Clubs and Organizations Books

This is the third in the Moosepath series of books by Van Reid and it maintains his exemplary standard of good writing and is a delight. The story makes a great winter read as it uses all the atmosphere of the season - winter snowstorms, crackling log fires, spooky deserted houses. It follows on from the previous novel Mollie Peer although this story is complete and can stand on its own; but if I you intend to read Mollie Peer (and I recommend it most hightly) it would be best to read this novel after Mollie Peer or you will know what happens in Mollie Peer. This really is good wholesome storytelling at its best - not a watered-down-to-not-offend wholesomeness; but a rich, life-affirming novel of loveable characters in a rollicking laughter-filled old-fashioned tale that will bring tears of joy and sadness. READ THESE BOOKS!

if, like me, you're a bit plugged up from reading irvine welsh, noam chomsky, dave eggers, etc. van reid's "daniel plainway" might just do the trick.

i picked this up on a whim and afterward was scared i had gotten myself into something that was going to be a bit "precious and old-people-y", though i held on to a glimmer of hope due to the fact that "the onion" had read and liked the book.

in the end i couldn't put the thing down -- partly due to the author's way of jumping from storyline to storyline on a chapter by chapter basis, but mainly due to the fact that it was a delightful read. it reminded me more than a little bit of a rural american sherlock holmes adventure (the story is set in 1890s maine), but with tongue planted firmly in cheek (never irritatingly so though).

i won't divulge any details of the storyline, but i will say that i thought the book peaked about 2/3 in (when all the various threads finally came together) and after that it slowed down a bit. not bad, but perhaps mildly disappointing after such a fantastic build-up. one other point of note: if like me, you find yourself wanting to read the first two books in the series after finishing this one, you'll realise you've been given too many spoilers about book 2. will this affect your enjoyment of book 2? dunno. i haven't started that one yet... but i know how it ends.

i don't think you can go wrong with this one. regardless of your age or interests, a bit of good clean old-time book reading fun is coming your way.

Van Reid is just a great story teller. This is the best (so far) in his Moosepath trilogy.

Hurray for the Moosepath League!! Maine novelist Van Reid now has published a series of his comic, sweet novels, each more pleasurable than the last, featuring Tobias Walton and his companions Ephram, Eagleton and Thump. His most recent offering, Daniel Plainway: Or the Holiday Haunting of the Moosepath League, is the perfect Christmastime or winter fireside book. Woven with so many pleasurable amiable asides and subplots, the main story about a kidnaped boy and ancient Norse writings seems almost an afterthought. To take one example, Walton, whom Reid describes as "himself a pearl, and good things did seem to surround him", starts the novel losing his hat in a sudden wind; the peregrinations of that topper itself, and the goodwill it seems to bear from its owner, flow delightfully through the story. In another delightful scene, Reid waxes rhapsodically on the perfect qualities of snow for snowballs, leading to a delightful snowfall fight involving the novel's heros, villains, and local youngsters. A particularly pleasurable turn for me, a former classicist, is that the interpretation of the writings depends on hearing the Greek spoken in a seemingly nonsensical English phrase, "she'll bust her feeding." Although always lighthearted, Reid's novel is not without serious purpose, as expressed in the dialogue as to whether "there are so many people in the world willing to drive tragedy" or whether "there are as many, more, really, who are willing to put things right." In Reid's world, those who good-heartedly "put things right" - most especially the comical Moosepath League - predominate. I finished his book with a fair certainty that the same prevailed in my own place and time.

'Daniel Plainway' is the third foray into the adventures of The Moosepath League for Van Reid, following 'Cordelia Underwood' and 'Mollie Peer'. If you have not read those volumes, do so now.

In this episode, the charter members of The Mossepath League encounter their alter egos in the form of the Dash-it-All Boys, while the other members of the league match themselves against a secret society, obsessed with discovering lost Viking riches, known as the Broumnage Club.

These adventures, however, are once again woven into the fabric of the continuing story of Bird, a small boy whose story has been heretofore a mystery, in great Van Reid style. That is to say brilliantly. Reid's talent for intertwining story threads is unmatched by any author in my eclectic library, and it is a singular pleasure to find recurring, peripheral characters scattered about the pages of 'Daniel Plainway', as well as 'Mollie Peer'. When these characters appear, it is sometimes to deliver a funny anecdote or story, or to be merely a small participant in an ongoing conversation; and whether identified by name, or left for me to surmise their identity myself, I always feel like a participant in an inside joke.

I would love to apprise you as to the identity of Daniel Plainway, or hint at how he is connected to young Bird, but I feel I would be diminishing your reading pleasure, not enhancing it. The best turn I could do for you, in regards to this review, is stress upon you the joy you will have in reading Van Reid's chronicles of The Moosepath League, starting with 'Cordelia Underwood', then 'Mollie Peer' and ending with 'Daniel Plainway'.

I feel confident when you are finished with this trio, you will be anticipating the fourth installment in this saga as eagerly as I am.

I had lunch with Van Reid in August of 2001. He was as fun to talk to as his books are to read! I love the humor, the insight, the intrigue and the adventures of the Moosepath League! I agree that this installment is not as "heavy" as Daniel Plainway (at least to all but Ephram, Eagleton,and Thump!) but all the other elements are present. I laughed out loud several times while flying, which caused my fellow passengers to wonder about me, I am sure. Moxie!

How could I have missed this series? I enjoy stories set in this period because my own father was born in 1890; in Kentucky. He was a small-town boy, following the work to Ohio where he and several of his brothers settled.

I can picture him being a member of such a club as the Moosepath League and having small adventures such as author Reid depicts in this series of books. My father was not bumbling like most of these characters, but he was witty and funny and would no doubt have led them on even more exciting adventures.

Reid paints a vivid picture of a small town of the late 80s ... filled with characters who would make entertaining neighbors. They'd certainly liven up any neighborhood with their quaint, old-fashioned, yet quirky fun.

It's obvious this is a satire, and I love satire myself. (I discovered these books because on Amazon.com they were placed beside one of the books I wrote: THE TOONIES INVADE SILICON VALLEY. While the TOONIES does not disparage our lovely Valley in anyway, I certainly delighted in poking a bit of fun at our techie culture ... tongue-in-cheek humor, of course ... as Mr. Reid does in these books.)

Fun reads! Enjoy all four.

For excellent quality, humor, detailed plots, and kind, likeable characters, you can't beat Van Reid's "Moosepath League" novels. The latest, "Mrs. Roberto", seems to me to be a little lighter in tone than "Molly Peer" or "Daniel Plainway", but is still immensely involving and entertaining. This kind of writing just cannot be found anywhere else today. If you are fond of the classics or nineteenth century American literature, you will love Van Reid.

The willing adventurers of the Moosepath League of Victorian Portland, Maine, have lost none of their good-natured innocence in this fourth adventure, despite entanglements with tavern keepers, loose women, pickpockets, hoboes and worse. Indeed, Van Reid's droll storytelling depends upon it.

Misdirection and misunderstanding form the strong foundation of the meandering and digressive missions of the League's six members, who gather at the Shipswood Restaurant in the spring of 1897 for one of their regular dinners. They raise their water glasses (prohibition has been in effect in Maine for 46 years) to their only female member, Miss Phileda McCannon, who's making a journey to settle her deceased aunt's affairs. Mr. Tobias Walton, their chairman and the oldest at 48, is a bit subdued on this occasion as Phileda has not given an answer to his proposal of marriage.

Joseph Thump, Christopher Eagleton and Matthew Ephram are still in a small state of excitement after nearly running down a tavern keeper named Sparks who could have been Thump's double, but for his workingman's clothing and his high-pitched voice. The youngest member, Walton's faithful assistant Sundry Moss, 23, is the only one who dares to hazard that the crowd of ruffians backing away from the near-accident were pursuing Sparks rather than attempting his rescue.

The trio of Thump, Eagleton and Ephram have not seen the last of Sparks. Walking home through an unfamiliar and doubtful part of town, Thump happens to save a policeman from certain death-by-falling-piano, thereby incurring Mrs. Sparks' heartfelt gratitude for preserving her cousin, the perpetrator, from a murder charge.

This might again have been the end of it, but the trio, inspired by an incident in a play, determine that the lovely balloon ascensionist, Mrs. Roberto, must be in need of rescuing. Their mission leads them to a house of ill-repute (not that they ever realize where they are) and a run-in with the gang that's after Sparks, from which they escape thanks to Sparks' youngest son and his urchin friend who lead them over Portland's slippery rooftops. Sparks' network of less-than-respectable relatives continues to aid the trio as they seek Mrs. Roberto from Bangor to Dresden Mills, taking up with a large party of hoboes along the way.

Meanwhile, Moss, attempting to distract his employer, has taken Walton to visit his uncle in Norridgewock, though they never make it quite that far. The train is delayed in Bowdoinham where Walton is pressed to come to the aid of a glum prize pig. Perplexed by the locals' assumption of his expertise in porcine matters (the reader has been let-in on the misunderstanding), but as willing and easy-going as ever, Walton embarks on a visit to the Ferns, unhappy owners of the depressed pig, where Moss, a farmer's son and a bit more worldly than his fellow Moosepathians, soon susses the problem.

With digressions for the furtherance of romance and good acquaintance, Reid piles misunderstandings upon misunderstandings, constructing a hilarious journey through the towns and by-ways of Maine and the social strata of its best inhabitants. It all culminates in a spectacular and chaotic natural disaster, reuniting the League and necessitating numerous rescues and confusion and some wonderfully vivid writing.

Lots of local color and history round out the adventure. Reid's prose is playful, witty and dry, as well as eloquent and visual. The contrast between the transparent innocence of the steadfastly clueless trio and the sharp wits of Sundry Moss (think young George Burns and Gracie Allen) is a pleasure, further enhanced by the ready-for-anything calm of Toby Walton. Reid (whose Maine roots go back more than two centuries) leaves us with a tantalizing hint of the next to come in the League's adventures. These books are for anyone who enjoys wit and good-natured storytelling in the Dickensian tradition.

Martin R. Dudley's The Collect in Anglican Liturgy: Texts and Sources 1549 - 1989 is an absolute gem. In fact, it is a multi-faceted gem, for not only does it collect (no pun intended) every single Anglican collect written between 1549 and 1989, but it takes a historical look at each one by noting the development of the collect through three distinct periods: 1549 - 1929, 1930 - 1972, and 1973 - 1989. Within each section, he notes the development and different versions of particular collects, which is quite helpful. He notes how some collects were discarded, and how others were sometimes substantially rewritten. Further, Dudley also includes the Latin collects from the Sarum Missal (one of the major liturgical sources for the Book of Common Prayer) and traces the history of each individual collect to its source. I thought it was quite interesting how many collects come straight out of older Latin liturgies, including but not limited to the Sarum Missal.

But what, exactly, is a "collect"? Dudley, in a substantial 43-page introduction, notes that we don't quite know the origin of the prayer style itself, but that "collect" most likely "means the celebrant's conclusion or summary of the prayers of the faithful" (5). It was one of three types of prayers that appears to have unique to the Western/Latin/Roman liturgical tradition - the other two being litany prayers and Eucharistic prayers - that, although they were compiled in the sixth century, are sometimes hundreds of years older. Thus, when Cranmer compiled and wrote the first Book of Common Prayer in 1549, he was working - in part - out of a much older and thoroughly Western/Latin/Roman liturgical tradition. Dudley seems to favor the earlier collects - or, he is at least more willing to criticize more contemporary collects, noting that a collect should be addressed to the Father, through the Son and that although it should be theologically substantive, it should not be rhetorically cumbersome. He thinks that some of the contemporary collects fall short on some of these issues.

Dudley does not restrict himself to the collects that have been historically used in England, but takes a global perspective, noting the development of the American collects, as well as those in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, India, South Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Thus, this book is really quite up to date, for the only major liturgical development that I know of since 1989 elsewhere in the Anglican Communion is that of the Kenya - but I do not know if there were any new collects commissioned for the Our Modern Services (Kenyan BCP) in 2002. All of this, however, leaves quite a few questions unanswered, for there are a number of Anglican provinces that aren't mentioned here that are found in Central and South America, as well as throughout Asia and other parts of Africa. Perhaps these different parts of the Anglican Communion have not commissioned new collects but have only translated those from the past. However, Dudley doesn't actually say so. Rather, he hints that the book has been put together in part for those parts of the Anglican Communion - Africa, specifically - that are now putting together specific liturgies so that those particular liturgical commissions might have a solid resource for developing their own prayers in their own language, while also remaining rooted in traditional Anglican soil (41).

This book, as noted above, is a real gem. I highly recommend it for all who are interested in Anglican liturgy - on a global basis, whether more ancient or more contemporary - as well as for those who would like to read and pray a different type of prayer. Collects are formal, and in many ways quite majestic - they are for a community, and are therefore not merely homespun. There is real theological depth in these prayers, and Dudley's work of collecting them is a great service to all.

About two years ago, when I began working with the Synodical Commission for Worship on a revision of our Church Year and Liturgy, one of the questions we asked was how we would be able to make the best use of the historic collects (opening prayers) of the Church Year in our new scheme.

This book made it simple.

Collected together for reference and comparison, Dudley's volume made it simple to research the history of the Collect in the usage of the Anglican Liturgy, from the Latin collects of the Sarum usage to the 1979 revisions and even into the late 1980's, this book covers the entire spectrum of opening prayers from throughout the Anglican Communion.

At the price this book is offered at, it is almost a sin not to have it on your bookshelf. It is a truly indespensible resource for the Anglican cleric, or any cleric of the Western Rites with an interest in liturgical prayer.

The Algebra Conspiracy: What The Educational Establishment Doesn't Want You To Hear is an iconoclastic challenge to conventional educational establish practice in many states which requires students to pass Algebra and Geometry in order to graduate from high school. Author Michael Wiener persuasively asserts that all children are not ably to learn Algebra and Geometry, that Algebra and Geometry are not relevant to the future lives of a great many of the students, that "college-prep mathematics" graduation requirements stem from knee-jerk over-reactions to the failures of public education in general. The Algebra Conspiracy is provocative, contrarian, thoughtful, and well deserving, serious contribution to the current national dialogue on educational reform and public school accountability.

This compact, well organized, well written book sets a new standard for reader participation.


Herb Walberg, PhD

Author or editor of more than 50 books on education and training

Lawyer Jack Gellman's 15 years of research pay off in a hard hitting epic of documentary of antiSemitism by Roman Catholic and some liberal Protestant church movements. Pages could be written as to the whys of it all, but suffice to say mis-application of literal/plain New Testament teaching is behind much of it. Allegorical, theological and religio-political decisions on what the Scriptures really say are behind much of it.
Gellman's grasp of the facts is impressive. If only more people would spend 15 years researching a topic before printing it! Disturbing to me was the reliance on what I would call liberal/borderline apostate theology of Scripture interpretation in the name of Christianity that he relied upon for support trying to portray Paul the Apostle as a frustrated preacher turned anti-Jewish. I recall Paul saying in Romans 9:3 he loved the Jew so much he would suffer a curse to reach them. I would also have enjoyed more conservative Protestant documentation on those true believers in Jesus who loved the Jewish people they knew and risked all to help them. The pages of Christianity are filled with documentation of pro-Jewish Christians. Sadly, much of this documentation has perished one way or another.
Finally, Gellman's astute perception (and this IS the issue of course) is the place of Christianity vis a vis Judiasm. How many covenants does God have? One for the Jew and one for the Christian? Dispensational theology solves this issue cleanly by affirming the Christian church is a "called out" group of people (by God) not in a discriminatory sense but for special purpose. The ancient covenants with the Jewish people have not been abrogated, but will be fulfilled after the church is taken to Heaven and world history will culminate in final endtime events, including the salvation of the Jew (as Jewish Prophets predicted).
In the meantime, this book serves well for documentation, and that is the author's intention. But Christians must remain Christians (and the author affirms this)as well as Jews remaining Jews, but the greater issue for me (and ultimately for all of us) is "what is the Spirit of God saying regarding the future of all of these things?" The Spirit speaks through the Scriptures, and for me through the true believer, Jew and Christian, and we must listen.

This book traces the inner teachings in the 14th to 16th century Europe, where one of its main exponents Gerald Groote (1340-1384) (Gert Groote - Gerhardus Magnus) lived in Holland, Deventer.

A quote from Gerald's life (of which very little is known): "...His life ran smoothly enough, no doubt, until one day in Cologne when a stranger confronted him as he wandered the busy streets and challenged him with a question:

'Why are you standing here like this, intent on empty things? You must become another man.'

The width and scope of the subject is enormous; I hope there will be more of similar thorough studies made in the future. It is about the brothers and sisters outside the monastic life, the lay people, living in the spirit of oral teachings and studies of the Desert Fathers. This theme is actual also in the new Millenium.

The book shows clearly how little we (or at least: how little I) know of the past and how little of the knowledge of the past can reach and actually has reached us.

If you have ever been wished to know more about the many secret and violent organizations that have run amok on this planet than this is the book for you. Elliott gives you the chance to sneak inside the world of mobsters, cultists, and terrorists, their history and tactics, all from the safety of your home. Some of the stories related are truly incredible. In a chapter on tribal magic, we hear of an English traveller in Africa who witnessed a ceremony practiced by a group known as the Jackals. Here it is claimed a dancer actually transformed into a jackal! Another story tells of a group that required initiates to kill and canabalize to join.

Elliott begins with a history of violent and secret organizations, discussing Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Ludites. He goes on to cover modern European terrorist organizations such as the Red Brigades and the Bader Meinhoff gang. He then takes us into the world of for profit criminal organizations such as the Gambino Family and the Columbian drug lords. The final chapters explore cults and magical practices like Vodoo. All in all makes for great reading. I am surprised this book has not been more popular.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that it gives the real history of the early years of Boy Scouting - i.e., it includes both the "good" amd the "not so good" details. For example, I had long been interested to learn why Thomas-Seton left the BSA for about 10 years before coming back in the 1920's. Well this books explains it all very nicely. It also describes the powerful impact that James E. West had in forming the BSA as an organization, along with numerous other little known insights. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves Scouting and wants to learn more about it's early years and the men who contributed to giving us this worthwhile organization that is today too often just take for granted.

This publication is an excellent series of skits which will guide participants to a working understanding of the basics of parliamentary procedure and the reasons for the rules. Highlighting the routine applications of parliamentary procedure, it also gives great examples to correct some of the misinformation about some of the more infrequently encountered parliamentary rules. This book is a great way for organizations to provide leadership development for its members.