Bloom Books

The latest book from authors Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik, who authored a marvelous "Greatest Broadway Musicals" book in 2004, is this equally splendid tribute to the 101 greatest half-hour TV comedies of all time. Chock full of interesting facts, pithy critical comments and a wealth of color photographs, SITCOMS will be savored by aging baby boomers and coach potatoes of all ages alike.

Paging through SITCOMS is like revisiting your past. Us baby boomers grew up with television. Who of us can't remember sitting on the living room floor, looking up at and laughing at Lucy's crazy antics? Or chuckling at Barney Fife's latest idiocy? Not all the shows covered in this book were laugh-out-loud funny. Some were quietly humorous ("Leave It to Beaver") or sweet ("Family Affair") or wonderfully witty ("Frasier") or droll ("Newhart"). Others were caustically funny ("Maude") or mindless ("Three's Company") or wacky ("Green Acres"). Whenever you started watching television, you'll find lots to laugh about in this book.

Elevating a TV show to classic status obviously opens the authors up to criticism. After perusing SITCOMS, I think the authors did a fine job. Were a couple of my favorites not selected? Yup but so what? It's their call.

The shows in SITCOMS are covered alphabetically. I think it would have been a great idea had they been listed chronologically. Television comedy changed over the past 50 years and it would have been interesting to see the progression from "Mr. Peepers" to "Gilligan's Island" to "All In The Family" to "Friends."

Considering all the wonderful memories the book rekindles, the wealth of color photographs provided and the low price ($29.95), SITCOMS is a real winner. Read and enjoy!

Great book, but not all of the shows mentioned are classics and how could they omit the following great shows?
The Abbott & Costello Show
Buffalo Bill
Mork and Mindy
Anything But Love
Mad About You
The King of Queens
Welcome Back Kotter
F Troop
The Drew Carey Show
Night Court
Chico and the Man
Dear John
Home Improvement

This is basic, "Sitcom 101" information that offers no new perspective and only rehashes whatever stories found in other books. The amount of info is minimal and this is not a book for the serious student of television. It's only for those who haven't studied situation comedies and just want a coffeetable book filled with pretty pictures.

The book has really odd choices for the "101 Greatest Of All Time." Alice? Bob Cummings Show? December Bride? Topper? Wings? The Nanny? SERIOUSLY?

There are also numerous errors. Then they include totally unrelated information in the already-short chapters on each show (about 3 to 4 pages per show). For example, why mention Eleanor Parker in The Sound of Music in the middle of the Brady Bunch chapter?

Then how can they include Perfect Strangers but leave out Family Matters (the much more successful show it spun off). Or not include FULL HOUSE??--which will be one of the longest-running comedies that will be rerun for the next five decades (like Leave It to Beaver is today).

They also limit their definition of sitcoms so it doesn't include all cable comedies like Lizzie McGuire. It was nice, though, that they included Saved by the Bell (which often gets overlooked in other sitcom books).

Then there are a few pages devoted to "Flops," "Military Sitcoms," etc. But they do nothing but show a few pictures and give little information about the show. There is no perspective here and they treat every show on their list equally, where Hazel gets the same amount of space as Friends.


The authors really have no background qualifications to write this book--simply because they wrote a book on Broadway hits they came up with this book as a follow-up? It's obvious that they don't know much about the sujbect and merely rely upon a few TV guidebooks that they have read. There is not much new here.

People who know nothing about TV comedy may enjoy the pictures and the trip down memory lane. But there are other much better books out there about comedies that include analysis and more historical information such as ratings.

First off, I'm not Karen Cox. That's my mom (who ordered the book for me for Christmas). My name is Jeremy and here is my review.

I loved this book because it included information about shows I loved and used to love, information that in some cases I hadn't known. However and that's a big however, I found several errors within this otherwise great compilation. Names were misspelled ("John" instead of Jon Lovitz) and so were other words ("embued" should have been imbued). Facts were incorrect in some spots (Donna Douglas played Elly May and not Donna Dixon as is reported in one paragraph in The Beverly Hillbillies section). Lucy and Desi had been married eight years in 1948 when they supposedly had just become a couple (according to the authors).

I also didn't like the cynical, obnoxious tone the authors took towards certain shows it referenced when discussing one particular show. Each show in that book is great in its own way. In my opinion, the book should have included an additional 99 sitcoms (if it was possible) so the number would tally 200 and popular sitcoms like Family Matters, Full House, Boy Meets World, Alf, Mr. Belvedere and Step By Step would be included (I realize that not all of these shows are "great" by any stretch of the imagination, but they all have their loyal fanbases--believe me). After all, Perfect Strangers and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were there and The Goldbergs (a show I'd never even heard of--probably the only show I'd never heard of in the entire book). Great photos, though. I loved every single one of them, black and white, color, they were all perfect.

This book contains many errors in the various episodes produced for a series. "The Beverly Hillbillies" produced 274 not 216 episodes. "All in the Family" was 204 episodes, not 212.

Hooray for Lehman for selecting Bloom as editor! I am absolutely as one w/ Bloom in his crusade, and I'm quite used to his general line-up of the perpetrators of the ultimate crime against culture (deconstructionists, historicists, Marxists, and all the other cultural resenters)but even I was shocked to find him being wonderfully and rightfully presumptuous enough to carry his criticism to the contents of a series he was editing and introducing!
on the poetry--the big-hitters are present, as well as some surprising selections such as molly peacock's 'have you ever faked an orgasm' (proving that bloom is resolutely not 'out of touch' as one reviewer suggests (is such a phrase even permissible in aesthetic judgements??))and i-forget-his-name's 'a cardinal detoxes'
this is the ultimate introduction to recent american poetry.

I could relate to about 1/10th of the poems. My instinct (late from the moldering glades of the academy) is that these poems were chosen to broaden (not deepen) the moat around the ivory tower -- poetry IS dead in this volume, mostly.

I'm pro-Bloom in the general political/aesthetic sense, and it was satisfying for me to see him crystalize some of my sentiments in his foreword. But I bought the book for the poetry, and (judging from the other Best... books I own) I'm of the opinion that Bloom did a mediocre job as editor. His options were, thankfully, limited to a set comprised mostly of strong poems. This book could probably have survived the abuses of a monkey-throwing-darts-at-a-list-of-options editor.

Here in Australia, where I've been living for twenty years as a teacher, I'd lost contact with American poetry. I happened on the Poetry Daily web site and dived in. And found, I could order books through Amazon which I'd never seen. I now have two shelves of much read poetry and more in containers on slow ships on their way. I remember the pleasure I got from reading the commentaries and the poems in the Best...of 1997. So when I saw the Best of the Best (Harold Bloom's ed) I picked it up here, even though it was very expensive. While I enjoyed most of the poems, I found his introduction surprising. What a grump!

Face it--Bloom is insulated, not in touch with the real issues and trends facing poetry today. His utter rejection of Adrienne Rich and her volume of 1996--one of the best in the series--only shows to his detriment, not hers, and to the detriment of this volume. While there are memorable moments in Bloom's volume, it falls flat for its lack of relevance to the lives lived by poets and readers alike in this day and age.

The best workbook for managers who want to develop the skills and knowledge in integrated communication.

Kotler, for my money, is the ultimate marketing authority. While I agree with much of the book, there are just a few things that I found missing in the approach. As a marketing consultant for independent professionals, I prefer the people I coach to read David Maister, Alan Weiss and Robert Bly.

After reading about 4 other books on the same subject this will be the only one that I will keep. This book goes beyond the typical professional services marketing subjects of get published, speak, etc. It instead describs TACTICAL ways to determine which services you should provide, how to price those services and how to let people know you provide them.

I am a fan of Philip Kotler but this book misses the mark. There are some factual mistakes and errors but this is not the biggest problem. The book comes across as a frankenstein of joined together marketing theories and application from many of Kotlers other works and there seems little new here. Additionally, many of the concepts discussed, such as the BCG matrix hardly seem applicable to most professionals, particularly those working on large multi million dollar tenders such as engineers and architects. Having taught marketing at post graduate level using Kotlers text books as the core text, this work becomes even more dissappointing as it seems that there is little evidence that the authors have a solid understanding of professional services marketing as it for the professionals who practice it.

This is an excellent book by erudite professors that is well written and an easy read. This is a valuable book in the area of selling services, an area that is more challenging than selling physical products.

The skill of selling professional services is critical and is the one most often in need of improvement for professionals such as engineers, architects, lawyers, marketing, IT and management consultants, accountants, doctors, among others. The authors stress the critical importance of focusing on customer needs, as the one key, which by itself will improve one's success in selling one's work. If one will always focus on client/customer benefits, rather than product/process features, one will improve one's success immediately. Features are components of a service which may include one's experience and expertise.

People do not buy features but benefits, hence the need to focus on turning the important features of professional offerings into true benefits. To assume that one's client/customer will figure out the benefit is to lower the chance of selling one's potential product or idea.

The book does a good job of providing practical advice on a wide range of critical subjects pertaining to this subject such as the 7Ps of marketing, the differences between products and services, the description of the distinctive challenges of marketing professional services, tactical ways to establish the services we should provide, pricing of services, among others.

Case studies and examples enable the reader to reinforce what they will have learnt. As a management consultant, this book is a valuable addition to my library that I refer and consult regularly.

There's nothing special about this dictionary and I don't find the pronunciation symbols very helpful. Keep looking for a better dictionary.

It's a dictionary -- and it works. 5-stars.

Translates French words to English, and English words to French. Awesome. It also has Canadian terms for the Québécois! Merci!

For those complaining about the binding and calling it flimsy -- let's remind ourselves that it's a six dollar *pocket* dictionary. It's going to get torn to pieces eventually with heavy use. If you're using this for other than a trip overseas, or your kid's 8th grade foreign language requirement, then purchase the hardcover -- you linguophile you!

Although this is not a large scholarly Larousse, it serves as a great "pocket" dictionary--good for carrying to/from school. It also has the most extensive coverage of Québécois vocabulary that I have seen in a standard dictionary. This is a very useful tool for a student or traveller who is concerned about knowing Canadian terms and needs a portable dictionary.

I studied French in high school 30+ years ago and hated it. Then I took four semesters in a community college 20 years ago (after learning Spanish) and loved it, but had little use for the language in any daily use. However, in planning to spend a month in France next year, I decided that I should study French again. This dictionary has been a wonderful aid in my studies. Although there are better, more expensive dictionaries (I personally own Petit Larousse Illustre and Harper Collins French College Dictionary), this one has an amazing amount of information and is so small and light that it can be easily referenced where a large bulky dictionary will be left on the shelf as an impediment to reading.

To resume learning French, I am reading Harry Potter A L'Ecole Des Sorciers (the Sorcerer's Stone book) and this dictionary is always at hand. The dictionary includes a surprising number of idiomatic phrases, a handy verb conjugation section, pronunciation and grammar sections. It is also handy that it includes words such as "eu", which is the past participle for avoir, and references one back to the infinitive form of the verb -- very useful when one hasn't yet mastered the past participles that are essential to the passe compose (a common past tense).

For just a few bucks, this is an amazing trove of information.

David Bloom is probably the leading proponent of literary influence theory, and his thoughts have even spilled over into other arts (specifically into music -- see Mark Evan Bonds's AFTER BEETHOVEN and Joseph Straus's REMAKING THE PAST, for example); but his four books on influence are esoteric, to say the least. References require such a vast knowledge of poetry, literature, mythology, et al that his writings are beyond the casual reader. If you want to sink your teeth into something substantial, even controversial, start here!

It would be unfair to suggest that anyone who disagrees with Bloom is simply suffering from the escapist, repressive anxiety of which he claims to be a theorist. Likewise, it would be a circular argument to say that anyone who finds Bloom's stance self-defeating is merely an anxious ephebe trying to justify their own mediocrity, to dissemble their own belatedness, to obscure the deeper issues of poetic originality.

Or would it?

I've been ridiculed for saying this, but *The Anxiety of Influence* is a very harsh, very difficult little book. And yes, most writers *do* tend to shrug it off with defensive laughter and glib overconfidence. "Bloom's theories don't apply to me, after all. *I* don't feel the anxiety of which he speaks. I'm as young as Adam in the literary Garden of Eden, and my work is as important and worthwhile as I wish it to be." Thus tolls the death-knell of the M.F.A. student in Creative Writing.

Bloom's vision of the Canon has nothing to do with a required list of books, with the "carrion-eaters" of Tradition, paying uncritical knee-tribute to precedents and precursors. Bloom is simply reminding us that literature is not created in a vacuum of Edenic self-deception (the bland, cheeky optimism of the writing workshop), but rather in the poetomachia of the solitary apprentice testing himself against the creations of the past and present, a gladiatorial dialogue with the collective personae of Anteriority. In other words, the greatest literature is in competition with *itself*, an internalized version of the Canon that each strong poet carries within. The competition is both loving and malicious, and the "precursor" is always a composite of texts and artists, including contemporary authors fighting for imaginative and thematic territory, spurring each other on to higher achievements while stampeding the fallen.

For polemical purposes, Bloom simplifies the "composite precursor" in his reading of the English Romantics, testing themselves against the canonical strangeness of one John Milton. By casting the Miltonic Satan as the modern poet *in extremis*, Bloom creates a critical mythology as compelling as it is melodramatic, working through the byzantine evasions and torque-laden inversions the ephebe undertakes to carve out an imaginative space for himself. The "revisionary ratios" are derived from the Kabbalah of Isaac Luria, conceptualizing poetic creation as a heroic self-purgation and regeneration, achieving originality with an apparent loss of power, then returning to the fold for fresh melee and assimilative combat. Bloom's conscious objective is TO MAKE THE POET'S JOB MORE DIFFICULT, the smash complacency where it lives, in the Eliotic idealizations of "Tradition and the Individual Talent", which argues (catastrophically, in Bloom's view) that poetry is the benign and empyreal handing-down of the Muse's wedding-band from precursor to ephebe. But as Bloom persuasively argues, Eliot's stuffy and pretentious election of Dante as his true poetic father desperately obscures his true debts to Tennyson and Whitman, and his poetry may be weaker as a result. The casualties of Eliot's "poetic pacifism" lie forgotten in the charnel-house of unknown soldiers who've mistaken academic careerism for the deeper mysteries of canonical anguish, who've taken the low road of insularity against the combative "wakening of the dead."

To suggest that this sort of gladiatorial perspectivizing is "self-defeating" is rather like calling Nietzsche a "nihilist" because he chose to philosophize with a hammer -- that is, dedicated himself to scraping away all the evasions, the happy-go-lucky subterfuge -- to provide a more truthful genealogy of art and creativity and, more importantly, an Ethics on precisely what is required of writers (born this late in history) pretending to canonical strength. *TAoI* is as Nietzschean a text as you will find, a polemical kick in the stomach, brutal in its necessities, staring deep into the horizon of literature and conceptualizing the intra-poetic psychic warfare of poets WHO WILL NOT DIE. It is a nail-bomb thrown into the seminar-room of creative writing workshops, exploding the glib complacency of young writers who've forgotten that Time is unforgiving in its choice of literary survivors.

To put it another way, Bloom never says that originality doesn't exist, only that our idealized, Eliotic perceptions of originality are immature and self-defeating, an excuse not only to *be* mediocre (as young as Adam at the dawn of Creation), but to revel in and celebrate that mediocrity. That said, those who are coddled by Academe will probably find Bloom's book vulgar, incomprehensible, melodramatic, even paranoid in its implications. While others, stoically self-critical, will find themselves reading a completely different book, and a glorious one at that.

As the previous reviewer suggested, there may be room enough in the academic industry for a communal fellowship of writers and teachers, but there is an important qualitative difference between the respectable productions of, say, a Mark Van Doren, and the monstrous achievements of canonical prowess Bloom examines here. Mediocrity needs to justify itself, to make excuses for its smug complacency, but just as 99.9% of our generation's literature is "written in water," so the canonical survivors of the future will be forced to take even more extreme measures to be remembered, to stand in the square where martyrs are made. Bloom's book, in essence, attempts to dramatize and account for these "extreme measures."

*The Anxiety of Influence*, for all its conceptual flummery and Rube Goldberg convolutions, stands today as a brilliant thought-experiment on the lengths genius will go to stamp itself in bronze, to carry on and flourish in a universe of Death (or its literary equivalent, Compromise). Even if you find his main argument pedantic and repulsive, Bloom provides dozens of pyrotechnic micro-arguments in each chapter, not to mention some brilliant and provocative readings of classic poetry. Bloom is a great talker and showman, and those who dismiss his theories as frivolous poppycock may still be charmed by his brash, Hazlittean personality. The important thing is to take the time to understand where Bloom is coming from, and not to project one's own anxieties onto this difficult and rewarding text.

Yes Bloom is a great and inspiring critic, a great creator himself. Yes, Bloom's work is filled with tremendously interesting insights into Literature,remarkable unexpected connections between creators who seemed so distant from each other.
No, Literature does not follow the simple law of progression, or the simple Law of a creator's strong reaction to the strong creators before. There are figures in Literature who in some way seem to be reacting to no one( Hopkins is one good example) and figures whose whole discourse is in absorbing the creation of others not to transcend them but to celebrate them.( Borges) There are also creators who however they may be influenced by others, as Kafka was influenced by Dickens and perhaps Kierkegaard, have such a unique way of seeing the world that they seem to be born of themselves. In Literature it is not necessary always to stand on the shoulders of Giants much less knock the Giant down if one is to move forward.
The laws of literary creation are as mysterious and individual as the next new voice which comes to the world. Quixote may over- ride the romantic chivalrous literature Cervantes parodies but he does this in a comically humane way that no one before or since has or could surpass.

People such as Camper-Mann simply don't understand Bloom's ground-breaking book. It is not a typical academic piece of theorizing. Bloom begins with his own aesthetic responses, and discovers that writers who came later in a tradition have a real difficulty finding an original vision or creating original work. Bloom then tries to work out a theory to account for this.

At no point does Bloom suggest that a deterministic process is at work here. The great poets defy determinism and struggle against it. It was not pre-ordained that John Milton would appear in the 2nd generation after Shakespeare. Milton's own creative will carved out a place for him among the great poets. However, Milton appeared after the greatest poet in the language, and his attempt to stand up to the Shakespearean achievement had a massive impact on his poetry. In the same way, Wordsworth and Shelley wrote differently for having read and absorbed Milton. These are historical facts that Bloom tries to account for.

As for T.S. Eliot, he was profoundly influenced by Walt Whitman's poetry, but turned back to Christian ideas in a way that Whitman and other modern poets had refused to do. That is what's wrong with Eliot's work. Christianity is not a very profound source for poetic inspiration in the modern age.

I have previously described myself in a review as the most spaced-out poet on the planet, without describing the awful legal context in which such a view of myself is absolutely necessary. This book makes the context clear, but a general reader still might not understand how concrete this difficulty is because THE ANXIETY OF INFLUENCE is overtly a book about poetry, and hardly at all about exercising judgment. The page of the book where I left it open the longest, and where the book subsequently opened most easily, and which I read most often in the five weeks in which I was interested in this book, was page 58, which describes a poet who "experiences anxiety necessarily towards any danger that might end him as a poet." Without dwelling on the personalities of the people involved, it seems to me that the anxiety which this book is about is clearest in the case of the presidential election of 2000, in which the ability of the Florida Supreme Court to act as the ultimate judges of that opportunity to count ballots was subject to the power of the United States Supreme Court to judge the election in some way which would produce a result which would be opposite to what a majority of the Florida Supreme Court desired. (...)and poets can be much more open about what they are doing than judges, so it isn't too surprising that this book is about poets.

Freud and Nietzsche form a nice frame of reference for what is happening in this book. I kept looking for mentions of Rilke, which wasn't fruitful until page 99, the first page on "Daemonization or The Counter-Sublime." There it says, "History, to Rilke, was the index of men born too soon, but as a strong poet Rilke would not let himself know that art is the index of men born too late. . . . the dialectic between art and art, or what Rank was to call the artist's struggle against art . . . governed even Rilke, who outlasted most of his blocking agents, for in him the revisionary ratio of daemonization was stronger than in any other poet of our century." There is a page just before page 99 which quotes Emerson on the highest truth about all things going well, "long intervals of time, years, centuries, are of no account." (p. 98). Emerson shows up again on page 138, with the idea, "Who seem to die live," to precede the final section of the book, "Apophrates or The Return of the Dead." This part doesn't relate well to law, particularly for a system which keeps thinking that a judgment like the death penalty might be considered final at some point.

I certainly can picture the two authors in a room together cracking each other up at things that no one else would find funny.

It sounded like a good idea, and I was excited to read it.

It was neither entertaining nor informative.

Boredom fully set in around page 40. Had to put it down.

I enjoyed this book. But, seemingly not as much as previous reviewers. The basic format was from A (David Aardsma) to Z (Dutch Zwilling) with quite a bit in between. Particularly, I liked the sections on major league playing brothers,the pitch count,the hidden ball trick,manager Preston Gomez twice lifting pitchers in the process of throwing no-hitters that had gone eight innings,Phil Linz playing the harmonica from the back of the team bus after the Yankees had lost a game,pitcher Wilson Alvarez's no hitter in his second major league game. In his first start he retired no batters. All in all a worthwhile addition to a baseball fans library.

Unlike the other reviewers here, I have not read any of the author's other works...yet. I did find this book very entertaining though, so if Kun's other books are similar in style I'm sure I'll enjoy. I did however find a few things wrong in this text. I'm looking over my shoulder and find no girlfriend around, I hope that the significant others of Kun and Howard, and their editor for that matter aren't around. I don't want to embarrass them. First of all, Big and Little Poison are the nicknames of the Waners (Paul and Lloyd) NOT the Wagners (Honus and Lloyd(?)). Also, is was Tug Mcgraw that said he'd never smoked artificial turf, not Ken Brett. There were a couple of other things wrong here, but as I said it was an enjoyable read and even found myself laughing out loud at times.

I consider myself a rabid baseball fan, and as such, have prided myself on collecting random baseball factoids through the years... Most baseball fact books are tedious rehashings of standard (and admittedly boring) baseball trivia. We all know that Dave Winfield was drafted in 3 professional sports... We all know that Nolan Ryan struck out the side on nine pitches a gazillion times... We've been ready for something else for some time now. This book is the something else. Not only was it well written and very humorous, but is was entirely filled with original baseball facts and thoughts. Now that's impressive. Kudos to Kun and Bloom, and thanks for the great read.

As a lifelong baseball fan, I approached this book with some amount of trepidation. Poking fun at baseball can be a dangerous thing. You run the risk of ticking people off or, much worse, just sounding stupid. After reading all of the reviews of Michael Kun's books, most of which seem to be from a growing cult of readers, I figured it was worth a try. And I'm very glad I did. The book isn't perfect. Far from it. There are a few sections that didn't work for me at all, and the interplay between Kun and his co-author didn't always work, either. But Kun is so consistent -- and so consistently funny -- that I have gone ahead and ordered all of his other books. I'm not ready to dub him a genius yet, like some of the other customer reviews, but the key word may be "yet."

I just finished my college course "Geography of the World" using this book. Personally I found the 10th edition book very useful and entertaining. If you want to LEARN SOMETHING, get "edumacated" has one of my friends who graduated Sumna Cum Laude from Berkeley would say, buy this book. Pony up the money, bite the bullet and enjoy the reading.

This book is for knowledge and education, it is NOT for the slacker who complains because he has to read 10 pages of text every week for his GEO class. I agree that this book might be a little pricey BUT the quality is there. If you can't afford a new one, buy a used one. The book is very well structure and easy to understand, you get out of it what you put in reading it.

I read this book and determined that the world is entirely too big! Yeeesh! Also the book was way over priced. It has a lot of info, but often talks in a menagerie of metaphors!

Quite long.....too many words

I just finished my college course "Geography of the World" using this book. Personally I found the 10th edition book very useful and entertaining. If you want to LEARN SOMETHING, get "edumacated" has one of my friends who graduated Sumna Cum Laude from Berkeley would say, buy this book. Pony up the money, bite the bullet and enjoy the reading.

This book is for knowledge and education, it is NOT for the slacker who complains because he has to read 10 pages of text every week for his GEO class. I agree that this book might be a little pricey BUT the quality is there. If you can't afford a new one, buy a used one. The book is very well structure and easy to understand, you get out of it what you put in reading it.

I paid quite a bit for this textbook, but in my opinion it is well worth it. The book is highly detailed with lots of nice diagrams and maps. It was pretty easy to follow/understand, but contains so much information that you can be overwhelmed easily if you do not enjoy Cultural/World Geography.

I finished THE MORTICIAN'S DAUGHTER last night and resolved to send praise Ms. Bloom's way for writing a great book. Lots of twists, turns, and surprises--right until the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I, too, hope Ginnie, the intrepid cop heroine, shows up again. I'll be looking for her.

First Sentence: She was staring out the window when the phone rang.

Ginny Lavoie has been suspended from the NYPD and is free to head to her home town in Massachusetts. The teenage son of her childhood best friend has been murdered and wants Ginny to find the killer. The local police arrest someone, but Ginny is certain he is innocent. Her brakes fail and she thinks its mechanical failure until it becomes very clear someone does not want her investigating Danny's murder. The bright spot is Ginny renewing her relationship with her high-school boyfriend.

This was a definite page-turner. I liked that we learn about Ginny through the progression of the story. I enjoyed that she is the tough, capable don't-mess-with-me character while her boyfriend is a baker. Being back in her small home town is an interesting story in contracts but also gives the character and opportunity to grow. Being set in a small town, you have a somewhat stereotypical cross-section of small-town character but that doesn't make them any less interesting. The plot was delightfully twisty with some good suspense. It's a fast read, perfect for a trip or a rainy day.

A great page-turner escapist murder mystery. A sympathetic heroine with a complex but believable, understandable story. A plot that keeps the reader guessing and does not disappoint at the end.

What more could a reader want?

Okay, the characters could be just a little deeper. The author's style seems more consistent with a lighter novel. This one's a little too gritty to pass for a cozy. But the plot is flawless and, as others have noted Bloom creates a strong sense of place. The heroine's background adds a twist that creates even more tension. Highly recommended.

By Seth Kerin, author of The Elder Worlds: Book One

The Mortician's Daughter is one of those good page-turning mysteries. It takes place in North Adams, Massachusetts, but in an interesting quirk there is never a mention of the name - though those familiar with the area will certainly know it when they read the many local interests named (with a certain dramatic license, of course). The story is a good one, with plenty of twists and turns that will keep you guessing along with the main character, Ginny. While the twists are good, there are certain elements of the characters that require a suspension of disbelief - not necessarily a bad thing. For example, when one character finds her long time love/obsession sleeping around with older women she has no problem jumping right back in the sack with him (literally a sack of flour). There is also a decided anti-Catholic tone, with little worry of giving a balanced view.

Despite the few flaws and cliches, the story is good enough to carry the characters - where often the characters have to be good enough to carry the story. After all, if the point of a good book is to entertain, this one succeeds.

This is another great book by Elizabeth Bloom (aka Beth Saulnier). The characters are complex enough to be interesting, but not so tormented as to be irritating. The plotline moves along nicely, and there was enough suspense to keep me awake past my bedtime more than a few nights. Recommended!

I had a bit of trouble with the romantic relationship. I found it hard to believe that Ella's nephews wouldn't have more of a problem with their father dating their mother's sister. There wasn't nearly enough guilt felt for betraying Terrell even though Red and Terrell's marriage was already in jeopardy before her death. I just found it hard to get attached to these characters.

I know this book got a lot of good reviews, I just don't know why. It doesn't make sense that the girls were so concerned with pleasing their unpleaseable mother. The mother turned out to be a huge hypocrit. The love relationship was predictable. I wouldn't have finished if I didn't spend good money on the book and as a punishment I forced myself to finish.

I had heard great things about "Ella in Bloom" by Shelby Hearon. I had heard what a great book - wonderful characters - gripping story. Everything. So, I gave it a shot.

It started off really great - I was interested. Getting to know the characters, learning the story - appreciating the language and prose. I was moving right alone and then it just started to get stale. About half to three-quarters of the way, I was bored. It just didn't move along anymore. I kept waiting for the next big crisis or climax. Never happened.

I think this book could have been great - perhaps more help with the ending would have really saved it. I was disappointed - a shame really, since it started off so wonderful.

Nobody can create a loveable character like Shelby Hearon. This is the story of Ella, the little sister who feels she can never measure up to her perfect older sister, Terrell. ..., this family built on carefully woven lies begins to unravel. For Ella, with this unraveling, comes truth, love and revelation. This was a beautifully written book that I pulled a late nighter to finish. Ms. Hearon's descriptions of the rose gardens were awesome. You could literally see and smell the roses in Ella's "imaginary" garden (which is a tale in itself). I also highly recommend all of Ms. Hearon's books. She gets better with each successive novel!

I work part-time in a bookstore so every now and then, while shelving books, I will find a sleeper (not one of the best sellers you find on the plexi at the front of the store) that sparks my interest. This is my first novel by Shelby Hearon but not my last. I loved the characters in ELLA IN BLOOM. Ella is lovely. A little lost but very real. In her eyes she has gone through life in second place--the younger daughter falling in love with her older sister's cast-off boyfriend who gave her nothing but an interesting daughter, Birdie. I like how the story works. Hearon is successful at developing the sexual chemistry between Ella and her man (who I won't name here because I don't want to spoil it for you). This novel won't disappoint you.

I am a pilot and picked this book up off the discount rack because I am always interested in learning more about the people who have made my career possible. I thought that the book was clear and well written. There are a few small hiccups that interrupt an otherwise clearly flowing history of the U.S. Air mail.

You pretty much have to be an aero-phile (my word for aviation fanatic), history buff, or have some freakish interest in the U.S. Postal service to enjoy this book, definitely not for a casual reader. A quick, clear history of the U.S. Air Mail and the daring men and woman who have helped make aviation what it is today!

Congratulations are in order to the authors of Mavericks of the Sky. Barry Rosenberg and Catherine Macaulay managed to create a story, almost three hundred pages, about the beginnings of air mail in the United States that could have been all summed up in their thirty page epilogue. Rosenberg and Macaulay, at first, seem to be well proven authors with many successful publications under their belts. Both have published work for publications such as Aviation Week & Space Technology, E/The Environment Magazine, and the Daily Racing Forum. It is important to remember that looks can be deceiving.
Webster's Dictionary defines Maverick as a person or individual that does not get along well with others. It is quite odd that that Rosenberg and Macaulay would title their work and label the founding men of aviation and air mail as "Mavericks", but maybe the name was stolen from Top Gun. The book basically sums up the stories of the early pioneers of aviation that led to the formation of air mail and the airlines as we know them today. It is quite amazing that a topic of such interest could be told in such a confusing and unprofessional manner as Rosenberg and Macaulay demonstrated.
Mavericks of the Sky begins with the ill famous story of Major Reuben Hollis Fleet, and his tedious role in the formation of the air mail service. The book continues with the story of Major Fleet and introduces numerous amounts of characters that some how had a role in early air mail service. The authors present a story that would be quite sufficient for the average 7th grader, but not for anyone who has the slightest inclination about the overwhelming amount of information that should be told about the pioneers of the air mail service.
Rosenberg and Macaulay are successful in telling the story of the air mail service as much like a comedy skit off of Saturday Night Live. Both continually change from the tone of a scholarly author to that of one that seems to be writing an episode of Seinfeld. It is easy to spot numerous examples throughout the book where both authors display a carefree attitude in the telling of an incident, and the average reader loses the historical meaning of the incident, because they become caught up in a joke. The authors may simply be meaning to poke harmlessly at the mishaps of these early pioneers, but it is suggested that they stick to a more serious attitude when discussing men who lost their lives day in and day out to further a dream.
The epilogue of this book was much more beneficial that reading the story itself. Information was presented better and more organized than through the twenty something chapters in Mavericks of the Sky. The epilogue simply shortened all the various stories presented throughout the book and got right to the point instead of a bunch of ad lib.
Rosenberg and Macaulay deserve much credit on the pictures contained in the book, because they give the book much more character. It is easy to gain a lot of understanding of what early aviation was like by flipping through the pictures contained within this book, but it is sad that neither author can take credit for these pictures. Pictures make a book very personnel and these deliver the wide array of attitudes presented by these men and women just be looking into their eyes.
This book is a great recommendation for anyone interested in a quick read with little information. Mavericks of the Sky, is very selective in the stories it tells about the formation and development of the air mail service in the United States. If the reader desires to have a more detailed understanding of these pioneers and their stories, it is recommended that this book be passed up and one chosen by someone who actually can write a historical work of non-fiction!

"Mavericks of the Sky" seems to have generated a small firestorm of debate over whether it is an outstanding book or not even worth the time and effort to read. Having just finished the book, here's my assessment of the pros and cons of this book:

PROS
1) This is a good introductory look at the history of early commercial and air mail aviation. I've never read anything about this subject before, and was captivated by the bare-knuckle drama of the entire enterprise.
2) The book immediately immerses the reader in the danger and unexpected nature of early flight within the first few pages.
3) The authors do a great job of presenting the astounding obstacles of time, money, weather, manpower and resources to the development of a reliable air mail service.
4) The research is documented and footnoted in the back of the book to assist further reading.
5) The photographs are wonderful glimpses into an all-but-forgotten world, where the joie d'vivre and devil-may-care attitude of early flight (as well as the lines of care and constant exposure to danger) are clearly visible in the eyes and faces of the aircrews involved.

CONS
1) There are no maps in a book that talks about developing landing strips and air routes in little-known areas of the country. At least one good map in a book of this nature would have been most useful.
2) A bibliography would have been helpful to those seeking further reading.
3) The bios of the pilots might have been better served as sidebars or separate vignettes entitled "The Airmen" or some such, rather than weaving them with varying effectiveness throughout the story (i.e., "Wild" Bill Hopson).
4) The tone of the book fluctuates unexpectedly between scholarly and popular fiction, and sometimes even goes completely over the top (such as inventing an imaginary shooting script for Douglas Fairbank's war bond air mail promotion).
5) At times, the passage of time is difficult to track as the authors jump forward, then backtrack to tell other portions of the story.

As a popular and easily accessible introduction to the world of early air mail, "Mavericks of the Sky" is a fine read despite the few failings and foibles noted above. The best recommendation that I can give is what I'll do next ... pass it on to a friend who is a pilot and loves the history of early aviation.

A chance purchase at the airport bookstore resulted in an enjoyable flight across the country while immersed in the early days of Flying.

Having already been captivated by this subject after reading Beryl Markham's "West with the Night", this view of flight's maturation and the start of its commercialinzation process was fascinating.

It led to many questions including what lessons might be derived from this experience as NASA attempts to move towards commercialiation efforts of its own. It made me crave more in depth analysis of specific problem solving methods and long for a map of the various fields and distances.

There are intriguiing modern day parallels on how to apply technology and the process via which technology can be deployed to affect improvement, efficiency, and service.

There is no better material than that which entertains, leades to questions, and furthers an interest!

If you already have an interest in the topic or if you never wondered how the whole thing got started but it now sounds intriguing, I strongly recommend this book!

Dear Readers, the co-author and I have been thrilled at the positive response to the publication of MAVERICKS OF THE SKY, and while we understand that not every story is for every taste, we have to take exception with the comments of Mr. Carnett in his review of our book (in his first review on Amazon).

There have been a number of obscure scholarly works on the subject of the founding of the U.S. Air Mail service in which the authors did little more than recite names, dates, and pounds of mail carried. We believed that none of those books did justice to the bravery, tenacity and sacrifice of the air mail pilots and the government officials who organized the service. In MAVERICKS OF THE SKY, it was our intention to tell their stories in a new and exciting way so that the readers are caught up in the danger and adventure and not bogged down by the bureaucratic details. The historian for the U.S. Post Office said no other book ever written on the air mail gives the reader a better "you are there" emotional pull.

We spent years researching their stories and treated the pilots with the utmost respect. They cursed every now and then and we're sorry that the previous reviewer was offended by that. We made light of what was funny and pointed out the absurd, all in the hopes of humanizing the story. Pilots are notorious for gallows humor and often referred to themselves as part a "suicide club".

We also took great pains to place the founding of air mail in the context of the times: World War I, the progressive administration of President Woodrow Wilson, suffrage and the Jazz Age. We're disappointed that the reviewer felt that these asides were distracting but it is that type of detail that brings the story to life.

We've received dozens of positive reviews since publication, and every other reviewer got exactly what it was we were trying to accomplish.

The Associated Press called the book "an enthralling saga, told in a smooth, agile style."

Air & Space magazine wrote that "the authors introduce a succession of fascinating characters who flew the mail" and said the book "is a should read story of forgotten flying pioneers who earned their keep in the hardest way."

Publishers Weekly and Booklist (the publication of the American Library Association) also understood our point of view in their reviews, which are included in the Amazon listing. Also, dozens and dozens of libraries in North America have purchased the book for their collections

MAVERICKS OF THE SKY is both meticulously researched and fun to read. We're proud to have been able to bring to light to forgotten chapter in American history. Thanks for your time. Barry