Used price: $5.00
Collectible price: $6.19
Used price: $14.99
Collectible price: $61.20
Buy one from zShops for: $29.50
List price: $19.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $19.59
Buy one from zShops for: $24.95
What makes this CD a better choice than "Land of the Eagles" is the 64-page book on Tuva that is included in the "Deep in the Heart" package. It provides an introduction to Tuvan history and culture, important notes on cuisine (like a recipe for blood sausage, and how to prepare and serve the honored dish "Fat of Lamb's Tail"), and simple explanations of how to throat-sing. For example, to perform the whistling sound of the sygyt style of hoomei, put your mouth in the position to make the sound "ur" as in "urn", tighten your throat, and do a Kermit the Frog impersonation as you sing "ur-ee, ur-ee". Now go practice.
List price: $26.50 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $3.49
Collectible price: $6.50
I only realized Dog Years was part of a trilogy after I bought it, and I enjoyed The Tin Drum much more because I read it after seeing the movie (it relieved the mind from loads of exertion). Although I am immensely relieved to have finally finished Dog Years, I still can't wait to read the other book of the trilogy, Cat and Mouse. Love to hate Grass.
Those of you who feel the revelation of anything having to do with a book before you get to that part in the book is a spoiler should probably avoid this technique; Reddick revelas the major "mystery" in Dog Years towards the end of his section on Cat and Mouse. However, one cannot really consider Dog Years a mystery, despite the various things that happen within it; while there are some elements to it that keep the reader guessing, Dog Years is, more than anything, a savage satire on Germany during the WW2 years. And as such, finding out the main mystery-that's-not-a-mystery should not detract at all from one's appreciation of the book itself.
Dog Years can also stand on its own, without being read as a part of the Danzig Trilogy, but the reader's appreciation of many facets of this novel-- most notably Edouard Amsel's character and the satire itself-- are more easily appreciated when you have The Tin Drum and Cat and Mouse under your belt as comparisons. Amsel, the main protagonist of Dog Years, stands as a direct comparison to both Oskar and Mahlke, and his character is more easily understood when those two have already been assimilated by the reader.
The plot of Dog Years is a simple enough one; it charts, through the use of three narrators, the frindship of Edouard Amsel and Walter Matern from grade school through their early thirties. Amsel, the intellectual one, is picked on constantly by his classmates (including Matern) until one day, for no apparent reason, Matern befriends Amsel and chases away the others. It's a typical buddy-relationship in that Amsel is the brains and Matern is the brawn, but we don't get the bonding we've come to expect from seeing too many Hollywood buddy films. The relationship between Matern and Amsel is far more complex than that, and Reddick has done a passable job of interpreting it, one which I won't attempt to recreate here (it would be ludicrous to attempt something that complex in such a forum as a review). In an odd lapse, though-- especially given how much emphasis Reddick has put on Grass' enmity and stire of the Roman Catholic Church in the previous two books-- Reddick seems to have overlooked one of the most obvious interpretations of Amsel's character (and also that of the more minor protagonist Jenny Brunies), as a christ figure. In the novel's central scene, both Amsel and Brunies (who are both made out, in the first half of the novel, to be almost comically fat) undergo a transformation that transforms Brunies into a ballet sensation and Amsel into another character entirely, the omnipotent Goldmouth; while there is no physical crucifixion here, the path taken by Amsel's character through the rest of the novel certainly implies the path of christ after the resurrection, until his assumption into, in this case, Berlin. For the next hundred or so pages, Goldmouth is never actually seen, only referred to in the good deeds he does for others, and he achieves an almost legendary status among the rank and file for his goodness, his power (in postwar germany, his power is in his connections; who he knows), and the fact that no one really sees him much, but everyone is aware of his presence and his acts. However, Reddick, in his attempt to (successfully) parallel Amsel's character with that of Grass himself, never examines this aspect of Amsel.
This lack also leads to Reddick drawing the conclusion that Dog Years is the weakest of the three books, while still proclaiming that as a whole they rank as the finest piece of modern German literature extant today. I feel Reddick is giving Dog Years short shrift here; while the book does, in fact, have its faults, they are faults shared by the other two novels as well, and I came away from Dog Years thinking that, to the contrary, it was the strongest and most absorbing of the three. While it was more difficult than the other two, it was also more rewarding and more absorbing; it's not often I'll put in three months on one novel, but at no time did I feel that it ever stopped moving me along, and at no time did I ever feel that it was time to put the book down for good.
Keeping this seeming oversight of Reddick's in mind, I still have to recommend his book as a perfect accompaniment to Grass' most famous three novels, and all four of them deserve the attention of every serious student of literature.
Used price: $3.98
Collectible price: $4.75
This skillful blend of mystery and action (and romance) held my attention so thoroughly that I finished it in one sitting. Fans of Peters' Brother Cadfael should find themselves at home with Marston's Delchard and Gervase
He provides incites regarding the relationships of Normans, Saxsons and Welsh for the history buff. For those who love mysteries he provides an interesting group of detectives a knight - Ralph, a lawyer Gervase, Canon Hubert and Brother Simon. Marston deftly combines mystery, action and romance in a historical setting.
Used price: $4.20
Used price: $13.18
Buy one from zShops for: $13.13
List price: $16.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $9.95
Collectible price: $14.78
Buy one from zShops for: $11.12
One of the more interesting chapters deals with the battle between a brilliant researcher in Houston named Stanislaw Burzynski and the cancer industry establishment. Members of the establishment are portrayed as favoring the use of patentable chemicals or synthetic drugs over any natural methods of treatment , such as that pioneered by Burzynski.
In discussing the cancer establishment Moss explains the make-up and activities of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The American Cancer Society, The National Cancer Institute and The Food and Drug Administration.
My experience in reading this book has left me with even less trust in the people and organizations responsible for waging this country's war on cancer.
Used price: $19.04
The problem is not a lack of motives. Bianca's lover is a lawyer recently engaged to a Notre Dame alumnae. Either the lawyer or his fiancee Dolores would have reason to take steps to eliminate the grasping and vindictive woman. Dolores's former love interest is strangely compelled to protect her from the lawyer--setting him up as the fall guy might win back his former love. Primero loved his wife, but could he have been pushed too far. Primero's favorite candidate is his archivist who cannot deny both a fascination and an aversion to the victim.
Moving among familiar landmarks on the Notre Dame campus, and mixing detection with Catholic thought, the Knight brothers uncover plenty of facts about the case. But facts, themselves, can be interpreted in multiple ways.
As with the previous mysteries in this series, author Ralph McInerny provides a smooth and fast-moving mystery. The selection of two dissimilar brothers, one a career detective and the other an overweight Catholic intellectual makes for interesting contrasts and the opportunity to approach the mystery from intellectual and ethical points of view rather than as a simple fact-finding mission.
McInerny's women seem less well crafted than the male characters, allmost all of whom wrestle with moral dilemnas (in contrast, the women hurry to throw off their careers to get married and plan weddings). Still, this doesn't prevent EMERALD AISLE from being an enjoyable fast read.
Dudley and Dolores decide to marry and use the June reservation, but so do Larry and his fiancee Nancy Beatty. Larry goes to Minneapolis to talk with Dolores. Meanwhile, Professor Roger Knight and his brother Private Investigator Philip work on a case of valuable documents stolen from Joseph Primero's Cardinal Newman collection that one day will go to Notre Dame. Coincidentally, Joseph's estranged wife Bianca has had an affair with Dudley and is soon murdered. The Knight siblings try to catch a killer, learn who purloined the valuable books, and straighten out affairs of the heart.
EMERALD AISLE is an engaging who-done-it that employs too much coincidence, but still retains a fun to read plot. The story line entices the audience because the reader understands the motives of the key secondary cast. This novel and its four predecessors provide enlightenment on the university including the reference to the championship women's basketball team. Ralph McInerny provides a pleasant academic mystery starring two likable chaps.