by Tim Cahill ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2002
What good fortune it is to be back in the saddle with Cahill, letting him take the heat while we look over his shoulder.
Three decades of getting himself into strange circumstances and harm’s way haven’t slowed down Cahill (Pass the Butterworms, 1997, etc.), as this new collection of adventure-travel pieces attests.
Like a glass of Puligny-Montrachet, Cahill is peerless. His intents—to bring back reports of adventure and peculiar doings in the field—are entertaining and provocative if seemingly mad, the locales often murderous in mores ways than one, while the writing, with its low humor and sneaky insights, is pure pleasure of its own kind. This gathering of 30 articles (from National Geographic Adventurer and elsewhere) has all of the author’s talents on display: his gift for the apt simile, however crude (“Like Cuban toilet paper, Tommy the Turk doesn’t take shit off anyone”); his knack for inflating and puncturing his subjects—himself included—in one breath (“Bob Perkins is perhaps America’s best-known atlatl maker and theoretician. This is not to suggest in any way that he is universally respected”); his facility for leads that will kindle interest in any reader (“It was a money-laundering scheme for rapacious dimwits and hoggish simpletons”); and, best of all, his stamina, allowing him to write the whole story with the same artful brio. He’s ready with advice on traveling with strangers: “If he acted recklessly in seriously terrifying situations—I’d just make myself scarce and let him deal with the fallout. Jerks die.” He’s out there, reporting from the remote—chasing the rumor of a Caspian tiger; outfoxing a Malian warlord for a chance to visit a godawful salt mine; encouraging a class of third-graders to behave like forest gorillas; letting salt-hungry bees in the Congo feast in his armpits—reminding us that outlandish acts of travel and experience are still available and, in the most elemental fashion, vivifying.
What good fortune it is to be back in the saddle with Cahill, letting him take the heat while we look over his shoulder.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2002
ISBN: 0-375-50766-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Villard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2002
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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