Dear Amazon.com,

I am the author of Visions of Antelope Island and Great Salt Lake. Thanks for listing my book with a photo of the cover illustration.

You used to have a form where the author could comment on his book, but I cannot find my way to it. I would like to relay to you some comments from published newspaper and magazine reviews of my book. How do I send you this information?

Thanks again, Marlin Stum

I am normally one of those people who starts a book, gets bored quickly and never finishes. I have at least three started novels under my bed collecting dust. Since the birth of my daughter 4 months ago, my life now has no time for extracurricular anything.
With that said, I couldn't put The Pendulum's Path down. I got it on a Wednesday and by the next Wednesday, I had finished the entire thing. The characters were so complex, the story is riveting and incredibly thought-provoking, and I found my emotions right on the surface from the first chapter. I identified personally with the mother/daughter relationship between Delilah and Emma. I have seen the exact same thing happen between my mother and grandmother. Dave Shields wrote a novel that shows the complexities of all families through the Crumps. Even though you don't know this family, you feel close to them instantly. A thumbs up to Mr. Shields for a great book that collected no dust in my house.

I admit, up front, that I'm an escapist reader. I like my fiction with a meat-and-potatoes kind of action or adventure. But once I stuck my nose in Dave Shields' book, I couldn't put it down.
Tom Lewis is a happily-married white-collar guy with his own office, an optimistic outlook and his first baby on the way. Then a chance encounter with a nigh-forgotten relative turns his world upside-down: His mother is not his mother; his uncle is not his uncle--his entire life has been a lie.
I think I was more fascinated with Uncle Martin's episodic revelations than even his own nephew--the man had an unorthodox childhood, to say the least. Piece-by-piece, he presents a secret family history that will shatter our hero's identity, lead him to question his own self-worth...but, ultimately, motivate him to find and know his real father.
The Pendulum's Path is set in Salt Lake City. I've passed through it a couple times, but my view from the highway gave me no insights as to how this city is different from any other. Not only does Dave Sheilds' book show us how it's different, his cultural microcosm of a Mormon family also reveals how people are so much the same, wherever and whenever they happen to live.
Regardless of what you know (or don't know) about Utah, Mormonism or rock-climbing (did I fail to mention that?), The Pendulum's Path will grab you.

The Pendulum's Path is a beautifully written family saga that is impossible to put down. It is one of those books in which you come to know and relate to the characters as actual people.
The story of the past and the present lives of the family intertwine in a fascinating and gripping tale.
If you like Pat Conroy, you will love Dave Shields!!! His writing style is beautiful and detailed and his story is richly woven. A definate 5 star book.

Bruce Mason, a diplomat and ambassador in his sixties, returns to Salt Lake City for the funeral of his aunt, who is the last remaining connection to a family history Mason has spent forty years avoiding. During the day and night he is there, he travels throughout Salt Lake, trying to locate landmarks from his troubled early life while reminiscing about the events which permanently influenced choices he made and directions he took as an adult. Gentle and reflective in tone, despite its scenes of sadness and disillusionment, this is a novel quite different from Stegner's epics, such as Angle of Repose and Big Rock Candy Mountain, with their enormous scope. Here, he creates what amounts to a memoir--a record of the life-changing experiences which one man, Mason, associates with his family, friends, and upbringing during the brief 24 hours he is in Salt Lake City.

Although this is supposed to be a sequel to Big Rock Candy Mountain, with the same main character, one need not have any familiarity with that book to enjoy this one, a book so introspective that one cannot help but wonder about the degree to which it is autobiographical. Like many of us who have outlived and, in some cases, out-achieved our parents, Mason finds his memories bittersweet. He is filled with resentment for the unintentional injuries and deliberate cruelties which made his youth and adolescence a misery. At the same time that he recognizes that he would never have been so motivated to achieve and escape had he not been so needy and so "hungry."

Though many authors have dealt with the "you can't go home again" theme, Stegner suggests here that one must go home again, not to relive early, unpleasant events again and again, stuck in the past, but to relive those events and reevaluate them from the perspective and experience one has gained over time. Unsentimental and uncompromising in its message, the book is a touching and sensitive look at the baggage we all carry with us and the need to put it aside.

As I indicated in my review of Stegner's BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN (hereafter "BRCM"), reading fiction does not get better than reading Wallace Stegner (1909-93). His Pulitzer Prize winner, ANGLE OF REPOSE (1971) is my favorite novel, and BRCM (1943) is an equally moving book. It is easy to consider RECAPITULATION (1979) the icing on BRCM.

RECAPITULATION is best read as a sequel to BRCM. Among other things, BRCM was about a father-son relationship, a son, Bruce Mason's hatred for his father, and his lifelong attempt to come to terms with his troubled family. RECAPITULATION picks up with Bruce Mason's return to Salt Lake City roughly 45 years after leaving there in Stegner's earlier novel. For Bruce, Salt Lake City is the place where "I buried my brother, my mother, my young love, and my innocence. In a few months more I buried my father and my youth" (p. 84). This is not a homecoming story. "Home," Bruce observes, is only "another word for strange" (p. 73).

During his life, Stegner commented that RECAPITULATION is about "the domination that a harsh and dominating father can exert even after his death upon a son. What is revealed in this novel is the incurable damage done to Bruce Mason." In the beginning pages of this book, we find Bruce living mostly "in his head," like "the last spectator at the last act of a play he had not understood" (p. 274), his self image fused with the image of his family. He remembers his father, Bo, as a "boomer, self-deceiver, bootlegger, eventually murderer and suicide, always burden, always enigma, always the harsh judge who must be appeased" (p. 274). Through a series of flashbacks, however, in the end RECAPITULATION is about Bruce's transformation and survival. Although "incurably" damaged, he reaches a point of autonomy and finds the understanding he longed for in BRCM: "If a man could understand himself and his own family, he'd have a good start toward understanding everything he'd ever need to know" (BRCM, p. 436).

Both BRCM and its sequel are autobiographical. Stegner wrote RECAPITULATION late in his career, and it contains some of his finest writing, e.g., "When cottonwoods have been rattling at you all through your childhood, they mean home" (p. 116).

G. Merritt

When a real-life event pulls you back into The Past, where you didn't want to go, this is what happens. Though not an action-packed thriller, it is elegant and touching.

Robert Irvine has created a detective named Moroni Traveler who has a love/hate (perhaps mostly hate) relationship with the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City. The author, in creating the setting for his novels, takes us into the history of the Mormon Church and its relationship to Utah political power. The characters are interesting and likable and the background is interesting. In Baptism for the Dead, the detective is hired to find a missing person and winds up, somewhat unwillingly, assisting the Mormon Church in its battle against a local cult. Robert Irvine can be counted on to deliver a well-written and enjoyable mystery. Baptism for the Dead is worth reading.

I've long been of the opinion that the distinctive feature of the great hard-boiled private eye story is the hero's vulnerability. He's physically vulnerable because both the crooks and the cops distrust him. As a result of which, he frequently ends up being beaten and battered. He's emotionally vulnerable because he's alone and prey to falling in love with clients or other women he meets in the course of the case, or at least caring too much about the people whose lives he finds himself involved in. As a result of which, he frequently ends up heart broken. Such are the Quixote-like characteristics that have defined the genre.

Unfortunately, in recent years there's been a tendency on the part of authors to give their detectives permanent girlfriends and overeager allies in law enforcement, which serves to allay both vulnerabilities. Call it the Robert Parker effect. This trend has been so pervasive that only a very few really good writers have been able to buck it : Loren Estleman, Jonathan Valin, and a few others. Meanwhile, the most interesting new detective fiction has featured investigators in authoritarian countries, where their vulnerability is greatly magnified : Martin Cruz Smith's Arkady Renko series and Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series spring to mind, the one set in the USSR, the other in Nazi Germany.

Which brings us to what I think is one of the best, and most unusual, private eye series of the modern era. Robert Irvine managed to create a fairly traditional private eye, an ex-football player, ex-soldier, with the unlikely name of Moroni Traveler, and only gussy him up with a few emotional ties : a father who may not be his biological dad, and a couple of street characters for friends. Then he borrowed a page from Smith and Kerr and set the stories in Salt Lake City, where Moroni's investigations often run afoul of the Mormon Church, which essentially controls the state. In addition to providing dramatic tension, this setting in the land of the Latter Day Saints offers Irvine, himself of Mormon descent, an opportunity to work Mormon history and beliefs into the narrative.

The resulting books are really fascinating, though I find them a tad too anti-Mormon, and Moroni and his cronies are immensely likable. They aren't all still in print and, though I couldn't find much information online, I believe I recall reading that Irvine died a few years ago, but if you can find the books, they are terrific.

GRADE : A

This coffee table book has some absolutely beautiful pictures of Salt Lake City, the Wasatch Mountains and surrounding areas. The photographers did a fantastic job capturing light, and the pictures are extremely well printed. This would be a great book to have on hand while watching the olympics.

It is also a good book for people who want to have a coffee table book about Utah.

The book itself starts with a brief overview of the Salt Lake Bid, and the resulting Olympic bidding scandal. It then takes us on a tour of the geology of Utah and the mountain west. The book includes pictures of both the mountains in Northern Utah, and the Colorado plateau in Southern Utah. It provides a summary of historical and cultural information about the Salt Lake Valley.

In the last quarter of the book, we get into sports photography, and we can see some high quality shoots of skiers and other athletes.

All in all, it is a well made and designed coffee table book. The main reason to buy it is the high quality photography. You will definitely enjoy having it on hand while you watch the Olympics. The book covers a great deal of information, mainly at a summary level; so it really would not serve as a reference book.

Finally, having been written before the Olympics, there are no actual pictures of 2002 Olympic events. My guess is the book was written before 9/11/2001, and there is no mention of the international tensions which will be in everyone's mind during the events.

This is a great overview of the Salt Lake Olympics and Salt Lake Valley. If you want one handy reference book with information all in one place, this is your move.

My family was involved with the alcohol plant in New Mexico that the authors of the book claimed never existed. I know it actually did exist, I was there. If the authors had done a minimum amount of research, they would have known it too. So this makes me wonder what else they got wrong. I tend to think there was a lot that really didn't fit together, so I'll keep searching for the truth. I hope everyone else does too.

I bought this book for my wife, who is a Romantic Suspense writer. I did a keyword search looking for books on forgeries. This is the best book I have found if you want to learn about an example of this particular type of crime.

This is better that Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie married and had a child. Pure power to the mind. All crimes must be paid for as this book revealsed. I hate being lied to since this book reveals the truth of all truth.

Wow. This is the devastating portrayal of the break-up of a marriage and the collapse of a family. I read this on a flight from NY to LA and was near tears for part of the trip. The author has uncanny insight into human nature and an astonishing ability to translate emotions into words.

John Fulton explores the breakdown of the dysfunctional family so thoroughly and so intimately in this book that while I was reading I often felt the embarrassment of one who is caught snooping. Steven Parker and his sister Jenny are caught in the downward spiral of their parents hopes and regrets about the lives they've chosen. Living in the, primarily Mormon, society of Salt Lake City is making it difficult for Billy Parker, the father, to pass on his strong disbelief in God to his children. Jenny makes friends with a girl on the cheerleading squad and begins memorizing the Ten Commandments, while Steven deals with the after-effects of being bullied by some rich neighborhood brats. Mary Parker carries the financial burden of her husbands lack of work ethics and swears every time Billy goes a little nuts that she's taking the kids and leaving.

What captivated me about this story is the way that Fulton dissects this falling-out so carefully... taking the length of a book to narrate the couple of months it takes for this family's inevitable disintegration. This kind of information gives birth to gossip in the real world, but here we get the whole, messy, painfully honest story. While the ending did leave me feeling slightly depressed, it is also very realistic and, therefore, leaves that small crack of hope open. This is a wonderful story written by an author who truly knows his characters.

This is a lovely first novel which follows a Salt Lake City family as it implodes. My favorite part of the novel is the extended section that takes place over a day, including some hilarious and harrowing forays into a diner and a nursing home. The adolescent protagionist's crack-up is as compelling as Holden Caulfield's--a claim I don't make lightly. I hope this wild and wooly novel finds the wide readership it deserves.

Literary forgeries are a fascinating topic. The Mark Hofmann case has all the characteristics of a CSI episode with the additional fascinating exploration of the unique subculture of document collectors. Worrall has chosen the forgery of an Emily Dickinson poem by Mark Hofmann as his starting point.

Unfortunately, his material runs out by about the second chapter, and he reverts instead to a summary of Mormon culture and Mormon history. Obstensibly, this is to give a background to the forger, Hofmann, but I have the feeling it was simply a way of adding another 10,000 words.

I was unhappily forced to this conclusion because the summary is so incredibly inaccurate. As a comparison, check out Lindsey's The Gathering of Saints, which is critical of the Mormon church and of the Utah Mormon culture but is also sympathetic to the bind in which the Mormon leaders found themselves. Lindsey, an intelligent reporter, is sensitive to the conflicts within a religious community and within human beings, and he perceptively illustrates how the Mormon values of both obedience and education will inevitably clash.

Additionally, he never makes the mistake--as does Worrall--of thinking that Mark Hofmann's forgeries and his brutal murders gain legitimacy simply because they hurt the Mormon church. One gets the impression from The Poet and the Murderer that Worrall admires Hoffmann, whatever he might say to the contrary.

In conclusion, the book was a disappointment. I was looking forward to an in-depth examination of Hofmann's Americana forgeries and instead found myself reading a mishmash of anti-Mormon literature. It isn't simply that such religion-bashing lacks class, it also makes the rest of Worrall's research suspect.

Recommendation: If you are really into Hofmann or literary forgeries, pick up the book at the library and check out the first couple of chapters about the Emily Dickinson forgery. Remember, the facts are suspect, and I wouldn't trust anything Worrall has written about Emily Dickinson herself, but the provenance of the poem is pretty interesting.

Having read the book I highly recommend it to everyone, if I could give it 7 stars out of 5 I would. The way the two stories are interwoven is highly impressive and makes for fascinating reading. The research that has gone into the book is very substantial and ensures the book is gripping from start to finish.
As somebody who knew very little about the worlds of literature and forgery, I found it extremely enlightening and enjoyable to read about them. However I feel it transcends them and is quite simply a brilliant, well written book.
Due to the quality of the writing and the way in which the charcters were brought to life, I could empathise with the characters involved, (although it is an all too frequently used cliche), once I started the book I couldn't put it down.
This book shocks and surprises the reader as only a true story can, it almost seems like a creation from Hollywood, perhaps we will see it adapted to the big screen soon, I for one hope so.
Anyway, I will conclude by saying I recommend this book to everyone and anyone and look forward to more releases from this writer of undoubted quality.

Simon Worrall deftly takes a small crime, the forgery of a newly discovered Emily Dickinson poem, and spins out a delicious tale of a master forger, and his all too often deserving victims. Lovers of literature will be fascinated by the painstaking descriptions of the art of forgery. Worrall takes us behind the curtain of the quirky world of rare manuscripts and books. He helps us see and feel how an artists' soul is reflected in the singular stamp of her handwriting, and how a master criminal strives to imitate the act of creation. You'll never look at a signature the same way again.

I loved Worrall's blistering indictment of the blustering and deluded Mormon church, a favorite target of the brilliant forgerer, Mark Hoffman. One of the joys of this book is its colorful villains, the twisted forger, the double dealing auctioner, and, of course, the Morman Church. The church's bumbling efforts to bury its ridiculous past make for entertaining reading - especially after NBC's snow job in the Olympics.

This book has left me with more questions of which I find few answers. First of all, I will and always will admire anyone brave and courageous enough to follow their hearts and write about it. The courage to write and confront what you have actually done is often times more difficult than the act itself. I believe with all my heart that Ms. Holmes-Binney deserves commendation for putting into words the fears and anxieties of her soul.

My concerns with her actions are relatively basic. First of all, she seems to come from a family experienced with the outdoors. While they pride themselves with "not cheating" when camping, I can not understand how in the world she planned this 40 day episode into the cold desert with such ill preparation. Did she deliberately choose NOT to take adequate clothing, specifically, jacket and footwear? ( I have been on a fair amount of camping trips, and I know those two items would be highly important on my list of items to have.) Instead of taking appropriate weather gear, she decides a "leather jacket" and some thrifty store salvation army type cowboy boots should see her through the endeavor. I couldn't believe how naive she seemed, or was it self-destructive? You decide.

Of course, with in the first few days, the inadequacy of all her chosen items seem to rear their ugly heads and it is literally her life that is at risk. An untimely snowstorm moves in on her very first few days. She is barely set up in her camp, her flimsy tent is flying apart and everything is soaking wet from the rainstorm that preceeded the freezing weather. Her sleeping bags are soaking wet, and she has fallen apart mentally and physically. Her only salvation is that she hopes the ranger and his wife will not leave her out there to die.

It astounds me that she risked all this and spent so little time PLANNING for this adventure. She never explains her motives for ill planning, either. It seems to be just an oversight, but any educated person familiar with the wilderness knows you must plan and prepare for any time in the wild. I just can not understand why she did this as she is not an ignorant person.

She plans to find her spiritual self in 40 days and nights in the desert. She elects to conduct this spiritual journey solo, but thankfully a few people come to her aid and literally save her life by giving her a stove, wood, and not to mention, the actual down jacket off the ranger's wife's back. I am just not so sure what she really found out there, as I have to wonder what she brought there in the first place.

THis book shows a lot of spirit by Debi, camping out in the Great SAlt Lake Desert with only a tent! Some humorous parts about mice and her pet fly! Kept my interest, was hoping for a more 'spiritual' ending, but glad I read it!

Debi Holmes-Binney did something many of us will only dream about doing. She risked her life to find something beyond the routine day. Determined to escape society for 40 days and nights, she was trucked into the remote Great Salt Lake Desert in the heart of winter without gun or phone and was 25 miles from the nearnest house or store. When she almost died her second night there in a freak snow storm, she had a second chance at life. What followed was a remarkable inner journey of universal appeal. Her honesty is almost as frightening as it is beautiful. Her writing is strong, poetic--to the point. I couldn't put the book down after the first page. Highly recommended for any woman intrigued with her own being and not afraid to step from the herd. I left the book feeling closer to myself, Nature and those I love.

This book is based on the murderous actions of Mark Hoffman, and in this regard is fairly accurate. However, when it comes to the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), the Church's founding prophet Joseph Smith, and current Church leaders and doctrine, this book is slanted, twisted and just plain wrong. Its inaccuracies cause the book to end up being more fiction than fact. If you are really interested in learning the truth about the Mormon religion you should read The Book of Mormon, visit with some missionaries, and pray to know the truth. Reading this book is not the answer unless you wish to be misinformed.

I am a lover of suspense books but I don't read them because when I do, I feel guilty, like it's a waste of time. I also love to study religion. When you mix the 2 together, you have an excellent book.
Have you ever read a book that you speed read because it's so exciting yet at the same time, you try to read it as slow as possible because you don't want the book to end. This is that kind of book.
Have you ever read a book that immediatly after you read it, you know for a fact that you will read it a few more times...this is that kind of book.
Anyone interested in mormonism, or religion in general will love this book. (well maybe not mormons). Anyone who just loves a good page turner, will love this book.
If the author of this book is reading this review, please turn this book intoa movie. I have read probably close to a thousand books, I'm sure. A book has to be real good to get on my top ten list.
religion enthusiasts, this is the most exciting religious lesson you will get. take advantage of it. Oh by the way, another good book about mormonism is housewife to heretic by sonia johnson.

A real page-turner. Not just for the story of murder and forgery in the modern day...but for the history of the Mormon church. Joseph Smith originally intended THE BOOK OF MORMON to be a novel, that he hoped would make him some money. When people mistook it for real scripture, he was shocked, then thought he could make even more money this way, starting a religion. After the religion got going, he had dissenters assassinated. I had no idea the Mormon Church was based on such a flimsy, corrupt, foundation. As flimsy and corrupt as Scientology. Give the Church of Scientolgy 150 more years, and it will be as respectable as Mormonism. It's as like if the readers of THE CELESTINE PROPHECY believed that was truth, and its author as a result started a religion. The truth of Joseph Smith is almost as riveting as the truth of Mike Hofmann, the forger and murderer in the modern day, who is the main focus of this book. Hofmann said he and Josepth Smith were very much alike. He may be more right than we'd like to think. Not just a page-turner, but an eye-opener.