Rowe Books

Every single book in this series has Libertus being kidnapped or thrown in jail at some point. Come on! Am I to believe that he has managed to live as long as he has as both a slave then a freedman without learning how to take better care of himself and to be more aware of his environment? Then he's able to use his skills of awareness and logic to solve mysteries? I just don't buy it after so many book. I'm also not convinced that all the over the top patron and client behavior is reasonable -- Marcus Septimus is not his former master so why does he spend so much time with him again? Where is his real patron, his former master? Anyway, I do still like the major characters and I'm pleased that the plots have allowed their lives to develop toward a new family.

The author's knowledge and feel for Roman Britain is second to none and her storytelling keeps the reader asking for more. This latest book is no different and I enjoyed it immensely.

AD 188 and Britain is without a Roman governer. Until a new governor is installed Marcus Septimus is one of the most important men in Roman Britain. He is also the patron of Libertus, one-time slave and mosaic (pavement maker) artist. Marcus has called on Libertus on more than one occasion to help solve crimes among the Romans and Britains.

Libertus is asked by Marcus to accompany him from Glevum to Isca on official business and although Libertus is busy with his work, he knows that it would be foolish to refuse.

On the way they make a stop at Venta. The place is simmering with unrest towards the Romans, where the Silures are loyal to their former chieftain Caractacus. While there Libertus is shocked to see a man whose funeral he attended not long ago. The man runs away and pursuit of him leads Libertus into danger not only to himself but all the party who are travelling with him . . .

The seventh Libertus mystery from Rosemary Rowe has our aged sleuth paying a visit to Venta Silurium as part of his patron's entourage and promptly getting caught up in a hotbed of insurgency. He only manages to get involved when he sees a man whose funeral he attended earlier that month alive and well in the town's forum. An inquisitive chase through the town results in him being hopelessly lost, running into the town's leading madam and then being waylaid by some hot-headed youths who threaten to kill him as a spy of one of the local gangs.
All in all a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
After enduring a night in the cells and a farcical trial where he is acquitted, Libertus and Marcus go on a trip into the nearby forest and end up with all their horses stolen, locating the body of the slave Promptillius and encountering a local set of Silurians who suspiciously protest undying love for all things Roman. Once our sleuth manages to sit down for five seconds he realises what is going on with the overly stupid Optio and Lyra, the madam, avoids being poisoned and brings the culprits to justice whilst Marcus chafes at the irritation of being delayed in his journey.
This is quite a weak effort from Rowe in the sense it just trundles amicably along with no real sense of murder thriller. The characters elicit little empathy, just irritation and Libertus is in danger of becoming overly obsequious. A little spine would be useful and he could learn from Cadfael.
The series is an enjoyable addition to the ever increasing ancient murder mystery but Libertus is lightweight when compared to the likes of Marcus Covinus, Gordianus the Finder, Metellus the Younger being more at a level of Claudia Seferius. Worth reading for any fan of the genre.

My first reading of this author, a bit slow in starting. I have ordered others in the series.

Rosemary Rowe is the pseudonym of Rosemary Aitken, a highly qualified academic, who has written more than half a dozen best selling textbooks on English Language and communication. She has written fiction for many years under her married name.

It is always nice for the host when a guest visit's the vomitorium, it is a sign that the host has performed his or her duties to perfection and the guest has `pigged out' on the fine fare put before him. But when an honoured guest is found dead in there it is not a good recommendation for the food that has been put before him.

Libertus' patron Marcus Septimus is arrested on suspicion of causing the death. But when Libertus himself is also accused he is forced to go on the run. Hiding out in a not too salubrious part of the city Libertus soon finds himself in danger and this time there is no one to come to his aid . . .

The sixth Libertus mystery from Rosemary Rowe plunges us immediately into a difficult situation as Marcus Aurelius Septimus, Libertus? patron, ends up accused of the murder of one corpulent Gaius Praxus, military commander at his own banquet, found dead in the vomitorium. AfterGovernor Pertinax?s departure from Britain, Septimus, Mellitus and Praxus were power sharing until a successor was sent by Commodus. Now Praxus is dead and Mellitus accuses Marcus of his murder. As Libertus? patron is hauled off to jail, Marcus? wife, Julia Delicta, asks him to help his patron and our sleuth disappears home before the avenging Praxus guard, headed by the bullish Bullface, can grab him.
For considerable time, Libertus finds himself on the run as he tries to understand what has happened and get some details from Golbo, the slave boy attending the vomitorium that Marcus inexplicably dismissed just before the murder, before he himself is falsely accused of complicity. This leads to a nightmarish journey into the more unsavoury areas of Glevum as he is kidnapped by a group of beggars and thieves (The Ghosts of Glevum) who sit in mock council to decide his fate. Forced into ?hiring? them to save his own skin, Libertus makes use of Sosso, the leader of the ragtail band, Parva a young prostitute, Cornovacus, a thief, Lercius, an insane thug, Tullio, the riverman, Molendinarius, the firewood-seller and his wife all of whom are under the ?patronage? of Grossus.
His own house burned down, Gwellia and Junio safely in Corfinium and finding Golbo dead enables Libertus, by using these ?Ghosts? who hear everything and can get into anywhere in Glevum, to figure out who the murderer was and deduce the motive behind the apparent treasonous scroll of Marcus that has come to light. Eventually, the facts are teased out and the traitorous ?ghost? comes to light before being killed by his own people. There is no denouement with the culprits as we skip to Marcus? freedom at the end, but are advised the conspirators and murderer have been apprehended.
The previous Libertus offering was weaker than the rest because it cast our sleuthing hero in a light that didn?t match his previous characterisation. This effort returns us to the old Libertus we know though I get the impression that Rowe has unfortunately restricted herself her with this forcing of Libertus into the Glevum underworld. It ensures an intellectual puzzling of the truth using informants rather than any free sleuthing himself and no empathy with the supporting cast is delivered. So, whilst better than the Legatus Affair, not as good as the first four.

After reading this, my eight-year-old asked, "why did the monkey have to die?"

Need I say more?

The story is confusing, the text tedious and repetative, and the message (which I took to be, the monkey almost died) is creepy. Why promote the idea that this hyperactive monkey's antics almost cause his demise? Is it a warning to kids, settle down...OR ELSE?

On a positive note, Rowe's art is interesting. I'd like to frame the picture of Little Monkey in his birthday coat. Then again, because it was the birthday coat that weighed him down in the water where he (might have) drowned...I guess I shouldn't.

Rowe is engaging as an illustrator, questionable as an author.

Preview this book carefully before you give it to your child.

The illustrations in this book are an absolute marvel - executed with oil pastels they have great depth & rich colour.

Slightly avante garde and skewed, they show all manner of adventures.

Unfortunately the text is much too long on every page, and what is meant to be a cautionary tale with humour is a very long winded lecture.

It will not capture the attention of your child - far better to read through this book with your child & make up your own words. They will only be asking what is going on in the pictures and not paying the slightest attention to the story you are reading aloud.

So, it's worth a look for the wonderful illustrations & kudos for that, unfortunately the words do not captivate in same fashion.
kotori 2004

Originally published in Switzerland, this book is proof that North-South Books CAN publish some books worth reading! Little Monkey doesn't listen. (I bet that sounds familiar to parents and teachers.) He's told NOT to climb the big tree in a storm, but of course, he doesn't listen. He finds himself blown out of the tree, but luckily he lands on a cloud and is delivered to some elephants who think he's their daughter and dress him in a cute pink dress. The book tells how Little Monkey tries to get home. "Oh, if only he had listened" is the repetitive text in the book. Of course, Little Monkey makes it home. But did he learn from his mistake? Of course not! The pictures are sophisticated and a nice change from illustrations often seen in children's books.

"The Journal of Rufus Rowe" I found to be boring. I was looking forward to this book since it comes from the stand point of the Confederate, but I felt it didn't come from either side - but neutral. I think I find author Sid Hite's writing to be bland, as I've yet to find a book he's writing that I like. I felt the journal entries were lacking and history was not presented in an interesting fashion. I do not recommend.

The journal of Rufus Rowe brings the reader into the mind of a young 16-year boy. Rufus witness the horror of war: "I shall never forget the smell of gun power" and "broken windows, furniture in the streets, and houses on fire" and "defeat in war means loss and victory in war means loss". Rufus patriotism and love Fredricksburg and Virginia was replaced by the burdens of carnage, death, and suffering.

Rufus felt and witness the raw carnage of war; the dead horses, the deafening boom of cannon and gun fire, the exhaustion and hunger, soldiers stripping clothes and items off dead soldiers, truces agreed upon too bury the dead, the illogical carnage that resulted from Yankees charging stonewall. Rufus discovered Soldiers consume massive amounts of pork, beans, and gruel. All of Rufus's chickens were stolen. Food became scarce.

The battle of Fredricksburg favored the confederates even though the Yankees number 115,000 and the Rebels 78,000. The Yankees were trapped into a pocket with only one direction of movement, forward. The confederate sharpshooters shot the Yankees with deadly accuracy. In scene, Yankee casualties reached 200 in one charge. The battle of Fredricksburg was a serious Union defeat, but not the end too the war. Union generals and soldiers had an endless supply of replacements.

Many Confederate Generals were involved in the battle of Fredricksburg. The battle of Fredricksburg formed a defense formation from right to left starting with Jeb Staurt, next Gen Robert E Lee, Gen Longstreet, and Hooker too the left. Rufus overheard on fat man brag about Jeb Staurt out whitting the Yankees with a calvery flank move to the right and predicted the war would be over in "six months". The war would last three years.

In one scene, the Yankees played "The Star Spangled Banner" and other Yankee patriotic songs, but when the union musicians played "Dixie" a roar of cheers and shouts climaxed on the rebel side. Union General Burnside felt capturing Fredricksburg was a strategic prize. President Lincoln lost confidence in General Burnsides lack of aggression and replace him. The delay in building the bridge had allowed the confederate armies to arrive and anchor into place. President Lincoln was angered by the delay.

The Yankees had to cross the Rappahannock River before gaining access to the interior of the city. The battle was delay for one week until the Pontoon bridges arrived. The Union soldiers received Rebel gunfire while they installed the pontoon bridge necessary for crossing the Rappahannock River. The Union army was able to cross over the Rappahannock River and march into Fredricksburg.

Confederate General Lee ordered the evacuation of Fredricksburg. Civilians departed their homes and many walked out of the city with their possessions. Rufus dreamed he saw a little girl carrying her doll out of the city. The little girl struggled to carry the doll and at the same time keep pace with her party. Rufus prayed for the little girl in his dreams and hope she would be able to keep her doll and exist the city.

Rufus would return home too his mother before the battle was over. Rufus arrived at dinnertime, Saturday dinners were large and he appreciated the food. The prodigal son had returned home and Rufus's mother affection for him demanded she not leave his side. The mother was not to blame. The mother's husband ran off when Rufus was two. Rufus was the man of the house, but when his mother remarried a businessman, whose profession was timber, the man treated Rufus both harshly and cruelly. Rufus despised his stepfather's cruelty and ran away from home and Rufus earned money for food by purchasing merchandise for the confederate soldiers. Upon return home Rufus told his mother about the progress of the battle and the stepfather excused his poor treatment of Rufus by blaming the ailing timber business. Rufus agreed that amends had been given and properly received.

Peg and Evelyn noticed Rufus and provided him a place to sleep, work, and eat; however, Evelyn's father pretended that Rufus did not exists, but allowed him to stay. Rufus friend was a George, one of the house slaves. As the fighting commenced Peg, Evelyn, and her father departed Brompton too live in a neighboring city with a higher elevation. George made Rufus promise he would hide during the fighting; good advice that would save Rufus's life. Once Confederate soldiers shot at Federate Soldiers from the second floor window of the home and bullets sprayed the home and a canyon ball knocked out one of the columns too the home.

Rufus became a friend with Captain Nelson. Captain Nelson provided information about the battle. Captain Nelson told Rufus about causalities and updated him on the progress of the battle.

Major General William B. Franklin attacked from two small divisions - Major General George G. Meade and Major General John Gibbon. Mead's troops broke through but Jackson's men expelled the federals. Burnside launched his attack from Fredericksburg against the Confederate left on Marye's height. Stonewall provided the fortress of protection and allowed the Rebels to move down the Yankees with precision. Not a single Federal soldier reached longstreet's line." Rufus explains that the confederates did not kill in cold blood, if a union soldier was trying to help a fallen comrade, the shots would go high.

"On December 15, Burnside ordered his beaten army back across the Rappahannock. The Union had lost 13,000 soldiers in a battle in which the dreadful carnage was matched only by its futility"

Rufus rowe ran away from his home in Bowling Green Virgina.
Cause of his step dad his teacher gave him the journal to write in.He starts to write in the journal a month after he got the journal September 22, 1862. Rufus left to go to fredricksburg to were the battle of the Yanks and Rebels will be fighting on october 6, 1862. He also thought that his step dad Mr. Jenkins will be looking for him in richmond cause he takled about moving there. before Rufus left for fredricksburg he told his mom cause he didn't want her to worry. rufus is sleeping in a alley way when he gets to fredricksburg he didn't write in his journal for a week when he gets there cause he has been to buissy looking for a place to live. the day after he wrote in his journala girl saw him in the ally and she offered him a potatoe after she offered him the potatoe she asked him if he had a place to live. She told him to go up togo up to Brompton Hill to where she worked for a rich guy she told him to meet her there the next day. So he takes her offer and he meets her there she said that he can sleep in the barn on the second floor she said she already put hay up there for him. He lives there for a week until he meet a soilder and the soilder ask if he can run a errond for him Rufus took the offer and the soilder aid him that he'll pay him a dollar and fifty cents so he did. after a month of doing that the war started and he had to quit running erronds.

Mr. Wright's class has nouns and verbs running all over the place. When the kids neglect them, they decide to have their own field day. They play with each other and try to team up in ways that make sense. A nice way to introduce nouns and verbs. Very nice.

What a disappointment this book was. Please save yourself, and do not purchase this book.

I think this book is wonderful as it encourages children to think about words - nouns and verbs - and how both are needed to get things done and to express ideas clearly. The text and illustrations work well together, conveying important topics in a lively and zany way. I especially like that the teacher, "Mr. Wright," is not always right, as the nouns and verbs teach him something too.

I was not familiar with this story when I bought it to read to my daughter. I was simply browsing for something new, having tired of reading over & over her many other books.

In the story, a gingerbread cookie runs away when the oven door is opened. He is chased by several animals and is finally caught by a fox who tricks him into climbing on his back to cross a river.

In the illustrations, the animals do not appear to really have any interest in the gingerbread cookie at all. The text may say that the cookie is being chased, but the illustrations don't bear that out.

The illustrations are drawn with bold vivid colors which are pleasing to the eye. They are abstract & angular. For example, the gingerbread man cookie, is red & looks like a faceless Gumby doll. In the past few days since purchasing the book my toddler has requested to read it each night; so, there is some appeal in the simple storyline.

My kids (ages 3 & 5) love this book. It's colorful, and they hunt for the gingerbread man on each page. The story prompts a lot of "whys" from them - especially - Why did he run away?

Seabiscuit is a story about a sick a horse that is misunderstood. Tom smith who works for a racehorse owner convinces his boss to buy him. After tom does what he can do to help seabiscuit get better. A miracle happens,................... read the book to find out what happens!

Cathy East Dubowski and Mark Dubowski, A Horse Named Seabiscuit (Grosset and Dunlap, 2003)

Now, I know this is a book for kids, and not kids who are proficient readers. Still, that doesn't excuse some of the omissions here (for example, the reason Seabiscuit lost his first Big Cap-- Red Pollard's blindness). Kids like drama just as much as adults. They could handle the blind-in-one-eye thing.

Still, Seabiscuit's career is a tough thing to compress into forty-eight pages. The Dubowskis did try, and to some extent, they succeeded. They managed to do so without getting into anything too technical, which is a credit, but I think it was that unwillingness to get into the technical aspects that caused some of the more glaring omissions.

It's my hope that this will encourage kids to look for more complete kids' books on Seabiscuit (Ralph Moody's classic Come On Seabiscuit!, for example) once they get old enough to handle the larger books. But this is a decent beginning. ***

This book provides a great "big-picture" view of what a diversity initiative might involve. The authors address diversity with a perspective that a diversity initiative is more than an education program, and give explanation to some othe systems and processes that must be addressed in order to be successful at integrating diversity into an organization. A big positive is that the authros do not use the race/gender basis for diversity, but expand the definition to include many other characteristics that almost all people can realte to. I highly recommend the book.

Managing diversity is a subject that does not lend itself to simplistic, checklist solutions. Yet, that is exactly what the authors provide - a plethora of superficial recipes. Not particularly thoughtful and not at all practical for real-world use.

Real diversity management is far more complicated than this text would suggest!

The reviews below this one seem a bit overstated in both directions. By my reckoning, "Best Bet" is not "trash." It is not great literature, either, nor is it intended to be. It is an entertainment and at entertaining it succeeds. I like baseball. I like history. I'm not a mystery fan. That is, I'm never much for trying to guess the details of who did what to who and why. But I enjoyed the depiction of life in Boston in the 1890s, and I enjoyed the baseball. The writing is competent. The characters are fun & colorful. Mr. Rowe knows how to write fiction that moves, and I would recommend "Best Bet" for readers who are looking for a pleasant diversion.

I find this to be a pathetic attempt to set a mystery in a period of baseball history few care about. Awful writing, weak characters. I have to admit I couldn't bring myself to finish this trash.

The other reviewers must not've read the same book I did. I love baseball and mysteries both but this fails on both scores. The story is almost juvenile--anybody who's read even one Nancy Drew will know right away who the villians are. And the baseball stuff is extremely weak. The author I think is claiming the players and games really happened, but I know for a fact the games at least didn't. It's so easy to check and see he made them all up. Then too he's supposed to be a historian as his profession. What historian would have characters in the 1890s using expressions like being "up front" and "its a wash" meaning a tie. This is more like the 1990s. I would say for all these reasons its fair to say this book really bombed.

Set in the late 1800's, this who-dun-it evolves around the Boston Beaneaters Baseball Team. Using real people and events this book of fiction is recommended not only for mystery lovers, but for baseball fans.

In the rough-and-tumble millieu of 19th Century pro baseball, Will Beaman makes for a rich protagonist. Brash, cynical, ultimately human, he's one of a parade of well-defined characters in G.S. Rowe's new mystery novel from Virginia's Pocol Press. You can't help but love this guy! Against the backdrop of America's game at the turn of the century, Beaman battles the seamy side of Boston's scam syndicates while masquerading as the Boston Beaneaters' flak. I have to admit I loved this book. The best elements of an historical baseball novel combined with the thrills and chills of a great mystery. And peppered with wondrous, classic ball-park hecklings such as, "Ya field like a kitten playing with grandma's yarn," and "You'd muff an apple dumpling if you'se was starving." Congratulations to Rowe for a book I couldn't put down.

Colin Rowe proposes a form of inclusive urbanism that meshes the modern city with the traditional city.

I am a second-generation Rowe disciple, I guess. I studied with a Rowe acolyte in graduate school and worked with co-author Fred Koetter in an urban design studio. Without the efforts these teachers have made to bring Rowe's ideas to urban design students, they may well have been neglected, because Collage City is a mess. It is badly marred by dense thickets of poorly-edited, idiosyncratic prose. It was one of the more frustrating books I had to read in school, but I'm glad it was required, because the close readings uncovered real gems of theory. Rowe reintroduced the complexities and possibilities of art into urban design right at the peak of Modernism's influence. Architecture was still in the thrall of La Ville Radieuse and socialist-utopian projects that aimed to simplify and disinfect cities. Jane Jacobs saw the social perils of these projects, Colin Rowe saw the architectural perils. His critique of the Modern project was among the most powerful, and among the least cogent. Still, though it requires some serious digging in prose-mud, the gems are there and worth the search. I recommend this book for graduate-level urban theorists or serious urban design students.

But there are more accessible urban design primers: Aldo Rossi, et al, The Architecture of the City, for example, covers much of the same ground Rowe so spottily tilled [except where Eisenman is involved in the book: he is a worse prose-stylist than Rowe]. For non-specialists I also recommend Witold Rybczynski's City Life as a thoughtful and LUCID introduction to American urbanism, along with a critique of the last few decades of urban "development".

Rowe and Koetter's brilliant excursus of urban design theory via the texts and contexts of intellectual history.

This book is the most pompous garbage I have ever seen. It is unreadable drivel that has no point and adds nothing to the search for solutions to our urban problems. What were the authors thinking? They deserve the "Emperor has no clothes" award for this trash. Save your money and buy "A Pattern Language," "Edge City," "Changing Places," "Home from Nowhere," or any of many meaningful books that say something relevant.

Does not contribute much to the discussion, written in a lengthy, self-important, arrogant manner.