Illinois Books

I am 82. This is a treasure. I suspect that practically no one alive today remembers these early days of Hollywood. This book is not only hilarious but simply could not be written today. The current code of political correctness would forbid it. Today the word "queer" has been co-opted along with "gay." The average young reader (under 60) wouldn't have a clue to the treasures between these covers and might be driven off by the title. There may be "queer" people in this story but they are not in evidence by todays standard of meaning of the word. The people in this book may be "queer" and "gay" but not homosexuals (I don't believe). The gay community of today might object to being neglected in this tale. The Jews might object to the Hollywood stereotypes portrayed. As I said it simply could not be written today.

drop me an email at miscellaneousmedia@yahoo.com This is a great -- and also the first -- Hollywood Novel, a comedy set in the pre-code, just after sound-on-film was invented era. Sadly, none of the follow-ups were as successful.

Some may hold up The Day of the Locust as the consummate Hollywood novel...or perhaps What Makes Sammy Run?, or the Nowhere City, or Play It As It Lays... Other than The Little Sister, the best book to portray Hollywood is also the first, Queer People. Written in the early Twenties, Queer People captures a Hollywood of sudden wealth and incredible wantoness, a new city without limits, seen through the eyes of a devilish reporter who seeks none

Corey Marks's work provides great aestetic and intellectual pleasure. The deceptive clarity of these poems guides the reader through the maze beneath the surface with a gentle and passionate hand. The book has aspects of the growth of the young man and of the artist, and we want to know both, though the voice and talent are already mature, able to negotiate authority and uncertainty. Marks's knowledge of music and art enrich these poems that are comfortable in urban and natural surroundings. There is a spiritual quest that pervades the work, as well, and Marks does not shy away from the larger questions of existence and purpose, while the poems remain appealingly tethered to evocative image and subtle narration. The only disappointment of this book comes when it ends.

At the heart of this great book is the heart of a pure poet. Marks writes with respect for his work and subject, bravely stepping out of the way of his words so they can stand on their own. Unlike most young poets, Marks writes with humility, yet without apology: in a time when our poetry follows at the heels of our confused culture, Marks steps away to name and clarify his place in it. Renunciation is good poetry from a writer with a good heart.

Wow! my creative writing instructor suggested I buy this book and she knew what she was talking about. Philip Levine selected it for the National Poetry Series and, unlike so many contest winners, this one deserved the prize. Marks' book is a real accomplishment for a first book; most third books aren't this good! At the book's center is the kind of poem all poets wish they could write, the moving homage "For Keats, After Keats." And there's the long title poem, a kind of spiritual meditation which contains subtle echoes of George Herbert. These poems are resonant, dense, formally adept, and full of exploding passions. Get this book!

These poems read like a soundtrack, and if you love poetry they will speak to you; if you don't love poetry, they'll speak to you even louder! R&B is not to be passed-over!

These poems read like a great soundtrack, or a stream of warm-fuzzy memories. If you are a poetry fan, R&B will speak to you...If you are not a poetry fan, R&B will speak to you even louder! You'll have read nothing as comforting or disturbing...NOT to be overlooked.

This is the book Maxine Kumin selected for the 2003 National Poetry Series. And it is a great book. It's divided into five sections, each named after a city in Louisiana. The best by far is the first, New Orleans. I will say Natchitoches, the final section was pretty weak, except for the poem "On the Departure of My Guest." Kane writes in form excellently. She does a lot of villanelles, and though I thought I'd get tired of reading so many of them, I didn't. She handles the villanelle very well. And, as you would guess from the title, alcohol plays a big part in this book. Many of the poems have bartender or a bar or something alcohol related in the title. But once again, you don't get tired of it because she handles it well. This is a really good first collection. If you are a fan of Kim Addonizio, Everette Maddox, or Sara Cortez, then you'll definitely like this book. Some poems to take note of are: "Maraschino Cherries," "Villanelle for Thel," "Mapleworld," and "Booker Again." Once again, this is a great book.

I really enjoyed this look at the Chicago that never is seen on E.R. He is a very talented writer. Sue

I really enjoyed this look at the Chicago that never is seen on E.R. He is a very talented writer. Sue

In 1946, former GI Ray Dudek has juts returned to Chicago after serving in the war. Instead of a hero's welcome, Ray is murdered during a holdup in the Riverview Amusement Park. His two closest friends, Joe Colleran and Mike Minogue leave town soon after that to open a bar in Florida. In 1985, Mike is murdered on a Chicago pier overlooking lake Michigan. When Margaret O'Mara reads about the death, she hires private investigator Paul Whelan to locate her brother, Joe, who she has not heard from since 1959. ..... Paul begins to investigate the case and quickly links the two murders that are four decades apart, especially since the deceased Mike loved to talk about his cronies who had a falling out just after the war. As Paul gets closer to the truth, he realizes that friends and lovers have kept a secret that if disclosed could lead to the deaths of the person revealing it and the recipient because someone wants the secret to remain hidden. ...... THE RIVERVIEW MURDERS is a fantastic who-done-it that brings alive the gritty North Side of Chicago. Paul, the low rent private investigator, is a great character who is for those readers who enjoy an old fashion hard boiled detective. The story line, like its four predecessors is fast-paced, action packed, and loaded with more twists than a street pretzel. Chicago is Michael Raleigh's kind of town as no one paints the town this well since Ferris's day off. .......Harriet Klausner

Susan Figliulo's delightful guide to Chicago's romantic side is a "must-read" for any out-of-towner seeking romance in one of America's most compelling cities. Gracefully written and focusing on how those of us with romantic tendencies can explore both the geography of a city and our own hearts, "Romantic Days" serves both purposes. As a San Franciscan somewhat proud of my city's reputation as a romantic haven and heaven, I must admit that Ms. Figliulo has presented Chicago as a worthy challenger.

I particularly enjoyed her tempting treatment of romantic sites for bibliophiles; that section alone exemplifies the wonderful range of places that pose romantic possibilities. Though I don't get to Chicago as much as I'd like to, whenever I pass through the Windy City, Susan Figliulo's booklet is a treasured companion.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and, oh, how I miss that city! Reading Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago rekindled so many memories. The chapter on the Wrigleyville neighborhood, with its affectionate portrait of the Music Box Theatre, took me back to my first date with the man I would later marry (a double feature: Flying Down to Rio and 42nd Street, with a serenade by the Mighty Wurlitzer in between movies). My husband is a musician and I work in the music industry, so our courtship was filled with music. I especially enjoyed The "Food of Love" chapter, detailing the remarkable spectrum of music available in Chicago, from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the folk music scene. My favorite chapter, though, is called "Opera Lovers Tryst." It's all about the romance of attending Lyric Opera of Chicago performances at the gorgeous Civic Opera House. Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago isn't limited to Chicago proper. As a North Shore native, I was overjoyed to read Susan Figliulo's beautiful description of the pastoral drive along the ravines of Sheridan Road. It was almost like being home again. If you know and love Chicago, you'll love Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago. If you're looking for a new city to know and love, this book is your key to a real treasure.

Romantic Days and Nights in Chicago is full of terrific information about all parts of the city. Even as a Chicago native, I found lots of hidden gems and new neighborhoods to visit. This would make a terrific Valentine's present! Visitors to the city will get tons of terrific ideas too. There is even a chapter with romantic ideas at and near O'Hare (and that takes some creativity!)

Sam Harris is an amazing person. He recently visited my school in woodstock ill. He told all about his amazing life and the things that he went through. He is now working on starting a holocoust museum in chicago and think that buying his book, although not a large amount, would be a generous contribution to this amazing persons effort to educate the future generations about what happened.

Sam Harris cam to my and gave a talk about his horrifing experience at the concetration camp where he hide for 3 years. He story so was sad when he read it i cryed. but it was very imfortmative. He is a wonderful and has acommplished so much.

I first heard of the book when Samuel Harris came to my school. The entire student body gathered to hear his story. As I read the book I cried again as I had cried as he spoke. To have lived through such a terrible event and have the courage to talk about it is beyond comprehension or comparison.

For any skeptic willing to question their own foundations, this book is a must. Not only is it an excellent companion to the works of Michael Shermer and like-minded skeptics, it adds a much needed dose of reality to said skeptical works. It seems a vocal few have boldy proclaimed what science is and is not. H. Bauer provides a blueprint (along with his previous work Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method) for what "raw' science truly is, undiluted with politics or beliefs.

I can't add much to the Reader & Editorial Reviews. What I can do is communicate the flavor of the book with the following gems, from the first 60 pages. There are lots more.
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ix: those who sneer at "pseudoscience" reveal scientism, the belief that only science is authoritative when it comes to knowledge.

2: as things stand, there is available no quick or easy guidance about what to believe, not only on the many matters over which apparently competent people differ but also over some where the experts seem to be in agreement. At times we do well to believe what we're told; at other times we had better not. Sometimes there's no better guide than the experience of what you've seen for yourself; at other times your eyes deceive you. We should be open to new ideas-but on the other hand we should always be skeptical and critical before accepting a new idea, for old beliefs are often well tested by experience whereas new ones may just be untested hunches. It's good to see the whole picture, to be holistic, to be interdisciplinary-but on the other hand in many fields progress requires concentration on ultraspecialized techniques, theories, and facts.

5: Science has itself become a sort of church, and scientists are in that sense also priests (Knight, 1986). Science nowadays like the church in earlier centuries feels responsible for the intellectual orderliness of society. Thus pseudoscience is heretical belief-not merely wrong but an actual danger to the proper functioning of society and the welfare of humankind. The passion that authority always vents against heresy is directed nowadays in the name of science against pseudoscience.

6-7: Confronted with what they do not yet properly understand, those who claim to speak for science are reluctant to admit ignorance, and therefore their answers often discount or evade.

7: much popular wisdom idealizes science. Perhaps the most common illusion is that science uses a "scientific method" that guarantees objectivity (Bauer 1992a; Bauer and Huyghe 1999).

7: My ulterior motive is not to disparage science but to suggest that serious anomalistics be allowed a measure of respect as an honest seeking of knowledge ....

14: the distinction between natural science and social science is clear enough for the present purpose: between, respectively, certain and merely probable consequences of a given set of circumstances. That's the essence of it, and for many purposes it is a world of difference.

16: The "skeptical" in Skeptical Inquirer and the "skeptics" in the names of many groups employing that label interprets skepticism in the sense of those ancient Greeks who actively disbelieved, the atheists, rather than in the nowadays more commonly understood sense of agnostics, people who suspend judgment, who maintain an attitude of doubt. [I've dubbed such persons "scoftics"--RK.] CSICOP and its "Skeptics" are doubtful only about unorthodox beliefs, which they judge in the light of contemporary scientific knowledge that they do believe.

18: in most cases the contrast [between serious and cranky anomalistics] is clear enough: it is between, on the one hand, the assertion that here are mysteries to be solved and, on the other, blandly dogmatic assertions of "truths" that contradict established scientific knowledge.

26: Mainstream disciplines behave as though the unknown unknown doesn't exist; perhaps just because it cannot be directly investigated.

27: Social science ... seems to assume that it can establish expertise only if, as in the natural sciences, it is able to command a body of understanding that the laity cannot share because it runs counter to common sense: "what the sociologists say about common sense is the self-serving ideology of a vested interest group seeking to establish and maintain a monopoly over `its' professional turf" (Pease 1981:266).

27-28: some anomalistic researchers are as competent as any in the mainstream of science ....

29: The media feature the accomplishments of the sciences; the "news value" of anomalistics lies in its absurdities.

29: Research in anomalistics suffers from lack of resources ....

30-31: Anomalistics lacks any such organized literature. ... Compendia of data are not often available, even when they would be highly desirable, as for instance comprehensive listings of reported sightings of Nessies.

33: There exists no comprehensive account of all the premature or false trails that science has taken. By and large the history of science has focused on the successes of science.

36: The jockeying for prominence in science is well disciplined ... In anomalistics, jockeying for position often is less a matter of seeking approval of peers or making contributions to the field than of attracting attention from the media. Anomalistics therefore makes news more through the charlatans, hoaxers, and absurdities that plague it than for its serious investigations.

36: eyewitness testimony proves little if anything in science-just in a few pockets like field biology. [!]

37: Personal experiences are not repeatable on demand .... if their facts were reproducible, cryptozoology would be zoology and parapsychology would be psychology.

38: organizational differences then amplify characteristics of the fields' practices. Thus much of the strength of science stems directly from the efficient, workmanlike, task-oriented procedures of the scientific community; and the weaknesses of anomalistics have much to do with the lack of such communally governed practices.

41: Within the various anomalistic fields one sometimes sees attempts at an appearance of solidarity in the face of the dismissiveness and contempt displayed by science, media, and "skeptics." The clearest instances of this are the typical refusal to discuss their differences publicly or to admit, as they privately believe, that some of their number are incompetent or worse. ... Of course this is misguided and self-defeating in the longer run, but it's typical of all guilds and groups.

41: Bigfoot enthusiasts and those who hunt dinosaurs in the Congo may respect one another when they stop to take notice, but they rarely communicate with one another and have little natural of instinctive affinity with one another. There is no general feeling of commonality between ufologists and cryptozoologists, or between either of those and parapsychologists.

47: "How could anyone believe that?" ... The underlying presumption is that everyone ought to have the same beliefs because we believe-or should believe-only things that are true.
Many people tend to believe whatever they're told-even by con-men. Others tend to believe the opposite of whatever they're told. Few indeed are skeptical and empirical in a disciplined fashion. The real mystery about belief is not how we come to believe something, but rather how some of us are able sometimes to change our minds under the force of evidence and logic rather than emotion.
The passion in many arguments ... [is] an inevitable corollary of a human wish for certainty.

48: "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proofs," is a common aphorism. But fundamentally the issue is, rather, whether to trust empirical evidence or contemporary scientific theory. The opposing sides usually fail to recognize how close this lies to the root of their polarization. ... In anomalistics, the true believers tend to pose as determinedly empirical .... The debunkers, on the other hand, stand on the existing theoretical paradigm; such things didn't or don't happen because they cannot. David Hume is constantly cited as to the possible occurrence of miracles .... But current scientific knowledge is not necessarily the last word.

49: It seems natural to reject reports of some happening when there's no plausible conceivable mechanism by which it could occur.... But ... are there not many things that we accept to happen even though we don't understand how they do, such as psychosomatic illness and the placebo effect?
The implacable demand for "mechanism" reveals a strict materialism. Those who insist on it are not really relying on science ...

50: even some purely material phenomena are indubitably real despite our inability to explain them. Cosmic rays are generated by a phenomenon whose energy is of a magnitude that baffles our ability to conceive of a mechanism. The homing instincts and communicating ability of insects are unquestioned, while our explanations for them are tentative at best. The ice ages did occur, but we don't understand how or why they came about. And so on.

In the past, some of the most excellent arguments proved to be false, as to why something just could not be so. [Listed are meteorites, drifting continents, and charged ions in water.] These all seem fine arguments. It's just that they were incorrect, as in many other cases of resistance by mainstream science to the startlingly new. ...

53: It takes much longer to explain why a point is erroneous than it took to assert the point. It can be very tiresome to answer in full detail what seems like a poorly based, incoherent case for something highly improbable. ... The frustrations of arguing with a crank have been described with feeling by some who have had or witnessed the experience (Russell 1956; Shaw 1944). ... Drawn into dispute, frustrated experts may become arrogantly dismissive ... and they lose debating points and public credibility.

55: Rarely if ever is anomalistics given credit for grains of truth. Velikovsky was and is said to be "wrong" .... One arguably less-than-competent laboratory is asserted to typify all of parapsychology, whereas one less-than-competent forensics laboratory is hardly taken to show that forensics is pseudoscience.

55: Rhetorical questions abound. ... "How could bones of Bigfoot not be found if they exist, with so many people finding footprints of them?" And so on and so forth. Once a given issue is settled one way or the other, answers to such questions will be evident enough; indeed, they are likely to appear obvious in hindsight. Before the issues are settled, however, the inability to provide conclusive answers proves nothing.

56-57: Debunkers typically seek to establish guilt by association. It's no easy task to discredit entirely the major anomalist claims by careful discussion of the evidence. It's much easier-and so it's done all the time-simply to include them all in the same list, as "pseudoscience." But this lumping also has disadvantages. ... [It] can backfire if even one of the unorthodox claims turns out to be valid, as some do. For decades there were those who decried as wasteful, or worse, the use of vitamin supplements, but they will (or should) have been mightily abashed when in 1998 the Institute of Medicine recommended such supplements even for people enjoying an apparently adequate diet.

Debunking loses credibility when it calls "paranormal" or "supernatural" the search for such entirely material albeit as-yet-uncaptured species as the giant sloth .... Debunkers often cite their concern for public rationality and scientific literacy; but by their lack of discrimination, and by their doom-saying and exaggerated assertions of the harm that supposedly flows from what they call pseudoscience, they fail to practice the rationality and scientific approach they preach.

57: pundits will insist that science is not characterized by always being right, or in any other particular result, but only in the process of using the scientific method. Yet when right results are obtained by people who flout the scientific method and other norms of science-as with high-temperature superconductors-their lapses are not criticized.

58: There exist no reliable, accredited repositories or museums of ufology or cryptozoology, so specimens or artifacts mentioned in the literature often cannot be retrieved for reexamination.

58-59: In anomalistics, where by definition the evidence is not utterly compelling, believers and debunkers are thereby free perpetually to reach opposing conclusions, to fit the evidence into their opposing stories. ... Concerning yeti or Bigfoot, and the fact that apemen are featured in folklore across the world, Bayanov has pointed out that ... "the existence of mythological hominoids is a necessary, though not sufficient condition, of the existence of real hominoids" (Bayanov, 1982). Their absence from folklore would even speak against the creature's existence, which is the opposite of the debunkers' usual argument.

To really grasp what is going on with Big Science and why there is such resistance to new ideas, you need a copy of Dr. Henry Bauer's Science or Pseudoscience: Magnetic Healing, Psychic Phenomena and Other Heterodoxies published this year by the University of Illinois Press. Henry H. Bauer, Dean Emeritus of Arts & Sciences, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry and Science Studies Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and the author of several other books like The Enigma of Loch Ness: Making Sense of a Mystery and Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method, which we recommend almost monthly to our listener and guests on ....

The most original aspect of this book is the way that Dr. Bauer has of defining normal, revolutionary, premature, and "pseudo" science in terms of the three facets of data, method, and theory. He makes detailed comparisons of the actual working practices in natural science, social science, and denigrated science and reexamines notorious cases from this fresh perspective. Normal science doesn't try to do anything revolutionary in any of these three facets, according to Bauer. As he says, "Scientific "revolutions" (quantum mechanics, relativity) change only one of those at a time. Looking for novelty in two of the three simultaneously produces "premature" science: Mendel's theory of genetics, Wegener's theory of drifting continents - ignored or rejected by science for decades. Novelty in all three areas characterizes looking for Loch Ness Monsters or UFOs or studying psychic phenomena; the difficulties are enormous and the chances of success slight, but that doesn't make the quest useless or to be criticized."

Some of our favorite subjects that have been dismissed as "pseudo science" are reexamined as "scientific" with this perspective, and Bauer relates the search for the giant squid, the search for extraterrestrials, pre-Clovis people in the Americas, cold fusion, the idea that HIV causes AIDS, and much more.

Bauer is a humorous writer and acknowledges that his critics will probably not be able to keep from being nasty. He recommends that if the skeptics insist on being nasty, they should at least distinguish genuine knowledge-seekers from self-promoting confidence tricksters. As he points out, many cryptozoologists, parapsychologists, and ufologists are perfectly honest, genuine seekers of understanding (while some mainstream researchers are not very honest).

For an unusually unbiased, yet scientific, approach to some of the subjects that are "borderland" respectable - sometimes called pseudo-science, sometimes admitted into science, but generally still controversial ("how much don't we yet know about electromagnetism and living processes! About archaeoastronomy!") you must read this book.

In Seventh Day Adventism in Crisis, Laura Vance has produced a monograph that will surely be of interest to scholars who study religion, gender, and social change. Consistent with much current gender scholarship on the emergence of theologically conservative religions, Vance's study reveals how differently history reads when gender becomes a central analytical category for examining religious transformation. This volume aims to address several interrelated questions, including: How did a religious movement in which women initially wielded visionary leadership eventually come to deny women access to many of its most powerful institutional positions? How have large-scale social changes influenced current debates about "women's place" within contemporary Adventism? In fixing her attention on such issues, Vance produces a book that is not simply a historiographical account of shifting gender relations with Adventism - though a focus on that topic alone would have been quite an accomplishment. Rather, recognizing that the best historical research informs contemporary predicaments, Vance combines a backward-glancing eye attuned to Adventism's past with an insightful investigation of present-day gender relations within this religious denomination.

Seventh-Day Adventism in Crisis begins by recounting the historical origins of Adventism, a sectarian religion that emerged during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. Special attention is paid to the apparently prophetic visions and writings of Ellen White, an early Adventist thought to have received direct revelation from God, detailing the divine mission of this nascent religious movement. Much of the first half of the book then proceeds to analyze the distinctive - and often paradoxical - facets of Adventist doctrine and practice. For example, Adventists are generally committed to the infallibility of the Bible; yet, at the same time, members of this religious group conceive of divine revelation as progressively unfolding into "present truth." Moreover, Adventism has long decried the excesses of "the world" (e.g., gambling, movie going, and various dietary indulgences) even as it has implored its adherents to affiliate with unbelievers for the purpose of evangelism. The Adventist challenge of finding one's place "in but not of the world" is very similar to that faced by other theologically conservative religions. Yet, perhaps the greatest Adventist contradiction entails the eventual erosion of women's leadership authority within a religious denomination whose core doctrine was initially defined - or, better, divined --- by a female prophet. In rendering her portrait of Adventism, past and present, Vance avoids homogenizing this diverse and changing religious tradition. Her careful analytical approach reveals how internal cleavages among Adventists themselves emerged historically and continue to surface in light of this religion's conceptualization of an evolving "present truth." Consequently, the first half of Vance's book evenhandedly combines rich idiographic accounts of particular events in Adventist history (e.g., chaps. 1 and 4) with broader analyses of this religion's theological presuppositions and political organization (e.g., chaps. 2 and 3).

Part 2 of this volume focuses on Adventist responses to a series of recent social changes - shifting definitions of gender and sexuality, the recent rise of women's labor force participation, and controversies over women's ordination to the ministry in many Protestant churches. Because Vance has detailed the particularities of this religious subculture so well in the book's first section, she moves deftly through Adventist responses to these various issues - aided, where appropriate, by back references to section one. For example, Vance examines contemporary Adventist support for gender equity in the workplace with an eye on the post-1870 writings by Ellen White, who defended the payment of equitable wages to female employees and became a champion of women's public-sphere participation in Social Gospel movements. Moreover, current Adventist controversies over women's ordination are understood in light of the rich cultural tradition of Adventism. This multilayered tradition contains strands of early Adventist egalitarianism interwoven with more recent accommodations to secularized visions of gender difference. This reading of structural change and ideological diversity within Adventism effectively challenges those who would equate religious conviction - and especially theological conservatism - with an unreflective preservation of the status quo.

Vance has collected and mined a vast array of data to conduct this study. She draws from archival sources, secondary historical treatments, and Adventist pastoral texts. She has also gathered primary data using participant-observation, in-depth interview, and survey techniques. Given the conceptual breadth and methodological triangulation evidenced in this volume, some readers might charge that Vance simply attempts to cover too much ground in one monograph. I do not share that criticism. Although it is easy to envision other works--for example, a more ethnographically focused monograph-that could effectively build on the material in the present volume, this book draws together coherent and compelling narratives from these various data sources. As a result, Seventh-Day Adventism in Crisis provides a holistic analysis of a religious tradition that has undergone great change since its emergence and continues to redefine itself as we enter the next millennium.

Social science Professor Laura Vance tells the amazing story how Seventh-day Adventism, which was founded by Ellen Harmon White, the most prolific woman writer and preacher of the nineteenth-century, moved in 100 years from an egalitarian social ethic to the almost total exclusion of women from its administration. Since White's death, Adventism has moved toward the mainstream of American religion, adopting the social conservatism as well as the theological positions of evangelicalism, and systematically excluding women from leadership positions. In contrast to the early Adventist pioneers, who favored various reform movements such as anti-slavery and women's health issues, American church bureaucrats have narrowed their social gaze and moved to the right in their implicit political stance. This trend, which actively favored public evangelism over social reform and suppressed women's participation in leadership, has since the late 1970's been challenged by new voices calling for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry and other leadership positions in the SDA church. In addition, the international growth of the membership of the SDA church, adding millions of members in countries where patriarchialism and traditional power structures favor men has helped keep women out of power. The answer, says Vance, is not for Adventist leaders to imagine they are fighting a battle against feminism or liberalism but to embrace once again the diversity and openness of its early history, an Edenic time when women and men sang and preached side-by-side, when the male leaders were not afraid of the visionary power of women but practiced a co-operative type of gender equality.

Vance's book comes as the fourth in a series of comprehensive non-denominational interpretations of Adventism which began in the 1980's with Ron Numbers and Jonathan Butler, "The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth-Century" (Indiana University Press, 1989, Malcom Bull and Keith Lockhart's "Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream" (Harper and Row, 1989) and Michael Pearson, Millenial Dreams and Moral Dilemmas: Seventh-day Adventists and Contemporary Ethics" (Cambridge Unversity Press, 1990). Vance's book, written largely from the perspective of gender issues, gathers from a hundred years of the "Adventist Review" and from more recent publications such as "Spectrum".

The style of Professor Vance's book, written after extensive field research in actual Adventist congregations and at Walla Walla College, will appeal to both social scientists studying the religious phenomenon of Adventism, and to SDA members, clergy and teachers who wish to view themselves in the words of an intelligent and sympathetic outsider. Teachers of American religious movements will find this book the best general introduction to Adventism for students who are also interested in women's issues, social science theory and religion. Highly recommended.

This fine piece of scholarship presents a systematic application of sociological models to a movement whose heart and soul is sectarian. In examining Seventh-day Adventism's history and development from its inception as a postmillennialist movement in the 1800s to its current status as a faith tradition with a distinctive identity, Vance (psychology/sociology, Georgia Southwestern State University) has crafted a remarkably readable book of religio-sociological research. Vance argues that Adventism's move from sectarianism to institutionalization has succeeded through the creation of physical structures which reinforce its unique identity while meeting temporal needs that allow for a more accommodating response to the world. This thesis is borne out by Vance's examination of family structure, theology, and the development of the movement. One area of unique identification for Adventists is that of gender roles, and it is here, she finds, that Adventism has the greatest opportunity to alter the boundaries of church hierarchy not only for itself but for the Christian community as a whole. Highly recommended.

The following review is from the January 2008 issues of Review in "Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries."
Martin's engaging book builds (as she makes clear) on the work of others who have examined the world of the soft-core erotic thriller. But this in-depth analysis of the practice and reception of these often-maligned films takes the discussion several steps further, examining this work from a feminist point of view. This results in a study that is both surprising and refreshing. Adroitly disposing of the artificial demarcation between high and low art--which, as Martin [Connecticut College] correctly argues, is the reason that many of the films discussed in this book have gone unexamined--the author gives trenchant readings of contemporary soft-core thrillers, films noir, and gothic films. In so doing she seeks to reclaim for females the pleasure of viewing these films, which have in most cases been specifically designed to appeal to stereotypical male fantasies. Illustrated with a solid selection of frame grabs, and offering carefully detailed deconstructions of numerous films in the genre, this groundbreaking work is similar in its ambition to Carol Clover's Men, Women and Chain Saws (CH, Sep'92, 30-0181). It offers a fresh view on a type of film often dismissed out of hand. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers; all levels. - W.W. Dixon, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Growing up, I loved Hitchcock films and film noir, an odd choice for a child who came of age with color television, Rambo and Reagan. Fast forward to post-college years later when I took a job at a video rental store to support a poorly stipend internship, where ninety percent of the store's revenue was from the sale and rental of adult films. Did Barbara Stanwyck and Tipi Hendren lead to this?

According to Nina K. Martin in Sexy Trills: Undressing the Erotic Thriller, they just might have (thanks for introducing me to the old flicks mom!). The erotic thriller is soft-core, direct to video pornography with elaborate sets and romanticized stories, generally aimed at women - as opposed to hard-core pornography, which, with its emphasis on penetration and myriad other sexual acts and little to no premise to get there, is usually aligned with male pleasure. Using a selection of film texts of the genre, Martin analyzes the effect of the erotic thriller on the construction of heterosexual female sexuality in contemporary American society. According to Martin, erotic thrillers have well-define formulaic patterns - including gothic and film noir borrowings - that define the genre. Within these various narrative texts, sexuality for the heterosexual female is safely explored with in the permitted boundaries and resolves itself around either true love (marriage) or punishment for digressions in personal and professional lives.

Taking an academic look at non-academic texts, Martin shows that the idea of "what women want" is more about what men tell women that women want. Nearly all media companies are owned by men, and almost all film directors are men, so in a mass media and consumer-driven world, contemporary culture is a homogenized template of what individuals are told to desire and need, and dictates come from Hollywood, Hitchcock, Cosmopolitan, Rachel Ray and women's pornography. And ultimately, as Martin points out, the erotic thriller reinforces women's subordinate place in society because women--even when in charge of their sexual expression--still have their sexual services purchased and made available for purchase, primarily for men. As a woman is sexually empowered in the films through fulfillment of personal desires, she is disempowered within the public sphere for her actions, thus reemphasizing the public/private split in society where power and authority are mutually exclusive to sexual expression and fulfillment (does anyone view Hillary Clinton as a sexualized woman?). Individual women's sexuality, Martin states, is inseparable from culture representations of individual women's sexuality and is not reconcilable with public life and power the way men's sexuality is. Jenna Jameson is for the bedroom only, Hillary has no sex life (wasn't that why there was Monica?), and Hitchcock's Tipi is punished for her sexual urges and desires by giant black birds.

Despite the academic prose and evocations of Freud and Foucault, Martin's critique of the erotic thriller is accessible to interested audiences looking at the text as film criticism, feminist criticism or both (for uninterested audiences there is a smattering of still frames from select films). Martin doesn't enter the feminist pornography debate because, as she states explicitly in her introduction, the book is primarily film criticism and secondarily feminist criticism. However, she is attuned to feminist concerns and feminisms. Through this numbered lens, the book becomes more interesting for its inability to judge pornography as either pro-woman or anti-woman. Instead, Martin cleanly analyzes how sex is marketed to heterosexual women by well-defined, status-quo affirmations of what is considered normalized (and non-threatening) sexuality and, therefore, doesn't detach her thesis from the effect of the Second and Third Waves. The empowerment of women, Martin tells us, is through a dictum and language that are not our own.

Luckily, a friend loaned me her advance copy of "Sexy Thrills." From its title to its last sentence, this book is fascinating, well written, witty, and just plain fun. More than simply a genre study of erotic thrillers, "Sexy Thrills" grapples with the big issues of women's sexuality and identity, as well as with the important debates within contemporary feminism.

Erotic thrillers are a form of soft-core pornography targeting a female audience. Unlike male-oriented porn, erotic thrillers address, as Martin says, "the sexual subjectivity of women and the social construction of gender." Initially these films are difficult to categorize, as they draw from a number of genres--film noir to soap operas, romances to pornography--but they share a number of key features, most revolving around "a gendered formula for visual arousal." In addition to examining the primary examples of this genre from its most famous, "Basic Instinct," through its most prolific practitioner, Zalman King, to its many multiple-part series, such as the "Body Chemistry" films, Martin delves deeply into their structure and cinematic character to analyze the filmic qualities that make these movies so attractive to women. Along the way she unpacks "sexual consumerism, feminized niche marketing, and a post-feminist focus on sexual exploration as the means to female empowerment."

"Sexy Thrills" is of value across the disciplines. Martin is a real star of that new generation of feminist scholars questioning received traditions and counter-productive intellectual dichotomies. And she does so in a remarkably fair minded and generous fashion, which I take as the sign of a truly sophisticated scholar. What Linda Williams did for hard-core, Martin accomplishes for soft-core pornography: making it intelligible and intriguing. "Sexy Thrills" is a highly original work of interdisciplinary scholarship, and beautifully written. I recommend this book to anyone interested in contemporary American culture.

The story of a family, a heritage, my heritage, I was unable to put this book down once I opened it. She writes so well, she is so fluid and masterful with her words, the story had to be told. It is simply the story of how a family got here, and yet it speaks volumes about a time which is little known and hardly written about.

I loved this book. I reccomend buying it. If you are a history professor use it as your text book. If you would be truly multi-cultural then learn this story.

May it bring as much joy to you as it did to me.

The story of a family, a heritage, my heritage, I was unable to put this book down once I opened it. She writes so well, she is so fluid and masterful with her words, the story had to be told. It is simply the story of how a family got here, and yet it speaks volumes about a time which is little known and hardly written about.

I loved this book. I reccomend buying it. If you are a history professor use it as your text book. If you would be truly multi-cultural then learn this story.

May it bring as much joy to you as it did to me.

This exquisite little book, The Soup Has Many Eyes, is a hybrid of history, mystery, proverb, and poetry. Most of all, it is a mother's memoir to her two sons, Josh and Jonny, as they embark upon their own journey in life - a journey that is both connected and disconnected with its heritage.

Perhaps a little too disconnected, or so the author, Joann Leonard, believes. In her narrative, Leonard attempts to fill in the spaces for her sons, to connect them to their past so that their present will have context. While much of the book narrates her family's struggles as they leave Russia amid the pogroms of the early 20th century to come to America, the "history" of the book serves as a backdrop for Leonard's musings about life and legacy. What do traditions mean? What do their voices say today? Can they serve her sons too, the children of a Jewish mother and a father who is the son of a Lutheran pastor? Leonard wonders (or laments?), "Did I tell them, did I tell them? Little things, forgotten. Big things, omitted. Things that, because I didn't know how to tell you, my hands and eyes tried to word." In The Soup Has Many Eyes, Leonard tells them.

And so much she tells them. Across time, Leonard spirits Gramma Chana back for an archetypical dialogue on her maternal doubts.

"`Gramma Chana, tell me,' I ask, `how do you know?'

`Know what, child?'

`What mothers are supposed to know?'

`Know? Achhh! What is there to know? You hoe your gratchkeh, the bread you knead until it feels just so, when comes the baby, you push. For this you need to know? Your heart, do you tell it to beat? Your breath, do you say "now in, now out"? So what's all this "know"?' . . . `Look at the men with their watery eyes, Joann. They squint at their books for so many years, they squint out all the color from their eyes. They clutch their foreheads with their hands ready to snatch the live thing inside that gnaws to get out. But always, there are more questions.'

`So what am I supposed to do, Gramma?'

`Do? Make the soup. That's what you do.'"

Ultimately, Joann's "answer" is that turgid alchemy of past and present that connects all the hope and fears of all generations going back to Eve.

"Josh and Jonny, do you ever remember us hugging you so hard and so long that you felt as if you couldn't breathe, as if it would never end? That's the hug of parents holding their child for all the parents in the world whose arms go empty. Parents whose children have been stolen from them by war, starvation, hatred, drugs, disease, despair. It is an embrace born out of guilt and gratitude that our child is here, though we are no more deserving. It is a fierce attempt to ring you with talisman and benediction."

Leonard's letter to her children is timeless because its taproot reaches down into the mystery of our dreams and memories. We live, love, work, and die to pass down our wisdom to our progeny. And why? Who can know? But The Soup Has Many Eyes describes the what and how if not the why and why not, and in Leonard's vivid images of her own history our collective consciousnesses meet.