Truman Books

I believe it is very difficult to write a book about writing about humor. Truman's book is no exception.

It is better than some of the others, however, because he has no axe to grind about humor. Instead, he points to the "Lego" building blocks of humor and where one can find them: current events, personal experiences, marriage, travel, sports, church or religion, pets, and so forth. Truman also spends considerable time describing how to sell humor to people who want it, but he is totally discouraging about how much one will be paid for this.

If you are looking for a laugh in this book, you will find a couple; but if you are looking on how to write something laughable, then perhaps this one is it.

This book had me laughing and learning. Phil explains the different types of humor, where to get ideas, and how to develop your humor writing skills. Numerous examples from his own writing, and a few from classic humorists, serve well to bring his points home. A list of suggested markets is included to get you started selling your work. If you want to liven up or lighten up your writing, "Writing Humor for more than Laughs" should be your first resource.

Sadly, formal poetry seems to have been left behind even for many of the best of our modern poets. I could digress into one of my harangues about how free verse not based in the forms is not poetry; however, I'll resist. Still, there are some of us who still care deeply about the forms and I am one. In fact, the sonnet remains my favorite of the forms. That is why I was happy to see this book and I was not disappointed by it.

Baer is another who cares deeply about formal poetry. As founding editor of The Formalist, probably the most important magazine dedicated to formal poetry, he has done much to help the forms live on. He also does so through his work.

There are a number of good poems in this book. "Quarantine" is a wonderful, classically flavored sonnet. The first six lines are declarations of how "he" would fly to the side of his love whether she lived across the city, country or world. But we then transition to her "across the room in her sleeping gown" where she is "remote," "a cold, unpassable, infinite distance." Yet, he loves her and she must love him somehow despite her coldness: "needing nothing but him in her companionless hell." Nice.

I wish I had time to explicate more but let me just say that, of Baer's own work, "Balcony," "Snowflake," "Monster," "Pumpkin," "Crime Scene," "Swimming Pool," and "Last Will" are among my favorites.

Baer also includes two sections of translations is this book. Though Baer is clearly a fan of Jorge Luis Borges, neither his couples of poems to Borges or the sequence of translated sonnets did much for me. On the other hand, I found the sequence of sonnets by Luis de Camoes to be excellent. Though Camoes clearly had tragedies in his life, the poetry he drew from his suffering is often wonderful. His sonnet to the Tagus takes me back to Toledo--my favorite Spanish city--and his "Dear Gentle Soul" is very moving. The peak of Camoes' sonnets, however, is the first, "Curse," where we get a pure articulation of his despair: "Wipe away, with death, the day of my birth" which lead into a litany of curses should his time return again: "Let monsters be born. Let blood rain from the sky./Let every mother not recognize her child." Powerful stuff!

This is by no means a perfect book. I've already mentioned the Borges material and the Sermons (to Myself) section wasn't particularly impressive, though I did like "Centurion." Still, there are more than enough excellent sonnets here to make reading this book worthwhile. And maybe, just maybe, reading this will inspire a renewed respect for this important form of poetry.

Although the title suggests that only U.S. policy towards the Arab-Israeli conflict is covered in the book, Peter Hahn provides a concise, yet thorough look at the broader Middle Eastern policies of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower. Far from covering only the Arab-Israeli issue, Hahn looks at the Anglo-American relationship with the other major Arab countries in the region such as Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. At the beginning of the book, Hahn acknowledges the inherent difficulty of writing about such a touchy political topic. His stated goal is to "empathize with all sides of the Arab-Israeli dispute, but sympathize with no one." Hahn succeeds in this goal because at no point throughout the book can someone credibly claim bias or favoritism to one side or the other.

The main point of the book, if one were to narrow it down to a single statement, is to explore the ways in the U.S. (along with Britain) handled the Arab-Israeli dispute, while paying particular attention to Cold War concerns. Hahn argues that the U.S. had a significant interest in resolving the dispute, but that both sides in many cases refused to budge. Add that to the claim that the U.S. placed greater priority on larger Cold War politics than forcing a settlement on the Arab-Israeli issue, and the result is a conflict that dragged on with no real results. Hahn looks at the various pressures facing Truman and Eisenhower during this period and presents a scenario where domestic constituencies favored pro-Israel policies, while many in the State and Defense Departments feared alienating Arab countries lest the Soviets gain a foothold in the region. Hahn depicts Truman as being much more vulnerable to domestic political pressures than Eisenhower, and also that Truman was much more reactive and inconsistent in his policy choices than his successor.

Hahn's book is relatively straightforward and easy to follow. This being the third book from the University of North Carolina Press I've read recently that covers this time period, I would say that Hahn's book is noticeably better than Little's book American Orientalism, but not as good as Yaqub's book Containing Arab Nationalism. Reading all three books together though provides a very in-depth look at Western policy towards the Middle East at the outset of the Cold War. The organization of Hahn's book is the best though. If one were pressed for time, keep in mind that the conclusions of each chapter do a nice job of summarizing the material. Although there is never a substitute for reading a book cover to cover, reading the first and last chapters, plus the intros and conclusions to those in between would give the reader a fairly good overview of the subject.

Unlike the Garrity books this is a thriller not a mystery. We know who did the murder from the beginning and we are given some of the story from the viewpoint of the villains. Kicklighter and Jackleen are great characters and there's much insight into being a retired male and someone living on minimum wage. The Fountain of Youth Hotel and Bondurant Motors are well done. My trouble was with the villains - well they're fairly good villains but three other Florida thriller-writers have given us great villains. I kept comparing this with Leonard's "Maximum Bod" and Hiaasen's "Striptease" and Willeford's "Miami Blue." I know they were set on the opposite coast but it's all one state to me. The car talk was good but Seranella does it better. Making these comparisons knocked off a star but this is excellent page-turning entertainment. Did they ever open the trunk of the pink Cadillac?

PI Truman Smith has become a loner after failing to find his sister Jan during a recent search of Galveston Island. He jogs on the Seawall, plays with his cat, and reads lots of Faulkner books. He is pulled from his self-imposed retirement when his old high school football buddy Dino asks him to find a young girl named Sharon. As Tru begins his investigation, dead bodies begin to appear and Tru himself is attacked. His search for Sharon takes him to all sorts of interesting places on and near the Island. I read this book because Galveston is one of my favorite places and I was not disappointed as Bill Crider spins a good mystery tale in a wonderful setting with interesting characters and enough plot twists to keep readers guessing until the last few chapters.

The Dogs Bark, Capote's compilation of his travel pieces and personal sketches, was written across twenty plus years. It is necessarily uneven. The brief sketches of varying locales and locals gives the reader the feelling of sitting at a wine tasting rather than an entire feast. Some pieces have tremendous body; still you are only allowed a nip of each. The travel pieces and brief sketches, especially those of persons in the post WWII era, are interesting as a fleeting view of alien people in closed cultures that no longer exist--Europeans in French Tunisia, Capote living in the old Quarter of New Orleans, the cast of the african-american musical "Porgy and Bess" in Soviet Russia, etc. Depending on your personal opinion of Capote's opinion of himself (he is the traveler at the center of the travel pieces, after all), some works are more enjoyable than others. Some readers will find his innumerable digs at the drabness of Soviet life in "The Muses are Heard" wickedly funny; others will be annoyed that he couldn't disengage his own sense of disenchantment to take a more objectively journalistic viewpoint. If you're considering this book, you are more than likely a member of the first camp. The avid Capote reader will find intriguing parallels and connections between the people he encounters in his travels and characters in his fictional works. Others will enjoy the works for their strengths as travel logs--the transparent eyeball of the traveler bringing terra incognita into sharp focus through well-described event and emotion. Skip back and forth through the book; savor the variety.

Looking forward to reading this. After listing to the interview of John Bainbridge jr, i decided to buy this book and feel what the secret agents felt when they engaged the terrorist.
I will get back here with my feedback when I'm done.

good work and cheers.

If you are interested in dueling as it was in America, this is your book. Somehow, lawyers and courts are in vogue now, whereas in the 19th century it was "pistols for two". Truman gathered stories for many years. He was a Civil War Correspondent for the N.Y. Times. Lived in San Diego (my home) for a time and owned newspapers out hereabouts, unbeknownst to me until after I "liked" the book and thought to publish. Well -- enough. It's a bit grisly at times. Purring is described. Kicking shins with metal toed boots -- yes, as a DUEL! Egads. And mud in the toes of socks! Ouch! Plus the usual Hamilton and Burr, Stephen Decatur, and Jim Bowie, Sam Houston entanglements. Cheers~!

I have buyed this book because I like how CZ Guest introduce you to managing gardens. I found a lot of ideas to schedule all the things to do and what kind of flowers and bushes and trees you could choose for your first garden. Easy to learn!!

This book is a good read on a chapter by chapter basis. Each chapter is devoted to a specific event, plane or pilot. Each chapter took me about an hour to read, so there are many hours of enjoyable reading to be had.

Aircraft information includes the basic size wieght speed engine and usually a 3-view of the airframe.

There are numerous listings of race results through the various years. If you like to go through the results and find out who flew what how fast, its probably here.

There are lots of photos and drawings to use as reference while reading.

If I had to say one negative thing about the book, it would be "It sometimes got bogged down in detail". But if detail is what you are looking for, this may be a book for you.