James Dean Books

This was a great guide to the Arizona scenic highways. there were alot of choices and depending on which part of Arizona you were traveling, this book gives you a less "touristic" option. I myself did the Apache trail. This book gave an accurate description on how "hazardous" this trip would be. I wish I would've paid more attention to the recommended time for travel. As usual, I assumed I could travel "faster" and missed some sights by minutes. Anyway, I highly recommend this book. Wish they would come up with others. Arizona is a beautiful state and has plenty to offer in rgs to scenic highways.

"Understanding Research in Second Language Learning" is the perfect book for any teacher or researcher who would like to be able to critique or assess statistical research papers without having to spend an inordinate amount of time studying math in the process. The book starts off by asking the pertinent question "What is research?", before explaining clearly and concisely what variables are and how they can be identified, how data is measured, and how to choose the most appropriate statistical analysis for your particular research question. What I liked most about this book was the methodological approach to understanding what good research design is, and that the helpful diagrams, summaries and review questions made understanding rather easier than may have been otherwise. With this book, you will probably be able to understand ninety percent of the stats that appear in language research papers, and to follow the logic of almost all.

This novel was enjoyable to read. Each of the twelve writers takes a family member and tells the story of a daughter's engagement through through their eyes. The story flows together pretty well, except for the piece written by Henry James. I thought it bogged down there, and the tone was much too somber compared with the rest of the book. However, you can easily skim over that chapter and still understand the plot. I'm glad I read this book.

Mark Twain famously wrote a scathing critique of Cooper's whole body of work; this critique, "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", is widely available on the Internet and speaks to the flaws in this book far better than any review written since.

The Last of the Mohicans is probably the best of Cooper's novels, and true devotees of historical adventure may be able to see past its numerous flaws. But compared to many of its contemporaries, it falls completely flat. The prose isn't nearly as lively as that of "The Three Musketeers", the story not nearly as exciting, the protagonists not nearly as richly or fully drawn, the antagonist merely a lurking evil presence, rather than a developed individual.

For those looking for historical adventure, you're better served by Dumas, Sabatini, or a bevy of modern authors.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) is sometimes called the "American Scott". Like Sir Walter Scott who romanticized the Scottish past, Cooper focused readers attentions to the the American frontier. His most famous works are the Leatherstocking tales featuring Natty Bumpo. The novels in the series include: The Deerslayer; "The Pathfinder"; "The Last of the Mohicans"; "The Pioneers" and "The Prarie." The most famous of these novels is "The Last of the Mohicans" set during the French and Indian War in North America. Natty Bumpo the hero of the tale is said to be 40 years old; he is an experienced woodsman knowledgable in fieldcraft; Indian fighting and how to survive in a brutal frontier setting in upstate New York.
The novel includes exciting fights with Indians; escapes from Indian captivity; word paintings of nature; a love story and a tale lamenting the passing of the last of the Mohicans.
The characters are:
Natty Bumpo-the intrepid scout for the British who rescues damsels in distress while escaping Indian capture. He is the hero of the novel and the Leatherstocking series.
Duncan Heyward-A brave but inexperienced British major who is love with the inspidly portrayed Alice Murno. Alice is a stick figure with no depth or character development.
Cora Munro is the sister of Alice. Both of these siblings are the daughters of British soldier Munro who is the commander at Fort William H enry. The fort is captured by the French and their Indian allies. Alice and Cora are captured and taken to an Indian village.
Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Good friends of Hawk-eye (a nickname for Natty Bumpo). Uncas is the last of the Mohicans. He is love with the dark skinned Cora.
Mauga. The evil Indian who is the major foe of the English and the friends of Hawkeye.
The novel is written in an old fashioned literary style which lends itself to slow reading for moderns. The language does not, however, get in the way of the nonstop action. The book is one of the first novels written by an American author assisting at the birth of our literary heritage. Cooper's views on Indians is not politically correct. It is worth your time and effort to become acquainted with this literary milestone.

I liked the book, Last of the Mohicans. I notice that many reviewers who gave it one or two stars are kids who had to read the book for an advanced English class or who saw the movie and decided to read the book. It is NOT an easy read (which is probably why many kids did not like the book), but I thought it was worth the effort. It was a little difficult keeping the characters straight at first because Cooper has several names for the key characters and switches between them freely.

My favorite character was actually one that I would guess is an outlier - David Gamut. His manhood is often insulted by Hawkeye, (Hawkeye calls David's pitch pipe his "tooting weapon" and he pokes fun of his useless profession of psalmody) yet David's bravery is no less than the heroes of the tale. Sure he can't shoot a gun (it would be against his principles anyway), but he sticks with the sisters when they are kidnapped by Magua and is able to come and go freely among the Indians as he is viewed by them as not having all of his mental faculties. He saves Uncas' life by secretly switching places with him and tells Hawkeye not to avenge his death should he die for the ruse. His moral character is higher, I believe, than the vengeful Indians and Hawkeye. While Hawkeye tolerates or even disdains David at the beginning of the book, I think he grows to like and even admire David by the end.

The plot was interesting to me and sure some of the language is convoluted and Cooper's vocabulary is admittedly far superior to mine. However, if you keep a dictionary nearby, you'll learn several new words and enjoy an exciting tale.

"The Last of the Mohicans" is a novel for the ages and its hero Hawkeye is a man who teaches life lessons with each page you turn. Many people believe that this novel has outlived its worthiness but once turn of the pages will reveal to the reader a world that is both savage and young, characters that are both civilized and savage, and a story that harkens back to the beginnings of the new world. Cooper's language is hard to swallow sometimes, and the movie is easier to watch, but the reader who settles into the pages of Hawkeye's life and world is rewarded with lessons about friendship, love, survival and the rite of passage that all people go through. It is a definite must read for both English and History classes as it explores the beginnings of this great country in which we live.

Since there are already over 100 reviews of this book and probably thousands have been written over the years, I'll do this one without benefit of book in hand, from memory and without a lot of details. It took me many years to get over the antiquated language barrier and to finally read the book. The classics are always harder to read than contemporary fiction, but sometimes it's worth the effort.

What tipped the scales for me and piqued my curiosity was watching the recent movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, and Eric Schweig, and realizing that this was a good story. Also, I'm very familiar with the setting in upstate NY: Lake George, Balston Spa, Glenns Falls, Scroon Lake, and surrounding area--at least as it is now, and it was fun imagining what it would have been like in those days, when the land was virgin, settlers could lose their scalps if they weren't careful, and the France contested with Britain for supremacy of the land.

The book wasn't a romance--at least not in the modern sense of the word--with love scenes and the like. But it was a romance in the old sense in that the three main characters; Hawk-eye, and the two Mohicans, were larger than life heroes; in the moral, physical, and spiritual meanings of the term. The elder sister Cora was also a well developed, strong willed and heroic character, which surprised me a little considering the age in which the book was written.

For me the most interesting character of the novel was Chingachgook's son, Uncas, who was the "last of the Mohicans," a noble race of American Indians, which formerly occupied the lands by the "salt lake," (i.e., the Atlantic Ocean), and were dispossessed and robbed of their lands and heritage by the original Dutch settlers and others. Uncas was a tracker extraordinaire, even better than the indomitable Hawk-eye in this respect. But he was young, inexperienced, and impetuous, which was eventually his undoing when he came up against the evil, and formidable Magua. But before he died, he was recognized as a king or great chief of his people, an heir apparent. So decreed the venerable Tamenund, a 100 year old patriarch and judge of the Delaware peoples, a related tribe to the Mohicans. This episode would have been difficult to write into an action movie, but it would have been great if it had been.

Another interesting character completely eliminated from both the 1934 and 1992 movies was David Gamut, a preacher psalmist, whose moral presence and as a comic relief, was an integral part of the novel.

All in all, this is still a book worth reading, if only to get a glimse of the way things were then and might be again.

James Chace does a great job in listing all kinds of facts and anecdotes about Dean Acheson and his contributions to American Cold War policy. (I think that his book is the only true comprehensive biography on Mr. Acheson out there, too.)

Coming to terms with the United States' numerous mistakes in the twentieth century is a herculean task, but ACHESON : THE SECRETARY OF STATE WHO CREATED THE AMERICAN WORLD is a start. As a reader who is mostly interested in Asian affairs, but started my college education studying European affairs, this book is enlightening. Not only is there a deficit in the information-gathering department, but also the policy-making department as well. This biography reveals most of the strains in American foreign policy from a personal angle.

Americans of an older generation instinctively understand European thinking and politics better than Asian, or any other continent's, policies, even if most American policy is idealistically shaped with European realism as a foil. This biography maps just how that pattern of thinking worked, and the consequences in Korea and Vietnam.

This book also reveals some of the tensions in American foreign policy, between domestic party lineages and philosophical differences (like "doves and hawks"), that are being played out again in debates over China and Theater Missile Defense.

The portrait of this man is fascinating, and, as were many of the men and women of that century, he was intelligent, principled, and ambitious. That so many brilliant people could not have done better is the real story, and, fortunately, one to which this book may contribute.

I found the biography rewarding primarily for the examination of the character of Acheson. Although the book was well-written, my greatest pleasure came from reading the details behind such a powerful and successful man, and I felt I shared many of the qualities of what was once greatness.

The seventy-five years spanned by Dean Acheson's life saw the radical shift of America's role in the world from one of a significant, but none the less marginal power, to becoming that world's chief law enforcement officer, judge and--in several instances up to the present day--executioner. Chace's contention is that, to a large extent, Acheson was responsible for the shift.
Overstated in the title, the text indicates someone rather different from an earth mover and shaker. Acheson was, in fact, a frequently puzzled, often wrong, usually pragmatic, but sufficiently arrogant Secretary of State to push through policies with a self assurance that indeed profoundly affected the place America would play for over a half-century to come. But it is the personal relationship between two disparate individuals, President Truman and his Secretary of State, that especially intrigues Chace and that will leave the reader wondering as well.
Definitely a member of the East Coast elite--a graduate of Groton and Yale, then on to Harvard Law School--Acheson's life and background were a sharp contrast to that of the Missouri haberdasher. The contrast between Acheson and Truman is very simply illustrated by noting their similar reaction to General MacArthur's farewell speech before Congress, but expressed rather differently. Acheson called it "bathetic," Truman referred to it as "b-------t."
So how could these two have worked so closely together, and so effectively in pushing radical and rather unpopular foreign programs through a fractious and often openly hostile Congress? At least part of the answer was that Truman had a "buck stops here attitude," one which allowed Acheson to advance programs he knew would be fully supported by the President.
Chace's work touches upon events of Acheson's life that, while not new, do put a different emphasis upon what were once accepted as historic givens. For example, MacArthur is most usually remembered as the headstrong field commander who did as he pleased. That was perhaps true near the end of the Korean debacle but, as Chace correctly points out, the bosses back home, including Acheson, Marshall and Truman were cheering him on while Mac was succeeding, became ambiguous in their instructions when he began to fail, and then threw all the burden of blame on his shoulders when it seemed the Americans and their allies were about to be driven into the sea.
Not only did Acheson's concern for Europe and fear of Communism lead him into disastrous policies elsewhere, but it made him as well as many others in Truman's and later administrations, to overestimate Soviet military power and its threat to Western Europe and underestimate the extent and quality of the Soviet scientific community.
Unfortunately, the author presents the entire "Acheson era" as though it occurred in a domestic political and social vacuum. As examples of this narrow view, there is little mention of how the agonizing shift from a wartime to a peacetime economy, the incipient civil rights movement and the flips and flops in the business cycle began to focus public attention inwards. More importantly, there is no indication of the impact of the new medium-TV-and how it began to influence what was once the very private prerogative of the diplomats. The "open covenants, openly arrived at" dreamed of by the mystical Wilson were already showing signs of becoming a reality when Truman became the first President to appear on the screen in America's living room, and yet Chace shows little indication of recognizing that change.
The one map in the volume was hardly worth including, but the notes and bibliography are thorough, and the photos have a remarkable value of their own. The depicted people in power illustrates how remarkably different they were from their counterparts fifty years afterwards. White, Anglo Saxon men dominate the photos. A concession is made to Frankfurter, none to women except for Acheson's wife and mother, both of whom are definitely and exclusively pictured in those roles.
All in all, these photos speak well of the remarkable change that has come to Washington in two scant generations. The outspokenly liberal Truman didn't even leaven his cabinet with a Ma Perkins, while the unabashedly conservative Bush of the current administration has surrounded himself with Latinos, Blacks and women. Anyone viewing the current cabinet must indeed wonder what Acheson would have thought of it.
In looking back at his long career as a public servant and as an advisor to presidents, it would be nice to be able to rewrite history and to give him the position of Under Secretary for Middle Eastern affairs. Nowhere was he more right in his assessment, nowhere more astute in proffered solutions to what now seems to be an insoluble situation.
In short, Chace's biography is a description of a person who had risen to a position beyond him. Perhaps it was a position beyond anyone, but Acheson was someone who could have provided valuable service to this nation and to the beleaguered nations of the Middle East by his far-seeing view of what America's policies in that part of the world would mean for the latter twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Unfortunately, back when he did have the opportunity to prevent the formation of repressive regimes in that part of the world, he was far too much concerned with having anti-Soviet dictators in charge of Middle East nations then in seriously considering the plight of their subjects.
As it is, his legacy is a dubious one. Troops scattered across the globe, a strange indifference to internal happenings in Africa, an inability to comprehend the rage in the world against the U.S. and a sudden casting adrift of America's purposes as a result of the demise of the Soviet Union; all these can be attributed in large part to Acheson's policies as Secretary of State under Truman.

Dean Acheson, who served as Harry Truman's Secretary of State from 1949 until 1953, was in that office during a series of momentous events. This was the period when the People's Republic of China emerged victorious from the Chinese civil war, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was organized, the Korean War started, and the superpowers' nuclear arms race commenced in earnest. It is no wonder, therefore, that Acheson entitled his State Department memoir Present at the Creation and that his biographer James Chace, who teaches at Bard College, paraphrased that title for the sub-title to this book. Acheson was a great Secretary of State, and, although I believe that this biography is longer on description than insight, it is a very good narrative of one of the exceptional public careers of the 20th century.

At the risk of stereotyping, Acheson was Eastern establishment to his viscera. The son of the Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, young Dean went to Groton School (where Franklin Roosevelt also received his secondary education), Yale College, and Harvard Law School. After clerking for Justice Louis Brandeis and making the acquaintance of the Supreme Court's other Olympian figure, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Acheson practiced law at a prestigious firm in Washington, D.C. Acheson was a good enough lawyer to have been offered a federal appellate-court judgeship in the mid-1930s, and he was under consideration for appointment as Solicitor General when President Roosevelt died in 1945. But it is, of course, as a long-time State Department official that Acheson is best known.

Acheson intellectual eminence is obvious, but Chace makes clear that, as Secretary of State, Acheson was an implementer, not an innovator. Acheson believed strongly that foreign policy was made in the White House, and, according to Chace, Acheson brought a "relentlessly pragmatic approach" to serving the will first of Franklin Roosevelt and then of Harry Truman. But some Acheson-era policies clearly were rooted in his attitudes. In the 1930s, Acheson supported an "interventionist foreign policy," and, in 1939, two years before the United States entered World War II, Acheson favored a "military and naval buildup" as part of what he called a "realistic American policy." These were to be recurrent themes during Acheson's State Department years. I was surprised, therefore, by how little thought was given to the post-war world until virtually the end of World War II. Chace entitles one of his chapters about the early Cold War "No Grand Strategy," but that phrase could have been applied to the entire era. Part of the problem, as Chace makes clear, was the sheer technical difficulty of some of the issues. For instance, in discussing what we now know was the beginning of the nuclear arms race, Chace writes that "Acheson was well aware of his own limitations in understanding the scientific aspects of atomic energy." Chace repeats an often-told, but splendid, anecdote about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the principal organizer of the Manhattan project which designed and built the first atomic bomb, trying to explain to Acheson and another high government official some arcane point in nuclear physics and then stating is exasperation: "It's hopeless! I really think you two believe neutrons and electrons are little men." It is understandable that even the well-educated Acheson struggled with cutting-edge scientific concepts. What is more difficult to comprehend is why Acheson was not better prepared for the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist forces in China in 1949 and the outbreak of the Korean War the next year. Chace explains that "myriad problems [faced] the new secretary

This book constitutes very solid biographical writing, but it has surprisingly little personal color. Although Acheson was famous (or infamous) for having one of the sharpest tongues in Washington, D.C., it is only rarely on display. But, when Chace shows this side of Acheson, it is wonderful. For instance, in a latter to Harry Truman, Acheson referred to the Bay of Pigs disaster as "this asinine Cuban adventure." In an interview several years after President Kennedy was assassinated, Acheson told an interviewer that Kennedy "did not seem to me to be in any sense a great man." .... And, while serving as one of Lyndon Johnson's "Wise Men," Acheson instructed Johnson's national security adviser on one occasion to tell the President to "take Vietnam and stick it up his a--." Chace's approach to his subject tends to be too reverential. There is plenty about Acheson to admire, but this book's readers would have benefitted from a more thorough exposition of his human, fallible side.

This probably is as close as we will come to a definitive biography of Acheson. If one also considers Acheson's State Department memoir, which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1969, there may not be much more to say. Nevertheless, I believe that some questions remain. Most prominently, how do we reconcile Acheson the international Cold Warrior with Acheson the bitter opponent of Senator Joseph McCarthy? Can we separate the obvious threat to American national-security interests in the late 1940s and early 1950s from the clearly-exaggerated perception that there was an equally serious internal security threat to the United States? In particular, I wish that Chace had considered the possibility that Acheson was Dr. Frankenstein to McCarthy's monster.... But the men may have had more in common than either would have been willing to admit. In the final analysis, however, this biography should be taken on its own terms, and, my criticisms notwithstanding, it is very good.

Although offbeat (and that is a plus in my book), Dean James' mysteries are well-plotted, with consistent characterizations from book to book. Enjoyable and challenging, with characters you can care about.

Frankly I bought this book because it was at the same time gay-themed and vampire-themed fiction, two real assets when I am looking for entertainment.

In the last years both themes have become increasingly popular and exploited by several authors so that it has become rather difficult to sort out and discriminate quality fiction, average but still entertaining fiction and trash dealing with these topics without having to buy at least the first two episodes of each series which is of course a rather money consuming choice.

Dean James (pun intended?) gives us the usual British country setting with the usual colourful and a little stereotyped characters. The only original touch is that the amateur detective, -hear hear hear: a writer...-, is gay and has been recently turned into a vampire.

The plot is no more than average, exploiting the usual clichés. The main character is not likeable: a judgemental, conformist middle class bloke, extremely full of himself and indulging in lots of mannerisms consistently reflected by the author's writing style, full of unnecessary talks and pointless wit. One could also mention the insistence on clothing which makes me think that Dean James is really a nom de plume for a female writer.

A minor but curious detail is the constant use of double surnames which sound very clumsy, not to mention the fact that the small English village seems a little too crowded by gorgeous men and alternative sexuality: if that were believable I guess a gay man should reconsider the habit of living in large cities.

All above notwithstanding this book was a pleasant read and I am going to buy the second volume to check how the series and the writer's skills progress.

Posted to Death is a both send-up and an homage to the traditional English cozy. Your first clues that James is having you on are the names of the people and places used - Lady Blitherington and Colonel Athelstan Clitheroe are just two of the characters who live in the quaint little town of Snupperton Mumsley. Your next clue is that our hero, Simon Kirby-Jones, is a gay vampire. Sounds fun, doesn't it? But it is an homage to the cozy because James has included the requisite elements of a cozy and has written a good mystery instead of just a spoof.

Posted to Death is set in modern day, and vampires like Kirby-Jones are now able to walk secretly among us during the day due to the miracles of modern medicine. So Kirby-Jones is following his dream and has relocated from the U.S. to Snupperton Mumsley, where he is trying to become a member of the close-knit community. When the snoopy postmistress is murdered, our hero decides that, due to his more-than-human attributes, he is the logical choice to investigate the crime. Our hero proceeds to do what every amateur detective does - he snoops, he encourages gossip, he goes to dinners and teas to meet the locals, and he slowly gathers enough information about the locals to solve the crime.

He also swoons over the dishy vicar and tries not to smile so broadly that his fangs are visible. This book is interesting because it is intelligent, catty, campy, and fun, all at the same time. It is such a funny premise and I am interested to see where James takes it in the books that follow.

Favorite character? Kirby-Jones. Did I guess it? He got me! I followed a lovely red herring right up to the big unmasking before realizing I was on the wrong horse. It was beautiful. Will I read another? Yes.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at [...]

The book was very entertaining. It's full of quirks and twists that are unexpected. On the whole, a very enjoyable read.

The cozy mystery is a rigid form, in that respect rather like a sonnet. The sub-class of English country village cozy mystery, then, might be likened to a Shakespearean sonnet or, in its more baroque form, a Spenserian sonnet. Rigidity of form, however, does not necessarily imply limitation or restriction. In the right hands, the sonnet and the cozy offer springboards for art, even genius.

In this series by Dean James, four published novels as I write, the author is plainly aware of the requirements of his chosen form and is amused by them. While offering them full obeisance, from time to time he is happy to give them a swift kick.

Cozies have tended in recent years to fall into niches: murder-solving caterers, booksellers, hoteliers, florists, undertakers, hairdressers, coffee shop owners, drycleaners, wedding planners, home handy women, even cozy bounty hunters. James gives us the niche to end all niches: the gay, partially closeted, southern, academic, expatriate, romance writing, English country village, reformed vampire, cozy mystery.

Judging by the reactions of previous reviewers of this novel and the others of the series, one either delightedly swallows this stuff whole or strains mightily at the smallest fragment. One reviewer snarls that, "the characters have the depth (but not the appeal) of graham crackers; the stereotypical British-isms are painful; the plot is so bad it should be staked through the heart". Another, in a frenzy of disdain says, "It is poorly executed and too clever by half." Now that, when you think about it, is a pretty good trick.

As for myself, I know full well that James's quaint English village of Snupperton-Mumsley exists on no portion of this mundane, sub-lunar world and his characters, from the appalling but oddly attractive Lady Prunella Blitherington down to the busy-body post mistress bear only the most casual resemblance to anyone who has ever drawn a breath of real air or grumbled at a tax bill. Nevertheless, I am entangled in their spell and have every intention of wolfing down every Snupperton-Mumsley tale that Dean James chooses to deliver.

Five stars for the guilty pleasure of it all.

I enjoy Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire Mystery series so I picked up this book. I was bored. Maybe it would have been better to start with the first book in the series, but a good book should be able to stand on its own. In this case, there was a distracting subplot about his pills and a Nemesis that was either a reference to an earlier book or preparing for a subsequent book.

The main characters, particularly Simon and Giles, came off as cariactures not "real" people and because of that did not capture my interest or affection. The plot itself was thin. I could not wait to be done reading. Based on this book, I will not be reading any of the others in the series.

What could be better than a gay vampire who solves crimes? I found this tale immensely enjoyable, both as a mystery and as a way to immerse myself in English country life. The characters are delightful (or dreadful in the case of Zeke Harwood, the nasty decorator). The setting is charming. I found myself wanting to wander around the world of Snupperton Mumsley. Brew up a cup of hot tea and read this wonderful story. It's a perfect read for an inclement night. I've read every book in the series. Anyone who doesn't like them obviously suffers from deplorable taste.

While many of the flaws which pestered the first episode of this series were no longer to be found in the second one and neither have reappeared here -that constant use of those double surnames, though...
I cannot say I am completely about the novel though.

Mr James decided to play the card of the witty parody of the sleuth stories and he lets his main hero explicitly mention the fact. This plot device though is not as funny as one could imagine though, at least not in the long run.
Simon looks again a little too self complacent and his dialogues with the handsome Inspector Chase are a lot less sparkling than they could have been. Even the sexual tension between him and the same inspector as well as that with Giles appear dimmer than they could have been.

A fun read, but less than expected, not to mention the annoying inconsistencies scattered here and there, such as a statement about Giles not being aware of his beauty followed by right the opposite one after no more than two pages.

OK. From start to finish this is a fun novel. If you have not read any of the other Simon-Kirby Jones mysteries, you should read them in their correct order. You will find in doing so, this novel is far more entertaining. Be that as it may, Simon, a gay American ex-patriot vampire, who happens to be a gothic novelist, is "living" in the quaint countryside of England where he, together with a dashingly handsome Inspector Detective, as well a a "titled" gay man/boy who happens to lust for Simon, embark on another quest to solve a perplexing mystery. Total fun.

Mr. James writes in the style of a 1930's British mystery writer, right down to the formality of dialogue, and the stereotypical supporting characters who populate his novels. This of course adds to the total charm of the series.

This particular novel deals with the timely, and hardly mourned murder of a faux gay TV-decorating star who has made the mistake of securing one last "remake decorating" gig in the town where Simon Kirby-Jones resides. Zeke, as his is named, meets his demise and it becomes apparent that Simon and his detecting skills are needed. From thence, as Mr. James might say, the plot evolves. Silly?..yes! Entertaing?...yes! Good mystery?..yes? Satisfying?...yes. Unlikely ending?...I guess you will have to read the novel to find out!

Talk about a special cup of tea--James serves up his own unique brew, a gay cozy with a sexy vampire protagonist, and along the way, he pays homage to past masters of the genre. Utterly delightful. Victor J. Banis, author of TALES FROM C.A.M.P., JACKIE'S BACK

READ THE BOOK....THOUGHT THERE MIGHT BE SOMETHING NEW WHICH I DIDN'T KNOW HERE... HOWEVER, AS A MEMBER OF THE ACTORS STUDIO MYSELF, IT'S LUDICROUS THAT JIMMY "...KNOCKED BACK A FEW BRANDIES..." BEFORE HIS AUDITION FOR ENTRANCE INTO THE ACTORS STUDIO. IN ACTUALITY, JIMMY HAD A FEW BEERS, WHICH HE USED FOR HIS SCENE...AS TOLD TO ME BY AN OLDER MEMBER WHO KNEW JIMMY, AND WAS THERE THEN, AND WHO IS A FRIEND OF MINE.

THINGS LIKE THIS ARE ALL OVER THIS BOOK...SOMETHING LIKE THE TRUTH BUT NOT THE ACTUAL TRUTH...IF YOU WANT TO READ SOMETHING LIKE WHAT HAPPENED, READ THIS...BE AWARE THAT THE AUTHOR WAS EXCEEDINGLY SLOPPY IN HIS RESEARCH!!!

[...]I was truly anxious to get my hands on something "new" or "fresh" about James Dean. To my great disappointment and horror, I found this "book" is virtually a glorified---and EXPENSIFIED---pamphlet, extended to book length. But that's not the worst.....I am a lifetime voracious reader, and I say without doubt this is the worst written book I have ever seen in my nearly 45 year old life. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes abound, which all but demolish any credibility to the "revelations" of the Donald Turnupseed interview. There is not a page, perhaps not even a paragraph, that appears to have been read by an editor, typesetter, or anyone at any stage. [...]

This is one of the first James Dean books where I felt as though I could actually see him and hear what he was saying. My favorite part of the book centers upon his high school sweetheart (love that passage!)The story about him returning to the farm to help his uncle out really grabbed me: "What do you want me to do first?" The book also portrays his impish side--it doesn't deny that and he certainly was an imp at times! But I get the sense of peeling away the thorns to expose the genuine self. Would like to know more about the interview at the end, however.

A telling of a life that was complete in all efforts and areas and yet filled with the sad side of life in so many ways and yet having the ability to smile and laugh thru it all before the end came too soon.

Dean died thirty years before I was born. Girls in the 1950's went crazy about him but in the cold light of today I regarded his fans as stuck in a time warp and couldn't see what all the fuss was about.But after reading this book I can. It's just like the author is talking to you, at times he's too kind to Deans memory but he write's with great feeling and get's to the inner loneliness of the actor,and Mike Shaw's art work blends with the story just fine. Am I now a Dean fan? Well let's say that for me he is running Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt real close, and I can now see why this long dead movie star won't fade away. A super read.

Great for The Ohio State Buckeye Fan youngsters. Several of my Great Nieces and Nephews that are Buckeye fans have this book and they all love it. Mary Jane Heisler

I love Brutus. I feed off the spirits of buckeyes, so when i saw the title of this book, i immediatley got excited. But it turns out that this is a childrens book. O well. I am off to harvest some more souls now.

My 2 year old already loves Brutus Buckeye so I got this book for her. And she loves it! I have read it to her at least a dozen times since I received it 2 days ago. The book teaches the foundation skills that everyone should follow: help others, set goals, etc. The book is very basic and perfect for your child, with some great pictures of Brutus which my daughter enjoys the best! A must have for all Buckeye fans!

A must have for all Buckeye fans out there!! Concise, clear, written ideas, and bright energetic pictures. Kids and adults alike will enjoy reading about the qualities that make up a TRUE BUCKEYE!!:) Go Bucks!

This showed many beautiful pictures of James Dean. I was a bit dissapointed because some pictures were cut off by the binding. But really, the pictures are fantastic. Worth buying.

This book contains a great selection of black & white photographs of James Dean; candid, studio & film stills. Unfortunately the size of the book does pose a problem with some photographs being split in half and 'eaten' by the spine. This does ruin the effect of some beautiful prints.