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Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "Chambers", sorted by average review score:
Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century China
Published in Hardcover by Stanford Univ Pr (October, 1994)
Author: Dorothy Ko
Average review score:

Thorough and thoughtful
When it was written, Ko's book was one of the first to reconsider previously accepted views about women's status in China. The traditional readings had been that women were deprived, subjugated, and prisoners in their culture. While not attempting to paint a revisionary too-bright picture of women's lives, Ko considers the factors of class and economic status in the study of women. Her observations about women's reading and interaction are especially insightful and fascinating reading.

They're Cows, We're Pigs
Published in Paperback by Grove Press (27 April, 2001)
Authors: Carmen Boullosa and Leland H. Chambers
Average review score:

A Brief but Fascinating Pirate Tale
Carmen Boullosa examines the society created by the Brethren of the Coast, 17th century Caribbean freebooters on the island of Tortuga. It is a communal society, purposely without women, a fact which allows property to be shared and men to coexist harmoniously. Into this world steps Jan Smeeks, a boy kidnapped from Flanders, who embodies both male and female characteristics. Smeeks is astounded by the roving, plundering, male "pig" characteristics of the Brethren, but he learns to despise the sedentary, civilized, female "cow" characteristics of the colonists and settlers.

Boullosa's characterization of Smeeks is particularly sensitive. His little-boy wonder when he touches his first female breast, his comment that he always seems to notice the little details of a situation while missing the larger picture (a trait which makes him an interesting narrator), his fascination with Dr.Pineau's existential pontifications, all mark him as something apart from the other freebooters.

The book is a good one, it is interesting to think about the ideal communal society predicated on the most appalling slaughter, on the role played by the presence and absence of women - Eve in the Garden. However, I wished the book were longer. No characters beyond Smeeks are fully drawn, and the abbreviated narrative leaves many gaps which the reader is left to fill with imagination. There are strong images: the Jamaican brothel, and the monks and nuns who refuse to be used as human shields. There are weak images: the hurricane that kills dozens is not described at all. We just wake up the next day. The translation is occasionally jerky: "L'Olonnais had the injured Spaniards who remained on the path finished off after he asked them for what he wanted." (p.164). But overall it is a fun and interesting book. Boullosa has much to share.

A Traveller's History of Australia (The Traveller's History Series)
Published in Paperback by Interlink Pub Group (February, 2002)
Authors: John H. Chambers and Denis Judd
Average review score:

A Traveller's History of Australia
If you're going to the Olympic Games in Sydney Australia in September, this book will provide the background you need. The author takes you from the aboriginal Dream-Time, 53,000 years ago, to the booming cities of 2000. If you want to know why boomerangs return, how in the early days of settlement many ex-convicts became millionaires (legally!), where is the world's largest flat surface, at which battle in the Vietnam War the Aussies killed the Vietcong 15 to 1, why Canberra and not Sydney is the capital city, when Australia experienced a military coup, or who is the cricket equivalent of Babe Ruth, this is your book. There is also a chronology of the main historical events and, useful for visitors, a historical gazeteer of the main cities and tourist spots.

The Tree of Heaven
Published in Textbook Binding by Prentice Hall (June, 2007)
Author: Robert Chambers
Average review score:

A group of love stories dealing with the fantastic

I just finished reading the 1907 first edition of this book. There are some very good ideas here and the prose to back them up but the sugery romance themes that dominated Chambers' later career are starting to show a little too much here for my taste.

The Carpet of Belshazzar, the piece that binds together all of the other stories, is dark and brilliant.

The Golden Pool is great and touching, a good piece of prose.

The Tree of Dreams and The Swastika are light and funny, if anything dealing with a swastika can be said to be funny after 1938. Try to remember that this was written in 1907.

The Sign of Venus is just plane fun

Most of the rest are okay to better than okay.

Larry Loc
For more info on Chambers see www.ioc.net/~larryloc/yking001.html

The Unfortunate Tobacconist and the Paradol Chamber
Published in Audio Cassette by Simon & Schuster (Audio) (May, 1999)
Authors: Anthony Boucher and Denis Green
Average review score:

The Best of Holmes -- The Worst of Holmes
"The Unfortunate Tobacconist" showcases how well Anthony Boucher and Dennis Green can craft a Holmes mystery. The plot is well-constructed, the characters engaging, and Holmes is refreshingly humble. The story's only real flaw is that it suffers from a somewhat obvious solution--a shortcoming of many of the Boucher-Green collaborations. "The Paradol Chamber" on the other hand is as contrived and silly a piece of work as one could hope to imagine. In Boucher's and Green's defense, you must admit that Conan Doyle, who only wrote 56 Holmes stories, wrote several stinkers himself. Boucher and Green cranked out over 200 stories, and they did it on a much tighter schedule than Conan Doyle worked against. Regardless of the poor quality of "The Paradol Chamber," the chemistry between Bruce and Rathbone is perfect, and they never fail to entertain.

Verklarte Nacht and Pierrot Lunaire
Published in Paperback by Dover Pubns (September, 1994)
Author: Arnold Schoenberg
Average review score:

Dover strikes again
As always, Dover has produced a clean, relatively easy to read score of one of music literature's masterpieces. The English translations are good, and the layout is quite readable. As a study score, or perhaps for use in performance, this edition is highly recommeded.

Waiting Spirits (Chambers of Honors, Book 4)
Published in Paperback by Archway (August, 1996)
Author: Bruce Caville
Average review score:

So glad to see this book in finally back in print!
I've never read another book to my middle school students that they enjoyed more. There is alot of exciting ghost action, a good intriging mystery and the students especially enjoy the realistic teen-age dialogue. The main characters quickly become the reader's friends and students beg "To just read us one more chapter!!"

The Warning Voice (The Story of the Stone, or The Dream of the Red Chamber, Volume 3)
Published in Hardcover by Indiana University Press (August, 1981)
Authors: Cao Xuequin and David Hawkes
Average review score:

A reflection of modern China
The Dream of the Red Chamber is one of the most famous novel in China. Despite the fact that there are over four hundred characters in the story, the author managed to capture the essence of each one brilliantly. All the characters seem to come alive under the author's pen. One thing worth mentioning is that, Cao actually led a life plagued by poverty. What flamboyance he described in the book came from his childhood memories. The rise and fall of the Rong's family conveys the author's central idea - that life is really just a dream. Unfortunately, it is often beyond man's ability to see through the haze and escape from the disappointment of such. What we seeked in the past - wealth and fame - continue to be our desire of present times. Such abject view of life is reflected in the story of the hero - jia bao yu - who in the end decided to spend the rest of his life as a monk to ponder the meaning of existence.
All in all, the Dream in the Red Chamber does not only reflect the situation in modern China, but also tells the story of Chinese ethics and love. A must read if one desires to learn more about China.

Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks in Full Score
Published in Paperback by Dover Pubns (April, 1986)
Author: George Frideric Handel
Average review score:

a good students guide
As all "Dovers" this one is easy to read and easy to follow but a performer has to peer into it for his/hers instrumental line. HMJ

The Western Experience: Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Published in Paperback by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages (December, 1999)
Author: Mortimer Chambers
Average review score:

A good coverage of social, cultural and economic history .
Having been challenged by interpretations,and analyzing the assumptions behind the concept of Western civilization, The Western Experience presents a confused panorama about what Western Civilization is all about. Is European Civilization the civilization of Modern Europe and America excluding Australia? The concept of civilization is avoided in spite of the fact that the text was designed to provide an analytical and comprehensive account of the processes by which European society and civilization evolved. Civilization is defined as just a social organization with more complex rules than those of the cavemen. The proper concept of civilization is not treated in a rational and coherent manner. How does the narrative around selected recurring themes fit together under a broader concept of civilization in order to understand the continuing thread of developmment of the so-called western civilization? How do you distinguish one civilization from another in space and in time?

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