Mr. Herman documents a case of western disinformation surrounding the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. He provides a service by documenting the participation of a diverse set of players including Fascists, the CIA and Italian Freemasonry, which has been implicated implicated in the Vatican Bank scandal and the assassination of Pope John Paul I in the book "In God's Name" by David Yallop. Mr Herman drops the ball and, perhaps intentionally, masks larger issues when he tries to promote the notion that the P2 Masonic Lodge's actions were "against the longstanding tradition of Italian Masonry that excluded political discussions." In her book "In Banks We Trust" Penny Lernoux touches on the broad role of Italian Freemasonry as a network used after WWII by Americans, who promoted Fascists to fight Communists. She notes, "Membership in a lodge was reliable evidence of the anticommunism required for a successful career in a NATO military force." The P2 Masonic lodge wasn't an anomaly. It reveals the essential character of organizations like the Masons.

Paul Cuffe who lived from 1759 to 1817 was a remarkable man. He was a self made man, a successful businessman and a philanthropist. He is the epitome of the American spirit. That he was a black man and the son of a freed slave and an Indian woman, makes his story that much more intriguing. In his time, he was the wealthiest man in the Westport, MA area which was in the shadow of the whaling and shipping port of New Bedford. He was also a founding member of the Westport Quaker Meeting which still is active today in a building which he provided.

To quote George Salvadore,another biographer: "Cuffe was a successful Yankee businessman as well as a Negro humanitarian. The key to his success lay in his eminent practicality, a characteristic that dominated all his activities, and, indeed, more than anything else explains his career." Lamont Thomas writes a very readable biography that conveys well the magnitude of Cuffe's accomplishments and the challenges of his era.

Like I said it kept me interested in finding out what was going to happen next. The story was filled with lots of surprses,and took place in diferent parts of the world as the detective ran around pretending to find out what was happening to the victims!Thru the whole story I kind of figured it was the detective but really could not pinpoint it.

This book is excellent for the student of literature and mythology..not an easy read, but a profound one. As far as the other review that refers to the vanished Winnebago.. NOT.. the tribe is alive and well in two branches in Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Ace AVG and Ninth Air Force pilot James H. Howard was born in Canton province, China, of American parents. Smitten by a recruiter's pitch for naval pilots while studying at Pomona College, he enlisted, and successfully became a naval pilot. Enjoying this life, but eager for combat and promotion, he was swept away again when a very different call for pilots arose. This time the recruitment was for Chennault's American Volunteer Group, later known as the Flying Tigers.

This relatively recent addition to the few AVG pilot autobiographies gives a candid, first-hand account of the group and its missions, methods and pilots. Howard describes his days with the AVG, from its problem-ridden start to its transformation into an effective fighting force. Fans will appreciate the description of famous AVG missions and pilots. Following the disbanding of that group, Howard then fought with the Ninth Air Force, stationed in Britain. This is a bonus for readers, who are given the view from both Southeast Asia and Europe. The European portion often becomes a tiresome, blow-by-blow story of aerial gunfighting, however.

Though this is an autobiography, Howard is not excessively self-centred, and the narrative is not simply a dry listing of his life's accomplishments. A fair amount of the book is impersonal, and relates the routines of military life, or historical information. The writing is intelligent and reasonably objective, and Howard apparently has had a longstanding interest in history. He has included quotes from military luminaries and fellow pilots in order to support his views, to recount aerial actians, or to relate wartime moods in various locales. This unique opportunity is the result of the book's recent publication, and it adds considerable flavour.

As a military autobiography, Roar of the Tiger is clearly written and informative. As it is about performing military duties in service of country, readers should not expect relationships or introspection as with other memoirs. Roar of the Tiger is primarily for those interested in fighter pilots of the period and the challenges they faced.

Robert and the Great Pepperoni by Barbara Seuling is a hiliarous story about a boy and his love for a dog. Robert Dorfman has been trying for years to convince his parents to buy him a dog. As luck would have it, Robert is offered the opportunity to housebreak a dog. Robert agrees from the beginning to give the dog up after he is trained. Through many funny trials and tribulations, Robert and Pepperoni grow very fond of each other.
Second to fourth grade students will appreciate this chapter book of a boy and his devotion to his dog.

ROCK TROUBADOURS: Conversations On The Art And Craft Of Songwriting by Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers I love what I do. I get to review fantastic books like this one. :-) Here they are - some of the songwriters I have most admired throughout my lifetime, all talking about what makes them want to write, how they write, where their writing comes from... It's amazing stuff. Paul Simon, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, the Indigo Girls, Chris Whitley, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Ben Harper, the Barenaked Ladies and Ani DiFranco. Hell - the first three alone would be worth the price of the book.

Jeffrey's opening words to each interview are insightful commentaries on where the songwriter has been and where they may be heading. Though the interviews themselves may have happened several years earlier, those commentaries bring the reader to the present so that everything can be put into perspective. And his questions get right to the meat of the matter. These are personal interviews that dig into the why's and the wherefore's. What are the differences between then and now? How has their songwriting changed from the early years? How do they perceive the "industry" as a whole? How do they arrive at their inspiration? How do their

instruments of choice influence their songwriting? That's only a sample. These are the questions I would love to ask if I were in a room with any of these wonderful artists - only I would be too tongue tied. Thankfully, Jeffrey does the work for all of us.

In each interview, there is a section called "What They Play" where the instruments the songwriters use are explained in detail - their preferences, what they used in the past and what they use in the studio compared to what they use in live performance. There is also a selected discography for each songwriter.

I enjoyed every moment of reading this book. Not only did it answer a lot of my own questions concerning these songwriters, but it also inspired me. Deep down, these songwriters, legends though they may be to me (yes, even the Barenaked Ladies - whom I adore and who have a true knack for not taking themselves too seriously), are still human beings with the same problems of time, insecurities, and daily difficulties that I face myself. They have managed to overcome them and create some of the very best music of the 20th century and beyond. Reading about them gives me hope that I can do the same. I highly recommend you pick this one up...

It;s as if the camera's were in the trees..the animals in their purity. Beautiful work by Mr. Lally, who has such a talent for capturing animals and making you stop and really look at the scene. what is striking about the photographs is realizing there actually were people with cameras only feet away..it amazes me. This book would have been much more appealing as a table type book had it been bound as a hard cover and perhaps made larger. Incredible photograpy.

This book is ungodly expensive, but so are most books in the Oxford Medieval Texts Series. It contains two works by the eleventh-century historian Rodulfus Glaber (sometimes called Ralph Glaber, sometimes Raoul Glaber). The first is his more important _Five Books of Histories_, which covers important events in the tenth and eleventh centuries from the viewpoint of a monk who had access to some good libraries and to some powerful people.

Those who are not scholars should not be put off by seeing the Latin text on each left hand page and the English on the right. The book makes accessible and pleasurable reading for history buffs. Glaber's stories are entertaining, poignant, and often insightful; they give a taste of what the world looked like to a person with very different cultural presuppositions than ours. He tells stories of kings, peasants, knights, miracles, monks, demons, famines, divine vengeance, and the eleventh-century Peace of God movement. A history buff will find this book interesting and engaging, and will find the translation to be smooth and fluid. The book also contains a translation of his life of St. William, abbot of Cluny, a less important text historically but full, likewise, of great stories.

But this is, after all, a scholarly edition. I wish France would arrange with Oxford to print a cheap paperback version with just the English translation and an introduction for non-specialists. I would use it in my medieval history courses without pause.

For scholars: France's critical edition of the Latin is excellent, and is now the standard critical edition, as well it should be. The notes to the text are helpful and suggestive. The critical apparatus is complete, and his discussion of MS variants often helpful. The translation is a little free at points, but it is well worth the readability it gives. For most scholarly purposes it is reliable, but for close textual work it is preferable to use the Latin and draw one's own conclusions about the particularities of France's (and in the case of the _Vita Willellmi_, his colleagues') translations.

P. J. Nugent

Asst. Prof. of Religion

Earlham College

Richmond, Indiana

The book contains several interesting examples of utterances which tend to be spoken with the same intonation in American English. For instance, when a sentence begins with "therefore," the word is usually half-spoken, half-sung on la-mi-so.

Although none of the writers on stylized spoken intonation attempt to identify the musical pitches which they refer to, a reader with musical training might be able to identify those pitches. If this applies to you, I invite you read the books with ASIN numbers 0804715351, 0253158648, 9173460397, 0313209103, and 3631426542 and see if you agree that the four pitches of American stylized spoken intonation are do, mi, so, and la.