Anne Books

From a Marine Mom's point of view....a wonderful book. I cried and laughed at times through the whole book. There wasn't a page that I didn't like. I thank Jo Anne Allen for writting her story to share with us. She is a brilliant writer and a wonderful Mom. God Bless you Jo Anne and AJ. -Lori

Ooorah!

Jo Anne Allen's MY SON IS A MARINE captures in riveting detail the author's personal struggle through every mother's nightmare; a child deployed to combat. Despite the sheer gravity of the situation, Jo Anne manages to fill her story with humor and an unshakeable faith while describing how she kept both her spirits and that of her deployed Marine high throughout his combat tour in Iraq. Through Allen's extraordinary writing talent, her children come alive to the reader, as well as her "other children" (AJ's friends, whom she practically adopts), and even the family dog is described in such simple yet warm detail that you expect her to come bounding into your room at any moment!

Allen draws her audience in early with a graphic account of a childhood near-death experience for her son AJ, and then another from his teenage years. Both of these events convince the reader that AJ must survive, because he has some higher purpose from God. Eventually it becomes clear that the purpose is going to Iraq, where AJ not only does his duty, but impacts the lives of so many of his fellow Marines as well.

My favorite part was all the little anecdotes relayed through the story, usually concerning AJ's childhood. They add such depth to the narrative flow of the book. And the stories of the Three Trees and the Cup Full of Sins are ones that I will carry around with me for a long time. This book is easy to read, easy to develop, hard to put down, and impossible to forget. It is a must read for parents of young deployed servicemembers, and also for anyone who has ever asked the Almighty "Why?"

I just got through reading "My Son is a Marine" and found it to be a very touching and inspirational book. My son is also in the Marines and is presently doing border patrol in Iraq. Reading this book has helped me to find strength to lay down a lot of my worries about his safety and well being during his deployment. This book is more than a Marine Mother's story, it is a story of how faith can change lives. AJ is a phenominal young man and his love of God is such an inspiration. Thank you Jo Anne for telling your story and may God bless you and your family.

Moving, inspiring, compelling, mystical, spiritual and entertaining! Personally, it was one of the best reading experiences of the year for me. Author, and mother of an Iraq veteran, Jo Anne Allen writes from her heart and it shows in her memoir "My Son Is A Marine". It is a joy and a real pleasure to read something uplifting dealing with the Iraq War experience. Even though her book is filled with enough "Kleenex Moments" to make a great soap opera, she never loses her faith in life.

Her moving words about her son and his friends are touching and healing. This book would be good spiritual medicine for those with children in a war zone; or whose own lives have been challenged by having to carry some of life's burdens. Jo Ann is not some simple minded "Pollyanna" but a faithful and very much human being, who is trying to cope and deal with her life under some extraordinary circumstances.

I found myself rooting for her and her family throughout the pages of this book. It is one of those stories that you are glued to as soon as you begin and must continue reading through to the end. I read it the first morning I got the book--I could not put it down until I was done with it.

This is not your normal "I got a son in the war story" by any measurement. It is something very special. I believe it will help bring people back to their own spiritual roots. It will change lives and make people different in a very positive way.

This is the MWSA's winner of "The Reader's Choice Award" for 2006! I give this book our top rating of FIVE STARS! A must read book!!!!

This journal is AWESOME I bought it years before I became a mother and I am so glad I did. The pictures are excellent. There is an envelope for a few small items. Very easy to open and write in. Every page has the Date_______ and then just lines so you never have to feel like you will run out of room. But the page is also set up so you can put a few different dates on the same page for short sweet memories. Im very busy but this journal is something I can spend a few mins a night to write down things I dont want to forget. Wonderful for mom or a gift for mom to be.

Being a parent is very hectic. You almost never have time to journal all those important moments in your babies development, but with the beautiful, adorable pictures in this journal, how could you help but make time to make use of this little book. It's an inspiration! I find myself opening it all the time just to look at what's inside and then I spend hours journaling all the great accomplishments of my child. This is a great buy!

This book is so beautiful, it's always easy to remember to write in it. I bought this book when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter & wrote in it throughout my pregnancy. It has lots of beautiful photos, plenty of pages to write on, and even keepsake envelopes for a lock of hair, etc. I was so excited to keep this journal for our baby that I just couldn't stop after she was born & competed the book during her 1st year. Now, I'm pregnant again & looking for a different Anne Geddes book for the new baby!

This is the sweetest thing I've ever seen. I love Anne Geddes work, and I don't have children yet, but I thought I would buy this so when that special time comes I will have the cutest keepsake journal around.

In reading Nana, My Grandmother, Anne Gillis, I knew it would be a very personal story by Robert Gillis, but I wasn't prepared for the emotional impact that it would have upon me. The pages depict a very special relationship between the author and his remarkable grandmother whom he called "Nana." Sadly, in today's global society, many families are separated by great distances, and the youth often don't have the opportunity to really get to know their grandparents. Even if they have the opportunity, I wonder how many take advantage of it--if they truly understand what they could glean from these wise senior citizens whose minds hold family secrets and intriguing stories regarding their heritage. Grandparents are a living legacy; however, love, time and communication are necessary to reap the benefits. Robert Gillis proves this to be true.

The author begins by taking readers to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where he provides them with the family lineage for Nana beginning with her grandparents. He describes the rural, farming village of Glendale where Nana was born on May 20, 1902. The background of the family is presented interestingly enough to appeal to all readers which demonstrates the author's talent and is pertinent to understanding Nana as well as the other family members. Mr. Gillis is obviously proud of his heritage and plans a future visit to Glendale.

Nana, at the age of 17, left her homeland and went to the United States with her older sister Mary. In Boston she did secretarial work and cooked and cleaned for rich families. Because Nana worked hard and saved her money, she was able to send for her parents in 1929. Other than one brother, all the surviving Gillis children--as well as an uncle--eventually moved near Boston.

Nana's only son, Robert Joseph Gillis, was born on March 7, 1937 in Medford, Massachusetts. Because Nana was never married, most of the circumstances regarding Bobby's birth remained a mystery. People in the 1930's were unforgiving toward unwed mothers; therefore, it took a strong woman to keep and raise her son, especially with her time restraints and work schedule. She referred to herself as Miss Gillis and referred to Robert as her nephew. Sadly the two of them were never close; however, with the passage of time, though Nana did not openly display affection toward her son, there were signs of veiled love.

In 1941 Nana, who had training as a nurse, purchased a large house in Dorchester--a beautiful mansion where she and Bobby would live. However, this intelligent and hard-working woman also had other plans for the 12-room house on 10 Trull Street. After making the necessary renovations, she operated it as Uphams Corner Rest Home which was a boarding home for elderly persons. Nana worked unceasingly as she bathed and dressed patients, fed them home-prepared meals, washed their clothes in a washtub, and dealt with city inspectors who always found clean and healthy patients. Despite the challenges, this determined woman did very well financially and was extremely generous when it came to loaning money to family members. In 1965 she went out of business and began renting rooms in the home to tenants.

Nana's son Bobby married a lovely woman named Marguerite in January of 1964--a woman Nana truly liked and one who would help look after her in her later years. Then Bobby, Jr., the author of this book, and his sister Theresa were born. When little Bobby was five or six, his grandmother offered to pay him some small change if he would bring newspapers to her home during the weekdays. He agreed and the ten minute visits were the beginning of a long and wonderful relationship that developed between the two of them. When he was older, Bobby, Jr. worked alongside his father who had been doing most of the work in maintaining the house on 10 Trull Street. Though he didn't graduate from high school, the older Bobby could fix anything and, despite his lack of parental supervision while growing up, he was a sensitive and kindhearted man. This reviewer saw many examples of these same qualities in his mother. After the older Bobby died, his son took over the upkeep of Nana's house.

Regardless of how busy his schedule was, Bobby managed to spend quality time with his grandmother, listening to her tell the same intriguing stories over and over, taking her on trips, helping her shop and, of course, making repairs on her home. Many of his wonderful memories were--and still are--associated with 10 Trull Street, and readers will enjoy his description of the various activities that took place there.

This book is extremely well-written and contains valuable information as to how one can help senior citizens with their needs. The author loved his grandmother, recognizing her exceptional qualities and acknowledging that--like all of us--she wasn't perfect. He helped her when she was recovering from an illness or accidental injury; he made tough decisions when he realized that she could no longer care for herself. At the appropriate time, Bobby--though his heart was aching--gave her permission to let go of this life so that she could be with other family members in Heaven. This sweet and inspiring book is one that entire families will enjoy. Just as Nana gave so much to her grandson, he gives so much to readers.

Review by an Independent Professional Book Reviewer

Genre: Biography/non-fiction
Title: Nana: My grandmother, Anne Gillis
AUTHOR: Robert Gillis
In the 1930's being a single mother was not only shocking, it was a challenge overcome by only the strongest of women. Anne Gillis was such a woman, and with her stubborn determination she managed to take care of her and her son's financial needs, and went on to leave an indelible imprint on the next generation as well.

Robert Gillis has written an extraordinary tribute to his uniquely lovable grandmother, Anne Gillis. The story follows her from her birth in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, through her years as a dutiful nurse to the elderly as the soul proprietor of Uphams Corner Rest Home, to the humorous and bittersweet final years of her life. With great pride and honesty, the author does a remarkable job of remembering and relating the part of the story that occurs during his childhood as if he were still using the eyes of a child. It is also with great skill that he captures the poignant moments near the end of a life well lived, as well as the grief of those who have been deeply affected by it.

Biography can often be a difficult genre: to produce an enjoyable and moving book, the author needs to have true passion for his subject. There is no doubt Robert Gillis has the required intense-love, and the result is that the reader is privileged to call Anne Gillis a new friend.

Robert Gillis lives in Foxboro, Massachusetts, where he works as a computer programmer and writer for a local paper.

A wonderfully sweet book, I strongly recommend it.
Reviewer: Nancy Morris, Allbooks Reviews.

Dear Bobby:Wonderful reading! I did not skip a word. I would love to join you when you travel to visit your roots. I have met folks from that area in my travels and found them to be hard working,warm loving folks. Your so called cousins "Mac Masters" Delivered meals on wheels and many other charitable acts of kindness to the elderly. Lonnie and Lollie are very special people. I would love to be there when the strawberries are ripe,they tell me they are the best. They also have Harness Racing and I have met several in my travels around the different tracks that came from there. You have shared a remarkable relationship with Nana and can look back with great pride that you made her life happier because of your unselfish devotion and love. Thanks for sharing. Love to you and Sue Bob

My name is Robert Gillis and I am the author of this book.

For anyone who has ever loved a senior citizen, this book will touch your heart. Anne Gillis, my Nana. I loved her dearly. What began as a stop to drop off the newspaper blossomed into a very special responsibility lasting over two decades. I visited her daily since I was five; I shopped for her, watched out for her, took care of household repairs as I got older, and listened as she talked about her remarkable life. After Nana died, I started writing about her, and found that there could be no better way to accept her passing than by celebrating her life. This book is a very personal, special story that I would like to share with you.

The eighth of eleven children, Annie was born to David and Mary Gillis in Glendale, Inverness County, on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, on May 20, 1902.

After a childhood living on the Glendale farm, at the age of 17 she and her sister Mary arrived in Boston in search of work to help the family and start new lives.

In 1937, she gave birth to her only child, Robert.

In 1941, now a nurse, she purchased 10 Trull Street in Dorchester and opened the Uphams Corner Rest Home, which she operated for over twenty years.

She lived quietly at 10 Trull Street for 54 years, which she opened to tenants in the 1960s. Her regular visits were her daughter-in-law, Marguerite, and her grandchildren, Bobby and Theresa. Her son Robert took care of the house repairs until his death in 1984.

She died at the age of 91 from complications of a stroke on November 16, 1993.



But she was so much more than that.


A person isn't just a few lines in an obituary, a few sentences scribbled in a newspaper. She was my Nana, and I loved her dearly. She led an interesting, remarkable life, and I was part of it for nearly three decades. Her life mattered. I'm a better person for having known her.

Nana never had much company; Mom handled the bills and made the twice-weekly visits with us in tow, and Dad continued to do repairs as long as he could, but I was Nana's only regular visitor. That daily stop began when I was five years old.

When I was little, the visit was a good living - Nana gave me a dime or quarter when I stopped in, and shoveling the snow would bring in one or two dollars.

Nana loved to talk, and we spent nearly an hour every day chatting. There were many stories that were repeated again and again, but I know Nana liked to tell them, and I never really minded. As I got older, I became more interested in the family history, and I'd ask Nana questions.

I heard the stories of Glendale, Nana's hometown in Cape Breton Nova Scotia, and the adventures and stories of her family and friends of long ago. I learned about the Glendale fiddle players and step dancers, Nana's love of the Gaelic language and Scottish heritage, her eight brothers and sisters, life on the farm, the miners of Sydney, coming to America when she was 17 to work, and memories of her dearest friend, Sister Andrea MacVarish, who lived to be 103.

As I grew up, I was able to do more. I made her dinner every night and took her shopping. When I started driving, I tried to take her out every now and then; it always did her good.

We took other trips as well, and on three occasions we flew to Maryland to visit her sister Florence. Nana was a like a little kid when we traveled and an excellent companion.

It was on one of those visits to Maryland that I finally realized that Nana was aging and my time with her would be finite. At Florence's house, Nana had grown confused about where she was, and we sat up and talked for almost an hour. Nana talked about her fears of losing Florence, who'd been ill, and then she said something she had never said before. "Bobby, I'm getting old and I don't want to die."

Nana went on to explain that she was very afraid. She was starting to forget things and not recognize familiar places. I felt so bad and tried to imagine how she must feel, to have lived all those decades and suddenly be so confused about simple things.

I listened for a long time, just holding her hand and reassuring her that everything was fine. Finally, I said, "Nana, I've always done my best to help take care of you and I promise you that as long as I'm around, you're going to be fine. I will stay right here with you and I won't let anything happen to you. I promise you that I'll take care of you for the rest of your life. I've always been there for you. I promise that I'll watch over you and take care of you."

I'd long since accepted my responsibility toward Nana, but that night put things in a new light. For the first time, I acknowledged that Nana really was getting old, and it occurred to me how often Nana thought about her mortality, and how much she feared being alone. I promised myself that as long as I was alive, Nana would never be alone.

For another four years, I visited Nana almost every day. Then, she took a bad fall in June 1992 and finally needed to leave her home, and became a resident of Saint Joseph Rest Home in Dorchester, where she received excellent care. Mom and I continued to visit her regularly. Nana flourished at Saint Joseph.

The stroke she suffered in August of 1993 left her in a vegetative state, and mercifully God took her only four months later. One of the greatest blessings God ever gave me was allowing me to be with Nana when she died. I know she was aware that I was right there, saying the rosary, holding her hand as she died. We buried Nana on my 29th birthday.

Losing Nana devastated me. Even losing Dad wasn't a blow of this magnitude. Suddenly, I had no one to take care of. I didn't need to be anywhere in the evening anymore. And I hated it. I hated not being able to see Nana and help take care of her.

The years passed and I grieved, and I ended up writing a book about Nana and her life. It was part journal, and part grief therapy. It ended up being a loving tribute.

I always thought I was the one doing the care taking, but Nana took care of me. She was my best friend growing up - I just didn't know it. If things were bad at school, I could go to Nana's. If I was upset at home, I could go to Nana's. We never had heart-to-heart conversations and I rarely told her my problems, but somehow just being with her - in a place where I was unconditionally loved and accepted - made all the difference. Even if everything else was going wrong, I could see Nana, make her a cup of tea or something to eat, or do some work on the house.

Nana took care of me in ways she never imagined. This recent realization has helped me to understand just why losing Nana was so absolutely devastating, and the unexpected truth that I grew up, and stopped being a kid, on the day Nana died.

The Good Lord helps us heal over time. Nana's death hasn't hurt for a long while, but I miss her stories, the complaining about her arthritis, the Cape Breton accent, and just feeling so happy to be with her.

Nana gave me so much. It's because of Nana that I love senior citizens so much, and recognize them for the treasure they are. It's because of her that I am interested in my family history, and history in general. It's because of her that I want to help other people. Despite her melancholy and often-gloomy outlook on life, she was wiser than she ever imagined and made a great difference in my life. For that and so much more, I am so very grateful to her.

This is our story. Please visit www.NanaGillisBook.com for photos, more information, and more of my published writing.

These cards are awesome. I hate to open with such a mundane line, but there really is no other way of expressing the jublilation fostered by the dark images of this deck. The Author takes great pains to adhere to the Golden Dawn Tarot Model, and with great success. The gods, devils, and people you encounter throughout the tarot journey within this deck create a gloomy, darker miasma in the room, but the meanings ascribed to the cards couple with the images in a perfect blend of harmony and despair. True the Necronomicon is not the most happy-go-lucky text (or texts however you believe) but this deck deals with the dark in such a way that enlightens. This deck is unique in its delivery of symbolism and has a rich mythos behind it. Great for lovers of HP Lovecraft, Tyson, or just those of us who do not see sunny-faced magic bunnies dancing among candy-coated mountaintops in our dreams. (If you do see such things, this tarot is probably not for you.) This Deck is for any of us who dare to look into the chasm of the human psyche without the fear of being swallowed by the darkness within.

That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange eons even death may die.
-- Necronomicon

The Necronomicon Tarot by Donald Tyson, illustrated by Anne Stokes, is a brilliant adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's work to the Tarot format. For those not familiar with HPL, he was an early 20th century pulp fiction writer whose work focused on the other-worldly horrors of ancient magic and forgotten civilizations. He created the Necronomicon as a literary device, an imaginary tome of ancient magic upon which much of his hideous mythology was based. Tyson himself has continued that lineage with two novels and this Tarot, the third in his trilogy. The Tarot comes in a boxed book and deck set, together with a mosquito-net style bag. Given the subject matter, I was a little disappointed that it did not include a shrunken head, or at the very least some dusty old bones, but I suppose there are postal regulations to contend with.

The deck itself is of standard size, and the usual Tarot format of 22 Major Arcana cards, and a Minor Arcana in four suits of 10 plus four court cards. The art work is vivid and brightly colored, set against a black background that makes the cards almost glow. The design of the Major Arcana itself is roughly traditional (whatever that really means), with the substitutions one would expect for the theme. Most of them will be immediately recognized by students of the genre: Nyarlathotep is the Magician, Dagon is the Hierophant, the Hounds of Leng haunt the Moon, and of course Great Cthulhu himself appears as the Devil. Each suit of the Minor Arcana is based on a particular theme, and for the most part, the cards are descriptively illustrated, and follow the Golden Dawn pattern. The Wands, which we are told represent Fire, somewhat surprisingly concern themselves with Atlantis, and Deep Ones make frequent appearances. The Cups reflect an Egyptian theme, tracing the progress of an acolyte of Bast. The Swords concern themselves with betrayal, distrust and death, while the Disks chronicle the adventures, and eventual success, of a necromancer.

The theme immediately invites a comparison with the H. P. Lovecraft Tarot, by Friedman and Hutchinson, published by Mythos Books, and now sadly out of print. Its first edition was cast in bluish-green tones, and its second edition appeared in sepia, while the Necronomicon Tarot is in full, bright colors. The HPL Tarot provides a more thorough illustration of Lovecraft's works -- it is very much a Necronomicon in itself, which might, to those not familiar with Lovecraft's work, make it a little difficult to use as a Tarot. The Necronomicon Tarot, on the other hand, is immediately recognizable as a Tarot deck. While a familiarity with Lovecraft's work would certainly add to one's appreciation of the deck, it should be easy to use by those familiar with the Tarot in general, and, thanks to the detailed book that accompanies it, by those with an interest in the theme who are just beginning their study of the Tarot.

The book, "Secrets of the Necronomicon," is very well written, and would be very helpful to those not familiar with the work of Lovecraft, or with the Tarot itself. It includes chapters on the Necronomicon and its history, the Cthulhu Mythos, and Correspondences, which discusses the Tarot, and specifically its relationship to the Golden Dawn. There are detailed black-and-white illustrations, descriptions, and suggested divinatory meanings for each card, and finally a suggested layout for reading. The divinatory meanings roughly follow the GD standard, though there are occasional differences. If you don't happen to like the GD interpretations, you can focus more on using the card's description as a starting point for your own imagination and understanding of the card.

And there is a lot to imagine here. As Tyson points out, the Necronomicon itself is made out of the stuff of dreams, not out of wood pulp and glue. Its roots are deep within the unconscious, and its "reality" is in its ability to bring forth things that are hidden to ordinary waking consciousness. As such, it is a theme well suited to the Tarot, which is itself a product of the collective unconscious.

But what is this all about? Why all the excitement over a book that does not exist, over monsters that were invented by a pulp writer in the early 20th century? No one could take all this stuff seriously! After all, no one believes in metaphysical Evil anymore; it's evil with a small "e." Human frailty and corruption, not monsters and devils. Right? Maybe. But, methinks, thou whistleth a bit too loudly in the graveyard...

Nietzsche used the word "blinken" to describe a kind of narrow-sighted, closed-mindedness that refuses to recognize anything other than what makes your own world comfortable for you. It's easy to say there is no "Evil," if you have never faced it. It's easy to say Tarot cards are rubbish, if you have no talent for reading them. It's easy to walk through the graveyard at night, if you don't look behind yourself. And it's easy to ridicule what others believe, until your own little world falls apart.

Then, like Pandora's box, the collective unconscious opens wide, and every horror that has stalked the human race since before recorded history lunges forth with vengeance. The stars are right, and that which became Tiamat to the ancients, and Cthulhu in the mind of Lovecraft, rises from the sea to shred what remains of your "reality." Madness, yes, but "reality" too. More drugs? Drugs can alter your brain so you don't see what is socially unacceptable, but they do not change the "reality" of what lies beyond the blinken.

Therein lies the fascination of the Necronomicon. Sure, it's a myth, but that is what a myth is -- a map of the world that lies beyond immediate experience, a signpost in the twilight zone that lies beyond the blinken. Someone else's experience of a world as yet unknown; and whether imaginary or historical, it is just as valid. And this is the value of the Necronomicon Tarot, along with other "dark" tarots, like the Bosch and the Gothic -- they are images of what lies in the collective unconscious, imaginary and at the same time very real. They speak to, and listen to, a part of the mind connected with the primal origins of humanity, and perhaps with the forces out of which humanity arose. They are gateways to a "reality" that we don't ordinarily see -- the stuff of which dreams and visions are made -- and they are ways of getting beyond the intellectual, moral, and spiritual "blinken" of modern culture.

I want to start off by saying two things. First, this deck is hauntingly beautiful. And second, this deck is not for everyone. The subject material and design will intrigue and delight some folks or repulse and disgust some others. You will love it or hate it.

Having said that, my own opinion is that I really do like this deck, and did some back research on this before even writing this review. Reading through the book with the deck, I saw in the Introduction that the deck is based on Mr. Tysons own work "Necronomicon - The Wanderings of Alhazred". So after glancing through the included book, I acquired a copy of Tyson's Necronomicon and read through that, wandering back and forth between the book and the deck.

The deck is based on the Ryder Waite deck. It contains 22 Trump cards and 4 full suites with court cards of king, queen, knight and knave. The suits are broken into disks, swords, cups and wands. Each suit has its own theme color to make them easily distinguishable from the other suits. The reverse of the cards is a very clever design of Cthulhu, intriguingly done.

The correspondence "is designed to be in harmony with the set of esoteric correspondences used by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn." And reading through the accompanying book confirms this. The suits are Wands - fire, Cups - water, Swords - air and Disks - earth. This desk also relies heavily on reversal reading of the cards, so that has to be taken into consideration when working with this deck. The deck is meant to work mostly with ritual magics and meditation, and is not considered a "fortune telling" deck.

Looking at the images will tell you this as well. Ms. Stokes has presented us with some images that will really give you pause to consider. While I think they are stunning, other people I have shown this deck could not deal with it. And still others quoted H. P. Lovecraft's work as fiction and didn't take the deck seriously.

The concept of necormancy is not new, and to eventually write a book on Necromancy and call it the Necronomicon would not have been so far fetched if it had not been that the book first appeared in a fantasy novel.

This deck is a natural progression of this process, working into using a deck designed for use in necromancy and the magical arts , calling upon real and imagined images to create a world within the deck that draws you towards the ideas and concepts that Mr. Tyson explains in both of these books.

The images work well with the usual meanings of the decks, but the designs are dark, raw and not for the weak of stomach. While the card for the Two of Cups shows a priestess of Bast pouring wine for a youth and having a statue of Bast in the background and implies what we usually associate with this card as a minor card of love, we contrast this with the Four of Wands, which shows a noble woman sitting staring amorously into the eyes of "The Deep One", very reptilian looking, having a tryst. A very different view of the meaning of enjoyment, harmony and satisfaction.

Ms. Stokes designs are very powerful. The Magician card is one of the most powerful Magician cards I've seen in a while, with the Magician raising a spirit from a grave. Now that's magic!. The Fool card is Azathoth - fat, naked, dirty and alone playing happily on his pipes. Such innocence, such blindness to the world around him.

The deck continues along in this fashion, and should really been seen and felt and contemplated to understand how this deck can work for your own path. I have found it to be compelling to use, but as I said, it is not for everyone.

However, I do recommend that you take a look at this deck and decide for yourself. I do think it is a remarkable deck, and if you have read Tyson's Necronomicon, you will find this deck as fascinating a work as
the book. boudica

I found this Tarot deck fun to look at and play with. While I do not believe I would use it for real Divination, still I will use it for some Pathworking experiences with the Mythos.

The artwork is pretty and the colors are truly stunning. I would like to see better drawn art but I realize that that is probably not going to happen where the Cthulhu Mythos is concerned. Thus this deck will serve as a nice way to Pathwork as well as put me in the mood to read some Lovecraft and Chtulhu Mythos works.

I gave it 4 out of 5 possible stars because I don't agree with some of the card associations regarding characters from the Mythos. I do not feel the need to justify this to anyone as it is only 'my' personal opinion and taste however if you're new to Tarot, Sorcery or Cthulhu Mythos & Lovecraftiana, then this deck will be something you want to explore.

The Literature Companion is an excellent addition to any reference collection, for a library or at home. The editor has not crammed the pages with trivia, rather she puts readability and usefulness ahead of fact checking. When I look up an entry, say, on Conrad, I'll start browsing the C's and loose track of time. Very interesting and stimulating.

I wish they'd publish an updated edition. I have the one that came out in 2001, which still serves as a useful reference.

It provides biographies of major authors and of other influential figures, such as biographers, critics, editors, publishers, thinkers and translators. There are one-paragraph summaries of major literary works and characters, as well as lists of book awards and annual winners (Nobel, Pulitzer, Booker, Whitbread, Prix Goncourt, Hugo, Nebula, etc.).

Other sections I find useful:

*Dictionary of Literature (terms, styles, movements, genres)
*Chronology of World Literature (from the invention of writing to the year 2000)
*Influential Literary Periodicals
*Variations (works of literature that have been adapted into other media -- films, TV miniseries...)

Breaking the monotony of a reference work, scattered throughout are short historical and anecdotal essays, quotations and excerpts, and quizzes.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY LITERATURE COMPANION is one of those texts that ought to lie prominently on the shelf of anyone who dares to call himself book smart. The list of potential readers is daunting: bibliophiles, poets, novelists, essayists, English literature majors, and even quiz show contestant wannabes. In its 700 plus pages lies a wealth of erudition not found in any other single volume. Editor Anne Skillion has divided the COMPANION into three broad categories:
1) Creators--which includes biographical sketches of the major figures of Western literary history.
2) Works--which covers in surprising detail the output mentioned in (1) above.
3) Literary Facts--which lists the names of the characters in (1) and (2)

No one pretends that this volume will have enough information to write say, a scholarly paper on one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but for one who wishes to taste the Tales for the first time, one could do worse than start here. Further piquing the interest of the erudite reader is a series of sidebars, which are both delightful and informative:
A) Writers on writing
B) First books by 10 American writers
C) Poets at work (Three things are certain: death, taxes, and the fact that poetry rarely pays the rent)
D) The New York Public Library in fiction
E) Shortsighted rejection letters (You'd be amazed at what famous works were rejected by publishers)
F) Nobel Prize in literature winners (Grouped by country)
G) English & American Poets Laureate (Tennyson held this post for 42 years)
H) Standard reference books in literary biography
I) Memorable opening/closing lines (Useful for those taking the GRE in English)
J) Pulitzer Prizes for fiction/poetry/drama
K) Influential literary periodicals
L) Movie adaptations of novels/plays (Great for viewing just before the lit test)
M) Recommended Great Books List (This one is controversial: too many of my favorites were omitted)
N) Landmarks in literary censorship (Includes Lolita, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and The Satanic Verses)

This COMPANION is one of those vanishingly rare breed of reference books that can be read as often as referenced. It avoids the dry as dust patina of scholarly jargonese that infects and afflicts other and similar texts. If you already have the NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, then this one is a must buy.

First of all, I need to say that you won't find absolutely everything here, so don't expect to. Neither will you find deep philosophical discussions exploring the multiple levels of an author's intent. I say this only because in some reviews of other reference books in the New York Public Library collection, some reviewers have complained that some favorite item of theirs was not included. To summarize this paragraph, there's a lot here for most people, but not everything for everyone.

What you will find are a great number of literary references broken down into a little over a dozen general categories. For instance, under "Authors," there are a couple of hundred two columned pages of brief discussions of authors and their key works.

Under "Works of Literature," you will find almost as many discussions of novels, plays, poetry and other forms of written works.

One of my favorite sections is "Characters." Has the name of some literary character ever come up in a conversation and you can't quite remember where he or she came from? This is the easiest reference I've ever found for obtaining that sort of answer.

In addition there are such sections as "Literary Awards", "Great Book" lists, "Literary Periodals," a "Dictionary of Literature," a "Chronology of Literature," and many more convenient breakdowns.

Overall, of course, there is a general index which includes all entries in all categories, and which serves as a sort of cross reference between the various categories.

As a previous reviewer has noted, this is a great book to open up at any page and browse to your heart's content. I find myself looking up one item and then following it up with another reference mentioned in that one, and on and on, ad infinitum.

From the day I found this book, it has been one of the most used reference book in my collection.

Excellent delivery and well worth for the money very good presentation will deal again highly recommended

As an OT student, I've used this book more in clinic (rehab settings) than any other text I own. It is an invaluable reference for manual muscle testing and goniometery. Trombly carries over from class to clinic with ease, and I've even had OTRs borrow it during my fieldwork.

As an occupational therapy student currently assigned to a physical dysfunction site, I have found this text to be the most valuable. I advise any student taking the NBCOT exam or begining a affilitation in physical dysfunction to purchase this text!!

OT for Physical Dysfunction proved to be indispensible both in school and in practice. This text has practice skills in assessment and treatment organized for use in problem-based and in evidence-based learning courses. Treatment principles are outlined with actual therapy techniques, sample documentation and specific information to treat different diagnoses with photos. Absolutely my most-used text.

I work with secondary students who have reading problems. My students have enjoyed both of C. Anne Scott's books, Old Jake's Skirts and Lizard Meets Ivana the Terrible. The books are easy for them to read and keep them entertained. Both books have messages that kids outside the "norm" can relate to. I really enjoyed reading both these books as well, and the illustrations are well done - especially in Old Jakes' Skirts. Both books are positive in nature, but never preachy. I highly recommend both.

First of all, the illustrations in this book are priceless! When I first read it to my children, I could barely turn a page without their comments and chuckles about an expression on a character or some other subtle detail they noticed. Secondly, as a home-educating mother, this book is a gold mine of themes: honesty, resourcefulness, spirituality, social skills, death, generosity, and most of all, positive attitude. My children, ages 3 and 5 are a bit young for all it has to offer but they still enjoy it immensely and request it frequently. I would recommend this to any child ages 7 and up. It is a beautiful volume that really makes your children think...and ask questions!

This is a wonderful book about how a life can be changed by an unexpected gift, and how the love of someone can spread to others who are unknown to them. I read this to my little girl, and almost couldn't finish it--I was crying so. It is a very meaningful book, and shows how God's providence can change our lives and the lives of those around us.

I almost forgot about the illustrations! They are vivid, and express the joy of a life that has been changed by love.

I'm sorry, this review is really sappy, but I loved this book!

Old Jake is a curmudgeon. He lives alone on his farm and likes it that way. Jake just doesn't take to people. His dog Shoestring is enough company for him.

On his monthly trip to town for supplies, Jake and Shoestring find a battered old trunk resting in the middle of the road, and Jake leaves the unknown owner a lost and found note at the store. Months later, when no one has claimed the trunk, Old Jake finds many uses for its contents of calico skirts.

Jake uses the skirts to mop up rainwater that leaked through the roof of his home during a rain storm, dresses up his scarecrow, patches clothes and makes neckerchiefs for himself and Shoestring. His farm is now bright and prettied up. At least he and the church ladies think so.

One day a young girl and her father arrive at the farm looking for the trunk as it had contained the skirts of the man's wife who recently died. Old Jake expresses his sorrow and explains what has happened to the skirts. He gives the young girl the last one, now hanging outside on the clothesline. Jake also gives the young girl a beautifully hand-carved doll dressed in a calico skirt.

I love this story! It is about an unexpected gift that keeps on giving. The skirts transform Old Jake's attitude and behavior, and in turn, his transformation is felt by other people.

I would suggest that this is a book best read to children over age 7 as it is quite lengthy and pretty heavy on text.

The illustrations are stunning and could be framed!

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a couple years now. The stars must have been in alignment last night (Valentine's Day), because I had the precious time to read it, and really enjoyed it! I am a fan of Anne Stuart, but have to say that while she's known for her very "Bad Boys," I was surprised that while our lead, Jamey Rafferty, a real Chicago gangster, was very intense, he was very honorable. I loved him. Stuart based this novel on actual events. Here's a quick history:

On February 14, 1929, four unidentified men, members of Al Capone's gang, two being dressed as Chicago police officers, stormed into a North Side Street garage and ordered seven members (Rafferty, the story's hero, being one) of the North Side Gang against a wall which they apparently did willingly, believing their captors were real (and comparatively harmless) police. All seven men were then shot and killed with a Thompson submachine gun. Witnesses saw the uniforms and assumed that everything was under control. It was total chaos.

Stuart brought the feeling of the 1920's to the present day. This all actually happened in Chicago and Stuart has written this story as if all 7 members have been returning for 48 hours every year on Valentine's Day to get the chance to redeem themselves by falling in love and in turn staying mortal. Which brings us to our heroine, Helen Emerson; she's a state prosecutor and the only daughter of a very large Irish-Catholic family of cops. Helen's been targeted by a sadistic killer from Rafferty's past and he's determined to protect her. It was a great set of circumstances, a great set of characters. This book really was worth hunting for; unfortunately I don't believe it's currently in print. But if you can find it, it's a true gem.

By turns funny, exciting, wistful, romantic and erotic! This story concerns the star-crossed love between a modern female prosecutor and a handsome gangster killed in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in 1920's Chicago and doomed to live only on Feb. 13 and 14th--until he finds true love. Throw in a psychotic villain from the hero's era, the confusion of life in modern-day Chicago, another at-risk couple, and the urgency of the hero's 48-hour time limit, and you have a well-written romantic treat.

Although this is a short novel, it is a cute story. Somehow the men who died in the St. Valentine's Massacre have been given a second chance. Every year on the anniversary they returned for 48 hours. All have found a soulmate and started new lives except for Jamey Rafferty.

Jamey has come back every year for 64 years but he has not found a woman to love him. this year when he comes back the last of the men Billy Moretti is in trouble. His wife comes to Jamey and begs him to help Billy. Although he has other plans for his 48 hours he has to help his friend. After finding out the name of the ADA who is on Billy's case, he hunts her up.

Helen Emerson is an associate District Attorney in the DA's office. Friday the 13th has always been a bad day for her, and she almost decides to call in sick. Before she can do anything Jamey arrives at her door at 6 o'clock in the morning. Pleading Billy's case and getting her help are not to hard for a slick operator like Jamey. Finding her too attractive and virginal as well as one of a family of cops is hard on him. He knows he only has a short time and he intends to leave her just like he found her.

But Cupid and the last of the old gang change his mind. Ricky Dragos aka Willie Morris is set on killing her. He blames her for his wife's death.

This is a wonderful fantasy and full of charm. The love story is warm and Jamey is still a slick charming rascal. I enjoyed the book very much.

No one, but no one, writes bad boy, amoral heroes as well as Anne Stuart. As someone said about the hero of one of Anne Stuart's historicals, you might be mad enough to marry him, but you wouldn't let him around the children.

In this novel James Sheridan Rafferty, who died in the Saint Valentine's Day massacre, found himself found himself, as he did every 13th and 14th day of February once more in Chicago with 48 hours to pack in a whole year of living. Helen Emerson is an entirely too mundane prosecutor who finds herself opening her door to Rafferty at 7 am one morning. He's there to try to talk her into giving Billy Moretti one more chance on probation.

It's not just Rafferty who came back. All of the men who were killed in the massacre found themselves back in the city on February 13, 1938 and once a year since. Over the years, as each one has met and come to care for a woman they discovered that they could escape the cycle and live and die a natural life. Now it's down to Rafferty, although there's a couple more like Billy Moretti who he was trying to spring that morning of Friday, February the 13th, still alive and kicking. And some of the men who died in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre deserved killing more than others.

Rafferty realizes in those 48 hours that someone is trying to kill Helen Emerson and, more importantly, that maybe she is his ticket back to reality if they can both stay alive.

Fast, fun and breezy, Anne Stuart has cooked up a great little Valentine Day's gift here to please the most demanding taste.

This book may be small but packs in great information and recipes. Every soup I have made from this book has turned out great. I have been very impressed. In addition to the recipes, the book has small tutorials and/or explanations of ingredients, techniques, etc. The pictures and explanations are easy to follow. I have plenty of other cook books (Fannie Farmer, Moosewood, Indian & Asian cookbooks, etc.) but I am always using this one.

I checked "Perfect Soups" by Anne Willan out of the library and was so delighted with the easy-to-follow and beautifully photographed recipes that I bought two copies-one for my own kitchen shelf and one for a gift. Anne Willan has written a cookbook for beginners as well as long-time cooks. The step-by-step recipes clearly tell the cook what equipment is used, what ingredients are needed, how to master cooking techniques, what the finished product looks like and how garnishes can be prepared and used to make each bowl of soup a masterpiece. I loved this cookbook and have never seen another book of soup recipes that included such good and healthy-sounding soups.

This book and the rest of the series are fantastic. They are small, have great pictures and meticulous directions. That said, the book tackles really good food. I recommend all of Ms. Willan's books to some degree, but the "Look and Cook" and "Perfect ----" books I particularly recommend especially if you like to see what your food is supposed to look like when it's done.

This soup book was priceles and her "Perfect French Country" book is dog-eared. In fact, the French food in that book is so good my teenaged son will eat it.

Even though this book is so tiny, doesn't mean it doesn't have some really neat tricks to make your soups extra pretty.

One of my favorite ideas from this book is the idea of oven-toasted heart croutons. There are also ideas for cream decorations that are so easy to make, yet look so gourmet.

This book is divided into 9 sections: Super Soups, Making Stocks, Ingredients & Preparation, Creamed & Pureed Soups, Hearty Soups, Light Soups, Cold Soups, Short Cuts and Presentation.

This book is geared to new cooks and gives great advice on how to prepare the ingredients with step-by-step pictures.

Some of the recipes in this book for Fall:

Butternut Squash Soup
Pumpkin & Apple Soup
Borscht
French Onion Soup
Hungarian Sour Cherry Soup

Most of the soups contain a short list of ingredients and could not be easier to make. You will also find information on how to freeze soups (my favorite thing to do so I always have a soup ready to heat up), use your microwave to speed up preparations or make garnishes or even piroshki to serve with soup.

No difficult cooking tricks...this book is just filled with easy-to-make treats!

Once upon a time in America there lived an intelligent and unusual man, an émigré from his homeland in a Europe demolished by the unceasing, decades-long activity of psychopaths, a rather unremarkable-looking fellow in real life who possessed, however, the gift of great acting ability, of being able to effect a miraculous transformation, many times over and with any manner of variations, before the movie-cameras. Yet, as if Fate had had it in mind from the beginning to offset his good fortune, he was cursed with short stature, public ungainliness, and an unpredictable and often self-destructive nature, with homely yet expressive features and a voice that would eventually be made the butt of jokes.

But there were also those (Humphrey Bogart being one) who saw something entirely different in him: a streak of nobility and stubbornness, something that drove him to constantly strive for perfection of his craft, notwithstanding the incomprehension which seemed destined to envelop him wherever he turned - a quality, in fact, of genius.

I'm hoping that many other readers will soon discover this intriguing first novel by the American writer Anne Sharp: a constantly-shifting and kaleidoscopic hybrid of both Bildungsroman and a lifetime's patient accumulation of the minutiae of film trivia, every aspect of which gradually fuses together to form a glowing love-letter to an actor, long-dead, with whom the narrator has obviously, hopelessly, fallen in love.

We first meet this narrator, a girl of eleven (creative and independent, bright yet lonely), suffering the bullying and viciousness of other girls at junior-high during the early Seventies. She has an older sister with whom she gets along, but her parents are at each others' throats and on the verge of divorce. Her mother, eschewing first the Methodist and then the Episcopalian church, had

"married a Jew. Not a very intense Jew. He had never had a bar mitzvah, and wasn't observant. Both my parents were so alienated from their nominal religions, in fact, that when my sister Yvonne and I were born they took us to the First Unitarian-Universalist in downtown Detroit, where something perfunctory was done to us with water and a rose which did not impart any of the usual benefits associated with baptism, such as eternal life or membership in a human community. But for years I didn't know this."

Having finished her schoolwork, the narrator is allowed during the week to watch the TV show Night Gallery on the portable television in her room, and afterwards reads such fare as the stories of Poe and Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural, often far into the night. Then, the summer after she starts junior-high, "my mother sat me down one morning and asked why I didn't have any friends anymore. Mom must have worried, since being an outcast was something she associated with my father."

The narrator's father, altogether an interesting yet shadowy figure, and perhaps spurred on by the half-Russian side of his lineage, commits an almost Dostoevskian act, going to his daughters' school counselor to "talk about" how his wife is supposedly turning both daughters against him. It is the father, however, who is soon afterwards turned out of the house.

At this point I'll call the narrator 'Anne', for the sake of simplicity - although the astute reader will refrain from jumping to conclusions about the autobiographical nature of all that's presented in the novel, this 'uncertainty as to provenance' being one of the book's many interesting nuances.

Anne is transferred to St. Ladislaus, a Catholic girl's school, for Grade 9: "In the whole time I attended Lads I was never kicked once. But it wasn't just me. Human beings in general improve tremendously between the ages of fourteen and seventeen." There is some fine, very humorous description of the pitfalls awaiting her as she enters her teens, but it is at this point that the bravura of the movie-theme starts - and this, the most delightful and subtle thread of the novel, is what holds everything together, and accounts for much of the book's beauty.

Anne's mother, having sent her husband packing, begins to regularly watch a Public Television program, featuring foreign films, every Friday night. Her daughter joins her to watch such films as Grand Illusion, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Seven Samurai, Ivan the Terrible, The Blue Angel, and Knife in the Water. Thus is an ardent and intractable cinephile created.

"Not in a million years would my dad have let me watch movies like this. I had been an extremely phobic little girl. There was a talking clown doll, a Christmas present from an uncle, that made me run away and cry whenever I saw its face or heard its strangled, artificial voice. Yvonne was fascinated by the uniform reaction she got from me just by taking it out of its box. Eventually the box was stored in the basement, whereupon I refused to go downstairs."

The rather eccentric but strong-willed mother allows her daughters to stay up and watch a midnight double feature of Frankenstein and Dracula. Anne is immediately smitten with Karloff and Lugosi, and realizes herself that she's fallen in love with the movies, especially those filmed in black-and-white, in which "the clothes and the settings and the men were much more beautiful."

It is at this pivotal point that she watches the film M, and is devastated by the performance of Peter Lorre as a deranged yet pathetic killer of children:

"You must remember this. There's a city made of grey stone where it's always night. All the people are afraid of a little man who slips around in shadows, emerging whenever he sees a stray child. First he flirts her into the bushes, offering candy, fruit and toys. Then he sticks her with the switchblade he uses to cut up oranges, and leaves her for her mother to cry over."

There now enters into the young girl's life a confusing, addictive, and increasingly obsessive love affair (there is no other word for it) with that Hungarian actor who died not long after she was born. She is fascinated by his voice, by the "purling arabesques of his English pronunciation". She cannot rid herself of that "face of a Buddha in repose, his iridescent purr, his beckoning, exophthalmic gaze." Her coevals make fun of Lorre's voice: "I heard their mocking, cruel, ignorant mimicry and blushed and raged to myself." She watches every movie with Lorre in it that appears on television, even in the early morning, and drifts about the entire school-week "in a semi-hallucinatory state of sleep deprivation." While watching TV late at night, and to avoid waking the mother and sister, the narrator (reminding one of the secretive reading & television-watching habits of ourselves when young) uses an earphone hook-up to her television, so that she can listen to the movie without revealing herself, "spared that shame, at least." Having told others who her favorite actor is,

"People would make a face and say, "Well, what you mean is you like his acting. You're not in LOVE with him."

I would nod and turn away. I saw mental hospitals in my future.

He was so beautiful."

What could other people know, says the narrator, of "a fourteen-year-old girl trembling under this merciless thing that had crept over her when she was little, that she had hoped she would eventually grow out of, that she wasn't growing out of?"

Woven throughout the ongoing tale of her obsession are some wonderful digressions, following the Bildungsroman theme: outings with her father and sister; cigarettes and smoking in the movies; a look at the differences between how men and women become physically aroused; the movie-going experience in the 70's and a paean to the suburbs of Detroit; episodes from her girlhood and her friendships with the depraved Natalie, semi-depraved Valerie, and two irrepressibly aspiring film-makers named Neil and Dave; there is also the profound effect upon her of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; a very cutting and amusing demolition of the deplorable human being but excellent poet Brecht (with whom Lorre, unfortunately for his peace of mind, was often involved); and her first glimpse of her idol on the big screen, as Dr. Gogol in Mad Love. The narrator's father has remarried, and she briefly goes to see a psychiatrist - but is left no less confused and unimpressed by 'real life'.

This wealth of detail is interspersed with the frequent, always bracingly mordant and often melancholy interjections of someone agonizing over a vanished, once-desperately unhappy but tremendously gifted character actor: "For he had been a great artist, and terribly misunderstood."

"They say he was fascinated by the word "creep," often used to describe the characters he played. Rightly so, as it was the single most evocative word you could use to summon up that ur-creature at the pith of those parts he so famously played, small, close to the ground, eugenically suspect. With that perverse whimsy of his, he devised means of turning that hurtful pejorative back at the people who used it on him. He would claim that he had studied the etymological derivation of the word (originally spelled kreep, he insisted), and discovered it had originally meant something akin to "fellow," "regular guy," "mensch," in other words, the opposite of its current connotation. However, it had been corrupted through ill-usage by careless native English speakers [...] He'd go around calling people creeps, then declare that they shouldn't get mad at him; it was really a compliment."

Having arrived in America in 1934, Lorre's time in Hollywood is portrayed with great verve and humor, its elements of absurdity and the uncomfortable feeling of displacement the actor must have felt being perceptively-rendered. It was certainly a strange time in Hollywood, with a steady stream of European émigrés taking on character roles and often forced by their penury to become extras in a vast number of films. Austrian and German refugees, many of them Jewish, were typically being cast as Nazi spies or leaders; Russians and Poles were asked to play the very men who had tortured them, stolen their property, threatened their lives, or otherwise driven them from the Continent.

Hollywood had never seen the likes of such names: Conrad Veidt and Hans von Twardowski, Fritz Kortner and Vladimir Sokoloff, Erich von Stroheim and Martin Kosleck, Emil Jannings and Akim Tamiroff... Olga Baclanova, once a well-known singer and actress in Russia, was reduced to playing the hen-woman in Freaks; Leonid Kinsky may, sadly, be finally remembered only as Sasha the bartender in Casablanca. And then, of course, there was Peter Lorre:

"It was certainly extraordinary for anyone who looked like him, especially as ethnic as he did, to be allowed to work in that pantheon of Aryan beauties. There were obvious problems he might have corrected, like his weight and those terrible teeth (very naughty of him, in that land of grapefruit and cosmetic dentistry), that might have made them more inclined to take him seriously as a leading man. Though it was nearly impossible to make the baroque planes of that incredible face look conventionally handsome, even normal on film. Even the master von Sternberg failed at it. There are some portions of Crime and Punishment in which he shimmers like Dietrich, and in others he just looks like a shoat."

A bittersweet cadence intrudes near the end of this fascinating book, during which the narrator meets the first (perhaps that should be the second) serious love of her life, Brent, who is a DJ at a radio station and introduces her to punk music. She enters university, comes to terms with a grandmother's death, and briefly experiments with drugs. After having driven down to L.A. with her boyfriend, in search of a new beginning to their lives, there occurs a visit to Peter Lorre's tomb in the Hollywood Memorial Cemetery, where

"We found him right away, at the end of a long corridor lined with Armenians. There was nothing to mark him as anyone famous. There was a little brass plaque with his name and dates and those of his last wife, the one he'd had a child with, and who'd been about to divorce him when he died."

This novel, which provokes what nineteenth-century Russians often aptly referred to as "laughter through tears", is a wholly original and excellent piece of work. I will never look at that pitiable yet supremely talented actor, whose very soul somehow mirrored his body and produced an impression of something vaguely misshapen, in quite the same way again.

"During the seventies his estate sued a breakfast cereal company that promoted one of its products with a little blue cartoon ghost that looked and sounded fetchingly like him. The estate argued that he wouldn't have wanted to have been remembered that way.

But his life was spent making sure he'd be remembered as nothing else."

This is an extremely honest portrayal of a teenager who yearns for something other than what she has. The writing is literate, lyrical, and insightful. The content of the book contains much more insight into a young girl's psyche than just the obsession she has with the dead actor. The book is much less about Peter Lorre than about the author, and her coming of age in a society and culture that she feels left out of.

Or maybe not. Maybe the best way to describe it is a reverse "Lolita" where the little girl is chasing after the dirty old man of her dreams...whatever, it's brilliant.

Reading Anne Sharp's _The Peter Lorre Companion_ makes me think of all the girlhood loves I never outgrew and still relish to this day. I saw my first Peter Lorre film at age 27 (and fell hopelessly in love with the man) but like the author says, the book is mainly about her childhood and adolescence. Sharp writes about love, old movies, divorce, friendships, sex, families, Catholic schools and various obsessions with a great deal of humor, wisdom and sensitivity. Whether or not you're a Peter Lorre fan isn't the point -- if you have ever longed for a lover who is always there for you, who is real and yet mysterious and uniquely attractive, you will relate to these stories. I found I couldn't put the book down. Highly recommended! (and now, for those uninitiated into Lorre-love, go and rent "Mad Love" or the 1934 version of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and find out what all the fuss is about...)