Salida Book Review

The Sign of the Book, by John Dunning. ISBN 0743255054. Denver bookman and ex-cop Cliff Janeway is enjoying the good life, buying and selling the books he adores as he ekes out a living in his store on seedy East Colfax. And it doesn't hurt that superstar lawyer Erin D'Angelo has joined him as a partner in both business and love. Erin is a special lady, so it's hard for Janeway to refuse her when she asks a favor. Will he travel to the little mountain town of Paradise, Colorado, to check on one of Erin's girlhood friends who's in deep trouble? Laura Marshall sits in the county jail, accused of murdering her husband, Bobby. The situation is delicate because Bobby and Erin were a couple before he married Laura. In fact, it was Laura's affair with Bobby that ended Erin's relationship with each of them, and the women have been estranged ever since. Now Laura has called on Erin for help, but Erin's not sure she even wants to see her onetime best friend, let alone get involved in her case. Could Janeway visit Laura on Erin's behalf and try to find out what happened the night Bobby died?

The clincher for Janeway: Bobby Marshall was a book collector, and Janeway can't resist a house full of books any more than he can resist Erin's uncharacteristic request. His normally self-sufficient girlfriend is clearly at loose ends. He drives to Paradise the next day. Janeway soon discovers that neither he nor Erin is likely to be able to save Laura Marshall. The young wife and mother is terrified of something and has already admitted to the arresting officer -- a smarmy local deputy with a huge chip on his shoulder -- that she shot her husband and then tried to dispose of the bloody evidence.

But did everything really happen as Laura claims? And what about the books? Bobby had a vast library, but at a casual glance, the titles seem ordinary, even to a seasoned bookman like Janeway. Could they possibly be a motive for murder? Janeway, Erin, and local attorney Parley McNamara discover that the case against Laura Marshall is far more complicated than it seems. Professionally, Erin must decide whether to represent Laura; and personally, whether a decades-old friendship can be resurrected. Janeway wants to know the significance of Bobby's book collection. He senses their importance, and under his careful scrutiny, the rows of unremarkable volumes could reveal a killer's motive. Rich with the intricacies of book collecting that only an expert like John Dunning can offer, The Sign of the Book is a beautifully crafted, enthralling novel of suspense from the consummate bookman himself.

Ireland: A Novel, by Frank Delaney. ISBN 0060563486. One wintry evening in 1951, an itinerant storyteller -- a Seanchai, the very last practitioner of a fabled tradition extending back hundreds of years -- arrives unannounced at a house in the Irish countryside. In exchange for a bed and a warm meal, he invites his hosts and some of their neighbors to join him by the fireside, and begins to tell formative stories of Ireland's history. One of his listeners, a nine-year-old boy, grows so entranced by the story-telling that, when the old man leaves abruptly under mysterious circumstances, the boy devotes himself to finding him again. Ronan's search for the Storyteller becomes both a journey of self-discovery and an immersion into the sometimes-conflicting histories of his native land. As the long-unspoken secrets of his own family begin to reveal themselves, he becomes increasingly single-minded in pursuit of the old man, who he fears may already be dead. But Ronan's personal path also leads him deeper and deeper into the history and mythology of Ireland itself, in all its drama, intrigue, and heroism.

Ireland travels through the centuries, interweaving Ronan's quest for the Storyteller with a richly evocative unfolding of the great moments in Irish history, ranging from the savage grip of the Ice Age to the green and troubled land of tourist brochures and political unrest. Along the way, we meet foolish kings and innocent monks, fabled saints and great works of art, shrewd Normanraiders, strong tribal leaders, poets, politicians, and lovers. Each illuminates the magic of Ireland and the eternal connection of its people to the land. A sweeping novel of huge ambition, Ireland is the beautifully told story of a remarkable nation. From the epic sweep of its telling to the precision of its characters -- great and small, tragic and comic -- it rings with the truth of a writer passionate about his country and in full command of his craft.

Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons, by John Carter, Robert Anton Wilson. ISBN 0922915970. Scientist, poet, and self-proclaimed Antichrist, Jack Parsons was a bizarre genius whose life reads like an implausible yet irresistible science fiction novel. Sex and Rockets looks at his short life and dual career as cofounder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and leader of the Agape Lodge of Aleister Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO). Author John Carter scours primary documents and interviews surviving friends and contemporaries to deliver an intriguing portrait of a dreamy, driven man equally interested in rocketry and magick. From his early childhood and deep attachment to his mother (who killed herself hours after he died) through his nonacademic research and brilliant innovations in solid fuels to his mysterious 1952 demise in a garage-laboratory explosion at the age of 37, the reader gets the impression of a man whose obsession with explosives and propellants was nearly single-minded. Yet this same man found spiritual fulfillment through Crowley's Law of Thelema, conducted magickal operations with L. Ron Hubbard, and signed an oath asserting himself to be the Antichrist--clearly Parsons wasn't a boring guy in a white coat. Carter pulls off the difficult task of integrating Parsons's disparate drives into one compelling story; though there are some rough spots and awkward transitions, one gets the sense that this illuminates the man's life better than a smooth, flawless work would. Robert Anton Wilson's introduction is smart and funny as always, initiating the uninformed into the basics of Crowleyanity while placing Parsons in the context of his times. While it might not be possible to read universal themes into Parsons's life, Sex and Rockets is an excellent study of a passionate life fully lived.

Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big, by Jose Canseco. ISBN 0060746408. When Jose Canseco burst into the Major Leagues in the 1980s, he changed the sport -- in more ways than one. No player before him possessed his mixture of speed and power, which allowed him to become the first man in history to belt more than forty home runs and swipe more than forty bases in the same season. He won Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and a World Series ring. Canseco shattered the mold of the out-of-shape baseball player and ushered in a new era of superathletes who looked like bodybuilders, made outrageous salaries, and enjoyed rock-star lifestyles. And the ticket for this ride? Steroids. Behind the gaudy stats and the glamour of his public life, Canseco cultivated a secret just about everyone in MLB knew about, one that would alter the game of baseball and the way we view our heroes forever. Canseco made himself a guinea pig of the performance-enhancing drugs that were only just beginning to infiltrate the American underground. Anabolic steroids, human growth hormones -- Canseco mixed, matched, and experimented to such a degree that he became known throughout the league as "The Chemist." He passed his knowledge on to trainers and fellow players, and before long, performance-enhancing drugs were running rampant throughout Major League Baseball. Sluggers scooping up pitches at their ankles and blasting them out of the park, pitchers cranking fastballs inning after inning -- Canseco showed the players how to customize their doses to sculpt the bodies they wanted, and baseball as we know it was the result.

China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, by Ted C. Fishman. ISBN 0743257529. China today is visible everywhere -- in the news, in the economic pressures battering america, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of china's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred -- and why it already affects us all. How has an enormous country once hobbled by poverty and Communist ideology come to be the supercharged center of global capitalism? What does it mean that China now grows three times faster than the United States? That China uses 40 percent of the world's concrete and 25 percent of its steel? What is the global impact of 300 million rural Chinese walking off their farms and heading to the cities in the greatest migration in human history? Why do nearly all of the world's biggest companies now have large-scale operations in China? What does the corporate march into China mean for workers left behind in America, Europe, and the rest of the world?

Meanwhile, what makes China's emerging corporations so dangerously competitive? What could happen when China will be able to manufacture nearly everything -- computers, cars, jumbo jets, and pharmaceuticals -- that the United States and Europe can, at perhaps half the cost? How do these developments reach around the world and straight into the lives of all Americans?

These are ground-shaking questions, and China, Inc. provides answers.Veteran journalist and former commodities trader Ted C. Fishman paints a vivid picture of the megatrends radiating out of China. Fishman's account begins with the burgeoning output of China's vast low-cost factories and the swelling appetite of its 1.3 billion consumers, both of which are being driven by historically unprecedented infusions of foreign capital and technological know-how. Traveling through China's frenetic landscape of growth, Fishman visits the factories, markets, streets, stores, towns, and cities where the story of Chinese capitalism is being lived by one-fifth of all humanity. Fishman also draws on interviews with Chinese, American, and European workers, managers, and executives to show how China will force all of us to make big changes in how we think about ourselves as consumers, workers, citizens, and even as parents. The result is a richly engaging work of penetrating, up-to-the-minute reportage and brilliant analysis that will forever change how readers think about America's future.

William Pitt the Younger, by William Hague. ISBN 1400040523. William Pitt the Younger is an illuminating biography of one of the great iconic figures in British history: the man who in 1784 at the age of twenty-four became (and so remains) the youngest Prime Minister in the history of England. In this lively and authoritative study, William Hague–himself the youngest political party leader in recent history–explains the dramatic events and exceptional abilities that allowed extreme youth to be combined with great power. The brilliant son of a father who was also Prime Minister, Pitt was derided as a “schoolboy” when he took office. Yet within months he had outwitted his opponents, and he went on to dominate the political scene for twenty-two years (nineteen of them as Prime Minister). No British politician since has exercised such supremacy for so long.

Pitt’s personality has always been hard to unravel. Though he was generally thought to be cold and aloof, his friends described him as the wittiest man they ever knew. By seeing him through the eyes of a politician, William Hague–a prominent member of Britain’s Conservative Party–succeeds in explaining Pitt’s actions and motives through a series of great national crises, including the madness of King George III, the impact of the French Revolution, and the trauma of the Napoleonic wars. He describes how a man dedicated to peace became Britain’s longest-serving war leader, how Pitt the liberal reformer became Pitt the author of repression, and how–though undisputed master of the nation’s finances–he died with vast personal debts. With its rich cast of characters, including Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Edmund Burke, and George III himself, and set against a backdrop of industrial revolution and global conflict, this is a richly detailed and rounded portrait of an extraordinary political life.

Classic Hikes of the World: 23 Breathtaking Treks, by Peter Potterfield. ISBN 0393057968. This book will help you realize your dreams of hiking among the world's highest peaks and most scenic canyons, discovering wilderness far from the clamor of civilization, encountering rare birds and animals, glorying in sunsets over glacier-clad ranges, and feeling the joy and achievement of hiking some of the world's most spectacular trails. Peter Potterfield has selected the great hikes of the world from personal experience, having hiked and photographed hundreds of trails to arrive at this selection. The adventures described range from weekend overnights to four-day hut trips to epic journeys that take a few weeks out and back. None requires technical mountaineering skill. Features include details on trail conditions, levels of difficulty, best seasons, approach strategies, hazards, and maps. Hikes include: John Muir Trail, California; Wonder Lake to McGonagall Pass, Alaska; Tour de la Vanoise, French Alps; Kungsleden, Swedish Lapland; K2 Base Camp; Grand Canyon rim to rim; Mount Kilimanjaro; Cerro Fitz Roy, Argentina; and Shackleton's Crossing, South Georgia. 115 illustrations.

The Presidents Assassin, by Brian Haig. ISBN 0446576670. With just three days to prevent the assassination of the President, Army lawyer Sean Drummond races the clock in the high-stakes countdown of his career. Army lawyer Sean Drummond*s new posting is to the Office of Special Projects, a CIA cell that handles the most dangerous threats. When the White House Chief of Staff is found brutally murdered, there*s a note beside him promising more victims--including the President. Sean leaps into action, teaming up with a beautiful colleague to try to stop the assassin. As the killer stalks the campaign trail, apparently driven by a $500 million bounty on the President*s head, all arrows point to a member of the White House security detail who*s gone missing. Only after a dramatic hostage rescue that culminates in an intense shootout does Sean realize law enforcement*s horrible miscalculation--and what must be done to set things right.

Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood, by Suzanne Braun Levine, from Viking, ISBN 0670033111. The first generation of women to have tasted social, political, and economic empowerment, some 37 million strong, has reached a new frontier that is unexpected and unexplored. Entering their fifties and nearing their sixties, they have fulfilled all the prescribed roles—daughter, wife, mother, employee—yet with longer life expectancy and better health they do not intend to retire from the world. They want to experience more. Levine offers an evocative and eye-opening road map across this uncharted terrain.

Peace Is the Way: Bringing War and Violence to an End, by Deepak Chopra. ISBN 0307236072. Chopra's latest work is prefaced by endorsements from four Nobel Peace Laureates, Muhammad Ali and an impressive array of other notables. Here, the Indian-born doctor and author of the bestselling The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and other popular spiritual guides contends that the deeply ingrained human habit of resorting to violence can be ended by raising the consciousness of individuals until there is a global change in awareness, similar to the shift that took place when the age of science took hold. Chopra, whose bestsellers and celebrity-friendliness have saddled him with a reputation for being guru to the rich and comfortable, is refreshingly honest about the way our comfort and security are ultimately the fruits of war. "The satisfaction of waging war cannot be replaced by philosophy or religion," he writes. In addition to analysis, he offers daily practices of meditation, thought and actions on behalf of others as a way to live the truth of Mahatma Gandhi's famous quote: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." Ultimately, however, the ego itself has to be disarmed to live the way of peace, he says: "For me as an individual to be free, I have to confront myself with questions about who I really am, and this is done in large part by examining the layers of false identity that I mistakenly call me." This is clearly harder to practice than it is to read. Still, Chopra's affirmation that "our true identity is at the level of spirit and nowhere else" has the ring of truth and so does the rest of this simple, practical, inspiring book. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Real Mother: A Novel, by Judith Michael. ISBN 0060599294. Sara Elliott has been forced to give up the life she's dreamed of to return home to Chicago and take charge of her sisters and brother. She finds a job and settles into the house she grew up in, building a life for ten-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby. But Sara has another brother, Mack, now twenty, who left home three years earlier. Suddenly he reappears, cheerful and unconcerned, as if he had never broken his promise to stay and help Sara with the children and the house. With bewildering volatility, Mack swings from kindness to cruelty, affection to hostility, keeping the family always on edge, his past and present a mystery. But with expensive gifts, storytelling, and the excitement of his presence, he is winning over the children, and sometimes the four of them stand together against Sara.

Mack challenges all Sara has achieved in trying to be a mother and keep her family together. And he does it at a time when she is confronted by crises at work that spill over into her home. Suddenly, events seem to be speeding past and Sara feels she cannot slow them down to regain control. And then, when she thinks her life has room only for work and family, she meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York. As Sara helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they discover a closeness neither has known before and share new ways of dealing with conflicts each has always faced alone. Together, Sara and Reuben find answers to the questions: What is a mother? What is a parent? What is a family? This is Judith Michael's most poignant exploration of the pressures and joys facing modern adults and children, in a story that will resonate with everyone for its universal themes and discoveries.