I first heard of Greg Matthews in a Stephen King book (he mentions him in the introduction of "Nightmares & Dreamscapes), curious, I found "Power in the Blood" at a local used bookstore. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Full of twists and turns you never see coming as you read along. This book is brutal, funny, surprising and always engaging. I saw an earlier review that warns of not reading the synopsis that is on the book...GOOD ADVICE! All you need to know (if you must) is that it is about three orphaned siblings who go west. The book follows thier seperate lives as they each experience the American West. A great read.

It's been 5 years since I read this book and I still think about it often. Impossible to put down! I'm so happy I did not get rid of my copy as it is now out of print. I just ordered the sequel(?) from an out of print book service. I hope it is as good as the original!

This book will stay with you for a loooong time it is truly awesome! Reminds me of Gary Jennings works its that good! I gotta find a copy to reread!

This is a wonderful little retrospective, with some very creative and funny observations. If you are anywhere between 25 and 45, the memories will come flooding back (and if you're like me, some embarrassment, too). It is also peppered with some great cartoon illustrations, a seventies quiz ("The 70's SATs") and a music anthology. Well worth it!

This book really had my friends and me rolling on the floor with laughter! What a great collection of memories of this stupid decade-- the people, the fads, the TV shows and music. It's great for parties or just to have lying on your coffee table-- but watch out, your friends will try to steal it (unless they're really groovy). Highly recommended!!!

Wisdom Of Stones is really good. I am Australian and I loved it. I don't know why everyone is complaining about the first 30 pages . I thought they were great. I also recommend The Further Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. Greg now resides in Australia again. Welcome home Greg. John Baranyai

This is typical Greg Matthews, which means that it's superb. This story begins in pre-WWII Australia, but it's mostly a war story, with an especially vivid rendering of a prisoner-of-war camp. There are about 30 pages near the beginning that don't work (no conflict, no action, no nothing) but the rest of the novel is so great that it has to get five stars.

This is the fourth Greg Matthew's book that I have read and once again he delivers the goods. In The Gold Flake Hydrant we once again meet Burris Weems the protaganist of Little Red Rooster. Yes Burris is back and he is fully recovered from his suicide attempt. In this book we find Burris once again searching for answers until he stumbles across a paranoid schizophrenic named Lennie The Loop living in his home town of Buford. Burris is convinced that Lennie holds the truth inside him and decides to track him down to the automobile junkyard where Lennie lives. This book offers more satirical and witty observations about life from Burris who incidently is still talking into his Sony tape recorder. Buy this book. You won't be disappointed. Greg Matthews is also back living now in Australia. Welcome home Greg!!!

This is the sort of book new writers should read if they want to improve their own writing, and should stay away from if they want to avoid an inferiority complex. It's almost supernaturally well written.

Every moment and every page seems to be lived, not plotted, to a point where you begin feeling like these are people you know, perhaps from around your own town or neighborhood.

I think Matthews is most amazing in how he handles the transitions, the key weird moments of lives where a random happening or thought shapes everything that happens next to someone.

Overall, the book is a very rare combination: one of great literary quality, and also a book that hooks you from the first page, and that you may find yourself addictively reading in one afternoon.

A friend gave me this to read as I flew home from the Philippines. Just the kind of thing to do with it. All the jacket blurbs were about this being a portrait of the American West. But that's not the point of the book. This is an epic soap opera filled with bizarre characters. There is every kind of stereotype imaginable: the necrophiliac mortician to the incestuous minister. More intriguing, however, is the fact that ALL the characters are crippled physically and/or emotionally. And if there is a chance for misunderstanding or cross-purposes or unfortunate coincidence, the author goes with it. Because of this, the book can be one depressing read. However, once you get into the mindset that this is all a hoot, you can actually find yourself looking forward to where the author can possibly be taking this. I did. If you read it on this latter key, give it a higher rating.

I read this book years ago, but have never forgotten it. No, it's not a "pleasant" book. There are not a lot of characters you come to love, but the manner in which it evokes the time period and bleakness of the American West is fantastic. Would make a fascinating film in the hands of the right director... a "dark" director like Scorsese perhaps.

This book was a riveting read. I am buying it again even though I have read it, just because it is so great. This author is a storyteller in the finest sense. Kathleen Beauchot

You will laugh, cry and be confused when you read this book. This book can teach you that what you think is good is not always good.

There is a boy named Peter Pan. He sprinkles fairy dust in Wendy and her two brothers. Then he shows them how to fly. He takes them to Neverland and shows them to the Lost Boys who live there. Wendy becomes their mother. She makes up rules, like any other mother would do. The boys have to follow these rules. Everything was fine until Captain Hook came with his crew to where the boys and Wendy were. While Wendy and the boys were at the lagoon, where they go every day after dinner, they see a girl named Tiger Lily, princess of her tribe. She was captured by Smee, one of Captain Hook's men. Then Peter saved her. A few days later Wendy and the boys were on their way to Wendy's house when they too were all captured by Captain Hook. Then Peter saves them. Then the lost boys, Wendy and her brothers go home. All except for Peter.

It is mostly about what the people in the book think is right with childhood. The kids in the book think that if you grow up it is bad, but in our case it is actually good.

Peter Pan is a violent book not really made for children under the age of 10 but people 10 and up can read it. It is violent because of the language that is spoken and the idea that killing could be fun. Also, the vocabulary is very difficult for children under 10 to understand. Even if you're older it is difficult to understand.

Overall, it is a good book but watch out for the violent ideas if you are reading it to little children.

This is an utterly charming work. It has been retold myriad times, but nobody else has done it as well as the original teller, J. M. Barrie.

It's difficult to know what to say about a book like this... everybody knows the story. But I guess that unless you've read this book (not just seen a movie or read a retelling), you don't really know the character Peter Pan, and without knowing the character, you don't really know the story. So read it.

By the way, if you enjoy this, you probably would also like "Sentimental Tommy" and its sequel "Tommy and Grizel", both by Barrie. There are differences (for one thing they're not fantasy), but there are also compelling similarities. Anybody who found Peter Pan a deep and slightly bittersweet book would be sure to enjoy them.

-Stephen

When talking of literature, people tend to look solely at books they read today but forget what they used to read, namely the ones we read as children. It is a common misunderstanding that children's literature is to be read by children and children only, but when we come to think of it, which one of us are not children, at least in our hearts?

One of the best books any child, young or old, can read is Barrie's Peter Pan. Although written in the past century, it has something for any generation at any time. Its humorous views at the world from a child's mind left me rolling over the floor, laughing; the exciting storyline kept me busy with reading until the end; and the serious undertone made me think of whether the world wouldn't be a better place if we realised that deep down, however deep, we are in fact all children. So if YOU are a child, which you most certainly are, get yourself a copy and enjoy your ongoing childhood.

Walker is not known for publishing the best mystery novels, so the quality of COME TO DUST comes as a surprise. The opening chapters, in which a 4-F novelist comes across an equally 4-F thug while walking along the beach during WWII, are among the funniest I've read. The comedy slacks off a bit in later chapters, which begin to read a bit more like your average mid-list mystery (protag butts heads with a pair of sarcastic cops; protag comes across an injustice and rights the wrong; obligatory climactic twist, in this case ripped off shamelessly from the film "The Usual Suspects"), but even then the writing remains unusually strong (especially the crackling dialogue) and the novel sports an atmosphere of seriousness the average mystery lacks. The main character is a failure, and his sense of being a failure pervades the book. Far from being the turn-off this sounds like, it infuses the story with a richness not often found in its peers. A funnier and more sober mystery than the average, and well worth reading.

In need of something to read and only a few choices on my shelves, I finally settled for this little book I bought about a year ago in the bargain section of a local bookstore. After blowing the dust off the rather nondescript jacket, I settled down to my usual hour or two of reading after going to bed. Suddenly it was four hours later and I was halfway through the novel!

This quirky little mystery is like watching a Nick and Nora Charles Thin Man movie from the '40s. I pictured Keith (the protagonist) and Myra Moody as William Powell and Myrna Loy. The dialogue is full of that elegant, sophisticated banter they spoke so well. Keith, a failed novelist/former screenwriter, just can't keep trouble from finding him. Thus, his escapades, like having an imbecile threaten him with a gun on the beach in broad daylight to stealing a body from a nursing home, make this a laugh-a-minute twists-and-turns kind of novel that you can't put down. And there is a plethora of wacko characters, one of my favorites being the daffy desk clerk at the hotel Keith and Myra reside after their house is trashed. This fragile-egoed schizoid definitely deserves an award for best supporting character in a novel!

The novel goes through many twists and turns with several seemingly unrelated events suddenly coming together and making sense. And after you cut through the humor, there is a seriousness that raises the question of where the dividing line is between obligation to a friend and integrity to oneself. All in all, this was a most enjoyable read. This is a sequel to Greg Matthews' FAR FROM HEAVEN, which I intend to read soon. Let's hope this isn't the end of the series.

Another great Keith Moody mystery by Mr. Matthews.

Moody is the ulitmate anti-hero. Although he has become more sophisticated than he was when we first met him in "Far from Heaven," his sense of humor had me laughing out loud at several points.

But this is not solely a comic novel. It has moments of beauty,sorrow, and clarity that are uncommon in the mystery genre.

I certainly hope there is a third installment, although the novel's ending has me guessing there will not be. That is a shame. Keith Moody and his smart-ass wife Myra are two of the most likeable charactors I've ever encountered in fiction.

I will agree with everyone else in that Matthews can really mimic Twain's style of writing (that's the reason behind my 3 star rating), however I think his story itself would've left old Sam gasping in shock. For one, Matthews seems determined to put Huck through hell in the course of this very long novel. I understand that he was trying to show how it's sometimes hard to grow from a naive kid into a man, but he went a bit too far...think over all the hardships Huck had to endure in this book. And every time he would overcome one, another would materialize instantly. There are also more coincidences in this novel than your average sitcom. Despite the fact that Huck is traveling through the entire Wild West, he consistently meets and re-meets the same people over and over again, not to mention the Detective who is after him, who must run off Duracel batteries. My main problem with the book, though, is how bloodthirsty Matthews is. By page 50 he's already killed off half the people you know and remember from the Huck Finn books Twain wrote (Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer Detective). And that's another thing, Matthews totally ignored these final two books, sequels which Twain himself wrote and which continue Huck and Tom's adventures. As far as this novel of Matthew's is concerned, those books never happened. His portrayal of Tom Sawyer is off as well; Tom changes into a girl-smitten tool within the first five pages, and proceeds to ignore his best friend Huck. And let's not mention how much personal hell and torment Matthews puts Jim through. Let's also not mention that Matthews has to create plot devices by resurrecting characters that Twain killed off - I'm talking about one character in particular whom he has brought back, for no other reason than to add even more torment to Huck's unbearable lot in life. I tell you, the main thing this book left me with was sadness for old Huck and Jim. They deserved better. And they got it, at least in the books Twain himself wrote - Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective, and also the unfinished stories which are collected in Huck and Tom Among the Indians. I would recommend them, unless you like your Huck with a lot of angst. Not me, though. I'll save that for the real world.

Unlike the reader who felt that Matthews' plot "would've left old Sam gasping in shock," I'm convinced that this book would have left the original author rolling on the floor with laughter. It's very much the sort of story that Twain would have loved to write--if Livy would have let him, and if his publishers would have printed it!

For one thing, Twain's well-documented loathing for organized religion and its hypocrisy comes through loud and clear in this book, especially in the traveling gospel show/whorehouse chapters. This may come as a shock to those who have only read "sanitized-for-publication" novels likeTom Sawyer, but it's the authentic spirit of Twain here. If you have any doubts on that score, find yourself a copy of Twain's "Letters From the Earth" or his even rarer "Christian Science"--a masterful indictment of that cult, written tongue in cheek as a paean of praise to "the world's greatest businesswoman." It'll open your eyes, I promise.

Those who complain that Matthews is bloodthirsty must surely have forgotten the nightmarish scenes of drunken child abuse at the opening of "Huckleberry Finn"; the vicious Sheperdson-Grangerford feud and its extremely bloody climax; the pointless shooting of the village drunk; the brutal tarring and feathering of the Duke and the King, and so on. Huck Finn's story as Twain told it was no bed of roses.

The only place where Matthews falls even a bit short is in the dialog--not surprisingly for an Aussie. Twain was extremely particular about his dialects, going so far as to insert a note at the book's beginning to explain that he was using three or more specific regional dialects, lest the reader suppose that "these characters are trying to talk alike and not succeeding." But only a linguist or a hopeless nitpicker would let the occasional oddities of speech in Matthews' book detract from enjoying this wickedly funny, rollicking tale, fully worthy of the master storyteller himself.

I agree with the raves from other reviewers. Although, it has been some years since I have read this novel, I remember it well. It made a strong impression on my memory.

I would like to add a footnote. I was impressed with how familiar the author was with the scenes about which he wrote, from Old Man River, to Indian Country, to the California gold rush territory. What is remarkable is that the author wrote this wonderful book before he had even set foot in the United States. I met the author shortly after the book was published in the United Kingdom. At the time I was US Consul General in London. One of my Vice Consuls had refused a visa to the author as the latter appeared to be impossibly young and naive to be a published author, as he claimed. His claim that he simply wanted to wander around the US to absorb atmosperhere for another book seemed hardly plausible. The publisher himself then came to my office with the author and the book, and had no difficulty convincing me that this young guy (he looked like a teen-ager) was indeed an author and a very talented one at that. After that visa issuance, the author made his first trip to the US and I quickly devoured the book!

This reference has more or less picked up the torch from the late lamented "Baseball Encyclopedia," and is indispensible for serious fans (and probably casual ones as well).

Included in the hefty (nearly 2,000 pages) volume is everything you'd expect (player stats, franchise histories, postseason results) and a number of things you might not (Curt Smith's wonderful roster of radio/TV announcers, for instance). It's perfect for whiling away the hours on rainy Sunday afternoons, and invaluable for settling arguments or answering trivia questions.

It would be nice if the next edition included a few more historical essays such as those found in its NFL counterpart, "Total Football II." That's a minor quibble, however, and perhaps impractical considering the voluminous size of the current book. All in all, this is a must-buy for baseball lovers.

Total Baseball is definitely a must for every baseball fan, from hardcore to casual. And it can be a gateway for many who haven't enjoyed the blessings of this beautiful game. There's everything you need to know: from team histories, great essays on the Negro Leagues. There's stuff for the stat nut as well: from sabermetrics to a handy guide on how to score a game, some insights on Women and Baseball, and of course, the hefty, precise and so accurate register of every player in Major League history. There's even a chapter on International Baseball results, that suprisingly, does NOT include the champions of the Venezuelan League, and does have the Dominican and Mexican team champions. Anyway, all in all, if you love baseball or simply you want to understand baseball, this book is for you.

Total Baseball is to baseball what the Beatles' songbook is to rock n' roll music, with authors Thorn and Palmer the Lennon-McCartney of baseball composers. It is a work of mind-numbing thoroughness, the baseball reference to end all references. The prose section includes the story of baseball from every region of the world. Also included are "The True Father of Baseball" and a lively new section of quotes. There are dozens of other sections, including the complete voting for every MVP award ever bestowed and diagrams -- including fence distances -- of every Major League park ever played in. Want to find out the Brooklyn Dodgers total attendance the year before they left for Los Angeles or the attendance of any other team in a any other season? It's in here. The register includes complete records of the nearly 15,000 men who have ever tied on spikes. The statistical derivations, including algorithms, are the standards and most ambitious ever done. For the rue fan, this is it: nearly 2,700 pages of baseball bliss.