Bats Books

Admittedly Frank Sinatra had an extraordinarily rich and interesting life, but one much too full of details for a single book. So in this rendition of his life, the reader is left to ask the question: how many, hook-ups, breakup, screw-ups, jam-ups, and mob-ups can a story have before it goes well past being well-told, into a whole other zone of being just plain incoherent gossip?

One would think that of all people who should know where this mark in the sand lies, it would be Kitty Kelly? Yet, in this biography, Kelly, who is normally so good at culling the low hanging fruit from the rumor mill and gossip trees and turning them into a tasty and sometimes even a succulent wine, this time, gets it so wrong. She seems to have fouled up the fermentation process altogether and gone well past coherence into a whole new zone of vinegar, all the way past Go into complete incoherence.

There are just way too many repetitious unnecessary details, vignettes, spats, breakup and irrelevances to make this a well-rounded, coherent and interesting story. Some of the details, which after a while just start falling all over each other, simply should have been relegated to footnotes, mentioned in passing, or left out altogether. In the interest of "tightness" and coherence, Kelly, more than anyone, should know that more is not always better. Sometimes unorganized details in a manuscript can overpower the story. As is the case here, they cannot even be tamed by forcing them into a "Procrustean Bed" of the author's own making. Kelly knows, all to well that details must be sorted, selected and ever so carefully placed so that through organization alone, they are allowed to tell their own story. Here, it seemed that Kelly, just as she accuses her subject of doing in the manuscript, allowed her own enthusiasm to get well ahead of her keen sense of organization and storytelling. What a pity: so much material, so little time.

Despite this, one can reassemble this jigsaw puzzle of "way too many pieces" into a mosaic beneath the clutter to get at a reasonable psychological portrait of Frank Sinatra, and still be able to see that he was pretty much handicapped at birth: Accidentally misnamed; an only child; collar-flowered ears, a busted eardrum, skinny and slight of stature. Add to this that he had only a smattering of talent, in a heavily male dominated culture and you get at an early age, a personality blanketed with deeply rooted insecurities.

But these were nothing compared to the "trip his mother put on him" to heighten these congenital insecurities. She was overbearing and over-protective, dressed him like a girl and spoiled him. And then, as this his most powerful role model and ally through life, provided him a very poor example of adult humanity. Dolly Sinatra was the dynamo of the family: the matron and breadwinner, who cursed in technicolor, always dabbled over the edge of legalities, including being jailed multiple times for running an illegal abortion clinic, and for her prohibition era Speakeasy activities. The fact that Frank's father was present, but missing in action: a virtual "nobody" who deferred to his mother, pretty much sealed his psychological fate: Little Frankie had no chance of evolving into a normal well-balanced adult.

What Frank Sinatra had going for him was a very contradictory self-destructive kind of self-confidence spawn mostly out of fantasy and denial. It was one that bordered on unwarranted arrogance, fits of uncontrolled anger, depressive spins, hovering on the rim of immorality and illegality, and leaving him with an empty emotional reservoir. Throughout his life he was little more than an insecure bully with an average voice. Yet he used bullying to his advantage, and as a weapon to "club his way" through life.

And as life would have it, after many inevitable "ups-and-downs," failures and come backs, shattered and scattered love affairs--especially with Ava Gardner -- he became a raving financial and professional success, but an utter moral, personal and human failure. End of story.

Five stars for the research, two for the organization; three for the book.

This was evidently meant to be a commentary on the life and hates of Frank Sinatra. It was probably meant to be quite a character study - connect the dots between all the revolting facts coldly listed here and you find a revolting human being. If the dots don't quite come together, as they didn't for me, you find a rather different connotation. The solemn quote at the beginning delineates the difference between reputation and character. Ms.Kelley, being the all-knowing Author, gets right into her examination into Mr. Sinatra's character behind the reputation with a cold first chapter related in frankly impossible detail. From then on Sinatra is shown to be callous, pathetic, weak, vicious, brutal, abusive, crude, egomaniacal, vindictive, and quite possibly crazy in an overwhelming documentary that seems very fond of the two words "Sinatra screamed" and any reference to any weakness known to man that Sinatra allegedly possessed. In a cold, stark, very nearly cruel style interviews with disgruntled former employees, wives of friends, gangsters, yes-men, Hoboken tattle-tales, discarded girlfriends, two-bit comics, technicians, and the slimy Peter Lawford are all displayed in 633 pages of rot. The skeletal overview of Mr. Sinatra's life is almost frighteningly calculated - any unscrupulous writer can pick and choose to their heart's content while still remaining truthful, and Ms. Kelley could write a book about her inimitable art of relating only the least flattering information and blaming her digustingly biased view on outraged virtue.
Every character in this organized assasination, as a matter of fact, appears to be a good little human being, abused and cruelly rejected by Frank Sinatra, doing their sad duty to let the world know Sinatra done 'em wrong. Appears. Ms. Kelley apparentely agrees with them. Their sympathetically related tales are the backbone of the biography.
I have no idea how Kitty Kelley and several other Sinatra biographers are so blind that they have never been able to locate one positive Sinatra review in their life. In this book, if no bad review exists for a movie, record, concert, TV show, ect., it is either ignored or used to promote another example of bad behavior backstage. I know all the good reviews exist. I've read them, and it always surprised me because according to Kelley and other pick-and-choosers the perfomance was lousy. But this is not about a career, it's said; it's about a life. Then why mention any reviews at all?
If all the names mentioned in here actually said Sinatra was an awful person, I just might believe it. But they didn't. The uncomplimentary comments used are in any other source buried in an avalanche of rave reviews and praise. Ms.Kelley, of coure, the St. Bernard of literature, sniffed them out. Ava Gardner's autobiography paints a very different portrait of what she felt about Mr.Sinatra than the few harsh statements here. Lauren Bacall's "By Myself" is so often negatively interpreted it's ridiculous, and Ms. Kelley joins the long line of misinterpreters. Rare comments by Frank Sinatra Jr., Sammy Davis and others are gleefully repeated, despite the fact that their opinions about Mr.Sinatra are almost always positive to the extreme. No famous friends of his were interviewed, simply because people who genuinely loved him went as high as the summit of upper-class Hollywood, nobility, and the White House, and that was the type of thing Kelley wanted least. I read an interview in which Ms. Kelley supposedly said she didn't find Sinatra appealing because he had no sense of humor. Ha. There has never been anyone with as little humor about them as Ms.Kitty Kelley, executioner of reputation, fabricater of character. The sense of smug gloating, the nasty smirking of the authoress over Mr.Sinatra's discomfort at having so many people read this trash and BELIEVE it, is the only humor evident, and that makes me sick. Even if every statement were true, I'd still have a certain sympathy for Frank Sinatra, because, as it eventually becomes clear, you learn less than nothing about what Sinatra was really like, but you learn a great deal about the writer. The Sinatra story displayed is all probably untrue reputation, but Ms.Kelley's scheme for hurting him backfired - her character is evident. The preface says,''Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us." True.

I'm only writing this review because there are those who think this book contains the "truth" about Sinatra. Think about this, someone who doesn't like you much decides to write a book about you, they find all the people throughout your life that hate you, you have had fights with, don't speak to anymore, or you just don't really like. They ignore anyone who has good things to say or your long time friends and family. They interview them and write the book containing all their quotes, stating its factual, after all people did say these things - right!! Now think about how that would make you look, would it represent the truth about you- i don't think so. This is pure unadulterated garbage, from a twisted viewpoint and not worth the paper its printed on. Did Sinatra have some dark moments, i guess so - but this is not the place to find out about them.

I read this bound piece of trash twenty years ago. I thought it was nothing but a steaming, stinking pile of lies and over-the-top exaggerations. Time has shown that the author, Kitty Kelley, is a hateful smear mistress lacking the least bit of integrity and decency.

All you will get from this book besides the outright lies are hearsay and rumors.
According to Kelley, Sinatra was nothing but a spoiled brat and bullying coward who relied on thugs to get what he wanted.
She tells us he brought home prostitutes and tried to force his first wife, Nancy, into threesomes with them. We read about a mafia hit on a smalltown sheriff whose wife was being screwed by Ol' Blue Eyes. Then there is the tale of a hot pot of fresh coffee which Sinatra launched at his longtime valet's face. Do you get the idea of what this book is all about?
HIS WAY is typical Kitty Kelley, epitomizing her level and ability as a writer and a human being.

Sinatra had many faults but they were vastly outnumbered by his virtues.

This is a lengthy look at the shadows in Sinatra's personality, and is not the one to read if you are interested in how he developed his approach to singing so well. Frank appears to have been a victim of what we now call bipolar disorder, back in the days when no effective medications existed for it except alcohol and nicotine. He sank into scary depressions, and soared into wild bouts of manic activity, exhibited both grandiosity and generosity in excess, supported violence against his enemies and often uncritical acceptance of his friends. He grew up with a passive dad and a forceful but not likable mom, was a spoiled child who sometimes was a victim of discrimination due to his Italian heritage, and developed such an intense drive to be successful that he frequently drove away the people who might have been best for him. Upon finishing this gossipy yet apparently truthful biography, I didn't want Frank as a friend, but I didn't give away any of my dozen CD's, either. Sometimes one has to divorce the artist from the person in order to remain a fan.

ISBN 0451176723 - Almost a sister to Nancy Wagner's All Our Lives (ISBN 0380778084), Mitigating Circumstances is not quite as good. Both books deal with a family dealing with the rape of a daughter and a marriage that's fallen apart, but Wagner's is just a little bit better.

Lily Forrester is an ADA who has just been made head of the Sex Crimes Division and sees her goal of becoming a judge within sight when her marriage finally unravels. Her daughter chooses to live with her father, but spends a fateful night at her mother's. The timing couldn't be worse, as a man who has been watching Lily is released from prison and stalks her to her new home and assaults mother and daughter.

Her own childhood abuse coupled with the horror of watching her own daughter raped drives Lily right over that vigilante line and she seeks justice outside the courtroom for the first time in her life. Now her career, her daughter, her marriage, her freedom, her sanity and her budding relationship with a fellow ADA are all on the line as one very good detective looks for answers.

The sex in this book tends toward graphic and violent and some of it is remarkably unnecessary, which was't too surprising since the main character works in Sex Crimes, but I did find a bit much now and then. Also a little off-putting was the sense that "all Latinos look alike", although that does get explained as "she wasn't wearing her glasses" - not a good excuse, but an excuse. On the funny side, Lily is a lawyer with a young teenaged daughter who borrows her clothes, which would be fine if they weren't her WORK clothes! No teenage girl wants to dress like their lawyer mother, unless their lawyer mother dresses really unprofessionally.

All in all, kind of an average book that would have benefitted greatly if Detective Cunningham had had a larger role and if John, Lily's husband had been an even remotely sympathetic character.

The first book that I ready by this author was Interest of Justice, which I loved, fast paced, not too descriptive, great writing style. So I thought that I would read all of her books. You would never know this book- Mitigating Cir. was by the same author. It starts off a little slow, gets going, then loses it's steam throughout most of the book. I got tired of reading page after page of what they were having for dinner, the item of clothing that the daughter borrowed, her boring conversations with her husband, blah blah blah. It didn't get good again until the last few pages where you will find out what happens to Lily. The plot was a good one, but the writing couldn't hold my interest. I hope her other books are better.

I didn't bother to finish this book. The writing is amateurish, and the author's attempts at descriptive narrative are cliche and often repetative. The characters are one-dimensional and predicatable. Overall, this book reads like a bad romance novel disguised as a legal thriller.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES was a disappointing read, considering the excerpt on book jacket had promise. Dramatic words with no drama, moving very slowly from the beginning, into the middle and to the end. Author Nancy Taylor Rosenberg offers a repetitious tale of reminiscences, sadness & anger -- a romance more than a mystery.

Chief character is an ambitious, yet troubled LA District Attorney Lillian (Lily) Forrester. She has an open door to reach her goal as an appointed judge.

As a couple, John and Lily Forrestor are in a non-loving marriage, with a disturbed 13-year old daughter Shana. Not in control as she once thought, Lily's destructive past involving her grandfather, evolves a vengeful, angry woman to the brink of mental explosion. Her rage is released by committing a haunting crime to avenge a current unspeakable tragedy imposed upon herself & daughter Shana.

Although a little rough around the edges, the best character - Detective Cunningham offers the read some zing with some humor, concerns, actions and the desire to leave LA and return to Omaha, a much saner environment. A murder committed, a sketch of a person observed at the scene of the crime raises Detective Cunningham's suspicions as the sketch resembles District Attorney Forrestor.

The author does not complete the story of husband John - his path taken just disappears; a chapter devoted to daughter Shana in which her rage from tragic events is described does not continue to conclusion. The ending of the book is "different" from what a reader would expect, especially from the justice system.

I did enjoy one expression: "The train had finally derailed and the cars were all overturned. All that remained was the baggage." This read is like a train that never picks up speed, consistently changes tracks, and the baggage is lost. Review based on hardcover 1993

Recommend Sara Paretsky's GUARDIAN ANGEL & GHOST COUNTRY.

District Attorney Lily Forrester has recently been promoted to Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit. She is glad to get the appointment but it came at a high price. She is unhappy with her marriage and her relationship with her daughter is deteriorating day by day.

Lily decides to get a fresh start when she asks her husband for a divorce and move out to a new apartment. Her life is irrevocably changed when an intruder storms into her home and rapes both her and her daughter, Shana. Lily believes she recognizes her assailant as one of the case files she brought home from work. Without thinking it over she decides to go kill him. She tracks the suspect and shoots him dead without even flinching. She then erases all traces of evidence she can think of that might identify her. She will now try to continue her life and help her daughter.

Unfortunately, things do not go as planned. Both Lily and Shana are still traumatized by the events and they both disagree as to who raped them. Lily wonders if she has made a mistake now that there is a relentless cop investigating the case.

Nancy Taylor Rosenberg does a good job in applying what she knows in this novel. She has worked in law enforcement for many years and has dealt with sexual offenders. The victims and situations felt real as well as the emotional trauma Lily feels for her action. The novel reads like a Lifetime movie but it kept my interest.

This is a big planning organizer that you use to write in. If you are looking for a party planning bood this is not it. I am using it in conjunction with the"party" books.

This book is basically a party planner. It was probably useful before so many people were proficient with computer spreadsheets, like Excel. It provides space for lots of lists, which now would be much easier to keep on computer. Basically, technology has made this book obsolete.

There are descriptions of what to look for in a photographer, caterer, etc but they are pretty basic.

The one useful part of the book is a simple "countdown" calender - "Countdown to the Big Day," which lists all the major activities to be completed prior to the bar mitzvah.

I think you could do better with other books that cover the party AND the "mitzvah" aspects of a bar mitzvah.

This book is basically a workbook in which you are directed to make lists etc for all the myriad aspects of planning a bar/bat mitzvah reception. You are guided to all the details you must take care of to make a successful reception. If you are looking for a book to explain the religious experience of the bar/bat mitzvah, this book is definitely not for you. If you wish to have a big reception, then this book fits the bill. If the book is useful to you, I hope you will spend at least equal time in preparing for the religious element of bar/bat mitzvah and use an excellent guide such as "Putting God on Your Guest List." My 4 star rating is based on the assumption that the reader wants a party planner only. If you want more, this book is not for you.

This book is basically a workbook in which you are directed to make lists etc for all the myriad aspects of planning a bar/bat mitzvah reception. You are guided to all the details you must take care of to make a successful reception. If you are looking for a book to explain the religious experience of the bar/bat mitzvah, this book is definitely not for you. If you wish to have a big reception, then this book fits the bill. If the book is useful to you, I hope you will spend at least equal time in preparing for the religious element of bar/bat mitzvah and use an excellent guide such as "Putting God on Your Guest List." My 4 star rating is based on the assumption that the reader wants a party planner only. If you want more, this book is not for you.

I found this book totally disappointing. The advice is obvious even to inexperienced party planners. (For example, in the chapter on invitations there is a section on ink color that states only: "There are many colors to consider.") Most of the book consists of lined pages for you to write your price comparisons for vendors, such as photographers. There are 20 pages lined for you to fill in guest addresses, with little boxes to check off if you have written a thank you note. My copy of this book is going straight into the recycling pile.

Dont buy this book. If you want the best version, buy the first version used! This version adds very little and the pciture quality in it is terrible. Its like buying a kids coloring book! AVOID!!

I wanted the first one, but this is better. I've broken my review into five parts.

1. Pictures - sloppy, out of proportion, looks like a small child got them off the internet and used Word to make them bigger but still fit the page. -1*

2. Text - looks as though typed with an unresponsive space bar and over-active period key, the mistakes are really pathetic. -1*

3. Content - interesting trivia, nice overview of every episode. Plus guest stars, salaries, and bat-gadgets. +1*

4. Enjoyment - I was expecting a more kid oriented book, more trivia and less episodes, but you can't blame the book. +1*?

5. Overall - It isn't what I was expecting, but is full of good reference
and okay pictures. +1*

* = star

Well, I received my revised Bat Book yesterday and here's my personal take on it.


COVER
Good color, adequate layout, minimal originality. Good clarity except for the show logo, which is noticeably fuzzy. A photo or illustration of the shows stars might have been a nice addition.
*** 3 bats (out of a possible 5)


CONTENT:

Layout -
Gives the appearance of being laid out in a word processing software, such as Microsoft Word or Word Perfect. These are NOT professional tools used for laying out a book, or any other printed work for that matter. The text is readable and very informative, though dreadfully uninteresting in how it's presented. Feels like reading through an owners manual for a vacuum cleaner or other such household device.
** 2 bats

Graphics -
Absolutely atrocious. In this age of quality desktop publishing, to use images of such poor quality is inexcusable. Many of the images (which are all black and white in this case) have almost no detail and look as though they were applied to the pages using a rubber stamp. Others show the same low resolution, Internet formatting that was never meant for printed materials. Top this off with one of the print communities cardinal sins: NEVER stretch an image out of proportion or aspect ratio unless there is an artistic reasoning behind it, which in this case, there is not.

There are some instances where the photos presented, though unusual, are simply uninteresting. One feature that might have helped in some cases is captions. I spied none. If you are looking for a Batman picture book, keep looking.
* This one receives 1 bat, only because it has some unusual photos. If not for those, it would receive none.

Information -
Pulled mostly from the original version, the information is quite comprehensive and complete. This is probably the best part of this edition. Everything that any Batman fan would want to know, and maybe even more than any fan would want to know. There are some facts and figures that, although striving to make this edition a more "completists" reference, would fall flat in importance to the general fan. Never the less, a great wealth of information.
***** 5 bats


SUMMARY -

This revised edition of the Bat Book is, at best, sub-par to it's earlier incarnation. Though for new-found fans of the series, it is the only one currently in print. This reason alone is enough for these new fans to grab a copy right away. For long-time fans who still get out their tattered and dog-eared original Bat Book for perusal, save your hard earned dollars and steer clear of this pretender to the Bat-throne.

* Stand-alone overall rating: ** 2.75 bats
* Compared to previous version overall rating: * 1 bat

I'm totally unbiased in my review. Yes, this volume is not as "slick" as the first edition as it doesn't have any colored pictures and perhaps some of the pictures may appear to have some distortion due to the layout,but I would certainly recommend this book. I had two copies of the previous edition that fell apart; this new volume appears sturdier.
Besides material from the first edition, there are numerous new pictures, many of them not previously published in a trade paperback format. In addition, there is new information that will appeal to even the most hard-core fan. I especially liked the Dozier / Guest Villain communiques.
In short, if you are a Batfan, forget the controversy and buy this volume.

This is by far the best info anyone could wish to find about the 1960's Batman TV Series. I have read Joel's 1986 edition and this one is even better. The photos are great and lots I have never seen. All this brings back fond childhood memories. I love it !!!!!

Remy Jardin is in France as a masquerade ball when she stumbles upon a conversation that she is not to hear. Realizing she is in danger she turns to leave- being discovered by one of the participants in the conversation. He catches up with her. They argue. He hits her, knocking her to the ground where she hits her head on the tree. She is discovered by a couple of tourist. They get her to the hospital where she is discovered to have amnesia. Remembering nothing. An article about her identity is placed in the newspaper w/her picture. Her family sees it and sends someone after her to bring her back to the US, back home-Cole Buchanan, president of the family shipping company, and former lover/boyfriend of Remy. While Remy is busy trying to regain her memory with different flash backs- she stumbles on an insurance scam dealing with a company oil tanker that was lost at sea recently. She starts asking questions that someone is feeling threatened by- enough to beat her up again and tell her to stop being nosy. Did that have to do with the conversation that she over-heard in France? Is Cole involved and is that why they had broken off their relationship? The read is ok. At one time the maid tells Remy how the family got their fortune in the beginning having to do with a love affair between a rich cajun debutante and a yankee ship owner that was disapproved of by her family, ending in death, grief, loss of love, and the birth of an illegitimate son left with a fortune. I enjoyed that story more than the actual one. Read it for yourself and see what you think.

Living abroad and starved for English language books drove me to read Masquerade, one of the few available options. What a book. You want to say that it's a must-read on its own terms, but you can't- the best you can do is that it's an okay-read. The prose is stilted and repetitive, and while Dailey is decent at using this repetition to build up suspense, she doesn't take it anywhere, so it just kind of fizzles. Furthermore, the love story set in the middle may provide a parallel, but it has no place in her novel- she either couldn't come up with enough plot or couldn't devise a way to throw in a third love scene between the two main characters. I'm new to the romance genre, but if this is among the best of what it has to offer, I'll be searching elsewhere for good reading soon. Masquerade is a nice try, but the plot isn't compelling, and the steamy scenes just aren't steamy enough. All in all, read it if you have to, but try to avoid it.

In the cassette version of Masquerade, the relationship between Remy and her lover doesn't really factor in to most of the story, and is left open, allowing the book to become more of a mystery novel than a romance.

Synopsis: Waking from a head injury, Remy Jardin finds herself in the middle of a life she can't remember. A member of one of the wealthiest families in New Orleans, the lover of a man her family despises, and the guardian of a dark secret that someone is willing to kill for.

Synopsis They say her name is Remy Jardin and that she belongs to one of the wealthiest families in New Orleans. That she should forget the masked man that ruthlessly took her past away from her when he struck her unconscious that night at the carnival in Nice. Al her memories gone... just like that. They say it probably will come back, in fragments and quick flashes, like a pussle that needs to be put together. She should just not worry about it. It will happen. It will come back. But among her memories lies a dark secret, information someone could kill for... even a beloved.

We're in love with her too

Safire begins his book with an essay on copulas. Copulas are linking verbs, and most often they are formed from the verb "be." " John is a boy" is a copula. One of the traditional rules of English grammar is that a noun or pronoun must be in the nominative case to complete the meaning of a copula. These days in all but the most formal speech and writing pronouns in the objective case are more likely to be used with copulas. But then Safire makes an error. He writes "The grammatically pristine form of "Woe is me" is "Woe is I" or "Woe am I" but go tell that to Ophelia and Isaiha." "Woe is me" is not a copula. It is a "noun + verb + dative object" construction. There is no controversy here. The great grammarians Matzner, Abbott, Franz, Jespersen, Visser and so on have all demonstrated that in Early Modern English dative objects were less likely to have prepositions before them then dative objects today. Safire quotes a professor who says as much but Safire will have none of it. He says that Shakespeare did "intend to equate `woe' and `me.'" He then goes on to write "Sometimes the truth lies flat and you only confuse yourself looking for "understood" hidden words." By ignoring the facts Safire got it wrong. There is nothing hidden here. "Me" is understood to be a dative. In Old English the dative pronoun for the first person singular was "me," the accusitive was "mec," and the nomanitve was "ic." In Old English there was no need to use a preposition to mark the dative pronoun. In fact to use a preposition with a dative pronoun was a pleonasm. With the decay of inflectional forms in Middle English period, the pronoun "mec" became obsolete and was replaced by the dative pronoun "me". Because of this there rose a need to distinguish the dative from the accusitive and this was done by using prepositions. But the unmarked dative, the dative without a preposition remaind a regular feature English throughout the Early Modern English period.

Safire's In Love with Norma Loquendi is a compendium of previously published articles coupled to responses from readers. The book is an eclectic collection of uses and misuses of words and phrases. For those with an interest in the fine definition and use of words, the book is a reasonable read. It is particularly good for those who like to read short segments, move on, and return to the book later. Each section is a page or so in length - just right for certain situations where a few minutes of reading is all you want. Some of these sections get a bit long-winded and tedious, but the next page generally has a change of subject.

Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry, wonderful forms when written from the heart and guts. Here, junk compiled by a painfully dull editor. Skip it. Better off getting a subscription to Opium or one of the other good magazines that highlight this type of writing. Hopefully this will save you some frustration.

Over the last ten years many non-fiction how-to books have gotten shorter and more concise. "Blink: Flash Fiction Before You Can Bat an Eye" shows how this trend is affecting fiction. "Blink" is an excellent book for a busy housewife (or househusband) who doesn't have time for a long read, a business professional who wants a short read on the commuter train, or anyone interested in entertaining and thoughtful short stories.

The book and its essays are charming. Through these words you can feel the writer's life experiences as viewed through some association with baseball. Baseball is not the topic of this book, it is the illustration used to bring to you a number of life experiences - some joyful, others emotional - all worth reading and experiencing. Sort of a "Baseball - Soup for the Soul"!

Baseball as metaphor for life, or life as a metaphor for baseball has been pretty well covered. Unfortunately most of the writers in this book are caught in some personal vortex that can work only for them and has little to offer the reader. This collection is mostly about everyday people involved with some aspect of baseball and the inference tends to be that the essence of the game somehow lies in the milllions who participate in some form at some level. But it's a ruse, used to justify or validate many of the authors' opinions and maybe cherised moments. Not much here of merit.

Though most of the stories don't bridge the gap from the teller's personal interest to valid story telling, there are two exceptional pieces that belong in any first rate short story anthology.

They are "The Warriors," by Sherman Alexie, and "What Pop Fly Gave His Daugher," by Lynda Berry. These are excellent works. They are powerful, moving, informative, wonderful stories that happen to include baseball. Sherman Alexie brings humor, the quixotic mine fields of emerging adolesence, core questions about pecking orders, and schooling on and off the reservation in an engaging, entertaining, and authentic manner.

Lynda Berry offers a story in the life of a girl/emerging woman as she finds a way to deal with a near intolerable family. We are are shown a glimpse of the confusion and agony of this girl, and her determination and reslience as she survives and comes to grips with her noncaring and self-centered father. It's an excellent and informative read. And yes, baseball gloves, even if they only cost $.59, can work magic.

The remaining seven selections are meanderings of minimal interest. They are dull, and in the same breath as extolling the life virtues of baseball they tend justify ugliness and/or reflect/validate a sad personal perspective.

In "God's Tourney," Robert Leo Heilman treats American Legion regional playoff baseball with the devout obsequiosness of a budding acolyte of the true religion. He gives us a lot about being good enough, the quirks of the game, the usual about how baseball makes better people of those who play it, and becomes positively reverent when describing the hallowed ground of the Roseburg field. Seemingly unaware of the contradiction, he then plays the reality card: the very non amateur baseball commercial concessions necessary for legion ball to survive are dismissed as just a part of big thing called life. The official car (Buick), and so on. No dealing with reality and the obvious: you can't make nice something that isn't. Instead of letting the obvious just lie there, the author tries to validate it and somwhow attach it to the glow of those beautiful 600 wooden seats.

In "From the Church of Baseball: Different Hymns," by Timothy Eagon we have the modern blow up of all the coaches and parents who never figured out the value of games for children. While he does profess to come to some sort of epiphany at the end, he can't get past his obsession, not passion, about the game and "life."

From some dark recess he rails about the pathetic nature of T-ball and coach-pitch, everybody-is-a-winner stuff that is peddled at the lower ages. His squad is made up of nine year olds. He continues about how reality comes early for these kids - his team, which includes his daughter - about the pain the kids felt when Griffey broke his wrist running down a deep drive, or Ayala's "closings." He tells us that these kids know grit, triumph, and agony, and rambles on in a debasing monolouge, ending with "self-esteem, schmelf-esteem."

9 year old girls (and boys) just don't agonize over these things, unless they are tactical survival techniques for life at at home. With any luck, children at this age are encoureaged to learn and discover, allowed to be kids. The grit and agony too many of them know are obscene expectations to be adults by the age of nine, to validate adults instead of being validated by them, and to be bludgeoned into equating a hollow concept of "being a winner" with being valued. A quick look at the courts and social services shows us what too many 9 year olds, and younger, know about the agony of despair and abuse. That's real. Ayala and Griffey are nice diversions.

It's the game that's the thing, it's the game that rich and rewarding, unlike all but two of this collection.

I was greatly entertained by Williamson's work here. It's old school, but not everything has to be Greg Benford, after all.

I came in determined to like this book. After all, I had seen authors I like, such as Poul Anderson and Ben Bova, talking about him as one of the all-time greats. So I got this book--and wished I hadn't. I mean, we have a black hole gobbling up the planets one by one. Apparently Mr. Williamson believes the planets will voluntarily line up in the way of the hyperbolic orbit of the black hole, rather than being randomly dispersed on both sides of the sun, the way they are in this universe. Also, the characters are thin and unbelievable. I'm left thinking that Frederik Pohl must have been doing the lion's share of the work in his collaborations with Williamson. Sorry, I'm sure Jack is a very nice guy, but as a writer he doesn't seem to have evolved much from the pulps.

I can't recommend this book enough to Quicken users. Not only does it provide illustrated step-by-step instructions for using Quicken's features, but it includes a wealth of information about personal finance. I learned many new things about investments, loans, and getting out of debt, all of which will help me make and save money. For me, this book went far beyond the basics. It made me smarter about my money. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

I bought this book in the hope it would shed some light on the problems with Quicken for Mac 2001. Quicken charges for almost all phone support - which is usually answered by people who are not knowledgable. So - I was looking forward to the book filing the gap.

WRONG! It is a primer at best - albeit a long winded one. It doesn't even tell you have to back up and restore files! I found this particularly astounding since our financial files and knowing how to back up properly is so important.

I almost don't think the woman who wrote this exists - the book is that useless and just a shill by Intuit.

thank goodness Amazon makes returns so easy. I'll just hit the help button on the mac - that is when Quicken figures out how to make help work.