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Amazon.com Review It would take a deeply cynical heart not to fall in love with Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. At the end of this millennium, his slender book holds everything a student of the century could want: the unedited thoughts of (arguably) the most important European poet of the modern age. Rilke wrote these 10 sweepingly emotional letters in 1903, addressing a former student of one of his own teachers. The recipient was wise enough to omit his own inquiries from the finished product, which means that we get a marvelously undiluted dose of Rilkean aesthetics and exhortation. The poet prefaced each letter with an evocative notation of the city in which he wrote, including Paris, Rome, and the outskirts of Pisa. Yet he spends most of the time encouraging the student in his own work, delivering a sublime, one-on-one equivalent of the modern writing workshop: Go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what recompense might come from outside. Every page is stamped with Rilke's characteristic grace, and the book is free of the breathless effect that occasionally mars his poetry. His ideas on gender and the role of the artist are also surprisingly prescient. And even his retrograde comment on the "beauty of the virgin" (which the poet derives from the fact that she "has not yet achieved anything") is counterbalanced by his perception that "the sexes are more related than we think." Those looking for an alluring image of the solitary artist--and for an astonishing quotient of wisdom--will find both in Letters to a Young Poet. --Jennifer Buckendorff Review "...I cannot think of a better book to put into the hands of any young would-be poet, as an inspirational guide to poetry and to surviving as a poet in a hostile world." Harry Fainlight, The Times

Review "A complex story of tragic proportions... more ambitious than In Cold Blood and equally compelling!" -- The New York Times From the Publisher This is the frighteningly true story of two young cops and two young robbers whose separate destinies fatally cross one march night in a bizarre execution in a deserted Los Angeles field. "A complex story of tragic proportions... more ambitious than In Cold Blood and equally compelling!" -- The New York Times

From Library Journal The leveraged buyout of the RJR Nabisco Corporation for $25 billion is a landmark in American business history, a story of avarice on an epic scale. Two versions of the fierce competition for the largest buyout ever consummated are presented by skilled journalists with contrasting styles. Burrough and Helyar are clearly fascinated with the personalities of the players in the deal and with the trappings of corporate wealth. The restless, flamboyant personality of Ross Johnson, CEO of RJR Nabisco, is portrayed as the key to the events that were to unfold. The colorful description of all of the players and the events will likely have broad appeal. Lampert signals the complexity of her story by introducing her narrative with a three-page cast of characters. Her focus on the strategy of the players and on the fast-paced action provides a more concise description of a deal big enough to augment the wealth of many rich people. Business libraries will want both versions of this story of capitalism drawn to the extreme, but students, looking for a more comprehensive treatment, will favor Lampert's version.- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review "A superlative book...steadily builds suspense until the very end." -- --Los Angeles Times Book Review "Impressive qualities... delicious scenes... a cinematic yet extraordinarily careful book." -- Ken Auletta, New York Daily News "One of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980s." -- --New York Times Book Review

Review 'This book... compels a re-evaluation of the whole (suffrage) movement, and its historiography... It is a must for anyone who wants to be informed about women's suffrage.' – The Fawcett Library Newsletter'This fine, impeccably researched book.' –  The Times Higher Education Supplement'Her marvellous new book, Suffrage Days, is both sufficiently readable to engage new students' interest and sufficiently provocative in its aim and its fresh discoveries to engross old suffrage hands. Holton is a hard act to follow.' –  Jill Liddington, University of Leeds.'A splendid job ... highly enjoyable.' –  Reviews in History

Review "Ricardo Ainslie is that rare writer: a scholar who is also a riveting storyteller. Long Dark Road is a deep, haunting, and impressively researched book that deserves a wide readership." Dan Rather, CBS News "This book truly is a long, dark road--but one that leads to a profound understanding of human nature. It describes the journey of a healer into the pathology of a killer and the wounded community he left behind. One feels both enlightened and consoled by Ricardo Ainslie's probing and empathic mind." Lawrence Wright, author and New Yorker staff writer "Unique and penetrating... In its portrait of Bill King, Long Dark Road offers a glimpse into the mind of a killer that is unnervingly intimate. While never losing sight of the horror of the crime King was convicted of committing, Ainslie makes us understand, through dogged investigation and temperate empathy, the forces that helped warp an otherwise bright and promising individual into one of the most notorious criminals of our time." Stephen Harrigan, author of Gates of the Alamo, A Natural State, Water and Light, and Comanche Midnight Review Ricardo Ainslie is that rare writer: a scholar who is also a riveting storyteller. Long Dark Road is a deep, haunting, and impressively researched book that deserves a wide readership. (Dan Rather, CBS News )

Amazon.com Review Many years ago, when the first volume of was going to press, Christopher Isherwood compared its author's narrative gifts to those of Charles Dickens. This has proven to be the blurb of a lifetime, an ever-renewable currency appearing on almost all of Armistead Maupin's subsequent books. Yet it has held up well--Dickens's gentle satire and broad good humor live on in Maupin more than in any other English-speaking writer. The Night Listener is his most ambitious work to date. While not strictly autobiographical, the story does teasingly suggest correspondences to the author's own life in a way that will delight and frustrate his many fans. The main character, Gabriel Noone, is a professional storyteller who broadcasts roughly autobiographical sketches for a long-running PBS series, "Noone at Night," stories about people "caught in the supreme joke of modern life who were forced to survive by making families of their friends." When the novel opens, Gabriel is still reeling from the announcement that his much younger, longtime partner Jess (a.k.a. Jamie in the "Noone at Night" stories, and a.k.a. Terry Anderson, Maupin's real-life, much-younger partner, for those who like to track associations) wants to move into his own apartment and start dating other men. With the success of his HIV cocktail, Jess has exceeded his own life expectancy. Having prepared himself so well to die, he now needs to learn how to live again. To Gabriel's distress, Jess's new life involves leather, multiple piercings, and books on men's drumming circles. When an editor sends Gabriel yet another book to blurb, he reluctantly opens the package to find a long, rending memoir by Pete Lomax, an HIV-positive 13-year-old survivor of incest, rape, and sexual slavery. The book is called The Blacking Factory, after the miserable London bottling factory where Dickens spent part of his poverty-stricken childhood. As Gabriel reflects: Pete thinks we all have a blacking factory, some awful moment, early on, when we surrender our childish hearts as surely as we lose our baby teeth. And the outcome can't be called. Some of us end up like Dickens; others like Jeffrey Dahmer. It's not a question of good or evil, Pete believes. Just the random brutality of the universe and our native ability to withstand it. After Pete escaped from his parents and was adopted by a therapist named Donna Lomax, his slow recovery was helped along by his memoir-writing and by frequent doses of "Noone at Night." Touched by Pete's devotion to his stories, as well as the boy's obvious need for a father figure, Gabriel finds himself drawn into an intense relationship with his young fan, involving long, late-night phone calls that begin to worry Gabriel's friends. And, other than their mutual need, how much does he really know about Pete, anyway? As Gabriel begins to question his own motives, as well as those of the boy, The Night Listener transforms itself from an absorbing but quotidian story of loss and midlife angst into a dark and suspenseful page-turner with a playful metaphysical aspect and an un-Dickensian sexual candor. --Regina Marler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly The lines between reality and illusion are intriguingly blurred in this novel from the author of the Tales of the City series. Maupin also takes on various questions about how art imitates life, since there are many similarities here between author and protagonist. The deceptively simple story line concerns Gabriel Noone, a San Francisco radio personality whose "grabby little armchair yarns" have developed a cult following; indeed, the books based on these weekly NPR broadcasts "have never stopped selling." But Gabriel is experiencing severe writer's block as he endures an emotional crisis triggered by the decision of Jess, his longtime male companion, to separate: "I lost a vital engine I never even knew I had." When a manuscript sent to Gabriel for an endorsement turns out to be a harrowing memoir of sexual abuse written by a 13-year-old, he is moved to contact the precocious youngster. It seems that Gabriel has been an on-the-air lifeline for Peter Lomax, who has been adopted by a female doctor with some pressing problems of her own. This vulnerable threesome embark on a pas de trois that envelops the reader in an increasingly absorbing puzzle. Providing a moving counterpoint to Gabriel's growing attachment toAeven dependence onAPete is his inability to cope with his estrangement from Jess. As in his earlier works, reading Maupin's prose is like meeting up with a beloved old friend; it's an easy, uncomplicated encounter filled with warmth, wisdom and familiar touches of humor. But there's pathos here as well, and sharp-edged drama with a few hairpin turns. As Gabriel cautions, "I'm a fabulist by trade, so be forewarned: I've spent years looting my life for fiction." And what splendid booty GabrielAand MaupinAhave compiled for readers' enjoyment. 100,000 first printing; 16-city author tour. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review "'Lenny McLean had the braun, Dave Courtney had the charm, but Geoff Thompson is in a class of his own.' FHM '...it's Trainspotting time all over again. Or maybe make that Clockwork Orange time again.' BRITISH FILM magazine review of Clubbed" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Based In - Coventry, UK Until the age of thirty Geoff Thompson worked through a plethora of menial jobs. Convinced that there must be more to life he decided to become a martial arts instructor (polled as the number one self defence instructor in the world by Black Belt Magazine USA) He is now the author of over thirty books, a stage play, a BAFTA winning short film and two feature films. Website - www.geoffthompson.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review “Maupin’s writing is as cheerfully raunchy as ever . . . ” (Miami Herald ) Review "Maupin's writing is as cheerfully raunchy as ever . . . " (Miami Herald ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal YA?A two-volume set that outlines the varied and numerous philosophies, personalities, social issues, and cultural history of religious practices within this country. This is a most valuable reference tool, as its briskly written entries are complemented with 120 black-and-white illustrations, and it includes both a general subject and synoptic index. The work is also an important one because of its balanced coverage of topics routine and controversial. Each denomination and sect is given a historical perspective, and the general doctrines of each faith are given clear, succinct treatment. Queen is careful to include contemporary trends and divisive topics to keep his factual representation honest. Homosexuality, healing, New Age philosophy, abortion, televangelists, and other topics of current interest are given fair and objective coverage. Concise biographies of hundreds of individuals influential to America's religious make-up are also included, from Jonathan Edwards to Billy Graham. The readable text is heavily cross-referenced, and makes a fitting complement to other standard resources.?Carol Beall, Immanuel Christian School, Springfield, VACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal Queen (religion and philosophy, Indiana Univ.), Stephen R. Prothero (philosophy, Georgia State Univ.), and Gardiner H. Shattuck (Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island) have provided a much-needed resource for students of America's religious history from pre-Colonial times to the present. Reflecting the diversity of religion in America, this work includes topics on Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and alternative religions, as well as Christianity. The articles are well researched and authoritative, yet they occasionally seem to reveal the mind of the author. However, the only current reference work comparable in scope and depth is the three-volume Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience (Scribner, 1988. o.p.). However, while that work consists of long topical articles in thematic chapters, this reference is comprised of articles of varying lengths arranged alphabetically. Thus, this work is suited to curious readers who wish to dip in here and there for information about people, denominations, issues, and movements that have played a part in the religious history of the nation. Libraries that have the Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience should also add these volumes to their collections.Craig W. Beard, Univ. of Alabama Lib., BirminghamCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal Barthes (1915-80) was one of France's most influential literary theorists, whose works, such as S/Z ( LJ 8/74), The Pleasure of the Text ( LJ 6/1/75), and Writing Degree Zero (Farrar, 1977), had a profound impact on generations of Anglo-American critics. This recent volume, first published in France after the author's death, includes notes on a trip to Morocco in 1969, a brief essay on the Parisian disco Le Palace, and a lengthier "intimate" journal, Soirees de Paris , begun in 1979. The theme as such is desire, specifically gay male desire. In these texts we don't have the renowned writer whom we discreetly know to be gay, as Leo Bersani notes on the book's cover, "but the gay man who happens to be a writer." It is enough to send one back for a rereading of A Lover's Discourse: Fragments ( LJ 8/78). In his essay, critic Miller uses his intellectual/erotic crush on Barthes, whom he never met; his imaginings of Barthes; fragments of Barthes's texts; and incidents from his own life to explore the theoretical and sometimes not so theoretical issues of contemporary gay male life. In the process we get a wonderful, humorous reading of Barthes that sends the mind leaping in hundreds of directions while repeatedly resting on the relationship between gay male identity and the literary text. Both of these books are recommended for all academic collections and for public libraries with strong literary or gay studies collections.-Brian Kenney, Pace Univ. Lib., Manhattan Campus, New YorkCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. "Incidents is replete with prowling boys, and Barthes is completely frank in describing his desires. (The book is, after all, a journal.) Even if Incidents fails to get you in a thoughtful mood, it should get you in a cruisy one. And there''s always the something in between, which is the place that Barthes seems most often to be: the boys supply him a spark of provocation that spurs him to thought, but thought is something more successfully pursued alone. Samaddar''s photos, though only a handful of them are overtly erotic, are a perfect accompaniment to the text on that front, stolen glances that capture the sensuality of fleeting encounters."--Bookslut.com (Bookslut ) "Its strange disconnectedness bears witness . . . to the author''s grappling with the tension between the need to remain as true as possible to the moments he portrays and his desire to embroider on them."—Times Literary Supplement (TLS ) --This text refers to an alternate edition.