Alice in Exile is by no means a bad book, nor an excellent one. Well-written and thoroughly researched, the author attempts to delve into the life of 20-something Alice Fry as she battles with concepts of love, attachment, and eventually World War One.

The author attempts to play with the social and moral beliefs of London immediately prior to WW1. Alice is well-educated, and her beliefs tend to be slightly bohemian. Edward, her first love, falls deeply for her, sleeps with her, and proposes. His upper-class parents are dismayed at his choice, and are relieved when Edward breaks off the engagement when Alice's father, a publisher, is involved in a sexual scandal over a book he published. Heart broken and pregnant, Alice accepts a job as a governess in Russia for the lecherous Barron Rettenberg. This sets up the trials of Alice, her son, and the Ruttenberg family as they are involved in both WWI and the Russian civil war (1918-1921) that erupted during this period of time.

Some of the biggest leaps of faith in the novel include believing that Alice could fall for her employer. As the reader we see a side that Alice does not see--such as when he considers raping her as she sleeps--and his transformation into believing Alice to be the love of his life does not ring true. The ending is too-pat and unbelievable; and the relationships between most of the characters is not very well developed. The author perhaps spends too much time telling the reader about the characters that he doesn't take enough to develop the characters on the page so that they seem like breathing, tangible people.

The best parts of this book include the struggles of Alice during the Russian Civil War, especially considering her attachment to a landed family in Russia.

On the eve of World War I at a party in Chelsea, young aristocrat Edward Cobb meets and falls in love with free-thinking liberal-minded suffragette Alice Fry. Educated at Eton and Oxford, this son of a baronet, who has just left the army to pursue a career in politics, has never met anyone like Alice. She speaks her mind, smells of cigars and doesn't mind making the first move. Despite their differences, Alice and Edward are smitten with each other and pursue a passionate affair much to the dismay of their friends and families.

When the couple becomes engaged, Edward's family draws the line and encourages him to consider his burgeoning political career and instead marry Elspeth, the far more suitable and proper young woman they have selected for him. Edward finally relents after Alice's father, a radical publisher, is taken to court for public obscenity after publishing an erotic sex manual. Heartbroken and pregnant, Alice accepts an offer to become a governess for a wealthy Russian baron and leaves the country.

When Alice's new employer, the charming and dashing Baron Rettenberg, discovers her pregnancy, he helps change her identity to conceal her shame and Alice becomes a French widow named Mademoiselle Chabon. Time passes and Alice and the baron tentatively begin to fall in love. But when the Russian Revolution forces Rettenberg to flee his manor, Alice is left alone to fend for herself and her young son. Not long after the baron's departure, Alice and her son find the danger too great and also escape.

Meanwhile, Edward's marriage to Elspeth falls apart and he sets forth in war torn Europe in search of Alice, whom he now believes to be the love of his life. In an exhilarating climax, Alice is forced to choose between the two men --- one is her first love and the father of her son, while the other is a man who loves her unconditionally but obsessively.

ALICE IN EXILE is a beautifully moving love story played out in a world ravaged by war. Meticulously researched and loaded with moral and emotional conflict, this story of lovers forced apart by differing social backgrounds and dire circumstances should appeal to fans of both the historical and the romantic.

--- Reviewed by Melissa Morgan

Alpha Strike Vietnam was a great collection of stories from pilots who were living the Vietnam War from 1964-1975. The book is fairly technical but if you use the attached definitions of acrynyms and pilots vernacular it makes it a bit easier.

You certainly have a different idea of the Vietnam War after reading the book no matter what ideology you carried before you read the book. Understanding the feelings, thoughts and actions of people who experienced the war first hand gives you insight to their frustrations regarding a limited war managed by politicians. You also get a feel for why the politicians and military brass so valued the statistics collected from the War.

Alpha Strike Vietnam is a great technical book about pilots living in combat. The stories are frank flashbacks of pilots while flying and dying in combat or in prison. The verbage is military technical and can get burdensome at times. However, as you read through the book you become accustomed to the vernacular and eventually fell comfortable with it. The book gives you a different perspective on the Vietnam War from guys who did not have the luxury of caring about the politics of the war. They were simply there to fulfill their duty or get their time in. It is also apparent that given an all out green to wage full scale war on the North Vietnamese, the war would have been shorter and the US would have subdued the NVA and Kong. That of couse is if China and Russia would have let that happen or would they have escalated into full scale global war. Still, you can feel the frustrations of the limitations on the war apparatus from both the military and executive sides as they both navigate the hottest parts of the war from 64 to 75. Very interesting and informative.

Many people reading this book will be law students, but even for those who aren't, Kermit Hall's collection is a terrific resource for readers of history and politics. In a real sense, if you're looking for a "road map" to see how America got to where it is, the "legal" history in many respects trumps military, political and economic histories. Here you'll find ll the usual suspects - Magna Charta, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Colonial Charters, the American Revolution, Dred Scott, Griswald, Miranda, Roe v. Wade. Expect the next edition to carry Bush v. Gore.

This is a terrific book. I use it for teaching Law & Public Policy to political science masters students. The authors have done a great job winnowing the dusty tomes of legal history to the essential nuggets. In addition to the classics, they've selected some hilarious "voice of the people" sources one might never come across in standard legal history texts. I really enjoy this book!

I read this book before I made a trip to Great Britain and found it very useful. It covers things like general attitude of the people, and domestic habits. Also goes over differences in language, like when someone asks you what to time do you want to be knocked up, it means what time to you want to be woken up in the morning. I was only in Great Britain for a month with a college study abroad program and I only got a glimpse of life over there, so I didn't get a chance to experience everything that is covered in this book.

This book is especially good for those traveling on their own in the UK because it points out the cultural differences between the two countries and suggests some of the language differences that may be encountered. With humor it points out customs that may be hard to understand and perhaps too subtle to notice, yet will make a difference in interfacing with business acquaintences, wait persons, hotel staff, and others as well as understanding the tv programs and newspapers.

I don't dare say too much about this book in general. It is obvious at a glance that the book in general would have been helped by some color photographs. Particularly when it comes to stone, a material so colorful gardeners everywhere are inspired to try their hand in coming up with interesting combinations, the small black & white photographs (even if of good quality) don't convey much information. Also, the line drawings reproducing Egyptian art seem to be fairly sketchy.

What I can judge is the section on wood. Although eminently qualified to treat the topic, the authors, in spite of having scraped the barrel in coming up with out-of-the-way references cannot really hide that there has been very little research on Ancient Egyptian wooden objects. Although they are too nice to say so it becomes apparent that Egyptology very much is a backward area.

A much awaited book, this is the latest comprehensive study of Ancient Egyptian materials, offering essays on subjects such as stone, metals, faience, glass, papyrus, textiles, leather, ivory, wood, oil, resins and food, and covering from the Predynastic to the Ptolemaic periods. Every chapter, which includes extensive bibliographical references, was written either by an Egyptologist or by a specialist of the subject; contributors include Janine Bourriau, Rosalie David, Joann Fletcher, Nigel Hepper, Salima Ikram, Barry Kemp, Geoffrey Killen, Paul T. Nicholson, Stephen Quirke, Ian Shaw and John Tait. Full illustrated, it also clearly explains the techniques used in the identification of materials. This is an excellent reference for every student and scholar of Egyptology.

This work is an excellent debut from an author i've never heard of, the prose is excellent (and can be extrememly gripping at times, a hard peice of work to put down), and the ideas intuguing. I wouldn't suggest it to everyone, esp those faint of heart or are easily disturbed. I was introduced to this work by an issue of last years "Burning Bush" magazine.

All in all, a great start, and excellent first novel...not a work of genuis yet, but shows promise for future works. Speaking of which, after visiting the six gallery press web page, it seems a new work will come out spring 2003 called Clockwerk also done by Paul M Jessup (no period in his middle name? who does he think he is? e.e. cummings?) that looks promising. Hopefully it keeps the same level of writing and expands upon it, showing the genuis that seems to be only hinted at here.

Paul M Jessup's "Angelwings & Finerthings" is as good a debut novel as you'll ever see--as stylistically imaginitive and daring as "Through the Looking Glass" or "Ulysses," "Angelwings" retains its accessibility and when you get down to it is simply a masturfully moving work.

Whether you prefer the dreary, concentration-camp scenes in the first half (which includes the soon-to-be-famous scene of Ophelia eating her dead child Thanatos in the throes of misery) or its life-affirming wander through America in the second half, as a whole it shows life entire: from the worst moments of suffering to the simple rapture of being with friends in an involved conversation, from discussions on the nature of time and dream and art to even the end of the world--"Angelwings" has it all.

Add to all of this a mastery of style and language and wordplay (along with an innovative and experimental structure) and what we have is perhaps the first classic of the new century. Now certainly I am biased towards this book because I am its publisher, but to be honest anyone who reads "Angelwings" will realize the hundreds of good reasons why I chose to publish it. Rather than simply be all-style, the book is overflowing with substance and feeling; and rather than be bogged down in its weighty substance, the entire work is supported by a glorious style. What more can you ask for from a book than it not only make you think and become engaged in the lives of its characters than to have it all presented in some of the most holy writing you'll ever read?

This book is an excellant source book for someone who does not know alot about period details. I learned alot from the book and while I work with antiques everyday I do not see these types of items that often. The book focused on museum quality pieces, not things the common man would find in most antique shops. I would still recomend this book, it is beautifully put together, cohesive and a pleasure to read.

In the subtitle of this book,change "Kye" to "Key"

Wyndham Lewis is the kind of writer who everyone respects
but almost no one reads. Apes of God has all the trappings of a masterpiece: iconoclastic prose style, heavy-duty intellectual content, penetrating psychology and a shadowy and mythic, bombastic and possibly insane authour.

The book however, has 2 serious faults IMHO

The first could also be an advantage, depending on your point of view. Wyndham Lewis was a very, very bad man. He shared Ezra Pound's addiction to Fascism and had, in the words of Hemingway "the eyes of an unsuccesful rapist."
His "right-wing" politics were/are the reason he is not generally taught in universities or colleges. He is called a mysogynist, and indeed his female charaters are all exceptionally shallow and stupid. I happen to like the brilliant vitriol and Lewis makes no claim to objectivity.

Secondly Apes of God is too long and exceptionally boring in parts. The long satires of the artsy-fartsy social scene accomplish their goal, but personally I don't find reading about the insipidity of dinner parties very titillating. My biggest gripe however is The Sex. Sexual tension holds the plot together, but Lewis has a strangely victorian inability to write about the act itself. The Socratic homosexual relationship between Dan and the Protaganist Zagreus is rendered in a totally sterile manner.

Wyndham Lewis's ( founder of VORTICISM= the only British Avant-Garde movement of the 20th century)Apes of God is a vicious satire exposing the posture and posuers of the art world then (circa 1920's London/Paris/New York et.al.)and's wholly applicable before and aft as all areas not just the arts are riddled through with scavengery: shams and fakers lusting after popularity, getting on their knees in curtsies and bows before their corrupt Gods whom they shamelessly ape (ie.copy,mimick)in the devout worship of finance and social prestige; for which they sacrifice and abuse the very name of ART, using it only to profit greedy wiles and have no concern whatever as regards beauty or the bettering of humankind, much less the quest for absolute knowledge and solutions to humankinds varied cosmic dilemmas. The apes practice strictly black magic, a voodoo of the dollar whence they make idiot dolls of both the public, and their brethen, and mock the genuine bohemia by fostering appearances, such as upper middle-class citizens dressing in expensive outfits to look poor---the absurdity of the accepted norm really does summons an image of apes wearing clothes to fit in with humans! As comparison is legit and somewhat inevitable, Lewis' satire exceeds in both depth and vituperation that of George Orwell,and in its lyrical balled is more beautiful than Jonathan Swifts'. Lewis is of that rare species of sufficient force to prosper and forge single-handedly a one man advanced guard, as his graphic works equal in everyway and exist on a perfect par with his literary works; he was also, besides brilliant novelist, satirist, and painter who by many is said to best Picasso,he was a profound philosopher, an essayist of biting wit, a rare playwright and poet who wrote "An Enemy Of The Stars" - a futurist-fuelled expressionistic masterpeice published in one of several of his literary journasls' as a fearless, undaunted and unswayable critic he established himself in the guise he took in all his eclectic works: THE ENEMY! In which sense his condemnation was itself a form of praise, testifying to the fact he considered it worthy of his towering abuses. His works, published extensively by Black Sparrow Press, numbers perhaps 50 titles, many of them numbering well over half a thousand pages apeice; he even wrote, as his last major work a spiritual science-fiction trilogy which I pray will be published in the near future...Lastly, Wyndham Lewis unlike his contemporaries, including those like Pound and Eliot who champion his works, has over time wholly retained all the vigour initially constructed round that swirling vortex he single-handedly created, a veritable tower of Babel of achievments which will stand for centuries to come as one of the great wonders of the world of Art; and The Apes Of God, though some claim to be an elephant,ghostly white with wide red eyes, still romps through the literary jungles, levelling with terrifying stomping power all in its way, and a trailing desolation in its wake. His Apes Of God are still pounding their chests, all claiming to reign sole and supreme king of the jungle, yet scatter like field-mice at the approaching tank of a man that is Wyndham Lewis, perhaps the only artist left from his generation or this one that's capable of killing every last one of them who would otherwise take over the planet. I am, and remain, grateful some select few still can revel in his handsomely republished works such as this missive, thanks to undaunted publishers such as John Martin at Black Sparrow, dedicated to the works they print, which is a rare enough occurence these days.

This introduction to the apostle Paul and his letters is a good book to begin a study of the Pauline epistles. Soards focuses his evaluation of Paul in the context of Paul's eschatological beliefs. Soards' organization is excellent, and he writes in an easy to follow style. Some of his discussions can get a little difficult to follow, especially his discussion of Paul's theology. Overall, a good book for the New Testament beginner.

This book offers the serious student of the life of St. Paul an in-depth look at the how's and why's of the epistles, which ones are known to have been written personally by him and which ones were not. The general culture and lifestyles of the communities at the time of St. Paul are also discussed as well as several alternative theories of his travels, text of several epistles, and most importantly, scholarly discussion of Christology, Ecclesiology and Jewish Law. Although the spiritual discussions can get bogged down somewhat in their discussions, I found Soards to err on the side of too much data rather than too little. This is a very good source document for the spirituality of St. Paul and the style of his teachings

First thought upon getting this, it's tiny! I've been waiting at least two months for this book to come out and I was a tad upset that the price guide is not up-to-date. NOTHING that came out in 2002 is in there, nor are any non-collector dolls listed.

If you need a pocket guide to carry to conventions, it's perfect. If you want something to help you figure out how much to bid on E-Bay, it's perfect. Otherwise, just get it for the vibrant color pictures (No black & white) , which strangly have dolls that haven't even been released yet.

What a wonderful book! The Warman's Barbie Doll Field Guide is packed with useful information and great color photographs. And all at a super affordable price. I'm impressed. The book is designed as a take-along pocket guide, yet it's amazingly complete and thorough. It covers six decades of Barbie dolls, provides several hundred color photographs, a history of Barbie, critical identification information, -- including how to identify Barbie No. 1 -- fashion sets, designer dolls and a price guide to more than 1,500 dolls. It's perfect for a gift or for yourself, or even as a gift for yourself. I have several Barbie books on my shelves, and that's where they stay. But this little dynamo is never going to leave my side.