I have no idea (24 years later) why it was that I found myself in Waterville, Maine, attending classes at Colby College. But just last month, I came across David Walker's book of poems and recalled in my mind's eye this very same man, tall and angular, bearded and bespectacled, lecturing us on modern poetry.

As far as I'm concerned, he could have spared us Anne Sexton and Hart Crane, and stuck with his own beautiful poetry. His "Moving Out" is about family and relationships, and in David Walker's case that means familial relationships that reach back hundreds of years in Maine/New England history. His voice is true, his language sharp and haunting. What he has to say about the human condition should be heard by everyone.

One poem that touched me very deeply is "A Prayer for my Daughter." As a college senior, it would have meant very little to me. But, today, with my own charming nine-year old daughter, this poem stirs a very deep emotion. What father hasn't worried about a child unprotected, left to the chance and circumstances of an uncertain life? In this poem, David Walker captures just this dilemma when he says (and I paraphrase), "At night I hear the dogs barking... how quickly they would heel by my side for a bone tossed careless from my plate."

This book came out almost a quarter of a century ago. I hope he's still writing!

Federalism is seldom discussed overtly in modern public policy debates, though it permeates so many domestic policy questions. While it is true that intergovernmental precepts like sovereignty and home rule have entered the policy lexicon in the current debate over the application of state and local sales taxes on Internet purchases, more often, the question of sorting out the proper role and scope of power for the federal government goes unasked, whether the issue is education, housing, or local law enforcement or something else.

While the subject remains largely unaddressed in mainstream policy discussions, federalism was foremost in the minds of our Founding Fathers when the Republic was born. The Founders were primarily loyal to their states after all, and profoundly distrustful of overbearing centralized governments such as the one they had been forced to deal with in London.

In writing the Constitution, the Founders crafted a document that was profoundly successful in separating powers among branches and balancing national interests while providing for state and local control. But as a living document, the nation has strayed considerably from the intent of the Founders. They would certainly have been distrustful of a federal role in education, housing or local law enforcement, though today, even conservatives accept that this intrusion is here to stay.

The critical modern question seems to be, 'does the balance of power between the federal government and state and locals serve the nation today as effectively as possible'? or phrased another way, 'can a system evolved so profoundly from the Founders intent still function well? Perhaps no one alive today is better at answering the question than David B. Walker, whose comprehensive book on our intergovernmental system, The Rebirth of Federalism was recently published.

Walker has spent most of his professional career deeply involved in the study and the practice of intergovernmental relations. Early on in his career, the late-Senator Ed Muskie tasked him with studying and shaping some of the intergovernmental programs of the Great Society. Walker moved on to become an assistant director of research studies at the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (ACIR) where he oversaw many of ACIR's studies on the growth of the federal grant system and the inability of successive administrations to impose any fiscal or managerial discipline on the system at all.

For the past 15 years or so Walker has been teaching intergovernmental relations at the University of Connecticut. During this time he has been in the forefront of scholars who have been analyzing the impact of the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations on the theory and practice of intergovernmental relations.

The bulk of Walker's book is historical, tracing the scope of power of the colonies and colonial towns (trivia: colonies and colonial towns were considered to be synonymous), the Articles of Confederation (which failed largely because they granted too much power to the state and locals), and the general trend toward centralization over the last 200 years (such as the Civil War affirming the primacy of the Union over the states, and the Great Depression's effect of rallying public support for presidential activism).

Readers will enjoy Walker's crisp prose, and his determination to cover all angles: policy, electoral politics, social movements, economic fluctuations, etc. Local leaders who especially enjoy American history will appreciate what Walker accomplishes, a review of American history that emanates as much from the state house and city hall as it does from the Capitol and the White House.

Walker also makes the weighty subject matter both amusing and insightful. In recalling the early days of the Gingrich Republican Revolution, he says "the press, media, many political pundits, and much of the public were treating the Speaker as if he were a prime minister and as if Westminster had been transported to Washington, D.C. Senate Majority Leader Dole had become the leader of an impotent House of Lords and Bill Clinton had been transformed into a constitutional monarch. [Within a year however] the President discovered what he always had -- namely a spine -- and he penned his first veto and was prepared to use it again."

Best of all is Walker's take on the current state of affairs, as he grapples with reconciling 300 years of American history to answer the question 'does the balance of power between the federal government and state and local serve the nation today as effectively as possible'?

A consummate social scientist, Walker sets up a three part constitutional test to evaluate the system: (1) establishing a territorial division of power and functions between the national and sub-national governments, (2) providing for direct representation (until 1913 and indirect thereafter) of the constituent subnational governments in the very policymaking processes of the central government; and (3) stipulating an institutional arbiter of jurisdictional disputes between the governmental levels, the SupremeCourt.

Walker posits, "when the dynamics of these three areas of federal-state-local interaction produce a systematically balanced condition, then the health of federalism is fine. When there are serious imbalances then an enfeebled federalism, incapable of effective functioning follows."

Of the current state of affairs, he concludes that Americans need to end the ambiguities that the presently imbalanced system has generated in order to permit each of the levels to operate more effectively and accountably, to eliminate some of the system's complexity that befuddles the electorate as well as many office holders, and to rediscover the vitality and resourcefulness that comes from the territorial division of labor that a functioning federalism nurtures.

It is a very informative and helpful book that shows you in details how to prepare for making a successful job interview. I have learned what the most important questions are to ask the candidates in order to select the most qualified and suitable job seekers for us. The dozens of tips are highly useful and easy to adopt. It has helped me to become a better HR manager. In my opinion, every HR department should have it.

The definitive bibliography of Mormon history. An enormous, systematic undertaking. 1152 pages (in small but readable type). Two indices--by author and by topic. Also includes a hundred-page topical guide to social science publications on the Mormons prepared by Armand Mauss and Dynette Ivie Reynolds. This is an invaluable resource for students of Mormon history and/or sociology.

Loren Estleman writes in the author's notes that follow the story at the end of this i-books edition of "Sugartown," that the novel was his angriest in the series. Interestingly, Estleman places the source of his anger as the backdrop for the story. In the early 1980s, Detroit Mayor Coleman Young made a legally shaky eminent domain deal with General Motors that forced hundreds of long time residents from their homes so that a new assembly plant could be built. The displaced homeowners got a very raw deal and a historic neighborhood was destroyed.

But the story Estleman weaves around these events is actually one of Amos Walker's more lively and fun. For once he finds a love interest to lighten his dreary existance. And the two cases he investigates involving Eastern European immigrants lead him in some interesting directions. Overall, this makes the fifth Amos Walker book the best so far in the series (I've been reading them in order) a fact which was confirmed when the book won the Shamus Award for best private eye novel of 1984. This i-books edition also includes inaddition to the newly published author's notes, a recent vintage Amos Walker short story at the end. Think of it as dessert after a fine meal.

A comprehensive guide to keeping cichlids. There are also useful tables concerning plants and decorations suitable for cichlid tanks. The first 100 pages contain the more general info on natural habitats, aquarium selection, water requirements and filtration, heating and lighting, aquascaping, maintenance, feeding, health and breeding. The last section on breeding has separate sections on African, Central American and South American cichlids. This same division is used in the second part of the book, the species section. The descripion of the different fishes is very comprehensive and includes wonderful information such as sexing and compatibility. The index includes both scientific name as well as common name. Great reference book for the beginning and advanced hobbyist alike.

In Chicago, Dugan is the lawyer and Kirsten is the private investigator in this married team. Kirsten asks Dugan to assist on a case in which she needs to speak with Lynn Bulasik, a witness to a conversation between ambulance chasing attorney Larry Candle and one of his clients. Kirsten takes her spouse to Cousin Freddy's, an adult store that caters to a mature audience wanting to buy assorted adult media and novelty items. However, when they enter the store, they find Lynn dead, courtesy of a broken neck.

After spending several hours with the Chicago police, Kirsten and Dugan leave. He wonders out loud why the big city cops are interested when the hit took place in the suburbs? Kirsten calmly explains to Dugan that the killing is mob-related, which means that the married couple could be marked for death next. The pair struggles to stay out of harms way even as Kirsten continues to help her client, the shyster Larry. More people are killed, making it even more dangerous for the dynamic duo.

David J. Walker, author of the Mal Foley series, writes a new Chicago-based mystery, starring two lovable characters that will garner reader attention. TICKET TO DIE FOR has an engrossing who-done-it that will pique reader interest and the cast of characters add depth and Midwest color to the novel. However, it is the witty dialogue between the unusual married couple that turn this into a terrific tale that will bring fans back for more books in a series that has the making of a long friendship.

Harriet Klausner

If you value field guides, you will love this Time-Life edition of "The Walker's Companion" from The Nature Company. Several highly respected nature writers, including David Rains Wallace and Ann Zwinger, make contributions to this well-illustrated and highly informative text. Those names should give you a clue to the excellent combination of literary and scientific writing that makes this text a must-have reference for anyone who is interested in the environment.

This is a field guide that powerfully combines content with context in a way that makes the information about nature and the environment not only highly accessible, but intrinsically linked to the key social topics that are central issues in both science and social studies. Topics include the history of nature writing and in America, hiking tips, the study of nature throughout the ages, field identification and sketching outdoors. Ecological concepts such as food chains and pollination are concisely described and illustrated in a section titled, "Understanding Nature". Information about every ecosystem from forests, mountains and deserts to farmland and vacant lots is included in the "Guide to Habitats" section. This kind of comprehensive perspective about environment helps the reader to think about and see ecology in very relevant ways.

The format of double-facing pages per topic gives concise environmental information, making it easy to read, index and apply to the reader's world. The guide is an essential home or travel reference as well as a valuable classroom text that would be interesting and accessible for audiences from 10 to 100. The text is so versatile that I have a copy for myself and have ordered a class set for my middle school students for a wide range of class use including nature drawing, research, gardening and environmental education.

Do not think of Walker Percy's work as Southern literature. I say this not because it isn't Southern literature, but because hardly anybody seems to understand what Southern literature is. Percy, himself, noted this.
Think of Percy's work as good books that deal with the South, but more importantly with people -- with what it means to be human.
The Second Coming is one of my favorite novels. It deals with the existence of God, the fecklessness of modern life, and any number of other banal, overworked subjects that you might find in any other contemporary novel, but they are enlivened by Percy's malicious wit (he called himself malicious, though his doing so was simply an instance of his peculiar malice, which is not really malice, though its sting is the same). The response to the question of God's existence is a toothache.
Percy writes in a straight-forward, ironic manner, but where normal irony is double-voiced, Percy's is triple-voiced. One must always ask oneself if one is really getting the joke even when one is laughing out loud.
Don't think of Percy as a Southern writer because you can't help but shortchange him when you do so. He presents himself with a Southern drawl, and a casual wit, but behind this is incisive social and psychological commentary, and behind this is yet another layer.
The Second Coming is a fine novel -- a good love story if you can stand the fact that the lovers are a mental patient and a horny widower. Percy tells fine jokes, and tosses you on your rear every other page. This is enough, but it is not all. You can enjoy this novel if you just want to be entertained, but if you are willing to look for it, there is an undertone of malice that isn't malice, and yet deeper, a still, small voice.

Every time I read this book again I think, "The last 50 pages of this book are the best 50 pages ever written."

One of my all-time favorite novels; I've probably read it four or five times. Percy is a writer of intense depth and subtlety. He embraces existentialism on his own terms (Southern, Catholic, ingenious...) and gives the reader clues about finding authenticity in his or her own life. The most amazing part of this book is the ending, which gives us a sad hope in a world that has been made flat with smiling, jocular hopelessness. Read this book, then read it again.

Have you ever tried to find superhero based novels that are the author's creation? That aren't based on anything you see on the comic books stands? Well then look no further. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Cyber Age. With a constantly changing website, gorgeous artwork, and some damn friggin' good stories, Cyber Age Adventures is definately one of the few good works of superhero fiction out there. But this is a review on the book. =) Although I didn't find the three chapter method to be necessary, these stories were originally posted as a 3-part story with the website/fan mail. But the flow of each one is still very well done. Each hero has his or her flaws that make him or her just a little bit more human in nature. And the use of the super abilties in new and interesting ways make it for an even more interesting read. For superhero fans out there, I'd recommend this in a heart beat. For those that like superheroes, but don't want to buy monthly, overpriced comics, then grab this book while you can.

I checked this out on a lark, in the mood for something light and harmless. Instead I found an absorbing series of stories about a diverse cast of characters. It's superheroes for grownups, superheroes who have problems with their parents or their friends or their jobs or their car payments that are as real, and sometimes more dangerous, than their problems with the supervillain of the week.

I was really impressed with this anthology. The authors show a lot of talent and a lot of promise, and they've made a credible attempt to make the superhero genre into a literary experience -- without sacrificing innovating new powers or exciting fight scenes. It's definitely worth a look.

True heroism is not about flying at the speed of sound or walloping the bad guys with expert martial arts ease or blasting through concrete with fist-propelled laser beams. No, true heroism comes from within, and the 'within' is all-too-human... all-too-real. This is what CyberAge never fails to tap into: the human reality, the power we all have and that we can all grasp onto, if only we choose to do so. The fantasy of these stories is undeniable, but the gritty realism hidden beneath is what makes them breathe, what makes them move... what makes them important. A must read!