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 May 8, 2006The Words of Bernfriedaby Gabriella Brooke
When an author provides both maps and a genealogical table, the reader senses a reading experience of family intrigue and fascinating locale, which is the case in Gabriella Brooke’s first novel, The Words of Bernfrieda, (EWU Press) a family saga of Eleventh Century France and Italy.
Featuring the House of Tancred of Hauteville, the story is told through the voice of Bernfrieda, bastard daughter of Mauger and older half-sister and lady-in-waiting to The Lady Fredesenda, who is given as bride to Tancred of Hauteville on the windswept coast of Normandy. By Michael P. Aleman
 California: The Great Exception
by Carey McWilliams
Chronicling California, the El Dorado that continues to produce wealth
Carey McWilliams penned one of the best histories of the Golden State in 1949. It is called California: The Great Exception. It reads as well today and is as meaningful as when the author completed the first edition. What Ms. McWilliams correctly saw was the one feature that makes California unique among the other states of the Union, indeed of all other places of the world.
 Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer
by Stan Veit
The ultimate insider’s view of the "golden age" of personal computing
For all the readers of the magazine Computer Shopper, you will immediately recognize the author as the one-time editor of the publication. For those readers, this book will be no surprise, both its look and feel and its writing style are similar to the magazine. The cover of the book is completely yellow. The title is written in tacky red colored font and there is a black and white picture of an Apple II computer gracing the cover.
 Japan Versus the West
by Endymion Wilkinson
The roots of Japanese impressions of the West
In 1892, the Japanese government asked British Social Darwinist, Herbert Spenser for advice on Japanese policy toward foreign powers. His reply which appears in Endymion Wilkinson's book Japan Versus the West, is as follows:
 The Madams of San Francisco
by Curt Gentry
The history of its red light district that the city by the bay would like to forget
San Francisco in the 1840’s was a place nearly absent of women. "It is estimated that during the first half of 1849, 10,000 people landed in San Francisco; only about 200 were of the weaker sex," write Gentry. "Over the next six months some 24,00 gold seekers arrived by sea; not more than 500 females were among them." Thus with the stage set for his book, Gentry begins a description of the colorful women and their men who made their fortunes plying the oldest profession in the world. A French woman is reputed to have made $50,000 in one year, the author attests.
 The Worldly Philosophers
by Robert L. Heilbroner
Putting a human face on the bleak science of Economics
In his book "The Worldly Philosophers," economist Robert L. Heilbroner tells the story of New Lanark. It was a model community near Glasgow, Scotland with a guestbook signed by the world leaders from 1815 to 1824 Heilbroner writes. The abandoned village still draws visitors today.
 Exiled in Paris
by James Campbell
Paris in the 1950s, “après le deluge”, when the City of Lights once again burned bright with ideas
For the past month or so, I’ve been reading Exiled in Paris by James Campbell as well as Bobbed Hair and Bathtub Gin by Marion Meade. The former tells the story of four turn-of-the-century (20th) women writers thought their letters: Edna St. Vincent Millay, Dorothy Parker, Edna Ferber, and Zelda Fitzgerald—more on this in another review. The latter tells the story of literary figures that migrated to Paris at the end of World War II from Britain and the U.S.
 Lords Of Sipan
by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick
Stopping the looting of the lost pyramids of the Lords of Sipan in Peru
If you like adventures that combine a bit of "Indiana Jones" with a real quest for archaeological discovery, the book Lords of Sipan, by Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, is for you. The story begins in February 1987 when an unemployed truck driver Ernil Bernal and a team of ten grave robbers dug their way into ancient pyramid complex. Over the next decade, the complex produced the richest collection of pre-Columbian antiquities to be unearthed in Peru both in monetary and archeological value.
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