After leaving his Crow reservation in Montana at age fifteen, Samson Hunts Alone changed his name to become Sam Hunter, a "hardworking, intelligent, and even likable" (p. 15) Santa Barbara insurance salesman with a Mercedes, a townhouse, and a "steady, level, and safe" life (p.16). Although his yuppie lifestyle seems perfect on the surface, Sam suffers from "Coyote Blue," the constant fear that something might go wrong to upset his "world of one" (p. 117). After meeting Calliope Kincaid, a free-spirited woman with the power to inspire men "to art and madness" (p. 64), and a mysterious, shape-shifting Indian (none other than Old Man Coyote) shortly after his thirty-fifth birthday, Sam nearly loses everything--his Mercedes, his money, his career, and his condo, only to discover himself in the chaos of his new life.

Filled with unforgetable scenes such as a coyote humping a leather sofa "like a furry jackhammer" (p. 50), Moore's second novel, COYOTE BLUE, is a quirky, entertaining novel, that will leave you howling with laughter.

G. Merritt

In Christopher Moore's clever "Gospel According to Biff," "Levi who is called Biff" returns to "dirt-duty" to tell "the whole story" of his childhood pal, Jesus (a.k.a. "Joshua"). While under the watchful eye of a tv-addicted angel (Raziel), Biff writes his Gospel in the St. Louis hotel room they share. "What I'm saying," he explains, "is that these guys, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they got some of it right, the big stuff, but they missed a lot (like thirty years, for instance). I'll try to fill it in, which is why, I guess, the angel brought me back from the dead" (p. 317).

In his Gospel, Biff offers his firsthand insights into certain miracles that required practice, Joshua's relationship with "Maggie" of Magdala, and how bunnies became associated with Easter, among other gospel truths. He recounts the most-excellent (though somewhat slow-paced) adventure he and Joshua share "to obtain sacred and ancient knowledge" from the three magi (Balthasar, Gaspar, and Melchior), who were present at Christ's birth. And in a surprising cameo appearance, "Maggie" even reveals to Biff what the "H" stands for in "Jesus H. Christ." While it may not show its reader the way to life after death, irreverent, satiric, and sure to offend certain readers, the Gospel of Biff will bless its reader with the gift of laughter while doing "dirt-time" in this life. And it will no doubt leave readers (like me) wondering, who is this guy, Christopher Moore, and what else has he written?

G. Merritt

Although this parenting guide was written for noncustodial, divorced fathers, it is ultimately intended to benefit the children of divorced parents. Coauthors Nancy Wasson, Ph.D. and Lee Hefner share an interest in helping kids adjust to divorce. "We believe in the power of love and persistence to transform relationships," they write; "we also believe that even small changes a father makes can have major impact on the rapport with his children" (p. 200). Wasson is a therapist who works with children of divorced parents, and Hefner is the noncustodial father of a teenaged daughter. Their book encourages divorced fathers to mend fences with their ex, to upgrade their parenting skills, to communicate in various ways, to support learning, to plan vacations and enjoy recreational activities together, to splurge occasionally, and to teach values by setting an example, in order to stay connected to their children. Sound advice.

G. Merritt

"Focusing with perfect discipline on the heart," Patanjali observes in one of the 196 sutras collected here, "one understands the nature of consciousness" (pp. 53; 197). Written in Sanskrit nearly two thousand years ago, THE YOGA SUTRA OF PATANJALI addresses the central concerns of our existence: how we know what we know, why we suffer, and how we can experience happier, more meaningful lives through spiritual practice (pp. ix; 75). Based on his own experience integrating yoga with Buddhist practice, and through his fresh translation and insights into Patanjali's notoriously esoteric text, Chip Hartranft succeeds in showing us how these ancient sutras are relevant to modern spiritual practice. Of the translations of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras I've read, including translations by Iyengar (1993), Prasada (1988), and Swami Prabhavananda's HOW TO KNOW GOD (136)--all of which are excellent, because of its commentary, Hartranft's translation was the most rewarding.

G. Merritt

Pensive, complicated, and deep, Radiohead (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway) continues to create some of the most anti-commercial, yet interesting music around today. Fans of KID A, OK COMPUTER, and AMNESIAC will not be disappointed with this new, atmospheric, fourteen-track collection. While Radiohead may not offer a single radio hit on HAIL TO THE THIEF, with all-new depth, the band soars to all-new heighths on "Go to Sleep," "Scatterbrain," and "A Wolf at the Door." "There there" offers five minutes of Radiohead at its best.

G. Merritt

These West 54th Sessions capture all the musical genius of a live Neil Finn performance. Drawn mostly from his dark and atmospheric 1998 solo release, TRY WHISTLING THIS, Neil's DVD set list also includes a couple of Crowded House songs ("Don't Dream It's Over;" "Fall at Your Feet") with a guest appearance by former bandmate, Mark Hart, and a Split Enz classic ("I Got You"). Neil's band includes his son, Liam, who gets credit for cowriting "Souvenir." Other standout songs include "She Will Have Her Way," "Truth," "King Tide," "Addicted," and "Faster than Light." This somewhat laid-back, unplugged performance makes an excellent companion to Finn's more jangly and electric, 7 WORLDS COLLIDE DVD performance.

G. Merritt

His solo career has confirmed my suspicion that Neil Finn was, in fact, Crowded House. Experiencing his recent, sold-out performance at the Gothic Theater in Denver inspired me to buy this CD along with the companion DVD. This live CD was drawn from five shows at The St. James in Aukland, New Zealand in April, 2001. With Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Lisa Germano, Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing), and Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway (Radiohead) backing him, Neil's performance here not only includes Split Enz and Crowded House material, but songs from his more recent, solo career as well. While Neil shines brightly with his Morrissey-like vocal cover of The Smith's classic, "There is a Light that Never Goes Out," it is ultimately The Smiths' guitarist, Johnny Marr, who steals the show from everyone with his song, "Down on the Corner." (Neil covered both songs sans Johnny Marr during his Denver show.) Worth noting, the companion DVD contains more songs than the CD, including an amazing version of Tim Finn and Neil Finn singing the Crowded House tune, "Four Seasons in One Day."

G. Merritt

I was inspired to read Susan Orlean's "true story of beauty and obsession" after seeing the movie "Adaptation" twice in one week. THE ORCHID THIEF is a fascinating love story: "When a man falls in love with orchids, he'll do anything to possess the one he wants. It's like chasing a green-eyed woman or taking cocaine . . . it's a sort of madness" (p. 78). And Orlean's book is as much about exotic orchids as the eccentric characters who collect them.

THE ORCHID THIEF evolved out of a article Orleans first published in "The New Yorker" magazine about John Laroche's 1994 trial for removing endangered orchids from Florida's Fakahatchee swamp. Thirty-six-year-old Laroche is a tall, skinny guy, "with the posture of al dente spaghetti," Orleans writes, "and sharply handsome, in spite of the fact that he is missing all his front teeth" (p. 4). Laroche's life has been a series of obsessions, from Ice Age fossils, turtles, and old mirrors, to orchids. In writing about Laroche's criminal lust for orchids, Orleans ultimately discovers her own "unembarrassing passion--I want to know what it feels like to care about something passionately" (p. 41). Laroche's oddball obsessions offer Orleans a meaningful lesson in "getting immersed in something, and learning about it, and having it become a part of your life" (p. 279).

With its lessons in living a passionate life, exotic flowers, quirky characters, muddy swamps filled with snapping turtles, rattlesnakes, bugs and critters--who could ask for anything more from a book?

G. Merritt

Experiencing Neil Finn's recent, sold-out show at the Gothic Theater in Denver inspired me to purchase this DVD along with the companion CD. Drawn from five shows at The St. James in Aukland, New Zealand in April, 2001, this DVD captures all the energy and musical genius of Neil Finn live. With Lisa Germano, Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), Johnny Marr (The Smiths), Sebastian Steinberg (Soul Coughing), and Phil Selway and Ed O'Brien (Radiohead) backing him, Neil's set list includes songs from his days fronting both Split Enz and Crowded House, as well as from his solo career. While Neil covers The Smith's "There is a Light that Never Goes Out" with a Morrissey-like vocal, it is ultimately Smith's guitarist, Johnny Marr, who steals the show with his song, "Down on the Corner" (which Neil covered in Denver). The DVD offers an amazing version of the Crowded House song, "Four Seasons in One Day," unfortunately missing from the companion CD.

G. Merritt

"I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters," Virginia Woolf wrote in her 1923 diary; "I think that gives exactly what I want; humanity, humour, depth. The idea is that the caves shall connect, & each comes to daylight at the present moment." Readers of Michael Cunningham's THE HOURS will experience the same type of connections in his characters' development.

Cunningham's deeply moving novel tells three parallel stories, which eventually intersect at page 217. He begins his novel "on a day early in the Second World War" with Woolf's 1941 suicide (p. 8), before returning to the writer completing her novel, MRS. DALLOWAY, in 1923 London. Cunningham then shifts seamlessly forward to 1990's New York City, where he introduces us to 52-year-old Clarissa Vaughan shopping for flowers in Greenwich Village for her dying friend, Richard's party, and then again to 1949 Los Angeles, where he introduces us to Laura Brown "trying to lose herself" (p. 37) from her perfect life. In the course of THE HOURS, all three women undergo subtle but profound transformations. Each of them realizes that there is only this for consolation: "an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more" (p. 225). After finishing THE HOURS, many readers will undoubtedly want to add MRS. DALLOWAY to their reading list.

G. Merritt