Ash Wednesday Books

This is the best book about WW II that I have read - and I have read them all.

The only book that comes close to "Ash Wednesday 45'" is about WW I - "All Quite on The Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque.

Ulf Morling
Sweden

Mr. Westie through his words gave me vivid recall of events I had long forgotten. Recommended to all who have an interest in"being there" during our days and nights.

A powerful story as can only be told by one who was there. I had a chance to meet the author in Traverse City, MI at a book signing we were both attending for our respective books. We traded books and I have to say it was by far the best book I've read in the past year. I read Ash Wednesday in two days and wished I had taken longer to enjoy such a wonderful story. The author blends realistic characters and a rich setting into a believable plot. There are scenes in this book that you will envision in your minds eye for a long time. I can almost hear the "Big Band" swing music of the war everytime I see the book in my library. Don't miss it!! KCThorne

Frank Robert Westie tells an indepth tale from his experiences during WWII. A beautiful love story is woven through a thoughtful account of American B-17 flights over Nazi held Europe. He probes the question, "Just what should a war hero do when he is ordered to do something clearly against his conscience." It is certainly one of the best aviation stories I have read and ranks with those of Nevil Shute Norway & Ernest Gann. Pilots and non-pilots who want vivid accounts of that great air war will cherish this book.

Frank R. Westie waited a long time to write his novel roughly based on his 8th Air Force experience as a B17 pilot in WWII. It must have been time well spent, however, because this is a mature,yet vividly detailed and realistic statement on the ultimate price of war. It sharply throws the reader back there to 1945. It tells a compelling,two-tiered love story, both of a romance with a mysterious,aristocratic Englishwoman,and of the bond that existed between gruff,seasoned airmen who have tested their friendship and mutual respect over way too many missions to Germany. It depicts the inner turmoil of a man, the pilot protagonist, not normally prone to self-reflection. Combat fatigue is the overt cause,and the descriptions of air combat in this book are among the most bracingly precise that you will ever read. No small accomplishment if you know what's out there. I have always suspected that survivors of WWII air combat never really completely came home. Part of them, perhaps the best part, is still up there, back there, flying, fighting, trying to ransome the dead and somehow, save us all. Author Westie's ghostly clarion call proves the point elegantly. An unforgettable book about an unforgettable time, of Flying Fortresses and Liberators, and the flesh and blood that powered them to victory, at no small cost. May it reprint soon.

Giordano Bruno stands at the cusp between the Renaissance and the modern world. His unique attempts to extract philosophical and theological meaning from Copernicus's forward-looking work provide us with striking insights into the Weltanschauung of his troubled times. Gosselin and Lerner have brilliantly translated Bruno's elegant but involuted Renaissance Italian into clear modern English that nevertheless preserves the spirit of the original. Their thoughtful notes bring comprehensibility to previously misunderstood passages, and the linkage they establish between Bruno's travails and Galileo's later troubles is highly convincing. A must-read for the scientist as well as the philosopher

Giordan Bruno is still today a controversial philosopher. In this book he exposes his philosophical/cosmological ideas and, in doing so, he uses the new Copernican theory as the basis for a new, daring vision of the universe.
Anybody who would like to familiarize him/herself with the work of Bruno, or is interested in the development of Western ideas will find this book extremely challenging. However I would like to say a few words on the interpretation that the translators give of Bruno's ideas. The translators appear to follow completely an interpretation of Bruno based on the theory of the english scolar Frances Yates. According to this theory Bruno was an exponent of the (then popular) Hermetic movement.
It is imperative to underscore that Yates theory is not universally accepted. While it is known that Hermetic influences can be traced in Bruno, to reduce his whole cosmology and his understanding of Copernican theory to a "hieroglyphic" is misleading if not plainly wrong.
Bruno was not a scientist, but he was the first to intuitively realize the revolutionary consequences of Copernican theory (not only for science) and to bring that theory to its logical conclusions: an infinite universe with infinite earth-like worlds. This vision can not be reconciled with the world of the hermetic "Magus". The whole purpose of the hermetic Magus was to ascend the material world to the world of the perfect spheres. In Bruno's universe there is nothing to ascend to. The universe is composed of a thin air where an infinity of worlds and stars are suspended and move following universal (animistic) principles. The other worlds are corruptible as much as the earth and may be inhabited by earth-like people. The very base of the hermetic doctrine is missing. I would therefore encourage the interested reader not to stop the investigation of Bruno's ideas to the hermetic interpretation, but to also read different points of view (for example Yates interpretation of Bruno's use of images has recently been challenged with very solid arguments by the finding of italian scholars). In particular I found the book of Hillary Gatti "Giordano Bruno and the renaissance science" extremely interesting and complete.

On Ash Wednesday, just out of prison Nathaniel Green, who killed his wife ten years ago when he pulled the plug on the life support machine so she could go to heaven, asks the pastor of St. Hilary's if he will put ashes on his forehead though he is no longer a Catholic. He gave up on religion when his beloved Florence suffered from terminal cancer and kept alive by so called caring people when she just wanted to die.

Nathaniel and Florence belonged to St. Hilary before he committed euthanasia. Some people especially Florence's sister do not want to turn the other cheek and let him return to the flock. They condemn him for murdering his spouse quoting the bible and the Ten Commandments. On the other hand Father Dowling understands why a human would act mercifully to end the suffering of a loved one although he feels deeply that it is still is a sin. As the parish divides over the issue of mercy killing, Dowling begins to see some incongruence in what he hears happened a decade ago; as he quietly investigates he begins to wonder if Nathaniel actually pulled the plug or is covering for someone.

This is a thought provoking Father Dowling mystery; perhaps the best in years as everyday people struggle with the difficult and complex issue of euthanasia; the St. Hilary congregation is divided over the subject and the killer. The story line is fast-paced once the whisper campaign begins that Green is out of prison and home and never slows down as he is shunned while he reads Crime and Punishment seeking absolution, but for what asks Father Dowling?

Harriet Klausner

Finally Oxford has heard our cries and compiled this excellent book for the Lenten and Easter season. Grouped according to the Liturgical progression of the season there are many different pieces covering a vast array of musical styles that can be used all throughout Lent and on Easter. While not created for the small choir of a few paniced singers there are a few pieces that are accessible for the smaller choir. A majority of the anthems and settings are intended for SATB with either organ, or unaccompanied.
This book has been a wonderful find when it seems the only music for Easter being published by the leading publishers has been a little too "commercial." For those who have any part of the Christmas collections from Oxford, this collection will be right at home in your music library next to your other Oxford books.

~Sean M. Haley~
Organist
St. Luke's Memorial Episcopal Church
Tacoma, WA

Fr Groeschel is well-known for his speaking talents and his writings but this little book is outstanding.His comments and guidance each day through Lent has helped me contemplate on issues I hadn't even thought about. He helps you see things in perspective and deal with adversity grounded in a perspective based on historical understanding. Lent is now in its fourth week and every day I am eagerly looking forward to reading his text.

Looking for Lenten sermon material, especially mid-week series? This is certainly one resource to be checked out.

Having did so, am now using this for Wednesday Lenten series. Focuses on the Fourth Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah, 52:13-53:12.

Here is well done exegesis of the text which much theological insight from historical-grammatical study. Along side are sermon helps for six sermons as well as Holy Week and Easter.

This all important gospel section of Isaiah will be clarified by those who refer to this work. Would be most valuable resource for anyone interested in this focal Biblical text.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. It's packaged like mass-market crap but aspects of it resemble literature. It's an entertaining and easy read, but thought provoking and fascinating. The concept for this book is brilliant. The silent, unmoving wraiths are so much more haunting and troubling than any active ghoul. This is what horror novels should be.

chet williamson is one of the most underated of all horror authors. the review i read online does not understand one of the most powerful concepts of horror fiction: mystery. williamsons depictions of ghosts that don't move or speak let's us use our most powerful device for trancendental horrific experiences: the power of IMAGINATION. highly recommended.

Of this excellent book! They complain that the ghosts don't do anything, that the book focuses on how people react to them... But this is exactly the point! Any great fiction utilizes a device such as ghosts to give us a mirror with which to see ourselves a bit more clearly. That is exactly what Williamson does in Ash Wednesday. The ghosts aren't just spirits of the dead, they represent all of the past sins committed by the people of the town, and serve to remind them that no matter how deeply the past may appear to be buried, a day of reckoning will come for them.

Imagine waking up one morning to discover that your home town is now host to dozens of transparent blue wraiths. Silent and stationary, the revenants, remnants of former denizens of your town, stand or lay in the posture in which they died.

This is exactly how Chet Williamson opens his classic horror novel, Ash Wednesday. Williamson uses this extraordinary situation to delve into the psyches of the townspeople of Merridale, PA, a stand-in for myriad hamlets across America. In fact, the entire action of the book is dependent on the citizenry's reactions to the eerie specters. Some question their religious beliefs. Others relive their pasts. Some view the spirits' appearance as sign of the end times. A few experience apocalypse or epiphany.

Williamson explores several notions in what he has labeled in interviews as his "passive horror novel". One is the idea of the isolated town in modern day America, a notion which he quickly dispels, as, within hours, the entire world becomes aware of the phenomena. Another is humanity's capacity to adapt to even the most extreme situations; within days, the excitement caused by the ghosts dissipates, as people go on with their lives. Finally, there are the parallels to Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim, as one of the novel's chief protagonists, ex bus driver Jim Callendar, is forced to examine his behavior after a tragic school bus accident that killed his son and several other students. Callendar's suffering, coupled with his interactions with troubled Vietnam vet Brad Meyers (who also lost a son in the accident) imbues the book with a poignancy most horror novels only hope to achieve.

I read this book close to 10 years ago, and it still pops up in conversations dealing with horror novels I have enjoyed. This book isn't a cheap thrill, run-of-the-mill slasher book like countless others that have driven the horror fiction industry to the brink of death. This novel brings the concept of horror to its' true home. The human heart and soul. The fact that the apparitions are not animated in any way forces the characters as WELL as the readers to examine themselves in a way many might not find so comfortable. You dont need a scaly monster or a knife weilding maniac to instill fear, or to haunt. Sometimes, all you need is a clear view into the depths of the human soul. There is where the real horror lives.

I picked this book up the other day, and although I haven't finished it, it's pretty obvious (to me anyway) that he's not just some "actor" who thought he would take a crack at writing a few novels while trading off his name. It's clear he understands the fundamentals of strong, tight prose and that he has put in the time to learn how to see those fundamentals are adhered to. His sentence structure is strong, as is his grammar (despite what other reviewers have said), and, honestly, I find myself a little jealous of his talent.

What's interesting to me are some of the scathing comments found under the heading of this page. It seems to me that these reviewers are almost fixated on the fact that he is a well known actor (and a very good one, let's face it). Who cares? In fact, in many of these reviewers' minds that bit of information somehow cripples his potential as a writer. I just don't see it. If anything, it only helps him create more believable characters while making the most subtle of description choices. I'm almost positive it works the other way with his acting, too. Think Training Day. Think Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. Tell me I'm wrong.

If you want to find a sample of what I'm talking about in his writing, though, just open this book to Chapter Four. The opening is a very good example of what I mean. He says a lot about the state of mind of the protagonist without drawing it out too much. He does the same with the description of the protagonist's mother. Tight, tight, tight. It's really almost masterful.

Bottom line. I can't help but feel that if he wasn't already an established actor, his literary work wouldn't be held under such a bright light. I also feel that some of these negative reviewers, who are assuredly writers themselves, would do well to learn from his brevity.

This novel is what would happen if a jazz-less, dyslexic Jack Kerouac collided head on with an adolescent version of Tom Wolfe. Hawke's prose hustles along in a cute, jingly-jangley sort of way stuck somewhere between immature versions of the above mentioned authors. This novel isn't bad, but it isn't good either. We see genuine flashes of exceptional writing, but a lack of consistency. The story is occasionally graceful, but the characters often present themselves as clichés. Hawke manages to tell his story but at no point does a definitive, individualized style present itself. Ethan never puts his stamp on this one and we're reminded that good writing simply has to move beyond what we've read and experienced before.

Ethan Hawke's novel is sexy, dry and cool, as two likeable characters road trip through America, the inner workings of their relationship and self-knowedge. It is a little too trying to be Catcher in the R for me at times, and although both characters are reasonably strong and real, it eventuated for me as merely an insight into the developing self-understanding (with sometimes-inspired philosophical revelations attached) of two young people and how they relate to each other, and not much else. I need my novels to soar higher than that, Hawke. Three stars.

Jimmy is far from perfect, but he now knows that Christy, who he'd recently split up with, is perfect for him and that he's ready to commit to her.

What he doesn't know is that Christy is carrying Jimmy's baby, and that she's not going to let him back into her life that easily.

As they travel across America, Jimmy tries to show Christy that he loves her and how far he's willing to go for them to be a family.

Hawke seems to really care for his characters: he represents them honestly, but without being critical or judgmental of them, and that made the characters really come alive for me. All in all, a touching read.

I was extremely disappointed with this novel. After reading Hawke's, The Hottest State, and loving it...I was expecting to have a similar experience with Ash Wednesday. Boy, was I ever wrong! I didn't even want to finish the drawn out book that seemed like 200+ pages made up entirely of pointless dialogue. I found myself skimming the exaggerated, neverending chapters. Please, don't waste your time on this one.