Sting Books

Silk & Sting is an enchanting and delightful little volume that casts a big spell. I enjoyed Colette Anderson Gill's leaping connections from manatees to motherhood and from Mallory's body found on Everest to her own mother's "hard-bitten" face. She brings Brazil to life in all the senses. She sings praise to pampas grass, artichokes and a magnolia tree. She captures the sad drama of Truman Capote and a humorous glimpse of a teenage son. I found the poems heart-touchingly domestic while embracing a broad scope of life and literature, of adventure and change. All this is of a piece, held together by the exuberant, meticulous choices in Gill's language, vibrant in sensuality and detail, lush in play with language and sound.

I woke up the day after reading Silk & Sting with images from the poems still sifting through my brain. I remain grateful for the honor and joy of spending time with the work of a poet with this eye for the world and for the page. Hers is a rich way to live, a brave way to look, a luscious way to write--and it gives an eye-opening wonder to read.

Carolyn Jennings
Author of HUNGER SPEAKS

You don't have to be a poetry scholar to love Colette Anderson Gill's SILK & STING. Gill's graceful words speak to us all. Haven't most of us had this moment with a teenager: "In baggy jeans you meet me, son./ Our car's the g...damn Parthenon, you think." Or this memory: "We still hear Mother slipper the parquet to/ wake us." Or a humorous challenge such as: "But to cook and uncloak/ an artichoke is livelier/ than theater." Many of us have had these experiences, but few can say it so well. Lucky for us, we have Gill's elegant way with words to remind us of these small but significant occurrences. If you read only one poetry collection this year, make it be SILK & STING. Gill's words will stay with you.

Ann Weisgarber
Author of THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE

Colette Gill*s poems may enter through your eyes, but they will come to reside in your ear. Be glad of that. Whether writing about the dignity of women*s work, the echo of the natural world in the body itself, or the way a lover and a landscape blend, this poet never lets language stray too far from an insistent music. Silk & Sting invites you in and beneath its surface of swift currents are melodies that pull strongly, even roil with intensity. Welcome to this book; welcome to the concert.
*****
Chris Ransick,


*Who weighs the walkstones, / laid out loyally as graves,* Colette Anderson Gill asks in her filigreed and inquisitive first collection. Well, she does*and she does so attentive to the weight of things most of us fail to notice. Elizabeth Bishop, a persistent Muse here, once remarked that poets see *what others carelessly overlook.* Then we are lucky to have a poet as richly gifted as Gill reminding us what is worth looking at, and looking over and under, and into, in lyric poems full of her loyalty to wonder.
****
Christopher Bakken


Like her forerunner Elizabeth Bishop, Colette Anderson Gill writes with an archeologist*s keen understanding of all that lies beneath the surface. In her imagination, even silence finds a rhythm. Sensitive to the multiple meanings in her discoveries, she is always precise without ever sacrificing mystery. Her poem-artifacts bring us lost treasures and recover voices we might otherwise never hear. Among these is Ruth recollecting desert lovemaking in *Underwriting on a Scraped Papyrus* or Truman Capote preserved *in moonlit amber.* These lines from *Night Digs, and Paleontology* may very well serve as her aesthetic: ***
Night rifts a mountain, uncovers time,
I fire a rhythm, wail and hunt signs.

Jacqueline Kolosov

"A hero doesnot have to win. A hero doesnot have to be larger than life. A hero can be an ordinary person who overcomes extraordinary events with dignity and grace".-Soraya. This is the introduction Soraya offers to her book. This is a book worth reading by everybody as it offers much needed advice from how to enjoy life to how to prepare for our own mortality. After Soraya's passing to breast cancer complications I have become proactive in breast cancer prevention and awareness. I hope others can recieve inspiration by reading this book.

I have always admired Soraya for her incredible songwriting ability and her book just inspired me more. Her down to earth writing is an inspiration to all humans fighting breast cancer or just trying to deal with this life that can give us so many good and bad things all at once. I recommend this book to everyone!

I am a huge fan of Sorayas music. This book is very inspirational for all, especially for those batteling cancer.

This is an actual exchange the author of Sting of Justice had with a fellow pilot via a note passed back and forth...

"Dirk, I bought your book. If it's not good I'll kill ya."
Me - "Ha! I'll live a long and prosperous life then!"
A week later - "Dirk - you live. Thought it was great!! In your next one attack our old CEO's house. If I could promote it in New Hampshire let me know."

I'm still laughing at this exchange and posted it at my bookstore's blog at www.lulu.com/dirkgerrit.

Take a man in uniform and a strong woman, mix it with action and adventure and what you have concocted is a must read novel. A real page - turner with outstanding imagery and dialogue. "Sting Of Justice" was surprisingly well written and reader friendly. If you enjoy romance, action, and adventure this is the one book to read this year. This suspenseful novel has it all and uses its epic splendor to draw its reader into an action packed relationship.

Ameth Carmicheal, writer, author, and poet.
www.amethc.co.nr

"Sting of Justice" was written by a former US Navy attack pilot which is, no doubt, why the aviation component of this book towers over other contemporary military fiction writers. Mr. Gerrit has written an intriguing and action-packed novel that not only incorporates military hardware and tactics seamlessly into the plot, but uses that backdrop to allow his characters the freedom explore more basic human confrontations and emotions.

The story centers of a Navy pilot and his wife who are caught in an amazingly convoluted situation that has elements of hate, lust, and revenge as prime drivers. The plot and characters are well detailed, and while occasionally people with a military aviation background might be able to detect foreshadowing, Mr. Gerrit uses great subtlety to avoid giving away too much too soon.

This is a good effort, and is far better than a lot of more commercial fiction clogging bookshelves today. Although some of the situations in this book are extremely unseemly (it is definitely for adults only), the book never lowers itself to violence or degradation for mere shock value. The author obviously understands military attack aviation, and has an intuitive, visceral manner of writing that makes characters come alive. For mature readers interested in themes of patriotism, the criminal justice system, military aviation, or simple vengeance, this is an action filled book that will be hard to beat.

I was pleasantly surprised at the strength of character this and the whole series brought out. Paul Hutchens books captured my 10 year olds imagination. While these aren't huge novels, they are just the right size for a 10 year old's attention span and the central theme never gets lost. This is a great reinforcement for any parent trying to present the correct values in todays world.

As the first in the Sugar Greek Gang series, The Battle of the Bees sets a standard that the author never broke throughout the whole series. That standard is, in a nutshell, to: Give teens something that is wholesome, and good for Christian reading (as well as non-Christian readiing!).

These books not only include a great set of characters, but also good moral standards that would impress anybody.

This particular book is set in the mid-west of the USA in a little town called Sugar Greek (so named for the greek that flowed peacfully through it).

As the book opens, and the plot begins, you will notice that it doesn't sound like anything you ever read before; something most books after this genre fall short in. There is very little repetivness in the book, and the story plot flows smoothly along at a pace that isn't to fast. However it is not so slow that you get bored with the book.

Bill Collins (who the book is about) "tells" you the story, in that it sounds like like he is talkign to you, rather then you reading about him. This gives the reader a differant perspective on the story, and makes things very clear.

One thing that I personally really liked about the book was the fact that, unlike alot of Christian Teen novels, this perticular one had very little girl/boy relationship material in it. However, while it doesn't have that, it has a very exciting plot, plenty of action and adventure, and great kids. The author made every one in the Sugar Greek Gang a hero, and even the reader begins to feel that he or she may have been a hero along with them!

The only thing that I have against the book is the fact that it is to short. There really should be more. At least there is quite a long series here! I strongly recommend getting all of them! You will not be dissapointed in the least!

-Dan Van Nattan
Aka: Danazer

There's plenty of drama going on at The Butterfly Spa in the small town of Tyra. A Swedish masseuse, Hilda Almgren has been murdered and the two women owners of the Hadley Bed and Breakfast an hour away volunteer to help Sheriff Nail solve the crime. Incidentally,Sheriff Nail took up his current post in Tyra to get away from the fast pace of city life and the detective squad back in Houston. The suspects are fascinatingly different in this suspenseful, witty and humorous tale filled with delectable surprises. You'll be kept guessing who committed the crime right up until the last moment.

Who says that sixtyish women can't have fun? Or adventure? Certainly cousins Rowena and Dolly manage to when they are not busy keeping the Hadley Bed and Breakfast, Rowena's former family home in the small central Texas town of Hadley.

In this fun first mystery written by real-life sisters Linda Reynolds and Joy Goodale, Rowena has decided that a week at the nearby Butterfly Spa is the very ticket to prepare her for the State Seniors Ladies Golf Tournament. When she heads for a massage, she finds a murdered masseuse instead.

It's no surprise that when Sheriff Nail hauls her in as the main suspect she makes her one call to Dolly. ("Come now!")

The romp is on. Women of all ages, from young ingénue to aging diva, all in purple leotards, might very well be the culprit(s). The cousins are determined to help (or hinder) the sheriff. It's not long until there's a certain something else going on between the sheriff and Dolly.

The mystery is solved and all is so well with the world that the good sheriff moves into the Hadley Bread and Breakfast. My suspicion is that the sheriff and the cousins will be sharing more adventures and affections.

I hope so. Rowena and Dolly do know how to have fun.

by Patricia Nordyke Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

The case of the Vampire Cat is one of our family's top three Hank stories. We often listen to it on car trips. Our boys are 18 and 11 now, and they've both been listening to that story most of their lives. We never get tired of it.

In this two-book audio pack, you can listen to two more adventures from Hank, that hilarious cowdog. In the first story, Hank book #5: Faded Love, Hank goes to visit his One True Love, Beulah the collie. In the second, book #6: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Hank must find out who's been murdering chickens before he gets blamed. I wouldn;t miss them!

One of the best insider views you'll get of the effects of oil spills on the daily life of people in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest. Not only does Dematteis and Szymczak's book offers beautiful, but sometimes hard to look at, pictures, it also bears witness by including an extraordinary collection of testimonies about the day-to-day reality of the people affected by the pollution and whose suffering is often unknown. It includes as well facts about Chevron's illegal oil-drilling practices, health issues and the ongoing trial against Chevron taking place in Lago Agrio in Ecuador's Amazon region.

"Crude reflections" offers a moving portrait of the lives destroyed by unethical oil drilling operations; in addition, it contains beautiful pictures of the pristine Amazon, of what it should and could be if the company was to be held accountable for the terrible damages they've caused and was to clean it up. I wish this book was in every library and school around he country so it might bring awareness of the beautiful land huge corporations like Chevron are willing to destroy to increase their profits and satisfy their shareholders. Thank you for such a wonderful book!

Dematteis and Szymczak do a remarkable job of exploring the deep reaches of the Amazon rainforest where Texaco and Chevron have extracted oil and, in the process, left a trail of environmental destruction and human misery. The oil companies deny their responsibility for the results of their activities, but the photos, and personal stories told in these pages, put a totally different face on those denials. One look at the faces of the indigenous peoples who have suffered for decades and at the burning waste oil pits and you'll be ready to swear off oil forever.

One man believes he can gain control of the most powerful naval force in the world - and his enemy will never know!
While the two superpowers are apparently relaxing under the spirit of glasnost, Nicholas Koniev, a Soviet strategic and technical genus and a Spetznaz-trained warrior, is leading a near-suicidal mission into the American submarine base of Bangor, Washington - home of the vital Trident missile subs.

Once again Paul McCarthy performs his editorial magic.

Right up there with short story books like "Interpreter of the Maladies".

The surprise endings seem to be his signature, as in the "Lost & Never Found" story.

A delightful read. Can't wait for his next novel.

Absolutely, positively, fantastic!

Insightful, lucid, story-telling coupled with intrigueing and unique details. Specifically, the subtle "woil on the body" refrences were pricelss.

Top Notch. A great first effort ans surely a writer to look out for in the future.

Buy this book.

Jose Torres first offering takes us to the point in Ali's career after his reinstatement which include tuneup fights with Quarry, Bonavena and finally to the first fight with Frazier. Interspersed with these narratives is the life of Ali from his Golden Glove Days to the revocation of his license for refusing the draft.

What makes this book unique from all the other Ali biographies out there is that the writer was quite of a boxer himself, a former light heavyweight champion in fact. From this vantage point, he gives us a glimpse of the boxer's psyche - particularly interesting is his anatomy of the knockout punch. Whereas other biographies speak about Ali in reverential tones, Torres puts Ali to task for his bad game plan in the first Frazier fight and his penchant for playing with his opponent.

Indeed, Torres acquits himself well as a boxing writer. I wish he could have deferred writing this book for a few years so that the "Rumble in the Jungle" and the next two Frazier fights would be included.

This book is great for all readers and is a great biography that puts you in the mind of a writer. You will feel like you are actually there witnissing these masterfull events.