William King Books

Bill Kings new book, Saving Face, gives the reader a real insight to the events that formed Bill King's politics and personal positions. It is an inside view from someone who lived through the Savings and Loan debacle and survived to tell about it. It is a good read, especially the last chapter, Lessons Learned and the Epilogue offer an interesting glimpse into the thinking of a person who has given a great deal to his community and community service.

Who says that sequels never live up to the original? Part 2 of this trilogy does just that! Immediately, Shakespeare grabs us with Gloucester's understandable fury at King Henry VI. This is soon followed by York's conspiracy to seize the crown himself. Later we are offered some comical touches with a false miracle. Some chilling pagan prophecies also grab our attention. Also Later, there is the hard passage where Gloucester uncovers the treason of his wife and later stands trial and is found guilty of crimes he is innocent of. Later his corpse is discovered. Shakespeare does not stop here! There is the chilling triangle between King Henry VI, Queen Margaret, and her lover Suffolk. King Henry VI is at his best in the trilogy when he banishes the vile Suffolk and faces down his queen. The scene where the delirious cardinal confesses his guilt is a scene of horror followed by Henry's touching forgiveness. The rebel Jack Cade simultaneously offers comedy and horror. His death at the hands of Iden is artfully drawn. But Shakespeare does not stop here! The War of the Roses actually starts.The demonic Richard III actually makes his first appearance in this play. The icing on the cake is yet to come. Clifford's father is killed in the war, and Young Clifford offers a sorrowful, terrifying, and yet beautiful passage on his intent for revenge!

This is a wonderful collection of essays on Richard II. Especially noteworthy is Morgan Griffin's brilliant introduction to the critical history of the play, which synthesizes and critiques decades of scholarly work.

Of the many, many thousands of books about Shakespeare, "how many have said something which is both new and true? Not many." (Prof. Lawrence Stone, Princeton Univ.) Prof. Stone goes on to say that this is such a book and so it is. I couldn't agree more. What Kernan does is to concentrate on the later stage of Shakespeare's career, when his company of players became the "King's Men," with King James I himself as official patron. Having obtained the best acting company and playwright for himself, James saw to it that his queen and two offspring at court each had their own acting company, so that the royal family supported four different groups of actors and playwrights. The support was substantial... a performance at the Globe might net a pound or so as total income, whereas James dispensed lump-sum payments of 10, 20 or even 30 pounds for a weekend of palace performances by the King's Men.

Kernan places Shakespeare's plays of the period within the context of James I's background, interests and enthusiasms. He also places the plays in the larger context of patronage art. Kernan writes both for scholars and the general public, and his writing style maintains high levels of clarity and even of crafted artistry.

The book is simultaneously information-packed, plentiful with new insights, and soundly based in scholarship. Shakespeare, as one of the greatest artists of all time, did not write "for" James I, in any blatantly obvious way (as some other playwrights of the period made the grave mistake of doing), but there is no way to understand the themes and situations of the plays Shakespeare wrote during this period, without an understanding of James I.

My highest recommendation.

A provocative and intriguing read. Throw out all old notions about the Bard's portrayal of Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. Clearly the product of extensive research and intense thought. Should be required for any course on the play or Shakespeare generally, or for anyone who would pretend to speak on the subjects with authority.

"Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" is a charming children's story about a donkey family, the Duncans, and their son Sylvester who has an insatiable urge to collect pebbles of unusual shape and color. Life is just fine for the Duncans until Sylvester finds a magic pebble that grants wishes. Sylvester gets very excited after finding out by trial and error in a very childlike way that his latest pebble grants wishes. He rushes home to tell his parents and bumps into a lion on the way home. Being a young donkey, he has no idea how to wish himself out of danger with the lion so he wishes to...

One of the story's biggest surprises is that Sylvester's big wish to save himself from the lion is very to predict. I certainly, as an adult, would never have guessed what Sylvester wished for to save himself from the lion.

I picked up a very inexpensive soft cover edition of this book as a gift for the little boy I home-school. He has severe seizures that doctors haven't figured out how to control yet with medication. As a result he can't attend school and must be home-schooled until they find medications that can control his seizures. In addition, he is a Ukrainian immigrant who has been here less than a year so he is an LEP (Limited English Proficiency) student. I relate this information because it does relate to my book review since he was the child I purchased the book.

Being that my student relies upon me, his home-school teacher, for his entire link to schooling, education, and English training, I needed a book that:

1. Was well illustrated to keep a child's interest who didn't understand many of the words.
2. Had a touching story that made both of us thoughtful (and could cheer him up as well).
3. Had appropriate language for a child still in the developing stages of learning English.
4. Could somehow be relevant to the life of a child stuck at home with illness.

"Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" was everything I asked for. The Duncans are a loving donkey family in the story and their love for another comes through in both the writing and illustrations. Both my student and I enjoyed the story and we're still reading it until my student will be able to read it on his own (He's getting closer too!).

I don't want to give away the story, but Sylvester wishes himself into a rock to escape the lion. Unfortunately as a rock, Sylvester couldn't make more wishes with the rock to return to being a donkey boy. The rest of the story relates how Sylvester felt as a rock, how his parents missed him and searched for him, and how Sylvester eventually returns to being a donkey boy again. My student related Sylvester being a rock to being stuck at home with seizures. The language, while at an intermediate to advanced level of English fluency, was appropriate with a little scaffolding (a fancy education term that means preparing the student with vocabulary and new concepts). Both my student and I loved "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble."

I highly recommend "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" to parents and children. It's a charming story that's innovative and distinctive from others.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

As a student of Shakespeare I bought this book to help me understand the connection between Oldcastle and Falstaff. Rittenhouse quotes Holinshed's CHRONICLES and Foxe's ACTS AND MONUMENTS for the historical Lollard who died a martyr's death under Henry V. He gives us the entire play (1 SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE)written in 1599 by four authors who borrowed heavily from Shakespeare. 2 SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, wherein the bishops insist on his death, was suppressed as too hot a topic in the aftermath of the execution of Essex.

Oldcastle in the play is shown as loyal to Henry V and esteemed by many people of both high and low degree. A follower of Wycliff, he stood for removing the abuses of the Church. Those who benefited from the abuses, the bishops, wanted Henry V to see Oldcastle as disloyal to the crown.

For my purposes in comparing Oldcastle to Falstaff, the book was useful but I need to read about Wycliff and John Florio to complete the picture.

It was originally a doctoral dissertation.

Captain Riley and his crew of Connecticut sailors lose their way in a fog near the Canary Islands in 1815 and are shipwrecked on the west coast of Africa north of Senegal. The Sahara desert, with all it's sandstorms and lack of water and vegetation, meets the sea where they land. They are captured and enslaved by extremely poor local Bedouin tribes, who travel by camel, sharing all they have. The Captain believes his men will perish without water and food and can do nothing but accept their fate. But he clings to the dream of collecting his scattered crew and paying a ransome to free them so they all can go home. The book he writes a few years later inspired many Americans to become abolitionists, including Abraham Lincoln. Unforgettable story.

About this book:

In 1963, the Detroit Society for Genealogical Research published a series of articles by Cameron Allen, "The Sublett (Soblet) Family of Manakintown, King William Parish, Virginia," chronicling the arrival of Abraham Soblet and his family in the New World in 1700, and the first several generations of their descendants.

Through the 1980s, these articles were collected and reprinted in book form, with additional notes and research added by Donald Jackson Sublette. Ultimately, a seventh edition was published in 1994, comprising all of Sublette's updates and a new index.

In 2000 and 2003, The American Genealogist published two new articles by Cameron Allen, focusing on the family's Huguenot ancestors in Europe before 1700: "The Soblets of the European Refuge" and "Ancestral Table of Suzanne Brian, Wife of Abraham Soblet."

This 45th Anniversary edition collects all of Cameron Allen's articles on the Soblet/Sublett/Sublette family for the first time, the result of more than four decades of research, along with a new Preface explaining the author's interest in Huguenot genealogy.

With more than 1,000 footnotes and an index of names, this book is the essential starting point for all researchers of Soblet/Sublett/Sublette family history.


About the author:

Cameron Allen, J.D., is a retired Law Librarian at Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, N.J., and a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists. In addition to researching and publishing articles on the Soblets, Chastains, and other Huguenot families over four decades, he has been a contributing editor to The American Genealogist and a popular lecturer at genealogy conferences.


Other editions:

The Sublett (Soblet) family of Manakintown, Virginia

The Sublett (Soblet) family of Manakintown, Virginia

For the enthusiast of the War of 1812, this book constitutes a must have resource, as it is the first time in which an attempt has been made to compile the nominal rolls of the Upper Canadian militia. For the most part, the information provided consists of no more than name and rank, but where possible, the author provides more; in addition, he has also made an attempt to compile a list of casualties suffered by the Upper Canadian militia, a list which the author admits is far from complete, but which is a commendable undertaking nonetheless. The author also provides a clear and concise background to the formation and participation of the Upper Canadian militia in the war. All making for a unique and useful resource.