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Book reviews for "Antschel,_Paul" sorted by average review score:

Ali and Nino: A Love Story
Published in Paperback by Anchor Books (03 October, 2000)
Authors: Kurban Said, Jenia Graman, and Paul Theroux
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Orientalizing
The sentimental and romantic story of the starcrossed love between a Moslem boy and a Georgian Christian girl. It's set in places and in a period of history that were unfamiliar to me, and part of its charm is learning about the customs of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Russia and Persia. At the beginning they are living in Baku, under Imperial Russian rule. The First world War and the Russian Revolution overtake them. Baku is occupied by the Turks and the British, and Azerbaijan is briefly independent.Although Ali is the hero the
Moslems are mostly represented as naive and bloodthirsty primitives.
Some of the dialog is stilted (it was originally written in German) and you encounter long stretches with speeches like:
"That surprises you, O Seyd?"
"Allah leads astray those against whom he has turned his wrath."

Very touching novel.
Indeed, this is a great work of litterature. Rarely have I been so engrossed in a novel like this. Some pages I would return and read over and over again. I admired the purity of the two characters and their love toward each other. This is a book truelly unique and there is no sequel. (...) I recommend this to anyone who enjoys tales of unfufilled love.They say one does his or her most important readings during the childhood. But I have never been touched by a love story like this before. I always believed the Thornbirds, the tale of Ralph and Meggie,was the perfect tale of unfulfilled love. In the traditon of Leily and Majnoon, Romeo and Julliett, Khosro and Shirin, Ralph and Meggie, now we have Ali and Nino, a newly discovered jewel.

What a Hidden Jewel!
First, you simply must read this book. There's no way around that.

Ali and Nino is a lyrically written story of love and war, honor and country, cultural blend and clash set in WWI-era Transcaucasia (ie, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia). The novel has simply *all* the elements of greatness: well-developed characters, a vivid setting, a gripping plot, and an examination of larger themes -- all crammed into this little-known, relatively compact work.

Love in the face of cultural obstacles, in the face of war and patriotic duty. Love in its innocence, its longing, its maturity. Love between people, love for a people, and the tragedy of a lost world. It's really an incredible, incredible book -- one which, despite its age, seems more capable of tackling the issues we see in our own post-cold-war world than any other book I've read.

Read this book. It will delight and reward you.


Brother Cadfael's Penance: The 20th Chronicle of Brother Cadfael, Benedictine Abbey of St. Peter st Paul, at Shrewsbury
Published in Paperback by Warner Books (February, 1996)
Author: Ellis Peters
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If "Cadfael" had to end, this is an excellent finale.
Had Ellis Peters know this would be her final "Brother Cadfael" book before her death, she couldn't have written a better one. Returning to the fascinating plot line of Cadfael's long-lost son, Olivier, she does an excellent job of balancing Cadfael's love for his monastery and his monastic profession with his love and devotion to the son he has only begun to know. Almost everyone in life has experienced the tension of two loves that nearly tears them apart and destroys them. Ms. Peters again does a wonderful job of keeping her characters true to themselves, to their times, and to the interplay developed in the long line of Cadfael mysteries. I very much enjoyed the book!

By far the best book in the Chronicles!
Ellis Peters did a wonderful job with the last book in the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael. Cadfael gets word that his secret son, Olivier de Breatgne, has been taken prisoner in the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Maud, and has not been offered for ransom. Born in the far East of a Syrian mother, and choosing his unknown father's religion to join the English, Olivier does not know that Brother Cadfael is his father. By chance Cadfael met him he when looking for two missing children, and the monk realised that the young man was the son that he never knew he had. Now Olivier is prisoner, his whereabouts and imprisoner unknown. Although Cadfael has broken the Rule of the Benedictine Order before, he has never broken his monastic vows. But as he said, "Knowing or unknowing, before I was a brother I was a father." Cadfael is torn between the monastic life he loves so dearly and the duty he feels to find his son and set him free. A wonderfully moving and exciting book.

A wonderful end to the series
It is unfortunate that Ellis Peters has died. I do not know if this book was meant to be the final chapter in the Cadfael series, but it brings the series to an appropriate ending. Brother Cadfael's search for his son, the end of much of the series political strife, and Cadfael's acceptance and embracing of his clerical life tie up many of the series' themes.

A terrific series that transcends usual mystery genre's conventions and limitations.


The Pickwick Papers
Published in Audio Cassette by New Millennium Audio (July, 2001)
Authors: Charles Dickens and Paul Scofield
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A Jovial Lighthearted Romp
Pickwick Papers is a wonderful book, and no doubt much has been written about it in academic and literary circles. But from a layman's perspective, it is simply a fun read. One would almost think it the work of a great master approaching the end of a career, consciously deciding to lay down the heartache of Great Expectations or the martyrdom of A Tale of Two Cities to take a jovial and whimsical jaunt through the English language and the realm of imagination. Yet the bumbling and somehow delightful misadventures of the Pickwickians fall at the beginning of Dickens' career. Comic relief is offered well before Hard Times sets in.

Take an independently wealthy, magnanimous old fellow and surround him with a group of close friends. Send them together on a journey of desire to explore the world about them, meet new people, and experience the fullness of life, and you essentially have the plot of Pickwick Papers. The plethora of characters Dickens introduces along the way add considerable color to the narrative, not only because they come from such a vast array of backgrounds, but because they themselves are colorful in their own right:

The first and most obvious example might be that of Mr. Alfred Jingle, the loquacious vagabond rapscallion who rescues the Pickwickians from an altercation with a feisty coach driver. One of Mr. Pickwicks cohorts, Mr. Snodgrass, receives a blow to the eye during the incident, after which Mr. Jingle is pleased to suggest the most efficacious remedies: "Glasses round-brandy and water, hot and strong, and sweet, and plenty-eye damaged, sir? Waiter! Raw beef-steak for the gentleman's eye-nothing like raw beef-steak for a bruise, sir; cold lamp-post very good, but lamp-post inconvenient-damned odd, standing in the open street half an hour with your eye against a lamp-post-eh-very good-ha! ha!" While Pickwick reads the legend of Prince Bladud by candlelight, we find this description of King Hudibras: "A great many centuries since, there flourished, in great state, the famous and renowned Lud Hudibras, king of Britain. He was a mighty monarch. The earth shook when he walked-he was so very stout. His people basked in the light of his countenance-it was so red and glowing. He was, indeed, every inch a king. And there were a good many inches of him too, for although he was not very tall, he was a remarkable size round, and the inches that he wanted in height he made up in circumference." The young surgeon, Benjamin Allen, is described as "a coarse, stout, thick-set young man, with black hair cut rather short and a white face cut rather long [...] He presented altogether, rather a mildewy appearance, and emitted a fragrant odour of full-flavoured Cubas." Dickens notes that the casual visitor to the Insolvent Court "might suppose this place to be a temple dedicated to the Genius of Seediness" and whose vapors are "like those of a fungus pit." Seated in this luxuriant ambience, we find an attorney, Mr. Solomon Pell, who "was a fat, flabby pale man, in a surtout which looked green one minute and brown the next, with a velvet collar of the same chameleon tints. His forehead was narrow, his face wide, his head large, and his nose all on one side, as if Nature, indignant with the propensities she observed in him in his birth, had given it an angry tweak which it had never recovered." A final sample from a list of worthy characters too long to mention might be Mr. Smangle, the boisterous whiskered man whom Pickwick encounters in debtors prison: "This last man was an admirable specimen of a class of gentry which never can be seen in full perfection but in such places; they may be met with, in an imperfect state, occasionally about the stable-yards and public-houses; but they never attain their full bloom except in these hot-beds, which would almost seem to be considerately provided by the legislature for the sole purpose of rearing them [...] There was a rakish vagabond smartness and a kind of boastful rascality about the whole man that was worth a mine of gold."

The book itself is a goldmine full of textures, personas, venues, and idiosyncrasies of a bygone age. These are delight to behold, as the reader is thus invited to enjoy experience and descriptive beauty for their own sakes. Plot largely takes a backseat to the development of relationships, which can be seen as a myriad of subplots contributing to a never-ending story. Numerous vignettes which are incidental to the narrative add another level of richness, and it seems clear that Dickens offers them for an enjoyment all their own. There is something of "l'art pour l'art" throughout the whole work which expresses a love of language and a love of human nature. As Dickens might have summed it up, "All this was very snug and pleasant."

Dickens' wonderful first novel
The Pickwick Papers, (or rather The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club) although not Dickens' best work, is still a wondeful novel. The writing isn't as consistently good as it is in his later novels, but none of the writing is bad, and there are several flashes of brilliance which seem to herald what Dickens' would become when his genius had time to ripen (one of these can be found at the end of chapter 44, a beautifully written account of the death of a prisoner in a debtor's prison). In the beginning, despite being very funny, the novel, and indeed Mr. Pickwick, may seem rather inane. Keep reading. The story of Mr. Pickwick's trial and eventual imprisonment is one of the most brilliant pieces of comic literature, and Mr. Pickwick grows into a truly monumental character by the end. And Sam Weller, Mr. Pickwick's cockney servant, is one of the best characters in all of Dickens. Clever, witty, and cynical, he seems to light up every page. The book has a very happy ending, in which all loose ends are tied together and every character gets what he or she deserves. It is truly uplifting. I strongly reccommend this book.

Dickens' most light-hearted novel
Charles Dickens' first novel, Pickwick Papers follows the adventures of the Pickwick Club as they involve themselves in comic mishaps and misunderstandings. His travels as a newspaper reporter acquainted Dickens with the coaches, coaching houses, and inns of England which he uses as settings in Pickwick Papers. Gradually he abandons the use of the club format, which he found too restrictive.

Dickens' fame and popularity were forever established with the introduction of his greatest comic characrter, the immortal Sam Weller as Mr Pickwick's servant. Pickwick Papers contains some of Dickens' greatest characters: Mr Pickwick, the most interesting title character; the strolling actor Jingle and his friend Job Trotter; Sam's father Tony Weller who battles with the red-nosed Rev Stiggins; and the Fat Boy.

Memorable scenes include Christmas in the country, a Parliamentary election, and the famous court trial, which Dickens frequently recited on his reading tours.

I highly recommend this book if you've never read Dickens before. This is a must-have for Dickens fans.


The Christmas Shoes
Published in Audio CD by Audio Renaissance (November, 2002)
Authors: Paul Michael and Donna VanLiere
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A Christmas Miracle To Touch Your Heart
What a wonderful, inspiring story to read for the holidays or any day. This story of two people whose lives intersect briefly one Christmas Eve shows how a small, insignificant event can alter your life forever. Robert Layton is a high-powered bankruptcy attorney whose hard work and long hours at the office have given his family all the material things of life but very little family unity. Nathan is an eight-year-old boy whose mother is dying of ovarian cancer. One Christmas Eve, after his father has told him that his mother will soon be going to heaven, Nathan frantically searches the stores for something to make his mother feel beautiful when she meets Jesus. He finds a pair of glittery silver shoes with red, blue, and green rhinestones and shimmering sequins. When he attempts to pay for them but doesn't have enough money he turns to the man behind him in line and asks for help. That man, Robert, has his life changed forever in this poignant moment.

The book details the family life of these two characters that brings them to the pivotal moment in the store and takes the reader into the future when Nathan is a grown man who once again has a chance encounter with Robert.

This is a story of how one man attempts to regain the family he has neglected while another family comes to terms with losing their wife and mother. It is a story to remind us all to be appreciative of the life we have, the small joys, and shared memories. It is a story of hope and faith and, most of all, the love that transcends the deepest heartaches.

Wonderful Chritsmas Classic
The Christmas Shoes is bound to become a Christmas classic. It is heart-warming, intelligent and very touching. It is the perfect book to read during the holidays, or if you need to find something to cheer your soul up a little. It is the perfect book to put you into the Christmas mood.

The book contains two stories. The first is of Nathan, a young boy who's mother is dying of cancer. This will be her last Christmas as death is just around the corner. Nathan wants to make this Christmas the "best ever" for his mother. The second story is about Robert, a man who has just realized that he has put his business life in front of his family for way too long. When his wife tells him that she wants to leave him, Robert realizes that he has been a bad father and husband all these years and sets out to make things right again.

Both stories are wonderfully written and very entertaining. They also both offer great 'visuals' of Christmas as both famlies try to make this Christmas the best of their lives. Both stories are filled with hope, desire and love.

This is the perfect holiday book, the best of its kind since The Chirstmas Box. Its everything that you'd look for in a Christmas story. This is one book that I waill faithfully come back to every December from now on, in order to prepare myself to the wonders and joys of Christmas.

A beautifully written novel
I originally picked this book up for my wife. When I saw the cover of The Christmas Shoes I had to pick it up. After reading the cover flap, I knew she'd love it. I took it home and she started reading it at 8:00 and wouldn't put it down until she finished it that very same night. She kept saying, "You have to read this. Oh my gosh, you have to read this." At one point she yelled out, "This book is a movie!"

Needless to say, she had gotten my attention and my interest in the book was high. I took it on a business trip with plans to read it in my off time, but when I started it on the plane I found it just as captivating and hard to put down. I am a father of two children and I was challenged and inspired by the story Donna VanLiere wrote. Whoever said that fiction can't impact your life has never read this book. It's a beautifully written novel and an inspiring story of hope. I hope you read it today!


The Guide To Getting It On!: A New And Mostly Wonderful Book About Sex For Adults For All Ages.
Published in Paperback by Goofy Foot Pr (September, 1998)
Authors: Paul Joannides, Daerick Gross, and Goofy Foot Press
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The new millenium's "Joy of Sex"; very frank,humorous,honest
The second edition almost doubles the size of the first, incorporating many personal comments from readers, contributors, etc. Though some of the artwork could be considered "goofy/humorous", some may consider it erotic. Many of the techniques are right on, and some may lead to many an erotic adventure. Always couched in medically sound cautions, this book will open new horizons for either gender of any persuasion. Beware, it is absolutely frank and blunt, but that's what you want! I prefer the first edition as it is easier to read, but all the information is included in the second. --Future editions will contain ongoing feedback and comments submitted by readers via the web page set up by Goofy Foot Press. Highly recommended! --Could be a great Valentines Day gift for lovers, or future lovers. -- Be prepared to spend many a night curled up with this one!

Almost as much fun as sex itself!
I can't think of a better, more enjoyable, or more comprehensive general sex book. "The Guide" has tons of information on a number of subjects. Much of that information is basic, but that's what a sex book is for, isn't it? And that certainly doesn't mean it isn't common knowledge; unless you've tried everything, you're going to learn a bunch. For you know-it-alls out there, it has a gargantuan listing of additional references (most of which are quite respectable, if not downright fun and sexy). If you're interested in kinkier, more unusual activities, this book will at least get you started in the right direction; if it doesn't tell you all you need to know, it will tell you who will.

Content aside, this book's winning feature is its style. The Guide approaches sex the way we all should (and usually don't): with intelligence and a healthy sense of humor and play. The language is familiar rather than cold or condescending, and reading the book is like talking to a close friend. It's a fun read, either by yourself or with a loved one, and it's best read all the way through.

And you're probably not going to find cooler pictures anywhere.

One drawback is the book's organization: although it has numerous chapters that appear well, something you'd expect to find in one chapter may turn up in another, and on some points the book gets unneccessarily repetitive. It's a very small price to pay, but it can be an annoyance from time to time.

This book is open, clever, honest, and funny. Whether you're a neophyte or an expert, you'll learn something new, and hopefully, your perspective on sex and sexuality will change a little. And you'll enjoy every page of it.

One of the best
I seem to have accumulated a collection of "sex manual" books. Some are funny, some are academic, etc. _The Guide To Getting It On!_ is fabulous. From a woman's point of view - there's a lot of men out there that could benefit from reading this book. I'm not putting down men, either!! I just haven't read such a simple and straightforward approach about women and sex before. Plus you just can't help laughing out loud every once and a while.

The chapter about explaining sex to children is fabulous, too, and I'd highly recommend it to parents.


Cat Among the Pigeons
Published in Audio CD by Chivers Press Ltd (April, 2002)
Authors: Agatha Christie and Paul Shelley
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Biting off more than she could chew
Agatha Christie, it is not often recognized, was a very good writer. Although her books never achieved the skin-tingling creepiness of John Dickson Carr, the best of the "Golden Age" mystery writers, and though Carr's books are perhaps more re-readable, the writing in Christie's best books (the 30s, 40s) was often as good as any other writer of the period.

She was also as good at writing cloak and dagger books as well as convention detective mysteries, though these books are not generally as well known.

"Cat Among the Pigeons" should be one of her cloak and dagger books. It veers into John Buchan territory with revolutions in foreign coutries and smuggled jewels. It is not, on the face of it, a Poirot novel. When he makes his appearance near the last third of the book, he is a welcome addition to a plot that's beginning to collapse under its own weight. Instead of being a novel of espionage or a novel of detection, it tries to be both. The result is a novel with three murders, but all of them coming late in the narrative and therefore bunched together. Because the set-up is so long, Poirot is forced to make some quantum leaps beyond his normal logic, that seem more like inspired guesses than deduction. One wonders why he was necessary at all.

The book is set at a girl's school and there are many extraneous characters. Christie helps us with her usual page of character descriptions at the start, but many of the names remain little more than names.

Christie was a good writer. She normally got to the point and didn't string plot threads together until her books got oppressive. And the two genres she tried to mix in this book could have been combined in a longer, more complex novel. An earlier introduction to Poirot might also have helped. He is anticipated, but, curiously, is never mentioned prior to his introduction and comes out of the blue.

It looks almost like two books that have run together. Christie normally didn't waste more than one good plot on a book, but here she has the jewel story, which would've made a crackerjack espionage novel along the lines of _The Secret of Chimneys_; and the murder mystery, in the last half, that would've made a fine, typical Poirot novel. A young detective who goes undercover in the book would've made a fine solver of the jewel story.

Too, many of the elements of this novel seem borrowed. The young detective's superior comes off as a lethargic version of Carr's H.M., for instance.

However, one warning: there is an element of the jewel plot that you will guess almost immediately, and wonder why Christie was so obvious with it. Further reading shows that to become more complex, and the reason she wants us to guess it early seems to be so she can take a sudden left-turn with it. But the element itself is not, it turns out, very important to the plot and she can allow us a few pages to think we're clever.

If you are a long-time Christie fan and want to read all her books, _Cat Among the Pigeons_ is a must; if you're just starting Christie, you might want to read a dozen or so others before getting to this one.

EXCELLENT MYSTERY THAT CONTINUALLY HAS YOU GUESSING!!
This is definitely my favorite Agatha Christie book. The element of a girls' school murder was classic. It was good without being to deep. Also, no matter how hard you try, you cannot guess the end, unti Mr. Poirot explains of course. Personally, I liked him not being in much of the book because it took a school girl to find out the mystery. I recommend this to anyone who wishes to read a frivolous, exciting, and definitely intersting book.

Great! My Favorite!
This is my favorite Agatha Christie so far! You'll never guess the ending, either. I will admit Hercule Poirot didn't come in until kind of late in the story, but it's really good! Don't try and solve it for yourself; there aren't enough clues.

I Definitely Reccomend This Book!!!!

(I'm a 12 year old girl from Alaska. If there are any other Christie fans out there my age please contact me!!! mercat@angelfire.com)


Rapunzel
Published in Paperback by Puffin (October, 2002)
Author: Paul O. Zelinsky
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A visually beautiful rendition of a timeless tale
"When I was a young girl, I had long braids, and always wanted to be Rapunzel," confided a colleague at a recent meeting. Paul Zelinsky's Caldecott award-winning retelling of this age-old tale of a mother-to-be's craving for the forbidden rapunzel, a possessive sorceress, a beautiful girl with an unending cascade of silky hair shut away in a remote tower, and a handsome prince just might reawaken those desires. In his informative "Note About Rapunzel ," Zelinsky relates how he drew on elements from the early French and Italian sources as well as from the better known Grimm version of this tale to create his own compelling version. Thus, some details of the story are less familiar. Rapunzel naively reveals that she has had a visitor in the tower when she asks the sorceress to help her with her dress for, "It is growing so tight around my waist, it doesn't want to fit me anymore." Other elements, retold in their familiar spare rhythm, such as "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" retain ther original power. Zelinsky uses the formal beauty of Renaissance art to evoke both the physical beauty of the characters and the Italian landscape. His large oil paintings overflow with softly muted colors, billowing folds of finely detailed period costumes, ornate architecture, and majestic landscapes. His masterful use of glinting and filtering light illuminates every page. Zelinsky's Rapunzel is a book to be treasured by anyone who appreciates a timeless tale and delights in an object of visual beauty.

Beautiful illustrations and a traditional retelling
Paul O. Zelinsky's "Rapunzel" is a delight of renaissance-like oil paintings depicting a delicately beautiful girl, a frightening witch, and a handsome prince. The illustrations are truly superb, and each page features a beautifully rendered painting rich with color and detail.

Zelinsky's retelling of the story is traditional yet satisfying, but the illustrations really steal the show. Children will get caught up in the fairytale landscapes and the magical locales. Readers will also appreciate the additional information provided by Zelinsky about his retelling of the story and his study of Italian Renaissance art. It's always nice to know why artists choose to illustrate stories in a certain way.

This book won the Caldecott Medal for its fantastic illustrations.

A superbly detailed version of a traditional tale.
An excellent choice for many ages. This book is a beautiful and rich rendition of a traditional tale. Zelinsky has filled the pages with orderly, exquisitie details that are reminescent of Renaissance paintinings. The illustrations merit review closely and the reader will find new wonders each time they visit the work. Children of all ages will find enjoyment in these pages. Readers may particularly enjoy the intricate tower Rapunzel is locked in. The text has just enough suspense and evil and good strike a comfortable balance for chlidren.


Walkin' the Dog
Published in Audio Cassette by Time Warner Audio Books (November, 1999)
Authors: Walter Mosley and Paul Winfield
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Post-Modern Socrates
Socrates Fortlow returns in Walter Mosley's second collection of stories about the ex-con trying to find his place and beliefs in a radically changed world now that he's out of prison. "Always Outnmubered, Always Outgunned" introduced the not-so-gentle giant and found a ready audience in Mosley fans and a new audience seduced by Socrates' coming to terms with his new life and learning to understand who is he is in relation to it. The dozen stories here deal with his slow progress into a post-modern world, sometimes against his will - he is a man who resists even getting a telephone because he is afraid it will make him too available and possibly vulnerable. But away from prison for a long enough time, eventually his defenses begin to transform, as in the church discussion group he joins where he discovers real hope within. This is a fascinating journal of one man's spiritual journey that reflects many of today's hot button issues, and makes me eager to see where Mosley will take the admirable Socrates Fortlow next.

A Moral Message
A dozen linked episodes form the return of Socrates Fortlow, the 60ish ex-con who first appeared in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Of course, when the main character is named Socrates, you shouldn't be surprised when his story turns out to be a metaphor. Socrates is a man whose daily life is suffused with his past (he spent 27 years in jail for murdering two friends), and is engaged in a constant struggles break free of that past and try and live somewhat normally in the Watts ghetto he calls home. He's cautious and tentative about new opportunities and options before him, seeing traps and pitfalls in every deviation from his simple, spartan life. It's not difficult to see how Mosley is using Socrates to embody disenfranchised black men everywhere and give voice to their (and his) own inner conflicts as black men in contemporary society.

Central to this is anger'a theme that pervades not only Socrates' life, but that of those around him. Throughout the book, Socrates bubbles with an undefined rage at his surroundings, and ultimately he must find some way to accommodate that rage without letting it consume him. Even so, the good side of Socrates is always plainly evident: he's a father figure to a young boy, cares for his two-legged dog, and saves the life of a drunk. That's not to say that he's a "good" person, because he has killed people, but he is a man that's trying to do good things with life despite his past and despite the turmoil within him. Through his interactions with a neighborhood discussion group (a somewhat clumsy device) and a self-styled revolutionary, Socrates comes to discover that he has a right to be angry, but it's how that anger is channeled that will decide his fate. This is played out in a rushed and melodramatic final story that fits thematically with the rest of the book, but is kind of jarring.

Ultimately, the book's message is reasonably clear. Black men need to translate their anger into productive action and free themselves of the mental shackles that keep them from fulfilling their potential. For every person, this means something different, but even those who have committed the greatest sin can live a moral life. Which is not to say their aren't evil people in the world'or in their own community'but just because one lives in a ghetto doesn't mean the only solution is to leave. Rather, stay in the community and try and make it better'even though the man is trying to keep you down.

Excllent storyline and street philosophy
After residing as a guest of the State of Indiana for half of his life, sexagenarian Socrates Fortlow has gone straight for the past decade, living in Los Angeles. However, once convicted as a murderer-rapist, always convicted by the police. Any violent crime in the neighborhood means Socrates is one of the usual suspects. In his brave barren world, Socrates is becoming a champion of the underdog (human and canine), but has no idea where his new role will lead him.

WALKIN' THE DOG is actually an interrelated short story collection that works because Walter Mosley makes each story show growth in Socrates. Nothing is sacred especially society's major social, political, and racial issues as the star of the book lives up to his more illustrious namesake with a street corner philosophy. Readers will enjoy this anthology and want to read the first Socrates story (see ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, ALWAYS OUTGUNNED) as well as demand from Mr. Mosley a follow-up tale that shows what happens to the lead protagonist at the crosswalk of life.

Harriet Klausner


The FIFTH MIRACLE : THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF LIFE
Published in Hardcover by Simon & Schuster (March, 1999)
Author: Paul Davies
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What are the other four??
Approaching this book with some trepidation, it proved a surprisingly good read. Davies is a lucid writer, adroit with words and descriptions. His 'chatty' approach brings the reader to his way of thinking with deceptive ease. He even provides an impressive chapter on the Second Law of Thermodynamics, a daunting topic at any time. Describing how the Second Law should be properly addressed in the biological realm, the chapter is a quiver of arrows effectively countering the anti-Darwinists who cite the Law in refuting evolution by natural selection. He also manages to explain, as no-one else has done, how we know certain meteorites originated on Mars. All this fine work is undermined by his conclusion. The title, of course, gives the game away. If you don't know what the other four miracles are, you have to read his Preface. Or his source.

Davies opens by expressing his disappointment with "science" not having "wrapped up the mysteries of life's origins." He doesn't make clear why he held this opinion, claiming to have spent "a year or two researching the topic." He then summarizes the various theories offered on life's origins ranging from Darwin's "warm little pond" through Urey and Miller's laboratory generation of amino acids to Graham Cairns Smith's crystalline model of molecular replication. Each little digest of various research efforts are closed with Davies carefully dismantling each result as failing to provide the answer he seeks. Davies is not alone in his dissatisfaction. The numerous concepts offered on life's origins suggests how vital this question remains throughout the realm of science. It's not surprising that he finds a near solution in the "replicating molecule" attached to growing crystals first proposed by Graham Cairns Smith. This idea has the advantage of showing how organic life superceded simple chemical organizations. For Davies, it has the added benefit of being applicable to any place in the universe where conditions permit such organization and replication to occur.

Davies eschews mainstream expressions about divine origins for life. In its quest, even in Davies' critical eye, science has shown that simplistic metaphysical answers are no answer at all. Evolution is an accepted fact, as is the Big Bang. The mechanism of evolution by natural selection, which Davies insists on shortcutting to "Darwinism", is, in the words of Dobzhansky, "the answer to all complex questions about life." Except one: how did it start? Davies is a bit heavy-handed in scoffing at science's failure to solve this quest. Throughout the book he portrays scientists "scratching their heads" or "wringing their hands", actions scientists actually engage in only when suffering from dandruff or washing up for dinner. Scientists probe for answers, they don't throw up their hands in despair when research fails to provide explanations to their questions. They try again. In the final analysis, Davies is hugely unjust to the scientific community. He owes many colleagues in biology and related fields a humble apology. Scenarios of the early conditions of Earth's environment are still undergoing revision. He dismisses the work of Urey and Miller by showing their concept of our planet's early atmosphere has been replaced by new theses. That's how science moves along. If we don't have an answer for life's origins yet, then it may come from further work. Since we can't duplicate the conditions, we may never find that answer.

Davies' own solution, after guiding us through a litany of science's failures, boils down to the reason he's the winner of the Templeton Prize. In the Preface, he wants to fit life, particularly human life, into a 'grand scheme'. This 'grand scheme' accepts the idea that life will emerge anywhere in the universe when conditions permit. We live, therefore, in a "universe of information." Contending that the laws of physical and chemical operations are too simple and general to produce life, some information source must have brought about a new level of organization. Darwin's concluded The Origin of Species with the comment, "light will be thrown on the origin of man," a statement imbued with meaning. Davies' own concluding words, that we live in "a universe in which we are not alone" is no less meaningful. He leaves mooted what the implications of this universal information source might be. However, his vivid depictions of "baffled" scientists failing to discover the origins of life leave few options. Davies leaves us to define the "information source" for ourselves.

Excellent overview. Very controversial propositions.
Paul Davies gives in an easy understandable vocabulary his vision on different theories about the origin of life on earth (panspermia, Martian meteorites, primordial soups ...).
An important point mentioned in this book is that probably the first terrestrial organisms lived deep underground in geothermally heated rocks.

But there is more controversial material. After searching in vain for God's place in physics (The Mind of God), prof. Davies looks now for an evolutionary goal as an alternative for the 'nihilistic philosophy of the pointless universe'. This goal is life and consciousness, created by a self-organizing and self-complexifying universe. A universe in which the emergence of thinking beings is a fundamental and integral part of the overall scheme of things." (p. 272-3)

The main motor behind this evolution should be a blend of molecular Darwinism and the 'law' of organizational complexity, a mix of the second law of thermodynamics, physics, computation and chemistry.
Paul Davies is not sure how it could work, but he states: "the atom treated as a particle corresponds to hardware. When a quantum measurement is made, the wave "collapses" ... But this in turn affects the subsequent behaviour of the particle. There is thus a sort of hardware-software entanglement in quantum mechanics ... Could some sort of quantum-organizing process be just what is needed to explain the origin of informational macromolecules?" (p. 260-1)

This is a very bold speculation. But, for me, it is too beautiful to be true.
Gerald M. Edelman in his book 'Bright Air, Brilliant Fire' convinced me that the origin of consciousness doesn't lay on the quantum but on the biological level (biochemical processes). Secondly, I believe that Gould and Dawkins are right and that we live in a pointless universe. Thirdly, Roger Penrose convinced me that trying to present the mind as a computer is a dead end.

Even if you don't agree with all his propositions, you should read this compelling book, which flows like a dazzling waterfall.

The where and the how
This is a very good book; an interesting journey through the great riddle of where and how life may have started off mostly based on darwinism. The book not only deals with where life may have possibley come from but also how this amazing feature of the cosmos came to be. The more you read Paul Davies's honest inferences the more Godliness surrounds it. Its not enough to know where life started. Possibly as an ultra heat loving microbe (hyperthermophiles) living thousands of feet below the ground or a traveler from outerspace. But perhaps more profoud a question is how that initial being developed into todays's inscrutably complex machine known as the human being? How did biological information get there (DNA) and how what set up the complex facilities that transalate that information into biologically meaningful and intelligent beings? Are there laws of biology at work unknown to us? Is life a natural reaction or some wild a fluke that it couldn't happen twice in the universe? But it would have been nice if Davies had reflected more on thories of the mind and how that relates to cosmic conditioning and biological development. If mind is out there somewher with space-time and gravity then perhaps it somehow determined our existance. A concept davies does not get into here but I read it in his book, "God & The New Physics' as retroactie creativity


Snow Goose
Published in Unknown Binding by ()
Author: Paul Gallico
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OF THE BOOKS THAT I HAVE ENJOYED THE MOST
I first heard of this book through an English rock band named "Camel". I bought an album titled "Camel - A Live Record" about 1980 (it is also on a wonderful studio album titled "The Snow Goose" by Camel). After listening to the album many times, it slowly grew on me to be one of my favorites. It was a 2 album set and one of the albums was completely instrumental in nature and told the story of "The Snow Goose" (it is also interesting to note that this recording of "The Snow Goose" was done with the London Symphony Orchestra and in front of the Queen of England). After a few years as a favorite album of mine, I played it for a friend who recognized the story as being from a movie and a short book. He started telling me the story as the music played and knew I had to read the book. I found the book shortly after that and fell in love with it. I have read it many times and often read it at the same time as I play the music, the two are so much in sync with each other and flow through the moods together in such a powerful way. The story centers around a deformed lighthouse keeper in England who is kept at a distance by the locals, but only has love in his heart. He is befriended by a young girl Fritha who brings to him a rare Canadian snow goose injured by hunters. The snow goose and young girl become friends and companions to Rhayader until a time of war when Rhayader must leave to help his fellow man. Rhayader single handedly saves many lives of the soldiers at the battle of Dunkirk as he sails his small boat with the guidance of the snow goose through the lead flying all around. Sadly, I have never seen the movie, though I hear it is often played on the television near Christmas time in England. I have given perhaps two dozen copies of this book away as gifts. And it is always a joy and well received.

A GOOD READ!!!
I didn't expect to enjoy this book when i heard from my english teacher that we had to read it, but to my suprise i loved it, and even the others in my year 8 class loved it.

This book is mainly about a true brave heart named Rhayader and Paul Gallico uses very good word pictures and he is a talented writer. Go read this book!!!

One of the best
Most British people of my generation grew up with this book. I bought a new copy recently to read to my son but, like the teacher mentioned in someone else's review, found myself unable to read it without weeping. Paul Gallico wrote many wonderful children's books, which are well worth finding either in the library or second hand. Like many other reviewers I too have looked for the movie (Richard Harris and Jenny Agutter). British tv remake all the classics every 20 years or so. Agutter's "The Railway Children" has just been remade, so it's quite on the cards they are working on a new version of "The Snow Goose" as well. Let's hope so.


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