Powers has the incredible ability to paint something perfectly while making it look like it took him a few minutes. His vision is unique. To some, his work may appear messy or unfinished, but for me this is a genius at work. His paintings look simple, but it's what he leaves out that often makes his work utterly remarkable.

His concise and easy-to-understand notes on facial proportions and his analysis of elements of his technique, such as composition, design, colour, line, and shape, make for fascinating reading. Seeing the mark of the artist has always been compelling for me. Here I see it in every painting. I often refer to Powers' methods to teach my art workshops for adult students.

This is my desert island book - the book with which I would choose to be marooned. If there were a six-star rating, this book would get it. Why are you still reading? BUY IT! NOW!

A fantasy, perhaps, because how many families are as happy and communicative as this one? How many sixteen-year-old boys remain affectionate friends of their dads? But it's not impossible, I suppose, and even the possibility that somewhere such families may exist is something to celebrate.

An idyll, because as Allen battles AIDS (we learn that he's got KS on page two), he chooses for the sporadic journal entries that comprise the book only the good memories.

A blast against the conservatives, because with writing this good, how could anyone deny the truth of the portrait?

Is it a sad book? For his two sons, especially the younger, his eventual death will be a terrible loss. But should we grieve for Allen himself? That's a much tougher question that the book asks. Does it get any better, any happpier, than the life Allen describes for us? We'll all die someday, as Allen's father reminds him. And if we've lived in bliss, do we call it a tragedy because our bliss isn't eternal?

Or do we consider by way of contrast that many of the gay men born in the late 40's and during the 50's who are still alive survived because they spent the 70's and 80's in the closet. And with their cohort so diminished by the epidemic, many will never find the happiness that Allen tells us of. These men bought their lives at the expense of love.

So we have an old, old conundrum, the modern form of the choice Achilles is forced to make in The Iliad: a brief, glorious life or a long, dull one. I don't know the answer. But Jeffers gives us a hero for our times and shows us how we can celebrate a life rather than mourn a death.

This is an achingly beautiful book. Read it.

From a World War II Nazi plan for espionage and terrorism, the authors have managed to craft a compelling and intriguing historical account, which raises many important questions. Questions which desperately need to be asked in post 9-11 America. But, they are questions which are all too often being ignored by most of the ratings-starved and war-hungry media.

Messrs. Gordon and Abello have done their home work, and it shows. Bravo, to the first time collaboration of this judge and this novelist.

Titleless, identified only by numbers, these poems have vivid metaphors and imagery ("let not winter's ragged hand deface," "gold candles fix'd in heaven's air"). The tone of the poetry varies from one sonnet to the next; sometimes it focuses on old age, to love that "looks upon tempests and is not shaken," and simple expressions that can't really be interpreted any other way. Some of it is pretty well-known ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?/Thou art more lovely and more temperate") but most of them you won't have seen before.

Even if you're not normally a fan of poetry, the delicate touch of Shakespeare's words is worth checking into. Fantastic.

Cindy Penn Reviewer

Psychotherapist Cassidy McCabe believes as life nears perfection, catastrophe strikes. Cassidy feels good about having finally paid off the debts of her former husband that were charged to her account. Even more ecstatic to her mindset is that her lover, commitment-shy Zach Moran finally proposed. However, her heavenly existence abruptly changes when teenager Bryce arrives. Unbeknownst to Zach before the lad showed up is that he sired Bryce, who carries a note from his mother, Xandra, warning that the teen needs protection from a non-described menace.

Zach hates to think back on the sordid past he shared with Xandra. She was a high priced call girl who led him around for three months before dropping him. Zach could not handle her rejection. He drank and stalked her. Once he even got rough with her. Zach visits Xandra to learn more about their son and the threat. However, he finds his ex dead. The police strongly feel he murdered Xandra. Cassidy realizes that since her lover could not have done the deed, someone is setting him up to take the fall. She and Cassidy begin their own sleuthing even knowing they could be the next victims.

The fourth installment in the McCabe mysteries is simply a winner. WANTON'S WEB contains everything amateur sleuth lovers will want in an ongoing series. Besides the duo diving headfirst into a new investigation, the novel includes a murdered ex-lover, an unknown adolescent son, and the growth of the lead protagonists' relationship. It is the last piece that makes Alex Matthews' latest entry an entertaining tale.

Harriet Klausner