Brian Books

I believe that this book should be required reading for anyone who is concerned about the debilitating trends in our society: students shooting their classmates, breakdowns in family relationships, high divorce rates, and out-of-wedlock childbirths. The author presents significant evidence to show that these may all be symptomatic of adult America's obsession with work outside of the home, and subsequently leaving young America to try and invent its own culture and morality.

Recent studies have shown that today's youth suffer from a far higher rate of mental illness than those who grew up just a couple of generations ago. Social disconnectedness and a sense of impending doom have driven many of our youth toward immediate gratification and away from a long-term interest in education and work. At the same time, technological change and the knowledge explosion makes a successful vocation even harder to attain. This is especially true among young men, whose participation rates in postsecondary education, in the electoral process, and in civic activities are at an all-time low and declining rapidly.

Although Robertson's book is deep and well documented, it is very readable. He is at his best in the chapter where he discusses the contrast between the work of a full-time mother with that of a "career woman." Homemaking, which was considered the ideal by feminists as recently as the middle of the twentieth century, is now looked upon as demeaning and destructive of self-esteem, while a "career" outside of the home is viewed as something highly desirable and worthy of achievement. "The work of raising children requires constant hidden sacrifice, unacknowledged and unrewarded by society, often unacknowledged and unrewarded by one's own family-particularly the children themselves. ... A society that measures success exclusively in terms of material or professional attainment is unlikely to accord much status to the hidden work of the mother in the home."

Especially upsetting to those who believe that the traditional family is the foundation of civil society is the palette of economic incentives that government and business offer to the mother who chooses to select "professional" childcare. Childcare credits, tax-exempt childcare flexible spending accounts, and higher IRA savings limits abound for the two-earner family, while the mother who elects to raise her own children receives no benefits in exchange for sacrificing a dual income and striving to make ends meet on a single income.

Robertson offers criticism for Republicans and Democrats alike. Neither major political party has found a way to support the concept of the traditional family, despite their continual touting of "family values" and "family-friendly legislation" that further drives wedges between mothers and their children. Instead of discouraging divorce and/or out-of-wedlock childbearing, welfare policies have forced mothers to accept out-of-the-home childcare so that they can go to work full time.

"There's No Place Like Work" offers a well documented examination of current destructive trends in family and workplace dynamics. It is certain to stimulate provocative discussion, and I hope it will receive the wide readership it deserves.

I'm a 20 year-old highly motivated student at a prestigious university. My entire life I've worked diligently so I could have a successful career. However, after I began reading this book, my thinking has been turned on its head. Now I can see that I've been motivated by all the wrong things: ego, self-aggrandizement, money, and status. This book has helped me understand all that motherhood used to be and could be. It is not a banal existence; there are beautiful possibilites open to the imaginitive mind. Our country was founded on the Protestant ethic that the most noble thing one could do is to be selfless, to give everything you have to your children and your family. My words are like gravel in the mouth compared to Robertson's eloquence. I wish I could capture the beauty of his words here. Please, read this book. It changes everything.

The West is struggling with the related issues of women in the workforce, childcare, maternity leave, and family breakdown. The usual wisdom is to say that we just need to try harder to balance work commitments with family responsibilities. But Brian Robertson, a writer living in Washington DC, believes the answers lie elsewhere.

Indeed, from a historical perspective, the current crisis is really an anomaly. The modern feminist movement of the 60s taught that the only good woman is a career woman, and that homemaking and motherhood were to be despised and fled from. But interestingly, the womenýs movement prior to that fought for the right of a mother to stay at home with her young children, and not be conscripted into the paid workplace.

Thus the struggle for those in the earlier years of the womenýs movement was to protect women from the encroachment of market forces, and to prevent them from being forced into career at the expense of their families. Motherhood and homemaking, in other words, were seen as honorable and valuable ends in themselves.

But with the late 60s and onwards, the new wave of feminists took a totally different line: only in the paid workforce can a woman find meaning, freedom and dignity. Thus the vitriolic attack on mothers and the family. Betty Friedan therefore could call the home a "comfortable concentration camp" while Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown could label a mother and housewife as "a parasite, a dependent, a scrounger, a sponger ý a bum".

A womanýs freedom, said these feminists, meant that a woman should and could be independent both in the economic and the reproductive realms. Women just do not need men, and are better off without them. Establishing a career and gaining financial independence is the first goal of the modern woman. And millions of Western women bought this line of thought.

Of course now the inherent contradictions are coming all too clear. Women who were told that they could have it all are now fining that they have very little. They may have a good job, but they have no husband or boyfriend, no children and no family. And many today are deeply regretful of this fact.

But it is not just women who have suffered at the hands of feminist orthodoxy. Children have been the big losers. Millions of children today are being raised by strangers. Yet all the social science research shows that children desperately need their mums and dads. No day care system can ever compete with the love and attention of a mother and a father.

Yet as Robertson documents, while the social research on all this is quite clear, very few are willing to promote the findings, for fear of incurring the wrath of feminists and of making working mums feel guilty. So although the research is clear, that attachment is important for infants and mother-child bonding is crucial, millions of mothers are ignoring the evidence, and their maternal instincts, and are abandoning their children in droves.

The harmful effects of extended periods of time for young children in day care are well documented in this book. Even child care workers admit that they would not dare to leave their own children in day care. Yet many mothers have been so indoctrinated into believing that their needs and desires must come first, that they are offering their children second best.

And seeking to alleviate the problems by better day care, more workplace flexibility, or seeking to obtain an unobtainable balance between work and family just is not sufficient. And it is not just short-sighted governments offering these inadequate solutions. The corporate world in effect has bought the feminist myth as well that women can have it all. But the truth is, they canýt have it all, at least not at the same time. Thus more corporate day care centres will not solve the bigger problems.

Indeed, the corporations are shooting themselves in the foot here. The really productive worker is the worker who has a happy and satisfying home life. But the corporate world, even with generous paid maternity leave policies, cannot stop the hemorrhaging of the family. Maternal deprivation is harmful to children, and unhappy children make for unhappy families, and unhappy families result in poor workers.

Governments also lose, as they seek to press women into the paid workplace, and do not deal with the root causes as to why so many families are forced to have two incomes. By bribing mums into the paid work place, whether by child care subsidies or other financial incentives, the growing problem of falling fertility rates, for example, will only increase. Less people mean less taxable income, and the inability to pay for expensive social welfare programs.

Thus both governments and businesses need to radically rethink what family-friendly workplaces actually mean. Robertson concludes by proposing some radical measures to put the interests of families first. These are predicated on the principle that human societies need the traditional family structure with a mother as the principal caregiver. Marriage and family are non-negotiable first principles. If that is accepted, then the following steps can be explored:

-Treat families as a unit in the tax code
-End "no-fault" divorce
-Replace the current welfare system with one that does not encourage illegitimacy and undermine intact families
-Pare back affirmative action legislation and programs
-Give all parents, not just those in the paid work place, child care credits or tax breaks.

These and other proposals, will help to ensure that real family-friendly policies are pursued. Yet Robertson knows that legal and economic change alone is not enough. The much harder cultural element needs to be addressed. But we have to start somewhere. And this volume is a good beginning point.

...This book is a wonderful distillation of Brian's views on the workplace, political and social movements and most interestingly his work here is a roadmap for the analytical process he undergoes to arrive at his conclusions.

Brian's book is an outstanding example of constructive critical thinking...one feels envigorated, enlightened, and most importantly tested and forced to confront deeply held truths and defend those ideas within that are found lacking.

It is a book to be proud of and I enjoyed it, unreservedly.

Agree with him or not, give him a chance to make his case in this book which addresses the foundation of a polite society, family.

Robertson shows how the best care is maternal care and why society is in denial of this fact. I found this book very informative and enlightening, and has forever changed the way I look at alternative child care and the media, whose refusal to tell the truth about parenting is causing the millions of children to be neglected.

I think that what I most enjoy about the "From Porn to Poetry" books, as well as CleanSheets.com, the magazine they originate from, is that you can say something like "sexy, classy, hot, wild, and true" and be accurate in your description. The editor's name, Susannah Indigo, represents authenticity in writing to me, and all of her projects that I've read have been a cut above ordinary erotica. The mix of material in this book ranges from the down and dirtiest stories to elegant, sexual poems, and there's nowhere else you can read that kind of pleasurable mix. The subtitle is "Clean Sheets Celebrates the Erotic Mind," and that's how it felt to me after reading the book - like my "erotic mind" had been thoroughly and joyously "celebrated," honored, turned-on, and was raring to go.

Nothing in the book resembles cheap "Penthouse" stories; stunning stories by writers like Kim Addonizio, Maggie Gray, Mike Kimera, Greg Wharton, and Susannah Indigo herself simply leave you begging for more. I can't recommend these books enough to anyone interested in erotica; I've gifted friends with them and they all agree. They wonder, in fact, where I found them, since there's nothing in big bookstores done as well as this. Thank heavens for the Web and the ability for small book publishers to put this cornucopia of erotica out there for us!

There are some really good stories in this book, and the rest is such an interesting variety that I highly recommend all of it.

I love the mixture of fiction and non-fiction and poetry in this book. All of it is sexy, interesting, fresh and new. Highly recommended, and a great gift for a love to get them talking about what they like.

I agree that there should be more books like this, always full of great writing, huge variety, covering the entire scope of our dirty and sexy minds, without being Penthouse-y/girlie magazine. Smart writing, sexy, with emotional depth, and hot. Excellent book.

There's such a lacking in books like this - smart but still sexy, funny sometimes yet deadly serious others, erotic and sensual from start to finish. Mostly deep and meaningful stories and poems, really just beautifully done.

Along with the other book I purchased I should now be able to restore some old pieces that I find or already have. I will be quite busy doing these repair.

This is a great introduction book to furniture repair.

The book is organized in these main sections:
1. Tools and materials 63 pp.
2. Structural repairs 98 pp.
3. Preserving an original finish 20 pp.
4. Stripping, finishing, and hardware restoration 43 pp.

The most valuable for me was the section on structural repairs. Over 20 projects that need various repair jobs, each is done, step by step, illustrated with lots of clear, full-color photos.

This book would well-equip you to handle most repairs of a non-conservation nature (not highly valuable pieces).

Brian, if you're listening, I'd like to see you do a book this size on touch up, repair and color matching!

Another fantastic book on how to repair wood furniture. I was able to correctly, and easily repair several old furniture items. Highly recommend this book for those who are involved in furniture repair, as I am.

After my grandmother went into a nursing home 3 years ago, I aquired the old kitchen furniture she had. Consisting of a square table (complete with a green Formica top!), 4 matching chairs and a hutch. Dating back to the late 1950's or early 60's, every piece needed some refinishing. And 2 of the 4 chairs were rather wobbly. This book addressed all of the issues I was concerned with, including clean-up, stripping the old finish, applying the new finish and repairs. When you balance the value, monetary or sentimental, of your furniture against the price of this book, it's as much of a good investment as the furniture itself.

My only gripe, and it's a minor one: A lot of items like aniline stains and upholstery items for chairs are things you're not going to find at your local Home Depot or corner hardware store. It would have been nice if the author had provided a list of reliable internet and mail order suppliers.

If you only wish to buy one book on repair of old furniture, this is the book. The author is a true specialist within the field and everything is explained and illustrated excellently. In addition it's a very pretty book with many fine photos. The only little flaw is that the info on refinishing is a little scattered. Anyway, the info is there. Go buy the book!

Brian Butko has done it again! His insights and knowledge of this subject will make you feel like you are travelling with him as he goes from state to state, exploring all the different paths and alignments that were designated as the Lincoln Highway over the years. Pointing out sights, roadside attractions and businesses along the way. I personally have travelled some of the eastern portion of this historic road without knowing it at the time.

This book is an excellent reference for the entire Lincoln Highway. Some of the state-specific books may have more detail, but none are easier to follow. It is very well written- flows easily, lots of good pictures. I wish we had this one when we traveled part of it.

Ever wonder what it would have been like to have driven across the country in the early part of the 20th Century, before roads were regularly paved or well-marked? You can get a glimpse of what early travelers faced on the first transcontinental highway by reading Greetings From The Lincoln Highway by Brian Butko.

The book starts off by telling the history of the Lincoln Highway, from its inception and promotion by Carl Fisher and Henry Joy to its eventual replacement by numbered Federal highways. Most of the remainder of the book describes the route of the old highway going west from New York City to its end in San Francisco. The route is described in great detail, enough for one to use it in driving it today. Throughout the text, there are excerpts from the journals and letters of early travelers of the highway. We drivers of today can be glad we don't have to put up with the conditions they faced.

If you are a fan of the historic roadways; if you want ideas for future vacations; if you want to experience life off of the Interstates -- this book is for you.

Think Route 66 is America's oldest or first coast-to-coast road? Well, it gets more publicity, but Route 66 wasn't the first: the Lincoln Highway predates it by a dozen years, runs a third longer, and travels coast to coast. Greetings From The Lincoln Highway: America's First Coast-to-Coast Road provides a lively highway history, packing in the maps which depict the original highway and its changes from state to state, the color photos of local color and highway scenery, and of course the all-important history of the highway's past. From vintage posters and ads to restored old stations and services, Butko' Greetings From The Lincoln Highway follows the highway across the country and provides a very colorful, compelling story in the process.

Here it is. If you're looking for a terrific guide to places and people along the Lincoln Highway, past and present, you can't find a better guide than this book. Plenty of images, maps, postcards, and other memorabilia place this resource among the very best of roadside guides. Use it for historical research. Use it for trip planning. Use it for armchair tourism. Either way, you'll be glad you bought this book.

The role of the American army in the Pacific between the Spanish-American war and the Second World War is often forgotten. Most don't even know the American army ahd a role so far away from home. Indeed the army was small but the stakes were high. In the wake of the war with Spain in 1898 the U.S gained a number of small protectorates and colonies in the Phillipines and Samoa and elsewhere. Eventually this became part of a defense system, but it was not merely to defend against outsiders. The Army also had a role with the local people and creating institutions. Moreover it also had to fight insurgencies that took place in the Moro area of the Southern Phillipines where Muslim insurgents fought Americans. The insurgency goes on to this day. However at the time the likes of General Pershing were used to put down this uprising with the least possible loss in lives.

This fascinating and detailed book opens up a new history of the American army and its role in the Pacific.

Seth J. Frantzman

Linn notes that the big question of WWII is, "why, with almost four decades to prepare, these (US Army) military forces proved unable to defend the nation's Pacific possessions against Japan." The author notes that the traditional approach has been to focus on events in the short-term prior to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, however his effort is to, "offer a somewhat longer perspective through a narrative history of the U.S. Army in Hawaii and the Philippines from 1902 to 1940....its task is not to delineate the road to Pearl Harbor, but to illuminate the numerous paths the army trod in its long search for a viable Pacific defense....For years it had foreseen both the threat and its own inability to ward it off." From a strategic perspective, this book does a good job of putting America's failure into context. It points out that although the surprise attack of 7 December 1941 was not detected, from a military capabilities standpoint there was little the Army could have done. Although I believe one needs to be careful with historical parallels, a student of strategy can see how political and economic considerations drive strategy. Indeed, a similar issue between today (2004) and then was the tension between what is required to hold ground when forces are deployed vs. the ability to deploy and sustain those same forces over a great deal of distance.

During the first forty years of the 20th Century the U.S. Army had the mission of protecting the Philippine and Hawaiian Islands from attack by the nation of Japan. Although Japan was not originally thought to be a threat, from the 1922 Naval Conference onward the army high command considered Japan as the only real threat in the Pacific. This book provides a unique and very good history of what came to be known and the U.S. Army of the Pacific.

The book provides a good deal of fascinating information on all aspects of the Pacific Army from the life of enlisted men to the strategic thinking that informed its planning. But perhaps the most interesting theme running through it is how the U.S. Army identified the Japanese threat to the U.S. Pacific Islands and sought to mitigate it.

Because of budget and manpower constraints imposed by congress, the U.S. Army in the period between the WWI and WWII was incapable of fighting any kind of war. Yet as this book shows that did not prevent the Army General Staff and the Department Staffs of the Philippines and Hawaii from developing often very well thought out strategies for the defense of the islands. In the case of the Philippines the Archipelago was first considered vital to U.S. interests in the Western Pacific and a keystone in U.S. strategy. Gradually this view changed and by the thirties, the Philippines were considered indefensible against Japan and a strategic liability. Army planners sought to minimize the U.S. military presence there. This same thinking made Hawaii and especially the Pearl Harbor naval base on Oahu the keystone of a defensive arc running from Alaska to Panama which was designed to protect the U.S. Pacific Frontier.

One thing that is clear from this book and that is that the Army General Staff and the Islands' Departmental Commands were quite accurate in their defining the potential threats posed by Japan and fairly realistic in planning defensive strategies against those threats. For example the army was only too aware that the elaborate harbor defense systems that defended Pearl Harbor and Manila Bay were obsolete almost from the day they were completed. Still army planners at both the General Staff and department level tried to develop effective defensive plans. The problem was, as this book states, that there was a tradition that developed early on that allowed department commands to override general staff planning and design their own defensive plans. Thus in 1941General Short of the Hawaiian Department defined the threat from Japan primarily in terms of sabotage while the General Staff correctly saw it as a threat from air attack.

Brian Linn believes that the American annexation of the Philippines damaged rather than helped the U.S. position in East Asia. Even before the outbreak of the Second World War, American military planners knew that the Philippines were extremely vulnerable to Japanese invasion but were relunctant to raise a native force that could also be a threat to the American Army. The security problems only became worse when before the attack on Pearl Harbor, MacArthur authorized the defence of the entire Philippines and not just the Bataan peninsular. As a result of America's fear of a native force to protect the Philippines and MacArthur's overly ambitious plans, the United State suffered a humiliating defeat to the Japanese in 1942. I would reccomend this book foy anyone who believes that a new American empire would enhance national security but has ignored the disasterous example of the American experience with the Philippines.

This is a splendid and pioneering study of the Army in the Pacific, a subject badly in need of more light that it has hitherto received. It brings the Pacific Army to life in a way that no one else had even attempted.

Like any book, however, it has its limitations, and as is usually true it is the ones that author was not aware of (at least at the time) and did not flag for our attention that we must take most care of. In this case the principal limitation lies in strategic view.

The Philippines, as the author makes clear, never had any intrinsic significance for the United States (or for the earlier colonial power, Spain, for that matter) -- no riches or resources to be reaped. The sole significance of the islands lay in their position. Initially, Americans had calculated (like the Spaniards before them) that possession of Manila would provide an important advantage in gaining the rewards of the rich China trade. Luzon and the rest of the islands simply came with the deal. Almost as soon as they had been seized, however, other events eroded Manila's importance in this role greatly. (Perhaps we should say "seeming importance," as there never were the prospects which had been envisioned in 1898.) Finding themselves in possession of a colony of little value, Americans not unnaturally felt reservations about spending large sums to garrison and defend it. Thus a purely nominal force was assigned to its defense, adequate only for internal security and the assertion of sovereignty. The oft-proclaimed "bastion" of the Philippines was in reality no more than a sentry post, bound to be overrun quickly in any serious assault. To invest in a real Philippine fortress or in mobile forces strong enough to quickly relieve it would involve an expense that few Americans could see as justified.

Distant events changed all that. By the late 1930s, of course, the propensity of Japan for aggressive military expansion was manifest, but that did not seem particularly threatening in itself, given that the economic resources of the country were so small relative to those of the U.S. But the outbreak of the European War in 1939, followed by the Nazi defeat of France and threat to Britain in 1940, heightened American security concerns vastly. Then in September, 1940, Japan joined the Axis Pact, making itself an ally of Germany. Japan had intended this to change American perceptions and it did that, but not in the way that had been hoped. Japan ceased to be a disagreeable nuisance in a distant place and instead clearly became a potential part of a serious threat, to be blocked if possible and crushed if necessary. Very suddenly, the importance of the Philippines' geographic position changed dramatically.

It is this transition that Prof. Linn misses in focusing on the local realities rather than the global strategic picture that dominated the awareness of Washington decision-makers in 1940-41. This broader reality is well presented in Waldo Heinrichs, "Pearl Harbor in a Global Context," in _Pearl Harbor Revisited_, edited by Robert W. Love, Jr. (London: Macmillan, 1995) (ISBN 0312095937), and in more extended fashion in the same author's _Threshold of War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Entry into World War II_, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988) (ISBN 0195061683). For the same issue from a different perspective see Gerhard L. Weinberg, "Global Conflict: The Interaction Between the European and Pacific Theaters of War in World War II," in _Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History_, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995) (ISBN 0521474078), or his book, _A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II_, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994) (ISBN 0521558794).

Beginning with the Japanese occupation of Vietnam in July of 1941, thereby making manifest their determination to continue down the road of active alliance with Hitler, the U.S. began to rush all available military power to the Philippines, reserving only that which was essential to the security of America itself. But years of penuriousness and neglect had left the cupboard largely bare, and re-armament was yet to produce major material results. So the Philippine defenders, like the exposed sentry, became casualties of the brutally inexorable logic of war. Brian Linn's book provides a major and largely-overlooked piece of this picture, but is somewhat weak on the overall context.

There are also other sources which the interested reader may wish to consult in order to get a fuller picture. These include John J. Stephan, _Hawaii Under the Rising Sun: Japan's Plans for Conquest After Pearl Harbor_, (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1984) (0824825500) and the article by Richard B. Meixsel, "Major General George Grunert, WPO-3, and the Philippine Army, 1940-1941," _Journal of Military History_, 59, No. 2 (Apr 1995): 303-24. Both offer insights not fully captured by Linn. In a more recent article, "Manuel L. Quezon, Douglas MacArthur, and the Significance of the Military Mission to the Philippine Commonwealth," _Pacific Historical Review_, 70, No. 2: 255-92, Meixsel introduces some new evidence regarding the events in the Philippines in the 1930s and uses it to call into question some of Linn's claims.

While I have focused on its limitations, I want to emphasize again that this is a very valuable and unique book, even taking them fully into account.

Heart of Scars, the sequel to When the Autumn Moon is Bright, is rougher, harder, tougher than the first book, but well worth the wait. Easton takes Sylvester Logan James on a journey that delves into bloodlust bordering on aberrant sexual behavior, yet the entire while never manages to lose the reader's empathy for Logan. This is a masterful story, told with the artful hand of a master storyteller. I was captured at the first page and finished the book in a short amount of time - when is someone going to take both of these books and make them into the screenplays they so richly deserve?

Easton's first book in this series, When the Autumn Moon Is Bright, told the story of how Sylvester Logan became an orphan and evolved into a fanatical werewolf hunter. This second book chronicles his descent into the bottom of a horrific well of his own hatred, where he transforms into a human monster even more fearsome--and no less depraved--than the beasts that he hunts. Although he becomes possessed by a Wendigo's spirit, the reader infers that Logan's psycho/physical deterioration and monstrous bloodlust are more the result of his own personal demons than the sole fault of the Wendigo.

This book introduces some really interesting new characters. This second work also has a different flavor than the first book; it reads more like a James Bond spy adventure, with some dabbling in arcane black magic. But Heart of Scars is no less convincingly well-written than Autumn Moon, and no less capable of suspending the reader's disbelief, despite its greater emphasis on the metaphysical angle. And I love how the author dissects human psychology without getting boringly clinical. The remarkable thing about the book is that the reader comes to feel genuine sympathy for Logan, even though he's not a very likable person much of the time.

Heart of Scars takes some shocking turns as it resolves the mystery about what really happened to Logan's parents and reveals the true cause of the deaths of Logan's wife and son. I won't give away the ending, other than to say it is surprising.

As with the first book in the series 'When the Autumn Moon is Bright', Mr. Easton's detailed descriptions of every time, place, and bloody action, bring this story to life page after page. Part horror, detective novel, and international political thriller, this second installment is written with the same intensity and eye for detail as the first. Taking up where the last one left off, we are taken on a journey from the protagonists home in Canada, to the Isle of Man, with many stops in between. J.D. Salinger indicated that one of the most important themes in literature is man's inhumanity to his fellow man. This theme is constantly rearing it's ugly head throughout the course of this novel. Working in conjunction with this theme is another equally as powerful, a man becoming that which he hates the most. Logan becomes more and more inhumane as he is slowly taken over by the ancient evil known as Wendigo. His inhumanity is not restricted to dealing with his enemies. Most notable is his lashing out at Michael Winterfox, the only true constant he has had in his life. By allowing the Wendigo to corrupt his soul, and by using it as a weapon, his inhumanity begins to rival that of his mortal enemy. Will Logan ultimately find redemption? I guess we will have to wait to find out. With this second novel, Mr. Easton shows us that he has staying power and keeps us wanting for more.

One of the most descriptive tomes of brutality that I've come across. Sylvester James Logan might just be the hardest of the hard as far as anti-heroes goes. I couldn't wait to see how he would tackle a dreadful situation, even though I knew his actions might turn my stomach. Easton does a great job of surrounding you with horror and bringing you into the page as Logan delves deeper into the dark side of humanity. Logan keeps you in awe of his sheer will and brutality... And did I mention there were Werewolves. Easton amazes me with the ability to make the unbelievable sound just creepy enough to make you look over your shoulder... just to make sure. I can't wait for the next book in the series.

Just like his last book, Brian Easton has out done himself once again. It was well worth the wait for him to crank out the second book. Mr. Eastons' storytelling keeps you on the edge of your seat, like a kid listening to a tall tale around a campfire. I personally am not one to read a book quickly, but I couldn't help to devote as much of my spare time as possible to this, dare I say, master piece of fiction. Mr. Easton goes out of his way to not only tell a fantastic story, but to paint vivid image after image. He turns the pages into a spectacle of color and sound, and a tantalizing, buffet for the imagination. The forward alone was vivid and horrifying enough to make your mouth water for more gut wrenching, brutality. And not to worry dear reader, there is more than you can shake a silver bladed bowie knife at. Logan's sometimes unpredictable behavior keeps you on a roller coaster of emotion. One minute you are horrified at what he is actually capable of doing, as he flicks the little angel off his shoulder and scoots in closer for what the devil has to say, while the next minute you're rooting him on to serve up his derranged brand of justice to those that seem to hunger for it the most. Mr. Easton has turned Logan into a seemingly unstoppable force of supernatural proportions, and a whirlwind of violence and shame. I would suggest a graphic novel, but we really don't need one. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll empathize,and you'll judge, but the one thing you wont do is put this sucker down for very long. Go Logan and go Mr. Easton! Thank you for taking the time to produce something special and worthwhile for the reader. And I can't wait for the movie either, although it would never be as good.

Chess teaches time, resource management, mathematical, geometric and spatial concepts in an exciting one on one struggle. Wouldn't you like your child to get into that rather than the latest mind-numbing video game? When kids engage in a challenging activity that calls forth their best mental efforts and creativity it can help them avoid becoming "laboratory rats pressing the feeder bar..." When kids get curious about a subject there is a very small window of opportunity to get them hooked on a subject before they move on to something else. This book has that hook! With engaging explanations and some of the most beautiful graphics ever seen in a book of this type, "...Chess Like an Animal" will pique their interest like no other material on chess that I know of. Once they have caught the bug, those kids lucky enough to have gotten this book will have been given the incredible gift of Chess, the world's best game: a mind-building, boredom busting, low cost artistic hobby that they will treasure for a life time. Also, as the other reviewers have mentioned, there are "sprinkles" everywhere that adults will enjoy thru-out the book. Highly recommended!

As the Colorado State Chess Association Scholastic Coordinator many parents have asked me how can they help their kids learn to play chess. Until now much of the material I have suggested is good but lacked making the game fun, allowing the child's imagination to soar.

"How to Play Chess Like an Animal" is the perfect book for your young zookeepers uh, I mean chess players.

This book is very entertaining and makes learning chess openings and the beginning basics of chess super fun for young children.

Life Master Brian Wall states in his Foreword letter: "I have been madly in love with chess since age 6. ...This book is for 6 year old chess stars all over the world."

The pictures, the names of the openings, and the youthful style in which this book has been written will keep your young chess stars coming back to learn more.

I had the chance to sit down over a cup of coffee with Anthea Carson who did the coloring for the drawings done by Linn Trochim (famous for her drawing art work for Hanna-Barbera Studio with "The Flintstones ®" and "Scooby Doo ®").

She made the statement:

"Many authors have used animals to teach great lessons to children. Children have come to love animal stories and their characters. We wanted our book bring those fond fun loving memories of animals to the chess board and allow kids to be kids while they learn one of the greatest games in life from their new found animal friends."

Well Anthea, you and Life Master Wall have succeeded!

In the world of children's chess this book is an instant classic!

Tom Nelson
CSCA Scholastic Coordinator
csca-scholastic-chess@comcast.net

With its inventive title and bright illustrations of animals, "How to Play Chess Like An Animal" appeals to both children and adults of all ages. This great chess guide is for anyone who is new to chess or wants to improve his or her game. Authors Carson and Wall explain the basics of chess as well as each opening with clarity and humor. In their description of the Giraffe, they ask the reader: "Ever wish you were taller than those sixth grade bullies? . . . There is a magic way to be big instantly! Play the Giraffe!" And after finishing the book, the reader can try out new moves with a game of penny chess using the board on the back cover. I'm not a regular chess player but came away with a greater understanding and appreciation of the game, and my four-year-old loved the pictures of the animals.

It's common knowledge that chess is great for kids, teaching as it does, planning, logical consequences, and intellectual discipline. If this list of attributes doesn't sound a whole lot like actual fun, well then you don't look at Chess the way Bill Wall does. In a field bereft of good, yet entertaining instruction books for kids, he and co-author Anthea Carson have penned a delightful manual that reminds kids that chess is about experiencing enjoyment and using one's imagination. Most kid's chess books are really adult beginner manuals dumbed down a little bit for easier absorption by the little ones. Wall and company have taken a different approach and emphasized the "fun" aspect right off the bat. Using the theme of animals, the book enlivens the subject with both whimsical animal metaphors and equally nutty and colorful illustrations. The result is something kids will recognize was designed solely for them. To be sure, there is solid if not exactly comprehensive instruction here but even that information is conveyed in a delightfully irreverent style. Consider the beginning of the explanation of pawn moves:" You will need a magnifying glass, a beaker, a compass, a blender, string, 2 rubber bands, a #2 pencil and a camel hair coat to make sense of the pawn rule moves. It is easier to learn than Chinese. Let us begin".

The book does not appear to be aimed at any particular age group here. I would think that some parts of the book, the wacky openings for instance, would appeal to four or five year olds whereas adults might get something out of other parts of the book like the hilarious glossary. I suppose this lack of age targeting could be considered a weakness or a strength. Personally, I think it's a strength. The book doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive primer on chess rather; it succeeds by acting effectively as a teaser for whatever age child that might happen to pick it up. If they catch the bug (and this book is more likely than any other than I can think of to infect them with bugs) then they will likely look beyond it for other more information-based modes of instruction. Wall has a gift for reducing complex ideas in simple terms that are simultaneously entertaining as well as instructive and the accompanying illustrations are suitably wacky and eye catching. One aspect of the book that generally goes a bit further than most kid's books is the substantial section on openings. Some of these openings are hopelessly unsound, but again, as the focus is on funny patterns and the crazy names associated with certain chess openings, the book may interest a child in the opening phase in a way that dry instructions to "maintain a two pawn center" may not. All in all, this book is a winner and I only hope that Mr. Wall gets around to writing a book for adults that teaches and entertains as well as "Play Chess Like an Animal" does.

I thought this would be a book for kids, but when I read it, I realized this would be interesting for adults also. You won't normally find these strange chess openings in other books and I don't necessarily recommend that you play them as a serious player, but they will give you a fresh and different look at playing the game. Plus the art work is excellent. I definitely recommend it and have bought a few copies to give away to chess club kids I coach and one to keep. I'm hoping there will be a sequel.

Into the Shadows Furious is probably the BEST campaign history I've ever read. The greatest part of this book are the numerous first person accounts. Brian Altobello captures the fear, stink, mud and terrifying unknown that was the New Georgia campaign. This is an all but forgotten operation in the central Solomons that turned out to be a near disaster. Mr. Altobello includes very interesting exploits of the coastwatchers in this area and the role they played. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this "you are there" book.

I participated in this operation and was a member of the lst Raider Bn. The author was very detailed in his various reports of the battles and accurate. His description of the battle fields and terrain were exactly what I remembered. He wrote about the "grunts" their feelings and miseries - the heroes and those not quite as heroics. He pulled no strings for marines or soldiers or sailors. He called the shots. He was so detailed in his reporting that I swear he must have been there. I recommend this to veterans of that campaign especially. You will never know what was going on over there, even if you were there, unless you read this book.

Frank Gee

Mr. Altobello's book does justice to a previously overlooked pacific campaign. Situated chronologically between Guadalcanal and Bougainville, it has become a footnote in history. It, unfortunately, was not a very well run campaign, lasting much longer and costing much more in men and material than anticipated. The reasons for this are several - inadequately trained, poorly led troops,a terrible attack plan that was made worse with modifications, poor intelligence, and a worthy opponent in defense. In all honesty, in 1943, the south pacific theater was low on the list for appropriations, most army troops available were national guard divisions with little or no combat experiance, and the navy was somewhat limited in its' support ability due to enormous losses at Guadalcanal - specifically no fleet carrier support. So, this campaign was a painful learning experiance for theses services ,and learn they did, with the much more successful campaigns in '44-45. The author has obviously done extensive research on this campaign and no facet of it is not well covered. I highly recommend this book to persons wanting in depth coverage of the Solomons campaign or someone with particular interest in the New Georgia campaign.

Brian Altobello's Into The Shadows Furious is the vividly presented story of the American battle to drive out the Japanese from New Georgia after the U.S. armed forces had finally secured Guadalcanal in the spring of 1943. The Japanese airbase at Munda on the island of New Georgia was a vital target and the focus of the Army's 43rd Division. The Japanese commander, Major General Sasaki, had prepared a series of strong defensive positions and roadblocks on the trails east from Munda directly in front of the American advance. The ensuing combat in difficult terrain slowed the Americans long enough that General Sasaki managed to evacuate the bulk of his forces. Into The Shadows Furious is compelling reading and a superb addition to the growing library of World War II Pacific Theater with its vivid, powerful story of an almost forgotten campaign that took a tremendous toll in blood and lives.

Altobello does a great job describing the true enemy in the battle of New Georgia, the merciless terrain. His vivid descriptions of the unrelenting jungle of New Georgia and its arsenal of weapons (mangrove swamps, giant crabs, mosquito swarms, and torrential rains) make it easy for the reader to visualize the obstacles our young soldiers faced. Into the Shadows Furious is at its best, however, when Altobello is describing the emotional battles the soldiers endured. Through his own easy to read and insightful prose and through the oral accounts of actual battle of New Georgia participants, Altobello is able to capture the frustrations and mental anguish that our yet untested soldiers faced. The resulting story is a compelling account of both the physical and mental journey each solider underwent during the costly battle of New Georgia.

The debut novel of columnist and television scriptwriter Brain Baker, Irregardless is a whimsical adventure that asks: what if the Apocalypse accidentally overslept? In a waning world where the Apocalypse is scrambling to make up for lost time, demons are just starving to whet their appetite on tasty fresh people, an undead leader tries to prevent the four factions of undeadhood from degenerating into all-out war, a Christian waiter tries to figure out both God's plans and how to keep himself off the lunch special, and a women who just wants a cup of coffee gets caught in the middle of it all. The tongue-in-cheek humor adds spice and kick to this rollicking ride of the quest to save the Earth from the narcoleptic Apocalypse.

This book is smart, witty, a little twisted, and just a whole lot of fun. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed. Mr. Baker is a talented new author with a unique voice, and I look forward to reading his next book.

This book probably isn't for everyone, because let's face it...There are a lot of boring, easily-entertained people out there. HOWEVER, for readers who want a clever, well-constructed tale that entertains, enlightens, and endures, this book is probably a really, really good idea.

If you like Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchet, Harry Harrison, Mark Twain, Salmon Rushdie, or the early, funny novels of Tom Clancy, you'll love "Irregardless". If you don't like any of those authors, don't worry - this book is something completely unique, winding its laugh-filled way back and forth through more than ten centuries in under 200 pages. And if you are a fan of John Grisham, buy this book because you need something good to read for a change.

If the end of the world is as entertaining in real life as it is in this book, sign me up. "Irregardless" has great ideas, hilariously funny scenes, a wonderful ending, and a slew of big words that the author isn't afraid to use. There's even coffee. Can you ask for more than that?

I read this book while on a flight over Thanksgiving weekend. My wife probably wishes I hadn't. I'm afraid I was proving to be a distraction from laughing so hard. If you are looking for a book to awe and inspire you to be a better person, keep looking. If you are looking for a quirky, funny, and all-around entertaining story, get this book.

"Irregardless" is a fun, fast-paced comedic fantasy. The author masterfully weaves a unique tale of supernatural beings, the creation of coffee, the living dead, horrible food, and the end of the world. Lots of fun and highly recommended.

Doc savage fans along with fans of bama-art in general will be pleased with this book! being there isnt a whole hell of a lot out there for him, or the mighty doc savage as far as new-releases of things go... great book to add along with the classic pulp and novel collections! neat aurora-model artwork too, a true masterpiece!

I recently recieved my copy of James Bama: American Realist and let me say I'm just floored by this incredible collection by a true master painter. Bama's speciality was book covers, mostly of the mass market paperback variety where his incredible visions of adventure were needed to catch the eye of readers. His technique is flawless, with a realism that elevates his subjects into powerful visions. His mastery of texture and form is particularly impressive.
I knew him only for his iconic portrayal of pulp legend Doc Savage, but there is a whole lot more in this book, covers for westerns, war stories, science fiction and even romance and teen novels.
The highlight for me, of course, was the Doc Savage section, with cover reproductions of every single Bantam Books Doc Savage novel with a James Bama painting. These covers almost cry out READ ME as they are filled with incredibly visions of adventure.
The book ends with a section of Bama's western themed paintings which is what he does nowdays, and these too are fantastic, evoking serene visions of cowboys, indians and wildlife, always with his characteristic realistic style.

When I was very young and saw Bama's book cover to Doc Savage #1, The Man of Bronze, I was mesmerized. The starkness of it, the intensity, the schizoid isolation, the realism . . . in my opinion the story in the book did not live up to the cover, not by a long shot!

Ditto for the rest of Bama's covers, with few exceptions.

Bama's illustrations collected in one volume bowled me over.... He was responsible for so many book covers and illustrations that I remember as a kid in the sixties and seventies. It was a nostalgic look back, but also an incredible appreciation of this artist and his type of art. He was so present in my day-to-day life...posters I hung on my wall, books I read, owned and still own. A beautiful collection.

James Bama is a wonderful artist who dazzled me with his covers for Doc Savage when I was a child. Seeing his massive output in paperback covers and beyond is astonishing. Bama not only painted exciting and dramatic scenes, but his vibrant use of colors is stunning.

This book gives us a plethora of examples of this versatile artists work, while also giving us an insight into his background and history. His real life situations were sometimes as dramatic as the scenes he illustrated on paperbacks and magazines.

The book was a delightful read and well worth purchasing.