Clubs Books

Spanning the globe from Asia to Antarctica to Alaska to New Guinea, this wonderful book is a must for any mountain lover--including those of the armchair variety. The illustrations are heartpounding, while about a few dozen short narratives are wholly satisfying. This book is a wee bit pricey, and, tho' I am a poor boy, I don't feel one bit robbed. This may be the best picture book/narrative mtn. book I own.

Great photographs in this book - largely by John Cleare one of the world's greatest mountain photographers. Thank you John for yet more stunning photographs!

It's got such fantastic photography, the hardcover is well worth the investment.

I knew J.A. growing up and she always had a very big imagination. I am glad to see her put that imagination to good use. She knows how to keep it going so you cannot put the book down. Right when one thing is solved another hangs in the balance. you never know what is around the corner. It is a suspense holder. I encourage J.A. to write another very soon. It has been a while since I curled up with a good book. Someday when she is a well known author she will have to write a biography. That WILL be some very interesting reading.

I found the Hidden Seeker very easy to read and it kept my attention with every turn of the page. JA knows the secret of keeping the reader wanting more. I say congradulations with the first book and keep them coming.

The hidden seeker kept me in total suspense. It dealt with so many different situations that it was like reading a soap opera and getting a literature lesson all at once. It also had a little bit of everything in it. JA has the potential to become a great author. I want to see more books by her in the future. JA keep the books coming. On the next one it would be nice to see an about the author caption on the cover. JA seems to have quite an imagination , which served her well as she wrote this book. A+ for Jennifer.

In light of the current national situation, this book sheds precious light on the human cost of war. This book runs the emotional gamut from laughter to tears. It's a quick read, and very moving.

An amazing account about survival, friendships and the horrors of the Vietnam War. I laughed and cried as I went through a year plus tour of Duty with Ty Nichols in the jungles of Vietnam.
A MUST READ!!

I read this book so that I could learn more about the war in Vietnam, and what I got out of it was way more than I expected. The author successfully took on such a huge task of compiling a whole year+ worth of Vietnam into one capturing novel. I could not put the book down! There were times I was laughing out loud, and others when I was on the verge of tears. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Gus Peake should have stayed at home, but an old family debt drew him to the remote wastes of Northern Iraq and a forgotten war between Kurdish guerillas and Saddam Hussein's military regime. Peake brings a marksman's skills to the brutal combat taking place there. But he must quickly learn to deal out random death at long distances, and help the guerillas to reach the city of Kirkuk, the old capital of the Kurdish people. Holding The Zero is a tautly written action novel by Gerald Seymour that is superbly narrated by Sean Barrett. This unabridged, 14 hour, 16 minute, technically flawless production will prove a very popular addition to any personal or community library audiobook collection.

Several years ago, David Robbins authored a novel, WAR OF THE RATS, the plot of which revolved around the duel between two snipers, a Soviet and a German, amidst the WWII Stalingrad battlefield. HOLDING THE ZERO, by Gerald Seymour, is at least equal, if not better, in portraying the sniper's esoteric art.

It's a couple of years before Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the British government receives word of a sighting of one of Her Majesty's subjects roaming northern Iraq with a bloody big sniper rifle and a band of Kurdish fighters led by a charismatic peasant girl, Meda. The witness even provides a name, Augustus Henderson Peake. Captain Willet of the Ministry of Defense is tasked, along with a representative from the Security Service, to investigate Peake and report on his mind set, motivation and training. How much trouble can Peake cause for Her Majesty's government? From the very beginning, Willet knows that Peake has no military background, is the transport manager in an English haulage firm, and is a civilian, award-winning, target shooter. Willet's initial assessment is that Peake will not survive whatever foolish venture in which he's involved himself.

In the meantime, Peake is Meda's secret weapon as her growing band of Kurds advances out of its mountain fastness and wins a series of increasingly ambitious skirmishes with Saddam Hussein's army. The ultimate goal is to take Kirkuk, headquarters of the Iraqi Fith Army and a city sacred to the Kurdish nationalists. The Iraqi Army sends out its best sniper, Major Karim Aziz, to intercept and kill Meda's sharpshooter.

HOLDING THE ZERO is one of the more complex of Seymour's novels that I've read to date. There's a plethora of interesting characters besides Augustus himself: Meda, Aziz, Meda's military advisor Haquim, Peake's guide and spotter Omar, Aziz's tracker dog Scout, Willet, the minefield-clearer Joe Denton, the Mossad agent Isaac Cohen, and the relief worker Sarah. Ironically, in the Big Picture of a CIA plot to topple Saddam, Aziz and Peake are on the same side, and it's ultimately only mano-a-mano pride which matches each against the other.

As in all of Seymour's thrillers, the Good Guys don't always win, and the Bad Guys don't always lose. At the conclusion, one must tally up the body count to decide whose side owns the victory - and it's often Pyrrhic.

As we peer over the shoulder of Willet as he unearths the nature of the man Peake and composes his report, we also march along with Augustus on the journey that will prove Willet right or wrong. At the end of the day in an isolated Iraqi valley, we must stand amazed.

"Holding The Zero" by Gerald Seymour, 14 CD Audio Book read by Sean Barrett, ISIS Audio Books, 2000.

Augustus Peake goes to Iraq to repay a debt of honor incurred by his grandfather, some fifty+ years ago. "Gus" is fitted out in what appears to be a haphazard fashion, and travels to Iraq to support the insurrection of Kurdish forces against their ancient enemy. A complaint by an Australian caseworker in Iraq begins an UK investigation into Augustus Peake and why he is engaged in a sniper's duel in Iraq. The investigation shows that the entire adventure was not so spontaneous as it first seems. So, on the first level, this is a very personal duel between the neophyte (but excellent marksman) Gus Peake and the head of the school for sniping in Iraq, Major Karim Aziz. When we first meet Major Aziz, he is prone on a roof, seeking an opportunity to shot (it seems) the President of Iraq, our friend Saddam. There is much introspection presented, both for Gus Peake and for Major Aziz, as both snipers consider the finality of the tools they use. The climax of the book is the sniper's duel between the two men.

On a second level, this book is a fine compendium of the history of sniping. The author, Gerald Seymour, uses the necessity of explanations for the young Kurdish boy and assistant to Gus, to present the history, of modern sniping, from the American Civil War up to the present. Seymour tends to introduce characters to present points. For example, he has a rotund Russian, interested in the mineral rights to the land, (if the Kurds win), tell the story of the famous sniper's duel at the Battle of Stalingrad. The author also uses a British character, an ex-corporal, to explain to Augustus Peake how a sniper, together with carefully place land mines, can halt a column of armor. Gus does just that!

On the third level, the author, Seymour, makes a telling statement against the vested interests of Americans, British, Israelis and Russians, in raising the hopes of the Kurdish people but not truly supporting them in their struggle against the despotic government of Iraq. All of these outsiders were using the Kurds as proxy fighters. At the very end of the book, the Kurds retreat back up into the mountains, which they call their only true friends.

The book was well read by Sean Barrett, who has a keen ability to provide an accent to match each character. The use of "further" when "farther" was needed nettled my ears once or twice or more. When a sniper shoots over a long distance, he has shot "farther" than any one else. "Far" for distance, while "further" is used for consideration, or thought or discussion. Further, when the reporters divide up their gear to carry it all back to the car, they should have divided it "among" the three of them, not "between" the three of them. Between for two, among for three or more.

I really loved this book. The characters were charming and entertaining. The suspence kept me reading the whole night. I hope Goran writes a sequel to this book!

It was a very well written book.,I couldn't seem to put the book down,,,the characters were people I could identify with...

A great gay novel,,,,,One of the best I've read,dramatic,tearful,with a great sense of romance,,,5 stars in my book,,,,can't wait for pt.2

A great book. The selections of essays are so varied. The opening piece by the Author/Editor John Hughes is breathtaking, he paints a memorable picture of his youth in Morrocco. Mark Twain's rather jaundiced writing is very funny. The 1975 John Milius movie THE WIND AND THE LION has its Hollywoodized fiction finally set to right, with the true version of what happened when Ion Perdicaris was kidnapped by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli in a good chapter of this enjoyable book.

d slattery

House Of Tears: Westerners' Adventures In Islamic Lands gathers and presents narratives about the Islamic world from the last several decades - but it's more than a travel or true adventure collection, even though elements of these two genres are present. House Of Tears is, above all, a survey of cultural encounters which collects and presents the stories of Westerns who traveled to Islamic nations during the 18th to 20th centuries. From an encounter with a homicidal sultan to harsh journeys over 'blasted land', House Of Tears is literary, vivid, and provides powerful social and cultural insights draped in the guise of adventure.

This is a very absorbing read full of adventure and history in parts of the Islamic world I basically knew nothing about before reading this. My main complaint is that the author who gathered different real stories from explorers books did not write more of the book himself. His writing was riveting and did great set ups for the chapters which are taken from original accounts by Westerners Americans and Europeans who opened the Muslim regions. It was interesting to read the writings of those who went into the Muslim countries over the last 200 years and see how many of their names were famaliliat, like Lawrence but others, even more exciting I never heard of.

This was a wonderful story. It's very hard to put down. It only took me 2 nights to complete it. I hope Curt Simmons writes more books soon!

This one is hard to put down! I loved each of the colorful characters and couldn't wait to read what was going to happen next. The surprise ending was the perfect conclusion to this heartwarming story.

This is a wonderful story. I fell in love with the characters and hated to see the book end. But the surprise ending left me crying and smiling at the same time. Loved it!

The wonderful patterning of words and the rhyming text pull the young child's attention right into the story. The story is one the the child can memorize and begin repeating it as you read they really love the repetative aspects.

I really wish the author and the publisher would once again put this selection back into print.

I absolutly loved this book. It was the first Colin West book I ever read to my story time group. They laughed and enjoyed the book. I love the rhyming. The illustrations were colorful and wonderful. Simply a must for little children.

There's not much plot to this book, but it's done extremely well. IT is made for reading aloud, with jumpy rhymes and repetition. "There's a moose on the loose!" Next page: "There's a moose on the loose and a bad-tempered goose!" And so on, until the bear also says "I don't care to a "pig who is big," "a snake from the lake," "a wolf from the north(what happened to the rhyme on that one?)," and a "teeny-weeny mouse." The latter gets our laissez-faire bear jumping back to his lair. As you can see, infectious fun. A good book for the small fry, read this one with drama! 16 pages, with simple pictures on each one.

Lila oes to see her father one day,to ask him to have lunch with her and for a raise on her allowance. She meets Mitchell Parsons,Who is her dad's enemy,he's cute and goes to Lovett Academy. Mr. Parsons wants to sell his business,and Mr.Fowler wwants to buy it. On Halloween,The Unicorns are dressed as,Unicorns,Mandy has to work in the kitchen of the Sweet Valley Country Club. Brandon Jones,another cute guy,who thinks Mandy is Lila ,but Lila goes off with Mitchell and they play golf for an hour,when The Unicorns are supposed to be working. Brandon,dressed as Prince Valiant is in love with Mandy,who he thinks is Lila. Mitchell is one if Brandon's. The Lovett Academy Guys are thinking about getting together with the Unicorns for a indoor golf tournament,but The Unicorns insist on A Dreams come True Ball. Mandy tells everything,She wasn't Lila and There is another surprise,One of the Lovett Academy guys had cancer,too.

It's the night of a Halloween costume party ball! Mandy, who needs extra money, decides to have a part-time job in the place where the ball is to be held. Unknown to her, Lila's also there, sporting some charming stylish Unicorn costume. When Lila spots Mandy, she begs her to switch places with her (because of some impulsive intentions, of course). Being Mandy, she lets Lila have her way and tries to enjoy the ball.

And then something happened.

A guy, a terribly cute, sweet and funny guy asks her to dance. Mandy was thrilled! He was so nice and perfect, she forgot how fast time flew.

Of course, after that, Lila switched places with Mandy again. When they finally went home, The boy--which is actually Brandon Jones, matinee idol--asked 'the girl with the unicorn costume' who she was. Lila complied gladly, but yikes! Brandon thinks he likes Lila...when actually he's In love with Mandy. A pretty good book, realistic, and not a waste of your money.

I liked this book, but at the end it irratated me that Lila didn't get any punishment for what she did... sometimes i hate LILA so much i wish something bad happened to her.. she can be such a snob.

Very interesting account of an Eurasian American college student's search for his ancestors in China. This book is a real page turner, even for those who have no interest or knowledge of China. Travelers will get a realistic overview of the Chinese history and culture. Very Funny! Well worth the price!

This book was so amazing I read it twice! It is a funny, witty, educational story which really makes you feel like a part of the author's journey. His story is honest and fullfilling. The reader does not even need know much about China to be greatly entertained. I would suggest this book to anyone. I hope the author writes again...Horray for Beadle Lu!

This book combines the funniest "travel stories" I have ever read with lots of useful information including history, very practical travel tips, and a wonderfully insightful analysis of how recent changes in China have affected her people. The author steadfastly avoids any and all "travelogue cliches"- his account is all the more hilarious (and informative) for its brutal honesty.

In addition to all of this, there is a delightful plot twist (related to the title) that is both touching and hysterically funny. (And good plot twists are sometimes hard to find in travel memoirs.) This is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read!