California Books

This is an ok effort by Ms. Goldstein but unfortunately the recipes don't quite result in the amazing flavors that Georgian cuisine is known for. Perhaps it is Ms. Goldstein's substitutions of less authentic ingredients as some ingredients in the "real" dish are hard to find. Perhaps it is something else. (Her "adjika" is REALLY bad/wrong for instance....)

OK book if you want an idea of what Georgian cuisine is like. Not good if you REALLY want the real thing...

This is a marvelous, utterly authentic encyclopedia of Georgian cooking. I tried some of the recipes before leaving for Georgia in summer 2006, and they were great, and gave me a good idea of what to expect. Once in Georgia, the book was an invaluable reference that I constantly turned to whenever I tried something new. Just about *everything* I had is in here, along with many things I didn't get around to sampling.

This book also helped me learn the correct Georgian names for the dishes and many of the ingredients. A significant portion of the book is devoted to providing cultural background on Georgia and Georgian food, such the elaborate rules for a _tamada_, or Georgian toastmaster. With its charming photos of representative paintings scattered generously throughout its pages, it also made me a Pirosmani fan, and better able to appreciate the originals when I saw them for myself.

Most importantly, as the other reviewers say, the recipes *work*. We just made the potato salad with walnut paste (p. 172), and it was delectable. Other dishes we have tried and like include tomato soup with walnuts and vermicelli (p. 73) and green beans with egg (p. 130). Pkhali was one of my favorite dishes in Georgia, and I'm glad to have the recipe for when I get around to making it myself. There is a recipe for beets with cherry sauce, a dish a travel companion had tried but that even some of our Georgian hosts weren't familiar with. For the few recipes that seem to be missing from this book, like eggplant with walnut paste, try Please to the Table: The Russian Cookbook, another excellent collection of delicious recipes from all the former Soviet republics.

_The Georgian Feast_ is well worth having even if you don't eat meat - many of the recipes are completely vegetarian. This book is a real treasure.

I've already written a review of this great book. I have only one suggestion: the basic khmeli suneli recipe can be augmented further to reach the authentic smell and taste. The wikipedia article on khmeli suneli has additional ingredients that can be added to the recipe. I tried that, about 2 teaspoons of each ingredient that's not already in Darra's recipe (less for black and chili pepper), and it came closer to the authentic smell and taste. I think the author of the wikipedia article might have meant safflower (marigold) instead of saffron though, so I didn't add that.

I gave this book to a Georgian and she loved it. It had all the dishes she had eatten as a child. If your looking for a book to fill in any missing recipes this is the book for you.

As someone who was born and grew up in Tbilisi, I was very happy to find this book -- it captures all of my favorite recipes, and when I prepare them according to this book, they taste just like my grandma's cooking.

More than just a recipe book, this is also an exploration into the rich history and culture of Georgia, and how the history shaped the cuisine. I suggest this book to everyone who would like to add some interesting preparations to their cooking. For vegetarians, Georgians have plenty of healthful and filling ways to prepare veggies and beans, and also some mouth watering sauces that will enliven any dish (veg or not).

I enjoy this book both as a cook book, and as a historical book!

John Muir Law's Guide to hiking in the Sierra Nevada is lush with his artistic renditions of all you might see, and want to identify, as you hike this area. Small enough to carry in your back pack, but chock full of helpful information.

I have at least 10 books specifically on Sierra wildflowers and several field guides. This is the best all-in-one book. It's not too heavy for me to carry on a day hike.

Janice
in the Sierra

This book is stunning!..Beautiful artwork by the author as well as meaningful interpretations of wild life. The author is a gift to natural books as well as his art!

This book is amazing. With all the different species of life.
I'm going to keep it in my car. Some times when we're driving; my husband will say "what kind of bird was that" or "what kind of flower".
It's very imformative and very handy.
Thank you

This field guide is perfect for the hiker and camper or general nature lover who lives near the Sierra Mountain range in central California or who intends to vist that region. The authur has drawn almost all of the animal, flowers,insect and bird life to be found in the Western and eastern Sierra mountain range in beautful color by hand. To identify the various life forms you simply look under the various topies and you no doubt will ID that strange bug or plant. You can trust the author and his work is among the best selling of the genre. This is one of the most readable guides to life in the Sierra's and the artwork is first rate. This little guide is perfect for the rucksack crowd in terms of size and weight. This guide has limited written commitary as the artwork is the key to this field guide. This is a well-designed book, making for effortless page-turning and the writer/artist really get into the detail of the creatures shown. You will enjoy your quick hike much more and will have a dramatic change of atmosphere as you reference the life surrounding you in these mountains of great beauty. I recommend this guide highly.

Donald W. Engels book is chock full of logistical details that any serious student of Alexander The Great would need, to undertake an in-depth study of the logistical needs of this great general. Personally, I believe Alexander The Great was the greatest commander on the battlefield and his success is due in no small part to his exceptional understanding of the logistics necessary for his army to conquer the ancient world. He learned his craft under the able tutelage of his father, Philip of Macedon. Philip saw in his son the genius he had for organization and entrusted his logistical planning to his son while he was in his late teens. I guess a classical education provided by Aristotle didn't hurt him!

Engels book solves Alexander's logistical challenges by using the relationship of time, distance, geography, climate and the nutritional needs of his army. He uses ancient historical sources as well as recent archaeological work to fill in the many blanks that had been plaguing students of Alexander's conquests for years. One of the great facts that Engels points out is that Alexander used very few pack animals since they needed too much food and water. He used men instead to move his army, which made it lighter and faster. The statistical tables, maps and appendices alone make this a most worthwhile book. Had Field Marshall Rommell had access to Engels work he might have not allowed his lack of logistics defeat his strategy, thank G-d the book wasn't available to him!

This is the consummate work for understanding the logistics of ancient warfare. No serious student of Alexander The Great can be without this book. Being that I am a retired U. S. Army Major, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in ancient warfare, and history.

i would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in military strategy or ancient history. i read it in a day because i simply could not put it down. engels provides a case for alexander's movements based on what is logistically possible through the movement of troops and supplies. well researched (he pulls from sources as diverse as ancient greek text and us. army records), the book opened my eyes to what warfare in those days must truely entail.

this is not an introductory book on alexander's campaigns, however. the author assumes you have good knowledge of what the pervailing theories are of the routes that he took, and doesn't waste time explaining details that might not be known to someone who hasn't already read and studied this time period.

Engel's little book is one the best investigations into the effects of logistical factors on warfare that I've ever read. Reducing the energy needs of any body of men and animals to a formula,applying logical constraints to deductions about the movement and function of these groups, and by rigorous historical investigation into the geography, history and climate of the relevant places involved, Engels picked out the motivations and concerns of Alexander (and his enemies) as he marched across the shuddering corpse of the Persian Empire.

Don't be put off by the implied technical details above. This is a very readable book, a story, even. It's one of my favourite reads. Engel's conjectures are thought provoking, but always backed up by hard evidence. Anyone studying warfare in any time prior to the modern period (where trains and the internal combustion engine changed everything) needs to read this book to understand how things worked.

Alexander's logistics management during his unprecedented (and unmatched) military campaign is something that's easily overlooked considering the reams of books about virtually everything else about Alexander. But this seemingly mundane subject matter turns out to be one of the most fascinating aspects of Alexander's truly multi-faceted genius. This book provides a great insight in layman's terms of what it was like to manage a campaigning army of approximately 50,000 plus followers (engineers, doctors, cooks, entertainers, scientists, craftsmen, servants, etc.) of around another 15,000 people and at least 10,000 horses and mules. It's easy to just throw down the numbers and do the calculations, but it's another thing to imagine the logistics involved in procuring the food, water, and other resources to keep the army moving at a swift pace of 35~40 miles per day.

Engels does a great job of helping the reader visualize the enormity of the logistics problems involved and how they were tackled by Alexander as he and his army marched through Asia. Alexander was a very hands-on kind of a leader who was involved in the minute details of logistics operations when necessary but did so without getting into micro-managing those underneath him. Alexander knew every aspect of his army inside and out and lived like a common solider, which is what truly endeared his soldiers to him with fervent loyalty. This book provides great insight into an aspect of Alexander that some will ponder about but never bother to delve into. How did Alexander lead such a huge army and a supporting contingent over 22,000 miles of extremely difficult terrain and environments? This book goes a long way in answering that question.

This is a very illuminating book on the supply and logistical challenges that Alexander the Great had to overcome in his numerous brilliant and successful campaigns. Donald Engels's book is unique in that it focuses on an area that many authors either takes for granted or pay scant attention to, yet it is an integral and critical part of any successful military campaign.

The book contains some important lessons for all commanders today on the critical importance of logistics to sustain an army and ensure that it is well supplied and that troops remain motivated. The book shows how Alexander's intimate knowledge and understanding of terrain, geography, weather, seasons, sources of provisions and accessibility of routes enabled him to expertly solve the various logistical challenges thus ensuring his decisive victories. The immensity of the calculations that he had to make, the numerous permutations that had to be taken into account with respect to factors such as speed of troop movement, water and food requirements for people and animals as well as the weapons and ammunition shows really how capable Alexander and his staff were.

The book thus authoritatively highlights the fact that Alexander's genius for effective logistical system played an essential part in complementing his brilliant tactical skills and leadership acumen. After reading this book, you can make sense of why Alexander made certain decisions as supply and logistics severely restricts where an army can go, its speed, rest periods, how long it can stay at any given place, the number of soldiers that can be accommodated as well as methods of transport and supply, among other things.

Having read this book, one can really appreciate with awe just how great Alexander was to wage brilliantly successful campaigns in distant and remote lands, such as Persia and India, when the ancient means of transport and supply were poor and inefficient. It took methodical, detailed and thoughtful planning and Alexander's sharp intellect to put it all well together.

I was so disappointed in the quality of the paper and print that I returned this book. A big part of the enjoyment of a new book for me is the physical quality of the product. I thoroughly enjoyed the author's other works and was disappointed not to read this one.

All the Live Little Things began the golden era of Wallace Stegner's writing career. Finding the right voice in a first person narrative, he followed this beautiful novel with Angle of Repose, The Spectator Bird and Crossing to Safety; all are highly acclaimed.
In All the Live Little Things Stegner brings to the page a great deal of raw material from his life. The character of Marian was a composite of friends who had died of cancer, Peck was a composite of the 60s "beatnik", which in real life caused Stegner to retire from teaching and devote his time fully to writing. The callousness of Dave Weld's bulldozing on virgin land reflected the author's long term concern for the environment. His beautiful description of nature throughout the novel, and use of nature as a learning tool, expressed his life-long love and dedication to the American West. Even Joe and Ruth Allston were drawn from the real life marriage of Wallace and Mary Stegner. This matrimonial understanding and bliss is reflected in the opening page of the recently published "Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner":
What does more to stay us and keep our backbones stiff while the
world reels than the sense that we are linked with someone who
listens and understand and so in some way completes us?

All the Live Little Things flows beautifully. It has rich, well written characters that keep the novel moving towards a bittersweet conclusion. I did not believe the plot was forced or took unnatural turns; rather it followed the characters as they thrashed about with their struggles, sins and destinies, all seen through the eyes of the flawed but wise Joe Allston. As the character says near the story's conclusion: "There is no way to step off the treadmill. It is all treadmill."

Stegner once wrote that "In fiction I think we should have no agenda but to tell the truth." All the Live Little Things does draw heavily from the truths of Stegner's life in the 1960s, but it also holds its own as a thoughtfully written fictitious story of pain, hope, resignation, acceptance, and other qualities that mark the human condition.

just a note for everyone
the hippie in the book was actually based on Ken Kesey

Wallace Stegner's _All the Little Live Things_ focuses on a nine-month period in 1967 in California and the lives of five neighboring families in a rural area on the verge of becoming a suburban subdivision. The first-person narrator, a crusty sixty-seven year old retired literary agent, Joe Allston, describes his relationships with his neighbors and his own struggles to maintain a healthy, ordered garden. Each of the five families has its own philosophy, whether explicit or implicit, and its own eccentricities. Much of the novel examines how people coexist and how lives become enmeshed. The Allston's garden, which despite Joe's efforts is constantly being overtaken by gophers and poison ivy, is a metaphor for how life all too often resists people's hopes and desires.

The Allstons are an older retired couple from Manhatten who have moved west to find solace and comfort in the anonymous quiet of gardening. The Welds have lived on the land for generations as farmers and with each generation must sell more and more land to survive. The LoPresti family is wealthy and socially connected. Fran, the wife, indulges her artistic sensibilities in sculpture, in part to deflect her tense relationship with her daughter Julie. The Caitlins are a young family new to the area. Marian, the wife and mother, is a beautiful thirty-year old woman whom Joe dotes over. The Allstons adopt Marian, her husband John, and their daughter, Debby. Finally, there is Jim Peck, a graduate student, who squats on the Allston property. Jim Peck and his "family" of accolytes represent the excesses of the 1960s counterculture and the dangers of chaos.

The novel works in a flashback sequence. As he walks around his property, Joe Allston reflects on the momentous events of the past year and his feelings of loss. He feels that he is "infected with consciousness and the consciousness of consciousness, doomed to death and the awareness of death." At the same time, he realizes that the loss he has suffered has made him richer (see the quote for the review) because death, in some sense, affirms the experience of having actually lived. Marian's view, which Joe accepts intellectually but not yet emotionally, is that one must "be open, be available, be exposed, be skinless." Throughout the novel, we see Joe stripping back the layers of himself in his self-reflection. We see his rage as well as his sensitivity and acceptance. He even seems to acknowledge that he has fallen in love again to fill the void in his relationship with his wife.

Interestingly, the ending of _All the Little Live Things_ is similar to Stegner's last novel _Crossing to Safety_ and is written with the same intensity. One of Stegner's gifts is his ability to depict multiple generations in his novels and the conflicting viewpoints of generations. While Stegner usually sides with the older generation, there is a continuity in outlooks among the old and the young. Joe learns about himself--his demons as well as his strengths--in his interactions with his neighbors.

This is my third Stegner novel including Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety. All the Little Live Things has a more 'elemental' style than the other 2 novels. It is compact and extremely logical. There is not a throwaway sentence in the book. For anyone looking for deeper, relevant background reading - I suggest these pre-requisities prior to reading Little Live Things: Shakespears 'The Tempest' - where the literarary figures of 'Calaban (i.e., Peck)' and 'Prospero' are introduced. I would have been quite lost without having first read Tempest. Another great book that I think provides the 'mythological basis' for Little Live Things is Joseph Campbell's 'Pathways to Bliss'. In Campbell's book I learned the basic philosohpy of Jainism - which is the foundation for Marian Catlin's character as well as the title of the book. You get a better sense of the Joe Allison's heroic struggle as he confront his personal demons (personified by Peck)living deep in the gully across the 'spritual bridge' that he cannot bring himself to go across. Quite a hero's journey indeed.

Andrea has no idea the man she and her friends rescue isn't quite what he lets on, but she has other things to occupy her mind when she finds her home invaded by a woman and her three unruly kids. She has no desire to welcome the strangers into her home, especially when her eldest brother, on her insistence, reveals a family secret that devastates Andrea. Can she get past her hurt to protect those in her care?

This book though it takes place in the past reminds me of my contemporary novel MY SUMMER JOURNAL: THE RESCUE because of its active young heroine who grows in her faith as she deals with very serious adventures. Read complete review at AUTHOR'S CHOICE REVIEWS [...]

Susan Marlow has done it again! FAMILY SECRET is full of suspense, humor and edge-of-your-seat action!

The characters are fully rounded, but don't come across as "perfect". They call to the reader and engage them to be part of the story, not just onlookers. The imperfections found in the MC (such as impulsiveness, sometimes self-centeredness) reflects actions found in most everyone. THEN, when the MC displays courage, spunk and growth -- the reader is able to connect then, too.

I'm way older than the target audience, but I was also able to relate - not just read! IF Andrea can grow... so can we!

My daughter hasn't been able to put this book down (or ANY of Andrea's adventures!). We'll be waiting in line for the next one!

Donna Earnhardt
Concord, NC

Can you keep a secret? Andi Carter's family has kept one from her for her whole life, and when she finally finds out, she's stunned. Andi's pretty good at keeping secrets, too. She and her friends find a mysterious stranger who asks for a little help until he gets on his feet again. There's just one catch--the stranger asks Andi not to tell her family about him. She agrees, against the better judgment of her friends.

The two secrets turn Andi's life upside down. She's no longer the youngest child at the ranch. Now, there are three younger kids and Andi has her hands full. If you thought the horses Andi loves are wild, wait until you meet these three rascals!

Of course Andi's faithful palomino, Taffy, is back, but when it comes to a fierce thunderstorm, even Taffy has her limits. Andi is left alone with a desperate outlaw and the three kids to discover just how strong her family ties really are.

Writer Susan Marlow shines as she brings Andi through this storm in her life. The timely story line about a broken family and forgiveness is a definite plus, with echoes of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke. This is a book your kids, grandkids, and even you will love, and that's no secret.

Reviewed by Sheryl Root

Lately, twelve-year-old Andi Carter seems to have a knack for getting into trouble. She never means to be a problem, but there are just so many interesting things to do on her family's California ranch, like watching the new broncos being broken in, that she often gets distracted from her chores. It doesn't seem fair that her family is always upset with her about this.

Andi decides that her family would be better off without her, so early one morning she saddles up her horse, Taffy, and runs away from home. However, if Andi thought life on the road would be easier than life at home, she quickly learns differently. After a horse thief attacks Andi and steals Taffy, she is found by a kind Mexican immigrant family who takes her under their wing. While they want to take her back home, Andi refuses to go until she gets Taffy back. They reluctantly agree to let her travel with them and try to find Taffy as they look for work. Andi soon realizes just how protected her life has been. Will she ever be able to find Taffy and go back home?

Andrea Carter and the Long Ride Home is the first in a series of "tween" books by Susan K. Marlow. Set in 1880s California, Andi Carter is a feisty, likable tomboy who gets into enough scrapes that she should appeal to both male and female readers. History, such as the treatment of immigrants and the details of daily life on a ranch, is blended into the story in an entertaining way. The moral values are clear, but not preachy.

Armchair Interviews says: A good start to an enjoyable new series.

Andrea Carter is a precocious young girl who often fails to "look before she leaps", and ends up having to dig herself out of the hole she's found herself in. A dyed-in-the-wool tomboy, Andi finds little benefit in the day-to-day trappings of a "proper" young lady's life in the year 1880, has no problem storing a smelly horse blanket in her bedroom, and no use for nor interest in the dresses that hang in her closet. Andi's impetuous behavior has consequences, though, whether having to clean the entire barn for failing to complete her chores, or more serious consequences when she attempts to run away from home when her pride is injured.

"The Long Ride Home" is a great read, for 'tweens and adults alike; we can all use a reminder that our choices have far-reaching consequences and effects on the lives of others.

Highly recommended!

the spine on this book broke - i like to have my books stay in very good shape so this was disappointing

I was fortunate to see the two Frans' lecture in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park over a decade ago where they discussed their new book and showed slides of the bonobo apes. I found it all quite intriguing and purchased my autographed copy there.

The most fascinating part was that bonobos love sex. They have sexual encounters multiple times per day with many different partners (except mother/son) in all types of positions yet have the same amount of offspring as other apes. An amicable lot, compared to the aggressive chimpanzee, bonobos tend to have sex to rectify disputes as well as for the pure pleasure of it. The bonobos are a matriarchal group, taking their cues from the females versus typically the males. I thought it was interesting that we humans are now reevaluating whether it is indeed the aggressive, patriarchal chimpanzee that we evolved from or the sensual bonobo ape.

Frans Lanting captured a photograph of two bonobos having missionary style intercourse, she on her back with her arms over her head and with the biggest grin on her face! A gorgeous book, gorgeous animals.

This is a great book with plenty of great photographs by Frans Lanting and a good deal of basic information on these least-known ape cousins of ours from Frans de Waal. Equally genetically and evolutionally related to us as chimpanzees, they are best known for their sexual behavior and their relatively peaceful lives compared to chimpanzees but de Waal warns that the differences are a matter of degree and there is great flexibility.

The differences between the species are interesting. Though in both species the females (normally) leave at puberty and the males always remain in their birth groups, bonobo females bond more and males bond less than in chimpanzees. But the more important difference is that in bonobos the most important and strongest relationship is that between mother and son. This is all-important and at the core of bonobo society and includes serious rivalry between mothers over their sons' dominance ranks - and the fights between the mothers can be viscious.

What most people immediately think of when the bonobo is mentioned is sex, sex, and more sex. This is often misinterpreted and tends to obscure what is really going on. De Waal says their social life is better understood as being peppered by brief moments of sexual activity, the majority of which does not involve intromission nor is it carried through to sexual climax. It is largely brief and casual and used to reduce conflict. And when it comes to full mating with receptive females, this is normally limited to the top two males who occupy, with the females, the center of a travelling party and from where adolescent and lower ranking males are excluded.

De Waal discusses the possibility that the extended female receptivity of the female bonobo - receptive for nearly half of her adult life compared to 5% for the chimpanzee female - may be the bonobo strategy for avoiding male infanticide. In some species one male will remain with one or more females and protect his young from harm from others. In other species females mate with many males, including proactively soliciting males when the females are not normally receptive because they are not fertile, and this 'paternity confusion' is seen as a stategy to counter male infanticide. Infanticide has been observed in increasing numbers of species but, as yet, not in bonobos. De Waal suggests that the particular relationships of bonobos, with the reduced male aggression towards and dominance over females, may be a successful anti male-infantide strategy.

Another suggestion de Waal makes is that, as chimpanzee females have food priority when they are sporting sexual swellings, the extended sexual swellings and receptivity of bonobo females may have extended their food priority. Bonobo females almost always have food priority over males.

Another important difference between bonobo and chimpanzee is the relations between goups. Though chimpanzee females, like bonobo females, move between groups to breed (using sexual swellings as 'passports'), chimpanzee males from different groups are very aggressive and sometimes kill. Though bonobo males are antagonistic towards outsider males and display aggressively, there can be contact between the females of the two groups that meet and sexual contact between males and females of the two groups. I have read elsewhere that this contact between females, who in some cases will be known to each other as females move between groups, may have been something similar to the way our early ancestors were able to overcome full-blown aggression between groups, the females acting as links between groups that would ultimately lead to potentially positive alliances and trading links.

Whether we'll ever learn enough about these apes before they become extinct is unlikely. And that is sad. Whether we are interested in other species for comparision with our own or simply in order to understanding their particular evolutionary stories, we need to convince greater numbers of people that other species are interesting and deserve our full respect and protection. This book contributes to this for the bonobo.

Although I love learning about animals just because I love learning about animals - this book brings many important issues to the forefront - issues which directly relate to humans and human culture. For that reason, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has any curiosity about human behavior - especially as it pertains to sex. While Dr. de Waal is careful to avoid generalizations and anthropomorphisms, you will have fun drawing your own conclusions!

Most people are familiar with chimps but few have heard of the bonobo, but we resemble them behaviorally more than any of the other great apes. Also I recall reading once that we have the greatest genetic similarity to bonobos. I forget the exact figure, but humans share something like 99.5 percent of their genetic material with bonobos.

De Waal teamed up with internationally acclaimed nature photographer Hans Lanting to produce not only a very scholarly but very readable and interesting book, and a visually very striking one as well.

There are many similarities between bonobo behavior and humans, and ways in which they differ from other apes. Females have higher social standing in bonobo society compared to chimps, and high-ranking males never stay that way for long unless they have the support of at least a high-ranking female or two.

Females also cooperate more than in other apes. They have been observed working together to drive off an aggressive male, which doesn't happen in chimps. Females are also very social, and seek to establish alliances with other males. This can come in handy in various ways. For example, during the mating season, if a a male the female doesn't like wants to mate, she can effectively rebuff his attempts by getting her other male friends to come to her aid. They even resemble us in their sexual behavior, since they are the only ape observed to use the missionary position during sex, which they do about half the time.

This is just a small sample of the many interesting and thought-provoking things I picked up from reading this book. Overall, a fascinating and very visually appealing presentation on this little-known and understood relative among the great apes.

It's amazing how soothing just reading William Blake's poetry is on the troubled soul. I always look for his work to ease my mind and lift my spirit. Everyone should treat themselves to his work. Peace be with you.

A wonderful paperback edition, containing all the works of
William Blake, with a excellent introduction
of Harold Bloom. An priceless tool for students
and teachers

This is an outstanding resource for anyone interested in the works of William Blake. It's well organized and easy to work with. I'm very pleased with it.

What to write for my last review? That was tough. Since I was a little boy I have always been one of those who had his face in a book. Books, books, books. When I began my jobs as a paperboy, and later at the grocery store, I began buying books. This hobby grew so large, that my father made our rumpus room a library for me. And it grew ever larger. By the time I enlisted in the Air Force, I had amassed quite a large number of volumes. While in Europe and the Middle East, I would scour book stores and began purchasing leather books. Some very old, and many in foreign languages. Since the Air Force only allowed for a 5,000 lb limit, I spent a fortune sending books home. When I left the service my house looked like a library. Running out of space, I began to make my garage a library. However, it grew ever larger. Therefore, I made use of my brothers garage, then my mothers, and eventually even had to make due with having to rent a few storage spaces.

Yes, it's that large. I was hoping to make a large home library some day. Books have been my life: Even though I write mostly about Asian films. And I was glad that VHS films came into vogue, as they afforded me the opportunity to begin amassing a large collection of Japanese films which I have a soft heart for. That got real big too! Anyway, back to the question as to what to write for my last review? Well, I just happened to stumble across this book last night, one of many. There is a poem by the gifted and enigmatic poet, engraver and painter William Blake. I do recommend the book by the way. Events in my life have gone in a very negative way, therefore, I have decided to impart a poem as my last review. Hope you like it. It's one I have remembered from my childhood. There are too many great things to write about, and I figured this would not be a bad goodbye. It is William Blake's "THE TYGER"

THE TIGER

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?


William Blake (1757-1827)

It has all his writings: letters, anotations scribbled in the margins of other people's books, everything. Only downside: it doesn't show his illuminated printing.

This lovely book is a definate "must-read" for anyone starting out on the daunting task of a first garden or if you find yourself needing a reminder as to why you dug up all that ground in the first place! Tips and helpful info at the end of each chapter will give even the most experienced gardener a bit of a hand, and the writing style is at once elegant and funny.

I loved this book and felt as though I were reading about myself - the excitement of discovering the world of gardening, battling weeds, loving both birds and cats but realizing that the two don't mix and thinking about gardening while at work sitting in a boring business meeting! No matter what type of garden we have or where it is located, the author's experiences are universal. She writes about establishing her first garden in Santa Cruz with passion and humor and leaves you wanting more. I hope that she will write about her new garden in Eureka!

When I'm diving into a new field I know nothing about - Buddhism, photography, wine, wrestling, or gardening, to take a few recent examples - I'm always looking for a certain kind of writer: an opinionated, first-person guide to this confusing new world. My model for this kind of writing is Bill James, the great baseball analyst. I'm always on the lookout for "the Bill James of wine" or "the Bill James of wrestling."

The point isn't that I want an expert to tell me what to think. Rather, I want to hear about this new universe from a distinct, coherent point of view. From there, I can develop my own perspective. I don't want an authority so much as a critical sensibility. These new subjects always teem with boggling amounts of details - the eightfold path of Buddhism, the varieties of wrestling holds, the latin names for all those flowers. I'll never learn all this stuff by trying to memorize it, and that wouldn't be much fun, anyway. Rather, what I want is to absorb the perspective of a savvy participant, so that the field as a whole makes sense to me. Once I do that, the details can fall in place over time, if I decide to stick with it.

I appear to be in the minority in this preference - most people seem to prefer the bland-to-cutesy textbook style of the Dummies guides. Guide series do have their places - I'm a big fan of the " . . . for Beginners" series of cartoon guides. When they're done right, as in the classic Marx for Beginners by Rius, those are a great way to get your bearings on a subject. The newer "Introducing . . ." cartoon series is also great. And Oxford University Press has a nifty ongoing series of "Very Short Introduction to . . . " books. The Jung books from both of the latter series have been great entry points into a massive body of work.

All this brings me to From the Ground Up, my entry point into the daunting world of gardening. I've picked up a half a dozen gardening reference books over the last few years, but all of them succeeded only in dazing me with a boggling array of disconnected tips, warnings, and factoids. What I needed was a theory of gardening that made sense to me. So I switched over from Borders's "Gardening Reference" section to the "Gardening Writing" section. I was wary, because I find nature writing often unbearably twee and smug in that Year in Provence mode. I was wary of this book too, given its sweet but very Provencial impressionistic cover painting of a front yard garden. I browsed the book over several Borders visits, each time wavering, then finally took the plunge.

It was a good call. I devoured the book over just a couple of days, and now I feel a new sense of comprehension of all this gardening stuff. Stewart writes about her first year of building a garden from scratch, as an enthusiastic but inexperienced amateur. Her tastes, reassuringly, are for wildness over rigid structure, and a few weeds and bugs over pesticidal warface. She strongly prefers organic methods, but isn't a compost Nazi when chemicals seem to be the only way to go. I don't really like her taste in vegetables - I can't stand tomatoes or zucchini - but I think I'd really enjoy hanging out in her garden.

This isn't one of those books where the putative subject becomes a metaphor for the writer's life. Sure, we learn about her husband, her beloved great-grandmother, and her two amazing cats. But the focus is always on the garden for its own sake, and that's plenty. We learn a lot about the virtues of compost, the overratedness of roses, and, in a great chapter, the lives of earthworms. (The latter subject must have really inspired her - she followed this book up with a whole book on worms.)

Stewart did have an inspired location for her garden: a rental house in Santa Cruz, across the street from an amusement park and just a block away from the beach. Gardening so close to the ocean - and to druken tourists - has its own specific challenges. And this microclimate has its own specific charms. One thing I'm learning is that gardening is always local. You can browse all these giant coffee-table books full of fantasy gardens, but what really matters is what will grow in your soil, under your sky. (That's why my next step is to start reading books specifically about gardening in the South - Tough Plants for Southern Gardens looks particularly promising.)

I'm still not sure I'll end up planting much more than my current batch of containers. Or maybe I'll just grow a huge row of something simple and useful, like mint - I really like mint. But even if I punt on this whole gardening project, I understand the gardener's worldview a little better now, thanks to Stewart.

I read Amy Stewart's fine book, From the Ground Up, last week on a very long plane ride home to California from Indianapolis, Indiana. I'd been to Indianapolis to speak to the Indiana Arborists' Association convention, as I am a garden writer myself (Allergy-free Gardening, Safe Sex in the Garden, etc.). My flight was delayed due to a snowstorm in Detroit but the extra long trip was made more than okay because I had this delightful book to read.
I'd received From the Ground Up as a present from my Mom. It is the story of one lady's first attempt at gardening, and as one who taught horticulture for 20 years, and who has gardened for almost 50 years, it was remarkable fun for me to see all the little mistakes she made, the discoveries she uncovered, the personal disasters and achievements that accompanied her quest to create a wonderful garden.
Really great gardens don't just happen, not at all. They are created with huge effort, smarts, learning, help and advice from other gardeners, with tips from garden books, and most of all by the vision of the gardener in charge.
There exists within the wide range of garden writing a host of some rather fabulously good writing. These are the books that combine solid garden advice with a large dose of very personal observance and experience. Although From the Ground Up is a first book, it reads as though written by someone who had been writing for many years, someone who had honed and polished her writing so that every line sparkled. I would expect that this book would appeal most to those who love to garden, but because the level of writing is so unusually excellent, I'd guess almost anyone who appreciates literate writing would enjoy it.
If you're one who is new to gardening you'll find a wealth of useful tips here, interspersed with some darn good recipes too for making gourmet meals of all that extra fresh produce you'll eventually have. I really can't say enough about this marvelous book. Reading it was pure pleasure.

This is a quick, enjoyable read for anyone who can still remember the joys and tribulations of their first garden. Amy Stewart makes many of the mistakes we all made concerning bed preparation, the inappropriate flowers and vegetables planted with such hope, the unexpected hordes of four- and six-legged diners---no wonder 'paradise' is a common theme in most religions. Most of us have tried to create our version of the perfect garden in our own backyard, but this author is one of the few who have tried to tell the tale.

And a very sprightly job she does of it, too. She doesn't make the mistake of overloading her prose with too many adjectives (a common fault among gardening writers) and the short sentences keep us reading briskly onward. Each chapter is followed by a series of hints in bold type on subjects such as "Sheet Composting" and "Tomato Trouble." The author actually found a product that chases gophers out of her garden (usually) which I'm going to have to try on our moles.

Even though Amy Stewart's small backyard garden luxuriates in the sun (and shade) of Santa Cruz, California, she still has much to share with us gardeners in less fortunate climates. She's still got to do battle with snails, aphids, and gophers. The plants that looked great in the gardening center succumb to all kinds of nasty diseases and acts of Nature. Tomatoes seem especially prone to yellowing, drooping, curling up, and getting spots. The author refused the heartless advice of the gardening books to "destroy all infected plants" and nursed her tomatoes with her "crude and ineffectual remedies, feeling like a Civil War doctor who has nothing but snake oil and dirty bandages to offer the wounded."

Doesn't that sound like something you did or might do with your first tomato plants? As my husband is prone to say, 'enjoy your hundred dollar tomatoes,' and take a trip through the mishaps and discoveries of this honest, sometimes hilarious first-time gardener.

This book is an wonderful read. Graham Mackintosh somehow manages to convey the beauty, loneliness, danger, and culture of Baja in a way that is absolutely captivating. I have spent a fair amount of time in Baja myself working with the fishermen, and I thought his portrayals of these interesting folk was spot on and entertaining. I normally don't write reviews, but I could not put this book down, and good books are few and far between in my opinion! Besides being a great adventure story, this book has another side, which in a sense describes the author's spiritual awakening. He's not there, as are so many foreigners, to amuse himself in Baja as if it were a giant playground; rather he immerses himself in the land and the culture in a way that even most of the locals have failed to do!

Baja is a magical place that you simply can't appreciate from the comfort of your hotel room, RV, or (God forbid) your off-road vehicle. This book will hopefully inspire many people to seek out solitude in one of the last places in the world you can still find it.

This book was the perfect gift for my husband. He keeps talking about his dream of going in the desert, walking, exploring, being away from civilization for a while,... but he's never done it. This book author DID IT!

I have traveled many times down to Baja, his descriptions reflect my impression of the people and places.

Baja is an adventure, even if by air in your own airplane. Hopscotching from place to place on a peninsula that stretches almost a thousand miles south of California, is quick and efficient but, as always in a single engine aircraft, the prospect of an off field emergency landing is on the pilot's mind.

In Baja, where an arid, desolate landscape, and rugged mountains stretch endlessly below the wings and dry riverbeds host cactus and rattlesnakes, nature ups the ante. These inhospitable thoughts are a memory of my flying adventure to "The Baja" in October 1993, but they are nothing in comparison to Graham Mackintosh's incredible journey on foot following the coastline.

As luck would have it Graham was in Mulege (about midway down the eastern coast of Baja on the Sea of Cortez) and attended the well known Hotel Serenidad's pig roast fiesta with us on Saturday evening. In response to our questions, Graham (this was before I read the book) told us how ill-suited and inadequately prepared he was for his adventure. But his appearance belied an iron will, unyielding perseverance, and an indomitable spirit. It took two years to achieve his goal, then another two more to write the book. My fellow travellers and I sat in awe as he recounted his tale.

The inscription he wrote for me in my copy of the book shows his humility. He very generously referred to me as "A Fellow Baja Adventurer," but I know there is no comparison in our experiences. Thanks Graham, I wish you well. Is there a movie in the works?

I originally read this book several years back and now find myself periodically rereading it as its a spiritual journey packaged in a travel adventure. I dream of doing something like it however will probably not. If you like "cultural experiences" with the locals where you travel to you will love this book.

I knew Shirley Wolf before the murder.

I witnessed some of the events written in the book and would state that the author got it at about 90% but not every assumption nor portrayal was correct.

For instance, Merriam wrote the accounts of Shirley's little brother having his head shaved was done as a punishment by Mr. Wolf was false. I recall the circumstances surrounding that and know for a fact that he wanted his head shaved and made up the story when he was teased at school. The reason he wanted his head buzzed was because another boy in the 4th grade, in fact the little brother of the girl named Cindy whom Shirley desperately wanted to imitate, had his hair buzzed first and that was why the other kids teased him.

While attending Sacramento State University myself, I even took the time one afternoon to go down into the lower level of the library to study the Merriam's Masters thesis that centered around Wolf. It was very well written and made a great suppliment to what I had read.

A year with Shirley in the 6th grade, where do I begin ? First of all while a lot of incidents did occur that centered around Shirley, it would be easy to imagine the past as her being the center of it. Well, she was not the center of everything that year nor the central focus of everything. Merriam did a wonderful job of portraying Shirley's personality. I recall Shirley as being a sweet and pleasant person but one who always seemed to be under attack for one reason or another. Our teacher was always moving our seating around and at one point I was directly next to shirley elbow to elbow and cannot say the experience even brings back a memory either pleasant or unpleasant.

But I do recall some things that occured during the year. I was new at Gold Trail and waiting for the teacher to arrive the very first day of school and there was this boy "T" arguing with Shirley. Actually, he started in on her right away for no reason. I don't really recall the entire dialogue but only at one point Shirley said, "F--k you !!" at which point "T" said, "I would but it is against my religion." That is my first memory of Shirley.

Near the end of the year, Shirley and a girl, "A" were really at each other, for what ? I didn't even know at the time. But one morning a storm of kids crowded into the classroom just before school was to begin and yelling erupted. What I recall was that something had happened at the bus stop and "A" was really upset and Shirley had threatened she ws going to bring a knife and stab "A" to death. The next day Sr. Wolf intercepted "A" in front of the school and threatened her with his cane. Sr. Wolf was scarry and all the kids who witnessed this were frightened to death. Sr. Wolf had been scheduled to come in that day to show our class a tiger skin he claimed to have killed in Africa. That was cancelled. I recall a boy in the class that crazy morning telling Shirley the tiger story was "b------t !". To this day I am convinced that while Shirley was murdering that lady emblazened in her mind was "A".

Another thing I recall I was little more personally involved with. Me and Shirley were supposed to trade desks one day- but on the day we were supposed to do it I was absent. When I came in before school I noticed that Shirley had left my stuff in the desk but had put her stuff in it and left mine in. I was taking my stuff out when I found Shirley's diary. It was nothing fancy, just one of those paper folders that you remember from school that kids do their writing assingments in and she had written on the cover, "My Diary". Well, I opened it and descovered a section entitled, "How to Have Sex". She drew a diagram with two figures with arrows pointing at them giving titles for herself and a boy I knew from the other sixth grade class. I won't go into detail on the diagram. I went out onto the playground and found the boy with some of his friends and told him what I had discovered. This boy had danced with Shirley at a dance and had gotten hell for it ever since and his annoyance at Shirley spilled into outrage as he stormed into the classroom and Shirley's desk to retrieve that diary whom he charged up to his own teacher with and demanded justice. The teacher, to his disbelief, discarded the diary and never brought it up again. By this time Shirley was on scene, silent and hunched. Yes, after all these years I really regret the whole thing. Things are perceived a bit differently as an adult in hindsight.

My last memory of Shirley was on the last day of school at the same exact spot where I had seen her for the first time. Shirley, a boy named Keven, and myself were sitting on the ground in front of the classroom just chatting about the upcoming summer and stuff. It is a really pleasant nostalgic memory. In no way at that moment of time could I have ever imagined that two years later I would wake up to see Shirley's face exploded on the front page of the Sacramento Bee.

The author does an excellent job of explaining what brought two girls to a point where they could commit an act of unspeakable evil, without apologizing for their actions or portraying them as victims.

These were two little girls that had been abandoned by their mothers, physically and sexually abused by their fathers, stepfathers and other male caretakers. Sadly, when these two became old enough and strong enough to fight back, it was an innocent old woman they chose as their victim.

The laws in California have since been changed, but in 1983, the only option available to law enforcement was to charge Collier and Wolf as juveniles. Little Girl Lost is a most appropriate title for this true crime story. By the time Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolf crossed paths with their elderly victim, the system had already failed and abandoned them. In one instant, they were moved from the column marked victim to the one marked criminal defendant, and one has to marvel not at the brutality of these two girls, but at the fact that it doesn't happen more often.

Had one adult stepped forward in time, perhaps a tragedy could have been averted. The best true stories of personal redemption and juveniles involve some adult stepping forward and doing something, anything to reach out to save a lost child's life. By the time a juvenile who has been an abused child commits a crime of violence against someone else, it's too late. They are indeed little girls and little boys lost.

i just want to say i know the book is a true story because shiley curdit formely shirley wolf is living in our basement

This is the most haunting book I've ever read. The author did an excellent job of humanizing these cold blooded killers and making the reader sympathetic to their plights. The abuse these two kids endured is unimaginable. Reading of what they lived through, what they suffered at the hands of those who should have loved and protected them, breaks my heart.
Although my heart goes out the family of the murdered victim, I am not untouched by the girls who carried out this crime. They haunt my dreams and my waking thoughts. Their stories are so tragic, so sad.

Joan Merriam's LITTLE GIRL LOST recounts the 1983 murder of 85 year old Anna Brackett by teenagers Cindy Collier, 15, and Shirley Wolfe, 14, for no other reason than that they wanted to kill someone. After a few unsuccessful attempts at finding a victim, they found and brutally killed Ms. Brackett.
This book has many positives. The research is outstanding with Merriam providing a continuing detailed account of the lives of the girls, both of whom were victims of mental and physical abuse and of incest, Cindy by her brother and Shirley, over a period of 10 or more years by her particularly sickening father. As a rare and totally interesting bonus which helps the reader to understand the degraded home lives led by the girls and ultimately the intense anger which led to the murder, Merriam even details in some depth the childhoods of the girls' parents, a wholly welcome and relatively rare occurence in the genre.

Merriam's writing is strange in that it improves markedly in part two which is titled "Pilgrimage to Hell" and which is the beginning of the aforementioned family histories. The writing in this section - and through the remainder of the book - is fast paced, literate, and intelligent, and from that point - page 77 to the end of this 370 page book - LITTLE GIRL LOST is hard to put down.
The writing in the first section is a different. In that section, Merriam seems to flounder about trying to "be a writer" rather than just writing straightforwardly as she does later on, and her attempts to re-create dialog are particularly weak. For example, when the EMTs respond to a 911 call reporting a dead or dying Ms. Brackett, Merriam has them knock on the door and say, "Open up please - it's the ambulance company." I can guarantee you that no EMTs arriving at an emergency call, ever said those words.
And she quotes a young girl, Donna, who witnessed the girls running from the scene as discussing "...those two girls we seen off the balcony..." though in the next paragraph she says "We saw them..." The witness is also quoted as reporting the girls as "bangin'" on doors, "hollerin'", and "runnin'" Merriam wasn't there and she has NO way of knowing how that girl talked. In that light her decision to have the witness talk as I have described is irritating and not believable. And does Donna say "saw" or "seen"? As a final bow to the nonsensical, Merriam quotes Donna as saying about Cindy and Shirley, "They looked real suspiciouslike." Yes. She really did. There is NO way a girl in California in the 1980s said this unless she was practicing for her audition in "The Stereotypical Hillbilly Follies".
I came close to quitting reading this book during this section, but I'm very glad I didn't, because the story is great and the writing - as noted - does a 180 degree turn.

The book continues with the arrest and trial of the girls. Merriam in an epilogue reports a jailhouse interview with Shirley. This is very welcome and quite good as far as it goes, but it reports almost exclusively how
she is dealing with her current situation and the changes she's gone through since her incarceration. I would have like to hear - in her own words - her thoughts on her upbringing, her horrible life as a child, and her incestuous love-hate relationship with her father. And there is no closing interview with Cindy at all. I feel that the expansion of the epilogue section would have helped create a considerably stronger book.

Taken as a whole, LITTLE GIRL LOST is a well done true crime effort. Merriam states in her introduction that she too was a victim of incest and a dysfunctional family; and that she is able to write in a "warm" and understanding style which she manages to prevent from becoming melodrama, is commendable. I strongly recommend this book to lovers of true crime, even if you have to fight through some of section one.