Bullet

This book is hilarious! A must read if you've spent time in a gray fuzz covered, neon lite cubicle in corporate American. you'll love this book. If you've ever received mass emailings containing executive directives that make you talk to your computer screen in colorful ways, you'll love this book. If you've ever heard a company executive tell you that the company is doing fine, despite the headlines, you'll love this book.
If the first names of the CEOs of your former employers are Joe, or Bernie, and have recently been Indicted by the Justice Department, you should read this book. As Jimmy Buffet once said, "If we don't laugh, we'll all go insane!" A truly sarcastic and humorous work of art.

J.J., poor guy, has experienced my luck in the business world! Mr. Talbott's book is hilarious because it's so true! About time someone tells it like it is in the "real" world.

WAY TO GO!! This is a wonderful humorous example of the REAL Corporate America!! It is about time we take a look at the structure which is leading to the downfall of many corporations! Mr. Talbott has very successfully and humorously accomplished that task. This is a must read for anyone working in or affected by the Corporate world. Is there anyone who has not been affected by the situations he so adequately describes??

Read and enjoy. Get ready to laugh. Get ready to act on and advocate for change in corporate America!! Nomatter what your situation, I believe you will find many things in the book applicable to you.

Thanks Mr. Talbott for your honesty and realness in addressing this issue!! Please write some more!!

Nathaniel Rose evokes shades of Mike Hammer and Parker with some unique textures of his own. The stories were entertaining original fiction, written with honor threaded throughout the tough action and dialogue.
The reader is left wanting more tales from this almost anti-hero.
In a genre overly criticized for its wanton violence and sexuality, it's refreshing to see Michael Bracken stare the critics down for the sake of a story done right.
Bracken's work can stand alongside Mickey Spillane, Richard Stark, Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos and Ed McBain as the most entertaining writing of its genre.
Having read four other Bracken books (All White Girls, Bad Girls, Psi Cops as well as Tequila Sunrise), the feeling is that Bracken will make a major breakthrough into mainstream entertainment.
Hopefully,his Nathaniel Rose creation will follow him there, because crime fiction needs a breath of fresh air.

The subtitle, "Bullets, Booze and Broads," is a highly accurate summation of this short story collection. There is certainly no mistaking this book for a cozy tea party at the vicarage. In all honesty, I'm much more a cozy fan than a hardboiled fan, and the more graphic sex scenes pushed my "too much information" button. Bracken tells a good story, though, and there is no denying that Nathaniel Rose has a distinctive voice.

All of the stories are set in St. Louis, and as someone who visits St. Louis maybe once every few years, I enjoyed Rose's tour of some of those sites not on the typical tourist itinerary. The city's unique personality comes through very subtly yet effectively, seeming to make the setting a character of its own.

I was particularly impressed with the plot lines, both within each story and in the progression of stories. Bracken's plot twists are fresh and innovative where so many hardboiled stories fall back on the tried and true devices. Bracken even seems to poke fun at some of those hardboiled conventions, like when Rose describes how he and his secretary are caught by surprise when a client actually shows up completely unannounced. The character development as Rose proceeds from "Partners" (first published in 1988) through four stories from the 1995 collection Even Roses Bleed, to the final two stories written for this anthology, also indicate Bracken's concentration on craft. And despite my cozy leanings, I couldn't help but admire Bracken's willingness to shed just about anybody's blood in order to keep the plot coherent.

If you like your fiction brief and noir (and maybe even if you don't) I think you'll find Tequila Sunrise an intoxicating treat.

(adapted from a "Skullduggery" review)

Tequila Sunrise contains seven private eye stories, all great. These stories are faithful to the hardboiled genre, and make no apology for their rough, tough nature.

I knew I was in for a good time when Nathaniel Rose's car blew up on page one of the first story. The excitement and suspense didn't let up until the last page of the last story.

If you like stories of private eyes with codes of honor, willing to do what it takes to find the truth no matter wshat the personal cost, this is the book for you.

"The magic of Lebanon infects any person born there and any visitor who steps onto the land for even just one day," writes Patricia Ward in her story about troubled teenage sisters in war-torn Beirut. The narrator, Marianna, and her sister are the offspring of an American/Armenian marriage. In this deeply personal coming-of-age novel each sister struggles to survive a near-fatal depression that is her own internal civil war. Marianna tells how her world grows smaller and smaller, until there is only her room-and then only her memories of a Lebanon both real and imagined. The adults in the sisters' lives inhabit an unreal world of denial, where civil war and depression are interspersed with hopeful truces, and family gatherings in the fresh piney mountains above the city prom-ise that all will soon be well. The sisters know better-or do they? "What is this magic, this country that insists on being remembered even after forcing us to leave?" Good memories and bad can be equally haunting, and even when Ward writes of despair, her prose is lyrically poetic.
-WILLIAM TRACY

The author of this book takes the reader through a wonderful series of images, most of them haunting, but all of them sending thoughtful sparkles through the mind, like a tart juice. It is refreshing, but it wakes you up. From the first page, the reader is confronted with a paradox. The story is told by Marianne who is dangerously depressed, but it is also Marianne who is telling the story in a beautifully competent way. So, hope and despair are mixed from the beginning. Once started, it is difficult to put down. Get it, and treat yourself to some real thinking.

Readers will feel nourished by the exquisite prose of this novel!

The Bullet Collection is an incredibly moving story set during the Lebanese civil war. The narrative chronicles the persistant influence the war has on a loving family.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a civilian in a city at war, this is the book for you!

This masterpiece by Doctor Victor of Hamilton High School is the primary example of what makes modern literature so great. Replete with exciting sequences, surprise twists and turns, rich diction, and tone changes, this mystery book has had a gigantic impact on me. Its eloquent account of the adventures of Holmes and Watson, with their searing downfalls and courageous successes, proves once again that Hamilton High School is the greatest school ever and that Doctor Victor is the best teacher ever. No, I don't need an A (I graduated in 1998); all I want is to pay homage to the great author of the suspensful thriller. Doctor Victor, We remember you and love you. I think this goes for everyone.

I'm in Dr. Victor A.P. class and although I haven't read the book the plot and story line sound interesting. I will soon buy the book and add it to my collestion of books which will be a pleasure to have. Get one of the best books of the 20th century. Hey all in the class and to you Dr. Victor! This should be an "A" in the class,don't you think Dr.Victor. Per.3 "01"

Dr. Daniel Victor is one of the greatest authors of the 20th century. His use of diction and syntax in all the right place makes The Seventh Bullet enjoyable to read. Also I am in his AP English class and could really use a good grade in that class. Whatever my fellow classmate Mike said is all true. Casey Per. 3 '01

100 BULLETS: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE is the second graphic novel from the award-winning monthly 100 BULLETS comic book put out by DC Comics' Vertigo line. Again, series writer Brian Azzarello keeps the mix violent and unpredictable, fusing the cold shadows of the street with the hot fury of betrayal. The book opens up with a two-part story, "Short Con, Long Odds", about Chucky and Pony, two childhood friends who grow up to be gamblers. Then Agent Graves, the unknown man of mystery who always kicks the stories into high gear, shows up carrying a briefcase loaded with a semi-automatic pistol and 100 rounds of untraceable ammunition. He tells Chucky that Pony set him up for a seven-year fall in prison that he should have taken--at the same time that Pony is stealing Chucky's woman. The biggest risk either of Chucky and Pony ever took was being friends with each other, and that's about to change. "Day, Hour, Minute...Man" offers up a quick peek into the mysterious agency that Mr. Graves works for, and shows Mr. Graves coldly dealing out vengeance of his own. "The Right Ear, Left In The Cold" tells the story of Cole Burns, an ice cream man who sells ice cream and stolen cigarettes out of his truck, and who is much more than he appears to be. Mr. Graves gives him a briefcase and the 100 rounds of ammunition, then tells him that Goldy Petrovic is the man responsible for the burning death of Cole's grandmother in the nursing home. Besides wanting vengeance, Cole also has to deal with another ice cream man trying to take his beat. But most of all, Cole Burns is a man on a mission to find himself. "Heartbreak Sunnyside Up" is another stand-alone tale that is brutal and violent, and all too real. Lilly Roach is a waitress in a diner, and a woman who has lost her teenage daughter to the streets. Then, one day, Agent Graves shows up with the story of what really happened to Lilly's daughter--and a briefcase containing a pistol and 100 rounds of untraceable ammunition. Even the back story in this particular episode resonates with truth and pain directly from the real world. The book wraps with a three-chapter arc, "Parlez Kung Vous", that takes the reader back to Dizzy Cordova, the heroine introduced in the first graphic novel. She's in Paris on assignment, hooking up with a man named Mr. Branch. She has a lot in common with Mr. Branch. He was a reporter, very different from the barrio life Dizzy knew, but he was also offered the briefcase and 100 bullets--only Mr. Branch didn't use them and his life is now in jeopardy. The mystery surrounding the Trust, the Minutemen, and Agent Graves is cleared up a little, but only enough to reveal that more twists and turns are ahead.

Besides writing 100 BULLETS, Brian Azzarello has also worked on the HELLBLAZER series, BATMAN/DEATHBLOW, the JONNY DOUBLE mini-series for DC COMICS, and STARTLING STORIES: BANNER, CAGE, and SPIDER-MAN for Marvel Comics. Eduard Risso, the co-creator of 100 BULLETS, has also drawn for BATMAN, the horror anthology FLINCH, the JONNY DOUBLE mini-series, and comic books in his native France.

100 BULLETS: SPLIT SECOND CHANCE continues the same throbbing beat of violence and sharp emotion summoned up in the previous graphic novel. Each volume, so far there are four, stands on its own merits, but there is something to gain by reading them in order. As always, Azzarello's characters are sharply drawn and come across as real people with real problems. Primarily those problems are always about betrayal and the need for vengeance. Azzarello moves easily about the urban landscape of the real world, and his stories echo with current events. His dialogue puts a fine point on what could simply be just a collection of out-for-revenge stories. The characters are torn between the need for vengeance, the loss they're going to suffer when they act on that need or choose not to, and they're torn over the fact that once they follow up on that path to vengeance that their lives are going to be forever changed. Risso's artwork displays those worlds, those streets, and those emotions with knowing ease, while at the same time conveying the heaviness of life to someone living in the shadows. The fact that the vengance stories are only pearls on a string, and that the string is actually part of a much greater story Azzarello is telling is awesome. Readers can start to see the beginning bones of that story in these tales, and the imagination will reach to fill in the other gaps.

This graphic novel is definitely recommended to fans of Azzarello and Risso's work. Also, any fans of noir and action movies will find a lot here to whet those appetites in the brilliant dialogue and panels that accompany these hard-edged stories. Comics fans that regularly read Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka, and Chuck Dixon will find a new favorite author in Brian Azzarello.

100 bullets will be a classic in comic story telling.When after 100 issues it will be finished,Brian Azzaello will enter the hall of fame of comic-writers ;along with Gaines-Feldstein;Frank Miller;Alan Moore;Brian Michael Bendis.This is too good to be true.

First off read the first 100 Bullets trade. It's a great read if your a comic fan or a fan of crime literature. This second trade continues the excellent storytelling of the first trade. It answers some questions, and brings up many more. It appears the creators are setting up a huge,grand mystery. When 100 Bullets is finished I feel it will be as large an epic as Preacher was. The trade ends with a story featuring the return of Dizzy Cordova from the first storyline. And it ends with a killer last panel that will make you want even more. I eagerly await the next trade paperback. Like I said 100 Bullets is for fans of great stories(comics or otherwise)

This book was a heart wrenching read. I could identify and feel for the characters. This is one find that all lesbians should have on their shelves, and that all people alike should read. The only complaint I have is that at times it seems like the main character is a little emotionless in her writing. Other than that, I would highly recommend this book.

American society has the rather unfortunate tendency to shun hate crimes legislation on the grounds that it would restrict an individual's right to freedom of expression and trivialize the First Amendment. Both assertions are clearly absurd, but the nasty allegations continue. In the greatest of ironies, the "pro-family" "pro-life" relgious right will oppose this legislation because it supposedly interferes with their political activities.

I challenge anybody to read this book and then still believe the lies and distortions popularized by the right wing.Hate crimes are meant to stigmatize both the indiviuals affected and the larger marginalized group of which they are members of. Supporters of hate crimes laws are not well-heeled elitists, they are (quite litterally) the most vunerable members of society who fear for their lives.

Brenner describes how she and her lover were enjoying a wonderful day in the mountains when the later was gunned down by a homophobic peeping tom. Although she survived and the physical injuries eventually healed, I could tell that it was still very emotionally hard for her. I applaud her for comming forward and retelling her story in the hopes that future generations of Americans will never have to personally experience the same fate.

Not supprisingly, Brenner became an anti-violence activist following this incident and has appeared before Congress urging passage of federal hate crimes measures. While her story did not recceive as much publicity as the later murder of Wyoming's Matthew Shepard, she helped personalize the face of hate crime victims.

Although it was her lover who was gunned down, Brenner realized that the day after that it could be somebody else's and the ugly pattern would continue until people of all sexualities started demanding an end to anti-gay violence and taught respect for different groups.

This book was a gripping tale. It should remind us of what hate does when it is acted upon & lately it seems that people are hating others for just about anything. This could have happened anywhere in the US to any person for any reason...We need to stop the violence NOW.

I found M.L. Simmons book to be one of the best homespun hunting books it has been my pleasure to have read.A straightforward glimpse into one of Americas most treasured traditions.Mr. Simmons non conformist style of writing almost enables the reader to feel the fresh, crisp fall air and smell the burning gun powder.From shared true life hunting stories, to an equally well written fictional journey in the last chapter, a must for anyone who feels the call of the hunt in their blood.In conclussion: A book writen in memory of a friend, sure to make many more.

Mike has out done himself. I don't read much, but couldn't put the book down once I started. I enjoyed the common sense thoughts based on experience. Also enjoyed knowing there was someone else out there who was a "Meat Hunter". You can learn a lot of practical things by reading Bullets, Blood and Backstrap including, how to get your wife to pack the meat out. Great humor. I'm waiting for a sequel. Thanks Mike (and Duggan).

This has got to be the best elk hunting book. Mr. Simmons is a serious elk hunter. I'm only fourteen and I've learned alot from this book. I recomend it to any elk or deer hunter.

For long stretches, "Bullet Park" tells highly abstract stories, such as Hammer's quest for the calming yellow room. These sections are odd but riveting, achieving emotional truth in a flat dreamy landscape. At other times, the book tells stories of dated exaggeration, such as the French's teacher's hysterical reaction to Tony Nailes. These sections are angry and a little obvious. Regardless, I nearly read this book in a single afternoon, which demonstrates that "Bullet Park" has a weird narrative power. But apart from its language, which is flat and anti-emotive (WASP suburbs, I suppose), does it really hold together?

This is an engaging story. It takes on suburbia and treats it poetically. It tells the story of two men, Hammer and Nailles. Really, it is two novellas, the first about Nailles. There isn't much interaction between the two men until the end. It looks like a rather simple story with much subtle humor (like the two men's names) at the beginning and gets darker and more twisted as it moves forward.

Stay away from reading the book's jacket. It gives away too much of the story.

The realm of much of Cheever's fiction is the affluent suburban sprawl of Thruway-threaded upstate New York, Westchester County and environs. Like the infamous Shady Hill of his short stories, Bullet Park is a whitebread outpost for white-collar professionals who commute daily to the city and drink heavily on weekends, and often weekdays. In a comfortable house on a comfortable street in this town lives Eliot Nailles, a chemist whose specialty is mouthwash and who plies his craft with the conviction that bad breath can lead to global destruction, a respectable family man devoted to his wife Nellie and his teenage son Tony, and an avid churchgoer, although more out of a sense of duty than piety.

Tony's privileged status as an only child and a middle class Baby Boomer has bred an adolescence painful both to himself and to his parents, and he still continues to teeter on the brink of knuckleheadedness. With the insight of a child psychologist and the wisdom of an embattled father, Cheever recounts Tony's various phases: his addiction to television, his threat against his French teacher, his strange sudden interest in poetry, the brash older woman he invites to his parents' house for lunch, and especially his mysterious depression which confines him to bed for weeks and requires the healing power of a "swami" whose idea of therapy is to repeat mantras.

One day a man named Paul Hammer and his wife Marietta move into Bullet Park and befriend the Nailleses. Through first person narration, Paul reveals his colorful past: The illegitimate child of a wealthy, sculpturally ideal father and an eccentric, bookish mother, he uses his Yale education to drift drunkenly through life, translate the work of an Italian poet, and search for the perfect home -- one with a room with yellow walls. His mother's hatred of American capitalism inspires him to murder a well-to-do suburbanite as some kind of statement against bourgeois complacency -- and the man he chooses happens to be Tony Nailles.

The climax is quite surprising and arrives at a moment of the highest suspense and tension, an unusual technique for Cheever, who tends to use dialogue, thoughts, and impressions rather than action to resolve his characters' conflicts. But Cheever's fiction is always full of surprises, even though his subject matter seldom changes; his talent lies in his ability to imagine fascinating stories lurking behind the bland facades of American suburbia and crystallize them with his reliably brilliant prose. "Bullet Park" is a satire and a comedy; it patiently observes suburban provinciality and materialism, and even raises a question about oyster etiquette, all while holding up a distorted mirror to an anticipated readership that lives in places very much like the one it describes.

William Quandt has produced a brief look at the Algerian crisis that will give the reader with a time deficit a chance bone up quickly and accurately.

Between Ballots & Bullets by William Quandt is an excellent and exhaustive study of Algeria's transition from authoritarianism. The book is split into two parts: political history and political analysis. In Part I, the reader gets an excellent political history of the country, beginning with the struggle for independence from France all the way to aftermath of the 1997 elections (the book was published in 1998). In Part II, Quandt offers contending "perspectives" for analyzing Algeria's plight. He details cultural, socioeconomic and political explanations for the situation, while taking care never to dismiss the power of human agency and contextualized choice. In this book review, I will briefly summarize the book, review Quandt's style, and propose future implications for Algeria based on the knowledge I have gained.
It almost seems repetitive to give a summary of this book, because Quandt is extremely concise. He begins with a political account of the Algerian struggle for independence. He observes,

...the revolution that was launched November 1, 1954 was not only against the French, but also against the existing political institutions that Algerians had forged over the previous generation. In its origins, the Algerian revolution was antipolitics and antiparty. (18)

This observation is important because it helps the reader understand the importance of nationalism in the revolution. The Algerians did not fight with a detailed governance plan in their back pocket. Rather, they fought for a chance to establish themselves as independent people.
After discussing the Revolution and its rhetorical emphasis on unity, Quandt moves into the Boumedience Era. He notes that Algeria's first president, Ben Bella, lacked an institutional base of support and spent much of his time in office manipulating factions against each other. Ben Bella quietly faded into the background and Boumediene arose as the stable and rather "faceless" leader. He downgraded the FLN (the party credited with winning independence) in importance and suppressed any emerging opposition to his regime. Indeed, after 1968, there was very little internal opposition. During the 1970s, his regime had an Islamic cultural orientation but functioned in a secular socialist manner. There was definitely not much emphasis on a transition to democracy, but "Boumedience, at least, had brought stability to a country that had known far too much political violence" (29).
In the next chapter, Quandt explains that there was inevitable pressure to change, and Boumediene, as an authoritarian ruler, was unable to enact it. Chadli Benjedid became president in 1979, and long-suppressed demands for change came with the Berber spring of 1980. This initial movement for the rights of Berber-speaking people gave rise to other political movements, the most significant being the Algerian Islamic Movement. Beginning in 1982, the Islamic Movement took up arms and gained momentum, though for the most part the stability of the existing order kept protestors at bay. This all changed in 1988, when "the bottom fell out of the oil market." The rentier state was in trouble.
Quandt writes, "the mass protests of October 1988 proved to be one of those turning points that define a country's political trajectory for years to come. It was a nationwide youth revolt, but Islamic activists soon took charge. The military was called in and violence ensued. Hundreds of young Algerians were killed in the first use of the Algerian military against its own people.
As disturbing as this scene was, Quandt notes that it could have been a dramatic turn toward political expression and eventually democracy. Indeed, in 1989 reform-minded allies of Chadli drafted a new constitution. At least on paper, it created three distinct branches of government and guaranteed individual liberties--including what was to soon become a very significant free press. The army was supposed to now be above politics, and a significant new political party, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) challenged the government on a plethora of issues. Many young unemployed and disillusioned men joined this group. Through political mediums such as strikes and the 1991 elections (in which the FIS received about twice the number of votes as the FLN in the first round), the FIS established itself as the new power in Algeria. In June of 1991, however, the army stepped in yet again (it had stepped in during the strike and arrested FIS leaders) and showed itself to be right in the middle of politics-certainly not above it.
In 1991 the army cancelled the constitutionally mandated second round of elections and forcefully removed both Chadli and the FIS from power. Quandt explains the army's motives well:

Many in the military had fought for Algeria's independence and genuinely felt that they had a legitimate role to play in the political life of the country. The FIS was a threat to all that they had fought for and, like the Turkish military, they would not stand by and watch the principles of the state be trampled. (60-61).

Thus, the military took over the state and political violence and terrorism was the norm for most of the nineties. Within months, the FIS was declared illegal. The leader appointed by the military, Boudiaf, was assassinated, and thousands of ordinary Algerians lost their lives in the chaos. Quandt writes, "The inability-or unwillingess-of the state to provide basic security was shocking" (75). Many Algerians emigrated to other nations.
Thus, the political history of Algeria is a complex and sometimes sad one. Quandt's book covers it so well because he understands that there is hope for the country. It has experimented with liberalization and might just be able to make it work. After all, nobody really expected Algeria to rebel against France in the first place, much less win a war of independence. Quandt's book is good because it presents this history in a very detailed fashion (Part I), and then it presents various perspectives to clarify the events and give insight to the future (Part II). An alternate format, like an interwoven mixture of history and analysis, might be very confusing to the average reader.

Ballots and Bullets is only one of several books I have read dealing with Algerian Politics recently, and it amazed me how Quandt was able to grasp the fundamental themes of the transition Algeria has made in the past years. Quandt has a perspective on the subject that had never entered my mind before, and he explains it in the most comprehensive manner possible.

Tommy Monaghan is a Hitman with a conscience who's blessed with x-ray vision, telepathy and one hell of a skill-level. He'll shoot any meta-human you want (he doesn't take contracts on regular people because 'where's the sport in that') as long as you bring the money, AND he HAS to see the target as 'bad people'. Otherwise, no deal. In this book (which collects Hitman #4-8) the tables are turned when a mob boss from Tommy's past wants revenge and puts a price on HIS head. A hitman, who sees himself as the best in the world, called Johnny Navarone takes the job. Meanwhile Tommy himself, who doesn't suspect a thing so far, takes on a contract of his own. He's supposed to kill of a corrupt vigilante named 'Nightfist' (which is really meant as a mocking of superhero-comics) for the price of $10.000. The assignment turns out to be a set-up and Tommy gets in a world of trouble. Navarone then does something he really shouldn't have. Now IT'S PERSONAL ! From here the story turns into a kill-fest. Finally the book concludes with #8 which is a "Final Night" tie-in. The guys spend a night hanging out but when they realize the sun isn't coming up, and Superman's on the news, they decide to stick together in the bar to wait for the end of the world. They pass the time by telling each other about the time they came closest to death.

Compared to the previous Hitman collection (the one that hasn't got a name) this one contains a lot less one-liners and a heck of a lot more action and graphic violence. Off course there ARE still one-liners and the humorlevel is up to score (it IS a Ennis title after all) but you just have to look harder for it (just LOOK at the characters, it's a blast). It's a great addition to the Hitman series and people who like the typical Ennis' humor, and don't neccesarily need a story to be too complicated will have a lot of fun with it. That's mainly what going on, action and humor and it works out very good. The one downside this book has though is that it relates a lot to the previous collection, so you should really get that one first or at least read it prior to this one (or you'll miss out on things here and there). But that's also a good book so that's not a waste either.

This book, the second collection of Garth Ennis' 'Hitman' series sees the character of Tommy Monaghen (a hitman with superpowers and a fast wit) face major changes in his life. This collection also brings a close to one of the stories introduced in the first collection, as a mob boss (whose dead siamise twin's corpse decays on his bodies other half) sends a smooth assassin to deal with Tommy. All this, and a pretty funny jab at super-hero comics. '100,000 Bullets', an obvious play on Azzerello's '100 Bullets', is a fun read and a solid continuation of the 'Hitman' story.

By far, this is one of the greatest stories I have ever read. Comic book or otherwise. Action, heart, humour, and some of the best dialogue ever written. The scene with the bathtub... my God... it almost ripped my heart out. Garth Ennis is truly one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.