Arkansas Books

I was thrilled when I found this book. In our Non-Western World Literature class, we read poets such as Forugh Farrokhzad. THis is an excellent collection of her work. Readers will be surprized at her insight into the lives of women. As a country we have been isolated from the creative talent that Iran contains. I found this very enlightening.

"Sin" has a very nice selection of the great Forough's poems. The translation is "generally" well.
The reason that I gave 4 stars, is due to some details in the poem translation. I read the Persian version as well and I could understand all in the English translation. But for most of the friends didn't know Persian, the translation was sometimes far from the original version; plus the semi harmonic intonation in the poetry hasn't been well respected in the translation.
Although I'm saying it could be better, I very much recommend this book, its very valuable and worth it to spend time and attention.

This book contains the ABC of forensic anthropology. It provides a set of standard measurements used by every forensic anthropologists in the US.

This little spiral bound book goes to the lab with me everyday. Buikstra and Ubelaker have combined information from multiple authors to explain the procedures of analyzing human skeletal remains. The forms in the back of the book are the standard forms for skeletal inventory and analysis used in labs througout the country. This book will satisfy both a beginner, and an advanced scientist, however may be difficult for some beginners to understand without some knowledge of osteology. Anyone going into forensic anthropology or bioarchaeology will need this book!

The book is a must for Arkansas gardeners, hikers and naturalists!! Anyone not familiar with Carl Hunter's love of the Arkansas landscape will find this book as informative as his other publications. I purchased it used because I am "frugal"!! I received the book in good shape and appreciate the vender's efforts.

This book was very informative and reliable concerning AR trees, shrubs and vines. However, the majority of the pictures show only fruit or flowers for a particular species and at certain times and locations neither can be found on a given plant. Needs more photos of identifiable leaf structure and arrangement.

A very enjoyable look at one of the greatest German Americans involved with the Civil War. Tracks his early days to his time as a commander in the Union Army. Engle provides the reader with a new insight into Sigel's life, with a fresh style that never disappoints. A book that is long over due and finally pays tribute to a forgotten figure of the Civil War. A great addition to a Civil War collection, especially if you are interested in Civil War biographies.

German-Americans, during the Civil War, were proud of saying "I fights mit Sigel." Franz Sigel was a German officer, who fled to the United States after an unsuccessful insurrection, in which he played a role as an officer of a revolutionary force (in 1848). The purpose of the book is straightforward. In the author's words (page xix): "The purpose in this study is to understand Franz Sigel's life, to venture some explanations, and to provide a framework that would make sense to the reviewer.

The first chapter focuses on Sigel's background, from his birth in Baden to his retreat after the unsuccessful military venture into Switzerland. The crushing of the republican forces was an event that colored Sigel's later life. He was a "champion of idealism, liberalism, and democracy" (page 25), but failed to achieve those goals in Germany. These factors are part of the context for his declaring for the Union at the outset of the Civil War, after he arrived in the United States in 1852.

It is his performance in the Civil War that is central to people's views of Sigel. In early small-scale conflicts, he had some success in Missouri. Part of his importance was generating many German recruits flocking to the Union forces. His popularity among Germans and his ability to inspire new recruits into the Union Army helped him last as long as he did as a field commander. In his first major battles, Wilson's Creek, he convince the commanding general to try a Robert E. Lee-like division of forces to strike the larger Confederate Army from front and flank. At this stage of the war, this was essentially not very practical. The end result? A Union defeat and the death of General Nathaniel Lyon.

I won't be tedious, going over battle after battles in which Sigel fought. Two illustrate: At Pea Ridge (Or Elkhorn Tavern), he began slowly, but actually had one of his few really good days of the war on the second and final day of the battle. It may be that the commanding general, Samuel Curtis, was the kind of take-charge commander he needed to work under (he was never very good in independent command, as later events would show). At Second Manassas, his generalship (he served as a corps commander) was uninspired, as was normal. He was finally shelved.

However, historically, he was an interesting figure in that, despite his flaws as a commander, he did elevate "the status of Germans in an American society and by raising the national consciousness of Americans" (page 233). Overall, the book is pretty well written, although sometimes matters might be more clearly explicated. Nonetheless, to get a better understanding of an important Union general, this is a good volume.

After seing so many positive reviews i deceided to give this book a try. I must say it was interesting especially for a big city girl like me. I truely didnt know anything about farming and thought this would be real boring but to my surprise it wasnt.

Its very well written Luke, the 7 year old kid knows a lot of secrets and i can see that happening in real life as grown ups tend to trust kids with their secrets more than anyone else for some reason. I could also see myself telling a kid secrets...lol

I didnt like the end so I have to subtract 2 stars. WHere was the plot? Nothing really happened. I dont know why it was titled "the painted house", it should have been more the likely "The mysteries farm" or something. Maybe i missed something i dont know how some people see this book as one of the best books they ever read.

Its okay to read but dont expect too much.

Wow, Grisham blew me away with his ability to write a novel that didn't involve an attorney (or two) and a court room. This book transports you into The South and guides you to imagine what it would be like to experience the story in person. It was very well written and has a compelling storyline. I couldn't put it down until I was finished and I have passed this along to several friends and family members.

I absolutely loved this book. It was a modern day "to kill a mockingbird."

I enjoy most of Grisham's work and even though I bought this book it sat on my shelf for almost a year. I don't really care about legal thrillers, but I was so use to that being his genre that I didn't really know what to think of this books premise.

But once I opened it I was grabbed from the first page and was completely immersed the way I really good book suck you in. I finished it in one day and have re-read it several times and recommended it to all my friends.

Single more enjoyable novel I have ever read.

What a great book - in fact, I finished it in three days after stumbling on it while house sitting for a friend. The story is both funny and tragic but a easy read none the less. I just wish their was a sequel to follow up on the great cast of characters.

I'm surprised by the reviewer who gave this a rating of one, and stated there was no plot.

The plot is that of a boy who loves his family, but must keep secrets far bigger than his age. We see the beauty of the relationship between family members. We see the reality and starkness of cotton farming in rural Arkansas, and the prejudice between races and economic status. The reader hears through a boy's story how a city mother has adapted to the country and an unpainted house, when her heart longs for the city and the finer things of life. And that's just the surface issues.

No plot? Maybe you should rent a video instead. You missed the heart of this beautifully-written story.

We are the members of the South Mill Young Readers Book Club located in Conyers, Georgia. We are in the thirteen year old age bracket and thought it would be challenging to attempt to read and understand this story. As a result of our reading, we rate the book as follows:

Creativity - B+
Enjoyment - A+
Price - B+

We would recommend this book to others in our age group to read it.

Typed by Book Club Instructor: mwg

I thought this book was an interesting read, however it was difficult to finish at times. What made me continue to finish the book was the beautiful way Maya Angelou writes. I found her story to be a bit dry and slow at times. However, her preserverance to become successful in life dispite her many obstacles kept me interested in this book. If I had not known how successful Maya Angelou's life turned out, I might not have finished the book. I was interested in knowing her journey. I recommend this book for teenage girls who are struggling with self-esteem issues and teen pregnancy because Maya Angelou's story can be used as a great encouragement to hang in there despite adversity.

A narrative about overcoming the obstacles in one's life, Maya Angelou's memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, reflects on Maya's experiences as a child and teen and the racial discrimination she faces. The memoir is set in rural Arkansas, St. Louis, and San Francisco between the years of 1931 and 1944, At the age of three, Maya, along with her elder brother, Bailey, are sent to live with their grandmother in Arkansas, deep in the then segregated South, after their parents' marriage ends in divorce. Later, as a young adult, she and her brother are sent to live with their mother, both in St. Louis and in San Francisco. While growing up, Maya struggles with maturing into an adult, her parents divorce, rape, and pregnancy.
While living with her mother in St. Louis, Maya is raped by her mother's fifty-year-old boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, at the age of eight. Although this issue is briefly touched upon through the book, one can see it made a great impact on her life, as she refused to talk for several years. With the help of Mrs. Flowers, a woman living in her town in Arkansas, she finally did begin to speak again. Later, while living in San Francisco, Maya begins to fear herself to be a lesbian, and as a result of this belief, she has sex with a boy at sixteen in hopes of convincing herself she is not gay. Three weeks after having sex, Maya finds herself pregnant. She hid her pregnancy from her mother for a majority of her pregnancy term, and it was only with two weeks left in the pregnancy did she decide to tell her mother. Angelou only briefly touches on her pregnancy, as if it is an insignificant issue in her life; however, during the 1940's, society looked down upon single, unwed, teen mothers. Despite all the elements working against her, she continues to persevere, eventually becoming the first black female street car conductor in San Francisco while still in high school, despite the racial discrimination opposing her.
Although I wanted to connect to Maya Angelou's character because she is a female protagonist and much of the book takes place while she was a teenager, I was unable to. In Jeannette Walls's memoir, The Glass Castle, I was cheering for Jeannette to overcome her obstacles and achieve her goals in life, while I had little empathy for the issues Maya faced in her life. I found the language in the book relatively simple, but I was confused throughout the book, whether it was about character's ages, or the introduction of new characters. While reading, I would find myself needing to stop for a minute so I would be able to remember who a character was.
Maya Angelou expertly sums up her experiences as a child in the opening of the book when she states, "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat." Although I did not love this book, it is successful in portraying a young woman who clears many hurtles and champions her dreams.

Definitely not what i thought when i was assigned to read this book by my professor. Maya Angelou definitely led an interesting life, but the way it was written makes her seem self- conscious and doubtful of hew own recollections, i personally did not like or understand it. i had to rely on sparknotes to guide me to the end of this most unique... book. i would not recommend it.

I read with my daughter who is in the 7th grade. Her teacher assigned to read as a book report. The students had to write about symbols, motifs, etc. and compare them to personal life experiences. But, as we read together, the words were very graphic beginning around ( i believe chapter going forward ) describing the rape by Maya mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. The book stated that his private part " stood up like a piece of corn ". This is not a " youth friendly book ". PARENTS : Take time to read with your children. I gave two stars because there were funny, interesting points in the book at teh beginning. Other than that, INAPPROPRIATE !

This is my favorite book of all time. I love the characters, the story line and the historical facts. Patty is a strong girl who is out of place in her small town and unappreciated. Anton is sweet and understanding and helps Patty realize that she is worth something.
It's a tear jerker. You better have a box of tissues with you when you read this book because you're gonna cry! I highly recommend this book. I love everything about it.

This is a great book. Any young girl with a romance streak will be drawn in by the forbidden love element. But this isn't just a dumb romance novel. Patty has to choose between her family and community and Anton. Great coming of age story. Still one of my favorites!

This is the story of 12-year old Patty Bergen, a Jewish girl living in the South during WWII, who suffers from her father's physical and mental abuse and her mother's disinterest. When a German POW talks kindly to her while shopping (with prison guards nearby) in her father's clothing store, she is so starved for love that she later assists him when he escapes from a prisoner-of-war camp. Strong characters and a poignant story.

but the vile language makes the story tainted. I don't think it should be read by children because the abuse situations and the language. The reason I say this is that it is on every recommended book list for WWII for children! Anyway, the story is a good one but intense. A girl who is not wanted by anyone but the nanny, loved only by her grandparents discovers an escaped German pow. She has to make a choice of either helping him or turning him in. The fact that she is Jewish doesn't help the matter. If it was cleaned up a bit...this book would be a good one.

My daughter is now too older and far too accomplished a reader in her own right to need or want me to read to her, but I wish I had known of this when we were still reading together. I read this for a couple of reasons. As a native of Little Rock I wanted to read what is perhaps the most celebrated juvenile novel to have come out of my home state. Second, I have seen it highly praised and wanted to see if the praise was justified.

The praise was indeed justified. The novel is about a 12-year-old Jewish girl living in a small fictional town in northeastern Arkansas named Jenkinsville. As far as I can guess it is somewhere between Forrest City and Memphis. Wynne is mentioned as a nearby town. Looking at a map I would guess Jenkinsville is approximately where Parkin, Arkansas is. The protagonist of the novel is Patty Bergen, who is as isolated as a child can be. Her mother is unrelentingly critical of her while her father is both dismissive and physically abusive. At the time of the action of the novel she is virtually friendless as well, with most of her friends off at Baptist summer camp in the Ozarks (as any Arkansas Baptist would know, Siloam Springs). And as a member of the only Jewish family in town, she feels religious alienation as well. In the course of the novel only a few people seem friendly toward her at all. Her grandparents in Memphis give her a kind of love that her parents deny her. The black family maid and cook acts as a sort of real parent that her parents seem incapable of being. A Memphis newspaper reporter accords a level of respect to her that few others seem capable of. And, surprisingly, the town sheriff seems truly compassionate. But most of all a young twenty-year-old German prisoner of war helps her more than anyone else believe that she is "a person of worth." The book is filled with ironies as the two people who help her most with her sense of self-esteem are a black maid and a German prisoner, just as it is ironic that his is most aided by that same black maid and a young Jewish girl.

This is a deeply affecting, moving novel. Patty is a deeply flawed, yet wonderfully realistic character. She has a habit of telling petty lies that partly serve to garner her respect that others deny her and partly to force others to pay attention to her. The scene in which she is forced to go for a horrible perm on a blisteringly hot day is a chillingly vivid and realistic portrait of what would seem like hell to a small girl.

As others have noted, this is on many levels a sad book. But it is also, I think, an optimistic one. One can't help but believe that Anton, Patty's German soldier, was right: Patty is a person of worth. It is difficult to believe that she didn't turn out well after the events of the novel and that what made this possible for her was what others helped her realize about herself. In the short run, one imagines things got worse for her. As Ruth, the black maid, told her, her parents were "irregular" or "seconds," meaning that just as some pieces of clothing were sold cheaply because they didn't measure up, so Patty's parents never had and never would measure up. One can sense that Patty's home life remained bleak and unhappy, but that she still was going to turn out all right. She was, she had learned, a person of worth.

I recommend this to adults as well as younger readers, but I especially recommended parents reading it to their children. It isn't just a great read, it raises a host of difficult and fascinating questions.

Note: I was right! I just read an article about Bette Greene and learned that she was raised in Parkin, Arkansas. I think it is safe to assume that Parkin is the real Jenkinsville.

This is my Third Stephen Hunter novel. I can't believe I have gone this long in my life without ever hearing of him. Each book seems to better than the last. I read Point of Impact first (having seen the movie) then Day Before Midnight. I can not wait to read the next. Sure, there may be a flaw here and there and maybe even a stretch of the plot to get from point to point, but the writing is so well crafted and researched, its a fantastic page turner, right up to the end. Do not miss it!!

Don't let this book pass you by. If you are into the fast paced yet creative and classic styles of writing, this book is for you. This is possibly the best of the Swagger series and Mr. Hunter's writing in general. Its a excellent example of the Gritty life of a hard times, fist pounding, gun toting, ex-marine who knows the business end of a gun. Throw in a medal of honor and a bit of Judo, and you have a man's man, ready to clean house on the bad Guys. However he is not without his demons, and Hunter skillfully works in this subplot with some surprises at the end. I would compare this book to "Shibumi" by Travanian. Which is a book you keep on the shelf for another read. Its a classic!

Steven Hunter undresses Earl Swaggert for us, and shows his soft side, his weak side, and now we know why he is so hard, dependable and honest. Excitement begins with page one, and takes the reader through the tameing of an out of control, sin city, where gambling, prostitution, and drugs are king. The courage of good, well intended men put their lives on the line to make Arkansas a better place to live. Conflick abounds. A good read.
R.L. Calentino
Laguna Hills, Ca.

No one shoots straighter, hits harder, thinks clearer, talks plainer or acts manlier than Earl Swagger. By page 200, I wanted him dead. I've been a Hunter fan since I started reading his movie reviews in the Washington Post. And I think Dirty White Boys is a classic; I still have fond memories of reading it in a coin-laundry on the upper peninsula of Michigan on a very cold night. But Hot Springs got on my nerves. Writers are supposed to sympathize with their characters. Hunter goes way too far. His portrayal of Marine war hero turned lawman Earl Swagger plunges into hero worship. Earl can't just be the best shot among the lawmen assembled to bust up an Arkansas gambling syndicate; he has to be the best boxer too. No doubt, he's also a stallion in the sack. Sometimes Hunter veers disturbingly close to what seems like self-loathing for an East Coast movie critic and writer: Almost every educated, non-Southern character is a coward or a schemer, simply not worthy to stand in the presence of manly southern man Swagger. Sensing a potential chink in the armor, Hunter implausibly grants Swagger - a rural Arkansas lawman in 1946 - the enlightened racial outlook of a Freedom Rider. I started to think that Hunter and Swagger deserve the kind of treatment Mark Twain dished out to James Fenimore Cooper and Natty Bumppo. But heck, Hunter sure can tell a story. He gradually won me over again with entertaining villains and sharp storytelling. Is anyone better at keeping a story moving by cutting between different points of view? Plus, he works hard here to get the period detail (Sin City, Arkansas 1946) just right. There are even flashes of humor (something I never noticed before in a Hunter thriller), including a bit involving a clown. Bonus: a nice twist at the end for those who've read another Swagger tale, Black Light.

Stephen Hunter is at his best when he writes about Swagger. So why change a winning "team"?
This time it's Earl Swagger and the story is based in 1946. Funny as it seems this time it's Earl who (also) has to deal with his father's fate - but this is not the main subject of the book.
Luckily Hunter did not copy the plot of his earlier books but created a completely different kind of mood and storyline. "Hot Springs" is not as complex as "Point of Impact" or "Time to Hunt" but straightforward, fast paced action with surprising twists and angles. This book sure is well worth reading.

Anybody who is not acquainted to Stephen Hunter books so far should read this one (and "Pale Horse Coming") before he starts reading the other Swagger books since this book is a prequel to the life of Bob Lee Swagger and explains why he became the man he is.

This book isn't terrible. If I could I'd give it 2.5 stars.

E Lynn Harris is black, and gay. This fact is stated so many times in the book that it is a wonder the book isn't titled "MY LIFE SUCKED BECAUSE I'M BLACK AND GAY, BUT MOSTLY BECAUSE I'M BLACK!!!! DID I MENTION I'M GAY!???!!!!!!" Seriously, all in caps, just like that, that should be the title of this book.

Lynn Harris is exactly the type of person I have zero interest in knowing. Nothing is ever his fault. He doesn't work hard, fails at everything, gets a second chance due to being the same race as his boss, or is accepted without proper qualifications because of affirmative action in the 70's.

But then... then he starts to succeed. He becomes a salesman, and you know what, he's good at that. Sure he didn't have the qualifications for the job and was initially hired because he was black, but it turns out that he is actually -good- at what he does. So does that success and greatness become a large part of the story? No, of course not, outside of work his entire life is a mess and he goes from closet case guy to closet case guy wondering why they treat him so poorly... while these guys still have girlfriends. Nothing is ever Lynn's fault of course.

Give me a break.

If you want to hear what it's like to be a complete loser, this is the story for you. You'll be fascinated by how self defeating one man can be.

The kicker is that at exactly 7 hours and 30 minutes in Lynn nails it down perfectly "...who would be interested in reading a story about a sexually confused black man who basically wasted ever opportunity given to him." Not me.

At some point I felt as if alot of his friends reflected many of his characters which and while after reading you discover they did lend him inspiration.It must have been very difficult to point out his flaws to his readers , and it was done very well at that. Most people prolly wouldnt want to reveal there past so openly to the public but E. Lynn did it and I can respect that.

Follow Harris on his journey of revelations about life and love in this well-written, east-to-read memoir. Within the first couple of pages, I burst into laughter, then as the story unfolded, I felt kind of bad for Harris. The abuse he suffered at the hands of his step-father and then the destructive life he led during his adult life makes you wonder how he survived it all, suicide attempts and everything. I think I've read all of E. Lynn's books and this one really shows you from where all of his prior offerings evolve. I'm glad that at the time this was published he had found the love he was searching for. I hope that love continues.

What Becomes of a Broken Heart. In it, E Lynn Harris offers a tough and tender glimpse of the man between the covers of more than a few literary sensations. The raw emotional honesty is heartbreaking at times, yet redeeming at others. Through some of the roughest storms, he blooms, beautiful and strong.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read all of E. Lynn's work and by far this was the best. I cried, laughed and got upset several while reading this book. Truly it was remarkable.

I got hooked on his column when I lived in Little Rock. This book is good, but precedes and doesn't supplement a lot to The Hunting of the President, that he wrote with Joe Conason. Of course, I liked Widow's Web, which I don't think is in print anymore.

This is a book you buy to validate your pre-conceived notion that a conspiracy haunted Bill Clinton.

It attempts to refute the facts by parroting presses releases from Bubba & Hill, and then attacking the people who asked hard questions about where all that money went.

What makes this book most laughable if the author's claim that "the media" was a participant in this. Isn't he a media of this nefarious media?

Save your money, and your time. Leave it on the shelf.

Reading Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater, I was reminded of the film Runaway Bride. Anybody see that? A drunken, bitter man distorts facts to Richard Gere who writes a column for USA Today. The man's bitter and desperate to lash out, so he takes a few basic facts and spins them wildly, padding them out with lies. His inflated and distorted tales fit the conventional wisdom of journalist Gere who devotes a column listing all the man's charges as factual. He gets a great column out of it, we see people reading it aloud -- most reacting favorably.

Meanwhile, far from the heart of media-land, Julia Roberts discovers one day, while going about her daily work, that she is now the target of ridicule, that the whole country has read various lies about her.

Fools for Scandal predates the film by many years, but it too is focused on the tale of the embittered spinning out factually incorrect tales based on a kernel of truth. For instance, an embittered convicted felon spun tales of a land deal that while unprofitable, was not illegal. Like Gere in Runaway Bride, none of the reporters on the scene felt the need to check out the facts in their haste to "get the story."

Gene Lyons and the editors of Harper's Magazine repeatedly document in their book how a little scepticism and some solid journalism would have set the record straight on Whitewater long before all that tax payer money was wasted on a goose chase/witch hunt.

Whitewater was basically the tale of a business deal that didn't enrich the participants. But business deals apparently are beyond interest in and of themselves -- certainly too lacking in interest for many journalists to stop a moment and question the allegations or the motives of the ones making them.

There were a lot of people making allegations that could stand in for the bitter drunk of Runaway Bride. And certainly there are a number of journalists who can stand in for Richard Gere, but does anyone fits the Gere character more than Jeff Gerth? Gerth's the NY Times reporter who "broke Whitewater," who's devotion to getting the word out -- regardless of whether or not it was true -- casts Beverly Bassett Schaffer firmly in the Julia Roberts role. While casting aspersions at Bassett Schaffer (that were disproved subsequently), Gerth felt no need to disclose the truth of his "source" -- a manic-depressive, unstable man who two years prior to appearing in Gerth's initial coverage had copped the insanity plea in a bank-fraud trial. Gerth describes his source as "stable, careful and calm."

The press has a lot to answer for in the spinning of Whitewater as this book powerfully outlines. Fools for Scandal is recommended to anyone who still feels the IOC's conclusions in the Whitewater matter were to simple. (I.e., nothing illegal occurred.) It should also be read by those who want to evaluate or understand Whitewater for themselves. But it should be required reading for anyone enrolled in a journalism program -- it demonstrates that stories have consequences and that therefore it's incumbent for reporters to do their research from the start and be as sure of their sources as they possibly can.

The defense of "I was only doing my job" only works when a journalist was in fact doing his/her job. And doing his/her job means doing research and printing the truth to the best of his/her ability. That wasn't done in the case of Whitewater.

Back to Runaway Bride, in the film, Julia Roberts reads the lies about her, fires off a letter to the editor of USA Today wherein she takes them to task for the lack of accuracy in the reporting and encloses a list of fifteen "gross factual misrepresentations" printed in the article. And the reaction of USA Today? They fire Richard Gere ("journalism lesson 101: if you fabricate your facts, you get fired"). Roberts doesn't have to spend the bulk of the film fighting for that response, Gere is fired twelve minutes into the picture and Roberts gets a printed apology in the paper.

Well, that's Hollywood for you. Check out the appendix of Fools for Scandal. You'll find not only Gerth's original article that appeared in the New York Times, you'll also find four memos Beverly Bassett Schaffer sent to Gerth attempting to correct him on his inaccurate reporting.

Oh but real life differs from film not only in that Gerth never gets fired, Bassett Shafer gets no apology. Check out the appendix for a letter to a Times reader from Joseph Lelyveld, executive editor of the New York Times wherein the paper takes no responsibility and further distorts the facts regarding Bassett Schaffer. Be sure to read Lyons response to the letter (also in the appendix) where he tries again to set the record straight with the facts regarding Bassett Shafer. And don't miss his statements on Bassett Schaffer's twenty typed pages of memos she sent to Gerth or Lyons conclusion that : "I doubt Times editors knew the memos existed. Had I concealed such evidence from Harper's Magazine, I suspect that my byline would never appear in this magazine again."

Gerth continues to write for the Times and with regards to Whitewater, the Times continues to distort Whitewater, most recently in a book review of Susan McDougal's The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk. Despite getting the facts wrong with regard to court findings, despite many readers drawing their attention to it, the Times took a week to print a correction. And in the correction? They again got it wrong. Which is why a week after the correction, they have to print a letter from McDougal clarifying the record. But even then, no apology from the paper itself.

I hope Lyons is correct, I hope at most papers reporters who print distortions and ignore clarifications get punished. It happens that way in Runaway Bride, but that's Hollywood.

I lived in Arkansas during the first Clinton term. Lyons' column was printed on Wednesday. Unquestionably, it took that long for his poorly written articles to be...oh, never mind, on to the book.

Lyons was the one guy who kept saying, "There's nothing there." Well, not exactly. Forgotten in this whole imbroglio is that while Whitewater didn't deep six the Clintons, it DID destroy Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker, who went to the slammer. But Lyons' arguments are shrill and you need a lawyer to weed through the garbage.

Lyons most ridiculous claim is the notion that there is a 'conservative media bias' at work that caused the Whitewater scandal. One ounce of common sense and reflection should put this myth to rest.

1. He accuses the Washington Post and NY Times of being 'Republican outlets.' Yeah, makes sense to me. The NY Times hasn't endorsed a Republican for President in my lifetime, and the Washington Post destroyed Richard Nixon. Ben Bradlee's sister-in-law, Mary Meyer, was one of JFK's mistresses. Yeah, Lyons has a clear-cut case against the Republican media on this one.

2. With the obvious exception of the right-wing biased Fox News (which didn't even exist when Lyons began his writing on this subject), Lyons has absolutely no case. Tom Brokaw was considered for John Kerry's running mate. Dan Rather's run-ins with Republicans Nixon and both Bushes (including the forged documents scandal) is well-known.

3. Look at all the Democratic operatives who now work in the media. Ken Bode, Mark Shields, Jeff Greenfield, Tim Russert, Chris Matthews, Bill Moyers, Cokie Roberts (the daughter of former House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and sister of Democratic moneyman Tommy Boggs), George Stephanopolous. Other than Brit Hume and Tony Snow - both of whom work at Fox - where is the conservative counterweight?

Lyons' ENTIRE case is based on the 'conservative media' inventing Whitewater. Yet since there is no conservative media besides Fox who didn't exist in 1994 - well, I rest my case. Good example, though, of propaganda.

By the way, the weekly review claims Lyons is 'no friend of Bill.' Having heard Lyons tell this lie repeatedly - this is the same guy who went on "Meet The Press" and claimed Clinton didn't have an affair with Lewinsky and it was made up - I think his credibility is in the garbage can.

I am about 5 years too late in reading this book. There has been so much else written about this particular item that only a new comer to the issue will find this book full of new and interesting information. For the complete picture on Whitewater and all the other Clinton scandals you should read "Hunting the President" by this same author, it is more up to date and covers all the issues. With all that said I still did enjoy parts of the book, I never fail to like reading about how the very anti-Clinton crowd in the 90's did everything they could to make his time in the White House as difficult as possible. The book gives the reader the first cut at how the media and a few Clinton enemies created and kept going the Whitewater non-story. Too bad this much energy would not have been put to positive projects.

My complaint with the book is based on the fact that I have read a number of new books about this time frame that went deeper into the whole anti-Clinton industry of the 90's and with that back ground this book looks a little shallow. I would have liked more detail on how more of the right wing publications and benefactors pushed the story non-stop. I also would have liked a better review of how the Clinton White House handled the accusations. Overall the book is fine and if this is your introduction to the issue then it is a good starting point. If you have read a lot on the issue then this book will be nothing too new for you.