Clay Books

Smith is a black male law professor at Howard University. He selects documents which discuss black women in the law from the time that the first sister was sworn in to the present. This book has great statistical facts and is a good tool for arguing why affirmative action is necessary in law schools. However, I would have preferred if a historian had written this book. As it stands, this is just a scrapbook that included selected writings on the topic. There is much academic literature on women in the law and blacks in the law and it is not incorporated well into this book. In addition, there are a number of incredible black, female law professors out there and their work on black women's legal issues barely gets addressed here. In brief, this book is a nice piece to have, but it could have been better.

Henry Wilson Allen's first book as Clay Fisher "Red Blizzard" is a surprisingly modern western(written circa 1950). It tells of a biracial(Native American and White) Army scout named John Perez, and his attempt to save the Army from a massive confederacy of Nations led by Crazy Horse and Red Cloud. The Native Americans are not treated one-dimensionally here, they may be the "villians", but they are portrayed as honorable warriors in the ending, while the Army is portrayed as flawed and stocked with racists and blowhards, but they also are treated as honorable. The ending is gritty, and appropriate. A hidden treasure. Fisher's treatment of racism is the biggest plus here, he was ahead of his time.

This book is a fair read when it comes to discussing hunting rifles and calibers. Taken from his personal ballistic experiments, the author offers a lot of real world data as compared to factory publishings for most all calibers used for hunting. I found the author's hunting experience as used as examples in cartridge selection to be limited with the strength, again, resting on findings taken from his time on the rifle range. Definitely written from an eastern hunter's perspective and experience.

It's nice to have a hard copy, but for $79 you may want to opt for the free online copy available at www.gutenberg.org

This book provides a good overview of the sport. The contents however is dated, and there is little of instructional value. Overall this can only be considered a primer for further reading.

I wouldn't buy it, and I didn't. Here's why...I was looking for a book that was comprehensive, had lots of pictures and diagrams in it, and was worth the price. After thumbing through the book and reading a few pages, I was disappointed to see the huge print and found the content not very enlightening. For what can found in that book and for that price, I would suggest looking at another book. I recently purchased Shotgunning: the art and the science, by Brister. I've found that this book is far more comprehensive and provides better pictures and diagrams of what the author is trying to show--and not for that much more. Without having read the book, this review doesn't carry the same weight as a review of a book that I've read. If you're willing to give this book a try, go for it. But if you're on a tight budget like me, you can find more book for your dollar someplace else.

This is an interesting account of the tragic plane crash in the Andes mountains in October 1972, which saw forty five people go down with the plane, many of them members of a Uruguayan rugby team. Of those forty five, ultimately sixteen would come off the mountain alive, but it would not come to pass until they had spent approximately seventy horrific days and nights trapped in unforgiving and alien territory high in the Andes mountains.

This book recounts for the reader the travails of those trapped in this remote and inaccessible place, as well as the faith that helped see them through their horrific ordeal. A few of the photographs in the book are a little shocking, as they show the remains of the survivors' anthropophagy. They did, however, what they had to do in order to survive. It is definitely an amazing story. It makes one ask of oneself, "What would I have done under the same circumstances?" Read the book to see if you can answer that question.

Everyone is in a feeding frenzy to learn more about Golf's new sensation, Tiger Woods. Jack Clary satisfies this hunger by producing this wonderful picture book outlining Tiger's career from his earliest days to his winning of the 1997 Masters Championship. If you are a follower of Eldrick Woods' career, you won't find anything new in terms of his accomplishments. What then, distinguishes this book from the plethora of texts written about this golf prodigy after his Master's Win?

Clary provides us with outstanding photographs of Tiger along with exciting prose giving us an interpretation of his golfing skills. Of greatest interest is the author's detailed description of Tiger at the Masters. We are taken through round by round of the play. Clary gives a brief summary of what Woods did at each hole. You almost feel as if you are there as our author tells you the story through words augmented with the color photographs. When you walk on the course with Woods, you feel that you are in the presence of a person who will totally change how golf is played.

The Master's description alone is a reason to have this book in your personal library. Clary did an excellent job in bringing you into the game and in enabling you to develop a great appreciation for one of Golf's greatest players.

Comes across a bit like watered down Burroughs, but this writing is interesting because it's so stripped down--acoustic Burroughs--lacking the electrical force of the explosion of images, and rape and plundering of words which typifies Burroughs--but while retaining Burroughs' subject matter.

This first piece in this book however is the exception--"Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986"--lays out Burroughs' position on America rather sweetly.

Written in four parts, TWISTED ROADS details the kidnapping of seven-year-old Katrina and the ramifications of that crime. Sexual predator Roy Thornquist was recently released from a mental hospital before kidnapping Katrina as she leaves her school bus. Shockingly, two hospital psychologists had pronounced Thornquist rehabilitated. The combined efforts of the local police and the State Police and the Canadian police track Thornquist result in his capture.

Previously, Thornquist had been suspected in a sixteen-year-old kidnapping case in which the child's body was never found. In the second section of TWISTED ROADS, the victim of the sixteen-year-old crime is at last discovered. Her family struggles with reconciling themselves to the finality of the discovery of their child's body. In the third section, a millionaire forms the vigilante group Warmstorm to rid the world of sexual predators like Thornquist. The forth section proves the horrible consequences of vigilantism.

The four sections of TWISTED ROADS read much like four loosely linked short stories. Unfortunately, TWISTED ROADS falls victim to the flaws of self-publishing, even as it offers powerful food for thought. Ordinarily I do not mention formatting or other technical concerns with a book in my reviews because they do not reflect specifically on the author's writing ability. However, with this self-published novel the uneven margins with an inch and a half at the top of each page is a bit disconcerting, leaving the reader feeling as though the presentation was orchestrated to falsely present a longer book. In addition, unconventional editing choices, such as the use of parenthesis or dashes, may be distracting to readers.

Specifically addressing the content of the novel, the author would have benefited from a writing critique group that focused on "show don't tell" when creating characters and motivation. Much of the book is a series of long paragraphs that describe the events and people, with the unfortunately result of flat characterizations and a lack of tension. Nevertheless, the author presents a timely and deeply philosophical book that examines the conundrums of vigilantism and the flaws of its use. An interesting read, TWISTED ROADS comes recommended.