Edward James' The Franks is a succinct record of the evolution of the Franks from one of numerous nomadic barbarians, trough the stages of federated allied barbarian tribe and successor kingdom to the Roman Empire, and ultimately to becoming the core of the country of France. For somebody who knows little about the Dark Ages, this book will be a revelation; if you know just the basics of Western Civiliation, this book will certainly fascinate and educate. James not only narrates what happens, but he includes numerous first hand accounts from such luminaries as St. Gregory, Bishop of Tours. Linguistic, religious, and cultural topics are examined in addition to straight history. James's focus is primarily on the Merovingian period, although he examines the Carolingian perios as well. This is not merely a detailed account of who killed who and what happened next; it is a survey of the 5th-9th century Franskish dominions/dependencies and rulers, which ranged from Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Central Europe and (of course) France. If you had only a few hours to learn a few hundred years of history, then you could do far worse than read this book

"The Franks in the Aegean" covers the Latin conquest of Greece by the Fourth Crusade and the creation of various Latin states in the region. After the fall of Constantinoupolis in 1204 to the Crusaders, the conquerors carved for themshelves numerous states in Greece, some of which were very short-lived (as the Kingdom of Thessaloniki, which lasted a little more than 20 years before succumbing to Greek assaults), while others lasted much longer(as the Duchy of Athens, which held out until the Ottoman conquest).The book is divided into 10 chapters, which cover mostly the states of mainland Greece (although one very long chapter is devoted to Venice and its possessions, as well as its rivals, mainly Genoa, but also Amalfi and Pisa), their political history and economy. Other subjects, as the role of the Roman Church, the various western religious, monastic and military orders, piracy in the Aegean during this period and the impact of noteworthy companies of western mercenaries, which had no hesitation to fight for the Greeks or even for themshelves (as done by the great Catalan Company, which took over the Duchy of Athens in 1311) are also covered. The last pages of the book include an extensive bibliography, maps of the area and the Eastern Mediterrenean (very helpful for locating the lesser baronies and isolated Latin and Byzantine enclaves) and genealogical tables of the Latin dynasties. Personally, I would have prefered a more extensive study of the Franks' enemies, especially the Byzantines (which are consistently called Greeks in this book, a term ethnologically correct for the period covered, but rather unfamiliar), as in the politically fractured landscape of the Aegean at that time numerous states and nations were involved in the struggle for power (Greeks, Bulgars, Serbs, Seljuk and later Ottoman Turks, and even some Albanian warbands, not to mention the Latin states). To better understand this book, a good knowledge of medieval and regional history is required, and I believe, the author should have devoted more space to the general history of the region; sometimes he refers to some obviously important incidents, but doesn't go into detail about them. However, this book is unique and a valuable addition to the library of everyone interested in late Byzantine history or even the Crusades and Outremer.

This was not the best book I have ever read,but it was one of those surprise books that jump out at you on the bookshelf as an interesting I cannot put it down read. It was insightful and interesting as well as enjoyable and I would recommend this book to basically anyone young or old. Kudos.

Cioffi's cricisms of Freud, freudian theory, and freudians is trenchant and exhaustive. It is, however, tough reading. He tends to be wordy and his sentence structure needlessly convoluted. It takes multipile readings to really understand what he is talking about, and it helps to have some background in philosophy, or at least in the revisionist Freud issues. That said, the book is a real contribution, with a new essay and several classic articles that are hard to get elsewhere. I highly recommend it. Frederick Crews once said that those still enamoured with freudian thought should be sentenced to a year's hard reading. This book would be an excellent part of that year's study.

Friendly Competitors, Fierce Companions: Men's Ways of Relating is intense, honest, scholarly, sincere, containing a complex juxtaposition and intertwining of provocative ideas. Throughout the book, the late nineteenth-century Anglican priest, poet, and mystic Edward Carpenter, "the father of gay liberation," is celebrated as Leib interprets, analyzes, explains, and applies Carpenter's principles and ideas-political, social, sexual, and spiritual-to the human condition in our own time. In straightforward fashion, Leib presents a brief history of gay liberation in the second half of the 20th century as he also holds up a mirror to American culture and reveals to the reader the several paradoxes in the way all men are regarded in current society. He discusses the professed ideal of universal love vs. the denigration of nurturance as "women's work"; brotherhood/sisterhood vs. ruthless competition; team spirit and fair play vs. glorification of individual superstars and winning through any means; and the constitutional recognition of women's rights vs. the reality of male violence, domination, and control in our society.

Leib has gone beyond Carpenter, challenging the reader to consider, for example, the elimination of war, in a succinct statement that, in typical style, Leib packs with ideas: "If war is the illusion of community through racism, and if it is the illusion of love through male bonding, then war can only be eliminated by establishing the reality in the world of true community, true freedom, and true love. For Carpenter-as for Saint Paul-the greatest of these is love, which always has a transcendent dimension." Similarly, Leib challenges the reader in declaring that "our churches have failed consistently to think creatively about the ethics of love between men." He then juxtaposes two very different voices of our society to pose a searching question: "Louis Farrakhan and the Southern Baptist Convention (who seldom agree about anything) both denounced the Disney corporation as the enemy of family values because it provides benefits for the spouses of gay and lesbian employees. How can we get beyond such jeremiads, which only deepen confusion and perpetuate painful conflicts?"

Although Friendly Competitors, Fierce Companions: Men's Ways of Relating is focused on providing an excellent presentation and thoughtful commentary on the ideas of Edward Carpenter, it is ironically this very focus that finally limits the book. For Leib is at his best when he is mining his own experiences and ideas-for example, on Colin Powell, on middle class marriages, on Dennis Rodman, and the novels of D.H. Lawrence--but one senses that he holds back in order to be "true" to his subject. For example, in making a point about the transcendent power of love and its potential effect on human society by erasing the false distinctions of class and race, he adds a qualifier to this high ideal of love by adding the phrase "especially between men." In another section, entitled "The Drama of Love and Death," Leib declares: "Especially for men destined to love their fellow men most passionately, we really did die to our old selves through our first experience of desire-but only to be reborn into an entirely unanticipated and, ultimately, much larger and richer life." Why limit the transformative and enriching experience of human sexual desire and falling in love especially to men?

Leib is too good a thinker and writer to be limited in the expression of his ideas. Friendly Competitors, Fierce Companions is an excellent and focused analysis of Edward Carpenter's perspective, but we look forward to reading the author's next work, which will allow the unfettered emergence of an original and brilliant mind.

Unless you're one of the many students at the University of California at Santa Barbara who have had the pleasure of taking one of his English courses, chances are you haven't heard of Frank McConnell. What can you say about Frank. He was crude, crass and often vulgar. He was also the best teacher I ever had. His love of literature and pop-culture combined with his unorthodox teaching style made Frank a true original. Equally at home discussing Seinfeld or Shakespeare, Jane Austen or Jamie Lee Curtis, or Captain Ahab or Captain & Tenille, Frank was a hell of a teacher. Unfortunately, Frank passed away this past January at age 56. Since I'll never have the privledge to speak with him again, I decided to read one of his novels. And to no surprise, Frank was a pretty damn good writer as well. "The Frog King" is one of a series of Frank's Harry Garnish detective stories. In a 1993 interview, Frank described Garnish as "chain smoking, hard-drinking, and foul mouthed," a description Frank admitted bore a resemblance to himself. But Garnish's quick wit, and outrageous sense of humor also bear a striking resemblace to Frank. "The Frog King" follows Chicago PI Garnish and his partner Sister Bridget O'Toole as they work on a kidnapping in Southern California. Along the way Harry gets shot at, befriends an Oscar Wilde quoting hell's angel and meets some seedy characters in the "adult" film industry. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, but I assure you it's a good read. The best way I can describe Frank's writing style is to get you to imagine Elmore Leonard's, funnier, raunchier, mystery writing brother. And like Leonard's work, as Frank's story unfolds, the plot moves into the background and he focuses in on his hilarious, colorful characterizations. Frank will definetly be missed, but at least he will live on through Harry Garnish.

As a Spanish teacher, I have used the English version of this book, _Froggy Gets Dressed_, with my own translations, as a story for the classroom and with a little neighbor. The tale always delights children and in the classroom, it serves as a meaningful and fun way to introduce or review clothing words. (Once students have heard the story, watch them wiggle in anticipation of the moment when Froggy's mother calls out a particularly embarrassing oversight in Froggy's preparations to go play in the snow!) A translation as good as this one is said to be can only enhance the story's value and fun for children.

I read this book during the summer, and I know it will help my teaching. The amount of historical information this book contains is extraordinary, and I truly believe that this would be a valuable resource to any high school math teacher looking to make a class more interesting, more alive. Get the book!

Not too very long ago, I read a satisfying mystery novel about a fellow hunting for the second set of recordings laid down by bluesman Robert Johnson. I, at the time, was a novice mystery reader, unaware of the tricks that writers sometimes play on us, imagining such things as missing (but plausibly real) manuscripts and recordings by historical figures. I have since become aware that this is common mysterious grounds and have read books about a found holistic manuscript by Mark Twain (which, ironically, was actually discovered about a year later), "lost" paintings by old masters and recording sessions by great musicians.

"Funky Butt Blues" is just such a mystery, in which author F. G. Fox imagines a recording that may or may not have been set down by Father of Jazz, Buddy Bolden. Bolden has long been acknowledged as one of the first men to actually play a primitive form of the music we now know as jazz and such luminaries as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton claim to have heard him play. Trouble is, no one knows for sure how he sounded, as no recordings exist.

Enter Max, independent librarian, freelance cataloguer, and guy with a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hired to catalog an eccentric rich guy's rare books and records prior to selling them, Max discovers what may be the only known recording of Bolden's music, a song that may or may not be called "Funky Butt Blues". He also, regrettably, discovers why the last librarian is no longer working there; being murdered makes it hard to report for duty.

The result is a quirky, intelligent and occasionally hilarious run through New Orleans as seen by an insider. This is especially refreshing given the spate of mysteries that claim to be set in the Big Easy but which take no greater advantage of the locale than having the characters swing by the Cafe du Monde for sugary beignets.

Fox's insider status, the quality that makes this book fascinating and compelling, may also be what hinders it most as a mystery. He writes Max from the first person and makes him opinionated and curmudgeonly. We are offered rants on topics as varied as library science and the financial quagmire that is the Louisiana SuperDome. While a pleasure to read, they do tend to take the reader out of the story an into the rant, only to be plunked unceremoniously back into the action at odd times. The effect is unsettling.

Don't get me wrong; I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have, in fact, read it twice. I'd recommend it highly to anyone who appreciates jaunty, quirky mysteries and has the ability to overlook the home-made, self-published feel of many of the non-mainstream books being published through alternate means. "Funky Butt Blues" is a joy and well-worth the extra effort it may take. If you've had it up to here with slick mysteries with no heart, or with New Orleans mysteries that read like they were set in Ontario and the author just used his "Find & Replace" feature, "Funky Butt Blues" will delight.

One of the most revealing insights of this commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Galatians is that it is not the supposed legalism of the Pharisees. Matera points out that recent archeoloigcal evidence has placed Paul's words about the Law and the application of it to the problem of circumcision of the Gentiles is not about applying the letter of the law. The Law of circumcision, sabbath observance and dietary regulations had to do with maintaining one's status as a member of the Jewish race. The imposition of circumcision in this view is the imposition of a cultural practice upon those for whom this practice has no historical, social or religious relevance. This insight opens up the concept of what evangelization means and entails. The early Jewish Christians would not be the only or the last Christian form tradition to impose cultural imperatives on people. Europeans did the same in the imperialistic invasions of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Christianity that accompnaied these incursions was strictly European and did not respect the faith of the indigent people. Paul's view then of Christ living in the Christian applied in this way creates broader boundaries for evangelization and helps missionaries to see Christ in the face of the people already there.