function homepage()
{
//63
var ranNum= Math.round(Math.random() * 63);
var ranNum= Math.round(Math.random() * 63);
if (ranNum == 1){document.write(' 
NEW IN FICTION
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway’s Old Man & The Sea, Destroyed But Not Defeated
I just finished The Old Man and the Sea, my second reading of the last novel by the Nobel Laureate, who took his life with a shotgun in 1959. I first read the story in my senior year 1962-1963 at Clover Park High School in Tacoma, Washington. I identified with the boy, Manolin back then. This time I identified with Santiago, the old man in the book. Hemingway influenced the generations that grew up reading his work. More'); } // fictoldman
if (ranNum == 2){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Misadventures in The (213)
by Dennis Hensley
A gay guy and his girlfriend Dandy live, love, and lust in Southern California
One could call Misadventures in The (213) the "Seinfeld" of Los Angeles. This novel is a "book about nothing" that chronicles the experiences, relationships, and embarrassing moments of four young lost souls in search of the Hollywood dream, fame and fortune. The reader will also encounter many other colorful characters that touch these four lives. The reader will embark on a hysterical and yet perpetual roller-coaster ride of misadventures of these misfits. More'); } // fict213
if (ranNum == 3){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Anything Considered
by Peter Mayle
An action adventure novel mixed with the good life in the South of France
Luciano Bennett is an Englishman—his Italian mother gave him his unfortunate first name, causing him to go simply by Bennett—is living in the South of France in a friend’s house. A bachelor with a taste for the good life, Bennett is without a viable means of support and is managing to support himself on the last of his savings. More'); } // fictanything
if (ranNum == 4){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison
Struggling for an acceptable identity in the black world of the 1940s
Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, presents the lives of several impoverished black families in the 1940’s in a rather unconventional and painful manner. Ms. Morrison leads the reader through the lives of select children and adults, describing a few powerful incidents, thoughts and experiences that lend insight into the motivation and. behavior of these characters. In a somewhat unconventional manner, the young lives of Pauline Williams Breedlove and Charles (Cholly) Breedlove are presented to the reader. Through these descriptions, the reader comes to understand how they become the kind of adults they are. Background information is given not necessarily to incur sympathy but to lend understanding. More'); } // fictbluest
if (ranNum == 5){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Death and Life of Bobby Z
by Don Winslow
Decorated ex-marine and ex-con Tim Kearney impersonates drug dealer Bobby Z with major consequences
Tim is a juvenile burglar that a liberal minded judge decides to sentence to the U.S. Marine instead of juvenile jail. True to his nature, Kierney wins the Navy Cross for heroism during the Gulf War only to get a dishonorable discharge for knocking out a Saudi colonel. Tim objected to the brutal way the colonel was disciplining a Saudi soldier. More'); } // fictbobbyz
if (ranNum == 6){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Anatomy of a killing in which an entire village is implicated
When you read the first sentence, indeed, the title of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s 120-page book, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, you immediately know what the story is about: that this day some time in the past, Santiago Nasar, will meet his untimely death. What’s remarkable about the work is the efficiency of the prose, the motives of a complete village in Columbia near the Caribbean coast is dissected and analyzed leaving the reader with a remarkable insight about the lives and motives of its inhabitance. And the story reveals that they can be considered accessories to the crime. More'); } // fictchronicle
if (ranNum == 7){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Cigarette Girl
by Carol Wolper
Lady screenwriter lusts for Hollywood "bad boy" mogul as biological clock ticks
Cigarette Girl is a screenplay in prose. It’s about lady screenwriter. Elizabeth West who has reached the age when all of her friends are starting to get married and settle down to raise a family. "Before my twenty-eighth birthday hit, I was perfectly happy to live my single life," Elizabeth says. "Work. Work out. And sex." More'); } // fictciggirl
if (ranNum == 8){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Collector
by John Fowles
Confronting the insanity of a compulsively possessive man
The Collector, by John Fowles, illustrates a man obsessed with a woman to the point of insanity. Ferdinand, the antagonist of the novel, is a misfit of society. Growing-up as a loner, he develops a passion for collecting butterflies. He feels the need to possess the beautiful creatures with no concern for their freedom and beauty displayed in nature. After secretly observing Miranda, the protagonist of the novel becomes crazed with desire to trap her and add her to his collection. Miranda\'s beauty and grace as well as her life are destroyed during Ferdinand’s possession of her. More'); } // fictcollector
if (ranNum == 9){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Deal
by Peter Lefcourt
The Deal makes a movie at Hollywood’s expense
"Peter Lefcourt’s book The Deal is one of the funniest books about Hollywood to come along in some time," claim the reviews on its back cover. In this tale down-on-his-luck hero, Charlie Berns is an independent film producer that hasn’t had a job in so long that he is actively trying to commit suicide as the book opens. He has even sent his updated resume to Hollywood magazine, and The Hollywood Reporter so that when his body is found the two publications gets the facts of his career right. More'); } // fictdeal
if (ranNum == 10){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Fat City
by Leonard Gardner
Like actors in a Greek drama, Gardner characters find redemption in their struggle with inevitability
Leonard Gardner novel Fat City reads like a Greek tragedy with the reader as audience fully aware of the fate that awaits each of the characters. Yet just as with the dramas of antiquity, so too does Gardner’s characters distinguish themselves in their struggle to endure. "‘Hoping never done nothing,’ says Buford Wills. ‘It wanting that do it. You got to want to win bad enough o win.’" The same can be said of Fat City’s characters in their own private daily battles. More'); } // fictfatcity
if (ranNum == 11){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Green Mile Series
by Stephen King
Convicted murderer makes miracles on the Green Mile — death row, cellblock C — that transforms his jailers
Stephen King has once again taken a life experience that seems ordinary and made it extraordinary. Originally written in six installments, this series of stories is now available as a single volume. This is a supernatural tale of good versus evil, and one man’s attempt to cope with his inner demons. More'); } // fictgreenmile
if (ranNum == 12){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Gun Seller
by Hugh Laurie
Looking for "a good man" in the Military Industrial Complex
The Gun Seller is a very fast-paced joke-filled book about a Britisher named Thomas Lang, a former member of the Scots Guard, now a freelance soldier of fortune. The story begins with Lang being paid a handsome to kill Alexander Woolf, Chairman and CEO of Gaine Parker, a large corporation with military contracts. More'); } // fictgunseller
if (ranNum == 13){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Illusionist
by Dinitia Smith
Self-made magician captivates women of Sparta, New York, while local bad boy broods
Dinitia Smith’s clever work, The Illusionist a young man named Dean Lily coming into the upstate New York town of Sparta. There he draws attention to himself by performing magic tricks that entertain the locals at the Wooden Nickel Bar in town. More'); } // fictillusionist
if (ranNum == 14){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
The Little Prince
by Antoine de Sainte Exupéry
The Little Prince helps an adult artist rediscover how to see with his heart and not with his eyes alone
The notion that "Children are better seen than heard" is discounted in this lovely journey into the imagination called The Little Prince. As an adult, I found myself ashamed at the analysis of the mature mind by the author. We are found to be selfish, closed-minded individuals who possess circular reasoning. We apparently did not think the same way as children. As you journey through this book, you will begin to uncover the author\'s theory that there exists a battle between the mind of a child, and that of an adult. This is the battle between "matters of consequence" and "matters of importance." More'); } // fictlittleprince
if (ranNum == 15){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Piano Player
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
In a future world, machine take over the job of skilled workers until the workers revolt
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is one of those writers whose works defy easy classification. Piano Player certainly qualifies. In a 1973 interview with Playboy magazine he described his inspiration for the novel coming from observing a computer driven milling machine cutting the rotors for gas turbine jet engines. He observed that this was a job that a machine had taken over from machinists who had done the job in the past. More'); } // fictpianoplayer
if (ranNum == 16){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A family\'s struggle through a tumultuous century
Some of the most striking occurrences in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude are the sexual relationships. Marquez deals with all of the issues in lives of the Buendia family in a very honest, realistic and matter of fact way and their sexual live are no exception. On one level, the reader is able to identify with the familiar and all too common soap-opera like instances, while at the same time, the literary development of these relationships is important to the novel’s growth and realism. The plot is passionate with out being melodramatic, simple yet filled with graphic honesty. More'); } // fictsolitude
if (ranNum == 17){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Veronica
by Nicholas Christopher
In a surreal Manhattan Veronica drafts Leo, named after the Zodiac symbol, to help her defeat an evil magician—her father’s nemesis
Nicholas Christopher’s wonderful book Veronica is a love story, wrapped in an adventure novel, wrapped in an encyclopaedia of magic and the supernatural. The story begins with Leo helping Veronica find her keys "on the sidewalk in front of a brownstone beside the Convent of St Zita," Christopher writes. "She wore a black coat and a wide-brimmed hat from which long black hair streamed over her shoulders." Then there were her eyes. "They were different colors: the right one blue, the left green." More'); } // fictveronica
if (ranNum == 18){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
Angela’s Ashes
by Frank McCourt
The human spirit overcomes the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Angela’s Ashes is an autobiography of author Frank McCourt’s life growing up in America and Ireland in the 1930’s and 1940’s, but as a reader that’s a fact I had to continually remind myself of as I laughed, cried, cursed and cheered its characters from beginning to end. McCourt employs his natural "gift of the gab" to recreate the story of his impoverished youth. More'); } // bioangela
if (ranNum == 19){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
Fallen Leaves
by Adeline Yen Mah
Cinderella in mid-20th Century China with evil stepmother but no handsome prince
Adeline Yen Mah’s autobiography of her cruel childhood reads like a modern day Cinderella story. But there are a couple of key differences: this Cinderella grew up in pre-communist and communist China and this story doesn’t offer a "happily ever after" ending. Instead, it feels indefinitely unresolved, especially for the author and her personal struggle. More'); } // biofallenleaves
if (ranNum == 20){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
Man and the Computer
by John G. Kemeny
In computers the past is prologue
The Japan Ministry of International Trade and Industry\'s new Real World Computing Program aims to improve human communication and make further progress in scientific technology. The goal is to build a highly advanced information society.
More'); } // biokemeny
if (ranNum == 21){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
The Ransom of Russian Art
by John McPhee
Absent-minded professor funnels a fortune in Russian art out of the USSR
For fans of John McPhee, this short work, The Ransom of Russian Art, follows the authors’ method of telling a story through the eyes of one or more main characters. In this work, the character is Norton Townshend Dodge. This absent-minded professor of economics holds true, too, to McPhee’s knack of celebrating memorable and somewhat eccentric people.
More'); } // bioransomrussian
if (ranNum == 22){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
Spycatcher
by Peter Wright
British Intelligence’s first science officer after World War II weaves a wonderful tale of his work
Spycatcher is one of those rare revealing books that allow the reader a real first-hand inside look at the operations of a very secret organization. The British government had gone to great lengths to suppress its publication but it emerged and became an instant success upon its release in 1987. More'); } // biospycatcher
if (ranNum == 23){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
Alan Turing the enigma
by Andrew Hodges
The story of a brilliant scientist destroyed by the Post World War II homophobia
It would not be exaggerating to say that Alan Mathison Turing, born on June 23, 1912, was Britain’s secret weapon against the German’s during World War II. This biography by Andrew Hodges details the life of this complex and conflicted man from the heights as one of Britain brightest minds to the depths on June 8,1954 when he took his own life by cyanide poisoning. More'); } // bioturing
if (ranNum == 24){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
Beryl Markham remarkable life in Africa, her love of flying and her epic solo journey from England to the U.S.
I found Beryl Markham\'s book West with the Night incredible reading for a number of reasons. The book is a memoir of willful, freethinking woman in an age where women were not permitted to be either. How she was able to do both is one element of this narrative. Another compelling element of this work is the description of colonial Africa as seen through the eyes of a colonizer, who has come to identify more with the natives than with the ruling conquerors of which she is one. Finally, this is a book about flying and of an adventurous attempt to be the first to fly solo from England to the U.S. More'); } // biowestnight
if (ranNum == 25){document.write('
NEW IN BIOGRAPHY
William Wallace
by Andrew Fisher
How Scotland produced a warrior equal in ferocity and might to Edward I of England
Most Americans know William Wallace, the Scottish hero, as Braveheart, after the film of the same name starring Mel Gibson. Andrew Fisher in his historical examination of Wallace portrays the man more objectively. This is a difficult task since little is known of the man other than a few official records. One very biased source is Henry the Minstrel or Blind Harry who wrote The Wallace. The long poem in 12 books was published circa 1477, two centuries after Wallace’s execution. More'); } // biowillwallace
if (ranNum == 26){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
The Words of Bernfrieda
by 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. More'); } // histbernfrieda
if (ranNum == 27){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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. More'); } // histcalifornia
if (ranNum == 28){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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, an 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. More'); } // histexiledparis
if (ranNum == 29){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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. More'); } // histpc
if (ranNum == 30){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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:
"...Apparently you are proposing...\'to open the whole Empire to foreignersand foreign capital.\' I regret this is a fatal policy....There should be, notonly a prohibition of foreign persons to hold property in land, but also a refusalto give them leases, and a permission only to reside as annual tenants.
More'); } // histjapan
if (ranNum == 31){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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 year, the author attests. More'); } // histmadams
if (ranNum == 32){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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. More'); } // histphilosophers
if (ranNum == 33){document.write('
NEW IN HISTORY
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. More'); } // histsipan
if (ranNum == 34){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
The Alibi
by Sandra Brown
A sensational murder case might further his career but an assistant DA struggles with his conscience
Hammond Cross is a prosecuting attorney for the city of Charleston, who makes a career-threatening mistake. He impetuously sleeps with a beautiful woman with a dark past after only knowing her for a few short hours. At approximately the same time, the brutal murder of Lute Pettijohn, one of Charleston’s most famous, and despised celebrities has begun to unravel. Is there some connection? This is how Sandra Brown’s novel of intrigue and suspense begins. More'); } // mystalibi
if (ranNum == 35){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart
by Lawrence Block
Borrowing from Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon and the film Casablanca, Block weaves a funny and intriguing tale of murder and theft
The myth of Humphrey Bogart has a powerful impact on the main character and his love interest in this funny detective novel by Lawrence Block. In this latest work, the creator of Bernie Rhodenbarr and The Burglar Who…series weaves a fast-paced yarn that borrows inspiration from The Maltese Falcon, the Dashiell Hammett novel adapted for screen and featuring Humphrey Bogart as detective Sam Spade and Casablanca, the movie Bogart is most remembered for. More'); } // mystburglurbogart
if (ranNum == 36){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Cons
by Timothy Watts
An ex-con tries to go straight but felony follows him wherever he goes
Frank Cullen—everyone calls him Cully—has just gotten released from Raiford State Prison in Florida and he’s on his way north to his home in Pennsylvania. "When Cully got out he headed north. He stopped for a weekend to work the field for a guy that never paid him and then got on a bus again. He wanted to put as much distance between himself and Florida as possible. He figured what he’d do was, he’d go back to Pennsylvania—see how his sister was doing. But halfway there he thought, Fuck it, and hopped off the bus in Beaufort, North Carolina. More'); } // mystcons
if (ranNum == 37){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Downtown
by Ed McBain
If Neil Simon had made The Out-of-Towners a mystery, it would be called Downtown
Florida orange grower Michael Barnes finds himself with several hours to kill before his flight to Boston from New York’s Kennedy Airport. It’s Christmas Eve so he decides to drop into a bar in downtown Manhattan for a drink before dinner. There he strikes up a conversation with attractive Helen Parrish, who claims to be a lawyer. Barnes is smittened especially since his very attractive wife; months earlier had run off with a bank manager in Florida leaving him a disheartened and divorced orange grower. More'); } // mystdowntown
if (ranNum == 38){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
The First Eagle
by Tony Hillerman
Detecting a cop killer and missing biologist in the desert Southwest
The elusive deserts of the Southwest offer a fitting back drop for Tony Hillerman’s latest murder mystery, as it takes place in an area few readers have probably visited — the backcountry of a Navajo reservation. Faithful Hillerman fans will recognize Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn as they join forces, once again, to solve what at first seems to be an open-and-shut case: the murder of a Navajo Tribal officer by a Hopi eagle poacher. More'); } // mystfirsteagle
if (ranNum == 39){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
The Getaway Man
by Andrew Vachss
Chasing a Professional Getaway Man
Eddie is the main character in the Andrew Vachss novel The Getaway Man. The best description of Eddie comes from the first paragraph of Voltaire social criticism, Candide: “His face was the true index of his mind.” And the description applies to Vachss’s leading man. Eddie’s face is one that other characters in Vachss book read into it what they want to read. And Eddie happily allows them to believe what they choose. More'); } // mystgetaway
if (ranNum == 40){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Get Carter
by Ted Lewis
Tough guy Jack Carter’s underworld odyssey seeking answers for his brother’s death
Jack Carter is the muscle for Gerald and Les Fletcher, two businessmen in London, who deal in all the less noble enterprises of any and all cities. Carter’s brother Frank in their hometown of Doncaster in South Yorkshire, 50 miles south west of Leeds, has just died in a car accident and Jack has come home to take care of Frank’s funeral and to make arrangements for Frank’s daughter Doreen. More'); } // mystgetcarter
if (ranNum == 41){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Hit Man
by Lawrence Block
Getting inside the mind of a hired killer; except for his profession he’s a nice guy
Hit Man is actually a series of short stories woven together by the main character into the novel form. The premise of the book is simple enough. There is this hit man named Keller—notice how the name insinuates the profession—who works for a man in White Plains, New York. Actually the reader never really gets to know the man, other than through the man’s surrogate, his assistant Dot. It is she who dispatches Keller on his many errand of death. More'); } // mysthitman
if (ranNum == 42){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Laidlaw
by William McIlvanney
Crime and punishment in Glasgow with Detective Inspector Laidlaw breaking the rules to find the murderer
A young woman, Jennifer Lawson has been found brutally murdered. She has been strangled and then sexually assaulted. Her body has been dumped in Kelvingrove Park in the western part of Glasgow. The author also tells the reader who the killer is and hints at a motive for the killing. More'); } // mystlaidlaw
if (ranNum == 43){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Messiah
by Boris Starling
"It\'s not hard to select your victims, if you know where to look." p. 360
Detective Superintendent Redfern Metcalf is obsessed with murderers. He can get inside their heads and learn what motivates them. In Messiah, Red, along with three other detectives from Scotland Yard, Jez Clifton, Kate Beauchamp, and Duncan Warren struggle to discover the link between the victims of gruesome and terrifying murders. They race time to uncover why each victim is found massacred, sometimes beyond recognition, each with their tongue severed, and a silver spoon lodged in their mouths. They know that they must find the victim\'s connection to each other before the murderer can be stopped. More'); } // mystmessiah
if (ranNum == 44){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Motherless Brooklyn
by Jonathan Lethem
How a dysfunctional detective finds the killer and looses the girl in a fast-paced murder mystery that provides a glimpse into day-to-day Brooklyn through the lives of complex, multidimensional characters. More'); } // mystmotherless
if (ranNum == 45){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
Shella
by Andrew Vachss
You always hurt the one you love
The main character in Andrew Vachss’s novel Shella has no name other than the names others know him as—Ghost, John, and the various aliases he adopts as he goes through life doing his business. His business? Killing and he is very proficient at it. More'); } // mystshella
if (ranNum == 46){document.write('
NEW IN MYSTERY
The Thin Man
by Dashiell Hammett
You always hurt the one you love
Reading The Thin Man after seeing the movie starring William Powell and Myrna Loy many times was difficult. The movie prevented me from seeing the characters, as my imagination would have created them. I kept seeing William Powell and Myrna Loy. Forcing myself to concentrate on Hammett’s prose, however, I eventually got into the story and more importantly into Hammett’s way with words. More>'); } // mystthinman
if (ranNum == 47){document.write('
NEW IN POLITICS
Derailing Democracy: The America the Media Don’t Want You to See
by David McGowan
How America condemns other nations for the very shortcomings it suffers itself
A sort of book-length Harper\'s Index, this book presents quite a portrait of an America far removed from the official portrayal of peace, justice for all and a booming economy that goes on forever. It uses quotes from sources like Amnesty International, the New York Times, and the United Nations. More'); } // polderail
if (ranNum == 48){document.write('
NEW IN POLITICS
The Kennedy Imprisonment
by Garry Wills
Exposing the dark side of the Kennedy myth, how they imprisoned themselves
Coming of age in the 1960s in the U.S. one could not help but be swept up in the Kennedy mystic. Garry Wills book explores that mystic. It was as if genes and the tightly controlled environment of the Kennedy family predestined the siblings to act as they did and to arrive at the fate that awaited them. More'); } // polkennedy
if (ranNum == 49){document.write('
NEW IN POLITICS
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Means of Ascent
by Robert A. Caro
How the poor kid from Texas steals an election to win his seat in the U.S. Senate
The Means of Ascent by Robert A. Caro is the second of a planned trilogy on Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 35th President of the United States. Caro has yet to complete the third. Published in 1990, it followed the publication of The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power released in 1982. Caro is the most thorough of biographers and the second volume reflects the meticulous research that made the first so comprehensive and readable. More'); } // polmeansascent
if (ranNum == 50){document.write('
NEW IN POLITICS
The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power
by Robert A. Caro
An American success story of a poor kid from Texas who powers his way to the House of Representatives
The Path to Power by Robert A. Caro is one of the finest books written about ambition and power. It provides an insight into the complex person of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 35th President of the United States of America. The story begins with Johnson a young 32-year old U.S. Congressman from the Tenth Congressional District of the state of Texas beseeching George Brown, of Brown & Root Inc., for a source of income, to supplement his modest salary as a congressman. More'); } // polpathpower
if (ranNum == 51){document.write('
NEW IN POLITICS
Max Weber
by Julien Freund
The religious roots of free enterprise
Covering the electronics industry, I am continually amazed by the ever constant stream of new products and the new industry that emerges as old ones mature. These new technology all seek to save time, increase productivity and reduce work. More'); } // polweber
if (ranNum == 52){document.write('
NEW IN FICTION
Pattern Recognition
by William Gibson
Resolving Web Video Fragments Riddles, Cayce Unravels Her Own Enigma
Cayce, pronounced “Case”, —named after the psychic Edgar Cayce—Pollard suffers from an acute sensitivity to commercial logos—at six she had a phobic reaction to the Michelin man. She meticulous removes all such items from everything she possesses—clothing, jewelry, shoes, etc. In the real world, this might have been a disability, but in the world of advertising and image creation, it is an asset that enables her to live as she pleases, coming into an agency, meeting with a creative team, and giving her reaction to a symbol. If she doesn’t react, you could pretty much tell that the campaign would have to go back to the drawing board. Pattern Recognition, William Gibson’s latest novel—the first outside the realm of science fiction, begins with Cayce awakening in Damien’s (an absent male friend) apartment in London’s Camden Town after a flight from New York. More'); } // fictpattern
if (ranNum == 53){document.write('
NEW IN SCI-FI
Count Zero
by William Gibson
Three powerful forces vie for the most precious possession in a future earth: information as a life force
"They set a slamhound on Turner’s trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair," Thus, begins Count Zero by William Gibson. "It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT." More'); } // scificountzero
if (ranNum == 54){document.write('
NEW IN SCI-FI
The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
A envoy from Earth confront a people who confounds his own perception of himself
One of the most compelling science fiction books I’ve ever read, The Left Hand of Darkness is a complex novel containing several layers. Its main plot is relatively straightforward, the protagonist, Genly Ai, on a mission to bring a remote planet into the Federation of Planets. Beneath this main story line, there is a yet another even richer and more intriguing tale earthling Ai confronting a race of people with a psychological and physiological make-up entirely different from his own. More'); } // scifilefthand
if (ranNum == 55){document.write('
NEW IN SCI-FI
Mona Lisa Overdrive
by William Gibson
Struggling for control of the virtual and real world
Having completed another futuristic William Gibson novel, Mona Lisa Overdrive, I recalled how several characters in the book were electronic circuits that contained the knowledge of individuals who had died as well as individuals who were created from scratch. It dawned on me that it is becoming increasingly possible to capture the skills of humans in electronics circuits. That being said would it not then be possible given sufficient memory and compute power to capture the entire life experience of humans sometime in the future. More'); } // scifimonalisa
if (ranNum == 56){document.write('
NEW IN SCI-FI
Hand of Prophecy
by Severna Park
A young female slave’s desperate quest for freedom amid a planetary system on the verge of war
The story begins at a bar in the town Kagda on the planet Naya. Yaeylie Frenna is the slave of Olney a veterinarian, assigned to the planet located on the frontier ruled by the Emirate. The Emirate had driven the Faraqui from this planet and its neighbors, including Traja some many years before. Now, the Faraqui appear ready to retake what was once theirs. More'); } // scifiprophecy
if (ranNum == 57){document.write('
NEW IN SCI-FI
Rendezvous with Rama
by Arthur C. Clarke
Earthlings are confronted and confounded by an alien culture
Arthur C. Clarke won the 1974 Hugo Award and 1973 Nebula Award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. And for good reason. The book examines man’s most compelling curiosity to meet and communicate with an race totally alien to earth. More'); } // scifirendezvous
if (ranNum == 58){document.write('
NEW IN SCI-FI
The Shockwave Rider
by John Brunner
The dark side of the information superhighway
The cyberpunk science fiction of writers such as John Brunner predicts corporations and big government will wield the technology to amass power over the individual. The tool of choice to effect this control is a pervasive information network. More'); } // scifishock
if (ranNum == 59){document.write('
NEW IN TRAVEL
Assembling California
by John McPhee
Looking for the geological origins of the great state of California
Assembling California is a journey through the vast expanse of geological time with John McPhee as your tour guide. At the end of the journey the reader arrives in California just as the Loma Prieta Earthquake catapults the Pacific Plate northward relative to the North American Plate. More'); } // travassemcal
if (ranNum == 60){document.write('
NEW IN TRAVEL
Unearthing Atlantis
by Charles Pellegrino
Looking for the lost city of Atlantis amid the rubble on the island of Santorini
There has been much written about the lost world of Atlantis, a mythical city said to have been populated by an advanced race of people. It had the great misfortune of being swallowed up by an ocean. All of this was chronicled in Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias. Over time the word Atlantis has become associated with writers of the occult. More'); } // travatlantis
if (ranNum == 61){document.write('
NEW IN TRAVEL
Legacies, A Chinese Mosaic
by Betty Bao Lord
The secret to China, is power not money
In the rush to exploit China\'s economic opportunity, many foreign investors have been rudely shocked by this enigmatic giant. Past agreements involving large sums of money are being broken for political or economic expediency. More'); } // travlegacies
if (ranNum == 62){document.write('
NEW IN TRAVEL
Shut Up and Deal
by Jesse May
Welcome to the world of "Hold’em Poker and guys with names like Kamikaze Will
Poker was once a game played behind closed doors away from the eye of law enforcement and the uninitiated. In Buloxi, Mississippi, I grew up watching it played in peoples’ houses. The breed of men who played were what my grandma called reprobates, men unwilling to work an honest job. Instead, they spent their time trying to get rich quick. I found them fascinating then and now. More'); } // travshutupdeal
if (ranNum == 63){document.write('
NEW IN TRAVEL
Toujours Provence
by Peter Mayle
An Englishman shares his love affair with a region in France known for its food, wine, and its joie de vivre
Toujours Provence is the sequel to the author’s first work, A year in Provence. The new work lacks the continuity of the first work and comes off more as a collection of remembrances rather than an odyssey through time with all the freshness of first discovery that characterized the first work. More'); } // travtoujours
if (ranNum == 64){document.write('
NEW IN TRAVEL
The Road to Ubar
by Nicholas Clapp
The quest for a mythical city in the sands of the Rub’ al-Khali of Oman
One of my great frustrations is the realization that there are limits on how much we can know about the history of early civilizations. I found a kindred spirit when I opened the wonderful book by Nicholas Clapp entitled The Road to Ubar. More'); } // travubar
}