Authors Books

Amazing new story that made me fall in love with Weetzie all over again. A quick and satisfying read, full of color and fantasy.
LOVE IT!!!!!

It looked like chick lit, so I picked it up last week. I have been drawn to lighter fare since losing Nat. My mind is wrapped around so many other things, that it is harder to attach myself emotionally to a story. However, this book wasn't exactly chick lit. I had never read the Weetzie Bat books, or anything else by this author for that matter, so I went in blind. It was a fabulous trip. Block's story winds through reality but includes magic at every turn. This book has a captured mermaid, changlings, floating brides, magic spider weavings... It was like a grown up Oz. And, from me, that is high praise. I was so sad to read the last page and close the book. I picked up the first of the Weetzie Bat books from the library and am reading that now. I will let you know what I think when I have finished reading.

I fell in love with weetzie bat about 8 years ago. I was searching for books and i ran across this one and bought it instantly. I was taken back to weetzie's beautiful world but this time filled with mermaids and drag queens. I finished it in a few days and needless to say I totally fell in love with it. I'd always felt a little incomplete at the end of dangerous angels and this finished it perfectly.

all in all...it is amazing. I HIGHLY recommend it.

Weetzie Bat is an adult now--just turned forty, with her children in college, and her relationship with her secret agent lover man Max falling apart, Weetzie packs a suitcase, leaves her cottage, and moves to a hotel--an unusual hotel, where she meets a blue receptionist, a room-service faun, and an invisible cleaning lady, among all of the equally unusual guests. She plans to stay there until she rediscovers kisses: the passion, goodness, and love in her life. Continuing the wonderful YA series of Weetzie Bat books in a new adult text, Block writes in her usual style, creating a magical, authentic, and truly approachable, enjoyable text. The setting is fantastic, the writing is at the same time straightforward and quirky, and the characters are vivid and their lessons learned are meaningful. This is a fitting sequel to the Weetzie Bat series but aptly modified for a more mature audience, and a wonderful, meaningful, and ultimately uplifting read. I highly recommend it.

The Weetzie Bat books are young adult classics--magical, enchanting, and in many ways uniquely realistic. To my great pleasure, I found Necklace of Kisses to be an apt adult continuation of the series--it preserves both the magic and the enchanting atmosphere of the YA books, and (while many of the issues in the YA books are mature), deals with more adult topics in a similarly honest, respectful fashion. The original Weetzie Bat series may be YA fiction, but it is a worthwhile read for all age groups; I'm pleased that this novel continues the series in a way that is authentic to the original texts yet still modified to speak and appeal to a more mature audience. In fewer words: if you loved the original Weetzie Bat books and are interested in reading a more mature version, then you will enjoy Necklace of Kisses.

Beyond anything, Block's writing style is magical, transporting both characters and readers to a world that is increasingly delightful and vivid. Don't let the unusual cast of characters fool you: the story is actually all the more realistic and meaningful for for its fantastic elements. Block's visual writing style and fantastic setting and characters make the experiences and messages in the book magical (and so more engrossing and more enjoyable to read) and also more vivid (and so stronger and more meaningful). The otherworldliness gives Weetzie's journey an ethereal, universal sense without ever becoming obvious or preachy. This is a delightful book and easy to get lost in, and Weetzie's journey and the conclusions she comes to are satisfying and meaningful. It is an intensely original coming-of-middle-age novel, and Block storytelling and writing is exceptional.

There are a few minor issues with this book (I found some of the characters unappealing, some of the plot points are predictable, not all of the life lessons are meaningful to all readers), but those issues are minor in comparison to the greatness of the overall text. It may not be perfect, but Necklace of Kisses is wonderful. It's a respectful and authentic continuation of the series, it is well adapted to an increasingly mature audience, and Block's writing style excels here, engrossing the reader in Weetzie's magical world and bringing her new knowledge to life. I was delighted by this book, truly glad to have picked it up, and I highly recommend it. It is wonderful.

A friend gave me a copy of "Weetzie Bat" in the late 90's and told me I must read it because I was very much Weetzie. Unsure what she meant, I took the book and devoured it in one brief sitting. Since then, I've read all the books in the "Dangerous Angels" series, as well as other non-Weetzie titles, and go back to them often. Block's word pictures and fantasy scapes thrill me to no end. Her imagery moves me.

I recently purchased "Necklace of Kisses" and was totally blown away by this book. After recently turning 40 myself, I found I could relate to Weetzie's search for self at the beginning of midlife. This book reinforced the truth that life doesn't end at 40...in some ways, it begins anew.

To anyone contemplating this book (especially those hip New Wave/punk grrls from the 80's who are turning 40 soon) please take a chance on it. It will show you that you can still be you as you are, no matter what age you may be.

Here's to the Weetzie in us all!

This book is a must read...a great story that is wonderfully written. Anyone who loves a good love story, whether you like historical romances or not, will be quickly captivated. The way the author moves quickly from the past to the present, keeps you turning the pages. Rarely do I find a book, as this one, so well written that I wouldn't changed a thing. You will fall in love with the characters; I'm sure, as I did. I couldn't wait to start to read the next one, "On Sparrow Hill".

This story also has wonderful teaching lessons for living a God, honoring life. Lessons we could all learn from. After reading this book, how could one not view others with disabilities and their families, differently? This book will make you cry and laugh.

I'll be looking forward to reading more of Maureen's books in the future.

I read the first chapter of this book online several weeks ago, and was finally able to get it from inter-library loan this past week. I started the book last night, and could not put it down. I did sleep, but once I woke up this morning, I did not even get on my computer. I just read, stopped to make a PB&J and read. It is now almost four in the afternoon and I am finished. Maureen Lang has quite the affinity for story telling. I was completely entranced by the family heritage story that she was unrolling and could not stop until there was no more. (I'm glad there is a sequel!) As a genealogist myself, I'm very interested in learning of other peoples adventures into their heritage through newspaper entries, letters, or in this case an old diary.

Natalie, or Talie as everyone calls her is the modern mom of America. She attends her contemporary church with her husband and enjoys having her mother and sister near. Mom and baby's social group turns out to be less than she expected... and then she finds a box of heirlooms including a diary. The family legacy lies within the pages and it is not what Talie expected, but it turns out to be a curse that Lord can make into a blessing.

Other than genealogy, at one time I fancied a future as a nurse and genetics is something else that I have found intriguing. This story is one that all families should read. If something comes at you that seems terrible, there is a chance that there is good to come from it. Look for your lemonade in your lemons, and your blessings in your supposed curse.

With her book The Oak Leaves, Maureen writes a compelling tale that most women can relate to. We're nurturers. We want children. Healthy children who will one day give us healthy grandchildren. I know a family who had a daughter who was deaf. Everyone but the parents knew it for years before they had her tested and got her hearing aids. One of my son's didn't talk until he was three. He was my fourth child so I didn't think anything about it until his grandfather started worrying about it.

So I understand when Maureen's character Talie denys that her precious son, Ben is anything but just a little slow. I understand how she wants to protect Ben, her husband and herself from reality as long as she can.

And when she reads her ancestor's diary and learns about the Kennesy legacy, she can deny the truth no longer, I understand why she wants to protect her sister from the Kennesey "curse."

The story leads us though the present day with Talie and takes us back to 1849 as she reads Cosima's journal, making this a parallel story. Cosima wisely writes ". . .love is stronger than fear." This, I believe is the message Maureen would like us to take with us as we finish reading this inspiring book.

Oak Leaves
By: Maureen Lang
This story is as beautiful as the rich gold of oak leaves on an autumn tree. This book is almost like two in one. Maureen mastered the art of telling family history within a modern story in such a way that made all characters, both present and past real.

Talie Ingram found a family treasure, the journal of her great-great grandmother. She discovered within the pages a history of her family. As she began her journey into the past her heart thrilled at the chance to find out about her Irish heritage. But the joy was short-lived. Within the pages she discovered a sad family history which unraveled the very fabric of her life.

She and Luke had the perfect marriage and a beautiful son and another baby on the way. But what she read within her ancestor Cosima Escott's journal threatened to destroy her world. Was it possible that she passed the frightening genetics to her children?

Maureen Lang has written a story from her heart directly to yours. It is written to the place in every heart that looks to God with doubt and frustration when life does not go as planned or expected. And within this story that crosses generations and enters its precious message into the reader's heart that with God we can grow through all and whatever comes our way.
Chandra Lynn Smith

I am a mother of 2 children with fragile X syndrome. This book hits the emotions on the head. And then it's not just all about fragile X. Its about a pure love that can be found in our life. Everyone could enjoy this engaging novel.

Author Susannah Indigo has written much more than an erotic novel with "Oysters Among Us" - although it will certainly awaken sleeping libidos! It disturbs me no end that this book is defined and marketed as "erotica" and limited, as such, to a smaller reading audience. While there is nothing wrong with erotica, per se, there is so much more than sex with a superficial plot in "Oysters." And the narrative is composed of just plain good writing...magical prose! Pleasure here is not limited to flesh alone.

Set at the beginning of this millennium, the novel consists of thirteen interlocking stories about a group of characters who are either family, friends, lovers, and the children of the above. Most live in Boulder, Colorado. A few live in San Francisco and travel to Boulder, or visa versa, to be with their loved ones. Together they explore their lives, loves, fantasies, dreams, (one of the characters is a psychotherapist), their potential for joy, and the limits of desire. These people just shimmer with life and together they celebrate the human identity. "The most important sin I observe every day," says Madelaine, "is the failure to imagine and live out your very own life as it was meant to be." Pain and regret often accompany delight and pleasure, and Ms. Indigo explores the darker side of the human experience also.

Graceful, quirky, poignant, funny, very sensual, at times perverse, the stories just flow. Their very structure is fluid, and they will catch the reader up from page one. The characters are wonderful, unique/unusual, and well developed. They all interact throughout the book, no matter who is primary in the particular tale or chapter.

Some of the people you'll meet through the "Oysters Among Us" narrative are:

China Sunflower Thomas - 26, a sensual redhead in love with Jack and learning to "fly." She is known for cooking with foods considered to be aphrodisiacs throughout history. Her menu for a "Better Than Sex Party" is saffron fettuccine with fresh lavender, white asparagus and crab meat salad, oysters Casino, a sauce of truffles, chocolate rum trifle, and more.

Jack Iverson - professional photographer, lover of China...with a perpetual wandering eye, who gets punished for his Don Juan behavior and loves every minute of it.

Annie Braverman: 36, naturopath, mother, wannabe courtesan. She oozes eroticism, loves Sam, own many editions of the Kama Sutra, in multiple languages and plans to memorize them all. "People often think the Kama Sutra is just about sexual positions, but it encompasses all the sensory pleasures of daily life - good food, silken clothes, perfumes, music, paintings, gardens. Somebody should revise it for the 21st century - how to make each day voluptuous from start to finish. Of course, we'd have to update instructions like Art #48 - decorating chariots with flowers."

Sam - a handsome, middle-aged, Jewish, man who resides & works in San Francisco but really lives in Boulder where he loves Annie. "Sam changed a little at the Tantra class, all of us did. We agreed we should eat more oysters and more chocolate, pour kindness down like honey, find sex in our laughter and laughter in our sex."

Nobeko, almost 40, a masseuse, beautiful in mind, body and spirit, is extremely unhappy in her marriage. She begins to mysteriously find rare coins and has no idea as to whom they previously belonged or where they come from.

There's also a woman who dances with snakes, a grandfather who reflects on the former lovers in his life and writes "The Book of Love," masquerade balls with most unusual costumes...and so much more. I loved this novel and its characters! Highly recommended.
JANA

What a great surprise this book was. Not just sexy, but deep and smart and even funny. It is so far from normal 'erotica' that it's hard to describe, but I'm recommending it to everyone. It really should be on mainstream reading lists, in spite of all the explicit sex.

This is a gorgeous, unique book, full of sex scenes and real people, friendship and dreams, sort of a Sex & the City but with real types of people. Highly recommended

Beautiful storytelling, simply beautiful, and so smart and sexy. Makes you want to read it again immediately.

This was a well written book. It was not hardcore and kept my attention not just because of the sex. This is a must read!

I enjoyed this just as much as the first one, if not more. Through her adventures in this book, Becky learned more about her, her family, and the value of her friends than she ever dreamed possible. A lovely tale - I only wish there had been a third!

Becky's back and better than ever in this second book about superhero wanna-be Becky Miller. Becky takes on more than she can handle, thinking that her optimism and enthusiasm will solve it all. Becky has the best of intentions, wanting to be a person able to do it all, but she unexpectedly finds that her set-backs help her to move forward again in a more reasonable fashion.

Injured in a car accident at the end of the first book, The Secret Life of Becky Miller, Becky is forced to slow down her own agenda and override her persistent need to be everything for everyone. She exudes good cheer and an overly helpful nature throughout the second book as well, apparently not realizing that she does have limitations on what (and whom) she is actually able to fix. But when the flood from her own rising problems threatens to drown her, Becky still doesn't have the common sense to get out of the water. She finds herself continuing to do laps in water that is way, way over her head.

Becky exemplifies the scripture from 2 Corinthians 12:9, "But he said to me,`My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (NIV) This novel reminds us that despite our best efforts, we still need to rely on God for our true strength. Becky ultimately learns this lesson - again - that when her strength is insufficient, then God is able to work it out in his perfect way and in his perfect timing.

Renovating Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck is wildly funny, poignant in many ways, and touching throughout. This is truly a fantastic novel by a fantastic author. And if you missed the first book, don't wait... get out there or get online and buy both of these little gems for your collection. You'll be glad you did.

Becky Miller's daydreams provide her with momentary escape from the situations in which she finds herself as she becomes the heroine of each exciting movie-vision. Then she bumps back to earth when she suddenly finds herself immersed in a real-life adventure similar to what she imagines. Becky's car accident left her with a permanent limp, but her busy lifestyle convinces her she doesn't have time for her daily therapy. In fact, Becky doesn't have time for much of anything except dealing with one crisis after another. When her best-laid plans fall through, Becky realizes she must bring her life under control, but she never imagines how God will help her accomplish her goal.

With Renovating Becky Miller, Sharon Hinck delivers a second great mom lit book, because Becky is every woman who questions what God wants her to do and how best to fulfill God's plan for her life. Hinck writes interesting characters who struggle with the real-life problems of busy women. She portrays Minnesota's Twin City area with accuracy and detail, including the huge Halloween snowstorm that occurred a few years ago. By the end of the book, you'll want to invite Becky over for tea, because she you'll feel as though she's a good friend.

I didn't read the first of these two books and sometimes that is a great problem. But in this case, the author brought me up-to-date and created the new story in a seamless fashion. I plunged into Becky's story, wondering what in the world she would do with all these problems and thoroughly identifying with her humor and determination. The book was a satisfying read.

Reading books written in first person is not usually my first choice, but I found Renovating Becky Miller so enticing that I forgot it was in first person.

Sharon Hinck drew me into the book by opening each chapter with a daydream Becky Miller was indulging herself in. In each chapter, Becky loses herself in a movie she and her husband have seen on their weekly date nights.

Becky Miller's life is not easy. She's a mother, a wife, has a part-time job at her church working with the women's ministries, and is disabled, just to add a little icing to her cake of a life.

Already harrying, Becky's life is complicated by the purchase of a new home for her family. What looked like the perfect solution to a cramped home life turns into a renovation nightmare for Becky and husband Kevin.

Will their marriage survive? Will the family survive? Will Becky remain sane, or will she lose herself in one of her daydreams and never come home?

I kept turning pages of Renovating Becky Miller partly because I had to know what Sharon would use as her next chapter opening, but mostly because I became engrossed in Becky's life. I laughed and I cried and now I have to go back and find the first book in Sharon's series about Becky Miller, The Secret Life of Becky Miller.

By the way, I guessed most of the titles of the movies Sharon uses as chapter opening scenarios, but in case you don't recognize them, there is a list of them at the end of the book.

J.C. Ryle warns the reader in a compelling way to flee worldly temptations and sinful lusts and to meditate on things above. He shows that only godly living brings true contentment in life.

I wish someone had went through this exhortation with me back in my teens or early twenties. This is a must read for every young man and even for middle aged and older men. This is the kinda talk a father would have with a son, and Ryle is very easy to read and understand, yet the wisdom he passes on is crucial and very important for all men. This is a straight forward heart to heart talk about what really matters in life. Thank you J.C. Ryle.

I bought this for my son, I read it first and have greatly enjoyed this read. It is still a message for young men of today. I would highly reccommend.

Great conservative ideas for keeping young men pure. Though written quite awhile ago, the ideas are really timeless.

J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) was the first Bishop of Liverpool (Anglican Church). This book is a short yet passionate plea of a man in the latter years of life who was no doubt qualified to address young men. Page after page one finds that this booklet is full of truths that are no less relevant today than as when they were written more than a hundred years ago.

The books is divided into four sections with a conclusion. In section one, Ryle begins with reasons for his exhorting young men. In section two, he then focuses on five specific dangers which young men to be warned of (e.g. pride, the love of pleasure, the fear of man's opinions, etc.). In section three, he outlines some general suggestions which he entreats young men to receive and then in section four he lays down some practical specific "rules of conduct" which he strongly advises young men to follow. Ryle then concludes with the results of heeding such exhortations as he has laid out.

I read this book on a bus ride to the mall . . . and I'm so grateful that I did. In the preface to the book, J.C. Ryle wrote this:

"I am growing old myself, but there are few things I remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most distinct recollection of the joys and the sorrows, the hopes and the fears, the temptations and the difficulties, the mistaken judgments and the misplaced affections, the errors and the aspirations, which surround and accompany a young man's life. If I can only say something to keep some young man in the right way, and preserve him from faults and sins, which may mar his prospects both for time and eternity, I shall be very thankful" (p.5).

Well J.C., you did your job with me--thanks. While I know men such as him are not popular nowadays, I cannot do justice to my own conscience if I do not say that his exhortations are more practical and timely than many of today's most popular authors.

Dog lovers will enjoy this book, and will also enjoy "August Magic" and "Heart of the Savannah" by Veronica Anne Starbuck. These two must-reads will be treasured additions to your canine library!

I know Dr. Villalobos from working at the animal clinic in Hermosa Beach, CA, and she does a wonderful job of capturing the bond between pets and their owners in this book. She is such a hardworker and her love for animals is apparent through her work in the oncology field.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has lost a beloved pet, or as a gift to someone who has. If you want to show you care without saying a word, give this book. In the privacy of their grief they will read this book and know that you understand what they are going through. Even more, they will know that many many people have come before us who have gone through the same hell.

i have just bought a second copy to send to a friend who needs to say farewell to her beloved jack russell for awhile. the poems are beautiful...i especially love "the house dog's grave", which just might be my favorite poem of all time.

i use this book frequently to quote passages for friends who have lost their dogs...and i cannot read it without crying. it's very comforting to know that people have felt the same way about their dogs over many years......beautiful, beautiful!

There comes a time in every dog owner's life when you look down at the furball by your feet and come to the realization that this is no longer just your pet; this is your friend. Dogs surpass human beings in just about everything: from sense of smell to hearing, from loyalty to love. A dog's capacity to love is something profound; they want nothing more than to be accepted, to please you and to be loved in return. "Angel Pawprints" showcases some beautiful poems about this love which dogs have for centuries offered and received. Laurel E. Hunt edited some great pieces, including works by such famous poets as Rudyard Kipling and William Wordsworth. (My personal favorite is "So Long, Pal" by Ethel Blumann.)

One does not by any means have to have lost a canine companion to enjoy the works presented in this book. If you have ever loved a dog so selflessly, unconditionally, and faithfully, then all of these pet memorials will speak to you, even if you cannot comprehend the depth of the poets' pain. If you have lost a good friend in the past, this book could possibly be a fine method of therapy to help you feel better about everything. (It helped me when my friend of 12 years died.) "Angel Pawprints: Reflections on Loving and Losing a Canine Companion" is, in a nutshell, just a really great way of honoring your dog's memory and love. It may cause some tears but it'll get you through.

This is, quite simply, the best book I've ever seen for familiarizing small children with the numbers from 0 to 12 (not for teaching them to read, because there is no text). However, it needs an attentive adult to go through slowly with the child, inventing a story to correspond with the pictures. I doubt whether a child could get much from it if left to go through it alone.

On page 0 there is nothing -- just a snow-covered hillside. On page 1 there is one building, one adult, one child, one animal, one bird, etc. On page 2 there are two of everything, until, at page 12 there is a complete little village. The choice of 12 steps in the story is not accidental or arbitrary, but corresponds to the number of months in the year, so we start in the dead of winter, move to spring, summer, autumn and back to winter again.

the book is really pretty, there are just images so you can make up stories, it is unusually large for a book, great book I do recomment

My sons loved this quiet book and asked to count the items in the lovely illustrations endlessly. Anno includes a bit of whimsy on the final page if you are thorough in your counting!

I bought this "big" book to use in my Kindergarten classroom. There are abundant activities, found on the internet in an author search, for young children about counting, sequencing and comparing that can springboard from this excellent resource.

The book Anno's Counting Book is a great book for helping children with counting and learning basic math concepts. It helps with addition and subtraction as well as grouping items. The book starts at zero, which is one of few books that start with zero. This helps children grab the concept the zero is still a number even when there is nothing to count. The book goes all the way through the number 12. Children are also able to count the objects in the picture. Each object in that picture contains that number that is on the page.
The style of the book is very simple for young children. Each page contains one number. On that page there is only that specific number of items that children are able to participate and count along. On the left side of each page are counting blocks. The blocks can help children with their addition and subtraction by seeing how many blocks are missing or how many they have to add to make a certain number. On the right side of the page there is the written form of the number which helps children visually see what the number looks like. The illustrations in the book are also very colorful and detailed, but yet simple enough for the children to count the objects in the picture. As you go throughout the book, the pictures also change through the different seasons of the year.
The book Anno's Counting Book is a great wordless book for children who are just learning how to count. It helps with addition, subtraction, grouping items, and writing numbers.

I stumbled across a copy of Becoming Human; Being Human at a friends house. I began to perusal this book musing that it was or would be a third rate written release of Muslim propaganda. Saying I was wrong is a mild understatement. I read the first twenty pages standing, another dozen or so more leaning against the door way. An hour later I was aborbed in the moment of the compassionate heroes in this book. I read it in one sitting. I am ready to accept my own responsibility in changing the world by changing how I live my life. This book is more relevant today, then when it was written. Five stars is not enough.

This book is a book that will, without a dout make you think.

If there were seven stars, I would have give this book seven or more...reading this book deeply moved me and caused me to reflect on my life and what I contribute to the world as a citizen. This book brought me tears and smiles, but most of all I am a better person for the experience. I had the privilede to hear Mr. Ali-Salaam speak before tens of thousands while visitng Seattle recently...His sincere conviction and vision for humanity is readily apparent. He was as dynamic in person as his words are on the printed page. A must read!*******

A refreshing and insightful look at the meaning of life through the challenges of others. I found hope and a profound message through Ali-Salaam's provocative essays. The combination of true stories, his prose and voices of reknown from the past culiminate in an essential lesson on the meaning of life. I am recommending this book to all my friends and family. I hope to hear more from this truly inspired person.

"Becoming Human; Being Human" by Ali-Salaam is an American Muslim perspective on today's issues. The book is a compilation of quotes and stories that examines the worlds' problems and crises through the eyes of the humans living through them. These disasters range from the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, and the civil wars and hunger that plague Africa, to the Palestinian /Israeli conflict. This book although non-fiction reads like a collection of well-told tales, some filled with the horror of war and conquest, others vibrating with the courage of the human spirit.

The first story "Sylvia" details the struggle of one woman against cancer and her prayer for a little more time to get to know the man her son has become. This is a story of a mother and son reconnecting and learning to appreciate each other once more.

In "Trapped In Iraq", we meet a young American Muslim woman living in daily terror in war torn Baghdad. As that ancient city is reduced to ruins around her by missiles and bombs, Sarah Iman fears for her life and the lives of her children. Her one hope is to somehow convince Saddam Hussein to let her take her children to visit their grandparents in the United States. We experience her fear as after many disappointments, she finally sits before Saddam and begins to plead her case.

In the story "a 9/11 hero", we witness the fear of a Pakistani Muslim American family as the authorities question them about the whereabouts of their son Mohammed. While the family struggles to defend their son's loyalty to America he lies dead among the ruins of the World Trade Center, another victim of terrorism like those he tried to rescue.

Other stories like "Children of The Prophets" and "Ta'ayush" paint a picture of Palestine before and after the establishment of modern Israel. The first is a story of a woman remembering a land without borders when Muslim and Jewish friends could travel from Jordan to Palestine to visit each other. The second is the story of a band of Jews, Muslims and Christians working together to restore peace in their homeland.

Other stories such as "Two Prayers", "Rebuilding The Lion Mountain", and "From Sea To Shining Sea" take us into the heart of the civil wars and hunger that plague Africa and the hopes that rebuild it. We also hear the author's admiring thoughts about his Moorish paternal ancestors and experience his anguish at the sufferings of his maternal West African ancestors at the hands of slave dealers.

Throughout the work Interspersed with these stories are the authors many thoughts on what it is to be human or to become human. He fills the pages between stories with observations both mundane and profound

I thought this book inspiring in parts and very well written. However, I did find the perspective sometimes too one sided. It is an American Muslim view, so it should show one dimension to the world's struggles. However, Ali-Salaam attempts to transcend this with many of his fine examples of what it means to be human or to become one. Therefore, I was disappointed to see the author present a more narrow view of certain situations. In "Ta'ayush" he spoke of the harshness, suffering and death the Israeli military assaults inflict on refugee camps. But he did not mention that the Israelis too are a people acting out of fear, the fear that suicide bombers instill in the ordinary people of Israel. They are also struggling to become human in the face of terror and death. The author speaks of himself as a Moorish prince and lists with pride the civilizing of Spain and other parts of Europe by the Moors. I also admire Moorish art, architecture and literature. However, I realize that it was forced upon Spain and other parts of Europe through invasion, conquest and death. We should never romanticize any conquest of other humans whether it took place in the 7th century or the 21st.

However, despite the above comments, I did find this book to be not just a wonderful collection of tales but also a marvelous philosophy of life. It did deserve The Rising Star Award from The Literary Guild.

I was introduced to Robert Service while attending Jr. High in Alaska. I loved his work so much that my parents bought me this book. Picking it up again, after 25 years, his work is still captivating. It transports the reader back 100+ years, to a wild frontier.

And I want to go back - and I will.

I am not much for poetry in general (having been forced to determine feet and meter and memorize types of sonnets, etc...), but Service's poetry is simple, amazingly clear, and beautiful. His descriptions of the Northern Lights and the wonders of the North are worth the price of the book just in of themselves.

Exactly what I was looking for for my husband. I think it has everything Robert Service ever wrote and is fabulous.

Exactly what I was looking for for my husband. I think it has everything Robert Service ever wrote and is fabulous.

I hunted far and wide to find this particular volume of poetry by Robert Service. Robert Service is without any doubt my favorite poet. His poems are classics. But many years past when I was just a youth, I stumbled onto a volume of Robert Service where he wrote short prose introductions to his poems. Hoping one day to become a poet myself, I thought these prose introductions provided the greatest insight to how a poet creates. I looked and looked and looked but could never find that volume. Then one day in a second hand book shop some where I found it. It was this volume. I paid a good price for it. I've recorded all these poems with the prose intros on my karaoke and I play them for myself sometimes at bed time. My wife has her "ears" on her burrow (she's hard of hearing) so she is not disturbed. In my opinion Robert is the epitome of fine poetry. He has it all humor, pathos, romance, intellectual content, melody, beauty, intensity, warmth, toughness, manliness - you name it; he's got it. Buy this volume you will not regret it.

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind--

--from William Carlos Williams's
Spring and All (1923)

Looking at Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510)'s Birth Of Venus (ca. 1482), one can actually feel the fresh and fragrant breeze, the golden light, the bounty; the Italian painter is approaching 40 when he paints this. Reading Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)'s "The Paltry Nude Starts On A Spring Voyage" from Harmonium (1923), one senses a mind utterly quirky, brisk, assured; the American poet is in his early 40's.

This collection lacks 22 poems which appeared in "The Palm at the End of the Mind", Holly Stevens carefully edited selection highly approved of by Harold Bloom. Missing are "Of Mere Being", "A Child Asleep in Its Own Life" and "For an Old Woman in a Wig" to name but three. It leaves out the added lines of "The Man Whose Pharynx Was Bad". It lacks an index of first lines. If you're going to buy a book of Stevens' poems spend the extra $10 and get the magnificent Library of America "Collected Poetry and Prose" which contains EVERYTHING, is a huge bargain and will keep you occupied for the rest of your life. Or possibly get Holly Stevens "The Palm at the End of the Mind" which eliminates a lot of lesser poems which could confuse a newcomer to Stevens. The Vintage people have thrown this together without much thought. It's better than nothing, but the other two books I have named are the one's to get.

"Her terrace was the sand/And the palms and the twilight" -- and those are only the first two lines. Dipping into surrealism and imbued with spirituality, his poetry is compiled into "The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens," which includes seven compilations of his work.

Over his lifetime, Stevens wrote several books of poetry, but his exquisite poems are best taken by themselves: the lush grandeur of "Sunday Morning," the hymnlike "Le Monocle De Mon Oncle," and the humid grittiness of "O Florida, Venereal Soil." He takes multiple looks at "Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird," and the lush "Six Significant Landscapes."

In other poems, Stevens dips into outright surrealism, like in the delicate "Tattoo" ("There are filaments of your eyes/On the surface of the water/And in the edges of the snow"), and also adds a meditative bent into "The Snow Man" ("For the listener, who listens in the snow,/And, nothing himself, beholds/Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is").

If nothing else, Stevens' poetry can be read just because it is exquisitely beautiful. He lavished details all over almost every poem he wrote, and gave many of them the quality of a dream. His descriptions are simply written, but brilliantly laid out: "When my dream was near the moon,/The white folds of its gown/Filled with yellow light."

His style tends to be a bit on the ornate side -- Stevens freely uses the more exotic terms -- such as "opalescence," "pendentives" and "muleteers" -- wrapped up in complex verse, sometimes with a rhyme scheme and sometimes free-form. And lush detail is added to many of his poems, with descriptions of the moon, sun, plants and lighting, along with dazzling descriptions of the colors.

But his writing is more than beautiful. Stevens' work often poses questions about death, life, religion, and art, taking the conventional and turning it on its head. His belief in the importance of his art is reflected in poems like "Not Ideas About The Thing But The Thing Itself," which ends with the portentous lines: "Surrounded by its choral rings,/Still far away. It was like/A new knowledge of reality."

Wallace Stevens is one of the most unique poets of the 20th century, and the sprawling "Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens" is a wonderful read.

Wallace Stevens is my favorite poet. This collection was prepared late in his life and is in a sense definitive, though the excellent Library of America collection is to be preferred as including a number of additional poems (including the controversial long poem "Owl's Clover"), as well as alternate versions of some poems, juvenilia, and also Stevens's essays.

Stevens is known, it seems to me, in two separate ways. In the popular sense, he is known for a series of remarkable early poems, in most cases not terribly long, notable for striking images and quite beautiful prosody. Of these poems the most famous is surely "Sunday Morning" -- other examples are "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird", "Peter Quince at the Clavier", "Sea Surface Full of Clouds", "Tea at the Palaz of Hoon", "The Emperor of Ice Cream", "The Idea of Order at Key West", "Of Modern Poetry". The great bulk of these come from his first collection, Harmonium, and indeed from the
first edition of Harmonium, published in 1923. These were certainly my favorite among his poems on first reading. And they remain favorites.

But his critical reputation rests strikingly on a completely different set of poems, all later than those mentioned above. (Though it must be acknowledged that at least "Sunday Morning" and "The Idea of Order at Key West" as well as two early long poems, "The Comedian as the Letter C" and "The Monocle de Mon Oncle", are in general highly regarded critically. And that most of his early work is certainly treated with respect.)

I think it's fair to say that "late Stevens" begins with "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction", perhaps his most highly regarded work. Of course the terms "late" and "early" are odd
applied to Stevens. His first successful poems appeared in 1915
(including "Sunday Morning"), when he was 36. He was 44 when the first edition of Harmonium came out. That's pretty late for "early"! And by the 1942 publication of "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction" he was 63. Indeed, his production from 1942 through his death in 1955 was remarkable: two major collections each with several long poems as well as at least another full collection worth of late poems, some included in this _Collected Poems_ but quite a few more not collected until after his death.

What to say about late Stevens? The most obvious adjective is
"austere". But that doesn't always apply -- he could also be quite playful. However, there is never the lushness of a "Sunday Morning" or "Sea Surface Full of Clouds" in the late works. The sentences tend to extraordinary length, but the internal rhythms are involving. The poems are all quite philosophical, much concerned with the importance of poetry, the nature of reality versus perceptions of reality, and, perhaps more simply, with growing old. (A Stevens theme, to be sure, that can be traced at least back to "The Monocle de Mon Oncle".)

So: Stevens is an impossibly wonderful, remarkable, poet, either early or late. His lush and imagist early work remains a delight, and his philosophically involving late work rewards rereading and concentration. He is a poet to whom you can return again and again, and he will always be new.

Stevens is for me the great American poet of the twentieth century.
His music is the supreme music of poetry . Not since Keats is there anyone as rich in the most elaborate kind of longworded poetry.
His metaphysical meanderings may confuse but somehow find themselves justified by the memorableness of the great lines- and again the music.
No one comes close to him in the kind of deep and complicated beauty he presents- and again the music.
The meanings he makes are musical meanings, and the sounds of his lines sing in us ever more strongly , the more we read and reread.
Stevens is the kind of poet we want to memorize and always have with us inside, so wherever we go , we can stop and to ourselves recite lines of beauty in joy.
I may be wrong but I simply hear his poetry as the greatest America has had in the twentieth century - though lesser than Whitman and Dickinson.