Thursday's Universe
A Report from the Frontier on the Origin,
Nature, and Destiny of the Universe
Marcia Bartusiak
(Times)
"Neutrinos are, obviously, not unlike bureaucrats.
Not only are they indifferent, and invisible they are everywhere,
indecently so, and are always taking long lunch breaks."

The Undertaking:
Life Studies from the Dismal Trade
Thomas Lynch
(Norton)
"Where was Thomas Lynch when we needed him?
Funny, compassionate and looking like an Irish leprechaun,
he makes the undertaking business seem almost human."

Nixon: A Psychobiography
Vamik D. Volkan, Norman Itzkowitz,
and Andrew W. Dod
(Columbia)
"At times Volkan creates a reductio ad absurdum
such as 'Leaks from the White House aggravated Nixon
because they represented anal insufficiency and loss of bowel control.'"

Honey, Mud, Maggots,
and Other Medical Marvels
Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein
(Houghton Mifflin)
"We could let sugar and honey cure pressure sores,
maggots cleanse intractable wounds, and drink down
a glassful of urine each morning as a pick-me-up."

Ich Kuss Die Hand:
The Letters of H. L. Mencken to Gretchen Hood
Peter W. Dowell, editor
(University of Alabama)

The Definitive Original
Four-Act Version
Of "The Importance of Being Earnest"
Ruth Berggren, Editor
(Vanguard)

The Kundalini Experience
Lee Sannella
(Integral)

The Ultimate Game
R. Strelley
(Harper & Row)

Fielding's African Safaris
Jane and Leah Taylor
(Morrow)

Tales of Texas and Beyond
Charles A. Watson
(Cedar Elm Publishing)

The Florida Keys:
From Key Largo to Key West
Joy Williams
(Random House)

Horn of the Moon Cookbook:
Recipes from Vermont's Renowned Vegetarian Restaurant
Ginny Callan
(Harper & Row)

The Psychology of Spiritual Growth
Mary E. Carreiro
(Bergin & Garvey)

Permanent New Yorkers:
A Biographical Guide to the Cemeteries of New York
Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall
(Chelsea Green)

Posters of the WPA
Chris DeNoon
(University of Washington)

Sometimes
I Feel Like Stephen Hawking Must Feel Like
After A Bad Night
L W Milam
"Here I am on the telephone, with some geek
from the University of Nowheresville Media Department,
and he wants me to talk about the fever
and those weeks when they had to tie me to the bed."

Die Liedersinger
Michall A Ingall
"One night, in desperation, I exhorted him to
look up and talk to me. In a tremulous voice,
he wailed, I used to sing Schubert lieder!
His sobs gave way to gales of laughter."

Travelling Alone
Carlos Amantea
"The food looks good enough to eat,
but it could lay you out for a week.
A mosquito bite could give you a lifelong disease."

Kicking Doors
Richard Wright
"Wherever I found religion in my life I found strife,
the attempt of one individual or group to rule another in the name of God.
The naked will to power seemed always to walk in the wake of a hymn."

Granny Wallon's Wines
Laurie Lee
From The Edge of Day
(Morrow) "Granny Wallon made wine as though demented,
and no doubt, if given enough sugar and yeast,
could have made a drink out of a box of old matches."

Mother
Laurie Lee
From The Edge of Day
(Morrow)
"Serenely unkempt were those final years,
free from confict, doubt or dismay,
while she reverted gently to a rustic simplicity as a moss rose
reverts to a wild one."

The Bath
From Honey, Mud, Maggots And Other Medical Marvels
Robert and Michèle Root-Bernstein
(Houghton Mifflin)
"Wonderful and most EXCELLENT agaynst all diseases of the body
proceeding of a MOIST CAUSE as Rhumes, Agues,
Lethargies, Apoplexies, The Scratch,
Inflammation of the Fits, hectic flushes,
Pockes, deafness, forgetfulness, shakings and
WEAKNESS of any Member
Approved by authoritie, confirmed by
Reason and daily tried by experience."

Paris Painters
Everett Gee Jackson
From Burros & Paintbrushes: A Mexican Adventure
(Texas A & M University Press)
"Lowelito said the buildings were leaning that way
because the artist had complete freedom.
He said the artist could lean his buildings any way he pleased,
because once they got into his painting they belonged to him."

Remember You Must Die
Muriel Spark
"One factor is constant in all your reports.
The words, 'Remember you must die.'
It is, you know, an excellent thing to remember this,
for it is nothing more than the truth."

A Love Poem
for Wally Miller Who, in a Fit of Despair,
Drove His Electric Wheelchair
Into the Family Swimming-pool
"Well, Wally. You certainly made a splash.
I think you should have gotten the Olympic Gold
For that classic one-and-a-half gainer."

Lovesong
Ted Hughes
"His words were occupying armies
Her laughs were an assassin's attempts
His looks were bullets daggers of revenge
Her glances were ghosts in the corner with horrible secrets..."

Song to SuppHose
Ignacio Schwartz
"You turned to me and said, They gave us the script,
But they forgot to give us the plot line,
And they have yet to tell us who the author is..."

The Reader
Bernhard Schlink
(Translated by Carol Brown Janeway)
(Pantheon)

Before the Beginning:
Our Universe and Others
Martin Rees
(Addison-Wesley)

Spies, Black Ties, & Mango Pies:
Stories and Recipes from CIA Families All Over the World
The Family Advisory Board of the CIA
(Community Communications)

Birds of San Diego
Chris Fisher and Herbert Clarke
(Lone Pine)

Hired Pens:
Professional Writers in America's Golden Age of Print
Ronald Weber
(Ohio)

Extraordinary People with Disabilities
Deborah Kent and Kathryn A. Quinlan
(Children's Press)

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