Reed Books

Gripping Street Drama
After the initial setting of the main character and scene, this story unfolds like a movie; the many colorful characters encountered in the street culture are so varied and so vividly described in this book. The story is a complicated but clever 'who done it' that keeps you glued to the book until the end, based on actual characters and experiences the author encountered as a homeless person for a short time in his life. Some rough characters and scenes as expected, but the author does a good job in making them as true to life as possible. An eye opening yet entertaining description of life on the streets. Well written; I couldn't put it down... Highly recommended reading.

This book is especially recommended for theatre lovers and constitutes an essential contribution to the history of women in the US during the twentieth-century. Following Virginia Woolf, Barbara Ozieblo has as her goal to "capture" Glaspell's personality, but the results go far beyond this original purpose. Seduced by a brilliantly polished, engaging narrative, the reader is presented with a new perspective on the development of American theatre in the first half of the twentieth century by means of a smooth movement between identification with Glaspell and a fine and suggestive analysis of her writings.

For the theatre critic / lover, the most relevant dimension of Susan Glaspell's life is her involvement in the creation of the Provincetown Players, either as promoter, actress or playwright. In this regard, a new focus on her standpoint is worth considering, being both protagonist and witness in the development of George Cram Cook's visionary efforts. No doubt, her point of view enables a more accurate, fresher account of the true nature and evolution of Cook's relationship with Eugene O'Neill.

The reader becomes Glaspell herself while witnessing this crucial part in twentieth-century American drama. The implication is that, from her position between external spectator and measured participant, we can reach a more suitable evaluation of the Provincetown Players' contribution to US theatre. This fact is accounted for by the author's decisiveness at drawing consistent conclusions at the right time within the narrative.

An outstanding student and vocational writer, Glaspell also offers an invaluable personal story of abnegation and endurance. The chapter devoted to Cook's final days in Greece does justice to her position as committed wife and sacrificed woman. Here we have an example of a woman's ambivalent role regarding the rules imposed by the society of the time. The main question is whether Glaspell would have utilized her talents in a better way without the burdens imposed by marriage. However, the narrative efficiently locates us within Glaspell's persona, and her constant sufferings caused by her true love for Cook, indeed a demanding and dependent dreamer.

Finally, Glaspell's life as a widow back in the US becomes an example of the unrewarding, sometimes miserable life of twentieth-century women involved in the artistic sphere. Recognized writer, Pulitzer-prize winner and generous mentor, Glaspell keeps on being "too" generous, especially in her relationships with men, and for most of her life remains a solitary individual whose loneliness is only alleviated by the company of her friends and animals and, ultimately, her love for the theatre.

It is precisely this love for the theatre that this excellent biography transfers to the reader, no matter what background, interests or motivations he or she have. Bored with annoying biographies trying to make up silly stories about the hollow lives of any writer or celebrity, this book becomes a fresh, invigorating breeze for both the critic and the general reader.

Peyton Grady has finally made it to the varsity cheerleading squad and Alpha status at Beachwood Preparatory Academy, and only her BFF, Maya, knows her carefully guarded secret - that she's a scholarship student. So why would Peyton risk being seen talking to the school misfits?

Ellika Garrett is the new jumbo-sized cheerleader whose mother bought her a spot on the squad with a hefty donation to the school. Peyton wonders just how far she'll have to go to make Ellika understand that she does not want to be her friend. Who wants a weepy-eyed walrus looking over your shoulder when you're trying to get the attention of Von Cohen, the hottest guy in school? Every time Peyton gets up the nerve to ask him to the Sadie Hawkin's dance, Ellika appears and chases Von away.

Luckily, Von doesn't give up easily. Everyone can see he's totally into Peyton and it's not long before she finally has her first real boyfriend, a definite plus on the Alpha girl scale. But how will she explain to him about Compular? Yes, even wealthy prep schools have those super-smart nerdy guys who brag about outrageous things nobody believes. Peyton can't avoid Compular. If he doesn't tutor her in Trig, she could lose her scholarship.

As Peyton teeter-totters on the brink of social elitism, Lexie, the captain of the squad, tips the balance. Peyton, along with the other varsity cheerleaders, are expected to contribute ideas to a hazing list that becomes crueler with each idea. The point is to make Ellika so miserable that she'll quit the team. In her quest to be one of the Alpha girls, Peyton has already sacrificed her friendship with Maya. What else will she destroy, who else will she step on, to get on top? Can she really do this to Ellika? To herself?

SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS by Debbie Reed Fischer is an incredible book. It's a page-turner that is as difficult to put down as it is to read. Are there teens out there that are really this cruel? What would you, the reader, be willing to sacrifice to have it all?

I can tell you as a teacher of teens for twenty years that, without question, there are teens who have an adult persona and a totally different peer persona. This book will force you to take a look at yourself and those around you. I believe this book will inspire its readers to stand up for what they believe is right. For that reason, and because the characters have stayed with me so vividly, I'm giving SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS the coveted Gold Star Award for Excellence.

My thirteen-year-old theatre vagabond-band geek-cheerleader daughter grabbed this book before I could read it and read it in a day. She raved about it. Then my almost fifteen-year-old band geek-football playing-student council representative son saw "sharks" in the title and picked it up, also finishing it in a day. They both loved it. I can't think of too many books on this topic that resonate with boys as well as girls.

I had the pleasure of reviewing Debbie Reed Fischer's debut novel, BRALESS IN WONDERLAND, and was thrilled to found out I would also get the opportunity to review SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS. I was not disappointed. Well done, Ms. Fischer. You have earned yourself a gold star! Thank you for a terrific read!

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

This brings an end to the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents' Archives series from DC.

Masterminded by the great Wally Wood in the 60s, the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents' series, with its heroes Dynamo, Noman and others were never quite a match for DC's Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and others, nor Marvel's Fantastic Four, Spider-man and Avengers.

Nevertheless, for a young boy who found them among the other comics on the racks in those days they were a breath of fresh air.

I have been eagerly collecting the series and although they may not have withstood the test of time as say Green Lantern, the Flash or the Fantastic Four, for example, they still have brought back fond memories for me.

I have also been collecting the Doom Patrol Archives and am eagerly awaiting the one on the Metal Men. Though I liked the more popular characters, the more quirky heroes such as these and the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents will always be fondly remembered.

The book by Michael King, Revised Edition of a photography and social history, which submission all the facts of life among Maori before the Euporean time of settlements in NZ, what are the Maori like in past and today are totally different

Written shortly after the magnificent Kankakee River in Indiana was ditched and all the adjacent wetlands drained, Tales of a Vanishing River is filled with wonder and charm of life along a native river our generation can only imagine now, with the help of authors such as Reed. A very satisfying collection of poignant stories of people and places along the original river, "Tales.." is one of my favorite all time reads. For years I took it out of the local library in LaPorte, then I bought my own first edition, signed by the author, from a local bookseller. I return to this work annually and savor it with great relish.

This book is by far the most important study of local government in late imperial China that has yet been published. Its only possible rival might be T'ung-tsu Ch'u's 1962 classic, "Local Government in China Under the Ch'ing," which Reed's book has largely superseded.

A unique feature of Reed's book is that it makes use of the only county government archive of any size that survives from the Qing dynasty, the Ba County archive. This singular body of material became available to scholars only shortly before Reed began his doctoral research, and he was quick to seize the opportunity to provide an insider's view of how local administration actually worked in the late empire. Previous scholarship had depended on the writings of senior officials appointed by the imperial center, and was severely limited by the top-down, condescending perspective of such sources; it tended to pass along unwittingly the prejudices of Qing elites as empirical fact.

Perhaps the most valuable contribution of the book is to rescue us from diehard stereotypes of clerks and runners in the local government offices ("yamen") of late imperial China. For centuries, these locally-recruited personnel were vilified as inherently evil and corrupt; such rhetoric was a standard part of official and elite discourse for several dynasties, and earlier generations of scholars tended to accept it at face value. Yet no one until Reed had bothered to ask why a system that employed such personnel, and depended on them for most of the vital and sensitive tasks of government, could function so well for so long. For example, clerks and runners were constantly blamed for supposedly provoking litigation in order to extort personal profits - and yet, as Reed proves, the entire local court system was financed by fees collected from litigants. The increase of litigation was hardly the result of extortion by clerks and runners. Reed shows that this discourse of vituperation was vital to the ideology of empire; it enabled degree-holding Mandarins of elite pedigree to cloak themselves in the symbols of Confucian legitimacy while distancing themselves from the dirty work of government (tax collection, arrests, etc.) that was performed by the clerks and runners under their supervision. Such rhetoric was one of the ways that late imperial regimes tried to obscure the coercive bureaucratic machinery that underpinned their supposedly virtuous rule.

Another important contribution of Reed's book is his discovery of the "customary law" of the local yamen, which was used to resolve disputes among the clerks and runners themselves. The local magistrate would adjudicate internal disputes on the basis of longstanding internal rules and norms, which the clerks and runners themselves would report to him. (Magistrates were outsiders who served relatively brief terms before being rotated elsewhere; the clerks and runners were long-serving locals.) This process was invisible from the outside, and it runs completely counter to the top-down view of law and government in late imperial China that constituted our received wisdom; in fact, it clearly violated the nominal rules dictated by the imperial center for running local affairs. But, as Reed shows, if such nominal rules had been enforced, the imperial system would have collapsed immediately. Like the official rhetoric about clerks and runners, these nominal rules published in the imperial capital had long been taken at face value, as a description of how local government really functioned. But increasingly it appears that the imperial system worked in precisely the manner that Reed describes, through flexible negotiation between lofty ideological norms and practical local needs, with the latter frequently proving decisive.

Reed's great strength, based on his mastery of rich archival materials, is to view the imperial system "from the bottom up," through the lens of the local. This perspective makes his study of government come alive: it is far more social history than institutional history.

I really enjoyed reading this book with my kids. Took it to work and everyone loved reading it. Well worth reading and looking forward to the next book in the series.

Taste of Hate was a story with a lot of detail that had to have been written by someone who 'know's his stuff'. The step by step of story development was great. It was fast reading but never boring.The Taste of Hate

I HAVE REVIEWED THIS BOOK......AND IT DOES ME ALOT OF HELP THROUGH MY ASSIGNMENTS ......IT IS A TRADITIONAL MAORI ARTS WEAVING BOOK AND IRECOMMEND THAT MAORI'S READ THIS BOOK

THANK YOU