In some circles, "Lake Moobegon Days" is being promoted with the idea that "If you like Garrison Keillor, you'll love Lake Moobegon Days." Although a Moobegon reader might suspect the book's author Dan Vance was influenced by Garrison Keillor, it's a fact that Vance has been working on "Lake Moobegon Days" for a couple of decades. Regardless, "Moobegon" easily meets the expectations of readers looking for a Keillor-like experience.

The characters, locales, action and dialogue all led this reader to make comments like "Has Vance been taking notes in our corner cafe?" or "How did he get my Uncle Stanley down on paper so well?" Yet, Vance swears it's all fiction.

Except for the most urbanized readers (those who have no sense of nostalgia and no experience with it), anyone who picks up this book is in for a delightful read. I enjoyed becoming acquainted (or reacquainted) with colorful characters, many of whom put the "care" into character. Fiction? Perhaps. Truth? Indeed.

This book is written by people who know east Texas. It covers disappearing lands, rivers and animals like no other book on the area. Full of natural lore, local wonders and peculiar stories, it fills you with a bit of Texas' natural legacy.

This is a great book to read with your children. The information is presented with an unbiased slant. The black and white pictures are excellent, they really give a feel for the period. A hard back copy would be great.

This dictionary style work is absolutely vital for any student of psychoanalysis, amateur or aspiring professional. From the armchair to the doctor's office, this book makes the intricacies of psychoanalytic terminology accessible in everyday language. Got a big psych test coming up? Don't know where to begin on what "object-cathexis" or "secondary Narcissism" could possibly mean? What to woo that special someone with your knowledge of "jouissance"? Go to the source. If that makes little or no sense, come here. (So to speak.)

My 83 year old mother-in-law loves this particular series of Large-Print Crosswords Challenges. She's quite sound of mind and been doing crosswords for years. The size makes them easy to do into the evening. The clues are good, not too revealing, and span alot of territory. There is consistancy between the volumes and that's important.

A good book for intermediate to advanced students of Spanish. It is believed to be the first example of Chicano literature. This book can be revealing as a lesson in the struggle new immigrants face in the US. This was written long ago but in many ways, little had changed.

The depth of place and character displayed in "The Last Good Man" intensifies the experience of Mr. Lyons' much-loved and wildly humorous first novel, "Dog Days." If you read that book, this collection of stories offers you the same, quirky humor, some of the same characters in different situations, and the short story that grew into the novel. If you have yet to read "Dog Days," I encourage you to see the reviews for Mr. Lyons' novel on Amazon.com. You will not be disappointed.

In "The Last Good Man," Mr. Lyons is generous. He invites us into the secret fears and desires of his characters; we move quite close to them. The stories deal with questions of separation, jealousy, temptation, selfishness, violence and corruption. Our nearness to the characters pulls us into these questions, and we come away asking what we might do in similar circumstances. These stories are about dark and edgy subjects, but they are not draining. Instead, they are accessible, provoking, even uplifting. After we read them, we feel better for having read them, we take them with us as we move through our day and, like a slightly mysterious memory, we hold onto them for a long time.

11-year-old Harold has an uncle who sells shoes, Harold makes his first million betting on the ponies, Harold gets to be the guest of the multi millionaire inventor of the zenburger in a castle decorated like a fast food joint, Harold becomes a spiritual guru. He has a gold rolls royce and wears just about the funniest hat you can imagine. While not my favorite Pinkwater in existance (that prize going to the utterly transcendant Young Adult Novel) The Last Guru is good clean and typically Pinkwaterian fun.

Rothman is a principal in the field of LGCA research, and it shows: the introductory material is lucid and self-contained. The more advanced topics (e.g., the statistical mechanics of LGCA) are also generally well-written, although not self-contained: many readers coming from computer science or without a solid background in statistical mechanics or fluid mechanics may struggle at times. Still, this is a relatively minor shortcoming, and the generous references more than make up for it. Overall a good book and a good introduction to the subject.

NB. The authors have a link to their codes for LGCA; however, the book does not touch on the actual implementation of the theory: readers who want to model LGCA hydro for themselves will have to implement and modify the codes without the benefit of much explanation.

This novelette set in 19th century France reveals a heroine of remarkable emotional stamina and a sense of self-worth--purchased at the cost of betrayed naievte. Like a drama where the protagonist does not "enter" until our curiosity has been sufficiently whetted by premilinary gossip, Lavinia herself--no longer ingenuous but still a dusky beauty--bursts upon the stage as full blown woman, eminently desirable and self possessed.

Sir Henry, who had jilted her in the past, aided and abetted by his gayblade buddy, Lionel, stages a risky rendez-vous repossess his old love letters and trinkets before his impending marriage. But Lavinia does not swoon at his feet, begging his return, which annoys his masculine ego. Ah no, poor Henry sees the amorous tables turned upon himself. Much of the novel is like a play: there are "scenes" and "acts;" there is a preponderance of dialogue that would make this work a pleasure to stage. Sand spares nothing in villifying French 19th century "Society," with its highly restrictive women's roles and impossible demands placed on the fair sex.

So which suitor will win la belle Lavinia: panting and repentant Sir Henry or a rich young Count--equally besotted? This novelette of 45 pages seems a cleverly disguised treatise/expose on the foibles and injustice of French society, at whose tyrannical hands George Sand herself may have suffered. But expect a surprise ending, for Lavinia may do that which real women dare not. Almost mortally wounded in affairs of the heart, Lavinia will remain true to her instinct of self-preservation: physical and moral. This a fast read, which may appear lite, almost trite; but this piece actually simmers with Sand's scathing denunciation of her constricted world.