I did not relish in Zubro's gay mystery, nor did I of any of his novels. I wanted to share this novel with my eldest son who is gay; I thought it would be helpful and comforting for him to see that gays or any groups in which society deems and stereotypes "different". He was quite upset with the entire book, claiming "Gays don't act like that!" I had no idea how affended he was until he burned the book in the fireplace. I, myself, felt that the book was quite choppy too often. I can comprehend the extra information was pertinent to the story at times, but he completely "over did it" with the whole "gay plot". I am also offended by the book and I'm not gay! I am sorry for wasting my money on buying that senseless book.

This was the first "gay" mystery I've read, and I now want to eventually obtain and read all of Zubro's mysteries. The pace is fast and smooth for the most part in this book, but at times becomes choppy. Nonetheless, Zubro's intimate knowledge of police procedure and activity is plain, as well as his knowledge of the streets of Chicago. Zubro also weaves well into the story Paul Turner's (he's the protagonist) personal life in a meaningful way that in this book is actually part of the main plot. The characters become three dimentional, taking on lives of their own. The only criticism I have for Zubro is he spends too much time telling things to the reader, rather than letting the plot reveal what is going on. Such as little asides to explain why a character did something. These asides slow down the pace and can be condescending to readers already familiar with how police work. The best aspect of this book is how Zubro portray's a gay character as a human being rather than an icon. It is my hope that Mr. Zubro will provide us with many such mysteries in the future, and I look forward to reading those he has already published.

This is a step up from your average gay murder mystery. Most of the characters are regular guys who just happen to be gay -- no hairdressers or drag queens here. Parts are funny, and nothing sticks out as being particularly bad. Perfect beach reading material.

While the book contains very interesting material regarding the roots of western outlaws in the years after the Civil War, some individual facts leave a bit to be desired. All in all a good read, but I would encourage further reading on some subjects, or at least double-checking some of the facts used in the book.

Paul Wellman's A Dynasty of Western Outlaws is a 20th Century standard of outlaw history. It is an extremely well written work and belongs in any library of crime history or the "Old West." Wellman, who was a police reporter in Wichita in the 1920's, was one of the first authors to comprehend and explore the connections between Midwestern outlaws of the post-Civil War era and the Depression gangs of the 1930's. That makes this book a useful starting point for anyone interested in the outlaw period. Unfortunately, there are errors throughout the work: Jesse and Frank James were not cousins of the Youngers, only partners in crime; recent research by other authors make it doubtful that Cole Younger fathered Belle Starr's daughter Pearl; Henry Starr was never a member of the Cook gang; Al Spencer was not one of the Stroud bank robbers; etc., etc., etc. And the chapters on '20's outlaws Eddie Adams and Al Spencer, on which Wellman seems to have relied too heavily on his own memory, and on "Pretty Boy" Floyd, are sketchy and highly inaccurate. Wellman's insights are good and his basic premise of an "outlaw dynasty" from Quantrill to Floyd is sound but his facts need to be checked against other sources.

Sometime-journalist, sometime-novelist Wellman's history of bad guys who terrorized the American Wild West from the period following the Civil War to the early half of the 20th Century is excellently written and presented. He very interestingly traces the links -- sometimes by blood, sometimes by mere acquaintance or "apprenticeship" -- between the most infamous Western bad guys from William Clark Quantrill during the Bloody Kansas period preceding the Civil War to the death of Pretty Boy Floyd. Highly recommended to fans of Western fiction and general readers who want to know more about Western history.

A morbid attraction to the dying words of a great writer that fails greatly here. Occasionaly there are glimpses of her past greatness but most of the book is full of nonsense such as like: "I've never been pretentious.", "Both of us are innocents" (Refering to her 29 year old lover and her in her 80's (?)), "I don't know how to add. All I know how to do is create."

This very short work is followed by an essay that has some insight but mostly it's serious prose that sounds weighter than it really is. It is written by Christiane Blot-Labarrere who is (according to the book) "among the very few whose writtings were respected by Duras."

This is the type of book many creative writting students are writting and it is an example of why many intellgent readers do not read "serious books." Pick up the Lover instead to see this woaman's greatness.

This book's greatest values are (a) a look into the mind of a great author approaching death and (b) an interesting writing style ... Duras with a touch of Jabes! Duras approaches death with an honest mix of human emotions - sometimes very attached to Yann, sometimes reconciled to death as the ultimate letting go of Yann; sometimes proud and nearly pretentious regarding her writings, sometimes humbly expecting to be soon forgotten. Unlike some authors writing in similiar straits, Duras feels no need to pretend that age has made her wise. Rather she reflects as if age has only made her experienced.

If you've not read Duras and have no particular interest in human reaction to impending death, read several Duras books before reading No More but at some point read No More - it is time well spent.

Marguerite's last book. A conversation with her last lover, Yann Andrea, about herself, her love of him, her "I-got-used-to-it" genius and the feeling that the end is coming. Very impressive, but only for radical "durasians"

The book starts well, but never truly develops the characters. I wanted to like the main character, but never really got a chance to know him. The plot is thin, and deals mostly with internal conflict. Because of that (internal conflict in a not-fully functional character), it was a flat read for me.

I wasn't expecting much from this, an early Russo, which from the cover blurb looked like just another potboiler pulp fiction.

So I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of characterization and the fast-moving story. The writing is pretty-much classic Russo, which is to say among the best in the business.

Oh, there are quibbles -- the story takes place on a different planet which is apparently indistinguishable from earth, the science of being an empath is never explained, the ending builds and builds only to kind of peter out in the end -- but overall this book surprised me by providing a very entertaining read. Let's hope it's back in print soon.

Fortunately, the Paul Turner series gets better as does Zubro's crafting of enjoyable cop mystery stories. With this one, the debut of Paul Turner, Zubro tackles an interesting premise: are gay activist orgnizations behind the murder of an anti-gay televangelist's daughter? It's a question Paul Turner, a gay Chicago homicide detective, doesn't like having to look at, but one he realizes he must if he is to solve this case. The reader gets taken in a lot of different directions and one has to wonder if the poor cop will ever solve this case. Maybe Zubro hadn't made up his mind "who done it" until the final chapter because there are no really good clues, but plenty of motive to go around. All in all it was an enjoyable read, but it's not among my top 25 murder mysteries, regardless of genre (gay or straight or whatever)or author.

This is the first of Zubro's many books that I have read, and sorry to say it will be the last also. I love gay mystery as a genre, but this book disappointed on many levels. The plot, about the murder of a bigotted televangelist's daughter, and the gay community's possible involvement as a means of revenge undoubtedly has potential, but isn't developed, with the result that I didn't really care how the book ended. Undoubtedly the biggest let down is the quality of the writing. It's pedestrian and leaden, making the promising idea of the central character, a gay cop and father a crashing bore.

The logbook style of D'Aboville's book doesn't lend itself well to a deep understanding of what goes through the mind of a solo rower travelling across the ocean. The reader gets glimpses, but not a coherent narrative. The terse entries make for a fast read and the subject matter is interesting.

This is a really enjoyable book, written by an author that really knows how to pull your heart into a story and hold you there. I can see this quaint book as a staple reading materal every Christmas. I real tradition starter.

Odon Von Horvath was an Austrian contemporary of Brecht's, and although he rejects ideology and the formal principles of Epic theatre, there is something Brechtian in the way his characters argue by hurling dialectical aphorisms at each other.

'figaro gets divorced' is his most famous play, and reintroduces the famous quartet of Beaumarchais' 'Barber of Seville' and 'Marriage of Figaro' - the Count and Countess Almaviva; their married servants, Figaro and Susanna - seven years later, or over a hundred - we first see them flee an unnamed Revolution, not unlike the Russian one.

It may be distressing to see Beaumarchais' farcical subversion made heavy and Germanic in a three-hours, thirteen-tableaux political drama. The impish Figaro soon leaves his anachronistic employers to become, once more, a barber, this time in a sleepy, ultra-conformist, soon-to-be-Nazi German town. The bourgeoisification of this free, cynical spirit stifles his wife, and she has a brutal affair. Sex in this play is no longer, as in Beaumarchais, an expression of power, just an admission of defeat.

Figaro returns to the Communist State to become a prominent apparatchik; Susanna waitresses at a White cabaret where all the menials are ex-royalty; Almaviva gets embroiled in debilitating gambling and criminal activities. A lot of goodwill for these characters is carried over from Beaumarchais, Mozart and Rossini, so when we watch their inexorable decline, it's hard to know whether it is our memories, or Von Horvath's writing that affects us.

Certainly, there is something powerful about watching the spirit of one Revolution grimly debased in the age of another; and there is a vivid intensity to the playwright's expert tableaux. The dialogue initially seems lumpenly didactic until we realise that it is didacticism he analyses and undermines. Hearteningly, despite all the despair and misery, Von Horvath doesn't forget he's writing in an important tradition of comedy. More please.

In purchasing this book, I was expecting to find something similar to the second volume of the Norton Anthology of American Literature. Unfortunately, I found this book to be far inferior. It has works by some of America's most highly commended authors, and has some great short stories. However, the excerpts from authors' longer works seem to be lacking; there should either be longer excerpts or more poingnat scenes should have been chosen. The anthology spends far too much time describing eras, and not enough in inserting major works. Some of the breakdowns/characterizations of the peices included are awkward, and tends to underrate the authors by putting them in sectionss that degrade their work.

Mathematica is now in version 4.1, and this book was written in the time of Version 2.2, but it still could be read profitably if cognizance is made of the significant additions made to Mathematica since 2.2. The "Lispy" nature of Mathematica is still the same, and it still ranks as one of the easiest and most powerful of languages to program in. The authors have done a good job of introducing the reader to the subtleties of Mathematica, and they are honest in their explanations, pointing out the areas where using Mathematica might be problematic. A person getting started in Mathematica will no doubt want to read something that is more up-to-date, but this book is designed for such a reader and it has a lot of interesting ideas of how to apply the language.
One of the better features of the book includes the discussion on functions. The functional programming paradigm is one that I favor the most, and which is most transparently used in Mathematica. The authors do a good job of explaining anonymous functions in Mathematica and how to create the famous "one-liners" that Mathematica is famous for.
Another topic that is treated very well by the authors is recursion. Mathematica is mostly easily programmed using recursion, and the authors show, starting with the Fibonacci numbers, how to "think recursively". Readers who know Lisp will of course find the discussion very easy to follow.
A third edition of this book is in order, again since Mathematica has changed considerably since this book was written. More discussion on performance issues in Mathematica would be welcome, and also more examples and applications, along with more discussion on how to link Mathematica to external programs.