HKFE

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Book reviews for "HKFE" sorted by average review score:
Eat This, San Francisco: A Narrated Roadmap to Dives, Joints, All-Night Cafes, Noodle Houses, Buffets, and Other Cheap Places to Eat in the Bay Area
Published in Paperback by Sasquatch Books (October, 1999)
Author: Dan Leone
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You don't have to live in San Francisco or be visiting there. You don't even have to be hungry to pick up this book and laugh away your whole lunch hour. Heck, you could be on a food strike in Tallahassee, and you'd still find yourself cracking up and saying, "Now this is a book to hang onto for the next time I'm in a bad mood." There's a reason why Eat This, San Francisco is one of the most refreshing, hilarious books of the year, even though it's a collection of reviews about San Francisco restaurants where you can dine for under $10, an amusing thought in itself. That reason is author Dan Leone, the pen behind the engaging, if unusual, "Cheap Eats" column in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The man understands food. He understands that it's either good, great, or blech--and that it comes in two prices: too pricey or darn affordable. Undoubtedly a child who "played" with his food, he sees in it potential for humor and how a meal, good or bad, is a magnet for stories. And you get plenty: tales about his car, his girlfriend Yatee-Yatee-Bing-Eh-Eh-Eh, his friends Haywire, Crawdad, Punk, and Punkess, even his fav Uncle Fatty. Occasionally reviews are more about the trip there, or the fellow diners, or what he was doing when a stranger yelled up a restaurant suggestion, but he ultimately serves up the goods. In an era when the culinary arts have risen to flavor alchemy and metaphor-happy food writers are nearly as important as chefs, Leone's flavors don't marry, his sauces don't embrace, and his favorite foods are ribs, calamari, and eggs. Dan Leone is a huge talent, disguised as a humble reviewer, and he could write a book about paper clips and make it a knee-slapper. You may not want to pull up a chair in one of his hallowed dives, but you will probably want to invite Dan Leone over to dinner. Even if you're on a food strike in Tallahassee. --Melissa Rossi
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Zero Stars
No food critic.

Just a potty mouth who finds cheap places that most folks won't like.

Leone's in-your-face-proud of-my ingornance-stance may amuse some readers.

I Wish this Book had Been Released in 1995...
because then it would have been only half as annoying.

As a long-time resident of San Francisco, I read Dan Leone's "Cheap Eats" column regularly, so it was natural for me to want the compilation book. Sadly, I discovered that what works well in a weekly column kind of fills you up quickly in larger doses.

When you can compare columns and watch Dan progess over a period of time, it becomes obvious what a one-trick pony he is. He's like a six year old child who's just learned a new bad word and delights in repeating it over and over to shock dinner guests. So many of his columns are a study in scatology, that it makes one wonder how he eats at all with visions of body wastes dancing in his head.

Dan Leone can be funny, in Ferrelly Brothers kind of way, and many of his columns make for amusing reading. But a little of him goes a long, long way.

Dan's book is here at last!
I was so glad to finally be able to buy this book by writer, musician and all around nice guy Dan Leone. This book was originally slated to appear in '98 when his then-publisher folded. While that must have been frustrating to Leone at the time, it has worked out well for his readers because we now get the entire arc of how he met, wooed and finally married his wife, the beloved "Crawdad De La Cooter" in early '99.

So yes, here are reviews of all the delicious, greasy mom-and-pop diners, soup counters, taquerias and Thai food eateries that make San Francisco the best five-dollar lunch city anywhere. But we also get Dan's mayoral predictions, car troubles, sports injuries and tributes to his many-monikered pals.

There's real emotion in the review of Ana's Restaurant (p325), written during his last night as a bachelor. Leone creates a sense of romantic happiness as he wanders through the Mission District, quietly contemplating his love but not forgetting to fill his stomach with a big bowl of seafood soup, every ingredient of which reminds him in some way of his bride-to-be.

"So you see? You see why I'm getting married tomorrow?" he ends the review. And we do and we're very happy for him.

My only sore point was that this book was so long in the making that some of my favorite old reviews were cut because the restaurants they concerned had closed years ago. I hope that "Eat More Of This" appears before another six years go by.

Cafes of Childhood
Published in Paperback by Event Horizon Press (April, 1992)
Author: R. Nikolas Macioci
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ONE OF STRONGEST SMALL PRESS BOOKS OF ERA
It's like Harry Crews said in his BURIED ALIVE documentary, if you write, some people are going to have problems with what you have to say. I recall that this was the case for this writer when the book was first published.

When I read CAFES OF CHILDHOOD, I was caught up in the drama and the powerful but spare use of language. I did not read the book as an indictment of the poet's family. He could just as easily have been writing in a persona. Poetry doesn't have to be factually accurate anyway, just moving and memorable. This book is both, and it is a surprise to me that Macioci has not pubished another.

Strong and moving
The poems in Cafes of Childhood are strong and beautiful, clear and subtle, marked with simple joy and punctuated with horror. Each can stand alone, but they function as a whole to shed light on childhood. Yes, some specific childhood which perhaps still has open wounds (New South Wales?), but really just childhood. I would recommend this book to anyone who knows a child, has a child, or has been a child.

Incredibly vivid & moving poems
I know nothing of this poet's family problems, I can only state my opinion of these poems. The language is incredibly vivid and moving. The use of imagery is spare and subsequently powerful. I recommend these poems to all fans of poetry--but especially to readers who experienced the magic of childhood as keenly as they experienced the pain. These poems will move you.

Collected Stories Including the Member of the Wedding and the Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Published in Paperback by Mariner Books (June, 1987)
Author: Carson McCullers
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A master of characterization and setting
What strikes me most about McCullers is the simple yet rich complexity of her characters. While some of the earlier stories in this book felt too incomplete for me, as if they were more vignettes than stories, the tales grew stronger as I read on. The Haunted Boy is my favorite because it resonates with a sad truthfulness as a boy struggles to cope with a tragic event from the past which he's yet to deal with emotionally.

I think any true fan of literary storytelling will admit that, though perhaps not always perfect, Carson McCullers' writing as a whole is a sample of this genre at its best.

Fine, neglected writer, on her way back!
I've loved Carson McCullers for years, and her complete works have only been sporadically available. Her miniatures are near perfectly realized works of literary art, and this collection is a fine introduction to a great writer from the south who seems to have dropped of the critical radar. Her output is quite small, finely honed, and the prose is like a clear blue sky. Her longer works are worth searching for, and I recently noted that The Library of America has been hard at work making sure that Carson will continue to be read....!

Interesting...
I have always read stories in the past that gave me feelings right away. After reading these short stories, I was somewhat confused why McCullers didn't elaborate, or why she ended the story where she did. It was only after reading her biography, that I began to reread the stories and became obsessed with all of them. The meanings became clearer, the ideas behind them were revealed, and she has become my favorite author. I would recommend this to anyone, and I would also recommend her novels too. Enjoy.

A Cafe on the Nile
Published in Hardcover by Carroll & Graf (December, 1998)
Author: Bartle Bull
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Where are the new Casablancas coming from? Here's one possible source. Bartle Bull, a lawyer, publisher, explorer, and writer, centers his latest thriller at the Cataract Cafe, a floating version of Rick's in 1935 Cairo. The owner, Olivio, is a dwarf from Goa, and his regular customers include a stalwart British professional hunter, his unfaithful wife and her lover, an Italian aviator, American twin sisters in search of all kinds of adventure, and various rogue Germans, including a doctor who regrets not being able to use Olivio for medical research. Bull's writing is wry and deceptively simple:
The waiter set before the doctor a glass of warm boiled water and the flesh of a Nile perch, cleaned from the bone and rearranged on the plate in the shape of a smaller fish. The water was pink from the three spoonfuls of vinegar that had been stirred into it, the day's first weapon in his battle with arthritis. The German leaned forward. His high hooked nose hung over the table like a chimney over a fireplace as he widened his nostrils and smelled the fish.
Outside the cafe, larger forces are at work: Mussolini is helping to start World War II with his attacks on Abyssinia, and other countries are jockeying for power. By focusing on the lives of a few assorted cafe goers, Bull makes his book add up to much more than a hill of beans--he gives us a rich, exciting picture of a world about to disappear. --Dick Adler
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I expected much more!
After reading "The White Rhino Hotel", I was looking forward to this book. I truly enjoyed the cast of characters I knew would be inhabiting it from Bull's other novel set in Africa. I was disappointed. The people of the story are still well-written and the texture of the settings is first-rate. But the story left me cold. I know that "coincidences" and "contrivances" are necessary to any plot, this one was almost nothing but. If you like a rather brutish tale set during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and don't mind one set-up after another, you'll really like this adventure book. You will care about the characters. However, if you can get a copy of "The White Rhino Hotel", I'd think you'd spend your reading time with a much better story.

Sample the exotic treachery, intrigue, and love
A beautiful cover led me initially to this book as the Sphinx glowed from the clouds amidst palms and distant mountains. The exotic beckoned as I iimagined what interesting pleasures might issue forth from a "cafe on the Nile." I was not disappointed!. A cast of fascinating characters led me into the labyrinths of intrigue, love, and war, not to mention the treachery and calculating energy that existed in Cairo in the early days of WWII. A brilliant and wealthy dwarf, a German soldier of fortune, an English gypsy safari leader and his medical student wife, an impoverished English Lord, and energetic twin sisters from Kentucky make up the main cast of characters, but there are numerous enduring indigenous characters that round out the multi-layered ethnic mixture of Egypt and Africa. This is a novel of intrugue, of close ties of friendship and of betrayal. It focuses on the Italian campaign in Africa where the Italians violated all rules of civilized warfare when they dropped poison gas on thousands of Abyssinian warriors and bombed Red Cross hospital tents. The ensuing torture and vengeance that traveled with their forces illustrates the horror of war and what it can do do one's humanity. Another element of this novel that distinguishes it from the usual historical novel is its focus on the pleasures offered in that part of the world that might be considered decadent in other cultures but that exists hand in hand with the austerity of Islam and the hypocrisy of Chrisianity. Sexual favors and delights are there for the enjoyig, given freely as gifts, as bribes, and as favors. Here the exotic manifests itself in an enchanting and throbbing rhythm that whets the appetite without being vulgar. In addition, the actual love affairs and intimate relations thrill without repulsing. All in all, this is a novel full of energy and excitement. History is there as well as adventure, intrigue and international affairs. Descriptions of the African bush are as beautiful and poetic as the animal and plant life that charm and enchant those on safari. To read Cafe on the Nile is to enter a world of fascinating intrigue and drama that dashes from start to finish, leaving the reader breathless and wishing for more.

A Cafe on the Nile
I read an average of two books a week. This is the best book I have read this year. This book has a fast moving plot and delightful characters and a pace I haven't seen since I read the Hardy Boys mysteries as a child. Bull has chosen a location and time that is unfamiliar to most of us. The historical setting alone is worth the time. His turn of phrase comes close to the quality of Tom Robbins with a richness of lexicon that is like rich chocolate. The predecessor novel The White Rhino Hotel is also worth your time. I only wish Bull were more prolific.

Stories From the Blue Moon Cafe
Published in Hardcover by MacAdam/Cage Publishing (August, 2002)
Author: Sonny Brewer
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Taste the Flavor of the South at the Blue Moon Cafe
Ah, the South--a strange blend of tradition and modernity, where portraits of Elvis and Jesus vie for prominence on living-room walls.
The South--a volatile caldron of atavistic prejudices and avant-garde visions, where religion and sex fitfully embrace in a frenetic danse macabre.
How does one capture the distinctive milieu of Southern mores and culture? By what artistic legerdemain can wordsmiths translate the complex movements of Southern life onto the pages of a book?
In Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe, thirty Southern writers each contribute a short story (one of the chapters is a poem) in an attempt to capture the Southern essence.
In "Final Spring," Marlin Barton of Montgomery, Alabama, writes of the lost cause, the collapse of the Confederate army during the Civil War. And in "Killing Stonewall Jackson," Michael Knight of Knoxville, Tennessee, writes of the death of Robert E. Lee's greatest lieutenant.
In "The Blues Is Dying in the Place It Was Born," Rick Bragg describes the forlorn music of the deltas of the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers: "When you sing the blues, here in one of the poorest, most unchanging corners of the country, you hand everybody who listes a piece of your pain, fear, and hopelessness, until there is such a tiny piece left, you can live with it."
In "Bitsy," Jill Conner Browne of Jackson, Mississippi, tells of meeting the world's largest transvestite in a ladies' room in a New Orleans restaurant.
In "S. Trident," C. Terry Cline, Jr. of Fairhope, Alabama, describes his inadvertent purchase of a nuclear submarine base and of the resulting hilarious exchange of letters between himself and officials in Washington and Moscow.
In "Just a Little Closer to the Lord," Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump and Shrouds of Glory, tells the story of a black man named Walking Hand, whom the people of Widgeville, on the Carolina coast, mistake for the devil incarnate.
In "Love Like a Bullet," Melinda Haynes of Mobile, Alabama, interweaves the story of a present-day dysfunction family with Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and the biblical story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.
In the book's most hilarious story, "The Fall of the Nixon Administration," Suzanne Hudson writes of a bona fide chicken massacre. (The chickens had been given the names of the principals involved in the Watergate scandal.)
In "A Modern Tragedy," Douglas Kelley of Fort Smith, Arkansas, describes a veteran actor who has played the role of Brutus, in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," so often that he actually "becomes" Brutus.
Tom Kelly's short story, "Payback," about a turkey hunter in Florida, contains this striking passage: "There truly are temptations so strong that no man can resist them. There really are boxes that positively shriek to have the lid removed, no matter how much the box trembles, no matter how much colored smoke is leaking through the cracks around the hinges and regardless of how many troubles may be liable to escape when the lid comes off. I have been tempted and I have succumbed. We will press on from here."
In "White Sugar and Red Clay," Bev Marshall of McComb, Mississippi, writes a pognant tale of racial prejudice in the Deep South.
In "Vietnam," George Singleton describes Dr. Wanda McGaha, who "had received her undergraduate degree from Berea College, where she double-majored in philosophy in Appalachian heritage. She may have been the only college president in America who could weave a basket, carve out a bread bowl, operate a still, and quote Schopenhauer."
In "Arnold's Number," Sidney Thompson of Fairhope, Alabama, writes of a poor soul who spends his time meeting and talking with strangers in bus depots.
In a shocking Gothic tale, "The Dead Girl," Brad Watson writes of bizarre eroticism in a mortuary. The story is taken from his novel, The Heaven of Mercury (Norton, 2002).
Many of these stories present stereotypical caricatures of Southern life. One should bear in mind, however, that stereotypes and caricatures, whose exaggerations perpetuate falsehoods, often contain strong elements of truth.
Stories from the Blue Moon Cafe is a delightful anthology. One would hope that this is the first in an annual series.
Sonny Brewer owns Over the Transom Bookstore in Fairhope, Alabama. He was
editor of the city magazine in Mobile, Alabama, associate editor of an Alabama weekly newspaper, and a feature columnist. He edited an anthology of Fairhope writers and artists called Red Bluff Review, and is the author of a parable on aging cleverly disguised as a children's book, Rembrandt the Rocker, and a book of dime store philosophy called A Yin for Change.
Roy E. Perry of Nolensville is an amateur philosopher, Civil War buff, classical music lover, and aficionado of fine literature. By trade he is a copywriter at a Nashville publishing house.

ABOUT FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA:
With its location high on the bluffs of the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay, Fairhope has long been known for its lovely parks, rich with moss-draped live oaks, its sweeping panoramic views of Mobile Bay, and its charming and vital downtown where visitors and locals alike find reasons to shop, stroll, and dine. Whether you come for a day or for a lifetime, you'll be welcomed to beautiful Fairhope.

WHAT A GREAT MENU...!
This collection is a real treat - not only did I get to check out some work by some of my favorites (both old and new), but it allowed me to discover the work of some writers I had never experienced. Every piece is of high quality - most are short stories, but there are a couple of essays and a poem here as well. I won't take the time (or space) here to comment on each and every entry, but I'd like to mention a few...

Marlin Barton's story, 'Final spring', cemented my admiration for him. I had previously read (and reviewed here) his collection THE DRY WELL - and now I can look forward to his new novel BROKEN THING, coming out in the new year. C. Terry Cline's 'S Trident' had me laughing out loud - and shuddering a little, knowing that the string of misunderstandings depicted within could actually occur. Patricia Foster's 'The girl from Soldier Creek' is a well-written, moving account of a young woman going back to the home she fled in a time of crisis. While I found his collection POACHERS entertaining, I must say that I enjoyed Tom Franklin's 'Christmas 1893' much more - I look forward to reading more from him. William Gay's two novels - THE LONG HOME and PROVINCES OF NIGHT have simply astonished me in their power. His short story here, 'Come home, come home, it's suppertime' didn't disappoint me at all - what amazing writing! Winston Groom's 'Just a little closer to the Lord' illustrates poignantly how people can react negatively to someone who's just a bit different from them. Silas House's 'The last days' chronicles a mother's decision to return her child to his father, from whom she abducted him several years before. Michael Knight's 'Killing Stonewall Jackson' is a chilling, partially surreal look at the horror endured by those who took part in the American Civil War. Also very powerful are Barbara Robinette Moss' 'Blackbird' and Brad Watson's 'The dead girl', an excerpt from his novel THE HEAVEN OF MERCURY.

This collection has given me a lot of additions to my 'to read list' - and it also kept me well entertained for the several days it took me to work my way through it. I would heartily recommend it to anyone - it's a great way to sample to work of all of these talented writers.

if i could give this TEN stars, i would
i picked up this book of short stories because it has some pieces by authors i have loved in the past--conroy, rick bragg, web griffin--but i came away with a whole new list of writers i know i need to read. i am a northerner and have always relied on the esteemed anthology new stories from the south to guide me along the path of the southern writing tradition, but now i have added the blue moon cafe to my list of destinations to visit again and again. this is a collection of writers to watch out for. do yourself a favor and order this book NOW.

The Persia Cafe
Published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (February, 2001)
Author: Melany Neilson
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Difficult but Worthwhile...
I'm not the world's fastest reader, so when I encounter a book with the dialogue and style of writing like this one, I sometimes will become frustrated at the length of time devoted to complete. Melany Neilson, from what I understand, is a poet who has written her first novel. The writing style clearly shows and can be very difficult. I read another review where the reader didn't get past page 60. I almost gave up on this book at page 80. I'm extremely glad however, that I did not. Even though the language of the book is challenging, the descriptiveness and language used, is extremely beautiful. This kind of beauty takes time, and you may find yourself putting in more energy into this book than the sleeve of the book indicates what might be a simple story. I have to admit however, that I did take a break and read another book halfway into this one, before I finished. I overall rated the book a 3, only because of the challenging style. Believe me, the ending, the entire story, as it all falls together, does take some time, but is well worth discovering. The bond between the two main characters, Fannie and Mattie is strong, fragile and yet special. I disagreed with another commenter that the reader couldn't quite decipher the relationships that Fannie maintained, that is of her husband Will, and between her mother. I'm not from the south, but I quickly characterized all female characters as the strong southern woman. I didn't find any of the female characters to be "warm and fuzzy", or particularly inviting, and maybe this was misread and misinterpreted. There is no doubt that the relationship between Fannie and her mother, with Mattie, are not warm. But a mutual respect and love exists, especially between Fannie and Mattie, that even Fannie cannot sometimes understand. The same can be said between Fannie and her husband. Obviously, not a very romantic relationship, but one that works for both of them, with the baggage that Will has since childhood, and one that Fannie can understand. Again, I found all characters to very good representatives for the time period and plot.
Knowing what I know now, I cannot honestly say if I would ever read another novel by Melany Neilson.

Another fine Southern writer
What is it about the South that evokes such powerful stories? Melany Neilson is a very talented writer, but I think even she would have to admit that living in the South offers so much to authors, that all they have to do is pay attention. Although Persia, Mississippi is fictional, it really isn't. It is every small town in Mississippi that I have ever been through. Having lived in Mississippi all my life, Persia just makes sense. I know those people. I have been in that cafe. I have stood on the banks of that river. And although I think that many things have changed for the better, I have also seen those looks on faces, both white and black. I have, at times, sensed the tension and distrust among people who have shared this geography for years and years.

The wonderful thing about this novel, however, is that the reader doesn't have to be from The South to appreciate the rich language and beautiful images. You can smell the fried chicken and biscuits whether you're in Jackson, Mississippi or Jackson Hole, Wyoming. You care about these people, wherever you happen to fall in relation to the Mason-Dixon line.

I love Southern writers. I think that they are special, and offer something to the world of literature that nobody else can. Hats off to Melany Neilson. You were fair, and honest, and respectful in your attempt.

A "must read" if you seek a suspenseful and moving tale
It is rare to find a story, let alone a first novel, written with such depth of feeling, such suspense and characters whose lives are so carefully illustrated to bring them alive. If Amazon readers enjoy Persia Cafe as much as I did, word of mouth will quickly make Melany Neilson's novel a bestseller. Persia Cafe was impossible to put done. At first the appeal is the character development and the first glimpses of Fannie Leary's life in Persia, Mississippi. Then, in a very subtle way, you are slowly drawn into the complexities of a southern town faced with love and hate, naivete and wisdom, and much more. Don't miss this one.

Terminal Cafe
Published in Paperback by Bantam (01 October, 1994)
Author: Ian McDonald
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Terminal Cafe will stir some thoughts....
Imagine waking up, and realizing that you are dead? In the world created here by McDonald, nanotechnolgy has led to a method for reanimating dead people. Unfortunately, those reincarnated get to spend eternity as a vast slave/labor class, supporting the world of the living.

Needless to say, this sets up a predictable scenario of rebellion. However, where that scenario goes is unpredictable and, in my opinion, quite interesting. Author McDonald has created a lush "dead" culture, and most of the story takes place in the Necroville of Tijuana on the night before and day of "Day of the Dead." The main characters are a group of artists who meet in the titular cafe annually on this holiday to catch up with each other.

The details and substory lines grow and expand for the first half of the book, making it a bit hard to keep everyone and all their actions sorted out. For the second half, it begins an ever-tightening spiral, pulling all the details and characters back together until their final reunion.

Cyberpunk flavor without being too self-referential of the genre. The language has a lot of Spanish influences due to the setting and it provides a nice mix of feelings and expressions.

Dinosaurs, Undead and Drugs: Doncha love SciFi?

Nano-scale machinery, tiny robots and computers built on a molecular level by the millions, will feasibly be able to "grow" intelligent metal, reshape bone structures, and reanimate the dead. Science Fiction writers are getting brain hemorrhages as they try to predict life with these little guys.

Ian McDonald has done an amazing thing-- with "Terminal Cafe" he's created a wholly plausible world of Dinosaur hunts, men who add wings to their bodies, gene-tweaked monkies that are as common as pigeons, collapsible automobiles, decay, dystopia, AI jurisprudence, monstrous corporations, re-animated dead and the coolest hookers you could ever imagine.

"Terminal Cafe" follows the adventures of a group of old friends as they make their way to their annual getogether at the Terminal Cafe. The POV rotates between them, offering a grand-scale view of life in the near future.

One friend goes on a Hunt, where he stalks and is stalked by people mounted on gigantic Tyranosaur knock-offs. Another friend rescues an undead prostitute, and finds he has a lot in common with her. Still another friend gets entangled in a chase complete with a lycanthropy club-- gene-tweaked guys who change into werewolfs. There's the friend who is a lawyer, who has a client that the biggest Megacorp in the world wants to silence. Finally, there's the friend who gets embroiled in a kind of Independence Day for the dead-- when all the ressurected return from forced labor in the asteroid belt and assault Earth in a bid for freedom.

Heavily grounded in the latest fiction about the Internet, biotechnology and nanotechnology, and with a strong understanding of human nature, "Terminal Cafe" assumes a strong understanding of technology and genre standards. It is a powerful novel, deftly written, with a new fantastic wonder on every page and a cast of characters that can hardly process it all.

Dinosaurs, Undead and Drugs: Doncha love SciFi?

Nano-scale machinery, tiny robots and computers built on a molecular level by the millions, will feasibly be able to "grow" intelligent metal, reshape bone structures, and reanimate the dead. Science Fiction writers are getting brain hemorrhages as they try to predict life with these little guys.

Ian McDonald has done an amazing thing-- with "Terminal Cafe" he's created a wholly plausible world of Dinosaur hunts, men who add wings to their bodies, gene-tweaked monkies that are as common as pigeons, collapsible automobiles, decay, dystopia, AI jurisprudence, monstrous corporations, re-animated dead and the coolest hookers you could ever imagine.

"Terminal Cafe" follows the adventures of a group of old friends as they make their way to their annual getogether at the Terminal Cafe. The POV rotates between them, offering a grand-scale view of life in the near future.

One friend goes on a Hunt, where he stalks and is stalked by people mounted on gigantic Tyranosaur knock-offs. Another friend rescues an undead prostitute, and finds he has a lot in common with her. Still another friend gets entangled in a chase complete with a lycanthropy club-- gene-tweaked guys who change into werewolfs. There's the friend who is a lawyer, who has a client that the biggest Megacorp in the world wants to silence. Finally, there's the friend who gets embroiled in a kind of Independence Day for the dead-- when all the ressurected return from forced labor in the asteroid belt and assault Earth in a bid for freedom.

Heavily grounded in the latest fiction about the Internet, biotechnology and nanotechnology, and with a strong understanding of human nature, "Terminal Cafe" assumes a strong understanding of technology and genre standards. It is a powerful novel, deftly written, with a new fantastic wonder on every page and a cast of characters that can hardly process it all.

Catfish Cafe
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Fawcett Books (07 September, 1999)
Author: Earl Emerson
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Former firefighter Earl W. Emerson writes two very interesting mystery series: one about small-town Washington State fire chief Mac Fontana and another about Seattle private investigator Thomas Black. All of Emerson's stories are haunted by ghosts from his characters' pasts, and none more so than this latest, where Emerson sends Black on a long, tangled, and not always obvious search through the roots of the African American family of his former police partner, Luther Little. Little's daughter has disappeared, leaving behind a car full of bullet holes, a dead young white man, and nine birth certificates that raise lots of troubling questions about fraud and parental responsibility. As Black grapples with ancient crimes and current human failure, his sharp and sexy lawyer wife, Kathy Birchfield, is--as always--on hand to keep him focussed. Other Thomas Black books in paperback: Deception Pass, The Million-Dollar Tattoo, Nervous Laughter. --Dick Adler
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Almost Perfect, Not Quite
I've read all of Emerson's books, and this one just wasn't quite as great as the rest of them. It's hard to find fault with this writer since his protagonist is such a likeable character, living and working in my favorite city, but this was just kind of a downer for me. Eagerly awaiting Earl's next effort. Where in the damp Northwest will Thomas have his next (mis)adventure? I'd like to write Mr. Emerson personally, but don't know how. Please keep us up to date on coming books.

Exciting!
PI Thomas Black, an ex-Seattle cop, is asked by his old partner, Luther, for help finding Luther's daughter. The daughter had been driving a car later found turned over in a ditch with a dead body in the back seat. Did she kill him? Is someone trying to kill her? Is she already dead? This was an exciting and very well-written mystery. The tunnel scene at the end had me so riveted I missed my bus stop. Now that's something! Highly recommended!

Good One
This was the first of the Thomas Black mysteries that I have read and I am hooked. Emerson keeps the action going in each chapter and the ending was unpredictable. The charcaters were well established and so was the atomsphere around the city.

Visual Cafe' for Java Explorer: Database Development Edition: Maximize Your Object-Oriented Programming Skills to Create Database Applets and Applications Using Java
Published in Paperback by The Coriolis Group (28 January, 1998)
Authors: William B. Brogden, Jeffrey A. Louie, and Ed Tittel
Amazon base price: $39.99
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Collectible price: $30.00
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Average review score:

Visual Cafe for Java Explorer: Database Development Edition
The book was well written but did not cover the details I was hoping for. I was looking for specific details in connecting to a variety of database products and was disappointed that the book barely covered the Symantec DBAnywhere product.

The book is out of date.
I agree with the reviewers comments concerning the necessity for an up date. I used the book with Visual Cafe 3.0 and found the examples would not compile and all the examples incorrect for the versions 2.5 and 3.0 of Visual Cafe. The book is now a source for Java but almost useless for Visual Cafe. I think it is imperative that the publishers list the version of Visual Cafe the book was written for. It is deceptive not to put the version on the cover of the book. This is the last Coriol book I will ever buy.

Excellent excellent book
This is a great book. It achieves the difficult balance of being readible for a beginner (perhaps someone with good programming experience but not a lot of Java), but also providing the depth for an expert.

Lot's of very good examples with good explanations.

This book has great information, not just about database access, but Java programming and Visual Cafe in general. I will keep this book in easy reach of my computer.

The Agnes & Muriel's Café Cookbook
Published in Paperback by Longstreet Press (October, 2000)
Author: Glenn Powell
Amazon base price: $10.50
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Don't waste your money
I gave it one star because this site did not offer zero. I have had the "displeasure" of eating at Agnes & Muriels and I would not waste any money on this book. The only thing worse than the food was the service. We had nothing even remotely southern [or good] and if their recipes represent their menu, it is definitely not as advertised.

Not A Good Cookbook
I've tried numerous recipes...not one is a keeper. Salmon cakes tasted very salty (2 tsp. of salt is too much for the recipe that requests two cans of salmon that is already salted & cooked)...Nellie's Favorite Cake is a total disaster.. the frosting tasted nice but it was too slippery that that cake couldnt stand straight so I decided to turn the whole cake into a "trifle" by breaking up the cake and layering the cake chunks with the frosting...some of the recipes have some ingredients missing.. take a look at the lemon icebox pie recipe.. it says to fold in whipped cream.. but the cream is not listed...A far cry from a practical cookbook.. Don't trust this one!

Can A Cookbook Be This Much Fun?
I must admit that I typically do not get enthusiastic about yet another cookbook. But this book is SUCH AN EXCEPTION. FUN is the operative word here. It's apparent that the author believes that cooking should be--and can be--fun. The recipes, graphics, and other text reflects this view. In addition, the recipes are VERY good. I already have tried the amusingly titled and surprisingly easy to do Carmen Miranda Chicken Salad. It was unusually tasty, as were the fried asparagus appetizer, the collards (this IS a southern cookbook, after all), and the way too sinful biscuits. This will be the stocking stuffer I purchase for my friends this year.

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