K Books

Anthem is a terrific read about our on-going drug war and its failure. This big (740 pages) novel tells how one cadre of a U.S. government group plans to eliminate illegal drug addicts and users forever. The fascinating characters and the authentic story line are very unique and creative. The aircraft crash scenario and investigation are enough to make one stay off commercial airlines! Its gory and done through the eyes of crash investigators and leads the reader to a core story line that is one-of-a kind. There is extreme violence (like real life) and much more in this new novel that excites the senses. Moreover, there are far more core-value and American patriotism senses to this novel. It just about covers everything America stands for; both the good and the not-so good. This a teriffic movie in a big book! I most highly recommend this exciting read for non-Sunday School. I want another book from this new author! Better yet, how about another novel and the movie!

Anthem is a terrific read about our on-going drug war and its failure. This big (740 pages) novel tells how one cadre of a U.S. government group plans to eliminate illegal drug addicts and users forever. The fascinating characters and the authentic story line are very unique and creative. The aircraft crash scenario and investigation are enough to make one stay off commercial airlines! Its gory and done thruough the eyes of crash investigators and leads the reader to a core story line that is one-of-a kind. This a movie in a book! I most highly recommend this exciting read for non-Sunday School. I want another book from this author! Better yet,how about another novel and the movie!

Mr. Loeb has done a wonderful job of weaving aviation, foreign intrigue and the evil side of the illegal drug industry. It is all possible and even more believable after 9/11, even the descriptions of the B-727 being flown like a fighter. It is obvious that Mr. Loeb has some time in that aircraft. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has lived on the edge or wishes they could. But it is not for the faint of heart, it's real, though fiction, it can happen, though it hasn't, and it is told in a story line of an aircraft accident investigator's viewpoint, which gives it a uniqueness of its own. Don't wait for the movie, although, I am, now that I read the book.

After establishing respect for the Lakota Nation and their culture, the author advances that heritage to the 22nd Century through the leading force of the novel. The author successfully uses that force to combat the South American drug trade (pushed by Americans high in our government). The book involves the American Embassy, foreign generals, diplomats, sabotage, military might, heart breaking romance, large scale murders, plane crashes and much more! Anthem is a fast moving adventure. An especially strong must read for American minorities so they might better understand their role in re-establishing America as their, and our friend, to all nations striving for freedom.

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of suspense down to the last page. It amazed me to learn that it was published BEFORE 9/11. The characters amost jump out of the pages and I couldn't help thinking what a great movie thriller this would make. The scary part is when one wonders whether this plot could really happen. Also, I learned a vast number of 21st Century acronyms having to do with aviation and the military. Great book.

A considerable amount of history during the early Middle Ages was written by Middle Easterners, and their scholarship should be taken seriously, as shown in this book. There is a lot of information appropriate to the issues in the region even now. See other reviews in the resource library at civilsociety dot seedwiki

As other reviewers have noted, this book is an engrossing, highly informative text, that is (generally) quite an easy read. It can be gory and propagandistic at times, as some have noted. Overall, it's a very good digest of Muslim narratives of several key events.

The main drawback is that I would not consider this a stand-alone book, particularly on a lot of the convoluted political arrangements - I'd suggest Wasserman's "Templars & the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven" for that - and I really don't think one can get the full understanding of the Muslim mentality in fighting the Crusaders from it. For that I'd suggest al-Sulami's "Way of Sufi Chivalry" (for those on a budget) or preferably Sabzawari's "Royal Book of Spiritual Chivalry" (for those who aren't) to get into the mindset of the Muslim warriors. For while "Arab Historians" includes a lot personal commentary from the authors, these last two books were written as guides for the emirs and warriors, and once reading them one gets the feeling that "Arab Historians" was written by some military public relations officer.

Still a highly recommended, enjoyable read, though.

Once you've read the popular histories of the Crusades, and your appetite for the original source materials has been whetted by the excerpts in Payne, Runciman, etc., you will want this book. It's THE source reader for the Arab perspectives, better in many ways than The Crusades Through Arab Eyes (Maalouf). You get the flavor of the culture as well as their particular slant on the events and personalities. And the snarky footnotes can be delicious!

A very good source, especially for those who have read about the Crusades and understand the context of the writings. This book is not an overview of the crusades or of a single crusade; it is selections from the writings of Arabic historians placed in a chronological order. Easy to read, detailed and engrossing; both useful and enjoyable.

A good book. It has many parallels with accounts of the original Muslim invasions and subsequent 700 year occupation of most of the Iberian (Spain/Portugal) Penninsula. Due to this initial Muslim invasion and occupation of Christian Europe, the Christian Crusades were launched into Spain and the Holy Land. Same story in the Balkans and Anatolia with the Seljuk and Ottoman Turk invasions of those Christian lands. First hand accounts of events always make for good reading. A good book, unfortunately I lost it.

His uncle Felix Blumenfeld was a Horowitz teacher.
Some of Neuhaus students among many others:
- Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels, both considered top 10 world pianists.
- The first teacher (the mother) of Andrei Gavrilov.
- Radu Lupu.

This book is funny as exemplified below by some excerpts:

"Thinking about art and science, about their mutual relationship and contradictions, I came to the conclusion, for some reason or other, that mathematics and music are situated at extreme poles of the human spirit, that these two antipodes limit and determine the whole spiritual and creative activity of man and that situated between them is everything that mankind has created in the field of science and art".

I found his above childish thoughts very interesting, perhaps meaning that everything is a linear combination of pure logic (math) and pure emotion (music). As I work with math and like to play piano I will tend to be a "complete" human being :-)

Other of his "jokes":

"When Emil Gilels came to study with me in the Moscow State Conservatory, I was once forced to say to him: You are already a grown man, you can eat steak and drink beer but so far you have been fed with a baby's bottle"

"I remember that when Glazunov was about fifty his mother used to tell the washerwoman to be careful with the child's linen"

"To play the piano is easy. I mean the physical process, and not the summit of pianistic art.It is obvious that to play the piano very well is just as difficult as to do anything else very well, for instance to pull teeth or macadam a road".

"I must once more apologize for this excessively long history about myself; that is always somewhat indecent. But what can one do?"

"Carl Czerny, the "dry and methodical genius" who has tortured generations of pianists wih an inexhaustible stream of studies and exercises..."

And many more...

His jokes are almost everywere. Otherwise the book has several useful recommendations and analysis about the art of piano playing and has chapters on "artistic image of a musical composition", on tone, on technique and on teaching activity.

But be advised: Sometimes the book is a bit verbose, repetitive and philosophical. It is not directed only to technical problems.

The Art of Piano Playing such a terrific book that every pianist should have it. I've read it through and will read it again and again. The information in this book is to the point. You can't help but come away with a better understanding of the art of piano playing

I'm sure anyone shopping for this book knows that Heinrich Neuhaus was the mentor of such giants of the piano as Richter, Gilels and Lupu. Well, here between these covers you'll find the reason why. Neuhaus possessed a great mind and an ability to express himself like no other pedagogue I have read. While reading his book I kept thinking I was reading Tolstoy, not for any similarity of style or substance but because I got the same feeling from both their works, that here is a great man who had lived a full life, and then had the patience and wherewithal to sit down and commit it to paper, thereby enriching piano posterity. This book deserves pride of place on any pianist's bookshelf. I thank the previous reviewer who said that it was a crime that this book is out of print. I paid a hefty amount for what looks like a slim volume, but it is packed with such profundity that I have to consider this a seminal addition to my library. Get it wherever you can, this is one for the ages.

I havent heard anything bad about this book. Neuhaus is a very cultural and wise man, and great sense of humor. After reading this book I have found myself quoting it quite often.
Its not perfect, but nothing is so... Just read it and you will know what I mean, Its very well worth the read, and it will make you laugh several times.

Lets put it this way.... this is not light reading (is the slang word an airplane book?). It is though one of the best books on playing the piano. Neuhaus is concise, to the point and likes to put out interesting anecdotes, some humorous.
This is also pretty advanced so I doubt non musicians could find any utility apart from historical tidbits. Neuhaus taught Richter who taught many others.... and just like we do with other disciplines - we have to pay tribute to the forefather of this lineage/legacy, especially since he helped produce Richter.

When I began reading this book,I anticipated a telling of the nazi shadow engulfing the Jews of Austria in the style of-say- Primo Levi, or even Zweigs recollections in his 'World of Yesterday' autobiography. But Appelfelds style is unique. Yes, the nazi shadow is coming to engulf.As readers we know what their fate will be. But Appelfeld tells the story from the universal human perspective where we evade reality and interpret everything the way we want it to be, not as it actually is.

Jews are gathered in Badenheim for their annual vacation. The 'sanitation' department has ordered all Jews to register. The residents know they will be going to Poland.Dr Pappenheim talks of the new opportunities; how it is essential people return to their own country of origin. (The atmosphere of evading reality is heightened as nobody asks 'Why?') Langmann is angry. He is Austrian. Why should he be uprooted over a mistake? Peter the pastry shop owner blames it all on Pappenheim for bringing decadence to the town with his art festivals.(Again, no one asks what has this got to do with their situation-even though Peters accusation is a common myth espoused by the nazis.) Fussholdt carries on writing his major critiques on jewish philosophers and culture whom he dispises despite his own judaism.

Throughout, there are no Cassandra characters. Only quickly appeased comments (They took my house is somehow turned into an understandable action by the residents.)Even at the end, Pappenheim is convinced they cannot have far to travel when 40 filthy cattle trucks arrive at the station to take them to Poland; its all ok.



This book is a mere 148 pages and must be read in one sitting to gain the full effect. It transcends the era and the crime it portrays, it tells you of mans fatal flaw in disbelieving the evil that can occur. Trusting to decency and reason to quell brutality. You know that these people know, but even as a reader, you would feel uneasy in trying to break the truth to them.



Appelfeld has a unique way of writing and a message for both his own people and all of mankind. This was an honour to read.

Badenheim is a quiet, idyllic holiday town in Eastern Europe. The 'leader' of the town, Dr Pappenheim, is busy preparing for the annual festival, writing letters and sending telegrams to beg and plead for musicians and artists from Vienna.

While the preparations are under way, the Sanitation Department begins quietly undertaking a rigorous inspection of each and every house and shop in Badenheim. Among the many questions asked is how many and who of the residents are Jewish. The vacationers and locals alike think nothing of the questions, nonchalantly confirming or denying their religion, and returning to their food, their wine, their entertainment. Here and there, a few people discuss the increasing powers of the Sanitation Department - they have just recently closed the Post Office - but nobody seems to mind. Badenheim is quiet and peaceful, and that is how they like it.

Time passes. The impresario, Dr Pappenheim, is still writing letters, but he senses that they are going off into the void, never to return. A few - very few - letters are still allowed into Badenheim, but for the most part, the Sanitation Department has closed off the city. Guards are posted to deny entry or exit to any man, woman or child of Jewish descent. It happens so slowly that nobody really notices, but at one stage, almost all of the non-Jewish people have gone, and of the tiny trickle of visitors allowed into Badenheim, every person is a Jew.

There is a quiet horror to Badenheim 1939. Throughout this very short book, it seems as though with each page, the oppression and terror of World War II is approaching the Jewish people of Badenheim, but they never see it. With every freedom slowly being denied - the shops are closed, the gates are sealed, outside communication is forbidden - the reader is left to wonder if this time, if this time when the Sanitation Department closes the pastry shop, say, will they understand? But they never do. Everything happens over such a long period of time, and so quietly, that nobody really seems to realise when they are suddenly trapped, except for a few minor characters who are slowly going mad, the cracks in the calm facade they have wrapped themselves in widening with every minute.

This book is most effective because we know what happened to the Jews post-1939. We know where they are going, and what will likely happen to them. The Sanitation Department assures them that they will be transplanted to Poland, and everything will be fine. They believe because they have to believe. Towards the end of the novel, the razor wire, the guns, the dogs all make an appearance. To ignore what is happening is suicidal, and yet they do. After all, how could a race of people imagine that they would be persecuted in such a terrifying manner? Surely, their minds would shied away from such horrible information, from the mere idea that a man - a country - wanted to eradicate six million of them? And yet, that is what happened, and that is how the novel ends, a perfect, bleak, dark ending that is all the more horrifying for how completely reasonable every single tiny little step leading up to their incarceration inside a derelict train, headed, presumably, for Auschwitz.

Badenheim 1939 is a powerful book because it shows how easy it is to accept something unacceptable, if it is presented in small, reasonable, easily palatable pieces. None of these characters are overly bad, or good - they are absolutely normal. They squabble, they argue, they love, they laugh, they sing, they cry. In fact, throughout the entire novel, nothing untoward happens to any of them - except for the encroaching holocaust.

Aharon Appelfeld's beautiful and highly polished novel, Badenheim 1939 was originally published in Hebrew in 1975. Although the Holocaust forms both the historical backdrop of the novel as well as its imaginative focus, it does so from behind-the-scenes and, as such, is subtle and implicit in its assertions, all to its enormous credit.

Badenheim 1939 is set at an Austrian vacation resort during the spring of 1939. A seemingly unremarkable assortment of middle-class Jews on holiday have gathered at Badenheim, only to later be united by what would become history's most atrocious turning point. The "Music Festival" resort of Badenheim will, soon enough, become a place of Jewish detainment from which the only exit will be via forced transport to Poland.

The vacationers, however, for the most part, remain in blissful unawareness of what is to come. Spring is in the air and summer is about to blossom; the Jews spend their days strolling the hotel gardens, visiting the cities cafés, sampling strawberry tartes at the local pastry shops, engaging in sports and bickering, gossiping, bargaining and complaining, much as any other vacationer. The mounting horror, which every reader of this sensitive and elegant book will realize, is made all the greater by the fact that it is a horror the characters simply cannot, or will not, see.

Badenheim 1939 is written with an artistic subtlety and insight with which most modern readers remain sadly unfamiliar. Appelfeld's concern, in this book, is with the prelude to the German catastrophe and not with its actual occurrence. The author, himself a Holocaust survivor, makes virtually no mention of the Nazi atrocities and shows no interest in the graphic portrayal of the brutalities committed. Appelfeld is certainly not oblivious to the facts, he simply has chosen to place his focus elsewhere. In Badenheim 1939, the Holocaust is an incipient threat rather than a full-blown horror.

Appelfeld's prose is more akin to lyric poetry than to narrative fiction and shows a tremendous gift for rhetorical restraint that is rare among writers. This is a beautiful and quiet tale, exquisitely told with imagery, understatement and indirection. The effects of the narrative accumulate and change in much the same way the seasons do, in increments that are minimal and yet extraordinarily moving. This is history, but it is history perceived at its most mundane. In this remarkable manner, Appelfeld creates something of extraordinary beauty and yet, manages to intensify the tragedy.

In the end, Appelfeld's characters do, of course, suffer the horrors that befell all Jews, of every nation, whether directly or indirectly. The genius of Badenheim 1939 lies in its projections of a gradual, incipient menace and its portraits of Jewish reactions, which range from ready adjustment to slowly unfolding despair.

It is in the space between the reader's knowledge of what is beginning to unfold for the Jews and the latter's own blindness to it that the book registers its most powerful impact, once again doing so without any direct reference to the ovens, the gas chambers or the camps. Appelfeld's artistic beauty lies in his amazing ability to suggest rather than describe. Giorgio Bassani was able to do something similar in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis but Appelfeld is, perhaps, the more superior.

Rarely has the tragic end point of Jewish fate been invoked no clearly and disturbingly and yet so indirectly. We come away from Badenheim 1939 as though from a finely-rendered tone poem, complete with the knowledge that we have been absorbed into a special moment in time and in feeling; in this case, the moment just before the trains departed for Poland, the final pause before the end.

Badenheim is a an Austrian resort town whose denizens are almost all Jewish. This short novel describes the reactions of the residents of the town as preparations are made to deport them ' to the East'. It describes the gradual series of changes in which the town is slowly closed down, and its residents denied their privileges and enjoyments. A number of characters stories are highlighted including the Impressario Pappenheim who has for years organized the Music and Dramatic Festivals in the town.The story of a half - Jewish waitress who identifies with the Jews and who injures herself in desperation is also told. Also an assimilated writer who mocks Herzl and Buber and worships the satiricial Karl Kraus is despicted. Most of these characters are living in the delusion that they are about to be deported from Austria to go to a better life in the East, in Poland. Appelfeld is a master of depicting these small games people play with themselves, these small self- deceptions which keep them from facing a horrible truth.
In the end the town closes down and the residents and vacationers of Badehnheim are taken away. When four old dirty trains hook up with them they still refuse to see the reality. And the concluding thought of escape is that they must be going 'on a short journey since the cars are so dirty'.
Assimilated Jews, often self- hating but even more often painfully human in clinging to delusions of their own normalcy and safety are the subject of this work. It is all prelude to the Disaster and Destruction the Shoah which is to destroy them all.

Aharon Appelfeld, one of Israel's greatest writers, has had only a handful of his 40 books translated into English. It's too bad. Then again, it's too bad Appelfeld didn't write "Badenheim 1939" under the pen name "Albert Camus" --- if he had, this 148-page novel would be taught alongside "The Stranger" and regarded, rightly, as a modern classic.

Appelfeld is a very unlikely writer. But then, it's remarkable that he's alive. Born in Romania in 1932, he was a quiet boy, an only child. He was just 8 when the Nazis shot his mother and deported him and his father to a concentration camp in the Ukraine, at which point they were separated for twenty years. Aharon escaped to Russia, where he was a shepherd. In 1944, at 12, he joined the Russian Army. When the war ended, he made his way to Italy and, finally, to Palestine. He spoke so many languages he couldn't express himself in any. And he had only a year or two of schooling. But he managed to enroll in college in Jerusalem and, soon after, to begin writing stories in Hebrew.

Appelfeld has one great subject: understanding what happened to his people. "I'm dealing with a civilization that has been killed," he has said. "How to represent it in the most honorable way --- not to equalize it, not to exaggerate, but to find the right proportion to represent it, in human terms." What kept him from depression, bitterness, suicide? "I've never been an angry person. This is what saved me."

"Badenheim 1939" --- the first of Appelfeld's books to be translated from Hebrew to English --- is a modest, precise, even-handed tale. As it should be; this is a simple story, of a single season in a resort town favored by Jews. As the novel begins, Spring has arrived. So have the musicians. And the first tourists.

Dr. Pappenheim is the local impresario; he's all bustle. Expect to see him at the Post Office, sending telegrams and opening letters. But this season is unlike all others. For one thing, the Sanitation Department has increased powers --- it's now authorized to undertake "independent investigations." For reasons not made clear, these investigations include the construction of fences and rolls of barbed wire. Appliances appear, "suggestive of preparations for a public celebration." The visitors to the resort expect "fun and games."

And, indeed, the office of the Sanitation Department is starting to look like a travel agency, thanks to the new signs: "The air in Poland is fresher" and "Get to know the Slavic Culture" and "Labor is our Life." There's plenty of time to think about those signs; walks are now forbidden, guests must stay on the grounds of the hotel. It's a nice break in a dull day when the Sanitation Department puts maps on Poland on sale.

The Post Office closes. Just as well. No mail is arriving --- and who knows if letters are getting out? But more people suddenly show up, all of them Jews. Here for the Music Festival? Apparently not.

And now it's Fall. The cakes of summer are no more. Ditto cigarettes. Lunch is barley soup and dry bread. Concern? Bad dreams? Of course. But no one can really believe that what is happening is more than an inconvenience. At worst, a mistake.

At last a train appears at the station. An engine with four filthy freight cars. The last paragraph shows how the worst thing you can imagine can be sold to you as something else. How easily you and yours can be lost. And, in one of the greatest sentences ever to end a book, how you can go to your doom still believing it's all going to be okay.

'Balthazar' picks up where Durrell left off in 'Justine' not chronologically, but from a different perspective. The doctor Balthazar has paid a visit to the narrator of Justine, and gives him a text called the Great Intilinear, which details what has already unfolded in the previous novel. The fact that Lawrence Durrell was trying to explore the idea of relativity in the Alexandria Quartet is almost completely inconsequential to what makes it any good. What remains interesting in this text is his rich prose and broad canvas. He his building a world that is situated in both the real and the imaginary. Even as 'Balthazar' devolves into elements of Orientalism, it remains an extremely fine novel.

BALTHAZAR, the second novel in Lawrence Durrell's ALEXANDRIA QUARTET, is a less daunting proposition than its predecessor, JUSTINE. The author points out that the first three novels (these two plus MOUNTOLIVE) all overlap in time, looking at the same events from different perspectives; only the fourth book, CLEA, is a true sequel. Nonetheless, it is essential to read JUSTINE first; the greater clarity and expansiveness of BALTHAZAR is possible only because the reader already knows most of the characters and events; there is not enough explanation for the story to stand on its own.

The set-up is simple. The narrator (who now has a name, Darley) receives a surprise visitor to his Greek island, Balthazar, the doctor who had played a secondary role in the earlier novel. He bears with him the manuscript of JUSTINE, which Darley had sent him for comment, and has just time to return it together with his own interleaved notes and marginalia, before his ship leaves again. So Darley/Durrell is left with this huge volume of new material, which he calls "the great Interlinear" as though it were a sacred text. He realizes that several of his assumptions in the original story were mistaken, and so is forced to tell it again, sometimes quoting Balthazar directly, sometimes reimagining it in his own voice.

The book is clearer than JUSTINE in several respects, as though emerging from smoke into light. Durrell seems to use fewer unexplained foreign words, though he still breaks into French at the drop of a hat. The chapters are shorter and more clearly marked. The narrative dwells longer on a few connected characters, or a linear sequence of events. While the climactic duck shoot was the only action set-piece in the earlier book, there are many here: Nessim's ride into the desert with his brother Narouz, the street festival of Sitna Mariam, the Venetian-style masked carnival, and several others. The effective addition of a second narrator (Balthazar) means that not everything is filtered through Darley's sensibility, so other characters develop greater individuality through the cross-lighting. I am not sure that they all become more likeable -- in particular, there is one scene with Clea near the end which strains my previous view of her as a hovering angel -- but it is easier to understand them. There is also more use of direct speech, so that the two older British characters, the writer Pursewarden and Scobie the old sailor, develop distinct (and rather funny) voices.

Add there is still the rich color and cadence of Durrell's descriptive language, a little overdone perhaps, but full of surprising word-choices and sharp observations, especially when capturing sounds: "From the throat of a narrow alley, spilled like a widening circle of fire upon the darkness, burst a long tilting gallery of human beings headed by the leaping acrobats and dwards of Alexandria, and followed at a dancing measure by the long grotesque cavalcade of gonfalons, rising and falling in a tide of mystical light, treading the peristaltic measure of the wild music -- nibbled out everywhere by the tattling flutes and the pang of drums or the long shivering orgasm of tembourines struck by the dervishes in their habits as they moved towards the site of the festival." No longer does this writing overwhelm the narrative it contains, nor does it merely decorate; rather, it articulates and propels the action, as this four-book sequence comes to seem less an outré experiment and more like a true novel of impressive scope.

"Balthazar" is the second of the sibling tomes of Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet". The novel allows the reader to dive again deep into Alexandrian life and see everything what happens already in "Justine" from a different angle.

Darley, the narrator, still living in seclusion on the remote Greek Island, has sent the story (i.e. Justine) to one of the Alexandrian friends, Balthazar, the Jewish, gay doctor interested in philosophy and theology, initiator of the Kabbalah group, suspected of spying activity. Balthazar during his short visit on the island gives Darley the manuscript back together with a substantial amount of notes, which (with Darley's comments) are reconstituted in this volume. Darley was prompted to add a lot of the notes, as, reflecting upon them, he realized that despite his doubts, expressed in "Justine", many things he took for granted are completely different than he thought.

Balthazar sees the events described in "Justine" from his own point of view, and, having often more information or just different sources than Darley, his versions of events add to or change the descriptions from the first volume. New characters are introduced, and those, who were merely mentioned or hinted upon (Pursewarden, Mountolive, Leila, Narouz), become central, and their preoccupations and emotions are at the first plane. These shifts, instead of clarifying things that were blurred and mysterious in "Justine" make the narrative even more slippery and allusive. New avenues open for each event, tales within tales are discovered, which need their own explanation, and the atmosphere is even more dreamy... The motivations of ome characters, especially Nessim, seem to change completely from what Darley perceived, as new events are revealed. The search for the truth obviously cannot end here, so the reader needs to proceed to "Mountolive".

Alexandria becomes even more of a main character in this novel, and definitely the one with the strongest and versatile personality. Most of the other characters, struck by destructive love (again the analysis of love is one of the main themes, although the secret service intrigue gets more momentum), are impressionable, prone to spontaneous, sudden behaviors, and transient. The climactic event, as the hunting party was in Justine, is this time the carnival ball, where the reader roams the streets together with the characters in disguise... and is a witness to another death.

"Balthazar" is even more full of aphorisms than "Justine" - there seems to be a sentence for any occasion, and whereas the generalizations of love may appear trivial, childish even, the truths about literature and theoretical background of Durrell's enterprise to create a novel which would reflect its times, are amazingly formulated and put into the mouth of the surprising number of the writer characters (look especially for what Pursewarden has to say).

In summary, this is another delightful volume, different than "Justine" and only giving the reader the appetite for more of Durrell's Alexandria!

I admit that I have not read "Justine", the first novel of Durrell's famous Alexandria Quartet. Perhaps if I had started at the beginning, I might have had a more favorable impression. Yet I do feel that BALTHAZAR can stand alone as a novel, even if a reader were to be better served by reading all four in order. Durrell's writing is fabulous. Lemon-scented, mauve, pearly Alexandria with the white stalks of its minarets, "the town that breaks open at sunset like a rose"; beggars beside the Rolls Royces, the human flotsam of the Mediterranean, the tawdry revels of the Christian carnival---all appear so pleasingly haunting and decrepit. Durrell's novel is full of "wisdom"--perhaps a lifetime's supply of epigrams on every conceivable subject, saved over the years by the author as he thought of them on sleepless nights, or written down as he heard them at the cafes and salons of the Middle East. To paraphrase the author, "reading joins you to a work, then divides you". I plunged headlong into BALTHAZAR, hoping for a good read, but came out worse off. I felt I had been offered a plate of decadence and cynicism, and not wanting to play the chicken, taken several bites. I didn't like the taste. What I felt, most of all, was that I was an outsider; the observer of a clique or in-group. The author/narrator knew, all the characters knew, but I didn't know. The prose was designed to keep me from knowing. I had to guess or intrigue with myself in order to find out where this novel was going and who all these people were. I did not enjoy the experience very much, though I admit that it might be just the ticket for some. I repeatedly asked myself, "Is it worth finding out ? Do you really care ? Or are these just a bunch of people hopelessly sunk in jealousy, perversion, sex and substance abuse, who prize infidelity above all ? Is this what the author considers usual life ? Why should I try to discover who really loved or cared about whom ?" I concluded that it didn't matter to me very much.

The group broke apart through death, anger, jealousy, and fatigue. BALTHAZAR traces the collapse of this in-grown little society within colonial Alexandria, before the tides of nationalism drowned its international, "Levantine" character forever. If you admire style, eliptical narrative, and skillful description laced with epigrams, this could be a five star novel. Not for me.

Like "Justine", written in a hauntingly sensual style, but far more readable. Took me a much shorter time to read it. There are so many memorable passages of beauty and wisdom in both, one could fill a small notebook - on love and the human condition, and the beauty of nature. Durrell certainly had an alert and unusually articulate mind, writing both with poetry and precision. Published in 1957, yet timeless, as all classics are. I think it is supposed to take place before World War II. "Balthazar" has far more excitement than "Justine", moves at a quicker pace. Here we see all the same characters, yet all in a new light; we see farther and grasp what we see with new understanding. We get fresh info about Pursewarden, Nissim, Narouz, Justine, Darley (the narrator), Melissa, Clea, Pombal, Amaril, Leila, Mountolive, and the outrageous comic scenes built around Scobie. Throughout the entire four volumes that comprise "The Alexandria Quartet", Durrell is constantly backfilling, a technique I particularly love, until at the last, all is revealed. That same technique was also used by Sir Charles Percy Snow in his 11 volume series "Strangers and "Brothers", but perhaps to a lesser extant. Durrell is the master here in letting us see only so much, no further, until the last volume. A rave review

This book touched me on an intellectual and emotional level. Such a basic principle and yet it contins a meaningful message in an easy to read format.

Biokind speaks with a passion that should be felt by every human being. It reminds us of where we've come from and our oneness with every living creature in the pyramid of life. As a former science teacher, I taught my students to learn through reading and exploring nature on field trips. Only by using all the senses can the true meaning of life be understood and appreciated. Biokind will awaken a reality deep within your heart and soul. A reality that all life is sacred and deserves the same respect, honor and dignity we wish for ourselves.

Captain W. K. Miller created the concept of "biokind" and draws upon her more than twenty-five years of experience to present the reading public with Biokind: Rhetoric For A New Paradigm. This exceptionally well crafted affirmation that human beings are one with the ecosystem we inhabit, and coins a the word "biokind" reflects how we should best live in harmony with the natural world that sustains us. Faith, kindness, conservation and ecosystem-friendly behavior bring physical and spiritual renewal. Highly recommended reading for students of metaphysics, environmental concerns, and Gaia compatible lifestyles, Biokind speaks from the heart and soil of the Earth itself.

This book is a must read in todays changing times. Especially in the wake of Sept l1/01 and all its leading events.We have come to
the threshold of the Biokind Path experience Biokind in all levels
of our existence, inwardly and outwardly.
Take this knowledge gleamed from this book and apply it to your life in todays ever changing world . Take our children by the hand of knowledge and
lead them into Biokind.

Biokind is a word that houses a concept that is central to the continuation of life on this planet.Captain Miller has encapsulated the thoughts and visions of naturalists, mystics and people of good will in a short, accessible form. "The wilderness holds answers to questions man has not yet learned to ask." Nancy Newhall, Biokind p45 and Biokind creates a terminology and a context that man needs to recognize the inter-relation of all life. In this time of fear, confusion and violence, Captain Miller's book provides a blueprint to shift our cultural conditioning from one of exclusion to one of inclusion. Study this book and begin to manifest true harmony.

"Brittle Stars..." was the first of Lichen's "Uncommon Field Guide" series I discovered. They are all uncommonly delightful to poke into. One can read them chapter-by-chapter or just open the book anywhere and delve in. I picked up this one to add to my school's marine biology collection. After scanning it, I bought a second copy for myself. After reading part of it, I ordered the other two books in the series. Recently I showed one of the guides to a friend who is a lifelong outdoorsman. He immediately purchased a set for himself. She gives the reader the sort of understanding about nature one usually only finds in going on a field tour with a great guide. My only complaint is that there is not one of Feltner's lovely detailed illustrations with every single chapter.

What could have been a very dry, factual book about marine life turned out to be a book filled with interesting info about northwest marine life and a writing style that isn't just data. I bought the book to use with teenagers and, because of their great interest in anything sexual, I told them, tongue in cheek, the first chapter they should read is the one about dragonflies and damsels. LOL It was hilarious. This is the number one book of interest about local marine life as far as I'm concerned.

Patricia Lichen's Brittle Stars & Mudbugs truly is an uncommon field guide. Newly relocated to the Pacific Northwest and Puget Sound area I have half-filled a bookshelf with the more traditional field guide. Those, with their high quality photos or detailed drawings, I use to key out the fine distinctions between hard to discern animals and plants.

When I want pure enjoyment exploring Puget Sound's natural environs I bring out Lichen's book. Her conversational writing style and twinkle-in-the-eye wit along with her obvious love for her subject matter breath life into whatever she describes. Linda Feltner's illustrations are ideally suited for this book and enhance the pleasurable reading. As soon as I finish writing this review I am ordering her two other books on the Northwest.

This delightful little book is an absolute pleasure to read. It fits nicely in the hand, the pages are easy to read, and the illustrations are gentle and lovingly drawn. The author tells you stories about these animals, plants and algae the way she would if you were walking with her along the beach and came across each specimin. It's not ordered by phylum or habitat, but apparently randomly, which ensures that you won't tire of reading all about fish, but instead will move quickly to birds and seaweed and echinoderms and back.

I live on the beach, and volunteer at the Seattle Aquarium, and these stories help me tell compelling stories to audiences and friends of all ages. They bring the funny objects you see on the beach to life, and make each animal or plant that you see seem a friend, a neighbor, someone whose life you care about. This should slow your steps on the beach, so that you will see the life around you more clearly, and should increase your commitment to conservation and cleanup. It's tough to abuse a neighborhood that you care about, and Patricia and Linda bring these organisms close to you so that you will care about them.

As an earlier reviewer pointed out, this is not a field guide that will help you identify what you see -- it is one that will help you understand what you see, and that's what makes it uncommon and (in my opinion) so very special.

Thanks to the author and illustrator for such a magnificent addition to my library of field guides and books on biology. This one is a treasure.

I bought two of the books in the 3 book series. The writing is excellent, however, what good is a "field guide" if illustrations are not included for all of the featured plants and animals? If the publisher is ever going to consider a new edition, perhaps this could be taken into consideration. I will keep these books, however still look for a "Field Guide" that offers more reference material.

I am so fortunate to find out about this book. It will provide a stable foundation for my child.

I am a homeschool mom of young children. Science is not my strong point. This book is great!! It helps me, step by step, teach basics that I otherwise would struggle to get across to my kids. The materials required to teach lessons are usually in the house or very inexpensive to acquire. This is a very hand-on approach with no 'seatwork'. My kids beg me to do science and are learning alot.

I have read through quite a bit of Dr. Nebel's material; this book as well as his other book, "Nebel's Elementary Education, Creating a Tapestry of Learning", and have been thoroughly impressed with both. I have taught in the public school system for over five
years, and the past couple of years have been teaching lower elementary level. This material far surpasses any other material I have come across (and I frequently do a lot of digging and research for my lesson plans). It has been very helpful for several different reasons. The main one is that is just makes so much sense, the way he explains things. I
wish this material had been used to teach me as a child growing up, because it would have made everything so much more clear to me. Instead I'm gaining a clearer understanding now going through his material, as an educated adult.

His approach to learning is very thorough yet practical. You can use basic materials you would find in one's home on an ordinary basis, which makes the lessons far more real. While his explanations are very thorough, it is done in a way so it is clear how it connects to the overall bigger picture, so it is easily remembered.

I really can't say enough about how appreciative I am for having his material. His other book (mentioned in the first sentence above) has been my Lesson Plan Bible for my classroom while teaching in elementary school. If I were to ever do home schooling, I would use it there too.

Thanks Dr. Nebel for all your work. I have recommended it to others and shared the material with others as well.
D. Schmidt

I bought this book based on a review I read from another homeschooling mom, and I was not disappointed. The author lays out not just science facts and experiments, but how to teach children the habits/skills of inquiry. I will be using this book to help me teach science to my first grader.

Learning science in kindergarten is a privilege that most public school students do not enjoy. Teachers have enough to do teaching them to read and do math and stand in line and answer to bells and wait their turn to speak and print their names properly and wait for paste and line up their crayons in a row. Ironically, the kids probably get more science education in preschool when they do themed unit weeks like weather week or ocean week than they do in the early elementary grades.

That's the kind of science little kids get, when they do get it: topical stuff. Let's learn about fish. Let's learn about plants. We'll learn about fish this week and plants next week, but we're not going to learn about what connects fish to plants or how the sun is connected to both fish and plants, because little kids don't typically get trusted with that kind of information. They aren't asked to see the big picture, draw lines between their thematic units, understand science as a whole, as a system of interconnected disciplines. A privileged first-grader who's getting a bigger-than-average helping of science is going to know the names of the planets and how bees make honey and that their eyes allow them to see, but that's where it stops. I can't honestly say that I've ever seen a whole-world approach to teaching science to young children until I saw Dr. Nebel's books.

His first book was a how-to manual addressing all aspects of elementary education, not just science. As an elementary level homeschool curriculum, it doesn't provide a box of workbooks, but teaches a philosophy of teaching and learning. It's called "Nebel's Elementary Education: Creating a Tapestry of Learning." Here's a summary, from the web site:

***This single book (8 1/2 x 11, 450 pages) contains approaches and actual subject matter for delivering the entirety of a superior K-5 education. It describes not only WHAT to teach, but also HOW to teach it using hundreds of hands-on activities, and much more.

Most distinctive is the organization. Typical elementary curricula consist of an array of stand-alone units, which kids readily forget, confuse, and from which they never gain a full picture. In sharp contrast, Nebel lays out each subject (K-5) as a seamless continuum of lessons integrating different subjects along the way. Simultaneously, Nebel shows you how to guide your children along this pathway in a way that builds logically and systematically toward a broad, comprehensive, holistic understanding. The result is achievement of knowledge, skills, understanding, and problem-solving ability that will provide a solid foundation for all further learning.

The book is in total harmony with modern research concerning the most effective and efficient teaching techniques that bring children to become joyful, self-motivated learners. In short, this book may be considered a breakthrough in translating theory-what leads to the most effective and efficient learning-into a practical curriculum addressing all subjects.***

His new book focuses just on science, and is called Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2. I can't think of a reason why five-year-olds cannot begin to learn and understand science in context, just like they can start learning history at this age, not that they get that in public school either. Homeschoolers have a special opportunity to start their children on the right path in science education, and Dr. Nebel can help.

CALLOUS is about persons becoming unfeeling, or are they born that way? At best, it's a frivolous page-turner. Woven within the pages the author lectures about: Missing children; Child sexual abuse; Child protective services; International adoption; The Criminal justice system; The Internet and Social networking; Law enforcement; Publishing; The Media; Murder; Cults; Religious fundamentalism; Drug addiction; Terrorism; Pornography; The Hero complex; Groupthink; Small towns; Imprinting; Physics; Chemistry; Genetic engineering; Cows; Cats; and Free Will. Just who is saying or thinking what is hard to discern. I think that's called voice and point of view. There is disagreeableness about all the characters, an overall sense of hostility, and a pervasive loneliness. But in the end ... Love conquers all. Sorry T.K. the story just doesn't work. Her first novel, RABID, I thought was fantastic. CALLOUS doesn't measure up. I think it's biology, genetics, probability or something--regression to the mean.

Considering that several Texan cults are currently in the news (like the FLDS and that creepy guy who lays down naked with virgins,) Callous is spookily prescient and yet hauntingly timeless.

The action centers around a cult, the Country Congregationalist Bible Church. (Get the reference to Our Town?) This church isn't *predicting* the end of the world. It's *instigating* it. The church's pastor, while not a POV character, is a cross between Barack Obama and Charles Manson: witty, smart, and charismatic enough to get people to follow him to Hell.

The five main characters are varied and all at odds with each other. Diane, the DA, and Zeke are members of the cult. Zeke's daughter goes missing on the first page.

Diane's husband, Max, is the head deputy and the best investigator in Texas, and he investigates the girl's disappearance, even though he thinks she's probably just run off with some boy.

Vanessa, the Cassandra and the vamp, is the missing girl's childhood friend and now a forensic scientist. She's convinced that the girl was taken by a serial killer because she sees all the signs, but no one will listen to her.

The last major character, P.J., is the only witness, maybe. She's a Goth and a high school girl, adopted from India when she was small child.

This missing-person mystery segues artfully into an inquiry into the nature of evil and memory. I'm an MD, and the careful and accurate reaches into neuroscience are all correct and startling. This is another example of a novelist, like Proust, scooping the neuroscientists, except that Kenyon is a neuroscientist and is writing about the soul and pack of neurons that we think we rise above.

There is one lovely section that does for neuroscience and memory what Primo Levi (in The Periodic Table ) did for carbon and the period, this one, right here.

Veronica

Okay, I'm not so much into mysteries and thrillers. But this book is a "genre-bender" in the best sense. It offers so much, in both depth and edge-of-seat storytelling. If you like to be simultaneously entertained and challenged, this book is for you. I enjoyed the HECK out of it.

T K Kenyon is launching a literary career from small town Texas. Like the best mystery writers, she has created a unique geographic niche with characters that are every day believable. CALLOUS is hardly a stereotypical mystery where the only plot motivation is to figure out whodunnit. The characters and plot are complex. There is more in the lives of the husband and wife detectives than solving mysteries. You care about them as people as they sort out the differences in their lives. CALLOUS is for those who enjoy mnystery, for those who care about characters, and for those who just enjoy a good can-t-put-it-down read. Highly recommended.

What is it about small towns? Are they magnets for outrageous murderers or what? Or, maybe it's just TK Kenyon's over-active but well-expressed imagination that makes you want to look inside the brain of every slow-talkin' hayseed you meet to see if there's mayhem lurking around somewhere in there.

Like Kenyon's first novel, Rabid, this one draws convoluted lines of battle between science and religion. There is also a big dose of small-town intrigue and some really smart law enforcement folks, although you don't always notice that right away. Kenyon has a way of painting vivid characters with a broad brush, although she also keeps a few character traits in reserve to keep things interesting.

The book starts conventionally enough, with the disappearance of Ester, the adult daughter of a rancher in Texas. Chief Deputy Max, an old-fashioned cop if there ever was one, is on the case with his wife, County DA Diane, who is a secret Bible reader. You can't have a murder mystery these days without forensics, either, so Ester's childhood friend Vanessa carries on that theme.

The tension and suspense build throughout the book, which makes it a tempting one-sitting read. If you get hooked on it, though, take time to enjoy Kenyon's characters, who offer a lot of detail to study. There's an unconventional ending, too, but I better not say anymore about that.

In volume five of Proust's massive and perspicacious `a la recherché,' we find the narrator Marcel, slowly, yet surely, falling out of love with Albertine. Proust is extraordinarily masterful at evoking the painful (and yet very real) feeling of gradual disaffection, which all lovers must inevitably face with each other. Marcel pontificates endlessly and relentlessly on Albertine. He loves, her (or maybe we should say him), he doesn't love her, he loves her, he doesn't love her, etc. etc. Until, finally, the moment of decision, he tells her that he does not love her and wishes her to leave, insisting that she will be happier without him. Of course, the moment Albertine departs, Marcel is in despair, he has lost has love, and Albertine is reduced to the status of the `fugitive.' This volume is one of the most beauteous and thoughtful unfolding of the loss of love, and the painful convalescence that transpires in the subsequent period. Marcel goes to Venice, and explores that wondrous and ancient European city, and he sends help to find Albertine, only to discover that she has died in a horseback accident. In addition to the tragic loss of Albertine, Marcel grows continually disenchanted with the aristocratic world to which he belongs. Proust is brilliant in his ability to sustain this massive web of characters, as he reintroduces figures from the early stages of the search, such as Gilberte (Marcel's first love), and Mme Verdurin. This book evokes the meaning of life as it unfolds temporally, and the meaning of relationships throughout the course of a lifetime, and how they change and drift in and out of focus at different stages. It is one of the great works of Western literature.

The 7th of March I found this book, ISBN:0713996048. Now it's the 12th and I've returned to buy the book,except I can't locate it on the site! What is going on? Where's the first volume in the set? I'm so frustrated by this. I waited for years for the new translation to be completed.Help me!

Modern Library's Volume V deals with the relationship between Marcel and Albertine. It is a complex, psychological relationship to say the least. In the Captive, Albertine lives with Marcel in his apartment in Paris and in The Fugitive one wonders who is, in fact, more captive -- Albertine or Marcel. It would seem to be Albertine for whom Marcel possesses an obsessive love and concurrent fear of her sapphic penchant. But it is also Marcel who will sacrifice experience if he makes a commitment to her. Who is more free, the captive or the fugitive? Proust raises questions about how to serve best the artist's quest for beauty. In fact, how does one really ever "capture" the beauty of life in art or music or literature? Even in a masterpiece, is it not beauty the fugitive that usually dwells just beyond one's capture? Or like Vinteuil's septet or the music of Wagner or the painting of Rembrandt, is the best for which one can hope of fugitive beauty only a brief fleeting experience? Are the vast tracts of time spent to understand the beauty and meaning of life worth it? As a writer does he not habitually surrender life in order to capture it? Or is the pursuit of the capture of the beauty of life in fact where one realizes its most sublime value? One sees in Proust toward the end of The Fugitive a member of society who respects it but chooses by reasons of health not to position himself so visibly within it. Despite his family name and vast but dwindling fortune inherited from his beloved grandmother, he seems to become somewhat ultimately disenchanted with the intricacies of Faubourg-St. Germain society to which he devotes so much of his writing. He recognises society's shallow obsession with materialism and rampant snobbery but his own place in society is captured by its complex history and tacit rules and Marcel is inescapably a captive of his own culture. When Albertine is lost to him toward the end of the volume, as in the prior volumes, the story line's serial intrigue advances most. Characters from prior volumes reappear, reminiscent of Balzac, whom Proust adored, but like him they change,too, and usually for the worse over time. The great tapestry of the characters of Proust -- Albertine, Gilberte, Swann, Brichot, Bloch, Charlus, Morel, Saint-Loup -- ultimately surprise and usually disappoint him. As to nagging questions about Proust's own orientation, "Personally I found it absolutely immaterial from a moral standpoint whether one took one's pleasure with a man or a woman, and only too natural and human that one should take it where one could find it." I found myself wishing that Proust had written more about Bloch and Saint-Loup and Gilberte, and less about Albertine. But she was, like his work, the one obsession, the endeavor of which understanding he could never escape and never quite marry -- she was his beauty and his art. She was the breath of life itself from his pen and from his experience of life as seen through the eyes of a true genius.

This is volume five of the superlative new translation of "In Search of Lost Time," containing the two books of the Albertine cycle, which are now titled "The Prisoner" (translated by Carol Clark) and "The Fugitive" (tr. Peter Collier). Though I haven't yet read their translations, I have found the new editions to be a wonderful improvement over those done in the 1920s by Charles Scott Moncrieff. So I have no hesitation in giving them five stars.

Unhappily for American readers, current U.S. copyright law prevents Viking/Penguin from publishing the last two volumes of "Lost Time" in this country until 95 years after Proust's death, or 2018. The first four volumes have been published here in handsome hardcovers (more handsome than the British edition), but the only way to obtain this and the final volume ("Finding Time Again") is to find an imported British hardcover or paperback. -- Dan Ford

The Albertine episodes make more sense if we assume this is a homosexual ralationship. Albertine's independence, and her being allowed to live in a young man's apartment, and other aspects of her social life do not seem likely for a young woman in the nineteen hundreds. Marcel's (and incidentally this is the only volume where he refers to himself as Marcel) suspicions then become the gay lover's fears that his lover prefers heterosexuality. Albertine is the only female in the Recherche who never gets married.
Apart from these external clues there is quality about the the affection Marcel feels that suggests a gay rather than a straight relationship.
This volume marks a turning point in the narrator's fascination with the aristocracy. From here on disenchantment sets in, and the references to homosexuality become almost homophobic.