This autobiographical novel by Maurice Blaise, based on his
experiences Africa in the 1970s when he was studying for the
priesthood, was written in two parts. The first part, which I reviewed
previously, was fascinating even though I thought it was a bit
overlong. I feel the same way about Part 2. There's good material here
and a wonderful story, but the author has a tendency to over analyze
and give long explanations of his philosophy and even write about his
dreams. All this is unnecessary because the story is a good one and he
tells it well.

Part 2 is set primarily in Liberia and the lead
character, Maurice, has befriended and fallen in love with two young
African women of the Kru tribe. He also has to travel to outlying
areas to do Sunday church services. He describes all of this in
excruciating detail. The reader learns about the backbreaking labor
that the people endure as well as the terrible illnesses. We get to
take a fresh look at the practice of polygamy and what it means to the
ex-wives when the Church forces men who have formerly had several
wives, to divorce all but one. We understand the relentless search for
nourishing food and see first hand the impact that the Church has
brought. We learn about plain raw survival in spite of terrible
obstacles.

Life becomes difficult for Maurice because he decides to
leave the Church. What follows are even more graphic descriptions of
the contrasts between wealth and poverty in the city. When he has
nowhere else to go, he is befriended by Mandingo Muslims and learns to
appreciate their way of life. Then, just when he is rejoined by the
two women he loves, there is a sudden twist to the story. And the
reader is left with a conclusion that never ties up all the loose
ends. That's a shame because there is some excellent material here and
Mr. Blaise is a good writer. In spite of the shortcomings, I do
recommend these books. They will give you a unique and personal view
of the world the author experienced. Just be prepared for a very long
read.

a truly compelling story about a vermonter dealing with the intricacies of west african ethnic policies.

the end was an O'Henry like conclusion, which threw me completely off balance.

in all, the books should be made into a movie. i loved them!

I couldn't wait to read the second book.

It really tore me up,(but what an adventure!) and in the end I cried. What happened to the sisters that he was so in love with? And who is the editor? His sister, or his wife?

As a psychologist, I can attest to the fact that he was tormented for sure, but loveable, nonetheless!

What happenend in in end, the after the flight to New York? Did he finally settle down, or is he still wandering, looking for meaning?

Is there another book by him coming out soon? Will there be a book signing in the near future, as I would like to meet him!

Dominique

I love the Dear America series and read all of them as soon as they come out, but I had never been a big fan of the My Name Is America companion series. However, I read this book because I enjoyed Where Have All The Flowers Gone?, which is the companion to this book, very much. Once I started reading, I couldn't put this down! Any fans of historical fiction or anyone who is interested in the Vietnam War should definately read Patrick's journal.

The golden days, where the days when he was playing football. Before he went to war. This book is the best book of this kind. It will make you wounder whats going to happen next. It iis a sad but thrilling book. Dont forget to read the epilogue.

"The Journal of Patrick Seamus Flaherty : A United States Marine Corps, Khe Sanh,Vietnam ,1968" is my new favorite "My Name Is America" book! I couldn't put it down! This book shows how boys entered the Vietnam war, but either died, or went home as men. If you're learning about this war, or just want an excellent read, then you must get this book! I recommend.

Why is this fairy tale anthology out of print? It's got a great collection of stories! I liked practically everything that was in here. SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED may have been the first volume in editors Datlow and Windling's series of such books, but this fourth one is hands-down more gripping... the stories are better written, in my opinion.

Among my favorite selections from this volume are:
SNOW IN DIRT by Michael Blumlein
SPARKS by Gregory Frost
THE REVEREND's WIFE by Midori Snyder
THE TRUE STORY by Pat Murphy, and
GODMOTHER DEATH by Jane Yolen

I hope BLACK SWAN, WHITE RAVEN is published once more so I can grab my own copy. I have the first three anthologies and haven't read number 2 and number 3 yet, but that was only because I had to finish this one in time to return it to the library. Thank goodness they have it!

If you like this series, then I definitely recommend getting your hands on this one.

Black Swan, White Raven is an excellent anthology of new fairy tales based on the traditional stories. In this series, all the stories are dark, based on the fact that fairy tales were originally written/told for adults, and their relegation to the the nursery occurred with the Victorian era. Particularly strong and memorable stories are the Rapunzel one by Anne Bishop, the Snow White one by Pat Murphy, and the Tin Soldier one by Nancy Kress.

This is the first book that I have read in the series. Outstanding collection of short stories! These stories bring to light different aspects of the fairy tales we all grew up with. I highly recommend it.

This is the first Ellen G. White book I have read, but it won't be the last. As a young Christian man, I believe young people should read this book to get a true taste of the future.

Some nice infomation in this book, I am glad it does not take the 4-6 weeks to send that it says.

Living with Little Quilts has some great decorating ideas. It also has patterns for some of the quilts they show. I enjoyed browsing through the book for inspiration

I never gave much thought to making little quilts until I bought this book. Full of old-fashioned charm throughout, you will find so many creative ways and ideas to use little quilts. It also offers a few patterns to get you started and some great tips as well. Colorful, bright and inspiring. A book to cherish!

This is a classic portrayal of a courageous life lived in great anticipation of the One she loved and taught me to love. I would widely recommend its reading. There are insights into her life which are delicate and detailed, which have deepened my appreciation of this lady. The book spans most of her life, showing how the Lord truly called her to be His messenger. Those who attack her inadvertently are against the One who, she taught, would rather die than live without them. Read her classic "Steps to Christ" or "Desire of Ages" and see what passion inspiration drives you to. Thank you Herbert Douglass for this wonderful contribution.

Herbert Douglass and his team are to be commended and congratulated on completing this massive project. Well done Professor Douglass! This is an incredible piece of work. God bless you and everyone connected with this monumental effort! I just love this book!

In all fairness to those readers who are not members of the 7th-day Adventist Church, or who are unfamiliar with the history and teachings of the Church, it would be helpful to know that the publisher (Pacific Press Publishing Association in Nampa, Idaho) is one of two large publishing organizations of the Church in the United States. (The other being the Reveiw and Herald Publishing Association in Columbia, Maryland.) Also, the general editor of this fine work, Kenneth H. Wood, (to whom the book is dedicated) has been Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. and President of its Corporation since 1980, and has served in the past as Editor of the Adventist Review, the general paper of the 7th-day Adventist Church.

For those interested in reading a critical work on the life and times of Ellen White written by a reputable historian not officially connected with the Church and its many institutions, I would suggest as a starting point Dr. Ronald L. Numbers' book entitled, Prophetess of Health: Ellen G. White and the Origins of Seventh-day Adventist Health Reform. (I am very fortunate to have in my personal library a signed copy of the library edition of this work! Dr. Numbers was very gracious in signing my copy in February, 2001 at an Association of Adventist Forums meeting in Loma Linda, California where he spoke about Ellen White.)

I wish to end with a note of caution to those readers looking for more information on Mrs. White. There is MUCH material that can be found on the Internet regarding the life and times of Ellen White, HOWEVER, let me be quick to point out that there are serious questions as to whether or not much of this material can be relied upon as factual. So, reader, BEWARE, and remember to research sources before relying on what you find. The Ellen G. White Estate staff can assist you with this. They have proven time and again to be very helpful to scholars all over the world. The web site for the White Estate can be easily found by doing a simple search using GOOGLE or some other Internet search engine. Just do an exact search on the following phrase: "The Official Ellen G. White Website" and you'll easily and quickly find it. Enjoy! Time is short, my friend! May our Lord and Friend find you to be a faithful and true representative of His character of love, mercy, and grace at His second appearing. Be ready, pligrim, be ready!

I have read and reread (and loved, especially the first one) all three Meghan Powers books in their original editions. I am grateful to Hawk Publishing for reprinting these three books (now called the "President's Daughter" series) so that more people can enjoy them, but I do feel that people should know that these reprints are not high quality. They are trade paperbacks with bindings that seem sturdy enough, but the text is not at all crisp -- in fact, it looks like the publisher may have enlarged the pages from the original mass market editions on a Xerox machine and then reprinted these new editions from those copies. I am basing this guess on the fact that the text looks enlarged and somewhat blurry.

The covers of all three of the reprint editions are hideous; the first one shows a girl who looks to be about 8 or 10 years old instead of a teenager, and the "White House Autumn" cover is not much better. The price is also steep at $14.95. I can excuse that on the basis that Hawk is probably a small press, and small presses find it hard to make ends meet.

If you can get past all that, these books are marvelous to read. "White House Autumn" continues to use Meg's unique voice and sense of humor. The book also deals with Meg's feelings of guilt when her mother is the subject of an assassination attempt. Again, I am grateful to Hawk for reprinting these, even if the quality is a little disappointing.

This is the best book ever! I love the president's daughter. She is the Best. Always getting out of sticky situations. I don't know how she does it? When her mother, The President,gets shot(a really sticky situation) she is forced to mature like never before. It teaches girls of all ages what can happen any day, even if your the prresident's daughter! A real life, well almost, look into the life of the first family.

Like its predecessor, I found myself unable to put the book down until I had read the very last page. I stayed up until 5 in the morning to finish it, and it was worth every minute (good thing I didn't have work the next day). Not as light as The President's Daughter, the first book in the trilogy, White House Autumn is bit more depressing and a bit more adult as it tells what happens to Meg and her family when her mother, the President, is shot. It's a serious subject, and the author deals with it in a very mature, realistic and sympathic way. Of course, all of the other great qualities of the first book is still present in this one. The characters are as likable as ever, especially Meg's best friend, Beth, who I'm sure would've been my idol had I read this book when I was younger. The conversation is witty, and the situations and the way the characters deal with them are very true to life. Admittedly not as great as the President's Daughter, but nevertheless a wonderful wonderful read. Try to get your hands on this one.

Kaiulani Cleghorn is a Hawaiin princess. Her mother gave her Hawaiin blood and her father,Scottish.Many happy things happen in the beginning of the book like how Kaiulani meets Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author, her lovely strolls in Hawaii and pretty much every little thing.Towards the end her life begins to take a deep tumble. When she lived in England she had many headaches, she had homesickness frequently, and she felt as if she abandoned her own country. This diary tells of Kaiulani's life in England where she had to have schooling, her social life, and her thoughts and emotions that she had during the last years of Hawaii's independence.

Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn, Kaiulani by many, was the last Princess of the Hawaiian monarchy. This book starts with her age 13 to 18. Kaiulani, born to Princess Miriam Likelike and her scottish husband, Archibald Scott Cleghorn, was second in line for the Hawaiian throne. Even though Kaiulani had lost her mother at young age, the early parts of this book depicts a rich, royal childhood which includes her developped and true friendship with author Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island). Kaiulani is sent to England for an education. She becomes homesick for her tropical homeland but adapts to England which becomesa second home, pied-a-terre. She longs for her family and homeland more when she hears of the political troubles between the Hawaiian Royalistes and the American businessmen who want Hawaii for America. When Kaiulani's uncle, the King, dies, her Aunt Liliuokalani, takes the throne but is soon pushed off by the Americans. Kaiulani, 18, rushes to America to plead with the Americans to not take her land. Though her efforts admirable and brave, Kaiulani does not suceed. Throughout the story and beyond, she suffers many tragic losses of friends and relatives. In the end, she dies at age twenty-three. This was my first book on Hawaiian history and through this book, I think I will pursue others on Hawaiian monarchy and history. Kaiulani has wonderful characterization and this book really shows how tragic things might have drove her to an early death. She had a hard life of losses of friends and her land. Despite what some reviewers might have said, she was intelligent and brave. She tried to help her country when it was in need though other forces pushed against her, she did her best for her people and her land. This was the tragic and real life tale of the last Hawaiian Princess.

Born to privilege in 1875 as the daughter of King Kalakau of Hawaii's youngest sister Miriam Likelike and her Scottish husband, Archibald Cleghorn, Princess Victoria Kaiulani Cleghorn enjoyed a luxurious childhood. But her life has not been without sorrow - Kaiulani suffered the tragic loss of her young mother when she was just eleven. Second in line to inherit the throne, Kaiulani is sent to England at the age of thirteen to be educated. Even though it is her duty as an heir to the throne, Kaiulani longs for her beautiful home and her family. In England, Kaiulani is a stranger in a strange land. Her only reminder of home is her half-sister Annie, who has accompanied her. But as years go by, England finally begins to seem like something of a second home. But even far from the place of her birth she cannot escape tragedy. Her uncle, the King, dies, and his surviving sister, Liliuokalani, becomes Queen. Now Kaiulani is heir apparent to the throne of Hawaii. But if the Americans have their way, there will be no throne left for Kaiulani to inherit. Told through the form of Kaiulani's fictional diary entries from 1889-1893, this book revealed what life was like for Hawaii's last princess.

Roberts vs. Texaco,a true story of race and corporate America, started a little slow, depicting Bari-Ellen Roberts' life since childhood. At first, I didn't know why it went into such detail, but as I read along, I understood how all of the pieces in her life connected to the storyline.
Throughout her life, Bari-Ellen was faced with overt, institutional, and implicit racism. As she entered Texaco's workforce, the racist philosophies were the worst she had ever seen. The book depicts the monumental challenges she faced in such a hostile environment. (The glass ceiling and the "good-old-boy" network.) The effects of this, along with hitting the glass ceiling/"brick wall" was enough for her and a core group of others to spark a class action lawsuit which cost the company the largest discrimination settlement in U.S. history. One hundred and seventy-six million dollars!
This book did an excellent job by not focusing solely the lawsuit aspects. Bari-Ellen put a lot of herself into writing this book. I enjoyed reading about her family issues and personal opinions as the case was pending. The outcome was emotionally touching and inspiring.

I enjoyed this book tremendously. It was a little slow toward the end, but overall it was very well-written. It's a shame that this type of blatant racism still exists today, not that I'm surprised, but it's truly a shame. It took a lot of courage and stamina on Roberts' part to force Texaco to acknowlegde their archaeic and ignorant business practices relative to race. I applaud Bari Ellen Roberts even when there are those who still believe in Texaco's innocence...much like the reviewer who chooses to perpetuate one of America's largest problems...the belief that other races are inferior and should bow down to this almighty, superior race. "Forgive him, for he knows not what he does." I enjoyed reading about her life and what she went through that made her into what she is today. This is definitely a book worth reading for all.

I read this book and I am MORE encouraged in my own fight against a large corporation that I felt discriminated against me. Needless to say Ms. Roberts felt she had to tell her story and IN HER OWN WORDS she did so. That included recalling the trials and tribulations of her own life growing up to the present (as all these mentally damaging things were going on.) For other reviewers to say "too much about Roberts and too little about Texaco" just shows the ignorance that still exists. Her personal account reveals that racial discrimination is still happening today in THIS DAY AND AGE. If one wants to hear more about Texaco then let them read Texaco's account of what happened. Oh that's right, acccording to Texaco, they still believe that they did nothing wrong... I rather hear from the personal accounts of those involved- to see the REAL toll of what racism does to people rather than hear a bunch of corporate and legal BS.

_Snow White, Blood Red_ was the first of Datlow and Windling's adult fairy tale anthologies, and I think that's part of the problem with it. The authors of the short stories herein were just beginning to try the fairy tale form, and a lot of them weren't quite sure what to do with it. "Hmmm," I can almost hear them saying, "they want me to adapt fairy tales for big folks? Well, a liberal helping of sex and gore should do it!"

Most of the stories in this collection are filled with visceral violence, and nauseated me. There is also a lot of sex. Now, normally I don't mind sex in books. But this isn't erotic sex, it tends to be twisted and sadistic sex and/or rape. It doesn't feel "sexy" at all; it just seems to be a further extension of the violence. Most of the stories don't bother being subtle or evocative when they can be gross and shocking instead.

A few exceptions: (1) The wonderful "The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep", by Charles de Lint, about a young woman having a serial dream where she has to rescue the Moon from some nasty faeries, while her waking self doesn't know whether to take these nightly adventures seriously. (2) "Like a Red, Red Rose", which does have some blood, but is also a compelling Gothic story that reminds me of Hawthorne somehow. The heroine is a witch's daughter unaware of a family curse. (3) "The Princess in the Tower", a comedic Rapunzel variation set in Italy.

I think the de Lint story is the only one that will truly stay with me, and while it's very good, it's not worth buying SWBR. De Lint has several short story collections out--I don't remember which one "The Moon..." is in, but it shouldn't be hard to find. Other than that, this book is ultimately forgettable, not nearly as good as later volumes in the series.

Even as children, I think, in the back of our minds we always knew that the fairy-tales we read were a little darker than we were led to believe. The wicked stepmother, for example, was probably the real mother; it was probably more than a kiss which awakened Sleeping Beauty; and the hungry wolf--with the drool running down his lips--was probably hungry for other than just food. It was with some curiosity then, that I picked up this anthology, the stories of which are, for the most part, modern-day reworkings of these classic fairy-tales.

And for the first half of the book I was quite entertained. It was interesting to see how the authors would rework these things to more adult, modern sensibilities. Rapunzel's mother kept her daughter locked in a tower because she hated men--her father raped her when she was a child. The wolf of the Little Red Riding Hood story is redone here--twice--as a stalking, predatory child-molester. And Jack, of Beanstalk fame, is lured to the giant's cloudy castle by the giant's lusty wife, a wench in search of an earthling to tryst with.

About half way through the thing, though, I began to notice a certain similarity in these tales: all of the men were horrid, selfish beasts. Worse, they were horrid, selfish, ONE-DIMENSIONAL beasts. Boring. And then I got to the story called The Snow Queen. This is the one story in the anthology which is based on a fairy-tale with which I was unfamiliar. Without the underlying subtext, I was forced to rely on more traditional ways of understanding. You know, like plot, structure, and character development. Those sorts of things. And lo and behold, the story fell flat on its face. The characterizations were either woefully simple or bizarre and unbelievable; the setting was unrecognizable; and the plotting was of the weird, scratch-your-head variety. Of course, if I had read the fairy-tale, it might have made more sense. But I hadn't, and it didn't.

And therein lies the problem with the whole thing. Unless you know the stories--and admittedly most of us do--you'll find that these new reworkings are mostly stale. All are thematically empty, and in retrospect this was to be expected: the goal, after all, was only to artificially recreate fairy-tales. Even in the better stories, this is exactly as far as they were able to go.

This book is different from anything else I've read. When I was younger than I am now, I often wondered about how the fairy tale characters had such great adventures but happily ending lives. This book gives you a more satisfying look at some not so happily ending fairy tales. Some of the stories I didn't understand parts of but all around, this book is so fine. Sometimes while reading it, I would pull my face out of the book for a moment and think, "I can't believe someone actually wrote that!!" This book is TFTD!!!! (Too Fine To Define) My friend read this book also and thinks it is sooooooo good!