JP Donleavy's The Onion Eaters is his finest and funniest work to date. Matching the brutish comedy of A Singular Man and The Ginger Man, Donleavy's over-endowed Clementine is the perfect character to inherit his great aunt's castle on Ireland's craggy western coast. Expecting peace and solitude in this lonesome outpost, Clementine soon realizes that he is at the center of some strange phenomenon that inexplicably draws strange people to his door, and eventually, into all of his newly-inherited rooms.

His style is forceful, resolute and even-handed. Notice there are no question marks or exclamation points in this work. He writes with a sense of purpose that many of the characters in the book possess, only their purposes range from measuring stranger's genitalia to excavating for minerals all over the castle. Single-minded and yet still multi-functional, Donleay's characters drive the action through twisted tunnels and forgotten rooms of Charnel Castle, itself a marvel of deviously enjoyable design, much like book itself. The seemingly-bottomless wine cellar provides the assembled crowds with enough reason to act irresponsibly, which only furthers the development of the plot.

While Clementine appears to be overwhelmed with it all, a number of intimate encounters keeps his spirits, and other parts as well, from sagging.

It is with a touch of the cap to Donleavy that I say, while onions may make you cry, The Onion Eaters will make you laugh out loud and wish you knew how to get to Charnel Castle.

This is a must-read for evangelicals. Callahan has artfully crafted a study of an admittedly small yet influential group of Christians and the resulting dichotomy of their search for unity in Christ while maintaining order, discipline and separation from evil among the meetings of believers--as well as the movement's focus on prophecy, particularly that which was seen as unfulfilled and thereby directly relevant to the present Church.

This is a wonderful collection of poetry readings by some of the best actors in the world. If you allow yourself only one tape of poetry, I would recommend this one. The rendition of Lawrence's "The Snake" is spellbining, and the reading of Macneil's "A Death in the Family" is quietlly gut-wrenching. And you will be surprised how well Bill Shatner recites about whales. Buy this tape, and you will listen to it again and again.

Bruneteau is to be congratulated on an interesting and perceptive commentary on the mystic art of headhunting. This book is invaluable for companies new to headhunting or those who need to use a headhunter for hiring a key individual in France.

the Early Days is an excellent history of the band from their formation in 1976 up to their record deal with Island in 1979. The pictures are extremely rare and the text provided by the guy who's been there since the beginning. A must have for die-hards.

If you are an advanced spirit, you will enjoy this book. This book helped me reflect on the significant person who has come into my life and why we have come together. We feel the same way about Mother Earth and have had similar encounters with the spirits in Nature and Mother Earth herself. This book expresses it succinctly in the phrase..."When Spirits Touch". This book made me aware of the individual changes going on everywhere and that when two individuals who are at the same spiritual level, become one, they can the change the world.

Great characterization, well written. Explores what it means to be alive and human, particularly in terms of artificial intelligence.

Subtitled, "Street Stores of a Private Eye" by James Wagner, this true story of a retired cop who turned private eye is a fast and easy read. His co-author, Patrick Picciarelli, is a good writer and he makes Jimmy's story read like a well paced novel.

Jimmy's full of swagger, wisecracks, and macho boastfulness and at first he annoyed me with his know-it-all attitude and narrow focus. Jimmy's always justifying his actions. And when he later ponders moral questions letting big bucks cloud his judgement as he starts to work for the mob, he does it in a cock-sure way that makes even his weaknesses seem a way of boasting.

But although I often felt angry with Jimmy, the talent of the writer let his humanity come though. Underneath his swagger, there's a little kid who's wanting adventure and wanting to look important in the eyes of his buddies.

It's a good, small book and I enjoyed reading it. It might have annoyed me at times, but it also made me laugh out loud. Probably some of the stories were exaggerated, but there's enough here that rings true to give the reader a picture of a gritty way of life that's lived on the edge. This is not fiction. And there are no heroic acts. Just a story of one man and the world he lives in.

I might not like Jimmy very much, but I did like the book. Once started, I couldn't put it down.

The style and format of this book made it a very easy and enjoyable read! Unlike other books or TV PI's "Jimmy the Wags" comes off as a real person with real emotions, where the best layed plans still have a way of going wrong. Although, some of the stories seem to be a stretch, Jimmy and his sidekick, Hondo, seem like a couple of guys out looking for adventure and find it! I loved the personal stories as they are interwoven with his adventures and various jobs. All in all, a great book that I would highly recommend!

This book is a great read and I finished it in two sittings. It directly catches the reader with a direct and interesting writing approach. The book contains really interesting and wild stories about his life both as a NYPD and then into detail about being a PI. The stories about the Arabs visiting NYC and the operations in Denmark and Turkey are killer and worth the price of the book alone! Reads like Jimmy is sitting next to you telling his story. A great buy.

With the possible exceptions of Karl Keating's Catholicism and Fundamentalism and Scott and Kimberly Hahn's Rome Sweet Home, no recent works of Catholic apologetics have been as instrumental in winning converts to Rome as the Surprised by Truth series edited by Patrick Madrid. Consisting of conversion stories by prominent Roman Catholics who originally were part of other Christian (or non-Christian) traditions, it takes as its theme the "surprise" (or shock) many Evangelical Protestants experience when they encounter the early Church and are faced with beliefs and practices that vary considerably from what they see regularly in their own Churches.

This is the first in the series and caused a sensation (for a Roman Catholic book) when published. The fact that so many moving to Rome cite Surprised by Truth provides some evidence of Patrick Madrid's astuteness in selecting testimonials - a point further confirmed by reading it. The essays blend together remarkably well and Madrid adroitly avoids the danger of stifling uniformity by drawing upon those who approached Rome from across the ecclesial spectrum. Another plus in this regard is an intermingling of those who were initially drawn by different concerns so the approach is not completely one-dimensional.

Protestants often criticize the essays as insufficient to prove the Roman case and highly emotional in character. Both these claims are quite true but this is not the detriment the critics make it to be. One could hardly expect a new convert to prove within twenty pages what the greatest theologians have employed years and many volumes to attempt. As for the emotional content, conversions always have an emotional aspect to them and a presentation that attempts to ignore this is built upon dishonesty. The essays contained here are more or less emotional depending upon the makeup of the individual, the amount of "surprise" experienced, and the sense of betrayal felt by discovering what you had been told what was of the Apostles is actually of recent origin. A positive sign by these converts is despite the emotional upheaval, they display no evidence of lasting anger at their former ecclesial homes.

The one flaw in this book is shared by the genre - shallowness. New converts are not always the best ones to express the riches of the faith. Even if they have done much prior study, reading about the grace of God and receiving the grace of God are not equivalent experiences. While the "let's have the new guy go up and give his testimony" approach may suffice in the superficial environs of modern Evangelicalism, those more mature in their faith are probably better witnesses in richer traditions.

Any expectations of an exhaustive defense for Roman Catholic beliefs in a book like this are remarkably wrongheaded. Madrid planned neither a work of systematic theology nor a catechism. Collections like this are usually read by those already on their way but unsure if things are quite what they seem. The message given is not "this is all you need to see we are right" but "come on in - the water's fine". Given that limitation, Surprised by Truth can only be viewed as a rousing success.

I thoroughly enjoyed Surprised by Truth. Each of the 11 contributors tells a personal story of search and enlightenment. This would be my book of choice to give to fallen away Catholics or those who are lukewarm about their faith. Many people who were born Catholic lack conviction and "fire" for their religion. This book is also a great starting point for those of other Christian groups who have little knowledge about the Catholic Church's real teachings. I don't fall into any of these categories. I read the book because I do missionary work with people of mostly Protestant persuasion, and I wanted to understand them better. So....for many reasons, I heartily recommend Surprised by Truth to anyone who wants to learn how people think about religion. Did I mention that the book is also a delight to read? The people come alive through their stories, and this makes the reading much more enjoyable than struggling through a scholarly work.

"Surprised by Truth" is a fantastic book telling the story of recent converts to the Catholic Church. This book describes the pain and anguish that one goes through to find the truth and have the courage to follow it. The historical, Scriptural, and logical reasons for joining the Catholic Church are solid throughout the book. Those who are unconvinced by the arguements used in this book are probably not really interested in the truth. If a person would just open his heart and mind to Jesus and read this book openly, they would find the joy of discovering the fullness of Christian Truth. Don't let this book pass you by. Don't read it with your mind already made up. If you are not Catholic, I pray that you will reach out to Jesus and accept his full Gospel. Who knows, if you do this you may be the next person who was "Surprised by the Truth." Reviewed by Gospel Truth Ministries.

This book was recommended to me by another SF fan. He told me this was one of the best SF stories, with the sequel being one of the best sequels, and the third being one of the best trilogies. I have to disagree a little, I really liked 'Inherit the Stars' I was captivated and thouroughly enjoyed it. The second book started out good but ran flat for the middle 70% and finished with a 'this is how it happened' finish. I was disappointed they just told us the mystery through dialogue, instead of taking us through the journey like they did in 'Inherit the Stars'. The third book is totally unlike the first two almost leaving the SF category, but still enjoyable for what it was. So, in my honest opinion, get 'Inherit the Stars' and forget the other two, you would do better to spend the time having read those two on some other novel.

Ever since I read this incredible book, no other sci-fi novel ever came close to satisfying me. I cannot praise this book enough. All other so called sci fi books seem devoid of content and meaning compared to this one. I'm glad amazon has the other two books of the trilogy, because I've spent the last five years looking for them

For the readers of real science fiction (also unnecessarily called "hard sci-fi") this trilogy has everything to satisfy the skeptical, inquisitive and bored adventure seeker. Book One is the most scientifically oriented though the ending is its least interesting part; Book Two, where the main alien encounter takes place is a wonderful read, though at times slow. Book Three is the most fast-paced and least scientific. This trilogy, and a couple of other Hogan and Crichton novels rescued me from the dearth of real sci-fi since the early 90's. Hope they do the same for all.