Anyone who's seen reviews I've written of other anthologies might be expecting a poor review here. But actually, not in this case. For once, I seem to have stumbled across an anthology in which the individual novellas are all very readable, enjoyable, and which suit the format of a shorter length. This is particularly surprising in the case of this anthology, in which all stories are about 70 pages long.

Three of my favourite writers are in this five-author anthology, which might have contributed to my enjoyment - but then Putney and Layton's novellas are not set in eighteenth- or nineteenth-century England, which is the setting I'm used to from them.

There is something of a theme to the collection, in that four out of five stories concern men who are or who appear to be rogues, and who reform right under the heroine's nose. MJP's contribution, set in Texas a hundred or so years ago, sees a condemned man being taken to hang for murder. Along the way, a young woman - who, it turns out, might have good reason to hate him - takes pity on him and they spend one unforgettable night together. But he's condemned to die, so how can they have a future?

Joan Wolf, an author I've never encountered before, sets her story, The Antagonists, in Regency England; the hero and heroine are cousins who grew up together. I would normally have wanted much more to this story, but Wolf uses an interesting technique. The story is told in first person, from the heroine's POV. And since Dinah starts off by telling us how spoilt and nasty her cousin Thorn (the Earl of Thornton) is, we're led off on quite a misleading track. (Although Dinah does reveal that she has a tendency to exaggerate!)

Layton's contribution, Buried Treasure, was the disappointment in this collection for me. A pirate narrowly survives a murder attempt and recovers in the house of a beautiful young woman whose seduction he plots. Unfortunately, for reasons related to both his behaviour towards her and to his fellow pirates, I couldn't come to like Dancer at all, and wouldn't want to re-read this novella.

Next was Patricia Rice, also new to me; her tale, Fathers and Daughters, covers the well-worn subject-matter of an impoverished suitor who was turned away by the heroine's father. Carolyn also believes that Jack accepted money from her father to walk away from her. Now that he's back, can he possibly convince her that he wasn't only interested in her money, and that he wasn't paid to reject her?

Finally, Mary Balogh's Precious Rogue. This is a lovely story, told with Balogh's great skill; Patricia, the poor relation who is effectively her aunt's slave, has no great opinion of her cousin's suitor, Mr Bancroft. After all, the man is an unprincipled rake, and - although no-one else seems to notice - during Patricia's aunt's house party Bancroft conducts clandestine affairs with at least three women. But what Patricia can't ignore is the fact that he is *nice* to her. And she enjoys their verbal fencing... too much for her own good. After all, he's going to marry her cousin...

This one is certainly worth a look.

The stories are good, but have all been published before. According to the Copyright page "The Antagonist" by Joan Wolf and "Fathers and Daughters" by Patricia Rice first appeared in A Regency Valentine; "Buried Treasure" by Edith Layton and "Precious Rogue" by Mary Balogh in Dashing & Dangerous; and "Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know" by Mary Jo Putney in Rakes and Rogues. I had already read Putney's story (very good, but then everything she writes is) but was glad to get Wolf's (although I think a longer format suits her better) and I really liked Balogh's (very satisfying - nice ending)

I did not get around to reading one of McCullers' books to several years ago and thought it was quite good. After hearing something regarding this writer's tragic life, I thought a biography would be interesting (morbid me). I must admit, however, I was somewhat amused, and sometimes annoyed, by one of this biographer's strategies. She went to great lengths to defend this author -- a person whom she had never met -- against criticisms drawn by contemporaries, collegues, and other biographers, many of whom knew Carson McCullers personally. She even went so far as to make personal attacks on some of these individuals. And on what did she base these conclusions? On the cold record, as she candidly admitted that most of the persons who knew Carson McCullers (and were interviewed at length by earlier biographers) have pased away. I would have enjoyed the biography better if the facts were set forth more objectively, and she had let her readers make their own conclusions. This biographer should have not felt the need to be constantly dending this author whose books will speak for themselves.

But the biography is not a bad book, as it was well written and drew some interesting conclusions. I guess she was attempting to say something new, and to the extent it will encourage a reader to go out and read McCuller's catalog, it serves its purpose.

This book tells of Carson McCuller's relationships with her family, friends and fellow authors & artists. Her contentious relationship with her husband, Reeves McCullers, the wanna-be author whom she married twice, is thoroughly discussed. Although her life was filled with pain from her "mysterious illness" and difficult relationships, the author shows how Carson had a strong desire to survive and keep writing. It was interesting to read about her life-long friendship with Tennesse Williams and her love-hate relationship with Truman Capote. The author gathered together the opinions of many people who knew Carson, whether they loved her or hated her, and shares them with us in this story of her life.

Every woman in this book expected frequent and fulfilling sex in her marriage. But they have been in sexless marriages from 5, 10, even 20 years. Joan Avna and Diana Waltz were inundated with responses from women who kept their embarrassing secret for years while they were writing Celibate Wives.

Women blame themselves first. They felt the problem was their responsibility to fix. And they all felt they had the power to change their husbands. Some of their stories were striking:

He'd say, "Don't touch me; get away from me." We on sleeping in the same bed. There were times when I would reach for him and he would kick my legs hard. I just accepted what he did. I think I felt I didn't deserve better.

I fell nobody gets a free ride in life. We don't have everything we want, and if sex is what we lose in order for him to stay healthy a few more years, my God, it's a small price to pay.

Adjusting to a new city, my husband gone a lot, plus the illness of my daughter, overwhelmed me to the point where having sex was the last thing I wanted to do.

There are numerous reasons why a marriage may be come sexless. Illness is one. Certain surgeries or medications make sex difficult. However there are other marriages in which half the time the husband calls it quits and the wife is left without a reason.

Avna and Waltz's interviewees listed a wide range of reasons why sex ended:

1. Mismatched sex drives, one partner having a higher or lower drive than the other, also known as desire discrepancy disorder (DDD). 2. Infidelity, once or repeated times 3. Emotional, verbal or physical abuse 4. Illness, whether physical or mental. 5. Celibacy freely chosen as a means toward spiritual growth 6. Loss of respect for a spouse 7. Same-sex preference acknowledged 8. Inhibited sexual desire (ISD), loss of interest in sex due to life change or crisis 9. Fear of intimacy 10. Low sex drive shared by both partners

When celibacy is not the choice of the wife she mourns the loss of a meaningful part of her life. The often go through a period of overwhelming emotions that puzzles and frightens them. At times they rage with anger, cry in despair, or so depressed they feel themselves just crawling through life without the energy for normal activites.

These are the normal stages of grief that Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced to society in the 1970's. She identified the five stages of grieving as denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The lose of sex in your life is akin to the loss of a vital part of yourself.

Celibate Wives does offer solutions to the problems. How to work on your sex life. When to decide to leave. What to do if you decide to stay.

The most important part is to break away from denial and face that the problem exists. Women are sexual beings. They have a right to feel as they do.

Finding a friendly forum in which to share your feelings may help some women. Your local church, community center, women's center, or YWCA might be willing to start a celibate wives self help group. Talking and offering support is very important to a woman in a celibate marriage. Reading Celibate Wives, by Ana and Waltz is a place to start.

Every woman expects frequent, fulfilling sex in her marriage, but celibacy in a marriage is more common than you think. Avna and Waltz give three solutions for celibate marriages: putting the sex back into marriage, leaving a loveless marriage, and staying in a celibate, but otherwise fulfilling relationship.

The book shows women where they can turn for help, and helps bring you to point where you feel comfortable making a decision about your marriage.

I also have enjoyed this cookbook. It includes a tasty variety of foods and more-often-than-not pretty simple preparations that are perfect to make for your own family and especially when you have weekend guests. You don't need to run a B&B to appreciate this book, but it may have you planning a stay in one when you read these hand-picked innkeepers' recipes. My favourite: Hacienda del Sol's Old Fashioned Porridge. It's not too sweet, but good enough for dessert! The little personal notes attached to each recipe make it seem like a treasured hand-me-down book with kitchen comments already scribbled in the margins.

This is an excellent group of recipes, most with Southwestern flair, but also a good combination of European and Midwestern American traditions.

It is well-organized with two tables of contents so that you can search by establishment or by course type.

My favorites include: Easy Garlic & Feta Cheese Appetizer, Chicken & Blueberry Pasta, Breakfast Apple Pie and for the most outstanding appetizer at a dinner party try the Cranberry Glazed Brie.

I first read this sad, touching account of two teenagers taking their lives in the name of peace almost thirty years ago, when I was a teenager myself, and I have never forgotten it. Having recently acquired a copy once more, I find that it has lost none of its quiet power. While countless books deal with the Vietnam War, the antiwar movement, and the cultural upheaval of the 60's, most are written on a wider scale. This small, contemplative book provides a more intimate look, telling how two sensitive, middle-of-the-road, "nice" teenagers were torn by the war dividing their country, and how they were ultimately moved to a tragic act of despairing protest. While the war that claimed them is over, the issues they confronted still remain: How does a feeling human being deal with and live in an often harsh and uncaring world? Do we attempt to grapple with pain and meaning, or do we shut out everything that disturbs us and go about Business As Usual? This is a book still worth reading, and deserves to be reprinted.

I first read this sad, touching account of two teenagers taking their lives in the name of peace almost thirty years ago, when I was a teenager myself, and I have never forgotten it. Having recently acquired a copy once more, I find that it has lost none of its quiet power. While countless books deal with the Vietnam War, the antiwar movement, and the cultural upheaval of the 60's, most are written on a wider scale. This small, contemplative book provides a more intimate look, telling how two sensitive, middle-of-the-road, "nice" teenagers were torn by the war dividing their country, and how they were ultimately moved to a tragic act of despairing protest. While the war that claimed them is over, the issues they confronted still remain: How does a feeling human being deal with and live in an often harsh and uncaring world? Do we attempt to grapple with pain and meaning, or do we shut out everything that disturbs us and go about Business As Usual? This is a book still worth reading, and deserves to be reprinted.

Joan Didion's novel "Democracy," is one about American Politics and the Vietnam War, public and private live, the media, and to an extent image management. The story, however, focuses mostly on Inez Victor, the daughter of a powerful Hawaiian congressman. I personally found the book to be quite a bore, as there simply weren't many "jolts" to keep a teenager like me interested. This being said, I did enjoy a couple of things about the novel. The first would be the way that Didion inserts herself into her novels. She puts herself into the novel as a character narrating the events and inserting her own thoughts as if she was there, in the novel. I also enjoyed reading about the mysterious Jack Lovett. I felt that this character was a brilliant creation by Didion. This is simply because, although he is very close to Inez, no one ever knows what he actually does. He is described as an army officer, a man who sets up export credit programs and AID funding, and an aircraft executive. He refers to himself as a "business man." Those were probably the only two things I really enjoyed about this novel. I wouldn't recommend it as a summer reading, but if you choose to defy my wishes, then read it for stylistic analysis of Didion's writing, if anything.

Joan Didion's Democracy is more evidence that she's a writer always worth reading. I have some questions about why she chose to insert "Joan Didion" the report-writer into this story, and why she spends so much time discussing the book she decided not to write (a big epic family Hawaiian novel--but didn't James Michener or someone already do that?), but there is a really good love story here, intense and tight, with lots of gripping details about Hawaii and political campaigning

This text is a collection of essays on how script therapy and narrative therapy applies to different issues in family functioning and family therapy. Each chapter/essay starts off with a detailed explanation of script theory from the point of view of the author of that chapter/essay. This creates extreme redundancy. The editors would have been better off starting off with a chapter describing script theory in detail, and including the variations used by the different chapter-authors. Then, they could have gone into tackling the chapters on different issues, without teaching Script Theory 101 ad nauseum.

To its credit, the book does give a clear explanation of script theory (over and over again), and it does tackle many relevant and crucial issues in family functioning and family therapy. I hope that they reorganize it when the next edition comes out; they could end up with an excellent text. As it stands, I skipped major portions to avoid its sedative effects.

This is an excellent new text. The field of family therapy has recently embraced social construction theory, emphasizing the importance of language and social environments. Family Scripts applies social constructionist assumptions to various therapeutic situations. The first three chapters introduce notions of social scripting (habitual ways of dealing with life's tasks). The remaining chapters then apply the theory of "scripting" to common clinical family situations seen in therapy, such as death and grief in the family, premarital childbearing, children with disabilities, adolescence, couple therapy, chemical dependence in the family, AIDS in the family, and family violence. This is a sophisticated text for graduate courses or experienced clinicians

Beneath its breezy narrative and the resilience of autobiographer Dwayne Hickman, "Forever Dobie" is a bittersweet post-mortem on an acting career and rising star that America jettisons too soon into cultural exile. Hickman achieves a modest measure of success as a juvenile actor who, despite his early reluctance to perform, develops a passion for his craft and a skill for winning coveted parts. His fame reaches its pinnacle with the title role in the zany series "Dobie Gillis," the character for which audiences remember him most. Soon after the show's demise, however, Hickman finds himself a clean-cut casualty of the social upheaval and anarchy that Dobie ironically heralded. Unsuited to hairy and angry roles, he settles for work wherever he can wangle it, starring in television guest spots, forgettable beach party movies, and dinner theater productions. The high point of his post-Dobie acting gigs is the part of outlaw Jed in the hit movie "Cat Ballou." The excruciating nadir comes when he consents to fill in at short notice for Don Murray in a Chicago production of "Call Me by My Rightful Name." Unable to memorize his unwieldy dialogue or demanding marks on time, he is forced to carry his script on stage and fumble through his motions before appalled audiences. Yet it is not his wayward, sporadic acting ventures but full immersion in employment as an entertainment director in a Las Vegas nightclub and as a CBS-TV executive that puts a strain on his first two marriages, leading sadly to divorce. Always an actor at heart, with a soft spot for the creative rather than the managerial facets of show business, Hickman later stars in two televised Dobie Gillis reunions and tries his hand at directing. He again finds love with third spouse Joan Roberts, who mothers the second of his two sons and adjusts compatibly to the vicissitudes of her husband's career. Despite the zest and humor of Hickman's show business yarn, the loneliness of his struggle often permeates its mood. It helps little that his memoir is chocked with allusions to former Hollywood luminaries of whom readers under fifty lack any memory. The ending seems to beg the producers of today, "Please call Dwayne Hickman with the offer of paternal roles." By all indications, this undaunted professional and lover of acting will leap at the chance to stand once again under the hot lights, no matter how fickle Hollywood can be.

Dwayne Hickman is best known for his time on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" as the title character. However, as this book demonstrates, his career did not begin and end with Dobie. He was an extremely reluctant child actor, a determined college student, a supporting player on "The Bob Cummings Show", Dobie, a Las Vegas entertainment coordinator for a hotel, a successful dinner theatre actor, a CBS executive, and a writer/director. No matter what other roles he played on screen or off he can not escape being Dobie. Having been around the industry virtually his entire life, Hickman tells stories about some of Hollywood's stars as well as personal antecdotes that make the book hilarious. Now happily married for the third time with a young son ( he has a grown son from marriage #1), Hickman has finally made peace with the fact that he will be "Forever Dobie". The book is fun to read, intersting, and will make you laugh out loud! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Joan has written with deep passion, a wonderful story outlining her long struggle to deal with and accept the loss of her first husband. This book is a praiseworthy and commendable tribute to my classmate and fellow athletic competitor.

Will Bennett, St. Petersburg, FL.

D. Joan Wheeler's "From Beyond the Veil" is a deeply personal account of her spiritual grieving for and final acceptance of the death of her first husband -- and my friend -- Tom Irvin. The book tells of their first meeting, eventual courtship and marriage, his untimely death from cancer and of how she came to realize that -- some thirty years after his death -- she needed to grieve for him, profess her undying love for him and accept the fact of his death. It is also account of her belief that his spirit came to her and is with her still, and of her religious convictions. It is an excellent example of a psychological and religious journey to spiritual peace of mind.

As our society becomes more diverse in terms of race/ethnicity and religion, as women gain more power and gays and lesbians become a larger part of the mainstream, we need to find wasy to address these changes. How can we really move foreword if we are not able to discuss these important changes?

Future of white men deals with how we all need to come toghether to build a more cohesive society to address our problems and move foreword. The author deals with issues such as diversity questions that people have like when to refer to people's ethnic background and if religous displays at places like work are acceptable or not. It also deals with how to be an ally to groups that need to be represented and the types of names that we need to address differnt groups by.

The thing that I was most impressed with by this book was how the author shared her personal experiences to bring home her points and recommendations. Joan Steinau Lester had been part of the civil rights movement and is a white woman who married a black man and had children in this marriage. She was married twice and now has a life partner. She definitely has the credentials, both professional and personal, to provide her sound and thoughtful advice