Rivals William Brinkley's The Last Ship in its unrelenting pessimism even as it shows human intelligence coping with apocalypse. In both books, human doom is human-made, but here it's the cession of control to a computer complex, which has decided to eliminate the carbon-based competition. One of the first to realize the threat to humanity is Professor Enzo Yakuda, whose public warning nearly leads to his death and forces him outside of cvilization. The reasoning behind this novel is frighteningly solid, if you accept the idea that an evolving artificial intelligence is necessarily aggressive. (Another view can be found in Disappearing through the Overhead.) Especially in the latter half, this is a thoughtful, affecting, scary story.

This is an excellent piece of writing, even a tour de force, powered by skillful development of the plot to the nearly inexorable conclusion of doom. If you accept the author's premise, i.e., ongoing expansion of networked computers and systems over the next 40-50 years(including final net-control of world energy sources and production) and a biological interpretation of how such a net might advance to AI complexity (the whole becomes something greater than the sum of its parts), his conclusion is frighteningly logical and realistic. I enjoyed the author's economy of style. The story is tightly focused on one player: a biology professor named Yakuda who is able to deduce the dangers of the autonomous world-net, called Computer One, from his studies of insect colonies. Be sure to read the author's introduction to his book as well; it makes some excellent points, including the difficulty of programming anything into a net such as Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics." Also note that Arthur C. Clarke read this book and said "It really scared me...move over Hal!"

This is an easy introduction into the genre of Biography, only 52 pages, with pen and ink sketches by Karen Ritz. This book about the life of the first author to write a book just for children to enjoy (rather than be instructed from) can easily be read in one sitting. It reveals the crippling limitations of Victorian women of the Gentry in both Career and Marriage. Was poor Beatrix doomed to be a spinster?

An excellent First Biography in short sentences for school children. Also a good study in Victorian upbringing (where children were not always Seen, much less Heard!) Beatrix was raised in a home considered strict even by Victorian standards. Thus the book could stimulate discussion about when it was best/worst to be a child, as well as Women's Roles in Victorian Society. Children might even ask about Queen Victoria.

Most important is the care which Beatrix put into her books--not just the stories and the illustrations, but her insistence that the format be sized for children's smaller hands. The book includes a complete listing of her tales plus a bibliography. This book just might lead some elementary children to reread their childhood favorites! Or inspire them to read these tales aloud to Kindergarten classes. They would be amazed to learn that serious adults actually belong to a Peter Rabbit Society too!

I drew this name as a book report subject, and I was not sure I would like it. I really enjoyed reading it. Beatrix was not expected to do much beyond fix flowers and play the piano. She became a world famous author. Young readers will love this quick paced life story.

Nate Heller novels are always fun. When I reviewed the last one I had read, I made the observation that you must accept one big whopper: that a single detective could do everything he does, in all of the various historical cases the author gets him involved in. If you can live with that, then you'll thoroughly enjoy the books, as I do.

In this installment, it's early in Heller's career, and he's still a Chicago cop. He's finishing up the first part of his involvement in the Lindberg kidnapping when Clarence Darrow calls. Heller knows Darrow because Heller's father owned a radical bookstore some years before, and Darrow was a customer. Darrow wants an investigator to accompany him to Hawaii, and help him with the defense of a quartet of accused murderers, who apparently killed a man accused of rape. The accused include the rape victim's husband and her mother. The kicker is that all of the accused rapists were Asian or Polynesian of some sort, and the rape victim, and all of those accused in the killing, are white. Racial tensions are running high when Heller and Darrow arrive in the islands.

The story is typical Collins, and a rather good example of what he does. The mystery is well-presented, and interesting. The author knows the characters, and the issues, involved in the real-life crime that he portrays. Most people think that Hawaiians are easy-going types, and many are, but there is also a considerable amount of anger about past discrimination on the island, percieved or real. This book does a good job of portraying that.

The other thing Collins always does is cameo appearances by celebrities. In addition to Darrow, and the defendants in the case, Heller runs into a young Buster Crabbe and a much older Chang Apana. The latter was a well-known Honolulu police detective who was the basis for Earl Der Biggers' character Charlie Chan. Amusingly, Detective Apana repeats some of Charlie Chan's quotes from the movies, with tongue firmly in cheek.

I really enjoyed this book. I think most others who are interested in history, and in detective novels, would enjoy it also.

Max Allan Collins is one of my favorite writers. His books which employ the character Nate Heller are some of the best mystery novels ever written. Nate is always placed in the middle of a true-life incident, sometimes historically significant, sometimes not. In this case, the incident was not particularly historically significant, if not for the appearance of an aging Clarence Darrow. As always, this Heller book informs regarding the incident and truly entertains. I have read dozens of mystery series. Nate Heller ranks right up there with Travis McGee and Elvis Cole as one of my favorite detectives. Perhaps Heller is the most developed and interesting of the bunch.

Dr. Joe Palmer was one of my English professors at Purdue University. This novel (and the two "sequels") display the same enthusiasm and love of the Victorian era he brought to the classroom. These books provide interesting historical and biographical details, but are by no means too high-brow or scholarly for mystery fans. If you like Anne Perry, you must read Joe Palmer.

William J. Palmer's literary mystery stretches the form without crossing the line. Charles Dickens tackles impressively (readers with ancient leg injuries which occasionally act up may wish to avert their eyes) & swims fairly well under pressure. Wilkie Collins conquers a potentially disastrous case of priggishness & may be making serious advances against chronic foppery. Inspector William Field, Irish Meg Sheehey, & the extravagantly gifted Talley Ho Thompson, some sort of grinning dervish genius pickpocket Robin Hood, but watch your watch, all come to life easily & naturally, unburdened by heavy novelistic responsibilities. Ellen Ternan is only awfully pretty so far, but may turn interesting as she ages up nearer to legal. Read the next one, if you can procure a copy anywhere (Amazon seems out), & there may be a third. Palmer can write, & knows how to drop an occasional pearl of wisdom lightly, without needlessly infuriating his patrons. There is a single profoundly unfortunate multi-layer allusion & one short example of illicit typography, but these petty faults are easily overbalanced by genuinely sane handling of the early death of Dickens' daughter Dora plus the best Victorian wenchfight I have ever read. A bonafide romp. This fun is serious. Buy it.

Though Bulgakov is perhaps best known in the West for his Master i Margarita, the tale of Satan's vist to the capital of world communism, these tales well exhibit his literary genius and his satirical bite. One of the stories in this collection, Fatal Eggs, is in my mind one of the master's finest works.

"My goodness, what are you saying," Korotkov exclaimed in distress, sensing that here, too something strange was starting, just as it had everywhere else. He looked back as if he were being hunted, afraid that the shaven face and the bald shell would emerge from somewhere, and then he added in a clumsy way, "I'm very glad, yes, very . . ." A motley flush passed lightly over the marble man; raising Korotkov's hand delicately, he drew him toward a little table, reiterating, "I'm very glad, too. But here's the rub, imagine it - I don't even have a place where you can sit down. We're being kept in a pen in spite of our significance." (Mikhail Bulgakov, Diaboliad p30)

A brilliant blend of magical and realistic elements, grotesque situations, and major ethical issues. Its story lies between parable and reality; its tone varies from satire to unguarded vulnerability. Its publication represents the triumph of imagination over politics...

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In the 19th century, there were no english phrase books for the Portuguese market, and the authors sought to fill that gap with this book, now reprinted in full. Ah, what a futile, heartfelt exercise this book turned out to be, for they had no English-Portuguese/Portuguese-English dictionaries to work with, only English-French and French-Portuguese as a substitute, and knew no English themselves and had no English speaking editors. The required gyrations led to hilarious results.

Page after page of mangled sentences and hilarious absurdities follow the original Portuguese:

"Where correspond the bells?"
"She have always anything which is it bad."
"These are the dishes whose you must be and to abstain."

The authors also provided us with vocabulary for common terms (examples in the bed room are "the bed battom" and "the feet's bed") as well as typical dialogs you might have (for instance, when buying furniture, "Pardon me, it comes workman's hands.")

A little of this goes a long way, though; it's not for extended reading, but it's quite suitable for abbreviated sessions (and is better than Dave Barry for the bathroom because it's shorter and continuity doesn't matter a whit) or passing around at a party.

But it's a wonderful monument to misguided effort, and we enjoy it a lot. I've never seen anyone look at it without laughing.

My nephew (who as a hobby learned Esperanto) once pieces read of this book to our family. It was hilarious, and as you might have noticed, as the style my write of to be changed goodly.

In other words, from then on, we have delighted in making terrible nonexistent translations of nonsense for each other, and this book and its influence has made our lives that much more fun. When I heard it was once again available, I felt I had to let people know how enjoyable it is.

If the you to tootle melodious for is, then must needs of this book an buy! :-)

This collection of papers on the Family in ancient Israel covers the various periods of Israelite history. From pre-monarchy to second temple Judaism the chapters discuss many aspects of the family. The various authors discuss the members of the family, divorce, inheritance, and other issues that families of old as well as modern families experience. The ancient Israelite family was similar to those in the ancient Near East in their work ethic, structure, and culture.

This book helps the American family redefine their concept of family, extended family, and household as a source of strength for their cultural development.

This is the book for anyone who has ever wondered about the political homage paid to the "biblical family" in recent years. Profiting from recent breakthroughs in the study of Hebrew scriptures, this book, one of a series produced by the Religion, Culture, and Family Project of the University of Chicago Divinity School, argues that the family in ancient Israel should be understood as a complicated, multi-generational "household" system organized around a core "covenant" between father and mother, parents and children, households and land, and families and God. The ancient Hebrew family was hardly the "nuclear family" of today. Codes of hospitality insured that even outsiders and marginal members of the community were included when necessary. Indeed, the ancient Hebrew family resembled more the "village" concept, not only for raising children, but for building up community. Religious ideas in ancient Israel gave order and significance to the practical realities of family life, and were closely connected to the realities of household labor, land, wealth, procreation, inheritance, economic profit and loss, sickness, and dependency. This book is the only recent comprehensive review in the English language of the family in ancient Israel. It is well worth reading for anyone who wants to understand the biblical families of the Old Testament.

I am a begining collector of pin ups and I would recomend this book to people who are just starting out. It gives good basic background information on Elvgren as well as some of his best work. If you like drawn pin ups of the 30's, 40's and 50's. This book is for you.

An excellent presentation of the greatest pinup artist of all time

While occasionaly uneven in its listings (i.e. some areas covered in great detail a few like the Delmarva region are glossed over and Florida is ignored), the book is the best I've seen on the subject. Collins tries to cover everything and in the end comes close. This is a great help on any battlefield trips.

Sites are listed from the War of 1812 according to region. A map and symbols are given for each region, in order to locate sites and present locations, as well as indicate what a visitor might expect to find. Use of photographs and postage stamps is an added enhancement.A brief summary of events and particpants is included for each site. Current status and modifications are also indicated. The book is written by a Canadian, who fairly even handedly relates events.Most depth is given to sites in Canada, put American sites are well covered. The only major missing location in the USA is Pensacola. Otherwise EVERYPLACE is covered well.

Modern Oriya short story took its birth, about a hundred years ago, with the prodigious exuberance of Fakir Mohan Senapati. It has come a long way since, experimenting with multifarious forms and subject matters. However, the subtle influences of Fakir Mohan persist in the works of the later writers, no matter what style they adopt. Perhaps that is the greatest tribute to the genius of Fakir Mohan.

Characteristically, the collection under review opens with the master storyteller, `The Bride Price'. A stingy and heartless father, Madhu Mohanty, is busy haggling over bride price, oblivious of the growing miseries of his two daughters. The story's twist comes through the local mahant, Lachhman Das, who `being quite young, was fond of practical jokes and pranks -- anything for good clean fun.'

Although the story touches on many social problems of the day, it is the misery of women in a male-dominated world which comes to the fore. Malati and her elder sister Madhavi are portrayed as mute spectators of a cacophonous drama played around them, maybe at their expense. The same theme, albeit at a psychological plane, recurs later in the collection. `Dispossessed' by Kishori Charan Das and `The Rape' by Sarojini Sahu, dramatise the predicament of modern women, as they come to terms with unsympathetic husbands and apathetic kins. The female psyche remains a vast grey area -- incomprehensible, unfathomable and unpredictable -- as it longs for a little love and care from the male partner. For once, one feels as if man and woman are inhabitants of two different planets, brought together by some unknown force.

Stories like `The Old Bangle Seller', by Laxmikanta Mahapatra, `Bouli' by Raj Kishore Ray and `The Stigma' by Pratibha Ray also revolve around the changing fortunes of women. While the classic, `The Old Bangle Seller' depicts the sufferings caused by widowhood, `Bouli' portrays the tribulations of a childless Sarasi, who loses her dear cow Bouli by a sudden quirk of fate. In both these stories, the props on which a woman's life rests prove to be too fragile : a slight force would sweep them away, plunging the unfortunate woman's into an abyss.

If frailty be the lot of these women, it is not so for everyone else. Serenta's Ma and Sukuta's Ma, in the story `The Slanging Match' by Faturanand, spit fire throughout and exude tireless energy in their verbal duels.

It goes on and on and you say : here at last are two women, with firm grip over their small lives. But is it so really? Even these cocksure women are playing out the slanging match as part of a dubious scheme of their male neighbours! Besides the problems of womanhood, other social problems like poverty, the rural-urban divide, class conflicts are also reflected in the stories. `Maguni's Bullock Cart' by Godavarish Mohapatra presents the poignant tale of destruction of the traditional, rural ways under the impact of modern machines. The rural-urban dichotomy acquires a new dimension in a delectable piece `Father and Son' by Bama Charan Mitra. Trapped in their small-time office jobs in a city, a father and his son find it impossible to visit their wives, left behind in their village. They try to come to terms with their predicament philosophically.

Such philosophical musings, however, have no place in the fascinating, anarchic world of a child in `The Thief' by Kamalakanta Mohapatra. The innocence and candour of the protagonist Sasank brings a whiff of fresh air to this collection of short stories, which otherwise abounds in familiar often depressing, social concerns and psychological problems.

The editors have brought together thirty one representative stories which give the reader an idea of the evolution of the short story form in Orissa. The translation has a vibrancy and power : the images and the idiomatic usages deftly weave together vignettes of Oriya life, creating an enjoyable and comprehensible pattern.

The nicely turned out collection should interest anybody curious about Oriya life and literature. The translator-editors should be commended for filling a gap by bringing these oriya stories to a larger audience.

I picked this book to learn more about life in Orissa, but found it was well worth reading just for the stories themselves. I've always been a short story fan and these are excellent, by any standard!