This collection has historic significance in Dickinson studies not only because it highlights the interesting and complex relationship between Emily Dickinson and Susan Dickinson, her sister-in-law, but also because of the way the letter-poems appear here in print. Hart and Smith took pains to present as best they could in print the original line breaks and other features of Dickinson's manuscripts, and this causes the poems to run down the page in long narrow columns, in many cases. Like Johnson's restoration of the dashes did in 1955, this edition of letter-poems to one correspondent changes the way we "see" a Dickinson poem physically on the page. The form presented here is as equally fascinating as the content of the letter-poems themselves. Superb!

The best thing about this book is that it gives us Dickinson's poems to her best friend, Sue, in the form they actually appear on the page. For most people, seeing the manuscripts of her poems is something that will never happen so Smith and Hart do their best to give us an idea of what Sue would have seen when she opened the envelopes. The review from the reader in the desert southwest has not read this book as it was meant to be read--as another way of reading and seeing. Hart and Smith do not suggest that theirs is the only way to read the letters/poems, they suggest that there's another way to read them that has not been the tradtional way of reading. My graduate students loved this book, as do I, because it offers a fresh perspective. Few Dickinson books in the last 10 years have been truly original and different. Anyone with a true interest in Dickinson, not the passing interest some reviews here suggest, will read this book in conjunction with other Dickinson studies and will achieve her/his own perspective of the poet. Smith and Hart give us some wonderful ideas to ponder, whether or not we agree with them is not the point. The point is that we exercise our intellect and think.

OPEN ME CAREFULLY : Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson. 323 pp. Edited by Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith. Ashfield, Massachusetts : Paris Press, 1998. ISBN 0-9638183-6-8 (pbk.)

The present book came as a revelation. How much more meaningful and exciting these 'letters' become when, instead of being treated as letters they are treated as poems. The range of effects generated by the simple procedure of respecting ED's autographs is amazing.

Editors Hart and Smith are to be congratulated. But one wonders why it has taken Dickinson scholars so long to start treating her drafts with the respect they deserve? One also wonders just how much poetry may be lurking unrecognized in the various editions of regularized letters we have been given? And finally one wonders when we are going to be given an unregularized Complete Poems? Would anyone, for example, seriously think of destroying William Carlos Williams' lineation and printing his work as straight prose or in conventional stanza form? Of course not. Then why should it be considered acceptable to distort the forms and rhythms of a vastly more important writer?

Dear Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith - You've shown us what can be done, have done it extremely well, and we love it! In fact, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts! So how about an unregularized COMPLETE POEMS? Please?

This book captures the essence of Filmore East ( NYC ) days, a labour of love;love of an era thats ends.The Amalie Rothschild`s pictures ( in color and in Black & White ) are great,and was taken from all angles of the auditorium ,tickets sales,public,backstages,lobby, artists ( Miles Davis,Mountain ,The Who, Neil Young & Crazy Horse,Grateful Dead,Santana,Quicksilver Message Service among other ). The chapter `Theater of Light : The Joshua Light Show 'is very interesting and detailed,showing the slides projectors and the light`s show liquid oil and glicerine bottles used with diferents colors or viscosities to produce the `psichedelic' visual like bubbles,kaleidoscopes and mystic symbols.A psichedelic trademark.
An incridible photo of the last day concert with roses in each seat.June 27,1971- `Thank You And Farewell' was writed in the marquee after the last show with Allman Brothers Band,Moby Grape,J Geils Band,Mountain among others.
In the page 141 are include a list of all shows at Filmore East march 8,1968 throught June 27,1971.
Today ! 2001, in the place that was The Filmore East are the `Emigrant Savings Bank ' and the front bricks ( upper side) are the same,a `living organism' there, full of memories like us.

Wow! I worked in this place for 2 plus years and didn't know half this stuff. Great therapy for all those fading brain cells. Left me with a smile on my face and music in my heart.

New York's rock, blues, and yes, jazz shrine of music culture during the late 1960's and early 1970's has finaly been been given it's due thanks to Ms. Rothschild. We the faithful, who for the most part never knew the secrets of the venue and it's most powerful accoutrements, Lights & Sound, are now sated. Special thanks must go to Stacy Kreutzman and her fine publishing company for another glorius volume. Everything we always wanted to know about the venue is here wonderfully remembered in word and photo. You mean the Light Show was behind the stage! And, that "Exit sign" was the passageway backstage were the real fun was! Ms.Rothschild walks us through the place and it's inner workings taking special care to show and explain just how Joshua's Lights worked its magic. Her live concert photos are revelatory, especially that Holy Grail photo of the Dead, Fleetwood Mac and the Allman's onstage for their incredible, once in a lifetime jam. The photos of the outer lobby and ticket window took me instantly back to the place; and the memories lost for 30 years started flooding back. The uninitiated will love the book for its stunning photos of Miles, Jimi, and Duane, just to mention a few. The archivists will love the book for it's [apparently] thoroughly updated chronology of concerts. I love it all, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.

where every paragraph leaves a distinct impression. Ellen Hart writes with a deft sense of place and time which mysteries often lack.

She has also crafted her main characters well to convey a sense of friendship, intimacy, and an amazing sense of humor.

This not only fine writing within the mystery format, it is fine writing, period.

Needless to say, the lesbian element was handled beautifully. This is the kind of statement about gays which should be made because it transcends the garish, tabloid styles of too much of the media (or, counter-media) and presents the human side... of human beings.

Clever plotting; rare character subtleties; solid, often unexpected, humor; special insights; an unusual location with deft understanding of the urban university society.

Yes.

I don't know who I liked more, the lesbian sleuth Jane Lawless or her slightly overweight (yeah!) buddy Cordelia! More than just a "whodunnit," this book is part character study, part Minnesota travelogue, and very much a good read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In 1958, Justin Bloom supposedly killed his girl friend and fled the area. This led to a public scandal and outrage towards the prominent family. Most people believed what they read in the papers since the eye witness to the shooting was a well respected police officer. Forty years have passed and Justin has never been found. Most people believe that he is dead. His mother Heda has just bought a Minnesota radio station where Bram Baldric is a talk show host. Brian is married to Sophie Greenway, owner of the plush Maxfield Plaza Hotel.

Heda is reviving the old radio serial, Dallas Lane, Private Eye. The show airs weekly, but in actuality is a thinly disguised version of the Bloom case. All the participants from four decades ago are living in the area and many star in the show. It is obvious that the more information that is presented, the more agitated the players become. Bram and Sophie begin to realize that Heda is trying to prove that her son is innocent by providing his account of what happened all those years ago. This is one show that is making someone very edgy, enough so that someone else connected to the case is murdered.

Ellen Hart is a great mystery writer who creates innovative stories. In this case, every few chapters, a letter is sent from Justin to his mother that gradually explains how the chief suspect sees that fatal day. Readers receive a brilliantly developed historical perspective with a contemporary resolution. There are plenty of red herrings, double identities, and sleight of the hand incidents to keep readers fully absorbed in MURDER IN THE AIR, a who-done-it that should earn Ms. Hart another award.

Harriet Klausner

THIS LITTLE PIGGY is an excellent debut novel. The sleuth, Sophie Greenway, is engaging, reflective, and entirely believable as a nosy but nice magazine food critic who gets plunged into the puzzling circumstances of the murder of her oldest friend's father.

In particular, the language and subtle humor are striking. Hart sets a nice balance between the grim realities of the murders and the relationships of the main and secondary characters. The narrative draws the reader in and keeps you hooked, whether we are finding out unexpected things about Greenway's friends and family or about the deadly plot that results in the murders.

After reading this first novel in the Sophie Greenway series, I was surprised to see it out of print. If this debut is any indication of the quality of the subsequent Greenway books, this series is well worth Ballantine reissuing it.

Other books recommended: M.D. Lake's Peggy O'Neill series, William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor series, and R.D. Zimmerman's Todd Mills mysteries.

Dear Lovey Hart, I am Desperate is basically about a high school newspaper decided to start an advice column. The person who will be dispensing advice would write under the name Lovey Hart. Guess who got chosen? Our intrepid heroine of the story. Sure it is fun to give out advice to others, but it seems that it is even more fun to hang around with Chip, the blond hunky editor of the school paper.

Our heroine started out pretty well....even getting a thank you letter from one person who followed her advice and changed her life. But as time went on, Lovey Hart went from savior to scapegoat, as people who followed her advice blindly and ended up worse than where they started. Well, it got to the point where our heroine can't even tell anybody she's Lovey Hart or she would be laughed out of town.

Well the ending is quite interesting. Also a very funny book.

This book is funny and realistic. It's about a girl, Carrie who works for the newspaper. A cute older guy, Chip, asks her to do a secret column, "Dear Lovey Hart", where she answers questions that the readers write in. It starts out fun, she gets tons of letters, helps epople out with serious issues, and gets closer to Chip. Only Carrie's best friend, Claudia also has thing for Chip. Carrie's other best friend, Terry has a thing for a teacher, which leaves her in depression after embarassment and rejection. Marty, Carrie's older guy friend, who's Chip's age, has a crush on Carrie. He wrties to Lovey Hart, asking for information, but when Carrie gives him info, everything goes wrong. Jen, Carrie's little sister soon finds out that Carrie is Lovey Hart. The book countineus and is really exciting and interesting. I strongly reccomend it!

Such a wonderful book and so funny regarding how a fairly unsuspecting high school sophomore finds herself in the middle of quite the mess, just trying to do the right thing. Very engaging, wonderfully written. It's too bad that it's out of print. The sequel is great as well.

I really enjoyed reading Ellen Hart's book Wicked Games she has is an excellent mystery author. I read the book for a project in my school and actually I read the book and with my suprise I really liked it . I really like the chachter Jane Lawless she shows to me what a real women is she has power and courage to face anything head on.All the chachters really have Wicked Games up there sleeves and that make sher book such an excellent book to read.I suggest this book to anyone who enjoys reading a good mystey book.

With this book and the next two that follow it, Ellen Hart has established herself as the lesbian Sue Grafton! I not only found the book suspenseful, I found it unpredictable. I highly recommend it. Of course, you may want to purchase Hunting the Witch, so you have it on hand as soon as you are done with this one!

Wicked Games, reintroduces us to Jane Lawless - fabulous cook, restaurant owner, and very unofficial private eye. Jane's life in Minnesota is moving along quite nicely. Her restaurant is very successful, she has found happiness, albeit in a rather long-distance relationship, with a woman named Julia. But Jane's life changes dramatically and violently following the arrival of a young man who rents out the third floor of Jane's old home. As the novel progresses, we learn that this young man, along with many other characters in the novel, has a troubled past and many secrets to hide.

The level of suspense that moves Wicked Games is just right. It keeps you reading - you won't want to put this book down - but it's not a draining because the book operates on more levels than simply a suspenseful story. Aside from the violence and suspense at the heart of the story is the relationship between Jane and Julia which becomes a source of tension and conflict in the novel. And characters like the zany Cordelia keep us laughing even as we sit on the edge of our seats.

Wicked Games is a great addition to the Jane Lawless series, and a great introduction to Jane Lawless for those who haven't read Hart's previous novels. Gay and lesbian fiction fans are rewarded with superb writing and a fabulous heroine. Fans of general mystery and suspense novels are likewise rewarded.

Sophie Greenway, former food critic, is settling into her new position of owner and manager of the Maxfield Plaza hotel in St. Paul Minnesota. Her husband Bram Baldric, a talk radio personality, is not fond of her tight schedule, but Sophie assures him that their life will soon normalize. How wrong can she be? Let's see.

St. Paul is being taken storm by hometown girl, Constance Buckridge, internationally known cookbook author, and culinary academy founder, and her entourage. The local food world is a buzz. The entire Buckridge group takes up residence at the Maxfield Plaza. Constance is extremely protective about her private life.

Marie Damontraville, queen of the unauthorized biography, is tailing Constance Buckridge back to her home town, and some deeply hidden secrets that someone has been sending her hints about. Judging by the reaction of the Buckridge's, she must be on to some thread of truth.

A cook is sliced to death with his own cutlery, leaving one obvious suspect. Only, Sophie can't believe that the obvious could be true, so with her already overbooked schedule, she takes it upon herself to extract her long-time friend from his bad fate by trying to find the real killer, putting her own life in peril.

The book has a great mix of personalities sprinkled throughout the tale. They are highly believable characters, many amusing in their human frailties.

As I detest spoilers I will not give any more plot elements, suffice to say that there are many beautifully woven sub-plots in this book. It is a fast read with much intrigue and drama. There are some rather adult situations in the book. The language is not particularly bad, and the gore factor is rather light.

I will admit to being a long time fan of Ellen Hart's writing. She is one of the best mystery writers out there and I'm glad to see that she was finally given hardcover releases a couple years ago -- it is a vote of confidence from the publisher that was long overdue. But as far as her Sophie Greenway series goes, I have to admit that I prefer her other series protagonist Jane Lawless much more. I have found Sophie and Bram to be a bit "dry" in the past.

That all changed with this latest Sophie installment, SLICE AND DICE. This book is a master stroke of plotting! Hart manages to string together several plot lines throughout the book -- challenges to the sanctity of Sophie and Bram's marriage, familial history, journalism and a journal writer's intrigue, and last but not least, murder. Hart also furthers the storylines of her main characters significantly in this book, deepening the emotional intensity and given them the chance to grow and be all too human by erring. All the characters this time out were well drawn, keeping my attention riveted long into the night. Hart managed to get close to the mastery of P.D. James in her ability to plumb psychological depths.

A special bonus in this book is an "interview" by the author with protagonist Sophie Greenway. It shows Hart's wit and skill off nicely.

Overall, if you like mysteries with a culinary bent and characters that are multi-faceted instead of cardboard, then you should try this book. It is very enjoyable and extremely well written!

Just finished reading Slice And Dice last night and loved it! My favorite in the series is still Murder In the Air, but in this book we get more of a sense of Sophie and Bram, who they are and what their marriage means to them when it is tested. Sexy subplot! I was fascinated by the construction of the book too, the way the journal entries follow one story while the narrative follows another. At the end, everything is tied up. Yes, this is a complex story with lots going on, but it didn't confuse me. On the contrary, I found the writing solid and the plotting exceptional. Oh, and I loved the interview that was included in the back of the book where Ellen Hart interviews her lead character, Sophie Greenway. I thought it was not only hilarious, but terribly clever. I'm looking forward to the next Sophie Greenway culinary mystery, Ms. Hart! How long do I have to wait?

Sophie Greenway is a restaurant reviewer with a newspaper in the Twin Cities. Her husband is a popular radio talk show host. When her friend Bernice's father suffers a stroke, she offers to drive her home. John Washburn confesses to a murder while in the hospital, and that's only the beginning.

This series is entertaining and the mystery has many twists and turns. Not bad, I would definitely read another of the series.

Anyone who thinks coincidence has no place in fiction has obviously not read the books of Ellen Hart. She uses coincidence to trigger the plot in several of her books, but none better than the totally believable set-up here.

Sophie Greenaway is now, in addition to general manager and owner of the Maxfield Plaza Hotel in Minneapolis, the restaurant reviewer for the Star-Tribune. Her immediate supervisor, the food editor, Berniece Washburn, is also a friend. When Berniece needs to go home to Rose Hill to visit her father, ill in the hospital from a severe stroke, Sophie offers to drive. A sudden summer storm results in her having to stay the night in the home of Berniece's parents. There, Sophie stumbles over a photo of a young couple, dating from years earlier. Obviously, the photo is of Berniece's parents, but-wait! Sophie recognizes the man from her own youth, and his name then was not John Washburn.

From this ordinary beginning, a tale of multiple lies begins and takes over the waking hours of Sophie and her son, Rudy. Not to mention several of the inhabitants of Rose Hill, and other towns scattered through the upper Great Lakes area. Throughout is the back story of the newspaper's contest for the best meatloaf recipe--the top three are included in the book, and look delicious!

Unfortunately, the ending of the book and solution of the mystery, while tying up all the loose ends, etc., seems awfully rushed. The epilogue almost doesn't even belong to this book, it's so 'out-of-left-field' in content. And that's the only reason for the four star rating, as this author is usually 5 stars, just like the very best restaurants!

Having grown up in Minneapolis, I've always enjoyed the way in which Ellen Hart capitalizes on what I think of as the uniquely Minnesotan mindset to provide a logical albeit somewhat locally-skewed rationale for her characters' attitudes and behaviors. That's why I found it not at all unusual that irascible Cora Runbeck...her ne'er-do-well husband's sudden demise from a car bomb starts the plot action of the book off with a bang!...would take time out from her own somewhat nefarious plans for blackmail and mayhem to sit down and submit her special "No-Nonsense Meatloaf" recipe to the Minneapolis Times-Register's contest. Like the dish that this delightful read celebrates, it's exactly that kind of marvelous mixture of off-beat humor and action-intense realism that makes Ellen Hart's novels such fun!

Series heroine Sophie Greenway (wife of radio personality Bram Baldric, owner of the historic Maxwell Plaza hotel in St. Paul and recently-appointed restaurant critic for the Times-Register) together with her friend, Bernice Washburn, its food editor, are supposed to serve as judges for this event, but tasting takes a backseat to detecting when (spoiler). Plato, his son, is especially distraught, but it is Bernice who begs Sophie to draw upon her talents as an amateur sleuth to try and unravel the why's behind this unlikely scenario and uncover the real murderer. Her only starting point? A series of puzzling letters that (spoiler). Ms. Hart's ingenuity and clever plotting provides clues aplenty, but unraveling former Mayor Washburn's past almost leads to another tragedy before the trail leads Sophie to the heart of the matter and justice can be served up piping hot! As always, character-driven plotting and a tight, suspenseful pace kept me happily involved in the lives of Sophie and her family and friends, and the included recipes are pure lagniappe. Meatloaf may be plain cooking, but Ellen Hart dishes up haute cuisine in cozies.

Unfortunately author Hart isn't up to par in her latest Lawless
adventure, "Merchant of Venus". While the basic plot is promising, the book shows has excessive padding, and lacks the focus of previous efforts. Jane Lawless comes across vapid at times and her friend Cordelia is so busy feuding with her sister
that her character lacks it's usual bigger that life comedy-drama. In the middle of her detecting, Jane mulls over the loss of her ex, Julia (a mistaken loss, in my opinion) whom Hart had her get rid of in the previous Lawless book, then gets back to following some rather unrealistic clues. Hart is usually a great writer, but ran out of ink on this one.

This may be the best mystery yet in the Jane Lawless series. The creepy setting, conflicted characters & dead-on summation of the 50's political witchhunts in Hollywood make for a great read. The only problem -- the book is thick with misspelled words, some of them so bad they're laughable. It's the worst case I've seen in 40 some years of reading. Here's hoping the publisher clears these up when the paperback version is issued.

There is not a book in the Jane Lawless series that I do not like and they keep getting better.