Stevens Books

With the recent untimely passing of baseball hero Kirby Puckett, it's particularily worth noting that SWINGING FOR THE FENCES: BLACK BASEBALL IN MINNESOTA includes an oustanding chapter on the life of Puckett.

The chapter on Puckett's life was penned by sportswriter and author Jay Weiner, who was the Twins beat writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune during the 1980s. Weiner does a brilliant job in telling the "rags-to-riches" story of the offspring of the Chicago housing projects who became the smiling face of the Minnesota Twins.

Weiner reveals the essence of Kirby Puckett, warts and all, and gives the reader a deeper sense of the tragic aura of Puck's career, injury, blindness, groping for posterity, and his induction into baseball's Hall of Fame.

Perspective is needed on Puckett and his place in the baseball record in Minnesota and author Weiner does this in SWINGING FOR THE FENCES: BLACK BASEBALL IN MINNESOTA. The book gives TWINS fans a new level of understanding of baseball in Minnesota, tying the past to the present, to see how it all fits together in a lively style, rich in storylines, filled with pathos of the intertwining of the themes of manhood, fatherhood, and brotherhood. A great read for fans of Puckett and of the Minnesota Twins.

Twenty-three articles by a variety of authors, mostly college professors and journalists, cover the different facets of black baseball in Minnesota from its first days in the latter 1800s down to contemporary times. The general theme running through all of the diversified articles is the "America Dream" and the "American Tragedy" reflected in the histories of the teams and the careers and lives of individual players. The American Dream part of the theme deals with how playing baseball allowed players to strive for high personal achievement as well as enjoy various levels of economic security and social recognition. The American Tragedy part takes in not only the racism and discrimination players faced, but also personal troubles and disappointments of some of them. Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays appear along with many relative unknowns. The exploits of teams named the Fergus Falls Musculars, the Quicksteps, and the Brown Stockings, among others, are related. The vibrant Minnesota black baseball scene going back well over a century is treated in a popular style profiling great and other notable players and following the courses, and occasional dramatic moments, of the teams.

Hoffbeck and his group of writers slice through baseball history in a unique way. Minnesota is not known for its baseball history or its African-American history, so at first glance it does not appear to be a very meaty topic. However, the writers have managed to cull together stories dating from the 1870s, covering the local town team right up to major-leaguers with the Twins. Some of the giants of the game stopped in Minnesota on their way to "the show" and therefore the book appeals to all baseball fans, not just Minnesotans.

"Swinging For The Fences," is a fascinating journey through Minnesota african american baseball history from the late 19th century to the present day. The book focuses on themes such as race, manhood, brotherhood, and fatherhood, and traces the struggles and triumphs of several black ball players who lived and played in Minnesota.Through the stories of remarkable athletes such as Bud Fowler, Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Dave Winfield, and Kirby Puckett, the authors trace the vivid, if not well known,saga of black baseball in the upper midwest , from the town team days right up to the arrival of the Twins and beyond.Unlike many baseball histories, "Swinging For The Fences," doesn't overwhelm you with mind numbing facts and figures and a real love for the game shines through. The book also contains many never before published photos. Painstakingly researched and beautifully written, "Swinging For The Fences," is as exhilarating and fulfilling as a ninth inning rally !
-Todd Peterson, Member, The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

When one thinks of "black" baseball, an image of Jackie Robinson trying to break the Major League Baseball color barrier with the Dodgers comes to mind. About the last thing one would expect is to associate the lily-white state of Minnesota with black bseball, yet, in this intrigingly interesting book, Dr. Steve Hoffbeck shows how many other black baseball players suffered the same struggles as Jackie Robinson, their stories being told for the first time.

Dr. Hoffbeck has assembled a team of 11 writers to tell the detailed story of black baseball players in Minnesota that begins in the late 19th century and ends with sad story of the fallen hero Kirby Puckett. This is not a book that revels in baseball statistics; rather, the writers focus on the players themselves: who they were, where they came from, the color barrier conflicts each had to face, and what happened to them after baseball. It is this personalized approach that grabs the mind of the reader, and makes this book so interesting.

The book is divided into 24 concise chapters, each centered on a particular black baseball player or team. My favorite player chapters were as follows:

1. Earl Batty and his attempt to bring racial equality to the southern "plantation" owner of the Minnesota Twins, Calvin Griffith.
2. Satchel Paige's baseball barnstorming days in Minnesota. I am amazed with the pure pitching genius of 'Ol Satch, and how he was not allowed to compete against white major league baseball players until he was 42 years old in 1948. Even at that age (Paige being the oldest rookie to ever play major league baseball), Paige amazed the fans, his teammates, every batter he faced, and even the umpires with his amazing throwing skills. What a shame a man like Paige was denied his chance to excel at his first love while in his prime - just think of how the record books would look if Paige pitched 20-plus seasons in the major leagues!
3. Toni Stone, the first black woman (or any woman of any color for that matter) to attempt to pitch at the major league level.
4. The chapter on the tragic story of Kirby Puckett, the first black Minnesota baseball superstar, who had the fans of Minnesota in his back pocket, and then lost it all to allegations of spousal abuse and infidelity. Minnesota has never gotten over the fall of their hero Puckett and we lament to this day the sad ending to his stellar career.

The above chapters are only my personal highlights of what has come together as an excellent book on black baseball. Other chapters deal with lesser known black players in Minnesota, yet, the themes of persistence through intense racial persecution and taunting, the shared black brotherhood of baseball, and the sacrifices these men went through to pursue their love of the game shine through.

Hoffbeck and fellow writers have contributed a vital link to the previously untold "missing" history of black baseball.

This book should be in the collection of anyone who loves the game of baseball, for it documents the early pioneers of black baseball, and shows the heavy financial and emotional price the players had to pay to seek their places in the game of baseball. Modern-day black baseball players owe a debt of gratitude to these early pioneers, for it was their superior abilities, pride, and persistence that finally brought down the long-standing nearly impregnable racial barrier of American baseball. Cudos to Hoffbeck and Company for telling their compelling stories.

Jim Konedog Koenig

That's a great book, it has all essential data that a a medical student/Intern/Resident is expected to know (or to "carry everywhere"). This is like a small pharmacological memory chip that's always in my shirt pocket. It often helped me to save patients' life right in that moment, before I can find any other larger reference books around... So, just get it!
(Warning: this book has a kind of addicting potential - once you use it, you are gonna use it daily).

This is THE most essential, and most used book I own. I get a new one every year because it's so worn out by the end of a year from the use.

A friend and I were talking about this book. "Obviously," he said, "it was written by a clinician." This is extremely high praise.

I discovered this book several years ago. Now, I don't go to work without it. I can look up any drug in the world within seconds (the index helpfully tells you whether the listing is at the top, middle or bottom of the page) and find out basically everything I need to know: what class of drug, what it's used for in clinical practice, how it's metabolized, can you give it to pregnant women, can you give it to breastfeeding women, what's the relative cost, what's the usual dosage and route, what's the DEA classification . . . and also read a sentence or two along the lines of "One or two things you should know about this drug:" for example, terazosin: "First dose at bedtime to avoid orthostatic hypotension."

To compress the entire PDR into 127 pages that fit into your shirt pocket is a truly impressive work of scholarship. Saunders comes in a close second, and the Washington Manual a distant third. The Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia is, in my opinion, the most useful medical book ever published.

As an internal medicine resident this book is absolutly vital to my life and practice. In nearly three years I have not once gone to work without it in my pocket. The book is small enough to carry anywhere, well organized, full of useful information and contains every drug you will be perscribing on a regular basis. Whether you are a medical student or a resident, you need this book!

As a resident I have found this book to an invaluable tool for physicians, 3rd and 4th year medical students. It packs an incredible amount of information into such a small package. The book includes every medication, dosage, formulation you'll ever need. It includes a number of obscure drugs as well as off label indications, which come up quite often, not included in epocrates. I had to dig up this classic after being left high and dry by epocrates a number of times. There are a number of charts such as BSA, ACLS, safe drugs during pregnancy that are great as well. Overall this book is definitely worth the pocket space.

This is a very engaging read. It's rather scary, I think--especially since this man is a real person. If you want a book that will keep you thinking long after you've read it, get this one. This is a very fine effort, an enjoyable read.

An excellent book, a bit scary. This guy would CON anyone. There are a lot of great tips on what I can do to keep my grandfather from being conned.

This book is a must read for those who want to climb inside the criminal mind and protect themselves from those who think that way. Keep yourself one step ahead of crooks and read this book. You'll be glad you did!

Telling it All: My Life as a Con Man is the true-life memoir of professional African-American con man "Alabama Fats", as told to author Steven Levi. Alabama Fats was a black man who made a career of working the streets and conning people out of their money, whether through a game of Three Card Molly or by posing as a Bank Agent or selling junk jewelry for far more than its true value. His talent was to sucker marks (or "lames", as he calls them) who thought they would be cheating him - often with the help of a partner. "I'm not writing this book to help the con; I'm doing it for the old people who are going to get conned, because there are lots of people just like me out on the streets." Alabama Fats is unrepentant of the cheating he did, but gives the straight scoop on the life of a scam artist, and how the nature of the con evolved from the 30's and the Great Depression to the war-torn 40's to the latter half of the twentieth century when cars became more common than trains, to the modern era of credit cards and checks, when cash isn't so easy to find on lames anymore. An utterly captivating "must-read" especially for anyone who thinks they're immune to the con. "If you are a young person reading this book, keep an eye on your mother and father and grandparents... Know who they are talking to. Con men like me will sting anyone. We don't care and the older people are the easiest to con... If you don't watch out for your parents and grandparents, they will lose it all... If they are in a nursing home and lose it all, they could end up living with you." Highly recommended.

Dave Gray (AKA Alabama Fats) takes the confessional platform in this excellent book TELLING IT ALL - MY LIFE AS A CON MAN, a reflection of a life of crime as shared by an 80-year-old African American to writer Steven Levi, and what makes this book even better than the rather sensational aspect of its con man content is a survey of social history from 1927 to 2007, a period of great change in the status of African American position in the culture of the USA. It is a terrifically entertaining and informative brief read, but it is also a reflection of change we all need to remember.

Alabama Fats is the child of a poverty stricken family who at age 19 met up with a con artist who introduced him to the profession of taking money from people by means of card games (Three Card Molly) and money scams such as Bank Agents. Fats 'tells it all' without remorse, sharing techniques and secrets of how 'lames' (victims) could be identified and bilked out of their cash. And while this information is rather startling and fascinating and shocking, the method of sharing the changes in the way con men worked as the atmosphere in the USA changed from the Depression years through the post-WW II years, through the spend thrift 1950s, into the 1960s and beyond gives a unique historical vantage: the disappearance of trains as a common means of transportation, the introduction of credit cards and checks overriding the carrying of cash, and the altered view of the African American male with the shift from Inner City ghetto life to integration of cities and the speedy exit modes of the automobile culture changed the approach of the con artist as 'progress' altered life in the US.

If the book is at times repetitive (and what conversation with older people isn't?) and despite excessive editorial flaws, this is a fine little book to read and from which to learn. Steven Levi captures a refreshing freedom of style that makes this little volume feel like an oral history, and while Alabama Fats makes no apologies for his life as a con man, he concludes his true story with a warning for folks (especially the vulnerable elderly) to be aware that the streets are still populated with artists trained to take their money. Grady Harp, September 07

Trickster, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is one of the best books that I have ever read. It's about a boy named David whose parents get a divorce. He has to go and live with his mom. To help David take his mind off of things, she takes him to the farm where he used to ride horses. One day, David rides away from his group. David gets a chance to work at a vet clinic and David and the rest of the kids and Dr. Mac are going on a trip to the same farm. Find out what happens next in Trickster.
I like the book because the book is interesting, funny, exciting and sometimes you can't even put the book down. It's one of my favorites in the whole world.
I think that the author (Laurie Halse Anderson) could have put a little more past times in the book, maybe a little more exclamatory events too.
The message to this book is to help others when they are in trouble. Also, be responsible and don't always play around.

I absolutely LOVE any Wild at Heart Books, and I can never put them down. I would strongly suggest that you buy this book for you, friend, or a family member. Anyone could find something that they enjoy in these books!!!

I liked Trickster a lot and I want to read a lot more wild at heart books!

If you want to read this book go for it. This book is one of my favorit books. If you like books about horses this is a book for you. this is an exiting book. once you read this book and you love it look for other wild at heart books such as Masks, fight for life, teachers pet,homeless and lots more! if you think you might like it I say go for it!

The Wild At Heart book Trickster is a great book. I finished the book in two days , i just couldn't put it down. This book kept me on the edge of my seat. I like horses, but by reading this book i love them even more. This book has one of the best endings i have ever read. All of the Wild At Heart books are very good, but Trickster is the best.

I agree with one of the previous reviewers, as 'every new writer does need this book'... to bolster their understanding of the craft of writing. In his preface, the author notes that it was the offhand comment of one of his creative writing students which inspired him to write this book in the first place. She had commented that creative writing was the only course she'd ever taken in which students were expected to know everything before they started such a class. By everything, of course, I think she meant a foundation for writing. In The Truth About Fiction by Steven Schoen, you'll find a comprehensive treatment throughout the book of such a foundation in such dedicated chapters as details, character, plot, story structure, and on through dialogue, point of view, and style. Besides appendixes on research, publication and market research, and manuscript style, a glossary and index are included.

The book is a standalone for anyone who wants to begin writing. In fact, it was the only required text for an online short story class I took from a major university. The material is concise, in that it truly does express a lot in a minimum amount of words, and straightforward, as it offers no-nonsense beginning-level emphasis on craft.

For the price now (which has increased remarkably since I first purchased the book little more than a year ago), you simply cannot go wrong if you are still considering the purchase of this book. As another reviewer wrote (again, within the preface of the book), "The book is lean and efficient. No fluff, no nonsense - everything is to the point." As my instructor always said in regard to good fiction "...it's what's on the page that is important," this book will give you a running start so that you can concentrate on the creative aspect of your work. This really is one book you don't want to miss having if your're a writer... at any level.

Steven Schoen does an absolute thourough job in "The Truth About Fiction." If you are just starting to mark up some pages or if you have some stories or poems already finished, this book should be your bible for writing.

You get examples, exercises, do's and dont's and just strait rules of common sense for writing. There are so many aspects of writing and Schoen formats them to help guide you through with less frustration, causing your creativity to flow more naturally.

I read this book for a college class and I doubt I will be selling it back to the bookstore.

Check it out!

Teaching creative writing is harder than it looks, and Schoen offers a set of neatly organized topics with succinct overviews, limited examples and useful exercises. At 100 pages the book leaves room for supplemental readings.

A seminar-based course might not need this book, but for beginning writers it should fill the need for hands-on instruction in story-telling techniques.

The writing course could use a clearer plan of action. How will a student compose a story using this book? Also, the teacher should bring a stronger sense of mission than Chapter 1 ("Lying 101") offers.

Finally, though, Schoen does emphasize the central importance of dynamic characters driving plot. This will allow me, for example, to make moral agency (briefly, every character's freedom of choice, causative craftsmanship in multiple contexts, internal and external reaction, and the actor's past and future responsibility) the center of the story that my students will write.

I plan to use this book to teach a community ed. fiction writing class. It is very approachable with practical, usable advice. Also, the format works well for quick reference. A very handy introduction to fiction writing.

I had the distinct pleasure of taking Steve Schoen's creative writing class a but back. He had just got the deal for this book to be done, but used early drafts to teach the class (and get reader feedback). Anyone who wishes jump into beginning level story writing will enjoy this. It covers all the bases well, from idea formulating to conventions to writing to an audience. I recommend this heartily.

review by Tee L. Guidotti, MD, MPH University of Alberta Edmonton
JAMA 1995; 273(12):971. Understanding Lung Sounds, by Steven Lehrer, 2nd ed, 150 pp. with Illus, paper, and 1 audiocassette, $35.95 ISBN 0-7216-4902-5, Philadelphia, Pa, WB Saunders, 1993. Steven Lehrer's introduction to auscultation is a primer of pulmonary diagnosis using lung sounds as its unifying theme. Intended to educate the ear as much as the mind, his kit is a self-contained learning experience for the medical student. It may also be useful for critical care and pulmonary service nurses. The kit is an excellent learning system and is highly recommended as an introduction to the topic. The book begins with an homage by Victor McKusick to the Golden Age of auscultation, introduced by Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec in 1816. The sketch is too brief to elaborate on the fascinating history of auscultation, which at the time was a monumental undertaking. Laennec codified his work in 1819 in his book Traité de l'auscultation médiate, an effort that exhausted him and extracted a two-year period of recovery from his career. Laennec was a pupil of Jean Nicholas Corvisart, the leading advocate and systematizer of chest percussion. Mentor and student defined the chest examination as we know it. Lehrer continues the work, as the transmitter of a grand tradition. The first chapter reviews the anatomy of the lung and the physiology of ventilation, omitting blood gas interpretation. Lehrer also introduces common pathological conditions, briefly exploring their auscultatory findings. The second chapter shifts attention to the other end of the stethoscope: the listener. Lehrer discusses sound characteristics, the hearing mechanism, and the stethoscope as an instrument. In the third chapter, he introduces the history and physical examination of the patient with chest disease. Here he departs from the emphasis on auscultation to provide the student with a context for the auscultatory examination--an appreciation for the findings that are likely to accompany the abnormal sounds. Chapter 4 discusses normal breath sounds. This is a fine outline of physical examination of the chest, worth a complete physical diagnosis teaching session with students. It also introduces a simple graphic system of notation. The interested specialist may welcome the discussion of recording systems and waveform analysis. The novice may find this tedious, but the visual display of a waveform does help to prepare one for informed listening. Chapter 5 is what most students will consider the meat of the program, an outstanding and comprehensive treatment of abnormal lung sounds that does not ignore minor phenomena such as mouth noises. Mixing clinical observation with experimental findings, Lehrer explains the origins of abnormal lung sounds and interprets them in keeping with structural and functional changes in the lung. The script to the accompanying tape, a glossary, and an index round out the book. The script and tape provide examples of the more important normal and abnormal lung sounds, followed by a short quiz. Each lung sound is introduced, demonstrated, and explained. Lehrer has the student listen to the tape through a stethoscope to ensure realism. For the more experienced reader, the text reminds one how unsatisfactory the usual descriptors of lung sounds have become. After Laennec's elegant system in French, his English-speaking disciples (who are legion) seemed determined to add their own vocabulary. Both the American Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians have tried to standardize the terminology, in so doing unfortunately reducing it to an impoverished few words: rales (or crackles), wheeze, and rhonchus. Lehrer is wise to use British descriptors, which are more precise. However, there is something evocative about terms like "consonating rales," and one misses the poetry of authors like J. Milner Fothergill, who wrote in his Chronic Bronchitis (New York, NY: GP Putnam's Sons; 1882: pp.23-24): "Careful percussion . . . tells much about the complications of chronic bronchitis; even when it has nothing to say about the malady itself. Auscultation, however, is eloquent, even loquacious, about the disease.... Sometimes, especially when the patient is asleep, there may be quite a musical note...." Medical texts will never be written like that again, but Lehrer's prose is as clear and precise as Fothergill's and on occasion even gets mildly carried away with the romance of its subject.

Simply superb CD/booklet for lung sounds. I recommend it to all students (interns, respiratory, etc) and clinicians who need perfect their skills on chest chest sounds (eg, respiratory therapists and "new young" MDs).

Steven Lehrer's introduction to auscultation is a primer of pulmonary diagnosis using lung sounds as its unifying theme. Intended to educate the ear as much as the mind, his kit is a self-contained learning experience for the medical student. It may also be useful for critical care and pulmonary service nurses. The kit is an excellent learning system and is highly recommended as an introduction to the topic.

The book begins with an homage by Victor McKusick to the Golden Age of auscultation, introduced by Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec in 1816. The sketch is too brief to elaborate on the fascinating history of auscultation, which at the time was a monumental undertaking. Laennec codified his work in 1819 in his book Traité de l'auscultation médiate, an effort that exhausted him and extracted a two-year period of recovery from his career. Laennec was a pupil of Jean Nicholas Corvisart, the leading advocate and systematizer of chest percussion. Mentor and student defined the chest examination as we know it. Lehrer continues the work, as the transmitter of a grand tradition.

The first chapter reviews the anatomy of the lung and the physiology of ventilation, omitting blood gas interpretation. Lehrer also introduces common pathological conditions, briefly exploring their auscultatory findings. The second chapter shifts attention to the other end of the stethoscope: the listener. Lehrer discusses sound characteristics, the hearing mechanism, and the stethoscope as an instrument. In the third chapter, he introduces the history and physical examination of the patient with chest disease. Here he departs from the emphasis on auscultation to provide the student with a context for the auscultatory examination--an appreciation for the findings that are likely to accompany the abnormal sounds.

Chapter 4 discusses normal breath sounds. This is a fine outline of physical examination of the chest, worth a complete physical diagnosis teaching session with students. It also introduces a simple graphic system of notation. The interested specialist may welcome the discussion of recording systems and waveform analysis. The novice may find this tedious, but the visual display of a waveform does help to prepare one for informed listening. Chapter 5 is what most students will consider the meat of the program, an outstanding and comprehensive treatment of abnormal lung sounds that does not ignore minor phenomena such as mouth noises. Mixing clinical observation with experimental findings, Lehrer explains the origins of abnormal lung sounds and interprets them in keeping with structural and functional changes in the lung. The script to the accompanying tape, a glossary, and an index round out the book.

The script and tape provide examples of the more important normal and abnormal lung sounds, followed by a short quiz. Each lung sound is introduced, demonstrated, and explained. Lehrer has the student listen to the tape through a stethoscope to ensure realism.

For the more experienced reader, the text reminds one how unsatisfactory the usual descriptors of lung sounds have become. After Laennec's elegant system in French, his English-speaking disciples (who are legion) seemed determined to add their own vocabulary. Both the American Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians have tried to standardize the terminology, in so doing unfortunately reducing it to an impoverished few words: rales (or crackles), wheeze, and rhonchus. Lehrer is wise to use British descriptors, which are more precise. However, there is something evocative about terms like "consonating rales," and one misses the poetry of authors like J. Milner Fothergill, who wrote in his Chronic Bronchitis (New York, NY: GP Putnam's Sons; 1882: pp.23-24): "Careful percussion . . . tells much about the complications of chronic bronchitis; even when it has nothing to say about the malady itself. Auscultation, however, is eloquent, even loquacious, about the disease.... Sometimes, especially when the patient is asleep, there may be quite a musical note...."

Medical texts will never be written like that again, but Lehrer's prose is as clear and precise as Fothergill's and on occasion even gets mildly carried away with the romance of its subject.

Tee L. Guidotti, MD, MPH University of Alberta Edmonton
JAMA 1995; 273(12):971

Understanding Lung Sounds 2nd edition review from Chest:

"Understanding Lung Sounds is a paperback with accompanying audiotape that provides an introduction to the art of auscultation of lung sounds and physical diagnosis of chest diseases. The book affords a written explanation of the mechanics of respiratory findings and couples it with the schematic representation of sophisticated lung sound analysis. The audiotape provides examples of the described auscultatory findings.

In this edition, Dr. Lehrer covers both normal and abnormal lung sounds, which allows the novice a unique experience in physical diagnosis of the chest. His text is concise and very understandable for the medical student, nursing student, or physician. The accompanying tape is of excellent quality and provides findings that would be hard to assemble at one time, if patients were required. This variety of findings allows the listener, for instance, to compare and distinguish normal from abnormal and low pitched crackles from high pitched crackles.

This text would be a good addition to any medical student's library. As a teacher of Physical Diagnosis, this reviewer also found it to be a highly recommendable adjunct text for the course. Although a bit simplistic for the experienced practitioner, it is well written. This text is an excellent introduction to understanding lung sounds through sight and sound.

Tim Ferguson, MD Evansville, Indiana/ Chest 1995; 107:20

This book-and-tape package guides readers through the sounds and skills of chest auscultation. They get an easy-to-follow, 60-minute cassette that presents actual lung sounds and an accompanying manual that gives them the background to understand what they hear. The reader will be better able to differentiate between normal and abnormal noises, detect pulmonary disorders early, and help plan a management strategy immediately. The 2nd Edition presents how to examine patients by auscultatory percussion, frequency differences between adults and children and the Fourier transformation method of lung sound analysis.

"The content is timely but relatively timeless; it will not soon go out of date." Annals of Internal Medicine

Amazing amounts of detail. Seems extremely well documented with reports and input from firearms experts. Great transition from M1 Garand through to the AR10/AR15. Makes for great referencing from McNamaras' book concerning his tenure as SecDef. Covers in detail the development of the .308 Winchester bullet and compares the the testing of the FN FAL and the M14. As a shooter of an FN FAL rifle, I find this book fascinating reading.

An excellent exposition of the troubled development of this rifle. It took years to develop and was then withdrawn from service after an all too short period of time. Not a book for the casual reader, there are innumeral variations listed, described and illustrated but it gives a good insight into the political machinations and outright skullduggery that lay behind its design and adoption.

The book is well laid out and written, it has lots of illustrations (both photographs and drawings) and is, as is usual for Collectors Grade editions well printed, bound and presented. My only slight quibble is that there is no index but this notwithstanding, it's still firmly in the 5 star category.

US Rifle M14: From John Garand to the M21

By R. Blake Stevens
Collector Grade Publications Inc.
Cobourg, Canada,
1995

I bought this book second hand of Amazon.com, and did not know quite what to expect. However, ever since it showed up in the mail a few days ago, I have not stopped reading it! Quite simply, there is so much interesting information about the m14 in this book, that the M14 enthusiastic will learn a about the trials and tribulations of the Army Ordnance's last rifle. In this book, Stevens traces out the long and tedious development of the m14 rifles. He covers everything from the early experiments with modified M1 Garand (which comprises about half the book) to the evaluations of the m14 as well as the development of the M21.

Starting with the M1E series, Stevens traces the lineage of the m14 through the various test and changes made on the M1 Garand. Detailed reports on the improvement and subsequent evolution of the M1 rifle are reproduced in this book, giving insight into both the ingenuity of the engineers as well as the unfortunate politics that would plague the m14's future. Even included is a reprint of a preliminary Technical Manual on the T20E2; a rifle with remarkable resemblance to the m14 - produced in 1945!

Stevens also describes in detail the selection and production of the M14 rifle. Included are rather heart-wrenching details on the competition between the T44 rifle (soon to be the m14) and the T48 rifle (FN), which shows how close America came to adopting the T48. Stevens spares no effort to include the controversy (a lot was political) that surrounded the M14, and includes reports and findings that seemed to damn the M14 as an inferior rifle the M1 Garand, which late lead the push to adopt the AR-15. While I'm sure more than one M14 enthusiast will feel a bit sad as they read these reports (I sure did!), Stevens also describes the triumphs of the M14. We see a snap shot into the production of the M14 by Springfield, Winchester, H&R, and TRW and how they overcame the problems they faced (some like TRW did better than others), as well as a detailed account of the successful creation of the NM M14 and subsequent M21.

I had always wondered how the m14 came to be, and throughout the book, I found myself saying "Oh that's how they changed the M1 to the m14!" While admittedly, I am a total M14 amateur, I would think that even those with a lot of knowledge on the m14 would learn something from this book. Stevens has done a wonderful job of collecting numerous reports and putting them along with interesting and rare pictures into a cohesive history of the M14. Thanks to this book, the next time I shoulder a M1A or other M14 Clone, I will appreciate the time, effort, and dedication that went into producing that last American battle rifle.

Stevens has many similar books to his credit.This book on the M-14 has what ALL the others have combined in ONE volume.The pics are excellent,drawings and govt papers are included. Any person interested in this weapon would be well advised to BUY only this book and skip picking up ALL the other smaller books.This is NOT a criticism of other writers. Actually I own the other books anyway because I like the books almost as much as the weapons themselves.

Of all the books and articles I have read on the M14 this book is quite outstanding. A must for anybody owning a M14 or interested in this remarkable weapon. For some years now I have been involved in the customing of this weapon and found the book to be most useful. I own and shoot three M14 rifles.

Vulgarian Goulash is not for the squeamish. Lance is an entertaining and descriptive story teller. Each story stands on its own. His stories are carefully crafted, clever, humorous, disturbing and, in some cases, evokes a very visceral reaction. A GREAT read.

In a word, disturbing. This collection of short stories is unlike you have ever read. The stories move swiftly and in many instances reach a disturbing climax. Few happy endings, but the stories are not easily forgotton. Unlike some fiction, Lance weaves a political undercurrent throughout the book. Yes, we have much to fear from authoritarian leaders. But there's no getting around man's inhumanity to man. Disturbing.

Vulgarian Goulash has left one deep, dark imprint on my psyche. I read several of the stories while traveling through airports on my way to Chicago for a holiday, and the images that were retained haunted several of my susequent days of leisure. Pure enternainment at its most crass. The stories work on several different levels at once, creatively engrossing one in the storyline while introducing political, theoretical, ideological, phenomenological and several other lines of thought to characters from all walks of life. With his piercingly clever style of writing and dark, steamy imagination, Lance will chisel pretty deeply into the people who read it. Can't wait until the movie comes out!

Vulgarian Goulash is a book of short stories that are extremely well crafted and utterly unusual. While the sex and violence are hard-hitting, they are part and parcel of our daily life; what we cannot escape even though we do our best to deny such is the case.
Vulgarian Goulash gives you a Lynchian "Blue Velvet" feel that lingers with you for days. But, this book is filled with incredible ideas; unlike any you've ever experienced; truly unique and worthy of a read. Do yourself a favor. Read VULGARIAN GOULASH today.

Steven Lance's "Vulgarian Goulash" is a psychologically
intense collection of provocative short stories that create
a chilling and thought provoking look at the decadence of
the human condition. Sexually charged, it delivers a shockingly bizarre twist of fate for each of the story's participants. The author has a stunning descriptive ability that lingers in your mind. Get ready for a trip down a twilight road that leads to the depths of human depravity.

This book about Wannsee is a welcome surprise. It begins in the 1800s, with the financial machinations of those who would ultimately build it, the skullduggery of at least one man who inhabited it (and paid the ultimate price), this appears to be a conglomeration of writings by the author...and cleverly assembled into a single tale of people, their frailties, and the Jewish home that became the ultimate scene of the so-called Wannseee Conference (20 Jan 1942) where the Final Solution was announced by SS-Obergrueppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich to others of the government functionaries, the Old Guard, and senior officials of the Wehrmacht. While others have focused on that event, this book provides and illuminating context (written by a man named Lehrer, "teacher" in German, ironically). Any individual interested in the Holocaust, the development of the Third Reich from the decimation of Germany following the Treaty of Versailles, will find deep earth to uncover in this beguiling and deceptively short volume. Most highly recommended!

Hadassah Magazine Review-January 2002

Wannsee House and the Holocaust
by Steven Lehrer (McFarland, 196 pp. $32.50)

For most of the years after January 20, 1942, the three-story villa at Am Grossen Wannsee 56-58, on the shore of Berlin's popular recreation lake, was a footnote in the accounts of the Holocaust. Finally it merits its own book.

Steven Lehrer, a radiation therapist, has documented the history of the infamous site where the Third Reich officially implemented the Final Solution. His book is a companion piece to his forthcoming Hitler Sites (McFarland), which is a historical guide to 150 places in Germany, Austria and France associated with the life of Adolf Hitler.

Wannsee House traces the villa's background from its construction in 1914 by a prosperous Berlin merchant and its sale in 1921 to a right-wing industrialist to its purchase by Gestapo chief Reinhard Heydrich with plundered Jewish money as a vacation spa for Nazi security police. Ultimately, it was the location for the conference at which genocide was plotted.

"'God will give him blood to drink!' was the curse of a man hanged for witchcraft that fell upon the inhabitants of Nathaniel Hawthorne's House of The Seven Gables," Dr. Lehrer writes in his introduction. "The Wannsee Villa bears a certain eerie resemblance to Hawthorne's fictional creation, its inhabitants cursed by the evil period of German history to which the house stood witness."

The book, organized as a series of tightly written vignettes, emphasizes that the Wannsee Conference was not the administrative genesis of the Nazis' plans to annihilate European Jewry. Rather, it coordinated and consolidated what was already under way. "By the time of the Wannsee Conference...the Einsatz groups, operating behind the army frontlines, had murdered more than half a million people. Thus there was no need of a decision at the conference to commit mass murder. The Wannsee Conference facilitated the killing."

After World War II, the house became a center for political seminars, then a youth hostel. Fifty years later the building was inaugurated as a historical memorial. In its halls are photographs of Nazi persecution; one room is dedicated to Auschwitz.
The German decision to make the Wannsee house a shrine to victims is another part of the society's effort to remember its past. This book ensures that Wannsee will not be forgotten. --Steve Lipman.

Acknowledgments; List of Illustrations; Introduction;

I. The Wannsee Villa and Fritz Haber

II. Friedrich Minoux Buys the Wannsee Villa and Enters Politics

III. Aryanization, Friedrich Minoux, and the Plundering of the German Jews

IV. Friedrich Minoux Defrauds the Berlin Gas Company

V. Reinhard Heydrich and the Nordhav Foundation

VI. Planning to Murder the Jews of Europe

VII. Ordinary Germans, the Catholic Church, and the Holocaust

VIII. The Wannsee Villa After the Wannsee Conference

Appendix A. A Jew Defined; Appendix B. Letters; Appendix C. The Wannsee Protocol; Appendix D. Biographies of Wannsee Conference Participants; Appendix E. Eichmann's Testimony in Jerusalem About the Conference; Appendix F. Notes on the Film "The Wannsee Conference";

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

by Steve Lipman The New York Jewish Week July 27, 2001. The language brought Dr. Steven Lehrer to Germany nearly 30 years ago. A radiologist, he had studied German in school, had become fluent, and wanted to see the country.

"I just had a fascination with it because of what happened there," says Lehrer. It means the Holocaust.

The Upper West Side resident kept going back because of curiosity. And because of his books.

"Wannsee House and the Holocaust," which describes the background of the villa on a Berlin lake where the Final Solution was plotted by a small group of Nazi leaders in early 1942, was published recently by McFarland & Co., a small firm in North Carolina. "Hitler Sites," a historical guide to some 150 places in Germany, Austria and France associated with Adolf Hitler's life and career, will appear later this year. It's also being published by McFarland.

Lehrer, 56, who works at the VA Hospital in the Bronx and teaches at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, calls both books the first in English on their topics.

His name on the Wannsee book identifies him only as Steven Lehrer - no Dr. "My medical degree didn't exactly relate to this [subject]," he says.

Working first at a typewriter, then later at a computer, Lehrer has written six books since 1979 on such topics as great medical discoveries, cancer treatments, and examining patients by their heart and lung sounds. He also wrote an introduction to a reissued collection of stories by American adventurer-hunter Frank Buck.

"I guess I'm interested in different things," Lehrer, a Los Angeles native, explains.

His interest in the Holocaust, in how a society where Jews apparently were fully integrated could produce the most-systematic genocide in history, sent him back to Germany some 15 times.

How? One answer, the doctor says, is the people. As a Jew - with a German-sounding name - Lehrer says he felt anti-Semitism, in Germans' eyes and in their words, wherever he traveled. "It hasn't changed at all" since World War II, he says.

First Lehrer did the "Hitler Sites" book. He visited the houses and the schools and the homeless shelters and the infamous Munich beer hall and the Berlin bunker where The Fuehrer supposedly died.

"It's difficult for people to understand how he did what he did," Lehrer says. "If you actually go and see these places" - many of them places of poverty - "you see what made him so angry and bitter. You see the level of anti-Semitism that still exists in these places."

The Wannsee book grew out of his research for the sites book. Lehrer toured Wannsee, a government-administered Holocaust memorial since 1992, five times. "Everything there was in German," discouraging foreign visitors. He couldn't find a book in English about the building and its history. So he decided to write one.

"I felt this was a place American Jews should know about," he says.

Based on research from more than a dozen German books and the on-line archives of German newspapers, he relates the history of the villa, the fates of the 15 participants in the Jan. 20, 1942 conference, and the largely unknown story of a Holocaust survivor who lobbied for the site's designation as a national monument.

The book reads like fiction.

"I like to tell a story," Lehrer says. "I've always been a great admirer of Barbara Tuchman," the late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who related historical events through the eyes of their participants. "I've tried to use her approach."

Lehrer's next project is a study of "Jewish entertainers in the Holocaust." That means more trips back to Germany. "I have a reason," he says.

Lehrer doesn't encourage his readers to visit the places he has visited. "I think reading about it is enough."

Although Hitler's extermination of the Jews was well under way by the end of 1941, it was at the Wannsee Conference, January 20, 1942, that Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Reich Security Service, officially announced the Nazi party's pursuit of Hitler's infamous "final solution." This conference was held at a luxurious villa known as the Wannsee House, and both the house and the conference have a complicated and fascinating history, which unfolded as economic and political events drew together wealthy German businessmen and powerful political figures in sometimes surprising ways. This book traces that history from 1914-the year that saw the foundations laid for both the house and the Holocaust-to the present. Appendices provide a wealth of historical documents including the Reich's rules "defining" Jews, letters from Reich Security Service officials providing early documentary evidence of the Holocaust, and a transcript of Adolf Eichmann's 1961 court testimony regarding the Wannsee Conference.

Dr. Joyal's book is filled with up to date scientific research results that are interpreted with an intuitive genius that the medical establishment usually lacks. I, as a Certified Personal Trainer, recommend this book for everyone, regrdless of their health status or fitness level, because Dr. Joyal's advice on diet, exercise, and general lifestyle choices is right on the money. Read it, learn it, live it!
Robert E. Fortini, CFT

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Diabetes is not necessarily an easy read. However, it is very interesting. I suppose we all know diet and exercise can help reduce the risk of diabetes. Do you really know how to alter your diet and exercise? That is where this book comes in.
Joyal explains that diabetes is a form of advanced aging. None of us want that. He goes on to explain what exactly causes this. The really interesting part of this book is the part about preparing foods. Slow cooking is actually the healthiest cooking. I am no longer feeling lazy about using my crockpot.
Anyone with diabetes or a predisposition for diabetes should read this. If you are married to someone who falls into this category, it may benefit you to read this, especially if you are in charge of preparing meals. This is a bit heavy on the science, but don not get bogged down. If you must, skip to the diet part.

The prevention and treatment of this disease is within our grasp and Dr. Joyal has given us the tools to understand and conquer it.

Dr Joyal hits the nail on the head in this well-detailed, unique, and insightful synopsis of the prevention and maintenance of diabetes. As someone who has many close friends with diabetes, I decided to give this book a try for nothing more than educating myself on this widespread disease. Dr Joyal has opened my eyes not only on how people with diabetes can prevent health complications but also on how to take care of myself with the correct balance of diet, exercise, and supplements in order to minimize my risk of contracting diabetes as well as other preventable diseases.

The great thing about this book is that it is not solely for people with diabetes. Anyone looking to become healthier and are just sick of hearing about these fad diets that come and go can definately benefit from reading this. We all know that by eating appropriate portions of healthy food, incorporating a structured and focused fitness regime, taking supplements, and reducing stress are all important factors in becoming healthier. Dr Joyal takes it a step further and tells you WHY these factors are important and how, when all done together and structured, are vital in disease prevention and maintenance.

As soon as I finished this book I gave it to a friend of mine with a serious case of diabetes. Since reading Dr Joyal's book and implementing his suggested methods, I have noticed a dramatic change in his attitude, energy, and overall well-being.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking for better ways to control diabetes or simply for the person looking to get in better shape and has questions about vital nutrients and food preparation.

What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Diabetes aptly portrays prediabetic states and diabetes itself as forms of accellerated aging. Although Doctor Joyal is tackling a complex disease process, his writing is easy to understand and his comprehensive approach to optimize metabolic health is entirely innovative. He emphasizes preventing glycation as a means to reverse the progression of prediabetic states and to reduce diabetes-related end organ damage. The multifaceted approach includes conventional medications but also proposes simple lifestyle modifications that have strong scientific support. The antiglycation eating plan includes specific recipes and preparation techniques. He explores the important and evolving role of natural supplements and presents time efficient programs for stress reduction and exercise. All too often physicians spout the vague mantra of "eat right and get more exercise". This book offers specific, practical, and attainable measures to counter the downward spiral of glycation in diabetes, and I recommend it highly to patients and physicians alike.