Edward Asner Books

Last year, I read Skinny Dip, my first Hiaasen novel. I was really pleasantly surprised. I found it fun, interesting, quirky-- an excellent waste of time. I wanted to read something else by him and several people recommended Stormy Weather. It is meant to be classic Hiaasen, whatever that means.

What classic Hiaasen meant for me, unfortunately, was that it read very much like Skinny Dip. I can't help but think it a good sign when you feel that an author is formulaic after only two books.

A well-meaning woman makes a bad marriage choice to a reasonably icky male. Disaster of one kind or another brings her into contact with a damaged but well-meaning loner who quickly reveals himself to be a better catch than the man that she actually married. Add to that basic plot a whole lot of character-based zaniness and the idea of Florida as a lens which sorts out the good from the bad, and it seems from these two books as though you have Hiassen in a nutshell.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with a good formula, providing that it delivers the entertainment value. Hiassen certainly does that-- no doubt about it. I enjoyed Stormy Weather, even if the enjoyment was dimmed by the comparison to Skinny Dip.

By the way, it is well possible that I just picked an unfortunate two books with which to begin and that when I read a third I will see that the strong plot similarities were simply coincidence. I hope so. I've already got Nature Girl sitting on my shelf to be read, so I guess that I'm going to find out.

This is my first Hiaasen novel and won't be my last. The story moves fast and the characters are difficult to keep up with at first. Finally it clicked in for me and I was able to identify the main characters, ancillary characters and settings. Very descriptive scenery and good character development. More of an adventure although impossible in real life (mine, anyway)and I am sure the characters resemble real people living somewhere even as wacky as they were, but not in my unexciting suburban area. The humor comes from imagining the scenes as described and the predicaments each main character gets him/herself into as well as the thinking processes they exhibit. It was eating road kill that clouded the overall ambience...

This is the second Hiaasen novel I've read, and based on the word-of-mouth about him in general and the reviews for this book in particular, I felt especially let down. My giving it 3 stars is actually generous.

Perhaps the book was just built up too much, or maybe I'm just jaded, but this novel never really engaged me. I could have put it down after 100 pages and not felt bad or any lack of "closure" for not knowing what happens. Then again, I enjoy "quirky" and "off-beat" literature, and this struck me as a mainstream book **trying** to be off-beat for mainstream readers. Maybe I just have a higher threshold for such stuff.

There are several reasons why this didn't click with me. First and foremost, almost every character in here annoyed me. Let me be clear and clarify/contrast that: a well-written book designs antagonists that we are obviously not supposed to like and secretly hope they get a "come-uppance". That isn't what happened here: everyone (heroes and villains) were simply irritating--without actually being **interesting**, and I simply wished they'd go away so someone more interessting would come along.

Going hand-in-hand with that, the antagonists consistently suffered from "willful stupidity" -- they would do dumb things that were obviously dumb and served no purpose except plot convenience, because if they had a few more brain cells to rub together they wouldn't be in whatever situation there was and the book would grind to a halt. That may or may not be lazy writing, but to me it's certainly frustrating: I enjoy my villains to have a mind and a master plan that's interesting.

Lastly, the book is about 100 pages longer than it needs to be, and since it had already worn out its welcome by that point it seemed especially tedious to me. Again, I could have walked away from this by then with a clean conscience, but the only thing preventing me from doing so was that there wasn't anything else handy for me to read at the time.

I can see why mainstream readers might think Hiaasen in general and this book in particular are funny and off-beat, but since I read a lot of that type of stuff anyway, this is a sub-par offering. For instance, Tim Dorsey does the same type of thing, but much, much better.

[...]

When I first read this book, it was back when it had the flamingo on the cover, so it has been awhile. But my opinion about the book has not changed.

Having gone through Hurricane Andrew in Homestead, this book touched more than a nerve. Only those that have dealt with tragedy like this, from both Mother Nature and humans, truly understand the heart-ache and anger that is felt. It's not contrived, it is not in our heads, but something that we lived with for a long time.

Between tourists, scammers, developers and politicians, Florida (and our country), needs heroes that will stand up and do what is needed for the right reasons - and greed isn't it.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of Carl Hiaasen's books that I've read, and I've only missed 5, this one though, is at the top of my list for showing just what it was like living in South Florida after the hurricane.

Having read through the reviews, I have to say, it was amusing to read how some reviewers say that what happened in the book is basically far-fetched. Well, having hunted for escaped monkeys, sat up with rifle in lap for my turn at watch, paid $10.00 for a bag of ice, learned to cook pretty much anything on a grill, far-fetched was close to reality.

I've read almost every Hiassen book I could get my hands on, after my initiation with what I still think is Hiassen's top masterpiece of satire: "Skin Tight"Skin Tight and not one has disappointed.
But in "Stormy Weather" Hiassen absolutely outdid himself with 1. his villain Snapper, and Snapper's fate in the end. 2. The relentless hilarity of the scenes at the hurricane site featuring Snapper and Edie, and 3. in the way he painted his female protagonist Edie...She is top contender for 1st prize in Hiassen's gallery of the 'lovable "bad girl" Her "type" is very effectively delivered to us in many of his other tales--this girl IS bad...she'll do just about anything it takes to get rich and famous..BUT she draws some lines in selling her soul, and when she joins the ranks of female vigilantes, and turns on her villain pals, look out! In this book's cool ex of this Hiassen signature plot twist, Edie's pal Snapper makes the huge mistake of trying to ride THIS vamp! Cause the designing girl may forgive and collude with the crooks for money, but cuts them into little pieces and feeds them to the crocodiles when they foolishly try to con her in a pathetic male predator sally driven by their grandiose ego! (another fave ex of this female 'antiheroine' is found in Skinny Dip"Skinny Dip) Edie is the Queen of these designing babes turned heroines! This book is a very good Hiassen meal!

I couldn't put this down. He expounded on observations I've heard from many, and answered so many questions that have been plaguing us, especially in these times. It is truly inspired wisdom and hope. Ths man's observations are uncanny, and give us pause for cause and food for thought. I highly recommend this to anyone seeking more calm. I gave up religion for spirituality several years ago, and I have never wished to go back. I have found an abundance of everything in my life which surpasses anything I could ever have hoped for. This book makes me want to learn so much more. Enjoy it and learn from it; give it as gifts. Some have said this is heresy. If it is, I am proud to be a heretic. Thank you, Father/Mother/Spirit/God!

The New Revelations continue with the almost logical view of God continuing to thwart organized religions (to my delight). Another book, 'Callings', by Gregg Levov, mentions that the word 'religion' comes from a term meaning 'to reconnect', which seems to be what many of these New Age books seem to encourage.

Walsch seems to bring out at least one stunning comment in each of his books, which will cause some to say 'He's a heretic or a fruitcake' and others to say 'Whoa, this needs some thought.' That is what life is all about, reconsidering the big questions as well as service to life, and most of all, discovering life.

'New Revelations' brings out one extraordinarily simple point. To change the world, we must change our beliefs. All of them, religious, economic, political, etc. Become a person thinking on a global scale and spread the news around and the world will be better. "Wouldn't it be nice to think so." (From Robert B. Parker's Spenser series, Hawk in 'Double Deuce', I think.)

I always view Walsch's God much like George Burns in the movie, 'Oh God!' There is a part in the book that says the same thing that George said. "Why don't I stop the suffering? You [people of Earth] have to stop the suffering." Free Will seems important, too bad a lot of people don't understand it or are afraid of it.

I do a lot of writing and I remember reading the introduction to the first 'A Conversation with God'. Some people call what Walsch went through as 'automatic writing', perhaps on par with seances and fortune telling, but any writer, especially of fiction, will swear something else takes hold of your pen sometimes and goes off on it's own. It is scary and exhilarating; true 'inspiration' or 'breath of God'.

I am impressed by Walsch's series but that may be that I pretty much see the world in the same way. A scientist by training, I know names of people, places, trees, rocks, weeds, insects, etc. so it is a bit hard to for me to deny that we aren't all connected together by something grand. Still, the desire for territory (power, riches) is as inborn in us as the wonder of the world is. 'Therein lies the rub.'

I guess the changes must start with each one of us.

to save humanity from extinction, Neale asks if we would find the courage to challenge the beliefs we have been using to define ourselves, and evaluate with honesty how effective or ineffective our theologies have been in producing the results we claim to want

using well-researched references to written scriptures of the most prominent world religions, he shows clear admonition in each which have provoked destructive behaviors throughout our history down to the present day

"You've done the things you've been doing to each other in the name of religion because many of your present organized religions, all well-meant, all well-intended, and most grounded in some sound spiritual principles, are simply incomplete in their understandings. Religion has not been allowed to grow. Indeed you will not let it grow. You claim that any new insight that contradicts or modifies the old is blasphemous and heretical. You claim that new revelations are not possible. Your position is that everything there is to say has already been said, everything there is to know is already known, everything there is to understand is already understood. Yet your desperate struggle to keep your species alive, to stop it's members from killing each other, and from destroying all of life will not end, and it may wind up ending you if you are unable to make one simple statement. There is something I do not understand about God, and about life, the understanding of which will change everything."

living in the question of what this new understanding would open up for us is primed with a set of concise "Revelations", not to be accepted on faith or as fact, but offered in an invitation to consider deeply if there is any truth in them for us, and any value in them for the human race

a remarkable work, the revelations themselves useful to contemplate on a daily basis as supporting a refreshing orientation to our life and world events; an orientation where hope displaces fear and our choices in each of life's moments yield self-realization and stand as encouragement to others

I strongly recommend this work

no explicit external references to other works were found. My journey along the Conversations path brings me next to Communion with God

This book is an incredible dialogue with the creator of the Universe that speaks truth. Must read.

Every public and home library should have this book. It contains enlightening information you will want to read again and again to re-member throuout your life.

A classic of American literature, it tells the story of the America I grew up in, the one that still exists and thrives.

This is incredile writing, Masters ability to give his characters a voice that reachs ones heart and mind simply amazing. Ernest Hyde, is an excellent example of this as well as Amanda Barker,Yee Bow and many others. These are the names of some the voices that Masters sets free. There dry innocent voices are oddly humorous and this is what i find the most refreshing.This is free verse at its finest.

Masters' Spoon River Anthology is as poignant today as when it was written. Part glimpse of history, part poetic essay on the eternal frailties of the human animal, the epitaphs are riveting from first to last. Read it. Then get a spoken word recording. Then read it again. You'll find these characters live on.

There IS an actual Spoon River in Fulton County, IL but no town by that name. Masters was speaking about that area because he was writing about what he knew. Like any great literature, it transcends time and place to have more universal meaning. Some characters are small town folk, others aspired to grow beyond and were thwarted by circumstance, while still others grew beyond Spoon River and were brought back home from their travels for eternal rest. "All, all are sleeping on the hill". Each character narrates his or her own brief story in a free verse poem, one per page. Some stories intersect as characters mention each other. It's interesting to cross reference characters in this regard. Sometimes the compliment of mention isn't returned. Upon first inspection, this might seem to be a rather morbid format. However, the characters speak more about their lives and human struggles than they do about death. Theirs are timeless tales about joy, accomplishment, pain, betrayal, discovery, loneliness and atonement.
This book is a real classic. It was given to me for my seventeenth birthday and I've collected several different volumes of it since then including one signed by the author. I think the dramatic format might still catch the attention of alot of teenagers and give them pause to reflect upon the deeper meanings in life. It's one of those must read's for anyone looking to read the American Classics.

Upon its release Edgar Lee Masters' collection of free verse poems must have shaken the literary universe. In an era when the mores of polite Victorianism were still lingering in an America concerned with all things proper, Masters dared pen a book in which the dead of a small Midwestern town lie not in a state of reservation before Christian resurrection, but in a condition of stasis, ruminating on their lives and speaking with candor on all they may have done. The dead who speak from their graves in these wondrous poems reveal their secrets, their unfulfilled dreams, their disapprobation at humanity's conduct. The dead are to varying degrees wise, ironic, witty, bitter, content, confused, and moralistic. They have regrets, they mock the values of we who are living, they seethe with longing, they confess universal truths at long last, they await they know not what, the arrival of eternity or a continuation of their suspended state of evaluation, in conditions of calm, content, fright, or regretless joy. There is one thing none of those who have passed away from the streets of Spoon River to its hallowed acre on the hill, are and that is quiet.

One of a dozen or so American poetical achievements that most fully justifies our nation's pride in its own literary accomplishments.

Mr. Walsch takes his reader through an amazing journey into quantum mechanics and the human potential through the first 19 chapters of his discusion with God about humanity. He really seems to "get it". Although his reference to his other works may cause a reader to wonder if he is using psychological tactics to gain sales for the parts he discusses without divulging their secrets, this book still offers a great deal of thought for self exploration.

Then one reaches the 20th chapter and Mr.Walsch's vision of an ideal new world. Understanding that Mr. Walsch is as human as the rest of us and thus not perfect, one can't help but wonder if he really believes what the first 19 chapters were all about. Although many of his visions for a new world are wonderful, he still seems to be stuck in the thought that control and manipulation need to be used to gain human cooperation. His reference to putting names of those who do not contribute to the whole in the local news to gain peer pressure to force cooperation examplifies this. The vision Mr. Walsch portrays has already been tried with both Western religious and communistic empires. They failed miserably

However, this book offers a lot to a seeking reader. I suggest reading it, throwing aside what does not fit and exploring what does.

We all evolve at our own pace and we do create our reality. My view of a new world does not include any type of manipulation to gain cooperation. I believe we are capable of evolving fully into a glorious loving future without such needs.

Tomorrow's God explores the nature of a relationship with God that is remarkably empowering, and one which encompasses our relationship to our planet, humanity, and one another - including our most personal of relationships - seeing them all as vehicles for our spiritual evolution

"Consider the possiblility that you came into the relationship in order to remember how to be greater than you are. That's the purpose of all relationships, and of all of life. I've said the purpose of life is to recreate yourself anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about who you are."

Another powerful conversation for the possibility of being for human beings, consolidating and relating in clear, simple language a spectrum of knowledge ranging from the personal to the cosmic. I listened to this audiobook after What God Wants: A Compelling Answer to Humanity's Biggest Question, for which it is a natural progression of the subject, adding relief to the picture of a "New Spirituality", an expression of that grand relationship with outcomes which transform politics, economics, education and all areas of human endeavor

"In the days of the New Spirituality the priority of education will no longer be the dissemination of facts, but the increasing of sensitivity and awareness, and understanding and compassion and acceptance and celebration and of appreciation for the awe and wonder of life."

References Neale makes to related material from other authors are

Duane Elgin
Barbara Marx Hubbard
Karen Armstrong
Hazel Henderson
Jean Houston
Eleanor LeCain
Jack Reed
Dennis Weaver

with specific acknowledgement of the courageous movie production, What Dreams May Come

I recommend this to any reader wishing to explore a compelling vision of how life on the planet, and the human condition, could transform in response to our own personal spiritual evolution

I'm on next to The New Revelations: A Conversation with God

Answer to all my questions and more I have bought about 10 books and 6 CD to give to friends and family, Pastors, Practioners, teachers, I love this book, I am so glad this book has been read by so many. There will be peace on earth when everone reads this book.

Tomorrows God is a culmination of Neal Donald Walschs Conversation with God books. All the books has given me Devine Inspiration to go deeper into my own divinity and to understand Gods presence in me and everything. My new claear belief creating new profound actions and results for myself and the World!
With Love & Light Of God To All Of Us - We Are One!
Jonas

"The truth about all of you is that you have deep insights and extraordinary wisdom, and all you have to do to experience that is open up to it and call it forth."

This book is excellent in opening the mind to positive human potentialities. Sure, it is a great introduction to Kabbalah and getting "close to God" from a Jewish perspective and as an aid to approaching the Torah. But, it is much more. Whether one has a traditional understanding of what God is, or not, it can be stipulated that there is some force or set of forces, or some order, be it mathematical, or whatever, which is worth pondering in order to add to one's current knowledge or understanding of the really big picture. Calling that God, works fine.

Anyway, what the book succeeds at is, by translations of many Kabbalah texts, it allows one to contemplate some pretty important concepts like nothingness and infinity. In simple terms, by reducing one's persona to its humblest state possible, simulating a "nothingness", it then makes possible expanding one's thoughts as close as possible to the infinite, a way of thinking of God, or whatever name one wants to use. You will learn what Ayin, Ein Sof and the ten Sefirot are, and how they can be tools to exploring the infinite, the unknowable.....'God'.

I first read this book several years ago, and can better understand why I liked it then, and why it is still valuable.

This small book is a wonderful cross-section of some of Kabbalah's most important writings. Containing sections of the cornerstones of mystical Judaism, including those giants: the Zohar, the Sefer Yetzirah, the Sefer Bahir, the Orot ha-Qodesh, and others, it spans more than 700 years of oral tradition and contemplation. With words from the pens of illustrious seers such as Moses de Leon, Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Rev. Kook, Azriel of Gerona, Maimonides, Isaac of Akko, Hayyim Vital, Abraham Abulafia, among others, this book renders in English key selections of so many worthy texts, the authors of which bristle with that knowledge that only Union with the Divine engenders. While not necessarily an introductory text, the book is accessible to anyone wishing to learn about Kabbalah.

Daniel Matt has done English speakers a great service by presenting these morsels in a comprehensive form, providing a stunning bibliography and notes on the text in the rear of the book. Scholarly, yet humble, Matt keeps his comments separate (although easily perused) so as not to corrupt the presentation with cumbersome footnotes. Presented in a thoughtful series that compounds and expounds as it progresses, the reader is skimmed across the surface of this great ocean, peering into the depths, scintillating, all filled with light.

Daniel Matt did an excellent job in writing The Essential Kabbalah. The book opened many doors of my imagination and also many other doors of my rational mind. I will definately read it many more times in an attempt to grasp it's concepts.

I'm interested in the nondual expression contained in this book. Nonduality is the teaching that there is no separation from God, Self, or Truth. Nonduality is most openly revealed within the traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta). However, nondual teachings are found in all major religious traditions.

In Judaism, nonduality is expressed explicitly in the Kabbalah. Daniel C. Matt's treatment of nonduality is uncompromising: "Do not say, 'This is a stone and not God.' God forbid! Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity."

The book hands the reader instruction in nondual practice: "Think of yourself as Ayin (nothingness) and forget yourself totally."

This book is an important contribution to a popular nondual Judaism. For a present day view of nondual Judaism for the people, the works of Jay Michaelson and Rabbi Rami Shapiro could be consulted. Michael Laitman expresses the nondual truth of Kabbalah very clearly; he has videos on YouTube.

Jerry Katz
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality

In the book of Jeremiah the prophet said that his experience of God was just like Fire Shut up in his bones. Author Daniel Matt, nails some interesting Jewish content that reveals how the Kabbalists were touched by Fire and moved by exuberance. Their love for deep spiritual experience is unlike anything I've ever seen or read about before.

"The Essential Kabbalah" is wonderfully written with great foundational principles and some strong historical references pointing to the Torah. The section of the book I really enjoyed was at the beginning under Ein Sof where it talks in depth about the qualities of God. The symbolisim is quite amazing as it talks in depth about the Shekinah Glory of God. The kabbalist were very radical, motivated by a passion that touches the soul deep with in. If you're interested in learning about some of the hidden secrets of ancient Rabbis then let Daniel Matt show you how to unfold that history and the complex symbols that are present. I really enjoyed the book and it was very well written too.

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE

Detective Lew Archer is hired by the Blackwell family in Bel Air to investigate a deadbeat artist/playboy set on marrying their daughter who goes by the name of Burke Damis. Mark Blackwell suspects he's "One of those confidence men who make a career of marrying silly women" and is trying to get his hooks on a half-million fortune. Is Burke Damis who he says he is? Why was Quincy Ralph Simpson killed by an ice pick? What is the significance of the black-and-white hearse?


This is my personal, favorite mystery of all time. I have read this book no less than four times throughout my life and it inspired me on the road to mystery writing. Ross Macdonald weaves a complex Freudian twist in The Zebra-Striped Hearse not explored by Chandler and Hammett. It also examines the, then generation gap. Indicative of Ross Macdonald books, the California coast and sea are woven into the story and paint a serene backdrop against the moral turpitude of the plot.

"The Zebra-Striped Hearse" initially published in 1962, is the author's tenth book, one in a series of Lew Archer mysteries, described by The New York Times as "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American." One of the California-set Archer series, "The Drowning Pool," was made into a movie starring Paul Newman as the Archer character, renamed Harper for the film. The American author of the series was Ross Macdonald, Californian, who wrote in the great hard-boiled tradition of Los Angeles noir, following on the heels of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. (In fact, at one point in this book, we appear to have a dead lady in a lake, which would have to be considered a nod to Chandler's "The Lady in the Lake.") Unfortunately, there will be no more entries in the Lew Archer series: Macdonald passed from the scene years ago, if memory serves, suffering from disabling Alzheimer's disease that prevented him from writing while he still lived.

"The Hearse" opens with what appears to be a variant on the Cinderella story: rich American princess wants to marry, stepmother stands in the way. Although we quickly learn the union is more harshly opposed by the girl's father, the moneyed king. And the would-be prince is a bounder, handsome man with artistic pretensions, shady past, too many women in his life. Then, as this is a mystery, the bodies start showing up, though later rather than sooner, as some of us prefer. But it's a tight, reasonably complex, absorbing story, well-told. The opening even foreshadows the ending, as was always the rule: Macdonald was an able writer. However, in coming back to reread this book after many years, the most striking thing about it was its close adherence to what I always considered this author's formula: all the bad things happening in the open here and now grow out of bad things done secretly years ago.

Macdonald was also an excellent descriptive writer and he's left us an indelible picture of the Los Angeles of his time. Adults drink and smoke heavily-- the author describes smoke-filled rooms such as would never be tolerated in the LA of today. Beach bums have to watch their pennies. The city's smog is battened down upon it by clouds, as if they were "the lid of a pressure cooker," an item most readers today will not know. Orange County, today a series of famously wealthy television-worthy suburbs, was then a rural place where they grew oranges: Macdonald calls it Citrus County. He describes the now world-renowned home of the movie-making elite, and other elites, Malibu, as a "straggling beach town," and mentions the "shabby fringes" of Pacific Palisades, a location where you'd be hard put to find anything shabby today. In sum, it seems that, whether he aimed to or not, Macdonald also produced an abiding picture of his home town over the years.

If you have not yet had the pleasure of picking up a Lew Archer mystery, this is a fine one to start with. Although I think MacDonald had written a dozen books before 'Zebra-Striped Hearse,' they all stand alone very well.

What's so great about Archer books is that they really feel like a good Chandler or Hammett. I often wonder what Hammett would have come up with if he had taken Sam Spade and concocted a long running series ala today's writers. A high complement, in my opinion, is that Lew Archer pretty nicely fits that bill.

However, though I can go on and on about how great these Archer books are, I can't help but think that Macdonald often fails to take his books that extra step. If you compare any of Macdonalds books to say 'The Big Sleep,' it is apparent that the Archer series comes away as pretty flat and 2 dimensional. That might be something to think about as you work your way through the series. And because Macdonald took so many liberties with Hammett and Chandler... never truly finding his own voice... and at the same time failed to match these authors at their best, I can't bring myself to give any of Macdonalds books five stars.

I am sure that you can see the essence of the plot here by skimming this web page. One thing going for it is some nice convolusions on the authors part that will undoubtedly keep you wondering exactly what is going on til the very end. I just had to get my two cents in above and complain about some apparant, though in the long run, very over-lookable deficits. This is a great book. Enjoy it. Think about how one mystery writer feeds off another and adds to our currently thriving lexicon of contemporary writers.

Ross Macdonald was in top form when he wrote The Zebra-Striped Hearse. I found this engaging Lew Archer mystery to be an incredibly compelling page turner of a novel.

The narrative begins with ace PI Lew Archer being hired by Mark Blackwell, a wealthy, puritanical, ex-army colonel. Blackwell's daughter Harriet has taken up with a penniless artist named Burke Damis. And quite naturally, Dad does not approve. So he hires Archer to look into Damis' background.

Archer's subsequent investigation takes him to a number of different locales in California, Nevada and Mexico and proves to be quite fruitful. He learns a number of disturbing things about Mr. Damis, including the fact that Damis is not his real name.

But that's only the beginning. Archer and the reader eventually learn that nothing is at it appears. As the suspenseful plot unfolds, a hidden web of intrigue, deception and family dysfunction is skillfully unmasked. And ultimately, the multifaceted plot all comes together at the stunningly effective conclusion.

The Zebra-Striped Hearse is a prime example of Ross Macdonald at his very best. An enthusiastic 5 stars.

The bad news about this wonderful novel is that it is not Ross MacDonald at his very best. The good news is that it is still far better than most mystery novels that have been written. Of the three great masters of the American hardboiled detective novel, MacDonald never achieved the brilliant prose style of Hammett and Chandler, but neither of those two came close to the meditations on the vagaries of the human soul that MacDonald made his subject over and again. All of MacDonald's novels deal with the consequences of original sin, of an evil that seems to be greater than any individual human being, an evil that constantly threatens to overwhelm human beings when they least anticipate it. Frequently, we discover in MacDonald that, as in the Old Testament, the sins of the fathers have been visited on the second and third generations. Often in his novels, the roots of the crimes of the present lay twenty or thirty or forty years in the past. In this novel, Lew Archer at one points explains to his client, "The past is the key to the present," thus stating explicitly one of the fundamental principles underlying all of MacDonald's fiction. Ironically this novel extends less into the pass than almost any of his other novels. One of his truly great novels such as the incomparable THE CHILL or THE INSTANT ENEMY will extend decades into the past, which MacDonald brilliantly links to the present. Often one gets the sense that MacDonald's is revealing the secret history of his character's lives. This one does as well, but instead of going forty years into the past, he goes merely a few years.

I loved the locales of the novel. Although I wish he physically described the areas Archer visits, MacDonald was always more of an ethicist than a sociologist. He was always less interested in communities and the way society worked than in the way that humans worked and how the decisions they make ripple down through the lives of other human beings. Thus he visits Lake Tahoe, but there is a kind of timelessness to the area he described. In reading Chandler, on the other hand, there is often a deep consciousness of the character and nature of the places where the stories occur. These technique benefits both authors, by providing a concreteness to Chandler's stories that is often missing in MacDonald's, while lending a sense of timelessness to MacDonald that is impossible in Chandler. Most hardboiled writers have tended to follow more in Hammett and Chandler's footsteps than MacDonald's, though James Ellroy is one notable exception.

Though this is not one of MacDonald's best novels, it is still exceptionally enjoyable. It is also one of his least typical. Some people survive you anticipate meeting violent ends (the body count for his central characters is usually quite high). As always, he unrolls his plot skillfully. The characters are all vividly drawn. And unlike many of his other novels, there is more than one unexpected twist at the end. This is as fine a place as any for any newcomer to MacDonald to start, and any MacDonald veteran who has not read it certainly should. It may not contain the glories of his great masterpiece THE CHILL (which more than one critic of the genre considers to be the supreme novel of the entire detective genre), but it is nonetheless a very fine book.

I greatly enjoyed reading this book, and viewing the documentary that was based on it. Tom Lewis crafted an interesting, well-written story, and did his research. His facts are almost all correct, and Empire of the Air does a service in reviving interest in the history of the single most-important technological leap of the past century. (It is even more important than the Internet; the Internet has precedents--computers, telephones, TV, FAX, etc.--but radio had no precedent. It was the very first instantaneous mass-communication system in the world.)

Empire of the Air likewise portrays the personalities of "the Men Who Made Radio" almost flawlessly. In all, this is a book not only worth reading, but worth owning.

But I have one problem with Empire of the Air. How is it that How is it that Powel Crosley, Jr., the man who built the most powerful commercial radio station in the U.S. is mentioned only once, referred to in passing as an inventor in a garage? Crosley, the creator of one of the first 100 radio stations in the U.S., a man who consistently led in breaking the barriers to higher power for more than a decade, and who almost single-handedly established the market for radios (something Sarnoff tried to do six years earlier--and failed). Crosley, who bested Sarnoff's RCA in a 7-year legal battle? I can't blame Tom for the omission; I believe it is part of the aftermath of Sarnoff's revenge of persuading his contemporaries to omit Crosley from history. (There's an argument for that, but this is not the place to propound it.)

That aside, Empire of the Air deserves a place on your history bookshelf. It's on mine.
--Mike

"Empire of The Air: The Men Who Made Radio," by Tom Lewis, HarperCollins, New York, 1991. This 421 page paperback is the book that accompanied the 1990s PBS series, a three-hour presentation of the story of radio. It emphasized the role of three individuals: Lee DeForest, Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff. Lee DeForest invented the audion tube by inserting a grid between the plate and the filament in a vacuum tube. Howard Armstrong perfected the invention with a series of circuits that made the vacuum tube more sensitive as a radio receiver and suitable as a transmitter. Later he invented FM radio, which greatly reduced static and distortions. David Sarnoff envisioned broadcast radio and provided leadership in its successful commercialization. Later, his company, RCA, also pioneered network radio, television and color television. Modern electronics owe their origins to the electric telegraph, which first brought wires and electricity into communities across the country. Indeed, Thomas Edison and David Sarnoff both began as telegraph operators.

Although the subject of the series was radio, the true subject was Radio Corporation of America or RCA. The book covers the technical developments that made broadcast radio possible and ends with RCA being acquired by General Electric in 1985.

DeForest billed himself as "The Father of Radio," but we learn he was a tinkerer who did not understand how the audion tube worked. In an age when white Anglo-Saxon (Calvinist) Protestants attended Ivy League colleges, and ran most corporations, you would expect Armstrong to win. He was a Presbyterian, educated at Columbia University, under the then leading professor of electrical engineering, Michael Pupin. He was reportedly shy and introverted, but his intelligence was recognized early, and he began experimenting with electronics as a teenager. DeForest, on the other hand, also Presbyterian was educated at Yale University, but his father, a minister, was president of a black college in the South, Talladega College. DeForest is described as an outgoing extrovert, but as a carpetbagger in the South, he had few friends. He spent his time reading patents in the college library, where he resolved to become an inventor. He selected electricity as a promising field of study. DeForest attended Dwight Moody's prep school in Mt. Herman, MA, on his way to Yale, but his rural background meant he did not fit-in with classmates.

Sarnoff was a poor immigrant (Russian) Jew, who was forced to support the family after his father died. After selling newspapers, he learned Morse code in the telegraph department at the New York Herald. From that experience, he got a job at American Marconi, the famous radio telegraph company. When RCA it was formed, he moved into management ranks, and functioned as the technical visionary who promoted broadcast radio as a more profitable venture than the radio telegraphy business. He arranged to have "music boxes" built, and demonstrated their utility. It was Sarnoff who recognized the technical superiority of Armstrong's regenerative circuit and recommended that Marconi license it. Later, he co-operated with Armstrong's demonstration of FM radio. But it was Sarnoff, who decided to invest in television, to resist FM and then to develop alternative circuits, which he claimed were outside of Armstrong's patents. The result was a patent fight, which proved expensive to Armstrong, and ultimately led to his suicide.

American Marconi was the US branch of the Italian Marconi firm. It had been founded by Guglielmo Marconi, based on his invention of radio telegraphy. He had improved the primitive art and greatly increased signal range. He is famous for having transmitted the coded letter S across the Atlantic, but the main use for radiotelegraphy was ship to ship and ship to shore communications (as became clear after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912), plus the flexibility of building stations without the need to install cabling. Unlike the fly-by-night radio telegraph companies founded by DeForest (which set up demonstrations in various cities, sold stock, and then disappeared often without even trying to build a successful business), Marconi was an honest businessman who provided a quality service at a fair price. (DeForest was charged with fraud for one of his ventures, but was judged not guilty in a jury trial. He had been duped by promoters who ran the business end of his ventures, often leaving him with debts and taking off with the cash.)

The PBS series told the story well, but some of the details omitted should be mentioned. In spite of pending challenges to his audion patent, DeForest sold nonexclusive rights to American Telephone & Telegraph Co., i.e., the phone company--in July, 1913. They used the technology in a practical amplifier, which made possible coast-to-coast long-distance telephone service by 1915.

A Canadian university professor named Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, working in Pittsburgh, invented a spade detector that advanced the art of radio telegraphy. He successfully broadcast a playing violin to radio operators in 1906. Later he sold his patents to Westinghouse, who set up, KDKA in Pittsburgh as the first broadcast radio station in November, 1916.

RCA came about because the most powerful transmitter at the time was the alternator. General Electric became expert at manufacturing the device, but a proliferation of patents made it difficult to operate without licenses under competitors patents. GE and American Marconi decided to set up RCA, when it was realized that the American government would not allow a foreign corporation to own a technology considered essential to the national defense. Germany operated an undersea telegraph cable to the Americas, but it was promptly severed in World War I. That made Germany dependent on radio telegraphy for communications and emphasized the importance of radio as a critical national defense technology.

Others soon realized the advantage of contributing their radio patents to RCA in return for part ownership. Westinghouse and AT&T participated, but General Electric was the major shareholder, and had greatest control. Both Westinghouse and AT&T had broadcast radio stations, which they contributed to the venture. It was GE's Owen Young, who recognized Sarnoff's talents and saw to his promotion in spite of the anti-Semitic practices of the day.

World War I had a major impact on radio. Thousands of soldiers were trained in the basics of radio during their military service. After the war, they came home to build crystal sets, and some times one or two tube radio sets constructed from kits. These sets were the audience for early broadcast radio. As with the personal computer, initially it was a hobbyist market. But Sarnoff believed radio should be made available to the average man on the street with a handsome set suitable for the living room with a speaker instead of headphones.

The quest for talking movies began in about 1919. DeForest was an early participant. His technology, called Phonofilm, proved cumbersome. Warner Brothers issued the first talking films using Vitaphone, a record synchronized to the film. In 1928, RCA and GE followed with the photocell film track technology, called pallophotophone. They with Joseph Kennedy formed RKO Radio Pictures to make and distribute talking films by the purchase of the Keith-Albee-Orphium theater chain. (At the time, theater chains showed only the films produced by their companies.) RCA owned 25%. The book does not say so but apparently AT&T/Western Electric was a key developer of talking film technology especially working with Warner Brothers. They built the large speaker amplifier system that filled the theater with sound. RCA came later to the business but entered into an agreement making films with either system compatible on the same projection equipment.

RCA repeatedly encountered challenges from Federal antitrust authorities. In a settlement reached in 1926, AT&T sold its broadcast radio stations to RCA in return for an agreement to be the exclusive carrier of NBC network transmissions to its affiliated stations for a $1MM annual fee. (William Paley founded CBS independently in 1928.) In 1930, an antitrust suit forced the founding companies to divest their interests in RCA, to discontinue manufacture of radio equipment for 30 months, and to cease any non-compete agreements regarding radio equipment. RCA would license its radio technology to others resulting in a proliferation of competing brands of radio sets. In addition, Sarnoff was freed of board members of the sponsoring companies allowing him total control of RCA and its board. ABC was created in 1945 after NBC was forced to divest itself of the blue network.

Television came to RCA almost as a lark. Vladimir Zworykin, a research assistant at Westinghouse, had taken out a patent on a primitive TV camera, but Westinghouse failed to invest in the technology. Sarnoff hired him to work in RCA's Camden, NJ laboratories (on the manufacturing site of the Victor Phonograph Co. which RCA had acquired in 1929 after working with it to provide radio phonograph combinations since 1924). The Sarnoff Labs in Princeton, NJ were constructed in 1941.

RCA became the leading manufacturer of vacuum tubes. DeForest had offered his audion tube for sale almost from the beginning, but he was unable to manufacture tubes with consistent performance. RCA reduced them to standardized designs with predictable characteristics. The Princeton Lab was a developer of over 150 new types of radio tubes. In 1940, a manufacturing plant for vacuum tubes was built in Lancaster, PA. It made 20MM tubes by the end of the war in 2000 types.

Early television technology relied on unreliable, mechanical devices to receive a moving picture. RCA was forced to license Philo Farnsworth's electronic television patents. However, it galled David Sarnoff to pay for such technology. It is said he resolved never to be bested again in patent negotiations. Perhaps that is the reason he fought so hard to avoid licensing FM rights from Howard Armstrong (after Armstrong rejected his offer).

This book is loaded with historical details that make interesting reading. It includes extensive references and notes as well as a bibliography. Indexed.

As a radio professional myself, I very much enjoyed reading about the evolution of radio and the marvelous myriad of personalities involved. Since the beginning radio has been filled with colorful and interesting people. It reinforced in me that I picked the right profession to dedicate my life to.

I would recommend this book to any professional broadcaster. If we fail to have an appreciation of history, we fail to grasp the big picture.

Jeffrey McAndrew
WHBL News Anchor and Editor and author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

Subtitled "The Men Who Made Radio," this book is concerned with the principal actors developing radio: Marconi, Sarnoff, Armstrong, and De Forrest. Sarnoff ("The General") was the egoist who founded RCA, and Armstrong was the secretive inventor of FM who refused to compromise and lost everything (and committed suicide). The first half of the book is the best; it's all about the inventors and their new inventions and is very interesting. The second half suffers from being mostly about the legal hassling that occurred among the principals. Recommended.

I didn't just read this book, I've read it three times and will probably read it at least two more times, slowly. It's easily the best recounting of an industrial development that I've ever been through in any medium. The amount of detail about the invention of "radio" is almost overwhelming. The way that the lives of the major figures are professionally interwoven and spiced up with backstabbing, deceit, lying and tragedy is also keeps the reader's eyes glued to the pages. You also begin to realise why the work of honest inventors needs to be protected.

However, the authors distinction between "wireless" and "radio" is pretty thin in my opinion and his use of that to exclude Marconi from the group is a bit ungenerous and just flat-out, technically wrong. The inclusion of Sarnoff is just as wrong. Sarnoff was a classic, ruthless American entrepreneur- not an inventor. He was no doubt a great visionary but he also appropriated for himself events to which he was not connected. Sarnoff more properly belongs in a second volume with Paley and others who raised broadcasting to the level of a major industry. They gave alot to their country, but, not as inventors.

It's an all round great read and I highly recommend it. Tom Lewis did a fantastic job and I've got an opinion thanks to his incredible research. In fact, his book has caused me to do even more reading on the subject.

Finally, I think there's also an accidental, back-door warning in there about the debasement of the American economy. As radio grew, it created hard, marketable skills and spread the wealth into just about every town and household. That's not happening today in an economy that's based on endless consumption, paper debt, cheap unskilled labour, easy credit, no savings and a manufacturing heartland that is anywhere but the USA.

I was going to give this a five star recommendation until i read Yuri Rasovsky's review of his own "adaptation", neglecting to mention the only WRITER {that i recognize} whom he should consider himself blessed would deem it worthy to participate in, HARLAN ELLISON. Mr. Rasovsky you will remain an adaptor.

This is a beautifully acted production with music and sound effects put to excellent purpose. Romantic, chilling, funny in turns. Ashley Gardner, Theodore Bikel and Ed Asner are the best.

This is an exceptional audio recording of a beautiful and exciting play. The sound is pristine and the performances outstanding. The play has humor, supernatural elements, a nearly heartbreaking romance, suspense and an uplifting moral. What more can you ask?

It's a wonderful little book and I often felt tears of joy coming from my face.

Of course, I am also a bit prejudice to this little book -- my story is featured on page 110!!! Conari Press received about 1000 stories back in 1993 and chose only twenty-five of us to be included in the book. I was one of the twenty-five!!!

It was quite exciting to see my writing in print, and still going strong!
Sincerely, Angela Theresa Egic

This little book is easy reading, but is packed with beautiful examples of how we can give and receive these special acts of kindness. This book was given to me as a Random Act of Kindness by two wonderful people, Perry A~ and David, whom I have never met in person. These short stories cover all walks of life, including stories about those imprisoned. The only thing that I would have preferred about the book was to know who wrote each story. I plan to reference and recommend this book to my participants in my "Success Skills Seminars" that I present to corporate clients, as well as to inmates...to help lower recidivism, and reduce the number of victims of crime. Imagine how much more wonderful this world would be if we all practiced more Random Acts of Kindness.

This is a book I would recommend for anyone to read. By reading the book you get a personal perspective on the ones affected by the bombing. This edition has an additional chapter, written years later, where the author gives an update on the people in the book. Very good read!

I was very satisfied with the level of customer service that I received from Amazon.com. It is definetly a site that I will be coming back to from here on. As a student I am always on the lookout for a better and cheaper deal, so this is definetly one of the first places that I will go when I have to get more books for the next semester.

I thought this book was great because it teaches you how people live in other parts of the world after you change their lives forever and it is very entertaining. At no point in the book did i think of putting it down because it was so good. It really captures the reader.

There are works of fiction and nonfiction that transcend their genres. This is one of those works, one that should be required reading for high school students, or, at the very least, for college students, if it isn't already. The horror that was the A-bomb unleashed unbridled power over the city of Hiroshima. Arguments could be made for both the necessity for the bomb to end the war, as well as the unnecessary and catastrophic violence unleashed.

Either way you argue, Hersey's Hiroshima shows the true nature of the bomb from when it was dropped, the after effects, and the resulting long term medical problems the Hibukusha had to live with for the rest of their lives. I was awestruck at the description of what had happened, at times shaking my head at the power of such a bomb. Soldiers who had their eyes melted out of their sockets, people whose skin was slophing off, skinned burned off leaving raw and puss covered skin.

These are of course present throughout Hersey's account, for how could we see what the survivors of Hiroshima went through if the descriptions are not there as well? We see unselfish and caring individuals putting their own health and safety at risk to help others worse off. We see the strength of human nature to struggle on despite the hopeless feeling that imbedded into all who were present.

Hersey does a great job showing what happened, with people whose lives are all interrelated and connected in sundry ways, as well as to show how their lives carried on in the years after the A-bomb had been dropped. This is most certainly a recommend for young and old alike, and I would recommend it to all, regardless of the genre's they prefer to read.

5 stars.

My daughter is reading it for a 9th grade class. I skimmed through looking for the telltale signs of Modern Liberal indoctrination. Unlike her Human Geography book, which is loaded with Socialist thinking, this book is genuine in following several characters as they dealt with their lives after the destruction.

As some other readers pointed out (I didn't read every review), Hersey doesn't dwell on the moral issues. It's a genuine look at the characters. It's written in a rather dry style that lets the characters stories speak for themselves and allows the reader to form his or her own conclusions.

(Now, if this book was written today or maybe by someone else, I wouldn't be surprised if the book was more of anti-war/anti-human tome that is typical of today's Modern Liberals. I'm talking about the now-normal attacks on Western Civilization, American exceptionalism, Conservatism, Bush, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if they found a way to say Halliburton was involved in the building of the bomb or that one of Cheney's uncles was key. If you want to learn about Modern Liberals, watch the video at YouTube called "How Modern Liberals Think" by Evan Sayet. As Amazon pulls urls off these reviews, just go to YouTube and search on "Evan Sayet" and pick the "How Modern Liberals Think" video.)

Anyways, if you want a book on the human aspects of some of the people bombed, then you may enjoy this book. Just remember, the alternative to bombing was many more deaths.