This book reads as if it was started with a great burst of energy,lost steam somewhere along the line,was abandoned,picked back up,dusted off,put down again,and then finished off for a payday...I had great expectations for this work as Charles White was involved,the Killer was clean and sober and was eager to tell his story (set the record right) after his ex wife (and probably only true love) Myra came out with Great Balls of Fire which was made into the movie of the same name.Unfortunately,well... we get a rambling,somewhat incoherent hodge podge of rehashed stories that have been told and retold for the most part,and Jerry Lee really adds nothing new to them. There are some worthwhile nuggets;Jerry's brief profiles of some of his contemporaries,a few words on his substance abuse problems,and some great color commentary of touring life during the early days,however,what becomes apparent is that most of the time EVERYONE AROUND the Killer seems eager to tell jerry's life for him and he either lets them because it serves his purpose ,or he is resigned to this type of treatment,or maybe he is so crispy that he just doesn't have it in him.Whatever the reason,this book is definitely NOT THE story of Mr. Jerry Lee Lewis as it should be told.
This book is still a riveting read simply because one never knows where the rambling might lead!The frustrating point is knowing that this effort could have been so much more IF the Killer could have reached down inside and demanded from himself and from those around him that he be heard.

Richard Lee Byers returns to give us yet another excellent novel, which I bought immediately after having read his book Netherworld. Someone is roaming the streets of a calm city in the South, draining humans recklessly and thereby endangering the Masquerade. At the same time, the local kindred find their financial assets under attack, their art all over the world is being destroyed, and their Prince has mysteriously fallen ill. The Toreador elder Elliot Sinclair must get his act together and take charge of his city before it is too late, for all of this is only meant to weaken the kindred before the final attack... In one chapter you get to follow the respected Toreador elder, and in the next a Caitiff neonate, both fighting for the same cause but still enemies who don't meet until the end of the story. What nobody knows however is that this is part of a battle between two Methuselahs, and in the end the stakes are higher than anybody could have imagined.

I strongly recommend this book, it has everything you could ask for in a V:tM novel. Byers doesn't fall for the temptation of creating characters with powers they shouldn't have (common in WoD literature), which only makes it more interesting. The kindred act just the way a member of this or that clan should, and even the most noble of them have to struggle against their bestial nature. In short, this book can be used as inspiration for your own roleplaying, or simply for the joy of reading a great story.

This is very real, very moving poetry from the heart of some oftoday's youth. While reading it I was reminded of the power andvolatility of teen emotions and found myself imagining how different my life would be had I faced such challenges when I was their age. Their words go right to the gut. As a poet and writer, I know how emancipating words can be and the words of these teens hold promise that through their poetry they can release their pain and confusion, dare to hope for a better future and transform their energy into positive creativity. It is an insightful and beautiful book.

My students and I laughed all the way through this one! It's a very amusing take on "Snow White," and I read it to my class after reading the original during the fairy tale unit we did for reading. We then made a Venn diagram, citing differences and similarities between the two stories. It's definitely worth reading!

This is an in-depth look at the days leading up to the evacuation of Vietnam, by my Father who was there on the USS Midway. Learn about the heroism and tragedy of this dark period of American history. My favorite story is about the Vietnamese Air Force pilot who flew his entire family out in a 2 man Piper Cub.

What makes this book fascinating is the different philosophies of the 2 authors. Toby was the son of a Navy admiral, who would serve his country for 20 years. Ed is an ex-Vietnam war protester with a doctorate in history. Toby has his doctorate in management science. What makes this book work is Ed's devotion to historical accuracy and Toby's extensive connections within the military community.

I would like to recommend a new book to Amazon.com readers. It is "Under the Burdock Weed", by Lee Carl. I am not familiar with Carl's work, but he does have a nice command of the English language,

I picked this book up hoping it would be interesting enough to get me through lunch and a session under the hair dryer. It did that and much more. I am a big admirer of character development and strong story lines, and this book has both. Carl has created real people and then placed them in believeable situations to get them from beginning to end without relying on four letter words to keep the audience's attention.

This is one of those rare books that a family can share, and I urge them to give it a try.

A reader from Woodland Hills, CA

[....]
I picked this book up hoping it would be interesting enough to get me through lunch and a session under the hair dryer. It did that and much more. I am a big admirer of character development and strong story lines, and this book has both. Carl has created real people and then placed them in believeable situations to get them from beginning to end without relying on four letter words to keep the audience's attention.

This is one of those rare books that a family can share, and I urge them to give it a try.

A reader from Woodland Hills, CA

This is a fun book for kids, and has a lot of common sense easy recipes they can follow. It starts off by teaching the basics of building a campfire, especially the safety involved, and putting out the fire. It has sections on cooking on a grill, cooking in a pouch, and on a stick. If you havne't doen these it is hard to describe, since they do not mean an animal on a spit here. This is good for cub scouts or other youth groups to teach basic cooking skills to kids in the woods.

This was a great buy for my 9 y/o! She loved it and we enjoyed all the goodies she made for us!

This book is well written and beautifully illustrated.

It expands the basic recipe file of backpacking campers to include many delicious meals.

This is a great resource for those who are just beginning their camping experiences, especially scout leaders who need to teach their young scouts how to cook over an open flame.

If the axiom ‘Write what you know’ is at all true, then James Lee Burke must have some truly frightening skeletons in his closet. It isn’t so much the subject matter, as it is the passion and intensity with which he pours the narrative onto the page. Burke’s characters live and breathe corruption, and ignorance, and violence, in a manner most of us would scarcely think possible. But he draws us in, into a world so vividly sketched that part of our being yearns to visit it again and again.

A SHINING WHITE RADIANCE is vintage Burke, another steamy and scintillating exploration of crime and corruption in New Orleans. His familiar hero, world-weary police detective Dave Robicheaux, is unwillingly enveloped in the twisted lives of the Sonniers, a local family with a history so unnerving that it’s a wonder any of them got out alive. Following the brutal slaying of a police officer in Weldon Sonnier’s home, Robicheaux is swiftly sped along a road of clues and red herrings, stopping at various points to involve late-night tele-evangelists, local crime bosses, past loves, Air America, drugs, and the AB (Aryan Brotherhood).

Burke has so far (as far as my readings of the Robicheaux novels are concerned) avoided the pitfalls that can trap the author of an ongoing series. The temptation must be great to simply graft a plot around the characters, and let it all just slide by. Burke takes the effort needed to not insult his readership, never content to let the characters simply act as they have in the past. Burke comes up with new ways to reintroduce us to the characters, allowing for new developments that expand what we thought we new about his universe. Robicheaux’s past experiences in Vietnam are brought in as integral elements of the story, not simply ‘character filler’. His deep self-loathing for past mistakes, his never-ceasing battle with personal demons (both internal and external), and his ceaselessly evolving relationship with his wife Bootsie, adopted child Alafair, close friend Batist, and even closer friend Clete Purcel, keep the tale rooted in reality.

Burke can also compose one fine episode of menace after another. Just watch Robicheaux’s prison-cell conversation with Joey Gouza. Burke teases the reader, never showing his hand too early, and climaxes the scene with a harrowing interlude of incipient violence. The vignette is all the more striking for its lack of outward activity. The suspense is completely internalized, and mesmerizing. Only afterwards to you realize that you’ve been holding your breath.

Burke can also pen descriptive and atmospheric language with the best of them. His characters all speak with the accent of local patois, adding to the laid-back (but not lazy) environment of Burke’s New Orleans. His finesse with the undercurrent of racism permeates every moment, and his depictions of the backwoods swamps and seedy taverns are vivid. Maybe this New Orleans doesn’t exist in real life, but it feels like it does.

Does it all wrap up satisfyingly? No. After all the set-up, the promising situations, and the pacing that is both leisurely and break-neck, the ultimate denouement is somewhat lacking. But in context, perhaps it’s the only ending that would fit. As Robicheaux himself comes to understand, not everything in life is fair, and not everyone gets what they deserve. Evil will continue, but so will good. How we react to it, deal with it, is what defines us. If we’re still standing at the end of the day, then we’ve won.

Burke's descriptions are so vivid and well written. And some excerpts really are like poetry. His characters are real. You care about them. This is the fourth I've read in the Dave Robicheaux series. I think they are all very good. This one is great.

This is the fifth Robicheaux book I have read. I think this one was the best so far. It had lots of action, a good mystery going on. Dave is great as usual. I really like Cletus and his loyalty to Dave. I like the language that Burke weaves into the book. Batist is also a very good character. Burke lets you feel the pain and hurt Robicheaux has for himself and his love for Bootsie and Alafair. You can nearly feel the heat lighting and the dust from the roads. Many good characters, much suspense, a good ending. If you like Burke you will like this book, if you have not read him before I think you he will become one of you favoite authors.

The arrival on bookshelves of anything written by James Lee Burke is a reason for celebration in my household-- as well it should be, for the man is arguably the finest living craftsman of eloquent prose in America today. At my own book signings, my oft-repeated line is that I'd read a phone book written by James Lee Burke.

But I have to confess, I hesitated before taking home a copy of WHITE DOVES IN THE MORNING, Burke's most recent release. After all, it features neither Dave Robicheaux nor Billy Bob Holland; it is not a reprinting of what I consider Burke's Golden Age of fiction, the stuff he wrote in the 1960s (which still staggers, with its literary mastery) before disappearing for almost two decades.

WHITE DOVES is, rather, a Civil War novel-- not surprising, in a way, to any reader of Burke's other fiction. His fascination with both combat in general and the Civil War in particular is evident in much of his writing. Nonetheless, for the reader eagerly awaiting the next return of Streak or Billy Bob, the thought of instead plunging into a... historical novel? ...might give pause to even the most ardent James Lee Burke fan.

It shouldn't. Within a half-dozen pages, it is evident that the master is in rare form here. Burke's lyrical, evocative prose quickly sweeps the reader into a story that is impossible to put down.

It helps that much of the setting is familiar ground: Burke's beloved Louisiana bayou country, specifically the New Iberia of 1861 - 65. The smells and sounds of what will, in a century or so, be Dave Robicheaux country, will be immediately recognized by any Burke aficionado-- a timeless land of live oaks, hanging air vines and mosquitoes buzzing in the marshland shadows.

It also helps that many of the character names we've become accustomed to in the Robicheaux chronicles are also present-- this time, as living characters who flesh out the fables and anecdotes and events that later will be passed down to Dave Robicheaux and from him, to we readers. We meet the Negro freeman and slave owner Jubal Labiche, whose skin color will make no difference to the soon-to-be-invading Yankees. We meet brothel owner Carrie LaRose and her brother, the brawling, pirate-minded Jean-Jacques LaRose, both shrewd Cajun entrepreneurs who deal in contraband and live by their own rough code of ethics. We meet Ira Jamison, whose sprawling Angola Plantation will later become Angola State Penitentiary.

And while we do, we realize that we already know their descendants, themselves familiar from the Burke/Robicheaux series: the twin Labiche daughters of another generation, one of whom will be executed for the murder of her molester; the LaRose descendant, elected Louisiana governor only to die in a last effort to save his doomed wife in a pyre that was the LaRose mansion; even the Angola Prison which is so often plays a key dark role in Burke's Robicheaux tales.

It is a masterful device, this intermingling of our recollections from other novels and other storylines, that in less capable hands could have failed miserably. But Burke handles it with ease, even to the point of centering the story on his own ancestor, one Willie Burke.

If there is any flaw in WHITE DOVES IN THE MORNING, it is the distinctly too-abrupt conclusion with which Burke has provided us as an epilogue. Here, in a departure from the seductive rhythms, eloquence and rich characterization which Burke uses elsewhere so well, the author merely ticks off, one by one, a digest of the ultimate fates of the characters. It is a decidedly less-than-satisfactory conclusion for the reader; worse, it does a disservice to the characters in this novel. Burke's skill has turned them into living people about whom we now care, and whom he appears now to casually discard.

And it is in this sole failing that WHITE DOVES IN THE MORNING gives every James Lee Burke fan a reason for optimism.

We want more than Burke's closing has left us-- far more than the brief, tantalizing, much too incomplete information on the balance of these characters, these lives. We want the author to take us back: back to antebellum New Iberia, back to these characters, back to this compelling chronicle of a time and a place that he has drawn so well.

I don't know if WHITE DOVES IN THE MORNING was intended as the first in a new, ongoing series; given the amazing talent that is James Lee Burke, I can only hope so.

Earl Merkel

The rare winner of two Edgar Awards for best crime fiction of the year, James Lee Burke is the author of 21 previous novels including Jolie Blon's Bounce, Bitterroot, Purple Cane Road, In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead, and Black Cherry Blues, and a collection of short stories. He lives with his wife in Missoula, Mont., and New Iberia, La.

Burke is best known for his novels (11 installments) about Dave Robicheaux, a psychologically scarred homicide investigator for the New Iberia, La., sheriff's department. A recovering alcoholic, this moody and broody Cajun cop battles his own demons while apprehending evildoers.

The Dave Robicheaux series and the newer Billy Bob Holland series have garnered glowing accolades for James Lee Burke: "the poet of the mystery novel," "the Graham Greene of the bayou," "Eudora Welty crossed with Conan Doyle, William Faulkner crossed with Elmore Leonard," and "the Faulkner of crime fiction."

Burke's latest novel is a departure from the crime genre. Set during "the greatest epoch in American history," the Civil War, White Doves at Morning is a historical novel that depicts the first day of the bloody battle of Shiloh, at Pittsburg Landing near Savannah, Tenn.

With sweeping brushstrokes, Burke paints vivid pictures of the firestorm near Shiloh church ("the place of peace"); the peach orchard, where peach blossoms, cut by minie balls, fell like snow; the desperation at Bloody Pond; and the furious charges along a sunken road, at a hot spot known as the Hornet's Nest.

The author also brilliantly delineates the arrogance of power, pride, and prejudice on the home front in places such as New Iberia and New Orleans, La. In Chap. 10, Burke writes, "Willie wondered why those who wrote about war concentrated on battles and seldom studied the edges of grand events and the detritus that wars created."

The battle of Shiloh looms large in this story, but the author's main concern is to describe the effects of the Civil War on "the peculiar institution" of slavery, and the flotsam and jetsam created in the war's wake.

In one were asked to cite a quotation for the frontispiece of this book, it would be from the Pentateuch: "The sins of the fathers are visited upon their children unto the third and fourth generations" (Exodus 20:5).

As usual, Burke creates colorful characters and superb dialogue. By employing all the five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling), he paints a graphic tableau of time and place.

Some of the main characters are: Willie Burke, who enlists in the 18th Louisiana from duty rather than conviction in the correctness of the cause; Ira Jamison, owner of Angola Plantation and the largest slave owner in the state; the archvillain Rufus Atkins, Jamison's white trash henchman; the beautiful slave girl Flower Jamison, Ira Jamison's illegitimate daughter whom Willie Burke teaches to read; Abigail Dowling, a Yankee abolitionist from Mass., who risks her life freeing slaves via the Underground Railroad; and Carrie LaRose, owner of New Iberia's only bordello.

There is a cameo appearance by "that devil" Nathan Bedford Forrest, slave trader in Memphis, scourge of Union troops, and, in the Reconstruction Era, night rider in the Ku Klux Klan.

The conclusion of the novel seems abrupt: an Epilogue attempts to tie the loose ends together. I shall not reveal the name of the following tragic figure, but his fate is a good example of the poet's words: "The mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small."

Here is the passage from the Epilogue: "After a while his business associates were bothered by an odor the nostrums and perfumes he poured inside his gloves could not disguise. The lesions on his hands spread to his neck and face, until all his skin from his shirt collar to his hairline were covered with bulbous nodules. His disfigurement was such that he had to wear a hood over his head in public. His businesses failed and his lands were seized for payment of his debts. When ordered confined to a leper colony by the court, he fled the state to Florida, where he died in an insane asylum."

Although White Doves at Morning is atypical of Burke's usual work, the quality of his writing maintains its same high standard and engaging style. James Lee Burke is one of the best authors on the contemporary scene.

Roy E. Perry of Nolensville is an amateur philosopher, Civil War buff, classical music lover, chess enthusiast, and aficionado of fine literature. By trade he is an advertising copywriter at a Nashville Publishing House.

NOTE: The title of this book is taken from a doleful song sung during the Civil War, and, specifically, on the eve of the battle of Shiloh: "White doves come at morning / Where my soldier sleeps in the ground. / I place my ring in his coffin, / The trees o'er his grave have all turned brown."

The creator of David Robiceaux and Billy Bob Holland returns to historical fiction in a work set in Civil War-era Louisiana.

James Lee Burke has reached that stage where his name has become synonymous with his most successful literary creation --- David Robiceaux. Burke's Robiceaux novels have now spawned imitators and fans eagerly await the next installment in the series. In some instances, these fans become bitterly disappointed when a work bearing Burke's name on the spine does not contain a Robiceaux story therein. The series is so engrossing and well done that it is easy to forget that Burke's earliest writing dealt with other, occasionally historical, plots. In WHITE DOVES AT MORNING, he returns to that genre.

WHITE DOVES AT MORNING is a stand-alone novel, thus giving Burke freedom with his characters that he does not entirely have with the Robiceaux books or the Billy Bob Holland novels. One reads WHITE DOVES AT MORNING with no expectations other than that there will be a well-told, engrossing story. Burke has taken this freedom and run with it and, in the process, has created what might well be his finest work to date.

WHITE DOVES AT MORNING is set primarily in rural Louisiana during the Civil War and early Reconstruction. The primary characters are, as we are told, on the inside front cover, ancestors of Burke, though it is not immediately clear how much of the tale told within is family lore and how much is torn from the whole cloth of Burke's imagination. There is in all probability a healthy mix of both. Despite the change in subject matter, Burke continues the theme that runs through the Robiceaux novels --- that the rich are evil and can only transcend their circumstance with a healthy dose of guilt. This worldview, alas, is wearing rapidly thin --- there is no inherent evil in wealth, any more than there is a particular inherent nobility in poverty --- and Burke's incessant dwelling on the premise almost distracts from the beauty of his writing. Similarly, his presentation of the cause of the Civil War --- that it was fought over the issue of slavery --- is worse than simplistic; it is simply incorrect. The magnitude and beauty of Burke's writing, however, is such that one can easily suspend disbelief when encountering these issues and appreciate the beauty of this work.

The beauty and contrast within WHITE DOVES AT MORNING lie primarily in its characters. Robert Perry and Willie Burke, despite their disparities of background and opinion, join the Confederate Army while not sacrificing their principles, as well as their commitment to Abigail Dowling, a Massachusetts abolitionist who had come to Louisiana several years previously to aid in the battle against yellow fever. Burke also forms a friendship, unlikely for that time and place, with Flower Jamison, a beautiful young slave who is owned by Ira Jamison, owner of Angola Plantation and, though he refuses to admit it, Flower's father. Burke secretly teaches Flower how to read and write, an act that places both of them in danger. Flower becomes the catalyst from which much of WHITE DOVES AT MORNING proceeds. She finds herself the object of desire of Rufus Adkins, the overseer of her father's plantation and a source of unspeakable evil. Adkins and Burke, cast together in combat during the Civil War, are uneasy comrades. They wear the same uniform, but are by no means on the same side.

It is this conflict, woven throughout WHITE DOVES AT MORNING, that is the ultimate manifestation of Burke's ability to present through implication the complexity of relationships against a backdrop of social and moral difficulty. There are also passages here which bring to mind some of the best work of Cormac McCarthy, particularly when the author describes the horror of battle and its physical and emotional aftermath. The end of the war, however, does not herald the end of the terror. Burke, Flower, and Dowling find themselves caught between the conquering army of the North and the dreaded night riders --- the Ku Klux Klan and the Knights of the White Camellia of which Adkins, ever the lowest common denominator opportunist, is a member.

WHITE DOVES AT MORNING ultimately demonstrates the rippling effect that an act of bravery and simple kindness --- in this instance, Burke's instruction to Flower in reading and writing --- can have upon people over time. Fans of Robiceaux who eschew this work simply because their favorite Cajun detective is not its prominent feature will only cheat themselves. At the same time, those who are unfamiliar with Burke's work will find WHITE DOVES AT MORNING far more than an introduction to a new author. This work, in time, will perhaps become the most highly regarded of all of Burke's efforts.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

The book I Rode a horse of Milk White Jade is about a girl named Oyuna. At the beginning of the book Oyuna dresses up as a boy and starts her adventure by going and being a part of the Khan's army. After that she has a lot of fun adventures. I gave this book 3 stars because I didn't like it very much. But I would recommend it to a reader who likes books with a lot of adventure and history.

This book was thought out, the epic story of a girl in mongolia that was cursed with bad luck saves a young boy, by dressing up as a man and joining a army as she travels she encounters new struggles and when she is sent to give a package to china's ruler she agrees, as her journey goes on she looks for the perfect horse to run in the race but she finds out the perfect horse has been right there the whole time....

This is a story within a story; Oyuna tells her life story to her granddaughter as they wait for the birth of a new foal. Oyuna was crippled shortly after her birth, when a horse stepped on her foot as she lay in the grass. Unable to walk well, she learned that horses gave her freedom of movement, and she learned to regard her disability as an indication that she was fated to be a great horsewoman.

She grew up knowing the pain and shame of her difference from others. Not only was she a girl in a time and place where girls had little value, but she was a cripple, too. But having greater limitations than others drove her to even greater determination to attain her dreams. And this is the lesson that she passes on to her granddaughter.

Oyuna followed her heart, buying an old mare despite her age and a lame leg because of the bond between them. And her strong bond with her horse, and her cat as well, became the greatest forces that shaped her life.

The superstitions of her simple society permeate Oyuna's narrative, and it may require a bright and skillful reader to separate the real from the superstition in the tale. But for that reader, this is an enchanting and gripping story.