Reviews Books

Ms Henderson has taken from many, many sources to present a succinct analysis of myths from the past, works by many scholars, and today's world in order to show the need for all of us to have myths in our lives. Beginning with George Lucas' journey to creating Star Wars, moving into the cultural milieu in which the films were made to the that which the audiences brought and continue to bring, the author gives us the "reasons" for the motivation and then success of the 3 and later 6 movies done by Lucas. The book is well-illustrated with scenes from the movies, storyboards of its development, and art representing other myths, stories and legends of many cultures and times. A fantastic book for anyone looking for the core ideas of Lucas and his greatest work.

If you enjoy any of the books by Joseph Campbell and are a Star Wars fan, then this is the book for you. It covers everything from Greek mythology and Zen Buddhism to the Cowboy archetype and the uniforms of World War 2. Most of the artwork is incredible (many pics from the "Art of Star Wars" books), and there are tons of detailed photos from the Smithsonian tour, which I was lucky enough to catch at Houston's Museum of Fine Arts many years ago. I only wish they had waited a few years until the entire Prequel Trilogy was completed before they published this book!

Within this book I would say this incredible look into the mix of Mythology, History and Star Wars that I have ever seen. A great companion Book to the "Magic of Myth" exhibit.. and it would make a great companion book to the Joesph Campbell books "The Hero with a Thousand faces and "The Power of Myth."

Basically giving the impression of the origin of the Star Wars Films. How Lucas was influenced with all these ideas and made the films what they are today. How timeless the story really has been. Also available is some of the pre production artwork from the Classic Trilogy.

Excellent book with amazing pics of the props and unusual images from the movies from the OT. Fantastic!!

If you've been lucky enough to see "The Magic of Myth" in one of its many permutations, this book is a great supplement to and a wonderful reminder of just how cool that exhibit was. If you haven't seen the exhibit, this book is still great to have for it's back-story on the origins of the trilogy.

I'm not the most well-read person around so it was a lot of fun to learn how Lucas' characters and story were shaped by (or copied from) myths and legends of other times and cultures. Reading this book has led me to explore some of the material that Lucas borrowed from in creating Star Wars. I'm a big SW nut, but it's nice to get my head out of the SW universe and out into other forms of art and literature.

If you don't feel like reading, this book is also full of GREAT photos from the trilogy.

I keep this one on the shelf next to Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth." It is a nice complement to Campbell's book.

True to the topic, it transports you right there. Historical and old, but still current.

I thought this book was one of the best books Ive ever read it describes how people feel and view the world from inside themselves but can never express this externally or even realise they are thinking these things themselves.

For me It depicts how inadequate we all are men and women, when it comes to Love, and expressing it and sharing it. it flumoxes us all, Its too big for us, "the chickens had more sense"....pass the worms please.

Written about a South African farm. this book depicts the story of a family and how they interact throughout the book. The most striking dynamic in the book is the relationships of the women in it. It portrays female existence in a realistic light even for today. The story has a lot of character to it, and I would recommend it highly for teachers who want to teach about feminism.

Although I had to read this book for a college class, I would read it again in a second, I feel that I can only gain more and more from this book through rereadings. Its plot is at times disjointed to the style of the author and the message she is attempting to convey, so for those who are looking for a strongly Dickensian or "feel good" read, this is most likely not the book for you right now. But for me, from an analytical and heartfelt standpoint, the subtlety of the book and its beauty and its truth made me tear up a little bit. I'm currently writing a paper on Waldo and his artistic and personal growth throughout the novel, so maybe I'm a little biased, but although Lyndall is an incredibly interesting and advanced character, I think Waldo is often glossed over as merely suffering from a religious crisis of faith, and, being a man, not deserving of attention in this novel of the "New Woman". But Waldo ultimately reaches a place of amazing peace and understanding, and the lives of Waldo and Lyndall intertwined together is truly beautiful.

"Story of an African Farm" is a difficult work to describe. It must be read several times, and carefully pondered before all of its secrets are unlocked.

Ostensibly, the book revolves around the lives of three children (and, later, adults) who live in the Karroo plains of South Africa. The main focus, however, is on two of the characters - Waldo, the earnest and deeply curious son of the German farmkeeper, and Lyndall, the beautiful, outspoken and rebellious orphan who suffers all her life for her ideals.

The book itself is semi-autobiographical. Waldo represents Schreiner's journey from fanatical, childlike faith to bitter skepticism, who reaches a watershed of sorts when he hisses to Lyndall 'There is no God - none!'. Lyndall, on the other hand, embodies Schreiner's frustation with her station as a woman - barred from the upper echelons of society, and her inability to find a mate who is both her intellectual match and willing to accept her as an equal. "I want to love", she whispers to the grave of Waldo's father, "I want something great and pure to lift me to itself."

There are many other themes that flesh out the subtext of this extraordinary book - the tragedy of solitude, that ultimately, all humans are alone in the cosmos. "Dear eyes", the dying Lyndall whispers to her mirror, "they will never part us."

Readers who expect a narrative will be dissapointed. What narrative there is serves only to undersore the book's many themes. Often, the flow of the story is out of sequence, or devoid of context, and deliberately so. Roughly, the book is divided into three sections - the first introduces us to the characters as children, and reveals their innermost thoughts. The second, and shortest section is entitled "Times and Seasons". It is somewhat of a summary of what has gone before, dealing mostly with Waldo's journey from Christian fanaticism to dispairing atheism, and foreshadows some of what is to come. The third, and longest section, covers the lives of the characters as adults, and is by far the most powerful, and moving piece of the book.

The reader who is looking for mindless action is advised to pick up the latest Tom Clancy novel, or whatever passes for literature these days. Those who are willing to put aside all preconceived notions, and have their cherished beliefs challenged are invited to read this book. The search for truth is endless. But this book is a perfect place to begin.

This was a great book and a very quick read! It is also a very scary and eye-opening look into the world of Hollywood in general, not just with Superman. And it seems that anyone who's not a corporation who becomes associated with Superman projects historically gets screwed in some way. Sadly, it began with Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who unfortunately fought for their rights to the character until their deaths. (this was recently ruled in their favor, but sadly it went to their descendants so the two men didn't live to see their life long struggle victorious). Even the Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons of the 1940's came with their share of bad luck for Max Fleischer who was forced to hand over profits made. Then, when George Reeves died mysteriously after participating in 1950's show, The Adventures of Superman, the legend of "The Superman curse" spread. When Richard Donner created his memorable Superman movies ,they were already mired in conflict with the studios which is why they degraded in quality until Superman IV killed the franchise for 20 years. And for all those Superman Returns nay-sayers, there was a whole load of crap that could have been made during those years, so I have a new appreciation for that movie. Overall, a great book which also goes into Smallville (for those of you who still watch).

This was one of the most enjoyable books about a comic icon that I have ever read. I won't bore you with what I liked as others posting reviews have done so already and much more thoroughly than I ever could...If you are a Superman fan, read this book. I am sure you will find many things you did not know. It was very hard to put it down. Enjoy

I was so engaged that I read the book in a day instead of stretching it out. Lots of interesting info. The backstage in-fighting was fascinating and so were the accounts of the evolution of various Superman TV shows and movies. Since the other reviewers have hit a lot of the high points, and at the time that I purchased the book, no table of contents was attached, here's a breakdown of the subjects covered.

The first couple of chapters cover Bud Collyer,Kirk Alyn, and George Reeves, as you might expect. The middle section deals largely with the Salkinds, Richard Donner, Richard Lester, and Christoper Reeve; the making of Superman I-III. There's an excursion by one chapter into the Salkinds' Supergirl movie and it's effect on the Superman franchise. There are also scattered references throughout the book to the Batman TV shows/movies and that franchise's effects on Superman. Spiderman and other superhero movie/shows are referenced, but Batman gets the most page time.

The Cannon Group and Superman IV are also discussed. Then we move onto the Superboy TV show and more on the Salkinds. The next bit covers Lois & Clark and there's a brief visit to Bruce Timm's animated version of Superman. Smallville is also dealt with. Most of the latter portion of the book is about with the scripts, producers, and actors contemplated for various possible versions of a new Superman movie before Superman Returns was decided upon. Bryan Singer and the making of Superman Returns are also discussed.

On the whole, this is a very intriguing look. I wish the author had been less cursory in the discussions of Smallville and had gone into more detail with the animated versions of Superman, but I would recommend this book to any Superman fan.

Sweet merciful Rao, where do I begin? SUPERMAN VS. HOLLYWOOD paints a bizarre tapestry centering on one of the world's most enduring fictional icons, with "enduring" being the operative word: under the smart and thorough pen of Jake Rossen, the book chronicles the behind-the-scenes ineptitude, cheapness, lack of creativity and flat-out viciousness that has provided more degradation to the Superman legacy than its various radio, film and TV permutations did creative contributions. And we're not talking about simply Donner vs. the Salkinds here, folks...this book covers almost every dirty little self-driven machination that ever embedded itself into Superman's non-print pursuits, going all the way back to the 1940s radio show. The film branch of the Superman brand takes up the lion's share of the book, but preceding it are some truly fascinating accounts, including the Superman radio show writers taking cues on an episode attacking the Ku Klux Klan by having an infiltrator of their own in attendance at Klan meetings, as well as the professional struggles of George Reeves as a result of donning the cape, and the lurid goings-on that almost certainly led to his demise, from whatever viewpoint you choose to look at the circumstances of his death. This early portion of the book also contends with the myriad efforts of the producers of "The Adventures Of Superman" to cotton to sponsorship - including the curious exclusion of Lois Lane from any Kellogg's commercials, which in one instance had Clark, Jimmy AND Perry at a breakfast table - and their wild attempts to revive the Superman TV franchise in the wake of Reeves' death (I'd also recommend viewing the 2006 Superman documentary "Look! Up In The Sky: The Amazing Story Of Superman" for more on this - seriously, you have to see a clip from "The Adventures Of Superpup" to [dis]believe it).

Why do Superman programs and films always seem to generate such calamitous circumstances? Some have attributed it to a bona-fide "Superman curse" made manifest in George Reeves' apparent suicide and the crippling of Christopher Reeve (No relation, folks - the movie Superman's surname has no S on the end, if I may be allowed one wee little nitpick), but as Rossen illustrates in his laborious text on matters, some of it may have to do with the general stigma of comic books as little more than fare for juveniles, an attitude that seemed to be shared by many who were involved in the production of the various Superman TV series and films, including the much-maligned director Richard Lester, who's taken his share of shots by fanboys for his campy approach to the sequels to the 1978 film; in Lester's case, Rossen fortunately retains an air of non-bias, opting to let personal anecdotes speak for themselves on this oft-targeted figure for fan venting. Ditto the Salkinds, who now share the unflattering light with Richard Donner and his increasing temperament at their intrusions. Who was in the right? Who deserved the real blame? As Ilya Salkind himself recently described the problematic shoot of "Superman: The Movie": "It was everybody's fault, and nobody's." He's not far off at all.

As pointed out in the tome, Superman seems to have suffered more creative blundering than any other superhero due to the increasing difficulty of others to relate to him as a character; his powers make him nigh-omnipotent, and as a result his rogues' gallery outside of Lex Luthor has never been able to make the memorable impact left by the likes of Batman's foes. Even his dual identity as a mild-mannered reporter dedicated to his job works against him in a world that has become more receptive to seeing Spider-Man get soundly thrashed by Dr. Octopus and then hobble home to discover that his sweet old Aunt May can't pay her medical bills, he's six months behind on his rent, and J. Jonah Jameson has plastered another libelous headline branding Spidey a murderer and thief across the front page of the same paper Peter Parker works for. Marvel's characters, for all their nonsensical origins, at their highs thrived on the accessibility of real-life situations; for that reason, Superman has perpetually suffered from a sense of antiquity that has propagated many a half-hearted attempt to "revitalize" the character, a fact which is very much in evidence in this book without necessarily needing to provide further elaboration on it. For DC Comics, and especially for Warner Brothers, their flagship character has been largely treated as little more than a gravy train; the Superman comics themselves have never really been very good in recent years, evidenced by the constant chain of "stunts" DC initiated in the early 1990s beginning with the "Death Of Superman" storyarc that provided the spark for the bulk of controversial attempts made since Reeve's last bow as the Man of Steel to jump-start the Superman film franchise. Such attempts provide some of the more amusing fodder for Rossen's account, in particular producer Jon Peters and his outright dispassion for Superman's two most visible signatures: his costume and his ability to fly. Reading Rossen's descriptions of the various story pitches and casting choices for the part, it's easy to see why none of these radical revamp efforts never materialized and almost compels one to sigh in relief as a result.

And make no mistake, Rossen's writing style is hard and unfettered by personal affections or preferences: considered an idol by many a Superman fan for his portrayal, Christopher Reeve is accounted for as a young actor trying to take the part seriously, but also blinded by that responsibility in the process (more than a few cast and crew members didn't think particularly highly of him). Likewise, Richard Donner, who receives much adulation for directing the only palpable Superman film in the bunch, is as finely skewered as Alexander and Ilya Salkind ever were. Rossen doesn't pull any punches on anybody, really; from Robert Shayne's near-dismissal from "The Adventures Of Superman" for allegations of Communism to Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's beyond-the-grave legal battles with DC Comics for a piece of the pie that could acutely affect the "Smallville" TV series (still in production as of this writing) to Tim Burton's apparent dislike for Nicolas Cage (the latter of whom, to his credit, lobbied for more reverence for comics lore in light of all the weirdness Burton and Peters wanted to throw into their Super-package), Rossen opens up areas that I think even the most ardent Superman fan will find surprising. The book is as thorough as necessary in its exploration of every non-comics venture into Superman lore or any smattering of it, from the Salkinds' ill-conceived endeavor to refresh their comic-book palette with a Supergirl film after the nonsensical notion to toss Richard Pryor into the Superman film series cost moviegoers and comic fans the chance to see Brainiac take on our caped hero, to the various Fleisher-influenced and comics-faithful animated series produced by Bruce Timm of the mid-1990s that, with sad curiosity, has enjoyed a success and resonance with younger AND mature fans that Warner Brothers, for whatever reason, has chosen to ignore.

If there's any one real criticism I have for this book - though it doesn't detract from me giving it a five-star rating; IMO it's still an absolute must-read for comic-book fans, film buffs, or any filmmaker who thinks that reimagining a classic character beyond all recognition is a good idea - it's that the meager handful of photos it does contain don't sufficiently enhance the impact of most of the book's content. Rossen would have been better served by screen-caps from the Superpup pilot, pictures of Helen Slater's unused and more comic-accurate (to the time) Supergirl suit, and even some of the outlandish concept art from the unproduced Superman film attempts of recent years, just to show how absolutely misguided the filmmakers have been in trying to breath three-dimensional life into Superman's world.

But really, I can't do any justice to this book. You have to read it for yourself, to see just how messed up Hollywood has been - and potentially still is - in its treatment of one of America's greatest pop-culture contributions.

I was expecting a picture laden history of the large scale Superman movies from the 70's and eighties when I first thought about buying this book and was a little put out by the fact there were not a lot of pictures in it. However, the information inside the covers of this book was eye opening indeed and didn't need pictures to illustrate the point.

If you're looking for all the juicy, digging up the dirt on celebrities trivia on what went on behind the scenes in any of the incarnations of Superman, this really isn't the place to look.

If you're looking for a well researched history on all the trials and tribulations involved in getting Superman off the pages of comic books and up into the sky via radio serials, TV live action series and cartoons or cinemas, this is the book for you.

The author has dug deep and gathered together a wide cross section of information that shows just how hard it is to get a idea past the post. From writers who have no idea how to write the Superman character to studio execs who are only interested in the after market merchandising and how to save a few million dollars by compromising the vision.

The fact that Superman actually got to fly is pretty amazing.

This is so packed with details that I am always searching for. It's awesome, it's so cool. It has everything that you need to know about the X-files, I have nothing but praise for the author. I love the fact that it told so much about all of the characters and stuff, and it's just so great that I recommend if you're as obsessed as I am about the show, to go and buy it. It's definitely worth the price. Again, really great book!!!

I thought that the book had alot to give and I realy liked it. If any one has a good X-files book tell me what it is called

Absolutely, positively, without a doubt the best and most complete reference book that has ever been published on THE X-FILES. This incredibly detailed and beautifully illustrated book covers everything you ever wanted to know about THE X-FILES but were afraid to ask! It is a massive undertaking that covers everything in easy to use A-Z alphabetical format. Every entry cites the episode it came from and every character has the actor's name. Say for example, in the letter (B): you will find lengthy entries for everything from Bear ("Ice") to Bay Area Carpeteers (the Chinese employer of Shuyang Hsin in "Hell Money") and Big Blue ("Quagmire"), from Babcock ("Gethsemane") to Bright White Place ("Nisei") and Biodiversity Project ("F. Emasculata") and tons of entries in between. It is also a very timely book as it covers all previous 4 seasons. I also love the classy look of the book, the good-grade paper and the typeset inside and, especially the price. Oh, how could I forget the illustrations! No more reused stock photos (that we've all seen in every magazine), but the coolest artwork enhances the book. Wait until you check out Flukeman, Mama Peacock and Dr. Zama! THE X-CYCLOPEDIA is a BIG book (with thousands of entries) and for only $15 it's a better deal than the 2 or 3 X-Files magazines I buy each month that total more than $15. If you call yourself an X-Phile, then you don't want to be without this DEFENITIVE reference book to the series! This is THE book of the X-FILES, and I highly recommend it.

This is definitely a 'must have' book for all X-Files fans! Every person, place, company name, historical reference or 'you name it' ever mentioned in seasons 1-4 is covered here! Also serves as an episode guide! Mine stays right next to me whenever I am watching the reruns! Get it...now!

This is the COMPLETE reference guide to my favorite TV show. Idon'tthink the authors missed a thing in this book...it is absolutely mind-boggling to see so many entries. From A to Z, The X-Files has never before been put under such focused, affectionate, and meticulous scrutiny. The X-CYCLOPEDIA is the ULTIMATE reference book on the series and if I only had $15 in my pocket and could only buy one book about THE X-FILES, then it would be this one. Hands down, this is THE best reference book on THE X-FILES ever written. I give it two thumbs up, four stars, or whatever critics use as a measuring stick. No X-Phile should be without it! The truth is no longer OUT there...it is IN the X-CYCLOPEDIA!

If you think you know EVERYTHING about the best show on television, you're wrong. These guys pull up obscure info and quiz you on it, drawing not only from the episodes but from interviews, books, and magazines. This is a great book and a must for an X-Phile's library! My only complaint: after reading Phil Farrand's lighthearted Nitpicker's Guide, the authors of this book seem really critical. I mean, what's up with their review of "War of the Coprophages"? Lighten up! Other than that, of course, diehard fans will cherish this book.

It seems everybody is doing an episode guide, but this book is different...it is all trivia, behind-the-scenes, and nitpicking. Loads of fun if THE X-FILES is your weekly fix. My son and I used it as a game to keep us occupied on a flight from NYC to San Diego as we tested each other's knowledge of our favorite TV show. I highly recommend this book...Must reading for X-Philes

Over 1,000 questions from the first three (3) seasons of my favorite TV show in a challenging format to test the gray cells of my brain. How would I describe this book: An X-Files version of JEOPARDY! More than just something to read...a book to play and damn well worth the $$$. I highly recommend it to any die-hard X-Phile

I've always considered myself an X-pert. None of my online friends (or real life for that matter) has ever been able to stump me on X-Files trivia. I'm completely addicted to the show and have 15 books.

This one is definately one of the best, pointing out many of the nitpicks and netpicks we've philes have already discovered in addition to new ones that sent me back to look for them. The trivia is extremely difficult and interesting.

I recommend this book to all philes who think they know it all. Take a few months to memorize this book and then you will know it all.

My brother got me this book for my birthday two years ago. It is my bible and my life (kind of sad, actually!) Anyways, it's really good and like that other guy said, if you take a few months to memorize it, you'll the X-Files Genius and you can impress your friends with little tidbits of knowledge. For example, what's Scully's home phone number? I'm not telling.. get it and look it up yourself! Note: good book for diehard fans!

This final entry--1988 marks its long-delayed arrival--in a lengthy career (starting in the mid-1940s) of scant fiction marks the end of the postwar, triumphalist, yet marginalized, Midwestern Catholic parish--and notably here, rectory--intrigues that Powers excelled at conveying. His scale, being so focused, gains accuracy and depth by its concentration upon detail. Like a model railroad set, the 1:150 (or whatever!) ratio means painstaking attention to fidelity. Such realism to the untutored eye appears grotesque or caricatured, but to an aware observer reveals a nearly exact fit of form with content.

I give it four rather than five stars as I have re-read (and reviewed here, "Morte" and the thirty stories in their original three volumes as well as the collected reissue) all of Powers recently, and I believe that his many strengths as a writer are at times clouded slightly by his tendency towards oversubtlety. A forgivable fault in an era of so many authors straining for the obvious or what critics call "overdetermining" their subject, but Powers tends in all his work towards lengthy passages where not much goes on at all, but in which an editor could have polished the presentation and refined the craft even further. Powers appears to have been his own worse enemy and his own most scrupulous critic, on the other hand. Be it as it may, Powers makes nearly all of his peers look hasty, scattered, and undisciplined by comparison.

Action over the course of a priest's youth, coming of age, and gradual rise from curate to administrative assistant (when that word did not connote a secretary or receptionist) and then pastor comprises the narrative. Less verve here than the worldlier, more urbane Fr Urban had, but perhaps in his principled if compromised (the whole crux of the tension) fidelity to the needs of separating "Church from Dreck" Powers reveals that the need for reform Fr Urban realized while Vatican II was still in session (so to speak) by the end of the decade became all the more apparent as the slow slide downhill accelerated. Set by its conclusion around 1968, if offhandedly, the Catholic Worker roots of Powers and his conservative radicalism stand his fictional main character in good stead as priests wander off, parishioners ignore crusty priests' reprimands, malls open on Sundays, the hillbilly's war machine thunders on in the small town press, and guitars with cant supplant chant.

This novel, like his earlier (sharing with it a clumsy if rarified referential title) "Morte d'Urban," (1962), suffers from arid stretches, where the humor is so deadpan, the pace so true that the inert nature of our own shared experience with the clerical protagonists appears too neatly aligned. Dullness enters. A VD quarantine warning takes up one and a half pages verbatim. A few sample sermons from Father Felix (who helps out saying weekend Masses) summarize the stultifying, yet sincere, homiletics of a certain, less soundbitten, age. So with Powers, who in this novel had been criticized as a man out of time, with figures he identified with whose era had passed them by. Joe is only in his mid-forties. He seems much older. This may be a sign of now-diminished respect, when the maturity demanded of authority figures gave an earned dignity and a bit of unearned noblesse oblige to the clergy in smaller towns where the collar still mattered. Joe Hackett manages to get through the routine, and out of the limelight that had once courted his counterpart Fr. Urban, this parish priest does his best balancing God with Mammon, as the demands of a new accounting system make fundraising all the more essential, even as this pulls at the Gospel admonition that it's better to give alms in secret. How to square this with the need to make accountable freeloading parishioners when the Archbishop's needs come payable on demand? Out of such quandaries, Powers raises his own quiet art.

The need in fiction for a jolt, a spark, a spin off from the quotidian to the profound nestles, certainly, in Powers. This, however, moves along leisurely, and often nothing seems to happen for chapters at a time. Then, you understand that this accurately limns the trajectory of a recognizably human life like our own. You can see Powers' study of Joyce in his preparation of the slow ascent to epiphanies, such as Fr. Joe Hackett's finessed blessing of a scruffy draft resister who steps to tie his shoelaces while the padre finagles praying over his head and out of eyesight or earshot as the young man prepares to flee to Canada, on the pastor's unspoken advice but according to his moral example.

Re-reading this nearly two decades after it appeared, I admire Powers' critique of not only the institutional Church and its compromises with the world, but of his own admission that holy Joes only go so far in their own zeal in battling for their losing side. They must do so, vowed to do so and called by their Maker, but Powers recognizes in his own mellowing how annoying piety and phariseeism can be for the rest of us. Not for nothing is an early battle Joe engages in at the seminary, much to the disgust of some classmates and the suspicion of his rector, over the necessity of wearing a hairshirt.

Constructed in part from stories written over the past (two of which appeared in the last of his three thin story collections, 1975's "Look How the Fish Live," the novel does let its seams show. I wonder if parts of this novel were left too long on the shelf, or in hibernation. Yet, this is how Powers wrote. Very slowly, spending days pondering if a character would use the term "pal" or "chum" in referring to a confrere. Such was his state of mind, and more power to him. Probably a patron saint of scrupulous writers, if he is canonized as he deserves! His friend and colleague Jon Hassler eulogized him as "a saint with a bad temper." Hassler notes how Powers could strain so long over a detail that a reader, even an informed one such as himself, might miss the very nuanced finesse.

The extended battle of the story that was "Bill" for Joe to learn his new curate's name appears tedious and unbelievable, a shaggy-dog tale after a few pages of the many devoted to this embarrassing and rather cryptic episode. The story earlier published as "Priestly Fellowship" enters the novel mostly unchanged, but again the dive into the post-Vatican II uproar appears muted, if perhaps less dated for its lack of topicality to specific changes so much as the persistent lack of clerical fidelity. Yet, as the novel lengthens, the episodes do build upon possibilities tucked into these two stories, and while they unfold in off-handed and perhaps overly-controlled fashion, they are truer to the texture of everyday life for being so controlled. Holiness comes, if at all, minutely slow. The lack of histrionics or forced symbolism remains despite the uneven pacing in his longer works Powers' greatest talent. Powers knew when and how indirect first-person voice carried his stories; his shift in and out of his protagonist's minds is at its best in the imagined reverie Joe lets himself into as he pitches in the yard with Bill to let off steam. As with Urban's similarly prosy--both exaggerated and ordinary-- temptation at Belleisle in "Morte," the priestly heroes let their deepest selves emerge when they pretend they are just like the rest of us. Powers, and we, know better.

A final word, quoted from one of his students in Commonweal on his death in 1999. In the novel, out of his collar on a much-needed vacation, Joe passes himself off at the hotel bar as working for a "big concern," in "life insurance." The firm? "Eternal." Sort of a multinational, he admits, although he works out of a local "branch office." Powers explained when asked in class why he wrote so much about the clergy, and if he was anticlerical. "I'm not anticlerical. I simply look for a story that elucidates truth. If a human being buys an insurance policy, that's not much of a story. But when a priest buys an insurance policy, there's something going on that needs to be said and I want to say it." It took him nearly fifty years to write it.

Anyone who has not read J.F. Powers is missing a major American voice in letters. This review will not be adequate to even speak of his skill.

Complete lives are sketched with the faintest of references, such as a family who the hero, Father Joe Hackett, brings from the city to remind his comfy parishioners of the trials of the poor (shades of the "holy poverty in the city" mantra so common from my youth). He tells their entire story with three unconnected lines sprinkled as a leitmotif throughout the narrative.

The hero's interior monologue is both revealing, and surprising. Throughout the novel faint points of challenges and grace (and simple, just-sufficient grace) carry the reader along with Father Joe's eventual conversion (rededication?). This is the story of a bumbling soul who eventually inhales the breath of the Divine.

Every person I've ever given a J.F. Powers book to has thanked me (Catholics and non-Catholics alike). Highly recommended, for this is monumentally great literature.

It is nothing short of a tragedy that more readers aren't familiar with J.F. Powers. This book is truly brilliant. Powers is at heart more craftsman than contemporary novelist, which is doubtless why he only published two novels. Wheat That Springeth Green is unlike anything else I've ever read. It's that rare novel that achieves perfection.

Joe Hackett, for all his faults, is one of the most fully-realized and sympathetic characters in contemporary fiction. As he matures, so does the book: from his hilariously overblown pretensions at the seminary, to his ennui and malaise as a pastor, to his subtly glorious final redemption.

In the final analysis, the book is not so much satire as fable about goodness. Despite being about the life of priests, the book is more a moral fable than a simply Catholic one: it's about how to do good in a world where it all seems futile. Joe Hackett is a cynic, but he's also at heart an idealist and optimist. So is J.F. Powers.

I read it in the early fall, a perfect time of year for me to read this sort of book, as it reminded me of my early years as a student at a Catholic elementary school in the suburbs. The book follows the life of a Catholic priest named Joe Hackett who struggles with faith and politics and more than anything else the shattering mundanity of his suburban life. Tree-lined streets, shopping malls, station wagons, vinyl siding, and wall to wall carpeting are Hackett's foils in a book that manages to be charming, melancholy, and very funny at the same time. Reading the book turned out to be a great way to spend a few September weeks. If anyone out there happened to enjoy The Sportswriter and Independence Day by Richard Ford, then you will enjoy this book as well.

The best of the series of books published by The New York Review of Books are all the works of J.F. Powers, who died in 1989. Powers' novels and stories are almost entirely concerned with Catholic clerical life in the midwest. I hadn't read his last novel, Wheat That Springeth Green, and I was happy to find that the new edition contained an introduction by the author's daughter, Katherine Powers. Wheat That Springeth Green is every bit as fine as Morte D'Urban, his first and only other novel written some 25 years earlier, and a National Book Award winner as well. In its treatment of character and plot the latter novel is theologically perhaps even more complex.

Joe's character is cast from the first pages: as a toddler he gets attention from his parents' friends merely for declaiming at a party "I go to church!" We also learn of his parents' antipathy towards the parish priest's intoning on the subject of the "Dollar-a-Sunday Club," an attitude that Joe will inherit, and which becomes a theme that will be played out in a number of surprising ways. We also sense something of his aloofness in these first chapters as well. He doesn't keep up with many friends, but he does seem to know the value in keeping up appearances: "Joe just smiled at Frances and everybody, so they couldn't tell how he really felt about being in the sack race..." Joe is a good athlete, even in grade school, and the race he really wants, but doesn't get, is the sprint.

Much of the story revolves around Joe's relation to money, so that even an early adventure (described in nearly pornographic detail) involving his first adult relations with women is later understood to be subsumed by his larger pecuniary obsessions. His sexual sins, or at least the memory of them, turn out to be something of a red herring: at the seminary he asks his instructor, "Father, how can we make sanctity as attractive as sex to the common man?" a question that (rightly) earns him nothing but mirth from his fellow seminarians. We are given hints that as Joe grows older he succeeds in overcoming his youthful scrupulosity. After a stint at Archdiocesan Charities he is assigned to the parish of St. Frances - a name shared by his childhood infatuation and a co-traveler in that youthful adventure. So as far as sex is concerned, there is in his maturity there a sense that all is right with Joe, if not the world. That this is the case is dramatically reinforced by the nearly hopeless entanglements of an ex-seminarian, some of which leads to misplaced retribution that Joe patiently, even faithfully endures. These episodes are magnificently structured, displaying in Joe's life a kind of fate that is worked out through choices made less in freedom than with a concern for propriety and in service to principles that are neither his own, nor of the church in which, as he says in other circumstances, he does so much hard time.

Other obstacles to holiness, as perhaps they always must, remain. Although his basic attitude is good, the reader realizes that the young Father Hackett has refused one halo in favor of another when he refuses to toady up to either the priest in his parish or to the archbishop in his archdiocese. Money matters are everywhere in evidence: the rectory built by Joe; bribes offered by parishoners; purses collected on behalf of retiring priests; inheritence; a collection drive that is farmed out to a private firm - in which Joe will take no part. All this points to beyond the contradiction in one man's character to a paradox that is funamental to our very being. How do we care for an abundance which is most fully ours when we least consider it our own?

Joe's misappropriation of his own nature, and indeed human nature, leads to a truly heinous transgression in one of the final chapters. That this transgression is committed and then resolved in secret, without comment from Joe or even the narrator, points toward a God who is as truly all merciful as he is unnoticed even by lesser beings working on his behalf. I would guess that the true thorn in Joe's side is also Powers', and while reading I several times wondered whether the crux of the story wasn't inspired by his frustration at watching baskets and plates passed through the pews, week in and week out, for a lifetime.

Very highly recommended.

It couldn't be better said.

This book is pure enjoyment. What a wonderful command of the language from this former English professor! Insightful and reflective, this book is about so much more than the obvious. Though perhaps the title is not that far amiss...

My only "criticism" would regard the desire to see more of the photographs to which Adams refers or describes in detail. He gives us very few opportunities to understand what he says by looking at the picture itself.

A wonderfully written book about the wonders of photography written by a wonderful writer with a wonderful eye and a wonderful brain.

This book has been of great assitance to me in my teaching and creative practice over the years. It has been a source of inspiration and motivation allowing me to continue working with my cameras and photography, at the same time reconciling different ideas about 'money', 'ideas', 'freinds', 'teaching' etc to enable me to maintain my faith in what I do.

The essays on teaching and money in particular have helped me clarify my position as both an artist and teacher, I highly recommend this book to anyone considering teaching or photography as a career.

If you are not connected with any photography/art community, this book is for you. If none of your friends has an MFA, and if you are in need of someone who can speak intelligently about photography as art, then again, this book is for you. Robert Adams' writing is clear, concise, and insightful. Adams tells us why we photograph, for example, why we photograph landscapes. The answers include: because the images are of "emblems of a land" (pages 146 and 163), because our photographed subjects redefine us and is part of our biography (page 15), because art is "specifics made universal" (page 120), and because "art is a discovery of harmony" (page 181). Adams consoles photographers who come to realize that spending ten years doing photography won't necessarily result, e.g., in a contract for preparing a coffeetable book: "[t]hey may or may not make a living by photography but they are alive by it" (page 15); and the experience of having an exhibit where the photographer "stand[s] through the opening of an exhibition to which only officials have come." (page 16). Adams reveals the secrets of some of the masters, e.g., Weston: "limbs and torsos . . . treated as shapes to be enjoyed as one might the sight of a smooth stone" (page 64); and Paul Strand: "he worked off axis as if it were a moral principle . . . but usually just slightly off axis." (page 81) Robert Adams offers some critiques of the masters, e.g., of Paul Strand: "[o]ff-centering is used here . . . it begins to seem formulaic (page 87); and of Ansel Adams: "I have been derivative of myself for fifty years." (page 116). Robert Adams' book is a stand-alone book, that is, it does not require a knowledge of literature, art criticism, or history. The book is for the layperson. Another fine, insightful book on photography criticism is Light Readings by A.D. Coleman. A remarkable bit of insight by A.D. Coleman, for example, concerns his view of the typical amateur (page 164): "Typically, a snapshot of someone's relative at Grant's Tomb will show the relative too far from the camera to be identifiable and Grant's Tomb too close to be recognizable . . . Their charm and poignancy derives specifically from their failure to communicate . . ."The writings of Robert Adams and A.D. Coleman may be contrasted with the poetic commentary David Wallace (in Morley Baer's The Wilder Shore) and with the "writing" of Sally Eauclair in The New Color Photography and New Color/New Work. The writings of David Wallace and Sally Eauclaire are silly, and sometimes very silly, and serve only to draw attention to the words printed on the page instead of serving to invoke new concepts and connections in the mind.

Most of the book doesn't really respond to the title, but Robert Adams writes in a very engaging manner and talks about issues that most photographers will find interesting. I found particularly interesting his discussion of famous photographers and their aesthetic philosophy. This is not a book for the casual photographer, but for the photographer who is interested in photography's background, or a collector who'd like to better understand the photographer as artist, this book is terrific.

I'm working with several students in junior high to help them increase vocabulary for the SSAT test. This book helps teach the new words in context and lets them learn in a way that is more familiar to them. Love the book!!!

I am a 7th grader of a middle school, and this is what I think of this outstanding book. This book had a very interesting way of teaching... Instead of a textbook, this book was made into a chapter book with several excellent stories about adventures with three kids and a gargantuan, black cat. The stories were well put together and the advanced words fitted in perfectly. I shared my ideas with my family, and we bought more books of the same series. I think younger kids should just read the book for the stories if the words are a bit too complicated for them to remember, but I'm sure that they will enjoy it. Readers will no longer be oblivious about grammer. As a matter of fact, they might even excel in the field of grammer and writing. Anyway, to me, the words in the book were extremely easy to understand, because they were so well placed, that the context clues made the definitions very clear and obvious. There was also a glossary in the back that gave the definitions to the bold-faced words. Unfortunately, the glossary did not have definitions to all of the words, but if you have a dictionary, you should have no problem. Overall, this was a fantastic book leaving me craving for more.

I used to work as a professional SAT Reading coach, making big bucks; the key issue for most of my students was vocabulary. Rather, VOCABULARY. (The other is slowing down and thinking as--not after--they read.)

Many questions on the SAT reading section amount to vocabulary questions.

What this means is that if you want to improve your SAT scores, if you are an ambitious student trying to get into one of the top schools, there is no two ways about it: you have to study vocabulary.

And study vocabulary.

And study vocabulary.

You cannot study simply one book, or even one series of books. You have to study several series.

However, the Princeton Review Word Smart series is the best that I know of. You should start here. Even if you think you have a good vocabulary, start here just to be on the safe side, and you can move on later.

You would recommend studying any of the vocabulary books that I've ever seen--but I recommend mastering the Word Smart series. These really are by far the best--if you are shopping here, it probably means you need these books.

If you were one of my students, your parents paying lots of money, I would force you to master these books, and I would ride you like a horse until you did. And then your scores would come up, your parents would love me and tell all their friends, and I would get more jobs and more money. That's how it works.

Anyway, these are certainly the best vocabulary books on the market. Even if you're studying vocabulary for some other reason, these are probably still the best.

Good luck!

I am 11 years old and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, both as a story and as a no-stress way to learn new vocabulary. I am actually using the many words I learned in the book ~ it's easy because of the manner in which the book is written! I even enjoyed the quizzes at the end of each chapter ~ they were fun. I would save this book for after I had done my other work (I am a homeschooler) because I enjoyed this book so much. It was my inspiration to get finished with the other things so I could get back to this story!

The book is about three kids and a cat who have worldwide (and outer space!) adventures that lead them away from their real goal, which is to find Bridget's parents. You learn the new vocabulary from reading it in the context of their conversations. No memorizing lists! Great fun!

I bought this tape for my elementary age niece and two nephews. They have played this tape for weeks every night at bed time. They even fight over who gets to listen to it in the car. All of their vocabulary had sky rocketed. They are using "big" words properly and have no problem correcting the adults when we use them wrong. The way the new words are weaved into the stories give the kids the handle to truly understand what the word is, and what the correct usage is for any given situation. My sister and I are so impressed with this tape. We wish there were more of these.

It's been 15 years and Scott Adams shows now signs of slowing down or the ckind of burnout that caused Bill Watterson to retire from Calvin and Hobbes. Thank God! Because Dilbert remains the most consistently funny comic strip in the papers. A daily dose of wry, sarcastic wit that is daily bread to those of us toiling away in an office environment.

The title of this book says it all...who hasn't wanted to smack the person reviewing us upside the head and ask them what the hell were they thinking when they wrote it. Reviews, marketing, computers, stupid bosses...it's all to be read and mocked in Scott's latest collection.

It was beginning to look like Scott Adams would run out of material for Dilbert, but the corporate world just keeps spinning. Words.. is a new high level in corporate mayhem. From Dogbert the headhunter to the genius garbage man and of course Catbert the evil HR manager they are all here. We learn that "plundered" is now called "enhanced stock holder values." The pointy hair boss gets a body double for safety, and Dilbert invents a robot clone to double his visibility. It's another swipe at office management and the minions who toil our lives away in cubicles. Buy a 2nd copy and mail it to your pointy hair boss. Better yet, buy a 3rd copy and mail that one to your HR Catbert.

One of the reasons I like this one so much is because it contains the comic strips that I always read in the paper last year. These are a few of the reasons why you should buy this book.

Toxic Tom
Dilbert as a sheep
Wally being lasy a usual
Dogbert's Tech Support
The Consultick
Dilbert's mood altering drugs
The furniture psychic
The new dress code which is barrels
My favorite comic which is the one where Wally researches Greek names for a new product

This are a bunch of really great comics and they are a must buy for all Dilbert fans.

This is another very funny and spot-on book from Adams. Some of the characters like Ratbert and Dogbert don't appear as much, but Wally comes on strong and new characters are introduced like ConsulTick.

What's funny is the resonant note that Dilbert has struck with so much of corporate America. Having been an employee at a major Fortune 500 company for many years myself, I was convinced that Adams was talking about my company, and so did everyone else, although the resemblances at times could be almost eerie.

Adams's cartoons of the more absurd and ridiculous aspects of corporate culture (which at times seems to be about 99% of it) continue to provide much needed comic relief for hapless cubicle dwellers everywhere, and this is another funny book from Adams that shouldn't disappoint his fans.

It's more Dilbertine for the addicted like myself and allthough there are a couple of minuses to mention the level of hilarity stays high as always. And how could it not? The inspiration from the corporate world keeps coming through in tsunami waves.

While one of the most cult characters in the Dilbert series (Wally) gains even more of the spotlight other equally legendary characters like Ratbert but above all Dogbert himself keep getting lesser and lesser appearances. That's a pity actually as especially these two have offered unforgettable moments in the past. Another thing connected with these two fading somewhat is that we get fewer moments of Dilbert at home and more in the office. Tha creates somewhat of an imbalance which was not present in the initial installments of the series.

All in all though, this gets adequately compensated by Adam's invincible humor and the introduction of new characters who might have less of a lifespan in comparison to Ratbert and Dogbert but who provide for some freshness nevertheless.

Other than that it's Wally galore to the max. Wally has been the secret ace of this comic all along. This is cynicism at its very best and its most hardcore. The lines coming out of Wally's mouth are surreal.
The Dilbert series continues to be a classic.

AS A BLUES HISTORIAN AND GUITAR COLLECTOR I HAVE MANY BLUES RELATED BOOKS IN MY COLLECTION. THIS BOOK HOWEVER MUST RATE AT THE TOP OF THE PILE. WHAT FANTASTIC FLOWING STORY LINES, MAKING IT HARD TO PUT DOWN. IT GIVES A GREAT INSIGHT INTO THE WAY OF LIFE IN THOSE EARLY DAYS OF THE BLUES. THE PLACES HE HAS SEEN AND THE PEOPLE WHO HE GOT TO KNOW & MEET IS JUST MIND BLOWING. ANYONE WHO IS NOT BLUES MINDED SHOULD READ THIS BOOK JUST TO UNDERSTAND HOW HARD IT WAS IN THOSE DAYS JUST TO LIVE AND PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE.(I BET HE THOUGHT EVERONE IN THE MODEN WORLD WAS SOFT)TRULY ENJOYABLE.

Fans of blues music and musicians will relish this autobiography of Delta bluesman Edwards, which charts his rise to fame and his survival in a critical musical world. His first-person observations of the changing blues style and field are especially meaningful given that so many blues titles are not written by participants in the field.

Honey and his astute collaborators have given us the genuine article: a poignant, detailed, uproarous chronicle of what Robert Palmer called the"Deep Blues," the Delta tradition from which all other blues styles emanate. If you've heard Honey sing either in person or on his fine recordings, you will hear the voice you read. He offers dozens of unforgettable moments, from the first sounds he ushers from a broken-necked guitar to his mother's death to the death of Robert Johnson, that are alive and chilling. My only criticism is that the photographs featured in the book are spartan, contemporary views of critical sites in this artist's life. More historical photography would have enhanced the text. The publisher of this well-designed softcover has made the text relaxingly readable. After my first 50 pages, I wanted to purchase all of Honey's recordings and read more about him. He is an articulate, funny, precise chronicler of his own life. If only I could do the same with my own life! First rate.

This autobiography succeeds memorably on several levels. Told in spare, moving words, it provides a vivid picture of life in the Mississippi Delta long before the civil rights movements of the '50s. In addition, it's a kind of African-American "On the Road," told from the perspective of one who crisscrossed the Southern United States, scuffling to make a living playing the blues. And finally, it's a terrific history of the blues, told by a man who made a significant musical contribution himself and who played with nearly all the essential artists of the '30s and on.

Edwards, born in the Delta around 1915, worked the fields as a kid before he learned to play the guitar and began hoboing around the South. He rode the rails, played in innumerable small towns, and polished his craft. Along the way, he hung out and played with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs, Robert Junior Lockwood, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and yes, Robert Johnson. The book describes how these architects of the modern blues passed songs, licks, and stories back and forth, keeping a form that relies so heavily on tradition dynamic and vital.

A major strength of the book is Edwards' distinctive voice, transcribed by his collaborators to retain its distinctive rhythms and dialect. The book's title sums up his attitude. His memories include violent death, physical and emotional loss, and great material want. Still, you sense strongly that he wouldn't have had his life any other way. His narrative is devoid of self-pity, but it never glosses over the difficulty of the times he endured, which included stints in prison.

The book concludes with useful appendices that define key terms and offer capsule biographies and discographies of musicians Edwards encountered. A good bibliography is also included. Highly recommended for those interested in the blues and in American social history. Great read.

What a life! 82 years old Bluesman Honeyboy Edwards is one last Bluesmen alive that knew Robert Johnson but that is not the basis of the book. Edwards has lived a life that makes anyone really understand what the Blues is all about and other bluesmen back in the 1930's and 40's who shaped blues music.

Honeyboy's tales gives the reader his firsthand accounts of plantation life, the 1927 Mississippi River flood, vagrancy laws, makeshift courts, the racial problem and economics of southern blacks and the Depression.

This book came about because of the stories that Honeyboy told his manager of 25 years, Michael Robert Frank, who is also the founder of Earwig Records and Janis Martinson, a freelance writer. Martinson did the transcribing and left Honeyboy's speech patterns intact. My friend, Travis Brown is from Tennessee and after reading this book remarked that reading the words of Honeyboy took him back "home". Martinson also did the research and wrote the three appendices that appear in the back of the book. Want to find out what the "killin' floor" is (was) than buy this book.

Earwig has also issued a CD with the same title, I had that CD and Robert Johnson's in my changer while I read the book, they provided the perfect soundtrack to the theater of the mind.

Tony Houston, 1999