Non-fiction Books

The book is a real treasure.You will want to read it over and over.

The story reloves around two girls, one in modern day America and one in ancient Egypt. Their stories come together over visions in a mirror. Are these girls one and the same?

I finally found this book, having read it about 10 years ago. Egypt has always fascinated me, and it was interesting to see how a 20th century person saw the ancient world. This book also implies reincarnation, with several of the characters in Erin's present life appearing in the Egyptian world. A very good book!

This is the book that literally changed my life. Not that it is more profound than others, but I read it at age 12, and from that moment on became intensely interested in ancient Egypt. Now, as a woman with a PhD in Egyptology from the Oriental Institute of Chicago, I can still pick up "Cat In The Mirror" and fondly read it for it's captivating story and well-drawn characters.

I identified heavily with Erin/Irun during my less-than-ideal experience in junior high. Her painful social ineptitude and outcast status resonated deeply with me. But the descriptions of life in ancient Egypt were what truly captivated me. While never losing the import and thread of the plot, Stolz manages to paint an incredibly realistic and beautiful vision of ancient Egyptian home life among the nobility.

Not to mention that the whole book also revolves around cats, which I love also!

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read. Especially so to those junior high girls struggling with acceptance and awkwardness; the book offers hope in individuality, a light at the end of the junior high tunnel.

For anyone else, it is still an excellent read. Try it!

This is a great book on several levels. Erin's a sympathetic figure as a reject in the cold world of junior high and an affluent home with a father who travels and a distant mother. You really feel her awkwardness and social ineptitude. The Egyptian section of the book gives an interesting view of life in that ancient society, while showing how people have always had the same internal, emotional and interpersonal problems. All the aspects of the book tie in neatly together.

This beautiful book found me a year after my precious cat died from throat cancer. I bet I read it 10 times, each time finding something new that related to us. It is tucked away, forever to be kept, tear-stained in the hallows of my mind and heart.

If you've never had or loved an animal, this book will change your heart and life forever...trust me!

On a late winter day in 1972, a cat (soon to be named Dulcy) found a woman worthy to be her human and with whom she would live for the next seventeen and a half years. When Dulcy's lithe and graceful hunter's body began to fail, and the time came to say good-bye, then her story became a song of acceptance and bravery that would drive to the core of anyone who has ever felt close to an animal companion. Dee Ready's A Cat's Life: Dulcy's Story is beautifully, memorably illustrated by the spectacular artwork of Judy J. King and simply wonderful reading from first page to last.

This outstanding book is a story about the befriending, training, hurt, and love that a cat, Dulcy, and her human experience throughout their life. As Dulcy's tells her life story with her human you will smile, laugh and even cry as their life together unfolds. As an animal lover and friend this story made me remember all the patience my dogs (2) and cats (2) have had to endure while training me. This is a 'must read' for anyone who loves or has loved an animal and will bring back memories of the special bond you had with them. The illustrations were great and the story wonderful!!

If you were to take a survey that asked what a cat did with its life, chances are people would say "nap, look out the window, and get into stuff." And of course theyÕd be right. If those people lived with cats, however, they might have a lot more to add, and if they loved their cats, they might understand the magic that a cat brings to the life of the family it lives with.

The author of this book invites us to observe how this magical bond comes about between human and cat and how deep such a relationship becomes when each learns the ways of the other and grows to love and depend on the other.

Dulcy fits the stereotype many people have of cats. SheÕs independent, persnickety, bossy, and fastidious. But as we read, we find out some amazing things. Dulcy actually teaches her human how to understand cat language; and we learn that she is very complicated indeed and experiences many human feelings. We see her express jealousy, superiority, intelligence, impatience, understanding, loyalty, and above all, love.

Dulcy lives a long, full life and has many adventures, some humorous and some humiliating. And because the book is written in her voice, she shares many of these adventures with us. We get to know her human, too, and while we sometimes wonder how Dulcy puts up with her humanÕs foolishness, we come to understand her human in the special way that Dulcy understands her.

In the end, when Dulcy has been very ill for a long time, her human does not want to let her go. When she takes extraordinary measures to prolong Dulcy's life, we get the sense that Dulcy hangs on to life purely for the sake of her human. Just when her human feels that there is no hope, Dulcy manages to scrape together a few more days, even weeks. And when she goes, she goes sweetly, leaving behind a look of love and a lifetime of memories.

As one who has been "owned" by many felines during my lifetime, I found "Dulcy's Story" to be the history of a wonderful relationship between human and pet, all of the joys and all of the sorrows until the ultimate sorrow of losing a companion of many years. I've gone through it so often and it never gets easier, whether the decision to take the pet to its final rest is made by me through euthanasia or by a natural death. Reading "Dulcy's Story" demonstrates just how these beautiful creatures wrap us around their little paws until we become slaves to all their whims and demands, and we love every minute of it! Unfortunately, many of our family and friends don't understand our loyalty to our pets and, therefore often dismiss us as a little crazy. But that's all right - we know we're OK; it's the rest of them that we worry about and even feel sorry for them if they have never known the unconditional love of a furry friend. Dulcy was a very special cat to a very special human, and the story of their life together is a wonderful testament to their relationship.

It makes me wonder if one or both of my current cats were to write a book on their life with me, what would they say? I would like to think that they would say their lives have been enriched as much as mine has been living together for nearly nine years and hopefully many, many more years.

I was given this book years ago, and now that I have a chance to review it, I feel I must. Wonderful story, detailed characters. I read this book at least once a month, and still can't get enough of it. I have found a new literary goddess. READ THIS BOOK!!

Shriver's CHECKERS was the best novel I have ever read. Filled with amazing dialogue, true-to-life characters, and a realistic plot, I must say that Shriver ranks up their with the best of 'em!

Furthermore, if you do not forsake the time to DEVOUR this book, then you don't know WHAT you are missing. Do you want to live to rest of your life in REGRET for not reading such brilliant prose? NO! Shriver is second only to GOD if she is not The Divine Being already!

PS - Second to God not counting Michael Jordan and Warren Buffett, that is.

READ THIS BOOK!

Sincerely,

Tim Turner

The clear, brilliant prose of Checker and the Derailleurs is the icing on a cake stuffed with great characters, nifty dialogue, and a plot in which things actually happen. I secretly hope that my friends never read this book, for fear that they will realize that all my best lines are stolen from it.

On it's simplest level this is a book about a charismatic drummer, Checker, and his relationship with his band, the Derailleurs. It is hands down my favorite novel. I have read it more times than any other and have purchased more copies of it than any other. Every now and then I will read the reviews on Amazon.com to remind myself that I'm not alone in recognizing this superb effort by Lionel Shriver. I've yet to read a bad review, but if there are any out there, please keep me in the dark -- just like the Derailleurs, I'd prefer to believe in the infallability of Checker!

I love to give this book to friends, but it's always an unnerving time; how do i emphasize its significance and not have them treat it like any other gift book that might be set aside if the first chapter doesn't take hold? I tout its out-of-print status as a way of ensuring they know it's not given on a whim. Of course, the time immediately after giving it to someone is the worst: Have they started reading it? Is it too early to press them? What if they really don't like it and I've overstated its significance? Now that I think about it, run from this book -- falling in love with it can only add stress to your lives!

Why do i love the book? The writing is phenomenal and the book stands up well to multiple readings; the characters are truly inspiring and become your friends so much so that you actually miss them; Shriver's words breathe life into the most mundane surroundings; and through Checker we learn to appreciate life as it is while also learning to love ourselves. This novel works on so many levels. I am amazed that it has never receveived the recognition it deserves.

So am i the only one that's hoarding copies of "Checker and the Derailleurs"? I think not. I demand a reprint!

I just finished reading this book again, it's been a while. I forgot how good this book can make me feel. It reveals simple truths about life and human nature that should be obvious, but never are. Pain is as much a part of life as pleasure, and you must keep the two together. To quote the book, "You eat your pain. It is like cake, it is like butter. It is life as much as good times by river. You go to bed with your pain like woman. You laugh with your pain like old friend."

What other book ever taught me so much about noticing the beauty in the small, normal things; to recognize and be in awe of colors, sounds and sensations? I was hooked from the first few pages, when Shriver likens the band's music to a lava flow; a shock of recognition went through me. And what other book could so perfectly capture the necessary mixture of emotions that a group of 19 year olds feel, yet make it relate to anyone, of any age? This book makes me feel more alive every time I read it, it is my therapy. I notice that this book is out of print, it doesn't matter. SOMEONE has a copy, somewhere. FIND IT. READ IT.

This has long been one of my favorite books. It is a serious, no-simple-answers coming-of-age tale, yet at the same time it manages to imaginative and entertaining, with plenty of laughs and vivid imagery. Thus the story is enjoyable whether the reader is in a contemplative mood or simply craving a good science fiction yarn.

Most of all, I admire the author's use of language and dialect. He creates a form of modified English by incorporating words from several different languages throughout the text, as well as some made-up slang and terminology. (The novel is written in first-person, thus the use of dialect is constant through the text.) This can be daunting at first, but by the time you're a few chapters in you'll have 'picked up' the language to a remarkable degree. Years after my last reading, I still remember it.

Again, one of my favorites. I'm going to buy another copy soon, before my old, often-reviewed copy falls apart completely.

It's hard to decide which of Norman Spinrad's novels should be regarded as his best, since he has written exceptional novels in the science fiction subgenres of Alternate History, Space Opera and Cyberpunk, as well as in Historical Fantasy. Still, "Child of Fortune" has to be regarded as one of his literary triumphs; it is not only a great science fiction novel, but more importantly, a splendid piece of literature. "Child of Fortune" is comparable in scope to what Anthony Burgess created in his "A Clockwork Orange", replete with vivid literary prose and a future English stirred vigorously with liberal doses of French and German too. This is an amazing, over-the-top coming of age saga about a young woman who seeks her destiny amongst the far flung worlds of Humanity's Second Spacfaring Age. Ultimately she finds herself while journeying across the galaxy as an itinerant storyteller, finding a psychological Hell within the exotically verdant Bloomenveldt where a unique symbiosis between humanity and alien plant life is evolving on the planet Belshazaar. I found this book impossible to put down, having been intoxicated by Spinrad's poetically rich, dense prose.

Child of Fortune was one of my few satisfying excursions into Sci-Fi. Though the story; a hefty space opera, is set in the far future it is very accessible.

Reading the book was like being in the best "dark ride" in the best theme park ever built. Spinrad takes the reader into incredible worlds and civilizations; most are wonderful utopias. The charactors are developed and believable. This book will appeal to old hippies and the new Bohemians.

For those who loved Brave New World, the explorations of the McKenna Brothers, Electric Kool Aid Acid Test -- u ain't read nothin YET! So, my advice -- "take a walk on the wild side" and read this book before it gets burned!

"Alice in wonderland meets Timothy Leary as they explore the Kama Sutra at Finnegan's wake." -Associated Press. This is the blerb from the front page of the paperback edition I own. This understates the human element of this coming of age book. The ideas developed should be a lesson in what kind of society we want to be. From the planet of Edoku where 'reality itself is no more than a local style', with it's gray Public Service Stations offering gray showers, gray clothing, and gray complete-nutrition fressen bars that taste like wet paper, washed down with bland distilled water.(ALL YOU WANT! ALL FREE!)Complete with it's own counter-culture, the Gypsy Jokers, led by the colorful character Pater Pan. Through the psychedelic jungle Bloomenveld, this book delivers. I've read this book twice 15 years apart. The first time I saw myself, the second I remembered friends that got 'lost along the way'.

I first tried to read this book when I was a teen. I wasn't ready for it. I recently happened across it, and decided to give it a go. How can I explain this? I've read literally thousands of books. (None of them Norman's until recently). The story is a brilliantly told tale of a young girl growing into herself through a space-style walkabout; but it's more than just that. There are ideas and correlations and connections that are both familiar and alien, none of which left me untouched. I know, you hear "this will change you" from movie critics and the like, but I urge you to find this book, and sit down and really read it. It's not a difficult read; the story flows smoothly and the humor is delightful. Don't let this one get away. Trust me.

I happen to live in the Cotswolds, the setting for this beautiful book, this Monet of literature. And, complying with the below reviews, I have to say that Stroud has become a concrete river, choked with litter, sidelined with Burger Stars, neon lights; a MacDonalds is in the blue print stages. Hills are lined with new developments. It's like, and I quote my mother, "A disease is spreading."

Yet there are places untouched by Americanisms, consumerism, electricity (and here I apologise, as this becomes less of a review, more an account of personal experience). But there are still rivers afloat with leaves, valleys deep that welcome sunsets. They frost the sky in winter, burn it by summer.

"There's beauty in decay," as someone said. Haven't got a clue who. But there you go. Although dying of shallow needs and commercial interests, snippets of the old way can be found. And in all their glory, too.

This book was required reading during my childhood and, of course, I couldn't have dragged myself more slowly through it. How wise we become with age. This is an astonishing book. Lee is such a master of description that, after only a few pages, you slowly start to smell the fresh country air and hear the languid sounds of summer as you are inescabably drawn into the world of his childhood - a world that you realize has already faded into the mists of history. But this special time has not been lost - it has been captured forever in this irreplacable series of pictures. The people in these stories become more real than seems possible with only pen and ink: his characterizations are as clever as anything by Dickens or Dostoevski, and he catches the very essence of the sights, sounds and people around him with a charm unmatched by any other English writer. But this is not a story-book universe: the people in his young life have all the frailty, vanity, delight and tragedy that you would expect in any small community - but what other has been crystallized with such talent and wisdom. A wonderful work of art.

There should be more than five stars for books like this one. All the reviewers who wrote about how poetic yet concrete, magical yet real this account of boyhood in the Cotswolds have said it much better than I can. It is pure magic. I wish it was 20 times as long. You might also find this book under the title "The Edge of Day". If you loved "Cider With Rosie" you might also enjoy "Lark Rise to Candleford", "The Golden Evenings of Summer" and the movie "A Christmas Story".

A book to read & re-read. Finely crafted & evocative of a now long ago & far away time and place.

Rooted in the earth and shining with long gone summers and freezing winters this is a beautiful and poignant flower of a book. Written in a sensuous and lyrical poetic prose it tells the story of the authors's boyhood in the Cotswolds of the West of England. Spinning round the great orb of his clutter-minded and loving mother are his sisters and wider village life. There is Illness, murder, private sorrow, boiling summer and frozen winter and finally the running down of the feudal clock as long awaited change comes to the valley. A book, more even - a place to be visited again and again...

Carter King had a list of candidates he was considering to use as a way to get his heir.

All it would cost would be money - a shrewd business proposition. Marly Alcott topped his list of candidates. But was she who she says she is?

She loves children, is in need of money and seemed to be completely trustworthy. Except she had some secrets of her own.

Marly was not about to let Carter find out about Billy Ray Cameron or about Tyler. Would Carter still be around if he did?

Things seemed to start falling apart after their marriage and danger reared its' ugly head.
Would Carter and Marly be able to resolve the problems presented by the P.I.? What was Carter to believe?

Oh yeah, Carter to the rescue.

Great story - great characters - wonderful plot.

Definitely Recommended

I absolutely love this book. I couldn't put it down after the first chapter. I wish I had a guy who would treat me as well as Carter King!

This book is one of the best romances I have ever read! The characters were amazingly real, and I cared about them from the beginning. I hope to see more from McLean in the very near future. I usually buy my books used, but I would pay the full new price for hers, just so I could read them sooner.

Monica McLean grabs the reader into her story and doesn't let go. I was enthralled from the start. My only disappointment is that the book had to come to an end. I'm already in anxious anticipation waiting for her next book...

Ms. McLean is a phenomenal writer!!! When I finished reading the book, I flipped back to the beginning to find names of other books that she had written, but, alas, this was her debut novel. What a talent she is. You will not be disappointed in Monica...she is going to be the next Nora Roberts..."mark my Words." Carter was an exceptional Prince Charming!! Thanks a million, Monica!!!

I really enjoy this series and it is one of the better-written ones going today. This one takes place in the late spring of 1862 and there are outbreaks of smallpox occurring requiring some patients to be quarantined. When one of those patients dies with Narcissa at his side, he whispers something to indicate that there might be some money circulating with the smallpox virus contaminiating it. Narcissa is put in charge of containing that outbreak and, along with Judah Daniel, works to do that while also solving the mystery of how that money came into circulation. This book is a fascinating portrait of Civil War America and the mystery is intriguing as well. Highly recommended.

In 1862 the American Civil War heats up with the Northern Army nearing the Confederate capital of Richmond. However, a greater threat to the lives of military in the area and the citizens of Richmond occurs when small pox is the cause of a death. Soon other deaths and accusations of germ warfare follow.

Southern nurse Narcissa Powers, English reporter Brit Wallace, and former slave healer Judah Daniel look for the source of the deadly disease. As they separately dig deeper, each one shares the findings with the other. No segment of the city from the elite to the slums or of the two armies escape their evaluation as the trio tries to prevent an epidemic from happening.

Fans of Civil War novels will, upon reading CIVIL BLOOD, play trumpets in tribute to the author for an entertaining historical who-done-it. The story line starts off very powerfully as a vividly graphic opening hooks the audience while introducing the lead characters. The tale slows down a bit during the investigation because the key players literally exchange notes from their respective interviews even though that technique smoothly blends into the main theme. However, the story line ends with an incredible finish that will fully satisfy the audience, sending them marching to the nearest bookstore to purchase Ann McMillanýs previous historical mysteries.

Harriet Klausner

Smallpox breaks out in an American city. The country is at war, and the ethics of combat in question. Has the horrid disease been loosed intentionally? And by which side? Have children been enlisted in this war? The plot lines in "Civil Blood" could be lifted from today's headlines, but this is a mystery about Civil War Richmond (published months before 9/11/01). For all its eerie relevance to the present, this book is rooted unerringly in its era. Ann McMillan's well-drawn characters never warp out of the 1800s. They deal with the anguish of their own war and their own time. A mystery of substance. Another brilliant installment in McMillan's series.

I was eagerly awaiting this book, and I was not disappointed. I read it through twice in the period of three days. The main characters are compelling (particularly Narcissa Powers) and the mystery is well-crafted. The connections to previous books in the series really enhance the story (although I don't believe you need to read the previous books to enjoy this one). The emotions and conflicts between the characters are stronger and more deeply felt than in the previous books in the series, which endeared the book to me. If you are a Civil War buff, you may find the book particularly intriguing. The second time I read it I kept referring to my copy of Shelby Foote's Civil War: A Narrative, to follow the military story taking place just down the road from Richmond while the plot events unfolded. This too, enhanced the story.

I was dying, ha ha, to read Ms. McMillan's book and got tired of waiting for the paperback, so I ordered online, used, from Amazon.[com] I was not disappointed. Her Civil War mystery series is getting more in depth.
This time the story seemed to focus more on Narcissa and less on Judah; it seems like the last book had more of Judah and less Narcissa; which I suppose is as it should be. Poor Brit Wallace isn't mentioned in the attempts to get you to interested in these mysteries (jacket cover, publisher summaries, etc)---however, as the newspaperman from Britain in Richmond, he is just as much a "detective" as the other two.
I kept going back and forth between Brit and Cameron Archer; which would be the better suitor for Narcissa? Theres plenty of tentative romance to keep us on tenterhooks for a few more books; do we have to wait that long?
The story does have more of the hospital and nursing aspects; we learn about smallpox in the city of Richmond and the possible threat of an outbreak when a contaminated jacket is stolen.
Ms. McMillan kept me guessing but I was grateful that I could actually figure out "whodunit" before she let us in on it.
Isn't that the goal of every mystery reader? To figure it out before the author lets you in?
Anyways. Very good. She has a way of writing that makes you feel like you're really there. I don't know what it is. Thats why I was a bit out of sorts at the end---I thought it ended abruptly.
Is that another typicality of a mystery series?
Looking forward to buying a used hardback of the next book! :)

You have to love Cam Jansen. When you're a kid, you read all of these stories about magic powers, mystery, and adventure. But everyone tells you magic can't exist. Cam Jansen manages to solve every case without the use of magic... she's a real girl. That's what makes her special and what makes you want to read more and more. She lives her life and has friends just like everyone else. Cam Jansen is a real kid superhero, and the thought that a person like her could actually exist... makes her the best kid detective ever! Kids can really associate themselves with Cam and her friends. Our family loves Cam Jansen!

You have to love Cam Jansen. When you're a kid, you read all of these stories about magic powers, mystery, and adventure. But everyone tells you magic can't exist. Cam Jansen manages to solve every case without the use of magic... she's a real girl. That's what makes her special and what makes you want to read more and more. She lives her life and has friends just like everyone else. Cam Jansen is a real kid superhero, and the thought that a person like her could actually exist... makes her the best kid detective ever! Kids can really associate themselves with Cam and her friends. Our family loves Cam Jansen!

You have to love Cam Jansen. When you're a kid, you read all of these stories about magic powers, mystery, and adventure. But everyone tells you magic can't exist. Cam Jansen manages to solve every case without the use of magic... she's a real girl. That's what makes her special and what makes you want to read more and more. Cam Jansen is a real kid superhero, and the thought that a person like her could actually exist... makes her the best kid detective ever! Our family loves Cam Jansen!

Here is what my 7-years old has to say about the book.
Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the U.F.O. by David A. Adler is a story about how Cam Jansen and her friend Eric Shelton solved mystery of U.F.O. In a cold afternoon before a junior photography contest Cam Jansen helped Eric to shoot photographs, which must be from real life, according to the contest rule. They came across Neptune, a missing kitten and saved her from the tree. Eric shot a picture of Neptune eating somebody's groceries. When they went to investigate a mysterious U.F.O. spotted by others, they discovered the U.F.O. was actually balloons hooked up to flashlights and creatures from outer space were staged by Bobby, Cindy and Steven to win a prize. But, in a rush, Bobby's car crashed his own camera and film (too bad!) while chasing Neptune. Finally, Neptune's photo won an honorable mention on TV!

If you are interested in mysteries, this book makes you feel you are in it. An excellent book for readers in second grade or older.

Cam Jansen has a incredible memory. One day Cam and her friend Eric Shelten thought they saw a U.F.O. Cam's real name is Jennifer. But when people discovered her memory, they started to call her Camera. But soon they shortened Camera and started to call her Cam. Whenever Cam tries to remember something, she always says click. I like the Cam Jansen books a lot.

An interesting look at a world through the eyes of a character who functions as a Deus ex Machina. I enjoyed it.

Very sadly long out of print, it's well worth it to track a copy down... An overlooked classic.

The book was extemely intresting in everyway. I think I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to "think" more about the world around them.

If you know John Brunner's other work, well, this isn't like that. Traveller in Black is a collection of several mid-length stories that fit together in a progression. The nameless eponymous traveller, an agent of order, goes about imprisoning various chaotic entities and granting certain wishes. This works on several levels to give you allegories for the unexamined life, as well as a gripping adventure yarn.

In some ways, this book is a bookend to Larry Niven's "The Magic Goes Away" (and various sequels, etc.). The flavor and style is similar, although this book is very different. In any event, this is one of those touchstone books of fantasy: you'll see where other writers (including Niven's works cited above!) have "borrowed" some of the dazzling images in Brunner's classic. This gem is a great read and I recommend it highly.

That's the job of the magical Traveller, to use his magic to end magic. That underlying paradox provides the premise of this connected set of short stories. He travels the world at intervals, surveying the realm of unreason on each trip, and taking satisfaction in watching it shrink. Where he can, he applies his subtle magic in support of Reason's expanding domain.

Brunner explores Chaos's control and degradation of humankind in several of its ways. The first story tweaks mindless religion. It might even show how one can choose atheism, after encountering a god face to face and finding him unworthy of belief. Another of these gentle stories undermines magical thinking - again, not because it fails, but because its success is not worth having. And so with the faith in luck that makes Las Vegas the holy city of Chance, and so the unwarranted sense of entitlement that demands ever-richer result for ever-poorer effort at earning it, and so for blind pursuit of power irrespective of the cost or of who pays it. Since these stories are built around layers of paradox, Brunner's mechanism is itself a paradox, the smallest of magics to achieve the largest of consequences.

Brunner was one of the best SF writers of the 70s and 80s, author of "Shockwave Rider" and other stories of chilling prescience. Among all of his writings, though, "Traveller in Black" may be his finest and most under-stated, under-rated achievements. These stories have held up well over the thirty years since they were written; since they pass in a distant place and age, there is little in them that can look dated. I recommend these stories to any thinking reader.

//wiredweird

Walt Whitman is, indisputably, America's poet. He is vast, large, contradictory (Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself/(I am large, I contain multitudes)), beautiful and loose and American to the core!

His greatest poem is, in my opinion, "Song of Myself." This is far from a controversial opinion, and for good reason; the eighty-odd page long poem is an astounding epic--albeit, an unusual one, but a monumental achievement of literature. It is Whitman as Everyman, Whitman as you, as me, as all other mortals from China to Peru. I quote his beautiful closing stanzas:

"I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I
Love,
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you"

Such beauty in verse, especially free verse, is scarcely found, and, when found, must be cherished. There is a reason almost all poets after him--and not just poets in the English language, either (Borges, for example, aspired to be the "Whitman of Argentina")--have been influenced by him more so than any other poet besides perhaps Shakespeare and Milton.

Nor is "Song of Myself" his only great poem, though it surely be his greatest. His elegy for Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is monumental (the great critic Harold Bloom declares it Whitman's finest poem, and thus the greatest of all American poems--I dissent, but uphold its marvel nonetheless), as is almost all of his wonderful corpus of poetry. Whitman is remarkable; he is inescapable; he is beautiful. Read him, and thou shalt be infinitely rewarded.

I was turned on to "Uncle Walt," as my high school teacher described him, while taking American Literature, and am thankful for it. While Whitman has a unique style of writing, I am drawn to it and enjoy this book emensely. I definetely recommend this book to any Walt Whitman fan, and to those that appreciate American poetry.

Whitman is a special poet. As you read through his poems you get the feeling that you are not reading poetry but rather going through Whitman's mind. His compulsive style both simple and meticulous, his whirling rhythym, and his proud usage of the first person, all give you a vivid glimpse of the world through his eyes and heart; the eyes of his time and the poetic heart of his thoughts. Yet even though Whitman talks to you in social vocab. you know that you are listening to a poet because ast is ineveitable to sense his power to overwhelm. Lorca described Whitman as "viejo" and "hermoso", and these descriptions are true of Whitman the poet as Whitman the man. After reading this book you'll be short of words to describe it as I appear to be. It has too much inside it. But it is beautiful because the words inside it come from a man who knew how to appreciate and merge with the antiquity and great elderiness of the world.

This collection of Whitman's poetry has the ulitimate selection for any reader, whether one is experienced in the composition and analyzation of Whitman or simply reading for pleasure. The book contains every known work by the author, as well as numerous editions of poems such as "Song of Myself" which was revised and reprinted by the author several times. If one is a fan of Walt Whitman, this is an excellent source of all his poetry compact into one book. If a person is just begining to experience the poet, everyting someone would want to read is at his or her fingertips.

not only the greatest selling poet who has been dead for more than fifty years, not only the poet whose translations are regularly read abroad, not only the poet whose name has in-spired countless others, not only the poet who freed us from the manacles of rhyme and decapitated the tyranny of meter but also a man of enthusiasm, a titan, a man whose soul floods with belch, fume and quake, a man who confronts the ravenous centaurs of humdrum and blugeons them swiftly in a spasmo of frenzy-fire, a wanderer, a searcher, one whose mind travels vig-orously throughout the cosmimosa and embellishes it with jac-inths of thought and blooms of popy! not only a man of gargan-tuan passions, one who rages in the face of metallic storm but also a man whose depressions, fogs, glooms and sensitivity to flowers, softness and the defenseless bloom in stark heart-throb. no doubt he is a poet well worth a place beside such other titano-giants such as goethe, milton and homer, for he too sings the song of war, his book is a chanson of bellum for he sings of the battle of the passions, the climaximum of the emo-ceans, he challenges the raw specters of gash, their eyes oozing of slime-drab and rather than succumb to the oxen of indiffer-ence he instead triumphs over the gray and his book thus re-sounds in shinning claria! his is an adventure of thought sur-real in its gusto, jumping in its excitica and wild in its leap of ideas! thank celestium that he liberated us poets from the ab-surd manacles of rhyme and meter and we can now surge through horiza with countless new devices, metaphors and similies awaiting in our platoons! he is the cougar of innova-tion, the lion of spasmo and the giant of vision.

kyle foley, author of Lorelei Pursued and Wrestles with God