Spencer Books

William Browning Spencer wrote Resume With Monsters, which I have but have not read. Irrational Fears was touted as a mythos book in Glynn Barrass' chapbook from Rainfall Books. I was able to get a rather inexpensve used copy of the hardcover edition from White Wolf, published in 1998.

I'll keep my comments brief. The book centers around Jack Lowry, an alcoholic in detox. He meets up with a motley crew of other alcoholics and they end up going to rural Virginia to a rehab center. There they start butting heads with a radical group called The Clear, who say that alcoholism is actually demonic possession. What follows is a lot of surreal events and weird behavior on the part of everyone, as some members of the rehab group vanish or are kidnapped, zand Jack and his strange crew work out how to get them back.

At first I thought it was actually going to be a mythos title. The Clear has a pamphlet that says alcoholics are the heirs of the K'n-Yan who had previously worshiped Tsathoggua and were cast into an asynchronous reality where their hungers were focused on drugs and alcohol. In one of the AA meetings, some woman says something like "Thank Azathoth I'm better now." There certainly is a weird episode where some otherwordly betentacled creature engulfs a surroung crowd of mindless naked worshipers. However, it turns out that the founder of The Clear, Dorian Greenway, had been through a period where he had read Lovecraft and sort of incorporated Lovecraft's fictional beasties into his group's message, including discussing the Pnakotic Pentagram. All the strange happenings may be paranormal (caused by Greenway tapping into someone else's psychic powers), but not mythos paranormal, and in fact they may just be drug induced hallucination. There are no ancient entities. no ancient tomes, no inimical reality beyond reality. None of the missing characters actually die, they just show up again a bit befuddled.

I honestly don't know why it was included in a list of mythos books, unless whoever compiled it only gave it a cursory skimming. Is Ghoul by Slade a mythos book, if its main bad guys were influenced by Lovecraft's fiction and used some mythos names? What about Needful Things by King, where there is a scrap of graffitti "Yog Sothoth Rules?"

Spencer is a talented writer, His characters came alive, acted convincingly in context, had good dialogue and made you care about them. Throughout the prose sparkled. Irrational Fears was an energetic read with some off beat humor and a good forward moving plot. The detail bespeaks an intimate knowledge of Alcoholics Anonymous, addiction and recovery, which immeasurably added to the depth of the book. I dashed through it in a few days. But I sure won't be recommending it to someone looking for A) a mythos book or B) a book with a great Lovecraftian feel. I rate it as very good on its own merits but not really for mythos fans. I'll give Resume With Monsters a try, for Spencer's prose and becase people tell me it's definitely a mythos book.....we'll see.

This was a good read, but of average originality -- needed more work, plus an additional 300 words. Characters were not too well delineated either. It also contained much less humorous viewpoints, so I was not too entertained, and thus subtracted one point. Yet the ending was uplifting, so all is forgiven. Please write more frequently and larger books, Bill! People who liked this story will like James Herbert's "The Others" much better. (BTW, Herbert's novel has nothing at all to do with that lame ghostie movie by the same title.)

Rivalling "Resume With Monsters," William Browning Spencer's newest novel, though brief, skewers much of the new-age mumbo-jumbo of recovery programs while giving a nod to the traditional tough love approach of AA.

The hapless and sometimes hopeless residents of Hurley Memorial Hospital's detox unit include a paranoid possible former spy, an aspiring poet and nihilist 18-year-old beauty, and Jack Lowry, narrator and ex-college professor. Together they battle a hostile counselor, a drug-controlled group of recovery guerrillas called The Clear, and something slimy and tentacled straight from the pages of Lovecraft. Add a man-eating toilet and a telekinetic zombie and you have "Irrational Fears."

Spencer's trademarked blend of horror and humor recalls the Jonathan Carroll of "Outside the Dog Museum" and Joe Lansdale's (also a Texan) Hap and Leonard series. The characters come alive through sparkling and honest dialogue. They are quirky but not cliched, and nearly everyone of them is someone you might meet but probably wouldn't like.

One of Spencer's most brilliant devices is the blend of dream, DTs, and supernatural events that keep both readers and characters guessing as to what is real and what exists only the mind of the recovering alcoholic Lowry. We are drwn into the most surreal occurrences through Lowry's clear and natural voice, and while 1st-person narration takes some of the suspense out of a horror novel, Spencer manages to make us care about the secondary and even tertiary characters enough that we are pulled along to the end. And we want to know what he'll come up with next. Highly recommended.

Bill Spencer is a master of prose and storytelling. I have had the pleasure of sitting with him, sharing a couple of Cokes and talk about the struggling of just trying to get published and gain an ounce of recognition. Bill writes for the love of it. And if you ever met the man you would find him sheer pleasure. He is an open, honest human being that expels his wit onto the page.

Irrational Fears is only another fine work by Bill. I happen to work in the Criminal Justice field and have an understanding how drug and alcohol abuse programs work. He obviously draws from some strong source to write this book, and throws a bit of demonic rage into the mix. It's a great book filled with things you'd never expect. Read it.

Well written but incomplete. You are left wondering what happened to certain individuals and the outcome of some scenarios. Difficult to differentiate between what the author imagined and what really happened because most of the book is reality, but a few paragraphs are dream sequences. In other words, during much of the book I felt like I was left hanging. The end of the book is neat and tidy where the author "finds God" and all is forgiven. There are a lot of fine points to the book and insight to be gained from it, but.......

This book is a real eye-opener. I had not idea that gambling could be so devasting. The author describes her addiction in such vivid detail, that
I was sometimes left feel as though I had somehow experienced it myself. It serves as a powerful warning as to the dangers of additction that can sneak up on pretty much anybody who gambles. I think it should be mandatory reading for anyone who gambles "for fun". The author started out having "fun" too. But she sure paid for it in the end. I think it would be a good piece of literature for gambling counselors and rehab centres to have on hand. I really liked that it was not all doom and gloom. It offers a light at the end of the tunnel and provides some helpful information for other problem gamblers. I read the whole thing in one night. Didn't want to put it down.

'Weeds and Roses' is a shockingly truthful account of one woman's downward spiral into pathological addiction, her six years in this self-made hell and her courageous battle to overcome insurmountable odds in order to live addiction free. In the telling of her story the author keeps you on the edge of your seat as chapter by chapter the tension builds and builds. You find yourself wondering what she will think of next to raise money to support her addiction. And just when you think she can't sink any lower or pull off one more scam she does, each deception more clever and more desperate than the last. 'Weeds and Roses' should be required reading for anyone contemplating entering a gambling facility for the first time.
I highly recommend this gem of a book to anyone who is looking for an excellent read.

In her book, Where Weeds and Roses Grow, Joan Spencer has captured the pain and desperation of the female compulsive gambler. It is a fascinating book and is not just a war story. Joan leads us through the addiction and gives the reader a visual image of the destructive path that compulsive gamblers travel. Her book is a much needed story because there are thousands of women addicted to gambling and no books in the bookstores or libraries for them to read. Joan shares her deepest secrets and shows us how she lost her identity in her addiction. She traveled a path through Hell and found the courage to come out on the other side and find recovery. This book is a real story written by a real lady who experienced the gambling addiction and should be read by anyone who may have a gambling problem or knows someone who may have a problem.

My mother-in-law, the author, sent it to me and asked for my truthful opinion -- so here it is! I loved this book. I don't normally read romance novels, but when I started this book, I just couldn't put it down!

The main characters Georgia Manning and Michael Dellacruz were both likeable and attractive. I could certainly relate to Georgia and her infatuation with Michael, in spite of a happy marriage. And a younger man, too! Talk about electricity! I could feel the excitement and the spark between Georgia and Michael throughout the book -- even though the author didn't spend a lot of time in graphic detail. That is quite a feat, and a sign of real, in-depth character development by this new author.

I can't wait for the next Geri Spencer Hunter novel to burst onto the virtual bookshelves! I will be recommending this book to my two bookclubs. I can't wait to hear what my friends have to say!

Continued future success to the author!

A friend gave me this book, said she read it in a single sitting, and suggested I read it. I must say, I was hesitant to take a look at it initially because romance is way outside my normal reading genre. But when she said it was about an author writing her first novel (which I have been struggling with for a few years!), I must say, it piqued my interest.

To say I was pleasantly surprised by the story line would be an understatement. The main characters, Georgia Manning (a mid-50s African American writer) and Michael Dellacruz (a late- 30s Caucasian publisher), first see each other in a restaurant and almost immediately become infatuated. As I have a tendency to let my eyes (and as a writer, ears) wander much too frequently, and on occasion wander to older women, I identified almost immediately with Michael (although I don't have nearly as much money as him!). And the other main character? Well, I can say I think I fell in love with Georgia (and her daughter!!!! !!) about half way through the book even though I am a few years younger than Michael and also married!

Although I didn't read the book in one sitting like my friend (it took me two), I did have trouble putting it down. I have since passed on the book to another lady friend who has yet to report back.

Ok. im sorry to say this but this book was bland. i guess i expected some spice but instead i only received a not so tangy read. even though georgia had the spice but she didnt carried it out...i think jess had that and more but she wasnt the main character. not saying that georgia should had cheated on her husband but come on now...add some spice to the imagination...i wanted to read about michael's and georgia's thoughts...how michael was making love to georgia in his mind...it would have been a great book if the author would have added some passion, enthusiasm, and/ or some type of emotion...lust, desire, love, hate, etc. in the book.

Polkadots is a sensitive exploration of an attractive middle-aged black woman's experience of becoming a successful published author and the personal challenges she faces as she finds herself caught in a mutual attraction with a handsome younger white male, who turns out to be the one who will publish her book. This is a story written with much insight, wisdom, dignity, taste, depth, and honesty, and it is a story with very believable and very likeable characters.

As a settled married woman with a family, new to the world of personal publicity that goes with success, Georgia finds herself wrestling with unexpected issues arising from the relationship she forms with Michael, her publisher. Family and friends on either side of the equation must be answered to, as must be also the hearts and minds of Georgia and Michael themselves.

When I'd finished the book, I came away feeling I'd been given a window into what it is like to write and publish a book for the first ! time. I greatly appreciated how Geri Spencer Hunter treated her characters and their issues with so much respect, and it was very rewarding time spent sharing their story.

This is an an extraordinary book and quite relevant to analyzing our own cultural images and how they shape our thinking, beliefs, values, attitudes and most of all our behavior. Zanker shows how a culture can be radically transformed incrementally and over time by its visual images which includes art, architecture, dress, patterns of human interaction, and public entertainment. What's relevant here to our own day is how Rome was transformed from a Republic to the rule of one man and the role of visual images in that process.

John F. Gilligan, Ph.D.

A wonderful tour of the early Roman empire framed within a rigorous theoretical discussion. Zanker skillfully illustrates how an empire was built by the manipulation of public thought through the use of images, or in other words, propaganda. Shapiro contributes with a lively and nearly transparent translation.

This book is an excellent example of how art critique can be used to analyze politics and history. Paul Zanker does an exceptionally thorough job as he systematically works his way through the end of the Republic to the heights of Augustan Rome. The book includes tons of photographs, coins, maps and reproductions to illustrate appropriate points in the text. The thesis of the book is to show how art was used to convey the importance and dignity of the new Imperial system. Despite the breadth of material presented here, the text is smooth and understandable.

There really isn't enough space in a review to adequately cover this book. Zanker's main thrust is to show how Augustus rebuilt and remodeled Rome with himself at the center. The styles that Augustus used were quickly picked up and duplicated by the Roman upper classes, as well as those in the provinces. My favorite section of the book concerns the coinage. Augustus minted coins closely linking himself to Julius Caesar in order to establish himself as the heir apparent (which he was) to Caesar. Coins were also used to commemorate Augustus's triumph at Actium over Antony, and also to promote Augustus's conservative legislation concerning marriage and childbirth. Although Augustus slowly consolidated power under the title of princeps, he took great pains to show Rome that he was bringing about peace, prosperity and honor, all things that had been missing during the civil wars. Is Augustan art propaganda? It could certainly be interpreted that way, even though there was no "Ministry of Information" in Rome.

An excellent book, although there are a few problems. One of them is the tendency of art critique to see things that others may not. Zanker's descriptions of statues of Augustus are a good example. While I can agree with his depictions of the later Augustan busts as showing a calm, sort of omniscient demeanor, I have a tough time agreeing with his assessment of an earlier bust of Augustus as nervous and power hungry. This is a small problem with an otherwise great book that will make you think about Rome in a different way.

Zanker offers a fascinating reconstruction of Octavian Augustus' agenda for consolidating his position as leader of the Roman world. He does this by careful analysis of the buildings, statues, coins and other physical objects made during the rule of Rome's first emperor. Zanker understands well the impact of visual communication and uses it insightfully. He doesn't simply catalog artifacts, he interprets them and connects them within a broad system of consciously articulated ideology. In two decades of academic reading, this is one of the two most memorable books I read.

With the basic science being so new and changing so rapidly, this second edition is timely and welcome. Virtually every chapter has been re-written to bring it up to date. The result is a text suitable for use in upper under grad or beginning grad level course in functional genomics or bioinformatics. The six chapter headings are:

Genome Projects: Organization and Objectives
Genome Sequencing and Annotation
SNPs and Variation
Gene Expression and the Transcriptome
Proteomics and Functional Genomics
Integrative Genomics.

The book is well written and profusely illustrated with color drawings and photographs. The book is closely allied with the web in form of accessable databases and the like which may keep it from going out of date so fast.

With most text books being so expensive, this book is a definite sleeper in the field.

The book is very poorly written and is too difficult to follow to be called a "primer." Authors often focus on actual software tools and how to use them rather than the science behind them.

To be fair, the graphics offered in the book are excellent and sometimes are the only way to understand a difficult concept.

The preface says to be familiar with "the content of a typical 300 level undergraduate course in genetics" -- it should be a definite prerequisite for reading this book.

This somewhat understated book may be overlooked based on its title, and yet it represents the best book currently in print to provide a solid overview of the science and issues in genome science, functional and structural genomics, and the subdiscipline proteomics. Chapter 1 describes current progress with mapping genomes, including the human genome and other genomes in plants and animals. Chapter 2 describes sequencing approaches and gene identification. Chapter 3 deals with gene expression and technologies. Chapter 4 focuses on proteomics including brief introductions to 2D-PAGE and mass spectrometry. This chapter also briefly introduces the reader to structural genomics, or the prediction of protein structure based on sequence through threading and modeling. After a chapter on single nucletide polymorphisms and genotyping the book concludes with a chapter on integrating genome studies including the use of in silico approaches.
Although scant in detail in parts, a major strength of the book is the wide coverage given to science of genomics and its offshoots. Overall an excellent course text for undergraduate or early postgraduate students or others interested in these emerging disciplines. I am not aware of any competing texts which such coverage and certainly not at the price of this one.

Every technician and/or PI should own a copy of this text for their lab. With the logical diagrams and full explanation of the text, this book is really condensed and assumes some knowledge of molecular biology. This book does not assume knowledge of genomics, but rather serves as a manual.

harriet was no stranger to private and public scandels but lived a life she wanted to.she had two unwed childern while hiding pregancy when living with her husband.running up huge gambling debts,being interest in politics when women had no say in politics at all.

Highly recommend this book. Harriet had a celebrated life like her more famous older sister, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Harriet's world included a who's-who of late 18th-early 19th century English society. If you liked Amanda Foreman's book on Georgiana, you will really enjoy this book on Harriet...a star in her own right.

Before I read the biographies of Harriet and Georgiana, I thought the stories of £50,000 gambling debts were just made up for romantic novels. Harriet and her sister Georgiana, members of the influential Spencer family, made "brilliant" marriages, set the fashion trends of their times, lived scandalous lives, and mixed with royalty in England and across Europe. Their interest and influence in politics were incredible for a time when women were still thought of as useless and frivolous creatures. This biography is well documented and gives a great introduction to late 18th Century English society.

History, especially that which is viewed through the eyes of women, has always fascinated me. Over the last decade, one period of history that has really started to interest me is that of Georgian England, during the reigns of the five Hannoverian kings -- George I, George II, George III, George IV, and William IV.

While at the time, women could not vote, directly own property, and legally were considered to be children -- they were able to have influence on, and at times manipulate, the world around them. In Privilege and Scandal author Janet Gleeson shows the life of one woman who did just that.

Henrietta Frances Spencer, the youngest surviving daughter of the Earl Spencer and his wife, was beautiful, smart and possessed of a great deal of charm. As with her elder sister, Georgiana, she was expected to marry well, produce children, and be a credit to both her family and her new husband. She grew up very close to her older sister, a bond that would last all of their lives together. But Harriet, as she was known, was also passionate, determined and craved excitement in her life, all of which would eventually prove her undoing.

She married, after several failed courtships, Lord Duncannon, the heir to the Earl of Bessborough and a wealthy Irish peer. And Harriet, with the help of her sister, Georgiana, now the Duchess of Devonshire, entered into London political society with full abandon. Once she had produced the necessary heirs to her husband, two sons and a daughter, she also gave into the admiration of the gentlemen around her, affairs that she tried to keep discreet, but sometimes got a bit out of hand, especially when it came to the playwright and politician Richard Sheridan.

If this sounds shocking to twentieth first century readers, in a time when marriage was made more for financial gains and family connections, if the partners were discreet, and quiet about it, affairs could be tolerated. Unluckily for Harriet, her husband was very possessive and jealous, and Harriet did her best to keep things quiet. That is, until she met Lord Granville Gower, the younger son of a noble family who was possessed of outrageous good looks, a great deal of charm and brains to boot. While Harriet tried not to give in -- by this time she had given birth to a fourth son -- soon enough there were whispers of an affair, and Harriet was terrified that word would get back to her husband.

And that marriage was shaky. There were rumours that there would be a divorce, and Harriet's health was already undermined from stress, several miscarriages, and what appears to be a series of strokes. She had already courted scandal by overspending, a bad habit of living and gambling on credit -- enough to where the Bessborough estates were mortgaged to the hilt, and the family was about to declare bankruptcy -- and her outspoken support of liberal politicians such as Fox and Sheridan. The pamphleteers and cartoonists of the day found both Georgiana and Harriet prime targets for satire and there were times when both women, with sometimes children, mother and servants in tow, would escape to the Continent to evade scrutiny.

Then the worst happened -- Harriet found herself pregnant by Lord Granville....

I'm not going to reveal much more of this story, as how it all worked out for Harriet, Georgiana, their husbands and children does make for remarkable reading. I had always wondered why the women of the Regency period had such loose reputations, especially with the later Victorians, but now, it becomes much more clear. Women were finding a new freedom, in the press, in the arts and in politics. And Harriet, determined to enjoy it all, did just that.

Author Janet Gleeson creates a vivid portrait of Harriet Spencer, using Harriet's letters, those of her contemporaries, and the history of the times to write this story. The depictions of high society life in London and France are particularly strong, and compelling to read. The writing style and pacing get somewhat dry at times, and slow the book down about a third of the way through, but once Harriet meets Lord Granville, the story truly picks up again.

I found Harriet to be a very interesting woman to read about, complex and at times maddening, but also very sympathetic. Gleeson, to her credit, doesn't go too far in making her subject unbelievable or overly romantic, but stays within what is known, and only rarely goes and makes conjectures about Harriet.

If the name Spencer is familiar, yes, this particular Spencer family were the ancestors of that Lady Diana Spencer who would live and die so tragically.
For those who would like to learn more about the Spencers and the world that they lived and moved in, I would recommend two other biographies, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman (republished as The Duchess and made into a film starring Kiera Knightley) and Elizabeth and Georgiana: The Duke of the Devonshire and His Two Duchesses by Caroline Chapman and Jane Dormer. All three books provide a well-rounded picture of turbulent times and a fascinating group of people.

As well as the story itself, there are ample notes, two inserts of black and white photos showing portraits and places, as well a bibliography that gives hints for further reading. Happily, a genealogical chart unsnarls the complicated relationships.

Four stars overall, and recommended for those interested in this period of time.

When I first read this book six years ago, I was struck by its leisurely pace -- some readers in today's "now" technological age might find the text maddeningly slow -- but that is the delight in a book of this sort, written in 1912. Tomlinson's meditations, ruminations and wanderings are part of the larger adventure reflected in the times in which he took the "Capella" voyage. And, from these digressions come crisp, first-rate descriptions of the ship, its crew, and the surroundings. Even today, I can recall certain passages that still strike me in their clarity and precision (Ex: the huge, turbine arms of the Capella's engines whir and thump with "bird-like alacrity."). This book requires patience and indulgence, but is extremely rewarding for someone in this right frame of mind.

H M Tomlinson, a newspaper office employee, sets off on an adventurous and dangerous trip in a steamer in 1909. He is in for a wild winter Atlantic crossing that brought to mind A PERFECT STORM. This if followed by a medically risky and awesome adventure up the Amazon-with all the crew popping quinine and wrapping themselves in mosquito netting. The book was particularly enjoyably for me, in part because the author seemed so ordinary--he had read travel books and refers to them in the text, but he had a pretty ordinary day job. He also was just my grandfather's age and they both loved travel--and shared the family name of Tomlinson-a connection with some unknown, but now sort of knowable, British cousin. There was something of John McPhee's LOOKING FOR A SHIP in this book--the character sketches and the palpable heat of the tropics. But it does not have the tight focus of that work. There are parts of this book that had me roaring out loud in an airport waiting room. But, the man could have used an editor. When he was good he was very good. But this work might best be used as fodder for a good editor a la Mary Morris's wonderful MAIDEN VOYAGES.

Tomlinson traveled in a ship hauling cargo to the head of navigation on the Madeira River, cargo for construction of the Madeira-Mamore railway. At that time, the upper reaches of the Madeira were as wild and inaccesible as any place on earth, including Antarctica. It's said that a man died for every crosstie on the railroad, and that's probably not a huge exaggeration. So Tomlinson's trip was a true adventure, even though his writing style is modest.

His account of the Amazon and the Madeira near the beginning of the 20th century is fascinating, and his anecdotes about his time at the construction site are hilarious. He comes across as a modest man with an adventurous streak and a wonderful sense of humor. This book is a delight to read as a sheer travel adventure.

It is also the only easy-reading description I've encountered of what was then the sheer wilderness of much of Amazonia was like before it was opened up by the advent of airplanes and the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway. Even now, much of Brazil's part of the Amazon basin is wild, but now one can get in and out of all but the most remote spots conveniently. In Tomlinson's day, a million square miles was still mostly unmapped and almost unexplored; reading this book is an easy way of learning what true wilderness was like.

I recommend it highly; it's one of my favorite books.

I loved this book for its dramatic yet humorous portrayal of a sea voyage across the Atlantic and an exploratory trip up the Amazon River in the early 20th century. If you can handle long sentences, he is a wonderful writer. I will never forget the passage about the shrunken head!

The book was ok up until the middle of it when things took a drastic turn. When I first started reading the book I was having difficulty deciding what era this book was taking place. At first I thought maybe regency but then comes in the corvette. Towards the middle of the book I felt like grabbing Cat's shoulders and shaking her for her stupidity. After that I felt like grabbing Clay's shoulders and shaking him for acting like a child. I don't know about you all but what I look for in a romance book is that it has some sort of escapist quality to it. I don't mind some drama but please make it more interesting. Simply put i was disappointed that's why i gave it 2 stars. This is my first book by this author hopefully the next one that i read will be more to my liking.

I have never read a book that awoke me in the night to continue reading...I just had to know what happens next. The characters are so very real, we could each be any one of the character...so very true to life.

It is realistic and so much pain on the two....A virgin having a night out to have a revenge on the father(but luckily he is not the father..) by doing something that she is not... and got pregnant by a man who didn't even remember her.. not to say love her... Such a torturous time for them when the only solution is to get married.... Hard time but love finally finds its way.... Such a good story...Love hurts....I finished it all throughout the night... from 8:00pm until 11:00 am !!!! Is it not bad to really know how the story ends...

This is the third Spencer book I read...and I have to say I haven't been disappointed yet. These books just keep being passed along from family member to family member. This book was absolutely wonderful. The characters are well developed and it captures you from the moment you open the book. Many mornings did I wake with bags under my eyes from reading late into the night. It is truly a touching story. This could very well be a true story. Aside from "Seperate Beds" I've also read "That Camden Summer" and "Home Song". Both books were heart wrenching, but beautifully written as well. If you have read this and enjoyed it I highly recommend you pick up these 2 other books if you haven't read them already.

'Stephen Hero' the autobiographical novel Joyce would have completely destroyed, was converted at the urging of his friend Italo Svevo into the literary masterpiece ' A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'. The early work is longer, more discursive and relaxed . Joyce takes the same material and transforms it in a portrait to a 'mythic story' of ideal artistic development.
The comparison of the two works , the transformations and condensations Joyce makes, the making more startingly clear in the latter work the development of the sensibility in stages- do provide a double - portrait of a master artist at work.

Stephen delves deep into the error-trapping loops of Jesuit doctrine, sounding its minatory hollows, vivisecting its repressive will-to-venom. A stately young apprentice, equipped with esthetic tools he himself has made, Daedalus spends precious little time studying for his exams, paying knee-tribute in the entropo-oedipal chambers of the chapel, nor allowing himself to be terrorized into stupidity by fiction-blind men of the Church. EXILE TEACHES ONE TO SENSE AND VALUE. Stephen's rejecting passion strives to evade the conflict-spirals of "Irish paralysis," the decades-dead mausolea of a distant Papal dispensation. For the eroded statuary of Doctrine has been subsumed by the zesty rind of the Epiphany, a crystallization of the fragmentary present into a seeing-place for the exilic soul. In a fine irony, Stephen must reconcile his aesthetico-ethical ideals with a grave intellectual debt to that greatest doctor of the church, St. Thomas Aquinas; can Stephen ever truly purge himself of the Irish Catholic gene-machine? --*Stephen Hero* is a great task but well worth it, much in the vein of Beckett's *Dream of Fair to Middling Women*, an apprentice-work with all its warts intact, a revelatory gem far beyond juvenilia. For here we are granted an unprecedented view of Joyce the youthful escape-artist, of the traumata which sustained his greater odes, the dark italics of literary Exile.

Stephen Hero is part of the now-mostly-lost first draft of Joyce's first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The legend goes that Joyce, in a moment of disillusionment, flung the manuscript on the fire and his sister Eileen rescued it. Odd, then, that the MS shows no apparent signs of burnmarks. Either way, the first few hundred pages are missing, so what we have here is a fragment of what would probably have been a very long and rather insufferable autobiographical novel about a clever young man realising that he's too good for the society into which he's been born.

The remarkable thing about it is that even though Joyce is basically transcribing the events of his own life, he's impressively objective. Stephen Daedalus (it became "Dedalus" in the later version) is presented as a bit of a prig, almost comically outraged when it looks like he can't read out a speech to a college debating society, and for all his erudition and genius a twit when it comes to getting his end away with the luscious Emma Clery. Joyce obviously realised this, because when he rewrote the novel he made it not more objective but less so, forcing us to see the events from Stephen's point of view, modifying his method as Stephen grows from frightened boy to disdainful young man. Stephen Hero is all told in the same cool third-person that Joyce used in his early stories. He abandoned it when he realised that it was quite inappropriate for the book he really wanted to write.

So what are the virtues of Stephen Hero? For one thing, it shows a lot more of the life around Stephen; Joyce has a lot of fun recording the inane remarks of Stephen's fellow students and the dimwitted inanity of the college president. The family is presented as less of a threat and more of a slightly baffling background hum (Joyce seldom wrote as kindly about his mother as he does here, even if he made her death one of the equivocal emotional centres of Ulysses). Stephen's artistic theories are _explained_, rather than being _demonstrated_ as they are in A Portrait (and while this is part of how much better a book A Portrait is, it's nice to see them set down, as well.) But in the end you have to admit that if Joyce had published this as his first novel, he mightn't have had the reputation he has today as being a man who published nothing but masterpieces. Dubliners is the best starting point if you've never read Joyce before and want to see what the fuss is about. Stephen Hero, on the other hand, is no masterpiece, but it's perhaps the only book by James Joyce that you could recommend to people going on a long train journey.

Stephen Hero, the latter half of a rejected first draft of Portrait (apocrypha: Joyce flung his manuscript into a fire only to have Nora save part of it), offers Joyce fans a glimpse of his literary style and development as a young buck of nineteen to twenty-four. Portrait, written ~7-12 years later, is a condensation of the initial thousand pages of Hero with several layers of symbolism and effects added. Portrait shines the spotlight of Stephen's intellect upon the dim world of his own perception; Hero sets an objective reality in the plain light of day in simple, effective prose. Hero's style allows Stephen's arrogance to come across much more clearly than in Portrait. His adolescent conflicts are more easily relatable to the reader, whereas in Portrait those conflicts are arranged dramatically to occasion his birth as an artist, complete with his moderately original neo-Aristotelian, applied Aquinas heuristic. This text is NOT suitable as an introduction to Joyce (Dubliners is obviously the way to go in that respect). Those who are already committed fans of Portrait should with a little patience find Hero an engaging read.

This product is great. It is all laid out by days so there is not guess work on what he needs to complete. It also gives a variety of subjects per day. Great book.

I am a student who wants to get ahead anyway I can. This book has a lot I need to know and is time eater. The book has all subjects, and does bring you ahead. I hope you enjoy this book too. Have a great school year.

My children have been using the Summer Bridge books since elementary school and they have really helped them academically. I highly recommend this resource to others (even adults would benefit, if you are in need of a refresher course).

I did not find this workbook relevant to 7th/8th grade curriculm for science or social studies and overall way too basic for math or english at 7th/8th grade. More for elementary school 3,4,5 grade.
As far as a "summer bridge" I would suggest that you encourage your kids to playing games and activities outside or board games on rainy days than this book.