Jamie Harrison is without peer - more novels about Jules please!

Jamie Harrison writes more into the first 80 pages than most authors put into an entire book. Characters, scenery, emotions, undercurrents and tensions between characters, they are all there. In a world of a lot of ho-hum writing, Harrison really stands out head and shoulders above the rest! I am reading her second book in the series, GOING LOCAL, right now, and it's another excellent book proving that the first was no fluke. For a book like this, I wish the ratings included more stars. It's just that good! Get it, read it, and put it on your keeper shelf. I'll be reading this series more than once!

For those of us whose every day is off-kilter, Jamie Harrison has created the ideal town with the perfect sheriff: Jules Clement, Ph.D., of Blue Deer, Montana. Home after a decade of archeological exploration, Jules finds that the duties of a small-town sheriff are more dangerous than excavating in Tunisia or Turkey, because in Montana he has to cope with sibling rivalry, nouveau riche newcomers, duck killers, naked men peeing in the town park, and memories of his father's murder twenty years earlier. Walking on the wild side has never been better.

I picked the book out of instinct, and then read it without any expectation. Indeed it's a very interesting book. Actually it has fascinating surprise elements, even more so if you hadn't read the reviews here!

This is a story of a mother's love for her son, and how the pair cope with an unexpected twist of life. Captivating, for getting us to take a peek at how someone like John deals with his new life, someone like Sonja perceives things, and someone like Joan handles it all.

The alternating narrative reminds me of the book "Mendel's Dwarf". Such a style of narration risks being confusing, but at the same time triggers our curiosity.

Once I started this book I could not put it down! A great writer for a first time novel. I laughed and cried. When it ended I was lost without it. Please read this book and I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy it so please buy it now!

If you only read one new author this year, give Jules Hardy a try. I just loved this book and cannot
recommend it highly enough. I have bought it for severeal friends and they all loved it too. I know that everyone
is raving about Lovely Bones (which I have also read) but this is even better.) Give it a go, you won't be
disappointed.

Novelist Thomas Pynchon is a phantom. He never meets the press. His relatives and friends won't talk. We don't know what he looks like. Mystery surrounding Pynchon improves his marketability, but it also makes his novels difficult to decipher and criticism of his work more contentious than perhaps need be.

Now Pynchon fans have something else to argue over. It is an unusual book by Jules Siegel and Christine Wexler, two of Thomas Pynchon's old and unusual friends. Their book's unusual title is Lineland: Mortality and Mercy on the Internet's Pynchon-L@Waste.Org Discussion List (Philadelphia: Intangible Assets Manufacturing, 1997).

So what else is unusual? For one, there are more hard facts about Pynchon in this one little book than in all others written about him combined. For another, we'll probably never hear from two people with a more unusual perspective on the author.

Christine Wexler and Jules Siegel were Mrs. and Mr. Jules Siegel when, in 1969, Mrs. Siegel started a love affair with Pynchon. Mr. Siegel, the cuckold, was one of Pynchon's oldest friends. Before being interrupted by the Korean War, Siegel and Pynchon were roommates at Cornell. During the '50s they occasionally drank beer, raised hell, chased girls around the country together. By the '60s, each was a rising star in his chosen profession.

Siegel was a journalist, among the hippest of those hip young writers who pioneered what we now call The New Journalism. His street-smart articles sold big at prestigious slicks such as "Playboy" and "Esquire." He lived in a commune. He used to rap and smoke reefer with counterculture legends, Pynchon among them, until (as Siegel tells it) the novelist estranged himself after embarking on his fling with Mrs. Siegel.

Unusual enough? More unusual still is the way Lineland was constructed. The book was not written, as we ordinarily employ that term. Instead, chunks of it were downloaded piecemeal and pasted together as follows:

Pynchon-L@Waste.Org is an Internet discussion list devoted to things Pynchonese. Siegel joined the list in 1996. When members realized he was THE Jules Siegel, the one whose article about Pynchon appeared in "Playboy" (March '77), they rounded on him with a barrage of questions. Some of the Pynchonistas were rude even before Siegel introduced Wexler to the group, an act that ignited a 4-alarm flame war. Siegel saved the messages -- the hate mail and the acclaim -- and they appear as chapters in Lineland.

Stylistically the construct apes a Pynchon novel, as allusions in the title hint. Characters, personalities actually, speak from the Internet. They appear, develop, vanish and reappear like people in the bizarre vignettes of which Pynchon's books are built. The style of Lineland might thus be called "cut and pastiche" if, in so calling it, we understand that Siegel wrote most of the book himself and that the work is neither a tawdry ripoff nor some long-delayed revenge.

Indeed the most unusual thing about Lineland (given the story behind the book) is that it doesn't abuse Thomas Pynchon. Readers learn to see the author not as some omniscient literary warlock but as an ordinary, intelligent, hard-working guy who spends a lot of time in libraries. He likes beer, pizza and rock music. So far from trashing Pynchon, Lineland teases members of "Pynchon-L" in order to make the rest of us laugh at how we react when somebody hoses the glitter off one of our pop idols.

Though that's the gist of it, there is more. Lineland features some nifty cartoon illustrations by underground greats R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. Mrs. Wexler contributes a well-crafted sketch of Pynchon as she remembers him from 30 years ago. Divorced survivors of those drug-sodden days may also meet a kind of bluesy catharsis that lurks, in bell-bottoms and a Panama hat, amid the deep emotional shadows that flicker between and around the ex-Siegels.

The downside? Well, the book gets off to a slow start, tries to be an E-mail primer before settling down to business, and Siegel's ego frolics in Lineland more than some may find to their liking. For my money, however, Siegel's sophistication, his playful, earthy wit and supple prose amply compensate for any defect.

Maybe Lineland is a new kind of book. Maybe, one hopes, it is a step down the comeback trail for a major talent too long absent from journalism. Pynchonistas simply must read Lineland. Anyone else will enjoy it because it is fun.

Lineland is a wonderfully entertaining read, and a great cohesive ragbag, with a fine collection of insights and ad hominems from cast and crew. We are all of us a little obsessive, cranky, humorous/less, playful, egocentric, ornery and flawed, and so for that reason it came across as a very human book. The writing was also very human: funny, limpid, insightful, vain, candid, obstreperous... I won't go on, but you get the point, I'm sure. It's also a nice introduction to IRC and the Internet, its denizens and its make-up.

And, yes, I did find it strange to see a regular human-shaped Thomas Pynchon opening up a little, but it doesn't change my image of his books. Why should it? I think the need for some of the "listers" (and some of them did seem to be on a slight mental keel) to take umbrage at Jules Siegal's accounts just highlights a need to hold onto myth, secular or otherwise. A lot of people were disappointed when Pynchon wrote an open, chatty preface to his collection of short stories, Slow Learner. Basically, they just didn't want to see a human face appear behind the parting thunderheads of his mystery--and we all need to believe in something, after all. But don't worry, this book is a great literary snack, and the Pynchon enigma remains intact at its end.

Siegal is a Forrest Gump, a human catalyst for the literary and cultural people, products, and events. His genius, revealed early in the brushstrokes of a compulsory hibiscus-flower painting, are transferred into the inspiration for Mario Puzo's Godfather, material fodder for Pynchon's novels, as well as inspiration for R. Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. His is the life that art imitates, his function as muse clashing with that of artist. Apparently awed by his catalytic power and unable to take the heat, he puts himself into self-storage in a tropical paradise where local language barriers provide a buffer of non-conductivity for this nugget of American cultural uranium. Along comes the internet. Here we are exposed to Jules' brief reintroduction, and see what he sees on the way back. He examines elements of our computer infrastructure and culture like an archeologist: is it a chamber pot or sacrificial vessel? But then the chain-reactions start again, as he coerces his former wife to do a chatroom interview about her fling with Pynchon. Jules neatly gets the last word on all his critics as he signs off.

If you want to read about how most of the characters in a bar conspire to get two English majors together, because they think the tall, dark, and brooding one needs to get laid, this is it. This premise makes itself known throughout the book, and frankly, it gets a little stale after a while.

Perhaps the major downside to this book is that Kurre uses the crutch of familiarity of the XWP online uber genre to establish Rudy and Keagan as main characters without having the characters establish themselves as separate individuals first. The flirtatious tone that the two take throughout most of the courting, the quirky awkward mistakes, as well as some of the witty dialogue does make up for some of the blandness of X must go with G, but don't expect to see much of the distinctive character insights you might see with other stories in the published uber fiction genre like the Tropical Storm series (Melissa Good).

Another critique is that even though there are issues of alcohol abuse popping up intermittently through the book, Kurre only takes it to the point to which she shows how it affects Keagan and creates her familial tension and her distance to others; not what she actually does about it. At the publishing of this review, the sequel still has not addressed this issue. So why bring it up (and take that many pages up), if the characters aren't going to do something significant about it?

That having been said, Kurre's writing voice is clear and strong. She has the makings of a really good writer, if only she would tie up her loose ends. The narrative is quite comical at times-especially the plot progression of the voice mail, and the sex scenes are sizzling. Sometimes though, the reader may feel a sudden rise in the temptation to throttle the mother for having to call her, or the brother for not really caring. But, that's just life...

Bottom line? It's a good first attempt, though I can think of the ways in which it could have been better. It just shows that sometimes, when all else fails, throwing yourself at someone, while blatant, may get you the woman of your dreams...

Well... I guess that says a lot in the Xena fan fiction world =0)... but in truth, this is a very stable, enjoyable, and fascinatining love story. I highly recommend and praise it. A must read... besides there's a sequel online and [i hope] to see it published as well (it's good too - so far, it ain't finished yet ::sigh:: ).

The beauty of this story is that it's so realistic. Relationships have to be worked at and come with all of the baggage of what went before. Keagan Donovan has been hurt before, badly, and she thinks her life will be better if she avoids romantic relationships. She didn't count on Rudy Whitman showing up and complicating her plan. The nice thing about this book is that they don't take one look at each other, fall passionately in love and go off into the sunset. The relationship develops in fits and starts with a lot of misunderstandings. At the end of the book, though they're finally together, you still know that these two are going to have to keep working to make this relationship permanent and that's a nice touch of reality. Definitely worth your time to read.

Based on the titles of his other books it looks like some of the chapters of this one were plucked right out of his other work. Oh well, the book was good with interesting comments and some common sense points being brought up. The author basically takes the reader through all the issues he thinks are causing problems with the current presidential election process. From the fund raising process, the primaries and the Electoral College. The last item being the most interesting to read after the 2000 elections as the book was written in 1999 and it hit on the problems with the Electoral College. What was pleasing to me is that the author did not just provide examples from the last few elections but dug into history to bring out examples that detailed that the state we are in has been progressing this way for years.

I was also pleased to find that I could not detect a major bias one way or the other. His comments seemed to take on both parties and were grounded in common sense and fair play. I was also amused by the section on picking the Vice President. He really let Bush 1's VP Dan Q. have it. The author's insight comes from his many years in the political reporting field and makes the book an enjoyable read for political junkies everywhere. I found I enjoyed this book far more then Drew's "What went wrong" which covered many of the same topics, but was not as well written. Overall the book was entertaining and offered some interesting insights. Given the topic it may be best suited for political junkies.

Witcover spent 20 years as the premier political chronicler of the US electoral system. With Marathon in 1976 he took the mantle from TH White (who wrote the timeless 'Making Of The President' books in the sixties) and later with the help of Jack Germond wrote a serious, suburb book for every election from Reagan in 80 to Clinton in 92. Here he distills his vast experience and knowledge into a careful, detailed critic of the political process, peppered with concrete examples and insightful commentary. He points right to the culprit, MONEY. One need not agree with Witcover's solutions to be riveted by this excellent book. Recommended for anyone interested in politics. I also highly recommend Witcover's many books on the specific campaigns, most of which are sadly out of print.

There has been much debate about the propriety of retaining the Electoral College, designed by the Constitution's framers, in the wake of the controversial 2000 presidential election, in which Albert Gore won the popular vote but George Bush, following the Florida recount controversy, emerged as winner by obtaining more electoral votes.

Since Jules Witcover's "No Way to Pick a President" came out before the 2000 election, and devoted much attention to the subject of the Electoral College and why it should be abolished, was the author a psychic? The answer is that he did not need to possess psychic powers to see the importance of the topic. He had a long background of political professionalism and has seen our system deteriorating for some time. As well as covering the topic of the Electoral College, Witcover devotes much time and attention to the evolution of what it has become. He is highly critical of a system increasingly taken over by public relations and advertising pundits offering snappy one-liners and spin control at the distinct sacrifice of broad discussion of the major issues confronting America domestically and internationally. Witcover cites the diminishing numbers of voters who cast ballots in presidential elections, along with the complaints of citizens indicating how turned off they have become with the system.

Witcover scrutinizes the role of the political consultant in the system, giving a historical analysis of the phenomenon, its roots, and where it has taken us. He cites the success record of pioneers in the field, the team of Spencer and Roberts in California. Witcover explains how they conscientiously boosted the image of former motion picture actor Ronald Reagan, carefully cultivating a positive image that took him initially to the governorship in California, then the presidency.

The author, a veteran of many presidential campaigns,provides both an overall perspective and possible reforms to make the system more wieldy and palatable to voters. Witcover has co-authored several books with Jack Germond about presidential campaigns they have jointly covered.

This book is full of different patterns for use by craftsmen. Unfortunately, it has no color illustrations, and no information about sources for these designs. It is more like a coloring book than a resource for designs. However, it does have guidelines within each design to show how the design was created, and I find that useful.

Arabic Geometrical Patterns are not so easy to find, not to mention understand their knowhows, this book clearly displays a very wide array of examples with simple step by step instructions displayed on the same platform, i was searching for a book like that, this book is quite enough, it is not for novice beginners though, you need to have some background in such subject as the text and discription for each chapter is very limited, and the book is totally black and white, so you have to figureout what color combinations are suitable. But the layout of the book makes reprouducing the wounderful examples easy.

This book has an extensive variety of geometric patterns that can be use by a Math teacher as well as an Art teacher. The designs are easy to reproduce. The display of the designs are big enough for students to try out and experiment. I greatly recommend it.

I was disappointed over the quality of the minatures featured in this book. They seemed way too amateur-ish and uninventive. I feel the author could have tried a little harder in making more creative and sophisticated designs rather than boring, suburban-lazy type she displayed in this book. The designs reminded me of those ugly crocheted blankets you see in the typical housewife or granny's home. It's a great hobby with alot of potential; unfortunately, the only people who take it up have no sense whatsoever of aesthetics.

The up side of this book is that it includes alot of color photos and detailed instructions, if you are inclined to make these dull pieces at home.

i found this book by chance in waldens. i have always had a fascination with miniatures and dollhouses, maybe because of my modest childhood. however, my interest in miniatures was sparked by the discovery of this book. boulton does an excellent job with explaining the miniture making process. as always, the DK company provides clear and colorful illustrations on making miniatures. i love this book and would recommend it to anyone who is an advanced miniaturist or novice.

My Mother gave her copy of the book to my granddaughter who is 8 yrs old. Now she can't wait to get home from school to work on her latest project for her dolls or doll house. Sometimes it is a Mother-Daughter project but not always.

The sinking of the Titanic, like many traumatic events, can be and has been examined over and over again. The examinations cover the same ground. Sometimes they disagree. But each examination illuminates certain details over others, giving a new slant to the event.

Geoffrey Marcus' Maiden Voyage was an early addition to the Titanic examinations. It was written prior to Ballard's expedition and lacks knowledge of Ballard's discoveries. It also contains surprisingly little of the passengers' memories, relying mostly on the published accounts (Lightoller, Beesley, Gracie). It is possible that Marcus did not have the same kind of access to the passengers' reminiscences as later writers.

Despite these deficits, Maiden Voyage is a worthwhile read. Marcus' approach is fairly traditional. He is writing from within the context of maritime rules and customs. The ship was going too fast in a dangerous zone. The Captain should have known better. Marcus likewise severely castigates the California for ignoring distress flares, no matter who produced them.

Marcus makes a good defense of his approach but the real strength of Maiden Voyage is in the overall view it gives not of the personal experiences (as in Lord's book) or of the random incidences and accidents that resulted in the tragedy (as in Butler's book). Marcus concentrates on the social, political and maritime responses to Titanic's sinking. His chapters on the Senate hearing and the British inquiry are fascinating in this regard. Marcus considers the Senate hearing chaotic and bumptious, and the British inquiry a whitewash, but he points out that both elicited important information.

Recommendation: Don't spend too much unless you are an "I've read everything ever written about the Titanic" buff.

Allthough some of the information has, since it's publication, been proven untrue, this book is an interesting one for the Titanic Enthusiast. The information presented shows what the Titanic's brief life was like for her passengers and crew and offers background information on these people.

While it is correct to say that some of the information has since been proven untrue, that can be said of most investigations which are reviewed, with the passage of time and further analysis. I would not fault the author's integrity, but recognize the enormity of the task. It is important to note that I first read this book in 1980. It's first printing was well before the current popular focus on the event. Mr. Marcus did an excellent job considering the passage of time, loss of witnesses, and lack (at the time of his first printing) of applied sciences. I would reccomend "Maiden Voyage" to anyone interested in; a detailed nonsensational account of the processes (human and technological) which led to the disaster, and a revealing portrait of humanity in a crisis situation. Further, as a long time radio operator, I can appreciate the author's portrayal of what it was like to communicate with headphones and a telegraph key over great distances and under both difficult and pleasurable circumstances. Taking into account the additional information which has been acquired since "Maiden Voyage" was first written, to me, this book is to the sinking of the Titanic, what the book "Gettysburg" is to the war between the states - a classic in documentary literature, presenting the best of the information available at the time of it's writing. I have not seen the recent movie on this subject.

Jules Witcover has written several excellent books on American politics over the last 35 years. Among them are a moving account of Bobby Kennedy's doomed 1968 presidential bid and a critical look at Reagan's election to the Presidency in 1980. In "Marathon" Witcover attempts to pull a Teddy White and write the definitive account of the 1976 presidential campaign. White became famous in 1961 with the publication of "The Making of the President 1960", his bestselling account of the legendary Kennedy-Nixon presidential campaign. White had the advantage of being the first journalist to write an entire book about how we elect (or elected) Presidents in this country so soon after the election he covered. White then wrote an entire series of "Making of the President" books, covering the campaigns of 1964, 1968, and 1972. By 1976 White was tired of writing about campaigns that he felt made less and less sense and which seemed to be dominated more by primaries and photo ops than by the old-fashioned back-room dealing and campaign barnstorming that he loved to write about. So in 1976 White took a break from covering presidential politics to write his memoirs. That left the field open to other journalists, and Witcover took up the challenge. And while "Marathon" never equals White's eloquence or gift for grasping the overall theme, or meaning, of a campaign, Witcover does provide an entertaining account of a close, hard-fought race. And 1976 truly provided a wealth of stories - Jimmy Carter's rise from almost total obscurity to defeat a host of better-known Democrats and claim the Democratic nomination, thus proving the power that the primaries now had over the nominating process; George Wallace's last presidential campaign, his former racism and Archie Bunker-type qualities now hobbled or changed by his paralyzing gunshot wound suffered four years earlier; the thrilling fight between President Ford and Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, a race which was so close it wasn't decided until the actual balloting at the Republican Convention; and Ford's spectacular comeback from a 33-point deficit in the polls in August 1976 to a dead-even race by Election Day in November. Witcover does a marvelous job of explaining the "little moments" that can mean victory or defeat for a campaign - the consistent bad luck of Morris Udall, an Arizona Congressman and Carter's main rival for the Democratic nomination; Ford's complacency after beating Reagan in the first 4 Republican primaries, allowing himself to ease up on Reagan in the North Carolina primary - which allowed Reagan to pull off a stunning upset, save his campaign, and make a comeback to nearly defeat Ford at the Republican Convention; and Carter's verbal gaffes in the fall campaign - including the famous "lust in my heart" remark he made to "Playboy" magazine which led to weeks of ridicule in the national press. My chief problem with this book is its' length - at 700 pages in the paperback edition it is far longer than any of White's books, and includes a great amount of tedious detail that could easily have been left out (does anyone really need to know that George Wallace liked to dump ketchup over everything he ate?). Basically, this book could have used a better editor. However, even given its' length and overattention to detail, "Marathon" is still the best book you'll find on how television and the primaries allowed Jimmy Carter to become President - something that would never have happened just a few years earlier.

Theodore H. White's "Making of the President" series set the standard for campaign books. White ended his string after the 1972 campaign, and it is from there that Whitcover picks up the torch. Witcover is a excellent journalist and a fine writer. He chronicles the chaos of the 1976 campaign on the Democratic side and shows how a determined darkhorse named Jimmy Carter was able to outlast his many rivals in part by getting an early jump start on them. He also documents the bitter nomination fight between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford that almost tore the Republican party apart. Lastly, there is the general election in which Carter started with a huge lead and blundered his way into winning by the closest margain of any election since 1960. This is an excellent book for politics junkies.

Though it is often overshadowed by the author's own later collaborations with Jack Germond (as well as the then-contemporary efforts of Hunter Thompson), Jules Witcover's Marathon is one of the unheralded classic works of the political nonfiction genre. Covering the twists and turns of the rather bizarre 1976 Presidential election, Witcover follows the campaign from the very first stirrings of Jimmy Carter's longshot candidacy at the '72 Democratic Convention all the way to the photo finish that finds the nation faced with a choice worthy of Samuel Beckett -- Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Lester Maddox, or Eugene McCarthy? In between, Witcover provides excellent, insightful coverage of the now-forgotten efforts of such diverse men as the tragically witty Mo Udall, the endearingly spacey Jerry Brown, the bizarrely sympathetic George Wallace, and the deliberately enigmatic Ronald Reagan to take their respective nominations away from these men and change the course of American history. If you ever wondered how America eventually produced a political system that could see everyone from Pennsylvania's hapless Gov. Milton Shapp to Oklahoma's radical former Sen. Fred Harris transformed, however briefly, into a legitimate presidential contender, this is the book for you. Years after it was written and, unfairly, neglected, Marathon stands as one of the best books ever written on the subject of how we occasionally stumble into selecting our nation's leader.