Authors Books

I was intoxicated by DeLaune's language and rhythm from the first page. Her characters kept me company to a beach resort last May. And when I got back to LA --- I was longing for them. Memorable!!!

This is a book written by a woman, about a woman, with a woman's occasionally grimace-inducing candor, but sorry, I don't see it as a "woman's book." (And what's with "chick lit"? Is it just me or does that phrase seem downright condescending?). This is simply a GOOD BOOK, a great story with a compelling lead character, a detailed sense of time and place, a smart way with words and attitudes, and a deeply compassionate view of...people, male and female. I don't know why men don't seem to read or like books like this; maybe because most men don't know about mercy-f**ks or compulsive caretaking or needing to be the good-girl or struggling to find your way in a world that uses words like "whiny" and "weepy" when talking about women's emotions, but whatever it is, men are missing out. This book is a heartfelt, passionate and bone-achingly truthful story, one that many, many women will identify with and men might find enlightening. Yvette is an arty, brave, and very human Every-Girl, with deeply felt flaws and oh-so-errant ways, but her slightly bent and very real journey is one we want to follow because...well, she's slightly bent and very real! Yay! No feminist proselytizing, no man bashing, no weepy, whiny carrying on, just a girl makin' jewelry, looking for love, and trying to get it right. So despite her personal chaos and dubious decision-making, we like her! She inspires us and makes us want to take her out for coffee. Ms. Michel has written a character we never fail to feel tenderly toward; a women who falls down many of the same flights of stairs others have known and hated, but who does so with such authenticity, we can't help but wish her well and hope for the best along with her. I closed this book feeling deeply satisfied, delighted that I had just read something chewy and worthy and clever and funny and touching and insightful. Congratulations, Ms. Michel...write on.

a beautifully written story that takes you through all the emotions. i was surprised to find myself enthralled by the main character and her experiences but quickly realized it was all due to Ms Michel's amazing way with words. i look forward to her next novel with baited breath.

I gulped this novel down in 2 sittings and recommend it for summer reading. Great chick Lit. Great gift. JFS

The book pulls you in right away and you find yourself engrossed, unable to stop reading so you can find out what happens next. It is vivid, funny, and poignant as it details issues we all can relate to - growing up, letting go, and finding our path in an active way.

A fascinating look into the man behind such a creative literary & scientific mind! He is quite 'bare bones' about himself. Also suggested bio.: "The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eisley" ed. by Kenneth Heuer.

Thoughtful writing, and interesting, but Eiseley sure was a bitter and despairing fellow. He held grudges forever and never forgot a slighting, even from childhood. It appears that he wrote this at an advanced age, when his friends and associates were dieing off seemingly all around him, and he wasn't very happy about it and his own mortality. Interesting, but definitely a downer.

An excerpt from 'All the Strange Hours'

"...Oncoming age is to me a vast wild autumn country strewn with broken seed pods,hurrying cloud wrack,abondoned farm machinery,and circling crows..."
Frankly I lost my reference notes.But this is a wonderful read.You enter deep into the thinkings and passions from the heart of one man.Eiseley will invite you into his thoughts and observations about life and people like a quite and unassuming gentlemen.These stories bring you deep into the core of the Midwest cast of mind.
Great Read

There are few books written today that I don't want to rewrite. All the Strange Hours is one of them. This is the real thing- forget "Magical-Realism" and forget all other memoirs. This is unlike any memoir, or book I've ever read before, and should be getting out to a larger audience. You don't need to be into science, archeology, or even know who Eiseley is to appreciate this work. His writing is so good that it doesn't matter.
He also doesn't delve into the mundane things that most writers would- in fact, you go through the entire book, and you don't even know his wife's name. If I met Eiseley, I'd feel that I'd know little about what he likes to eat, or what kind of music he enjoys, or if he's a morning or night person. But none of that matters- because I feel like I know him on the inside. People who knew Eiseley say that those who read his works often knew him better than those who knew him in person. I'd list Eiseley easily as one of the greatest writers of all time, and at minimum I'd put him in the top 3 of great prose writers. Check him out, and you'll see. You won't be disappointed. Trust me- - I don't like most contemporary stuff, and if you don't either, this is great literature for you.

This is a beautifully written personal meditation on the impermance of life against the passage of time and the attendant sense of loss by a deeply compassionate existentialist who searches for the meaning within the design of nature. There is a palatable sense of both truth and despair. There is also a consistant thread of both awed respect and admiration for the immensity of "the terrible beauty" of existance. If you are looking for a book that balances the invisibly fine line between the light and the dark of insight from the perspective of a honest man who grasps both, this is your book.

I am not a typical non-fiction reader, but after reading the book, First Lady of the Air, I could see myself reading more non-fiction. Kathleen Winters creates an easy to read non-fiction account of the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Throughout the book, I could really identify with Anne as a woman and fellow aviator. Winters portrays many sides of Anne, from her days as a young woman, to a woman aviator, and finally to a wife and mother. She makes it easy for any reader to identify with the struggles that Anne faced in each of those times in her life.

Winters describes the historical significance of what Anne and Charles were accomplishing with their many long distance flights in uncharted areas; setting up air routes and paving the way for what future commercial jet liners would utilize on a daily basis. Anne was an active participant in an adventurous situation, which was not typical for women of her time. Very inspirational story showing that women can do the same things that men can do. A good read for anyone interested in aviation history.

This book is a gem. Well written. Informative. It is Anne's story -- the woman who loved to fly and who often was the first to explore some new phase. Because she is such an ethereal writer -- and because she was Charles' wife -- we tend to lose track of her actual aviation accomplishments. Author Kathleen C. Winters has nicely remedied that. Originally in hardback, the book is due out in paperback spring 2008.

Sarah Byrn Rickman, author of the newly released Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II (University of North Texas Press).

I thought Anne Morrow Lindbergh-First Lady of the Air was going to be a historical documentary, which would have been interesting. It was much, much more. It is exciting reading that covers the gamut from insight into the personal life of an aviation icon to a unique look into the early days of the flying machines. Kathleen Winters' writing style made me feel like I knew the Lindbergh family personally. Her research is impeccable. I was awed by the challenges of mixing high society and celebrity with the rigors of exploratory flying. We all know about Charles Lindbergh. Now learn about the shy, but brave wife who made him what he was.

"Anne Morrow Lindbergh: First Lady of the Air" illuminates the aviation career of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who is more often remembered for her literary success later in life. But aviation consumed Anne's time, directed her relationship with her husband, and gave her much joy and satisfaction in the early years of her marriage to celebrated aviator Charles Lindbergh. Author Kathleen C. Winters, aviation historian and pilot herself, approaches this subject that has been largely neglected by Anne Lindbergh's previous biographers with an empathy for Anne Lindbergh's elation at the experience of flying and respect for her many accomplishments as a pioneer woman aviator and as an instrumental partner in husband Charles' groundbreaking survey flights in the 1930s.

We are introduced to Anne Morrow Lindbergh mid-flight during the Lindberghs' 1933 Atlantic Survey flight for Pan Am, for which Anne acted as radio operator and relief pilot, roles she regularly played while Charles' position at Pan Am called for frequent long and perilous journeys all over the globe to chart potential air routes. From there we revisit the early lives of Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh to learn how these two people of disparate personalities and backgrounds married and formed a formidable aviation team. Winters follows Anne's experiences and accomplishments in aviation, with and without her husband, from her first flight until Anne let her pilot's license expire and retired from aviation in 1937.

Winters places Anne Lindbergh's aviation career in the context of her personal life. Charles' high expectations of his wife were both liberating and trying for sheltered, insecure Anne. But Anne was buoyed by her husband's confidence in her skills and found strength and respite from the overwhelming media attention in the air. The book is most compelling when it takes us along on the Lindberghs' 10,000-mile Arctic Survey (1931) and 30,000-mile Atlantic Survey (1933). Anne's love of flying is apparent, as is the author's, as she describes the perils and wonders of these extraordinary flights. I never understood the enthusiasm that many people have for flying, but I think I do now. Winters' pleasant, precise prose reveals Anne Morrow Lindbergh's importance in the Golden Age of Aviation and explores her personal relationship with aviation.

There was a time when Charles Lindbergh was the most famous man on Earth. His 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic caught the world's imagination and the public couldn't get enough of him. When he decided to get married he made looking for a wife into a project. Anne Morrow was the daughter of a wealthy and prestigious family and while Anne didn't quite take to Charles at first, it wasn't long until she was caught up in his charisma and the thrill of flying, and they were soon married.

Kathleen Winters has given us a very interesting biography of Anne that necessarily includes material on Charles, but usually from Anne's perspective. The subtitle of the book is "first lady of the air" and most of the book is about Anne's achievements as a pioneering woman in powered flight and gliding. The majority of the book focuses on two major expeditions Charles and Anne made to Asia in 1931 and all around the North and South Atlantic in 1933. Anne was not just along for the ride on these long and dangerous trips to open flying routes around the globe. As Charles noted when asked about taking his wife along on these hazardous flights, "she is crew". Anne operated the radio, used Morse code, and much more. The radio in those days was much more art than the standard technology it has become.

Winters provides great maps of these great journeys along with some terrific photographs. The revolutionary nature of these flights is made clear by the medal Anne was given by the National Geographic Society for her part in opening air routes around the globe.

While the book does cover the major biographical details including the kidnapping and murder of their firstborn with the subsequent trial of Hauptmann, everything but the flying is covered in short form, but all the major points are touched on.

I found Winters' treatment of Charles being given Service Cross of the German Eagle by Goering most interesting. It has become usual to bash Lindbergh for accepting this award, but the accusers rarely put the event in context. It happened only a few weeks after the "peace in our time" four-way pact signing between Britain, France, Germany, and Italy and weeks before Kristallnacht. The Lindbergh's had stopped in Germany for eighteen days after a trip to Russia. The presentation was made without warning or announcement at a men's only dinner at the American Embassy and at the time neither Charles nor the other men at the dinner thought much about it. Afterwards, Anne expressed her concern that the white cross would become an albatross around his neck. After Kristallnacht occurred, Charles wrote in his journal, "My admiration for the Germans is constantly being dashed against some rock such as this."

Winters also provides very interesting information about Anne's efforts and success as an author. I have not yet read any of Anne's writings, but this book has piqued my interest in seeking them out.

This is a most interesting book about a talented an intrepid women who held her own in a marriage to one of the great historic characters of the 20th Century. Her life is instructive, inspiring, and very much worth knowing. Winters' has written an honest and interesting look at her life and accomplishments. I recommend that you get a copy and enjoy it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

As an author, I'm always on the lookout for books that can help with publicity, marketing, and promoting. This book was a pure gem.

This book is worth the purchase price just for Chapter 11 (E-mail Blasts) alone. With tips for propelling your book to the top of the bestseller lists by e-mail marketing, this chapter takes you by the hand and leads you through the process step by step in a quick and painless way.

This book doesn't just tell you how to promote and publicize your book; it shows you with sample letters and action steps.

If you're ready to pump up your promotion and get your book noticed, then this book should be on your list of must-haves!

Author 101 Bestselling Book Publicity is what every author needs to promote themselves and their book. This is a very practical, easy to follow and affordable handbook. Get it now! You're missing sales!

While I own all four of the "Author 101" books by Rick Frishman and Robyn Spizman, I feel this one is the most valuable. In fact, I wish I had it BEFORE I started writing my first book. The information and helpful tips included from these industry insiders is worth a hundred-times the price of the book. I have met and spoken with both Rick and Robyn, and I will attest that what they tell you in this book is gospel truth.
After you read this book, you will gain insight into how best to plan the marketing and publicity of your book even before you write it. This is key information whether you are using a traditional publisher, or if you are self-publishing. In fact, if you are self-publishing, READ and MEMORIZE chapter 8 on Interviews -- this will be the primary source of your income.
I highly recommend this and the other three books in the "Author 101" series.

Happy reading and successful writing,

Stuart Gustafson, Author
www.stuartgustafson.com

As a fellow book publicist it's imperative for me to keep up with all of the great books and magazine articles being published about the book business. I've read dozens and dozens of such books and can recommend this book without hesitation.

One thing about the book marketing and book promotion business is that there are so many nice people in the business. I rank Rick Frishman as one of the top publicists in the U.S. not to mention he's a nice guy too!

His book, co-authored by Robyn Freedman Spizman and Mark Steisel, offers advice and insight about every stage of the publishing world. Using testimonials and commentary, this book lets authors, agents, and publishers alike show you the things you should and shouldn't do in promoting your book.

Scott Lorenz
President of Westwind Communications, a public relations and marketing firm that specializes in book marketing and author publicity.
[...]

This book is GOLDEN! It truly is a must-have for any author, especially a brand new author such as myself. The chapter on E-mail blasts was so fascinating with its step-by-step process, that even I felt confident I could produce this "flurry of sales" to launch my book into bestseller status. Newly published authors and seasoned authors alike should definitely add this gem to their library.

Anne Perry, the enormously popular writer of historical fiction, just recommended this ballad by G. K. Chesterton as one of five must read tales of historical fiction. (See the Wall Street Journal's online Opinion Page for April 21, 2007 in an article entitled "Past Tense.") Here's part of what she said:

"This is the story of the English King Alfred's desperate stand against invading Danes in 878. England is conquered, and Alfred is a fugitive when he sees a vision of the Virgin Mary that bids him call together the remnants of his people for a final battle. "The Ballad of the White Horse" is an epic poem of courage, passion and unsurpassable beauty."

If you'd like to read other tales and poems by Chesterton, you might want to get "The Ballad of the White Horse" as part of a collection of his poetry that I edited for not much more money. It's called G. K. Chesterton's Early Poetry and has "The Ballad of the White Horse," along with two other books of Chesterton poetry under one cover. That means you'll also get his best humorous poetry, "Greybeards at Play." No less a writer than George Orwell ranked Chesterton as one of the three best writers of funny poetry in twentieth century England. The poems are a riot of the ridiculous and are accompanied with equally funny sketches he did.

And although Anne Perry and I have the same last name, as far as I know we're not related. Her's is a pen name. Mine is a real name. I guess I'm not creative enough to invent a name for myself.

G. K. Chesterton's Early Poetry: Greybeards At Play, The Wild Knight And Other Poems, The Ballad Of The White Horse

Mr. Chesterton has a masterful skill with the pen; _Orthodoxy_ and _The Napoleon of Notting Hill_ are wonderful books--but _The Ballad of the White Horse_ is heartbreaking in its power, beauty, and nobility. With a stunning use of alliteration, rhythm, and imagery, Mr. Chesterton teaches the reader about true hearts, true faith, and true sacrifice. I have bought a few copies of this book to give as gifts to friends, and I eagerly recommend it to anyone who will listen. This book is a must-have for any individual interested in expanding their knowledge of great poetry!

Out of the thousand or so books I have read in my life, if I were to put the Bible aside (since the Bible speaks with a special authority to believers and cannot really be compared to other books), I have read no more than five or six books that I would call truly great. That means there are only five or six books I would rate at five stars. This is one. Yes, it is that good.

I have never read any author who could make the English language sing the way Chesterton does in this poem -- for over a hundred pages. In contrast to contemporary "poets" whose "poems" consist of a bunch of strange words scattered apparently at random on a page, whose meaning, if there is one, is far beyond obscurity, Chesterton had apparently unlimited ability to create rhyme and alliteration, and then he bound it all tightly in the sing-song ballad style that carries it all swiftly along. The words of this poem are glorious to hear, and really, this book should be read aloud, so that one might hear the music of the words.

And few have ever been able to match the way Chesterton paints pictures with words. I will quote one passage, and hope it is not to long, to illustrate this. The scene here is Alfred's army making one final charge against the Danish camp:

Then bursting all and blasting
Came Christendom like death,
Kicked of such catapults of will,
The staves shiver, the barrels spill,
The waggons waver and crash and kill
The waggoners beneath.

Barriers go backward, banners rend,
Great shields groan like a gong,
Horses like horns of nightmare
Neigh horribly and long.

Horses ramp and rock and boil
And break their golden reins,
And slide on carnage clamorously,
Down where the bitter blood doth lie,
Where Ogier went on foot to die
In the old way of the Danes.

It would be hard to imagine anyone anyone describing such a violent scene in so few words any better than Chesterton does in that passage. And this passage is but one of dozens of glorious word-pictures that Chesterton's poetry paints in this book.

Beyond its magnificent use of the English language, this book also contains much philosophical insight -- insight that, although first published in 1911, is directly and clearly applicable today. Chesterton expresses very clearly the way that Christianity has formed the heart of Western culture over the ages, and the way that Christian faith -- which seems all about self-denial and thus sadness -- leads to unconquerable joy.

The book, of course, is not perfect; no work of literature can be. There are places where it gets a bit too preachy for my taste. But the book's flaws are few and minor, while its good points are many and glorious.

How good is this book? I have read it at least 50 times in my life, and I still enjoy reading it. In my opinion it is one of the truly greatest works written in the English language. It is one of the few books I have read that truly deserves five stars.

I had read some of Chesterton's fictional books, most of which contain poems which he has written, and I very much enjoyed his poems, so I decided to get a book of his poetry. This too I really enjoyed, so I decided to get another book of his poetry, this time it was The Ballad of the White Horse, and this book simply blew away all of the rest of Chesterton's poems. In fact, it simply blows away most poems by anyone. I have read Dante's Divine Comedy, Milton' Paradise Lost, Eliot's Wasteland, Chaucer's Canturbury Tales, etc., but I can honestly say that I enjoyed this epic far more than any of them. I am not saying that it is a better written poem or that it should be ranked above these classics, but I am saying that it is much more exciting to read than the others. Somehow Chesterton makes his poem involving: you are drawn into it and cannot put the book down until you have finished the chapter. He wrote it in such a way that the verses beg to be read quickly, and as I read I found myself reading faster and faster, until I was stumbling over the words and had to slow down again. Chesterton, like no other poet whom I know of, paints a picture of glory, honor, bravery, and captures the true spirit of an idealized Medieval War. The poem resounds with the drums of doom, the cries of angels, the hordes of invading barbarians and great deeds of heroes of old. If I were to recommend owning one epic poem, this would be the one.

Overall grade: A+

A stirring epic poem with a message important for the future of western civilization...to act on hope when there is no longer any hope... The outcome is always, finally, in God's Providence. "The Ballad of the White Horse" should have great appeal for young men who can dream impossibilities because they are firmly grounded in the eternal verities. The battles scenes will fire the blood!

this is the first harrison book i've read and did not know what to expect. i enjoyed it a lot. whereas some reviewers have compared him to hemingway, i seem him more as a stylistic descendent of henry miller and bukowski.
harrison certainly mines the same "male" terrain as hemingway, but whereas hemmingway is about "men of action" in war and other pursuits, harrison's central characters in 2 of the 3 novellas here are more observers than doers. They also have more of a cerebral/academic lens on the world than hemmingway's men.
where robert stone -- another writer in the male thinker/adventurer vein -- tends to follow a very structured approach to plot (more like conrad or hemmingway) -- these novellas are more like diary entries. they are *not* plot-driven and occasionally i found myself losing interest.
but what i found most appealing here was less the plot and more the great insights sprinkled throughout -- sentences that you underline and read three times. worth reading.

I'm a painter not a writer so I will not be able to do justice to Jim Harrison. In my mind Harrison is our best living writer. It is an exciting, humanizing and exceptional experience to read his work and this book is no exception. I have read all of Harrison's books and my respect for him has never flagged. His characters are driven by lascivious and intellectual curiousity - you're never sure you are reading the book or thinking the book.

And here's why: many authors write in the first person to give themselves an alter ego. Not so here, as Harrison uses the first person to give us 3 truly engaging partners in crime, who let us in on the most intimate details of their lives. His genius is that, although he brings the disparate together, he also understands their inevitable separation.

These stories begin in Minnesota. They always come back there.

Worth your time, if only to meet people who should go on and reoprt back "beyond the end"....

'Catering to egregious pricks out of childhood nostalgia is a poor way to conduct your life' says the narrator of the first of the three novellas is this book. A poor way indeed and the theme of this and the third story is the absolute foolishness of catering at all.
These two novellas are beautifully written in the straightforward Harrison style-you could imagine yourself hearing these tales told at a bar in the woods somewhere.
Westward Ho! the middle story is one of the sloppiest, most annoying things that I've ever read from this guy. It seems rushed and thoughtless and almost made me put the book down. But in his carelessness, Harrison has come up with another facet of his genius: this is a genuinely funny story, risible on a couple of different levels. If you can imagine Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld and the cable guy getting together to write an episode of Home Improvement, you'll have the sense of it.

So read the first and last story for good lit and the middle for a good laugh.

Lynn Hoffman, author or bang BANG

I have just found a new obsession and it's Jim Harrison! Not the man, but his books of course. I am always open to a new discovery and in this case, what a pleasant surprise. Jim Harrison has an impressive command of words that keep his story(s), in this case 3 of them, flowing without being bogged down with excessive descriptions. It's as if you were having a conversation with him rather than reading a book.

After doing some research I found that he had written "Legends of the Fall", and that is one of my all time favorite movies. I just can't understand why he doesn't get more press. I have mentioned his books to several people and none of them were aware of him at all. He difinitely is a talent not to be missed. I have already ordered "A Woman Lit by Fireflies" and looking forward to his upcoming Memoir!

One more thing,if you are not familiar with his writing take a peak inside one of his books, you might just like what you see.

The Best of Good is a refreshing novel about real people and their journey to self discovery. We all know these people. We are these people. It has the right amount of bitter and sweet. I laughed and I cried. I felt rejuvenated while reading it. I didn't want to put it down. This is my new favorite of all of Sara Lewis' novels, and my favorite of all the books I've read in a couple of years!

What a wonderful book! The Best of Good is a gentle story about real people that grabs hold of you and won't let go, even after you've closed the cover for the last time. I found myself reading long sections aloud to my husband, and each time I thought I had finished, he would say "Keep reading!" It's that kind of book. One that asks you to keep reading because the characters have become important to you as real people, not because the chapter ended with an explosion or a car chase. If you like reading books instead of reading television shows written on paper, this is the perfect book for a fall evening.

Within a few pages, I was so hooked that I couldn't decide if I wanted to read it straight through or savor it for a few days. I couldn't put it down.
I am anxiously awaiting her next book.

Once you meet Tom Good you can't help but root for him and hope for him. Good will stay with me for a long time. Be prepared to leave a place in your heart for him. The best of Sara Lewis' excellent novels. Can't wait to see her next book.

Having just finished reading "The Best of Good", there are tears in my eyes. This book moved me deeply, while also providing hours of enjoyment. Writing in the first person, as a man, was an amazing feat for Sara, who continues to surprise me with her books. I've read all her novels, and this one rates right up there and, in fact, it's hard to choose a favorite. The characters were so very real to me. There are even things about Tom Good that I can recognize within myself. His struggles to start living his life again after isolating for 20 years made me examine my life, too. The children, his neighbors and his sister Ellen were all so realistic. They all have their layers of complexity, which Sara presents so brilliantly.

Read this book and see if you want to start making a quilt, upgrading your surroundings, getting closer to the people around you, and maybe even forgiving yourself for guilt that you should not have assumed for things in the past. This is a powerful book, in the guise of light entertainment! Absolute bravos for this, and I highly recommend it!

Blackbelly is a novel of unexpected depth from an author who understands how to tell a morality story without beating a dead horse--or sheep, in this case. Heather Sharfeddin's prose is straightforward, non-judgmental and honest from first word to last. And her characters, Chas McPherson, the proud loner who wants to do right by his dying father, and Mattie Holden, an unassuming nurse looking for a chance to start fresh, ring as true as any I've encountered--on or off the page--in recent memory. Blackbelly is a story of loneliness, repressed needs, and bigotry in a small town. Sprinkled with a hint of the supernatural, a few bible quotes and a layer of underlying tension, it resonates like a clanging cow bell. We haven't heard the last from this outstanding wordsmith. Salmon Run

I read Sharfeddin's book between Hemingway and Terry Kay. She more than held her own against these two great writers. From the first chapters I was drawn in and felt like I was a part of the story. I was impressed with Sharfeddin's ability to capture the lead male character so well. How did she get into the mind of a male so well? Maybe I don't want an answer.
This is an enjoyable book that reaches deep to capture emotions we all face but often hide from. Through this book we can learn a little more about ourselves, our society, and others. I recommend this novel.

I know Heather Sharfeddin personally. I raise Blackbelly Sheep. I grew up in rural Idaho just a few miles from where Heather grew up. With all that being said, I loved this book. I read it in one day just days after it was released. I didn't want it to end. I still think of the characters and wonder how they are and what they are doing. As I was reading the first few pages, I kept thinking how amazing it was that Heather was the writer and that I knew her. It was not long before she took me away from that and led me into the lives of her characters. I am buying this book for almost everyone on my Christmas list. One of the best reads ever--and I read a lot!!

Have you ever hit a dry spell with the books you read? When everything you pick up is missing that special something that hooks you in and holds you until the last word?
I was in just such a dry spell when I picked this book up after having seen in reviewed in the Idaho Statesman. I am so glad I did!
I will wait as patiently as possible for this author to write another novel.

This book is a real page turner that is masterfully written. I am eagerly awaiting a second novel from this author.

Dan Poynter's book is a virtual gold mine for authors and publishers. He shares his years of experience in the publishing business with a dictionary of every aspect of publishing, promoting and sales of books. Dan shares the secrets of e-books, audio-books and where to go to get the author's books changed to digital copies for mass marketing on the internet. This is his best book yet.

Poynter's Encyclopedia and Shepards' Aiming at Amazon are both perfect manuals for anybody interested in self-publishing. Brief, informative, and easy to use - what else is needed? Highly recommended.

Yuval Lirov, Practicing Profitability - Billing Network Effect for Revenue Cycle Control in Healthcare Clinics and Chiropractic Offices: Collections, Audit Risk, SOAP Notes, Scheduling, Care Plans, and Coding

Poynter, as always, knows his subject: Self-publishing. This book hits all the high points in an easy-to-access format.

Loads of useful information for the self-publisher/author. I would have
preferred to have it in chapter form. That would have made it more readable.

If you have questions about the publishing industry, you will be hard-pressed to find a better resource than Dan Poynter's book, The Book Publishing Encyclopedia. This alphabetical resource guide is filled with facts, figures, tips, and tactics.

Any resource guide filled with so much information is bound to motivate a writer to continue striving for the exciting status of publication. It becomes a matter of absorbing enough information and doing enough research about all the available publishing options to make the right decision. Not all authors are destined for Random House, but that doesn't mean they have to remain unpublished. There are alternatives! Whether you are seeking an independent press, a mainstream publisher, or the convenience of a turn-key publisher, this book defines the terms you should know. - Brent Sampson, author of Self-Publishing Simplified

Gomez-Arcos, Augustin. "The Carnivorous Lamb", Arsenal Pulp Press, 2007.

Haunting and Weirdly Unusual

Amos Lassen

Arsenal Pulp Press of Vancouver, Canada has been resurrecting gay and lesbian literature with Little Sister's Classics series. The newest addition is Augustin Gomez-Arcos' "The Carnivorous Lamb", written in 1975, which was translated into English in 1984 (from the original French). Gomez-Arcos was a Spanish anarchist, a dramatist and a playwright who self-exiled to France where he wrote primarily about Franco's Spain.
This book is an allegory about that period and centers on a young gay male who comes of age within a troubled family--his mother abhors him, his father cannot be bothered with him and ignores him. He does have a brother that loves him deeply.
The young man is the narrator and the carnivorous lamb. He begins his story when he was thirteen and when his innocence is lost. It is the 1950's when he, the younger of two sons is kept in the shelter of his home by his overbearing mother and at 13 he manages to begin to break away. He has a tutor, a strict disciplinarian and a family priest who is intent upon seeing that the boy reach adulthood by the right path. He, however, feels that he must rebel against those that oppress him and as he comes of age, he does so as a reaction to his mother and father and to the authority of church and state.
It is not an easy to reach maturity and as we read the tale of the family, we see that is political satire of the time. Gomez-Arcos not only takes on Spain but the Catholic Church as well. He does so with humor that disguises the true horrors and the tyrannical rule of Federico Franco. Likewise the book deals with the repression of religion and the structure of the family. The concept of authority is blown away and in its place we get identity and liberty as the author defies all in beautiful and provocative ways. This is a book not only to be read for the excitement of reading a masterpiece but it is to be cherished as a document that has returned to us from the dead.

Agustin Gomez-Arcos, The Carnivorous Lamb (David R. Godine, 1975)

I find myself somewhat astonished that a book this explicit was published in 1975. I am quite a bit less surprised that it is long out of print. (However, the fact that my Interlibrary Loan request for this volume was filled by the Ohio Dominican College? Now that floored me.) This tale of a homosexual relationship between a pair of brothers, told mostly in flashback as the younger brother awaits his older brother's return, wife in tow, from South America, never flinches from its sometimes shocking subject matter, but nor does Gomez-Arcos ever exploit his material from gratuitous shock value; it just is, and that, perhaps, is the book's major strength.

The book follows two avenues, for lack of a better way to put it; the first follows the love story between Ignacio, the narrator, and Antonio, his brother, who is five years older. Yep, incest, but I did warn you above, right? The second is a portrait of a once-wealthy family gradually driven to destitution by the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. I get the feeling most readers will be enchanted with one storyline and want to ignore the other (which is which depends on one's proclivities, no doubt); I tried to pay equal attention to both, and appreciated the way Gomez-Arcos wove them together into one book. It certainly could have been done better; the pacing is atrocious much of the time, and one gets the feeling this could have easily been half the length and still contained everything Gomez-Arcos wanted to say. Still, it's hard to argue with the language, which is never less than gorgeous. (One French reviewer on Amazon excoriates the English translation, saying it loses much of the "purity and clarity" of the original; I can't vouch for it, but I do know the language in the English translation is wonderfully done.) If you are a fan of writing style over plot, this is a must-read, but be warned that some of the subject matter may be too intense for more sensitive types (or too boring for thrillseekers). ****

((I award a Secondary Title for this review: "A One-Of-A-Kind Take on Brotherly Love"))

I can't tell you if this was a beautifully written book.......but I can advise you that it is a beautifully translated tale. Since it was first published in French (I know only a few phrases and a number of individual words), I cannot quarrel the earlier, Paris-residing reviewer who seems to think not so much of this translation. But, to this reader, to me, the translated writing seems near perfect, making this one of those few books to un-shelf from time to time and in which to become quickly engrossed.

It's a love story......but one probably unlike any you've read before (its nature has been described elsewhere in these reviews). And it is also a history lesson--one told from very personal points of view (as so much of history is told). But mostly, it's a tale which tells us that love in any guise can be found between two people, no matter their situation one to the other, and that as the strongest of our emotions it can redeem us from the worst difficulties we may think we face.

****

Of all the many books I've read, this is my favorite.

Its been a while since reading a book that was so profoundly satisfying and well-finished. It is a beautiful book celebrating an exuberant, deep love. It sells the book short to call it simply homo-erotic, just because the main protaganist is a man who loves his brother. The book deals with love and its devastating mutations in a protective confined stultyfying Spanish home in the Franco years. The metaphors for the "chronically dead" fascist regime are so graphic that you find yourself gasping for air...and the characters, as portrayed by Ignacio, the younger brother, are gruesomely real as he tells his story with wit and skill that have you smiling hard as you read. Very sexy too, even for a hetero woman.