This book is great for those of us who like stories with a twist, stories about Mardi Gras, or just plain good reading. Overall, I think it is a great collection of short stories that, for the most part, are entertaining to read.

Here's one of the main problems that I have with the book. If it's a collection of stories about New Orleans Mardi Gras, why do most of the stories appear to be written by British authors? If you look, you'll see some traits of UK vocabulary and spelling, such as using "realise" when a US author would have spelled it "realize". That doesn't give these authors as much credibility to me, but, who really cares?

I think the last story of the book was DEFINITELY the best. If you've ever been to New Orleans and done one of the Haunted History tours, you'll surely recognize the characters in this story. Wonderful!!

Mardi Gras Madness is a collection of eleven stories by as many authors, the topics ranging from the light-hearted to the macabre. All of the stories are set primarily in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy dark tales of murder and the supernatural. The stories will send delightful chills of terror down your spine, and make you want to sleep with the lights on.

This book would make a good purchase for those with a-- twisted-- sense of humor. All eleven are short stories, but there are elements in many of them that will have you going back to read it again.

One of my personal favorites out of this book was "The Invisible Woman's Clever Disguise", one of the more light-hearted pieces about a middle-aged woman from Portland who discovers she's become invisible, and decides to have a bit of fun. She goes to New Orleans for her first Mardi Gras, where she gets an surprise invitation from a new and rather unorthodox krewe.

Two more of my favorites are "Farewell to the Flesh", a decidely darker tale about a vampire who gets involved with a group of cultists; and "Down in Darkest Dixie Where the Dead Don't Dance", another dark story about the spirits of New Orleans and the ones that return to do their evil work, year after year.

I highly recommend this book, all of the stories are absolutely wonderful!

As a Scottish mother-of-four, I have found no better role model for my children than Mr T. This book was enjoyed by all my children, although I do wish they'd skipped over or at least tone down some of the stuff from the early A-team days; I had to explain to my eight-year-old what 'freebasing' meant, which was definitely an uncomfortable experience for all concerned! Aside from that, it's great to see that Mr T still has a career, with the many new movies he's working on that are mentioned in this book.

In the words of the great man himself, "There's no way I'm gettin' on that airplane, and I don't wanna drink my milk!"

I think there's something in that for all of us.

Martin's book is a good rendering of the planning, construction, completion, and opposition to the Glen Canyon Dam. The book is a good historical work, though I didn't find it a compelling read, like "Cadillac Desert". Martin's best prose is when he descibes life in the town of Page during the construction of the dam, with rich details about life in a government town in the middle of the desert. Very enjoyable read even if you wish Glen Canyon Dam would fall back into the canyon. Can make you appreciate fully the people who built it and the people who opposed it.

THIS is a thoroughly gripping history of a great and fantastically beautiful river of the American Southwest, and of the powerful human beings locked in a bitter struggle over it, all their massive efforts to control it and equally determined efforts of those who did not want it controlled. Its climax is the completion of the monumental Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell, with a water storage capacity of 27 MILLION acre feet an a power-generating capacity to supply the needs of vast numbers of people and businesses over a vast range of our country. It is wrong to sugests that there are any villians in the story, but clearly, there are many heroic figures in a collosal struggle of competing interests, from the Sierra Club's David Brower, conservationist turned environmentalist, to the Bureau of Reclamation's Floyd Dominy, to prime contractor Merritt, Chapman Scott's chief engineer, Lem Wylie who got the job done despite the fact that the corporation went belly-up at the end. And it has politicians and statesmen-politicians from Colorado's Wayne Aspinall to Arizona's Stewart Udall and Barry Goldwater. Even Holywood with Charlton Heston and John Wayne, mercifully in bit sub-plots, grace a page or two. Every person even remotely interested in the history of our country's development and the beauty of the place it unfolded, should read Russell Martin's, "The Story That Stands Like a Dam."

This is Dickens' tale (and some would say lecture) about selfishness. Dickens' presents characters that embody different aspects of this vice, from the hypocrisy of Pecksniff and Mrs Gamp, to the thoughtlessness of young Martin Chuzzlewit and Mercy Pecksniff, the suspiciousness of old Martin Chuzzlewit, to the vengefulness of Charity Pecksniff, from the villainy of Jonas Chuzzlewit, to the duplicity of Tigg Montague. But Dickens doesn't stop here: the book also explores this theme on the larger institutional and national scales, as well. The American detour can be seen as a condemnation of the hypocrisy of the U-nited States of the early 1800's. And the Life Assurance Co scam is clearly an indictment of selfishness when its ambitions grow to encompass those beyond one's immediate circle. To his credit, Dickens doesn't lay these latter evils at the abstract feet of 'countries' and 'companies', but shows that even in these suprapersonal entities, the original sin lies with individuals.

With this novel, Dickens left behind the shallow characters that sometimes marred his early works, and developed full-fledged people. Pecksniff and his daughters are marvelous creations that make one cringe with embarassment while laughing at their incredible selfishness. Tom Pinch is another character in a distinguished line of "too good to be true" Dickensian personalities, but he is shown to suffer and grow into a believable human being. The American episodes are biting in their satire, but overall they are on the money. Dickens' contempt for American armchair philosophers and "freedom-loving" slave owners fueled some of his most pointed social commentary. As always, there is a happy ending, but the plot is more complex than anything Dickens had written before. I have read Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiousity Shop, and Barnaby Rudge, and Martin Chuzzlewit ranks right up there with his best.

Martin Chuzzlewit gets its start much like any other Dickens novel--we are introduced to the rather blase main characters and the amusing minor characters, and Dickens slowly--and I mean slooowly--weaves the web of his drama. We meet the Chuzzlewit brothers, Mr Pecksniff and his daughters, and (among others) the lovable Tom Pinch, who is utterly devoted to Mr Pecksniff. "Another middle-period Victorian comedy of manners," we presume, and read a few pages at a time, until BAM! the novel kicks into high gear. I won't spoil the unforgettable final half of the novel for you, but suffice it to say that I read it ALL in one day, spellbound. Any would-be author of pageturners could learn a lot from the story of Jonas Chuzzlewit, masterfully spun by the greatest novelist in the Englsih language. Enjoy it, one and all!

Mostly well done; the others are noted as I come to them.

Bischoff, David: "The Sorcerer's Apprentice's Apprentice" Coarse, elderly Vincemole Whiteviper, apprentice to the dishonest adventurer Sir Harry Springraff, is narrating his memoirs to his own much-abused apprentice: how he lost what little fourteen-year-old innocence he had on a quest for a suspect wizard's treasury. The plan was for Vincey to seduce Relfalyn, the wizard's beautiful 18-year-old apprentice. Funny how things work out...The physical setting reminds me of an AD&D-based computer game.

de Lint, Charles: "Sign Here" Unusual style: entirely dialogue, without even "he/she said", 4 characters (2 appear only once), only 2 characters per scene. A stranger in a bar offered Peter enlightenment regarding the structure of the world - magic - if he'll sign over his soul. Peter's friend Robert employs unusual tactics to try to free him. The dialogue suffers from *too* much realism.

Friesner, Esther: "Homework" Parody by someone who's read the Evil Overlord checklist. Prince Gallantine is having trouble with his captor Morbidius, who's finally wised up. Then Morby's nine-year-old nephew Andy, seeking to avoid his villain apprenticeship homework, turns up. :)

Helfers, John: "Blood and Scale" A wizard's apprentice, offered only death as an alternative, agrees to become the apprentice of the dragon who wiped out the rest of his party.

Hoyt, Sarah A.: "The Muses' Darling" Shakespeare, as a young struggling playwright, is an apprentice to the meteoric brilliance of Kit Marlowe. This story takes Marlowe's treatment of Faust as having a personal application. I also recommend Neil Gaiman's quite different treatment of Marlowe and Shakespeare in _Sandman_, a subplot starting with "Men of Good Fortune" in _The Doll's House_.

Huff, Tanya: "When the Student Is Ready" Oddly enough, *this*, rather than de Lint's contribution, is an urban fantasy set in Canada (Toronto, not Ottawa, though). Sixteen-year-old Isabel has been encountering a mysterious street person a lot lately - but is it just poverty and homelessness that seems to cloak him in invisibility? (Even complete with smart-aleck talking crow.)

Levine, David D.: "Zauberschrift" is the complex, legalistic Latin in which spells are written, instructions for the immensely powerful but mindless daemons (spirits) forming the basis of a wizard's magic. (The author's note says he based this story on his first summer job; he must have been a programmer. The analogy between the magic system and programming is interesting without being heavy-handed.) The protagonist quit his wizard apprenticeship when he inherited the family dye business on the deaths of his father and older brothers, but his native village has asked for his help after his old master's death. The weather spells that have protected the village for years have been corrupted, and no affordable wizard can be brought in to fix the problem.

Lindskold, Jane: "Final Exam" Narrated by Danny Bancroft, whose Talent killed his mother to save his life at birth. When his family spoiled him as a child, he felt undeserving, because he could remember what happened. Since this manifested partly as bullying, he landed in counseling - with a Talented counselor who may ape Nero Wolfe's body language, but not the rest of his style. (After all, imagine Wolfe as a counselor.) But Danny's been coasting as an endless undergraduate, and with his dangerous abilities, if he fails the senior magicians' test, his magic will be sealed.

Patton, Fiona: "What Has to Be Done" After the events of "The Svedali Foundlings" (_Assassin Fantastic_), Coll has begun his personal crusade to rid Cerchicava of the Trade (necromancy) in earnest, "apprenticing" himself to old Mona Masaccio, despite the fact that as a retired Death Mage, she considers him a traitorous fool, while she represents everything he hates. The latest series of mutilated corpses, however, interest them both, as they carry signs of non-standard organ collection - as though someone's trying something new.

Reichert, Mickey Zucker: "Flanking Maneuver" Amazingly unrealistic story of a young conscript - a blacksmith's apprentice - in a tribal war, and what happens after he meets the captured daughter of an enemy chieftain.

Smith, Dean Wesley: "The Last Garden in Time's Window" The narrator doesn't believe that his grandparents died from a gas stove leak in their trailer. Having just returned from their funeral, he doesn't care about the danger of using his half-learned magic. *Very* rushed.

Waggoner, Tim: "Till Voices Drown Us" Braided non-linear style, following Michael back to his childhood home to learn one last lesson from the great-aunt who taught him to bear his mediumistic powers, when one spirit shows him something disturbing he's never seen before.

West, Michelle: Camille, like all apprentices to "The Augustine Painters", is a foundling - one thread of the story follows her present, in which she faces her do-or-die test of mastery, her best friend apparently having come to grief only days before; the other follows the discovery of her talent. They aren't wizards, as such; in their art, they depict possible futures that, with hard work, may never happen. Not only is this cool - for instance, while they can work more quickly in pencil, they need color to identify strange people, places, and battle standards - but deeper mysteries are revealed even as the story unfolds.

clear text and good arrangement of information made it easy to get a grip of what ent realy is .
great as a companion in your clinical round .
and for speady revision before your oral exam .

'Beethoven's Hair' was truly a 'good read'. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed reading how the lock of hair found its way to the auction, and then into the hands of the two researchers. The structure of the book is rather humorous and relates to a musical form, tossing and turning between two different time periods: Beethoven's chronological life, and the modern (including W.W.II) time of research. Indeed, the book gives you plenty of spice and reveals much about Nazism and scientology, specific to the findings in the lock of hair, but be warned... if you expect a biography of Beethoven, the one you'll get is very weak, especially in terms of his compositions. I think, though, that this would suit any reader: teachers, music-listeners, doctors, miners, and literate persons alike that can take an interest in the history of such a great genious.

"Beethoven's Hair" is a wonderful book. A little fascinating piece of history that keeps keeps the reader interested for it's entire length. What works so well about Russell Martin's book is that it combines so many story threads into one work. It convincingly explores the life of the musical genius Ludwig van Beethoven, the effect of his music in the hearts of millions, the power of music and art in general, and in a thrilling way it follows a lock of his hair through it's journey in history. There is true suspense when Martin writes about the people who tried to fight against the evil swelling up against them during World War 2 and how Beethoven's music played an important role in that struggle. Like a great detective story, "Beethoven's Hair" never reveals its secrets too quickly and keeps the reader fascinated. But the best chapters are the ones about Beethoven's life where we realize he was one of the few authentic geniuses music has produced. Fun, memorable, and sometimes moving, "Beethoven's Hair" is a great book.

After Beethoven died, many Viennese music fans were able to clip a keepsake of a lock of his hair, but only one has been preserved with all the proper provenance to show it as authentic. The story of that lock of hair is the backbone of a riveting slice of history in _Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved_ (Broadway Books) by Russell Martin. Martin has told three stories in his book, intercalating them in chapters that come to a pleasing whole. The first story is a fine capsule biography of Beethoven himself. Within the biography, Martin tells us much about the composer's medical problems, increasing our wonder of how such an afflicted man could have produced works of such profound concentration and joy. The second story within the book is about the fate of the wandering lock of hair as it passed to the heirs of the young musician who clipped it, and how it formed part of the story of the Holocaust, turning up in Denmark in 1943. Eventually it was sold at Sothebys in 1994, to a couple of non-musician fans of Beethoven, one of whom donated his share to the university Beethoven center he had started, and one who made his strands available for medical testing. The hair snipped by Beethoven's young friend was able to tell its story a hundred and seventy years later, giving a probable explanation for Beethoven's ailments.

What a story for a lock of hair, how full of amazing personalities and significant historical events. And how well told; Martin has used Beethoven's life, the travels of his lock of hair, and the scientific investigations to jostle and play off each other, putting the different parts of the story in relief. It makes for a richly satisfying musical, historical, and scientific encounter.

Of the various confessional documents contained in the Book of Concord, the Smalcald Articles has been the most neglected in scholarly studies. William Russell, campus pastor at North Dakota State University, offers the first book-length study of the SA available in English. Russell's central thesis is that the SA represents Luther at his most essential. Russell provides ample evidence, both from internal and external sources, that Luther considered the SA to be an extremely important statement of his theology. Luther wrote this document at a time when he was convinced that his death was near. He was having severe problems with kidney stones and apparently also had experienced heart attacks. Elector John Frederick, who ordered the preparation of this document, was also aware of Luther's poor health and wrote: "It will be highly necessary for Dr. Mar-tin to prepare his basis and opinion with the divine scriptures, indicating all the articles upon which he has written, preached and taught. He should do this for the sake of the council, but also in view of his final departure from this world to the almighty judg-ment of God. He should indicate what he thinks, maintains, and where he remains in order not to offend the divine majesty-the points we must maintain without regard to body or possessions, peace or conflict" (p. 36-37). The Elector was anxious to have something for the church council that was ex-pected to be held in Mantua in 1537. As we know, a church council did not meet until the year 1545, in Trent, and lasted until 1564. As far as Luther himself was concerned, the council was fast approaching and the Lutherans needed something to take with them, upon which they could stand, and from which they could argue their case be-fore the Pope and the Roman Catholic theologians. Luther therefore prepared this document for a meeting of the German estates in the city of Smalcald that was held in February of 1537. In light of the above, it is interesting to note that the SA was not adopted by the various German estates that had gathered in Smalcald. Russell offers three reasons why this was so. First, Luther's health prevented him from attending the meeting and thus he was unable to present the document himself. Russell speculates that had Luther at-tended, the articles would have been discussed. Second, Elector John Frederick consid-ered the SA to be a theological statement, not a statement of political rulers, as was the AC which was presented to the Emperor at the meeting of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in 1530. Third, Russell feels that since the Smalcald gathering decided not to attend a church council, they did not consider the SA necessary to take up. However, Luther it seems was totally unaware that his articles had not been adopted, for in 1538 he was still operating under the incorrect assumption that the SA had been formally adopted by the political states in Smalcald. Russell sides with Friedrich Bente who as-serts in his historical introduction that the SA was adopted de facto since the majority of the theologians gathered at Smalcald did subscribe to the SA, and the SA did reflect the views of the majority of the political rulers at Smalcald. The SA was not actually published until the Spring of 1538 after Luther had prepared a longer preface, and made some changes to the text proper. It was incorporated into the 1563 Brunswick Corpus Doctrinae, and then later made a part of the Book of Concord in 1580. Russell provides an ongoing dialogue with Volz's and Ulbrich's Urkunden und Aktenstücke zur Geschichte von Martin Luthers Schmalkaldischen Artikeln and in many respects this book is a reaction, both in agreement and disagreement, to this work. The footnotes reveal that Russell has engaged in a thorough study of pertinent secondary sources, impressing the reader with Russell's desire to anchor his comments within the stream of scholarship on the various issues that are raised in the SA. He walks through the SA, noting the key theological concepts Luther raises and providing appropriate references from secondary sources that illuminate the points he is making. Russell's discussion of Luther's assertion in the SA that the pope is the anti-Christ is objective, and therefore useful. Russell refrains from grinding an ecumenical ax at this point, and thus permits Luther's position on this matter to stand without intrusive editorial commentary. Russell disagrees with the commonly expressed view that the SA merely reflects Luther in a pugnacious mood. Of course, the state of Lu-ther's health can be used to support the position that his polemical tone in the SA is not to be taken too seriously. Russell however states that even if the harsh remarks made by Luther about the pope do reflect some personal emotional frustrations with the progress of the German Reformation, simply to dismiss Luther's comments about the pope as anti-Christ "risks missing what Luther (and those closest to him) thought to be the main issue at stake in their efforts to reform the church. For Luther, the gos-pel of the forgiveness of sin by grace alone, apart from works of the law, is the distinc-tive feature of the Christian proclamation. Any theology (be it Roman Catholic, Ana-baptist, Reformed, or Evangelical) that violated this sine qua non of the church's mes-sage was open to the charge of being labeled by Luther as "anti-Christian" (p. 95). Russell is careful to observe that Luther's discussion on the Lord's Supper was purposefully concrete. Luther's realistic description that "the bread and wine in the supper are the true body and blood of Christ" was controversial (p. 104). By doing this, Luther moved a step beyond the language of the Wittenberg Concord of 1536, an agreement that had been signed by representatives from both southern and northern Germany. Russell indicates that the WC was meant to be a compromise statement, noting that the WC was "rather ambiguous at the very point it was supposed to clarify" (p. 105). Luther purposefully avoids the slippery word "with" when discussing the bread/wine and body/blood connection in the Lord's Supper, choosing instead to re-main with the much stronger copulative verb "is" - our Lord's language. Luther's wording apparently did not please Melanchthon, who was afraid that this matter would cause controversy at Smalcald. He went so far as to recommend that the estates pledge themselves to "the Augsburg Confession and the Wittenberg Concord" (p. 106). We see here a clear foreshadowing of Melanchthon's later compromising position on the Lord's Supper, which took full form only after Luther's death. In light of the impending ecumenical agreements between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a number of Reformed churches, Luther's position in the SA are all more relevant to our present day and age. Will Luther have the last word in the largest Lu-theran church in America on the subject of our Lord's presence in the eucharistic bread wine, or will Melanchthon and his heirs? Russell's book is actually quite brief, with the text proper taking up only 116 pages. The rest of the book is devoted to three appendices. Appendix A is Russell's translation of the Smalcald Articles. This reviewer is given to understand that Russell's translation, with editorial modifications, will be used in the new Book of Concord translation now in progress. Appendix B is a list of names and terms from the age of the Lutheran Reformation. Appendix C is a topical index to Luther's Works and Lu-theran Confessional writings, indicating where an interested reader might find other Luther documents on a wide range of theological topics. In light of the fact that this book is the only one in English devoted to the SA, one hesitates to be critical. But it needs to be said that the book is somewhat disjointed and repetitive. Key themes and concepts are repeated within a short amount of space. This is probably due in part to the genesis of the book as a series of lectures to students at Luther Northwestern Seminary as part of a regular gathering called, "Friends of the Lutheran Confessions." It is unclear if this book is

This is an excellent (and rare) exploration of the Smalcald Articles of the Lutheran Confessions. The author makes the case that these articles offer key insight into the mind of Luther because Luther thought his death might be imminent and the Smalcald Articles reveal what was most important to him. For example, Luther's thoughts on the Lord's Supper indicate that he was not close to the Reformed camp on communion but remained convinced of the "Real Presence" doctrine to the end. Mr. Russell deserves credit for an interesting work on this key neglected Lutheran Confessional document.

Russ Martin has created a world in which the forces of evil are capable of enslaving men and women by increasing sexual desire to the highest possible level. Many of the characters in this book have been introduced to us in Martin's previous books, and it is probably a good idea to read The Education of Jennifer Parrish only after reading the earlier books in the series. If you are turned on by stories of sexual domination, you will probably like this series.