I use books on tape as a way of enduring long, boring, road trips, tedious chores, and as a distraction while exercising. The book has got to be interesting enough to keep me going, or I'll stop it after the first cassette and find another. "Exposure" was a shot in the dark as I'd never heard of the author and don't know anybody else who has read or listened to this book. However, after listening to it, I'll not hesitate to look for more by Evelyn Anthony. The plot is interesting from the beginning and kept me intrigued, moving inexorably through a carefully woven and suspenseful story. The characters are well-drawn, complex, and believable. Their personalities, interactions, and relationships form an integral part of the story. The author cuts from one scene to another, drawing a picture of what is happening with each of the main characters simultaneously, as the suspense builds and the story winds to a climax. This book reminded me much of those by Ken Follett, whose taped editions I have greatly enjoyed. The reader, Sian Thomas, does a marvelous job, using various foreign accents easily without seeming fake or "corny", and helping to build the multiple settings and moods, from a London newspaper room, English countryside, Munich pub, or New York corporate power center.

Eye for an Eye has an immature young man making rather a mess of his first entree into adult opportunities. The book is a jaunty, interesting run to a conclusion--a reminder that immature behavior by a young adult can have unforeseen consequences. Many of the devices of Trollope's comic novels are here, but they subserve a plot which resolves in a decidedly non-comic fashion. A light read, an interesting commentary, and a social frankness that does not seem at all old fashioned. Trollope was not always an ardent critic of his own social order, but he understood the problems, as this book shows in a non-preachy way.

Fangoria Vampires is the best compilation of vampires up until its publishing date of 1996. Truth to tell, there haven't been very many vampire films of note since that time so this compilation is all you'll ever need to find out about the most well known examples of the vampire genre. Encapsulating the bloody best of Fangoria in this splendid tribute to vampires was a hard task to do, but the editors seem to have pulled it off and given you something to really get your teeth (or fangs!) into.

Route's guide gives a manageable list of flies along with a good amount of reasoning behind each. The timing/species charts are excellent in themselves. This volume is worthwhile for all fly anglers, even non-tyers. In addition to providing a guide for tying/buying flies for Alaska, it gives a good bit of how-to and even a hint of where-to. I used it prior to my most recent Alaskan venture and it was most useful. One question: Why no marabout spiders?

Hecht has to be one of the greatest living poets we have, and Flight Among the Tombs is another example of this. It is chiefly a sequence of poems where Death speaks as or through someone else. It is a powerful sequence of poems set with wood engravings Leonard Baskin. The combination is stunning. The section section of the book is a few poems added, I'm guessing, to make this a book-length collection. Luckily, with a poet of Hecht's caliber, the filler poems are just as good as the main portion of the book.

This is an anthology in which Italian-American gay men and lesbians talk about their lives. Too often, we assume that ethnicity is only an important subject for people of color. This book helps to disprove that. There is a great essay in which an Italian-American lesbian talks about her relationships with Africans and Black Americans. In another, an Italian-American gay man talks about class matters at Harvard and in Boston. This book is excellent in the way that many books by gays and lesbians of color are. Gays of all ethnicities and Italians of all citizenships and sexualities should find a copy.

In 1899 many countries had representatives living in a separate part of the city in Peking, China. To many Chinese these westerners were a threat to their way of life, and a specific group, known as the Boxers, led an effort to rid China of these "foreign devils" along with their god, and their interference, and return China to its traditional past. For a few months, the Foreign Legation was trapped within its walls defending itself against the Boxer siege. They held out, waiting for rescue, with dwindling food supplies and increasing sickness and death. Within this scenario is the fictionalized account of Elizabeth, a missionary's daughter who has arrived just before the siege. Working as an assistant to a Chinese doctor with whom she falls in love, she defies the rumors and distate of her peers to fulfill her lifelong dream to work in medicine. This relationship is complicated when the Boxers attack the legation, and both she and the doctor are separated and trapped in dangerous situations, and an attentive American soldier enters as her rescuer. Although the story is not as exquisitely written as other books I have read, it held my attention, and drew me in with its "forbidden love" romance, danger, and descriptions of Peking at that point in history.

This book gives the reader an insight into the Foreign Office as an institution, at its buildings and the foreign secretaries who have, over the years shaped history. The work of the Foreign Office is presented openly for the first time and for anyone interested in British history and the Empire, "The Foreign Office" is a must. It's a well written book, describing the build-up and ultimately the fall of the British Empire with the handing of Hong Kong back to China. But it isn't just a history book, one of the most fascinating chapters was that on the men themselves, the foreign secretaries, their successes, failures and eccentricities. Easy to read and some stunning photography. I had thought I would just dip in and out of it, but I couldn't put it down. There is something in this book for everyone.

A short book on the history of forged historical documents, and efforts to detect them, from ancient to modern times. It skips around too much, without giving enough context for most of its anecdotes. Part of its larger message is that both practices are age-old, and that the higher criticism of 19c Germany was not as new as it seemed. Also, forgery was always considered wrong; epistemological concepts haven't changed that much. Another message is that the two are intertwined, and even some of the "gravest" opponents and critics of forgery, such as Erasmus, at times were forgers themselves.

This is a non-fiction how-to book on Christian Education.

It's probably not going to be a classic, but it is very good book if you are interested in thinking about all different needs and different spheres of education -- that is curriculum, environment, and so on.

The book has 25 chapters, each given to one special theme. Some of the chapters address psychology, special education, home schooling, Christian schools, mission education, Christian education in the church and in the home, and some other topics.

It's a good book to read through and then put on your shelf for reference, pull it out when you need it. (Not the type of book that you want to read over a number of times!) It's also very practical in a number of ways, suggesting how to approach the issue of Christian Education. You'd benefit most from this book if you were a Christian Educator (teacher, administrator, principal, on the board of directors for a school, teacher of Sunday school, homeschool), on a committee for Christian Education, or you were a pastor or seminarian.