Clubs Books

As someone who also has a severe mental illness, I find this book to be excellent and inspirational. This book should be read by all whose lives are affected by mental illness in some ways.

Robert H. Gerner, M.D, Assoc. Research Psychiatrist- UCLA:

This is a candid struggle of one woman's anguished mental affliction and resolution experienced through the lens of her earlier gift of music. Patients, families and professional alike can readily feel her inner struggle with distorted perceptions of the world around her, and share in the reconstruction of her identity as an individual.

I just finished reading The Music of Madness and I was amazed at Tracy Harris' ability to draw the reader into her descent into madness. Her descriptions of her hallucinations, hospitalizations and depression are incredibly vivid and they reminded me of my brother, who also suffers from a severe mental illness. Her writing is beautiful and I couldn't put it down once I started. I think anyone who has suffered from mental illness could benefit from reading this book. The author's message is one of incredible hope. I have given this book to my brother to read so that he too can see that it truly is possible to lead a rewarding life, even with a severe mental illness. It was fascinating to witness the author's great talent for music and her mind's terrible madness merge into one incredible and unique experience. Bravo to the author for having the courage to share her painful mental illness with the world. Through sharing her story the author affords us all a better understanding of those that are suffering everyday with mental illness!

The Music of Madness is a book about a talented concert flutist and her harrowing journey from sanity into madness and back again. This true story is an odyssey that takes you through the dark cells of mental institutions to the lighted stages of concert halls. One is able to travel with the author as she journeys from her innocent childhood to the dark world of hallucinations, her face-off with death and her emergence into the light of hope and final triumph as she reclaims her career and more importantly her sanity and her right to live life as it was meant to be. The Music of Madness is an inspirational book for all those who have felt the anguish and hopelessness of mental illness either for themselves or for a loved one. This painfully honest story is a source of renewed faith in life and provides everyone who reads it with a stronger belief in the strength of the human spirit. This book brings to everyone's library an exciting adventure full of truth, and the qualities that all of us share in surviving this chancy yet exciting existence we call life.

Also recommended: A Beautiful Mind

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!

"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.

This is an invaluable reference book on early oak furniture, which is neccessary for anyone who wishes to have an understanding of the subject. It is both full of expert knowledge explained in a clear concise manner and also contains numerous photographs of the furniture which is depicted in an organised chronogical order that clarifies the text.

This is the most informative book I have seen on all subjects of wooden furniture and does not limit itself to only oak. It describes in great detail the facts on why varying woods were used in each time period due to availability and why only certain trades were allowed to do specific work due to guild laws. The descriptions and photos are amazing, ( WARNING, you will be spellbound for hours looking at these...:) ), and the index at the back of the book uses the best system that I have seen by far, each picture is displayed in thumbnail size pictures and arranged by catagory. Simply look at the index section for chairs, see the thumbnail photo of the one you seek and the page location is written underneath. Family and friends borrow this book so much that I have often contemplated buying a second copy just to be sure of having it around all the time...:) This book will never go out of date. If you only ever buy one book on earlier woodworking, this is the one you must see. Would also make the best coffee table book I've ever seen.... Its BIG, its impressive and its the best, what more could you wan't?

This is a great book, it has so many photos I could not count them, then has them all in the index - a photo of each item, making it easy to locate any specifically. My only complaint is the photos are not colour but it would cost 4x as much (but perhaps would be worth that price).

if you have an interest in the development of early furniture . . . and how to recognize real pieces that are still on the market . . .and still surprisingly available . . .this is perhaps the definitive book out there . . . it is highly recommended despite how costly it is . . .

It's a shame this book is out of print. It captured high school perfectly. I still check it out of the library when I need a good laugh.

This book is one of the better ones that I have read. In fact, it's one of the best. Okay. The story is about these guys who call themselves the Obnoxious Jerks, (if you read the book, you'll see why). They are at this school where there's all these rules and regulations. They just try to change the rules or tell what they think of the rules by doing protests and stuff. They called them jerk-outs, and woah, are they funny. At one point, actually the beginning starts at this point but then backtracks to show how they got to this time, they wear skirts to school to protest the no shorts rule. Remember, these are guys we are talking about here! There are also lots of conflicts within the story, of course without a conflict, what do you have? Nothing. One of the biggest conflicts is between Leslie "The Iceberg" Freeze and Back's best friend Joe. All I can say is that you need to read this great book. It shows the smart people with the imagination and perseverance to get things done. This book should go to all the weirdo's out there. The smart ones that are a little offbeat, not the same as everybody else. As a weirdo myself, I can identify with this book. It's a good book that everybody should read. I give this book three thumbs up.

If there was any book that should never have gone out of print it was this one. Just thinking about it makes me laugh. Definitely one of the best books ever written. It is perfect for teenagers and those of us older who like to pretend we aren't and just need a good laugh. It captures the high school perfectly and lets us have fun with it.

This book is a story about a group of misfits in a normal school. These guys formed their own club called The Obnoxious Jerks, and now they're out to do stuff! What kind of stuff, you ask? No one really knows!!! But they start with dishing out cow brains and end up wearing skirts to school as a uniform protest. This book is hilarious. It had me laughing for hours.

The Old Woman's Cat is a delightful collection of 12 short stories, some wickedly funny, some full of dark revenge and tasty justice. "Spectre", a romance, was one of my favorites but "Demise of a Vampire" had me laughing and wanting more. "Mother Mouse", "Skeleton Key" and "Images" could be about the family next door (oh, you hope it isn't!), and "Identity" comes from our deepest fears of losing our own identity.
These are delicious stories of ordinary folk just like you and me--with a twist from a good author. These stories will keep you shivering and looking at familiar things with new aprehension.
It's also a must-have book for campfire nights!

Sharon King-Booker's, THE OLD WOMAN'S CAT, AND OTHER STORIES is an intriguing collection of short stories on a variety of themes. The stories are of varied length as well as subject matter, but all are fast-paced, with twists and surprises interwoven. Ms. King-Booker has created believeable characters who do seemingly ordinary things--however-- For good light reading, THE OLD WOMAN'S CAT is a delightful choice.

This book was difficult to put down once I began reading. Ms King-Booker has the ability to build suspense and hold your attention without a doubt. I will be waiting for her next book to come out.

THE OLD WOMAN'S CAT AND OTHER STORIES is a sharp and chilling collection of stories that will truly make you afraid to sleep with the lights off. Along with other ones that will have you reaching for the tissue.

In THE OLD WOMAN'S CAT is Charlotte Stanfield's ramblings strickly in her head or was her family stalked and terrorized by a real cat with a score to settle?

Problems from this vampires former life have eventually followed him in his life of the undead. In DEMISE OF A VAMPIRE we share his time as he writes his farewell letter.

Suzanne and her husband Ted move to Arizona in THE HOUSE ON THE CORNER. When Ted's job relocates them to the dying town that his company hopes will grow once again his wife Suzanne experiences some unexpected and supernatural roommates that are trying to tell her something.

Reeverend Cory Cameron feels a sense of loyalty to an old dying town in the story SPECTER. But what he see's late at night at the old mortuary has him hightailing out of town for good!

In SKELETON KEY, Penny has such fond memories of her time on her grandparents farm when she was a child. When she returns as an adult, memories that have been long buried start haunting her. And so does a beloved relative.

Little Danny wants one thing in life more than anything else. A dog. If he had clean clothes to wear, warm food to eat and a mother who didn't drink and let her boyfriends beat on her and him, that would be nice too. In the story FRIENDS, Danny may just get one of his wishes just in time to save his life.

Dr. Wendell Grimes is having a heck of a time keeping his dead patients to stay in one place in PLASMA FACTOR. He is bound and determined to find out how they keep getting up and leaving the hospital.

OBSESSED is the story of Charles Winslow and his persistent plan to get rid of his wife and hook up with Carla Pennington. But life has a very strange way of turning the purfect plan to horror.

Jennifer Castle went to sleep just like she did every night in IDENTITY. When she woke up the next day she had no idea where she was or who the strange man and two little girls were that walked into the bedroom she woke up in. Why was he calling her Tracy and why were they calling her mommy?

When a father and husband feels he has lost everything in DRESS ME IN PINK he'll make an absolutely devastating decison.

Andrew has spent his life romancing and marrying rich woman in SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE. After years of saving all the money left to him in their wills he's ready to settle down and enjoy his life. When he meets and falls head over heals in love with Angela he gets his just deserts.

A young boy grows up with a horrible knowledge in WINTERKILL. With this knowledge he accepts the fact that it's his job to protect everyone in town when winter comes.

MOTHER MOUSE is the story of a bully husband and a mouse of a wife and mother. When the last child has grown and leaves home it's time for the mouse to bite back.

David wakes up one morning with the ability to see what appears to be the future in IMAGES. When he looks into a mirror a scene will play it's self out. Is this a good thing? Or will it destroy David's sanity and his families happiness?

Sharon King-Booker has writen such a clever book! I loved all of these short stories. Ms. Booker has the ability to scare the socks off you, make you wonder what's real or imagined and even make you choke up in deep sorrow for her characters.

One example of Ms. Booker's talent shines through in DRESS ME IN PINK. I would never have thought it possible but this short story is only one page long. She has chosen these few words with such care and purpose that I was hysterically crying when I finished this one page.

I'm very excited to have found such a talented author in Ms. Booker. I plan to read every book she writes in the future.

If you love a good scare, a good cry and stories with such imaginative twist and turns you should really pick up THE OLD WOMAN'S CAT AND OTHER STORIES.

This book helps the kids learn numbers and also how to search for animals/birds in a picture. The artwork in this book is beautiful.

Both my kids love this book. My 18 month old son wants us to read this book several times during the day. I am going to buy several copies of this book to give as gifts to other kids.

This is, by far, the most beautifully illustrated childrens book I have ever owned! As a preschool teacher, I have read and re-read this book to hundreds of children. They all love to find the hidden animals. Some childrens books have illustrations that, to me, say, "I'll just scribble anything on the paper...it's just a kids book." Atsuko treats this book as artwork....and that is truly what it is!!! It is a pleasure to look at all of the beautiful scenes on every page.

If so, then you must see this book. It is just absolutely beautiful, and can be enjoyed by both children and adults. I have an extensive collection of children's books featuring gorillas, and this is by far my favorite for very young readers. Ms. Morozumi obviously loves her subject matter as much as I do.

The art work in this lovely book is incredible. It also lends itself to reading and re-reading. For the youngest children, you can point at different parts of the lovely pictures (they are set in different seasons and environments), and as they mature, you can "hunt" for the different animals in each picture. (one gorilla, two budgerigars,...nine cats...). A true gem!

Like many struggling young actresses before her, Martyn Tarne has a private fantasy of stepping in for a leading lady taken ill. In true Ngaio Marsh style, Martyn's dream is made a reality, in a twisted way; having just missed an audition at the Vulcan, Martyn wangles a job involved with another show set to open in a few days - as the leading lady's dresser, since Helena Hamilton's regular dresser just went into hospital. Martyn, a New Zealander who was robbed upon arriving in England, is alone and broke, and thankful to get *any* job until she can get on her feet - even at the Vulcan, where her mother's immensely famous cousin Adam Poole is both leading man and director.

The small cast and other Vulcan personnel involved in the production feature quite a few mirror images and parallels in their situations and their relationships with each other. In several scenes, actual reflecting surfaces underline this - shop windows as Martyn trudges to a late audition, a picture under glass of one character that reflects another, and so on.

Martyn doesn't want to establish herself on the London stage solely on the strength of her relationship with Poole - but she's ideally suited for a supporting role in the play requiring a woman who strongly resembles the lead. By contrast, Gay Gainsford, cast for the part on her uncle's insistence, requires heavy makeup and acting skills outside her scope, and is as prone to hysterical outbursts about her loathing for the play even as Martyn tries to fade into the woodwork and hang onto her job. Both women's relationships with older men in the company result in protective and sometimes over-protective reactions as clashes occur in the high-pressure atmosphere of the last few rehearsals and opening night.

As for the men associated with the Vulcan, Clark Bennington, Gay's uncle, is a once-fine actor now in a supporting role as an alcoholic both on stage and in life. On a particularly galling note, he seems to be playing second fiddle to Adam Poole in his marriage as well as his career - Helena Hamilton, the leading lady, has a career that eclipses Bennington's and tends to inspire devotion in most men, though she seems to collect only the young and artistic variety. Most of the other men on the scene apparently don't qualify, being either too old (her devoted admirer Jacques, the director's assistant; Gay's admirer Darcey, supporting player; the crabby playwright Dr. Rutherford) or ambiguous. All the men except Jacques and Poole do their bit to make the situation worse - even the playwright, whose "helpful" feedback is loaded with unprofessional attacks on the junior members of the cast, driving them almost to the point of breakdown when he isn't tactfully headed off.

The story plays out in a very compressed space and timeframe, set almost entirely within the walls of the Vulcan and mostly upon the opening night of THUS TO REVISIT, whose first performance ends with the discovery of the body of a member of the company; the investigation is wrapped up before daybreak.

I recommend James Saxon's unabridged recording of the text; Marsh's stories tend to function very well when performed, and this is no exception.

Drive in totals:
- Two deaths (poison); a third from a previous incident in the same theatre is referred to. (The Vulcan is not the same theatre as the Dolphin, which appears in other stories).
- One sexual assault (off camera, referred to indirectly).
- One openly homophobic character; it's made clear that that's only one of many unpleasant aspects of his rude, bullying personality.
- A character from A SURFEIT OF LAMPREYS turns up as a young constable.
- This story isn't about Alleyn, really; he serves to bring the truth of events and various motivations of the real main characters to light. Alleyn's personal life and family aren't a factor.

There's never a dull moment at The Vulcan Theatre--especially when a starving actress named Martyn Tarne walks into the job of dresser for the show's leading lady. What with a gifted but nasty author, an alcoholic actor, a hysterical bit player, and a host of other neurotics, opening night is more unnerving than usual. In fact, it's pure murder, and Inspector Alleyn is soon on the scene.

Ngaio Marsh is one of the great mystery novelists of the 20th Century, and she is particularly known for her skill at creating believable characters in memorable settings. But she is also uniquely gifted at portraying the complex world of the theatre, a task she takes on in several novels but never better than here. Marsh captures the contrast between the out-front-glamor and the backstage hysteria with the knowledge of an insider (she was, in fact, a theatrical director herself), and in VULCAN she offers a remarkably accurate, powerful vision.

Although it is occasionally beset by some of Marsh's less admirable tendencies, NIGHT AT THE VULCAN is easily among the best of the best, a novel that will not only fascinate you with it's look behind the grand curtain, but keep you guessing in terms of plot as well. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Who would've thought that so many murders could occur in theatres? But then again, it's all a case of life imitating art, and no one does this better than Ngaio Marsh. It's not surprising when you realize that she was a stage director/producer in New Zealand. _Night at the Vulcan_ beautifully captures the atmosphere unique to the theatre, while laying out a very clever case of murder made to look like suicide. This is all told through the eyes of Martyn Tarne, a young lady newly arrived to the London theatre scene, making it all the more interesting. The only reason that I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, was that the identity of the murderer became a little too obvious, in my opinion, but all in all, a fantastic read.

Night at the Vulcan has everything; sympathetic (and endearing) characters, lots of Shakespearean quotes, realistic dialogue, two very different (but equally satisfying) love stories, gorgeous prose...all of the things I read Ngaio for. The character of Martyn Tarne is one I wish Ngaio had re-used in a later book (like she did with some characters from "Death of a Peer" and "Killer Dolphin.").

Ngaio Marsh is my favorite author, and Night at the Vulcan is my favorite Ngaio Marsh. 'Nuff said.