ockey Card Price Guide 1995 he Confident Collector series, on Books)

Allan Kaye and Michael McKeever

What with the ongoing National Hockey League cout, one of the only places you can see NHL stars these s is in their trading cards-- and if that interests you, the 5 edition of the Hockey Card Price Guide may be what re looking for.

This 492-page bilingual (English/French) paperback nice little pocket guide to the business of hockey card ecting-- and like too many things connected to sports se days, card collecting is a business. Millions of cards sold every year, and some of these go on to become able ‘‘collector’s items.’’ This book provides a compre- ive list of cards produced by major companies from 1951 994, with a corresponding price listing for each card in

series. A basic description of each card series and its nificance is included, as are pictures of various individual is. It’s a visually boring and textually spartan mass of text omparison to flashier entries in the ““Confident Collec-

” series (notably the venerable Overstreet guides to ics) but it’s not meant to entertain-- it’s a reference book, a comprehensive one at that.

Helpful extras include a card-collecting glossary fining everything from action cards to the World Hockey ociation) and a guide to grading the condition of your

(a very complex value system ranging from mint ditiontopoor). Withfeatures like these, the Hockey Card e Guide seems a handy companion for both neophytes card sharks.

As a footnote, the book has two little bonuses to boost s. One is an exclusive interview with NHL star Mario hieux at the front of the book; the other (and somewhat le dubious) addition is an embossed, painted, cut-out ing card (Brett Hull on my copy-- I don’t know if that’s same throughout the print run). While the trading card bonus (and especially appropriate for the collectors ence this book is meant for), it seems kind of silly to stick the cover-- to get the card, you have to gouge a gaping in the cover of your book. It might have made more ¢ to include it as a bound-in trading card (as many other ctors’ books and comics do), but I suppose its presence he Cover is somewhat more eye-catching. Ah, well, it’s | hor quibble and the card is, from acollector’s standpoint, FT Neat-- a novel addition to a useful reference book.

diculous,

ght reading.

ce olleen

This romance novel is set in the Many- id Frontier in the 1750’s. married to a baby-bashing, woman-raping ndian-killing, mean, nasty white man, and gets kidnapped by his mortal enemy, the Shawnee war chief Fire Talon. After some burning houses, bear attacks, mountain lions, and lots of fighting, she falls in love with the courageous Indian and they live happily ever fter. Oh, I hope I didn’t ruin the ending. The cliches in this book were kept to a inimum, the love-making was not totally and I sometimes wanted to keep reading to see what happened. The writing kills were quite good for this type of romance ovel. I would read it again. I don’t think I would pay six dollars for it, but for a couple of loonies at a flea market you have some ni¢e,

A woman |is

an McQuaid

A Tidewater Morning b of Smoke (Random House) on) - illiam Styro

find and logical, the thoroughly sensible Hobbes is an effective counterpoi e rash, self-absorbed and frequently out-to-lunch Calvin. They’re a strangely cerebral pair by times-- you can often find the

imefighter ‘‘Stupendous Man.”’ In his imagination anything can happen, a atterson depicts Calvin’s limitless fantasy world with innovative visuals ore than a little humour.

al tricks up their sleeves. a repertoire ranging from —, to nostalgic slices ¢

and genuin® something for almost ¢ wily and visually imaginative cartoe niche Jungle Cat is a worthy addition tothe ng Calvin & Hobbes

library. -- Sean McQuaid

Avon)

Some Days You Get The Bear

y Lawrence Block There is one great short story in this

Erin Grady

Web of Smoke isa suspense story with erence. The plot is interesting and not Tead, but the ‘‘difference’’ is that it’s so y written that the suspenseisall but lost.

Web of Smoke focuses on the interac- between three characters and the peo- ound them. The dialogue, however, is ca phoney, with nary a sign of reality

ound. Another problem is the constant

hing of character focus. Grady simply Capable of being inside all her charac- 4. US: The story goes fairly quickly, p'l, and if you get past the bad writing, pually not bad. 4. Schneider

This book is not worth the paper it is printed on. I feel bad for the poor trees that had to give up their lives for the publication of this drivel. I wanted to review this book because I’ve heard wonderful things about the author’s other works, and decided to give him a try. Unfortunately, either people lied to me when they told me he could write, or else this just isn’t up to his usual standards.

The writing style is overly descriptive, and ridiculously wordy. He babbles on and on about useless things that have nothing to do with the story line. At one point he spends two pages talking about Karl Marx in the middle of a story about a false raid on Japan. It’s point- less. This book will now go into the pile I use to keep the air pump on my fish tank from

making noise.

compilation: ‘“The Burglar Who Dropped In OnElvis’’. The rest aren’t bad, just unremark- able. Most of the stories could be classified as murder mysteries. Some of them have good premises, like viewing a story through the eyes of the ‘‘bad guys’. Others are just plain cliches. Most of them tend to fall short because the characters just aren’t interesting. These stories are samples of some of Block’s earlier works; he has gone on to write several success- ful novels (according to his publisher). If you are a fan, you might enjoy a look at his begin- nings. Otherwise, this is a good novel to read on acar trip or other occasion where you want | did fx to kill some time.

al reading for Ecology ed as much from it as I

\-- Aldera Chisholm J

-- Cate Hanus