Bowman...seems to manipulate the language with a branding iron in one hand and a bullwhip in the other. Bowman's native soil is Texas, and though she casts a cold eye on its codes of Bubba Machismo and Cheerleader Femininity, she knows that denying one's roots is equivalent to using a butcher's cleaver to perform an act of self-amputation.---Diann Blakely<BR><BR>The sensual swoop and swoon of tasty language, this rich spell of texture and energy--- 1-800-HOT-RIBS deserves a flamboyant napkin of YESES and a big grateful bite! I haven't read anything more original in a long sweet time.---Naomi Shihab Nye