You Remind Me of Me: A Novel

Average customer rating:

Amazing....

Wait, what was the story with this character again?

Book group hit!!

A moving tale of two brothers

Flat and disappointing

You Remind Me of Me: A Novel
Dan Chaon
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0345441400
Release Date: 2005-04-26

Book Description

With his critically acclaimed Among the Missing and Fitting Ends, award-winning author Dan Chaon proved himself a master of the short story form. He is a writer, observes the Chicago Tribune, who can “convincingly squeeze whole lives into a mere twenty pages or so.” Now Chaon marshals his notable talents in his much-anticipated debut novel.

You Remind Me of Me begins with a series of separate incidents: In 1977, a little boy is savagely attacked by his mother’s pet Doberman; in 1997 another little boy disappears from his grandmother’s backyard on a sunny summer morning; in 1966, a pregnant teenager admits herself to a maternity home, with the intention of giving her child up for adoption; in 1991, a young man drifts toward a career as a drug dealer, even as he hopes for something better. With penetrating insight and a deep devotion to his characters, Dan Chaon explores the secret connections that irrevocably link them. In the process he examines questions of identity, fate, and circumstance: Why do we become the people that we become? How do we end up stuck in lives that we never wanted? And can we change the course of what seems inevitable?

In language that is both unflinching and exquisite, Chaon moves deftly between the past and the present in the small-town prairie Midwest and shows us the extraordinary lives of “ordinary” people.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

You Remind Me of Me begins with a series of separate incidents: In 1977, a little boy is savagely attacked by his mother's pet Doberman; in 1997 another little boy disappears from his grandmother's backyard on a sunny summer morning; in 1966, a pregnant teenager admits herself to a maternity home, with the intention of giving her child up for adoption; in 1991, a young man drifts toward a career as a drug dealer, even as he hopes for something better. With penetrating insight and a deep devotion to his characters, Dan Chaon explores the secret connections that irrevocably link them. In the process he examines questions of identity, fate, and circumstance: Why do we become the people that we become? How do we end up stuck in lives that we never wanted? And can we change the course of what seems inevitable?

In language that is both unflinching and exquisite, Chaon moves deftly between the past and the present in the small-town prairie Midwest and shows us the extraordinary lives of "ordinary" people.

"Dan Chaon's beautiful, effortless prose commands the reader from sentence one, steering us from prickling unease to wrenching pathos, tunneling inside his character's minds and worlds with such authority that everything else seems to disappear. It's almost frightening to be in the hands of so gifted a writer."
    JENNIFER EGAN, AUTHOR OF INVISIBLE CIRCUS

"Dan Chaon's novel You Remind Me of Me is nothing short of brilliant. The novel is haunting me and I can't stop thinking about it—both as a reader and as a deeply admiring writer. I wish I had a better adjective than superb."
    CAROLINE LEAVITT, AUTHOR OF GIRLS IN TROUBLE

"You Remind Me of Me is one of the strangest, most beautiful, most compelling books I've read in a long time. Unnerving and real, intricately plotted, wonderfully written, it's a Chinese box of a novel, full of hidden pleasures and surprises."
    ELIZABETH McCRACKEN, AUTHOR OF THE GIANT'S HOUSE AND NIAGARA FALLS ALL OVER AGAIN

"One of Dan Chaon's many gifts is his ability to probe deeply and delicately into sorrow. This gift serves him beautifully in You Remind Me of Me, a novel about adoption, about the quiet sadness that lies at the bottom of all his characters' troubles."
    JANE HAMILTON, AUTHOR OF A MAP OF THE WORLD

"Beautiful, painful, and sure-footed, You Remind Me of Me tracks the delicate connections between a handful of lost and poignant lives, in the process giving them the radiance of a stained glass window. What a writer. Dan Chaon is going to have a breathtaking literary career."
    Customer Reviews:

Amazing...........2007-09-25

This book was amazing...Chaon writes with a poetry that I haven't read since Kerouac. And not that I'm comparing this book at all to Kerouac, per say, but Chaon writes with the same intensity...he weaves words together so that they flow effortlessly on the page, and then later, stay with you as you progress through the day. He truly makes you look at life with a different perspective. This book is about identity. About how it is formed...is it nature or nurture? Or do we create ourselves? The characters are so intricately linked, and the point of view is such that I have never read before...this book is truly a journey. I will probably reread it sometime again in the future, just so I can extract even more out of it.

Wait, what was the story with this character again?.......2007-04-04

Normally I enjoy stories that switch between characters or jump around in time, but this was done poorly in my opinion. The first part of the book jumped around so much between years and characters that by the time the author started writing in chronological order I had no attachment to the characters and didn't really care what happened to them because I was just starting to get over my confusion with the story.

Book group hit!!.......2007-02-07

Our book group had an in depth and interesting discussion with this book. The themes of loneliness, what constitutes a modern family, and how much does "fate" factor into one's life had us talking for a couple hours. Lots of personal histories were drawn out by our discussion--everyone found characters to which they could relate. Chaon weaves a story that alternates back and forth in time, which might tend to irritate the reader, but it works here. His characters are made real, flaws and all. I went looking for more of his writing.

A moving tale of two brothers.......2007-02-02

Nora Doyle had two sons: Jonah and Troy. The latter she gave for adoption because she felt too young to raise a child. The novel is constructed like a jigsaw puzzle and the reader slowly becomes acquainted with the various characters. Nora the depressive and suicidal mother, Jonah the unlucky father who is caught in drug dealing and who is refused the custody of his son Loomis and Troy's long search for his lost brother with the help of The PeopleSearch Agency.
The characters are extremely well drawn and the author skilfully explores their emotional paths as they all fatally blotch every opportunity they are given. It seems that everything the characters attempt to achieve is doomed to fail. In this sense it is a remarkable novel about failure, oblivion and destruction by apparently everyday minor incidents. It is a claustrophobic tale in which there is not a single destiny which does not go awry. Quite an achievement when one considers that it is Dan Chaon's first novel.

Flat and disappointing.......2007-01-10

I had high hopes for this novel. I have long been a fan of Chaon's short stories. But somehow his first novel is not in the same realm.

The book starts off very well, but soon devolves into a series of flat, disjointed snippets from various stages of the characters' lives. Unlike other readers, I am not at all put off by what some call "depressing" circumstances in a novel. Yet as I continued to read Chaon's book, I came to realize that I just didn't care about his characters. That's what bothered me the most. And for me, it was a struggle to continue reading about characters I don't care about. Your mileage may vary.

Customer Reviews:

Book #2 in the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries.......2007-01-26

"A Bone To Pick" by Charlaine Harris is the second book in her series about librarian Aurora Teagarden. (The first being Real Murders: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 1) In this mystery, Aurora aka Roe is stunned when she inherits a house and a large sum of money from elderly Jane Engle after her death. That's not the only thing Jane left her- there's a human skull in the window seat. On top of that, the people that have just moved in across the street from Jane's house are none other than Roe's ex-boyfriend Arthur Smith and his new pregnant wife.

After some snooping around, Roe finds out that a couple of people in the neighborhood have gone missing. One went out for diapers and never came home; another skipped out on his rent and left during the night. Was one of them killed? Is it their skull? Roe is determined to find out!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I fully recommend the rest in this series. Next is Three Bedrooms, One Corpse: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, followed by The Julius House: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 4, Dead Over Heels: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 5, "Fool And His Honey: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 6, Last Scene Alive (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries), and Poppy Done To Death: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, Bk. 8.

Or if you'd like to try a different series by Charlaine Harris, check out the Lily Bard mysteries.(Shakespeare's Landlord (The First Lily Bard Mystery), "Shakespeare's Champion", Shakespeare's Christmas", "Shakespeare's Trollop", and Shakespeare's Counselor")

Or her new supernatural Southern Vampire Mysteries (Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Bk. 1), "Living Dead in Dallas", "Club Dead", "Dead to the World", "Dead as a Doornail", "Definitely Dead", and "All Together Dead")

Aurora Teagarden ~ Woman of Leisure..........2003-01-31

When Aurora "Roe" Teagarden attends Jane Engle's funeral, it is more of a kindly gesture to someone who used to belong to the Real Murders club with her before the club stopped meeting. Roe considered Jane a friend, but didn't really know her that well. So she is startled when Jane's lawyer informs her that she is the heir to Jane's estate. Suddenly, Roe goes from scraping by on a part-time librarian's salary to an heiress with a home, nice jewelry and $550,000 in savings. Roe isn't quite sure what to do with herself and her newfound wealth. However, she realizes that all is not as rosy as it seems when Jane's lawyer keeps hinting that there may be some problem that she needs to solve for Jane. When Roe goes to check out Jane's house, it has been broken into and searched, but nothing was stolen. Roe is determined to figure out the secret and eventually discovers Jane's hiding place and pulls out - a human skull. As Roe waffles between handing the skull over to the police or tossing it in the river, her life takes a few unexpected turns. Her ex-boyfriend, a police officer, moves in across the street with his new, very pregnant wife; she starts dating a minister; her mother gets married; her best friends gets engaged; her new neighbors are throwing welcoming parties for her; she inherits a cat who soon has kittens; everyone in town is gossiping about her relationship with Jane and her inheritance - the list goes on and on. Needless to say, Roe doesn't spend a whole lot of time investigating who the owner of the skull was until the rest of the skeleton is discovered at the end of the street...

This is the second installment in the Aurora Teagarden mystery series (Real Murders is #1) and it is a pleasant, fast read. I read it in a couple of hours and enjoyed it, but it isn't anything that is very memorable. The mystery is rather lacking because we don't know who the skull belongs to, but Roe doesn't really go out and try to figure out who it belongs to - the answer just kind of falls in her lap at the end of the story. Charlaine Harris does introduce some interesting new characters, however, and she keeps up with a few of the old ones from Real Murders so it was nice to see time passing in the small town. I would have liked to see a bit more of a plot regarding the mystery side of this "mystery", but this book is more of a fiction novel with a little bit of a mystery on the side. Still an enjoyable read, but I must say that the Lily Bard series (Shakespeare's Landlord, Shakespeare's Champion, etc.) is far superior than the Aurora Teagarden series.

Not a Favorite Aurora Teagarden Mystery.......2003-01-01

I have been looking forward to reading "A Bone to Pick" to read how Aurora Teagarden comes into her inheritance. The story opens with Aurora Teagarden attending weddings for both her mother and Arthur Smith and the funeral of Jane Engle. Aurora then inherits Jane's house and finds a sinister surprise inside.
Aurora, as always, has lots of character detail and internal dialogue (love her hair : >), but
I was disappointed to find little charactization for benefactress and Real Murders ex-cohort Jane Engle. There was also little sleuthing in this story. Aurora gets to know her new neighbors through a couple of social events, but does not beat the street to try to solve the mystery. This installment shares the great atmosphere and the small-town setting with the rest of the series, but I didn't buy the mechanics of the story. Neither did I appreciate that Jane Engle just "didn't have time" to put things back the way she found them.
"A Bone to Pick" is effective in that it made me want to read the rest of the series, but mostly to fill in the blanks this story leaves and see if Harris' characterizations develop further.

Aurora the heiress.......2000-06-26

In this second book of the series, Aurora Teagarden inherits a house and a substantial amount of money from Jane Engle, a former high school librarian. Aurora is surprised at this bequest since she had not counted Jane as a close friend. However, she becomes even more surprised at what she discovers in Jane's house. She becomes acquainted with the neighbors on Jane's street while assessing the possibility that they were involved in a crime which she thinks was committed in the neighborhood. A light and enjoyable read.

Good Book and Wonderful Character.......1998-08-24

This book is a fine book and is a great read. Ms. Harris has a wonderful way of developing a Southern character of today. Interesting mystery development

Book Description

Whether you're pro-life or pro-choice, you probably agree on one thing: abortion hurts women, both mentally and physically. Unfortunately, both sides are guilty of ignoring the individual in favor of the higher moral ground. No more. This book is designed to help people heal from their abortions on an individual level, and to finally be able to put guilt, shame, fear, doubt and other negative feelings behind them forever. Jennifer O'Neill's approach to healing is Christ-centered, showing post-abortive women that God still loves them, and that they should therefore love themselves. She should know--she felt guilt and shame over her own abortion for years. And she is not alone in that pain. This book: presents the symptoms of post-abortion syndrome (experienced by 80 percent of post-abortive women) incorporates a step-by-step, faith-based process for healing that incorporates Scripture provides true stories of women and men who have struggled with the affects of abortion includes resources for help and support Not just for the woman herself, this book is the perfect comfort and guide for people with friends, daughters or loved ones struggling with the after-effects of abortion, whether recent or long in the past. Key Features Focuses on personal stories of healing from more than 25 women, including Jennifer O'Neill herself. Takes women through a series of feeling--guilt, shame, honesty and grieving--that ultimately lead to personal and divine forgiveness. The central tenet is that God always loves you, no matter what happens, a message many post-abortive women don't get from their church communities, but which they desperately need.

Customer Reviews:

You're Not Alone.......2005-09-07

Wonderful Book. Easy Reading. It was a very helpful and insighting book for me.

An inside look at the pain and struggle of abortion, and finding solace in faith.......2005-08-04

No matter where you stand on the issue of abortion --- though I suspect most readers of this review oppose it --- there's one aspect of the issue you just can't argue with. As Jennifer O'Neill writes, "You cannot argue with someone's pain." You can dismiss it, you can minimize it, you can ignore it, but you cannot effectively use your powers of persuasion to convince other people that they are not in pain. In YOU'RE NOT ALONE, O'Neill, an actress and Cover Girl Cosmetics model, writes primarily to those women who continue to suffer from the emotional pain of abortion --- and she writes as one who has been there.

In previous books and videos and in her ongoing role as national spokesperson for the "Silent No More" abortion awareness campaign, O'Neill tells the story of her own abortion, the struggles that followed, and her ultimate reconciliation with God. Here, she gives space to the stories of other women who have likewise suffered and found hope and healing through God's forgiveness. Throughout, O'Neill uses scripture to underscore the truth that God's grace and mercy are available to everyone --- even those women who feel they've bordered on committing the unpardonable sin by aborting a child.

On that score, O'Neill does a terrific job. If you don't get a taste of God's grace and forgiveness while reading this book, well, I guess you just weren't ready for it. Because it's there for the taking. On every page. O'Neill also addresses two aspects of the post-abortion experience that often go unnoticed: the need to openly grieve for the aborted child and the need to confess the truth about a previous abortion to a spouse and children.

One of the most poignant scenes in the book relates to the need to grieve. In Japan for a film festival, O'Neill wanted to do some sightseeing and decided to visit a large Buddhist temple. In one area on the grounds were thousands upon thousands of pinwheels. Next to some were tiny mementos --- empty photo frames, knitted booties, and the like. What she was looking at was the burial ground for aborted babies, a place where people could openly mourn the loss of their own child or for all of the anonymous children lost to abortion. "Grieving is part of surviving and is an integrally crucial part of the healing process," O'Neill writes. "Grieving is not a step you can skip if you want to heal." All too often, the shame of abortion causes women to skip that step, she writes, but the repercussions will surface eventually.

O'Neill also guides women through the process of determining when, how, and if they should disclose the fact of a long-ago abortion to their current family --- their spouse and children. It's a process designed not to convince the women that they should or shouldn't, but to allow each woman to come to her own decision about how to handle the situation.

Now to the downside. This is a book that is likely to resonate with Christians only. That's not to say that a person who isn't a Christian wouldn't get anything out of it, but that person would have to be heavily steeped in Christian jargon. [Note to software developers: Please, please, create a "Christianese Check" just like spell check or grammar check.] "Stronghold" means little or nothing to someone outside the faith, and "bondage" means something you don't mention in polite society. Using plain English instead of Christianese would have helped this book immensely.

And even though O'Neill writes primarily to women who have aborted their babies, she also intends to reach their loved ones and anyone who needs a better understanding of post-abortion trauma. Well, that to me includes those pro-life activists who remain blissfully unaware of the additional pain and suffering they cause to women who are already burdened by guilt and shame. Please note: I did not say all activists. I mean those who are so blinded by their zeal to protect the unborn that they disregard the suffering of those who failed to protect their own unborn. O'Neill devotes precious little space to that problem, and it's a big one.

She also states that "abortion is not a comfortable subject for most sermons," implying that pastors shy away from addressing the issue. But that sure hasn't been my experience, and I've seen more than one woman slip out of church in tears as a pastor railed against those heinous sinners who abort their babies. A book on healing after abortion needs to include the topic of "healing from the pain inflicted on you by your alleged brothers and sisters in Christ."

Look, any book that gets a woman past the pain of abortion and into the arms of God ["Christianese Check" needed!] is worth reading. I just hope this book finds a wider audience than the Christians who understand the lingo, because there are plenty of women out there who may be put off by the jargon but not by the promise of healing.

An excellent guide to healing after abortion........2005-04-22

This book is about Jennifer O'Neill's abortion and the path she has followed since her abortion to find emotional and spiritual resolution. The book includes shorter stories about the experiences of a number of other women. Readers who have had abortions will find themselves able to identify with these stories. Jennifer O'Neill also talks about the steps that are important in healing after abortion, and about the Silent No More Awareness Campaign, which is a group of women speaking in public about their own abortions in order to raise public awareness about the negative emotional aftermath of abortion.

This book is a pleasure to read, comforting, informative, and well-written.

Average customer rating:

Best restaurants in New Orleans!

finally one that i like

Eat here!!!!

Creole Nouvelle: Contemporary Creole Cookery
Joseph Carey
Manufacturer: Taylor Trade Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Cajun & Creole | U.S. Regional | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1589791304

Book Description

Carey features the New Orleans chefs who not only use local produce and seafood, but also bring in the best artisanal cheeses, meats, and wines from around the nation and the world. Creole Nouvelle redefines traditional recipes of the genre while offering wonderful dishes from today's top chefs.

Customer Reviews:

Best restaurants in New Orleans!.......2005-05-02

I have eaten in all five of the restaurants (Bayona, Peristyle, Marisol, Herbsaint and Lilette) from which Carey has recipes in this book - and loved every meal. Many say (and I do not argue) these are the best restaurants in New Orleans. I bought the book based on a review I saw in the March issue of Restaurant Hospitality magazine - an industry trade magazine. Here is what got me: "There's plenty of culinary firepower in this group to be sure. But Carey's got some cooking chops of his own, plus an enviable attitude about why Creole food needed some contemporizing by his distinguished friends." And later: "All in all, it's quite a collection: And future cookbook authors take note: this book's all-star cast approach is one worth exploring on other topics."

It is a great concept and I am happy to have recipes all in one place from the best chefs in New Orleans.

finally one that i like.......2005-02-17

I am so pleased to have finally found a Creole cook book that was written by a professional chef for serious amateurs or other professional chefs. Chef Carey's recipes are new and refreshing while still keeping in touch with classic Creole dishes. This book gave me a greater understanding of cooking Creole cuisine by using classic techniques that he emphasizes in each recipe. While reading and looking through the book I felt like I was in the kitchens of the French quarter restaurants that he highlights in the book. This is because of one of the unique features of the book, lagniappes, which are tidbits of information for each recipe. These lagniappes are great because they gave me a greater understanding of the recipe itself. I think that these are so important because many people, including myself don't know all that much of Creole cuisine.

Eat here!!!!.......2004-12-05

This is a great book on Creole cooking. Carey's recipes are straightforward, and his directions are clear and easy to follow. The recipes he includes from the five New Orleans chefs and restaurants that he selected to be in the book with him are innovative approaches to Creole cuisine. I do a lot of oriental cooking, and I like the way he has chosen to include aspects of that cuisine. This isn't a book for the complete novice, but a moderately experienced cook will find a wealth of interesting dishes and historical information about this unique American style of cooking, all presented with a great sense of humor. This is an excellent addition to any cook's library.

Average customer rating:

A "Must Read" for the beginner or novice

How to Recognize & Refinish Antiques, 4th (How to Recognize and Refinish Antiques for a Pleasure)
Jacquelyn Peake
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Care & Restoration | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Furniture | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Field Guide to American Antique Furniture: A Unique Visual System for Identifying the Style of Virtually Any Piece of American Antique Furniture

ASIN: 0762701145

Book Description

Covers the 3 fundamental aspects of a growing hobby/profession: recognizing antiques, refinishing them, and selling them for a profit.

Customer Reviews:

A "Must Read" for the beginner or novice.......2000-02-02

This book offers great information for the hobbiest who would like to make a little extra money or go into business full time. The author gives good information on many topics such as how to date a piece, buy it at a good price, refinish and sell items. The book is well written and much easier to understand than other such books that I have read.

Average customer rating:

Lots of unique designs w/ an interesting time line for sew.

Quick and Easy Vests & Jackets: Creative Fashions to Sew
Kate Mathews
Manufacturer: Lark Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Fashion | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Sewing | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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The Vest Book: Create and Customize Your Own Vests Using Embroidery, Fabric Painting, Beadwork, Applique, and a Host of Other Techniques

Easy Reversible Vests

Easy Guide to Sewing Jackets (Easy Guide)

ASIN: 1579900836

Customer Reviews:

Lots of unique designs w/ an interesting time line for sew........1999-02-27

I have many sewing books, this is my first by this author. By having seen the book I am impressed with the way she addresses several important issues regarding sewing besides just the exact Title of the book. I deducted 1 star for lack of ANY kind of pattern layout but commend the way it is done. I like seeing the work of the various artists she used and the idea of her timeline suggestions. I am anxious to start one of these projects and try it in the time she allots and see how I do comparitively. I am also very pleased to find a book about a subject that is so current and a type of sewing that is extremely popular right now, so one can feel quite chic in a 'modern' style garment. The author also has several styles included that will be useful for many years and combine with current wardrobe selections.

Customer Reviews:

Look For Better Books.......2004-04-26

For such an ambitious book, this one is very disappointing. The artist displays a lack of knowledge of horse anatomy and movement and poor drawing skills. The color samples are poorly executed, lacking in volume and proper highlights and shadows. The text is too complicated for the average beginner to follow.

I would not recommend this book for any age or drawing level. There are far better books available.

Book Description

In this collection of entertaining and enlightening essays, renowned gambling writer David Spanier examines his favorite game of all-poker. From a candid account of his introduction to gambling as a schoolboy at one of England's most prestigious boarding schools, betting on horse races (not always successfully), to a fascinating examination of gambling in cyberspace via Internet poker groups, Spanier leads us on an engaging tour of the colorful and exciting world of poker.

Replete with frank and often amusing personal anecdotes, Spanier's accounts range from his Tuesday night poker club, dramatizing a typical American poker group and its cast of players; to life aboard an ocean liner on a poker cruise, with practical advice on tournament play and a profile of its leading exponent; to the thrilling annual World Championship of Poker in Las Vegas, where Spanier competes with several hundred of the world's best players for four grueling days of the most intense play anywhere.

The book also includes essays in which Spanier examines the psychology and pleasure of gambling from the perspectives of both scholarly study and personal experience; and offers a critique of literary accounts of the Las Vegas gambling scene by writers as diverse as Hunter S. Thompson, Mario Puzo, and Joan Didion.

David Spanier's writing on gambling has always combined the keen delights of an enthusiast with the clear-eyed scrutiny of the journalist. This, his last work, is certain to delight lovers of poker as well as nonplayers curious about this universally popular and engrossing game.

Customer Reviews:

Conversation with a thoughtful player.......2006-08-05

The book's subtitle is particularly apt, as the reader is treated to an autobiographical account of Spanier's lifelong passion for gambling, beginning with betting on horses in his early school years and, later, Cambridge, where he first discovered poker. His description of the London poker scene of the 1960s is particularly vivid, as are his tales of the games at Washington's National Press Club, and his ten-year participation in a London "Tuesday Night Game." And his account of a Caribbean poker cruise, on which he was a poker instructor, is a gem of a snapshot of the rituals and mores of the poker subculture.

Spanier's career as a journalist brought him around the world, and he recounts many of his experiences, both as a correspondent and as a player. This along makes The Hand I Played an interesting book. But Spanier is also able to make the mind of the gambler intelligible to the non-gambler. For example, when talking about the meaning of "action" on page 51, Spanier notes that it means, "playing with chance, taking a challenge, the excitement of living in top gear. In gambling, this is the pay-off. In our routine urban lives, most of us are cogs in the wheel.... Gambling offers a fast way out...the player can give self-indulgence a whirl, briefly cast responsibility aside, and fantasize about a brighter, richer, easier life." Of course, Spanier knows that these fantasies are usually illusory, but they still give gamblers, " a little spoonful of hope, which, like honey, is pleasing while it lasts." This general sentiment has been voiced countless times, but rarely this articulately-or with such self-knowledge.

The chapter on "Net Poker" is also valuable, not because it teaches the reader how to win at online poker or because it offers strong arguments for or against online gambling, but because it provides an account of the online poker industry in its earliest years from someone who knows poker intimately. Online gambling may be a short-lived phenomenon or it may mature into a lasting industry, but future social scientists will be grateful for Spanier's thoughtful survey of the virtual poker world of the late 1990s.

Spanier also runs a quick historiographical romp through books on Las Vegas and gambling, giving his opinions on several books in the canon. Spanier's refined literary sensibilities temper his enthusiasm for gambling, so he is able to recognize that "it is easy to write about Las Vegas, as an abundance of bad journalism proves," (p. 209) but knows that it is difficult to catch the lightning of gambling excitement in a bottle. That Spanier is an arbiter of good and bad writings about Las Vegas may touch a nerve with some Southern Nevadans who resent literary "carpetbaggers" who, after a weekend in town, claim to interpret Las Vegas to the rest of the world. This is not a point without merit; many of the misleading books about Las Vegas have been by "outsiders." But Spanier is no outsider to gambling; he enjoyed a lifelong passion for it that qualifies him as an expert on the subject. But should his writings about Las Vegas be discounted because he is a "carpetbagger?'' Absolutely not. While his views may not be the same as longtime residents, they are those of an intelligent, articulate observer who can place the city in the context of a larger global gambling scene.

The climax of the book is Spanier's own participation in the 1997 poker World Championship, held at Binion's Horseshoe in Las Vegas. For poker aficionados, this is the obvious equivalent of playing in any world championship. Though Spanier knew going in that he had about as much chance of winning as beating Tiger Woods in golf, the honey spoonful of hope still held out that tiniest chance, which was no doubt intoxicating. There are several accounts of the World Championship, but few from this close-up.

In all, The Hand I Played reads like an extended conversation one might have on a long car or plane ride with an intelligent, insightful, gambler. A great deal of Spanier's personality shines through the narrative, so we get not only a look at how poker is played, but a look, sometimes unconsciously, into the mind of a player. This is all the more poignant because the book was published posthumously. But it is a testament to both Spanier and his editors that The Hand I Played is such a riveting work for both players and interested laypeople. A hint to the uninitiated-read the appendix, which explains the basics of Texas Hold 'em, before the book itself. It will add a great deal of depth to Spanier's accounts of games and hands, which otherwise may be impenetrable to non-players. Whether a veteran of marathon poker sessions or someone who simply doesn't understand the appeal of the game, The Hand I Played will undoubtedly change the way the reader thinks about gambling, chance, and poker.

A DISAPPOINTMENT.......2004-01-17

I realized from the title this was not a how to poker book but figured it would be something along the lines of anthony holdens book big deal but i was very disappointed with this book.It cover the authors poker games with his buddies in some off the wall home games (granted i am slanted more towards holdem)Other chapters dealing with a poker cruise and his dealings with a woman poker player hitting him up for advice,a chapter about internet poker dealing with a lot of rules and regs dealing with them in the USA.Also has a chapter about books dealing with gambling mostly by Dostoyevsky.

On the back of the book it talks about the author being in the world series of poker and i was hoping it would have a little more to do with that but it had maybe three or four pages dealing with this.

This was one of those books i keep reading hoping it would get better i felt it never did if you have not red anthony holden's book big deal try that one i could not recommend this book

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