Perry Books

"Invasion from Space" continues the English translations of this fine German Space Opera - a saga that spans over 1800 stories and even more related books overseas.

In Part One, "Invasion from Space," Rhodan and his allies discover their first alien race - the Mind Snatchers. The Mind Snatchers are an insectoid race with the chilling power to switch minds with anyone else. Even some of Rhodan's men are affected by the Mind Snatchers. It's kinda fun to watch Perry and his Mutant Corps defeat the evil insects that would like nothing better than to have the entire universe to themselves.

In Part Two, "Base on Venus," Rhodan and his hand picked crew discover that the Arkonides left a large highly advanced base on the planet Venus. This version of Venus is closer to the Space Opera Venus of years past - filled with steaming jungles and terrible creatures. Rhodan and his Mutant Corps have to fight the base's defenses in order to take it over before it, too, can send a signal to it's alien masters. I loved the deja-vu that the jungles of Venus (which we all know scientifically cannot exist) created - it took me back to a time when man knew very little about Venus - or any of our other neighboring planets either.

This is one of the books that reminded me most of the older space operas like "Buck Rodgers" and "Flash Gordon". Huge planetary fortresses, human minds over seemingly vastly superior alien technology - and winning. I highly recommend this as a good book to decide if you want to try the rest.

On the first page of Irish Ice we meet Justin Patrick Flynn, tired, troubled, and very, very drunk. We tag along with him for the next 300 pages as he embarks on a chaotic journey with enough sensual glee and existential angst to make Leopold Bloom look like a couch potato.

One thinks of Leopold Bloom, the great wanderer, outcast, and cuckold of James Joyce's Ulysses, because the opening of this engaging first novel by W. Brian Perry echoes the opening of Joyce's masterpiece: two friends intoning Catholic ritual-influenced cadences as one struggles to awake and go, Justin to a husband-wife union with a woman named Manda, Stephen Dedalus to a father-son union with Leopold Bloom.

Along the path with Justin we meet a slew of colorful characters - the book is crowded with them - who take us through the twists and turns of romance, the secrets of eccentric families, the history of unhappy nations, the cloistered world of a confessional, the recesses of a rectory, the maneuverings at a retreat (of advertisers, a different though equally devout religion), and into the past, where more family secrets are revealed.

As a backdrop lies New York City in all its glittering diversity, even up into the Catskills, by bus, car, taxi and lots and lots of subways, a stopover for a dinner with a volatile Mediterranean family and to an ethnic bar in the Bronx, followed by an Irish wake where stories are told and songs are sung (lots of stories are told and songs sung in Irish Ice) and vast quantities of alcohol are consumed (as much singing and story-telling as there is, there's more drinking, often simultaneously and with even more gusto).

Oh, I left out the fist fight at Justin's wedding, where the bride's ex-lover is a guest!

Like fellow Irish writer Joyce, Perry constructs, beneath the drinking and carousing and nearly nonstop sexual high jinks, the symbolic underpinnings of love and hope and the search for faith and family in a godless, modern world.

The "ice" theme is sounded time and again, like a bagpipe's bellow, along with the themes from Catholic liturgy such as fire and blood; it was Joyce himself who famously declared, "Once a Catholic always a Catholic," and Justin Flynn is always a Catholic, regardless of how irreligious he may act or think he feels. One might say that all of Irish Ice is the story of a man coming to grips with who he is, acknowledging the fact that he was once Irish and Catholic and will always be a Irish and Catholic. (The second line of Irish Ice is Justin's best friend O'Reilly intoning, "Arise and walk ... Your sins are forgiven!" - but Justin is a long way from arising, or from walking, in any sense of the word, and an even longer way from forgiveness.) Irish Ice is infused with Catholic ritual and Irish tradition. Among its other treats, the book offers a glimpse into an Irish Catholic milieu that was fascinating to this non-Irish, non-Catholic reader. It is, finally, a deeply religious book, the same way its protagonist, Justin Flynn, is a deeply religious man; neither on the surface shows it much.

Justin goes from sinner to saint - well, maybe not to saint, but at least to a good guy who will try to do what's right. He even turns down a drink.

He's obviously not the same Justin we met 300 pages ago. And neither will anyone be who accompanies him on his roundabout road to redemption.

You couldn't ask for a better vacation guide - up to date, personal reviews and good information all in a very portable map.

This climax to a four book series makes the entire journey worthwhile.

Here a man achieves sanity, enlightenment and a real life after traveling through the interior hell of mental illness and the exterior hell of a grim and deadly Fifties Insane Aslum.

What more can we ask of a great book or, indeed, of great literature?

Sharing this experience I count as one my life's great and absolute pleasures.

It is my great privalege and honor to introduce THE best book on a subject of procrastination, something I never would have thought I would have the opportunity to do on Amazon.com. The book introduces the model of the Action Spiral and is filled with many great ideas. The author is a therapist, and her insight into procrastination is thourough, written in a charming way. I have read other books on the subject and found this one the most helpful book of all, a classic that will remain in my book collection.

Authors Perry and Ironside cut through the complexities of Israeli society to offer a clear and perceptive analysis of how Israel's past has shaped its present, a present in which deep, disturbing social divisions are coming to a boil. The starkness of these divisions emerges as the authors ask probing questions of Israelis occupying various positions on the Israeli political and social spectrum - Arab and Jew, secular and religious - and deftly weave their interviews, as well as memoir, together with their analysis. The authors' journalistic talents and experience are evident throughout the book, which reads like a good travel narrative. While the reader will feel like he has been taken on an entertaining journey, he will also take away a clear understanding of the extreme positions being staked out among Israel's people, positions that may tear the nation apart and leave some groups disenfranchised, unless Israelis can find a way to renegotiate the delicate balancing act that has kept Israel's quest for permanence alive for the past 50 years.

Kwanzaa books are usually too detailed and authors forget to write some kind of entertaining text to go with their books. This one is light and breezy and young children should like it just fine. It makes Kwanzaa sound fun, not boring. Good Job!

This painter was an amazing combination of excellent artist, sarcastic and humorous person, and historian -- he painted what he saw - and each tells a story. This book helps guide you through it and points out things in his paintings that I would have missed.

Perry does an excellent job of telling a disinterested life of each of the musicians he proflies, from Sachmo to Miles. The plates are great. Anyone looking for a biography on the great jazz musicians should definately buy this one.

James Vickers' Cliffs Notes for Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" begins with a short biography of the Bard that focuses on what little the historical record tells us about the man. A Brief Synopsis of the Play is followed by a List of Characters that not only tells us who they are but their primary roles in the play. The Summary and Commentary section of the volume breaks down the play scene by scene, and the best way of using this or any other little yellow book with the black stripes is to read the commentary after you have read each scene of the play. This is especially important with Shakespeare because the dialogue is so important and Vickers does not work in as many choice lines as some of the other Cliffs Notes for Shakespeare plays. You cannot deal with Shakespeare if you do not know the key lines. The last section dealing with Character Analyses looks as Caesar, Antony, Octavius, Brutus and Cassius, referring back to the analysis already established regarding the individual scenes. What you will not get from this volume if you are teaching/reading "Julius Caesar" is how the play touches upon the political realities of Elizabethean England. But Vickers does an excellent job throughout of capturing how Shakespeare uses the play to manipulate the audience. Remember, the celebrated funeral oration by Marc Antony is being listened to on stage by a Roman mob that is being watched by an audience of Londoners in the theater. This is one of the better jobs at capturing how Shakespeare constructed a play.