Butler Books

The reading was delightful and opened up insights as to my own feelings for my hometown. How I feel when revisiting, how I see the buildings and view the landscape. The streets, early love, High School days. I don't know of any other poetry that focuses so intently on the subject of a hometown. An extraordinary book.

So serene, so careful and loving in its approach to everyday happenings. I highly recommend this book of poems.

What a refreshing book of poems about a hometown. It is good to be able to hear someone talk in such an affirmative and affectionate way about his past in a small town. So many ideas that I have had about my hometown but was never able to put into words are expressed here. I think this book will be a favorite with many readers.

It was a delight to find a book of poetry that concentrates of different aspects of one's hometown. So much is said here that I feel about my own hometown. This book ought to make Small Town America proud.

A friend of mine told me about this sledding poem and I just had to have the book after I read his e-mail. How many poems there are in this collection that rang bells for me!

DO YOU KNOW THE MONKEY MAN is about a thirteen year old whos twin sister went on a picnic with thier dad at the age of three. She inded up falling in the water and drowning, but the dective never found her body. Sam thinks her sister is still alive so she goes on a quest to find her dad and sister. I have to say this is my favorite book.

I really liked Do You Know the Monkey Man. I think it was very catchy and once you get into the first chapter it pulls you in. I like how Samantha is very determained to find her dad and then find her sister Sarah or T.J. I also like how the author would give lots of details about how her sister was never found and how much she didn't want her mom to be remarried.

The Book Do You the Monkey Man was the best book I have ever read. This book is a very suspenseful book, it also kept me reading on. Once I got finished reading this book I was very shocked by what had happened. Sam's always wondered where her dad and sister are. Once you red this book you will find out everything. This book was a very good book to read. I would recommend it to all adults and teens. The author uses many deatils in this book to show you everythintg that has happened.
Once you read this book you will not put it down. The whole book is shocking from the beginning to the end.

13-year-old Samantha Wright hasn't seen her dad since she was 3 because of a bitter divorce but lately she's been wanting to contact him and see what kind of man he is. But her mom doesn't ever want to talk about the subject because the reason they got divorced was that Sam's twin sister Sarah drowned in a boating accident with her father. Her mother never forgave her husband and cut off any relations with him. But Sam is so desperate that she and her best friend, Angela, resort to paying a psychic to see if she can figure out where her father is. The answer that the fortune teller gives comes as quite a shock. She can't see where her father is, but she does tell Sam her sister is still alive! Sam must now use her own ingenuity to figure out where her dad is and whether Sarah is still alive!

Butler does a real good job of creating an atmosphere of suspense in Monkey Man and I found myself not wanting to put the book down until the whole mystery was revealed. The characterization was decent, especially with Sam, a girl that doesn't want to give up hope about Sarah because she functions with her heart which tells her that her sister is still alive somewhere. You also care about Butler's characters and you hope that things will work out in the hopelessly messed up situation they find themselves in. The ending is a little hokey and far fetched but makes sense in the context of the work. This is a good read for young adults and older readers too.

This book was one of the best books I have ever read. When I bought the book in 6th grade, I couldn't stop reading and finished the book within a week and a half. I loved it. I don't want to give anything away, but if you love suspense then you should definately read it.

I received this book as a gift and am VERY happy to have received it. The story is so interesting and each of the characters has a story of his or her own. The author is a gifted story teller!!! MWD-Saddlebrooke,Arizona

I received this book as a gift and am VERY happy to have received it. The story is so interesting and each of the characters has a story of his or her own. The author is a gifted story teller!!! MWD-Saddlebrooke,Arizona

This is a story that is so interesting. You feel as though you know each character very well. There is a story behind each character. This is a wonderful read for anyone at any time. The author did a fantastic job researching for this book. I will definitely buy every book she writes.

You've done a wonderful job. The research is there. I especially like the accounts of the National Road.
Merritt Ierley, author "Travelling the National Road.

This is a wonderful book for summer-so well written and researched. The main character Lily really comes alive throughout this novel. Mary Anne Butler's characterization is superb.

This book has been sitting around on my shelf since I was a child. I thought it was a child's book when I was young, but couldn't read it. I just pulled it off the shelf again, and have discovered what will become one of my favorite books about hope, determination, the power of positive thinking, and art - its struggles, its blisses, its importance. It is a must read for any writer, or for that matter, any artist who struggles with stealing time to do their art without feeling somehow guilty, or fearful, or terribly isolated. It is about transcendance despite ridiculous odds. It is an amazing, amazing book. I'm so glad I got around to it.

This is a beautiful book on so many levels. The author's voice, the author's spirit, the author's technique of storytelling are awe inspiring. If you have been led to this page, take it as a sign and order this book, reading it is an experience and I can't wait to read it again. If you are looking for a gift to give someone else then this is it, but read it first yourself so that you can trully share it.

My husband gave this book to me and I am truly enjoying it! Katharine sees things from a rare perspective. Her life transformed her into someone that could see deep into even the most mundane subjects. I feel a new appreciation for even the sounds of crickets! She was certainly a person who's cup was always half full! This book is like welcome raindrops, enveloping you and staying with you long after the drops have evaporated!

This book is enchanting, wonderful, and beyond description, except to say it is a testament to the human spirit.

If you read this and loved it, also look at "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," by Jean-Dominique Bauby. If you can't imagine living on your back for ten years, try imagining writing a book using only the ability to blink one eye, to dictate letter by letter. Tis book is another testament to the human spirit.

This book is amazing, I am 15 and I read it, my mother at 39 read it, my grandma read it and my younger sister at 13 read it. Everyone takes away some different, but something wonderful from this book. It is absolutely indescribable, you have to read it; right now, order it, read it, it will change your outlook on life.

I thought that this deck was a creative and interesting approach to the tarot, but there were some things about it that were a little disappointing.

For some reason, the deck is extraordinarily difficult to shuffle. I compared the size of the deck to the standard Rider deck, and the Quantum deck is maybe 1/8 of an inch longer. The Quantum deck is also quite a bit thicker than other decks. But once I was able to wrap my fingers around the deck and do an actual shuffle, the cards seemed to interleave with each other quite nicely.

Interpreting the meanings of the cards in the context of quantum physics is amazingly creative, and I liked that. The pictures of the cards are interesting, with a nicely ethereal quality to them. The pictures are quite original and interesting to look at.

The instruction booklet, however, is pretty horrible. Complex explanations of the workings of quantum physics are finely intermixed with the explanations of what the cards mean, making it difficult and time-consuming to locate within the text and figure out the actual card defintions. Far too many instruction books and booklets make this same mistake. The definitions of what the cards mean in this Quantum deck, therefore, are extremely user unfriendly. This is the very thing that keeps tarot card reading from being far more popular than it already is. No one but an experienced tarot card reader is going to be able to make much sense of the card meanings published in the accompanying booklet. I am going to have to go through the entire booklet and separately record the parts of the text that relate only to the meanings of the cards. Once I have done that, I will be able to use the Quantum deck more conveniently for doing readings. Right now, trying to figure out the individual card meanings in a card layout is a laborious, frustrating experience. I will wait until I have personally rewritten the card meanings in a clear, easy-to-understand way before I do any more readings with this deck.

The creators of this Quantum deck did separate the meanings of individual cards into two headings, one being the Scientific Backgroud, and the other being the Interpretation, but they continued their scientific explanations in with the Interpretations. They should have said everything they wanted to say about the scientific background under that heading alone, and then under the Interpretation heading included nothing more than what they wanted the cards to mean. As it is, in the Interpretation sections, you still have to wade through a lot of scientific information to be able to decipher the actual card meanings.

This is a great deck of cards. The images are amazing, and the picture quality is high quality too. And the cards are not cheep either. NICE and strong. They read really nice too. However I am unable to use them anymore. My mom started to used them everyday and now they don't seem to work for me anymore :( I have to buy a new set. Oh Well....

The Quantum Tarot blends astronomical imagery, scientific theory and Tarot symbolism in a visually and theoretically breathtaking presentation reminiscent of the Voyager Tarot. In its time, the Voyager broke new ground with its photocollage style, in many cases incorporating astronomical photography with tarot symbolism. The Quantum takes that idea to a whole new level: just as the Hubble images used in the Quantum are a technological leap beyond what were available at the time the Voyager was created, the Quantum Tarot is an artistic jump into a world that the Voyager could only glimpse. Moreover, while I am not ordinarily a fan of Rider-Waite style decks, the Quantum Tarot adds an entirely new dimension -- well, maybe several of them -- to the style that makes the Rider-Waite-ness fade into the background. This is not the same old Tarot in new clothes; this is an entirely new world, entered by way of the Tarot.

That new world is the world of theoretical physics. Physics is the science of how things work, and as our understanding of the world grew beyond dropping things from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so the theories that tie our observations of things into explanations of how they work grew in complexity. It became apparent that the theories that explain how very large things like planets and galaxies work, were on a collision course with the theories that explain how very small things like atoms work. Both sets of theories couldn't be true, and yet both seem to be. Even worse, it became obvious that all of these theories were incompatible in very basic ways with the theories that explain how ordinary things like clocks and bicycles work. While these new theories have given birth to a whole new world of technology, there remains the nagging problem of explaining how all of these things could possible work together, or even, in some cases, how they can work at all.

The Quantum Tarot takes us on a journey of this strange world of apparent contradictions and inconsistencies. Each card represents some theory, idea or object from the world of theoretical physics. Illustrated with a combination of astronomical imagery and Tarot symbolism, the cards invite one to expand one's understanding of the Tarot by considering how the Tarot symbol relates to some idea in physics. Maybe the other way around, too -- how these often disconnected concepts in physics might relate to a deeper understanding of things through Tarot symbolism. And this is where it starts to get interesting.

Take card XVII -- in the traditional Tarot, the Star; in the Quantum Tarot, String Theory. String theory is an attempt to reconcile the incompatibilities of quantum mechanics and relativity. That has been the dream of physicists for decades: to find a way of combining these two apparently un-combinable theories into a grand Theory of Everything, that would provide some basic explanatory framework of how everything, at bottom, large or small, works. It's been rough going, and it isn't there yet. Maybe it will never happen; there are reasons to suspect the Universe might not be reducible to a single explanatory framework. But the attempt has produced some interesting insights, not the least of which is, at a very basic level, the world is very different from what "common sense" tells us it is. That's a good thing, as common sense is more often a blinder to truth than a way of finding it.

This Tarot is in many ways its own mimic of string theory: it is an attempt to reconcile two things -- science and mysticism -- widely held to be incompatible and contradictory, into a unified framework of ideas. Now this is something I have always believed: that science, mysticism, and add to that philosophy, are convergent disciplines. I do not mean that any of those disciplines is reducible to any of the others -- that, for example, mysticism, or the Tarot as a form thereof, can be explained in terms of psychology, or that science ultimately reduces to logic (sorry Mr. Spock). What I do mean is that as our understanding of all of those disciplines advances, they become more similar than they are different, and each gives important insights as to how the others work. It would appear, for example, that the Uncertainty Principle, which has led some physicists to suggest a "participatory universe", is really the same principle, viewed through the lens of science, as sympathetic magick and its seasonal rituals, viewed from the standpoint of the nature mystic. QM and relativity shed a lot of light on how magick might work, and many physicists have noticed similarities between ideas in physics and mysticism -- books have been written on the Tao of this and the Zen of that. My guess is that the Theory of Everything, if there is such a thing, will ultimately look like some combination of ideas from these different disciplines, a twisted superstring in its own right, vibrating in every dimension of human thought.

To be sure, this isn't the easiest path to tread. If you'd rather meet a charmed quark than a strange one, and you assume a boson has bright red hair and wears a clown suit, you may be heading for rough waters here. I must say that the images on the cards aren't highly intuitive; while you certainly can read these as ordinary Tarot cards, you won't get the full measure of their wisdom without reading, and understanding, what the accompanying book has to say about them. The book is very good; its summaries of the scientific theories are excellent, but admittedly may be beyond those who have no interest or background in the subject. The Tarot of Everything might not be the Tarot for Everyone, but then again, what Tarot is? By drawing the reader into the parallel universe of theoretical physics, this Tarot challenges the reader to get beyond the repetitive and entrenched "meanings" of the cards, and enter a dimension in which the absolutes are uncertain, and the less believable something is, the more likely it is to be true.

New to Tarot publishing, Kunati have done a splendid job in producing this exquisite deck. Kay Stopforth and Chris Butler's unique vision is brought to luxurious life with vivid colours, (that really do seem to leap out of every card), sumptuous card stock, and a fabulous sturdy box. You couldn't ask for more!

As to the content of the deck itself, it is a truly stunning deck, which captures the mystery and beauty of the universe, without becoming so carried away with it's own cleverness that it becomes tricky to read. It is in fact remarkably easy to read with, the scientific information in the book giving a refreshing new angle that has never been seen in Tarot before. If you don't like to use the book, the images themselves are so evocative, they could certainly be used in a purely intuitive way.

Kay and Chris have brought a truly unique gem to the Tarot world, which is a challenge in a market which has new products arriving all the time. A treasure for collectors and readers alike!

Emily Carding, (creator of the Transparent Tarot)The Transparent Tarot

As a collector of Tarot decks, I usually guage them by the feeling I get when I first open them and hold them in my hands; if there's that immediate feeling of connectedness, I know I've made a good choice. And this one is right at the top.

I was initially interested in the concept of this deck: A Tarot of New Physics, and as a spiritual person who despises religious dogma, and a science junkie to boot, the idea of drawing the beauty and grandeur of the cosmos into the mysterious world of the Tarot, was too intriguing to pass up.

When I first opened the deck and began flipping through the cards, I was at once drawn to and awestruck by the images of the deck; resplendent cosmic vistas, interlaced with imagery from the traditional Tarot. It stirred a sense of the universal connectedness of all things in what we know and understand as the Universe at this point in our development as human beings. But it also evoked a sense of wonder and the possibility of the things we don't yet know about ourselves or our existence, the things we've yet to unlock or discover about who we are or what our place is on the cosmic stage.

On the practical side, the deck is a tad bigger than a standard Tarot deck, thus making shuffling a little difficult at first; but once you stretch your digits a bit, the deck has a pleasant feel to it. There's a nice matte finish to the cards that gives them a solid, grounded feel, so they're not going to go slip-sliding all over the place when you shuffle. The edges of the cards are gilded in a beautiful silver finish that adds a sense of opulence to the deck and adds to the overall beauty of it.

In short, this is a truly gorgeous deck that inspires at first sight. I love this deck and I think I will be working with it for many years to come. Highly recommended!

This is a brilliant follow-up to Reiffin's Choice. Butler's world is as intriguing as it is believable. I can't wait to read the next.

....about not judging a book by its cover. I have to admit, though, that the cover art was what caught my eye first. I'm a great fan of Daniel dos Santos's work - he's also illustrated the covers for Patricia Briggs' "Mercy" series - and I can generally be sure that, when I see one of his cover illustrations, the book will be worth picking up. In this case, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this was in fact the second book in the trilogy, and that I'd have the pleasure of exploring even more of a new author's work. And what work it is! This is a mesmerizing new fantasy series, full of characters who have to confront difficult and painful situations and cope with them. This isn't just about dropping a nasty relic into a volcano or pulling a sword from a stone; the characters must face the darkness within themselves as well as their opponents and somehow prevail. Even more wonderfully, I have no idea how or if they'll do it. S. C. Butler has a gift for keeping his readers guessing, and I'll be eager to follow this trilogy and his future work. Bravo, Mr. Butler, and many encores!

Queen Ferris by S.C. Butler is the second book of the new young adult fantasy series, The Stoneways Trilogy.

Reiffen, Avender, and Ferris have grown to adulthood, and are capable of ruling the land or detroying it. Ferris is wooed by the prince Brizen, whose father (might or might not have) usurped the reign of the kingdoms of Banking and Wayland from Reiffen when he was a babe. Avender patrols the border, guarding the kingdom against the three evil wizards who are about to unleash a war from the north.

Reiffen voluntary returned to the Wizards at the end of Reiffen's Choice; he now serves the wizards. Is he ensorceled or turned traitor? Does it matter? If he leads theWizards' armies, only his death will save the lives of the people of the land. Or so the powerful and wise declare.

But the years have not weakened the friendship between Avender, Ferris, and Reiffen. What do their hearts tell them about Reiffen? What will they do when he, because of love and friendship, willingly gives himself into their power?

I enjoyed Queen Ferris even more than Reiffen's Choice, which is saying a lot. Mr. Butler used the power of description in Reiffen's Choice to anchor the reader in the land. He drives Queen Ferris forward with the power of characterization, for Reiffen, Avender, and Ferris have grown to adulthood.



Everybody always wants to be something they're not," said Ferris. "I'm sure I'd love to be a princess."
Brizen's foot scuffed closer across the brown needles. With a bit of a shock, Ferris realized what she'd said.
"You can be a princess a lot easier than I can not be a prince," he told her.
"I don't love you, Brizen," she replied, trying to recover what she hadn't even known she might let slip.
"I know." He sighed quietly and looked at his empty hands.


In Reiffen's Choice, Mr. Butler hints at a new creation mythos. In Queen Ferris, he develops the creation story more fully. I enjoyed seeing how the story lines arose from and were driven by his creation mythos. Imagining the beginning of a new world that is so different from our own is quite a feat. To logically carry the creation mythos forward so that the story is internally consistent is amazing.

With this volume, Reiffen and Ferris's story is nearly complete. I'm looking forward to the third volume to see how Avender's story comes to completion.

Having thoroughly enjoyed Reiffen's Choice, S.C. Butler's first book of the Stoneways Trilogy, I was thrilled to discover that Queen Ferris, the second book, stands up just as well. The characters age into young adults in this sequel, which takes place over several years, and become more complex as they move through their world and develop other relationships. In addition to the dark deeds and challenges Reiffen experiences as part of the frightening world of the wizards, Butler layers on the emotional entanglements of family and friends, self-doubts and struggles that are common to all young adults. Once again, Butler balances the dark evil and cruelty of the wizards and their minions with a dose of humor, compassion, nobility and warmth from other characters. Butler's descriptions of the characters and their surroundings are so incredibly detailed and precise, you may begin to wonder if this is really fiction or if he actually lived among the dwarfs in Issinlough, was a captive in Ussene, or spent time in Valing observing the habits of shape-shifting bears. He describes not only the scene of the current adventure but has imagined a whole mythology for the creation of his world. This is a terrific series. While I look forward to reading book three, I dread the end of the Stoneways Trilogy and not being able to follow the further adventures of the characters I have come to love.

Everyone who loved Reiffen's Choice - rejoice, for Queen Ferris is here!

As is to be expected, the second book in the Stoneways Trilogy delivers adventure and humor. What readers of the first book may not have expected is that this one also packs a good solid dose of romance. The children have grown up, they are now young adults with young-adult concerns, and everything has become more complicated than it was when they were children together in Valing.

Ferris in particular gets her chance to shine, as she has to juggle loyalties and friendships, balancing the demands of her heart against the demands of her position in society.

Redburr is back, bigger (and funnier) than ever, and a few new characters add depth and realism to this story of magic and its terrible cost.

In this book, the consequences of Reiffen's Choice first become apparent, as everyone in the story has to find a way to live with the decision he made. Don't miss this trilogy, and keep an eye open for the third book next year. This is the best book I've read all year. Absolutely a keeper!

I'd had never heard of the FW2 generation until I read "Rosie's Daughters: the 'First Women To' Generation Tells its Stories." What a good book this is!

The generation covered in this book refers to those American women born between 1940 and 1945, the daughters of the iconic "Rosie the Riveters" who came to adulthood in the turbulent sixties. Talk about breaking glass ceilings -- only for this generation of women, those ceilings were often made of concrete. Yet they still managed to break through them and become the "first women to" -- you name it -- this generation of women achieved more firsts that any group of women before or since. They shaped the modern world for their younger sisters, daughters and granddaughters, providing us with freedoms and encouragement that they or their mothers never had.

Authors Matilda Butler (an FW2 herself) and Kendra Bonnett (a successor Baby Boomer) interviewed and tell the stories of more than 100 FW2 women -- intimate, richly detailed stories that will make you laugh, cry, nod in recognition, and most of all, feel grateful.

This is an inspirational read that reminds us again that it's not only the famous who make history; it's not only the rich and powerful who can change the world.

I have a file of newspaper and magazine interviews and stories on women-of-a-certain-age who accomplish amazing things in the last half of their lives. Matilda Butler's new book has many of these 'role models' and many more covered in "Rosie's Daughters". It is wonderful to trace how these admirable women were influenced by the events of post-WW2 America. Now, I am discovering that I and my friends are also those role models to the on-coming generations of younger women.
Denise Ferris

Rosie's Daughters: The "First Women To" Generation Tells Its Story. Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett

Butler and Bonnett skillfully weave personal stories, history, and psychological knowledge and insight into this collective memoir of women born during World War II. Their premise is that, yes, individuals are shaped by the times in which they live, but females are additionally shaped by the females who preceded them. Consequently, as the title suggests, women who were born between 1940 and 1945--Rosie the Riveter's daughters--"claim more firsts in personal change, educational attainment, and career achievements than any previous generation of women of comparable size" (17).

Replete with photos, a running timeline, and sidebars by other famous Rosie's daughters, this book is engaging, readable, and insightful. It provides numerous "aha" moments about life and living. This is an important book. I give it two thumbs up and five stars!

Patricia Roberts, Hollis, NH

This book is both a fascinating and serious look at the lives of women born during World War 11. I read it twice. The first time for the personal stories, and the second time for the socio-cultural context in which these women lived. It is the perfect book to give to adult children who think that the world begins and ends with the Boomer generation. I highly recommend Rosie's Daughters to readers of all ages.

I just recently finished reading Rosie's Daughters and LOVED IT! I thought I might have some difficulty with the format as it is a little different than my accustomed reading, but I had no problem at all. In fact, it was great fun deciding how I would go at it and which part or section I would read first. I didn't really develop a pattern, but just did what felt best. The book is definitely a "page turner". Thank you for the amazing insight you have of our generation. The book certainly helped me figure out many things in my own life that I wouldn't have considered before reading this amazing book.

I will admit when I read this book for the first time I thought how dumb, I then had to read it over and over again for a few days, then the next thing I knew My one year old would sing the roll over, roll over, then she would do the bump thing. It is my favorite now. My youngest is so cute when we read it and we end up saying it when we are just doing random things. I'm so glad I bought this book it has brought a truely unreplaceable memory.

We enjoy many of John Butler's books. I like that he uses different animals in the books. This book is good, we love "Can You Cuddle like a Koala?" and "Can You Growl Like a Bear?"

My not-quite-four-year-old loves to be read to before she goes to bed, and this book is one of her favorites. Using large and colorful pictures, the book tells the story of ten baby animals in the den. Each time the baby mouse says, "Roll over! Roll over!" one of the baby animals tumbles out of the den, and down the hill. Finally, the little mouse, missing its friends joins them under a tree, and they all go to sleep together.

My little one loves this book - loves the cartoon baby animals, loves saying the "Roll over" lines together with me, and yells, "Bump!" as each one reaches the bottom. Yep, this is an excellent book for a little reader. We give it two thumbs up!

We found this book at the library and have since purchased it. My preschooler loves this book because it can be sung (I think the original song is 10 in a bed and the little one says roll over). In this book it's the 10 animals with the little mouse telling each one to roll over and they roll out of the den. It's also a great bedtime book because it ends with all the animals falling asleep.
The illustrations are absolutely adorable. Each animal is done so well they really look so fluffy and huggable. I am definitely going to purchase this book for gifts especially for children in the 2 to 4 year old range. We read a lot of books at our house but is one of my very favorites!

This book is absolutely terrific! Ten adorable & different baby animals are all sleeping in a den when a small little mouse says " Roll over". Each little animal rolls over and out of the soft den to the bottom of a hill under a shady tree until the little mouse is all alone and rolls her or himself down the hill to be with her/his sleeping friends.What is also nice is that as each animal rolls down the hill they do so in ryhme. We are also starting to learn Chinese so we are also counting in Chinese as each animal rolls to the bottom.

I don't know how John Butler does it but the baby animals he draws look so soft and fluffy that you can't help but each out and touch the animals hoping to feel each and every adorable animal! and you just can't beat a book that can be either read or sung AND reinforces counting from 10 to 1! Definately worthy of being a 10* book!

There's much to be said for those who pen their first books at an age when many working folks are winding down their careers. Such writers can draw upon decades of experience, giving their writing the kind of nuance and ambiguity that comes with mature hindsight.

For these reasons, one may rejoice in Jim Tomlinson's debut short-story collection, "Things Kept, Things Left Behind" (University of Iowa Press, $[...] paperback), for which Tomlinson won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award.

Born in 1941 three weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tomlinson grew up in a small Illinois town and now lives in rural Kentucky. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the 11 short stories in this collection have the Bluegrass State as their backdrop and have struggling, working-class folks at their center.

An example is LeAnn McCray, who appears in the two title stories, "Things Kept" and "Things Left Behind." In the first, we learn that LeAnn sometimes "felt restless, strange to her own skin. It was a troublesome feeling, one that would come on her without warning, as it did one Tuesday afternoon in late October."

That day, LeAnn's sister, Cass, needs to talk about helping their stubborn and widowed mother, Georgia, out of debt. Cass suggests that LeAnn ask a mutual friend, Dexter Chalk, for help. The married LeAnn agrees, never letting on that she and Dexter are having an affair. The plan to aid Georgia spirals into an unintended climax, in which LeAnn learns that it's not just the living who have secrets.

In "Things Left Behind," LeAnn's secret affair with Dexter is unwittingly divulged to her husband, Lonnie, by a well-intentioned hotel maid. Because Lonnie is far from a perfect husband and father, Tomlinson allows ambiguity to seep into LeAnn's infidelity.

In "Prologue (two lives in letters)," we are introduced to two young, idealistic teenagers, Davis Menifee Jr. and Claire Lyons, through a sampling of their correspondence spanning 34 years.

Thrown together as delegates to the 1963 Congressional Youth Leadership Conference for one week in Washington, D.C., Davis and Claire become close friends in the wake of Kennedy's assassination and political uncertainty. But they take radically different paths. Claire becomes an activist lawyer and eventually a member of Congress. Davis protests the Vietnam War and flees to Canada to evade the draft.

Both start families, question their choices, wonder where their youth has gone, and hope for better times. For many readers who have spent a few decades on this good earth, the words of these two Americans may be painfully familiar.

There are other gems in this collection: In "Stainless," Warren and Annie have one last dinner together as they divide up their belongings at the end of their marriage. In "Squirrels," a man is bedeviled by his ex-wife because she is bedeviled by squirrels that invaded her attic. And there are the two brothers in "Lake Charles" who share a bond forged in a horrendous, life-altering childhood accident. In such stories, Tomlinson keeps his observations and humor sharp, his prose lean as a marathon runner.

Sometimes in a Tomlinson tale, it's difficult to tell the winners from the losers, the resilient from the fragile. But his magic lies in the shadows of people's lives, those dark recesses where uncertainty reigns.

It's as if Tomlinson holds a mirror up to us and says: It's all a confusing mess, but we will survive because the other option is just too damn scary.

This is unadorned wisdom earned through experience. And it takes a skilled, mature writer such as Tomlinson to bring it to life.

[This review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

Jim Tomlinson's book is truly deserving of the Iowa Short Fiction Award. This is the best collection of short stories I've read in the past few years. His characters are not doing anything extraordinary, yet they are compelling. His sense of voice and place are exquisitly honed. This is a must read; again and again.

Jim Tomlinson's book Things Kept, Things Left Behind is a collection of short stories which won the Iowa Short Fiction Award, and rightfully so. I have never been a fan of short stories, as I've mentioned in previous blogs, but slowly, I'm starting to change my opinion.

These stories were unlike any short stories I've ever read before. Rather than leaving me wanting more from the characters and the story line, they truly left me satisfied. After each story was finished, I felt as though I had just spent a novel's worth of time with the characters. They were that well developed, and the stories, though tragic at times, are written with a humor and wit that I really enjoyed.

In each story there is conflict; be it within the characters themselves as they dream about things they've sacrificed or lost out on, or be it between two or more characters. In each story the conflict is real; the stories are utterly human, and I think this is why I enjoyed reading them as much as I did.

If you like short stories, or even if you don't; this is a book I would recommend you pick up in your travels. You won't be sorry.

Jim Tomlinson's "Things Kept, Things Left Behind" is peopled by rounded, entirely believable characters--victims, as we all are, of life's quirks and mis-matchings. The almost inadvertently criminal couple, the absent father and his disengaged adult son, couples who should have married each other and couples who shouldn't have: there are only so many situations in the world, and all this has been written about before. What sets this collection apart--what makes it such an enjoyable read--is Tomlinson's solid craftsmanship. He writes with the assurance of someone who doesn't have to show off: a fine, empathic writer and a first-rate storyteller. I loved reading this book; I loved his respect for his characters, his simple spot-on dialogue, the hope he plants in small gestures. There is a depth to his prose that lingers in the mind, together with the small mysteries he plants so artfully for the reader to consider. Excellent collection, well-deserving of the Iowa Short Fiction Award.

Susan O'Neill, Author, Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam

I loved so much about Jim Tomlinson's short story collection, Things Kept, Things Left Behind. It was one of those reads that I felt compelled to carefully portion out so as to not have it be over too quickly. I wanted to savor it.

The working-class Appalachians that Tomlinson creates in his stories really resonate with me. They feel real. When Cass (in the the half-title story "Things Kept") says, "When he comes to see Ma, don't matter if it's a hundred degrees, Dale here is wearing long sleeves so she don't see them tattoos he's got drawed on his arms," I KNOW her. She is utterly, absolutely real.

I was also impressed by how the women in Things Kept, Things Left Behind are portrayed. They have flaws and desires and idiosyncracies that allowed me to see and appreciate them, warts and all--like real people. There is no gender divide in this collection. Men cheat, women cheat, men love obsessively, women love obsessively, both succeed, both fail. It is a totally engrossing, even-handed look at what makes us human.

I read a lot of "how to" guides (trying to find career that I can enjoy) and Mrs. Zobel's is the best so far. She does a great job expanding on the basics and injecting her own personal stories when examples are needed. I re-read the book before every trip so that I don't forget any of her advice. I've already started research on one of my favorite destinations.

I have the 2002 edition of the Travel Writer's Handbook (the 5th ed.). While it was updated to include the problems of post 9/11 problems it did not cover the Internet as much as one would expect. And the section on photography is still set in the pre-digital era.
That said, this is still the best all-around book on travel writing. Zobel covers different article types, how to do basic research,whether to accept freebies, what to take along on trips, keeping records for tax purposes and so forth. She spends a lot of time on interviewing techniques and different ways of capturing the sights and sounds of a travel destination.
I assume the newest edition (written with a co-author)is meant to bring this classic into the 21st century with references to pdas, laptops, digital cameras and other accoutrements that were hardly mentioned in the 2002 book. But when it comes to the basic elements of writing the travel article--whether for magazines, newspapers or the many travel websites out there--this book is still founded on solid information.

I really liked this book. The first six chapters are a little hard to get through, but the rest of the book is well worth the effort.

The chapters on interviewing, what to take with you, and market research are great. I learnt a lot from Zobel, her writing is friendly, helpful and crammed with useful and unusual facts.

A couple of years ago, I found a copy of the fourth edition of this book at a library bag sale. I read it cover to cover, devouring each word, and absorbing hints and tips into the molasses of my mind. To this day, some of these have shaped the way I approach my trips, and when I learned that a new edition had come out, I thought that it would make me a good Christmas present.

It's certainly an excellent book. But I found a few faults with it, all but one quite firmly the fault of the publisher. Let me get that over and done with before I continue with the good bits.

Criticisms:

1. There is no index. There should be. There is so much in this book that forcing the reader to re-read each chapter to find one nugget of information, or to take notes, seems very poor. Admittedly my copy is now covered in x marks and orange marker pen, but do you have any idea how far against the grain defacing a book goes?

2. I don't have any idea why, for this edition, there is a co-author. As far as I can see, this is not explained anywhere in the text. I'm not sure what a second author really contributes to the book. A second author certainly doesn't take away from it, but the major difference I can spot is that sentences beginning with "I" now begin with "Louise" or "Jacqueline". I don't get it. A brief introduction or explanation would have been nice.

3. Speaking of introductions, or the introduction, perhaps somebody should have proof-read it? It is quite obvious that someone did a quick and dirty search and replace and made a complete hash of it. Here is the first sentence of the book:

"Although the travel writing profession is seeing some difficult times this spring and summerthese (sic) past few years, this does not, by any means, indicate an end to the power and pleasure of the written wordtravel (sic) related stories."

This, the very first sentence of the introduction, was very off-putting. Howls of derision followed as I found other printed bloopers.

4. While there is a lovely updated chapter on digital photography, not once is my burning question answered: "What do you do when your magazine listing in "Writers Market 2007″ says 'send slides/transparancies/prints?'" It would have been so nice to see a couple of paragraphs defining these terms and explaining how to go about handling the requests. The book seemed to assume that everyone would be using a digital camera, which is very nice because I do, but also seemed to assume that everybody who is a budding travel writer has some kind of in-built knowledge of what magazines want, which is not very nice because I don't. This book purports to be the definitive guide to travel writing, and in my opinion that's not something that should be missed out.

So saying...

This book is thorough. It covers all aspects of freelance writing for travel publications. It starts with a heavy emphasis on research: how to do it, where to get resources, what to look for. It covers interviewing: how to find sources and how to interview them. There is an entire chapter on querying, which I found very useful, as well as etiquette and ways to make yourself look professional even when you're a rank newbie.

I found the chapter entitled "being there is never enough" particlarly useful. It covers how to take notes, how to start noticing, and how to make sure you don't forget what you've seen. You are coached in what to bring along and how to handle it, as well as being reminded that some countries have different dress codes and you'd better be looking like the locals if you go there and want to fit it. Travel is about getting in amongst the people, and if you're wearing clothes that scream "tourist" you're never actually likely to get that far.

One key point emphasized over and over again is that you never write "generally"; always, always you must key your writing to a specific audience...and that without marketing, without learning that and working out your own system (I didn't really "get" the author's system as described) you'll never get far beyond "Gee, I want to be a writer." One of the last chapters in the book, and one of the most helpful, lists 25 different types of travel articles to help you a) find your voice and b) get the most mileage out of your existing writing.

There is some information in here about running the business and organizing yourself, dealing with editors and even the ethics of press trips. A little like having your own personal coach, despite my quibbles this book still thoroughly deserves its title as a classic. And it's highly likely that come the seventh edition, this one will be so thumbed over and have so many pages hanging out from constant reference that I'll need to buy that one, too.

I am now reading this book again before departing to Italy. I am not exactly a "travel writer", but I need some of the same skills to write and edit my travel website. This book is a tremendous help in preparing for a trip knowing I will come back with the information I need. This books coveres everything from packing to writing. It is very readable and very useful.