Burke Books

I really enjoyed this book, esp Billy Bob and Lucas. I do agree with the one reviewer who stated that the female characters were a bit wooden, however. I found myself completely unable to fathom billy bob's obsession with Peggy Jean, and how he was so oblivious for so long to Temple's feelings for him. But if you can overlook the romantic aspects, the story is complex and gritty. I read it in one sitting. James Lee Burke has quite the way with words, and I enjoyed his phrasings. Will be looking for more of his work.

Billy Bob Holland, attorney, is pitted against an apparently materialistic and immoral "entrepreneur," Earl,who happens to be married to the beautiful woman who deflowered Billy Bob, years prior. Earl's son by a previous liaison, Jeff, is a chip off the old block. Tagging alongside are two Chicano "gang bangers," actually more low riders than gang bangers, Ronnie Cruise (note how he anglicized his name, maybe that's a fad in San Antonio?) and a loco guy named Ramirez who gets boxed to death later in the book. In fact, of these four, only Ronnie remains standing, with Billy Bob, when the final bell rings. There are other women, including Esmeralda Ramirez, who is variously a college student, Jeff's wife, Ronnie's girlfriend, and the girlfriend of Billy Bob's son, not in that order, however. Then there's a corrupt, racist, fat sheriff (what would a Southern town be without one?), and various "white trash" figures who cross back and forth over the criminal line as forces carry them. Well, the result of all this, in my humble opinion, is a three-star book. As others on this website have pointed out, there's a lot to wade through for the action that's delivered, maybe a little too much attention to minor detail. But does this really differ much from Robert Parker describing what his private dick had for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Or from Robert Crais telling us what the sunset in Santa Clarita looked like as the police and FBI surround an upscale single family residence housing three kidnappers? Not really. So, there's something here, but you might have to wade through some of the slower parts, skim it or skip it. Billy Bob's encounter with his deceased crime partner, his ghost, that is, is actually rather interesting, because how often do you get anything even bordering on the metaphysical in this type of fiction? Diximus.

...Billy Bob Holland reminds me of the southern Sheriff played by Bill Paxton in "One False Move" or Chris Cooper as the Texas Ranger in "Lone Star". Or Gary Cooper in those 40's/50's westerns.

'Course, in Lee Burke's Texas, murders and the overall evil men do take on quite a different flavor. *Quite* a different flavor. A Latin gang member is murdered by a lethal drug which has been punched in his face during a so called friendly boxing spar. A wildcatter initally accused of taking bearer bonds--Billy Bob's client--finds his mother's body exhumed and in his pick-up truck out in a dark and dreary field; this is a threat from Big Earl Dietrich to comply with some kind of land development deal with a promise of big resources...he wants IN, but Deitrich would rather just muscle his way in. The wildcatter is married to a blind Indian spiritlifter, who murders an intruder to her home so efficiently and thoroughly it seems like it was done in a mode other than self defense. The Big guy's son seems to have some scandalous problems with his sexuality and Billy Bob has somehow gotten a dose of a rare Asian jungle poison. Add to the mix some insane prison escapees, an able assistant, his son Lucas, and a lil fishing buddy and you have quite an intriging stage for mystery.

Billy Bob Holland himself keeps hearing voices, seeing visions inspired by his dead Rangers partner, LQ Navarro. Whoooo-boy! Would this be a wild movie for a director to take on!

My take on why Lee Burke goes to extremes on describing Deaf Smith and parts surrounding is that it makes his mystery more realistic and if he describes every iota of this countryside-- how it is hot on certain days, rainy on others, what kind of vegetation clings around, if there's a quicksandy, mildewy swamp around---maybe that can help rationalise why each character has his own strange way. An environment that varied and extreme is likely to harbor varied and extreme individuals.

Anyway, this is a great mystery with superb setting and mood. And its so intense and real you can feel the horseflies whizzing at the back of your neck.

I am a loyal Burke fan, particularly of his Robicheaux books, but "Cimarron Rose" was a slight disappointment. With time and forgiveness under my belt, I cracked open "Heartwood" and found myself swept away. The story has an actual plot, the characters have true struggles, and the narrative flows with sympathy and violence in incongruous dance.

Let's face it, few people can write with the descriptive and allegorical power of Burke. If anything, it can be overwhelming at times, although I prefer to think of it as intoxicating. Then, to keep things in check, Burke pens some of the most forceful dialogue that you'll ever run across this side of the Elmore Leonard and Dashiell Hammett. His characters are electric with their moral conflicts and emotional hangups.

"Heartwood," for me, encapsulated all the things Burke does well: the dialogue, narrative, Greek tragedy themes, and eventual redemption at a price. Yes, it harkens to the Robicheaux books, but I'm warming up to Billy Bob Holland and beginning to see him as his own fictional entity. Although this series lacks the humorous sidekick of a Clete Purcell, it hits home with powerful story and truth.

Mr. Burke, you're starting to convince me...spending time with Billy Bob and Temple Carrol has its payoffs. Do I sense a hint of romance even? I can't wait to read "Bitterroot," the next in the series.

I have never written a negative review about a book purchased in Amazon but I am now going to make an exception. The "Billy Bob" series is unbearably overwritten, cliched, and filled with gratitious violence, endless racist references, and chapters that seem always to end with a pompous striving for fine writing. I know Burke can write but these stories are just ridiculous. The female characters are impossibly remote, almost as if they were trapped in a Western novel, the characters speak to each other with mock formality ('sir' is used even when someone is being threatened with emasculation), and about every third chapter one finds a "food" interval: tubs of chicken are devoured, buffalo steaks with blueberry ice cream are washed down with iced tea on the front porch, and for lunch tacos with an iced mug of Lone Star are slopped up at the Mexican cafe on the square. These people must weigh 400 lbs.

It's almost as if Burke said to himself: this is the way to make me 'sum' real money: testosterone threat chapters, followed by by inconclusive encounters with the athletic female private investigator and former corrections officer or with a former high school conquest now married to a rich and corrupt oil man, and then the food feasts followed by riding around the Texas Hill Country on a horse, all three mixed in with random encounters with escaped convicts, cretins borne with severe birth defects, and failed evangelists, all of whom seem to be 'river baptized.'Oh, I forgot the bottomless corruption by knuckle-dragging law enforcement officers. Sprinkled throughout, just for effect,are interludes where Billy Bob, a convert to Catholicism and former Texas Ranger who executed drug mules in Mexico and boasts of it, every now and then drops into church with his youthful sidekick. As most drug mules in real life are poor women with heroin stuffed up their privates, Billy Bob must have been steely hard as a Ranger. Now he is a lawyer who is a graduate from a night law school, perhaps St. Mary's in 'San Antone.' Oh by the way: Who says San Antone but in novels like this or in bad songs?

I grew up in San Antonio and spent a lot of time in the Hill Country and I live in the southwest today; I am sure something like these people can be scrounged up here and there and indeed anywhere, but putting "nigger" or "porch monkeys" in the mouths of the bad guys so many times or clubbings with ballpeen hammers down in the basement seems calculated to draw readers in who secretly enjoy the guilty pleasure of reading this kind of stuff. This kind of fiction is to remind us that the South won the Civil War, especially the redneck, racist, and endlessly ignorant American South. And boy hidy, does it sell!

In Heartwood, you could actually take out a good deal of this ridiculous filler: tone down the racists references because the reader gets the point, take out the food chapters, let Billy Bob actually have a regular and steady sex life like most of the adult world, cut the 'Texas Chainsaw' style violence down to a minimum, quit trying to put Southernisms into everyone's mouth every third sentence, and edit out the dud literary flights, and the upshot would be a fairly decent and interesting plot and story about a failed rodeo rider and his lawyer. But then who would buy it, I suppose Burke would say. But I would ask Burke: is making scads of money so important that you write down to people like this? You are a far, far better writer than this. How about writing a serious novel about Texas today, capturing what is happening to San Antonio and Fredericksburg and the like, given the California (or Hollywood) invasion? Even then you can throw in some clubbings, and some scenes where people are burned to death by tires filled with gasoline dropped on their heads, while their relatives watch.

"In the Moon of Red Ponies" is one of James Lee Burke's novels that features Billy Bob Holland, a defense attorney in Missoula, instead of his better known protagonist, Dave Robicheaux. The Holland books are subtler, taking a little longer to develop and distributing more of the action to the cast of characters. Burke's mastery of scene continues with gorgeous descriptions of Montana's natural riches. The captivating patterns of Burke's writing continue: the problem that can't be ignored by a man of conscience; an assortment of personalities in various degrees of disrepair; moments of startling, violent ferocity; small moments of hard-earned redemption; and the sanctuary of love-making.

Billy Bob Holland (yes Billy Bob) a former Texas Ranger, a Former DA, and now a current Defense attorney has just found out that Wyatt Dixon, a psycho who attempted to bury his wife alive, has been released from jail on a technicality. The local drunk has also been locked up again but this time is different because he was caught carrying a concealed weapon. Billy bob worries about Dixon as he goes to bail out Johnny American Horse (The local Drunk) from jail on the weapons charges.....

To be fair I didn't choose this book. It was kind of forced on me by an acquaintance. I had a feeling by reading the title that this wasn't likely to be something I would enjoy but figured I would give it a shot. I couldn't even finish this one. It is that bad. I was literally laughing out loud at this author's prose. Like all books if they start a little weak I will give them 100 pages +/- and if 100 pages in I still just don't care about what's going on in the story it is time to move on. The book read like a bad combination of, Cheesy modern western and cheesy film noir.

The Good: ??????

The Bad: This author's style of writing is completely annoying. I literally began to laugh as I read his attempts at setting scenes. Every single scene every time is set with, "The hills were blanked with sun" "The sun was bright on the hillside" "We walked into the brilliance of morning sunshine" and on and on and on in every scene. These descriptions were paired with gems like "The air smelled of distant rain" "the air smelled of wet grass and pine" and "The sky was forked with lightning" or a variation thereof. Also every scene has "through the window I could see mountains in the back ground". Now I'm not talking every chapter or every other chapter. I am talking about every scene, which is every page to every third page. Also almost every scene introduces a new member of wild life: "White tail deer scampered across the path" "white tail deer walked up into the shadowed wood" "I was temporarily distracted buy a black bear ambling across the path" "Moose and elk crossed the stream in the distance". This stuff was so heavy handed in the book it became laughable and this was all in the first 120 pages.

The characters are also not likeable. The hero is a defense attorney, his overbearing PI wife, the ex psycho reformed Christian killer, the drunken hero Indian and of course the over the top cop. I am reading this looking for a character to enjoy reading or at least to root against and what I found after 100 pages was that I just didn't care about any of them. Not only did I not care but I actually disliked them. Burke should have spent more time on his characters than on wild life and sun blanketed hillsides.

The characters names are also pretty bad. I don't usually complain about this but had to here. Gems like: Billy Bob, Temple (Billy Bob's wife) Johnny American Horse and Lester Antelope.

The story lacks a cohesive plot. Stories that don't follow conventional story lines are fine when all of the other components are in place however I don't think that is what is going on in "Red Ponies". I think the plot is just so meandering and slow to develop that it didn't even begin to make itself known in the portion I read.

Overall: I could go on an on about how poor this book is but will just say to pass on this one.

The reader is hard to get used to, the story good, lot of twists and turns, keeps you interested.

I've read just about everything Burke has written and this is one of the worst. The various parts just don't fit together and I found myself drumming my fingers and wishing it would just end. I suppose the good news is that it did. More and more the author has his main characters wallowing in self analysis and contemplating their navels at great length. If you like that you like it but there's too much of it for me. In addition the plot is kind of pasted together and imparts no belief that it could happen as written or that it makes sense. And the actions of the protagonist become increasingly tiresome. Enough.

Having become a James Lee Burke junkie over the last year, I couldn't wait to read "Moon". What a disappointment. Billy Bob and Temple in Montana just can't compare to Dave and Bootsie in Louisiana! The action wanes when it needs to wax - and Cletus is no where around to spice it up. If you like the Bayou stories, I'm afraid the Bitteroot Mountains won't elicit quite the same reading anticipation.

I never received this book. I never heard back from the seller after sending 2 emails. not reliable!!

I have the 2001 edition (first?) and it was very helpful in getting me through my real property class in law school. I've also been using it to help me during bar review, and it's been a godsend in getting me through covenants & equitable servitudes. I would assume the newer edition is even better. I would highly recommend it.

Some of Property is pretty straightforward, and other topics are ridiculously counterintuitive. This book makes it so much easier to put it all together and make it ALL make sense. Especially essential if your prof is the type who likes to hear himself talk and never take questions ...

This book got me through my Property Exam, especially the parts concerning conveyances. If you have a professor who'd rather ramble on for hours on end about conveyances, without really explaining what all the terms mean, then you are going to need this book. The other parts are also helpful -- covenants, nuisance, and restrictions on land use -- but I mainly focused on the conveyance sections.

You will read the cases and go to class, but you can't touch this subject until you've answered fifty questions WRONG. It can either be in this book or on the exam. You decide.

This was my first book that I purchased for learning 3d studio max.. I also bought the fundamental book too.. I've only flip through couples of pages then I put it away to collect dust. The exercise are hard to follow, they gave complete instruction for teaching you a certain command. But you wouldn't find motivation to delve in to the 3d world by building something that's meaningless. The book is only good for advance user as it'll teaches you how to press certain short cut keys and stuff..

I found this book hard to comprehend.. even if I'm a immediate user, I wouldn't picked this book, as this is so boring.. It teaches you how to do certain things, but don't tell you much why you are doing it, or why is it necessary to take the steps..

there are few other good ones out there if you are a intermediate user...

This book is not bad, just lack of good modeling example, this book is really for beginner, Anyway, the mapping tutorials are good.

100

Boy, not only is this thing boring and monotonous, it tries to cover everything really fast. So what you get is a paragraph describing a really important function. And the book is filled with these tiny paragraphs. The first quarter of the book involves real boring things that people on this planet grow up knowing. Like organizing things and what not. If you are reaally hard core and want to totally devote your life to 3dsmax, do not get this book. Cause half your life is going to be spent trying to decipher what the heck the author is trying to say.

This book upgraded my skill 10 fold. After reading this book my work was shockingly better and I also go back and use it as reference all the time. If you can name a function or tool in 3dsmax you will find a section on it in this book. I mean we are talking a book with 6 pages just for bevel. The organization of the chapters and tools is genius. This book will not tell you how to model, it will tell you how to use the tools and functions of 3d Studio Max. I would buy this book even if they charged 10 times it's price, you can make your money back in seconds with the skill you gain from this book.

I agree with all the other less-then-three-star people, (except for the one who really trashed the book, it's not THAT bad) this book is boring and the characters are not very well developed, you don't feel apart of the story.

The first 50 pages are hard to get through and you don't get a sense of the scene around the characters. For example, Kincaid walks into a the girl's house and we get a pretty good description of the house and how it looks inside and then, in the very next paragraph, is dialogue. What happened? One minute she is outside and the very next they are already in the house sitted and talking. Did they knock on the door? Did it open magically? How did the girl look? What happened to the Happy Meal Kincaid brought? Did they sit on a couch, chair, floor?

If you like your stories bare bones, this is for you. As for me, I like a little more atmosphere from writers such as Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, John Connolly, Charles Todd, Erin Hart. These people breath life into their books.

This has been one of the strangest books I've read in years. First, I have to explain that I guessed who the author was, or at least who her father was, when I saw the front cover of the book. James Lee Burke is one of my favorite detective novelists, and his main character Dave Robicheaux has a daughter with the unusual name of Alafair. Alafair Burke, then, would be Burke's daughter, right? Yes, turns out that's the case. The younger Burke is a lawyer who's worked with the DA in Portland, Oregon, and now teaches law in New York. She's based her book on her time in Portland.

I don't usually like books with lawyers as protagonists. I think I'm at least a little more attracted to Lawrence Block's hitman protagonist than a lawyer as one. But given that I like Burke the father, I thought I'd try the daughter too. The book revolves around a young female prosecutor in Portland (something I suspect Ms. Burke knows something about) and her prosecution of a guy who's been accused of the rape of an underaged prostitute. The plot's entertaining, and the city's atmosphere is pretty well-done, to the point that I felt as if I knew Portland better than I had previously. I did have one minor complaint: the author uses enough acronyms in the text that a one- or two-page glossary wouldn't have been a bad idea. The confusing one (which she never identifies) is PPB. It turns out Portland doesn't have a Police *Department* like the rest of civilization: theirs is a Police *Bureau*. Talk about strange.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and now that I've read the first one I look forward to the next entries in the series.

Alafair Burke is an outstanding writer. Her experience as a former prosecutor and current criminal law professor is evident in the pages of Judgment Calls. One can learn a great deal about criminal law and procedure while enjoying a fast-paced (can't put the book down) mystery at the same time. The protagonist, Samantha Kincaid, is a smart, sassy deputy district attorney with a heart who won't let the bullies walk all over her. I thoroughly enjoyed Judgment Calls, and look forward to reading more of Burke's novels.

Alafair Burke is inevitably tagged as "daughter of James Lee Burke" but don't be put off by that. Ms. Burke is worthwhile in her own right....she is not cruising on her father's fame.

Judgment Calls is the first of what will become the Samantha Kinkaid series. Kincaid is an Asst DA in Portland, OR. In this first novel, Kincaid catches a prostitute murder case.

The characters are well crafted as is the plot. The book is fast-moving and full of enough twists to keep you off-balance and guessing until the end.

Well worth reading and following up the other two now out in the series.

The career spotlight is not focused on Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid with her current job. The vice cases she prosecutes aren't the big time career winners, so when local police come cap in hand for assistance with a sexual assault and attempted murder, she's interested. The usual hand passes have been given to this one as while the victim has got her details straight, she is not the ideal person to appeal to a jury. Thirteen year old Kendra Martin admitted belatedly that she's lately taken to prostitution to pay for her new habit, and was high on the night of her brutal attack. With a solid identification, Kincaid and the cops are ready to move on this one, dragging their reluctant victim along with them.

The defense attorney seems to want to make a big statement on this one, and Kincaid is sucker punched at the trial with a hit on the integrity of the investigating officers. Former flame Chuck Forbes had his rising career almost snuffed out before it began when he was accused of leading a witness in a high profile serial killer case. This new case is likened to the same, and it is not long before the media take flight. Someone is staking claim to the attack of Kendra Martin and others, throwing Kincaid's case wide open to be linked with the older crimes. If there's a serial killer at hand, he'd like to eliminate the threat of his only surviving witness. Kincaid must not only protect her client, her friend Chuck but also herself from the threat of a maniac who has now decided he wants his own turn at being the media's darling.

"Judgment Calls" was a debut novel for author Alafair Burke, who has written two further novels since featuring district attorney Samantha Kincaid. This isn't a stellar first novel, but it should introduce enough new faces for the reader to take the interest forward to the next book. There is little suspense as the whodunit factor is revealed along the way, and the rest of the journey is in the process - the detailing of which gets a little tedious. It gets to be sickly as Burke talks up her protagonist, via the secondary characters, to be some kind of avenging saint. Also, for a supposedly smart woman, Kincaid gets to do some rather dumb things. This is a light thriller read, possibly appealing to the reader who prefers the gorey details to be tucked away behind a teaching view into the courtroom, with some harmless romantic scenes included.

The book is as much a collection of articles as it is a book, and there were a couple of inconsistencies that would have been caught by one more editorial pass. That said...the book very much informed/improved my running training, and for that reason alone, it's worth the purchase price.

I do inline skating, skiing, and weight training, but every time I tried to take up running, I would hit a wall. I just couldn't run for long sessions, and after a few I would hurt something and give up. Then I read about Ed Burke in Outside. This book, along with Burke's "Optimal Muscle Recovery" (I tore an Achilles tendon and developed plantar fascitis from skating and skiing) and "Stretching" finally got me to understand that I wasn't building the base I needed in order to run better. By following the training programs in this book, I've greatly increased my capacity without injury, and am slowly seeing my speed increase. Also liked this book because it took a different approach for each covered sport, and it treated inline skating with the respect it deserves as an endurance activity.

I had bought the book to help me with Mtn. bike training and my son with running. The book didn't provide information for mtn. biking though it did have a section on road biking. The running chapter seemed incomplete. The major table that was supposed to explain the heart rate targets was not explained fully. Also, oddly, there is a quote in there that is identical in two chapters but attritubted to two different people!

In summary, I was disappointed with the book but it may be helpful to someone else.

I have been interested in improving my performance for years, and finally decided to take the plunge and look into heart-rate monitoring. This book does not really support a specific philosophy and who knows if the so called "science" is supportable. I also read "Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot" by John L. Parker and recommend it. It appears much more scientific and emphasizes recovery over training in a zone. Don't buy this book. Rory Donaldson roryd@brainsarefun.com

Given some of the less-than-favourable reviews here I thought I was going to find an average, if not hum-drum book. I was very pleasantly surprised! This is a great book, very detailed with good descriptions of the Karvonon method of calculating HRR (Heart Rate Reserve) and its correlation to VO2 Max and Net VO2 and how to use this information to determine appropriate training zones. It had some good sections on various other fitness activities (such as cycling, swimming and walking) and serves as a good resource for anyone wanting to get fit faster while lowering your chances of injury or overtrainig.

I think if you combined this book with "Heart Rate Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot" you'd posses all the information you'd ever need to train to maximum effectiveness with your heart rate monitor.

I enjoyed the refreshing of warm memories through this book. But I was very disapointed with the lack of photos used. There's no way you cover a topic such as this and not include a sufficient amount of photos to go with the memories.

I LOVED this book.
It is snarky and has no shame when it comes to adressing the failings of many beloved 70's cartoons(and live-action kid-vid as well!)It brought back many happy(and mildly embarrasing) memories of shows I had all but forgotten.And the discriptions are dead-on perfect!!(it's section on FilmAtion's live-action shows were especially good)
It is good natured GenX nostalgia at its finest!!
Now if only I could watch all these shows again my life would be complete!!!

This book was only fair at best. It had only a few pictures (mostly of board games and toys) and little worthwhile information. It's basically a collection of the authors' opinions, thoughts, and memories on the topic, which meant little to me since I value my own opinions and memories much more. It's almost like the authors didn't seek, want, and/or have permission to write this book from the people who created the shows they discuss. The authors give us their thoughts instead of the thoughts of the thoughts of those who really matter... the people who created or were involved with the shows. I was hoping for a trip down memory lane; this book took a detour very early on and never got back on track.

This book has many positive and negative points to it. Let's start off with what's good about it. The authors write with a clear understanding and love for animation. The book isn't a cold text book on Saturday Morning traditions or television shows. They commnet on obscure shows and remind the reader of the reasons why they watched some shows. In the book, there is a loose history of how cartoons migrated to Saturdays, with subtle mentions of struggles between advertisers, networks, and parental groups, also reflective looks on "Generation X" and their love of animation. They even post comments sent to them from internet newsgroups from people recalling their own love and rituals of Saturday mornings. Lots of inside information told in a real fun way.

Now on to the bad parts...First off, I will state there is a very clear bias in the writing. The authors make their opinions clear when they write about programs they didn't like. What's worse is that they don't give reasons for them. Their mentality sends the message: "you had to be there to know," which means there is a stark learning curve to this text. The only saving grace, is that the authors admit their bias on the first page. Right from the start you know its going to be an opinionated retrospective look back.

The lack of photos in the book is also annoying, especially considering their text on Sid and Marty Kroff's programs, describing the visuals as trippy. The medium of television is very visual, and not being able to make a cartoon character's face with its name, makes looking back 30 years a little tough. The book takes little time to break things into generas or eras. It covers the overall collective of Saturday morning and picks out the most memorible shows and comments on them.

This book is great for the casual reader, but serverly lacking for historic or animation enthusiasts. If you do pick it up, read it for fun, not for research.

This book was fun in that it brought back a few memories about what was available on Saturday mornings in the 70's and 80's. However, the authors tended to dismiss the value of anything they didn't watch, or didn't understand.

Davey and Goliath, the Filmation live action shows, Schoolhouse Rock and even Mr. Rodgers took the brunt of the author's disdain.

The book contains some good show descriptions, but be warned, the authors may trash some of your favorite shows if they didn't like them. It really took a lot of the fun out of the book for me. I didn't finish reading the last chapters because the authors couldn't keep their slanted opinions (and politics) out of it.

Ok for a walk down memory lane, but if you want more of an unbiased reference, look elsewhere.

this product came in good condition the seller was good to work with no problems except I thought it took too long to recieve other than that no complaints

I read most if not all of the reviews after clicking product reviews for the January 2008 version. Is there no product review of this January 2008 version or does it contain the same informatiion as the 2006 version?

This detailed guide to billing and reimbursement instructs those who wish to pursue a career in medical billing. It is a comprehensive source on the health insurance field which also covers other criteria such as legal and regulatory issues. Used in the course of a HIT Associates Degree program.

I did not received the book, I order, still waiting to get the book.

I had to purchase this as it is required for a class, but even our teacher admits that the book is not that great. It's a very boring read, indeed.

This is an excellent essay, even for those who did not know they cared about the Renaissance.

My primary motive for purchasing this book was the fact that it had influenced Nietzsche; however, this book has much independent merit, whether you love hate or don't care about Nietzsche, there will be something here for you.

Burckhardt does a great job of capturing the amoral ethos of the time on its own terms; not judging it from the position of some imagined superiority. He is obviously well-versed in the relevant literature, and the translation does not seem to obscure him.

This particular edition does have numerous typographical errors, which can be somewhat distracting as one reads.

Burckhardt's work is a classic and is well worth the read. However, this edition by BiblioBazaar is horrible. Let me explain:

What the publisher did is take a translation that is so old that it is no longer copyrighted. It then scanned the translation into a computer. However, no one at the publishing house even bothered to check the proof before printing. A number of words are misspelled. Often you can discern what word the scanner mis-read; other times the spelling is a bunch of unintelligible symbols. At one point (I believe it is in section 3) the same few pages are printed twice and some section of unknown length is omitted. Finally, BiblioBazaar doesn't even bother to give you a place of publication.

If BiblioBazaar were charging $3 or $4 for this edition, I might excuse the fact that they didn't even read the proofs once. However, $20 for a book that cost them nothing to produce other than the paper it is printed on is absurd. In my opinion, Amazon shouldn't even carry this edition. Buy Burckhardt, but buy it from a reputable publishing house.

This review is of the edition of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy published by BiblioBazaar. This edition should be recalled by the publisher: there are typo's on every page, making it nearly unreadable. I attempted to continue reading the book (which is of course a classic) but was too annoyed with trying to figure out what certain jumbled characters meant.

I think BiblioBazaar must has scanned the text of an old edition of the book whose copyright had expired, but then never bothered to proofread the finished product. Very bad business. Save your money and get an edition by a reputable publisher.

The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Modern Library Classics)The Civilization offers a handy checklist for anyone wishing to delve deeper into the Medieval and Renaissance studies. The somewhat tortuous introduction which outlines the political turmoil in 15th century Italy adds weight to the two conclusions which Burckhardt makes towards the end: the Reformation had galvanized the Vatican into action and helped, inadvertently, the Catholic church to regain ground, and, secondly, a combination of a fragmented national identity, secularization and reliance on cunning and talent prompted the rise of the individual.

Burckhardt then proceeds to chart out the different trends, fashions, and cultural shifts which made the Renaissance: revival of the interest in antiquity, search for classical manuscripts, studies in classical Latin, rediscovery of ancient literary forms, creation of libraries, patronage of the arts, exaltation of man in painting, dress and literature, interest in the human body, the opening up to the world - in short humanism.

In his account of life in the Renaissance Burckhardt notes how laughter insinuated itself into artistic expression as a form of protest against dogma and despotism. Where its impact was felt most was in the celebration of religious festivals. Ridicule and paganism were never deep under the surface in miracle plays and pageants.

After examining the Italian Renaissance man's values and finding that honour had supplanted guilt, Burckhardt takes a closer look at religion. Inevitably there is reference to the medieval worship of relics, simony, sale of indulgences, moral corruption in the Church from top to bottom, but also an equally bitter treatment of the things which replaced, or rather reinforced, them: preachers of repentance, adoration of the Madonna, persecution of heretics and in particular the Epicureans. Added to the mix was superstition, which does not strike a student of the Renaissance as particularly modern but with which the ancients would certainly have been at home.

This paradigm shift which touched the lives of many men in the 14th and 15th century left many men adrift, spiritually and intellectually. Along with the unquestionable achievements in all areas of life which were ushered in by the Renaissance, Burckhardt observes, the age was marked by a steady slide towards fatalism and skepticism. Welcome to modern times!

Burckhardt's brilliance is undeniable. His erudition is obvious and his synthesis of numerous themes and what would now be deemed separate academic disciplines is magnificent. The edition, however, was awful. Individual pages had literally dozens of typos and an entire half a chapter was printed twice. While I would gladly recommend the work, I strongly suggest finding another edition.

Let me start by saying that I'm a dedicated fan of this genre. That means of course that I've read Lustbader, Trevanian, Eisler, and now both of Donohue's books. This particular book came by recommendation of my father, also a huge martial arts fan (and fellow practictioner). I can totally respect Donohue's effort, because I know first hand how hard it is to put together a compelling martial arts thriller.

I also recently published a martial arts novel. My book features a Judo/Kenpo master hunting a world-class sniper whose killing presidential candidates. It's more of a mainstream thriller inspired by Lustabader's early erotic martial arts violence. See "Process of Elimination" if interested. End of shamelesss plug!

As another author writing in this same genre, I was very excited to pick up Donohue's "Sensei" (and then "Deshi"). I posted a review of "Sensei" as well, should you care to read it.

In Deshi, Connor is once again called in by the police (his brother and partner) to help with a murder case. There's a lot going on in the book behind the scenes, involving Chinese spies, a Tibetan Lama, some hired thugs, and a martial artist with something to hide. It's weird for me to even say this, but the complication in the plot sort of gets in the way of the story. Even as I finished the book, and I came to understand who was doing what and why, I was left a bit confused. I guess it's because there really isn't any way to figure out the book until Donohue finally walks you through it. It's not one of those stories where you can pick out clues and figure things out. You simply go along for the ride and then listen quietly as the author finally clues you in. Still, I like the authenticity of the martial arts and can overlook the lackluster feeling that I came away with.

Overall, I liked "Deshi" better than "Sensei." The story is unique, and there is more action. Like his first book, "Deshi" is also a quick read (a couple of hours). But complaints aside, I learned some things, and never put it down until it was finished. I guess that earns it 4 stars (but just barely).

The only people who should read this book are the stuffy academics the main character belittles, as this reads more like a lecture than a piece of interesting prose. There is little sense of suspense or danger in his fight scenes. Donohues' martial technique descriptions don't live up to his reputation as someone well-versed in a variety of Asian martial arts. Save for his relationships to master and his brother, there is very little in the way of interesting character interactions, and the conclusion is anti-climactic at best. Even the detective aspect to the story barely held my attention. If you're someone looking for a story rich with martial arts content this book will disappoint you.

Donohue's "Deshi" is, much like its subject, simple, elegant and direct. This book is not actually about martial arts, so much as a fairly standard murder mystery as seen through the lens of traditional japanese martial arts. The actual meat and bones of the mystery etc is not as important as the treatment, which says more about Donohue's (and his character's) understanding of traditional martial arts than do the well written and realised action sequences. It's a story of simple and very personal beauty.

I really didn't expect to enjoy this book so much, but was drawn in by the mostly excellent characterisation. I say *mostly* excellent, as there are characters that the author obviously feels very connected to, and they leap off the page (Art, I'm looking at you) but others seem in many ways to be simple plot mechanisms (Stark, for example).

The book is immensely readable, and as an ex-traditional martial artist, brought back to me many of the things I loved about traditional martial arts, and took many not-so-subtle digs at all the things I hated.

I'll be getting more of Donohue.

Deshi was an ok book it didn't quite reach the level of Mr. Donohue's first book ''Sensei'' I felt that Deshi sort lacked that wonderful tension building and climax that sensei had. As well the characters seemed to aimlessly sort of ramble about in the book not quite capable of doing their jobs. Donohue writes well as usual and I truly enjoyed the fight scenes, but then again they seemed quite short and yes, even though this is a mystery/detective series I felt that a little more focus could have been given to that. I give it 3.5 stars and will buy his next for sure.

This novel is going to be a little tougher to critique than Mr. Donohue's first outing, the remarkable "Sensei". I very much enjoyed reading this sequel to that excellent novel and also enjoyed being introduced to the characters again. There were a few flaws with this novel though, and this one felt more like a debut novel than his Sensei did.

As I noted in my review of Sensei, Donohue's protagonist, Connor Burke, is a finely realized and interesting character with substantial depth, complex feelings and motivations, and is an unusual hybrid of both college professor of Asian Studies and martial artist. In Sensei, his actions and reactions, to the unfolding plot events were both sensible and consistent with his character. Within this novel I felt the author stretched that sensibility and consistency a little too far for my comfort.

In this outing Connor, still a thinking man's hero, is drawn into another police investigation because of his unusual background and expertise in martial arts and Asian studies. The investigation, taking place in New York City, revolves around a series of murders of experts in Japanese calligraphy. Events proceed and eventually two dojos (martial arts schools) come into conflict with each other, spiritually and physically. The action scenes are excellent, the writing taut, and the book flows extremely well. In fact, I churned through this one very quickly, ignoring important things in my life clamoring for my attention, and enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I was disapppointed on some levels with this book however, probably because my expectations were so elevated after reading Sensei. Some of the characters in this book are finely realized, complex, believable and interesting. Yet many are not. Additionally some of the situations within the novel felt both forced and contrived and lacked a sense of naturalness and authenticity. Perhaps most disappointing was that the villains felt fairly cartoonish in the end and certainly did not behave rationally nor were their actions internally consistent with their depictations. Clever villains are so much more interesting than stupid ones.

I wish I could whole-heartedly recommend this book as an excellent read, but all I can really say is that it was certainly a fun read and I still enjoyed it despite some flaws. If you liked Sensei then go ahead and read this one, you'll still enjoy the further adventures of Connor Burke. If you haven't read Sensei, but like to read thrillers/mysteries/action adventure then I'd recommend reading Sensei before this book.