Keats was the Romantic poet who cared most about art and beauty. He didn't allow himself to get mixed up in religion and politics like Shelley or Byron. But in quiet ways, he did comment on political, religious, aesthetic, and sexual beliefs, sometimes in ways that were less traditional than his poetic style. Above all, he was supremely conscious of beauty in the world, as well as the world's suffering.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

Lord Byron was perhaps the most dazzling and influential figure of the Romantic movement. He was certainly the most colorful, controversial, and celebrated poet of his time. His poetic style is controlled, yet the sentiments expressed are passionate. He can be sad and despairing in one stanza, then ecstatically happy in the next, and it is these impulsive mood swings which made him no less contradictory in his beliefs and actions. He wrote some wonderful lyrical poems, but my favorite are his long poems, like "Don Juan." He is and was a captivating personality and a brilliant poet.

David Rehak
author of "Poems From My Bleeding Heart"

Oscar Wilde's best plays, like "Salome", "An Ideal Husband", and his masterpiece "The Importance of Being Ernest" are among the finest in the English language, second only to Shakespeare's incomparable masterworks. Through his incredible talent and gift for words, Wilde takes what would otherwise be merely a silly parlour-room drama and turns it into an unforgettably amusing experience that tickles you with its smart humor non-stop. And the fact that you "get" the humor makes you feel rather sophisticated. I can't think of a single writer to match Wilde's gift for coining clever and witty remarks and paradoxical epigrams, both in his work and in his life. A few of his poems are also very fine, like "The Ballad of Reading Gaol." Lastly, Wilde also wrote a highly thought-provoking novel full of ideas that can be called "poisonous" and provocative even today, about a good-looking man who falls in love with his own portrait and sells his soul for eternal youth, but with each immoral deed he commits, the portrait grows older and uglier while he remains beautiful and young. Very clever plot for a novel, no less clever than the dialogue that makes plays like "The Importance of Being Ernest" such a stand-out.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

I don't hate Clinton. There's a part of me that dislikes him, a part of me that pities him, and a part of me that likes him. Yes, there's a part of me that likes this guy. I'm sure he'd be fun to hang out with, especially if I were the same age. Whatever you think of him, there is no denying he's an exceptionally interesting perosnality, and was perhaps the most skillful and deftly cunning politician of our times. In comparison, George Dubya is a total lightweight midget, a mere clueless puppet of his political advisors and Cheney. But Clinton, he really knew his stuff and had the profound knowledge and masterful skill... the unfortunate thing for him is that those who hate him too often believe he stood for the wrong things, and those who love him too often believe he didn't do enough with the 8 years he had.

I'm glad I read this book. It doesn't appear to be ghost-written like so many other celebrity books. The first part of the book has a lot of info on the man that I didn't know. Altogether, the memoir is almost a thousand pages long, only really like 15 pages on Monica. Clinton's opponents would call it a feeble and very transparent attempt for him to clean up his image. There's very little sex, so some readers will call it uninteresting; but if Clinton had put more sex in, others would criticize him for pornography. Half of the book doesn't even cover his presidency, just his rather typical mundane bureaucratic pre-presidency life. Hilary is hardly mentioned. My favorite part though is later on where he talks about that vast right-wing conspiracy panty-raid witch-hunter Ken Starr and how he tried to get me but couldnt (haha!), I survived the impeachment and got away with purjury and obstruction scott-free thanks to my cunning, I consider it my "badge of honor"; I'm a little flawed but otherwise I'm a wonderful exceptional human being, look what I am, look what I've done , me, me, me. Conservatives will find some of the supposed lies or half-truths nauseating, along with other incidents like where Clinton cliams that Hilary supposedly didn't know about his thing with Monica and then when he told her, she made him sleep on the couch for 2 months. Yeah f*ckin' right, Hilary was at one time almost as much of an adultress as you were an adulterer, Bill, and besides, your best friends said how you would turn each other on in bed by re-counting the sexual details of each others extra-marital affairs to each other hehehe. Anyway, there are many shocking and controversial things about the Clintons that you just won't read in this memoir, understandably. For example, you won't read about that allegedly true incident where Clinton admitted to a friend that Hilary was a lesbian; supposedly she has a history going back to her college days. My attitude to Clinton is very complex, feelings of like (his intellect, charm, charisma), dislike (his unethical conduct, hypocrisy and lies), and pity (he could have been such a great positive force for good, but except for a few foreign policy victories and some rather minor domestic successes as well as being lucky enough to preside over America's biggest economic growth,--except for those things, he basically "blew it"). Here is a guy who had all the gifts, but he very easily allowed himself to be corrupted by power and ambition and to take the easy (unethical) ways out to get to where he wanted to go. Also, this guy's sexual escapades are something else. He was a lady's man, but supposedly also a rapist. He allegedly raped a woman while wearing dark shades and bit her lip till it bled. Then of course there's that blonde bimbo Jennifer Flowers and others. And who can forget Paula Jones and about how he got one of his staff to call her into his office up there, so she comes in and they chat a little, then suddenly he pulls his pants down and tells her to "kiss it". None of this is in "My Life" by Bill Clinton. But this book will do two things: it will make those who hate him despise him even more; and it will make those who love him sympathize with him even more. Whatever his shortcomings, Clinton is one truly memorable president who will go down as one of the most memorable presidents, for better or worse. Will our children and grandchildren love him or hate him? The future will reveal the answer.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

In this book we encounter the biographies and personal photos of numerous nuns or ex-nuns who have "come out" as lesbians. they talk about how they came into convent life, how they discovered their sexuality, and how that altered their religious life. Very fascinating study.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

This book poses good, well-argued explanations of how and why the Bush Administration has botched the Iraqu conflict and its hunt for Osama, but it offers no real solutions. However, detailed and informative explanations of the methods by which the U.S. has fought terrorism are well-presented in this book, as well as why we didn't stop 9/11 from happening. This is a worthwhile read for any citizen, as it is vital that people be informed on this issue.

...but still worth a read. Although I jumped on the bandwagon kinda late, I'm a big fan of the Stephanie Plum novels.

In this latest screwball story, Stephanie witnesses a gang member's robbery and becomes the key witness against him. This of course gets the other gang members down on her ass. Not the best novel ever, but full of the typical Evanovich humor we've grown to love. Recommended to readers who are already familiar with the main characters like Stephanie, Lula, Joe, Ranger, etc. Not just for high school chicks, this is a good lite summer read for many readers.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

This great and immaculately well-written novel is about a rich guy named Jay Gatsby and the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, who chooses money and security rather than love. I love the thought-provoking ending!!

If you wanna know what it was like to be a young carefree person living in the roaring and decadent 1920's America, you must read "The Great Gatsby." I think of this book as The Great American Novel. Its enduring popularity is a testament to that fact. Characters like Gatsby and Daisy show us that although fashions, cars, manner of speech, etc change, human nature stays the same, people who are a certain way think and act the same in similar situations.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

This is probably the best and most poignant story about racism that I've ever read. It's mandatory reading for school kids, and rightly so. One of the best novels of the 20th century. It's a pity Harper Lee only wrote this one novel. Anyway, it's a tale about the sensational trial of a black man who is arrested for raping a white woman, but he's actually innocent of the crime. The whole thing is seen through the eyes of the white defense lawyer's daughter. Very compelling read.

David Rehak

author of "Love and Madness"

L.M. Montgomery's life is a life story of conquoring adversity and making one's dream come true. Although taken care of in the material sense as a child, she was not nurtured in the emotional sense and this created a need to escape into a fairyland of her imagination where she was accepted and loved and had friends, including "window friends."

This book is a collection of autobiographical articles written by L.M. Montgomery in 1917 in response to an editor's request for her to write the story of her literary career. Montgomery speaks a lot about her early childhood and her later struggles to make it as a writer, alone, without encouragement, support, or understanding from others. In fact, her literary ambitions and attempts were often scoffed at or criticized. But Maud kept keepin' on, confident that she would "arrive" some day. And she did, in an enormous way.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in need of inspiration or encouragement to make their dream come true, and especially to any aspiring writer whose dream is to climb the alpine path and reach that far-off goal of true and honoured fame.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"