MAD

I think the highlight of this book is that Professor Raybeck writes in a way that introduces anthropology to students as approachable and interesting. It shows the mistakes that a professonal can (and will) make while in the field. While taking Professor Raybeck's class at Hamilton College, "Mad Dogs" was used as a tool and example in his own teaching, but I feel that this book stands alone and can be used for any intro to anthro class, or for anyone looking for a low-key introduction to anthropological field work.

The title is misspelled in Amazon's listing. It should be "Mad Feary Father." It was very positively reviewed in Philological Quarterly, Studies in Romanticism, and Genre.

Osiers' novellas are well-written and full of character driven adventure. Although I liked the delicate interplay between the characters in "Exiles," I really enjoyed the haunting "Mad Fisherman's Daugher." What I really enjoyed, and thought very moving, was the visions that torture Christabel's father.
This served as a very important and cleverly written plot device, as well as a catalyst for the human element that Osier is best at. In fact, her character building and world building style reminds me of the old space operas, the stuff that made sci-fi great. I also felt reminded of a great operatic writer: Lois McMaster Bujold.
Well worth investing your time.

This is the best garlic cookbook I have ever read, written by the GarlicGoddess herself! I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes garlic, or wants to learn how to cook with garlic. Wonderful recipes. However, the price is not what is listed here... much, much, much less.

The Spanish Inquisition evokes an image of inquisitors bringing innocent people to trial, rendering them guilty of heresy and burning them at the stake. Torture, confessions made under duress, and the murder of large numbers of Protestants are visualized. Inquisitors and their informants were everywhere, and watched everything. These perceptions of the Spanish Inquisition have come from numerous sources, including books, articles, movies, and are ingrained in many people's view of the Inquisition. The question raised, then, is how historically accurate are these portrayals? Was this the way thing were always done, or is there another side to the story?

While not attempting to take on the challenge of the Spanish Inquisition in its entirety, Sara Nalle presents us with a very different picture of the Inquisition and the inquisitors than are normally seen in the literature. Nalle introduces us to Bartolomé Sánchez, a man who condemned the Catholic Church, the priesthood, the Holy Trinity, and then announcing that he was the second savior, sent to finish Christ's work. Sánchez was taken before the Inquisitor, Cortes for trial.

Cortes is atypical of the traditional view of the inquisitors as bloodthirsty men driven to exterminate those who did not profess the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Sánchez's claim that the Holy Spirit was not part of the Trinity, but that rather Mary was, certainly disturbed Cortes. Sánchez also refused to show deference to the cross, which he stated was evil, because it was a tool of those that killed Christ. Yet, through all of those things, Cortes, the inquisitor, sought a way for Sánchez to escape a death sentence.

Nalle constructed Mad for God from the trial records of Sánchez, and therefore she derived the account from the official records of the Inquisition's offices. While the possibility exists that there were omissions, the record appears to give a balanced view of the events that transpired in the courtroom.

This is very well written book, that sheds some light on the Spanish Inquisition, and provides a different view than is often seen in books and movies. It is easy to read, very well noted, and you may very well finish it in only one or two sittings.

Mad Forest is a fascinating look at Communist Romania before, during, and right after the revolution. I had the privelage of working on a college production of this play, and, each time it was performed, I found something new or amazing about it.
The play follows two families (Bogdon's family and Mihai's family) in Communist Romania. The play uses language (or, in the first scene, the lack of it) to convey the danger of their lives. Just as the conversation is suppressed, the people themselves are suppressed. (For our production, we talked to a Romanian woman who said people were afraid to talk to their next door neighbors, because they did not know the person was in Securitate (the secret police). The second act contains "sound bites," if I can call them that, to describe the events of December 1989, when the Communist government was overthrown. This part of the play is especially chilling and brilliant. The third act shows the chaos following the collapse of communism. The characters talk and argue, and almost explode with emotion, as Churchill once again uses language to show the chaos. The third act, like the aftermath of the revolution, was unsettling. I would advise anyone who wants to read this, to learn a little bit about the revolution, so you understand what happened. All in all, a fantastic, powerful, moving play.

Information from the book's back cover is as follows.
DEALING WITH THE DEVIL. The minute Sara opened the shop door, the old feelings came rushing back. The jingling harness brasses, the warm smell of cedar, and the dim light of the brass fixtures reminded Sara Dugan of her childhood, when she'd watched Owen Dixon's grandfather make hats with care and pride. Now that the old man had passed on, Owen was the last of a rare breed: a hatter with a penchant for double-talk and an eye for the ladies.

Tall, lean Owen was one of the reasons Sara had left Arizona town years ago. Back then, she'd been a shy teenager with a terrible crush on Owen, the black-haired man nicknamed Devil. And despite the fact that the years had only made him look wilder and sexier, Sara focused on the business at hand---the deal she'd come to proposed. Own had been afraid to contact Sara after she'd left town. How could you tell a girl that distance was a good thing? How could you tell her that she was becoming a beauty who made your pulse race whenever she came near? But little Sara Dugan had gone off and grown up. And she was about to make a deal with the man they called DEVIL.

"The Mad Hatter Mystery" has nothing to do with Alice's Mad Hatter, although it takes place in a locale almost as English as Wonderland, i.e. the Tower of London. As may be guessed from the murder site, Carr relies heavily on atmospherics: shrouds of fog; a corpse with a crossbow bolt through its heart; an unpublished story by Edgar Allen Poe; and above all a mad prankster who steals the headgear of London's elite (everyone wore hats in 1933) and displays his prizes in the most unlikely locations.

When a corpse shows up near Traitor's Gate with a stolen top hat jammed on its head, Scotland Yard automatically enlists Dr. Gideon Fell to solve the bizarre murder.

He solves it of course--but not before an army of suspects each takes his or her turn in the spotlight. Although Carr is most famously known for his locked -room mysteries and 'impossible' crimes, he was also a master of the eerie atmosphere. "The Mad Hatter Mystery" has both in great quantity: lots of macabre touches; and the solution will surprise even the keenest mystery buff. Dr. Fell's tics and grotesqueries aren't as intrusive as in some of Carr's other mysteries starring his massive, eccentrically-dressed detective. The doctor also shows a great deal of restraint (for him) in dropping hints that he already knows the identity of the murderer, even though it's only page forty-five and the reader has two-hundred-and-forty-one pages to go before he or she figures out whodunit.

Supposedly modeled after Carr's idol, G.K. Chesterton, Dr. Fell also resembles a jovial Father Christmas or a President Chester A. Arthur, resting comfortably after a vast meal that was consumed with countless pints of beer. He's not my favorite fictional detective, although he appeared in twenty-three novels culminating in "Dark of the Moon" (1967). However, I do like Carr's atmospheric mysteries so I'll probably end up reading all twenty-three of 'em. This is one of the best, so far.

Lovesey is a wonderful author. This book starts out slow, but the first 1/3 is the best description of holidaying in Brighton in the latter part of the 19th century that I've ever read. Then when Cribb and Thackery are called in to solve a grisly murder, the book becomes a cracking whodunit. The story is complex and has a surprising ending. At first I didn't understand the meaning of the title, but that too becomes clear when it is determined who the initial murderer is. Cribb is wonderful in this book. The more that I read this series, the more I wish there were more books than the seven that were written in this particular series. Mr. Lovesey could teach classes on writing tight plots, and ingenious mysteries. He also achieves a real sense of time and place that you don't often see, especially in murder mysteries.

Like her "La Batarde", Leduc delves into her psyche and chronicles her moods, obsessions, and madness for the nuggets of insight they can contain. With astonishing honesty and ability, she serves us a remarkable and lush memoir of a writer plagued by self-doubt. Another fascinating aspect of the book is Violette's one-sided love affair with Simone de Beauvoir, and Violette's friendships with the varied famous of the time. This is a book to hold close and chew slowly.