Mary Overton's first book, The Wine of Astonishment, succeeds on every level as a collection. Strung together like beads on a magical thread, these stories seize the reader with fresh insight from first page to last with a blessed lack of pretention. Overton's tales delve into the dark back niches of the human mind, where our strangest and most forbidden thoughts and impulses lie hidden. This collection gives us permission to embrace our restrained musings, to let our fancies take us where they will.

The characters in The Wine of Astonishment vary widely in age and social station, in the scopes of their desires and needs. What they all have in common is a sudden ability to see through the veil of prosaic acceptability that enshrouds the sparkling magic at the heart of life. Extraordinary events, as well as ordinary events seen through extraordinary eyes, have the power to change lives and perceptions, to force the realization that they want more from life upon those living it.

Overton's stories surprise the reader into new understanding. They rattle us out of our ruts to where we can see the magical potential that lies quietly behind the veil of our day-to-day routines and ways of seeing. First published in such renowned reviews as Glimmer Train Stories, The Southern Anthology and The Belletrist Review, the stories in The Wine of Astonishment are of the rare sort possessing the vitality to affect our awareness of the world where we live.

The book is divided into five sections. In the first, Understanding an Argument, a passage is given followed by a multiple choice question related to its conceptual base, its underlying assumptions, or some aspect other than informational content. Generally more than one of the five choices is a correct statement, but may be unrelated to or inconsistent with the passage, so a correct statement may not be a "right" answer. In the second section, Constructing an Argument, three related chemical statements are given in random order, and the task is to place them in a logical sequence. In most cases there is more than one logical sequence, so an important aspect of the answer is the justification students give, and to recognize what assumptions they might, unknowingly, be making.

Section 3, Critical Reading, presents passages from a chemistry textbook, or an article from a journal or magazine, followed by one or more questions often about assumptions (sometimes mistaken) the passage makes about the reader's knowledge. Some involve interpreting tabular or graphical data. Others involve writing, especially for non-scientists. Common to all is thinking beyond the information in the passage.

In the professional workplace, problems often lack single, unequivocal answers, and section 4, Making Judgements, reminds students of this. Some involve "back-of-the-envelope" estimations when precise data is lacking (How many molecules of Caesar's last breath were in your most recent one?). Others involve recognizing that the same word can have different meanings in different contexts, for example, "pure", "concentrated", "perfectly safe." All require thought, judgement, and justification; few have single "right" answers.

Each question in Section 5, Reference Trails, gives a specific reference from the published literature and a series of questions that can be answered either in the reference or earlier cited ones, developing valuable research skills for upper division and graduate chemistry students. Unlike earlier questions, these have single unequivocal answers somewhere in the reference trail.

Although certainly worthwhile for the questions it contains, this book's greatest value may be to emphasize the important skills these kinds of questions develop and to encourage teachers at all levels to keep this in mind in their own efforts. As a model for innovative questions, this book is a gem. "A Question of Chemistry: Creative Problems for Critical Thinkers" belongs in the library of every chemistry teacher from high school to graduate school.

Norma Joyce Hardy initiates a life-long adoration of Maurice Dove with a touch on his cheek. That she's but a child is of little moment. That she's overshadowed by her sister's beauty becomes even less so. Even at nine years of age, she's driven by determination to find the means to supplant Lucinda. Resentful of her sister's looks, industry, and favoured place with their father, she becomes secretive, duplicitous, devious. Lucinda, having replaced their dead mother, is vulnerable, and Norma Joyce takes advantage of that exposure. Maurice becomes the tool for expressing Norma's envy, but she becomes the victim of her own machinations. Maurice, unsurprisingly, is following his own agenda, and Norma's place in it is problematic.

In pursuit of Maurice, Norma Joyce's life orbits like an erratic comet. From the most rural to the most urban environments in North America and back again, her loci remain vague. Only Maurice is a fixed point, but that seeming stability actually is the cause of her displacements. She is torn between seeking and avoiding him, particularly when the attainment of her goal leads to the inevitable result. Hay brings the Hardy family out of dry Saskatchewan to "golden" Ontario. Ottawa, however pleasant and green, fails to bring rest, and Norma pursues Maurice to New York City. A greater contrast to Prairie Canada can hardly be imagined, but Hay guides us through Norma's transition flawlessly. New York, however, doesn't resolve her situation with Maurice, which grows ever more complicated. Nor is the relationship of the sisters granted an easy path. Who carries the burden of Lucinda's fate will be the topic of endless debate.

Hay's account is admirable in its prowess in compelling attention to people and places. The factual nature of her characters, their failure to fulfill simple expectations is a credit to her skills. A love story of sorts, this is hardly a "romantic novel." It is a richly rewarding story, worthy of your attention. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

It begins in 1938 on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada with two lonely motherless sisters, nine years apart in age and worlds apart in looks and personality. Norma Joyce is small, dark, wiry, homely, inquisitive, provocative, and restless, while older sister Lucinda is a ravishing redhead, quiet, serene, the hard working homemaker for father and younger sister. Although Norma is just a kid, when Maurice Dove, a 'student of weather' visits the farm, both sisters, each in their own way, fall desperately in love with him, a love to last a lifetime, but with tragic consequences. The presence of Maurice will be the wedge that drives the sisters apart and alters the family fate, although the personality of each character will also determine the outcome of the story, which later shifts to Ottawa and then alternates between Ottawa and New York City.

What makes this novel stand out from the crowd aside from its careful plotting and lovely descriptive passages about foliage, flora, and of course weather, are the ways in which the author makes brilliant use of small details of personality and psychology to drive what would otherwise be an ordinary story into high gear and to create unforgettable complex characters. She gets it right on target, too, so much so, that the reader feels that he/she is a witness to real peoples' lives. This book is one of my top picks of the year!