Set in 1700s Virginia, this is one family’s story in Colonial America, before words like "revolution" and "independence" sweep the land.

If there is such a thing as a "good" slave owner, that’s William Daingerfield. Early in the book, he finds his white overseer mercilessly beating a slave without his consent. Not only does he stop the beating, and do what he can to nurse the slave back to health, he fires the overseer, and has him thrown in jail. This being a tobacco plantation, when harvest time comes, he is not afraid to get dirty in the fields, alongside his slaves.

This story is told by young Will Daingerfield, and Davy, his personal servant. Despite that master/slave wall between them, having grown up together, they are nearly inseparable. Will is sent to the William and Mary Grammar School to get an education, and Davy goes with him. Allowed to sit in on Will’s classes, still as his personal servant, Davy ends up getting educated, and learning how to read. Later, Will asks Davy why he doesn’t talk better, now that he’s educated. Davy basically says that if other whites don’t get on his case, and even threaten to kill him, for trying to "act" white, his fellow slaves will.

Back at the plantation, the years pass. Will becomes master of the plantation, and there are marriages, births and deaths, including both of Will’s parents. Will’s first wife, Catherine, dies in childbirth. A number of years previously, at a fancy ball, when Will was a teenager, he met a child named Apphia, who boldly said that one day she was going to marry Will. Well, "one day" has come, and as Wife #2, she bears Will several children. Years later, Will’s son, and Davy’s son, join the Virginia army to fight the French and Indians to keep Virginia’s access to the Ohio River valley. Both Will and Davy realize that things have come full circle, that they are getting on in years, and, every day, hope and pray to see their sons coming up the road.

At the end of this book, the author mentions that the characters in this book were real people. The author still does her usual excellent job at making the characters and story feel real. It is an interesting story, and is very much worth reading.

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He worked for a year or two in a warehouse that distributed pornographic films, until he could no longer take the backstabbing jerks with whom he was working. He is now almost 50 years old, unemployed and with only a few hundred dollars in the bank.

Nearly every day, he reads the local classified ads or rides his bicycle to the local state job center, looking for any type of work. Chance got rid of his car as a cost-saving measure, but it turns out to have been a bad move. Pedaling several miles to check out a possible job opening, then several miles back to his apartment, during an Arizona summer, when the temperature is over 100 degrees, is beyond brutal. When he gets to the company with the opening, they’re closed, or they’re not hiring, or the receptionist has an attitude problem, or the job looks really horrible. For Chance, the worst thing is when the hourly wage is at, or below, minimum wage (evidently, that’s legal in Arizona). He seems to spend a large amount of his time cursing the evil, dishonest money-grubbers in this world.

The local cab company has openings, but Chance has no desire to even think about getting back in a cab. The biggest reason is that daily rent of the cab, and gasoline, comes out of the cabbie’s pocket, so he has to make a certain amount of money each day, just to break even. At this point, a lesser man would be lying on the floor with a self-inflicted bullet in his head. The only thing that keeps Chance going is his desire to become a writer. He has one book already published, though it’s not selling very well, and another book somewhere in the production process, that he would really like to become an actual book.

This is another well done, honest and heartfelt piece of writing from Kirk Alex. At one time or another, everyone can identify with Chance, being unemployed and very low on funds. It’s short, easy to read, and well worth the reader’s time.

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No, but the important thing to remember is that "the flesh" really is rooted in the flesh. This book takes a tour of the human body, showing how the various systems react to different stimuli. For instance, the "normal" settings for your hypothalamus have been altered by sin. So you now need higher levels of pleasure or feelings of self-respect than you really do. Such new "normal" levels might cause a person to play online games for hours and hours at a time, or dress flirtatiously specifically to attract men. Reflexes are not just physical; conditioned responses can be developed around anything that goes to our brain through the nervous system.

There’s a fine line between enjoying pleasurable sensory stimuli and living for those pleasurable responses. Such stimuli cause the body to release adrenaline, which causes the "rush" feeling. The body is trying to maintain homeostasis, or normalcy, so it "down-regulates" the thrill sensations for next time. That’s why it takes a larger and larger jolt of stimuli to get that initial "rush" level. That’s how addictions are born.

The way to treat this starts with LASTS: Listening, Admitting, Submitting, Trusting and Standing Firm. The author goes into much more detail for each part of the body.

This is a really interesting book. If you have tried everything else to be able to stop doing "it", whatever it is, you should try this. For those who might feel weird about the religious aspect of this, if it works, and you are no longer tormented by "it", that’s all that matters.

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A native of Brooklyn, the author’s husband, Eddie, lets his bingeing get out of control soon after they are married. Some people are happy, sloppy drunks; Eddie is a mean drunk. Barrucco tries to be understanding, but soon she starts to push back. She gets some comfort and understanding from attending Al-Anon meetings. For a time, she leaves Eddie, and lives with her family. The sudden deaths of her father and brother only make things worse. In her attempts to deal with her husband’s alcoholism, Barrucco creates a bigger problem for herself.

A local market installs a slot machine, and the author is totally hooked. She spends hours at a time at the machine, neglecting her part of the marriage. Next thing she knows, she has cleaned out her personal bank account. She adds Gamblers Anonymous meetings (which she still attends 14 years later) to her Al-Anon meetings.

The marriage takes a radical turn when Eddie is taken to the hospital and told that he immediately needs a heart transplant. His constant alcohol consumption has destroyed his heart muscle. Eddie also has to totally give up alcohol, now. Even then, his life expectancy is down to weeks. Does Eddie stop drinking for good? Does he get a heart transplant?

This story is honest, heartfelt and pretty good. Anyone dealing with alcoholism, a gambling problem or waiting for an organ transplant would do very well to read this book.

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A young woman is tired of being set up on blind dates by her well-meaning Aunt Martha, who, one day, finally gets it right. A man who is about to put a bullet in his head gets an out-of-the-blue phone call from a woman he helped several years previously. Her luck has taken a major turn for the better, because of him, and she is calling to say thank you, and to return the favor.

A young girl is a big fan of the ‘70s band The Bay City Rollers, and she has been looking forward to their local concert appearance for weeks. Concert day comes, and she comes down with a temperature and can’t go. Her father goes to the band’s hotel, gets them to autograph their latest album, and dedicate it to her.

On an Earth colony planet, a group of dissenters couldn’t take it anymore, and tried to contact Earth to come and get them. They ended up breaking the only means of communication with Earth, and were exiled for life to a far island. Years later, their children ask to be allowed to return to the group (all of the original dissenters are dead). They are allowed to return, but the vote is not unanimous. A young man remembers years of school torture known as junior high gym class. The teacher for gymnastics class was a decent sort who was full of encouragement for all the students. Because of this teacher, he almost liked gym class. Now that he is in college, and home for Thanksgiving, he decides that he will re-visit his old school, and thank the teacher. Everything changes when he reads in the paper that the teacher’s entire family was killed in an auto accident.

There are many ways to express gratitude. This well-done bunch of stories has some interesting ones. Anyone looking for a different way to say "Thank you" should start right here.

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In this volume, set mostly on Zamora, Shami is a young woman of Asian origin. While she was a small child, her parents were diplomats in a neighboring country. They were killed during a major student uprising, and Shami "fell through the cracks," ending up in a monastery, from where she was adopted by a Western couple.

In school, Shami has been doing research on ancient writings and prophecies, especially those by a person named Stair. Thousands of years ago, he prophesied that most of the country of Dwarnstile was going to sink into the ocean, except for one rocky part, which became known as Sharu. It happened, and one day, Stair disappeared into a semi-mythical tunnel from the Queen’s Chamber, never to be seen again. For reasons she can’t quite fathom, Shami is compelled to go to Sharu and look for Stair.

A seemingly disparate group of people also go to Sharu. They go partly for their own reasons, and partly because they are drawn by Shami’s energy, her internal glow, call it whatever you want. Among them is Miranda (subject of Part 2), and Leroy, her husband. Residents of Earth, she was given a piece of ancient wisdom by an ethereal race called the Els. The two felt compelled to travel to Zamora, to be with Shami, and to pass this ancient wisdom to the others in the group at this particular time. The Els also make another appearance.

Familiarity with new age concepts like alternate dimensions, and the passing of ancient wisdom will certainly help when reading this book, but it isn’t required. This is a really good book (and trilogy) that’s just weird enough, without being too weird.

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After many days journey, carrying whatever they can, they reach the coast, and board a boat heading for Israel. The ship is halted by the authorities, and sent back to France, where the Jews are held for a time, before actually reaching Jerusalem. There, Esther meets a young Palestinian girl named Nejma, a refugee because of the fighting.

In the early days of their time in the camp, the Palestinians treat it like some sort of temporary setback; after a few days, weeks at the most, they’ll be able to return home. The women gather at the local well and gossip like they are already back home. As reality sets in, and they begin to realize that they aren’t leaving anytime soon (if ever), hope turns into despair and the feeling that they have been abandoned by the rest of the world. The only thing the Palestinians have to look forward to is the occasional arrival of the UN aid truck. Life becomes a daily struggle for survival. At the end, Nejma leaves the camp with Saadi, a black man who loves her, and wants to take her back to his homeland. As one person’s wanderings end, those of another person are just getting underway.

Told in first person by both young women, this is a quiet novel, but it’s also a beautifully written novel. So this is what Nobel-caliber fiction is like. I will make sure to look for more of it.

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Speaking the Language of Light, which is spoken by planets all over the galaxy, and which is received by the Whimsical Lens, the Man in the Moon tells the story of the Little People, who lived in the Tropics. Fish and game were plentiful, and so were carnivores; their numbers had been shrinking for a long time. Granny, the matriarch, is about 90 years old; everyone else is in their teens, or younger. Raa, the oldest male, and soon to be leader, realizes that intelligence is their key to survival. Tee, the second oldest female, and Raa’s mate, won’t let him forget about things like beauty. As time goes on, the group discovers the making of clay pottery. They start capturing and domesticating animals. They build a cage for their small animals, and hoist it in the air each night, to keep the animals away from carnivores. They also dig a deep trench around the tree from which the animals are suspended, which captures several animals.

The narrator also looks at the history of the Earth. The first cell was lonesome, until it found another cell, and they thought it might be a good idea to stick together. They ran into a few more cells, and, eventually, they became a worm. Mr. and Mrs. Worm lived happily, until Mr. Worm decided that he wanted a brain, so he went and got one. Mrs. Worm didn’t have one, so Mr. Worm enjoyed lording his new status over Mrs. Worm, until their first batch of babies were born. Each of the children had a small brain, which, collectively, was larger than Mr. Worm’s brain. The Winds have a don’t-care attitude. They range from the four main winds, to Hurricane, a gruff, old giant who comes out only a few months per year, but causes a lot of trouble. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans have been having a feud since time immemorial. Atlantic was under the impression that it was going to be the largest ocean, and has been unwilling to accept its new second class status.

As you may have guessed, this is a children’s/young adult book, and it is excellent. It’s whimsical, it’s weird, and it will even get adults thinking.

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There is a cycle of world culture which generally moves from west to east, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, where culture is thought to have started. At the same time, there is a cycle of civilization which moves from east to west. Even though they conflict with each other, humanity needs both of them. It’s not good to have one without the other. The ancients were quite sophisticated when it came to astronomy and the universe, knowledge which is only recently being rediscovered. They had no problem thinking in terms of thousands, or tens of thousands, of years. If there is such a thing as the center of world culture, it is a former colony of Atlantis, which is now called Morocco. From there, it moved to Libya, which was once covered with forests, and then to Egypt.

I don’t claim to have understood everything in this book, but I very much enjoyed it. Those who are interested in ancient history will love this book. This very interesting book is well worth the time.

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