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    Short Takes on New & Emerging Writers

    by
    Allen J. Post

    The Cockfighter
    by Frank Manley
    Coffee House Press • 1998
    $19.95 • hc
    The coming-of-age novel is far from rare for a first-time novelist and all too often spins out of a near-formulaic cloud of
    autobiography. Frank Manley has soared above that cloud into the crisp sky of literary prose to tell a simple, yet profound tale of
    emergence from child to adult.

    Manley's unusual story line, engulfing the world of cock fighting, illuminates his narrative with an off-stage lighting that lends an
    intriguing foreignness to an otherwise stock-vulnerable plot. Sonny, not yet thirteen years of age, has been given a prize fighting
    cock by his father. He is expected to fight the cock against all comers, because it is Sonny's first time in the ring. Sonny is proud
    and gratified at his father's attention, his compassion galvanized for the coarse, unemotional man. Yet Sonny must shed the
    shackles of boyhood; his instinct to treat his bird as a pet, his attachment to a mother who would prefer to delay his loss of
    innocence, his unmet allegiance from a father rushing to make him a man.

    The third-person narrative retains the author's emotional distance from events that could easily entrap another writer into merely
    plucking heartstrings. Manley's work resembles that of Southerner Lewis Nordan, who has perfected the coming-of-age novel; a
    bittersweet loss of innocence while fumbling for knowledge, and a subtle poking at adulthood from the man-child's untainted
    wisdom.

    Sonny is thrown abruptly into the unpretty adult world that is his father's; an arena of sexual innuendo, gambling, blunt language,
    machismo. A world, too, of principle. Sonny's father lives by certain respectable rules, including uncompromising sportsmanship;
    accepting defeat as gracefully and unemotionally as success. Sonny is unprepared for curt lessons and meets them with innate
    skepticism, in turn questioning the stature of his father.
    In the end, Manley's young character finds his own path, rejecting his father's example and alienating the paternal compassion he
    so desires. Ironically, Sonny not only matches his father's manhood, but excels it. Frank Manley's first novel, too, excels; a
    harbinger, one hopes, of this author's rich literature to come.

    Blue Bossa
    by Bart Schneider
    Viking • 1998
    $24.95 • hc
    Ronnie Reboulet is an over-the-hill, ex-junkie jazz trumpeter living quietly with a woman similarly flawed by the ravages of time
    and human fallibility. He mans a golfcourse pro-shop and hustles local fat cats out of nine and eighteen holes of ego-induced
    stakes. Enter Rae, Ronnie's long estranged daughter, son Quincy in tow. Rae also brings the baggage of the past; her mother's
    alcoholism, Ronnie's abandonment of family, and her own single motherhood.

    A marginal singer with dreams of turning professional, Rae is awkwardly welcomed into Betty and Ronnie's domain. The group,
    at moments, resembles a family. The illusion is never long-lasting, however. Both Ronnie and Rae answer the call of wanderlust;
    Ronnie, inspired by his daughter to again play the trumpet, and Rae, to escape the onus of single motherhood. As with all familial
    dysfunction, members suffer. Here, Betty and Quincy are generational bookends softly pressuring to keep Ronnie and Rae
    standing tall.
    As background to the familial collage is the Patty Hearst kidnapping, providing a communal topic of interest to the characters and
    setting the '70s era tone of the author's native San Francisco. 1974 marks, in essence, the winding down of the sixties and a
    dogleg in social climate. For Ronnie, it is the end of self-imposed retirement and a return to the briefly abandoned lifestyle of a
    jazz spirit.

    Schneider, a St. Paul resident and editor of the Hungry Mind Review since its inception in 1986, employs lucid, unadorned
    language that conveys a respectful empathy for his flawed characters, which may be just shy of adoration. The brevity of chapters,
    often a page or two in length, initially unsettles a reader's rhythm; once attuned, however, the pace adds a jazzy tempo to this
    salutary, tasteful riff of a novel.

    An Underachiever's Diary
    by Benjamin Anastas
    The Dial Press • 1998
    $15.95 • hc
    Anastas' debut novella blends sardonic humor with sharp insight, transmitted within the author's easy prose. Narrated by
    protagonist William as a diary from birth to twenty-something, the eponymous underachiever examines in candid detail his travel
    along the path of unapplied potential. That journey is closely juxtaposed and partly reactionary to William's twin brother's vast
    success.

    Given the author's intelligence and command, one may assume that the autobiographical construct of this diary-novella remains
    near-wholly fictional. Indeed, it is the imaginative treatment of the autobiographical motif, beginning at an uneasy natal rivalry, that
    raises Anastas' work above that of many first novelists. The narrator begins at day one not only for the comedic effect of an infant's
    story in an adult voice, but also to lay the psychological foundation of the character's future failings. Far from a therapeutic
    confessional, the first-person narrator takes jabs at psychology, social convention, political correctness, and the like.

    William, in seeing through it all, is unable to find a niche above mere survivalism. He dallies at college and various jobs, attempts
    relationships which prove always empty, and is stuck forever within the shell of ennui. William seldom acts on his life but
    continually reacts, flawed by adolescent self-absorption.

    There is an element of contrivance in Anastas' narration that, had he extended it beyond the brief 147 pages, would have flirted
    with the reader's ennui. Fortunately, the author's sense for quick cadence and barbed insight, makes An Underachiever's Diary a
    successfully quirky, entertaining first book.

    Rainlight
    by Alison McGhee
    Papier-Mache Press • 1998
    $22.95 • hc
    The first in a planned trilogy set in the fictional Adirondack town of Sterns, Rainlight is a poignant interplay of family and friends
    reacting to tragedy and subsequently examining their own lives and relationships. McGhee braids her various characters into the
    cord of her tale by employing their various narrative voices in alternating chapters.
    Starr Williams is husband, father, son, and ex-lover to McGhee's respective narrators. His presence and tragic absence is the
    cohesive glue that binds these small-town characters to one another. Nine-year-old Mallie, with a heart of gold and the wisdom of
    innocence, explores reincarnation and maintains a living diary on the tragic and accidental demise of her father. Her mother Lucia
    survives by throwing herself into her work with special-needs children. Grandfather Tim, gentle and caring, struggles with his own
    dark secret, and waitress Crystal raises little Johnny, a boy with an integral tie to Starr and a fascination for shiny objects. Hopes
    and dreams blend with the spiritual and exotic, buoying life above the events of the everyday.

    Rainlight is an emotive novel, unapologetically so. McGhee has a deep compassion for her characters and the tangled
    relationships she explores warrant feeling. Mallie, especially, is a character drawn with such acute innocence and charm as to
    make her walk off the page into the care of the reader. The depth of McGhee's characters, her even pacing of their individual
    stories into a whole, and the acute interplay of dialogue, earn this debut novel a literary richness well above any syrupy
    melodrama.

    As McGhee's fully-developed characters examine their own lives, the joy and tragedy that enters them, the reader too is softly
    cudgeled into self-examination. A person becomes defined not simply by words and actions, but by context and relations.
    Readers will eagerly await a future visit to Sterns.

    nixoncarver
    by Mark Maxwell
    St. Martin's/Buzz • 1998
    $19.95 • hc
    Richard Nixon and Raymond Carver as close friends in young manhood is the premise for Maxwell's highly imaginative first
    novel. The tricky politician and minimalist writer, interpersonally juxtaposed, become myths of the American Dream. Yet Maxwell
    reduces both men's stature to ordinary, life-size human beings with their ample share of flaws and misgivings.

    The contrivance, of course, is obvious. Its success lies in Maxwell's ability to candidly and genuinely explore the psyche of these
    men within that what-if? facade.

    Where does Maxwell take us? Not all that far, really, but the short journey is lively. Maxwell delves into the torment of Tricky Dick's
    childhood and spurns sympathy for the coarse and obsessive politician. Carver's deep existential angst plays well within the
    sharp, dispassionate dialogue between these two characters. Maxwell maintains an objective tone, treating the sometimes
    wince-inducing candor of his subjects with impartial humaneness. The result is ever humorous, often insightful, and incredibly
    credible.

    Readers with little interest in either icon will yet be impressed with the author's savvy. Maxwell has challenged himself to and has
    succeeded at a unique work of the imagination.

    The Paris Years of Rosie Kamin
    by Richard Teleky
    Steerforth Press • 1996
    $24.00 • hc
    At age forty, Rosie Kamin has lived in exile for two decades; exiled from family, friends, country, and history. An American Jew in
    Paris, Rosie is on no quest but has reactively shut out her heritage after her mother's suicide; a death activated in time-delay by
    the Holocaust.

    Rosie's flight to Paris is a flight from ancestry and heritage. She builds a simple, unadorned life as a teacher of English, and
    settles in with Serge, a Frenchman and intellectual communist. Rosie remains in touch with her younger sister Deb, keeper of
    the familial flame.

    Rosie's quiet world equally quietly begins to fall around her; Serge is suffering from a liver disease, an Algerian ex-lover suddenly
    reenters her life, and sister Deb's visit roils memories of her mother's tragedy. Rosie, finally, must confront the past and what
    meaning life holds. That significance is steeped in contradiction; love as both attainable and unattainable, family as definition and
    constraint, history as both sustainer and devourer of the soul.

    The Paris Years of Rosie Kamin is a hushed marvel of fiction. Pensive and intelligent, Teleky manages large themes within a
    deceptively small focus. Author of Goodnight, Sweetheart and Other Stories, Hungarian Rhapsodies: Essays on Ethnicity, Identity
    and Culture and co-editor of The Oxford Book of French-Canadian Stories, Teleky brings an unassuming, scholarly precision to
    his first-novel.



    MYSTERIES

    Brunswick Gardens
    Anne Perry
    Fawcett/Columbine, 1998
    "A century ago, Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution rocked the civilized world, and the outraged Angelican church
    went on the warpath against it. In a mansion in London's affluent Brunswick Gardens, the battle is intense, as that most
    respected clergyman, the Reverend Ramsay Parmenter, is boldly challenged by his beautiful assistant, Unity Bellwood--a Œnew
    woman' whose feminism and aggressive Darwinism he finds appalling. When Unity, three months pregnant, tumbles down the
    Parmenter's staircase to her death, Thomas Pitt, commander of the Bow Street police station, is virtually certain that one of the
    three deeply devout men in the house committed murder..."

    Pulse
    by Echo Heron
    Ballantine, 1998
    "Murder is making the rounds at San Francisco's Ellis Hospital. When Chloe, everybody's favorite nurse, dies in the recovery room
    after a routine appendectomy, nurse Adele Monsarrat's suspicions are aroused. Certain one of her coworkers is behind the three
    sudden deaths among the hospital staff in a year, Adele sets out to find the culprit. But who in this pressure-cooker workplace--
    where drugs, sex, and odd spiritual practices serve to ease tension--bears the mark of true madness? As Adele starts probing
    with the help of the handsome medical examiner, the fever of fear soars, and a brilliant maniac watches and waits."

    Dataman (galley copy)
    Tom Mitcheltree
    Writeway, 1998
    "Fremont High School, Portland, Oregon, has just become the center of intense media attention˜ two of its teens have been
    murdered while "tagging" a school wall. Attention then shifts to what looks to become an epidemic of "tagger" murders as teen
    after teen is shot to death with a long- range rifle, usually in the dead of night, while the boys are practicing their "art." Stumped by
    these random acts of terror, the Portland police approach information specialist Tom Walkinshaw˜ alias Data man˜ and ask him
    to work his computer magic to help them discover a pattern in the murders, and perhaps the name of the murderer. Agreeing to
    get involved, even though he has several other active cases to unravel˜ a missing father; a computer blackmail scheme; a couple
    of county land statutes to plot˜ Walkinshaw soon realizes that he's become a target as his data programs lead him byte-by-byte to
    another computer wizard. And in this real- life game of computer cat-and-mouse, there can only be one winner˜ and the killer is
    determined that it won't be Data man!"

    The Surrogate Assasin (A Sherlock Holmes Mystery) (galley copy)
    Christopher A. Lepper
    Write-Way Publishing, 1998
    "Watson and Holmes come to America in the late 1880s to help Edwin Booth discover who's been taking pot-shots at the actor at
    various theaters around the world. In the process, of course, Holmes finds himself drawn to the intrigue offered by the Lincoln
    assassination˜ and sets out to prove, once and for all time, who really murdered the president."

    Catfish Cafe
    Earl Emerson
    Ballantine, 1998
    "It's been a long time since Thomas Black and Luther Little watched each other's backs as Seattle cops, but the friendship that
    made them "as close as brothers" has endured. So when his beloved daughter, Belinda, succumbs to drug addiction and
    vanishes into a world of pushers and pimps, Luther taps Black's PI skills to rescue her from the dark side. Black soon discovers
    that the girl had good reason to disappear: she's mixed up in a headline-making murder. In her wake she left an empty purse and
    a wrecked car with a dead Eagle Scout in the backseat pumped four times in the stomach with an automatic. Stranger still, the
    victim is a Tacoma elementary school teacher with an impeccable reputation. But tracking the past of a white-bread teacher is
    more hazardous than it sounds, and following Belinda's trail through the world of vice will lead Black into homicidal hell...and
    back to that modest little eat-in/take-out...called Catfish Cafe."



    NOVELS

    The Midnight Before Christmas
    William Bernhardt
    Ballantine, November, 1998
    "Thirty-something lawyer Megan McGee is facing a quiet Christmas with her bulldog when Bonnie Cantrell comes looking for
    legal protection from her violent ex-cop husband, Carl. In a recent bout of rage, Carl vowed to kill their seven-year-old son,
    Tommy, rather than to be separated from the boy. It's no idle threat, either˜ as Bonnie assures Megan: ŒHe's tried before.' And
    when Tommy's school unwittingly allows him to leave with his father, Carl gets another chance. Now, with the town all but shut
    down for the holiday, Megan races against time˜ and terror˜ to keep Carl's Christmas Eve jaunt from turning into a slay ride."

    A Perfect Crime
    Peter Abrahams
    Ballantine, 1998
    "Francie Cullingwood, with her no-nonsense business savvy and exquisite eye for acquisition, is a rising star in the Boston art
    world. But her personal life is about to take a decidedly dark turn. Caught in a passionless marriage to Roger, a man with a
    genius IQ and a failed career, she begins a love affair with a charismatic radio psychologist, Ned DeMarco, who brings her
    excitement and a vibrant new sense of life. That Ned is married to vulnerable and eager-to-please Anne is of little consequence to
    either Ned or Francie. Francie suggests a divorce, but Roger won't hear of it. And when this adulterous affair is revealed, his
    devious mind begins to construct the perfect, flawless crime. Everything considered: motive, means, opportunity, evidence,
    suspects, alibis. The perpetrator must remain an invisible presence, seeing the plot through to its chilling conclusion,
    manipulating the players like chess pieces in an intricate, deadly game."

    Tomcat In Love
    Tim O'Brien
    Broadway, 1998
    "He is 6'6" tall, a cross between Ichabod Crane and Abe Lincoln. He is a professor of linguistics, bewitched by language, deluded
    about his ability to win the hearts of women with his erudition and physical appeal. He is Thomas H. Chippering, a.k.a. Tomcat, a
    masterly addition to the pantheon of unforgettable characters in American fiction...Tomcat In Love gives us a blundering, modern-
    day Don Juan who embodies the desires and bewilderments of men everywhere."

    Childhood
    Andre Alexis Henry
    Holt, 1998
    "Set in Petrolia, a Southern Ontario town close to the US border, in the 1950's and 1960's and in Ottowa in the years that follow,
    the story is narrated by Thomas MacMillan. Through his clear- eyed vision and his unsentimental ordering of events, we meet a
    cast of brilliantly drawn characters. Among them are Edna MacMillan, Thomas's volatile, unpredictable Trinidadian grandmother,
    and Katarina, the mother who left Thomas at birth and then, ten years later, in the company of the sinister Mr. Mataf, swoops him
    up and takes him from Petrolia. Soon after, we meet the unforgettable Henry Wing, a Black man with Chinese blood, a gentle
    conjurer who lives in faded Victorian splendor and whose life's work as a self-styled scientist is collecting esoteric facts of the
    natural world. This is an intricately textured chronicle of a life in which a man's quest for what is lost discloses the ambiguous
    nature of the past and leads him closer to the truth about himself."

    Ella Price's Journal
    Dorothy Bryant
    The Feminist Press, 1997
    "Dorothy Bryant's pioneer novel of women's consciousness unfolds as a series of entries in the journal of Ella Price, a suburban
    California housewife with a reliable husband, a teenaged daughter, and a deep sense of discontent, who has decided to attend
    college for the first time at the age of thirty-five. What Ella learns inside and outside of class will leave her irrevocably changed,
    and force her to make painful but empowering choices."

    Confessions of Madame Psyche
    Dorothy Bryant
    The Feminist Press, 1998
    "Mei-li Murrow, the illegitimate daughter of a Chinese prostitute and a white confidence man, is recreated as the medium
    ŒMadame Psyche' after she accidentally predicts the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Although she wins fame and fortune as
    a medium, Mei-li seeks a truer spirituality, and embarks on a pilgrimage that takes her to the death-soaked Europe of the First
    World War, to a utopian commune in the Santa Cruz Mountains in the 1920's, to Depression-era migrant work camps and
    cannery strikes, and finally to the Napa State Hospital, where she finds wisdom and peace among the outcasts of the asylum.
    This modern-day epic is grounded in the history of Northern California in the first half of the twentieth century and peopled by
    comrades of many classes and cultures and by lovers both male and female. Yet Mei-li's central odyssey remains one of inner
    discovery. In Confessions of Madame Psyche, Dorothy Bryant has created a character who is so honest in her search for truth,
    growth, and spiritual understanding that this quest becomes inherent to her survival."

    The Golden Rope
    Susan Fromberg Shaeffer
    Fawcett-Columbine, 1996
    "Doris Meek adored her twin sister, Florence. She was only too happy to play in her gifted sister's shadow. And there she
    remained. For when Florence disappeared at the height of her career as an artist, she had disavowed Doris. The world thought
    the great Florence Meek was an orphan. For twenty years this fact made searching for Florence a psychological impossibility. But
    now Doris wants to know. Why did Florence carve a life for herself from lies and half-truths? And as she seeks answers, Doris
    begins to solve the greatest mystery of all: her own identity..."

    The Last Resort
    Alison Lurie Henry
    Holt, 1998
    "When Jenny met Wilkie Walker, she was 21 and he was 46. Years later, Jenny is the loyal Victorian wife, devoted to her much
    older husband, a very famous writer and naturalist. She has spent her life researching and editing Wilkie's best-selling books
    and raising their children, and though perhaps a little old-fashioned in the view of her friends, she has always been happy with
    this life and her marriage. But as the cold New England winter approaches, Wilkie is increasingly depressed, withdrawn, crippled
    with insomnia and, unbeknownst to Jenny, even contemplating suicide. Jenny, longing for warmth and sunshine in her own life
    and hoping to instill some new life into Wilkie, persuades him to rent a house in Key West...Soon enough, all of their lives begin
    to turn upside-down, with Jenny and Wilkie at center stage. Jenny, mistaking Wilkie's urge to die for his disinterest in her and
    wrongly thinking that Wilkie is having an affair, turns to someone else for love and support. Meanwhile, Wilkie, feeling useless to
    society and convinced he has cancer (even though his doctor says he's fine), is planning his own suicide--a task which turns out
    to be more difficult than he thought."

    The Ultimate Rush
    Joe Quirk
    Weisbach/Morrow, 1998
    As the sole rollerblading courier at a San Francisco delivery service, Chet Griffin is the fastest messenger in town. Every day, he
    delivers critically confidential packages, but when he hands over an already-opened envelope containing a floppy disk with billion-
    dollar information, a deadly serious customer demands satisfaction. On a routine run, one of Chet's co-workers gets murdered,
    the finger's pointed at Chet, and he finds himself on a rush job to save his own life. With quicksilver pacing and attitude to burn,
    "The Ultimate Rush" is a heart-clenching chase of cat-and-mouse-pad, leading up to a blade-churning, bullet-blasting finish like
    no other.

    A Desperate Silence
    Sarah Lovett
    Villard, 1998
    "ŒShe doesn't have a name. She's got the clothes on her back, a coloring book, a necklace, and a stick of bubble gum. She's ex
    parte. She's not talking. That's why they want you.' With these words, Dr. Sylvia Strange--the tough forensic psychiatrist--...is drawn
    into the world of a ten- year-old child too scared to speak...Dr. Strange must uncover this little girl's secrets or else the knowledge
    she possesses just might die with her."

    An Ocean in Iowa
    Peter Hedges
    Hyperion, 1998
    Scotty Ocean is turning seven years old, and he has announced earlier in his life that seven is going to be his year. It does turn
    out to be his year, but not the year he imagined. It is the year his mother leaves the family. At first, Scotty does astonishing things
    to get her to return. When he comes to believe she won't be moving back, he tries to replace her. Ultimately, he decides he must
    take drastic action to remain forever seven.

    Fatal Reaction
    Gini Hartzmark
    Ivy Books, 1998
    For Chicago attorney Kate Millholland, navigating the male-dominated legal profession was a piece of cake. Tough-minded and
    amazingly poised, Kate had seen it all. Or so she thought. With its blood-spattered walls and overturned furniture, the scene
    looked like a slaughterhouse. Kate wondered: Who would savagely murder Danny Wohl in his own apartment? Head of the legal
    department at Azor Pharmaceuticals, Danny was in the midst of pivotal negotiations with Tokyo investors. Now Kate dives into the
    billion-dollar deal midstream. And she finds the water filled with career sharks, secret affairs, lethal chemicals, and one cold-
    blooded killer."

    HalfBorn
    Woman V. Diane Wood Brown
    Anchor, 1998
    "Set in the 1970's in Tampa, Florida, "Halfborn Woman" is the moving story of a teenager, her single mother, and their common
    battle to overcome feelings of worthlessness. The story is told by fifteen-year-old Arlen, middle child of Olivia, an woman whose
    divorce has triggered bouts of depression and fits of anger. Sensitive and observant, Arlen shares the details of their tumultuous
    life together, including the incest and betrayal of Olivia's own unhappy childhood in the steamy Florida swamps. Openly yet
    lovingly, she recounts how the cycle of abuse is perpetuated, first with rage and later by neglect."

    Angle of Impact
    Bonnie MacDougal
    Ballantine, 1998
    "This explosive novel of suspense opens with a bang as Dana Svenssen, a brilliant Philadelphia lawyer, witnesses a collision
    between a helicopter and an airplane on her way to a routine client meeting. As fiery debris rains down on screaming families in
    the amusement park beneath the crash--where Dana's own two children are spending the day--Dana desperately races to the
    scene. In the frantic aftermath, she discovers that the tragic accident is far from accidental. Yet determining the cause of the
    collision is arduous and nearly impossible. As Dana assembles a crack team of forensic aviation experts to reconstruct the
    disaster, her troubled marriage threatens to crash and burn as well, until a kidnaping suddenly throws her into the maelstrom of
    a deadly, all-consuming conspiracy."

    Safe House
    Andrew Vachss
    Knopf, 1998
    "Burke's old prison pal Hercules, hired by a shadowy network that runs a safehouse for stalking victims, botched the job, and one
    of the stalkers is dead. To save his partner, Burke has to penetrate the network, and he makes a deal with the boss, Crystal Beth,
    a woman as obsessed as the stalkers. But Crystal Beth has a stalker of her own, an extortionist who threatens to bring down her
    entire network unless she surrenders one of the women she's hiding. When Burke learns that the extortionist might be
    government issue, and that the stalker he's protecting is a member of a neo-Nazi cell with plans to make Oklahoma City look like
    a pipe bomb, his survivalist instincts go on full alert. And when it comes down to making his own house and his family-of-choice
    safe, Burke turns lethal."

    River Angel
    A. Manette Ansay
    William Morrow, 1998
    "A miracle? A hoax? Or something in between? After researching supernatural occurrences in a number of small towns, Ansay
    became intrigued by the role which so-called miraculous events play in depressed areas. Ansay understands first hand the
    desire to find meaning in difficult circumstances. Disabled by a rare muscle disorder since the age of twenty she struggles to
    reconcile the longing purpose, a point to her illness-a longing instilled by her traditional Catholic upbringing-and the reality of
    living a day-to-day life which can be painful and frustrating."

    Standing in the Shadows
    by Michelle Spring
    Ballantine, 1988
    "The shocking murder lingered in the tabloids for weeks. A sweet elderly lady viciously killed in a quiet corner of Cambridge, her
    skull crushed with a concrete block by her eleven-year-old foster child, Daryll Flatt. Hideous as the crime was, the case was
    closed when the boy, curled up on te crack of a willow tree, confessed to the murder. Now, two years later, the boy's older brother,
    Howard, hires private investigator Laura Principal to revisit the case--and to answer the baffling question: Why?"

    Glorie
    by Caryn James
    Zoland Books, 1998
    "Glorie is the deeply moving story of a life recounted in old age, a gently humorous and bittersweet elegy for an independent spirit
    in decline. The daughter of immigrant parents from Portugal, Gloria Carcieri escapes the tedium of tenement life during the
    depression when she meets and marries her first true love. Pampered and protected by Jack during their fifty years of marriage,
    she survives the shock of his death by invoking his spirit for advice and solace in the suddenly confusing world in which she finds
    herself. With passion and humor she struggles with her well-meaning daughter and a colorful cast of relatives to hold onto her
    freedom, in this poignant tale of memory and the persistence of love. Caryn James vividly evokes the drama of life at the last
    turning. Glorie is a rich, powerfully accomplished novel."

    The Service of Clouds
    by Delia Falconer
    Von Holtzbrinck Publishing, 1998
    "Nineteen-ought-seven. The Blue Mountains of Australia. Eureka Jones, a young pharmacist's assistant with Œhistorical eyes,'
    falls in love with Harry Kitchings, a man who comes to town from some vague elsewhere to photograph clouds and the shadows
    they cast upon the land. Harry thinks of himself as a mystic, and he sees his pictures of clouds as images of the mind of God.
    Eureka's love for Harry is at the heart of Delia Falconer's lush and gorgeous first novel, a bestseller in Australia. The story unfolds
    in a town full of colorful eccentrics, and against the awesome backdrop of the Blue Mountains. Theirs is a stately, old-fashioned
    courtship, in which the first kiss comes after a couple of years; and after Harry suddenly leaves her, Eureka waits fifteen years
    before telling the story."

    Range of Light
    by Valerie Miner
    Zoland Books, 1998
    "Set in the High Sierra of California, Range of Light is a drama of friendship and memory as rich and intricate as the landscape of
    its setting. Two women are uneasily reunited for a week's hiking after an estrangement of 25 years. On the surface they could not
    be more different--Adele, a professor of history with a husband and children; and Kath, an unemployed community worker, a
    lesbian caring for her aging parents. Each will complete a transforming odyssey in the suffused and brilliant light of the
    mountains."

    Now It's Time to Say Goodbye
    by Dale Peck Farrar
    Strauss, Giroux, 1998
    "Colin Nieman and Justin Time abandon New York City for the tiny Kansas village of Galatea. Racially polarized and desperately
    poor, the town is dominated by Rosemary Krebs, a white matriarch determined to resurrect her lost Southern childhood, and
    Abraham Greeving, the black preacher who will do anything to stop her. This is the story of violence and prejudice in small town
    America: of Divine, a black hustler who's slept with as many men as he can seduce; of Wade Painter, a white artist insulated by
    his wealth and hermitlike existence; of Webble Greeving, a budding academic called back to take caare of ther disabled father;
    and of Myra Robinson, the grieving mother who lost her daughter long before she was kidnapped. As their stories unfold, we
    learn the truth about Galatea's dark past and even darker future: of Eric Johnson, an albino black man lynched because of the
    color of his skin, and of Lucy Robinson, the white teenager who must pay for her parents' crimes."

    Boyne's Lassie
    by Dick Wimmer
    Zoland, 1998
    "Dick Wimmer has created a classically irreverent hero in Seamus Boyne, a man of high purpose and tarnished morals. Now
    middle-aged and at the height of his celebrity, Boyne is a world- renowned painter and a ladies' man of heroic proportions,. Madly
    in love with his life, he stages hiw own death to rediscover the pleasures of anonymity. When his estranged 17-year-old daughter
    Tory hears of his death, she defies her mother and travels from New York to Dublin to attend his funeral, setting in motion a
    rollicking misadventure. This is a hilarious, picaresque romp through the back alleys, bedrooms and moldering castles of the
    Irish countryside."

    Miss Giardino
    Dorothy Bryant
    The Feminist Press, 1998
    "Miss Giardino is a rare testament to the inner life of a teacher, and to the possiblility of growth and self-discovery at any age. As
    the novel begins, retired schoolteacher Anna Giardino is found unconscious in front of the high school where she once taught, in
    San Francisco's Mission District. She is unable to remember what has happened or who she is. Gradually, Anna begins to
    recover tender but painful memories of her Italian American, working-class childhood, of her escape through education, and of
    her years devoted to teaching. But Anna must acknowledge that she has arrived at the end of her career estranged--from herself,
    from her profession, and from the students she sought to enlighten. Only when she confronts the events surrouding her
    mysterious "accident" can Anna accept and affirm her life."

    Mulberry and Peach
    Hualing Nieh
    The Feminist Press
    "Mulberry and Peach is set in the troubled climate of contemporary China and tells the story of a woman so haunted by the trauma
    of state authoritartianism that she develops a split personality. After years of physical and emotional confinement in both China
    and Taiwan, Mulberry moved to America where her alter-ego, Peach, emerges, becoming completely intoxicated by the freedom
    that America allows. Through the protagonist's fractured consciousness, Hualing Nieh encapsulates the turmoil and dislocation
    of the immigrant experience."

    Misadventures in the (213)
    Dennis Hensley
    Weisbach/Morrow, 1998
    "What ŒTales of the City' did for San Francisco, ŒMisadventures in the (213)' does double for Los Angeles in this tale of a
    struggling screenwriter, his circle of celebrity-seeking friends, and their madcap attempts to make it in the biz."

    Picture of Innocence
    Jill McGown
    Fawcett/Columbine, July, 1998
    "East Midlands farmer Bernard Baily, a violent man with a brutal temper, stands to pocket a hefty inheritance if he fathers a male
    child. After destroying one wife to achieve this end, Bailey turns his next marriage into a twisted business arrangement. If his new
    spouse produces a son, she will be paid handsomely for her trouble. But the real trouble is just beginning."

    Island Justice
    Elizabeth Wanthrop
    William Morrow, July, 1998
    "For Maggie Hammond, home means her beloved godmother, so when Nan dies, the Victorian house she inhabited becomes
    merely a possession for Maggie to shed. Bust when she meets Sam, the island naturalist, and a dead body rolls up on her
    beach, she finds herself drawn deeper and deepter intoo the complex world of the island's winter community."

    This is My Daughter
    Roxana Robinson
    Random House, June 1998
    "When Emma Goodwin and Peter Chatfield marry, both for the second time, they each have a daughter from their first marriages--
    Tess, three, and Amanda, seven. Their world is one of old money, fine houses, private schools and nannies. Beneath this
    glowing surface, however, is emotional turbulence. Over the next eight years, Emma and Peter work to forge a marriage and
    merge their families, certain that with love and determination they will succeed. Their two daughters, however, live in a world
    defined by loss and sadness, and their own sense of family has been shattered. The tensions increase as each character
    struggles within the confines of their new life, until a tragic accident forces them to confront themselves and one another."

    Swimming Lessons
    Lynne Hugo and Anna Tuttle Villegas
    Morrow, July 1998
    " An engrossing story of the unbreakable bond that develops between two very different women. Laurel is a highly competent
    psychologist with one seemingly unconquerable demon of her own: she's deathly afraid of water. Marna is a former swimmig star
    who has relinquished her Olympic dreams for the safe haven of her marriage. When Laurel resolves to master her fear and learn
    to swim, she enlists an initially reluctant Marna to teach her. Thus begins an extraordinary relationship, one that encourages the
    women to reveal their deepest, darkest selves. For Laurel, that means confessing the tragedy at the root of her paralytic phobia;
    for Marna, that means divulging her aversion to motherhood--and her furtive use of birth control pills to keep from conceiving.
    Then a sudden accidental disclosure upends both their lives, and their friendship may be just one of its many casualties."

    Love is a Racket
    John Ridley
    Knopf, 1998
    "Everything's a racket for Jeffty Kittridge, a thirty-seven-year-old ex-wannabe scriptwriter living on the skids in Hollywood--the two-
    bit cons he pulls for spending money; the way he convinces himself that he's not a drunk between every shot of booze he kicks
    back; the way he tries to assure Dumas, the local shark, that he's just about to pay off his 15K debt...Except he's not good at any of
    that...Then he stumbles on salvation: a dirt-caked, street-hardened, exquisitely beautiful young homeless woman named Mona--
    Jeffty prefers to think of her as Angel--who inspires both his love and the idea for the perfect con. It's Jeffty's chance to hit it big,
    and to be set for good in his new life wiht his new love. But as the momentum of the con carries him closer and closer to what he
    imagines will be a moment of blissed-out consummation with his angel Mona, Jeffty discovers there are some severe exceptions
    to his rule."

    No Physical Evidence
    Gus Lee
    Fawcett/Columbine, 1998
    "Joshua Jin is a deputy district attorney whose life is in crisis and his job in jeopardy. He is handed a politically charged
    Chinatown case involving the rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. The victim refuses to talk. The ex-con charged with the crime was
    arrested on a hunch. And there is no physical evidence. As an Asian-American prosecutor, Jin is under tremendous pressure
    from Chinatown to win a conviction. First, however, he must earn the confidence of his stone-silent client, a distant, troubled
    teenager who trusts no one. Working against a brilliant, high-priced defense attorney who wants nothing more than to crush the
    opposition˜ particularly when her opposition is Josh Jin˜ he throws his heart and soul into an imposible case that is for more
    explosive than he ever imagined." NOVELS

    Road Kill
    Kinky Friedman
    Ballantine, September 1998
    "Who would slap an Indian curse on a good ol' boy like country singer Willie Nelson? Probably the same person who's been firing
    shots into Willie's hotel room and sending nasty notes promising the cowboy crooner a one-way ticket to the big rodeo in the sky.
    Could it have something to do with the medicine man who got run over by Willie's tour bus one dark night? If anyone can find out,
    it's ace troubleshooter and well-known troublemaker Kinky Friedman."

    Mr. White's Confessi
    Robert Clark
    on Picador, 1998
    "For nearly two decades Lieutenant Wesley Horner has been working the homicide beat for the St. Paul Police Deptartment.
    During that time he has seen his country recover from the Great War, build highways and streetcars, and fall into the Great
    Depression. He has also lost his wife and his daughter, and returns each evening to a small house grown larger with emptiness.
    Detective work has been the one constant in his life...when a young woman if found dead, strangled and thrown to the bottom of a
    hill, at first, the clues come easily. Wesley locates Mr. White, a slow-witted store clerk who like to photograph attractive women,
    including the deceased, in his spare time. Wesley knows he can make White confess˜ until he finds that his suspect has a
    peculiar memory impairment. Meanwhile, Welsy must contend with Welshinger, a vice officer who has a strange, violent
    dissatisfaction with the job Wesley's been doing. Wesley always thought he knew the difference between memory and reality,
    guilt and innocence, but the closer he gets to Mr. White, the less certain he becomes."

    Switch
    Carol Guess
    Calyx Books, 1998
    "Everyone in Cartwheel has a silent desire burning in his or her heart. Their stories twist around Caddie, a waitress and the M&H
    Diner. Sometimes she hears a whisper of someone's secret story˜ Caddie is a person who pays attention. But she is also
    absorbed by her own hidden life: Caddie's lover is a woman passing as a man. Caddie and Jo look like any other Cartwheel
    couple, and Caddie has learned not to stumble with pronouns in front of the other waitresses. But she longs to tell someone
    about Jo; she longs for other women like herself."

    Those Who Trespass
    Bill O'Reilly
    Bancroft Press, 1998
    "One by one, high-level executives and correspondents are being murdered in the brutally competitive world of TV journalism.
    Soon it becomes clear that the killings are linked, the work of a bitter former newsman exacting revenge on those who derailed
    his career. First to be suspected is Shannon Michaels, a once-promising correspondent whose hopes for a TV new career were
    dashed when he violated the rules of the game. Also under investigation is jaded, hard-drinking David Wayne, another journalist
    whose career has been destroyed by the personal betrayals and corporate machinations of the TV news world. Tommy O'Malley,
    a tough but warm-hearted New York City detective, is assigned to crack the widening, high-profile murder cases, but encounters
    competition from a beautiful and tenacious tabloid reporter, Ashley Van Buren. As the story unfolds, Tommy and Ashley quickly
    discover they've got more in common than a knack for crime-solving!"

    Judy Garland, Ginger Love
    Nicole Cooley
    Harper Collins, 1998
    "Devastated by the death of her baby while it is still in the womb, Alice has emotionally distanced herself from her husband,
    Owen, and from her work as an artist. When her estranged, unstable twin sister, Madeline, calls out of the blue with the uncanny
    foreknowledge that something is wrong, Alice is drawn back to this one person to whom she is inextricably bound. Though wary
    of Madeline's hold on her, Alice is vulnerable after the loss of her stillborn daughter, and in need of answers to the puzzle that has
    been her life...Alice quickly realizes that Madeline is set on a psychological collision course that has long been in the offing. Still
    trapped in a childish world of make-believe, Madeline seems destined to repeat the calamitous delusions of her mother...Alice,
    caught between her desire to rescue Madeline and the knowledge that she must save herself from a similar fate, desperately
    sifts through the shared debris of long-discarded truths to find the antidote for this legacy of misplaced, illusory hope. It is, she
    discovers, her only chance of moving beyond the shattering pain her child's death has caused."

    Staying Under
    Carol Alma McPhee
    Papier-Mache, 1998
    "Maureen and Joann were best friends growing up together in a small California town where attitude and custom isolated them
    from social, political, aand biological realities. When Joann˜ a gifted, almost visionary child who fantasized herself as a risk-taker˜
    became pregnant, Maureen offered to help. Unsophisticated and sheltered, they took to train to San Francisco seeking an illegal
    abortion. Afterward Joann unaccountably refused to continue their friendship. The episode has survived in Maureen's memory as
    a puzzling feleing of guilt, a recurrent desire to probe for what she might havce done to betray or offend her best friend. Joann, still
    living in the same small town, finds herself paralyzed by the network of social lies she has constructed in order to survive. Now,
    forty-five years later, Maureen˜ generous, responsible, and competent˜ decides impulsively to look up her old friend, hoping for an
    answer to the puzzle: why had their friendship failed after the crisis?"

    Inheritance
    Kieth Baker
    Morrow, 1998
    "The year is 2017, and the political turmoil in Northern Ireland has been peacefully resolved. Or has it? When retired policeman
    Bob McCallan is suddenly killed in a gas explosion, his son Jack, living in London, returns home to Northern Ireland to learn that
    he has inherited a small, and unexpected fortunne from his father. What Jack also learns is that he has inherited the keys to a
    past that many would rather forget. Probing his father's life and death, Jack discovers that law aand order are not, and never were,
    what they seem. He discovers that shortly before his father's death his father, hardly a devout Christian, began to confide in the
    local priest and was clearly troubled by an act of terrorism that had occurred years before. Jack also learns of a mysterious tranfer
    of funds to the bannk account of a woman he believes may have been married to one of his father's colleagues. The more that
    Jack uncovers, the less he seems to know, and the wider˜ and higher˜ the circle of conspiracy goes. As the violence around him
    begins, eerily, to resemble the terrorism that plagued Ireland twenty years earlier, Jack wonders if peace was ever really part of
    the politcal plans."

    The Great War: American Front
    Harry Turtledove
    Del Rey, 1998
    "When the Great War engulfs Europe in 1914, the United States and the Confederate States of America˜ bitter eneemies for five
    decades˜ enter the fray on opposite sides,. The United States aligns with Germany, while the Confederacy joins forces with their
    allies, Britain and France. I8t soon becomes clear to both sides that this fight will be different˜ that war itself will never be the
    same again."

    SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY

    For The Time Being (galley copy)
    Marie DesJardin
    Write Way, February, 1998
    "..chronicles the adventures of the ŒPubbers' (ten graduate-level MENSA-gifted misfits) who set out one night to explore a set of
    steam tunnels beneath their school, end up being captured by aliens, and transported by space ship to another planet. Hoping to
    return home, the group secretly begins to build a time machine. Their scheme is discovered and the Pubbers learn that that's why
    they were kidnaped in the first place: They'd already promised the aliens in the past that they'd build a time machine to save their
    race from extinction 5,000 years ago! Unraveling what they'd done in the past, figuring out what they'd planned for the future, and
    getting home in an alien space ship, while eluding two warring alien races, sends this quirky sci-fi into high gear, action and fun!"

    The Last of the Dream People
    Alice Anne Parker
    HJ Kramer, 1997
    "On a bombing mission in the Pacific theater during World War II, Captain Kilty Sterwart is shot down. Seriously injured, he is the
    only survivor of the crew of Paper Doll. Unable to move and temporarily blind, he discovers that his rescuers are a native people
    known as the S'norra, a legendary tribe, who greet his arrival as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. Pursued by their enemies,
    Kilty and his benefactors narrowly escape to the mountain sanctuary of the S'norra. But is he really the mysterious "messenger"
    they have been anticipating? And can he save them and their unique knowledge from the encroaching Japanese army? At once a
    hauntingly erotic love story and a gripping tale of adventure, the last of the Dream People explores the mysterious realms
    between waking and dreaming, life and death."

    Kirinyaga
    Mike Resnick
    Del Rey, 1998
    "In the first half of the twenty-second century on the terraformed planetoid of Kirinyaga, Koriba-- an educated black man from
    Kenya--founds a utopian society. Modeled on the native Kikuyu society as it was before European colonization, it is a primitive
    colony where existence is harsh. As the founder and self-appointed witch doctor, Koriba alone governs the lives of the colonists,
    enforcing his magical decrees through secret computers. He alone communicates off-world to the rest of humanity. And when his
    carefully wrought utopia begins to unravel, he alone confronts his challengers, both on Earth and among his followers..."

    Mind Matters: exploring the world of artificial intelligence
    James P. Hogan
    Del Rey, 1998
    "Written clearly enough for less-than-technical people, ŒMind Matters' shows us the relationship between the technologies that
    enabled a sophisticated mechanical device to roll across the surface of Mars and the Œsimpler' technology that allows us to do
    our taxes using a hand-held calculator. ŒMind Matters' also offers a historical overview of how we think about thought. From the
    earliest philosophers to the medieval Scholastics, through to renaissance mathematicians, and current computer science,
    Hogan show his readers that the basis of Artificial Intelligence has been with us for a very long time, and he illustrates that since
    antiquity, the technology of thought has been driven by economic necessity."

    The Whispers
    Dan Parkinson
    Del Rey, 1998
    "It is a fateful day when Lucas Hawthorn awakes in his own home to find Edwin Limmer standing before him. Lucas first met old
    man Limmer back in 1952. Only now Limmer is much younger-- and the idea that someone can actually age backward in time is
    almost too much for Lucas and his wife, Maude, to handle. But Limmer is here to turn the Hawthorns' Kansas home into a time-
    travel depot for the Whispers, mysterious beings from the future. The Whispers' mission? To find the beginning of time..."

    Lucifer's Hammer
    by Larry Niven and Jery Pournelle
    Del Rey, 1998
    "Monumental devastation will sweep across the globe if the newly discovered Hamner-Brown comet collides with the one major
    obstacle in its path: Earth. For millionaire Tim Hamner, the comet is a ticket to immortality. For film maker Harvey Randall, it's a
    shot at redeeming a flagging career. And for astronauts John Baker and Rick Delanty, it's a second chance for glory in outer
    space. But for a world gripped by comet fever, fascination quickly turns to fear. And only those who survuve the impact will know
    the even greater terror, when rich and poor, politicians and killers, turn to each other or against each other--and the remmnants of
    humanity grow savage to battle for what little remains..."


    ANTHOLOGIES

    Generation to Generation
    Sandra Martz and Shirley Coe
    Papier-Mache, 1998
    "...a marvelous collection about special relationships between people of different generations. Whether family, friends, or brief
    acquaintances, we have all been enriched by our friendships with people older and younger than ourselves. Supporting a great
    aunt's desire to continue living independently, sharing a love of gardening with a neighbor child, and claiming on's right to
    grandparent are just a few of thee richly textured stories in this heart-warming collection focusing on intergenerational
    relationships."


    MEMOIRS

    Dreamtime
    Alice Mandy Sayer
    Ballantine, 1998
    In this vivid, seductive, powerfully written book, Mandy Sayer recounts the fascinating years she spent performing on the streets of
    New York and New Orleans with her father. Gerry Sayer was a jazz drummer, a beguiling Irish charmer with a million stories and
    an insatiable love for jam sessions and all-night parties. Mandy grew up captivated by his outrageous tales even after he left the
    family for good and her mother descended into the distance of drink. When her siblings failed him by rejecting the bohemian
    performing life, Mandy saw her chance to become a character in his stories, part of the only life he really loved. So she learned to
    tap dance, and they set off together to satisfy their grand ambitions on the toughest stage in the world--New York.

    Orphan Girl: The Memoir of a Chicago Bag Lady
    by Marie James as told to Jane Hertenstein
    Cornerstone Press of Chicago, 1998
    "Hertenstein makes little attempt to find typologies or propose solutions; she simply allows a woman named Marie James to tell
    her resonant story


    POETRY

    Ceremonies of the Damned
    Adrian C. Lewis
    University of Nevada Press, 1998
    "Adrian Louis channels the energy of anger into poetry with as much incendiary power as any poet writing in this country today.
    But he is also a poet of extraordinary compassion, whether for the Œendless army of brokenn Skins' on the reservation or for his
    wife in her tragic struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Ultimately, he is a poet of hope in the midst of despair, a poet of honest
    prayer who can see ŒWild Indian ghost cars' and ask if love is still possible."


    ESSAYS

    About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory
    by Barry Lopez
    Knopf, 1998
    "A literal and figurative journey across the terrain of autobiography, assembling essays of great wisdom and insight. Here is far-
    flung travel (the beauty of remote Hokkaido Island, the over- explored Galapagos, enigmatic Bonaire); a naturalist's contention
    (Why does our society inevitably strip political power from people with intimate knowledge of the land--small-scale farmers,
    Native Americans, Eskimos, cowboys?); and pure adventure ( a dizzying series of around-the-world journeys with air freight--
    everything from penguins to pianos). And here, too, are seven exquisite memory pieces--hauntingly lyrical yet unsentimental
    reecollections that represent Lopez's most personal work to date, and which will be read as classics of the personal essay for
    years to come


    SELF-HELP

    Exploring Forgiveness
    Robert D. Enright and Joanna
    North University of Wisconsin Press, April 12, 1998
    "In never before published essays, 13 experts on forgiveness from the fields of psychology, law, politics, theology and philosophy
    reveal the power fogiveness has to change our lives.'


    SOCIAL ISSUES

    Reinventing the Continent: Writing and Politics in South Africa
    Andre Brink
    Zoland Books, 1998
    "A chronicle of an extraordinary period of social change in South Africa..These essays give an intimate view and a personal
    interpretation of the way in which literature functions in a virtual state of siege, and the challenges thrown up by a shift towards
    democracy, when suddenly the clearly visible old enemies fall away. Exploring what South Africa has in common with other
    recently liberated societies in Central Europe and elsewhere, they also focus specifically on forces that gave change in South
    Africa its particular flavor: the national identity of the Afrikaner people who for so long shaped the destinies of the country, the
    peculiar brand of racism that characterized apartheid, the nature of African "ubuntu" (generosity, sharing, humanity) which largely
    prevented a bloodbath in South Africa."

    Conglomerates and the Media
    Erik Barnouw, et al.
    The New Press, 1998
    "To what extent have the media compromised itself to protect and enhance conglomerate interest? Have media moguls, such as
    Time Warner, Disney, and Westinghouse, limited our judgements? Have they come to regulate our tastes, pleasures, and
    politics? Who is controlling the increasingly passive public, now intellectually dulled and primed for manipulation? In nine newly
    commissioned essays, leading media insiders and critics take probing looks at the dramatic changes of recent years...examine
    the decline of journalistic integrity and the reasons behind it, the dumbing down of the publishing industry, the transformation of
    Hollywood and the dramatic return of the studio system." SHORT STORIES

    Ocean of Words
    Ha Jin
    Vintage, 1998
    "Ha Jin's collection of stories portrays army life in China with subtlety, grace, and infinite complexity. With his fine attention to the
    manners of his time, and evident technical mastery, he has created out of perverse reality, pure art. The best of these tales wreak
    pleasure from pain and resound with an irony that distances us not from the characters but from the harshness of their world."

    BIOGRAPHIES

    Titan
    Ron Chernov
    Random House, 1998
    "ŒTitan' is the first full-length biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. to make use of recently opened Rockefeller papers, including
    countless letter, business correspondences, journals, office ledgers and other documents that have never been published.
    Perhaps the most remarkable resource is a 1,700-page transcript of reminiscences Rockefeller recorded for an authorized
    biography that was ultimately never written."
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BookJams Magazine
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At this time, book reviews
and author interviews
were taken from previous
issues of  BookLovers
magazine.

We shouldn’t teach
great books; we should
teach a love of reading.

---B. F. Skinner