Connecticut Books

Susan Eaton, the author of The Children In Room E4, wants you to see things the right way, or at least, the way she sees them. There's no crime in that, especially when you're drafting a gimmicky non-fiction book on social injustice and want to convert readers into your realm of thought. It can be destructive, however, when you're method of persuading is so overtly one-sided that it becomes almost painful to continue reading what acts as force-fed propaganda from a quasi-socialist.

Main scope of book: the inner-city Hartford school system, which act as a microcosm for inner city schools across the country, is racially segregated. The reasons for this are both direct and indirect, but regardless of the reasons, Connecticut states that this is unconstitutional. Eaton takes the reader alongside the process of the historic Sheff vs. O'Neil case, the case that decided a method of forced integration between urban minority students and their white suburban counterparts. For the plaintiffs, as well as for Eaton, the solution cannot simply be found in compounding funds into a the inner city school systems, but rather, by an extensive effort in desegregating the systems by redrawing district lines that were once defined by socioeconomic redlining and shady real estate practices designed to keep blacks and Hispanics away from their white counterparts. This is a noble idea, and certainly one of merit, but Eaton strategically corrodes her analysis by blatantly ignoring some counterarguments, arguments that anyone with a computer and ten minutes of free time could have used to negate her entire thesis.

#1. Nowhere in her book does Eaton mention the Kansas City Project, a plan that began in 1985 which lasted until 1997 where a federal district judge ordered the state of Missouri to begin an extensive desegregation process within Kansas City. $2 billion dollars were earmarked for the project, as well as an annual multi-million dollar integration fund set aside to provide transportation for white students into the city. Elaborate schools were built; well-qualified teachers replaced the mediocre educators; brand new computers were installed in the schools; top-echelon extra curricular were added; but after roughly ten years, the test scores were almost exactly the same as they were in 1985 - among the lowest in the nation. White suburbanites didn't take the bait either. The plan initially predicted 6-10 thousand white students moving into the new schools annually, but proponents of the plan were hugely disappointed when the zenith of the integration movement was a mere 1,500 students, many of whom moved back to their old districts after one year.

#2. Eaton's lambasting of conservative educational reforms. While I'm not a Republican (or Democrat for that matter), I found it pathetic that Eaton goes out of her way to bash the conservative policies of Nixon, Rehnquist, Reagan, Bush the 1st, and Little Bush. Nowhere does she attack a liberal policy which also ended in failure (of which there have been MANY). This blatant one-sidedness does nothing but hurt Eaton's credibility as an objective writer and limits her ability to reason with the segments of her readership who actually try to think objectively.

#3. Eaton all but ignores the socioeconomic divide in her book. While she goes to great lengths to illustrate the many reasons why racial segregation exists - including "white flight", unethical real estate practices, and racial profiling in job hiring - she fails to note the socioeconomic Elephant in the Room in terms of single-parent homes in urban areas as opposed those in the academically affluent suburbs. Even her poster boy for African American success - John Brittain - is describes as a man who has BOTH parents heavily involved in his upbringing, a fact that Eaton fails to accentuate.

As a writer, Eaton is sound. As a propagandist, she is even better. As an objective framer of thought, however, Eaton leaves a great deal to be desired.

Reader be warned: you won't be getting a fair or honest view in The Children in Room E4. You will, however, be getting a rhetorical treatise into the realm of socialist one-sidedness, where the problem is defined but enormous amounts of reasons for the problem are ignored, while a plan of corrective solution is almost entirely lost in all of her rhetoric.

This book goes beyond simply explaining what the challenges in urban education are -- it shows where they came from. With a detailed history of the Supreme and Federal Court decisions since Brown v. Board of Education, Eaton illustrates how segregated and isolated schooling has been perpetuated and gotten worse in the last 50 years. Her analysis does it in two ways: first, by focusing closely on a high achieving Hartford class of students in their third and fourth grade years (the Micro view) and by showing how the Macro problems -- the legal history -- have enabled the complete ignoring and disempowerment of American cities.

In so doing, Eaton tells the story of Sheff v. O'Neill -- a landmark Connecticut court decision on the vastly segregated and unequal state of schooling in the Hartford area. She explains how the legal team put the case together, the data they collected, their Constitutional interpretations, and their battles to win....

If you are from Connecticut, interested in schooling or in school law, this book is perfect for you.

Susan Eaton clearly explains the current state of urban education, particularly in Hartford, Connecticut. The book is wonderfully written in two interwoven narratives. The first traces the seemingly unending legal proceedings surrounding education in Hartford. The second contains what I feel is the true spirit of the book. Eaton tells the reader a story in language so plain and clear that any teacher will feel the overwhelming, systematic, and largely ignored challenges facing `the children in room E4.' Yet, the story also tells us of an amazing educator and her students. Eaton brings to us those everyday student-teacher exchanges that give us hope; hope that our curious and intelligent children will be blessed by dedicated teachers. `The Children in Room E4' inspires me as a new teacher. Lastly, it reminds me that while the state of urban education nationwide is dire, the challenges of where one teaches can be overcome by the kindness, compassion, and relentless energy of a great teacher.

Can separate ever be equal? Over and over again, we seem to be coming back to the same question our country has struggled with for decades. Countless court cases later, Susan Eaton describe in heart breaking detail, the inequities in the school lives of the children in room E4- a room found in every urban area in this country today.

Public education continues to fail miserably. Eaton's ability to weave the details of the court ruling and efforts by civil rights attorneys with the every day life in the classroom is stunning. Anyone who cares about education in this country today must read this book. It provides a compelling roadmap of where we've been and where we are headed if something doesn't change.

Susan Eaton has produced an exceptional, deeply researched book. It's by no means without an agenda, but it's no Swiftian polemic, something to which a wealth of footnotes and references will attest.

Eaton grabs you by the wrist, pulling you through the torturous folds of the Sheff v O'Neill court case. She forces the ugly machinations of a typical large-city public school system into the fore, giving a vivid account of the harsh inequity of Connecticut schools.

Eaton makes a compelling argument against district boundaries, with their rigid, segregating forces. She tells of an entrenched system of De Facto segregation, arisen over the past fifty years, here to stay--unless, of course, the slumbering giants (our public schools) wake up to their own mistakes. They did in 1954, when Brown forced them. Perhaps they will again.

Every school district board member should keep this book on their desk.

None have mastered the pithy wisdom of Mark Twain and it is nowhere more powerful than his short stories. From the tales of bad little boys that teach us the source of integrity, to the diaries of Adam and Eve that give us great insight in male-female relations long before the self-help flood of the late 20th century. It is not only classic Americana but classic common sense full of wit and fun. None can make us laugh at ourselves like the literary genius of Mark Twain. I can read it over and over again and never grow tired of it.

"The Story of the Bad Little Boy" is a satire on the stories we all heard in Sunday school with an interesting twist. While Twain seems to b satirizing the stories of old because his protagonist does not seem to encounter punishment for his sin, Twain still ends the story with something of a moral for us to think about. While Jim may have been able to get away with his bad behavior, he was still sinful. In other words, a person cannot base his or her behavior on the fact if he or she is punished or not. The truth is that many bad people get away with doing bad things all the time and we must be better and rise above such behavior. Goodness must come from one's own desire to be good.

Twain purposefully begins with Jim's bad behavior as what appears to be harmless. For example, his first bad at is replacing the jam with tar. This seems harmless enough. That act is followed by stealing apples from Farmer Acorn's apple tree. We are told that Jim "and the limb didn't break, and he didn't fall and break his arm, and get torn by the farmer's great dog" and he "stole as many apples as he wanted and came down all right."

Another interesting aspect of this story is how Twain is how Jim continues to live a bad life even as an adult. The sequence is essential to Twain's notion that evil, if allowed to grow, will take over a person's life. Jim's evil actions were innocent enough when he was a boy. However, they progressively become worse. For example, he moves from stealing apples to stealing a knife and then planting the knife in George Wilson's cap and allowing George to be punished. In fact, the incident with George reveals much about Jim's personality. We are told:

"No meddling old clam of a justice dropped in to make trouble, and so the model boy George got thrashed, and Jim was glad of it because, you know, Jim hated moral boys. Jim said he was `down on them milk-sops.' Such was the coarse language of this bad, neglected boy."

These statements reflect how Jim is growing more evil. He not only finds joy in doing evil things, but he also delights in the fact that good and innocent people suffer for crimes they did not commit. Jim moves from becoming a mischevious boy to an evil boy that hates good boys. This is a subtle action but it reflects how evil can subtly take over an individuals' life. In this sense we can see how people are not born completely evil. Instead, they wander through gray areas of life committing one evil act after another until they are transformed. The message here is that people rarely set out to be evil; rather they become evil after repeating one offense after the other.

Twain moves through the events of Jim's life to illustrate that although bad people do not always get caught, they end up with a life that is not pleasing or desirable. In the beginning of the story, the events Twain describes are what we would consider normal for an average boy. Stealing is something to which we can all relate. By introducing us to such events, Twain is engaging us as readers. When we read about Jim, we think that there is nothing wrong with him. However, as the story progresses, we realize that Jim's behavior begins to have negative effects on other people. Not only that, but Jim has little regard for these people. First, it is George then it become Jim's innocent family. By moving swiftly through these events, Twain is demonstrating how quickly a person can become evil.

I found this story to be fascinating in that its message is not terribly overt. I also enjoyed it because it is realistic. Many people do not get caught or punished for their crimes. But the most fascinating aspect is how Jim's character develops into a truly evil person. He goes from stealing jam to braining his entire family. At the end of the story, we are told that he "got wealthy by all manner of cheating and rascality; and now he is the infernalist wickedest scoundrel in his native village, and is universally respected, and belongs to the Legislature." Clearly, while this message seems to support the message that crime pays, it also indicates that Jim became an evil person one step at a time. In fact, Jim is probably not even aware of his own evilness.

It is also interesting that the narrator refers to Jim as lucky more than once. I also believe this is part of Twain's technique because at first glance, it would appear that Jim is lucky. he is never caught and is never punished for his crimes. In fact, he is well respected in his community. It would seem that he does have the best of luck. However, the underlying message is that we cannot rest on what society perceives as lucky when it comes to finding meaning in life. Jim's so-called luck is simply another one of society's misguided messages. In reality, Jim is not lucky at all.

In the end, Jim might have been considered lucky to some but more importantly, he was sinful. The story teaches us that goodness must come from within--it cannot come from Sunday school books nor can it come from how society perceives and treats us. While Twain mocks the typical Sunday school method of teaching, he is presenting the same message in that we must desire to be good and that desire must be our compelling force in life.

Ok, now I don't think I need to go on about Mark Twain's genius and how it is essential reading for anyone who fancies themselves a fan of classic American literature, he's number two on my list of great American writers. His work is of the sort that will make you laugh out loud no matter how much you try to hold it in. It's easy to look crazy when reading Mark Twain in public. Now about the edition...is it bad? Well not in this reader's opinion and certainly not to the extent that like a fellow reviewer I'd give it 1 star. The content is there and is far from the exaggerated description given in other reviews. You don't have to tear the book apart to read it's contents. This is a compact edition and fitting lots of stories in only 600 pages for a very affordable price. Quantity versus quality? Ever heard quantity has a quality all it's own? It applies here. You can get all these stories for one low price. You can even toss it around and not have a guilty conscience that you are dismembering a treasure.

It is hard to believe that one writer could create such a diverse group of stories on all kinds of subject matter; each one written with Mark Twain's unique sense of humor and extraordinary gift of imagination.
These stories also stand the test of time as they are every bit as entertaining now as they were over 100 years ago.
Some of the ones that I enjoyed the most;
The Canvasser' Tale; the story of a man's collection of echoes
The Diary of Adam and Eve; a humorous look at what Adam and Eve's first thoughts of each other and the world around them.
The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm.
The Californian's Tale with a twist at the end.

This collection is writing at its very best; a treasure of American story telling.

This is an exhaustive edition of Mark Twain's short stories. Enough has been written about the high quality of Twain's work, which merits five stars here. But I need to add my own experience with this edition that has been discussed in other customer reviews. I agree with another reviewer that the Bantam edition leaves a lot to be desired. My own copy had a problem with the first few dozen pages being cut wrong, so that the last line of text was cut off, not even on the page. Tiny scraps of paper, like lint, kept falling out of the pages. And the ink from the text rubbed off on my fingers. You can do better than this edition. Do a little searching on Amazon. For a replacement copy, I found a nice used hardcover edition, complete with dustjacket, published in 1957, for just $8.00. But it's important to identify the copy you are ordering as the one edited by Charles Neider (1957 or later, 676 pages if it's hardcover). There are other Twain collections published under the same title that have (inexplicably) different content.

It's hard to believe that someone who had been a virtual recluse for 27 years could start venturing outside again simply because of a few moments with a spunky 9-year-old. That aside, the book is full of wonderful characterizations, likeable personas that make you wish you could know Kat or her grandmother. I was happy to learn there was a sequel to their story.

I enjoyed mostly all of this book by Allen. Lucinda was the main character, who after her mother's death, and learning she was part black, became a terrible recluse. Going out of the house at all terrified her to pieces, and all she could do was stay buried in her own little world indoors.

When Katayna, a black little girl waves to Lucinda in the window, Lucinda is curious. So Lucinda goes out to see what the little girl wants, and strikes an instant strong friendship. This special friendship with Katayna, just might pull Lucinda out of her shell, and force her to examine her life in the past.
Little by little, Lucinda begins to go places and overcome her fear of whatever-which I never understood what it was.

A worthwhile read.

This story is completely transparent, sometimes contived in its name-dropping-for-authenticity-sake style, but it is nevertheless an enjoyable read that focuses on interior issues rather than suspenseful plot-driven drama. Too much surface, not enough substance with regard to agoraphobia and its limitations, as well as the tired romanticized plotline could cause realists to disregard its character-clarity. However, the omnivorous reader will find much to like in the self-ruminations of these individuals, implausibility, aside. I was looking for a light-hearted story without the "Nora Roberts" formula. The sequel, however, simply screams ROMANCE NOVEL. As much as I liked being in this flawed character's head, the author lost me at the end while she was setting up the sequel.

This is a hard book to review. On one hand, it is a very readable story- it is easy to while away a snowy afternoon turning the pages and absorbing yourself in this book. However, there are SO many faults with the plot. THe story is way too contrived- woman almost never leaves the house, does not speak to anyone over the phone except to place work orders, sees a little girl in her backyard, and within 8 days she is transformed. She's called old friends, made new ones, got a new job... And all because of a too precocious 9 year old girl! It has to be fiction. Never has there been such a neat, happy, ending, where all things are as they should be. Near the end of th book, Lucinda is remarking that she can't beleive it's only been a month...well, neither can we. It's totally impossible to beleive that this could happen to anyone.

But plausibility aside, the book has its moments. The language is simple, and for anyone who does not wish to see a bad ending, this is perfect.

I really wanted to love this book -- the story sounds so engaging and uplifting, with an inner-city child from the Fresh Air Fund opening up the life of a reclusive young woman. However, I ended up irritated by it instead: the twists and turns of the plot are so far-fetched, particularly the sudden and radical effect the child has on the life of the main character. The way in which the child suddenly appears and instantly rescues someone who's been deeply mired in agoraphobia for years just doesn't seem convincing -- the author is using a "deus ex machina" scenario to solve some very complex problems. The book tries hard to tug at the reader's heartstrings, but for me, the story just never rang true.

`Paradise Salvage' is both a great coming of age story and a long winded slow moving book that always seems to be on the verge of breaking out of its malaise but rarely does. The story starts out with Nunzio Paradisco, a young kid and son of a junk yard owner finding a dead or dying body in the back of a car. The next couple of hundred pages deal with Nunzio trying to get his family to believe he saw anything other than a brood of dead puppies. Eventually Nunzio, his older brother, and a crippled cousin are trying to figure out what is going on.

The mystery that unfolds here is really secondary to Fusco's description of a childhood in an Italian family. As lovingly as Fusco attempts to tell this tale, in my opinion it falls a little flat. In the review up top on this Amazon page, it says that Fusco was the screenwriter for the film `Young Guns.' That movie was as `B' as you can get... campy to the core. And in some ways, `Paradise Salvage' is in the same boat.

The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking of "the Bottoms" by Joe Lansdale. I kept comparing the two books at the back of my mind because they both dealt with kids on the verge of becoming young adults. Both stories dealt with the youngsters trying to figure out a murder. And both stories were steeped in descriptive passages. Where `Paradise Salvage' is a little long in tooth, `The Bottoms' does a remarkable job of evoking a place and time you can only visit in your imagination. And I'm sorry to say that `Salvage' was the kind of book where you are not relishing every page, but instead hoping occasionally that those pages were already past.

Fusco swung for the fences here, I don't think that he wrote the contemporary American masterpiece he was aiming for. But its not all bad either.

What are they drinking in Avon, CT?? This book is the first
American novel I have read that draws on the magic realism of Italo Calvino and jumps off the page into the room! There are times when I feel that the author is actually paying homage to Calvino--and at times Baricco--when he takes characters so far
into sixth gear that a reader with no familiarity of opera buffa or magic-realism might cry "stereotype". To me, this is exciting terrain.

I just saw the author do a reading in Boston and it only confirmed my excitement. He said he is directing the movie version (I think). I say James Gandolfini as Big Dan!

I am from the same city in CT that John Fusco grew up. I could not put this book down. I clearly remember the political problems that the author refers to. Fusco's description of the city and of his neighborhood is so colorful and accurate that I always knew exactly where he was referring to even when names were changed. My in-laws are "1st generation" Italians living in the neighborhood that Fusco describes in his book as his own and the description of the family dynamics is hysterical and accurate. I cannot emphasize how much I enjoyed this book. Anyone who enjoys family dynamics and a good mystery will enjoy this book.

A screen player writer, the author has given us a book that cries out to be a movie and apparently is going to be. It has an innocence and reminded me so much of "Stand By Me"
Even the chimpanzee who appears charmed me and I can hardly wait to see who is cast in this tour de force for actors.
Great little book!

I loved the book. Fusco tells a story of an Italian-American family outside New York, but it is not for those of Italian ascent only. It is a warm story about growing up in two cultures, being third generation, which should appeal to those from Mayflower on and immigrants alike.

Nunzio, the 12 year old I of the book, who cares about his big brother and dad to the point where his stomach aches, who is thinking, loving, scared of crimes, awakening sexually, superstitious, and unforgettable.

Oh yes, it's also a crime story. But most of all it is a tale about growing up, reminding me of Mark Twain. The characters around Nunzio are also a treat, like the female gypsy cab driver Johnny from the Deep South, an ex-cop distant cousin in a wheel-chair with a monkey assistant, and much more. Also his Scottish mother and Italian relatives are quite a crowd.

Don't miss it, the humor is great. It's more a coming of age story than a thriller, but the thriller theme is all right, too.

As a dog lover and fan of cozy mysteries, this first installment in the Melanie Travis series caught my attention. And it had me turning page after page!!! "A Pedigree to Die For" has single mom Melanie and her poodle-breeding (and kinda stuffy) Aunt Peg in pursuit of the person responsible for murder and dog-napping (not sure which took more precedence). The book untangled some of the intricacies about dog shows and the people who are addicted to them.

Melanie is a very real, modern-day mom who juggles sleuthing with the needs of her five-year old son. Her character is like Goldy Schultz in Diane Mott Davidson's series (another winner, in my "book"), far more interesting than Joanne Fluke's or Mary Daheim's cast, and just a couple of notches below Janet Evanovich's inimitable Stephanie Plum. And THAT's saying something!

I'm so excited that this series has so many books. I'm going to unleash myself on them......

This book is the first in a series that features sleuth Melanie Travis and the dog show world. Since it is a first book, there is a lot of introductory material here. For instance, we get to meet Melanie and find out that she is a 30 year old divorced single mother whose latest boyfriend just married a showgirl in Vegas. She has a four year old son named Davey who is a typical handful of a four year old. She is a school teacher who is also looking for additional funds to be able to continue to afford living in Connecticut and it is summer time. Besides her son, her family also consists of her brother Frank, who is introduced as a do-nothing kind of person. Melanie's parents died some years before in a car crash, so we are told that her only other family is an uncle/aunt pair and another aunt who is a nun.

The mystery starts when her uncle Max has a heart attack in the middle of the night in the kennel where he is apparently checking on his prize Standard Poodles. Here we are introduced to the world of dog breeders and dog shows. Aunt Peg believes that Max's death is not accidental as the prize stud dog - Beau - is missing but she cannot get the police interested in the case. So, Frank is darfted, but since he is not particularly reliable, Melanie gets the call instead. Since Melanie knows nothing about dogs, Poodles, or dog shows and dog breeders, a big part of this volume is devoted to explaining some basic facts about the shows and how they work.

Peg has never liked her husband's sister - Rose. This dislike spills over when Rose reveals that she is leaving the convent and will marry a priest who is defrocking for the occasion. Now things start getting interesting as Peg has also taken a liking to a man by the name of Sam Driver and she is driving Melanie and Sam together. Melanie is on cruise control in her life and has no interest in gorgeous Sam - especially since Peg is so pushy about it; besides Melanie thinks that Sam might be involved in the crime!

So, one thing leads to another and we learn more about Melanie, her relatives, Sam, the dog show circuit, and dog breeders and breeding. Eventually, a murder is committed. Melanie also finds out about the root cause of the friction between Rose and Peg; more about how and why her parents died in that car crash; and manages to restore some kind of relationship in her fractious family.

By the end of the book, I was rooting for Melanie to solve the mystery, although by then, it was obvious who had done it and why. Nonetheless, the author managed to throw a good curve ball in at the end with some esoteric fact about dog breeding causing the bad guy's scheme to fall apart.

I really enjoyed this read and am looking forward to reading more about Melanie's adventures in the dog world - especially as we find out how much taken she is with the Standard Poodles and how much her son would love to have a pet!

Having read some of the other volumes in this series before, I would recommend that you pick this one up first as it establishes a lot of the background that is kind of assumed in the next volumes. This is especially true of the hilarious family situations. Oh, by the way, Max truly does die of a heart attack and is not murdered after all...

As a dog lover, this book caught my eye on the shelf of my local bookstore. I wish I'd left it there.

Several reviewers said it gets better as it goes along, both in this installment and in the series. I can't get that far. Every time I pick the book up to read it, I end up falling asleep with the book in my hand after a few pages.

Every character comes across as grating and unlikable. I find everyone referring to the female dogs as "bitches" annoying (proper or not). I hate when authors give their female heroines small children that add nothing to the story other than to be dragged around with their mothers on sleuthing expeditions. There's just nothing about this book that makes me want to keep going to find out if it gets better.

I have a friend who just adopted a poodle puppy. I'm sure she'll appreciate the gift and like it better than I did.

I was so happy to find a dog book (there are cats everywhere, but few authors do good dog books) but was soon disappointed. First, they were Poodles, one of my least favorite dogs. Second, it was about dogs shows, one of my least favorite `sports' (and I use that term very loosely here) - MUTTS RULE! Adopt your next dog from the pound! And lastly, it really wasn't all that well written. I didn't like the characters, the plot was skimpy and uninteresting, and I really wasn't drawn into the book at all. I will continue my search for a good dog series, and will almost certainly not read more of these.

I am currently on my 5th book in this series by Laurien Berenson and it has been terrific to witness how far she progresses as a writer with each new book. If you like dogs or especially if you are involved in showing dogs, this is a wonderful series.

Admittedly, "A Pedigree to Die For" started out a little slow in holding my interest. (But read it anyway, because the first few books really give you the "background" on the characters for the really great books later on!)

Melanie Travis is a 30-yr. old special needs teacher who is coping with the demands of raising a 4-yr. old son alone. Her divorced husband is not in the picture and neither are his child support payments!

When Melanie's Uncle Max dies under mysterious circumstances, a new friendship forms with Aunt Peg. The only problem is that the man Melanie suspects the most - Sam Driver, is the man that her Aunt Peg keeps trying to throw her together with!

While Melanie is trying to solve the murder, the reader is educated about the various aspects of dog competitions. I found it to be really inspirational. And no, Melanie does not get involved in showing dogs...yet.

I am so glad that I gave this series a chance!

I respect Vicki Hearne, I like this book. Bandit, and his case that Vicki fought for so well was a very important watermark in exposing the myths and half truths that cause so many local authorities accross the country to blindly deem certain breeds of dogs as dangerous. I want to love this book because of this, however, for me the book was to difficult to read. Vicki uses extremely complicated sentence structure and seems to enjoy putting the reader through the wringer before she makes her point. I had to come back to this book a few times to finish it. I believe this is a story we all should be aware of, unfortunately the style of writing alienates it from a good deal of it's prospective audience. If you're well read, go for it, if not just expect to go through a mental obstacle course before the book is finished!

This isn't a book about dog training, although it talks about that quite a bit. It's not even a book about dogs really, although it talks about dogs all the time. It's really about our relationships with dogs, how they fit into our lives and our society and our mythology. Hearne taught poetry at Yale, but her real calling seems to be dog training. Her writing is funny and dry and full of information, and sooner or later she'll say something that annoys you. But if you can't take a little annoyance you should have a dog. And she's probably only annoying you because you are carrying around some misconception about dogs.

I have owned and trained multiple breed of dogs and Ms Hearne is very right about the issue. This book should be mandatory to be read by anyone and everyone of the dumb politicians that come up with those stupid bans. This book is very true and is a must read, whether you are a dog owner (of any breed) or not.

The late Vicky Hearne was never considered a great trainer across the board. Those that believe in Positive Reinforcement training consider her techniques and ideology to be cruel and unnecessary. For instance: holding a dogs head in a hole filled with water to stop the dog from digging. There are other methods that can stop the behavior without using such barbaric methods. Her techniques should not be used, and notice, the aggressive dogs she deals with are never rehabilitated into mainstream doggy life as it were. They are never trained to the point of being trusted. So much for her methods.

Some people object to Vicki Hearne's writing style (smart girls can be annoying). Others feel her training methods were too harsh. But Vicki Hearne knew a great dog, and how to write about one. Be warned: This book is politically incorrect and may make you do something really stupid, like adopt a pit bull. Vicki Hearne is, after all, the one who said, "It is true that Pit Bulls grab and hold on. But what they most often grab and refuse to let go of is your heart, not your arm."

It all started with a phone call in the middle of the night. Melanie Travis is finally comfortable enough with Sam Driver that he spends the night at her house; but still not enough to have him there in the morning for breakfast. When the phone rings early in the morning, she finds out that her ex-husband is planning on coming to see the son that he abandoned four and a half years before. Since Melanie does not harbor too many good feelings about Bob, this starts her whole day off on the left foot. While she is obssessing about what this might mean, her aunt Peg takes her to a meeting of the local dog club and a murder takes place.

So, now we have the two basic problems being discussed in this book. What is it that Bob really wants, and who did the victim in? The rest of the 320 pages of this book take a look at those two main threads.

I thought this book was very well done. The pacing was rather deliberate and alternated between resolving the two mysteries in a comfortable pace. There are really no action sequences except for a mild attack at the end of the book, and the book's various resolutions take place in a logical and comforting manner. Yes, Bob leaves after a while without affecting Melanie's life too much. He does manage to resolve some of Melanie's angsts while he is visiting. We also note that his influence is encouraged by Melanie's brother and her aunt Rose. Since the characters are overall quite likeable, it is nice to see her move on in her life.

The murder mystery is handled the same way. Melanie investigates things that come up and finds out one thing after another that make sense. When one clue leads to the next, the resolution is not unexpected and it makes sense. So, there is not confusion or upset feelings about why that particular murder took place. At least the motive was clear and sensical.

Overall, this is a cozy read that takes no particular deep thinking. It is a fun way to spend a few hours and will definitely result in me reading more books in this series.

Oh, there is a dog show component too. So, those who know that scene will understand more of the underlying tensions. Although in this volume, the dogs are definitely subsidiary to the action.

I enjoy all the books by this author. They're interesting and have good story lines.

Welcome back to the "dog eat dog" world of dog breeding and shows, where Melanie Travis and her Aunt Peg are once again embroiled in a mystery. This time, in Dog Eat Dog, a member of Peg's kennel club is murdered shortly after a meeting, and Melanie is compelled to find the killer despite the fact that she is not a member of the club herself.

This, however, is not the only thing "eating" at Melanie: the ex-husband is back in town and anxious to take up where he left off with Melanie's son, five-year-old Davey, even though the two haven't seen each other in four years and two months. Needless to say, the reunion does very little for Melanie's escalating relationship with Poodle breeder Sam Driver, particularly when the former hubby drops hints of taking Davey back to Texas.

Discoveries of gossip and blackmail are the focus of Dog Eat Dog, which is a good followup story to Underdog. A light, sometimes humorous read, this is a recommended "cozy".

I absolutely loved this book! It is well written and has a cohesive plot, which is rare for an animal mystery nowadays. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in dogs, dog shows, or just mysteries! The cast of characters in this book makes it (and the rest of the series) a laugh a page. Aunt Peg in particular is just the funniest.

Not only are these mysteries entertaining, but they also inform the reader of the ins and outs of the dog show business and breeding. I am new to dog ownership and these books have answered many questions I was afraid to ask others.
Surely worth enjoying!

In this second book of the Dorsetville series, many events take place in the lives of the people.

For starters, Barry Hornibrook has himself in real trouble. He is in very serious debt from trying to start a hotel and is at the point where he cannot even pay his contractors anymore much less anything else. The gentleman that gave him a loan turned out to be a bad person, and escaped, leaving Barry in limbo without the money he needed. These two men are after him for money as well, and if Barry does not come through with the money he owes which is a couple million, they are threatening to kill him. As he is under the gun with time running out, he desparately searches for a way to get out of the terrible situation he is in.

Nellie Anderson is another example of faith here in the book. She has a threat hanging over her head on foreclosure with her home. She has been struggling hard to try and make ends meet, while having fallen behind on the bills. She is working a teaching job during the day, and doing another job at night. Nellie has also been working on a children's Christmas book for a very long time. And the book is her last hope to save the house. But it will have to be a quick save since time is running out for her too.

There is a huge fire at the church opposite Saint Cecilia's, and the Galligan twin boys started it during the week of bible school. Sara, Lori's daughter was down in the basement, and couldn't find her way out. She falls asleep there in the basement when the fire gets going, but luckily gets rescued just in time.

The Galligan twins are always full of pranks and also set off a firecracker that caused some major problems. The boys own up eventually after Father James makes them confess to Sheriff Bromley all their recent
pranks.

Father James gets run over by two men who take off without even stopping, knowing too well what they did. Father has a broken leg for a very long time and has to stay on bedrest pretty much, putting up with his cranky housekeeper Mrs. Morris whom is driving him nuts.

The two men that hit Father James are the two guys that have threatened Barry Hornibrook for the money. The answer to Barry's prayers will come when the sheriff captures these two men who have been up to no good for a long time.

This book was great all the way through, and I look forward to Grace Will Lead Me Home, the third book in the series.

I'm sorry to have to give another negative review to one of Katherine Valentine's books, but again, this is just a rip-off of the Mitford books. She even has a big, unruly dog....just like Jan Karon's books! The characters are such obvious copies of the characters in the Mitford books that it becomes a real annoyance.
And again, her version of Catholicism is a little skewed. She acknowledges several priest friends in the preface to her book....did she get them to read it carefully? For example, she refers to "The Sacred Heart of Mary". What?? It's the "Immaculate Heart of Mary"....we only refer to Jesus' Sacred Heart. These and other errors just jump off the page to an even moderately well-educated Catholic. "Rent A Nun"???? Give me a break.

Though I had looked forward to reading this book based on Katherine Valentine's first novel, I came away from it disappointed and even a bit disturbed. Initially, I was pleased to see Valentine addressing tougher questions about God, faith and suffering; but as the novel progressed it seemed as though every distressful situation was miraculously remedied by the presence of an angel or the rosary at the center of the story. While I realize that this was part of the plot device--people being inadvertently touched by holiness which then passes by--it nonetheless completely voided any realism in the novel whatsoever. And I, too, was troubled by "Rent-A-Nun": it conjured up the notion of indulgences and seemed to invoke the very worst stereoptypes about Catholicism. In terms of stylistic merit, I continue to prefer the Mitford novels, which are so artfully put together while deceptively seeming simple and which address difficult issues of faith in a subtle yet revealing fashion.

I was given this book as a gift. Having not read any of the author's previous works, it was immediately apparent that her series borrows closely from the Mitford books. But my take on this is: Who Cares? Speaking as someone who is tired of reading books on incest, domestic abuse, rape, and other horrors (which we read about daily in our newspapers) just having a new series to read that brings pleasure is most welcome. I could not put this book down. It's a simple story, with simple charactors, but the plotlines were many and knowing that they would all be tied together in a happy bundle at the end of the book was reassuring. The small town charm, the way Ms. Valentine teaches nuggets of the faith by sprinkling learning episodes throughout the book is a nice touch. As a practicing Catholic, it's wonderful to have a series of books that reflects my faith, even if she sometimes makes a mistake or two. Granted, the Rent-a-Nun concept is troubling, but other than that, it's a wonderful read and highly recommended.

Karen Valentine's characters in this book are people I know!! Not really...but her book is lively and entertaining and quite inspirational. If you are looking for a book that challenges your spirituality gently this book is for you! I'd recommend it.

I enjoy this series because I love the author's writing style and what she's done with the characters to move them along. However, this is the second straight installment where I've been left wondering why she bothered writing a book which it seemed could've been condensed and added on to the previous installment.

There was supposed to be a mystery here, but it seemed to get lost in the shuffle of Sally's love life and the affiliate conferences, leaving me wondering why I was reading a mystery that didn't seem very mysterious.

I also wish we could see some imperfection out of Sally, Alexandra, Will, etc. -- it seems the whole cast of characters are really far too perfect.

I love the Sally Harrington novels and I'm so glad that she finally found the love of her life. You can understand her life because we all face alot of this in our own lives.
I was disappointed in the Cassy, Alexandra, Jackson love triangle. None of the other books put Jackson in a bad light and a person can change. I think that Van Wormer put a bad light on Jackson to make everything else seem right.Yes, before he married Cassy, he was quite the playboy--but he seemed to really love Cassy & she loved him in the previous books.
I enjoyed the book but hated what happened to Jackson.

Sally Harrington is ready to launch her own show--a morning network newscast. First, though, the network needs to get reluctant affiliate channels to sign up--which means both replacing their own local programming and losing a portion of the advertising dollars associated with doing their own programming. Fortunately, Sally is practically perfect. Not only does she put together the handouts and goodies for the upcoming network affiliate party, she also manages the video productions that highlight all of the DBS News segments--including her own and that of her mentor, Alexandra.

Unfortunately, DBS has some deeper issues. One of these is the loss of the long-time star of their news magazine. Sally had been tapped as a replacement, but prefered to do her own show and now the ratings are plunging. Could News actuallyl lose this segment to Sports? Sally will need to use all of her people skills to come up with a creative solution to this challenge.

At the same time, someone is killing or near-killing anyone who's offended Sally. Fortunately, the police rally around her so she isn't a suspect. Still, it is unpleasant--as are the mysterious white roses that show up every time one of her old enemies is done in. Then there's Sally's love-life crisis. Her younger cop-boyfriend is crazy about her, but she just can't see a future with him. The lawyer she's really crazy about is married to someone else, which causes problems for Sally.

Author Laura Van Wormer does an incredible job making the all-too-perfect Sally Harrington sympathetic. All of the network details are vividly described and it's fascinating to see Sally work her way through both the political and the news crises that crop up as she continues to do her job. Unfortunately, the mystery and thriller part of the story are not given the same detailed attention. Instead, they feel as if Van Wormer got caught up in the soap-opera life of her protagonist and suddenly remembered that she was writing a mystery.

Despite the sketchy nature of the mystery and the annoying fact of Sally's over-perfection, MR. MURDER is enjoyable to read. With those story flaws, the quality of the writing really came to the rescue.

I ordered this book because it was set in Connecticut, and I enjoyed that part. It seemed that it took a long time to get anywhere in this book. Eventhough Sally is the focus of the murders, you just really don't care very much.

I love Sally's adventures.
Van Wormer always writes wonderful characters.
The mystery in this one wasn't her sharpest.
I read her work for the richly drawn characters and
locales.
The news business is always written with great detail.
These scenes especially are always exhilarating.

Mr. Murder has one element that I was very happy about.
Two characters get together that I have been waiting a long time for. I was elated! Luckily for me it has only been a year of waiting. I found Van Wormer's books a year ago. Others may have been waiting since 89!
If you are new to Laura Van Wormer, I suggest you go back and start at Riverside Drive and read all her books featuring Cassy and Alexandra and Jessica and the indefatigable Sally in chronological order.
It is a thoroughly enjoyable series.

When Kuraku-san -- Eugene Clark -- died in 1998, no one except his family noticed his passing. Half a century earlier, Clark had prevented thousands of men, women and children from being murdered, and, indirectly, forestalled the deaths of millions more from murder and starvation.
He was a war criminal.
At least, by the standards of the self-appointed moral censors at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Code PINK and the editorial boards of the New York Times and similar papers, he was.
He set up a secret prison where he kept civilians taken prisoner without access to the Red Cross or lawyers. He turned over prisoners to a government that was known to torture and kill prisoners. He shot soldiers who had laid down their arms. He recruited and used a child soldier only 13 years old.
You can decide for yourself the fitness of his behavior. He wrote it down for his superiors in the United States Navy in 1953. After they read it, it was put in a safety deposit box where it stayed, unknown to the world,
for 50 years.
Clark, who spoke Japanese, was chosen to head a commando mission in September 1950 to gather information about the notoriously difficult approaches to Inchon, the port of Seoul. The anticommunist armies were on the ropes in southeastern South Korea, fighting desperately to keep from being pushed into the sea. A few weeks earlier, at an insignificant place called No Gun Ri, a minor skirmish had been fought by retreating Americans. That action has since been elevated into another war crime, as a result of a phony story published by the Associated Press.
Kuraku-san, two South Korean lieutenants and a dozen South Korean marines occupied an island, Yonghung, on the approaches to Inchon and recruited local fishermen and farmers to collect intelligence. It involved nightly skirmishes, knifings, stealthy patrols and the last battle in history of fleets under sail.
Torture and murder of prisoners was frequent on both sides, although Lt. Kim, Clark's interrogator, preferred not to use it. Kim also usually failed to get any information from communist prisoners.
There are other kinds of torture besides waterboarding.
The key figure in the story, from out 21st century perspective, was Yeh, a Korean communist from the Inchon area. Yeh's father had been killed as a communist by the South Korean police. His mother, however, was an anticommunist.
After the war began, Yeh emerged as political officer for the North Koreans at Inchon. He was in a position to
use a unique kind of torture.
Yeh's grandfather, an elder on one of the islands, came to Yeh with the other elders to ask the communists to
leave them enough rice to survive; they were starving. Yeh was able to break down his grandfather by telling
him that he, Yeh, had killed the grandfather's daughter, Yeh's mother.
That broke the islanders. The elders were shot; the people fled to the hills to starve.
Clark staged a raid to capture Yeh. To Clark's frustration, Yeh was captured alive but shot (probably by accident by his own men) during a gun battle during the retreat.
Clark leaves no doubt that he did not expect Kim's restrained methods to work on a character like Yeh. He does not specify what torture he planned to use on Yeh, but he clearly intended to make him talk.
Clark commented many times on the difference between American and Oriental, especially Korean, rules. When he agreed to send a 13-year-old girl behind communist lines to spy, he labeled it "a pretty low business."
Early on, he defined the rules of engagement: "The Republic of Korea was waging 'total' war against the Reds, admitting of no compromise -- utterly ruthless in her determination to expel the enemy and bring the nation together again under one flag. Korea was fighting this war under Oriental rules, with no pretense of observing the fast-becoming outmoded 'humanitarian' laws of warfare established by Western conventions. No squeamish American could hope to obtain the respect or following of such ardent Korean revolutionaries (against first the Japanese, later the communists) as Yong and Kim," his Korean lieutenants.
With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that Clark's foresight was justified.
In those days, conduct that the University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds has dubbed "lawfare" did not prevent anti-totalitarians like Clark from fighting on terms that made victory possible.
Clark's work made a success of the landing at Inchon. The result was not a complete victory for freedom, but as we now know, it saved tens of millions of South Koreans from slavery and death. Of the villagers who worked with Clark, about 50 were murdered in cold blood by the communists.
Lawfare was not in vogue in 1950. Clark was awarded a Silver Star and a Legion of Merit for his valor and skill. The recognition was inadequate, but Clark fought for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who begrudged giving credit to anybody but Douglas MacArthur, and especially not to a mustang like Clark.

I actually felt it was between 3 and 4 stars. I knew of this misson but never knew the details until now. I would personally like to thank Mrs. Clark for volunteering her husband's personal account of the misson which was in a safe-deposit box, unbeknown to the outside world.

It was amazing how one Navy officer and two Korean oficers had to get everything together and ready for the invasion of Inchon. Would you believe they had only two weeks to complete the task. One just does not know how many details and how many bumps there were until they read this book. I really enjoyed the descriptions and details. I feel I have gotten to understand the Korean people better because of this book. I fellt like I was there. A job well done!

The decision by General MacArthur to invade Inchon was highly controversial. All command structures were against the move. The decision turned out to be correct. The author is the nab who went behind the enemy lines and helped gather the information needed to make the invasion a success. A good quick read.

Many people seem to have forgotten about the Korean War. This is one mans truly great story. I had never heard anything about this, but it seems to have been an intergal part in the UN's success in stomping some communist ass. Having served there I think its great that this information is out there and I hope it spreads. If you are into military history this is the book for you. Eugene Clark had, from what I gathered, no combat training, yet he performed spec ops. caliber missions. This book is not only a tribute to him, but to those who fell in korea, and the over 10,000 Americans still unnaccounted for there.

Full disclosure: This reviewer failed to read "The Secrets of Inchon" as closely as he would have preferred. The Inchon Landing of September, 1950 was one of the most heroic and timely exploits in U.S. military history. It came at the lowest point in the Korean War as our troops were trapped in the far Southeast corner of the peninsula ("the Pusan Perimeter"). The invasion, behind enemy lines, broke the back of the North Korean Army, virtually eliminating it as a military force. In the weeks before the invasion, the author landed a commando team on the islands surrounding Inchon. His team obtained critical information on the size of the local garrison, disposition of machine gun nests, artillery emplacements, and the height of the seawalls. This should have made for an exciting military story and for others it did. However, this reviewer was distracted to the point of total frustration by the inadequacies of the physical book. There are 3 major problems: 1) Most of all, the MAPS are of TOTAL inadequacy. This is a major defect in an operation where geography was of overriding importance. Why do publishers permit such lapses? 2) The centerfold photos are dull and serve virtually no purpose. Surely the Navy could have provided better. 3) The typesetting is completely unprofessional. More than that, it hurts the eye. There is no spacing between the paragraphs through the ENTIRE text! I found myself skimming pages to save my sight! The bottom line is that mistakes and omissions by the publisher have marred a potentially superior tale. Hopefully, future reprintings can address these shortcomings. Perhaps the hardcover edition does not contain them at all. The call from this corner is a reduction in rank from 5 stars to 3. This is solely due to the sloppy or otherwise disinterested publisher-or sleeping editor-who failed to support a superior piece of military reporting.