Two different pasts meet in this fine novella. In the past of history, the Mentor is carrying the marble statues plundered from Athens' Parthenon by Lord Elgin. But hiding in the ship's hold is a secret from another, more ancient time before Athens was built, when the daughters of the gods dwelled in groves of ash and oak trees -- the past of mythos.

If this story represents the quality of work that iPublish plans to put forward, then iPublish ought soon to be a leader in the new, and tricky, world of e-publishing.

"Spirit of the Place" is exquisitely written, evoking the fascintating and much-mined period of the early 19th Century without resorting to painful pastiche or awkward modern anachronism.

The English love affair with Greece drives the story; the issues raised then (and now) about the removal of ancient Greek treasure become a palimpsest on which we glimpse, through the protagonist, not just the truly alien world of the past, but the powerful and dangerous realm of myth.

Highly recommended.

The ST. JAMES GUIDE TO CRIME & MYSTERY WRITERS is the most useful reference book available now for mystery fans. It also is a very entertaining book. The one limitation is that the quality of the various entries seems to vary somewhat because of the large number of contributors.

This book is a guide to the works of over 650 authors of crime, mystery and thriller fiction. Each entry includes a biography, a complete list of published works in book form and a critical essay. The 1261 page volume was nominated for a MaCavity Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work published in 1996.

"Sometimes, Mama and me look down at the street and pretend it's not the city. We shut out eyes so only a crack is open, lookin' through our eyelshes, and pretend we live on the moon. The lights we see? They're stars, as many as the sky can hold. And sirens? That's wild wolves howlin' at the moon. If there's shots fired, we say it's the light of the stars crackin' the darkness..." So begins Barbara Joosse's nameless young narrator's story of the dangerous and tenuous life in the inner city. When his beloved brother, Richard, stops coming home at night, he and his mother realize he's become a gang banger. "We can't pretend no more," she says. "We gotta be strong now." His mother implores him, "Don't you be hanging' out with those bangers, Richard. Don't. Be somebody for this world." But Richard is caught up in the life, "walkin' that walk, like he's King Stuff." When Richard comes home injured and bandaged, Mama and Richard's little brother hatch a plan, a plan to take back the neighborhood. "We call 'em Peace Walks. Every night now, there's family on the street. We take turns walkin' the night. When it's my turn, I shut my eyes so only a slit is open, and I look through my eyelashes. I see streetlights, like before, but now I see flashlights, too. Stars crackin' the darkness." Ms Joosse's bittersweet picture book, geared to little brothers and sisters, "the stars in the darkness," is neither judgemental nor sentimental, but truthful and filled with hope. Her evocative text, rich in imagery and magic, is compelling, written in realistic language and complemented by Gregory Christie's powerfully bold and expressive illustrations. Together word and art paint a vivid portrait of life in the inner city, family love, and the courage and strength to try and make a difference. With an Author's Note about the real Richard, to enhance the story and help open important discussions, and a comprehensive list of resources on gang prevention, Stars In The Darkness is an inspiring narrative that shouldn't be missed, and definitely one of the best new books of 2002. Kudos to Joosse and Christie.

Author Joosse chooses a tough subject and writes about it in the most touching manner. The love of a family, a mother and a younger brother, are not enough to keep a boy from joining a gang. Even though Richard tries to hide his gang activities from them, the young narrator of the story tells us "I know what I know." The boy and his mother come up with a plan that involves their neighbors, making them true "stars in the darkness." Every parent and child will find in this powerful book a way to connect to the feelings, fears, and hopes of the families whose lives are affected by gangs.

There aren't too many picture books or stories for children that deal so well with the issues of grieving and healing and the questions about life after someone you love has died. This book gently tells, in story and fable, the healing words of how to carry on and what it is to live, and why we need to remember. Any parent or child old enough to understand death can take comfort and healing from this story. I wish I had a hundred copies of this to give to all of my friends who have lost someone. In the traditions of ANNIE AND THE OLD ONE, and THE TENTH GOOD THING ABOUT BARNEY this is another work that deals with death, life, and those who must deal with the questions that surround them.

I believe this book was incredibly well done. The story is great and the illustrations INCREDIBLE. Barry Moser did an incredible job with the illustrations. I really do recommend this book to everyone.

First of all, this book is a good look at an African-American activist for peace who preached racial unity long before Martin Luther King was born. Secondly, although this book is about a prominent member of the Bahai Faith and the author (whom I met recently) is a Bahai, the book benefits by being objective about the Bahai Faith as it does not propagandize, but matter-of-factly discusses some of the internal problems within the faith during Mr. Gregory's lifetime. So it's a good read as you see Mr. Gregory's efforts to preach a good message of unity to a country and world that had (and still has) a way to go in accepting. People who are objective about religion will be inspired by Mr. Gregory's story through Ms. Morrison's telling.

"To Move The World" is the fascinating story of the life of Louis Gregory, the son of slaves and one of the first African-American Baha'is. Gayle Morrison places the life of Louis Gregory within the context of the struggle of Black Americans to achieve racial equality and the growth of the Baha'i Faith as an interracial community in North America in the first half of the twentieth century. Gregory, a lawyer, was an eloquent advocate of racial unity and bravely demonstrated that belief in his own life by marrying a white woman at a time when such cohabitation was illegal in many U.S. states. He helped to organize some of the earliest racial unity gatherings held in the U.S. Although Gregory is well known by Baha'is (for example, a Baha'i radio station - WLGI - in Hemingway, S.C. is named for him), his achievements deserve to be recognized more widely. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the struggle for civil rights or Baha'i history.

This is the most beautiful book with high moral teachings of perfection and deep symbolism. I have bought 10 copies for my grandchildren and sons. It is truly a classic! Beautifully bound. Beautiful pictures. NOt only good for children but also adults. A must in every home.

This book is an inspiration to the reader. Combining the words of Myra Brooks Welch's famous poem, and the detailed and vibrant illustrations of Greg Newbold, The Touch of the Master's Hand provides a wonderful image of the worthiness of every individual in the eyes of God, even when other people may not recognize their worth or value. This is a book which is good for all ages.

Louise Edwards writing in The China Journal (July 1999) says: "This innovative volume furthers a dialogue between China studies and postcolonial and cultural studies. Using literary debate as its primary focus (popular music is also discussed in Chapter 6), the book raises questions for all disciplines of China studies, Gregory Lee also makes a timely contribution to the field of postcolonial studies...Troubadours, Trumpeters, Troubled Makers makes a valuable contribution in resisting the "mixophobia" that is so prevalent in academic scholarship."

This book attempts to promote a non-authentic, non ethnocentric, and more complex perspective on certain aspects of Chinese poetic and political culture. Its concerns, as the title suggests, are not just with the culture of making and consuming lyrics, poems and songs, but also with questions to which such practices give rise. As the sub-title ( Lyricism, Nationalism and Hybridity in China and Its Others) suggests the interest is also in 'inauthentic' hybrid practices and communities - the book talks not just about mainland China, but about peripheral communities like Chinatowns and Hong Kong. Since this is a comprative work it looks at other non-national communities and cultures like that of southern France, or Occitania. Nor is the book an orthodox British or Western sinological statement on modern Chinese culture. Rather it attempts to shed light on those lyrical works that are either marginalized and occulted, or considered by conventional scholars to be literally beneath consideration. The chapters on contemporary poetry and the chapter on Chinese popular music, are attempts to do just that. Similarly the chapter on the representation of the Chinese American and the descendants of Chinese immigrants to Britain is there to tell a story of Chinese people who in a sense are no longer Chinese, and yet will always be seen and represented as such, and so at a certain level will always remain so.

How many books do you pick up and read in one can't-put-it-down" sitting? This book describes tomorrow's anarchism for the everyday, progressive, planet-minded citizen. Refreshing. Honest. Direct. UNCOMMON SENSE makes a helluva lot of sense! If this book speaks for you, you'll give this book as gifts to friends and relatives. I did. I said "refreshing" because Sams breaks old-tired-ways of looking at our social system and offers some paradigms that I am sure will become the norm when humanity evolves to ... to ... its next level of organization ... which will be a much simpler, more human organization. High school juniors and seniors will love this book ... if we could only apprise them of its existence. READ THIS BOOK. It'll change your world-view ... or give your current outlook some new ways to talk about it.

This book offers a unique insight into the overworkings of the "system", and sheds a unique perspective on how things "ought" to be, despite how they are. Given the authors' propensity to immerse himself in the middle of controversy, for example, protesting some of the brain-damaged decisions of the British Government, one might expect a heavy-handed moral tome. Instead, Gregory gently attempts to analyze the reasons why things happen, and offers alternatives that even we as mere mortals can employ in an attempt to bring on change by our individual and collective efforts.

Greg MitrovichÕs intense scholarship enlightens a recent but suppressed historical period with mastery and ease of access for all. His lucid style and awesome research makes accessible the complexity of a tense period that threatened the American way of life. This book uncovers not only the escalating events but the dynamic and individualistic human elements within the U.S. administrations that sets the stage for dramatic, if not drastic, responses against the Soviet power. Highly recommended!

This is a first-rate and very, very well researched examination of a dangerous period in U.S history. Through recently declassified materials, the author sheds a bright light on U.S. policies and covert actions, clearly documenting that America's intelligence agencies acted under the authority of policymakers at the highest levels. A must read for scholars and intelligence practitioners.

This large (perfect size for reading on your lap) book contains a series of intelligent essays and sumptuous illustrations and photos mapping the history of utopia from Plato on. I believe that the thing that makes it such a spectacular work is the wide range of disciplines, works and forces that the writers identify as utopic.

When people think of utopia, they often think of science fiction, fanciful and ideal worlds that make life better than our wildest dreams. In truth, most science fiction these days explores utopia as a critical paradigm, realising that we can not live in a perfect world, they explore the possibilities, the way they work and the way they fail. I'm all for this, but the thing that I loved so much about the New York Public Libraries book on Utopia, was the way it is very solidly linked to the real world.

It is, indeed, a book that explores the search for an ideal society in the western world. From the communes of the 1960's and '70's to the environmental housing collectives of the '80's and '90's. From the South Seas in the British imagination to Urban Geography, from Communism to Architecture, Romanticism and Formalism and Futurism, this book identifies attempts at and dreams of utopia from our own history. Rather than the speculation and fabulation of science fiction, the book provides us with our own speculation and fabulation, our own hope and idealism.

I've always been fascinated by Utopia, growing up reading Ursula Le Guin, Yevgeny Zamyatin and others, Dostoevsky's happiness versus freedom dillema grounded itself deep inside me, living in New Zealand often feels like paradise, and hopes for a better world got me imagining. I have a deep attachment to science fiction, and I'm not saying that this book is good because it neglects the genre's speculation, I'm saying it's good because it provides the social context that encouraged us to speculate in the first place. This book, to me, is a background to every speculative utopia work I have ever read, and the further understanding is invaluable to me. This book is a fascinating read. Devour it.

It also contains useful notes to illustrations, an index of personal names, a chronology of utopian/dystopian cinema and an extensive chronology of utopian literature .

If you have any interest in the subject of utopia, this book would be worth it for the pictures alone. It has marvelous reproductions of more than a hundred images associated with ideas of utopia. These include illustrations from famous utopian novels, artwork and architecture inspired by utopian longing (including a lot of political art and propaganda), and pictures of actual communities devoted to utopian struggle and living. But it's not just pictures. The book is also filled with brilliant, provocative essays about historical and philosophical utopias. I am teaching a course on this subject right now, and the material in this book is better written and more apt to provoke discussion than most of the "primary" material that you see listed in utopian bibliographies and web-sites. This book originated as a catalog for an exhibit at the New York Public Library. I hate to say it, but the book is even better than the exhibit. If you have any interest in thinking about the project of making a better world here on Earth, this book will be a valuable resource. And much of it is fun and exciting to read.