Campbell Books

Monika Bang-Campbell's LITTLE RAT MAKES MUSIC will reach ages 6-9 with its easy reader about Little Rat, who longs to make music like the violinists she sees at concerts. Unfortunately, she hates to practice: it's hard and her violin squawks. How can Little Rat make beautiful music NOW? Any kid taking music lessons will relate to her dilemma.

Charles Dickens wrote a detailed log of his trip to America--from the boat in England to his travels on early American trains. His style is very light and entertaining. If you are familiar with his novels about the dark side of London and the social problems that Dickens himself grew up with, this book is quite a contrast. He is writing the book as an Englishman for other Englishmen.

I was expecting to find a lot of satire against Americans. (His comic piece "Martin Chuzzelwit" had this). However, Dickens was very positive toward the social reforms that he saw in America. He also makes some interesting comments on seeing black slaves for the first time.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to travel far, so his impressions of America are limited. Nonetheless, this is a book that I enjoy reading and re-reading.

The collaborative effort of civil war enthusiasts George Skoch and Mark W. Perkins, Lone Star Confederate: A Gallant And Good Soldier Of The Fifth Texas Infantry is a collection of letters penned by a Confederate solider. Eyewitness accounts of bloodshed, aftermath, long marches, starvation and much worse fill the pages of this riveting firsthand testimony of the front lines of America's deadliest war. Lone Star Confederate is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to Civil War collections and reading lists.

Tom Clark got his BA degree in two years and his law degree in one year. Then he went on to become the Attorney General and after that an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. This gem of a book covers highlights from Clark's public career and in doing so nicely reviews the recent history of the Supreme Court. Most of us vaguely realize that real power these days has left the congress, the people, and the executive branch to reside in the bureaucracy and the courts and that important political questions that can't be resolved, more or less, eventually end up in the hands of the courts. If you don't remember Mapp v. Ohio, or Miranda v. Arizona, or Brown I&II v. Topeka, or if you can't explain what the Establishment Clause is, then you might profit from reading this book and discover how and why our legal system came to defend liberty with as much rigor and absolute fairness as it defends life. The author's style is simple and direct but colored by a youthful enthusiasm because, after all, the idea, much of the research, and the writing occurred while the author was still a high school student at Tom C. Clark High School in San Antonio. Great books like this one, produced at an early age, are no accident and indicate greater books to come.

From the back...
Some folks ssaid it would never be the same--There was a new doctor in town, and he just wasn't their sort. Though Dr. Purdy said Sonny Dekker was the best, the man was a troublemaker. He was messing with the football team, risking boys' futures. And lots of townspeople wanted nothing to do with him. But not Beverly Townsend. Suprisingly, the exotic Dr. Dekker appealed to her in ways she'd never dreamed of. They were just friends, but their friendship set the grapevine buzzing. Then, on an eerily calm spring day, the heavens opened up and all hell broke loose. Gossip stopped. Hearts stopped. It was the end for many, and the beginning for some. Crystal Creek never would be the same again.

In my Opinion..
In 'Hearts Against the Wind' we read the love sory of Jeff Harris and Beverly Townsend. Sadly, in a later Crystal Creek book (Shameless) Jeff is killed at an oil sight. I had a difficult time accepting that Jeff was dead. As a reader I invested time in reading about their relationship and blossoming love. And than to have him dead in a couple lines of a later book just did not seem right. So, when I started to read this book I knew that I was going to have a hard time with Sonny Dekker as the new man in Beverly's life. But the more I read the harder it was not to like him. He is a good man and a terrific doctor and most importantly he loves Beverly. Unfortunately, the town of Crystal Creek is full of prejudice people, including Beverly's own mother Carolyn. No one wanted to give Sonny a chance, except for Beverly and a handful of others. But something terrible was going on with the towns football players, and when Sonny goes digging for the truth, he becomes even more unpopular with the citizens of Crystal Creek. As if the town did not have enough to deal with-nature strikes in the form of a tornado. Sonny is the only man that can help the people of Crystal Creek, whether they like it or not. This was an exciting conclusion to the Crystal Creek series.

I really enjoyed Mr. Raymond Campbell Paterson's history of the Lord of the Isles. He tells it in more of a political history following the time line without retracing each branch of Clan Donald's history with overlap. He begins with Somerled and his possible roots and rise to power. From there he follows each of the leaders of the clan through the Lords of the Isles. Mr. Paterson dispels many of the myths and tries to show the historical truths to many of Clan Donald's legends. I have a greater understanding of the dynamics between Clan Donald and Clan Campbell. Not always the exact tales I have heard via Clan Donald. Might have something to do with the author's Campbell roots. But we see that they interacted and weren't the bane of each others existence that myth and legend presents. Clan Donald as we see had its hands full with the Royal Stewarts. Mr. Paterson follows each of the Lords of the Isles and gives some great stories of other incredible individuals from Clan Donald that are often overshadowed by the Lords of the Isles like Alasdair MacColla and the Antrim Macdonnels. He continues the history of the clan through the fall of Lord John, Angus Og and Donald Dubh as most histories do but he also continues through to show the continuing struggle of each branch: Clanranald, Glengarry, Sleat, Keppoch, Dunyveg and Glencoe. Each branch struggles through the 1700 and 1800's finally succumbing to the highland clearances. This book is a great addition to my collection on Scottish history and the Clan Donald. If you love Highland history or Clan Donald this is a must.

This book is somewhat unique to the series because the conflict involved stems almost solely from the feelings and values of the characters themselves. True love isn't threatened by a plot circumstance, or the posibility that one doesn't feel the same for the other, making this book somewhat unique in the series.

A young pianist attends a summer program away from school for the best and brightest of young adult classical musicians. There, she makes some new friends, and meets quiet, aloof violinist Peter (think a young Julian Sands' George Emerson in "A Room with a View.") The two are thrown together to rehearse a concert solo, her admiration of his talent, and his admiration for her warm personality, turns into love.

Refreshingly, the story is set in the preparation for a concert, but the event, although well-written, does not take precedent over the romance at hand.

I liked it a lot; the characters change and mature, and the slow-to-develop love is surprisingly touching.

Rodney Campbell's "The Luciano Project: The Secret Wartime Collaboration of the Mafia and the U.S. Navy" is a fascinating two-pronged history. The first story, as the subtitle indicates, has to do with the Navy's recruitment of the Luciano crime family to protect New York's waterfront (including the Brooklyn Navy Yard) from Nazi saboteurs and u-boats. After all, the government reasoned, who is better qualified to protect the docks than the people who have controlled them for decades? This was, as Campbell points out, very pragmatic. However, from a moral and legal view, this was extremely problemmatic.

The second history, however, is an ironic one, so ironic it nearly makes one laugh. Once the Navy paid Luciano and the mob all that cash to protect the docks, one thing was never established: Did the Mafia do its job? In other words, who regulated the Mafia? To whom did the wise-guys submit their progress reports? How many spies and saboteurs did the Mafia catch, if any? Or did they just take the money and run, and hope for the best? Did they even hope for the best? As far as the mob was the concerned, if the docks blew up, so what? What would the government do about it? Sue them for breach of contract? What contract? You get the idea.

Much like Christopher Simpson's "Blowback" which explores the government's protection of Nazis after the war, in order to exploit their intelligence against the Communists, Campbell's "Luciano Project" is an examination of that old saying "All's fair in love and war." But at what cost? Is it justifiable to hire and protect killers (Nazis and Mafiosi did kill people, after all) in order to protect National Security? Is it justifiable to keep such things secret from the public? It's something for every American to think about, especially given what's going on in our post-9/11 country.

A beautifully told, moving story of a boy who feels lucky until he finds out one day that his name isn't really Lucky. Full of wry insights into the human heart and psyche, this is a book for parents to enjoy as much as children. And given the tenderness of the relationship between Lucky and his grandfather, this book would make a good present for a boy or girl from a loving grandfather.

Although some of its suggestions and theories would appear to be outdated, it is an excellent work and will drive the curious to seek out more information on the varied subjects it covers beneath the umbrella of Semetic magic as traced or linked to older sources and its influence over various cultures and religous ideologies.

It is filled with accounts of ghuls, ghosts, demons and gods. It roams amidst their horrid habitations and divulges some of their strange and terrible secrets whilst giving the wary some ideas of ancient protective measures against them. It covers many of the concepts of demonic possesion amoungst the ancients and expands on curious myths you may have seen only hints of through the Quran, Tanak or Christian bible. It is a great source for myths and magical details including an Assyrian ritual that would seem to be an ancient origin for the modern concept of the Qabbalistic Cross Ritual, the idea of laying on of hands in faith healing and the concept of a guardian being. To quote:

"Unto the house on entering
Samas (is) before me,
Sin (is) behind [me],
Nergal (is) at [my] right hand,
Ninib (is) at my left hand;
When I draw near unto the sick man,
When I lay my hand on the head of the sick man,
May a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian, stand at my side."

The quote above is one of many very interesting bits of information contained in this book. I recommend it highly.