I was lucky enough to have this author as an English professor in college. She is insightful, intelligent, and incredibly talented. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a definitive Hawthorne resource.

Graveyards, tombstones, rubbings, maps, a haunted house, a murder or two, or is it three? The delectable Susan, voluptuious Amelia and captivating Tari Muir, all facets in the life of Peter Wyckoff, a New Yorker trampling through New England in search of buried treasure. They say that truth is stranger than fiction, and this work of fiction is based on truth, so I shouldn't have been surprised that just when I thought I had the plot figured out, it took a different turn. A great book for a cold winter's night, the kind of story you can curl up with in front of the fire!

This is a biography of an obscure figure from the American Civil War who had a famous name. Jefferson Columbus Davis was no relation to the Confederate president, and stayed loyal to the Union, rising the the rank of brevet Major General. He's probably best known as the culprit in the murder of William Nelson, another Union army general, in 1862. There was, however, more to Jefferson C. Davis than that, as this admirable biography shows.

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Jefferson C. Davis was from Indiana. He enlisted in the army young, and participated in the battle of Buena Vista as a private in his Indiana volunteer regiment, distinguishing himself so much that he was considered for an appointment to West Point. When that fell through, Davis was directly enlisted in the regular army as a second lieutenant of artillery, and spent the years between the Mexican war and Fort Sumter studying and learning to be a soldier. He was part of the garrison of Fort Sumter, and this notoriety positioned him for a brigade command of Indiana state troops. He led them through the battle of Pea Ridge, and never looked back, concluding the war in command of the Fourteenth Corps during the March through the Carolinas, and during the battle of Bentonville. After the war, he was Alaska's first military district commander, and briefly fought the Modocs on the California-Oregon border.

The authors do a wonderful job of bringing Davis, and his many contradictions, to life. He was a demanding soldier, and a hard taskmaster, but he appears to have generally been a fair and decent person. There is the one incident where he shot Nelson dead, but the authors lay out the course of events, and frankly the whole thing sounds provoked. Nelson was disliked by a lot of people, apparently, to the point that when he was shot, there weren't very many calls for his killer to be brought to justice. The whole thing is laid out in considerable detail. And where Davis emerges as a surprise is in his competence as a soldier. Though his troops were routed at both Stones River and Chickamauga, at Pea Ridge it was Davis who stopped Louis Hebert's attack on the Union left, and at Jonesboro it was Davis who broke the Confederate front. At Bentonville he again held off the main Confederate assault, though with some help. Frankly I was surprised: he turns out to have been a pretty good general, and generally well-liked by the troops, even though he *never* praised anyone for anything, and apparently thought bravery nothing extraordinary. In his defense, he was brave himself.

There is one shortcoming in this book. There is a lack of maps to illustrate the text. The authors try to detail battlefield maneuvers from Buena Vista to Bentonville, with no tactical maps at all, and only three general area maps, none of which are particularly helpful. Only one of the maps even deals with the Civil War. This unfortunately makes the text a bit hard to follow at times. Other than that, I would highly recommend this book for the Civil War scholar. It's definitely worth the money.

General St. John Richardson Liddell was a biased, cantankerous, violent man devoted to the Confederacy yet doubtful of its ultimate success. This is history with the varnish off; Liddell wrote this record immediately after the war and never expected it to be published in his lifetime. It's one of the essential texts for understanding the Confederate Army of Tennessee and provides great insight into the personalities of its commander. More importantly, it reveals in great detail the mind of one former Confederate.

This book is very informative. It takes some time to read and learn but is worth your time and money. I have been reading palms for over a year now and this book is the main book I read to learn the art. I love the book and I hope you'll like it too.

The book uses a modern layout, presenting a number of maps that are representative for the history of chartography. After each map a double page present historical events related to that map or other information relevent to mapmaking or to the history of maps. The book is full with excelent ilustration of famous maps. This is a perfect introduction to the history of maps.

An authoritative commentry by over fifty North American physicians on the latest treatment strategies for type I and Type II diabetes mellitus. The format of the book is logical, covering the various aspects and challenges faced in the clinical environment.The "Special Settings" section was of particular value.

Starting with a broad overview of the disease in the year 2000 and beyond, the text shifts to canvassing the diagnosis, treatment and complications associated with this increasingly common disease.

The use of diagrams and tables aided digestion of the topics and the overall format of the piece in the hardback form was of high quality.

Moment's Notice performs a necessary service for the world of poetry and music. By providing an anthology that shows the influence of jazz on poetry and fiction, readers can look to other things that influence writing. But not for a while, because the reader will want to spend some quality time reading this particular book. For the jazz fan, this book is a must read. For the poetry fan, this book is also a must read.

Every writer you would hope for or expect is represented here. James Baldwin with Sonny's Blues, Jack Kerouac with a selection from The Subterraneans, Larry Neal's "Don't Say Goodbye to the Porkpie Hat," and so many more. Langston Hughes' "Be-Bop Boys" is a stunning and masterful revelation for those people who only know him from "The Weary Blues" or "Dream Deferred." Look for David Meltzer's description of a conversation with Thelonius Monk and David Hilton's poem about Chet Baker. Both are wonderful highlights of this collection of prose and poetry.

The only time where this book falls short is that like so many other American literary anthologies, only a few women are represented. However, I am certain this is a product of the subject at hand rather than the editors choices, for the writings of Jayne Cortez, Wanda Coleman, and Jessica Hadgedorn are included. I see the small showing of female voices to be a very minor detail and one that does not hinder the wonderful work which is included in the anthology.

I haven't read the critical essays, only the novel itself and it is the best-crafted piece of nihilism I have read since Celine (and utterly different from him, as well).

It was a really good book. I like his proplexity