Writers Books

I love this book because policeman keep people safe. The fireman save people when there in any kind of accident or fire. I will suggest this book to my friends in the community.

Aset Baker Falealili

I like the book, because it shows the real life heros, that are usually unappreciated. It also shows the potential future of our children if they strive to achieve.




From: Michael Thompson

I ike this book because it's colorful.

Prince Alex

I think this book is amazing! I would tell my friend to read this book because the people in it have brown skin like me and they work in the community.
Jordan 5 years old
Culture and Language Academy of Success Inglewood, CA

I would tell my friend to read this book because it has people that look like me in it.
Monty 5 years old
Culture and Language Academy of Success Inglewood, CA

Already being a fan of Ito's work through titles such as Gyo & Uzumaki, I'd heard about the infamous Tomie manga he'd created. I have to admit that my expectations were high since not only was Ito's other works so great, but this was a character who spawned countless movie adaptations of the work. I was not dissapointed.

Much like the men that Tomie & her progeny lure in, the reader is drawn into the rich storytelling & artwork in this volume. Comprising solely of the first half of the Tomie manga, this volume does a very good job of displaying not only the character of Tomie, but also drawing all of the stories together. What I found interesting was that even as I saw Tomie as a villain, at times you couldn't help but feel sorry for a girl who was so beautiful that her lovers would eventually end up killing her. Even when she reforms herself, she is eventually doomed to die at the hands of one who loves her. It's an interesting scenario, basing a story such as this around an ultimately spoiled young lady who keeps dying & being reborn from any pieces of her that remain. Can the reader truly despise her? After all, even the ones of us that have the nicest personalities would eventually begin to sour to the idea of all humanity.

Would I recommend this to a friend? Most definately. Not only if Junji Ito one of the greatest manga authors around, but this is by far the best work he's ever put out.

I love the Tomie movies and i'm a huge fan of her! So, when I found this I was alittle skeptacle. I'm not a fan of manga, I haven't tried it before. I thought it was stupid reading a book full of comics, but haha that's defiantly different now. I loved reading this book! Tomie was great, and there are about 9 different stories. I loved them all, and I'm looking forward to buying the other Tomie Books also.

Tomie is the object of everyone's desires. Obsession would find her attractive, and desire would covet her hand. The problem with Tomie is that she's not only beautiful but she's also cruel, becoming the proverbial barb that claws at the skin of every one of this flower's bearers. Not able to part with - or even share - her, the men (and sometimes women) in Tomie's life are drawn not only into love but also into a cycle that hopes to possess her - even to the point of killing her and not really understanding why. Sometimes this leads to some really gruesome points, with some people not only dismembering her but also grinding her to pulp or becoming stagehands in even more novel acts of morbidity. The thing about that is that Tomie doesn't really take to being dead long - killing her only gives rise to more Tomies and they are never happy with each other or the offending party involved.

If you've never seen the work that Ito does, he is masterful with horror scripts and illustrates with a macabre sense of delight as shadow and depth crawl through a world of both light and dark and make something - beautiful. Few really seem to do black and white well but Ito excels at it, putting together a portrait of strange happenstance that are sometimes amazingly bleak and sometimes just amazing. I've been a fan of his work for a while now, really enjoying the three Uzumaki books he did, and I thought that I'd actually seen everything he had to offer when The Museum of Horror bombshells went off by me.
I was stunned, to say the least.

For anyone that read the older English collections of Tomie (myself included), you only found yourself reading partial variations of a much larger story. Ito himself attempts to explain this in the back of the 1st new book, saying that the old books had been put together by grouping what the Tomie stories were about more than when they came out. This led to many a confabulated look and many an incomplete piece of work, with stories not meeting in sequential order and whole panels missing. The variety of mistakes was huge, too, and might have been somewhat funny if not for the fact that, along with the missing pieces, there were also missing stories.
When I say missing stories I mean a missing volume; when you take the 1st collection of books and hold it to the new editions you can tell that both of the original Tomie books could fit into the first book. So, the Museum of Horror books are good buys.

The 1st book is basically a sequential volume that tells tale after tale of Tomie, beginning with a really twisted story and ending with some rather twisted means. The tales included in this volume are: Tomie, Tomie Vol. 2, Basement, Photo, Kiss, Mansion, Revenge, Waterfall Basin, and Painter.
While many of these connect outright, some connect in more subtle fashions and follow characters that are, for a lack of better wording, caught in the web that is Tomie. Of these stories I found myself really liking the beginning and perhaps Kiss the most, but really just enjoying the read all the way through. I also liked the fact that this was linear as a concept this time around, giving the reader what Ito was thinking as he was thinking it. That explained a lot - and disturbed a little more.

For people who enjoy stories with twisted spines, horror that could pass both as Pulp and as terror, and works that are different in a way and beautiful in black and white then this is something for you. The first two books, all Tomie, paint a picture of something that would be, in a word, quite terrible.
With the new work almost making these new stories, they are really worth the buy.

One has to wonder after reading anything created by the brilliant mind of Junji Ito just how stable that mind really is. Having been turned on to his work first through his Uzumaki series (which by the way is a fully engrossing and rewarding read) I was only too happy to by chance stumble into this, the first book in Dark Horse's Museum of Terror series.

Within these pages lurks the story of Tomie, a high school aged girl whose striking beauty is only matched by her vanity and lust for attention. The horror begins after Tomie is brutally murdered and dismembered when, only a few short days later, she suddenly reappears at school acting as though nothing had happened. What starts as a macabre mystery gradually descends into something much more gruesome as the chapters progress, and the secrets of Tomie's strange character are revealed. Many of the chapters have very little to do with each other save for Tomie's relentless reoccurrence, and you can almost guarrentee that, 4 times out of 5, you'll see her die (usually a more hideous death than the one before), regenerate, and come back again to torture all those whom she comes across.

Apart from the complexity of the stories as well as that of Tomie's sinister character herself, it is also a treat to see how Ito's illustrations evolve as he develops his own signature style. This development seems almost charted by Tomie's own physical transformation throughout the book. She evolves as Ito's illustrations do so that, by the final chapter, we are able to see Tomie in the way that Ito wants us to see her; as a hauntingly beautiful young woman.

Over all, it became clear to me after reading Museum of Terror that it is not just Ito's objective to write good horror; Ito it seems has striven to break our stereotypical assertions as to what the horror genre is. In fact, he's done something nearly unheard of. He's taken the blood-and-gore factor and made it genuinely scary again.

This collection includes most of the original Tomie stories, and gives a really amazing peek at Junji Ito's earlier art style. The lines are clear, and the characters are depicted in a deceptively simple and beautiful manner. But the story itself is a twisted virus-meets-vengeful ghost tale about a girl (Tomie) that never dies. More than that, she provokes the intense desire and fixation of the men she meets, which invariably ends in them murdering and mutilating her.

It's an amazing manga full of SICK STUFF and the plot and scares are very visceral; The story also hints at and vaguely throws around some gender politics (and gender violence!) in the subtext. With Tomie, Junji Ito doesn't just spin one linear tale, but a sortof MYTHOS around Tomie that unfurls with each chapter. Like, hmmmm-- is she like a parasite that encourages being killed and mutilated as a form of her own propagation? Is she more like a virus that infects and changes to suit the weaknesses of her 'hosts'?

Admittedly, it can get repetitive, but especially with the first volume, it's really effective in a big dose. The last panel of the final story in this volume is SO. SO. CREEPY. I yelped like a scared kitten and just threw the damn thing on the floor.

If you feel like you've seen Tomie around before, it's probably because the now-defunct publisher ComicsOne originally released some of Tomie in a two volume set. Yeah, previous to the Museum of Terror edition, the Tomie comics were VERY out of print, and cost a ridiculous amount to track down secondhand. Like a lot of ComicsOne editions, their printing of Tomie was shoddily translated, edited and the visual touch-up (signs in English, sound effects) were really awful. The company basically (as the rumor goes) packed up shop, stopped paying their bills and disappeared. The pieces and rights were later acquired by DR.Master and some of their more successful stuff got assimilated into the new company's catalogue.

As for the second volume: The SECOND volume is also entirely Tomie stories, but it's mostly previously unpublished stories from when Junji Ito revisited the character in 1999 & 2000. You can feel him really escalating the limits of the Tomie 'mythos' here, with the depravity hitting really nasty levels... Making SAKE out of Tomie's mashed up flesh? Slashing her face over and over with a RAZOR? It gets ugly, but I found it really fascinating to see him draw these stories in his later style-- the more detailed, shakier line style he explored in Uzumaki and his newer comics. I am ready for a new subject after hundreds of pages (and more than a dozen variations) on the Tomie tale, but it's pretty sweet to have the entire story in 2 hefty volumes.

As a final note note, the ordering of the stories in these two volumes reflect Junji Ito's own choice of how he wanted the chapters to be presented, as another reviewer has noted.

A neighbor (in Long Beach, California) loaned her copy to us--my husband was born in Long Beach--and we went out and bought copies as Christmas presents for the native Californians in our extended family. It's a book of nostalgia and confirmation for them--"I remember that! Yes, it was just like that!"--and one of sociological interest for anyone who likes people and wants to be invited into the lives and homes of a broad spectrum of the ingredients in our state melting pot.

I'm not sure I'd call all the authors "great writers" but most of them were comfortable with words.

Jessica Shaver Renshaw,
Author, Compelling Interests,
Gianna: Aborted and Lived to Tell About It

This is an amazing collection of essays and the point of the book is not just to provide eloquent perspectives on the state. Every cent that the publisher receives in revenue goes directly to the California Arts Council,whose budgets were cut by 97%. When you buy a "used" book none of that money goes to CAC. Please think twice about saving the 40ish cents.
This book is a good read and you will feel very good about your deed!

I really liked this book! There are many essays written in it, each one about a different area of California. It's really upbeat and interesting, and the authors are top authors who write beautifully. It's fascinating to read about times and places in California that I didn't know about. All the stories are modern stories, in that they are about growing up in California within the last forty years or so.
This book flows very quickly, and before you know it, you've finished it and wish there were more!

This is the book selected by the City of Long Beach,CA for their 'One book read by all' 2006,or something like that.It's a GREAT choice!.

I loved this book too, as I see others have, and this prompted me to write a review. I have tried to give it as a gift whenever possible and will continue to do so, as I think it is a great idea to benefit CAC. I wish local bookstores would display it more prominently. I grew up in California but this book allowed me a personal look at histories from different corners of the state. Fascinating, well written and truly enjoyable.

Harlan Coben's short story "Entrapped" is about a woman whose husband goes missing. When she arrives home from the police station, she finds an imposter husband waiting for her and the charade begins.

All of the stories are filled with common elements that make for a great mystery; secrets, deceit, love, lust, drama and of course the most important ingredient, murder. Readers will find at least one of their favorite writer's works and be able to sample several new writers as well.

R. L. Stine tells a tale of a murdering best friend who's left with his victim's "talking" dog. The dog witnessed the whole murder. That, combined with paranoia and guilt, makes for a well written and very imaginative story.

A few of the writers that readers will look forward to include Lee Childs, Ridley Pearson, R.L Stine, Laura Lippman and P.J Parrish.

To sum the book up in one word that would be it, Fantastic!! This is such a wonderful collections of stories. Each story different from the other but all keeping the same themes. My favorites were Safe Enough, Home Front, Till Death Do Us Part and Entrapped. However all were fantastic. I recommend that you get this book, you will not be disappointed.

Anthologies of short stories by different authors are usually a collection of a few gems, a few all right stories and a few fillers. Death Do Us Part is a collection where all but two are great reads, they are not all masterpieces granted, but there are more than the usual number of those as well. I was interested in this book just to read Coben's story Entrapped as I had not read it before when it was first published in 1997, and its pretty hard to come across Mary Higgins Clark's Mystery Magazine let alone that edition to read it anyway. Coben is not the only great author here, so many others have written great tales and the other authors are all freshly published as well. Like all great short story collections, Death Do Us Part gives the reader a chance to sample authors they've heard of but never read before as well as introduces to them lesser known authors to add to their lists of future reads to track down. There's also a brief and very helpful summary of each author at the end of the collection, so those looking know where to begin.

In reviewing what the stories within are about I'll start first with my favourite ones (undoubtedly your list would start differently). My list starts with the editor and Coben's story Entrapped. A wife reports her husband missing to police only to discover he is at home. Only the person at home does not look or sound like her husband but he is the same guy the police show her that is in the photograph she gave them. Is she going insane? Could he really be her husband after all?

Wifey a story by normally child and young adult author R. L. Stine proves to the world that he can write sensational stories for any market. Wifey is the nickname Jake a neighbour of Frank the owner has given Frank's dog Ruby since they behave like a married couple and are never apart. Jake hates dogs, but is ecstatic that his neighbour entrusted him to inherit the beast as it showed to the world what Frank thought of their friendship. Ruby though makes Lassie look like Forrest Gump and will stop at nothing to avenge her master's murder.

Till Death Do Us Part, Tim Maleeny. The title story of this collection is the great tale about the sixtieth anniversary of a feud between an old couple who do not believe in divorce. They are both extremely intelligent and every year play the "fair play", dinner game of trying to poison the other through each others dishes.

Lee Child's Safe Enough has a guy from the city taking up work on houses in the country where notices a beautiful women. He stalks her and discovers she has a violent husband When the husband disappears he is the only one who can prove the wife was not around the murder scene when it happened but obviously he can't supply this news to the police to prove her innocence as they will want to know why he was stalking her.

The Home Front by Charles Ardai is set in America while World War II rages on in Europe. Too old to go to war Ray Harper is a government agent who catches petrol retailers selling rationed fuel on the black market. One such arrest is Rick Kelly who is killed in Harper's car as Harper was giving Kelly a lecture about how his actions are helping Hitler and why isn't he over there anyway etc instead of watching the road. Sacked by the government and with injuries Harper is down on his luck and one the streets. Luckily he comes across a kind woman who offers him food and board if he helps her run her garage.

The Last Flight by Bredan DuBois has a man booking a joy flight in the type of plane he flew in the war over the ocean to scatter his wife's ashes and obtain closure.

A Few Small Repairs by Jeff Abbott has a hospital ridden father who is dying a slow painful death asking a son he had disowned to help him end his life.

Blarney by Steve Hockensmith is the tale of a few drinks at the pub by a group of writers after a conference where they run into one of the only non boring speakers. This old Irishman offers to teach them what it is to be a writer if they buy him a pint.

The Masseuse by Tim Wohlforth is the story of a man whose dream comes true when his masseuse offers to cook and pleasure him in exchange for food and board and a bit of spending money while she studies for a new career.

Homecoming by the mother and son team pseudonym Charles Todd, has a wife of a guy fighting in Europe during World War I discovering an intruder in her house, however even though she knows he's there can never seem to find him so wonders if stress is making her go insane.

Part Light, Part Memory is an African slave girl's story of her thirst for vengeance when her father was hung for looking at the American master's wife.

Queeny by Ridley Pearson is the tale of a guy whose wife attracts the attention of a man while running in the park which she tells him about. The wife soon disappears.

One True Love by Laura Lippman is the story of a high class prostitute who is recognised and blackmailed by a parent her son runs into while playing sport.

The Cold, Hard Truth by Rick McMahon is the tale of a rural police office recounting the story of how he first met death row prisoner Jesse Brashear and the cold hard truth that good people can do bad things.

Cyberdatedotcom (note Amazon ridiculously keeps replacing the actual title with [...] so that's as close as I can put) by Tom Savage is the chat room transcript from a dating website where two under aged kids take a liking to each other.

Pushed or Was Fell by Jay Brandon has Walt a loner, meeting a girl, quickly marrying and setting out on cruise ship honeymoon then realising he doesn't love with devastating consequences.

One Shot by P.J. Parrish has Stuart returning to visit his old home which is now for sale and reliving the traumatic changing event of his life.

Heat Lightning, William Krueger although readable is one of the lesser quality contributions to this collection. A story of a guy who is having an affair while his wife lies in a coma in the bedroom upstairs.

Chellini's Solution was the only story I don't really think is worth reading, it's about an Italian guy whose enemies gloat as they tell him his wife is cheating on him and of course the actions he takes afterwards.

This is a great collection of short stories and one you'll want to keep forever. Not as good as this but still a good recent collection of similar stories to these I've read is Dangerous Women, edited by Otto Penzler.

This anthology of 19 truly great mystery stories is presented by the Mystery Writers of America (a fine association of not only authors, but readers too!) is edited by Harlan Coben. It is as perfect as an anthology can be.

Each of the nineteen stories is from an established writer. Most have won or been repeatedly nominated for various awards. No warmed-over, previously published material here: all nineteen stories are original. Nor are there excerpts of the writer's novels: this stuff is fresh and new. Coben wisely doesn't present the author bios until after all the stories and much to credit of editor and authors alike, the bios aren't pure puffery and hyperbole.

I can't tell you what my favorite was, because all nineteen stories are terrific. Jeff Abbott, author of "Panic" and "Fear", two fine thrillers, sets up a tense father-son-wife story. R. L. Stine provides something of a "shaggy dog" story that involves love in a strange way. Harlen Coben presents a story of a very crafty wife. Tim Wohlforth contributes a gem about a man's ideal relationship that leads to an unfortunate bit of snooping. All nineteen stories are simply great reads.

Oh - and if you didn't guess already, all nineteen stories are true to the cover blurb: they involve love, lust and murder.

Good stuff. Not to be missed.

Jerry

Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (09/06)

"Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust and Murder" is a must read for anyone who loves stories about mystery, misery and murder. Harlan Coben, the editor, brought together some of today's best mystery writers to create this book of 19 short stories, including one of his own "Entrapped". As Coben tells us in the introduction, most of these stories are going to end badly for at least one person, maybe more. The commonalities of the stories end there.

"Queeny", written by Ridley Pearson, is a story about a famous mystery writer whose wife is brutally murdered and he is mistakenly forced to stand trial for it. After what has happened, no matter what the outcome, and I won't tell you what it is, no one can win. Then there is the City electrician in "Safe Enough" by Lee Child, who moves to the country to be with a woman who is suspected of killing her husband, but did she really?
A few war stories come into play, the most poignant one being "Home Coming" by Charles Todd, a story about an English woman who becomes frightened of her home because it feels like someone has invaded it while her husband is away fighting in the war. AND, the most chilling story of all is Cyberdate.com by Tom Savage, which is about two teenage kids (are they really who they say they are?) who meet on the internet and the boy finally convinces the girl to meet in person. How many of us live with that worry about our children doing exactly the same thing? Revenge is even thrown into the mix with stories like "The Last Flight" by Brendan DuBois.

My two personal favorite stories were "Till Death Do Us Part" by Tim Maleeny and "Wifey" by R.L. Shine. "Till Death Do Us Part" is a about a chemist and botanist celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary by each preparing a meal for the other. What is on the menu turns out to be the surprise. "Wifey" is a dog who witnesses the brutal murder of her master and is forced to live with the murderer afterwards. Wifey does not take this lying down.

Other contributors to this collection of great stories are Charles Ardai, Bonnie Hearn Hill, Steve Hockensmith, William Kent Krueger, Rick McMahan, P.J. Parrish, Tim Wohlforth, Jeff Abbott, Jim Fusilli, Laura Lippman and Jay Brandon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and recommend it highly. The short stories make it great for reading before bed, taking to the beach, or if you have small children and frequent small slots of time to read.

Collins seamlessly blends believable characters, race relations and riveting American history into a page turner. I highly recommend it.

The author presents his tale during a forgotten struggle in American History. A gathering of WWI vets pushing their government for promised benefits. The characters in some instances famous Americans and others faceless and poor.
His female lead is a fascinating young Irish woman-beautiful, daring and intelligent. Collins' Nora brings us a unique view of Ireland and D.C. as she gropes her way through her first loves and a rebellious group of WW I veterans. She is unencumbered by America's racial morass and is attracted to a brilliant young African American man who was raised as white during his formative years. He is thrown out of his posh upbringing into the streets of D.C. He lives on his wits and dabbles in Marxism while supporting the veterans. I felt a link with Mark Twain's Huck Finn as this young man survives on his own in and around the capitol's many landmarks. The canoe trips down the Potomoc with the author's detailed understanding of the river topped off this wonderful book. It is captivating book that I couldn't put down. I hope Mr. Collins will give us more of Nora and her companions.

Many will enjoy Denis Collins's fine novel for the historical perspective: The cause and plight of the Bonus Army and the cameo portrayals of MacArthur, Eisenhower, et. al. Others, especially those familiar with Washington, D.C. and its history, will enjoy a return to the Capital, circa 1930s. I loved Mr. Collins's novel for the characters he creates and the tales he tells as he takes so many seemingly disparate events and weaves them into a plot.

Nora is a delight, and she beguiles the reader in much the same way she beguiles Walker and Sevareid. This mysterious Irish beauty, youth and innocense, tough and worldly, strides boldly through the story seeking the return of that which has been stolen from her. In her path, Walker, Sevareid, and the reader first try to figure her out, then fall for her without fully understanding why.

Mr. Collins is, first and foremost, a storyteller. He seems to lean on the stories of his past, true, anecdotal, mythical, and the result is a series of vignettes that stand alone as mini plots. Taken together, the reader is left with a grand story, the history, myth and love all cleverly mixed in a julep of The Depression, the Bonus Army, Washington and Nora and her loves.

I loved this book, couldn't wait to pick it up again every evening. The story is well told and the characters rich and alive. I was crazy about the brassy heroine, Nora, the intriguing Walker and the young Eric Sevareid (and their love triangle which dangles all kinds of interesting possibilities before the reader). Most of all, as an almost native of DC, I got to know a city I love in an entirely new light. The author makes DC in the 1930's come alive, from the characters living there at the time to the urban landscape and the banks of the Potomac River. Found it fascinating.

Washington, D.C., inspires a lot of excruciating writing, fictional and non-, of the "Let me tell you about this town..." sort, especially by scribblers whose chief goal in life has been to scrabble their way to and stay in the capital, however many broken fingernails and kneeholes it may cost.

In Nora's Army, however, D.C. native Denis Collins delivers a walloping novel that pierces to the core of the true city -- not the confabulation of conspiracy and ambition supposedly limned in myriad mounds of tripe masquerading as Washington novels, but a meaty story and engaging characters and an inventive plot and direct yet lyrical language redolent of the real Washington, the one that exists outside the media-manipulated template through which too many people have come to view the nation's capital.

By conjuring fictional yet genuine people and swirling them in his skull with historical figures and incontrovertible facts, Collins has built a book that stands with "Ragtime" and "Little Big Man" -- works of invention that deepen and improve on the reality they portray by illuminating it with imagination.

Into the warp of the story he unfurls Collins weaves bits of Washingtoniana -- Child's Restaurant, Hopfenmaier's rendering plant, Murder Bay, Swampoodle, alley dwellings, Griffith Stadium -- long lost to all but the most dedicated of local memories in a town overrun by people who think everybody else is, like them, from somewhere else.

But they're wrong. Denis Collins knows this so well, and he's written a book that honors his hometown as few have or could.

The reason I urge readers to buy two copies is because they're going want to keep a copy and have one to give to someone they know who appreciates great American writing.

-- Michael Dolan, author of "The American Porch: An Informal History of an Informal Place"

If you are looking for a fun, quirky and thoroughly entertaining summer read--this one is for you! A lot of humor, a little mystery and an astonishing cast of characters. All of us "working girls" can relate to the bigger than life antics that surround the Big Top in "One Clown Short". Enjoy!

Anyone who has ever labored with co-workers, served under supervisors, and been the recipient of inexplicable memos from upper management will appreciate Linda C. Wright's superbly written novel "One Clown Short". Mandy Maloney needed a job and wanted a change from her former occupation of flipping burgers at a fast food joint. Looking through newspaper want ads she lands just such employment as a sales trainee at a circus supply company. This is a dream job complete with great pay and benefits. Unfortunately it also come equipped with a sexist boss and a cast of characters as co-workers. Her on-the-job training plunges Mandy into a very strange world that is more than just a little sinister! Drawing upon her more than thirty years of experience working in corporate America, talented author Linda Wright has crafted a truly entertaining novel as her first venture into fiction. "One Clown Short" is an energetic, entertaining, thoroughly engaging read from beginning to end, and will prove to be a welcome addition to any personal reading list or community library contemporary fiction collection.

This is a fun and quick read, and when you need to fill that empty space between flights, this book fits the bill. While the book is pure fiction, if you've spent any amount of time in the bedrock of corporate America, you are sure to recognize a few characters or scenes that ring true for you. If a 3-ring circus is something spectacular, tumultuous, entertaining, or full of confused action, you'll enjoy this book.

If you have ever worked in corporate America and thought "I'm working in a circus!" you'll get a kick out of this book. Mandy finds herself at Big Top Supplies that takes the circus theme to its ultimate, complete with employee clown uniforms for special occasions and piped in caliope music. You'll relate to the managers who speak only in Pig Latin and the staff meetings where no one is allowed to speak at all. After Mandy uncovers corporate corruption, it becomes clear that beyond the humor and the satire "One Clown Short" is a look at the reality of big business at more than just the circus.

If you have ever worked for a big corporation and wonder how they stay in business with the dim-witted decisions the upper management makes this book will provide you with a funny insight into the "clowns" that run businesses. You will find yourself saying, "Hey, we have that clown working for us, too!" This book is a quick read and is perfect for those who need a bit of laughter in their day. My only question is, why are circus peanuts orange?

I used this book when I wrote stories, before I tried novels. At the time I found it an excellent way to break down the often intimidating models of literary short stories into a manageable, accessible structure I could adapt to my own material. This semester I'm teaching creative writing, and my students are tired of hearing about all the things writers shouldn't do. They want "rules," and this approach gives them good ones, broken into doable sections that give them more confidence every week--and gives me student stories I can look forward to reading. The advice to use 3rd-person for the first story is great. I'd love to see a re-issue of this.

I agree with other posts -- why is this book out of print?

Heck, if it were up to me, it would be posted online, distributed to schools all across the world, and Ben Nyberg's statue put up somewhere spectacular.

The problem that baffles so many of us in writing fiction is, "Where does experience leave off and imagination take over?"

Nyberg's "PRIMER" method makes it so easy to gently disentangle real experience from imagination until -- lo and behold -- not only a story but a pretty good one if I say so myself!

The PRIMER is like a good set of training wheels. With continued practice, those little wheels keep getting pushed up until one discovers oneself riding on two wheels. With even more practice, it becomes easier to "pop wheelies" by launching stories from Plot, Character or scene setting origins.

Too bad there are no Nyberg websites and no means of learning what our esteemed author is "up to now," presupposing he is still alive, etc. I hope he is well.

Now then -- how about putting this book back into print!!

One great Way to Write Short Stories (a step by step approach) by Ben Nyberg

(What follows is my abbreviated summary of his technique. Mostly what follows are direct quotes from the book - sorry I forget the quote marks.)

Where Exactly is Square One?

Imagine an individual life represented by a line graph passing through a series of daily segments. A typical day for most of us would get expressed by a flat line, because on most days nothing much happens, nothing terribly crucial. But, fiction concerns itself with those days when something does happen, when the line graph isn't flat because a "turning point" experience occurs to change things. This "deflection" can be expressed graphically by a crooked line.

Our imaginary hero starts out his day at point A, possibly thinking to end it at point B (an ordinary day). But something happens at point C to change all that. So he end his day at point D rather than point B. Whatever it was at point C, it had quite an impact and made a strong deflection in our hero's life line...

If we say that the primary principle of a short story is deflection, we can work out some of the main features of its procedure as well. First of all, readers ought to witness the actual turning-point crisis in full. Only if they share that experience with the main character, blow by blow, will they be able to appreciate how he or she feels about it. But they must know more than just the facts of the crisis itself. To understand events, we have to understand the context they occur in. This means, in a story, showing what led up to the crisis and what happened afterward as a result. The cause and the effect. The before and the after. In terms of our line graph it means taking at least three readings - at A, at C, and at D.

Step 1. Recollection.

Choose an experience which meets the following criteria:

1. Turning Point or Deflection

2. Choice of Options

3. No Operatic Melodrama

4. Single Short Scene

5. Specific Issue

6. Shared Experience

Write "Narrative A" - summarise in 300-400 words details of the experience in the first person (e.g. "I did ...") an overall account of what occurred and how you felt about it.

Step 2. Speculation.

Check personal-characteristic checklist (in the book) for 'Person B' (the person with whom you shared the experience). Write "Narrative B" for person B's point of view (while reading Narrative A). Sceptically challenge each statement in Narrative A then tell it from B's standpoint.

Step 3. Transposition.

Rewrite "Narrative B" into "Narrative B2". Change first person into author's point of view. Make pronoun substitutions and minor rewordings to make sense clear. Small changes in wording to make a big change in the way readers "hear" the account. In Narrative B2 an anonymous narrator is in charge, making cooler, more objective presentation that puts space between us and the action.

Step 4. Magnification.

Pick out the few details that will best show readers what it was like - or more precisely, what you want them to feel it was like.

Define your attitude toward the character's views. Do NOT direct sell.

topics include:

* Choosing and Managing Interior Data

* Choosing and Managing Exterior Data

Step 5: Extrapolation.

What you are about to do is take a leap into total fabrication, and write Narrative D. Out of all the developments that could conceivably follow from the crisis of Narrative C, you will try to pick the one that, more than any other, ought to occur.

Basically, B's actions following the Core Incident must stay consistent with his previous with his previous behaviour, yet in some new way also remarkable, reflecting a slight but significant change in his outlook. there is a A List of "Thou Shalt Not"s

Step 6: Demonstration.

A short story, remember, is a piece of persuasive writing. Just as a essay, the conclusion of a fiction must answer the questions it raises, bring its argument to a convincing close.

This means choosing details that will help clarify relevant qualities of the exterior environment and point up significant movement in your character's attitude to his/her crisis situation. As with "magnification" of step 4, you will be fleshing out a summary skeleton with bits of specific data, increasing the dots per square inch in your picture. But besides densifying, you will also have to make sure your "proof" is fully supported. This will introduce a brand-new factor into your choice of exterior detail: symbolism.

What makes it a challenge is that Fictional Protocol forbids your spelling any of these developments out explicitly. The "message" of a story must come through loud and clear, but never directly, so that ways and means must be found to show all these changes in B's character while never stating them outright (including in dialogue).

Step 7: Exposition.

Narrative E : the opening. The secret of writing a good beginning is to treat it with the very greatest respect. Always remember, it's not something that happens before the story starts; it is the start of the story, when readers are forming their impressions and making up their minds about reading on.

The main business of the exposition is to show B's outlook before the Core, so that readers can compare it with B's outlook after the Core (Narrative D). This means Narrative E must depict that same set of personal characteristics you focused on in Narratives C and D. Just as D gives the extent of the bend in B's attitude, E draws the straight and narrow path B would have travelled along had the crisis not occurred. Thus Narrative E completes the structural triangle which gives your story much of its stability.

Step 8: Integration

Ignore your story as completely as you can for as long as you can: two days, two weeks, two months if you can.

Story = Narrative E + Narrative C + Narrative D

It's a shame this book's out of print. Get it if you can.

--- End of Review

One great Way to Write Short Stories (a step by step approach) by Ben Nyberg

(What follows is my abbreviated summary of his technique. Mostly what follows are direct quotes from the book - sorry I forget the quote marks.)

Where Exactly is Square One?

Imagine an individual life represented by a line graph passing through a series of daily segments. A typical day for most of us would get expressed by a flat line, because on most days nothing much happens, nothing terribly crucial. But, fiction concerns itself with those days when something does happen, when the line graph isn't flat because a "turning point" experience occurs to change things. This "deflection" can be expressed graphically by a crooked line.

Our imaginary hero starts out his day at point A, possibly thinking to end it at point B (an ordinary day). But something happens at point C to change all that. So he end his day at point D rather than point B. Whatever it was at point C, it had quite an impact and made a strong deflection in our hero's life line...

If we say that the primary principle of a short story is deflection, we can work out some of the main features of its procedure as well. First of all, readers ought to witness the actual turning-point crisis in full. Only if they share that experience with the main character, blow by blow, will they be able to appreciate how he or she feels about it. But they must know more than just the facts of the crisis itself. To understand events, we have to understand the context they occur in. This means, in a story, showing what led up to the crisis and what happened afterward as a result. The cause and the effect. The before and the after. In terms of our line graph it means taking at least three readings - at A, at C, and at D.

Step 1. Recollection.

Choose an experience which meets the following criteria:

1. Turning Point or Deflection

2. Choice of Options

3. No Operatic Melodrama

4. Single Short Scene

5. Specific Issue

6. Shared Experience

Write "Narrative A" - summarise in 300-400 words details of the experience in the first person (e.g. "I did ...") an overall account of what occurred and how you felt about it.

Step 2. Speculation.

Check personal-characteristic checklist (in the book) for 'Person B' (the person with whom you shared the experience). Write "Narrative B" for person B's point of view (while reading Narrative A). Sceptically challenge each statement in Narrative A then tell it from B's standpoint.

Step 3. Transposition.

Rewrite "Narrative B" into "Narrative B2". Change first person into author's point of view. Make pronoun substitutions and minor rewordings to make sense clear. Small changes in wording to make a big change in the way readers "hear" the account. In Narrative B2 an anonymous narrator is in charge, making cooler, more objective presentation that puts space between us and the action.

Step 4. Magnification.

Pick out the few details that will best show readers what it was like - or more precisely, what you want them to feel it was like.

Define your attitude toward the character's views. Do NOT direct sell.

topics include:

* Choosing and Managing Interior Data

* Choosing and Managing Exterior Data

Step 5: Extrapolation.

What you are about to do is take a leap into total fabrication, and write Narrative D. Out of all the developments that could conceivably follow from the crisis of Narrative C, you will try to pick the one that, more than any other, ought to occur.

Basically, B's actions following the Core Incident must stay consistent with his previous with his previous behaviour, yet in some new way also remarkable, reflecting a slight but significant change in his outlook. there is a A List of "Thou Shalt Not"s

Step 6: Demonstration.

A short story, remember, is a piece of persuasive writing. Just as a essay, the conclusion of a fiction must answer the questions it raises, bring its argument to a convincing close.

This means choosing details that will help clarify relevant qualities of the exterior environment and point up significant movement in your character's attitude to his/her crisis situation. As with "magnification" of step 4, you will be fleshing out a summary skeleton with bits of specific data, increasing the dots per square inch in your picture. But besides densifying, you will also have to make sure your "proof" is fully supported. This will introduce a brand-new factor into your choice of exterior detail: symbolism.

What makes it a challenge is that Fictional Protocol forbids your spelling any of these developments out explicitly. The "message" of a story must come through loud and clear, but never directly, so that ways and means must be found to show all these changes in B's character while never stating them outright (including in dialogue).

Step 7: Exposition.

Narrative E : the opening. The secret of writing a good beginning is to treat it with the very greatest respect. Always remember, it's not something that happens before the story starts; it is the start of the story, when readers are forming their impressions and making up their minds about reading on.

The main business of the exposition is to show B's outlook before the Core, so that readers can compare it with B's outlook after the Core (Narrative D). This means Narrative E must depict that same set of personal characteristics you focused on in Narratives C and D. Just as D gives the extent of the bend in B's attitude, E draws the straight and narrow path B would have travelled along had the crisis not occurred. Thus Narrative E completes the structural triangle which gives your story much of its stability.

Step 8: Integration

Ignore your story as completely as you can for as long as you can: two days, two weeks, two months if you can.

Story = Narrative E + Narrative C + Narrative D

It's a shame this book's out of print. Get it if you can.

--- End of Review

As a former student of Nyberg, maybe I'm a little biased when I talk about his incredible talent for story-crafting and narrative divination. In this book, however, he's hit upon the main obstacles that stop beginning story writers. Unlike so many writing books, this is not based on conjecture, or even the technique of *one* successful writer. It's based on a lifetime of writing and teaching experience. Nyberg has been writing and teaching people to write for so many years, he might be embarrassed if I put how many. His method was developed by seeing what worked for his students. I've watched him take a classroom full of people who've never written a decent story in their lives, and using the method in his book, help all of them create stories worth reading. If you've always felt you had a story to tell, or many stories to tell, but never knew where to start, this book is for you. If you've gotten started and just don't know where to go from there, this book is for you.

It's such a shame that the book is no longer in print, but it's well worth a search to get a copy.

"A jolly, laughing lady," those are the opening words of the biography.
The closing words are:
"To be able to share what I have learned with others is a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

In between those personal words, I got the chance to intimately share the life of Winnifred Eaton. Birchall opens the family vaults, secrets and intimacies; shares her deductions and her thoughts about Winnifred with me as reader; and writes in a zesty, tangy language that kept seducing me to read on and on.
The things I learned about the early filmindustry in Hollywood and the look behind the screens, are as fascinating as all the facts about the working conditions for women in the first half of the century in the USA

This biography by Birchall leads me to wonder and think about Winnifred as a human being and also about the culture and times that Winnifred went through in her life and tackled straight on, in her own inimitable style.
What more can a biography do?

Normally I am none too fond of biographies as genre. This one had me enthralled, qua content and style of writing.

Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.

Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.

Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages.

I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.

But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader.

In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.

But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.

Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton.

"A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.

Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!

Don't sleep on this one or you will regret it. The author is bringing it to you fresh from the Wood, Inglewood, California. If you didn't grow up as an African America Girl in Los Angeles, but you want some idea of the influences, read this piece of work! This author takes you on a journey, visual and verbal through her poetry and essays that is so real, you will be entranced and unable to put the book down. Leave no page unturned as you feel the Passion, Pride, and Politickin of Ms. Shariff, an incredible writer, with a mind STILL developing with fresh new thoughts.

I am scared of you Ms. Shariff aka Supa Sister. I'm out!

Okay people, there's a new Sharif in town -- Jamal Sharif. Anyone caught flipping through the pages of her book "Passion, Pride and Politickin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays," will be sentenced to her 'n-yo-face brand of poetic justice. Ms. Sharif's "Public Service Announcement" about the "Consequences of Pussy Politics," or her insightfulness of "Why Good, Black Women End Up Alone: As Response to Joy Jones," will arrest your metaphoric senses. These are just a few of the titles from her book with powerful messages regarding self-love, self-pride, cultural diversity, and the Black experience seen through the eyes of a Black woman not afraid to speak her mind.

As Ms. Sharif so profoundly states in her Preface: "In every person's life, and especially every woman's, there comes a time when one must have the courage to define herself, herself." Each poem and essay in "Passion, Pride and Politickin'" candidly defines the real Jamal Sharif and the world she lives in. From cover-to-cover, Ms. Sharif holds no punches and makes no apologies for her outspokenness. If you're looking for a reference book of life's lessons, with a touch of inspirational healing messages, then "Passion, Pride and Politickin'" is definitely a must read book for those sentenced to a life lacking confidence and facing one's fears.

I'd like to hire Ms. Sharif to write my life story. Perhaps, she already did!...

Jamal Sharif paints pictures with her poetry that keep you grounded and lift you into a higher mental state all in the same sequence. I enjoyed the essays immensely as well as the poetry. If you don't have this book I'd suggest you do it now!

This past weekend at the 2nd BWRC in Dallas, TX, I heard Ms. Jamal Sharif recite one of her poems from Passion, Pride and Politikin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays, and was impressed by her "in your face", "tell it like it is" manner. Her message was clear, and I was feeling every word she so eloquently delivered. Afterwards, I had the pleasure of meeting this talented young woman and was impressed by her poise and character. That being the case, I purchased Passion, Pride and Politikin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays and read the entire book during my bus ride to and from work a couple of days ago. This sister's gift for expression is to be highly commended. Keepin' it real throughout, Ms. Sharif took me on a trip back to my neighborhood, back to my girlhood, back to relationships that failed because of me and in spite of me. She made me recall games played joyfully as a child, made me ponder the state of our children and the world they're growing up in right now, made me remember friends I've lost through violence and drugs. Her commentary on love-for others and for self-is insightful and will make you think, as well as, incite hours of serious self-examination. For one so young, she has a wisdom beyond her years and I have a great deal of admiration for her and her work.

Take time out of your day to travel with this intelligent and gracious sister. Passion, Pride and Politikin': Homegrown Poetry and Essays is a must read for poetry lovers and truth seekers alike.

This book had me laughing out loud because of the frankness expressed in these poems and essays. It is very refreshing to see written many things I have thought about: romance, politics and the Hip-Hop community. Ms. Jamal and her collection of "in yo face" words make you stand up and take notice.

Ms. Jamal touches on your fears, accomplishments and fantasies. On page 10, she introduces Ghetto Poem, my interpretation of this poem is about how close we all are to being homeless. Looking at someone else's backyard could easily be my own one day. As scary as some of Jamal's work is, it is our reality, and the world we live in. I challenge you to take the plunge and delve into Passion, Pride, and Politickin. It's a wonderful experience.

Reviewed by Missy

I came across this book and bought it only because I knew that Kurt Cobain of Nirvana had based his song Scentless Apprentice on the book. Had I simply seen the cover of the book I would not have even picked it up to look at it. I expected when I recieved the book that it might be a book which I would read perhaps three chapters of and then become bored with it. I was wrong. I think this may be the best book I have ever read. The story of suffering, the images of a certain time and place, the strangeness of the main character himself and the way the book is written are all amazing. I began reading this book with low expectations and was very pleasantly surprised. I would love to see someone may this book into a good movie. Thinking of the book as a movie I kept picturing someone like Elijah Wood as the main character and quirky actor Jeff Goldblum as the inventor of a flower growing machine in the book. Very highly recommended.

This lusciously depicted novel is both a vivid evocation of life in eighteenth century Paris and an homage to the least celebrated of our senses--that of smell. In language so onomatopoetic it must have been an almost insuperable challenge for the translator, Suskind tells the tale of Grenouille (Frog), an orphan on the streets of Paris whose hard life would have destroyed a less single-minded pursuer of the sensuous life.

Grenouille's sense of smell is so subtly attuned that he can distinguish a single, elemental scent among the various aromas and stenches bombarding him, all vividly described by Suskind. He can identify individuals from their unique scents, a pursuit so compelling for him that he is willing to kill without conscience to preserve or distill the most glorious of these scents. As Grenouille moves from his apprenticeship in a butcher shop (depicted in nauseatingly odoriferous detail) to that of a perfumer, one of the book's witty ironies, the reader is bombarded with scents so intoxicatingly described that s/he may reach for the nearest spray perfume in order to participate personally in the author's sensuous celebrations.

One of the most gloriously descriptive (and sly) novels you will ever read, it is also an unforgettable commentary on depravity, unfettered arrogance, and ironically misplaced idealism, which culminates in a final, thunderous scene of exuberant depravity. Mary Whipple

Patrick Suskind's, "Perfume," is a beautifully written novel that richly brings to life the world of 19th century France primarily through the scents and aromas that permeated the cities, people and countryside of that time. At its core, "Perfume," is a riveting character study that introduces as its main-character a villain every bit as imaginative and fleshed out in his sense of malice and purpose as Hannibal Lecter. The true beauty in this novel, however, is found in Suskind's detailed musings on his protagonist's extraordinary sense of smell and the way he interprets the world through such a gift.

While "Perfume," is an English translation of a German novel - the translation work is superb and fully conveys the depth of detail and colour that Suskind originally brought to life in his native tongue.

"Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" is the brilliant story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille; born an Orphan in 18th Century Paris, Grenouille had no odor. In a city of stench, this child was born without an odor; wet nurse after wet nurse would give up after a few days because something was just not right. So begins the awful childhood of Grenouille.

He soon realizes that he has an amazing sense of smell; so amazing that as a teenager he picked the smell of the most beautifully smelling girl in all of Paris out a large crowd. Years after having been sold into servitude to a Tanner and accepting his meager existence, Grenouille was awakened by this smell; he needed to possess it. He needed to possess all of the most amazing smells in all of the world. Thus begins the journey of Grenouille...to great the world's greatest perfume to give himself - a man without an odor - the world's greatest smell.

Like "The Pigeon", another brilliant book by Süskind, this book follows the evolving life of one man; a man so possessed by his ability to smell and his ability to recall smell and his ability to recreate that smell, that he must possess the very essence of the smell. And, when that smell belongs to beautiful young women, he must possess their very essence.

Patrick Süskind's command of his prose makes him one of my favorite writers. The opening paragraph of this book is one of the most well crafted opening paragraphs I have every written; in it, he immerses the reader into the stench that was 17th Century Paris (I read this as a metaphor for need for the French to rely on perfume so much) so completely, that it makes your nose wrinkle and your eyes water.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

I finished reading it few days ago and it is as good as I expected and deserves its praise. I read it in two languages, first in English and then in Russian and both translations are quite masterful. The novel does not flatter us humans at all and presents rather pessimistic outlook at the mankind. In this regard, the final two scenes seem to be absolutely brilliant in their morbid irony. Loved the style, the language, the pace and the manner in which Susskind makes myriads of odors he describes so real and the science and craft of perfume making so compelling. Another achievement is exploring the mind, motivations and the terrifying inner world of a genius-murderer with such incredible depth. The writer feels very comfortable in the 18th century's France and we can hear it, see it, touch it and certainly smell it from the pages of this remarkable debut by Patrick Susskind.

I count the days until the movie based on the novel and directed by Tom Tykwer opens here, next month, January 2007.