The Franconia, New Hampshire, farm of the American poet Robert Frost was turned into a museum and center for poetry and the arts in 1976. From that time, "The Frost Place" has been annual event wherein an emerging poet has been invited to spend the summer living in the house where Frost once lived and wrote some of his greatest poetry. The Breath Of Parted Lips: Voices From The Robert Frost Place, Volume One is a remarkable anthology of twenty-four poets, each of whom won that honor of a summer's residency and document the success of the original concept as a means of generating outstanding poetry while nurturing the poet's muse in the rooms and views that were once the inspiration of the great Robert Frost. Poem At 40: Windwashed--as if standing next to the highway,/a truck long as the century sweeping by,/all things at last bent in the same direction./An opening, as if all/the clothes my ancestors ever wore/dry on lines in my body:/wind-whipped, parallel with the ground,/some sleeves sharing a single clothespin/so that they seem to clasp hands,/seem to hold on.//And now that I can see/up the old women's dresses,/there's nothing but a filtered light./And now that their men's smoky breath/has traversed the earth,/it has nothing to do with them./And now that awkward, fat tears of rain/slap the window screen,/now that I'm naked too,/cupping my genitals, tracing with a pencil/the blue vein between my collar bone and breast,/I'll go to sleep when I'm told.

This book is a beautiful and simple way to read about Jesus' life. Great for people who find it hard to follow the Bible and also for those who need a fresh look at the life of Jesus.

All of the Girzone books I have read are wonderful. So refreshing and uplifting. Also, easy to read and understand.

I highly recommend this book.

Having read all of Fr. Girzone's other books, I thirst for each of his new offerings. This book did not disappoint me. His ability to inject warmth and a personal perspective transform the Gospels from a more historical context to making the reader feel as though they were part of a beautiful story.

Anyone who has felt a bit arm's length when reading Scripture will find that they are welcomed into God's story as part of it. Fr. Girzone's writings continue to help bring my God closer to me.....and for that I thank him.....eternally.

Lowell Rinker

It is a wonderful read! The story of Jesus pooled together by Fr. Girzone and the Friends of Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. A smooth telling of the life of Jesus that allows one who is a "beginner" or "expert" of the Gospels to envision the life of Jesus through a flowing account.

page 10/7: "E. Medical Treatment....And dependents and survisors of a veteran who has a service connected disabilities, or who receives a veterans pension, are entitled to care in VA facilities if they are unable to afford private care."

I have been a VA employee for 16 years. The above is WRONG. There IS a pilot program in a handful of VA hospitals allowing dependents to use the VA hospital. Otherwise, this is NOT the case.

..."The VA can also pay for long-term care of an elderly or disabled veteran in a private nursing facility if there is no space in a VA facility."

This is also not entirely correct. The operative would is CAN. However, the VA is only obligated to pay for the care of veterans who have a certain percentage of Service-Connected Disability. If they pay at all for any others, most VA's only pay for care for a VERY limited period of time.

The authors of this comprehensive guidebook come close to achieving this feat. As they point out, many Americans are not receiving all the benefits they deserve under our current system. By explaining the various benefit programs and laws in conversational English, they hope to help readers ensure they are getting everything to which they are entitled. It's also helpful that the text is presented in a visually interesting two-column format with plenty of headings, boxes, and even the occasional illustration.

Each chapter explains a different benefit program or set of laws designed to protect the rights of older Americans. Security and Medicare take up more than half the book. The discussions of Medicare claims and appeal procedures are particularly thorough, complete with samples of Medicare summary notices explaining what the sometimes confusing columns of numbers mean. There also are chapters on Medigap policies, Veterans benefits, private pensions and 401(k) plans, and federal civil service retirement benefits. However, if you're looking for in-depth information on Medicaid coverage of nursing home costs, this is not your best resource. While Medicaid's basic eligibility rules are briefly discussed, the complexities of transferring assets to qualify for Medicaid benefits are not.

The authors mainly stick to the facts, but every once in a while they reveal their view of our society's tattered safety net. For example, they call our failure to enact a comprehensive, universal health care plan a "national disgrace."

This happens to be the best all-around book concerning the difficult subject of Social Security that I have read. Understandable and very well written. The sections regarding disability are filled with just the info I needed to know.

This is a very good book if you want to know about all the pieces of a web site -- how the server works, how the http protocol works, what a request and a response look like, and how clients work as well as the usual HTML and CGI information that's covered in other books. It's a couple years old and doesn't, for example, cover cookies. It's nonetheless very worth buying if your library doesn't include a real end-to-end treatment of how the web works.

It is awesom

Ed McBain's "Matthew Hope" series is one of the more entertaining and engaging mystery series set in that most murderous of states - Florida! Well, not actually perhaps, but if one reads the vast number of murderous tomes and series set in the sunshine state one might get that impression. Like John D. MacDonald, Carl Hiassen, James Hall, Lawrence Shamus, Dave Barry, Tim Dorsey, and others MacBain makes good usage of his setting. Lead character and protagonist attorney/P.I. Matthew Hope's adventures aren't as madcap and humorous as those of some of the other authors mentioned above, but he is definitely hard boiled and suspenseful.

In this novel Hope is engaged to defend Stephen Leeds, a man accused of murdering three Vietnamese immigrants who have just recently been acquited of raping Leeds' wife Jessie. When the men are found murdered and mutilated shortly after Stephen had publicly threatened to kill them, everyone assumes that he is guilty. Evidence found at the scene seems to clinch the matter, but Hope takes on the case and begins to investigate, along with his assistants. As is usual in a MacBain novel, you learn quite a lot about the various characters along the way, making them and their motives believable. I recommend all of the Matthew Hope series. While this one isn't his best, it is still a good pager turner. Recommended.

Four Stars.

This is the first McBain book I have ever bothered to read even though I have been aware of McBain for years. I really enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading the other 12 Matthew Hope novels. Why McBain stopped writing Mathew Hope novels after 1998, I don't know, but it would be nice if he started up again.
Read this one, then enjoy watching the TV movie based on it.

Ed Mc Bain prose, teddy bears, boats Florida country-club/marinas, a pretty girl and murderous rogues. The toy industry and copyrights/patent scheme turns on the profits from the "must have toy" of the year. Just the book for a chilly evening, comfy chair and your favorite beverage.

Ed McBain is the best and this is one of his best. Matthew Hope has two cases, but only one client. The first case is Lainie Commins' battle with a big toy company over trademark rights to a cross-eyed teddy bear. The second is defending her aginst charges that she has murdered the owner of the toy company. He is also battling the after-effects of his own recent near-death experience. Matthew has to work through all these difficulties without the help of his favorite PI's Warren Chambers and Toots Kiley who are embroiled in a life-threatening subplot of their own. This complcated story is played out against the backdrop of McBain's beautifully rendered city of Colussa, Florida.

I loved reading this book. I forced myself not to skip to the end of this book because I wanted to enjoy the ride as long as possible. McBain always teaches you something i.e. strabismusly challenged, INS in Big Bad City (which I already knew) and the subtle variations of the definition of Nocturne (I give Nocturne ***** also). I even went back and read The Black Board Jungle and enjoyed it.

Criminal Conversation and Privileged Conversation are also excellent books.

McBain/Hunter is an absolute gem. I always feel I've gained an experience from his books.

When I got this book, I immediately read it twice. Once, within 48 hours, because the suspense was killing me. A second time to relish the writing and characterization. I don't make it through most mysteries even once -- after I've unraveled the plot, the writing often isn't good enough to hold my interest . How rare to find a mystery like this which can tether one to the plot with a strong thread of suspense, yet pleasure one with the deliberate nature and freshness of the writing.

What I enjoyed most about the book was the moral complexity of the characters. Too many books have the clearly evil and the clearly good. In my experience we all have a few blemishes to our souls, a few dings in our characters, and an inconsistency or two in our ethics. This book steps out of a world where characters are as flat and two-dimensional as a soap opera heroine, and into a world where people are as intriguing, mystifying, and unpredictable as they really are in life. Here are people who walk hand-in-hand not just with the companions of their days but with the ghosts and demons of their own pasts and with the shadow side of their own natures.

We are introduced to Bill, a Robin Hood of sorts, an activist for the rich history and community and thriving life of the urban landscape -- at the same time in which he is psychotic killer, an evil genius, inflicting his peculiar notions of justice on people and property as well. In Bill's case, he has an almost terrifying consistency in his ethics. (I can't tell you to how many people I've read the violence-against-women vengeance sequence in the book, and how many of them copped to having similar fantasies.)

Sharon, our heroine, is torn between her own ethics, and those she shares with Bill. She is more effective at solving puzzles than most of the detectives she encounters -- even as she clings to her own mental equilibrium with an at times very tentative hold. Sharon -- along with a third character, Eric -- are engaging as decent people trying to deal compassionately and appropriately with an insane world.

It was delightful to find a mystery in which the ethical questions and the characters were as gripping as the plot.

I think if Bill resembles any literary character it is Hamlet (or perhaps the less well known Stainless Steel Rat). He is dark and tormented, and he has issues with his mother. But what makes this book exceptional is Bill's committed (no pun intended) liberalism. He us a crazy man fighting the good fight. That, coupled with his undeniable brilliance, is what ultimately makes him so likeable. And you may finish the book, like I did, with an urge to engage in some creative social justice yourself. I've read this book three times, and I could read it again tomorrow. Buy it now, you won't be able to stop reading once you start. And, if you can afford it, buy the hardcover. The jacket and cover design are really snazzy.

I must admit the thing that made me want to review this book most was Mr. Hall's rich mesmerising words and style. I mean - you read a lot of books, many that may have a more captivating storyline, but rarely do you come across a text whose every word is strong and powerful to the extent of keeping your eyes glued to the pages and your mind stimulated , alert and on edge. Yes, that's true. The book is a literary foray into psychological complexities of the human mind. It is interesting, yet somehow it loses its appeal towards the end. That does not go to say it is not a good book, but the title and the first part of it promise more than the latter part really delivers. Overall, it is a very good book and a great read - irrespective!

An extremely informative & detailed read! Stevens iterates a tragic event in Marine Corps history with a direct, thought provoking style. As the current Commanding Officer of the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island, I am encouraging my officers & drill instructors to read this book in order to better understand how close we, the Marine Corps, as an organization, came to being disestablished because of the actions of just one man. Another book of interest on the same subject matter is Keith Fleming's, "The U.S. Marine Corps in Crisis: Ribbon Creek & Recruit Training." Another important book in helping to understand how the recruit training process has evolved.

I want to begin my comments by saying this is an excellent balanced book and that Stevens deserves a lot of credit. I would further recommend it to any Marine or others interested in Marine Corps history.

I will also state it is my opinion that S.Sgt. Matthew McKeon was a good man who made a tragic mistake. The factors leading up to the events of the evening of April 8, 1956 are manifold and can only be fully understood by reading Stevens' book.

My personal perspective comes from having served in the USMCR and the USMC from October 1956 until August 1962 when I was Honorably discharged as a Corporal E-4. I went to Parris Island in early February of 1957 and my recruit training virtually overlaps the events of a year earlier, putting me at the rifle range at about the same time of year.

Like all of us who went though boot training, I too pulled butts at the range. The discipline and control there was far different than back at main side so on several days I took the opportunity to spend my entire lunch break walking all over the Ribbon Creek area. I wanted to understand this incident.

Definitions from Webster...

Marine: Of or relating to the sea.

Amphibious: Able to live on both land and in water.

Swim: To propel oneself in water...To float on a liquid...

DI Motto: Let's be damn sure that no man's ghost will ever say "If your training program had only done its job."

And from Chesty Puller we learn the mission of Marine Corps training! "...success in battle..."

When I got to Parris Island, I was shocked to see recruits who could not swim had joined a service called the Marine Corps. I also thought it strange the USMC would accept anyone who could not swim, but I guess the Navy does too. How much W.W.II footage have you seen with Marines wading ashore under heavy fire when the Peter and Mike boats could not make it to the beach? Or, in jungles up to their chests and necks in water at Guadalcanal and then all over the south Pacific and Vietnam as well.

HELLO! This is the mission!

In training "...the nonswimmers had been taught how to float, tread water, and dog paddle. All recruits in the platoon had received ten hours of swimming instruction before April 8."

Platoon 71 got themselves into trouble by not following McKeon and by "joking, kidding, and slapping others with twigs while yelling "Snake" or "Shark! Suddenly there was a cry for help and panic broke out..."

I had looked closely at Ribbon Creek while at the rifle range and my "vivid" reaction then was someone would need to be retarded or radically incompetent to drown in that area! Several in platoon 71 fit this description.

"About three-fourths of the platoon was squared away. But the remainder were foul balls." "For example, eight of the men in Platoon 71 were either illiterate or had General Classification Test scores - approximately equivalent to an IQ test - below 70."

McKeon's colorful assessment that 25 percent of the platoon were "foul balls", may not have been far off the mark based on the testimony of several members of the platoon at the trial and in later interviews"

"The quality of some of the men under McKeon's tutelage may also be measured by their behavior after completing boot camp. At the time of the court-martial, two men were AWOL from Parris Island, one was AWOL from Camp Lejeune, one had deserted, one was in the brig, and one was awaiting punishment by his commanding officer." Remember these men did not complete their recruit training under McKeon, so other DI's also had a chance to make these guys good Marines.

SDI Staff Sergeant Huff had basically washed his hands of the young men under him...Stevens states "McKeon was failing, and he knew it." I think it was SDI Huff who was failing.

As far as the charges of being drunk the testimony is flawed and inconclusive. "Not until the court-martial nearly four months later would Dr. Atcheson admit that there was no clinical evidence of intoxication."

His own recruits "...testified that there was no evidence that Mckeon was drunk or impaired by drinking". Of all the recruits in the platoon who had made statements "...not one...had anything negative or critical to say about Sergeant McKeon".

McKeon was victim of being a nice guy by helping Scarborough with his bottle, allowing him to leave it in the barracks, driving Scarborough to the NCO club and accepting congratulattory drinks he never finished. Granted, McKeon used bad judgement but he was certainly not a bad guy.

S.Sgt. McKeon was the first person in the water and he was the last one out. He was leading, not just ordering recruits into an unknown situation. It is empirically obvious that if they had just followed him, as instructed, they all would have gotten back safely. Basic for military training!

Bottom line, McKeon was a new junior DI carrying virtually the whole burden of squaring away this platoon. When I got there a year later there was a "Motivation Platoon". I don't know if this approach existed in 1956 but what I saw of the "Motivation Platoon" regimen would have straightened out these "foul balls".

Although busted to Private, McKeon was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps. He attempted to rebuild his career, capitalizing on his W.W.II carrier experience. He worked with an all-weather fighter squadron and supplemented his private's pay by working nights in the kitchen of the EM club. Remember he had a wife and kids!

Earlier that year he had earned his squadrons "Marine of the Month" award.

"With one exception, all of the men interviewed forty years later spoke as highly of their former drill instructor as they had at the trial."

Enough said!

I am so glad to have found this book. I am the illegitimate daughter of Charles Reilly whom I knew nothing about since he died one month before I was born. This book not only took me through the trial but also gave me incite to the person he was. Through the years I have only had a home town newspaper article of the incident and was never recognized by his family.
I am sure McKeon did not march the whole platoon into the marsh with the intent that some would surely die and do feel that he has been justly punished for his bad judgement on that fateful night. I could almost feel like I was at the trial by the way Stevens writes. As a former wife of a Marine who spent four years living the "life", I, too, would like to see this depicted on film. I would also like to locate some of the surviving members of Platoon 71 who might have more information of any kind about my father.

A very tense, extremely well written mystery. Since we know from near to the start who the kidnapper of Jennifer Follet likely is, much of the story's tension comes in wondering if the police will manage to put together enough evidence against him to obtain the warrant necessary to search for Jennifer before it is too late. Meanwhile we find out more and more horrifying facts about the actual identity of her apparent abductor and become just as frustrated as the investigating officers,two of the most interesting cops I've come across in modern crime fiction,in their race with the clock. Jones's writing style reveals much more than it says; he simply won't let you stop reading. After finishing this book my main question was why it received as little attention as it apparently did (I came across it only by chance). Jones uses nature as well as anyone I've read to create moods and enhance the action portions of a story and the words spoken by his characters, all of whom - even the most minor ones - are wonderful, rivals that of Elmore Leonard's. Jones's work though is more chilling than Leonard's. I read when they came out a few years ago both 'Church of Dead Girls' by Stephen Dobyns and 'Girls', by Frederic Busch, two other well-received books involving missing girls in upstate New York and in truth found 'Blind Pursuit' to be superior to either of them.

I absolutely loved everything about this book, from the storyline to the characters. I agree wholeheartedly with the reader from Miami - those who had trouble with the prose no doubt are used to reading formulaic fiction, which, thankfully, this is a far cry above. Not only is it much better written than the normal thriller fare, it is far more thrilling. A truly scary story, the more so for it's realistic feel! As an aside, I think it would make a great movie.

Matthew F. Jones, in BLIND PURSUIT, has created a masterpiece for our times. The characters in this book, from the distraught, quilt ridden parents of the kidnapped Jennifer Follett to the two detectives trying to find her to the suspects in her disappearance to Jennifer's schizophrenic Nanny, are so believable, yet distinctive, with their flaws, contradictions, and unpredicatabilities, I swore I knew them and in some cases, wished I didn't. Unlike genre writers and most writers period, Jones's characters reveal their motives and inner selves through, rather than just flat words on a page, their patterns of speech, their gestures, their mannerisms, in the very ways they dress and eat. As a mother of a small child this book terrified me, yet I couldn't stop reading it. And mixed in with the horror is beauty(the passages between the Follets are wrenching and those in the woods at once frightening and magical), a parent's love, even humor. Jones's almost obsessive attention to voice and detail creates more than a story, it creates a world that is all the more terrifying for its knowability. If Jones's unique, powerful style of writing takes a little getting used to it is only a matter of pages before you find you are hooked by it and in the thrall of a master, one of a kind storyteller whose every sentence says more than an average writer does in two pages. If you like thrillers that are a lot more than run of the mill you won't be able to put this one down. A great read.