Michigan Books

My Father On A Bicycle is an anthology of free-verse poems by award winning author and Grand Valley State University Department of Writing professor Patricia Clark. Tracing the author's physical and spiritual journey from the Pacific Northwest forests where she grew up, the poems resonate with an appreciation for the timeless moments that only the simplest of joys can provide. My Father on a Bicycle: If you ever saw my father in shorts, / you wouldn't forget his stick-think legs, / the knees knobby as windfall dwarf apples // And the only time I saw him ride a bike, / Oakes Street, I think, he pedaled "no hands" / down the street to show me the stance. // He wasn't a runner either, though he'd move / at a quick trot when trouble came to our door- / usually when the twins caught somebody's wrath.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1O9NNC6KIJK5O I am so afraid right now.

Patricia Clark takes great pleasure in describing memories of life in Seattle and Tacoma. She is also inspired by rivers and Lake Superior as she describes grief, wonder, joy and yearning.

The first few poems are almost an introduction to her style, but I wasn't fully captured until I read Inflorescence: Fennel. In this poem she describes cooking with fennel and I had just mixed up a spice mixture with fennel seeds. While she is cooking with the fennel root, I still had a sense of the licorice flavor permeating the flavor of the fish. She describes the aroma as a prayer rising through the rainbow trout's flesh. I though the prayer image was beautiful and gave the poem a sense of reverence. Anyone who loves to cook will relate to the images in this poem.

Hiking Near Paradise was a real delight and will be for anyone who found a field mouse as a child. The Sound of a Mother Scolding Her Grown Daughter presents a scene from Orcas Island. The island is mysterious and Patricia Clark truly captures a contrasting moment in a very peaceful location. Here she feels vulnerable, longing for her mother's appreciation and understanding. She finds herself "ghostly," pretending to read a map while crying. "I'm hunched over, trying to stop my hands / from shaking, doing what I can to wash the taste / of her words from my mouth."

"Missing" was the moment where I found myself crying. I read this poem three times in a row because the feelings are quite conflicted and Patricia Clark captures a moment of time where you can no longer move forward because the past is too strong and will not yet release you. As the river moves forward, Patricia is left wondering how she can even go to the riverbank, where such a tragedy has occurred. The images are of a river moving forward and a woman caught in the whirlpool of her own emotions, in total conflict.

One of my favorite poems is the mysterious: Spirit Bundle. Here we find the poet at Lake Superior, crafting a container made from birch-bark curls and rugosa rose petals. She seems to be taking all her feelings and sending them off into the watery depths. Each object she uses to craft the small vessel seems to symbolize a part of her she is releasing into the unknown.

"Then I laid it down - the baby ache, the grief
in the night, the hard knot wrestled free
from my chest."

To me, "Grove" symbolize all the longings a woman can have to be one with nature or to return to the imaginative world of her childhood.

"on a blanket dappled by clouds, reverting
to childhood, or dream of last fall
ankle deep in leaves, when I envisioned

a dress knitted together from the delta shapes
of cottonwood leaves. Wearing it, I'd be
the trunk of a swaying thing, half-tree,

half-woman, leaf color changing day-today,
mood-to-mood, river stories of the past
soaking into me..."

Throughout the poems there is a theme of life well lived amongst the inevitable and momentary conclusions of existence. In the few poems where Patricia Clark feels deep tragedy, we feel deeply too. When she soars in the beauty of nature, we cannot help but follow her into her bliss. If you have lived in the Pacific Northwest, then you will feel the chill of a dank rainy day, take pleasure in the peaceful images of lakes and understand all to well, the danger of rivers.

I would like to say that this book inspired me to write a poem. As I turned the pages, I felt a poem emerging. It was rather magical, to feel so inspired. It was as if Patricia Clark's depth of emotion awoke my own sense of longing.

~The Rebecca Review

Poet Patricia Clark has a knack for capturing the feeling evoked by a walk in the woods or a shower of acorns on the roof. Then she merges these impressions with her inner landscape.

These poems really resonated with me, partly because I too spent a good part of my growing-up years in a deeply wooded area. Showers of acorns on the roof on a rainy night is for me a poignant memory and I was grateful for Clark's poem. It woke up things I had not thought about for ages.

My only criticism is that somehow, the poems never seem to "rise" or move in a current. There was a sort of flatness or depression to the overall cycle of poems, and I wanted to feel some flow or direction, resolution beyond mere acceptance. This depressed me slightly, but I still rate this book of poems highly and they certainly had personal meaning for me. That's what I love about poetry--a few words can awake a similar emotion or image, and that's pretty amazing.

Reading David Collin's My Louise was a very moving experience for me.

Having "lived" through a similar experience, I can relate to much of the content, meaning and feelings described by David. Although my wife was fifty-six when she died of cancer, and I didn't have a two year old daughter to raise alone but four grown sons to be concerned about, I was easily able to relate to David's agony, his great feeling of loss and particularly his loneliness. He took me back to 1989 when I suffered my loss.

I was powerfully moved by David's story, his grief journey and his enduring love for not only Robin but for Louise, as well. His total commitment to give Robin as normal (whatever that is) a childhood and life as possible makes me feel good for Robin. She was so unlucky to lose her Mother at such a young age but so lucky to have such a caring and committed Father.

David's portrayal of Louise and the courage displayed by both Louise and David, which came shining through in this memoir, was most moving.

I thank David for freely sharing so much of himself and his family. It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to be allowed to share such an intimate experience.

Ever been on a rollarcoaster of emotions~we all have and this book does just that through words and the overwhelming history of love and loss~given to David by fate. I laughed, cried, and truly "felt" the words David Collins used in his book. I picked it up and couldn't put it down because he let the reader feel his pain through the eyes of a husband struggling through his personal rollarcoaster. In the end, you just wanted to love him for who he was and what he has done for himself and his daughter. Powerful. Pick it up and enjoy!

At some point or another--and whether we like it or not--we are bound to experience tragedy within the course of our lives. For some, that personal loss may refrain until we've spent innumerable years with our loving spouse, but for others, a tragic blow may be dealt much sooner and with absolutely no remorse. In David Collins' case, he was forced to watch a ravenous cancer steal away his young wife's life, and as if that wasn't enough, he was then left to raise their new daughter on his own. His memoir is an account of experiencing a horrid loss, but also of how to pick up the pieces and move on with life, if only for their daughter's sake. Fortunately for Collins, however, his daughter (Robin) provided one true tangible link to his lost wife. And throughout the struggles of raising a child without his Louise, he hints at the idea that--without Robin--moving on after such defeat may have been impossible.

What Collins has done so efficiently (along with his intense appreciation for aesthetics) was to encompass all the feelings that one might have while losing their spouse, and then vividly depict them throughout the story. At one point, he personified the disease, citing several times how he would have liked nothing better than to pummel the rapacious cancer from his wife's withering body. He was tired of failed treatments and hospitals; he just wanted to get this disease in a ring and duke it out.

Furthermore, Collins aptly described the frailty of life, which most of us tend to forget about until real disaster strikes. Amidst his drowning in a sea of hopelessness, he yearned for powers beyond his reach - anything that could save his young wife, he was ready to do. Yet the harsh reality of this world proved that there was nothing more that could be done. His defiance of the impending loss seemed as obstreperous as his wife's own battle with the unabated cancer, but Collins (appropriately) never delved too far into the details of Louise's personal struggles. He may have stripped his own emotions down to their purest and rawest form; but he managed to give the reader a heartfelt glimpse of Louise's suffering without being superfluous.

These were real emotions that any one of us could feel, and Collins held nothing back when expressing his disgust for Louise's cancer. And while he hints at an ambivalent God during his incessant bouts with frustration, he manages to exert hope that perhaps someone up above took his Louise for a good reason.

From his indelible love for his wife and countless battles with his precocious daughter, to a brief stab at imperialism and questioning of piety, Collins has written a daring work, one which I thoroughly enjoyed. I found that I shared with him many of the same opinions: relationships (and marriage) are not always utopian, but with mutual work, life with your loved one has the potential to be sublime. Moreover, when that fortuitous battle arrives (be it cancer or some other tribulation), it can be vehemently fought as a team, not unilaterally.

We don't ever want to give in or give up, but how do we carry on when that battle has been inexorably lost? As Collins stated, "...a miserable situation can be endured..." but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy. This story of grief seems like it could only be found within the pages of a book, but the fact of the matter is that it did happen; it happens to both good and bad people, and it's going to happen whether we like it or not. The true task is perseverance and subsequently finding the needed strength to carry on. For David Collins, he found his strength each day when he looked at his daughter. He had to carry on, if not for Louise, then quite simply for Robin.

Seems to me the makers of so-called reality tv would do well to find a new name for their "craft."
Collins' book is nothing if not a clear, concise report on the cruel blows that *real* reality can deal to the innocent and unsuspecting. It's at times chilling and at others amusing, but always real. Reads like a reporter's notepad, with the pages ripped out and put back in no particular order, recounting a harrowing battle, with bits and pieces of gripping narrative, fanciful recollection and heartfelt observation.
From a strictly logistical standpoint, it's a quick, easy and unfettered read--pretty difficult to put down once you get it going. The language is straight and pointed, the tone at once hopeful and gut-wrenching, the pacing nearly perfect as it effortlessly blends seemingly contradictory descriptions of the clinically sterile and the fiercely emotional.
The author lays his soul bare, with all the sadness, bitterness, love and unrequited vengefulness you'd expect from someone in his shoes. Collins is painfully forthright in his presentation, though at times a bit repetitive, the repetition merely a byproduct of his brutal honesty and the constant self-examination that frames the story, refusing to conclude even as the book itself does.
Because at its heart, this story of love and death is really an exercise in dealing with very real emotions, and it contains the requisite accompanying conflict, backtracking and soul-searching. It's a struggle in which the narrator frequently questions the motives of a supreme being that he'd have you believe he isn't sure exists, but of course then to whom are all the questions being directed?
Anyone who has been through this awful struggle, with or without the worst imaginable result, will see a reflection of self in the author's words, feelings and deeds. And anyone who hasn't will see what they would imagine themselves to be in the same situation.
And that is the book's greatest triumph. It's the real deal. Unvarnished, unpasteurized, unadulterated, unglossed and unfair.
A must-read.

Everything went right and smooth with my order. I got the book on Amazon way cheaper than in a library... Good value!

This book is one of the two "Bibles" of Nuclear Engineering. LaMarsh's "Introduction to Nuclear Engineering" is the other IMHO. For those interested in a broad overview of Nuclear Engineering, it is my opinion that you should start with the LaMarsh book. Duderstadt's book contains a lot more math and can be difficult to follow without some solid math background and a few Nuc Eng courses under your belt. There are a few cases in the book where a series of equations leading to a conclusion skip a few steps. It's not as bad as the old "A=B and from this we see that e = mc2!" joke, but some work is required.

That said, this books drawbacks are also its strengths. It has stood the test of time [my copy is over 20 years old] and will probably remain relevant for another 20 years. It is to my knowledge well prepared and error free, and a must-have for anyone interested in nuclear reactor engineering.

A good, solid, book for a undergraduate student in nuclear engineering or anyone with a physical sciences background who is interested in learning more about nuclear power operations and analysis. Very clear text with plenty of information on topics (i.e., reactor design) that often confuse students. -Mike Walker Thorsvedtt

This is a great introductory textbook for Nuclear Reactor Analysis/ One-Speed diffusion model/Multigroup Diffusion method and core design. It was published a while ago - in 1976, but remains to be one of the best textbook on the topic.

I got this one in hardback from the public library before I bought this paperback version. I liked the hardback version, but I was disappointed with the paperback version and here's why:

It appears as if the pictures are copies of copies of copies taken out of the the original hardback and copied right on some copier rather than done correctly all over again, and there is at least one VERY GOOD picture M I S S I N G!!!!--one of my favorites--where Bob is reading a magazine or paper up close and he has his hat on. NOT DONE RIGHT IS ALSO A TOP FAVORITE: the one where Bob Dylan is playing chess at a French cafe--REALLY REALLY GOOD ONE, I love that one very much--but it still seems COPY OF COPY OF COPY quality--IT IS DARK AND GRITTY. The quality of the pictures in the original hardback book are FAR superior. and I SEE it. I did a copy of the one at the cafe on a copier before I returned the book to the library and believe me it is BETTER quality than the one in this paperback version!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! Maybe people won't notice, but I do notice it. Unfortunately I had to return the hardback book to the library.

P L E A S E TELL THE PUBLISHER TO R E D O THIS BOOK PROPERLY AND RESPECT Bob Dylan's fans because we want quality pictures. This book deserves to be done again properly. Paperback is okay to save the forests, but the quality of the pictures has something to do with the process and technology that they use. They just dished out a paperback version and copied the pictures from some other copies (as I see it) just to make money with no concern about the QUALITY OF THE PICTURES.

May I also suggest Dylan: Visions, Portraits & Back Pages as a book with FAR FAR FAR FAR SUPERIOR quality pictures and it even costs less!

Please do this PICTURE BOOK all over again, PUBLISHERS!!! These pictures deserve FIRST QUALITY production.

These photos will absolutely break your heart.
They will break your heart absolutely. If you love Dylan and the mythology he created around himself, this book will give you a glimpse behind the curtain. The images of Joan Baez and Dylan are so gorgeous you'll want to duck out of your busy life and cry for five crucial minutes. The image of a back-lit Bob and a shadowy Joan in profile is a just, simple ode to these monoliths. These photos give us what we've intimated about Bob all along.

many of these photos became icons over the years. not only absorbing photos of dylan, but classics of the photographic art. dylan was lucky during this period to be photographed by so many excellent photographers: kramer's work is the best

This seems to be a reprint of a book that first came out in the 60's. I still have my copy but it's a smaller format than this reprint. It is chock full of great photos of Dylan being whimsical and eccentric, posing in a studio setting. Very professional. All seem to be from the "Highway 61 Revisited" period (1965)when Dylan affected a "mod" style of clothes, including polka-dot shirts and Beatle boots. This is a treasure for any Dylan addict. Except for one essay, the book is all photos without text.

What first started out as an article on the impact of Paul Wellstone's politics, Bill Lofy's Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive transformed into a biography to be reckoned with. Starting with Paul's childhood and formative years to the day of his untimely departure, the book captures Paul's deep convictions and principles for social justice and progressive changes, which had forever altered the domestic politics landscape. One could double the biography as a platform for Paul's radical, oftentimes effective mechanism "...for the little guy versus the big guy." In a nutshell, Mr. Lofy succeeded in presenting Paul's bold resolve to espouse populist idealism in sharply divided American politics by foraying into academic politics and community activism and inevitably the Senate, as if he knew that, quoting the start of a chapter, "to be sure, mere passion, however genuinely felt is not enough." Presumably written on the behalf of many, this book is an embodiment of Paul's passion and integrity to remain genuine in the face of victories celebrated and failures embraced with dignity and humor. Resonating Paul's strength and vigor, the book offers lessons in life and leadership for everybody, regardless of affiliations. From the wresting mat to unorthodox campaign strategies, Paul's uncanny ability to rise in times of uncertainty inspired his constituents to "raise hell," like the book asserts Paul liked to say. However, that transpires the impulsivity Paul had acknowledged from time to time while remaining true to himself not to make decisions he did not believe in. In calculating courage in action, Paul showed us how, quoting Max Weber, he "...would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible." Conclusion can be made that the book is not just about Paul's impact on politics but also his passion for everybody. In the same vein, the book would share that when Paul visited a deaf awareness fair, he marveled at sign language and asked how to sign "beautiful." Like the book, that gesture of genuine appreciation for humanity Paul had so revered throughout his life could not be better exemplified.

Bill Lofy's Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progessive is a brillant book. Mr. Lofy has distilled the essence of Senator Wellstone and unequivocally demonstrates just why Wellstone was so special, why he changed peoples' lives and why he is so missed. This book is more than a recounting of the Senator's life. It also provides thoughtful and moving political analysis of Wellstone's work and achievements. Abraham Joshua Heschel, the noted Jewish philosopher, historian and social reformer, said shortly before his own death that we must "Know that every deed counts, that every word is power...Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art." Paul Wellstone's life was such a work of art and Bill Lofy shows us why.

This biography was one of the best I've read in a very long time. It wasn't overly long and drawn out, I read it in one sitting. Of course, I have great admiration for the subject, so I am biased, but the book would stand on its own merits. Sometimes a biography can get too bogged down in irrelevant details of the subject's life, but this definitely wasn't one of them.

Regardless of your views on either the left or the right, you have to appreciate the life that Paul Wellstone lived. From a kid in trouble to college professor to United States Senator is neither an easy nor a likely path. But that's what Paul Wellstone did.

In this book Bill Lofy, Communications Director of Wellstone Action, the organization created to carry on Paul and Sheila Wellstone's legacy after their death, writes a biography of his life. But more than that, this book provides some insight to the problems that beset political life today. The point of view of Mr. Lofy is, of course, progressive or liberal as we used to say. More than that, though, is the love that he shows to Paul Wellstone as a person, not just a politician.

I have a few of books on the crime/mystery genre. Some of them are overly academic (dry and professorial) while others are labors of love written by fans (passionate but not always insightful or even factually correct). Then there are those books that are still wonderful to read but are a bit out of date (the Haycroft, Keating and Symon books, for instance).

Lehman's book avoids all these pitfalls. He's a scholar but his prose moves along and is never fussy. He covers a lot of ground but never sails into vague generalities. And his recommended reading list (always a highlight in this sort of book) is nicely put together, with a good mix of old works and new.

If I had to buy a single volume for someone looking to expand his or her perspective on the history of the crime-mystery story, this would be the one.

His books covers it all: history, stories, the idea of doubles and masks, the resolution of good and evil after World Wars through the detective who resolves to bring order out of chaos. David Lehman talks about the detective novel as one genre that crosses all classes. Given this election and all the open questions, let's delight in some sleuthing. We are asking Whowonit in America. His book is a Whodunit. This book is fun and includes many of David's Favorites throughout history, including Poe's Murder of the Rue Morgue and even spy novels such as LaCarre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. If you delight in detective novels, you'll savor this read.

Finally in paperback, "The Perfect Murder" will provide intriguing delight for both newcomers and accomplished literary detectives. With this new twenty-first-century insight into the murder mystery, Lehman has now made the study of the Detective Novel as morally and historically important as any in literature today, "not only" in Lehman's words "because of the detective novel's debt to human nature but because of the possibly larger debt that human behavior owes to detective novels."

David Lehman investigates the development of mystery fiction, defining improvements and refinements, comparing auth
2000
ors, detectives, plots and techniques.

If, as he observes, the murder in the most inspired detective novel is perfect, it's not because of its solution but because of its artful conception. The first clue is in the basic premise of mystery fiction. Speaking, as it does, of such basic matters as life and death, quest and query, fear and the unknown, the detective novel assumes that the puzzles of life can and will be solved. The reader turns from the ordinariness of life to the author's promise that around each corner lurks the possibility of menace, that conspiracy fills the air, that we have every right to be paranoid, but in spite of it all, everything will turn out all right.

Another clue: Reading mystery fiction provides us with a harmless and vicarious way of releasing our homicidal instincts, says Lehman, allowing us to murder again and again without having to suffer the consequences. Thus, he concludes, reading mysteries leads us away from performing the act of murder.

"Our love of mystery is matched only by our longing for certainty," he writes. "and because we find it hard to tolerate the condition of doubt and guilt in shich we are destined to live."

Lehman's love of mysteries and his eagerness to share favorite books and characters lends charm and emphasizes his major points. A chronological bibliography is included and divided into related genres, critical documents and resource books. That proves to be a banquet of delicious additional reading on the subject. Another delight is his review of 15 of his favorite mystery novels.

Read this one to gain new insight and a deeper appreciation for the mystery genre.

A length of velvet from an old bathrobe, a scrap from a forgotten apron worn in a kitchen who-knows-where, a touch of white satin from a lost child's baby bonnet--Grace Melissa Sprague treasured these discards and crafted them into art. Now her daughter has followed her mother's calling. But rather than transforming patches of precious fabric into glowing crazy quilts, in Pieces from Life's Crazy Quilt, Marvin V. Arnett has transformed her Detroit childhood memories into stories that are just as comforting and colorful.

Detroit in the 1930s was a tough place to live, particularly for a black family. Arnett recalls that the hard times of the Great Depression hit the city early, before the stock market crash of 1929. When the last Model T car ran off the assembly line at the Ford plant, things turned down and stayed down. It was the year of Arnett's birth.

In this memoir, she recounts her hard growing-up years unflinchingly. The good times--the church as a beacon of hope, her mother's "lighter-than-air" angel food cake, and her own enduring friendship with school chum Beatrice--and the bad--the death of a beloved sister, the ache following the racist remark of a respected teacher.

Each of the thirty chapters takes a sliver of the family's life and weaves a separate story that can stand alone. But together, these patchwork stories portray life in the Green house on Herbert Street as a glory to remember and to inspire.

Just as a quilt has a backing, so did the family--the strong father, William Sprague. The well-traveled man of sophistication, wisdom and some mystery supported his family as a chef; although, as an African-American he had to accept a lesser title. Later, as the Depression deepened, circumstance forced him into less savory jobs, including being a numbers runner for the Detroit Police Department. The support William gave his family was more than financial. He was always there, not only for them but also for their neighbors and community. He helped elderly Mrs. Eubanks gather the strength and nerve to vote for her hero, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and once took on the Detroit school system when the home economics teacher required the African-American girls to scrub and clean windows while exempting the other students. He won.

While William backed the family, it was Grace Melissa who stitched the love in place. She took that old bathrobe and converted it into an elegant frock for young Marvin. She shepherded her children to the Church of the True Believers, and she practiced what they preached.Of the many delightful pieces in the book, "The Great Feet Washings" is particularly true and telling. Grace Melissa also befriended the isolated Miss Lila and came out like a tiger when a neighborhood clergyman made an inappropriate advance toward her child. The man left town that night.

While Arnett's stories of her girlhood are charming, revealing and intriguing, the story of her book is equally riveting. A federal employee for over twenty-five years (former vice president of the National Organization of Blacks in Government), Arnett wrote her memories and then sought a publisher. Finding none, she published the book herself and sold it when and where she could, including from the back of her car. An instructor in a writing seminar who was entranced by the stories became her champion and brought the book to the attention of writer Tobias Wolff, editor of the prestigious "American Lives" series published by the University of Nebraska Press. This book is now a part of that series.

by Patricia Nordyke Pando
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

There once was a time when the elemental Afro American family consisted not only of father/mother/offspring, but also included grandparents, the church and the neighborhood. This was a time when it was common place for three or sometimes four generations to live together in one home. The love, care and warmth of the family did not end when one walked out of one's house to go to work, school or play. Back then,"the hood", was in fact a true "neighborhood". "Pieces From Life's Crazy Quilt" recalls the golden days of Afro American social existence and life in Detroit during the 1930s - 1940s. What the author, Marvin Arnett has done is create a literal time machine that transports us back to those times in a very descriptive and emotional manner. This work is a intimate and insighful look into the life and influences of a child growing up admist colorful, warm and sometimes ominus character arrays. That Arnett includes stories and lessons from the bright and the dark side of her experiences speaks volumes for her knack at providing and maintaining balance in her descriptions of characters and environments. This is a work that will remind Arnett's peers that there once was a time where the neighbor hood was a nuturing and loving place. The younger reader who is looking for a better way of life and a better way of living it will be transfixed to discover what used to be and what may be possible to recreate. They need to know that there really USED to be a time when the black community in Detroit had empathy and mutual respect as foundations for behavior instead of the current impersonal co-existence. I look for this work to one day be transformed into a movie or musical play. The imagery is powerful. Kudows to the author for inventing a work that is entertaining, educational and most of all, practical. "Pieces from Life's Crazy Quilt" is a detailed and imagery loaded work that is also a warm, honest and some times dark snap shot of yesterday. ...and if we relly take to heart the lessons that Arnett teaches us, it can also serve as a potential road map for finding our way back home.

This journey to the Detroit of the 1930s and 40s also takes the reader on a ride through the first years of a young African American girl's life--her relationships with family, church, and community, her growth toward an understanding of her own potential. Marvin Arnett's story is bright with both humor and poignancy as she clearly draws her characters and their struggles in a pre-Civil Rights American city. Her voice is clear and plain-spoken, and she creates an intimacy for the reader with person and place that will stay in the mind indefinitely.

Read this book for its history, but read it also for its humanity. Marvin Arnett believes in humankind. The book is a testament to that hope.

Marvin V. Arnett has spun a delightful coming of age saga that starts in 1928 when there wasn't much to be delighted about in the United States. The Great Depression was about to strike, World War II was on its way, there were family tragedies and riots would hit the nation's large cities. In addition, the church sanctioned certain segments of the population making them pariahs. Marvin Sprague's family, although poor with her father working as a cook at a downtown Detroit hotel, managed to share what they did have with neighbors who were less fortunate in spite of the church's disapproval. Her father gave leftover food and her mother, with her magic sewing machine, turned out clothes for children who had only rags.

In what was, indeed, a time of segregation, poverty and grimness, throughout the story Arnett's wonderful sense of humor lightens the heavy burden. She tells of the time when she was ten and had read all the children's books in the library. The librarian took pity on her and gave her a restricted adult card. Marvin promptly checked out a steamy adult book causing her father to roar and her to blame the librarian. He chastised the librarian and from that point on Marvin's visits to the library were not as pleasant as they had been; she stopped her regular visits until she was old enough to visit the main branch by herself.

The book gives a social history of a time period that many Americans know little about. It has the personal touch that brings the Depression and the Detroit Riot of 1943 alive with characters the reader can readily relate to and empathize with. While each chapter could certainly stand alone, Arnett ties the whole together in a wonderful story that can be enjoyed by everyone.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Of the more than 100 feet of bookshelves in my home Poems from the Greek Anthology translated by Kenneth Rexroth with introduction by David Mulroy represents the most cherished 3/8 inch. I am not literate in Greek nor do I have a background in literary analysis. I lost my original copy of this work by lending it to a faithless wretch (read former girlfriend). I am delighted that it has been reissued. The original 1962 edition has been amplified with "The Last Utterance of the Delphic Oracle" and an introduction and source data by David Mulroy that I found quite valuable as a guide both to Rexroth's approach to the translations and to the subtle techniques used to render the translations relaxed and readable. But the success is Rexroth's and the poets he treats; the winner is the reader. (I have my copy again and can now forgive the girlfriend....)

I've read all the English translations (and even some of these poems in the original Greek). This collection, while small, is the best English "Greek Anthology" going. Quick check: in "The Norton Book of Classical Literature" the Rexroth excerpts shine compared to the other (highly respected) translators.

In terms of directness and emotional resonance Rexroth, "the father of the beats," triumphs again and again. For those who want to explore one of the world's greatest collections of poetry, this is a good place to start. For those interested in translation, there is much to learn from this volume.

The real Greek Anthology is massive and not all the poems are winners. Rexroth has boiled it down to his favorites and in so doing created perhaps the best poems he ever wrote. Those who want a deeper exploration should go to the library. To those who want to add to the bookshelf, this is the essential volume.

Kenneth Rexroth is the best translator of the Greek Anthology since the Renaissance. The Greek Anthology has suffered big ups and downs in reputation, depending on whether the sensibility is available in one time or another to approach it. Rexroth gets it right on. For further information, you may take a look at the online review in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

I came across an original edition of this collection in a small used bookstore, and having enjoyed Rexroth's other works picked it up immediately.

This may be one of my best finds, ever, and I'm so glad to see it reproduced in this edition.

Each of these poems, most no more than six to ten lines, does what so much poetry fails to... it says something. It is a complete, vivid, passionate thought. I read this book as if I were sipping a glass of wine, slowly, a handful of verses each day. Let your mind linger on them awhile.

I'll admit to a level of ignorance--I know very little about the "scholarly history" of the Greek Anthology, so I cannot compare these translations to those that came before. But reading Rexroth's personal takes (his introduction is wonderful in itself), I can hardly imagine how they could be improved.

Rexroth is at his finest here. Any lover of poetry will be glad to receive this into their library.

This is probably one of the best book available on these amazing, intelligent, beautiful creatures. Don't believe most of what you read or hear about bears because they are not the killers that people have made them out to be. The reviewer "Howard Tuttleman' is an idiot! How you coud claim to know anything about these amazing creatures and then make a comment about the weapons and tools that it would take to bag one is beyond me. Just read "Polar Bears: Living with the White Bear" to better understand how peaceful and safe these animals are. Howard I wish someone would 'bag' you and I get so tired of stupid people like you even opening their ignorant mouth. I've spent alot of time observing brown bears and researching them so I have to deal with all the hype and myth surrounding brown bears as well. I've stood feet away from numerous brown bears and have never had a problem. It's all about knowing how to talk "bear". It also helps if you're actually more intelligent than the bear and as people like Howard have proven that isn't very common these days. Howard go back in your cave and keep you uneducated opinions to yourself. Stop the agressive ignorance!

This is a truly outstanding book. It is extremely well written and the photography is world class. The reader will come away with a broad outline and understanding of this magnificent animal.

This book is truly fabtastic, a recommended read to anyone. Just pick open the pages and read, nothing complicated with it as it is written extremely well.

Enjoy.

I really enjoyed this book. I originally bought it for research on a project but i was soon reading it for my own enjoyment. Polar bears are my favorite animal and this book gave me some amazing information and beautiful pictures. I would definately recommend this book to anyone.

I love this - love all the old info - I lived in Detroit 1953 - 1964; nostalgic!

Being in my mid 50's this book brought back many memories listening to radio in Detroit,Michigan back in the late 1950's and the 1960's. Very easy to read and a book that keeps your interest.

This is an amazing book. I loved it. I am a 35 year student of Detroit radio. I have been a radio station Program Director (WWWW) and Sales Manager (WWJ). I picked up all kinds of facts, context, connections, and progression of events I never knew. When it covered a subject matter I really know (the WKNR Keener 13 story, for example), I was amazed at how accurately David Carson nailed the story... not only the facts, but right down to the nuance of the story. Detroit Radio is honored by this book. If you are interested in the subject matter, I highly recommend the book!

This book deserves the most enthusiastic of accolades. Hopefully, five stars says it all. And I'd like to add that this superb look at Detroit radio is not only for rock and rollers. Detroit's enormous rock-guys are all represented, of course, but so are the pre-rock guys. The book has tremendous appeal for anyone who grew up in the Detroit area during the period. And, it was a hell of a period. The radio of 1950 was WAY different from that of the mid-Sixties. I was there in '50, listening to Don McLeod and Paul Winter playing Frank Sinatra, and I was on the air in Detroit in the mid-Sixties--with Don McLeod and Paul Winter, I'm proud to say--playing the BeeGees. I was only an insignificant peon, but I was there, and I was paying attention. David has done a real good thing with this book: a first-class creative effort, historically accurate, and evocative of the feel of the times. Casey Casem says on the jacket, "I read it in one sitting." It's just that compelling. Detroit radio deserves a book like this, and David Carson has given it to us. Thanks, Dave.