Holden Reviews

This is a brilliantly written book. Holden's narrative style is at once direct - almost conversational - and effortlessly lyrical; his characters beautifully drawn; their stories thoroughly compelling. The collection - which includes a novella, short stories, poetry, film stills, and text versions of films - showcases Holden's versatility and multiple talents.

Clive Holden owns cold fire with his words; each word so carefully selected that it elicits a precise emotion, whether it be fear, fury, or fatalism. In this novella you won't find heroes, but rather, anti-heroes whose actions tell us something about the society in which we so destructively inhabit. Mr. Holden should be lauded for this fine achievement.

An excellent read, Holden's style is reminiscent of Kerouac, an honest look at life on the other side of the tracks!

Margaret Coel has a rich sense of place and describes the Arapaho/Shoshone reservation so well you can imagine you've been there many times -- and it is for this and her description of reservation life that I read her books so eagerly.

This was a pretty good mystery, involving Jesuit priest/detective John O'Malley and his Arapaho lawyer friend Vicki Holden. Vicki's ex-husband is found shot to death, and since they had just had a very public fight in a restaurant (and they are well known to have had a very difficult marriage), she is the obvious suspect. Even her own children suspect her. She must find the real killer or killers to avoid getting charged (and probably convicted) of this murder. Her only lead is a fight her ex told her about at dinner -- with two Lakota Indians who had been working for him. She must find them and discover what the fight was about, since they are obvious suspects. She believes they are hiding out at a ranch that holds an apocalyptic cult, but the cult is very secretive and locating these two men proves difficult and dangerous. John O'Malley gets involved, trying to keep Vicki from harm. He is also looking for someone -- an Arapaho man who has disappeared. Of course there is a connection between the death of ex-husband Ben Holden and the disappearance of this other man, but that connection is only uncovered late in the story.

My only complaint -- and I think Coel is figuring out this can't continue -- is the pointlessness of Vicki and John pining quietly for each other, knowing that nothing but a friendship can result. The "romance" between the two is an annoyance. I keep wanting to tell VIcki to find someone who is actually available (unlike this priest). This book suggests that Coel may be moving in that direction.

It has been four months since lawyer Vicky Holden left her high-powered job in a high profile legal firm to return home to the Wind River Reservation. She finally agrees to face her abusive ex-husband Ben at a local restaurant but they aren't together a few minutes before he loses his temper, makes a scene, and walks out.

A mortified Vicky departs from her public humiliation not long after the incident occurred only to later learn that Ben was murdered. The local FBI agent knows that Vicki had motive and opportunity, but no alibi. The gun is wiped clear of finger points except for a clear one that belongs to Vicki. Unless Vickie can find the real killer, she will be indicted for premeditated murder.

Margaret Coel has written an absorbing and interesting mystery that gives readers a glimpse into the modern day west. The protagonist is a feisty determined woman and her friend catholic priest Father O' Malley is her mirror image. Together this unlikely pair gets in and out of trouble so many times it feels as if they are stars in a Wild West epic.

Harriet Klausner

There are many mystery series out today that feature crime-solvers ranging from cooks to cats. Most are good, light reading with interesting twists and turns.
But if you are interested in a more serious and unique line of mysteries, look to Margaret Coel's Arapahoe series. Set on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, Coel's cast of characters include Jesuit priest Father John O'Malley and his friend Vicky Holden, who is an Arapahoe attorney from Denver. These two always manage to stumble upon unusual circumstances that need following up on, including murders, disappearances and mayhem.
Her latest book, "The Shadow Dancer," is the seventh in this group, and this time a charismatic leader of the Ghost Dancers is wreaking havoc on the reservation, with people near and dear to Father John and Vicky turning up missing and dead.
Dean Little Horse, a young Arapahoe with a talent for computers, is missing, and his elderly aunts have summoned Father John for help in finding him. During his inquiries about Dean, Father John discovers a man called Orlando has proclaimed himself the prophet of the Ghost Dancers, a religion promising a new world to come that swept the plains during the 1880's. Orlando is stirring up the residents of the reservation with his new group, known as the Shadow Dancers. Is this group responsible for Dean's disappearance?
Meanwhile, Vicky Holden is having troubles of her own. Her despised ex-husband has been murdered, and Vicky quickly becomes the prime suspect. She turns to Father John to help her find her husband's murderers, and it's during their search that they find evidence that the Shadow Dancers might have had a hand in this crime as well.
Coel is adept at weaving her stories with a flair for suspense that keeps her readers intrigued and enthralled. You can start at the beginning of her series or jump in with the latest, and experience a satisfying read either way. Her research into the subject matter is extensive, and she presents the historical background in her stories in a way that lends much to the tale at hand.
So if you're into mysteries and are looking for a change of pace, give Margaret Coel's Wind River Reservation series a try. You'll find them unique and original.

This is worse than a complete waste of time -- it is nothing more than an infomercial for the sales training program run by the same group. It is filled with Capitalized Letters and Italicized Jargon that are part of the cute terminology. The book is written around some styalized characters who walk through a script -- it is impossible to read, and even less possible to gain any valuable insight, it is so annoying. I wish that I could get my money back. The worst part is that it seems like there might be some good ideas underneath, if you could just get to them.

World Class Selling does a masterful job of not only focusing on what salespeople need to do to be successful, but on what a salesperson's company needs to do. For example, if my company's marketing is not aligned with sales, it makes my job twice as difficult.

I also very much enjoyed the real life scenario that runs through the book, espically the ending.

"Not adequate! Superb selling skills are not adequate to ensure success in today's topsy-turvy global marketplace. Winning companies will intimately understand their customers' goals, their strengths, and their weaknesses. They will distill this information into a detailed understanding of solutions that provide the highest value leverage. Solutions are more than products and supporting services. They are the tangible intangibles that derive from the total company-to-company relationship. Having a company internalize the new paradigm that the entire organization - not just the sales department - is responsible for securing and retaining key customers will usually require a radical culture change. Jim Holden, in World Class Selling, almost brutally represents the horror story that can result from not making the paradigm shift. This book will be of limited value to a sales force if sales leadership does not 'sell' every member of the executive leadership team on reading this book, discussing the implications, and then using its concepts as the basic framework to transform the organization into a well-oiled value selling machine."

I bought this book, and I found that Apache did not have the Version decribed in this book available for me to download.

This book was good for me only with the basic command just to make a web site up and running, but was not good for me in configuring CGI, access control, and other complicated usages.

Apache has updated its version frequently. So, you will have difficulties using instructions from this book with Apache of today versions.

Get newer Apache books if you can.

I also wish the author writes a new and updated version though.

Well , it helps me start from nothing-i-know-about-apache and now my site is running as i expected.So cool and smooth. No error found in the book. But anyway curious web admin will get benefit from more-detail and real world-based implementation ,for example, all modules usage in dept, custom source compliation on win32 etc. (I know that this info could be found in online docs ,right? but i'd love to read from text book) I love this book but still wondering why the authors include (p.270) pics of how to enter proxy server setting in NS/IE ? Is it that important?

I'd recommend this excellent book! This book presented the steps (with great explanations) that I needed to easily set up the Apache Server. It has breath enough for more expert users, too. Its content was equal or greater than the O'Reilly press's "Apache Definitive Guide" (which I purchased first and could not understand).

Every person ever nominated for an academy award is listed in the appendix, but the book has even better things to offer.

Anthony Holden begins the book back in the 1920s and chronicles every year of the oscars up until 1991. He explains how the Academy began as a company union and evolved into the present day awards. There are many great stories. Most of them concerning the politics behind the awards.

He explains how the lifetime achievment awards were created to fill in the gaps of the hollywood greats who were denied the award for one reason or another. Many of these awards were shamefully given out when a person was on his/her deathbed.

Other interesting tid bits include the story of how France's Gérard Depardieu cost himself an oscar by giving a politically incorrect interview, George C. Scott's inconsistent reasons for turning down acting awards, and Woody Allen's indifference for the event as a whole.

Ah, yes... every single March, when that one evening rolls around when a red carpet's rolled out and somebody makes a name for himself or a fool of himself, or somewhere in between, we can only say one word unanimously: "WHY?" And now you will know why... you will know the whole truth, all the hearts and flowers and arsenic. In this juicy tale of the Academy and its unique, oddball system of selecting who gets the Oscar, who should get an Oscar, and it-was-just-too-darn-bad-so-and-so-didn't-get-one, Anthony Holden takes us back to the late 1920's, when a small group of individuals banded together to form the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. From then on, we're taken on a tirade of how simple campaigns, malicious manipulations, and simple mistakes or happenings influence the decisions for Oscar's many surprising receipients. Stars and directors share memories and reminisces throughout the book, which is also illustrated with several darn good photos. The book remembers Oscar's infamous moments such as "Scott, Brando, and The Art Of Rejection" to Greer Garson's "hour-long" speech and dear, sweet Sally Field's "You really like me!" speech. The book also details times when the Academy has been put on the spot: i.e., 1952. In a year of big, bustling dramas, the Academy was able to sigh with relief and vote the year's best picture to the big, bawdy "The Greatest Show On Earth". Another example, this time exploiting the Academy's sentiment: 1981's Best Actor: ailing Henry Fonda won over the "sure-fire" Burt Lancaster. That same sentiment also dealt many, many very deserving Oscar receipients the less glorified "Lifetime Achievement" Awards. And sometimes the Academy has been downright prejudiced: 1954's Best Actress: Grace Kelly over scandal-ridden Judy Garland (the book reveals that Kelly won by a mere seven votes to Garland). Most film critics today will cite Garland's as the better performance, but in 1954... And there have been bitter disappointments. Rosalind Russell's publicity agent had a house riding on a failed 1947 Best Actress win, and Bette Davis was stunned beyond belief when Anne Bancroft won 1962's Best Actress for "The Miracle Worker" over her "What Ever Happened To Baby Jane?". The bottom line: the book is bursting with facts, dirt, and fun and all the way through it keeps up the things the Academy Awards are famous for: drama, suspense, and pure, unadulterated entertainment.

i have a reseach paper due on this book and i need to make direct quotes on it. please help! thanks.

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England in the last century, and one of her main educational methods was to have every student keep a Nature Notebook or Nature Diary---a record of the natural world as the children observed it first-hand. The student's Nature Notebooks were filled with poetry, prose, line drawings and watercolors.

"The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" is the perfect example of a fully developed Nature Diary. The author went out amid the English countryside and recorded what she observed---the flowers, trees, birds, insects.

The artistry of the drawings and watercolors in this is absolutely breathtaking. If you're looking for an introduction to the idea of Nature Diaries, or you simply enjoy a book of true grace and beauty, then this is the book for you.

I've had this book for well over 20 years, and every couple of years I get it back out, re-read it and try a few new experiments. This book would be good for a child (with supervision) who is interested in cause-and-effects relations of science. Some simple crystal experiments may be carried out in hours, some take longer.

Even an old engineer still enjoys this book!

I first used this book in 1963 as a tutorial on crystal growing
methods. Not only did it provide step-by-step instructions that
actually worked, but it explained the physics of crystals and the process of crystallization in language that a high school student could easily understand. I used various salts to grow exquisite
crystals of different colors, obtaining most of my materials from local sources and my chemistry teacher. My experiments were performed in a depression under our house ... with a dirt floor. this was my "chemistry laboratory." The evaporation method produced cloudy crystals, so I reverted to the supersaturated technique to produce perfect specimens. My heating mantle consisted of a coffee can with a hole cut in it to insert a light bulb. This worked very well. Over the years I have frequently referred to this book and recommended it to others. I still do so. It is worth its weight in gold.

Jounalist 'London' Tony Holden, clearly no slouch at the poker table, is emboldened by a boss placement at the World Series of poker (he finished ninetieth). He decides to see if he can 'run with the big boys,' or become a professional poker player. Thus begins a year of much intercontinental travel and poker play. Reading this account, it helps to be familiar with card games, especially Texas Hold 'Em; if you're not you might be perplexed or just bored by the play-by-plays of various hands ('the flop was a Qc-Kh-7c... Did the river hold an ace?'). But you need know nothing about gambling to enjoy Holden's breezy writing style: within these pages lie more than a few telling and insightful remarks on the foibles of gamblers, on his own gambling obsession (courtesy of a shrink Holden hires for that purpose), on the history of gambling and cards, especially in America, and the crazed capitalism concentrate that is Las Vegas. It's good stuff, delivered with the wisdom of a seasoned traveler and the self-effacement of a confirmed Briton. The book probably isn't representative of what might happen if Joe Public were to start mixing it up with the pros of poker; given the ease with which Holden mops up most of his competition, and regularly busts out old pros, he must be one of the better players out there. But if you're looking for a book that takes a hard, sympathetic look at the culture of gambling, this is a good one.

British journalist Holden recounts a year in his life spent travelling the world playing poker, his training course for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

A classic of poker writing, it makes me ask whether all poker writers know each other. The other best-read in the category is A. Alvarez's The Biggest Game in Town. Alvarez and Holden are regulars at their Tuesday Night Game in London. Another well-known author David Spanier (Total Poker) reports on Holden's playing for a UK newspaper.

The book is wide-ranging: from a brief history of the game to exciting card-by-card retelling of hands. It even teaches you the odds in Texas Hold 'Em. If you like the game, you will enjoy this book.

Follow this up with Positively Fifth Street by James McManus, a new poker saga inspired by Holden and Alvarez.

Okay, I'm not a regular poker player, but after reading Holden's delightful book, I'd like to become one. His stories jump off the page and suck you in. You'll feel like you're right there with Holden, sweating the size of your bankroll, taking on the likes of Johnny Chan, and making your way through the World Series of Poker.

You don't need to know a great deal about poker to enjoy the book, but a rudimentary knowledge of Hold'Em would certainly make the poker-table anecdotes even more exciting. Either way, you'll be exhalting over Holden's wins and cringing through his bad beats right along with him.

Holden is an exceptional writer with a dry sense of humour that will have your friends wondering what the heck is so funny about that book you've been chuckling your way through for the past few days.

If you like poker, you will love this book. I did!

What makes this book interesting is that it that is based on real people and real events. The author did a nice job of recognizing a good story and researching the facts (which were few and far between) and creating the story of Mary Patten and crew from there.

I found this book while waiting to board a transport vessel to camp at Santa Cruz Island. Being an avid reader, I was immediately attracted to reading the story about a woman who literally camped her entire life on this island and developed a primitive resort that caught the attention of early Santa Barbara travelers and the early movie industry moguls. Ms Eaton wrote amusing stories of her life with her beloved sea captain husband. She never realized that when she married her husband, that she would leave so much history behind her. Her husband abandoned his safe lumber mill job after he built his first boat in the back yard of the tiny house. Before long, she abandoned life in Santa Barbara for a bed under the trees at Santa Cruz Island. At times it was just her and her daughter for days on end while her husband started a fishing and transport buisness bringing people out to the island where they fed and bunked them under the open sky. Never did she complain about her primitive conditions, actually she rejoiced in it's simplicity. I can not say I have ever met any one like her, she was an incredible woman, and the relationship she had with her husband and daughter is enviable. What a lovely book to read while hiking around Santa Cruz and knowing that not much has changed in the land now as it was then, thanks to park preservation. This is a story any one can enjoy whether you go to the island or not. I heartily recommend it.

This is a heartwarming book about a woman who did it all! Especially interesting if you live in the area.

I still have my worn out yellow paperback copy of this book with the picture of Jenny Linsky, the little black cat with the red scarf, on the cover. When a little black cat came and hid in my childhood backyard, I insisted on naming him (yes, him) Jenny. He wore a red collar, because my parents thought a scarf would drag on the ground and choke him.

I have been an ardent cat-lover as long as I can remember, and as a child I was fascinated by the stories of the Cat Club who gathered outside at night and had all kinds of adventures. Given that I was an intensely fact-driven kid, I admit to a little confusion about whether cats could actually act the way they did in the books, how Pickles would keep (or want to keep) his fire hat on, and how much of the book was real. The fact that it was based on real cats made this more confusing, and as a kid I didn't understand the idea of blending cat and human features to make an amusing but quite fantastical story. I don't remember any other kids having that particular problem with the book, though, so I'll chalk it up to my having been a weird kid.

I just pulled this book down off my bookshelf today, and after all these years it's still a book I enjoy. My favorite story is still "Jenny's Adopted Brothers", in which Jenny invites two stray cats home to stay with her. If I ever had children, I would definitely give them this book, and a number of adults would probably enjoy it as well. It could also be a good opportunity to teach the sort of kid I was about the possibilities of creatively blending fact and fiction when writing -- it was one of the few books I was willing to suspend disbelief for, because the stories were so interesting.

An interesting collection of stories about a little black cat named Jenny and her adventures. Children will love this story especially if they enjoy cats. Even as an adult you can appreciate this classic with your kids for many years and repeated readings because of the clever personalities of the personified cats.

I was a full-time teacher for 25 years. I have been substituting in the elementary schools in two states. The book, Jenny and the Cat Club followed me in my semi-retirement from IL to MI. Children in both states, in first and second grade classrooms enjoy my reading this book, which I have in falling apart paperback.