Trying to understand our complex world has been an on-going quest of mine, so I am partial to any book that provides insight. This is the case of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest have Done so Much Ill and so Little Good ($27.95, The Penguin Press) by William Easterly. This would seem counter-intuitive to all the values of our society which is forever reaching out to help those less fortunate, but the author makes a compelling case for the fact that, after fifty years and more than $2.3 trillion in aid from the West, there has been very little progress among Third World nations where so many live miserable lives and die early deaths. Easterly argues that imposing bloated aid bureaucracies like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank that are accountable to no one for the outcomes of their programs is a bad idea. He is supported in this by recent news of the extraordinary level of corruption the World Bank has found among those receiving its aid. As the author points out, when left alone to work within old fashioned capitalism, nations like South Korea and Taiwan have demonstrated they can create thriving economies without handouts. Elsewhere in the world, it is programs at the local level that do more good than Big Plans conceived far from the problems of poverty and disease. I daresay this is an important book and one that is not likely to get the kind of media coverage it should.

I recently stopped into a Whole Foods outlet, one of a chain of organic food retailers and was astonished at the difference in prices between it and my local supermarket. Prices for "organic" foods are significantly higher. Little wonder the organic food industry is an $11 billion business in the U.S. and tops $25 billion worldwide. Samuel Fromartz, a business journalist, has written Organic, Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grew ($25.00, Harcourt) and for anyone who wants to know what this growing trend in dining and lifestyle is all about, as well as how it traces back to the farm, this is surely the definitive book on the topic. Raising crops in a "natural" way has a long history and, of course, traces its roots back to the earliest days of agriculture before the invention and use of manmade fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. In the late 1800s and early part of the last century, there were Europeans advocating farming methods that reflected the way nutritious crops were being grown in India and other places throughout Asia. For wealthy, health-conscious Americans, this is sure to be a growth market and this interesting book tells you why.

Among the many issues Americans are discussing these days is energy. I am fortunate to have Robert L. Bradley, Jr. as a friend and advisor on this complex topic. He is the president of the Institute for Energy Research and a senior research fellow at the University of Houston. Recently he teamed with Richard W. Fulmer, an IER senior fellow and respected systems analyst to write Energy: The Master Resource ($19.95, Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, Dubuque, Iowa). Available from Amazon.com, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to energy fundamentals and it does so in an easily understood fashion, tracing the way humans have discovered and harnessed various kinds of resources to improve and enhance their lives. Amidst all the conflicting claims about wind power, solar power, oil, coal, and natural gas, this book provides a basis for understanding the most essential aspect of how we live our lives today. When you’re through reading this interesting book, you may not be an expert, but you will surely know more about energy that everyone else in the room!

We live in an age that expects continual technological advances and so did many of those who preceded us because change is the hallmark of a dynamic civilization. My parents witnessed the advent of radio, television, air conditioning, airline travel, and countless other changes brought about by new inventions. I saw the introduction and rise of the personal computer and the Internet. Now Bob Seidensticker comes along to warn us about Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change ($15.95, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA, softcover). For those who like to wrap their minds around large ideas, this book will prove quite interesting as the author points out something we all know, just because a technology is new does not mean it’s better and all those "upgrades" often end up costing more money than they are worth. As those who lost their shirt in the Wall Street Internet bubble learned, the Internet has not changed everything about our lives. Technology, however, does change some things and this book looks at those changes in an interesting, stimulating fashion.

For anyone fascinated by the values that have shaped history, James Bowman’s Honor, A History ($29.95, Encounter Books) will surely please. The author explores the way, from the earliest records of human civilization and in widely separate cultures, the history of honor was inseparable from the history of mankind. The idea of personal honor is hard-wired into our psyches. Even a little child, if hit by another will want to hit back to assert his sense of himself and of fairness. Bowman traces the idea of honor from biblical times to the Middle Ages, through the Enlightenment and to the killing fields of World War I and the despair of Vietnam. He reminds us that the fates of honor, morality, and even manners are deeply interrelated. You will not look at events in the world again in quite the same way after reading this interesting book.

While the media hypes Avian Flu, James I. Dickerson looks at the long history of Yellow Fever ($25.00, Prometheus Books) and warns that this deadly disease could be poised to strike again. Forgotten by modern generations protected by pesticides that eradicate Nature’s most potent vector of disease, mosquitoes, Americans are largely unaware of the role this disease played in our nation’s history. Yellow Fever epidemics in the late 1700s ravaged Philadelphia, New Orleans, and other locales right through the 19^th century. Dickerson thinks it would make an ideal biological weapon and worries that the alleged global warming will bring a resurgence. As to the latter concern, there is no evidence of any warming since the 1940s, despite the drumbeat that insists it has occurred or will. As a work of history, though, this is an interesting look at a disease that Americans once feared, but no longer do thanks to modern science.

The political season is heating up with the forthcoming midterm elections. Rumors fly that Hillary Clinton wants to run in 2008. If so, she will surely hope that "I’ve Always Been a Yankees Fan": Hillary Clinton in Her Own Words ($12.95, World Ahead Publishing, softcover) does not sell well. Thomas D. Kuiper has researched quotes from available, open sources and put them together in a devastating portrait of mendacity that is sure to please those who’d like to see her political career crater. In the foreword by Dick Morris, Bill Clinton’s former political guru, he writes, "Hillary thinks that nobody is keeping track and that her quotes will never catch up with her." Well, they have in this book!

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Memoirs & Biographies

The history of the world is the history of people’s lives, whether they are famous or whether they participated in great events.

She was an instantly recognizable face and yet she did not have the superstar status that one associates with such fame. Instead, Eileen Heckart was one of those wonderfully talented actresses who could so inhabit a role that she disappeared into it. She spent a lifetime on stage, in films and on television. Now her story is told by Luke Yankee, her son, in Just Outside the Spotlight ($24.95, Back Stage Books, New York), in a memoir that includes Marilyn Monroe babysitting his brothers, Ethel Merman teaching him how to make martinis, and Paul Newman giving him acting tips in his parent’s living room. Full of showbiz gossip of dozens of stars, it is also the story of one of the most respected character actresses in show business. Heckart worked with every major star of the last half-century from Lillian Gish to Ellen Degeneres. With a foreword by Mary Tyler Moore, this is a great read for anyone who loves Broadway and Hollywood.

Ruth Reichl made her living by not being recognized, especially in restaurants! Her memoir of life as the food critic of The New York Times and editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine is told in Garlic and Sapphires ($l5.00, Penguin Books, softcover). She tells of how she sought the advice of a friend, an acting coach, on how to pick a disguise so that she could sample the cuisine of famed dining spots and find out what it’s like to be an ordinary patron. On her first outing, to Le Cirque, she is ignored and condescended to by the haughty staff. Thereafter, she adds new disguises to her repertoire. Along with her favorite recipes and reviews, she reveals how changing one’s looks and behavior changed her in surprising ways. Less engaging is Ann Marlowe’s The Book of Trouble: a Romance ($23.00, Harcourt) in which she tells the story of falling in lust with a handsome Afghan man she meets in New York and experiencing a clash of cultures when she visits his homeland with him. She finds much to admire and one would think that her experiences, including a visit to Baghdad in the aftermath of the American invasion, would provide a more satisfying read, but her focus is on herself in ways that are too frequently off-putting.

The Accidental President of Brazil is a memoir by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, written with Brian Winter, that has a preface by former President Bill Clinton ($26.95, Public Affairs, an imprint of the Perseus Group.) The author’s family had been intimately involved in the political life of Brazil since his grandfather had been one of the officers who deposed the Emperor Dom Pedro II to usher in the modern republic. Governing Brazil has always posed great problems. Cardoso was a sociologist by training with little enthusiasm for the "family business." Asked to become its finance minister, he was well aware of the nation’s history of financial failures. Larger than the continental U.S., with 190 million citizens, Brazil is poised to become a global superpower despite being virtually ungovernable. This is his love song to his homeland and an excellent way to learn about Brazil through the life of an engaging personality.

War has always produced stacks of memoirs. Those for whom World War II continues to be of interest, In Hostile Skies: An American B-24 Pilot in World War II by James W. Davis, edited by David L. Snead ($27.95, University of North Texas Press) will prove most satisfying, from the photo of the baby-faced Davis on the cover to the real story of what it was like to fly more than thirty missions in the European Theatre as part of the 8^th Air Force. How he survived the gauntlet of flak and the attacks by German fighter planes is one of the small miracles of war. Today he is a retired businessman who lives in Midland, Texas, with his wife of more than six decades. He is truly a member of "the greatest generation." So, too, was Major Dick Winters, commander of Easy Company, 101^st Army Airborne, the fighting unit that was immortalized in Steven E. Ambrose’s Band of Brothers, later turned into a Steven Spielberg miniseries. Larry Alexander has written Biggest Brother ($15.00, New American Library, softcover). Enjoying life in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Winters shared his story with the author, though typically he had to be talked into it despite the fame that came to him as the result of a life of leadership, courage, and devotion to duty and country. The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell: An Accidental Soldier’s Account of the War in Iraq by John Crawford ($14.00, Penguin softcover) is an excellent account of what it was like to be a National Guardsman and a college senior who was sent to Iraq. Crawford had joined the Guard to help pay for his college tuition, but in autumn 2002, one semester short of graduating and newly married, history intervened to put him on the front lines. He and his unit spent months patrolling the streets of Baghdad. This is what it was like to actually be there and it makes for some very compelling reading by an extremely talented writer.

I started with a show business memoir and will end with Bono in Conversation with Michka Assayas ($15.00, Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Putnam, softcover.) A celebrated rock star, Bono has also emerged as a concerned world citizen. In a series of conversations with his close friend and journalist, Assayas, he reveals himself as a loyal husband, father, son, believer, and frontman of one of the world’s most successful rock bands, U2. If you are a fan, you will especially enjoy this book. If you know him for his work internationally to aid those less fortunate, it will provide an interesting insight to the man.

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U.S. History

I have a passion for U.S. history. The men who conceived our republic had studied history, too. That’s why they regarded America as the world’s "last best hope."

Just published this month is William J. Bennett’s America: The Last Best Hope, Volume I: From the Age of Discovery to a World at War (1492-1914) ($29.99, Nelson Current) in which he dramatically retells the story of the world’s greatest experiment in liberty. Both the triumphs and the tragedies are illuminated by a fast-moving account of sacrifice and daring. These days our mainstream media is filled with cynicism and doubt about the nation and its future. This book will make you fall in love with America all over again because Bennett tells you what is unique about America, making it different from all other nations.

Most certainly, we have been blessed by some of the most extraordinary men and women in history. One of them was The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius, as written by Joyce E. Chaplin ($27.50, Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books Group). Benjamin made science glamorous with his own experiments. Electricity fascinated him, but he also charted the Gulf Stream, made important observations in meteorology, and encouraged others to explore the natural world. His fame as a scientist was widely acknowledged and this book examines how this aspect of his life that gave him access to others who also were seeking to explain how the world worked. Together, he helped set in motion two revolutions, the scientific and the political.

There is much discussion regarding the role of religion in America today. The Founding Fathers wanted religion to play a role in the life of the new nation because they all embraced the prevailing view that only "virtuous" men could bring America into being and rule it. That said, they also knew that men were not angels and they set forth to insure religion would not play a role in the actual governance of the nation. Washington’s God by Michael and Jana Novak ($26.00, Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books Group) is an important contribution to the current debate. Washington is widely regarded as the patron saint of secular government, but history reveals that Washington’s strong faith in divine Providence kept him going through the long years of the frustrating Revolutionary War and that he attributed his successes to it. Throughout his long career of public service, he held fast to the conviction that America’s liberty was dependent on the people’s faithfulness to God’s will. For anyone of faith, this book will demonstrate yet another aspect of the man’s great character and fortitude.

Colonial America was a tough and demanding place warred over by the British and the French. White Devil by Stephen Brumell ($17.95, Da Capo Press) focuses on the bloody conflict for control of North America, well before the Revolution. The French used Native Americans as their allies in this conflict and they struck terror into the hearts of early colonists. That story is told in The Last of the Mohicans, but the actually history is even more fascinating just in terms of the daunting challenges the wilderness presented. This is largely the story of Robert Rogers, a tough, young frontiersman who fought for the British and whom the Abenakis Indians would come to call the white devil.

Right now Americans are engaged in a debate over the security of our borders and, in particular, the two thousand miles of the southern border with Mexico, but the debate is also about the absolute necessity of any nation, its sovereignty, the right to exercise its own form of self-governance. Without secure borders and without the right to govern itself, a nation will disappear. In a world of many international organizations and treaties, the issue of American sovereignty was never more important. That’s why Redefining Sovereignty, edited by Orrin C. Judd, ($29.95, Smith and Kraus, Lyme, New Hampshire) is an important book. It raises the question of whether liberal democracies will continue to determine their own laws and public policies or yield these rights to transnational entities in search of universal order and justice. Essays and opinions that represent both the Left and the Right allow the reader to come to their own opinion. Does the United States need the permission of the United Nations to declare war? Should the Supreme Court look to foreign legal precedents outside of the Constitution to determine the law? Should illegal aliens again be granted blanket amnesty? These are questions today’s Americans must answer.

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Kid Stuff. From Toddlers to Teens

I know I say it all the time, but the greatest gift a parent or mentor can give a child is the love of reading. Nothing so prepares a youngster for their role in the world than both an active imagination and knowledge.

There’s a specialty publisher, Turning a New Page (PO Box 91603, Tucson, AZ 85752-1603) that is devoting itself to a line of books intended to teach the alphabet and help the early reader decode some of the more confusing aspects of the English language. Through its books, the learner begins to recognize the patterns that permit them to spell and read with greater ease. Rick McAtee, the author, has worked in the educational field for over twenty years. The illustrator is Barbara Hammons. The series is called "Alphabetland" and the books are priced at $12.95 and aimed at children 5 to 9 years of age. To learn more, visit www.turninganewpage.com. From Barron’s "Readers Clubhouse" come two of a nine-book series, specifically designed for preschool, kindergarten and first grade readers, based on phonics. These books will give a child a head start on reading by helping them understand new and unfamiliar words while entertaining them at the same time. Visit www.barronsclubhouse.com to learn more about them.

The Caldecott Medal is given to especially good children’s books and Ed Young has written one inspired by his daughter, an adopted Chinese girl. My Mei Mei ($16.99, Philomel Books) tells the story of Tonia who wishes for a younger sister or "mei mei." When her parents adopt one, the older girl goes through a period of adjustment, learning that considerable attention must be paid to the infant, but learning to take pride in protecting, teaching, and sharing discoveries with the baby. Born in Tientsin, China, the author came to the U.S. to study architecture, but became an artist instead and it is the artwork, in addition to the story, that distinguishes this lovely story. He won a Caldecott Medal in 1990 for Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China and has also authored and illustrated two other Caldecott Honor Books. If you have a young girl in your family and a baby sister on the way, this will prove a delightful introduction to the new experience.

The Holocaust, the deliberate murder of six million European Jews during World War II, continues to be a warning to the world of what can happen when ethnic or religious hatred exerts itself. We are seeing this in a region of the Sudan today or the call of the Iranian president to "wipe Israel from the map." Genocide remains an ugly stain on humanity. Two books for younger readers address the Holocaust. One is The Flag With Fifty-Six Stars: A Gift from the Survivors of Mauthausen by Susan Goldman Rubin, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth ($6.95, Holiday House, New York). Mauthausen was a slave labor camp the Nazis built and not just Jews, but Christians, gypsies, and homosexuals were imprisoned there. Anticipating their liberation by the Allied forces, they made a flag as a symbol of their hope. This is an inspiring story that addresses the evil of prejudice and the dignity of faith in the better angels of men’s souls. The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin is another book by Ms. Rubin, this time illustrated by Ela Weissberg ($16.95, Holiday House) who was liberated from Terezin in May 1945 at the age of 15. Terezin was yet another Nazi concentration camp. The true story tells of how, even in those awful conditions, the adult prisoners tried to make the children’s lives more bearable. If the Nazis rejected civilized behavior, the Jewish prisoners preserved it. There are valuable lessons to be learned from both of these books because, in these times when elements of Islam seek to impose their will on the world, younger readers, aged 8 to 12, need to learn that injustice and hatred must be defeated again.

I am a great fan of the books for younger readers published by National Geographic. They are filled with history and other topics of great value, and always beautifully illustrated. Some of the new books available now or during the summer include Ladies First: 40 Daring American Women Who Were Second to None by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel ($18.95) that tells their stories. Among those noted are Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a U.S. cabinet position, Margaret Bourke-White, the first woman photographer to document WWII in active combat, and Jane Addams, the first American to win a Nobel Prize. All of their stories are inspiring and this would be an ideal book for any young girl, aged 9 to 14 or older. Coming in June are two books of great importance to any young American. They are The Bill of Rights and The Declaration of Independence, both by Judith Lloyd Yero ($15.95) for those 9 through 12. The rights and freedoms that distinguish Americans from others are discussed clearly and celebrated in both books. For fun and knowledge combined, a young reader is bound to enjoy Blackbeard The Pirate King by J. Patrick Lewis ($16.95) that explores the legends, myths, and real-life adventures of this notorious seaman. The artwork is superb. Coming in July is an updated edition of "a child’s first picture atlas", Our World ($17.95). Ideal for the child, aged 3 through 6, this is a great introduction to the continents and nations of the world.

There’s some great listening to be enjoyed in three audiobooks from HarperAudio. Just released is Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, a Newberry Medal Winner, and performed by Scott Wolf ($13.95, one CD), a clever novel for the beginning reader. From the same author also comes Walk Two Moons performed by Hope Davis ($25.95, five CDs) will please an older reader, age 10 and up. The famed Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House" fame spins a tale of western pioneer days in These Happy Golden years performed by Cherry Jones ($25.99, six CDs). Even though she is not yet 16, young Laura is teaching in a school that requires her to sleep away from home. Every Friday, Almanzo Wilder arrives to take her home to her family and their courtship begins. This is the eighth book in the Laura Years series. Some young girl will love this one.

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Novels, Novels, Novels!

It’s springtime and that means scads of new novels. Here’s a quick look at some of the latest to arrive.

One of our best imports is Tony Hendra, a former student at Cambridge University where he performed with future Monty Python stars, John Cleese and Graham Chapman. I mention this specifically because it suggests that Hendra has a powerful sense of humor as evidenced by the fact that he was an original editor of National Lampoon and has powerful literary credentials. I’m guessing that his latest novel, The Messiah of Morris Avenue ($24.00, Henry Holt) is going to stir up a storm of great reviews and maybe a bit of controversy. It happens that it is set in parts of New Jersey with which I am familiar. It is the story of a kindhearted young man named Jay who drives around in a battered van preaching radical notions of kindness and tossing off a few miracles in the process among the poor. When a jaded journalist gets wind of him, he sees an opportunity to set him up as a rival to the Rev. James Sabbath, a famed holy warrior whose church is a worldwide conglomerate. Yes, it’s a "take" on the New Testament, but Hendra has put his own talented spin on it.

Neil MacFarquhar is thoroughly familiar with the Arab world where he has worked as a correspondent for more than a dozen years, the last five as the Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times. Like many journalists, it turns out he had a good novel in him and it is The Sand Café ($24.95, Public Affairs, an imprint of Perseus Books). It is August 1991 and Angus Dalziel, a war reporter, is in the Dhahran Palace Hotel in Saudi Arabia waiting for the U.S. forces to cross the border into Iraq in the "Desert Storm", the battle to force Iraq out of Kuwait. There are a thousand other reporters hanging out with not much to do. One of them is the beautiful Thea Makdisi, a sexy cable news reporter who attracts attention wherever she goes. Now Dalziel must make up his mind whether to chase the story or chase the girl? This is a wonderful look inside the real world of foreign correspondents as told by one of them. Another café is the title of Sky Lee’s new novel, Disappearing Moon Café ($15.95, Douglas & McIntyre, softcover) that moves back and forth between the past and present, between Canada and China, as the women of the Wong family, over four generations, experience passionate lives and loves, passing on their heritage from mother to daughter to granddaughter as each confronts isolation, racism, and the clash of cultures. Need it be said that women in particular will find this an absorbing story? For anyone who loves to read of other cultures, this is a novel worth reading.

Probably one of the most audacious novels of the year is The Secret Memoirs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis by Ruth Francisco ($24.95, St. Martin’s Press). It is a fictionalized account of one of the most famous figures of the last century, an icon among the women of its second half and the subject of endless tabloid and mainstream coverage. The author has immersed herself in the known facts and added her own imagination to create a book that is going to please a lot of people and probably infuriate a lot of others. Now let me ask, why is that female writers have begun to dominate the suspense and horror genre of late? I don’t know, but I do know that Lisa Jackson, the author of Fatal Burn, is back with Shiver ($19.95, Kensington Publishing Corp) and an April printing of 200,000 copies. Like the former novel, it is likely to make it to the bestseller lists as it tells the story of a killing spree in New Orleans, claiming two victims at a time and arranging them in gruesome scenarios. Those familiar with her previous novels will welcome the return of detective Reuben Montoyo as he tracks this fiendish serial killer. Better read this one with all the lights on and the door bolted.

If you want to be scared some more, then read Steve Alten’s The Loch ($14.95, Tsunami Books) that evokes the famed Loch Ness monster in a frightening page-turner that has a quality of reality that will make you a believer. Or you could wait for the movie by filmmaker David Foster who produced River Wild. Nah! Read the book and then see the movie. This genre of writing, horror and suspense, comes together in a collection of stories by black writers, Voices From the Other Side, ($15.00, Kensington Publishing Corp), edited by Brandon Massey. An award-winning author in his own right, Massey provides the reader with 16 excursions into the darkest of nightmares by some of the brightest stars of black fiction such as Eric Jerome Dickey, L.A. Banks, and Tananarive Due. Trust me, this is very scary stuff!

Some authors take a bit of time to write their second novel, but Lloyd Zimpel took longer than most. At age 75, he took thirty years to follow up his first with A Season of Fire and Ice ($23.95, Unbridled Books), but it is worth the wait for this classic frontier story set in the 1880s Dakota Territory. Based on memories of his grandparent’s lives and his readings of pioneer journals, Zimpel tells the story of Gerhardt Praeger, a deeply religious man who believes God rewards hard work and humility. It is a narrative of increasingly tense events between the old man, his wife and seven sons, and a new neighbor that leads to a catastrophic ending. Let’s hope he doesn’t wait long to write his next novel. A very different place, Nigeria, is the setting for The Looming Fog by Rosemary Esehagu ($13.95, Creations Books, New York, NY, softcover). This is a very different kind of story, featuring a character who is shunned by virtue of being born an "inter-sexual" child, into a society that defines its people by their gender. Parentless by age seven, the character who is not even given a name by the villagers must overcome poverty and the total rejection of his community. I grant you this may not sound like a story you would rush to read, but it is one that raises interesting questions and provides an insight to Nigerian traditional culture, its people, traditions, and mores.

Coming next month from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, there’s suspense to spare in Susan Wales and Robin Shope’s novel, The Replacement ($12.99, softcover). Jill Lewis is a top-notch investigative reporter in Washington, D.C., engaged to John, an agent for the FBI. When a high profile senator is assassinated, Jill leaps at the opportunity to cover the story and begins to dig up evidence of political scandal, intrigue and deceptions. And then her fiancé disappears! Jill suspects it has something to do with the story she’s working. For anyone who enjoys a mix of politics, conspiracy, and a bit of romance, this novel will not disappoint you with its page-turning pace of events. Talking about romance, Neither Sand, Nor Sea by Kathleen Kubik serves up plenty of it ($15.00, Keene Publishing, Warwick, NY) along with travel, two hunky heroes and a heroine whose life is about to change forever. Carla Montgomery is young, pretty, and very naïve. Struggling to overcome the pain of her mother’s recent death and a stunning confession she made before she died, she throws herself into her work as an interior designer, but life in the form of movie star client and a rugged Norwegian sea captain has other plans for her. It would be easy to dismiss this novel as "chick lit", but it happens to be a lot deeper than that, a reading experience that is worth the trip.

I’ll finish with two novels that actually defy description in many ways because they just aren’t the usual kind of stories one encounters. Marathon by W. William Winokur ($24.95, Kissena Park Press, New York,NY) is based on the true-life story of Horace Mann School professor, Ion Theodore. His life was a remarkable journey through the most catastrophic and triumphant events of the last century. Born a slave under the Ottoman Empire, he becomes a marathon runner and a scholar, winning his freedom during World War I and going on to live an extraordinary life. The author was a student of his and was inspired to write a remarkable novel about a remarkable man. George and the Angels by Glenn Meganck ($25.00, Beachfront Publishing, Boca Raton, FL) is the story of a man who hears angels. An initially grey and colorless life is traced in this story where the main character is committed to an asylum, believed to have suffered a nervous breakdown, and after being released hears them yet again, only to embark on a journey filled with inexplicable events and dangers. If the metaphysical interests you, this story will too. To get a sense of what this novel is about, visit www.beachfrontentertainment.com.

That’s it for May! Don’t forget to visit our Featured Books section for a selection of unique books that merit eclectic readers. And tell your book-loving friends about Bookviews.com, an Internet site that is beholden solely to the experience your humble editor has acquired from decades of reading the latest books from all sources. Come back in June for more great reading!

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