Woody Allen Books

I recently ordered this book, and what can I say? It's another excellent book in the Gooseberry Patch collection. "Country Friends Good Times," explores and celebrates friendship and is packed with neat gift ideas and homey treats, sure to make a friend, family member or spouse feel loved!

There are fewer recipes in this book than in other books in the Gooseberry Patch collection, but the charming (and copyable) pages are filled with over 205 delightful and cheery craft ideas, recipes, and just plain kind thoughts which will delight everyone.

Don't miss this one, if you love the cute illustrations in the books by Vickie & JoAnn. You won't be disappointed. =-)

This book offers fabulous recipes and gift ideas. Suggestions include gift baskets for just about anyone and lots of special surprises to make someone's day. There is lots of humor (which will especially appeal to chocolate lovers!) and lots of inspiration. This book is excellent for women everywhere!

This is an immensely ambitious and successful attempt to redefine poetry and poetic form in the language of contemporary society. Allen Hoey walks the serrated knife edge between words, perceptions, intuitions, feelings, and glimpses of a transcendental immortality that only a poet of the highest order can have. This big, boisterous, rolling volume of poetry repeatedly crosses and re-crosses the lines between casual conversation, down-home country music, and Zen-like meditations of the ancient Chinese mountain poets. An understanding flows across mankind, driven into and against itself as it struggles with words to find what it cannot understand of eternity and immortality and love but celebrates in the country songs of beat-up trucks and the deeper country song of crickets in the evening grasses. There is a great deal of pain in this book, and a great deal of love...and they both keep coming at you.

In the end, at closing time, where thought leaves off, a man comes home from work to the cold indifference of a woman's back, with beer in his belly, rail whiskey in his mind, and a distant desperately bright but unclear and vacillating vision of god in his brain. The bars close down, and eternity wraps itself in chill wisps among the trees and grasses of Bowman's Hill.

Whether writing about his beloved country music that provides the title of this book, recounting the perfect, colloquial dialogue of a North Country dive, exploring nature- of the physical world and that within a person--Allen's Hoey's poems perfectly capture the longing of looking back, the terror of looking forward, and the rare satisfaction we can get by just remaining in the moment. As he writes in "After Lunch,"

"...I just watch each
day's sun as it rises and sets and
don't worry about short or long."

There's no sentimentality in his work; as he writes in "Partisan Glimpses," his poems are "Not exactly/maudlin, not quite sentimental..." but often with a pained romanticism, full of hard experience, yet never relinquishing the possibility of joy and delight. Then, like a Prophet too-long ignored there are poems of dread warning: The book begins with lines about death, speaking of the people, animals and things valued by us dying, and how "In the fullness of time, they all do." In "Drinking Alone," it bears down, ending with

"...Beyond this
glass of wine, only darkness,
darkness and cold longing for light."

Allen never rushes toward endings, toward forced over-arching meaning; never goes overboard for a "Grand Statement," and thus often sets us up, imperceptibly, getting us where we are vulnerable, offering no soft landing, no hysteria distracting us from the harsh or joyful reality of what and who we are. And occasionally there's a descent that lodges deep in the heart, like in the poem "Ineluctible Modality of the Visible," a terrible, recurring vision; a nightmare lodged

"somewhere deeply away;
our minds, reaching blindly, maybe in sleep,
pull[ing] them, ceaselessly, tirelessly, back into light."

First and foremost I am not a literature or even a poetry inclined person but I think that the authors language and narration(even though its poetry)as well as the very personal feel that the words have is truly incredible. I have never been a fan of poetry and I don't think I will be but her style of writing is truly unique and rare. I hope that there is a second book in the works because I am truly exited to get it. I gave it five stars because of the unique and very personal nature of the book.

The title was capturing! The author's choice and use of words allowed the reader to appreciate the writer's significant imaginative writing capability. This journey of poetic flow, both diverse and intense, fills a reader with an appreciative understanding, of the writer's ability to impress one with the power of Poetry. Extremely engaging. Read start to finish-in one evening. Can't wait for her next book.

I have read several of Tagore's works but nothing has ever touched me as deeply as the lines in these poems about children and their loves. The one on the death of a child is my favorite. I lost my own child with leukemia several years ago and thought the tears had all dried up but these touching words of this great poetic master found some still tender areas. If these poems are so very beautiful in their English translations, I can only guess what they must sound like in the original rhythmic and lyrical Bengali language. Thank you for allowing me to review and recommend this book

My mom read some of these poems to me as a child. When she was dying, I read them to her. She smiled when almost nothing made her smile. And then later in the process, they calmed her when nearly nothing else could calm her. These poems seem almost sacred to me.

A life-long dream rarely becomes a reality. This true account of one man's determination to follow through with his dream to sail around the world was fascinating. Even a land-lubber like me could get a feel for the rigors and majesty of sailing. The author's descriptions of the people,cultures, and adventures he encountered along the way made the story much more than just a sailing book.

Crew is a great factual book containing wonderful descriptions of traveling the world on sailboats. It illustrates how circumnavigationg the globe can be affordable. Anyone who reads it will enjoy sharing the author's experiences and learn from his adventures. The pleasures and hazards of sailing make this book enjoyable reading.

I can just echo the substance of remarks of the other reviewers on the contents. As an avid reader of mystery fiction, I can visualize opening a page at random and picking my next book to read. As a computer programmer, I look at books like this and envision how I would write the program that would generate this information. If the author did not use a computer program, I am doubly impressed. This book should be on the shelf of every crime fiction aficionado. If not on your shelf then that of your local library.

This book is a must for any inveterate reader. It lists all the mystery writers, their varied pen names, the characters, book titles, films made from mystery books, and other curiously interesting bits of information. The price is daunting but is well worth it, believe me. This is one of those books that one can spend many happy hours just browsing through. The book is divided into two volumes with Volume 1 being the Author Index with 889 pages of mystery writers listed alphabetically by last name. It includes all known pseudonyms used by a particular author, along with the titles of the works, and the names of any characters created, series or one-shot. It also has the dates of publication and lists the publisher. A few examples of pseudonyms. Did you know that Stephen King also writes under the name Richard Bachman. Of course you did, everyone knows that. But did you know that Dean Koontz, popular mystery writer, also uses the names David Axton, Brian Coffey, Anthony North, Owen West, Deanna Dwyer, K.R. Dwyer, Leigh Nichols, and Richard Paige? How about Donald Westlake, author of the ever-popular 'Dortmunder' series of serio-comedic mysteries. He also uses the names Curt Clark, Tucker Coe, Timothy Culver, Samuel Holt, and Richard Stark. Lawrence Sanders sometimes uses the names Lesley Avaress or Mark Upton. John Creasey, author of the 'Toff' series, has more than a dozen different pen names he uses, and must hold some sort of record for sheer number of nom-de-plumes. Why pen names you ask? The book doesn't answer that question. In fact it doesn't even address it. This tome is strictly a presentation of facts; no long boring narratives. Who knows why an author elects to write under a different name than its own? There must be as many logical, or illogical, reasons as there are authors. Choose your own. Volume 2 is divided into seven sections, to include a Title Index (326 pages), Setting Index (98 pages), Series Index (24 Pages), Series Character Chronology (18 pages), Film Index (136 pages), Screenwriter's Index (48 pages), and Director's Index (29 pages). The Title Index is a veritable treasure trove of information to aspiring writers. It shows which titles have already been used and how often. For instance, did you know that there are five books with the title "Watchers"? Or six called "Tunnel"? There are over 2,100 that begin with the word "Murder" and 700 that begin with "Mystery". This listing alone would be worth its weight in gold to a writer struggling to find that just-so correct appropriate title. The Settings Index is another source of information to the aspiring writer. It lists the locale of all the works listed in this opus. Almost any location is listed, from cities to states to countries. For instance, did you know that there are 15 books listed as happening in Rhodesia, 4 in Monaco, and 9 pages of stories occurring in New York City! The Series Index includes the name of the character listed with its creator. Again, this is invaluable to a new author. Imagine if you will, writing the perfect mystery and sending it off to a receptive publisher only to be rudely informed by a sympathetic editor that the character's name you thought was original has been in used for over 40 years by another author. Embarrassing, to say the least! Not to mention the re-write time involved in changing all the myriad references to your not-so-original creation. The Series Character Chronology lists by year of introduction each series character along with the type of character (inspector, police, detective, priest, lawyer, doctor, etc.) country where usually located, name of the author, and the number of books this character appears in. The Film Index lists movies by title, with the title of the book origin, the author of the book, the studio name, and the year of the movie. The Screenwriter's and Director's Indexes are self-explanatory. To summarize, this book is a joy to own and to the aspiring writer, invaluable with the information that can be gleaned. It is heartily recommended and would make an excellent "special" gift at Christmastime or birthday.

The Hockey News recently listed the 100 most influential people in hockey. Read "Crunch" and you'll know why Kevin Allen was on that list. An informative and entertaining book that chronicles the sport's physical side, it's a MUST read for every fan of the "Coolest Game on Earth"!

Kevin Allen shows why hockey is more than just a contact sport. He speaks of the grit and guts required to succeed in the sport. It is also well written and the style does not become burdensome. This book is great.

I first read Darkness and Dawn in 1973 from a Hyperion Press Classics edition. The 3 inch single volume was hard to handle, reprinted in the same font as the original. Even though it was written at the turn of the century it is amazingly relevent today. I just finished seeing the Will Smith movie... I Am Legend...and found interesting similarities even with a diffrent premis. The written word here is fantastic. Anyone who enjoys SF or fantisy will find this book amazing. I have been doing searches for 25 years to find a replacement version for my long lost Hyperion andfinally...the three volume set has arrived. This is a must read.

I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT BEFORE I READ THIS BOOK. MY SON RECOMMENDED IT SO I TOOK HIM AT HIS WORD. I FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO SEPARATE FANTASY FROM REALITY AND HAD TO KEEP REMINDING MYSELF THE SITE WAS IN A DESTROYED NEW YORK CITY IN A MODERN AMERICA. IMAGINE WAKING UP ONE DAY AND FINDING YOURSELF ALONE IN A WORLD WITH NO CONTACT WITH ANYONE AS TO WHAT HAD HAPPENED AND WHY. HOW COULD YOU RELATE TO THIS STRANGE UNOCCUPIED CITY YWHERE YOU HAD WORKED AND LIVED. NO NOISE, NO RADIOS, NO TELEPHONES, NO AUTOMOBILES, NOTHING FAMILIAR. HOW DID THIS COME ABOUT? AND THEN SUDDENLY THERE WAS ANOTHER PERSON WITH WHOM YOU COULD COMMUNICATE. WHAT NOW? COULD SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN IN THE LARGEST CITY IN THE WORLD?

Lots of gorgeous color photos showing ways to spice up your garden with objects such as steel wire garden furniture, mirrors, and other unique items. What fun. -Linda Fry Kenzle, author of Gathering

I've got 5 pages bookmarked for inclusion in our gardens! That should say it all, but just in case, here goes.

There are a lot of books with garden decorating ideas out there, but it's rare that you find a book of this caliber. The ideas, the photography and the writing are all exceptional.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone who loves spending time in their garden.

The book examines counseling comprehensively and the approach is very interesting and challenging. The theory is philosophically based. It is difficult to apply in counseling process but every counseling and clinical psychologist should read this book.

This book examines the philosophical and psychological bases of counseling. The approach is very complicated and comprehensive. The most sophisticated and challenging book on the counseling.