Pitt Books

Just finished it.... not so good. The writing really gets jumbled at times, and the plot is a bit shaky. Overall, the finished product was decent, but it just did not live up to the standards set by the first 2 books. I found myself saying "what the f'k" and "who the hell's talking" way too many times. Hopefully the next one improves on an interesting set up at the end of this one.

Joe Pitt is going through a rough time. His girlfriend is dying of AIDS, he's lost his independence and is working as enforcer for the Society, and then there's the little matter of being a vampire--with the attendant need for blood. Fortunately, Joe doesn't have much by way of morals, which helps take care of the blood issue. Less fortunately, there's something going on in New York--something dangerous. When his boss asks him to look into possible alliances with a group of vampires living in Brooklyn, Joe wants nothing more than to walk away. Unfortunately, it isn't that easy and Joe ends up walking into a bloodbath.

Between the Docks, the Freaks, and the Chosen, Brooklyn is a mess, but it's a mess that seems doomed to impact the vampire communities on Manhattan. Of course, once Joe finishes with them, there are a lot fewer to impact.

Author Charlie Huston continues his Joe Pitt hardboiled vampire fantasy with another fast-paced and violent adventure. Joe is something of an anti-hero. He's practically an equal opportunity hater, and manages to create a lot of negative feelings back at him. Using broken phrases, obscenity-laden speech, dialect tags reflecting the ethnic origins of his characters, and the continual threat of violence, Huston kept me involved in the story, reading just one more page, even when I had a hard time finding anyone to cheer for.

Pitt chooses to use a dash (--) rather than quotation marks to mark out dialogue and, I have to say, I found this distracting and slowing down my reading. The casual murder of a pan-handler and the less casual but still amoral murder of the 'Docks' gang, coupled with more justified but still gruesome violence against other characters will put off some readers, especially as Pitt seems going through the motions, not driving toward any goal, not even seeing a possible way out of the cycle of death he's caught in. Even the Enclave, which once held a bit of (unlikely) hope now is closed to Pitt.

HALF THE BLOOD OF BROOKLYN serves as a sort of ending for Pitt's relationship with Manhattan. He's burned his bridges with just about every organization on the island and will now need to create a new world for himself. When he does, it's certain to be violent, amoral, and dangerous.

While I also enjoyed this book, it was harder for me stay interested in than the other Huston books I have read. There was a whole new clan of vampires introduced and I felt like a lot of time was spent on this new group without much to show for it (they were basically all killed off!). It was also hard to keep track of who was speaking as there were a lot of characters contributing dialog in a short span of text. I am intersted in seeing where the new leader of The Enclave will take his group as well as to see how the story line of Lydia, Evie and Joe will play out.

Certainly not the best of Mr. Huston's novels but one I guess you should read so as to be prepared when the next one (hopefully back on track) is available.

Well, kids, the gloves are off. Sure, ALREADY DEAD and NO DOMINION were pretty tough books - lots of heartless jockeying for power, lots of bones breaking, a few corpses at the end of it all - but by the end of HALF THE BLOOD IN BROOKLYN those were the good old days.

First of all, Joe's taken a job with the Society. It's the safe way to go, but Joe just isn't cut out for that kind of teamwork. His pride has suffered - and so have his morals. He's back to being a hired gun, and for the first time we see him killing indiscriminately. The bodies pile up fast.

Second of all, Evie is dying. She's physically a wreck, and she's not all there mentally, either. The crisis we've seen coming for the past couple of books has arrived: Joe has to let her die, or try to save her by making her a vampire. Naturally, things don't go as planned.

Meanwhile, Joe's sent across the river to Brooklyn. The Society is reaching out to the boroughs for allies and they've found a rag-tag band of carnival freaks who need support. They find out why soon enough: a clan of conservative Jewish vampires is well on its way to owning Brooklyn, and the circus freaks are getting in the way. Sounds simple enough - but when the Coalition and the Society are both involved, everything is complicated. Wheels within wheels.

I read with my heart in my throat for most of the book - too anxious about what would happen next to put it down for even a minute. The ending is definitely a cliffhanger - and I look forward to finding out what happens next.

did not like the style of writing. plot was hard to follow. not worth the money

This is a great book. The poet uses humor to comment on the human condition. It says so much about life, hate and love. The reviewer who has tagged himself as "a reader" and named his review "Poetry Written by the Intimidated" is not openminded enough to read something of this caliber. He is reviewing poetry but states this claim "I'm not a poet, nor do I have a Ph.D., although I have wasted my time on occasion." Why would this person write a review OF POETRY who feels like poetry is a waste of time? Read it and love it.

(. . . continued)

I relish the idea that Gabe is as ballsy as some other reviewers feel he is. I want to see heads roll and walls tumble in the contemporary kingdom of poetry. But if Gabe is a performance-artist-in-print trying to cut down the entire forest with a herring . . . the joke is only on him and not on Poetry at all.

Gudding may have the charisma to command the barbarian hordes, but the hordes don�t live inside the academy walls . . . they�re in the wild. I think Gabe needs more canon fodder from the wilds (rather than the �canon� fodder of academia). He�s got a big, black, iron gun, but he�s stuffing it full of the kind of yellowed pages Eliot and Pound drooled lasciviously over and were later castrated for. It needs buck shot and marbles, big hunks of porcelain, gravel, locusts and walnuts, coke bottles (reissues of the old fashioned ones), and the rusted pieces of transmissions. Too often ADoP is a gun that SAYS �Bang!� rather than GOES �Bang!�

The poem �Hair� kind of sums it up for me. I have a personalized interpretation for it (not a universal one). Gabe busts out the convicts by hiding them in his hair. His hair is big because his head is full of large, wild, and powerful thoughts. These thoughts are large enough to �contain multitudes�, and that means some darkness. Well, good for him! And good for Poetry. But what does our big gunned Gabe go and do? He runs right to his buddy Pete, the Dante professor. That is, he takes his dark and wild thoughts and he stuffs them back into his classical, academic, insipidly trivialized intellect. And what�s the result? The wild darkness gets trapped into a wig, and then a handbag, and then a backpack, and then a suitcase, and then a trunk, and THEN back into his hair/intelligence. The wildness has been much muffled. In the end, he can only walk and weep in confusion.

Now, �Hair� is a good poem. And it�s very honest in the right kind of way (not that self-absorbed, icky confessional way). But it is tragic. I feel for both Gabe and for poetry. I hope Gabe can figure out what to do with the convicts, and I also hope he doesn�t mistake them for peacock rectums or impulses to harm animals. I wish Gabe�s angry stream of consciousness ran headlong into academic poets and the ivory towers of academic thinking rather than dogs and other simple non-intellectual creatures.

It is a disservice to all of us that Gabe has chosen to reside in his butt (�Statement�), because the guy is a brilliant freak with talent WAY out the wazoo. Ultimately the scatological humor strikes me as less a dung pie in the face of high-mindedness and academic elitism (as many claim) than the subconscious excrement flung loose from a very high-minded academic intelligence stuck in an abstract feedback loop. It is not so much flung as shed . . . and if we track him by his droppings we�ll find him snuggly nestled into the den of the classical literature library of University-X.

Now all someone needs to do is bust into said library and stuff Gabe in your hair, take him out to the barbarous woods, and release him into the wild. Then, we might end up with one of the rare great poets of our greatness-starved era.

And Gabe . . . good luck with that butt thing.

(4 stars this time to equal 3.5 overall)

Gabe Gudding may very well be a genius.
Gabe Gudding may very well be a psychopath.
It's interesting that none of the other reviews (as of this writing) for this book are very fair or even very helpful . . . when taken alone, but as a collection, they are more or less adequate. All are either 1 star or 5 stars, ranting or raving.

Gabe Gudding is the kind of poet that inspires a great deal of ranting and raving, and possibly some humming, as well. If he had no other skill as a writer, (to my mind) this alone would make him a good poet. The main failing of our poets today is the inability to affect. Gabe affects. Not only does he affect, he infects. In fact, I had to buy this book because I was infected by Gabe.

First the polarized reviews intrigued me, then the online samples of Gabe's work baffled me, and finally Gabe's blog left me frightened and bothered. A little voice in my head made it quite clear that I was to purchase A Defense of Poetry without any further hesitation. One of my major motivations was to write a 3 star review on Amazon. I had been entertaining the fantasy that Gabe himself had written all of the other reviews here under pseudonyms. His blog, after all, is so riddled with impersonations.

Gabe Gudding is an infectious disease. Any poet writing today that can be an infectious disease is an important poet, a poet to be watched. In Gabe's case, he may also be a poet to be surveilled . He should not, for instance, be left alone with your family pet.

Here's some quick Q&A from my middle of the road, 3 start mentality.
Is Gabe a genius?
Maybe.
Is A Defense of Poetry a great book?
No. It's an important book.
Why is ADoP not a great book, but an important book?
Because it engages in wonderfully radical cage rattling, yet the rattling is not being done by barbarians at the gate, but by that high Roman inside the cage.

Ultimately, this makes ADoP more of a freakish curiosity than a true siege of the kingdom. And I find this a bit frustrating, because I am convinced Gabe has the firepower to lay wonderful siege. At the bottom line, ADoP is like an "authoritative" report on the existence of WMDs given by a government who feels the need to falsify a report on WMDs to justify its morally questionable actions.

Gabe, you would make such a splendid barbarian, but you are working for the Man!

Gudding's feeling for sound is pretty much unparalleled. His knowledge does seem encyclopedic (to excess). His cleverness is monstrous and lovely. And he's darn funny much of the time (I love his heroic little effigy on the book's cover, complete with P-emblazoned chest and purple cape). I don't get the academic in jokes for the most part, and Gabe's ultimate objective (if there is one) is lost (to me) in the abstracted and rampant wowing his erudite circus act inflicts on the audience. Quite possibly, I'm just not smart enough or educated enough to "get it". Maybe the whole thing is one of those post-modernist ha-has that SEEMS to have an objective, but doesn't, for, alas, all is meaningless. I hope not, because if that was true, then I would have to classify Gabe as a dope (and a dupe), and I don't want to do that. I don't want Gabe to be classified or in any way contained.
(to be continued . . .)

This Poop is brilliant. If you like Christopher Smart (Gabe's Smarter), Levine (Gabe's not nearly as boring), or Christopher Twigg (Gabe may be leafier)--you'll like this. To be honest, Gabe's not like any of 'em. He's more like the Clarence Darrow of poetry...and Butt's.

This book has a tough time getting put down, but not a tough time getting... yada, yada. It's an interesting, intelligent, original, & entertaining (like movie entertainment=fun) collection of poetry, regardless of Christopher Smart's socks or whatever.

After reading "Cater Street Hangman", I had expectations that this book would be a creepy thriller set in Victorian London. Instead, this book is Victorian soap opera. When the skeletons of two babies are found in the garden, Charlotte, Emily and Thomas investigate the matter in their own ways. Which master of the house is sleeping with his parlor maids? Who had a secret abortion and died from it? Where did Helena disappear to? Who is blackmailing who? Is Christina pregnant by the footman or not? This book has very little suspense, and a surprise ending. But mostly it is soap opera drama. I never was drawn into really caring about the main mystery. I'm sure if you go in understanding that this book is entirely different from "Cater Street Hangman" that it will be quite enjoyable.

I had expected the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt series to be an equal collaboration between the husband and wife team with each having their particular fields of investigation. Thomas would have been on the official side and made the inquiries dictated by having the legal rights to do so. Those involved in the mystery would have been obliged to give him at least some cooperation simply because he represented a governmental agency. Charlotte on the other hand could proceed from the social aspect of the lives of those involved. By coming back together and sharing what they had learned they would help each other reach a final solution.

For whatever reason Ms. Perry did not exactly construct this mystery in that way. To my way of thinking, Charlotte was not even that interested in the investigation. I did not like having her get bogged down by being immersed in helping General Balantyne with his family history. There were great stretches of time when she made absolutely no moves toward resolving the case at all. It seems that her only reason for being in the vicinity at all was to enable her to meet a secondary character and provide a link for the end of the story. And suddenly her sister Emily was front and center and having a huge part in the solving of the mystery by providing information I would have expected Charlotte to have been helpful in uncovering. Did I miss something in the first book? When did Emily ever exhibit any interest in Pitt or his profession aside from her dislike of anything which smacked of the tradesman and other "inferior" social orders? I also did not feel that enough clues were given for solving this mystery. I don't want a billboard but I do like to feel that my detective has some hint of where he is headed. You may not agree with me but I feel as if Pitt just wandered in and suddenly got it right.

This series is very much an insiders view of the lives and thoughts of life during the Victorian era. I have read so many books having to do with this time period that I am not as shocked by the hypocrisy and double standards as some readers new to the era may be. I still think Anne Perry does a fantastic job of immersing the reader in that time period but now I have to read the third book to get a better feel for where she is going with the relationship between Thomas and Charlotte regarding detection. I wanted to read the series in order. Now I wonder if that is really necessary. With the exception of several references to Cater Street and the death of Charlotte's second sister this book is a stand-alone. I could have enjoyed it very much without having already read the first book.

I liked this book very much. Not as much as the first but it was still way up there on my enjoyment scale. I will continue to read the stories in order but only because I have already purchased them all and can do so very easily. If you are interested in the Victorian era, or if you just want to escape into a good mystery, then this author will definitely do it for you.

I thoroughly enjoyed Callander Square, although I found the end less intriguing than The Cater Street Hangman. I was completely shocked with the first one's ending, while this one was just okay. The characters were very interesting in this novel though, and I really didn't suspect who the murderer was, but his character was too underdeveloped in my opinion. I also was disappointed that Perry showed very little interaction between Charlotte and Thomas--I was looking forward to reading about their marriage and how they were managing married life. Overall a great read if you are looking for a fun, yet sophisticated, murder mystery!

Those who like to pillory the Victorians do so for their application of a double standard, licentiousness in private while appearing spotlessly upright in public. Callander Square is a powerful commentary on that double standard, as the story strips away the cloaks of respectability among neighbors in an upper class neighborhood.

Upper class lives were then seldom examined . . . except by ladies who were gossiping. When two dead babies are found by accident buried in Callander Square, it becomes Inspector Thomas Pitts' duty to examine all of those lives . . . looking for who the mother was. Pitts' theory is that if you can find the mother, you can find the murderer . . . or the circumstances of death if it wasn't murder.

The wealthy men and women in the square do their best to fend off Pitt by focusing him on their servants. Unsuspected by them, Pitts' wife, Charlotte, decides that she wants to find the mother too . . . but to succor rather than to accuse her. Charlotte and her sister Emily play an undercover role in which Emily is the Upstairs mole and Charlotte is the Downstairs mole. Soon, the skeletons are rattling in all the relevant closets. And crimes multiply!

This mystery presents an interesting problem. How do you investigate when all the "good" people either won't talk to you . . . or lie when they do? These people are so delicate that they won't even come out and discuss their concerns. One has to hint around . . . and hope that the message is received and understood. So there's a dance of manners involved here inside of a mystery which is inside of a dysfunctional society. For those who like novels of manners, there is much to enjoy here in addition to the mystery.

I give Ms. Perry great credit for hiding the villains until late in the book. You will know in the last 80 pages or so who did what, but it's a totally incomprehensible mystery before then. If she had shortened up the end a bit, I would have graded the book higher. But the climax is more like a tea party that's gone on too long than a climax until the last few pages.

The writing is superb. A large number of characters are fully developed, and the development is used well to advance the plot.

Anne Perry's second Inspector Pitt novel once again presents the reader with an unflinching look at societal ills in so-called "proper" Victorian households.

The genteel residents of Callander Square all have something to hide. A gentleman enjoys secret trysts with his parlormaids. A desparate mother hatches a plan to cover up her daughter's own sexual indiscretions. An unhappy woman mourns a daughter who vanished after presumably eloping with an unknown and likely unsuitable admirer.

The residents panic when Thomas Pitt arrives to investigate the deaths of two newborn infants. With help from his enterprising wife, Charlotte, and her sister, Emily, he lifts the veils of respectability covering the shallowness and self-centeredness of each of the families. In the process, the residents demonstrate those in the upper classes are no better than low-born criminals. Most of the neighbors care nothing for the truth and show little human kindness; they look out for their own interests above all.

The mystery in "Callander Square" takes a back seat to drawing the reader into the family scandals -- secrets some would do anything to keep hidden. Those looking for a fast-paced thrill ride will be disappointed, but those who enjoy the novel of manners will appreciate the well-drawn characters and setting. By the end of the book, I'd almost stopped wondering who the killer was, because I was so engrossed in the lives of those in the story.

Interesting information and recap of charactors in the Dirk Pitt series. But I found myself quicking flipping through the pages and skipping some other sections.

Always a joy to order from Amazon.com. Will be doing so again. Always top-notch service.

the book will fresh up your memories, the interview is good and the summaries are great, and so is the "encyclopedia". but the reunion is totally dumb. a lot of dead people talking about who was the worst badguy, please, that's stupid.

Written between Flood Tide and Atlantis Found, this book should be in any Cussler fan's library. It starts out with a clunky but entertaining enough story where Cussler wanders around a party in the hanger and reminices with Dirk's allies, girls, and villains before getting to the man himself. Then there's an interview where Cussler tells his whole life story, and it's a simply fascinating rags to riches tale. We continue with the best part of the book in my opinion, complete plot synopses and background info on every Cussler book up to Flood Tide, including The Sea Hunters. Finally, there's an encyclopedia of all the people, vehiclles, locations, and everything else in every book. It ends with the tantalizing first chapter of Atlantis Found. I had actually read that book first, but it would definitely make me want to buy it even if I wasn't a Cussler fan. Any Cussler fans out there, you must have this book!

From " The Reunion " to the plot synopsis', this is a terrific read. Cussler gifted us with a most extraordinary little tale in The Reunion...which I won't give away here. The bio is wonderful and I found myself thinking " what I wouldn't give to have this guy as a neighbor. " It is all things Pitt and quite a bit Cussler, which may or may not be the same - but, it has been a repeat read and a book I have passed on to family and friends.

In the begining of the book Sophia and Eva are spending time off on the summer break. Just before high school. Eva has the opportunity to attend Chatman High, only with 8 other people of "her kind." Sophia is confused and angry about the whole idea of "others" sharing her school. In the middleEva chooses to go to Chatman, but her mother is afraid, because of bomb threats. Sophia is going out with her crush, Harold, who takes her out to "their" part of town. Eva too, goes out to a party with the other 8 students. In the end Eva goes to Chatman. Sophia is questioned by news crewmen. And everyone has their own opinion about the whole deal.

I liked about the book was how it stirred in each half of the girls' lives and thoughts. I dis-liked the language towards the end, but it did give you a clearer view of the setting.

I gave this book five stars because it was wonderful. I didn't really like it in the begining because it was going back and forth. But at the end it got alot better.
I think it was good that Sophia helped Eva get home. I didn't know that Eva was not going to get in. This is similar to what happened in Arkansas at Central High.

I enjoyed this book. Mildred Pitts Walter really described the setting well. Everywhere the characters went, she wrote at least a paragraph describing the setting. It was about nine black students who were going to try to go to school at an all white school after the desegregation law was passed. The governor was unsure of the desegregation law and on the first day of school, he had a group of military people guard the entrance of the school. They would not let any of the colored students in. You have to read the book to see what happens!!!

This is an amazing book about what happened with the Little Rock nine. I read this book when I was in the sixth grade and still love it. I think the best part of the book is when Eve was walking through the crowd, getting spit at and called names, she was walking to the bus stop to get a bus to go home. Sophia came and helped her through it all. That is the best part ever in the book.

The reason I say that is that the only reason Eva felt happy about going to. Chatman High School is because one day her sister just mate get to go to. The same school with out any problems or any people talking about her and bening mean. Eva knew what was important an it was to make a furture for some one elas but instead she was making history for her and chatman school. There was also a girl in the story who didn't won't Eva to have the chance to do that but. Just because of what that girl felt Eva steal try even if she was scaried. Because she made it clear to her sister that she love her and one day want her to go to chatman just the same way she did.With out hving to get hart or get made fun of or people doing mean things to her.This is why I think the title should be waht I put it as so sI hope you can find this helpful .

My son read this book with his 4th grade class. I read it along and out loud with him because we are really working on reading comprehension.

This is a terrific discussion-starter book for parents and children. Not only is there the sexism parts, but there is also the theme of Justin being never shown how to do things (or made fun of when he tries) to the extent that he just stopped trying.

I was very surprised to see the "n-word" (it's on page 82 in mine) in a book geared toward such young children. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but I would not have known about it if I had not been reading the book with my son. They did not discuss it in school or let the parents know which is a shame, as it led to a few great discussions in our home about racism and the power of words.

Overall, a great book. It was nice to see some diversity in my son's required reading and to have a completely boy-centric book where the main character is not sickeningly perfect.

I borrowed the book from the library, because my children like biscuits. The book surprised me with its story line. It is so beautiful about a boy becoming man of responsibility and knowing his african american history. A few times the story did not flow too well. Therefore I gave it a four star review.

I really really liked this story because it show that at first Justin does not know how to do anything right and he had two sisters and one that was bigger than him and he always got in trouble and at the end he learns how to make his bed and cook biscuits and other stuff and know body believes that he can do all those things because before he went to his grand fathers he could not do anything but when he gets back he can make his bed and his on food and it just amazing that he could do all those things after he got back from his grand fathers and its cool.

I liked the book cause it was exciting.I relate to Justin because I don't like to clean my room,or make my bed.This book made me hungry cause of the biscuits.My favorite parts were when they went to the festival and at Justin's house.If you like cowboys,roping,and horses you'll like this book.And it also teaches you stuff.I think this is a great book.I really enjoyed it!

I thought this book was pretty good because he was supposed to do his chores but he did'nt and did not do the dishes and Hidya had to.And he made a mess in the kitchen and his mother had to clean it up.

I am reading all the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries written by Anne Perry in order. It has been quite a while since I read book number three in the series. The books don't have to be read in order to enjoy them but there does seem to be a progression in the growth and depth of the two main characters which is best noted if you start at the beginning and read them cronologically. If nothing else, try to read the first book(The Cater Street Hangman) before venturing off into others of the series. Book number one sets up the relationship between Charlotte and Thomas and gives you the social background so very necessary to understand their characters.

This was my least favorite of the four books I've read. Anne Perry makes a point of presenting her stories by crossing over into all levels of Victorian London. This one concentrates on the inequities between those of the upper class and those who are the very poorest of the poor. We are given a thorough understanding of the sweatshops and workhouses which existed and how they impacted the lives of those who were forced to live in them. This book is 216 pages long. The discovering of the murder took place on page 141. That was much too long for me. I became disenchanted with the whole thing long before that. In this book, for me, the mystery took a back seat to the discussion of social conditions for the poor in Victorian London. I expect some social commentary from Anne Perry, that is one of the things I like so much about her books. This time, that is what took center stage.

When the book first began I had nothing but admiration for this authors creativity in having the "death" of the driver of the hansom cab turn into a riddle with no apparent solution. But one body led to another, one grave led to another, and I actually lost track of how many bodies and how many graves. To me, this book was a study of many characters, not a mystery at all. And the solution? I could not help but be disappointed. Not with who had committed the murder but with how the author had explained it all and honestly probably expected me to be satisfied.

I'm glad I read it. I don't agree with some reviewers though, I do think Charlotte had much more of a part in this story and that part seemed to come about in a much more natural manner. It happened because she was Pitts wife and he would have naturally talked to her about the case and she would have naturally asked him questions. I do wonder about the authors use of Charlotte's brother-in-law (since he had not remarried since the death of Charlotte's sister Sarah he was, technically, still a part of Charlotte's family) as a possible suspect and for him to be infatuated with Lord Fitzroy-Hammond's young widow. Maybe she used him to show that Charlotte has truly let go of that first, young love and now belongs completely to Pitt. I found it a stretch of coincidence that was a little hard to swallow.

Seldom do I remember laughing aloud at ghoulish humor . . . but this book caused me to do so several times.

While most of the novels in this distinguished series feature the mannerly side of Victorian England, Resurrection Row shifts its focus to an unusually intriguing mystery. Out of the fog, a seemingly drunken hansom driver looms. Upon further inspection, the "cabbie" turns out to be a "deadie" . . . a recently unearthed corpse. Why would anyone do that? From that premise, the mystery deepens in tantalizing ways.

In the background, Ms. Perry also looks more closely at the plight of the working poor and the upper class hypocrisy towards the poor and sexuality.

Many readers have come to depend on finding a central role for Thomas Pitts' wife, Charlotte, in this series. Charlotte is clearly off center stage in this one. Her main connection is to her former brother-in-law who becomes a potential suspect in the case.

The story meanders a bit away from the mystery through long red herrings in the book's middle. Had that part been edited down, I would have thought this was a five-star mystery.

As it is, Resurrection Row is great fun . . . unless you don't enjoy any aspect of ghoulish humor.

Resurrection Row, by Anne Perry, is the fourth entry in the very solid Victorian England mystery series featuring Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. This book features a very solid case involving grave diggers and a good deal of gallow;s humor. This is a very enjoyable series as written by a gifted author who provided a great sense of place and setting.

This book is a solid three (3) star read. Great for series continuity and the growth of the Thomas and Charlotte relationship.

Anne Perry can write some pretty decent mysteries but this isn't one. At the denoument of the best Agatha Christie mysteries, with a gasp of epiphany we suddenly see all the pieces fall into place - the psychological clues we had dismissed, the ironies we underestimated, the character interrelationships that had been only hinted at - and it all makes sense; we are embarassed when we realize the solution was unique. In Resurrection Row, the disinterment of the bodies is a very brilliant and daring introduction to the mystery, but the relationship to the murder could have been much more cogent and psychologically compelling (vengeful intent to embarass,religious zeal, etc), rather than almost an afterthought. Moreover, the rationale for the disinterments was flimsy and the murder could have been concealed much more easily and intelligently other than by this particular conceit.

I am really enjoying the Charlotte and Pitt series - the mixture of social conscience and crime. They are both lovable characters. I really enjoy Aunt Vespasia's role in Perry's books, she seems to be someone I would rather enjoy knowing. A great read, for those who haven't read these in order, I would highly suggest it, I look forward to seeing what Charlotte, Emily, Dominic and the rest are up to in each novel.

Book makes a terrific power-point presentation in the undergraduate classroom. Takes about 2.5 hours to explain Heidegger in all the basics. An excellent teaching tool.

I wish I had found this book before starting on Heidegger in a class. It is a simple (simplified) overview of the complex and integrated thought of Heidegger. But I believe it will give beginners an overview of what to expect as they dig deeper. Then the digging will be less painful and more profitable.

In our class, it became known as the "Heidegger Coloring Book", but others were eager to borrow my copy.

A good starting point, no matter how serious you are or are not.

This book is excellent for the beginner who does not understand the basics of Heidegger. Everything from Dasein to the concept of rebirth of Being and what went wrong with the Modern Philosophical tradition is listed here in cartoon form. It is a book similar to that of Donald Palmer's Looking at Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy made lighter. It skims the surface of Heideggerian thought and introduces the novice to most of the terms used by Heidegger in his philosophy. Sometimes it is profound, but it is basically meant for the beginner as a springboard for Heideggerian thought.

I picked this up after reading Sartre For Beginners -- an entertaining, smart, and humorous intro to Sartre. This book, however, was a big disappointment. It runs about half the length of Sartre for Beginners with hardly any text, the humor is stale, and Heidegger's work is glossed over so poorly and with such brevity that its more apt to confuse a reader of Heidegger than help them.

This book does not explain Heidegger's use of phenomenology and how it differs from Husserl's, how Heidegger relates Being with temporality (!), or even, in any depth, how Heidegger escapes the subject/object problem. Aside from these key points, the author doesn't seem to touch on almost ANY of Heidegger's work -- which might be understandable, considering Heidegger's enormous output, but this book is woefully short in pages and on text.

Lastly, there is a page in this book that has Heidegger set on a backdrop of a concentration camp. It condemns Heidegger for being a dedicated Party member who unapologetically followed the ideology of the Nazis. It ends by calling Heidegger a "Gernman Redneck."

While Heidegger's participation in the Nazi party was contemptible, to say the least, it does not warrant such treatment. He was never an Anti-Semite, and openly condemned racism as "biological liberalism" as early as 1935. He also came to understand the Nazi movement, in these same lectures, as a mobilization enterprise, the likes of which he condemned as a technological worldview. What he did do as a Nazi, his rectorship at Freidburg, is worthy of full condemnation, but the author doesn't even mention it.

In all, a disappointment.

HEIDEGGER FOR BEGINNERS. By Eric LeMay & Jennifer A. Pitts. Illustrated by Paul Gordon. 120 pp. New York : Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc., 1994. ISBN 0-86316-172-3 (Pbk).

It's difficult not to be impressed by the audacity of the Heideggerian enterprise. Here is a philosopher who, at the outset of his career, decided that Western thought had been fundamentally in error about everything for the last two thousand years, and who set out single-handedly to rectify matters by showing us, not only how we ought to be thinking, but also what things were really all about. If he was right about the West being all wrong, and there are excellent reasons for supposing that he was, he clearly becomes someone we ought to know something about. But where to begin?

The Heidegger opus is MASSIVE, and consists of upwards of a hundred or so volumes, none of them easy. His German is notoriously obscure, even for native speakers of that language, and translation does little to improve it. And the works of his commentators, which in 1989 ran to over four thousand books and articles and today numbers considerably more, can often be even more obscure than Heidegger himself. Happily authors LeMay and Pitts, with the collaboration of Paul Gordon, have come to the rescue of all of those dazed and bewildered beginners out there with their extremely well-done illustrated treatment of Heidegger's basic thought.

The illustrations are both effective and amusing. The thought is authentic Heidegger and, so far as it goes, accurate. The treatment, while witty, is respectful. The book concludes with some good advice about Further Reading, a basic Bibliography, and a brief anthology of key extracts : 'Martin Heidegger : In His Own Words' - On the Essence of Truth; On the Subject; On Being; On Authentic Existence; On Technology, etc. The aim, in short, seems to have been, while not overburdening the beginner with too much of Heidegger's radically different style of thinking, to give him or her enough to stimulate a desire to know more. In this I think the authors have been successful. 'Heidegger for Beginners' will be enjoyed by many who are new to Heidegger, and perhaps by at least some who are not so new.

Purists, of course, will shriek that beginners would be far better off reading Steiner, or Poggeler, or Safranski, or even Heidegger himself. Of course they would! But purists have a curious tendency to forget that they too were once BEGINNERS (i.e., persons who know nothing but who would like to know something), and that prior to having become self-appointed 'experts,' they might have taken a less snooty attitude to the book under review, a book which - I repeat - is for beginners who may not yet be ready for something more substantial.

My advice to beginners would be to forget about the purists (who rarely know as much as they like to pretend), and to curl up for a few good hours of fun and edification with LeMay and Pitts. You'll be amused. You'll certainly learn 'something' about Heidegger. And some of you will be left with a desire to know more. For those who would like to know more, details of one of the finest available conventional Introductions to Heidegger for the general reader are as follows:

MARTIN HEIDEGGER. By George Steiner. 173 pp. University of Chicago Press edition, 1987 (1978). ISBN 0-226-77232-2 (pbk.)

This book is one of the best in the Pitt series. It is a page turner and kept me entralled to the very last page. I highly recommend reading this book and the Pitt series. I am reading them in order.

Bluegate Fields has an unusual story structure. There are two investigations for one mystery. That device makes what would otherwise be a pretty boring book more interesting.

The book's other major attribute is found in its subject, investigating child molestation among the Victorians, something that would have been kept well hidden at the time. Ms. Perry does a nice job of imagining how such an investigation might have proceeded.

The book gets off to a fine start with its opening scene, but the action slows down into too many drawing room scenes from there. Pitt seems unusually thick in this novel which causes the story to not work quite as well as it might have.

I also don't enjoy reading about people covering up child molestation so part of the subject itself was fairly repulsive to me.

But if you have liked the other books in the series before this one, you probably will enjoy this one somewhat. But you can skip it without missing anything important. The choice is yours. I leave your decision up to your good taste.

Good Victorian London atmosphere, and I enjoyed the team of Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. But when the boy killed was determined to have come from the upper classes, too have died following an upper class dinner and bath it didn't make sense that they were so eager to pin the murder on a working class tutor and a lower class prostitute. I didn't enjoy the rresolution of the plot.

Perry approaches an interesting investigation for even todays standards, not to mention how it must of been in the Victorian era. I applaud Perry for addressing the subject and the depraved way people can use other people, and what people will/have to do for money. Perry obviously feels very deeply about the abuse of children. Unfortunaltely this is something that could happen in the Victorian times as well as now.
It isn't always hard to figure out "whodunit" in Perry's mysteries, however she still weaves an intriguing tale.
I was confused on whether this was Perry's 5th or 6th novel in the Pitt series, but I read it as the 5th.
I appreciate Perry's descriptions of the surroundings of her subjects, I am able to visulize it, feel either the warmth of the fire, or the coldness of the weather.

This is the first Thomas Pitt Novel I've read. The plot outline is covered well in the other reviews. While the story is interesting, I thought it was rather predictable. There was only one twist that caught me by surprise. Compared to the rest of the book the end comes entirely too quick and with little thought. I got the impression the author was tired of writing and just wanted to be done with it. I am by no means a legal expert, especially of the Victorian system, but there are major shortfalls in the legal aspects the book. These oversights make the plot work but would have never happened. Using the "real" evidence for the first trial as a gauge, by the same measure there was more than enough later evidence to take to a judge and get it overturned. It is just inconsistent. The emotional state of some of the characters is a bit overplayed, sometimes to the point of distraction. If the police chief, Athelstan, was really that excitable, he would have had a heart attack years before attaining that office. On the other hand, it was an excellent portrayal of the young man's (name with held to preserve the mystery) realization of what every one had been talking about, and what he had done. There is no date given for the setting, but there are still a few anachronisms including the lack of use of the terms sodomite and carnal knowledge. I still recommend the book as an easy read, but will not be keeping a copy in my library. Unlike other reviewers I finished the book before writing a review.

It's not what I thought it would be. It seemed to be advertised as an esoteric Rosicrucian document, but it's really just Bacon's portrait of an ideal society. It's true that society has Rosicrucian ideals, but it is mostly a politcal book.

I loved this book. It tied so much together for me regarding the mystery schools. If you are an esoteric fanatic like me, then this must be added to your collection.

This is Francis Bacon's model for America. Many believe it is the vision of the ancient spiritual adepts. Fascinating reading and most provoking.

This is a fascinating read and my favorite of all Bacon's writings.

This is a very short text: 85pp for the two pieces, plus an intro. Each piece gives a brief description of one thinker's ideal world, a Utopia of a sort. This book is strengthened by presenting two such different views, casting them into sharp contrast.

The first, by Bacon, makes much of pomp, ceremony, and fine accoutrements. He starts by describing the wonderful pageant put out for any man whose living descendants exceed thirty in number. He is paraded among and served by his issue, and granted gifts by the benevolent ruler. At this point - only at this point - is a woman of the realm mentioned. His wife, should she have survived such a feat of childbearing, is to be presented as well, in a carriage, tightly enclosed. A featureless box, the best to which a woman might aspire. (Bacon goes out of his way to disparage More's Utopia, in an amusing aside.)

The remainder of the story details the alchemical feats and workshops of the land. They interested Bacon much the way a candy store might interest a child, with no thought as to how they might be provisioned or staffed. Although the many labs are of interest to today's technologist, the country's means of feeding itself and its voracious researchers remains unsaid.

Campanella's "City of the Sun" is a Utopia of very different character. Above all, it focusses its energies on war more than any other city since Sparta. He demands training in arms for men and women both from the earliest age on, though women would enter combat only in final resort. Even the infirm are put to service however they may serve: the lame can watch and guard, the blind can work in some crafts, and so on. Women are expected to participate in industry, too, except in the woodworkers' and armorers' trades. This city is surprisingly free in religion - Jews are tolerated, if not too jewish, as well as Brahmins and others who acknowledge a soul. Hey, in those days, it was radical.

Both authors express ideas that repulse a modern mind. Even Campanella's enlightened treatment of women and religious minorities sounds brutal, until considered in the context of his time. Bacon's blinkered self-involvement would barely be worth a chuckle, until one considers his influence on history.

It's not formal, but it's a way to view history: what is it that each age most wanted itself to be? What views existed, and what views have survived? And how did the writers of each age differ from the man in the street, or more likely the man behind the plow?

//wiredwierd