O Books

I can't say enough wonderful things about this book.. It has truely changed my life. Not only is it uplifting and encouraging, it works! I started to notice small changes in little ways and slowly started to really believe. At a time when you feel overwhelmed & scared because of a doctors diagnosis, this book gave me hope, the beginning of all i needed turn it around. I'd recommend it highly.

This book is chock full of meditations for self-healing, no matter what the disease or complaint. The premise of this book is the mind-body connection, that we are ultimately responsible for our own state of health.

Shivani's writing style is easy to read, as if you were chatting comfortably with a good friend. I have tweaked my daily meditation sessions with suggestions found in this book. I wish Amazon sold Shivani Goodman's audio recordings to go along with this book, but this volume is a must-have for those interested in self-healing. You won't be disappointed.

Great book everyone shpuld read it

Very simple and outstanding way of getting the message across. Cancer can be cured without drugs or surgery.

I'd like to recommend this book to anyone seeking to take control of their own health and wellbeing. This book is easy to read, presents facts and research data and provides simple yet effective and practical steps to wholeness. I found this book to be a real joy. Best of all the information it presents will be appreciated by those who follow the "medico-scientific model" OR the "New Age" model. An anecdote: I tried the "5 minute healing technique" for the first time just from the information presented on Ms Goodman's website; my sinus pain was immediately alleviated and disappeared after I did the technique two more times- all within 6 hours !! Many thanks to the Ms Goodman!

Altered Art showcases some of the most fun altered art out there today.
This field is expanding exponentially - it seems so accessible - and offers
a relief from the generally serious world we live in.
Not that altered art can't (and doesn't) have a serious side all its own. As illustration, compare the Nori Dress by Dee Fontans on page 140 with I'll Fly Away on page 128 by Betsy Reeves. They each speak to the same theme in two entirely different languages.
Terry Taylor has assembled an incredible array of talented artists, doing what they do best, altering the bits of our wonderful, wacky, crazy and sometimes sad world into a storytelling vision of art that transcends time.

.. brilliance! You won't get through it in a day or two. I have never seen so many photographs in one book before. The projects are awesome and the author, Terry Taylor, has chosen some fantastic designers to display their work. Terry is brilliant and it is evident in his art. This is an extremely inspiring book.

This book is pretty great. There are a bit fewer "great" projects in it than I had hoped for and a few things more basic than I would have liked, but the bulk of the book is great. It's very inspirational and just plain fun to look at. The book shows a lot of pretty piles of found objects without showcasing an actual project made from said items in most cases but there are tons of other examples to look at. There are also several tips on how to do things, such as solvent transfers, which are nice. I would recommend this more to a newcomer to altered art or someone who doesn't mind spending the money to look at things they likely already know how to do. Again, the prettiness of most of it is worth it though.

I browsed through this book at the local craft store at least three times over several visits before I finally decided to buy it. I sure am glad that I did! Not only is it visually appealing, filled with so many wonderful ideas, techniques, and creative springboards for one's own ideas, but it simply, yet clearly gives directions on so many different techniques. In fact, I think that the only technique that was mentioned but not fully covered was soldering.

Everything else was carefully explained, and beautifully detailed. It does cover: altered art (obviously), altered books, cards, jewelery, dolls, techniques, copyrights, history, and much much more.

I have been creating mixed-media collages and altered art for about 2 years now, so I'd consider myself, well, not a beginner but not as advanced as others. But I believe this book would be helpful to anyone, at any level. I highly recommend it and enjoy it each time I refer back to it.

It is an absolutely beautiful book, filled with great projects and suggestions. For someone with creative aspirations but little direction, just flipping through the pages provides so much inspiration.

I REALLY liked the first book in the Bethany series. I have read it five or six times and I am still not tired of it. The book really taught me a lot about the Bible and things that go on 'behind the scenes.' I liked learning things that aren't taught much these days. I can't wait until other books in the Bethany series are out. Sarah, age 11

I am 11 years old and in the fifth grade. I love this book because it is interesting and exciting. It challenges me to learn more about the Bible and the Old Testament. It is a story about a girl named Bethany and her experience with meeting an angel. It is fun for me to read about a girl close to my age traveling around with an angel and learning all about the Old Testament like it was happening today. I would recommend this book for kids my age. I can't wait to read Mr. Kearse's next book. He is the best!
Anna Leigh (11)

Kearse has developed a great adventure story that bridges the secular with the spiritual in a powerful fashion. Young Bethany Clarke has a burning desire for a cute puppy dog, but can't get one because of a family secret that causes a lot of tension before she launches into her time-travel journey where her dream of owning a dog comes true. Back in time she experiences a host of characters who stretch her mind and strengthen her beliefs. Whether it's her angel friend, Gabriel, her doggy buddy, Oba, or the mysterious character, the "Old Woman I Know", the reader is sure to connect with this book that explores the power of faith and relationships. An outstanding book for the whole family to read and enjoy!No Time To Kill

Bethany is a great book for children who can read up to about age 15. It is also excellent for teachers who plan to teach sunday school to children of all ages. Bethany is even interesting for adults. Its a very clever and interesting story that takes a young girl and her dog on a journey through the Old Testament. I would highly recommend it for all faiths and particularly Jews and Christians.

I never knew learning about the bible could be so much fun. While reading the book I did'nt even realize that I was learning. I would recomend this book to people who love to read a good adventure. I first read the book when I was in fifth and sixth grade and now that I am in going into seventh grade I realize how much it helped me understand more about the bible. Mr. Kearse was my sunday school teacher and I absolutely loved what he taught us. This book is great because it is the kind of thing Mr. Kearse taught and a great adventure.

Pellicer's book was an excellent book for anyone in the education field. Through short essays, he gives a clear, sometimes humorous, always honest view of what it takes to be a successful leader. While reading this book, I was able to personalize many of the experiences he speaks of and apply the lessons that he has learned through the years to my own life and career goals. Because of the way it is written, the reader has the ability to "skip around" and read the chapters that seem the most pertinent at the time. As a classroom teacher, I found this book to be a source of inspiration to me--inspiration that I desperately need at this mid-year point! After reading his thought-provoking, encouraging essays, I think I might just be able to make it until the end of the school year after all!

Caring Enough to Lead was an easy to read, interesting, thought-provoking book. By sharing personal experiences and perspectives in his book, Dr. Pellicer helped me begin to understand what it means to be a leader and to focus on some of the attributes and attitudes of an effective leader. The questions at the end of the chapters caused me to stop and reflect on my role as a leader in my school and in my classroom. The short chapters in the book enabled me to read one or more chapters at a time depending on how much time I had available.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dr. Pellicer's book, Caring Enough to Lead. It was easy to read and very entertaining while at the same time very applicable for teachers in any situation. It gently reminds us of why we choose teaching in the first place, to touch lives. Dr. Pellicer also reflects on several ways to lead as well as the responsibilities that come with leadership. It was easy to reflect on myself as a leader as I was reading this book. I was able to relate my own experiences to most of his chapters. His writing style of vignettes and questions was fun and unique to read. The short chapters made it convenient to read a chapter or two at a sitting and come back to it later.

This book, written by an education professor, should be required reading for everyone in the field of education. It is a very readable challenge to educators to reflect on their beliefs, practices, and reasons for becoming an educator. While reading the book, I highlighted many passages in order to come back to them and to share them with colleagues in the future. In reflecting on a career in education, the book helped reaffirm my belief that it is important to care about others and pointed out the fact that it is important to care about yourself also. This is a book that educators and leaders can read without feeling burdened with a lot of theory or extra rhetoric. The entire book can be read at one time or it can be read in small segments. It is a book that causes soul-searching and one that should be in every professional library.

Can a series of essays on leadership be described as pleasurable, thoughtful reading material? It can if it is Caring Enough to Lead by Pellicer. Pellicer presents twenty essays that are thought provoking as well as entertaining. Personal stories lead the reader into more in-depth philosophical questions about leadership. The essays contain countless statements that lead the reader to stop and think.
"Life affords us too few opportunities to show others how much we care, we can't afford to waste these opportunities."
"I wish I could find a way to encourage all the teachers in our school to run around and flap their arms on a more regular basis."
"Leadership is never about ruling others, it is about serving others."
"A good teacher can give a child power over his or her own life."
Pellicer feels that becoming a leader requires some who cares, excepts the responsibility of leading, and nourishes and supports others who care. All this is required in order to successfully educate our children.

This book has been such a great blessing to my motherhood, it keeps my heart and soul focused in a very special way to God, Our Lady and the saints and to the needs of my children. This book has been the perfect prayer manual companion to keep my heart soft and continually directed to my children and my eternal destination. And I know that it is only through daily prayer that it is possible. The prayers are written in such a way to speak to my heart as well as directing my petitions for my children's heart and soul.

The book is artistically delightful, a little hardback book that can weather my handling of it and the occasional 'pouncing upon' by little chubby fingers and small enough to carry in the handbag.

The pages are filled with heart touching informal prayers, poems, quotes from the saints, lovely motherly thoughts, formal prayers we all know (The Memorare, St Michael prayer, prayer to St Therese etc.) Another important addition to this book is a 'Spiritual Communion' often mothers cannot get to daily Mass but they can unite themselves spiritually with the Lord. Finally, there is a reflection at the end of each chapter, good for meditation if you wish to add a 'mini retreat' to the end of your day's or week's prayers (whenever you have time to add it in.)

We all want as mothers, one book that offers us the most perfect prayers that really meet our spirtual and emotional needs - this is it.

Donna-Marie I understand, was particularly encouraged by Mother Teresa to write this book and this saint prayed for it as well. I've just finished reading "Come Be My Light" on the spiritual life of Mother Teresa and I can see Mother Theresa's simple love and 'signature' in Donna-Marie's writings, she obviously was greatly inspired by Mother.

I buy this book all the time to give as gifts to mothers when they have had a new baby or as a birthday gift for friends who have children. I know I am giving them the best little present ever! I can't recommend this book enough.

If you would like to read more of my thoughts on this book and see how I use it daily, go and visit my blog: http://starrymantle.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-perfect-mothers-prayerbook.html You will also see pictures of the inside of this beautiful book.

wonderful book of prayers for Mothers of all ages, each page touch my heart and my life in some spiritual way and helped guide my daily prayer and helped me to grow in faith as a mom.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a review for Donna Marie's book Heart of Motherhood. And then I picked up this gem & started to read it. What a WONDERFUL book for the busy Catholic mother! The chapters are short & divided by topic but they aren't your standard "chapters" either. Each has a few prayers, specific quotes from Pope John Paul II, Blessed Mother Teresa about the topic and then ends w/a "think about it" sort of reflection to keep the mind & heart focused on the truth about our vocation as mothers. Definitely one for every Catholic mother's collection and easy to dive in & read over & over & over again. This is going to be another of Donna Marie's books that I give as a gift, too! Do yourself a favor & get this one!

Donna Cooper O'Boyle captures everything a Catholic mother experiences in this book. From praying for our children to asking Saints for their help, Donna leads you in prayer with this most wonderful Prayer Book.

This beautiful little book is deceptively slim yet bursting with wisdom, original prayers, advice and the encouragement of one who knows.

Donna, a writer and mother of five, also seems to have peeked into my life. How does she know what a transforming vocation motherhood has been for me? In a reflection entitled "A Glimpse into the Future" she writes:

If a woman could get a glimpse at
What her world would be
When she becomes a mother,
She would be presented with the reality
That her innermost desires and life plans
would be altered or put on hold
because she would be inundated with the care of others.
If she was also allowed to glimpse the unending joy
she would receive as a mother,
There would be no pause to consider,
No hesitation, as she embraced the whole package,
Knowing in her heart that her children will become her life's desires.

And, in "The Rosary, One Decade at a Time" I see my life reflected: the ways in which our children change our prayer lives are to be celebrated, not bemoaned, and God understands when we do such things as say a halting Rosary and sprinkle bits of prayer throughout our days and our duties.

With quotations from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (who personally encouraged the author), John Paul the Great (who gave Donna his apostolic blessing), Scripture, and a variety of saints, this book is exactly the sort to keep by the bedside, on the prayer table, or in one's purse for the many times we, as mothers, need a boost, a bit of solace or an inspirational lift.

Finally, the book itself is lovely, with pages of pastels and florals that are calming and beautiful.

Donna Cooper O'Boyle speaks straight to a mother's heart, as she embraces her fellow moms with her uplifting and hopeful message of the salvific beauty of our vocation.

I finished this novel reawakened to the power of the past to shape our present. The novel focuses on the experience of a black boy who lives with his mother, sister and grandparents for a summer in Kentucky. Slavery, his grandparents' secret and his parents' dissolving marriage propel him to experience the world in a unique way. I liked traveling along with this boy on his summer journey. His pereceptions were amusing and his honesty compelling.

Simply one of the best novels I've ever read. More than young adult fiction, The Colored Garden is a timeless fictional look at American history and American mores.

Sarge learns powerful lessons (reality of life, racial interaction, family secrets) during a "visit" to the grandparents'.

I really enjoyed this book. Parts of it were painful because I related them to my own growing up in the South during the same time period. The main character, Sarge, is a melding of my brother and a couple of his friends and the grandparents in the story evoked memories of my long-dead uncles and aunts. This is a touching story that emphasizes how important it is for families to cherish each other.

After living in Germany as the son of a military officer, Sarge watches the break-up of the marriage between his parents. His father remains overseas while his mother returns to Kentucky where Sarge's maternal grandmother, Ruth still owns a farm.

On the former tobacco plantation lays an old slave cemetery that Ruth tenderly cares for as if it is her own special garden. For several generations, slaves were buried in the cemetery. Ruth begins to tell Sarge the stories behind each graveside. However, Ruth is either unable to or refuses to tell Sarge the story behind one particular stone that marks the birth and death of baby Kate. Sarge who has handled his parents' separation rather poorly turns to the deceased slaves for solace. He needs to know the story of Kate if he is to get past the pending divorce. As Sarge seeks the truth, he concludes that some secrets are better off buried.

THE COLORED GARDEN is a tremendous but different type of coming of age tale that will thrill readers who relish their fiction to contain something entertaining yet different. The story line centers on the stunned Sarge as he listens with earnest to the tales about the dead slaves while seeking something new to believe in. Oscar H. Bennett has written a winner that digs deep into the essence of human nature in an articulate and intelligent novel that is worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

This book is an excellent one worthy of a collection specially to those who are involved in the ministry of preaching, bible study, or even in sharing the gospel. It might not be as elaborate as those individual commentaries, but needless to say, the book is complete and touches almost all of the critical, difficult, and controversial issues.

References to the historical findings such as the MT, LXX and a lot more gives sufficient credence to their studies that these are based on historical facts, and not just on personal opinions. A great number of authors with their credentials who participated in writing this commentary proves that this book is a collective effort of great minds in order for us to benefit the cream of the crop. It is because of this that I find this book worthy as a treasure.

Really, this is just a start. Any commentary is. But this is one of the best because it proceeds from a radical premise: the whole Bible is from God, giving His point of view and superceding that of the human author.

Not that this is promoted self-consciously or consistently from each contributor. But the structure of the enterprise is such that they are sucked back into presenting how it is that the old testament is so thoroughly imbued in NT writings, including in ways which both OT and NT writers could not have intended.

Treading down this path forces us to question all those teachings we've had where we were told: "Matthew (or Paul or John ...) here had in mind xyz." When Matthew wrote his gospel, we might now surmise that we can't be sure what he himself had in mind, because what we wrote was superintended to the degree that Matthew's sinful thoughts were NOT what ended up on parchment. God's thoughts are there, pure and untainted by Matthew's natural limitations and sin.

Attempts to work from Matthew's sinful thoughts and culture to God's meaning miss the point that whatever Matthew was in his head was NOT the end product that flowed out his quill. Remember when Caiaphas spoke what he thought naturally about how it is better for one man to die rather than the whole nation take a hit? He meant it for evil, but God superintended it to be ultimate truth, regardless of that speaker's intent. Same with all holy writings.

Yes, holy men of old spake as they were moved, but their holiness does not naturally come out in uncontaminated speech -- that takes a special work of God. This commentary allows for that premise. There's something way more than human going on that ties this whole Bible together in one theme from one Writer.

Don't get me wrong, not all these contributors seem to subscribe to my radical conclusions above, although I think the editors do. And their prescribed structure for this commentary nudge the contributors into a path that I think leads to a more theocentric authorship. So this is a good start, but nothing beats trying to read the Bible itself from God's point of view, rather than the hallowed and misguided grammatial-historical human focused approach.

At a recent gathering of pastors from across the USA and Canada I was surprised that one VERY well-known speaker from So. California spoke to the pastors about his preaching style, his study habits, and his commentaries. When asked about his lack of preaching from Old Testament books, this pastor noted that he is a New Testament pastor and in his 25+ years has never preached through an Old Testament book, that the era of the Old Testament has no place in New Testament kingdom work. There was a hush like I had never heard (and these are all pastors who love to talk!). This new volume is a fantastic addition to any pastor's library and helps to link the entire counsel of God. Beale and Carson have given us a tremendous gift in the unique style of this reference book and how they build all the New Testament upon the shoulders of those prophets, priests, and sages who had gone before.

As we have seen, the New Testament is replete with uses of the Old Testament. Jesus, himself, was often quoting the Old Testament and the authors show us how the knowledge, culture, and genre of Old Testament books and passages that were useful in the establishment of the church after the resurrection. The authors are quick to remind us that the authors of the New Testament Canon were using Old Testament text to establish the church and then included God's counsel from the ancient eras in their writings back to the churches at Rome, Ephesus, and more.

This book serves a very powerful niche in our sermon preparation, it gives us tools to excite our congregation about the Old Testament which seems so ancient and almost out of place to the 21st Century thinker. Beale and Carson give us the tools to energize a new generation of disciples. I cannot imagine our pastoral libraries without this new work. It serves us as pastors and it serves our congregation as it illuminates the whole counsel of God.

I just got this book and I'm already impressed. The book is over 1200 pages of solid, scholarly output.

From Matthew through Revelation are treatments of quotations, echoes and allusions from the OT.

At the end of each NT book is a bibliography of the sources cited along the way. A great help!

The scholars are not afraid to give their own translation of the Greek text, while consulting other reliable versions of the Bible. I find this extremely helpful, as one who is adept at NT Greek.

DA Carson puts his scholarly touch on most of the Catholic Letters. He is so good.

Overall, this volume represents the best of NT scholarship. If you don't have this book in your collection and not making the most of it, you're depriving yourself of the best treatment to date on this subject, the use of the OT in the NT.

I give 10 stars.

Compiled by a large number of scholars from the evangelical tradition, this work is a much needed resource in your library. The difficulity and debate over how the new testament qoutes and uses the new testament as fulfillment is not glossed over as this 1000 plus page book examines passages from Matthew to Revelation. The sources cited and research used in this compilation is wide and scholarly in its use. A book needed by all serious students of the bible.

David Crouse's Copy Cats is a book of fictional short stories revolving around characters that are on the fringes of society searching for their sense of self and struggling with truth and lies. Crouse's characters are unable to cope with reality, so they fabricate stories (or lies) to make their lives meaningful and justify their own actions. The structures of the stories are all a kind of twisted irony. The truth and reality the characters live in are presented very simply. By the end the reader is either extremely confused or distraught at the happenings of the story, or a mix of both. And yet, through all the darkness, confusion and irony, the reader is drawn to the beauty of the writing and the almost intimate, personal window given to the reader through his style of writing, allowing the reader to catch a glimpse of the struggle these characters endure.

Crouse writes modern tales in a modern world. His story Click, a novella, is filled with conflict, longing, tension building up to a slap in the face of reality. If you bought the book for this story alone you will come away feeling satisfied with the overall product. Crouse is an excellent writer that tells a great story.

The characters are dark and foreboding, with good intentions through every situation Crouse's protagonists deal with. The plots are cutting but believable. It is as if you were listening to a friend telling you a supremely odd tale tempting you to cry out, "No Way!" right in the middle of them. Stranger things do happen in the real world, and when they occur they are the things one talks about over and over again amongst friends and at gatherings.

I highly recommend this book.

This is an incredible collection of short stories, deserving of the Flannery O'Connor award. Buy it, it's wonderful!

The kind of book I love to savor, but can't put down. Every single story is a treat, with unforgettable characters that want to stay longer than you wish.

I think of that line, taken from a Silver Jews song, because it describes this book fully. These are real people--fringe, or whatever you want to call them. There is something true about this book that some people may not want to admit. The sometimes broken nature of our selves that plays out in unsuspected ways runs rampant through these stories--they are stories about here, about now. Buy this, you need it.

Also, look for a fun little story by Crouse in the Dark Horse Book of the Dead.

The Wind River mysteries provide the reader with pleasure that is absent in many series after twelve installments. The mystery is intriguing, the writing is tightly paced, the characters still provide surprises by their actions, and the background information is so sound it never reads as a dump, but is finely woven into the story.
Two young Arapaho men, working on a ranch, are accused of stealing a petroglyph and Raymond Trueblood dies at the hands of Travis Birdsong. Travis is serving time for the killing, but Vicky Holden and Father John O'Mally believe he is innocent when a second petroglyph is stolen.
Nash Black, author of TRAVELERS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

Margaret Coel's Windy River Reservation series is wonderful. In this book she explores the dark underworld of trade in stolen Indian artifacts. She builds a plot that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat right until the end. Her characters are very complex and real, and the relationships that she explores betweeen her two main ones, Vicky and Father John grows and changes with each book. In this book Ms. Coel also explores the relationship between Vicky Holden and her partner Adam as Vicky goes out on her own trying to save one of her own people. Adam realizes that if any of the elders come to Vicky for help she simply can't refuse even if it puts her in danger. Margaret Coel is a master and this is one of the best mystery series that you'll find out there today. Intelligent writing with the cutting edge of tension running right through the book.

Well written book and great characters I am just beginning to know these authors and hope to read more of them in the future.

Another great story in the series by Coel. Can't wait for the next one each time. And you learn another facet of the Indians in the Southwest. I love the interplay between Father John and Vicki and the other characters. Good reading.

This was a great book by a great author, Margaret Coel. I hope there will be many more books with Father John and Vicky in it. I have read the entire series and each time I finish a book, I am already looking forward to the next one. When I finish the stories I have this wild desire to be able to help Father John in his endeavor to stay faithful to his calling but I also want him and Vicky to be together. I guess this is what keeps me waiting for the next book. When an author can make you feel all these emmotions, she is good, real good.

Aspiring script writer Matt visits a hospice in order to gather inspiration for his great play. Spending the days getting to know the people staying there, Matt realized the hospice is full of stories, for anybody who cares enough to sit down and listen. From the lady whose sister ran off with a circus artist (or wanted to, anyway) to the old man who was just hoping to be reconciled with his children before he left this earth, Matt talks to them all, asking them what was their best experience in life, and hearing the stories they just have to get off their chest-before it's too late.

The idea behind Evacuation Plan is brilliant. Joe O'Connell works from the theory that "everybody has a story to tell," and you are left with the knowledge that this is without a doubt true. The book changes focus constantly with the chapters alternatingly being told from Matt's point of view, and then from the view of one of the people at the hospice.

The main thread running through all the stories is death and how to cope with it, but this is not a strong enough connection to get the stories linked together properly, and Evacuation Plan ends up feeling more like a book of short stories with a common theme, than like a full novel. This doesn't make the book any less worth reading, but it is always an advantage for the reader to know what to expect, in order not to be disappointed by the number of loose threads left hanging.

Though dealing with a sober subject, Joe O'Connell manages to be neither too somber nor engage in too much gallows humor. Death is faced unapologetically and straightforward-a very refreshing change from books that tend to either shy away from the subject, or wallow in it.

Armchair Interviews says: This is more a collection of well-written short stories than a novel, with the thread that connects are the stories at the hospice.

I am still not sure what to make of Evacuation Plan: A Novel from the Hospice. It is a curious work; resistant to pigeon-holing and suffused with paradox, but carrying plenty of interest and propelling the reader to a haunting and intelligent conclusion.

A screenwriter named Matt ventures to a hospice in the hope of gaining firsthand experience to write a film. He probes the lives of the dying and the grieving, the story alternating between brief narratives of the hospice and longer stories of the lives of the people he meets. For the bulk of the book, the present narrative is primarily a means of connecting the diverse life stories of those gathered around death. Soon Matt focuses on patient Charlie Wright and his two children, who are trying to resolve their issues with their father in the little time they have left. At the end, Matt comes to a powerful self-reckoning, achieving an understanding of what his work means to those dying and himself.

The character of Matt is a paradox all his own. His research is desperate: the film is his main project, and he's having difficulty fitting death into art: "I need a plot point to pump up the action on page thirty. All I'm getting is more angry at death, the subject no one in the real world will talk about. Like the rest, I've spent most of my life avoiding the subject, feeling invincible." Hence O'Connell has given us a portrait of an artist as a young man, a man who needs to do some growing up - and to no surprise, we witness it. Like George Willard, the protagonist of Winesburg, Ohio, a book from which O'Connell draws thematic and structural inspiration, Matt is a young character with whom sympathy comes difficult; as to whether he ever becomes likable, that will be the tastes of the reader to decide. Whatever personal opinions may be, he is a complex character, deftly drawn to escape stereotyping as either the entirely naïve youth who comes to learn great truths, or the disillusioned young intellectual confronting his greatest obstacle.

The story too is replete with paradox. In a book about the dying, there is surprisingly little about the actual passage, or even the mindset of those on the brink. The stories that make the meat of the text are, while somewhat too couched in a gritty, tough-life "I've got issues" style, are ultimately much more about life than death, an intention the author makes clear in interviews. More peculiarly, they lack an obvious connection with the larger context of the novel. They are very much self-contained stories about individuals; how they fit into the hospice world is hazy. However, this lack of clarity doesn't really damage the flow of the book significantly.

Despite this disjointedness, the novel has several unifying themes, which are executed not just through similar topics in the stories but through the environment of the hospice as well. Perhaps most fundamental is Matt's claim that "Death without a history is the cruelest joke of all." One of the more haunting sides of the hospice is the urgency with which the dying wish to tell their stories to Matt in the hope that he carries them on. Charlie Wright believes Matt's storytelling will make him immortal. To want to live on in memory is no great surprise, but to desperately wish to convey one's life to someone one barely knows is at least somewhat peculiar. For all the residents of the hospice, it appears to be their greatest deathbed wish.

O'Connell also draws heavily on the theme of forgiveness, an appropriate choice given that after one dies, forgiving them is never quite the same. Many of the characters are struggling to forgive, and late in the novel we learn that Matt is having the same struggle. But this comes a little too late: Matt's personal story adds a powerful string to the woven plot, and were it to begin earlier it could be developed further. That being said, keeping it to the end produces a commanding ending in which both grief and happiness are embedded. To place it earlier may detract too much focus from the hospice residents. When these themes are mixed with well-researched reports of day-to-day hospice life, it is clear that O'Connell has given us a considered portrait on the world of the dying.

Who benefits more from the process of death, the dying or the grieving? Who hurts more? These questions appear to be the main attraction of the book as it focuses on issues of the living and the dying, not all of which are about death. While the hospice world O'Connell presents is probably less full of the "joy...to be found" than he intended, he succeeds in showing how it is not a wholly depressing place. By the time one has finished reading the final story, a list of steps on how to die in a hospice which gives the book its title, one can genuinely smile, a smile caused by insight and a sense of peace.


Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Max Falkowitz, 2007

Hospice-----a place to die. The End. Joe O'Connell's Evacuation Plan is a beautiful contradiction to those very general concepts of human finality. For those who believe there is life after death and for those who don't, O'Connell has shown that there is life BEFORE death with each glimpse into the souls, hearts and memories of us all. Evacuation Plan reminded me of the woven potholders that my older brother and I made during our childhood-------over, under, around and through, and a final stretch to completion. Life experiences- fascinating, painful, endearing, complex, ugly, but a part of each of us, make this book a worthwhile read. Joe O'Connell's writing opens our eyes wide to see human beings rather than Hospice patients and those who are brave enough to go as far with them as mortals are allowed to go.---Eleanor Bosl, Joe's mother-in-law and very proudly, his friend.

You are in a hospice, and Rod Serling walks in and asks you to tell him a story. If you had to pick one event out of your life to tell him about, what would it be? Evacuation Plan, by Texas writer Joe M. O'Connell, is a collection of stories told to the novel's protagonist, Matt, who is a screenwriter working in a hospice so he can collect material. The occupants of the hospice -- dying residents, their family members, and the hospice staff -- are like the tattoos of Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man, each one offering a tale that stands out in their lives. Like the loser who stares at himself in childhood pictures until the pictures come to life. Or the guy who gambled his wife in a game of Monopoly at his murderer father's Christian home for the deranged. Or how fate undid the fate of a young unwed father-to-be. These are stories of reflection, of the best day in one's life, the worst day, the turning points, and the close calls, some joyous, some sad, some bizarre. Not the stuff one would discuss on a first date or a job interview. The surreal atmosphere of the hospice, where angels might be eavesdropping, drops the guard of the storytellers, and sincerity prevails. Evacuation Plan is both entertaining and thought provoking, and it is a wonderful book.

I was just blown away ... so rich and so well done on so many levels. Joe O'Connell takes us to a place we want to avoid like the plague and reveals the warmest and most meaningful moments in life. Truly a treasure to curl up with.