Holy Smoke Review

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(More customer reviews)Dario Trengoni and his childhood pal Antonio Polsinelli meet for the first time in years and discuss what each is doing and what is happening with some of their mutual friends from growing up Italian in South Paris. Dario insists "Anto" speaks the real language, Italian better than he so he asks a favor. Anto reluctantly agrees to writes a love letter for Dario to Madame Raphaelle ironically in French.
Not long after their encounter, someone shoots Dario in the head. Tonio as he known now is stunned to learn he inherited an Italian vineyard near Naples from Dario. He also finds out that his friend was a Taxi-boy earning his money as a gigolo. Tonio tries to locate Madame Raphaelle, but that proves a bit dangerous. So instead he travels to his new property only to find the wine stinks, the vines are worse, the locals already hate him, and a religious scam is in place. With the inheritance comes the Mafia and the Vatican, two of the toughest mobs in Europe, who expect Tonio to give each of them a 100 percent tithe.
HOLY SMOKE! This tale is a terrific twisted look at crime from the perspective of a small timer who is being squeezed by organized groups who want the whole action. Tonio is fabulous as a minnow suddenly swimming with sharks. Fans will appreciate his distinction between the two outside "mobs". The story line satirizes criminal behavior (a crime is defined by the state) to include organized religion as a subcategory of crime. Tonino Benacquista provides a delightfully droll dark thriller.
Harriet Klausner


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"Boisterous black comedy . . . funny and goodhearted, with much incident and expert enthusiasm for sex, food and drink."—The Literary Review

"Much to enjoy in the clash of cultures and superstitions, even a tasty recipe for poisoning your friends with pasta. Detail like this places European crime writing on a par with its American counterpart."—Belfast Independent

Some favors simply cannot be refused. Tonio agrees to write a love letter for Dario, a low-rent Paris gigolo. When Dario is murdered, a single bullet to the head, Tonio finds he has been left a small vineyard near Naples. The wine is undrinkable, but an elaborate scam has been set up. The smell of easy money attracts the unwanted attentions of the Mafia and the Vatican and the unbridled hatred of the locals. Mafiosi aren't choir boys, and monsignors can be very much like Mafiosi.

Winner of three mystery prizes in one year, including the Grand Prix de la Littérature Policière and the Prix Mystère de la Critique.

Tonino Benacquista, born in France of Italian immigrants, dropped out of film studies to finance his writing career. After being in turn a museum watchman, a train guard on the Paris-Rome line and a professional parasite on the Paris cocktail circuit, he is now a highly successful author of fiction and film scripts.

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Smoke Eaters: A Thriller Review

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(More customer reviews)The Justice Peak, Montana fire is raging out of control. In charge of putting out the conflagration out is Mattie McCullogh, the first female firefighter commanding a Forest service team. Already struggling with her male peers who demand the brass fire her and a hostile media expecting impossible miracles to occur, Mattie also worries about her son being in the front lines in the war with the inferno.

When her son's team dies in what is obviously arson, her superiors sacrifice Mattie to the public howling and fire her. To her surprise, her son's body is not recovered. Unable to sit back and accept being a scapegoat, Mattie begins her own inquires into finding a serial arsonist. She also plans to find out exactly what has happened to her son. Along the way she finds some help, but is unaware that her foe is watching and waiting.

SMOKE EATERS is a non-stop action filled plot that takes the readers on a wild ride from page one to the climax. The characters are fully developed and their reaction to the environment feels genuine to the point that the audience will swear they can smell, see, and hear the inferno. The taut story line will receive much acclaim from critics and fans as Christine Andreae has written one of the years top thrillers.

Harriet Klausner

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The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Sinister Smoke Ring (Berenstain Bear Scouts) Review

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(More customer reviews)Book Title: The Berenstine Bears
In this book the Berenstein Bears are trying to stop Smokey the Moose from selling tobacco to children. Four children and their papa bear went out to stop the moose. On their way they found two kids,Joe and Sammy, smoking the Mooses' tobacco that he sold to them. The children had a meeting with Smokey to try to get him to stop selling tobacco to small kids and adults, but the meeting didn't work. finally the children and the papa decided to get the police involved.
I think this book was very good. It tells children that they should not smoke. Sometimes things look cool because the person selling them looks cool, but it can kill you. I think the children were smart to go after someone who is bad on the inside that was selling things that could hurt them. You should buy this book for your children because it teaches them how harmful smoking can be.

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When Brother begins hanging out with the Too Tall Gang, they draw him into their ring of stealing, lying, cheating, and especially smoking, and the Bear Scouts and Gramps help Brother resist the habit.

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Smoke and Mirrors Review

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(More customer reviews)From the back cover, the reader knows that the main character is a telepathic prostitute... yet it is still a shock that in the opening paragraph, she discovers that her current client is not even Human.
Thus begins a fantastic and thought-provoking sci-fi novel, set on futuristic terraformed worlds representing the extremes of the climates of present-day Earth. While Smokey and her young daughter both lovingly refer to her profession in admirable terms (Smokey even refers to herself as the best whore on the planet), the sex is very tastefully written and is not gratuitous. In fact, the sex scenes in the novel are essentially required to further drive the narrative, even though many of Smokey's discoveries are made when she is not in a horizontal position.
The science presented in Smoke and Mirrors is also intriguing. While not presented with the same level of intricate detail as in a Michael Crichton novel, the science is introduced in easy-to-understand language, and is entirely plausible for the futuristic setting. While the political situation is not given quite the same level of detail, it is definitely prominent, and also itself drives the technological and narrative aspects of the novel.
In short, Smoke and Mirrors is an excellent novel. Unfortunately, while the core mystery of the novel is fulfilled at the end, the reader is not - there are several threads which could themselves launch very interesting sequels.

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Hiding her telepathic gifts from her many enemies, industrial spy and prostitute Smokey of the planet Arizona senses a deadly nature in a new customer and begins a war of illusion while protecting her young daughter.

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Smoke a Cigar: A Gentleman's Guide to Cigars, Cigar Smoking and Cigar Accessories Review

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(More customer reviews)I really liked J. Matthew Wright's book, "Smoke A Cigar: A Gentleman's Guide To Cigars, Cigar Smoking And Cigar Accessories." I purchased the ebook to learn more about cigars and how to choose better cigar gifts for my cigar smoking husband. This was the perfect bring-you-up-to-speed guide, and nicely formatted to boot. It contains twenty-one chapters plus an introduction and a resource page -- all packed with no fuss, no muss information that gets right to the point and teaches you what really matters about cigars, their care and preservation, their proper selection, their proper usage, and how to choose the best cigar accessories. I used the lending feature to give a copy to my husband and he thought that it was a great guide. He said that some of the other books out there are too detailed for busy people and that if a cigar lover actually applied the information in "Smoke a Cigar," they would become more sophisticated than their fellow cigar smokers and have a far better smoking experience.

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Smokes Review

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(More customer reviews)Wheeler is one of the really fascinating voices in contemporary poetry. Avoiding the sentimentality and clumsiness of most American lyric poetry, she heads off instead toward poems that combine the virtuosity of early modernism with a fair share of post-modern fun. Notwithstanding the experimental flair, tho, these poems are accessible and full of bemusement and yearning. Anybody who likes this book should check out the just-published SOURCE CODES, too. It's even better.

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Smokejumpers One to Ten Review

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(More customer reviews)I must say that I was apprehensive about a book about smokejumping. My 3 and 5 year old sons are the progeny of former smokejumper parents. They really know smokejumping! Since they loved Firefighters A to Z I knew we had to get this book, though.
Needless to say we weren't disappointed. The illustrations are large, brilliant, and true to life in their portrayal of the work of the smokejumper. The text is accurate, simple, yet elegantly descriptive. Oh yes! And the kids love to count along with the pictures and text. My son brought this one (proudly) to preschool and it quickly became such a favorite amongst the kids that the the teacher had to purchase her own copy for the school.

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Smoke Firing: Contemporary Artists and Approaches Review

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(More customer reviews)This was a very good book as far as artistry and technique. However, it was not what I was looking for. I was looking for instructions on how to do all these techniques myself. Had I known there were no instructions, I would not have purchased it.

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A Bottle in the Smoke Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the second of five novels in the Lampitt series: (1) Incline Our Hearts, (2) A Bottle in the Smoke, (3) Daughters of Albion, (4) Hearing Voices, and (5) A Watch in the Night. The first book is about the childhood and adolescence of Julian Ramsay, growing up in England in the mid-twentieth century with his uncle and aunt in a small-town vicarage and then at boarding school. In this second installment, Julian works in a pub, gets married, and publishes a novel. In all the books, Julian's life is entangled in strange ways with the lives of various members of the Lampitt family, including author James "Jimbo" Lampitt, and Jimbo's biographer. What I'm especially enjoying about these novels so far is Wilson's observations about growing up and adulthood.
I recently discovered A. N. Wilson's novels, and I wish he'd written more of them. (He's written lots of nonfiction, including biographies of Tolstoy and C. S. Lewis.) I also highly recommend Wilson's The Vicar of Sorrows.

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Smoke and Thunder Review

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(More customer reviews)As much as anyone I know of in the small press, Jim Chandler has paid his dues. Chandler has operated as a kind of southern Bukowski since the early 70's when his work began to appear in magazines and literary journals around the country.
SMOKE AND THUNDER delivers a large sample of his powerful,often raw, yet more often elegant poetry. Chandler moves easily from narrative to elegy to the occasional rant, bearing the reader along with a lyrical sense that is not bound by structure or literary convention.
Chandler best describes himself as a survivalist in his aptly titled "hillbilly rasputin:"
i know now
i go on
i will go on
i cannot
be stopped
by death
the hole
or anything
i am eternal
fire
clutching what
i know
holding it
to heart.

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If you're a fan of 'moon, spoon, June' poetry, Smoke & Thunder is not for you. There are no sweet rhymes to be found inside these pages, no saccharine poetics spouted strictly for the sake of linguistic beauty. The free verse here, however lyrical at times, rides the hard edge of the road, having issued from the brain of a man who has pushed himself to dangerous extremes more times than he cares to recall, but always survived for the recounting, torn and tattered though he may have been. Many of the poems here are brutal and unrelenting, rife with tragedy and anger, but always honest to a fault. And yet the true heart of the poet shows through, as in the memorial poem for his father and poems about his grandparents.Whether over coffee in a restaurant with his peers, or passing a bottle of wine around a burn barrel at a junkyard, this poet's home is the world. The more than one hundred poems in Smoke & Thunder, most of which were written during the past two decades, represent a small part of a lifetime's work for a man past 60.

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Stop Smoking in One Hour: Play the CD... Just Once... and Never Smoke Again Review

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(More customer reviews)I was extremely skeptical. Have smoked strong European cigarettes (you know, so I can get European cancer but look good doing it) for 25 years. I had quit for 4 years during that time with a patch, but started back up a few years ago smoking more than ever, 2+ packs per day. We are vacationing soon at a place where there is no smoking, so I got this book to try and prepare myself. I had no intention of quitting the day I did. I read the book thinking I would listen to the CD another time, but went ahead and listened to it and have not picked up a cigarette since. I have re-listened to the CD 3 times just to make sure, plus it is very relaxing. I have the patch ready to put on, but I have not needed it yet. I sit in my office on the computer with a cup of coffee and remarkably no cigarette ! Give this a try if you are thinking about quiting....I hope you will be as pleasantly surprised as I am that it does work. She does a great job of letting you know about hypnosis, so if you are unfamiliar or a little afraid, she answers all of those questions and puts you at ease.

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Everyday, an estimated one thousand Americans die from the effects of smoking. There are 45 to 50 million nicotine addicts in the United States, and most would like to quit. If you are one of them, this book is your guide.

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Yellow Smoke: The Future of Land Warfare for America's Military (Role Of American Military) Review

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(More customer reviews)MG Scales is one of the great military thinkers of the modern age, and this book reflects the vast effort of thought he has put into military problems during his career. His thesis, that in limited-objectives warfare, technology enabled firepower is the key way to destroy the enemy, and that close-combat maneuver forces are for 'findin' em and fixin' em.' To some degree, I agree with his thesis, but note that my personal experiences in Iraq taught me that A) clese combat with the insurgents is the most efficient way to inflict mass casualties on the insurgents; B) the insurgent's capability of hiding themselves in the populace prevents the use of massed fires and target detection, not to mention the politically unpalatable possibility of collateral casualties. As usual, MG Scales writes well, and thoroughly understands his subject.

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Cigarettes: Anatomy of an Industry from Seed to Smoke (Bazaar Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a wonderful little book that excels on many levels. First of all, it's a history of tobacco from the time Europeans discovered it to the present. The story is told efficiently and well, but with an eye to the ironies of history (today, for example, states derive significant tax revenue from sales of tobacco products--so how badly do they want to stamp out smoking?).
Second, "Cigarettes" takes us through the route tobacco must follow to become a cigarette: its growing, auctioning, curing, blending, manufacturing, marketing and final sale. People might be surprised to learn that banning TV advertising, then billboard advertising, and then imposing multibillion-dollar legal judgments on the big tobacco companies, hasn't hurt them that much. Author Parker-Pope explains why.
The author is more or less non-judgmental about smoking. You won't be made to feel like a dog if you happen to smoke; she once smoked and understands what it's like to be "hooked." What you will find in "Cigarettes" is that it's compulsively readable, informative, fun, up-to-date, and global in its reach.

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How to Make Herbal Smoke Incense : A guide to making affordable JWH Herbal Smoke Incense Review

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(More customer reviews)it's fairly well known now that JWH and AM compounds are legal synthetic cannibinoids that target receptors in the human brain to create an effect very similar to marijuana when smoked. this is great for those who have to pass Pee tests, but still have to get stoned, and also great for those who are trying to be drug dealers but don't want to sell illegal drugs. pretty cool..

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Recipe and everything you need to make JWH Herbal Smoke Incense on a simple and easy to understand Book! Discover how to make your own effective, legal and safe JWH herbal smoke incense blend for personal, business or just for the fun of it. The only way to have a legal and safe, yet effective JWH herbal smoke blend is to actually make it yourself. The ingredients are relatively cheap and easy to find, especially with the internet and ebay as a resource today. This item will show you how you can make the best JWH herbal smoke blend for your personal or business needs the safe and legal way. Why pay crazy prices for JWH herbal smoke incense blends? When you can end up with the same or better product at a fraction of the retail price!

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Gone Fishin': Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story "Smoke" (Easy Rawlins Mysteries) Review

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(More customer reviews)Great detective story writers can rise to being solid novelists. Ross MacDonald was clearly in this category. With Gone Fishin', Walter Mosley has attained that distinction in a new way -- he has gone into a new fictional genre.
Although this novel has the usual crime overlay, it is really a novel about coming of age in the South as a black person before the days of integration. With few books available on this subject, I suspect that Mosley may have set the standard for other authors to meet.
For me, a lot of the charm of the Easy Rawlins stories is their historical setting in the more prejudiced days of the past. How does an intelligent, honorable black person deal with this? The stories are interesting for both what they say about society and for the great plots and character development.
This book, a prequel to the others in the series, does the same, but in a different setting -- far a way from Southern California.
I found it to be an excellent gothic novel, and encourage you to read it as such. If you open this book expecting another Easy Rawlins detective story, you may be disappointed. On the other hand, if you leave yourself open to what you find here, you will probably be rewarded. Moseley's fans need to live up to his talent, and follow him where his skills take him.
If you have not read the Walter Mosley books before, I suggest you start with this one. You'll make more sense out of the rest of the series. You'll also be less likely to be disturbed by the shift in genre. Anyone who enjoys this book will find the detective novels to be an easy follow on.

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Everybody Smokes in Hell Review

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(More customer reviews)Ridley's novel is savagely funny and delightfully gritty, a quick and nasty romp with a cast of characters not even a mother could love. A sexy but deadly femme fatale. Gansta drug lords. Weasle-like record producers. Just basically folks you're NOT going to have over for Thanksgiving dinner. EVERYBODY SMOKES IN HELL is a bloody, hilarious, raw smack in the face.
But one of the novel's flaws stems from the side-show qualities of its characters. Freakshows might generally intrigue us, but they don't usually offer us anyone to cheer for. A clearly sympathetic protagonist (even a gritty one with a dark side) would have stuck another star onto the rating -- really, I'd say I'd give this novel 3.9 stars instead of four, but that wasn't an option.
Still, Ridley is one of the small but growing group of writers who are raising noir violence to new and exciting levels.

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Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Branding and Design in Cigarette Packaging Review

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(More customer reviews)As a graphic designer, I keep a reference library for ideas. This book is one of my absolute favorites. I've used this book for color schemes, concepts, composition and more. Smoking subject matter aside, this book is a beautiful display of something that is an artform in it's own right.

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