left lateral strike slip fault.

In fact, I wish I'd read this book first, before "The Encyclopedia of Earthquakes and Volcanoes" or "Perils of a Restless Planet." Its definitions are clear and easy to remember, and usually accompanied by a photograph or drawing. One of my favorites is a photograph of the San Andreas fault, which is a right lateral fault, "so called because for a person standing on either plate, the sense of motion on the opposite side is to the right."

Now, at least I understand the difference between left and right lateral faults. Dip slips and strike slips will have to wait for another book for geometrically-challenged folks like me---I can't just close my eyes and visualize a three dimensional object, unless prompted by very clear diagrams and text.

This book is an introduction to the geology of volcanoes (plate tectonics, the formation of mineral deposits, etc.), rather than a series of stories about dangerous volcanoes, although there is an appendix on "The World's 101 Most Notorious Volcanoes." One of my favorite chapters, "Volcanic Power" has little to do with volcanoes as we usually picture them, e.g. an erupting strato-volcano like Mt. Vesuvius. It is about geothermal energy, and why it might play an important role in our future:

"Even though geothermal power is still an infant and largely unproved industry, its potential makes it worth serious effort and investment. The U.S. Geological Survey in a recent assessment of potential geothermal energy resources in the fifty states to depths of 10 kilometers listed the following estimates: hydrothermal reservoirs, 12 x 10(to the 21st power) joules, or about 2 times the energy in the world's oil reserves; hot dry rock, 32 x 10(to the 24th power) joules, or about 6000 times the energy in the world's oil reserves; magma reservoirs, 4 x 10(to the 23rd power) joules, or about 80 times the energy in the world's oil reserves."

In light of recent history, perhaps we should be investing more research in our geothermal resources.

Read "Volcanoes" if you have any interest at all in geology. It would even make a good high school text, although it is a bit dated: my copy was published in 1981, but the only thing that struck me as out-of-date was a diagram of the Earth's crustal plates---the Juan de Fuca plate was labeled 'Gorda Plate,' although everything was pretty much in the right place. Just be sure to buy the revised and expanded version that was published in 1989.

This book presents fascinating yet complex information with commendable clarity. Not only is the writing excellent, but the diagrams add much to the exposition. For example, the diagram on page 88 ("Ring of Fire" chapter) clearly explains the relationship between severity of volcanism and earthquakes to the steepness of the angle at which a tectonic plate is subducted into the mantle. The book is sensibly organized into introductory material, chapters giving "autobiographies" of volcanoes and thus clarifying the multiplicity of volcanic and eruption types, chapters synthesizing this knowledge into generalization, and chapters explaining opportunities and risks associated with vulcanism (eruption dangers [carefully subdivided into discussion of nuées ardentes, lahars, and lava flows] potential of climatic change, likelihood of finding valuable ores, and the potential of geothermal power). Twenty-five superb color plates, in addition to the excellent diagrams, grace the book. Useful appendices include "World's 101 Most Notorious Volcanoes," web sites pertinent to volcanology, and a useful glossary (although the Icelandic term jökulhlaup [= "glacier outburst flood possibly triggered by volcanism"] is an omission I noted).
This book deserves the rare commendation of simultaneous suitability for a rigorous introductory course in volcanology and accessibility to the curious layperson with no formal geological training, such as myself.

When i bought this book, i thought previous reviews were all exagerated, but this book is truly amazing. Complexity put into good and understandable english. Any vulcanologist wannabe, like me, MUST have this. Nice one Rob & Barb.

Though I disagree with his "supernatural" approach, this book outlines the common sense we never pay attention to and throws it at you like a ton of creative bricks. Every page a gem!

This is an outstanding book for all those frustrated in their search for creative fulfillment.

In it, the author puts forward some very interesting hypotheses. For example, he argues that it is creative frustration that is basically the root of all that ails society. To someone who suffers from it primarily, I guess it can look that way, and may even in fact be that way.

I'm not certain everything in the book is correct or the best approach to looking at the problem. But I think people struggling with these issues should read it thoroughly and decide for themselves.

In some ways a more masculine approach that Goldberg's Writing Down the Bones or Cameron's The Artist's Way, Pressfield anthrpomorphises artist's block as "Resistance", an enemy to be fought and defeated daily. Seems exhausting, and it probably is.

I'm currently looking around for really effective solutions to this issue. Most advice comes down to "just do it" but this book provides an interesting framework to think about the problem.

I would very much enjoy living in a world where the problem of creative block was solved comprehensively.

This book provides tremendous insite and guidance into increasing your awareness and changing your perspective as a blocked writer. You'll be doing yourself a great favor by reading this book which uses practical, common sense ideas bypassing the huggy feely pandering that other books on this topic subscribe to.

I bought this book in 1996, and referenced it again and again. I still find it so useful on web server technology, especially on web security. A worth-while reading.

Tired of those IT books that look like help files or manuals dumps? Tired of books based on programs rather than concepts? If your answer is yes, than this book is for you. It is simply the best book about Internet/Web technology ever written, of great importance for anyone thinking of working with the Web. A must read: concepts, explanations, examples, everything as clear as it should be.

I thought this was an excellent book. For a newbie interested in learning the details of web infrastructure components, including SSL, this book is a solid choice. I read it a year ago and I still find it a useful reference.

This is the review of Robert C. Renneberg's book The Winchester Model 94: The First 100 Years" that I wrote for Bullet 'N Press in December 2002.

In production for over one hundred years, and with over seven and one half million of these rifles produced so far, there isn't any question that the most popular deer rifle in America is the Winchester Model 1894, and that it has held that favorite spot for quite some time.

The author begins with a concise, accurate history of this timeless lever action that starts with it's designer John Moses Browning and carries right up through the post 1964 models, the commemoratives and the latest angle eject 94's. Every aspect of the 1894 is covered; engineering changes, alterations, finishes, calibers and wood, often in great detail. The components, and variations thereof, are graphically presented with very clear close-up black and white photography. Collectors love it when information is offered to them in such a way that it quickly answers all their questions. So often I have been asked "Can you show me what to look for with such and such a detail, so I will know what I am buying?". This is that book for the Winchester 1894, it answers questions quickly and it shows you what and where.

Fanciers of the Winchester Model 1894 will be absolutely delighted with what is in this book for it truly gives you "everything you ever wanted to know about the 1894 Winchester", as well as covering a lot of questions you probably wouldn't have thought to ask. I also enjoyed seeing the excerpts from early 20th century Winchester salesman's catalogs, where for instance, a standard 38-55 caliber carbine could be had for the hefty sum of $17.50!

This reviewer was very impressed with the large amount of well presented information and the attention that is given to accurate photographic illustration. The book was a joy to read and I would highly recommend it for the library of anyone who collects or who simply enjoys Winchester's wonderful Model 1894.

I have read a number of books on Winchester Firearms. I especially liked this one. Anyone who reads this book will learn something new.

Things I picked up.

Until now Winchester never produced a factory 410 guage lever action shotgun.

Half Octagon/ Half Round Carbines are very rare. Take a look
at the Lone Star Commemorative.

I purchased my Winchester Model 94AE Trapper a couple of weeks before I purchased this book. As a first-time rifle owner, the fun I get from reading this book is second only to the feeling I get from hefting my new rifle. Being able to benefit from the incredibly detailed research that went into making this book is like receiving a great gift. Next week is my first visit to the rifle range. Reading this incredible book will make the experience even more fun than I anticipate. If you want to know about your Model 94, READ THIS BOOK.

This book is very useful for those who want to identify planes. It is a good size so you can take it along whenever on a trip or when just passing by the airport. It has a good amount of info on each plane but does lack a cut-out drawing which comes in handy for those wondering about the insides of planes. This is a great reference for those who want to identify planes or those who just want to research commercial aircraft. It works well with the Vital Guide to the Major Airlines of the World also.

This is an excellent little book with pictures and technical information about not only airliners, but business jets. A must for anyone in the aircraft business or any enthusiast.

I think this book is very complete, I use it all the times, when my uncle who is a pilot like me saw it, he ordred one too because you can find a lot of informations in it, I only have one advice : BUY IT !!!

Most recent controversy over the use and conservation of America's fresh water has concerned the water visible on the surface - river and lakes. With that as an implicit focus, we frequently argue over where dams ought to be built, what fields ought to be irrigated and at whose cost, whether homes in flood plains ought to be insured at public expense, and so forth.

Robert Glennon, a professor of law at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, wants to draw our attention to invisible water, and to the question how we might best avoid either polluting or running out of it.

Early on, he tells the story of Ubar, a city of ancient Arabia, an oasis for the camel caravans of its time, and a place of fabulous wealth. Scheherazade spoke of Ubar in one of her thousand-and-one tales, as did countless bedouins around countless campfires. It became an Arabian Sodom, reputedly destroyed at the peak of its splendor by an angry God. What Glennon adds is that Ubar (in what we now call Oman) was a very real place.

In the 1980s, an amateur archeologist, Nicholas Clapp, led an expedition that successfully located and unearthed the fortress that had once guarded the precious spring-fed well that had made the city a port of call for those desert-crossing voyagers. It now appears that sometime between 300 and 500 AD, Ubar simply fell. It collapsed of its own weight, into a huge underground limestone cavern - the cavern that its wells had progressively emptied of water. The groundwater had held the city up, physically as well as fiscally. So Ubar, having exended its capital, sank out of sight, and entered legend as the "Atlantis of the desert" (T.E. Lawrence's phrase.)

Glennon tells this story for the same three reasons that Scheherazade did: to charm, to instruct, to survive.

I read this book during a summer program dealing with freshwater resources throughout the world. It not only helped my progression through the course, but also gave me a new perspective on water as a resource. In the US most of us do not give a second thought to the water we use in our everyday lives. Even in regions plagued by drought modern technology adds to the illusion that water is everywhere and limitless. However, any reader of this book will tell you differently. It takes you through different case studies through out the country where water use has had dramatic influence on the environment we live in. It explains not just the science of the situation but also the politics often behind the scenes as well. I would highly recommend this book to any student, professor, or hobbyist with an interest in hydrology.

Glennon is a gifted writer who sucks you in from the opening pages of the introduction and makes you care about the outcomes of the stories he presents. In a witty and accessible style he tells the alarming story of the devastating effects of groundwater pumping, effects that are not limited to the desert areas of this country. This is a book for all of us! Although engaging and readable the book is packed with enough information to provide me (not a legal or environmental scholar) with the data I need to speak in an informed fashion to tell decision makers and friends that we need to do something about this before it's too late.

... and will remain so after you read this book. Everything in Buck's book is useful but it is tough to remember all of his rules without a solid grounding in meteorology. The cover's subtitle "a practical book on flying in all kinds of weather" is accurate. This book is about practice, not theory. However, after finishing the book, I was disappointed to find myself as ignorant as ever about weather and completely at the mercy of the FAA briefers.

I got my instrument rating 25 years ago, and Buck's Weather Flying recommendations are still fresh and pertinent. A friend just shared that she is going to tackle an instrument rating, and Weather Flying came to mind as the perfect gift to make a safe pilot. I still use his practical recommendations in my infrequent IFR flights, and feel that it has contributed to making me a safer pilot. Sorry if this sounds a bit corny, but few books have stuck with me like this. PS: If you're interested, try T.R. Fehrenbach's "The Reckoning" or "This Kind of War" if you want something that will also stick with you through life.

Tom

Buck entertains and teaches. Alone, that is a talent, but add to that Buck's experience and his ability to observe and anticipate our weaknesses as pilots, and this book becomes a valuable down and dirty reality check. If you are a high-time pilot or just getting under the hood for real, read this book.

There is a particular joy to flying with the clouds. The style of Buck's writing captures this uniqueness. It also warns the pilot of the consequences of not preparing for the same event.

Weather Flying is a fast read, yet might just save you from being tangled up in a ball of scrap aluminum.

What Einstein Told His Barber

by Robert L. Wolke

This book is imaginative and entertaining. It explains in simple terms the hows and whys
of many things we observe often but really don't understand.

His editor has done a fine job with spelling and punctuation, but he needs
someone to check his math:

p13"In one experiment, out of 500 .30-caliber machine-gun bullets fired
straight upward, only four landed within 10 square feet
(3 square meters) of the gun".

While 10 feet is about 3 meters, 10 square feet is about 1 square meter and would
lie within 22 inches of the gun - not a very safe place to wait.

p26-27 "There is a certain speed called the ESCAPE VELOCITY, 25000 mph,
that an object must achieve to circle the Earth in stable orbit and
not fall down."

Actually the speed needed for circular orbit is less by a factor of
the square root of two, about 18000 mph. On p.121 the author has
astronauts orbiting at the proper speed.
Escape velocity launches an object into a parabolic trajectory which
Escapes (imagine that) the earths gravity and never returns.

p33 (and p.64) Speed of light 186,000 miles per second (3 million kilometers per second)

Oops! That should be 300,000 kilometers per second.

p81Author computes 621 degrees Fahrenheit to be twice the absolute
temperature of 80F.

This should be 519.7F; but it is only because of sloppy conversion
from Fahrenheit to Celsius and back.

p103 (and p120) "Earth is sailing around the Sun at more than 10,000 mph
(10600 mph on p120)

It is actually about 66,675 mph - higher by a factor of 2 Pi (6.28...).
Apparently he used the distance TO the Sun instead of the distance AROUND
the Sun.

p106The idea that "astoundingly realistic pictures of the oceans bottoms" are
created from satellite radar scans of the ocean surface which has
been modified by the gravitational effect of peaks and trenches on
the oceans bottom is absurd.

These detailed maps are created from side-scanning SONAR surveys.

p124 "... at the bottom of a ten mile shaft you'd weigh about 0.7% less than
at the surface."

10 miles down you are .25% closer to the center of the earth; the
mass of the sphere beneath you has decreased by about .75%.
Since gravity is proportional to Mass divided by the square of
distance, it has decreased about .25% (.9975^3/.9975^2 = .9975).
Apparently Prof. Wolke forgot about the nearness of you.

p150Prof. Wolke lists the speed of sound as 740 mph at 0 deg C, 900 mph
at 20 deg C, and 947 mph at 27 deg.

His value at 0 deg is correct, but since speed of sound varies with
the square root of absolute temperature, the other values should be
767 mph and 776 mph.
He is as much as 22% high.

p170"It isn't very unusual for two full moons to fall in the same month;
it happens about four times a year"

In fact, it is impossible to have more than 2 BLUE moons in a year;
and then they must be in January and March.

Because of the 29.5 day lunar cycle, a blue moon must fall in the
last half day of a 30 day month or the last day and a half of a 31
day month (February is impossible).
4 x .5 + 7 x 1.5 = 12.5 days per year. The chance of
any moon being 'blue' is 12.5 / 365.25 = .0342
There are 365.25 / 29.5 = 12.4 full moons per year.
This comes to .423 blue moons per year or 1 every 2.36 years;
about the same frequency as 4 full moons in one season.

p187 "dissolve a half teaspoon of salt in a half cup (250 milliliters) of
water.

1 liter is more than a quart; so a half liter is more than a pint;
so a quarter liter (250 milliliters) is more than a cup.

In summary, this book was a lot of fun to read, and has some good science
in it; but his numbers should be taken with a grain (0.065 gm) of salt..

As the title saids, this book is about answering real life conundrums. There is a lot of "what if" questions that are readily answer. A reader with some background in high school or college physics will enjoy this book. As a student getting a science PhD, I find this book very entertaining to read. It answers questions in understandable English.

Certain things I think can be explained a little better, like why the atmosphere is thinner at higher altitude. Or the difference between static friction and rolling friction. But these are just nicky-picky little things.

Overall, this book is a joy to read. If you are curious about how things in life work or scenarios that you take for granted(like why birds don't get electrocuted standing on wires), you should pick up this book. You'll undoubtebly learn a lot.

The book is an easy reading if you have a little flair for natural sciences. Well chosen topics and arrangements. The humor is sometimes entertaining, sometimes odd. The "bar bet" category is redundant (imagine yourself offering a bar bet that it is not cold in outer space - what do you talk about in the pub???). Altogether better than many other competitors (like the series on "imponderables"), because it is a little more advanced, a little more serious, and a little more space devoting to each topic (typically a few pages a topic) .

This is a nice little interesting book, but I can't agree with the effusive praise it's garnered. Brown does have some useful things to say, and his analysis is more balanced than that of many commentators on the science wars, but in places that analysis is rather shallow. It seems to me, for example, that the philosophical difficulties of naturalism would be something worth addressing by Brown, but he gives those difficulties short shrift.

Brown is just as capable as the extremists at dismissing those he disagrees with as "mushy-minded", "bad scientists" whose views are "laughable" and whose sanity should be doubted. All those who think moral norms might have divine origin? According to Brown, they're "naively religious". All those who disagree with Brown about capital punishment? According to Brown, they just must not have studied the matter as much as he has. (For Brown, this is apparently an issue on which it is impossible for there to be an honest, informed difference of opinion.) As someone who sympathizes with both Brown and Norman Levitt on many issues but disagrees with them each on others, I have to say that it's a lot more fun to be insulted by Levitt because he does it with such style! (Incidentally, Brown's analysis of Gross and Levitt's book only seems to make sense if Levitt is on the political Right. My reading of Levitt's _Prometheus Bedeviled_ leads me to believe that that is far from the case.)

One last item: Brown writes: "Most people could achieve a high-level understanding of any branch of science, but only if several years have been devoted to its intense study." I'm not sure whether Brown classifies mathematics as a branch of science, but I see no more evidence that sufficient training could provide most people with a high-level understanding of mathematics than that sufficient training could provide most people with the ability to high jump 7 feet. I used to tell my students that intense study would undoubtedly make them successful; after seeing several hard-workers earn D's, I stopped saying that.

Some contend the conflict between the sciences and the humanities is behind us. Reading Brown's analysis on the one hand and the daily news on the other shows how mistaken this view is. This is a refreshing and perceptive examination of the topics encountered over education, workplace behaviour, health and environmental issues. In short, Brown asks what the role of science is in our lives and how should we consider it? While the so-called "science wars" may seem like a remote philosophical debate, Brown brings it home for us all. In his view, you, as a participant in society, have a role to play in what science ought to address. He is adamant, however, that how science is done should remain with those who understand the methods involved in seeking the truth, elusive as that concept might be.

Brown's reviews the famous "Sokal Hoax" in which a physicist scathingly exposed the limits of "postmodern" language and philosophy. He explains how the Sokal Affair raised the public consciousness about views of what science is and how it works. Brown presents and illuminates the issues with admirable clarity and logic. He is a Professor of Philosophy with a deep respect for rational thinking. Unlike some, he doesn't view "cultural relativism" as a fad. Instead, he's aware of its impact in education and the wider world of social and political life. We are daily confronted with decisions to be made. We must make them on a rational basis and not be misled by "charlatans" who would obfuscate the issues. We make decisions on the basis of the values we hold. Brown enjoins us to be clear on our values - their foundations and how they are derived. This all sounds familiar, even redundant. Brown demonstrates how easily we can be misled if we fail to pay attention to what we are encouraged to believe and how we act on those beliefs.

Brown's answer to the query in his title seems simplistic - you do. You should rule science through democracy. We all believe in democracy [at least most of us reading this book do] and we all feel we know what it means. Brown wants you to reconsider what you believe about democracy and how it should be practiced. In short, he understands that in our form of democracy, knowledge, not emotion or mythology, should rule. Brown demonstrates how "expertise" already plays a significant role in political decisions. Expertise is derived by those who employ scientific methods to increase our knowledge. Our job is to sort through differing views to determine which is most applicable to issues under consideration. He recognizes the difficulty of the task, offering step-by-step solutions to ease the burden. People need to hear "more intelligent and informed voices" in Brown's view. How to find those voices? The starting point is this book. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This is an excellent and pleasantly surprising book. Not only does it pull off the trick of explaining the differences between the positivists, Popper, and Kuhn in one concise, easy-to-read chapter, but it places the political aspect of the debate in a reasonable light, pointing out that the objectivist-constructivist divide is not simply a divide of the right and left politically, but of a certain portion of the left, those whacked out French philosophes, the "nihilist wing of social constructivism," as Brown calls them.

It is this combination of explaining philosophical terms and political problems in a clear manner that makes this book the good read that it is. It has better explanations about the philosophy of science and such terms as naturalism, realism, rationalism, and even underdetermination than I've seen elsewhere. All this in a book written for the layman, not the expert.

The one problem I had with the book was its treatment of realism. I don't think Brown brought out the problems inherent in realism. Realism not only posits that objects exist; it posits we can know and describe their properties. What is wrong with this line of thought? Parmenides said "a thing is or it is not." Give it a linguistic turn, and one might say "description describes what is or it is not description." The complaint against realism is that historically, realistic descriptions of objects have not endured and so are not descriptions.

Look at Brown's definition of realism (96):
1.The aim of science is to give a true (or approximately true) description of reality.
2.Scientific theories are either true or false.
3.It is possible to have evidence for the truth (or falsity) of a theory. (It remains possible, however, that all the evidence supports some theory T, yet T is false.)

Accepting definition (2) as the bedrock axiom, definition (1) immediately contradicts it. "Approximately true" is false to anyone except a pragmatist. The whole point of realistic description is a complete, accurate rendering of the object. Approximation might "work," but it is not "true." Second, Brown's definition (3) is at some point arguable. What if evidence itself is conceived as a set of particular objects or relations that make up the larger object of description? Inquiring into them, one could ask what's the evidence for the truth (or falsity) of the evidential facts. The realist avoids this regress by referring to some axiomatic definition or other sort of "given." This works most of the time, but not always.

Consider Brown's statement (102) that, "One thing that cannot be overstressed here is fallibility. Objectivity does not imply certain truth. Evidence can mislead. The ancients were objective in believing in an earth-centered universe, because the available evidence strongly supported this view." Brown is wrong here. Objectivity does imply certain truth (or certainly did among ancient Greek philosophers who invented realism). I think what's being confused here is rationality and objectivity. It is a rational strategy to believe what everyone else believes. What is believed, however, is not necessarily objectively true. It was rational for ancients to believe in an earth-centered universe. It was not, however, an objective description of the universe, no matter what the "evidence" showed.

Plato made a distinction between knowledge and true belief. If I recall correctly, the philosopher-kings had objective knowledge, the enforcers had true belief. The philosopher-kings were right. They knew they were right and why they were right. The enforcers knew they were right, but didn't know why. Consequently, they were fallible in their explanations and, without the philosopher-kings to guide them, in their beliefs. Now, if scientists are fallible, what is it that allows them to know when they are right? The evidence? Brown said earlier in his definition that the evidence could all be right but the theory wrong. The realist who believes in fallibility has nothing to knowingly connect to the object. He is like the enforcer who has true belief, but not knowledge.

FOUND IN TRANSLATION

It's hard to review a book when one feels that she could have written it herself and worse yet when in fact that book has been published already. In some ways it's reassuring to read the same thoughts, opinions, even the same literary references and mythological symbols. In other ways it is almost eerie to share with it a similar structure of titled chapters which can be read independently. It all started with the cover of Lucia Graves' A Woman Unknown. Voices from a Spanish Life (Washington D. C.: Counterpoint, 2000) where I saw the familiar picture of Mercedes Formica, a writer I interviewed some years ago, but more about her later.
Lucia Graves is the daughter of Robert Graves, the English poet who lived in Majorca with his Spanish wife and children for several years. Her book is labeled as her autobiography, but it's more like a history of Spain during the almost forty years of Franco's Dictatorship and the ensuing some twenty years of Democracy. Her role is more that of a well-versed witness, a woman who has lived among three different cultures: the English of her birth, the Spanish of her adopted country and the Catalan into which she married. Hers is a well documented account of everyday life, political repression, historical events and a study of the richness of languages.
The author moved to Majorca, where a version of Catalan is spoken, when she was three years old. Despite her father's prominence, she lived a rather modest life on the island before it became a popular tourist destination. A few years of her childhood were spent in Palma, the island's capital, where she studied in a repressive nun school like any other Spanish girl, until she was almost convinced to be baptized in the Catholic Church ( to keep her from "going to hell"), at which time her parents had her first tutored at home and then send to England to receive a "proper" education.
At Oxford, although she missed Spain terribly, she became familiar with the language of her birth, her own father's work and - interestingly enough- Spanish literature which she could then study uncensored. It was her appreciation of the complexity of languages and in particular her translation class, that gave her the tools to become the accomplished translator she is now. Her reflections on language are in themselves worth the reading of A Woman Unknown. Her dilemma should be familiar to anyone fluent in more than one language: "I began to see that being trilingual meant I had never been able to focus fully on any one of my languages, that each one covered only particular areas of experience, and as result I could not express myself fully in any of them" (115).
Lucia Graves' book is full of expressions in Catalan which she carefully explains and translates into English. In fact, if anything, her careful attention to detail is superfluous to the initiated reader of Spanish culture. Her knowledge of the subtleties of the Spanish and Catalan character is commendable as is the varied tidbits of information about popular customs. Her appraisal of the repressive years of Franco's regime is equally on target as is her appreciation - only now becoming official in Spain- of the liberal Republican government.
However, for all her political openness, Lucia Graves is very coy about much of her personal information. For instance, she mentions in passing the sudden death of her half-sister Jenny (149), but doesn't bother to explain it, or we know little more than her oldest daughter's name and not even that of her other two daughters. Her Spanish mother, despite the fact that her illness opens and closes the book, remains a mystery as well. The reader is left wondering what led to her divorce from her Catalan husband and even to whom is she married now since she alludes to a second marriage, while she analyzes in depth the effects of the new Spanish divorce law of 1981. It could be argued that this lack of detail is a good thing since the reader's curiosity is peaked due to her talent as a writer and her, indeed, fascinating life.
The title, "A Woman Unknown" refers to the legal terminology given a woman in divorce proceedings. In fact Lucia Graves gives special attention to the situation of Spanish women: from the liberties of the Second Republic before Franco to the repression of the years after the Civil War, up to the new freedom we are presently enjoying. Her representation of postwar courtship rituals is as poignant as that of Carmen Martín Gaite's, one of the best Spanish writers who have written on the same topic. Her sympathetic portrait of Margarida de Prades, in the chapter titled "The Queen Who Never Was," a fifteen century Catalan noblewoman, for example, makes for captivating reading.
Lucia Graves is equally sympathetic in her depiction of the Sephardic Jews who inhabited Majorca and Catalonia. Their exile, in many ways, parallels her own quest for a homeland. But she is overly simplistic when she states that Franco was anti-Semitic. Despite all his other abuses, Franco saved over thirty thousand Ukranian Jews as it is documented in Chaim Lipschitz's book, Franco, Spain, the Jews, and the Holacaust (KTVA Publishing House, 1984). In fact Franco's own mother was of Jewish descent; her maiden name, Bahamonde, being typically Jewish.
There is no mention in the text of Mercedes Formica, the writer who graces the book's cover. This is a surprising choice given her right wing ideology - she was a sympathizer of the Falangist leader, José Antonio Primo de Rivera. My guess is that it was chosen by the editor in an otherwise beautiful, careful edition. These minor issues aside, Lucia Graves' book is a well written, compelling history of contemporary Spain from the point of view of a not so foreign woman, even when her own story is still not completely told.
CONCHA ALBORG

Concha Alborg is a Spanish writer who lives in Philadelphia and teaches Spanish literature at Saint Joseph's University. She has recently published Beyond Jet-Lag (New Jersey: Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, 2000), her second work of fiction, about the immigrant experience. Beyond Jet-Lag is available on Amazon.com ...

This is a fascinating perspective from the tri-lingual-daughter of a well-known poet. Lucia is caught between two identities-Britain and Spain. She tells tales of growing up-island style-off of the coast of Spain-with her Roman Catholic upbringings. All this set after the Spanish civil war where people's identities marred, hopes dashed, and properties confiscated under the Fascist Franco regime (1939-1975) which was characterized by the tight grip of church and state. Her viewpoints on women rights, religious rights, the Catalan identity and the translation profession are particularly illuminating.

I loved this book and, as a writer, I found it very inspiring! Graves writes beautifully of growing up on Majorca and her descriptions of the place and the people there, and other parts of Catalonia, are very evocative. The book caught my eye because I am studying Spanish and this book gave me a great feel for life in Spain, particularly under Franco but also, as described to her by people she knew, during the Spanish Civil War. It also offers interesting thoughts on language and identity, because she grew up speaking English at home, Majorcan/Catalan with neighbors (at least until Franco tried to crush the language), and Castilian Spanish at school. It's no wonder she became a translator.

By the way, if you're interested in Robert Graves (I didn't know anything about him - I guess I missed the whole PBS "I Claudius" series), you won't find out all that much about him here - this is Lucia's story. At least he passed on to his daughter his talent for writing.