Barry Williams Books

how to avoid breaking my ankle--which I did! The guide, like all Lonely Planet publications I've used to date, is ecellent.

This is a wonderful book of fables featuring the Magic Hare. In Mrs. Banks words, he is old-fashioned, yet bang up to the minute. In his kind and conceited, clever and shy, gentle and ruthless way he brings the varied characters of this magical book to perfect solutions for their problems; all the while teaching us with joy and humor how to chase down our own resolutions. A great book to read aloud.

I bought this manual for my rotation in Clinical Oncology and it sure was a great companion. It's very concise and clearly written, and covers every aspect relevant to Oncology, from carcinogenesis to general principles of management to complications of therapy. It is great for reviewing the most important points after having read a textbook or for clarifying questions that arise "in the field". I recommend it highly.

This should be required reading in high school (or at SOME point in educational development). There's no morality in capitalism, and there's no underestimating the stranglehold Big Business has on "our" government. It's too bad Ralph Nader finally flipped out because his message is too important to be ignored.

This is a 'must have' guide for those who are either researching particular Australian writers, works of literature, or important themes.

If, for example, you are trying to find out more about bushrangers in Australian Literature, the comprehensive entry that starts on page 137 will define the term, give some history and provide some examples of literature.

Want to know something about 'The Thorn Birds' by Colleen McCullough? Turn to Page 745. Colleen McCullough is herself the subject of an entry on Page 489.

A great starting point for any author, theme or significant work of literature up to the 1990s.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

My goodness! I don't think you could ask for a more extraordinarily effective and inspiring rebuttal to the clap-trap about patriotism being bantered about by the current administration and the media.

This book contains maybe the best definition of an authentic patriotism that I have ever read. All three essays are beautiful, passionate, and powerful in completely different ways.

If you want to know what being an American is all about, please read this book!

This is one of the finest historical reads I have encountered and enjoyed. The personalities and social dynamics of the people of Revolutionary Era Maine are well understood and beautifully presented, in a flowing and artistic manner. The authors have done an incredible amount of research into history, society, and physical nature of the West Indian trade and a major colonial port, and an African snagged by them both; and understand and present them well. The book ranks proudly alongside the classics of Kenneth Roberts, and should receive the attention and praise its fine fine quality warrants.

Barry Reese continues his saga of The Rook in fine form! He's a wonderful storyteller of Action and Adventure, and I know all fans of pulp fiction will love this book... Hey, the FRANK BRUNNER cover alone is worth the price of admission! It's not often that you can get a legendary Marvel Comics artist to do a cover for ya!

RUNNER MACK is one of those books that convince you of the true power of literature, for while reading the book you are really walking a mile in the other man's shoes. In this case, the other man is called Henry Adams, no not the quintessential American dilettante and thinker who wrote about Mont-St Michel and Chartres and who knew Henry James.

Nor is it the famous brewer Henry Adams!

This Adams is a contemporary black man faced with difficult and revealing decisions about his place in a largely white world which spurns his very existence. And it's also a baseball novel, centered on Adams' need to join the "Stars," a brilliant coinage on the part of the author Barry Beckham, who wrote this novel way back when, but it hasn't dated a bit, except perhaps today it's easier for black athletes to get into pro baseball than it was back then. Picture the book as a sort of cross between Malamud's THE NATURAL, and a fiery, deeply felt (and Henry Adams like) confession like THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X. In fact the central bond between Henry Adams and the title man, Runner Mack, reminded me a bit of the sometimes strained relationship between pioneer Jackie Robinson and martyred militant Malcolm X.

What maks Runner Mack stand out, however, is not its fidelity to the locker room ethics of pro baseball, nor to its heroes' vague similarity to figures from some "Black Heritage Month" poster, but for its postmodern writing style. Beckham is fully the equal of writers like Thomas Pynchon or Ralph Ellison, and stepping into his world you go breathless with speed, dexterity, and a mindblowing use of adjectives and verbs. Henry's relationship with Beatrice is a true classic, and brings out the very best in Beckham's heartfelt gravity. "Wasn't this a spirit that he was considering: an emotional makeup, a soul force whose bearing was as automatic as it was inexplainable, phantomlike in the vigor with which it sticks to one's bones, becomes a sixth sense; wasn't it--hell, wsn't it endowed or ancestral, this spirit, marching through the ages with the stride of an ineradicable heritage?" This writing brings you to your feet cheering; it doesn't make any excuses for itself, nor does it talk down to you, it treats you like you were actually smart as Barry Beckham, which is doubtful, and to think that this book, published long ago, nearly a quarter of a century ago, is still relevant, alive and musical today. Oprah should pick up on Barry Beckham, forget your James Freys, go with the gusto!

Dude, I just didn't know sheakspeare was that cool. Wow, hes my favorite playwright.