These are the journals of Thomas Bullock: the man commissioned by Brigham Young to write about the first ("Pioneer") company of Mormons to make the trek into Utah. They are written in typical 19th century style--full of details and odd anecdotes and more chronologically than organizationally minded. Of course, they are journals, and as such are more concerned with fact than literary style.

The journals themselves are a great insight into the travels of this company. Also, the notes Bagley assembled are great--full of relevant and useful information that greatly enriches the reading of this account. The only flaw is Bagley's own additions.

The first two chapters were written by him, as sort of a preface, and each chapter is prefaced by a few pages of his commentary. These writings detract greatly from the work, and are full of speculations presented as truth and seemingly oblivious to fact. As far as history is concerned, it has very little worth, being more a collection of his opinions than actual circumstance backed by evidence. There is no citation of sources, which further detracts from the credibility.

Overall, these journals are great, and the editing, superb. Just don't rely too much on what Bagley says about them. If you're interested in Mormon or Western history, these journals are worth a read. It won't detract at all from the experience if you skip the prefaces, though.

The Summer Day is Done is a moving account of the events leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution as seen through the eyes of an expatriate Frenchman and the girl he loves. The girl, sort of unfortunately, is Olga, Grand Duchess of Russia, the daughter of the last Czar, Nicholas II. While the book ends tragically, of course, with the execution of the Romanov family by the Bolsheviks, the description of the daily life of the family in the years leading up to the Revolution is evocative. The scenery is described in such detail that when my parents visited the Summer Palace this year and brought me back pictures, it looked exactly as I had imagined it from the book.

The family is described as loving and devoted to one another but, unfortunately for them, somewhat blind to the troubles rocking Russia during Nicholas II's tenure. The love story between the Olga and the soldier, who is accepted as part of this warm family's life, is charming and sweet. Their love is doomed from the start, but, as a reader, you keep hoping for a last minute reprieve for them. This book has stayed with me through the years and sparked an interest in the Russian Revolution and the Czar's family. Clearly the background research was well done and well put togther to render this endearing portrait of a family that was wrong for its time, and paid with their lives.

when i picked this book up at the library and saw artemisia gentileschi's painting, "judith slaying holofernes", on the cover and the title "women against men: revenge stories" i was thinking, "oh boy, this looks like it'll probably have some stories about women getting some sadistic revenge on rapists, or girlfriend/wife beaters, or child molesters or some scumbags like that." i was curious to see what ahem, imaginative forms of revenge some women came up with. i wanted to read these stories and smile or chuckle, and say "yeah! right on!" instead, i found that almost all the stories were incredibly stupid. most of them were either about women getting revenge on cheating husbands, or you couldn't even figure out what form the revenge took (some stories, the revenge just simply seemed nonexistent), or even figure out who was the recipient of the revenge. one of the stories, a mom gets revenge on her slutty daughters by sleeping w/one of the men they were all battling to get into bed! uh, i thought this book was women against men?!?. many of the women characters were spoiled rich wives, or just people you couldn't even really sympathize with because of their pettiness, pathetic-ness, or just plain out crappy personalities. about 20% of the stories the women got revenge through feeding the man something yucky or lethal. not a single rape revenge story. only one story was about revenge on a cruel, physically abusive husband, and in the other stories where the husbands may have been physically abusive, that fact was mentioned nonchalantly, like it takes a backseat to his cheating or calling his wife "fatty" (sticks and stones, people, sticks and stones... if he treats you like crap, leave him!). now, of course cheating is not a good thing, but it's not like women don't cheat either, and there are worse things a person could do to you. human relationships are too complex for cheating to be a crime punishable by death. anyway, i don't think this book is something that feminists can be proud of. the only reason i give this book two stars instead of one is to acknowledge a couple of the decent stories... probably agatha christie's is one of the best of the lot. all i can say is, if you're curious, check it out from your local library, or buy it used at a really cheap price... maybe someone else would find something worthwhile in many of the stories, but for me i found most to be very stupid, either badly/cheesily written, or crappy story-wise.