Mary M. Licklider's essay, "Are Today's Students Better Writers?" was affirming in its challenge to the validity of year-to-year comparisons of national writing assessments that rely on holistic scoring techniques. G. Lynn Nelson's "Bringing Language Back to Life," was enlightening in its argument that an overexposure to language in this information and consumer-oriented era is creating a new type of illiteracy, and students bombarded by language have come to view words as meaningless. Other essays are equally profound. Editor Richard Graves tells how he discovered the importance of passion in composing, and Ann Alejandro describes how she teaches the writing process through visual arts. Linda Reif discusses the need to create writers for life, while Anne DiPardo reflects upon inherent challenges in teaching composition to students from other cultures. Patrick Hartwell makes a new plea for the teaching of grammar in the context of composition, as Charles Suhor reflects on our increasing discomfort with silence.

Writing teachers will want to clear a place on the bookshelf so that this volume may be easily retrieved and continually referenced. The book can be read from beginning to end, or selectively, based on essays and topics of interest. Any instructor of composition will benefit from a thorough study of its contents and perspectives.

Simply put, _The Graves_ is a collection of photographs of dead bodies and skeletons, the anonymous mass graves from which they were exhumed, the remnants of their clothing and contents of their pockets, the relatives that survived them; and a text that describes the painstaking and horrifying process of trying to identify them and divine how they came to die.

Srebenica and Vukovar are two towns in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, where in July of 1995, hundreds of Muslim men -- unarmed, defenseless, and bound -- were apparently shot by soldiers of the Serbian army under Ratko Mladic and then bulldozed under mounds of earth.

Five years later, most of those responsible still roam freely in the former Yugoslavia, though the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague steadily sifts evidence and issues warrants for their arrest. This book depicts some of the effort to establish evidence of their guilt ... and is itself damning evidence.

The photos by Peress, all black and white, are horridly beautiful in their mute, pinpoint clarity. They record a creepy new form of archaeology, where shiny white teeth peek out of the dirt, leg bones remain encased in socks and athletic shoes, entire bodies rise out of the near past, shorn of flesh but still comfortably clothed. They could be ancient remains, and one struggles to comprehend that they were alive, page after page of them, not very long ago.

Stover's text gives some historical context for these graphic images, records the testimony of surviving witnesses, and offers brief portraits of the men and women -- forensic pathologists, archaeologists, x-ray technicians -- who sift through this grisly treasure. Peress also photographs them at work, relaxing with a guitar, and the waiting, anxious families with their charity canned goods and stuffed toys.

This is a stark, stolid book, one that serves as a necessary reminder that what happens on the other side of the planet matters, and that no matter how much relative attention we give them, some things are worse than being sent back to Cuba to live with one's father. Much worse.

There have now been two ICTY indictees arrested for Srebrenica, the trial is ongoing as of this writing. None of the 'Vukovar Three', reportedly hiding out in Belgrade have been arrested yet.

Justice is far too slow. But at least with the ICTY, there is some chance for a bit of justice after all.

30th of August of 1999

This is Robert Graves' tell all autobiography, or at least the "revised second edition" which doesn't quite tell all. At the time of writing Graves was only 33 yet already had about 30 publications to his name, mostly poetry collections & essays. He had rubbed shoulders with such writers as Edward Marsh, Robert Frost, Siegfried Sasson, T.E. Lawrence, Ezra Pound & Edith Sitwell. Graves had served as a Royal Welsh Fusiler for almost the entire duration of WW1 & been severely wounded, even pronounced dead, before being demobilized. After the war Graves went on to receive his B Litt. degree from Oxford & eventually found a position as the Professor of English Literature at the Royal Egyptian University in Cairo. All this & numerous other stories, events & anecdote are given here in full detail.

Goodbye To All That is most famous for it's graphic & realistic depiction of life in the trenches of WW1. Graves goes into all the details of his military experience. We aren't spared a single battle or a single death. He captures the horror & awe of the war with a roughness that made the book one of the most popular written accounts of WW1. We are presented with scenes of atrocities, suicides, murders & heroic rescues one after another until we can almost feel the emotional change that Graves himself felt as he went from innocent schoolboy to professional soldier. The physical & emotional damage caused by this change are themes that Graves would return to again & again for the remainder of his life.

Oddly enough the man who is most famous as a romantic poet talks very little of his poetry in his autobiography. Despite having several volumes of poetry published by this time, Graves turns away from this & spends more time dealing with the war & problems both on the front & at home in England. Poetry, romance & even love seemed to play a very little part in Graves' life during these years. He mentions his 1st wife Nancy only near the end of the book & offers us only a one dimensional image of her as the devout feminist whom he loved but whom he probably shouldn't have married. Laura Riding doesn't appear in the book at all despite the fact that Graves had known her for 3 years by the time he wrote Goodbye. Other writers or poets who do turn up tend to be there only fleetingly to provide a particular anecdote or to justify Graves' opinion of them. Graves seldom goes into any great depth about their works or their personalities.

Overall, Goodbye To All That is a odd book that sits on the fence between a typical war book & a biography of a literary man. It can't be placed neatly into either category & this is what makes it such interesting reading for the fans of either type. Graves stands out as one of the few literary men who could display his intelligence & education even while dishing out the most brutal scenes of warfare.

More than the war, however, Graves' topic is the passing of an era: the class-ridden and naïve culture of the Edwardian upper classes, a culture did not survive the war. Graves came from a landed family and received a classic boarding-school education. Even in the trenches officers like Graves had personal servants and took offense when they had to dine with officers of 'the wrong sort' (promoted from the lower classes).

Graves' narrative itself barely survives the end of the war; the post-war chapters seem listless and shell-shocked, emotionally detached. The battles he survived are written about with precision, gravity, and emotional impact; but Graves' marriage and the birth of his children seem like newspaper reports. Surprisingly, he doesn't even talk of his poetry much. This, surely, is not a defect of the book but a genuine reflection of his feelings at the time: After the War, nothing meant much to him.

Graves' literary style is very matter-of-fact--the opposite of the imagistic, adjective-driven language one might expect of a poet. Instead, he had a gift for the right details: in only a sentence or two, by careful description, he can perfectly describe a fellow-soldier or give the exact sense of 'being there' in battle. The book is a remarkable achievement worth reading even for those who may be glad the old days were left behind.

The character of Boone is far too simplistic. As a student of the humanities, in the western world (sleeping in a cemetary in Paris), Boone is sympathetic to the possibilities of thought and metaphor. But once he reaches Africa, he more and more resembles Lewis in his intolerance. Perhaps this highlights the limitations of western liberal studies; but the Lewis/Boone vs. Sisay/Killigan polarization became cartoonish by the end and detracted from the pure description of the world of the Mende.

The end is far too abrupt. After so many warnings about the dangers of the bush and of the baboon people, when Boone finally enters that world, it is anticlimactic. Once Killigan shows up, the story becomes a western spy story; Dooling passes up an opportunity to reveal the complexities of politics and culture of Sierra Leone in even more vivid and challenging detail.

No, if Hollywood got a hold of this, the Africans would be simpletons, and the Americans noble, and the kids with automatic weapons would be cartoonish instead of truly frightening. Besides, 17 year old Americans aren't interested in places they've never heard of.

On the other hand, if they could get Terry Gilliam to direct, this could have potential...

The Sixth Doctor's era is rightly remembered as the most gruesome of the TV series, and this book fits right in. Taking a lead from movies like 'Night of the Living Dead', the Doctor, Peri and newly acquired friends from the village progress slowly through a story that, at points, literally drips blood. Some of the occurrences are not for the squeamish. And you may find yourself shouting at characters who do things you know they shouldn't from what you've seeing various horror movies.

Justin Richards ties the whole thing together with a suitably Who-style explanation, showing yet again the highly flexible nature of the series which can fit a horror gore-fest within its milieu without any problems.

While this particular incarnation of the Doctor is not my favorite, I must admit I found him appealing in this story. The plot was a mixture of horror, suspense and science-fiction written with a decidedly British and Dr. Who-esque twist. This is not serious literature but it is well written and, like most Dr. Who books, defies the stereotypes that normally plague books based on TV shows. The only problem with reading these books is that its easy to regret that the show is no longer being produced - so many of these stories would make excellent shows.