Clubs Books

As a new member of the club, I really appreciate Bert's candor throughout his experience. He's witty and a great story teller. I was hoping for more humor, but I guess there really isn't much in the process to laugh about. I am glad I waited until after having the procedure to read this book. My recovery has been much better than the author's, and the book may have been "too real" before the operation. However, I definitely was able to relate to his war stories after the fact and highly recommend reading this book durine recovery.

Take down the wallful of industry awards, put away the Clios, move over Beethoven, this is Bert Gottlieb's finest hour. Not that Beethoven would notice, nor Dicken's or Faulkner for that matter. This is not just a book. Not just a string of incisive words, carefully and beautifully crafted; it's more the struggle of a man who was suddenly scared witless, and emerges, witfully, I must add, scaring the boogey man.

This is a must read for anyone over 50. Not a manual about the aspects of Prostate Cancer, although it is that, rather a chronicle of the all too human being we all carry around in us and forget.

I read it in two sittings and I was moved. There were laughs, there were tears. I learned a lot. I hope I never have to use what I learned. If I do, I hope I can face it a bravely as Bert Gottlieb did.

Well done!

An intimate and courageous encounter of one man's bout withprostate cancer. Bert Gottlieb treats his fears and anxieties withmegadoses of wit. Concurrently, Dr. Thomas Mawn open his notes to reveal his analysis of every phase of the case, never losing sight of the patient's and his family's feelings. Everyone with a prostate must read this book. All others will find it a well written, entertaining story. END

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK THAT ALL MEN SHOULD READ. I BOUGHT A COPY FOR MY DAD, FATHER-IN-LAW AND HUSBAND. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THEM TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

I am sometimes sorry I cannot give less than one star to some books I have read (I read hundreds of books professionally). On this occasion I am sorry I cannot give more than five stars.

It is absolutely superb, a perfect jewel of a book which I had never heard of and discovered only by chance. The heroic scale and width of concept, and I say this with all seriousness, can be called Shakespearean. Splendid descriptive writing, action and characters, with resonances at the very centre of great mytho-poetry. I knew Poul Anderson was a great writer, but this took my breath away! The best novel I have discovered in years!

This is one of my two or three favorite Poul Anderson books and one of my top 20 favorite novels, period. It's a combination alternate history-swashbuckler-magical fantasy set in the era of the war between Cavaliers and Roundheads, but with a difference: they have railroads already. Well plotted, well paced, inventive, suspenseful, great descriptions. Not too deep, though--just great fun. Characters: Traditional but not stereotypical hero, heroine, sidekick, villain, a few historical figures, some familiar literary non-humans and a guest cameo appearance by a character from one of my other favorite stories of his. This story makes one really appreciate how well grounded in history and literature Anderson is. He also displays that all-too-rare ability to use the English language of the past with complete accuracy, a skill the lack of which can easily break the spell of an effort which might have otherwise succeeded. Attention English majors: There's one other feature I won't completely give away so as not to spoil your fun of discovery, but I will say--pay close attention to the dialog

This is one of those books you want to keep and read again over the years. It's a historical what if? story. What if there was a world where Shakespeare's stories were history rather than fiction and in this world railroads were built 200 years early? It's a wonderful story with all the elements of fantasy of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" combined with the battle between Royalists and Roundheads in a world of premature steam industry. The only thing that would be more wonderful would be if it were twice as long! This is a book you can read today and it is still as great as when it was written.

This story is truly one-of-a-kind; a labor of love (being dedicated to the author's wife) as well as a tour de force. It can be savored on four levels: first as "simply" a fine and original fantasy novel; second as a clever and "natural" (that is, unforced) interweaving of characters and locales from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest, with a light seasoning of Arthurian themes; thirdly as a masterful adaptation of the language rhythms of a Shakespeare play (with the chapters/acts divided into "scenes"); and finally as an extraordinary, subtle (that is, unobtrusive) integration of poetry (again a la Shakespeare) into prose narative. For example, chapters or "scenes" occasionally end with a rhymed couplet, but that is only the most obvious of the many Excellencies. All four levels are seamlessly incorporated in a most extraordinary manner. The first time I read this book - in 1974 - I was halfway through before I began to realize what the author had achieved. Thus lovers of fantasy can thoroughly enjoy the story, while connoisseurs of the English language will find additional reasons to rejoice. This book is a gem - a masterpiece. I have treasured my paperback copy for 27 years. I assume it is reprinted regularly, but I have never seen it again in bookstores. It deserves a fine hardcover "limited" edition with illuminated script highlights and four-color illustrations by a top artist sympathetic to the genre. I plan to commission one as soon as I win the power ball.

It was bound to happen, an individual life bathed in glorious poetry is about to change form and become public prose as a movie. Be prepared, keep the book close at hand and memory and let others talk prose. You will carry the poetry and the poetry will carry you.

It was bound to happen, an individual life bathed in glorious poetry is about to change form and become public prose as a movie. Be prepared, keep the book close at hand and memory and let others talk prose. You will carry the poetry and the poetry will carry you.

Antonio de Nicolas, the philosopher and poet, has written a very original epic based on his own life experience. I recommend it strongly!

There is, as the title suggests, a fire within, a fire without, and it is also within this book. It is written in a simple and self-effacing style that does not point the way for others, but simply shares something of life lived with a great desire for the Whole of things. The rhythm of the prose poetry is not self-conscious, but rather invites us to be more deeply a participant in our own personal living. We too have had such desires to be part of a great wholeness; maybe we have forgotten them. A book like this can awaken such desires even long buried since our childhood. Professor Antonio di Nicolas writes so that the shift between personal and universal abolishes the distinction between the two. Transcendence is found in quite ordinary life where even amongst our chores we can find the love that moves the stars.

For those in search of a book which does not preach but simply shares what is probably already our own, it can be a book with light on our sometimes darkened footsteps. You can take from this book what you need without being offended.

Bigotry, religion, war and money in the early 1900s all come together n this romance written by Coloradan A. Robert Hill. The story starts with a boy and girl on the banks of the Cuchara River in southern Colorado and follows that boy and girl as life buffets their hopes and dreams. For most of the book, both the boy, Robert, and the girl, Concepcion, are suject to forces outside themselves. Robert is sent to a Catholic college in the east by bigoted parents who want him away from Concepcion and her Hispanic ancestry. Concepcion, whose parents disapproved of her involvement with Robert, marries someone else while Robert is gone and she has a son. Robert, disappointed with Concecion's abandonment and grieving of the deaths of his parents takes his vows and becomes a priest. Robert works among the poor in St. Louis for a while, but eventually ends up back in his hometown of La Plaza de los Leones. Concepcion is still there and an incredible temptation, so Robert takes off again, heading for World War I in Europe and more tests of his faith. The story is good and its only stumbles are a few missed typos that the editor should have caught. The characters are well defined. Readers get to know Robert, caring and hoping that he will eventually find the happiness he has sought for so long.

I think the what I like the most is the way the author places the reader beside his characters. You feel, smell, sense the beauty of Colorado; its vast grasslands, its mountains, its people and their loves. A beautifully told story!

Once in awhile a novel comes along that really grabs me. A. Robert Hill's novel, A Mountain Stands There is one of these that does. From the time the little German boy and the little Hispanic girl swim in the buff, the story dug deep into my mind. Robert Gunther is the little boy and Concepcion de Varga is the little girl. Born and raised on neighboring ranches, the two children become physical lovers the night after they graduate from high school. Like many "White people" in Colorado, the Gunthers do not want their son marrying one from the Brown race. This fact lights the fuse for a story that explodes like Roman candles on the Fourth of July. Through the advice of a former high school lover, Emily Schumann, Gunther sends Robert to a Catholic school in Boston. After a series of tragedies, Robert becomes a priest who does not keep his vows when Concepcion seduces him. The guilt driven priest ends up in a trench in France during the height of World War I. The author through Father Robert Gunther reveals warfare in the European war. The author's description of the fighting during this period is amazing. Wounded, the priest resigns both his Army commission and his black frock and comes home to his ranch in Colorado. I don't want to ruin your enjoyment of this book by telling you more. I will tell you this, from the time you pick this book up, you won't want to put it down! Even though I finished A Mountain Stands There a week ago, the words still throb inside my head.

I just thought I would let you know that I enjoyed the novel,"A Mountain Stands There", as well as a friend of mine in Walsenburg who read the novel. I was especially intrigued by the Hispanic and Anglo relationships that were definitely part of our history and culture, and still prevails today, even though there are more mixed ethnic marriages and less surface prejudice, etc.

I had lunch with Van Reid in August of 2001. He was as fun to talk to as his books are to read! I love the humor, the insight, the intrigue and the adventures of the Moosepath League! I agree that this installment is not as "heavy" as Daniel Plainway (at least to all but Ephram, Eagleton,and Thump!) but all the other elements are present. I laughed out loud several times while flying, which caused my fellow passengers to wonder about me, I am sure. Moxie!

How could I have missed this series? I enjoy stories set in this period because my own father was born in 1890; in Kentucky. He was a small-town boy, following the work to Ohio where he and several of his brothers settled.

I can picture him being a member of such a club as the Moosepath League and having small adventures such as author Reid depicts in this series of books. My father was not bumbling like most of these characters, but he was witty and funny and would no doubt have led them on even more exciting adventures.

Reid paints a vivid picture of a small town of the late 80s ... filled with characters who would make entertaining neighbors. They'd certainly liven up any neighborhood with their quaint, old-fashioned, yet quirky fun.

It's obvious this is a satire, and I love satire myself. (I discovered these books because on Amazon.com they were placed beside one of the books I wrote: THE TOONIES INVADE SILICON VALLEY. While the TOONIES does not disparage our lovely Valley in anyway, I certainly delighted in poking a bit of fun at our techie culture ... tongue-in-cheek humor, of course ... as Mr. Reid does in these books.)

Fun reads! Enjoy all four.

For excellent quality, humor, detailed plots, and kind, likeable characters, you can't beat Van Reid's "Moosepath League" novels. The latest, "Mrs. Roberto", seems to me to be a little lighter in tone than "Molly Peer" or "Daniel Plainway", but is still immensely involving and entertaining. This kind of writing just cannot be found anywhere else today. If you are fond of the classics or nineteenth century American literature, you will love Van Reid.

The willing adventurers of the Moosepath League of Victorian Portland, Maine, have lost none of their good-natured innocence in this fourth adventure, despite entanglements with tavern keepers, loose women, pickpockets, hoboes and worse. Indeed, Van Reid's droll storytelling depends upon it.

Misdirection and misunderstanding form the strong foundation of the meandering and digressive missions of the League's six members, who gather at the Shipswood Restaurant in the spring of 1897 for one of their regular dinners. They raise their water glasses (prohibition has been in effect in Maine for 46 years) to their only female member, Miss Phileda McCannon, who's making a journey to settle her deceased aunt's affairs. Mr. Tobias Walton, their chairman and the oldest at 48, is a bit subdued on this occasion as Phileda has not given an answer to his proposal of marriage.

Joseph Thump, Christopher Eagleton and Matthew Ephram are still in a small state of excitement after nearly running down a tavern keeper named Sparks who could have been Thump's double, but for his workingman's clothing and his high-pitched voice. The youngest member, Walton's faithful assistant Sundry Moss, 23, is the only one who dares to hazard that the crowd of ruffians backing away from the near-accident were pursuing Sparks rather than attempting his rescue.

The trio of Thump, Eagleton and Ephram have not seen the last of Sparks. Walking home through an unfamiliar and doubtful part of town, Thump happens to save a policeman from certain death-by-falling-piano, thereby incurring Mrs. Sparks' heartfelt gratitude for preserving her cousin, the perpetrator, from a murder charge.

This might again have been the end of it, but the trio, inspired by an incident in a play, determine that the lovely balloon ascensionist, Mrs. Roberto, must be in need of rescuing. Their mission leads them to a house of ill-repute (not that they ever realize where they are) and a run-in with the gang that's after Sparks, from which they escape thanks to Sparks' youngest son and his urchin friend who lead them over Portland's slippery rooftops. Sparks' network of less-than-respectable relatives continues to aid the trio as they seek Mrs. Roberto from Bangor to Dresden Mills, taking up with a large party of hoboes along the way.

Meanwhile, Moss, attempting to distract his employer, has taken Walton to visit his uncle in Norridgewock, though they never make it quite that far. The train is delayed in Bowdoinham where Walton is pressed to come to the aid of a glum prize pig. Perplexed by the locals' assumption of his expertise in porcine matters (the reader has been let-in on the misunderstanding), but as willing and easy-going as ever, Walton embarks on a visit to the Ferns, unhappy owners of the depressed pig, where Moss, a farmer's son and a bit more worldly than his fellow Moosepathians, soon susses the problem.

With digressions for the furtherance of romance and good acquaintance, Reid piles misunderstandings upon misunderstandings, constructing a hilarious journey through the towns and by-ways of Maine and the social strata of its best inhabitants. It all culminates in a spectacular and chaotic natural disaster, reuniting the League and necessitating numerous rescues and confusion and some wonderfully vivid writing.

Lots of local color and history round out the adventure. Reid's prose is playful, witty and dry, as well as eloquent and visual. The contrast between the transparent innocence of the steadfastly clueless trio and the sharp wits of Sundry Moss (think young George Burns and Gracie Allen) is a pleasure, further enhanced by the ready-for-anything calm of Toby Walton. Reid (whose Maine roots go back more than two centuries) leaves us with a tantalizing hint of the next to come in the League's adventures. These books are for anyone who enjoys wit and good-natured storytelling in the Dickensian tradition.

To watch my child enjoy reading Christian novels gives me great joy! I have always enjoyed my own and when I discovered the wholesomeness in a children's book for my childs age...Woo Hoo! Simple reading with great lesson.

I think your books are great they are so cool!!!!! I think you should write more of these books I learned alot from these books.

Calie cat

This book is so funny, I read it several times! In this book, Patience, the three cousins, third cousin, is telling tall tales. When she tells a tall tale about dancing angels, Timothy, Titus, and Sarah-Jane, don't believe her. Have they stumbled upon another mystery or is this just another one of Patience's tall tales?

This is the best book that Elspeth has made!

Three cunning ten year olds try to solve the mystery of the dancing angels... read this book to find out more!

I be liking this book cause it is the goodest boke ever it had teachet me to visiting and learn Chicago. Mark Wukas is the bestest editore I have ever ever met in my entir lives.

The Newcomer's Handbook for Chicago offers a thoroughly detailed guide to making the move to the Windy City. Not only was it informative, but it was interesting. I'm going to read other Newcomer's Handbooks for fun and to learn about some other great cities. These books will not disappoint you.

If you're moving to Chicago, this book is a BIG help. Very useful info on finding a place to live, rentals, neighborhoods, utilities, services, etc. Covers the city thoroughly, the suburbs less so.

If you are moving to Chicago, this book is BIG help. Very useful info on finding a place to live, rentals, neighborhoods, utilities, services, etc. Covers the city thoroughly, the suburbs less so.

"The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap."

"News of the Universe" was originally issued as a Sierra Club book and contains poems selected (and sometimes translated) by Robert Bly. The book is worth buying just for Bly's introduction and his analysis of 'Dover Beach'. Frequently, I find myself dipping into "News of the Universe" for inspiration (like a Protestant choosing a random verse from the Bible). I keep this book at work for the times when I feel really out of touch with the Natural World. Then I open up "News of the Universe" and find (for instance):
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In the heart of man/There sleeps a green worm/That has spun the heart about itself,/And that shall dream itself black wings/One day to break free into the beautiful black sky. - Galway Kinnell.
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The poems that Bly selected for this book make me feel less isolated from the Universe. The poems ring true. They refresh. Since that was Bly's stated intention when he collected the poems, you ought to try them yourself and see if they work for you.

There is also a sense of the presence of Death in them--what Bly defines by the Spanish word "Duende" in another one of his anthologies--so much so, that many of the poems in this book can be used as elegies.

"The seat of the soul is where the inner world and the outer world meet. Where they overlap, it is in every point of the overlap."

"News of the Universe" was originally issued as a Sierra Club book and contains poems selected (and sometimes translated) by Robert Bly. The book is worth buying just for Bly's introduction and his analysis of 'Dover Beach'. Frequently, I find myself dipping into "News of the Universe" for inspiration (like a Protestant choosing a random verse from the Bible). I keep this book at work for the times when I feel really out of touch with the Natural World. Then I open up "News of the Universe" and find (for instance):

"In the heart of man/There sleeps a green worm/That has spun the heart about itself,/And that shall dream itself black wings/One day to break free into the beautiful black sky" - Galway Kinnell.

Somehow as I sit in this dry little cubicle, surrounded by gray cloth, plastic plug-ins, and Corporate slogans, the poems that Bly selected for this book make me feel less isolated from the true Universe. The poems ring True. They refresh. Since that was Bly's stated intention when he collected the poems, you ought to try them yourself and see if they work for you.

Borges once quoted from a chinese encyclopedia: "...every animal falls within one of the following groups : a)property of the emperor, b)stuffed, c)trained, d)little pigs, e)mermaids, f)mythological, g)mongrel dogs, h)included in this list, i)shaking like crazy, j)too many to be counted, k)drawn with a very tiny brush, l)etc., m)just hatched and n)those that look like flies." We laugh, but all our orders, kingdoms, classes and phyla are just as silly and laughable. This book of poems is an invitation to put aside for a while the rational mind that creates encyclopedias and sets and classes (what Bly calls the old cartesian order) and to experience the universe like the animals do, to perceive nature as something new and strange.
This book helps us achieve that goal by means of poems that unsettle rational thought, for example: "In the Aztec design God crowds/ into the little pea that is rolling/ out of the picture. / All the rest extends bleaker/ because God has gone away.// In the White Man design, though,/ no pea is there./ God is everywhere,/ but hard to see./ The Aztecs frown at this.// How do you know he is everywhere?/ And how did he get out of the pea?"
If you enjow little shocks like that one (what pretentious people call epiphanies) buy this book, it is filled with them.

Most of the books we read, no matter how startling they may be and no matter how much seeming "News" they may bring us, somehow end up fitting quite comfortably into our mind. We read them, we may be excited about them for a while, but they are soon set aside and we move on, quite unchanged, to fresh pastures.

Rarely, very rarely however, a book will happen along that truly rocks us, a book that has the power to shift our mind into a different register, to provide us with a whole new way of seeing. Such books have the effect of somehow altering our mind, re-structuring it, opening up new synapses, and thereby enabling or empowering us see the world in a wholly new and different light. These are golden books, bearers of striking truths, of real "News." Perhaps we need to be intellectually and emotionally ready for them, but when they do come they can effect a radical change in our outlook on life.

Despite many years of intensive reading, I can think of only two or three books that have affected me in this way. One of them was by the British writer, Douglas E. Harding. Another was the present book.

One of the things Bly's 'News of the Universe' taught me to see was that modern human beings are a very strange lot, a life-form that is totally and utterly obsessed with just one thing - itself. Most of our waking moments are occupied with people-related matters. We are almost manically people-obsessed. We read books about people, watch movies about people, think and talk incessantly about people. And we don't find this odd.

We are concerned with what people are saying, thinking, feeling, doing, wearing, drinking, eating, buying, building, plotting, loving, fearing, suffering, etc. But always it's people that our attention is focused on, and we often completely overlook the fact that people are just ONE among the many MILLIONS of earth's interesting life-forms, and that even the earth itself is just one of an infinite number of worlds.

In other words, in our constant people-centered busy-ness what we overlook is - THE UNIVERSE. People, of course, are important. But what about the rest of the universe? Robert Bly's invaluable book has been written to redress the balance. He seems to want us to see just how totally wrapped up we are in ourselves, and that this obsession is neither wholesome nor realistic. It is in fact a form of madness and extremely dangerous.

'News of the Universe' is a book of some 300 pages and is divided into six main parts. Each of these six parts consists of a brief essay followed by a generous selection of poems which serve to illustrate the themes of the essay.

Bly's book would be worth having for the poems alone. He has brought together a rich collection of both the familiar and the unfamiliar, from many periods and cultures, and the non-English poems have been very well-translated. I often return to my own well-thumbed copy, purchased about fifteen years ago, to re-read my favorites.

One of these is the poem 'GOLDEN LINES' by Gerard de Nerval, a poem which could serve as a manifesto for the book. It is preceded by this epigraph from Pythagoras : "Astonishing! Everything is intelligent!" Here are the opening lines, slightly adjusted since they should be set out as poetry:

"Free thinker! Do you think you are the only thinker / on this earth in which life blazes inside all things? / Your liberty does what it wishes with the powers it controls, / but when you gather to plan, the universe is not there. // Look carefully in an animal at a spirit alive; / every flower is a soul opening out into nature; / a mystery touching love is asleep inside metal..." (page 38).

These lines bear careful pondering by our manically people-obsessed world, as do many others in Bly's carefully culled selection. But almost as impressive as the poems are Bly's introductory essays themselves. Personally I consider them to be minor masterpieces, and I find myself often returning to them also. Despite their brevity, it would be impossible here for me to convey an adequate idea of the sheer freight of true "News" content that they carry, real "News" that is vastly more important for us to become aware of than the trivia which passes for 'news' in our popular media.

Basically what the essays and poems set out to do, and they do it very effectively indeed, is to demonstrate that what Bly calls the "Old Position," the "pride in human reason" and "the conviction that nature is defective because it lacks reason" has had the effect of "deforming all poetry and culture" (page 3).

What we must learn to realize and to fully embrace is the notion that human consciousness is only one of the many kinds of consciousness operating in the universe. We cannot continue to deny consciousness, and therefore value, to the non-human, and on the basis of this fundamental error proceed to separate humans out and pretend that the rest of earth's living matrix doesn't matter. Such a procedure has led to a grotesque deformation of our civilization, and it can only end in the complete destruction of all life.

This, needless to say, is not the sort of news that most of the inhabitants of our media-befuddled world want to hear. And this because collisions with reality are usually painful. But for the few thoughtful and courageous and concerned who are still out there, and who would like to re-tune to the Universe, I would urge you to acquire a copy of Robert Bly's book. It's a luminous book, and definitely one of the most important books I've ever read. It may just give you a new and more realistic outlook on life.

Reviewed by India Furney (age 12) for Reader Views (12/07)

Eleven-year-old Bailey hasn't seen her Dad since he left when she was one. Now, all of a sudden, he turns up on Sugar's (Bailey's grandma) doorstep AND he has with him Bailey's half-sister that she didn't even know existed! Her name is Norma Jean and she looks perfect, perfect hair, perfect smile and Bailey hates her!

When Norma Jean comes to stay, Bailey creates the NO SISTERS SISTERS CLUB with her two best friends, Emily and Amber. No sisters allowed and that includes Norma Jean! Eventually, Bailey decides that having a sister isn't so bad after all.

I liked "No Sisters Sisters Club" a lot and really enjoyed reading it. I could relate to the Sisters Club because I have three friends and we call ourselves "sisters." I think this is great for girls ages 8-13.

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Because her mother travels, 11-year-old Bailey stays with her grandmother in central Virginia. The surprise arrival of her father and an annoying half-sister Norma Jean sets in motion the creation of a club with Bailey's friends (who are more like sisters to her than Norma Jean) to which her step-sister is not allowed to join. Then there is the problem of Justin (who used to bully Bailey), a cat-snatcher, and a man trying to burn down an old house. But more than any of these issues, is Bailey's father meaning to kidnap her and take her away from her grandmother while her mother is away? No Sisters Sisters Club is the sequel to Linda Salisbury's The Wild Women Of Lake Anna and continues the "Bailey Fish Adventure" series which is especially recommended to young readers ages 8 to 12.

Because her mother travels, 11-year-old Bailey stays with her grandmother in central Virginia. The surprise arrival of her father and an annoying half-sister Norma Jean sets in motion the creation of a club with Bailey's friends (who are more like sisters to her than Norma Jean) to which her step-sister is not allowed to join. Then there is the problem of Justin (who used to bully Bailey), a cat-snatcher, and a man trying to burn down an old house. But more than any of these issues, is Bailey's father meaning to kidnap her and take her away from her grandmother while her mother is away? No Sisters Sisters Club is the sequel to Linda Salisbury's The Wild Women Of Lake Anna and continues the "Bailey Fish Adventure" series which is especially recommended to young readers ages 8 to 12.

New Salisbury mystery a read for all ages
James Abraham
Literary Critic
Charlotte Sun-Herald

The last time we saw Bailey Fish, she was learning how to live with a new family member, her grandmother, after the 12-year-old's divorced mother had shipped her off to live with Grandma Sugar.

That was in "The Wild Women of Lake Anna," the first Bailey Fish book by former Charlotte Harbor resident Linda Salisbury. Now Bailey's back with new problems in "No Sisters Sisters Club," (8:95, Tabby House).

The title should be clue enough to Bailey's problems. But first some background. Her mother, a journalist, decided to send Bailey from her Florida home to live with her grandmother while pursuing an assignment in South America.

Like most young children, Bailey's foremost fear was that of losing her friends and having to make new ones in a new land. But her Virginia grandmother, who's as sweet as her appellation, soon wins her over, As those familial pains are resolved and Bailey blossoms in her new home, she helps solve an environmental mystery by tracking down the miscreant who had been poisoning the lake of the title.

In that book Salisbury did a good job of presenting a writer's palimpsest, a story layered over another tale, which appealed to readers of various bents. Those who were big on feeling empathized with the displaced Bailey, while readers with a love for mystery and adventure found common cause with detective Bailey.

Salisbury repeats that syncopated storytelling style in ""Sisters," as Bailey's adjustment to more members of a family she barely knew is juxtaposed with her struggle against land pirates.

Imagine waking up one day and finding out that you suddenly had a father and three siblings as well. Worse, one of them was a sister, who would be coming to stay at your place and paw over your things.

Well, that's about the size of the challenge facing Bailey, who must overcome the demons in her nature to learn to accept the new elements of her family. How she does so is played out against the backdrop, literally, of an old, abandoned house on land an unscrupulous developer would love to buy.

In crafting a juvenile thriller with a heart, Salisbury shows that she understands the craftiness of writing. Plot is key, but a plot alone is not enough. Readers must be made to feel for the lead characters. The plot must act as resistance training, pushing the main character to exhibit new muscles of the head, heart and soul.

Bailey's initial reaction to meeting her long-lost father and her half-sister is churlish, but also predictable. How would any of us react if suddenly confronted with family we never knew? Sure, as adults we may be cordial and may even welcome some new blood in such circumstances. But for a child, such a revelation carries with it threats and dangers of displacement and disorientation.

Hence the early challenge, which Bailey must surmount to not only be a better person, but to also move the book along.

Bailey pulls a Columbus, taking the long way around. In doing so, she makes the reader respect and admire her not only for her heart, but also because she shows she has a brain.

One inside joke I love about the two books in Salisbury's series is that the author assiduously pushes reading. "Sisters" opens with Bailey reading one of L. Frank Baum's "Oz" books, and is sprinkled with references to reading buddies and books. There, beneath the mystery and the story of the heart, lies a third layer-the proliferation of literacy.

Salisbury understands that these are new times, in which nuclear families have been exploded with all the power and psychic damage of a nuclear bomb. In these new times, we need new books to raise our children well.

"Sisters" fills that bill nicely.

(...)

This book gives you a glimpse into a vast wilderness region that few know, even those that live in the northeast. It is a story that encompasses the land, people, history, culture, and environmental issues.

A fantastic, well written, visually captivating reflection of the beauty of the wild places of new england...a one of a kind book and a must have.

A finalist for the 2003 Independent Publisher Award, Stephen Gorman's Northeastern Wilds: Journeys Of Discovery In The Northern Forest is a stunning tour of adventure and wonder amidst remote woodland beauty. Captivating photographs of natural beauty and unique words of wisdom, memory, and appreciation for nature's bounty distinguish this very highly recommended informative and simply beautiful pictorial "great outdoors" northeastern tour.

The Northern Forest is an area of twenty-six million acres that stretches from Adirondack Park in New York through Vermont, New Hampshire, and most of Maine. "Northern Wilds: Journeys of Discovery in the Northern Forest" consists of historical information about this area as well as the author's personal experiences. The author provides detailed descriptions and commentary of the various facets of the Forest. These descriptions include what one might expect while hiking in the area in different seasons, canoeing the rivers, or camping as well as how the area is changing due to development, logging, and other ecological factors.

Filled with stunningly beautiful photographs, it made me want to visit the Northern Forest at my first opportunity. A recommended read, but worth the price just for the pleasure of enjoying the photography.