Clubs Books

Armchair Detective is a wonderful mystery with lots of plot twists that keep you interested and make you late for work. I am a fan of lesbian erotica, but i don't care for "nasty stuff." This was a great read because the erotica storyline was tastefully done. Basically, this book was believable. It was not filled with stereotypical lesbo charaters. They were healthy people that had a life in and out of bed.

Oh. My. God. How much did i love reading the sex parts in this book? okay, i am interested in other things besides sex. But this is really good in that area. The story was also excellent, and i enjoyed how fast it was to read. Really a good book- i recommend it!

I have a lot in common with the main character, Jobeth. I, too, was a P.I in my earlier life. She made me miss my old vocation. I'm not gay, but i have gay friends that have long encouraged me to read gay fiction. They told me i was missing out and i must say they were right. I was a bit apprehensive about reading "lesbian erotica"--but i got over it. Baeli was right on the mark with the P.I character--it was very credible--the job is not glamourous, and you can get hurt, and you do make stupid mistakes, and for any "straight" readers, the sex is hot, no matter what sexual orientation you may have. I would have given this five stars, but i'm reserving that for the sequel!

My best friend, Sally reviewed this book, and i felt the need to....see, while waiting around for her to get ready to go out one night, i picked up this book from her coffeetable. I became so involved after a few pages, i asked to borrow it. I'm glad i did. Now, i've never read 'lesbian fiction' and i have no idea if it's all like this or not--but this book was really good. I have to admit i got a little hot reading the 'romantic' parts--but more than that, it really was, overall, a great read. I remained interested in the plot and in the characters. I look forward to Ms. Baeli's next offering. So my advice to anyone reading this review is that if you enjoy a good book--whether you're straight or gay, this is a good choice.

Being from Oklahoma, it sure was nice to see so much detail in a book about an area i live in. Being a lesbian, i fully appreciated how realistic it was that a stone butch woman can meet someone who opens her up and teaches her to believe in love, and to trust again. This is a book i wish i could forget--so that i can read it again!

A Book That Lives Up to the Title!
This book has a prominant place on my KEEPER SHELF! Ms. Jackson has done an outstanding job creating characters that you can care deeply about and want the best for. I was rooting for Alexa and Darius the entire time and hoped that their deep love for each other would bring them together again and keep them together this time. By the end of the book, you'll think, 'At last, a great story with great characters!' You won't be able to put this one down.

A Book That Lives Up to the Title!
This book has a prominant place on my KEEPER SHELF! Ms. Jackson has done an outstanding job creating characters that you can care deeply about and want the best for. I was rooting for Alexa and Darius the entire time and hoped that their deep love for each other would bring them together again and keep them together this time. By the end of the book, you'll think, 'At last, a great story with great characters!' You won't be able to put this one down.

As Alexa and Darius find their way from college lovers to man and wife, you will travel on their journey with them--crying when they cry, frowning when they are frustrated, and cheering when they reach the ultimate success of true love.

A wonderful journey!

This book is quite an enjoyable read! It clearly demonstrates the phenomenal love a man, Darius, has for a woman, Alexa, despite the choices she makes. The tables have turned. It is refreshing to read about a man desiring to have the complete love of his woman as opposed to a woman striving to receive total and complete love from her man. Alexa and Darius are very believable characters that easily slip into your heart as you experience the ups and downs in their relationship from the beginning and on to the suspenseful conclusion. The book not only provides a passionate love story between two endearing characters, but also presents an opportunity for the reader to reflect upon and carefully consider his/her own life-changing decisions. Again, a very enjoyable read!

Although, Lisa Harrison Jackson is classified as a romance writer, her book, "At Last" is not just a romance novel. The story encompasses the social understanding of the career versus family dilemma relating to females in corporate America. The center of the novel is Alexa Kirkwood who is a successful executive for a publishing company. Alexa becomes the maid of honor for the renewing of vows for her best friend, Maya Renault, a news anchorwoman for a local television station, and her husband, Bryant Renault. To Alexa's surprise, Darius Riverside, who, nine years ago Alexa was engaged to but walked out on because of her career, was also in the wedding. It is not long before the two rekindles a loving and joyous relationship. And just as everything begins to fall into place, Alexa is challenged with another decision of choosing between a career and the man she loves. The novel was easy to read and the author's descriptions of the characters, environment, and the love scenes were magnificent. I love the way the author sprinkles into the novel the names of real life people and things such as celebrities and designer brand names to give realism to this fictional novel. Jackson gives us a slice of life from the middle-class African American community. We can hardly wait for Jackson's next novel.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is a demonstration of New England civility in the 1850s. I believe it went through more than 50 editions by the end of the nineteenth century, so it must have been very widely read at one time. The book is packed with amazing observations. Holmes takes the time to wonder why the sense of smell is the quickest path to memory. He rails against puns in a way that is better than punning. He points out human flaws and praises examples of good living. Trees come alive, through prosaic description and poetic flights. Would you like to go back to the 1850s and have a conversation with a Boston intellectual? Here's your chance. There are many old copies of this book sitting around, but it's nice that it's come back into print (again).... (it's also a quiet love story, by the way)

The imaginary scene is a boarding house breakfast. Conversation is dominated by a lively gent who's seen it all. He holds forth on women, school, philosophy, rowing, interrupted from time to time with verses such as the Deacon's Masterpiece. It's witty, poignant, and rightfully a classic.

Two oral practices flourished in antebellum America: the lecture (or sermon) and the conversation. Lectures, such as Emerson's "The American Scholar" and sermons, such as the abolitionist sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, are well-known examples of this era. But it was also known as the Golden Age of Conversation, and its greatest practitioner was generally agreed to be Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior.

Holmes was considered an important American writer until the 1920s when he was excised from the American canon by the modernists. They depicted him as willfully provincial, and elitist. What those critics failed to understand was that the Autocrat is also a comic pose, and that Holmes is making sport of everyone, including elitists. Holmes' democratic view of conversation as an open, free-wheeling discourse where anyone could join the Autocrat at his table, as long as they enlivened the conversation, ran counter to the views of his more elitist friends in Boston's Saturday Club in Boston. Holmes loved to talk, and his love for talk made him a democrat, or perhaps a true republican.

His Autocrat is a many sided character: stern and foolish, admonitory and celebratory, a polymorph who will don any temporaty mask necessary to keep the conversation alive. Holmes' playful metaphorical imagination is also a revelation. His gift for translating complex ideas into homey metaphors, aphorisms, and similes is nothing short of miraculous. In the words of another seriously comic American whom I'm sure Holmes would have delighted in, the Autocrat "floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee."

The Autocrat of the Breakfast table begins "in media res," in the middle of a conversation, with the Autocrat attempting to set the rules for conversation at his table. They are generous rules, but even they are open to sabotage by his tablemates at the boarding house. He begins by banning "facts" from his table as impediments to conversation, (a condition that should prevail on today's too numerous current event talking head shows. But I, like the Autocrat, digress).

Here's how the Autocrat starts: "I was just going to say, when I was interrupted, that one of the many ways of classifying minds is under the head of arithmetical and algebraical intellects. All economical and practical wisdom is an extension of the following arithmetical formula: 2 + 2 = 4. Every philosophical proposition has the more general character of the expression a + b = c. We are mere operatives, empirics, and egoists, until we learn to think in letters instead of figures." "They all stared. There is a divinity student lately come among us to whom I commonly address remarks like this. "

In other words, as Gibian says in his marvelous OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES AND THE CULTURE OF CONVERSATION: [The Autocrat] only asks us to study his beliefs the way a pragmatist would study the doctrines of any religion: "I don't want you to believe anything I say; I only want you to to try to see what makes me believe it." How refreshing in this age of factoids and statisticoids recited with rancor and ideological certitude, to hear the Autocrat and his tablemates at the boarding house attempting to fashion a democracy through and by their conversation. Nowadays all we have are the unironic Autocrats, control freaks like John McLaughlin, Ted Koppel, Rush Limbaugh, and that guy on FOX whose name I have, pleasantly, forgotten.

Listening to the Autocrat you can almost hear American singing. It's not exactly Walt Whitman's America, but it's still America in the hopeful, experimental antebellum era, and thus a good antidote to the cold technocratic chatter and lukewarm public relations cant we are showered with in this hypermediated century.

An interesting range of thoughtful opinions, imbedded in a look at American life in the 1850s, by the father of a future Supreme Court Associate Justice. Part of the charm of this book is in the fact that at that time horses had been the only means of human-assisted transportation for the last few thousand years (with the exception of the new-fangled railroad which was changing the world). Electronics were not even imagined. Automobiles were 50 years into the future.

The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table is a demonstration of New England civility in the 1850s. I believe it went through more than 50 editions by the end of the nineteenth century, so it must have been very widely read at one time. The book is packed with amazing observations. Holmes takes the time to wonder why the sense of smell is the quickest path to memory. He rails against puns in a way that is better than punning. He points out human flaws and praises examples of good living. Trees come alive, through prosaic description and poetic flights. Would you like to go back to the 1850s and have a conversation with a Boston intellectual? Here's your chance. There are many old copies of this book sitting around, but it would be nice if it came back into print.... (it's also a quiet love story, by the way)

I found this audio book to be a relaxing escape from the stressful preparations one has to make for the coming of their first child. I listened to little bits of this CD on the way to work, and discovered new and interesting facts about caring for my son. It was very relaxing and helped me step into the role of new father without all of the anxiety.

This is a terrific resource which I highly recommend to new parents and/or baby caregivers. It is extremely user-friendly and is great for anyone (most of us) short on time. I was especially impressed with the detail and quantity of information given, and found the narrator to be both professional and warm. The CD format is a terrific twist on a very functional must-have item for expectant parents, childcare providers, or anyone who loves babies. It has now become my shower gift of choice!

I was a bit anxious about being a new father, so my wife handed me a book she had been given. But, the last thing I wanted to do was carry a book around with me that had a pregnant woman in a rocking chair, holding a teddy bear. Time was also a commodity, so... I bought this audio book. These CDs are quick and painless, just like they promised, and they are full of useful information for new parents. I don't think I'll be "standing on the sidelines" now. If you're not a new father, then give it to someone who is.

This is a fantastic idea! I had taken a simple class on baby care before my daughter was born, but was working so much I never got a chance to read the books I was given. Before I knew it, little Anna was here. My husband and I took one CD each, listening to them in the car on the way to work, and then traded. The tips are very helpful for first-timers. I didn't know about the honey, or not to breastfeed after working out. The CD's are worth every penny.

Finally, someone gives us a break. It's not that I don't want to read up, and take classes. I'm just to busy to be believed. I have a daughter on the way, and I am a real estate agent. My time is not my own right now. So, between open houses, I have listened to this 2-CD set that my wife bought for us. It informs you about things like "over stimulation" and "gas", and even gives you a simple play-by-play about putting on a diaper. The tips are in a very organized format. We are still taking a class, but at least I won't go in there feeling like a complete idiot.

Beware, Dawn is one of the best mysteries I have ever read! It's about a girl named Dawn, who starts to get weird phone calls and creepy letters during a contest for the Best Baby-Sitter, so she doesn't want to tell anyone one about it. Soon, she figures out that every other Baby-Sitter is getting the same creepy calls & letters, except for Kristy, but the ending is still a great surprise. You really should read this book at night because it sends chills down your spine and makes you afraid that someone might be at your door!

The book is about a person who threads Dawn but should she tell the other members or not?

This book is full of mystery. Kids will enjoy the susppenss of the book . Melissa Marie

At Stoneybrook Elementary there is a Sitter-of-the-Month contest. Dawn wants to be the best sitter of course and soon she gets threatening notes from a mysterious Mr.X Then all kinds of freaky stuff starts happening to all the Baby-sitters. What will happen next? Read it to find out.

I Like This!. When Dawn starts getting threatening notes and odd phone calls while she is baby-sitting, she doesn't know what to do. The notes are signed "Mr. X.," and they are beginning to get scary. Normally, she would tell the other Baby Sitters, but this time is different. The kids at Stoneybrook Elementary are having a Sitter of the Month Contest. The siiter for the month has to be someone who is in control, someone whose jobs always go smoothly. Dawn wants to win, But how can she win while Mr. X is sending notes?

BEYOND MEDICINE: Exploring a New Way of Thinking by Dr. Richard A. DiCenso is a rewarding guide to personal change and improved health. Readers will explore the realms of Vicious Cycle Disorders (VCD) impacting health and wellness in today's society.

Not feeling well is not normal. Unresolved symptoms could indicate a life out of balance. How strongly do these words resonate? You, may be suffering from VCD. BEYOND MEDICINE, teaches why VCD develops, common signs of VCD, how to identify the symptoms of VCD, and what you can do about it.

Dr. DiCenso details the three primary realms in which Human beings function: the physical, biochemical, and psycho-emotional-spiritual or "virtual". Insightfully explaining that, "Unless balance exists among and within the realms, day-to-day life reflects discrepancies in the form of physical ailments, physiological dysfunction, and/or emotional distress."

Learning that our thoughts, which exist in the virtual realm, can perpetuate VCD was profound. Accepting responsibility for an out of balance life is a hard truth. As individuals, we literally are what we think. The book serves as a wonderful resource for individuals desiring improved health and also for those who are proactive in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The importance of the mind-body-spirit connection and overall health is significant.

By changing our thoughts and "Exploring a New Way of Thinking", BEYOND MEDICINE, it is possible to improve your quality of life. I highly recommend this powerful and inspiring book.

Beyond Medicine: Exploring A New Way Of Thinking by Dr. Richard A. DiCenso is an interpretive study of the mind, and the effectiveness of neurological and psychological order over drugs and surgery. Offering the reader an invaluable body of knowledge from years of experience with Vicious Cycle Disorder, Beyond Medicine informs its readers of the most frequent reasonings for the cause of VCD, common signs of VCD, identification of normal symptoms of VCD, and how to create a healing mentality and alteration of the pains which VCD causes. Beyond Medicine is very strongly recommended to those who are struggling to identify health issues arising from the condition of VCD.

Dr. Richard Dicenso has written a very thought provoking book that explores healing and illness from a truly holistic model. His perspective encompasses not only the physical manifestations of imbalance, but also the too often ignored realms of emotion, consciousness and spirit. This is a book that you will want to read more than once because it is filled with wisdom and insight. I found this book very inspiring and a source of hope as well as practical guidance for all those seeking to achieve balance and wellness in their lives. Dr. Dicenso's book is one of the best books on healing that I have ever read.

Ever more clinicians are recognizing the limitations of the biomedical model of illness and the importance of considering not only the psychological, social, subtle and spiritual components of the human organism, but also how they each change over time.

This time factor is critically important. Time runs at different speeds and even in different directions in each of these five domains. It is also important because a good healer soon learns that time management is considerably less important than energy management: time provides the structure but energy provides the dynamic power that enables our lives and the lives of our patients to flourish. While time is limited, energy is not. Or rather it should not be. But sometimes we do our best to sabotage it. Instead of relying upon contacting and using our inner energy, we steal it from other people or rely on the quick fixes of caffeine, sugar or a hundred other suboptimal solutions that leave their tracks in each of the five domains.

But underlying time and the five domains, there is a timeless, dynamic, intelligent blueprint - often called the Informational Matrix - that constantly generates the plans and strategies that keep us alive. When we lose touch with that Source we either become sick or die. Physical medicine, herbs, nutrition, postural work and energy medicine are all essential components of treatment and health maintenance, but over the last three decades, ever more therapists have been interested in doing more than treating people who have already "fallen off the cliff:" Nobody wants to move the deckchairs on the Titanic! So in addition to physical and energy medicine, there has, since the early 1980s been growing interest in "Information Medicine."

If it is indeed possible to influence the Informational Matrix, then we might be getting at the root of the problem. And that should in turn direct the subtle systems of the body. That does not mean a "get out of jail free card!" Our efforts could yet be thwarted by poor lifestyle choices, though those choices become less common as we work with people's information systems.

There is a second observation that has been known by specialists for many years, and that is the concept of the pain cycle. Many people with chronic headache or intractable back pain may no longer have any obvert physical pathology, yet the pain will not budge: they have entered a chronic pain cycle, that is probably mediated by some precise circuits in the thalamus of the brain. But you can be sure that these chronic problems have also left their imprint in the other systems of the body. The pain is not solely psychological or psychosomatic. It is as real as having a pin inserted into your forearm. It is surprising to find how few therapists have been taught about or discovered these pain cycles. And it is not just pain: many pathological patterns can establish vicious circles in the body or mind that are similar to obsessive ruminations, obsessive-compulsive thoughts or an ohrwurm that has occupied someone's mind.

The trouble is that these vicious circles can sometimes be very hard to break.

This book by Richard DiCenso is an extremely important contribution and propels the whole field of information medicine forward, with what he calls "Vicious Cycle Disorders," and his novel approaches to treating them.

Richard starts by speaking of his initial frustration about trying to treat the 20% of the population who have chronic symptoms for which there is no readily apparent cause. Sometimes these people are given an array of diagnoses or interpretations of their symptoms such as "chronic fatigue syndrome," "sub-clinical hypothyroidism," "adrenal fatigue" or "Candida infections," all of which may be present, but the underlying problem is of a life out of balance. The cutting edge of medicine is not molecular biology or brain science. They are important and knowledge about them essential. But the real progress is being made in a new science: the science of re-integration. The reintegration of mind, body and spirit.

Richard has an ambitious goal: "to develop a working mode for behaviors that lead to a life of conscious co-creation and fulfillment."

Yet his novel approaches have made these goals attainable in a unique way. First the book contains a great many useful techniques for dealing with problems like repetitive thoughts and nutritional deficiencies. Second he has devised something called a "Matrix Assessment Profile" that helps pinpoint some of the precise disturbances in the body that are causing symptoms. He has created a very informative website containing a lot of information about the evaluation and how to get it done.

Richard DiCenso has created a wonderful healing system based on the essential truth that the future of the healing arts lies in whole person therapy.

Highly recommended.


Richard G. Petty, MD, author of Healing, Meaning and Purpose: The Magical Power of the Emerging Laws of Life

Beyond Medicine is THE BOOK for our times and especially for the doctors and patients of the USA who have been brought up to believe that fixing illness is no more sophisticated than treating symptoms much as "Click and Clack the Tapet Brothers" might listen to the symptoms of a dysfunctional car and come up with a diagnosis on their National Public Radio program. It is vindication for all of those suffering from symptoms for which there seems to be no overt cause. It affirms the incredible complexity and mystery that is the human experience and gives hope to sufferers by outlining a matrix of considerations and activities that may treat the causes of disease instead of merely addressing the complaints. If you are interested in health, either yours or others, this book is a must read.

If you loved Bertrand R. Brinley's two collections of stories: The Mad Scientists' Club and The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club or the final novel The Big Chunk of Ice: The Last Known Adventure of the Mad Scientists' Club, then you'll also love "The Big Kerplop" The boys return in the first novel-length adventure of the Mad Scientists of Mammoth Falls, which is in fact a prequel that explains how the club was formed and how founding member Harmon Muldoon got expelled, becoming their nemesis in the short stories.

Jeff Crocker, Charlie Finckledinck, and Harmon Muldoon are fishing in the fog on Strawberry Lake when an Air Force exercise goes wrong resulting in something rather large landing near the boys with a loud Kerplop! Thinking that the Air Force might like to have whatever it was back, the boys attempt to calculate their position using basic scientific principles. Their thinking turns out to be correct when the "something" is revealed to be a hydrogen bomb! However, when the Air Force fails to find the bomb where the boys calculated their position to be (or anywhere else for that matter), Jeff, Charlie, and Harmon take matters into their own hands, gathering together the future members of the Mad Scientists' Club both in order to prove that they were right and to find the missing hydrogen bomb. Hi-jinks ensue.

As a boy, I was terribly disappointed by "The Big Kerplop" that I had waited six long years for because I had assumed based on the brief published descriptions of the upcoming book, originally titled "The Sunken Village", that we would finally see the restored midget submarine in action. Instead it turned out to be a prequel, and the midget submarine was never used. Rereading it now, I can better appreciate what turned out to be a very fine novel, a worthy companion to the previous books, that revealed a lot more about the characters than the short stories had disclosed. However, I can also more clearly see the chronological problems introduced by this prequel, specifically, the logic problem arising from making the boys such huge heroes at their club's founding that their subsequent anonymity and treatment like a bunch of normal kids makes no sense. In addition Harmon Muldoon is portrayed as such a total jerk that the reader is left wondering how Jeff and Charlie could stand him long enough to be friends with him at the beginning of the novel.

Note: the Purple House reprint of The Big Kerplop!: The Original Adventure of the Mad Scientists' Club is worth picking up even if you own the extremely rare first edition of The Big Kerplop; A Mad Scientists' Club Adventure because the text is based on the original manuscript, restoring a number of passages that had been cut for space reasons. It also includes an introduction written by Bertrand's son Sheridan. First time readers would be well advised to read this novel after reading the short stories in chronological order; for subsequent rereadings this novel can be placed first where it belongs chronologically.

If you liked the previous Mad Scientists books as well as I did, you will like this one, too. It is like your favorite cartoon turned into a full-length movie (provided it is a good one, which this is). The discover and suspense are well worth it, especially for developing minds.

Purple House Press is reissuing The Big Kerplop! in 2003. At last the elusive third book in the Mad Scientists' Club series will be available to everyone who wants to read it!

This is a great book, just like all their other stories. I like the way when they have a problem they just think up a way to solve it, and then they think up a way to do that. And they're not afraid of the army or anybody, they just do what they have to do. I know this book was written a long time ago, but they sound just like guys I know. (only smarter) I wish there were more books like this out there because I would sure read them too! The mad scientists club is great!

In this book, Henry and the other young mad scientists help the military locate a nuclear missile that has landed in the local lake. It is the third book in the series. It has a much more complex storyline than any of the the other Mad Scientists stories and makes the guys question the purpose of their endeavours. In an earlier adventure, we are given to believe that the military would be the best place for the young scientists to grow up, but in this story we see that the military has serious flaws. This is radical for a story from this era, especially from an author who was part of the military-industrial complex himself.

An old fashioned macho detective with a new twist, he's dead and filled with cauked up holes. This book crosses several genres, and might be of particular interest to readers of vampire novels, mystery and science fiction. There are some great new ideas concerning vampire society, ghosts, imps in bottles, and your general undead. The author has done his research as well, and scenes are very detailed.

Okay, so you've got this detective who's dedicated his existence to ridding the world of evil. He's strong, sensitive, and...oh, yeah...he's dead.

"Blood and Shadows" is a new kind of detective novel; not only are the stakes much higher (the destruction of the world), but our hero isn't the virile, sexy type. Eric Baine, the Dead Detective, patches himself up with spackle after gunfights. He wears a metal plate to cover up the missing part of his head. When faced with (well, relatively speaking) mortal danger, the spirit controlling his body takes over and obliterates any threat with a blinding green light. Mike Hammer, he ain't.

Therein lies the beauty of this novel. Main spices this supernatural tale with dark humor, morals, and even romance. The relationship between Baine and Ming Li, his mysterious Chinese muse, is touching--simply because it's one of the more seemingly possible things in a universe of impossibility. Dead guys need love, too.

The fact that this is Main's first published novel is a shame--this quirky concept has fleshed out nicely and, should Main continue to offer new Baine adventures, he will have breathed new life into a dying genre. (Okay, the puns are a little much...but you get the point, right?) "Blood and Shadows" is a funny, gripping, wonderful novel.

Incredibly well-written, imaginative and above all else FUN! The characters, plot and world are all well thought through with many twists on conventional undead mythos. Anyone with a well-developed sense of humor, wit and imagination should LOVE this book. Stop reading the reviews already... go buy this book!

I laughed out loud and cannot wait for more files from the smart-assed, undead detective, Eric Baine (oh yeah... and from that Michael guy behind the keyboard too).

If you took the best of Elliot Ness, Anne Rice, and MacGyver you would get the main character, Eric Baine. He is witty, intelligent and clever. He finds himself in some unpredictable situations, but when you are a dead detective anything is possible. The author, Michael Main, does a great job relating this guys misery and struggle between the world of the living and the dead. I had a hard time putting this one down. I am looking forward to seeing more stories about Eric Baine in print.

Incredibly well-written, imaginative and above all else FUN! The characters, plot and world are all well thought through with many twists on conventional undead mythos. Anyone with a well-developed sense of humor, wit and imagination should LOVE this book. Stop reading the reviews already... go buy this book!

I laughed out loud and cannot wait for more files from the smart-assed, undead detective, Eric Baine (oh yeah... and from that Michael guy behind the keyboard too).

When Joseph Mitchell died in 1996 at the age of 87, the obituary that appeared in the New York Times, May 25, 1996, called him the "chronicler of the unsung and the unconventional." Mitchell began his career as a writer for The New York Herald Tribune in 1929. His career spanned the 1930s to the 1960s. He joined The New Yorker in 1938, and the pieces he contributed to that magazine have continued to gather momentum, taking on a life of their own. The six essays offered in this collection, a revised edition of The Bottom of the Harbor, were first published between 1944 and 1959.

Mitchell came to New York from rural North Carolina, and quickly found a fascination with life in the city. His essays, a combination of oral history, natural history, and psychological observation, reflect his love for the people and the surroundings of New York, with a special emphasis on fishermen and others involved in life around the harbor.

The first essay in the collection, "Up in the Old Hotel," is a kind of mystery--from a restaurant on the ground floor of a building near the Fulton Fish Market, Mitchell leads the reader to wonder along with him what the abandoned floors above may hold. It is this idea of mystery, things hidden from view, which permeate his stories. Whether he is describing the rat infestations on board ships in the harbor or the wild flowers growing in graveyards, his eye for detail is captivating. The narrative in each essay unfolds slowly, following a kind of wandering trajectory like the paths Mitchell takes to visit the individuals whose stories he relates with charm.

The Bottom of the Harbor is a book to be enjoyed slowly. The characters and settings are vividly drawn. The historical detail will delight those readers with an interest in New York's past, and the oral histories will captivate those readers who have a penchant for dialogue and psychology.

Armchair Interviews says: First-class essays all will enjoy.

The people that Joseph Mitchell introduces the reader to in these character sketches are representative of a New York that no longer exists and their stories are nostalgic and sentimental. But there is more here than that. Mitchell writes with a respect for his subjects regardless of their circumstances that reveals a true observer of life at work. Without a hint of judgementalism he takes the time to understand and the reader is rewarded and enriched as a result.
This collection is particulary good and Up In The Old Hotel contains more of the same style. The latter book is more readily available although I found a copy of this at the Strand bookstore off Union Square.

He really does take you places. Places you may have been before, but in a time we'll never know again. As I'm reading, I'm careful to catch every word, afraid of missing out on the world he's revealing to me.

This is the first I've ever read of Mitchell, but he's already one of my favorite authors. Journalism at its finest.

Informative and very well-written short stories about life near and on the New York waterways in the 1940-1950's. A thoughtful and seemingly kind writer...I will definately read more of his work.

There are so many good things I could say about The Bottom of the Harbor. Mitchell's writing style is clean easy to read without lacking in depth and texture. The stories themselves are fascinating and off beat.

But the best part of the book are the characters Mitchell writes about. They come alive through his portrayals and you will find yourself thinking about them, their thoughts, and their ways of life long after you stop reading.

The book contains six separate stories, each about 40 (short) pages long, so you can absorb them at your own pace without losing the thread. Personally, I had a hard time putting the book down.

David Brentridge was the only Brentridge heir left alive that knew about the family secret. Many men and even a woman sought out the rumored gold hidden on Brentridge property. None had ever breached the security of faithful work hands, the pool of poison, or the gun of David Brentridge himself.

Recent deaths led David to believe that his enemy Will Janely, was on the lookout to get his grimy hand on the gold. David was right in suspecting Will; but he never would have guessed who actually rode away that day with the small fortune leaving David for dead.

That one day put life in motion for David. He knew he must marry to sire a child of his own to pass on the family secret to. The only problem was, he didn't know where to find her as she has up and disappeared. In the end David got what he wanted all along; he was willing to pay the price in gold, too bad it also cost a leg.

Mr. Lambert has written a western that is a wickedly detailed , weirdly worded book of pure excitement. The characters exploded from the pages coming right to life. This story was very detailed, so much so that it distracted me from the story time to time. With that aside this is definitely a 4 heart worthy series that I will be sure to follow.

Did David find Consuela again? Are they living happily ever after? Did he produce a heir and a spare like he hoped? Does the secret live on? Did he find another opening in the treasure room? Is there more treasure or another darker, deeper mystery? Who pulled him out of that tunnel? What was amiss in the treasure room that he couldn't put his finger on? Oh yes, inquiring minds want to know. When is W. Lambert III going to write the next book in the series to answer all these questions....Or has W. Lambert III already written it? Where can I get it?

Love the book. Just what I needed on a sunny Sunday afternoon drifting on the lake ... relaxing. Perfect!

I could not put this book down. W. Lambert has written this twisted and twisting plot excellently. During the "hunt" scenes I am reminded of the short story "The Most Dangerous Game." While gold may be what everyone is after, both the prey and game turn out to be humans.
Every detail in the book is strategically placed and timed to result in a shocking and revealing ending. This book is raw--human raw. We see the characters for who they are and not who they pretend to be--with a few surprises. Death is present many times during the story; each depiction is realistic and relevant.
I cannot wait for the next book by W. Lambert

When author Christopher Dane, whose 1981 book RIDERS OF THE DRAGON presaged the Heaven's Gate suicides and arrival of comet Hale-Bopp, recommends THE BRENTRIDGE GOLD -- "Great! Fantastic! Unusual! A book I wish I'd written!" -- I sit up and take notice. Nor was I disappointed.

A sci-fi fan and a western afficionado, I found THE BRENTRIDGE GOLD, subtle enough in its plotline to satisfy readers of both genres. In fact, if you aren't a die-hard fan of the Ancient Astronaut theories, you might very well be misled into believing Lambert has written a western with just a very interesting and very unique storyline. However, if you are a true believer, there's enough insinuation of things "above and beyond" (including "Pakal, The Maya Astronaut" on the cover) to get the juices and the ah-yes-there-you-have-it! thought process working overtime.

Lambert, not new to the book scene provided some now classical reads in the eighties (ENCORES IN FADE; MICHAEL THE MASTER; ASSIGNMENT GREY AREA), and it's great to have him back from retirement [or from wherever else -- (cue "The Twilight Zone Theme") do,do do,do -- he's been], especially with a book that I predict will become a cult classic in its own right.

Don't miss this one if you like your westerns with a twist you're not likely to find in your typical run-of-the-mill cowboy novel, or your sci-fi really out of the ordinary! And since the books presents itself as merely the first in "The Pleiades Portals Series" of books, be sure not to miss it, because of predicted upcoming-more-of-the-same!

While I usually won't read Westerns, the idea of one involving "Ancient Astronauts" intrigued me, because I love science fiction! The science fiction and adventure elements keep sneaking into the narrative, along with hints of possible supernatural activity. Still, author W. Lambert III stays tightly focused on the Western-style hero, David Brentridge.

In fact, David takes up most of the ink in this book. We often see only him, or just him with brief appearances from the other characters. Fortunately, Lambert makes David a unique and fascinating character who slowly reveals more and more about himself and his family through his actions, dialogue, and thoughts.

The people who keep crossing David's path in one way or another might want the Brentridge gold, and he rarely can decide which of them to trust. Lambert even holds back from the readers why the gold involves so many secrets, far beyond any obvious fortune, but he gives us fascinating hints and glimpses through David and an ancient shaman. He also gives a fast-paced, unpredictable read.