I found Graham Wheeler to be both very informative and interesting to read. His book "Home Brewing" took me through the fundamentals (and complexities) of home brewing beer as well as the history of English ales. This book is written well for experimenting home brewer. He filled it with information necessary to develop your own recipies using beer kits, malt extracts, and full grain mashing. The formulas in this book are essential for predetermining the alchohol content, color, body, and bitterness of your creations. He has included about 75 receipies, but I wouldn't consider this a receipie book. For the most part, this is an idea book. You know, get an idea from the receipie, modify it to your tastes, modify it again for the ingredients you have available, do a little math to assure yourself that this is what you want to brew, and go from there. Oh, about the math, I suggest you sharpen your algebra pencil when you use his formulas to create your own receipies. I highly recommend this book for anyone getting into home brewing, Graham Wheeler does a great job of dispelling the mysteries of home brewing and replaces them with good, solid science.

I must disagree with some of the reviewers - I think this was a humorous book, of course with strong serious elements, but enjoyable and light-minded to the end. All the hard times these people had to suffer never made them give up. I've read both of Atkinson's novels now - I started with Human Croquet - and I must say I liked this one better. In this novel the atmosphere never cracks, not even once, whereas Human Croquet's ending was a disappointment.

And Ruby Lennox certainly is a charming narrator for this story - it's very easy to, let's say, fall in love with her. This novel has a fair amount of magic, but it's very realistic in a typical English way. The main reason I'm nor giving it 5 stars is the misery of family life Atkinson describes. There are happy people out there too, and I just wonder why doesn't anyone ever write of them.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I've been carrying it around with me, showing to all my friends and recommending that they read it, too. It's magical, magnificent, a very great, important piece of writing. Although the story revolves around Ruby and her family, the lives of her maternal great-grandmother, grandmother and mother are woven into the story so that in effect, the there two books here: Ruby and pre-Ruby. Several reviewers have described this novel as "one of the funniest books to come out of Britain in years (The NY Times Book Review) and as "comic" (Boston Sunday Globe) and while Behind the Scenes is enormously charming, inventive and endearing, don't buy this expecting it to be a funny or humorous book. At times it is unbearably sad, sadness tinged with dark scamperings of horror. I was telling my husband about this book and he kept saying, "this sounds awful, terrible things keep happening to these people," ! and while that is true, the author tells this story with a beautiful lightness that keeps Ruby safe despite her sadness.

One thing I found very interesting about this book was the way the women's lives went from the unending drudgery of cooking, cleaning, mending, pregnancy and taking care of numerous children by Alice, the great-grandmother who lived in rural 19th century England, to the comparatively empty days of Bunty, Ruby's mother, days that are filled up with a dedication to housekeeping that only mimics what was once a necessity of life. Alice lived in a world where the failure to bake bread and to keep up with darning and mending meant that children went hungry and cold in winter. Bunty lives in a world attached to a strict household schedule (washing on Monday, ironing on Tuesday, cleaning on Wednesday, etc) and where store-bought cakes and cookies are looked upon as evidence of a slatternly nature.

Another interesting this about this book is the way Ruby's! voice changes from when she is little to when she grows up! . Little Ruby is consumed with magical thinking, she believes in a world of ghosts where things happen for no reason and a deck of cards designed to teach the alphabet become a wondrous bridge to life away from home. As she grows, her voice takes on depth and the effects of secondary school and while the frivolity and delightful silliness that characterize little Ruby's world continue to exist, they are moderated by her maturity. This is a truly wonderful book.

I knew nothing about this book before I read it - I didn't even know anyone who had read it -- but now that I've finished it, I can't stop recommending it to people. This book is one of the best surprises I've had this year.

It's the story of Ruby Lennox ("I exist!" she shouts in the first line of the book, describing her own conception): the York, England-born daughter of disappointed Bunty, granddaughter of disappointed Nell, and great-granddaughter of the mysterious but still disappointed Alice, all of whose stories are told and interwoven with Ruby's own.

The story, which manages to cover almost the whole of the 20th century, from World War I to the present, is both hilarious and achingly sad at the very same time. It is rich with details and backstories in a way that does not crowd out Ruby's own story, which is essentially that of a girl trying to grow up in a family that all but conspires to forget she even exists. Her mother, Bunty, can't stand the sight of her philandering husband (and Ruby's father) George, the disappointment of a man that she married after the let-down that, for Bunty, was World War II. Anyone with a sister will recognize the simultaneous disdain and wise counsel that Ruby's dark older sister, Patricia, has for her, and will recognize the torture that Ruby's other older sister, the beautiful, mean Gillian, puts her through.

If it were just a portrait of Ruby's family of assorted losers, even that would have been enough to make a good book, but Kate Atkinson has done us the favor of giving us the stories of Ruby's maternal relatives, from her great-grandmother Alice Barker, who ran away with a travelling photographer, to her grandmother Nell Cook, whose fiances kept on dying on her before she could get married, and all of the other cousins and aunts and uncles in between. Their stories are intertwined with that of the major events of the 20th century, giving the story a sense of meaning and context.

This book is just a great read. Do yourselves a favor and read it. You'll thank me that you did.

I have always been fascinated by Burma in all its aspects and I wanted to be more informed on the current political and social situations. The subject is certainly very interesting but I personally found the book itself very boring and repetitive: The concepts and ideas are repeated dozens of times in different chapters, over and over again. This book would have been much more powerful and appealing with 100 pages instead of 300.

In this book, as in "Freedom from Fear" and "Letters from Burma", Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi exposes to the world the grim realities of her land and her people, seen through her very eyes. As always, she is able to jump with great ability from more personal and sentimental accounts of the situation, to hard data, from recollections of her childhood, to perspectives on Burma's future. Always filled with thrill and dense with emotions, her writings are for the expert and the ignorant alike, easy to understand, yet of high value historically and academically. For anyone wishing to know more about Burma and the struggle of her people for human rights, this is must reading.

This book shocked me awake to the realities of countries where freedom is not enjoyed as in the United Sates. The government's repression and horrific inhumantiy are just unbelievable. But, more amazing is the dedication to nonviolence which Aung San Suu Kyi and her party follow in their democracy movement. Her manner in speaking of Burma's serious situation is so calm, hopeful, and loving that it makes one reinterpret and recast their interactions with their own worlds. One may also reflect on one's place in humanity and see that Burma's tragedy, Burma's fate, is our own and we must act now. Aung San's hope and strength are qualities we would do well to adopt as our own. I do not think it is possible for one to read this book and NOT feel urged to take some form of real action (via letter writing, publicizing the issue, etc).

A book on Insight Meditation or Vipassana Meditation of the Theravada Buddhist kind. It describes one type of Vipassana Meditation, its concepts and theoretical basis. It can be tough reading even for readers with some knowledge of buddhism. But its interesting to know that even vipassana meditation comes with different tints and flavours like those of the different sects of relgious beliefs. And this book describes one of those flavours.

This is a book that is excellent for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. For the beginner, it sets a framework for understanding meditation that will be useful as a frequent reference. For the intermediate and advanced students, it seems to address issues that they will experience in their own meditation practice. It also provides a vast amount of information that is worthwhile to learn about, whether one is able to experience this in their own practice or not.

The book increased my desire to practice and experience what I was reading about. It should be the foundation for any meditator's library.

This book packs an enormous amount of material into a well-organized exposition of vipassana and buddhism generally. It is informed by a very rigorous practice and comes about as close to dharma as words can.

It is highly recommended to experienced meditators who might find very basic books repetitious, and for earnest invididuals who want to learn a whole lot more about buddhism.

This is one of my favorite books. Glad to see she finally has another one out.

The stories--Not Where I Started From, by Kate Wheeler, are strange and modern. They take place all over the world, where the author has been and has detailed knowledge: India, Burma, Thailand, France, New York, Buenos Aires, and one in the south somewhere. I was impressed by the colorful and poetic use of language: "Miss Bi Chin's water heart flows in uncontrollable sympathy toward the monk." "Inside my body, anticipation's orchestra tuned up: deep thrills on cellos, reedy squeaks." "I lay back and watched the live oaks slip past, their crowns like lung shadows on the X-ray sky." He used her first name "as he'd used mine, like an unpleasant forefinger pointing at her heart. Or at her ego, to be precise and fair." "By the time I heard his tale, it had been retold so many times that it had flattened into myth, the verbal equivalent of a mural on an Egyptian tomb." "Squiggly rays go from holy man to Edward." "He didn't touch me, just wiped his heavy wingtips on the loon's head mat, his eyes moving from side to side like peeled eggs in a jar of oil." But these are troubling stories of women at loose ends, striving to find faith in weird religious practices with odd men, or bonding with inappropriate women, or having numberless affairs that leave them baffled and unfulfilled. None of them have satisfactory relationships with their parents, some are runaways, some throw away promising careers for the slightest of reasons. The author, ordained in Burma as a Buddhist nun according to the cover blurb, knows whereof she speaks when she writes sarcastically of the east, but one wonders why her characters have allowed themselves to get into the fixes they have. Though they emerge changed in almost every story, the reader finds it hard to sympathize with them. Still, the book is a great read

I stumbled on this book and bought it because of the title, never imagining that it would be so entertaining, full of the intrigue of spiritual inquiry gone slightly haywire. It is a series of short stories dealing with the oddities surrounding various young people bent on finding enlightenment but who also find peculiar twists and turns in their quest. Not always complimentary to the messianic guru types, either.

Read it!

In the best Shugak tradition this one goes straight for the gut and then kicks you in the crotch. Unlike other Shugak books this one spends more time from Jim Chopin's point of view than Kate's, but it gives a better feel for the action that way. Like all mysteries there has to be some difficulty in solving the crime and this time it's Kate and her grief. That is when it's not Chopin's emotional issues getting in the way.

I knew after "Hunters Moon" that the next book would be a real emotional wringer and this book did not let me down in the least. While the mystery here is easy to solve the reason I couldn't put down the book until I finished it is that Kate is so real and so spell binding.

I can't wait for the next one. I rate Dana Stabenow up there with Dick Francis and Kate Shugak with Travis McGee.

I didn't think I would be very interested in a story concerning the Russian Mafia, but Stabenow changed my mind. Although I missed reading about the folks back in Niniltna, the introduction to the people of Bering was a true joy. Jim Chopin has a prominent role here and the insights into his character are very reveling. I also enjoyed a surprising revelation concerning Kate's grandmother, Ekaterina. The descriptions of Kate's dog, Mutt (one of my favorite characters) are, as always, vivid and alive. A word of warning: if you are a big fan of the FBI, you should know that the two FBI agents in this story are not portrayed in a very favorable light. I have read all of Stabenow's previous Kate Shugak mysteries, so it was easy for me to pick up where the story left off last time, but this probably isn't where a reader new to the series should begin. For a true understanding of Kate, it would be best to start at the beginning (A Cold Day For Murder). It was easy getting into this story and it held my attention throughout. The ending was spectacular.

No one seems to know where Kate Shigak is. The Aleut private detective owns and normally homesteads one hundred and sixty acres in the Alaska National Forest. However, Kate has disappeared. She still struggles with the loss of her beloved thanks to a maniac's bullet, a situation that has left her feeling empty and barren. Kate has traveled to an isolated fishing village in the Bering Strait under an assumed name. She fills her entire day working double shifts and more handling freight for Baird Airlines.

Her life changes again when her boss hires someone to work the second shift. Kate recognizes the new employee as State Trooper Jim Chopin, who is working undercover for the FBI. He is looking for the plutonium that the Russian Mafia has apparently smuggled into the area. When Jim is hospitalized with a bullet wound, Kate takes over the investigation.

The star of a Kate Shugat novel is usually Alaska, but in MIDNIGHT COME AGAIN the emotionally raw lead protagonist takes center stage. Kate is in transition as she grieves her loss while struggling to learn how to live life without her heart. Dana Stabenow serves up a fascinating and emotionally moving story line that keeps the reader's interest from first page to last. Fans of unpredictable, event-laden tales with plenty of regional color will gain much pleasure from Ms. Stabenow's latest achievement.

Harriet Klausner

As a resident of Bali year-round, the number one complaint by almost every lonely planet carrying visitor is how inaccurate and outdated the lonely planet guides are. Whether it is Thailand or Indonesia, information that is needed on a daily basis is history by the time the lonely books reach the traveling consumer. Bookstores throughout Asia are piled high with lonely planets discarded by weary travelers eager to lessen their load. Lonely planet books do offer historical perspectives that can also be found on the internet, but the insider's information the first time traveler needs to save money and sanity their first days in Asia is sorely lacking. Updated info on how to avoid being ripped off from lodging to transportation to moneychanging is of primary concern to almost all visitors to Bali that we meet. Books as heavy as bricks with pretty pics are nice but hardly handy when you are in need of fast, accurate information. Try "The Beginners Guide to Bali" on cd-rom- it has weekly updated info and prepares the first time traveler to Bali for the unexpected.

I found this book quite informative and useful in its information about many different aspects of visiting Bali. The book provides wonderful cultural insights, historical background and detailed information.

The only major discrepancy we came across, for instance, was that the book said that Kuta has problems with tourists being hassled by street vendors, but when we went in April, we found that the main street in Kuta (where the Matahari Department Store is) quite the opposite. It turned out that the officials had just recently come down on the street vendors and put a stop to harassing tourists there. Instead, when we went to the center of town in Ubud, we were hassled a great deal by taxi/moped drivers to get us to hire them; this caught us off guard.

In response to concerns that the book isn't current on it's information, I feel that you shouldn't rely on a guidebook for prices, and that as a whole Lonely Planet Bali & Lombok gives the information that you need to know. It tells you in great detail about what there is to see and do, and where things are and how things work. I mean afterall, by the time any book reaches publication, isn't a lot of the information out-of-date? Otherwise, a book would never get published; it would be a newsletter.

I gave this a rating of 4 stars only because when we went to Bali, we didn't travel enough of the country (and we didn't get to Lombok) to give the book 5 stars.

We have just returned from Bali (October 2000) and strongly recommend taking this LP with you. I have been a bit skeptical about the info of some LP's (Mexico-we hardly used it!) but in Bali whoever put this one together knew their stuff. FORGET THE PRICES MENTIONED, they've at least doubled for meals accomodation etc , but then so has the amount of rupee you'll get!! One interesting note. We took a taxi to the Temple of Gudang Kawi, an 11th century temple. LP justifibly raves about it. The only other tourists there we saw were holding a LP. Local tour operaters didn't seem to think tourists would be interested in it and must take them to more boring temples!(and believe you me, they get boring!)

I really enjoyed this book. I recomend it to readers of all ages

An extremely weak effort by a talented "writer." Ms. Wheeler does give us some fine sentences, particularly if one is infatuated by deft employment of metaphor and simile. That said, "When Mountains Walked" illustrates why fine sentences do not a good novel make.

The basic problem with this work is its central character, Maggie, who is so extraordinarily naive, self-centered, and pathetic that what might have been a promising story line is lost in fret, self-pity, and blather. Maggie blames most of her disappointment with the nature of her reality on her long-suffering husband, Carson, but, compared to Maggie, Carson is a saint. When Carson observes of Vincente, Maggie's ill-conceived [pun intended] paramour, that, "He's a pathetic schmoe," he might as well have been characterizing his unfortunate bride.

And Maggie cannot shut up. She talks and talks and talks in a curious sort of "what are my real feelings and who is against me now" quasi-feminist, quasi-progressive monologue. Maggie appears not to realize how tedious her efforts to convey her deep, inner feelings are. Toward the end of the novel, she has cornered a poor Peruvian boy, Boris, through not fault of his own, and proceeds to lecture him to death, perhaps literally.... Maggie's view of this onslaught on Boris' good nature is, "their conversation had been truncated. She did want to talk more ..." Oh yes, get it all out, Maggie, so we can throw ourselves over a cliff or in front of the Peruvian police. Anything, anything other than more of Maggie's incoherent self-seeking babble.

It may be the most poetic of justice that Maggie's last destination is "The Plain of Slime." [I'm not making this up.] Perhaps Wheeler intends us to see that Maggie has come full circle ...

The middle of this novel expects a lot of the reader's patience in staying with the story as it jumps back and forth between the main character and her grandmother. The author expects the reader to believe that Maggie understands the similarities of her life with her grandmother's even though there is no evidence that Maggie knows what we know about Althea's life. Though the author conveys the quiet life in the Peruvian canyon, it becomes boring and tedious. Then, the reader's investment does not pay off. The story jumps quickly back to her grandmother and then back to Peru. The final sub-plot seems like a tack-on, moves too quickly and is not very believable. Finally, the author follows an annoying habit of some modern writers of not bringing enough closure to the main character's dilemma. Put more bluntly, I get very irriated sticking with an author through a sometimes tedious book only to be faced with a "choose-your-own" ending. All the reviews that glorify the feminist themes and socio-political self-importance seem puffed up. The book was a total disappointment! I would not recommend it unless someone had no other reading material available.

Kate Wheeler's character Maggie is determined to make meaning in a world where there are those who suffer and those who are indifferent to suffering. She sees a world of great failures and small successes, in which the distances between daughter, mother and grandmother, between rich and poor, between sick and healthy, between the hunter and the hunted appear nearly unbridgeable. Nearly, but not quite.

This is a first novel and suffers from many of the usual faults of first novels. There's a certain amount of wandering in the plot. But Wheeler's characters are complex, fully human and definitely not the kind you'd expect in a made-for-TV movie. Her ability to set a scene is, well, gorgeous. She interlaces stories and relationships deftly.

And Maggie, poor Maggie? Does she make meaning? I think so, but you'll have to decide for yourself. I look forward to Wheeler's next novel.