Sheridan Books

Sheridan searches for a set of values which may be uniquely regarded as Asian to help explain the economic and poliitical emergence of the Far East and South-East Asian societies ( and re-emergence of these societies the post-1997 Asian crisis ).

Speaking to man-in-the-street, scholars, diplomats, businesspeople and senior officials of various countries, Sheridan puts across the many views he found as to what constitutes Asian values. Much joy will be found by global businesspeople and students of international relations in understanding what these values are and the various perspectives and how they factor in the economic, political, cultural and religious development of each country in Asia, and how they find themselves in the family of nations in the future. Excellent read.

the memoirs themselves are entertaining enough but, when i opened the book i found inside the front cover a hand inscribed note from sheridan morley to a friend of his......a thrilling discovery. i cherish this volume and regret only i did not come to know sheridan morley during his lifetime.

A B Sea: A Loose-Footed Lexicon by writer and experienced navigator Jack Lagan is a straightforward, "user friendly" lexicon of common nautical terms used by 21st century seafarers. Ranging from "abaft" to "yardarm", A B Sea is an authoritative reference and a definitive resource which is written in highly accessible terms for non-specialist general readers of all skill and experience levels as they embark upon the adventurous world of sailing the seas (as well as boating the rivers and lakes of the world)!

"Balancing Act" takes you on a trip to norhtern Virginia with Nikki, her friend Carly, and Nikki's Aunt Marta. They stay in the home of Dr. Phyllis who helps Marta with a book she is writing. Meanwhile, Nikki finds her cheerful friend unusually moody, overly concerned with her appearance, and rude. When she finds out Carly has an eating disorder, she has a hard time convincing her that she needs help. Finally, Carly breaks down her protective wall and gets help after she and Nikki help a girl with her problem.

The year is 1813. The United States has entered the war against England, but it is a peculiar war with U.S. merchants still supplying English armies in Spain. Royal Navy Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is now assigned to the Admiralty in London, occupying the intelligence office previously headed by the late Lord Dalgarth. Napoleon's armies have been losing battles. Some of his allies have been looking towards their own futures as Napoleon's empire crumbles. Napoleon's puppet King of Naples has sent a secret emissary to England. A plan is revealed to supply arms for a rebellion in Canada.

Drinkwater obtains orders to take a frigate into waters of Danish occupied Norway. His mission is to intercept the arms shipment. There are complications. French and American agents in England, aided by people with Republican sympathies and people who can be bribed, have obtained the details of Drinkwater's plans. There are also unknown agents who have infiltrated his crew.

There is a battle, of course, and victory at a price. The hero survives, of course, as he must be around for the next novel, but others around him are casualties. The end was a bit disappointing. I had thought that guilty parties might be hanged. Perhaps Drinkwater is a bit too sympathetic. And all that gold. Remembering that the young Drinkwater was not averse to helping himself (see Eye of the Fleet), one is left to wonder. Gold sovereigns, at least, were highly negotiable.

Writer Janice Cameron and her foster sister Lily Wu have returned to their home of Honolulu, both with different agendas. Janice has just written a best-selling novel set in Hawaii, and she is working to find a Hawaiian location to film a movie of her novel. Her foster sister Lily is returning to visit her very large extended family, but the reader soon discovers that Lily is also on the trip to keep an eye on her friend Janice.

Janice has been invited to stay in the home of family friends Luther and Maude Avery. The Averys own a large estate near Honolulu, which includes a native Hawaiian village which is the location that Janice would like to use for her movie. Janice must keep her movie-making plans a secret, though, until she gets the Hawaiian villagers to agree. However, immediately upon her arrival in Honolulu, Janice is warned by her native friends that her host's home is a dangerous and unhappy place and she shouldn't stay there. On her second day in Hawaii, Janice discovers the body of a beautiful young hula dancer, apparently a drowning victim in a cove on her host's estate. A series of apparent mishaps gets the attention of amateur detective Lily Wu, who comes to the aid of Janice and identifies who was behind the drowning of the hula dancer.

This was an extremely enjoyable book, and it was hard for me to believe that the book was written more than 50 years ago. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Lily Wu's Chinese family. "The Kahuna Killer" is the second novel in the "Lily Wu quartet", a group of four novels featuring Janice Cameron and Lily Wu. I am very glad to have discovered the Rue Morgue Press, which is publishing a number of "classic" murder mysteries popular during before 1960. This particular edition was a joy to read and well-edited.

In Blowout, Bob Orrell recounts the dramas of life on board "Hewett A", a North Sea oil and gas drilling rig. Life on an oil rig is arduous, brutal, highly dangerous. But the men who work there persevere with humor and camaraderie despite the appalling accidents, atrocious weather, and occasional clashes of temper. In Blowout, Orrell's rig suffered a disastrous bowout and he gives a vivid, harrowing account of how rescue boats and helicopters battled gale-force winds and raging seas to evacuate men from the gas-filled platform. There was a tremendous loss of life and Orrell found himself abandoned with only one colleague on the gas and oil spewing rig. When Red Adair (the legendary Texan oil rig firefighter) returned to the rig to cap the well, Orrell was there to man the communications equipment. Blowout is a riveting true story, the stuff of which legends are made.

Deacon Tom Sheridan does a little setting up in the introduction to his new book. One might say a pastor, a deacon, and a Passionist priest.... No joke, in the foreword, Father Gregory Sakowicz, a Chicago pastor, writes, "Religion offers us an opportunity to laugh at ourselves at our most serious, and Jesus taught us that we shouldn't take ourselves all that seriously." In his introduction, Sheridan writes that humor "acknowledges the presence of a God who has touched humanity." And in the last chapter, Did Jesus Laugh, he shares the thoughts of bible scholar Father Donald Senior on humor in scripture.

That said, it's on to more than 70 pages of jokes from Top 10 lists to puns. The top 10 reasons God created Eve starts with concern that Adam would get lost because he wouldn't ask for directions. "A dead ringer" comes up in a pun-filled tale of efforts to find a new bell-ringer after Notre Dame's Quasimodo died. And groupings like the following open a slew of stories that take place at locations such as bars and the pearly gates: a Brit, a Frenchman and a Russian...The chief rabbi and the Pope... Karl Rahner, Hans Kung and Pope Benedict XVI...Saint Dominic, Francis of Assisi and Ignatius of Loyola...a teacher, a garbage collector and a lawyer. I especially like the response from two priests asked how many novenas it would take to earn a Mercedes Benz. The Franciscan asks what's a Mercedes Benz and the Jesuit asks what's a novena. Kid stories feature Little Johnny and Little Susie, and ethnic tales star Paddy, Muldoon, and Gallagher. Sheridan bows to the Church's spirit of ecumenism with an atheist joke as well as one about crossing a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian. The outcome: Someone who goes around knocking on doors for no apparent reason.

Move over Kate and Leo! Why go all the way to the Titanic when all the really interesting English romances occur at the Milford railway junction? "Brief Encounter" was simply meant to be a small art house film but instead it struck a certain chord in both England and America. Written by Noel Coward ("Mad Dogs and Englishmen") and directed by David Lean ("Doctor Zhivago," "Lawrence of Arabia"), the film represents the ascetic, upright, emotionally restrained lives of the people living in pre-WWII Britain (1938-1939). It concerns the doomed love affair between a married, suburban housewife, Laura, and an equally suburban and married doctor, Alec. Unlike "Madame Bovary," both characters hold no illusions: they know that they are middle-aged and unimpressive people, unable to be drawn to the extremes of emotion enough to defy society. It is a story of two undistinguished, but unhappy people who found each other but could not have each other. With its simple plot, drab setting, but intricate dialogue, it was honored with an Oscar nomination in 1947. If you just cannot refuse an art film, a classic film, or a foreign film, this screenplay deserves more than just a brief encounter.

"Bum Steers" is a complete guide to making your own "false meat". Using healthy alternatives to meat, this book tackles issues that vegans and vegetarians are often faced with. Such issues include ways to save money, stay healthy, and "excite your palate". I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it's pages contain realistic recipes- the ingredients of which are mostly found right in your pantry. This is contrary to most books of this nature which often cater to people that can afford all kinds of expensive ingredients. Highly recomended.