English Books

first edition half this size by same author for $6.50
'beyond the dictionary in spanish'

I'm an intermediate Spanish learner, and when I get sick of grinding memorization, etc, I pick up this book. It's enjoyable, and you really can read it straight through.

Here's a representative entry that shows how many examples the author gives from various countries --

carpeta: A Friend of unusual Falsity since not only does it not mean "carpet" but has very diverse meanings within the Hispanic world. In Spain and Mexico it means a "file," of the sort used in offices. In Peru it means a "desk" of the sort used in schools (elsewhere usually pupitre) and in Colombia it means a "table-cloth" (ornamental; not for meals). I have also heard it used for a "brief-case."

A carpet, as you know, is una alfombra. Wall-to-wall carpet is hecha a medida, "made to measure," but is often referred to as moqueta, "moquette" (carpet-material).

In an earlier commentary about this book, a reviewer wondered how a $7 paperback could be going for upwards of $140. Well, the answer is: scarcity. This is where you have to be careful. The book listed under the title "Cassell's Colloquial Spanish" is said to be the third revised edition, published in 1981. That edition is indeed quite rare, which accounts for its fetching big bucks. However, that's not the end of the story. A couple of other reviewers lamented that there isn't an updated version of this book. It turns out there is, but with a different subtitle.

Which leads me to my story. After seeing the book offered from one of the online sellers at a "bargain basement" (compared to all the others, that is) price, I ordered what I thought to be the 1981 edition. When the book arrived, though, I noticed some differences from the picture and publication info I'd seen at Amazon. So I went back and compared ISBN numbers. The book I'd ordered was not the 1981 edition; the ISBN number for that one is 0020794304. The ISBN number on the one I received is 030407943X. Confused, I typed in that number and was startled by the result. The title of the book with that ISBN number was listed as "Spanish Colloquial", and no author's name was listed anywhere (BTW, Amazon has corrected the title and added the author's name). What's more, the publisher was listed as Orion Publishing Company, not Cassell's. The particularly strange thing about that is the name Orion appears nowhere in the book I have, while the name Cassell's appears several times (I found out later that Orion owned the printing rights to the Cassell's line for several years, but no longer). In addition, the book's cataloging info indicates that the 1981 edition was reprinted three times: 1985, 1988 and 1993. The copy I have is the 1993 reprint, even though the concluding words of the introduction are "Abingdon, 1980, A. Bryson Gerrard." My guess is the 1993 reprint is far less rare than the 1981 third edition. To top it all off, several sellers were offering the 1993 printing at prices lower than what I paid.

So was I duped? It appears that way. But I'm not going to send the book back, because it does contain everything I was hoping to find in the first place. And I concur wholeheartedly with all of the other reviewers. Gerrard has done a tremendous service to English speakers who are passionate about learning Spanish. Some of the information in Gerrard's book is a bit dated, though, which obviously can't be blamed on him. Just try to recall the state of the Internet in 1980 and you'll understand. I don't know if Mr. Gerrard is dead now, but don't let the passage of two and a half decades dissuade you from enjoying his fine work. However, taking into account the need for a more contemporary reference, I would also recommend "Streetwise Spanish" -- both volumes, the dialogue book and the dictionary/thesaurus.

This book is a gem for the student of Spanish, providing the various colloquial meanings of a good many useful Spanish words. The author's various first-hand anecdotes about the situations in which he heard the words used in a particular way will amuse even the casual monolingual reader. Some of his warnings about linguistic etiquette might be a little out of date in the more modern, and Americanized, parts of the Spanish-speaking world, but it's always better to err on the side of propriety. Your command of colloquial Spanish will break down barriers that mere conversational proficiency cannot overcome , and this book has proven to be an excellent teacher for me.

As a speaker of fluent Spanish, this book was invaluable in getting subtle nuances, learning false cognates and distinguishing between meanings from one country to another. It's a fun read as well. I have about 5 copies for my own references and to give away given how valuable and well-written it is.
What I don't understand is how a $7 paperback is going for $40 to $140 on the Internet!

When I tried to find a replacement for my old editions of Oxford Concise and Cassell's (both printed and edited in the UK), I unwittingly bought a version of the americanized Oxford. Shocking! Full of pictures of sports stars & actors with some definitions interspersed. It's adequate for a high school student, but I'm glad I discovered Chambers. I adore it - just lots and lots of words. So, if you love English and don't have enough dough for the big OED, buy Chambers for a fraction of the cost.

Clearly printed, with loads of useful extraneous information. At last I have the definitive dictionary to allow me to finish my crosswords!

The Chambers Dictionary (10th Ed.) is truly an outstanding dictionary especially with the updated words added.I owned an older edition and was really glad to get this edition.I also bought the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary(11th Ed.) and I can safely that it cannot compare to the Chambers.

Having worked in the Printing & Publishing industry for 45 years, I can recommend Chambers. The old 'Proof Readers' of Fleet Street along with Newspaper Editors always kept the latest version close to hand.
BPW

By far the most comprehensive dictionary I have bought. Very pleased with it.

The only thing wrong with this book is that there should be more of it.
Roethke represents a watershed in American letters, a watershed we kids slobbered down the wrong side of, the side not his. For delicacy of daring the difficult to bear, even to notice, he can hardly be surpassed, and this almost without ever choking up the voice -- his or ours.

"A late rose ravages the casual eye," writes Roethke in A Walk in Late Summer, "a blaze of being on a central stem." In such images we see the symbols of nature fully tapped in modern poetry -- and tapped in American English, in fresh, vivid language that overpowers the reader with its grace and presence. The poetry of Theodore Roethke is written by a man profoundly alive -- skirting the edge of suicide, losing his voice in the awe of love, reeling wildly in the throes of "the pure fury," and looking at last with calm eyes into infinity and his own undoing in the Far Field. Roethke was a true descendent of Whitman where the latter wrote "This is no book / Who touches this touches a man." But Roethke's poetry moves us as much by its lyrical language as by the power and wisdom of its experience. Roethke himself was, as represented by his art alone, a "blaze of being."

Among Roethke's contributions to literature are his poems that treat depression. Far from letting his manic episodes paralyze him, he used them to write some his most intense poetry. "In a Dark Time" is one of the immortal poems of the 20th century, worthy to be set aside a Van Gogh painting. Roethke was not alone in treating these subjects: two other Pulitzer Prize-winning poets of his time, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, learned from him and wrote about similar themes. But Roethke's writing stands out in two ways from these poets and other poets the 50's and 60's.

One is the unity of his work and vision -- this Collected Poems traces a single spiritual journey beginning with his childhood memories of the greenhouse, and ending somewhere among "the windy cliffs of forever", last visions tragically cut short by his early death. Between those points are rendered all of the experiences of his life -- as he wrote in his first poem, "my heart keeps open-house." But he never fails to interpret these experiences and understand their significance in the larger picture of his life and poetry. Unlike so much of the poetry of Sylvia Plath and other Confessional poets, Roethke never demands that you read his biography to understand his symbolism. Rather, his symbols develop among his poems to form a kind of mythology: his recurring symbols include stones, fire, light, "the small," and the spirit.

The other difference between Roethke and other poets of his time is his technique. Roethke is never obscure; he always writes in fresh language, avoiding cliches, although his symbols are indeed personal and take time to understand. Roethke's craft is "strict and pure," such that even the staunchest defenders of Sylvia Plath have confessed that Roethke's writing is more disciplined. The Deep Image movement of poets like Robert Bly and James Wright is influenced by the kind of symbolism found throughout Roethke's poetry, and those writers have acknowledged their debt to him. Roethke retained rhyme and meter in a time when all the conventions of poetry were being ripped apart; and he did so with a consummate technical skill not to be found in the Beatniks or in the Black Mountain poets. Roethke's ear for poetry is much more sensitive than that of other poets of his time. We are gagged by the lyricism in lines like

"She came toward me in the flowing air,
A shape of change, encircled by its fire."
("The Dream")

"When all
My waterfall
Fancies sway away
From me, in the sea's silence..."
("Her Time")

"O love, you who hear
The slow tick of time
In your sea-buried ear..."
("Song")


The most exhilarating of all these are Roethke's love poems in "Words for the Wind", which justly won the Bollingen Prize and the National Book Award. These poems are unmatched for eloquence and spiritual intensity -- and it's a damn shame that modern anthologies do not reprint them, aside from the famous "I Knew a Woman." For it is in these love poems that Roethke's soul soars, and his poetic power is fully realized.

"She knew the grammar of least motion."
("The Dream")

"Light listened when she sang."
("Light Listened")

"I measure time by how a body sways."
("I Knew a Woman").


Theodore Roethke achieved greatness in art by having the courage to confront the most intense human experiences and the skill to craft them into some of the most eloquent poems of his time. If there is ONE modern poet you will read, let it be Roethke. His "Collected Poems" is a must for every poet and every lover of poetry.

I relished Roethke when I first read him in high school, along with Hart Crane, e.e. cummings, and the Beats. I still admired him in college, when I wrote poetry myself, and regarded most other "living" poets with suspicious disdain. Many poets I loved then have lost some of their charm for me (my loss, not theirs) but, forty five years later, I still read Roethke. Does that speak to you?

To My Sister; The Heron; No Bird; Elegy for Jane; She; Her Reticence; The Meadow Mouse; and of course, My Papa's Waltz--these are all some of the great poems that Theodore Roethke wrote. Roethke is one of our American masters. I found that when he was on his game (as he was in the poems above, among others) his poetry was phenomenal, but when he wasn't, his poetry could be awful. His earlier work is better than his later work, though he seems to have gotten most of his recognition for his later work. Still, for the poetry lover this is pretty much a required volume for your shelves.

At first, I was heitant to delve into this author's work simply because I'd never heard of him in all my wide readings of poetry, both modern and old.

Don't make the same mistake I did. Roethke WILL NOT disappoint you. "The Lost Son" has become my new favourite poem, and this book goes with me perpetually, and will until I finish every line in it.

Exquisite.

This book makes a complicated machine like computer very easy to understand

The best thing I love about this book is the writing style of Prof. Freedman and how easily and clearly it can crystallize, the otherwise complex computer terminology, components and concepts. The explanations used here are vivid. I have owned a copy since 1997 and I have never been disappointed with anything that I needed to look up, for instance 'kludge' is described here as - "Also spelled 'kluge' and pronounced 'klooj'. A crude, inelegant system, component or program. It may refer to a makeshift, temporary solution to a problem as well as to any product that is poorly designed or that becomes unwieldy over time."

It will be hard to obtain better explanations than they are written in here.

There are several other similar Encyclopedias around which I have never looked at, because I had no need to look for another Encyclopedia.

Unlike most other computer dictionaries/encyclopaedias in its class, the inclusion of a companion CD-ROM gave this "Computer Desktop Encyclopedia" a comfortable jump-start in the superiority contest.
The book (and its attached CD-ROM) covered, in the most definitive way, all the important terms and acronyms that apply to today's computer and networking technologies. Hardware, software, and allied peripherals were adequately represented.
It is descriptive and well-illustrated, and included all the commonly used file extensions. With over ten-thousand terms and definitions, its scope is rich: in comparison to what exist now.
This computer encyclopedia ranks among the best currently on sale. However, potential buyers may be frustrated (at the moment) by its limited availability.

And too bad it's out of print. While this book will not teach you how to use a PC, it will define every computer related (and often electronics) term you can imagine. I was surprised on some of the really obsecure terms this book contained that I didn't expect it to mention. I got this book used and after reading over some of it, I'd say this is a must have on any nerd's desk as the it compares up there with as good as an internet search for explanations of PC related terms.

I work people whose computer knowledge varies from very little to a serious computer user. This reference manual is one book that all levels can benefit from. This book is the perfect manual to answer the questions in an easy to understand format without all that technical jargon.

The book is over 1100 pages and is loaded with pictures and figures to give a visual representation of the definition which makes is easier to understand some of the concepts covered. There is computer definitions, vendor breakdowns, and certification analysis and application definitions.

Some of the topics covered are networking, computers, MACs and applications. Some of the technologies included are CISCO, CompTIA, ATM, FDDI, Ethernet and token ring. Also included is a cd-rom which has over 5000 more definitions not included in the book. Overall a great addition to my technical library.

Adrianne Byrd has taken me to a whole new level with her book "Controversy". She takes you on a wild journey of a sister who is a known prankerster and is familiar with overnight stints in jail for some of her pranks. Now she is ready to celebrate the divorce of her husband with her sisters. Which in turn lands them in some very wild type of situations. Lies and Love....does it mix??? There's an off the hook twist in the novel. Let me tell you, when I say my mouth hit the floor, it hit the FLOOR!!!! LOL Adrianne also uses some unique names for the Adam sisters. Michael (main character), Sheldon, Frankie & Peyton. Yep, ALL FEMALES!!!

Great job Adrianne!!!

This is by far one of the best books I have ever read!!!!!!! The end was simply amazing!!!! Go buy the book......You will not be dissapointed!!!!!!

The cover of this book totally hooked me. Handcuffs and a sexy black man! But this story was so well written and so unexpected! Adrianne Byrd has written a winner! In Controversy, we find Michael Adams, the queen of revenge schemes, is in trouble. The police think that she killed her ex.
Police detective Kyson Dekker knows the last thing he should do is get involved with a suspect. But there is a difference in knowing what's right and wrong and doing the right thing. There are more twists in this book than a wild ride at Six Flags. And just when you think you got it all figured out--BAM--another twist. Giving it away in this review would do a disservice to everyone because this book is a MUST READ!

With each book Ms. Byrd get's better and better. In this one we meet another Adams sister. We meet Michael who is newly divorced a slighly bitter and wants to get back at her husband but of course it's all talk or is it? And this is where the funny, hot and crazy story begins and Ms. Byrd takes you on this ride and leaves you wanting more. Did I mention funny. Those Adams sisters can get themselves into some mess LOL! And of cours there a point where Ms. Byrd tries to get you with the tears. You get to catch up with the rest of the Adams clan and meet the sexy dective Kyson. Definite recommendation!

What can I say that hasn't been said already?!! It's NEVER a dull moment with Ms. Byrd. She pulls you in from the first page and takes you on an EXTREMELY thrilling roller coaster ride 'til the end. I read this book in 5 1/2 hours. I love this family, they are HILARIOUS! This book had me LMAO and often reaching for a KLEENEX (wiping away tears of joy and sadness). And as usual Ms. Byrd added just the right amount SPICE to this intriguing tale! The chemistry between Michael and Kyson set the pages of this book on FIRE! And just when you think you know what's going to happen, she SURPRISES you with some unexpected, but pleasant twists. If you're looking for some great entertainment, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book (the whole series). You will NOT be disappointed! Way to go, Ms. Byrd!

I am 56 and have been reading sci fi/fantasy since, oh, about 10. This is one of the best collection of stories I have ever read. You'll be glad you read it. The fact of the color of the writers is interesting, but not important. I have read so much sci fi, and even taken a writing course. The bottom line - this is great science fiction.

I've long suspected there were more writers of color out there besides Octivia Butler and Samuel Delany. Ms. Thomas introduces a rich collection spanning decades. My only question is when will volume 2 be published? If you love SF, add this brilliant work to your collection.

A huge sci-fi and fantasy reader I am also getting ready to be a high school teacher of special ed, reading & English. This is a book that will go on my list of books to write lesson plans about and to make sure my students read. The one complaint I have about this book is that I'd read the Butler, Delany & Saunders already. Couldn't we have gotten new stories for this historic anthology? But other writers were a revelation to me.
A great book! Nalo Hopkinson's story about a (...)gone amuck, Tannarive Due's story about the very human side of cloning and Steven Barnes' chilling almost apocalytic picture of a modern African state after a coup are all terrific reading-- and why my students -- and you -- should be excited!

Writers of African descent have played a long and important role in the history of speculative literature, even though that's not always recognized, either in the past or today. But this book opened my eyes to how much wonderful talent has gone underappreciated until now. Often raw, but always colorful and deep, many of the stories in this collection have the quality to be compared with the masters of the past and present. As both a reader and a writer, this collection inspired me greatly.

I highly recommend it to anyone who's a true officianado of speculative literature.

This is a collection that the literary world needed badly. Typical 'speculative fiction' (encompassing sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and other literary persuasions) often features humanity uniting against common enemies or disasters. But for people of color, the alternative present or near-future utopia/dystopia in any speculative story probably won't be so rosy. Technological advancement, alien contact, or astronomical disasters probably won't eliminate prejudice and inequality, as the writers of African descent collected here show us in consistently hard-hitting ways.

The settings and themes of these short stories are uniformly fascinating and thought-provoking for any intelligent reader. As with any collection of works from various writers, the quality of the stories varies a bit, and this book does have a few bumps in the road that deserve the thumbs-down for heavy-handedness. Examples include the predictable melodrama of 'The Woman in the Wall' by Steven Barnes, or the poorly-plotted conspiracy theories of 'The Space Traders' by Derrick Bell. However, these are minor quibbles, and even these stories contribute to the sheer fascination of this book as a whole.

My favorites include the supremely moving Jazz Age vampire story 'Chicago 1927' by Jewelle Gomez, an outstanding look at the human costs of cloning in 'Like Daughter' by Tananarive Due, the creepy erotic thriller 'Ganger (Ball Lightning)' by Nalo Hopkinson, and the heartbreaking dark fantasy of 'Gimmile's Songs' by Charles Saunders. Of historical interest we have 'Aye, and Gomorrah...' from the master Samuel Delany, the groundbreaking 'The Goophered Grapevine' from way back in 1887 by Charles Chesnutt, and the very chilling 'The Comet' by W.E.B. DuBois (I had forgotten that DuBois wrote fiction, and his important stories are ripe for rediscovery). Kudos to Sheree Thomas for creating this hugely important, haunting, and illuminating anthology. [~doomsdayer520~]

After wanting this book for along time and being a somewhat hard core Edward Gorey fan, I finally ordered and received this book. I sat with it and experienced an intimate glimpse into his private world and found myself feeling and learning so much about this man and our times. I seriously laughed and cried and everything in between by the time I finished my first page-though. The rich content of the images took me on a journey through his home and collections that touched many familiar and unfamiliar bases. I not only gained insight into the man, but into a window in time in the art and collecting world that was very familiar to me as a baby-boomer aged art/literature/theater type. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is the least bit interested in Edward Gorey and the late 20th century arts milieu. I was/am profoundly moved by this book and know that I will revisit it often.

This is a beautiful book of photographs and text that allows the reader an intriguing view of the home in which Edward Gorey lived and the collections of curious objects, books, and cats he filled it with.

The photographs are large and beautiful - haunting even - and there are lots of them. There is just the right amount of text to cast some light on the man behind the house and his elusive character - anecdotes about his life, his work, his friends and the things that inspired him.

If you are fan of Edward Gorey, or of eclectic interior decorating and design, and displaying collections of antiques, this book will be a treasure in your library.

That's really all I can say. I have been waiting for this book for a long time, and it was the most incredible thing. Amazing photos. Read up on Gorey first, though. The details are some much better when you get the little visual jokes Gorey set up in his day-to-day life.

This book wouldn't mean much to anyone who isn't already a Gorey fan. I own (and love) the compilations 'Amphigorey', 'Amphigorey Too' & 'Amphogorey Also', so have a head start. I also have the auto(?) biography 'Ascending Peculiarity', which is almost a necessary co-requisite to this book - it helps explain the cats, and many other Gorey details. Now that the individual books are available again, I'm tempted to get them too, because they are such nice objects - but only if the kids promise to share with me!

If you are an Ogdred Weary fan...this is a truly wonderful book. Photographs of the exterior (peeling paint and kind of saggy porch) and the interior rooms of the house on Cape Cod in Gorey lived and worked, along with his cats and figbashes, piles of thousands of books, assorted rocks and oddish things, and the expected miriad of curiosities. Alas, or delightfully...just the environment one would expect of the eccentric Edward. A cabinet of curiosities...a delight!

Like fine wine, these essays get better with time. Beware of trying to rush through these fine philosophical teachings. Like Maxwell house, it's good to the last drop!

If you're considering more than one selection, stop. This is the only collection you need from Emerson. It's not only an exquisite read for the insights, prose, and poetry, but also for the overall experience of handling this volume--the lightness of the paper, the weight of the book. I am reading this on the heels of Walden, by Emerson's good friend, Henry David Thoreau, and I continue to be inspired and enthralled with every page. If you are an aspiring writer, you will find the finest of mentors, the most courageous of advocates. This is all the motivation you need to take your own chance in sharing your own deepest insights about the human experience.

I haven't even bought this Lib. of America edition and I know it is important. I have the Thoreau collection and all I have to say is that these New England writers of that era were critical thinkers and universal in their thoughts. Of great importance is the understanding of true spirituality, which both Emerson and Thoreau embody. Thoreau once said "We are rich in proportion to the number of things we can afford to leave alone."

It is wonderful to have all of Emerson's essays in one volume. Like his great pupil and friend Thoreau , Emerson is a poetic thinker of the highest order. His essays are filled with aphoristic gems . They contain not simply thoughts on different subjects but an organic and coherent way of seeing and understanding the world. They are the work of a genuine American philosophical voice.
There is so much to read here that it is difficult to know where to begin, though I have an especial feeling for 'Representative Men' with its exaltation of great individual human beings .Because he is so poetic and because his writing is so dense with meaning it does not always make for easy reading. But it is firm in principle and great in suggestiveness.
The way to understand where Whitman and in a sense even William James are coming from is to read this work.

I have lately developed a love affair with the Library of America, and this is its most important book. Emerson more than any other struck a course for the future of American letters outside the confines of the British tradition. This edition has all of the standard essays you would find in any one volume paperback (Self-Reliance, Harvard Divinity School Address, etc.), plus many more less known yet important (e.g. the complete Representative Men).

I once was a paperback junkie, but there is something so beautiful in a well bound hardcover, and there are few hardcovers as both elegant and durable as the LOA.

Twentyish Reality Nirvana Tuttle determines who can enter the Less is More Manhattan nightclub though no one, not even she, knows her conditions, which change almost on a whim, but that impulse is inside her brain. It might be an outfit that was in a half hour ago but seems so ancient at this moment. Reality is a pro at what she does as fool "doorwhores'' can match her skill at picking the trendy and tossing the has-beens and wanabees to the street.

However, Reality faces reality when it comes to her one ambition in life as so far she has failed to achieve her goal. She desperately wants to be featured in Hugo Falks' weekly gossip column in Frenzie as a hip woman of power on the move. She enlists her friends, Perfect Woman editor Phoebe, transvestite Geoffrey, and his dog Cristobal Balenciaga to cause a scandal that will turn her from almost famous to famous.

This reprint still retains its sharp acerbic lampoon of the jet set who needs to obtain fame even if it only for fifteen minutes. Reality is a terrific protagonist whose obsession becomes her reality, but never interferes with her selection of who's in and who's polar. Celebrity status takes a beating as Lee Tulloch's satire rips into the cost and inane need to become a known "personality".

Harriet Klausner

Hilarious homage to clothing and finding THE perfect outfit. Reality "Really" Tuttle was born in the late 60's, so if you are in the same genre as myself, you will definitely appreciate references to ghastly 80's attire that she despises as well as the detailed descriptions of her frocks. ...

Are you curious about the life of Carrie Bradshaw before she became the successful columnist with a penchant for designer clothes and $450 shoes? If you answered "Yes!" then you need to read this book. The story of Reality Nirvana Tuttle is, without a doubt, an unintended pre-quel to Sex and the City.

Ignore what the woman from Library Journal has to say! I'm certain that she's the wrong demographic to understand the social relevance of this story. Fabulous Nobodies is funny, earnest, so very New York City in the late 1980s, and, for those of us who were in our 20s during that time, a wonderfully fun trip down memory lane. If you can remember when in was possible to rent an apartment in alphabet city for $350 month and have a tub in your kitchen then you'll appreciate this story. If you can remember scouring Goodwill, Sal's Boutique, and vintage clothing shops with your meager earnings from a club, record store, or underground publication then you'll appreciate this story. If you can remember life before the internet and came of age at a time when local fanzines and arts newspapers were the ruling social arbiters then you'll appreciate this story.

Lee Tulloch's book is a completely captivating snapshot of a place, time, and people who no longer exist except in our scrapbooks and collected memorabilia.

The writing is masterful, the characters are alive, the story has a compelling mythical power, it should've won a pulitzer. It is wonderful and splendid and shall never perish. It has a deep, soulful message. It has an archetypal power, it shall become a classic. It could be the basis of a great Broadway musical, and we know they are not making great musicals nowadays. Just as My Fair Lady is a great musical, but still consider it now still a Pygmalion. I imagine a animated chorus line of frocks, inhabitated by many the great fashion icons. I would die to see that musical.

Before Bridget Jones, Sex and the City, or Shopaholic, there was Lee Tulloch's "Fabulous Nobodies."

Lee Tulloch was once the editor of Australian Vogue, and she puts her knowledge of fashion and the whole fashion glam scene to hysterically funny use in this little novel. The book opens with a hilarious narrative about the main character's nails of all things.

It's been years since I read Fabulous Nobodies, but it's a definite stand-out in a genre that didn't exist when the book was published in the early 90s. If you're in your 20s, a slave to fashion, any or all of the above, you've got to read this book. You can finish it in a day and you'll spend most of the time laughing at the antics of the main character and her crew. Our 20s are a great time of life (if only in retrospect), because we're no longer teenagers but not quite mature enough to be adults, so there's much goofing off, goofing around, and goofing up to learn from (or at least laugh about). Fabulous Nobodies is filled with all three. Don't miss this one.

You can't beat the early Rumpole stories. My old paperback of "Rumpole of the Bailey," the first of the books collected in this omnibus edition, had grown so tattered and worn through reading and re-reading that I needed a fresh copy. And the omnibus gives you the two subsequent Rumpole books as well. These early stories really establish all the character traits that make Horace such an unforgettable character, his fearlessness before the bar, his inability to stand up to his wife, his love for small cigars and cheap red wine - Chateau Thames Embankment. The later stories - like those in Omnibus Three, especially -- can sometimes seem flat and tired but here, you get Rumpole in top form. I'm sure I'll read this one to tatters soon enough. Long live Rumpole!

I have read all three Rumpole Omnibuses several times. I ordered an additional set for my mother, a former probate judge. What I find remarkable about John Mortimer's work, is that Rumpole is as engaging at the end of the series as at the beginning. I have also enjoyed Mortimer's three autobiographical books. I read and reread these stories, not as mysteries, but as a series of one act plays, where the dramas are spun out of the interaction of stock characters in the style of commedia dell'arte. Rumpole himself plays the part of the buffoon as barrister: fat, vain, self-centered, addicted to greasy food and cheap wine; but also extremely intelligent, perceptive, and compassionate. As I read more of the stories, Rumpole became less of a stock character and more of actual human being. Unlike Perry Mason, Rumpole does not necessarily win all of his cases. When Rumpole loses, we get to see him go down to cells beneath the Old Bailey, with all of the sounds and smells of prison life, to say goodbye to his former client. The stories are often very funny, but occasionally poignant and even sad.

Finally, John Mortimer is one of the masters of modern English prose. Just read a few paragraphs of any airplane novel (preferably one that has "Code" in the title), and then read a few paragraphs of any Rumpole story, and you will see what I mean. And nobody, including Raymond Chandler, does dialog better than John Mortimer.

Horace Rumpole presents himself as just an Old Bailey hack doing run-of-the-mill burglary defenses and the odd car-heist case. In reality he defends the best in the Anglo-American legal traditions against modern forces (for example, the presumption of innocence) - and this was written 20+ years ago!

Rumpole is the lovable defender of the average man and foe to all stick-in-the-muds. His motto "Never plead guilty." It could just as well be comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Hilarious, warm, human, touching, self-effacing and ever-ready to pierce the pompous gasbag - that's Rumpole of the Bailey. Start with the First Rumpole Omnibus and work your way through the rest.

Guaranteed to tickle your funny bone and warm your heart.

The First Rumpole Omnibus gathers the material from Rumpole of the Bailey, The Trials of Rumpole (six short stories each), and Rumpole's Return, a novella. All of those books are now out of print and can only be purchased in this Omnibus form. The first several short stories establish some of the long-term status quo for the series. Characters such as Phyllida Trant join the Chambers while others such as Rumpole's old friend George Frobisher leave. Unlike most series, however, the status quo is much more fluid in the world of Rumpole and people marry, have children, move on to become judges, etc.

The writing in this compilation was a bit uneven. The first group of short stories are reasonably entertaining, but nothing that would cause me to become a true fan. The second group of six short stories rounded into form nicely, though, and the humor was much sharper. I found myself chuckling or laughing out loud fairly often at Rumpole's little asides. Basically, it just took Mortimer a few stories to truly find Rumpole's voice.

Unfortunately, the Omnibus is topped off with a novella that is roughly five times the length of the short stories and the quality drops once again. I don't want to overstate the case, it's not a bad read. But it's pretty clear that Mortimer was used to the tighter plotting of the short stories and things wander a bit as he essentially takes plots that would have made up two or three shorts and spreads them out into one novella.

This was my first experience with Rumpole. I had never seen the TV show or read any of the books. While I may not have become his number one fan, I can say that the best stories are truly excellent and the worst are still pretty good. I find myself curious to read the The Second Rumpole Omnibus (Rumpole) and even more so to try the TV adaptation with Leo McKern. I would recommend the book to others, not as rapturously as the most devoted fans, but earnestly nonetheless.

I certainly don't need to review "Rumpole of the Bailey." You know all about it. So, I'll just mention that he's especially good company when you fly. You can read a well-crafted story in what, 30 minutes? Ideal for airports and airplanes. Do this, sit for an hour, do that, sit for another hour, etc.