The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-01

of the American headquarters at Chau- mont of life at the front, all told as you would like best to bear it-not full of hor- TOTS, but full lof incident and anecdote. Above all, the book is straightforward, highly interesting narrative, illustrated from the authors own photographs. This is the sort of a book you would like to have your soldier write for you, and 1t gives the real story of Our First Ten Thousand"
 SELF AND SELF-MANAGEMENT }. By Arnold Bennett. George H. Doran company, publishers, New York City. If Arnold Bennett had never written novel he would still be one of the most widely and eagerly read of living writers. In one O. the most outstanding critical estimates of his power, Professor stew art F. Sherman does not fail to emphasize the electric value and remarkable vogue of his direct talks to ordinary people. Doubtless no other man has in so great a degree the gift of interpreting to them selves for the surer guidance of their Hves | The Plain Man and His Wife. The author of "How To Live on Twen- | ty-four Hours a Day. gives in Self and Self Management new interpretation or such subjects as war work, the diary habit, the social butterfly and other topics significant of the time.
 t
 1 THE MAN FROM THE CLOUDS"
 By J. storer Clouston. George H. Doran company, publishers, New York City. | My God said Rutherford, the cable l has brokenr
 .In an instant I was craning over the tside of the basket. Two thousand rect 1 below us the cruiser that had been our
 only link with the world of man was | swiftly diminishing"
 And so they drift and finally drop rom the clouds and fall into the center of a 1 wild naval conspiracyson the Island of Ramsay in the North Sea. From that mo-
 ment something exciting happens every instant. There is plot, a thrilling one, and romance and humor. The reader IS held spellbound by exciting incidents which are told with breathless celerity
 and with infinite skill.
 "The Man From the Clouds is de- tective and war story of the Orkney ls- lands during the early days of the war while German Mider activities were rife and the submarines were seeking out every least suspected cove near the BTU | ish Isles as a base, The hero first Tell square into the middle of spy activities when he dropped in parachute from a 1 balloon which had lost it's bearings. On 1 the quiet and lonely little Island of Ran sey he found plenty to occupy his atten- tion as a loyal Britisher, and he proceed ed to play the part of spy himself in order to gain the confidence of any or I the natives who might not be loyal. In 1 doing so he gained only the hatred of very attractive girl who was so taken m by his spy role that she tried various l means of privately disposing or nm before she found out his true intent ana
 turned his ally In the end the rotten spot was found in the person of a dissimuiator so subtle that he concealed his tdentity | by his very simplicity.
 1 tale written with the avowed purpose of holding the reader, it is mystery yarn worked out with a regard to details. The war element is one of interest. not or | horror One of the most unusual features is the degree of atmosphere which per meates the book-the consciousness which the reader experiences of moving through the soft msts and long salt meadow grasses of the Orkney Islands. A certain amount of dry Scottish wit glints out among the pages. and the romance is kept Iaway from the saccharine by the presence of wholesome and entertaining dislike
 between the two lovers during much of
 the story.
 THE GERMAN CONSPIRACY IN
 AMERICAN EDUCATION.5' By Gustave Ohlinger George H. Doran Company. publishers. New York City.
 The full story of the "text hook poison
 in our elementary. htgh achool and coueg-