Prose Books

On my office bookshelves I have perhaps 150 books of quotations, which as a writer I refer to constantly. This book of quotations stands heads and shoulders above the rest of them, not because it's women but because it's full of superb, thoughtful, wise, witty, useful quotations and because it's so well-documented (you know who actually said what, on what occasion). There's more genuine scholarship behind this than in a dozen Bartletts'. I'll buy any book Rosalie Maggio puts her name on because she does her homework and has good taste.

How refreshing to open this book and not have to search for a quote by a female! They're ALL by women! Reading through Bartlett's you'd think there were only a few quotable women on the earth. The book is divided by subject and highly readable. I recommend this book to all word lovers. It's a treasure full of previously hidden gems. . . I love this quote by Alice Walker, "Writing poems is my way of celebrating with the world that I have not committed suicide the day before."

Every night, after I've prepared my son for bed, and settle in to what I call my "cumphy ugmo couch", I reach over for my nightly Cup O' Quotes. And it doesn't seem to matter which page I turn to, there's always something there - to remind me of the day's conquests, sorrows, challenges, and accomlishments. The neat thing about history, is that someone has a story, a quote, a viewpoint that relates to you and your daily living.

This is the kind of book that makes you say, "Ah...yes...those were my thoughts exactly." or " Hmm...that's and interesting perspective." What's more invigorating is also knowing something about the person whose quotes appear on the page. This can enrich the meaning behind the quote - Tenfold.

Thanks for the Book. Sometimes, underneath it all, women take on so many roles in day-to-day living, we tend to forget...the inspite of the present day, our past history, and social and spiritual progression, we are WOMEN.

As a relationship author I'm always in search of great reference books to find quotations and generate new ideas. This book is without doubt the very best of its kind. After acquiring this one you'll see how trivial most other quotations books are...in fact most are simply gift books. But this one has a ton and a wide variety of wise, colorful, poetic, literary, self-help, and motivational quotations. I can overemphasize how much this book has been a help for me with writing. It's simply the best. All authors should own this!

This is one of the best books I've ever read. I got it as a reference book, since quotes always come in handy when I don't know what to say myself, and this book is far more exhaustive than any other book I'd seen. But then I couldn't put it down! Every page is full of the wisdom of thousands of lives, all distilled into pithy, witty quotes. It's better than the best humor book, and yet you also come away with a new perspective on things. As a reference book, it is a well-organized tool, and as pure fun it's better than a box of chocolates. How many books do you know that can claim to be both?

I'm sure Anthony Burgess's Nothing Like the Sun is like nothing I've ever read before. The novel is subtitled A Story of Shakespeare's Love-life; Burgess's essential claim is that Shakespeare's literary genius was borne out of his lust. It's an interesting thesis, as desire can be quite a motivator, and Burgess manages to convince.

The novel is rich with period detail and dialogue; indeed, it might take some time for the casual reader to become accustomed to Burgess's use of Early Modern English. For readers familiar with Shakespeare's sonnets and plays, the novel is a delight of allusions. I found myself wishing I were much more familiar with Shakespeare even than I am, having taught several of his plays (and some of them many times) because I feel sure that some allusions passed me by.

Burgess crafted a plausible, entertaining narrative from the few scraps of information we have about Shakespeare's life and in the process, held a lens up to Shakespeare's work and times, exposing both work and times as sublime and filthy at the same time. I would recommend this book highly to anyone interesting in learning more about Shakespeare or about Elizabethan England.

Lacks the tragic inevitability of "Dead Man in Deptford", but still a good read. Brilliant language, Elizabethan England nicely evoked, well-drawn characters, clever speculation to fill in the gaps in what we know of Shakespeare's life. A bit crazy, especially at first, but that's what you pay for with Burgess, right?

This fictional account strings together those facts we know about Shakespeare and uses complete and admitted fancy to flesh out the rest of his life. In this way, Burgess creates a fascinating and engaging lifestory of the young provincial man who became the greatest playwright of our language. While clearly a novel, it manages to make real, palpable people from those faceless names of the Elizabethean time, and helps makes sense (or nonsense) of so many of the theories surrounding Shakespeare's genius. It's vividness shows Burgess as a master of both academia and imagination. A thoroughly good read, and a must for anyone remotely interested in Shakespeare.

By Tom Crawford

Burgess has taken the few facts we have about the life of Shakespeare and spun them into a most engaging story, centered around his relationship with the "dark lady" of the sonnets. Here we have a Shakespeare who lives and loves and always aspires to a higher social standing that he, the son of a modest glover from Stratford, will never achieve. But no matter -- as Burgess makes clear, he is the genius whose work will outlive all of the mere nobility of his time.

Among other things, Burgess speculates that Shakespeare bequeathed his "second best" bed to his wife because he caught her there with his younger brother. Burgess also elaborates on a theory put forth by other Shakespearean experts -- that Will contracted syphillis and spent the last years of his life disease-ridden as a result. Did it all happen exactly this way? Who knows? But you'll enjoy speculating along with the author.

Burgess, who was always a clever man with words himself, writes in the conversational tone and flow that one most likely would have heard in Elizabethan England. This might seem tiresome to the casual reader, but it helps establish an atmosphere that feels right. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in the biographical background to Shakespeare's plays (or anyone with an interest in the Bard at all).

Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like The Sun" is a linguistic marvel. It is a philosophically oppressive look at William Shakespeare's foray into literature and the world. Starting in the small 'borough' of Stratford, WS (as he is called) is an apprentice leather craftsman. He spends his days and nights dreaming of plays, gentility, and idealistic love.

Most of the novel shows WS trying to figure out what kind of love he is after. His notions of love come from Plato's "Symposium" - will it be common, physical lust, or contemplation of absolute beauty leading to his best poetic and dramatic works? The relationships that the novel explores these questions with are with the youthful noble Henry Wriothesly and the exotic, colonial Fatima.

Burgess delights in wordplay throughout the novel, using for the most part, the language of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets in the narration and dialogue. Unlike "Shakespeare in Love" Burgess's novel does not build around any specific text, instead making his works almost marginal to the drama of Shakespeare's fictional biography. Burgess presents Shakespeare's works as the results and expressions of a desperate life.

Burgess augments Shakespeare's story with an almost post-colonial historical setting. With Fatima allegedly from the Indies, and a backdrop of English oppression of the Irish, "Nothing Like The Sun" complicates Shakespeare's historical moment. Class struggles, plagues, and political sterility also mark the temporal setting as the novel moves from the country (Stratford) to the coast (Bristol) to the capital (London).

Reading "Nothing Like The Sun" was a welcome experience for me, having only ever read Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange" before. The writing style takes a little getting used to, but that is the price you pay for art. I highly recommend it.

I especially relish reviewing Nudist Among Us, for it was written by a friend of mine, Allen Parker. When I was first introduced to this southern gentleman, I was told he had a way with anecdotes. This fact is confirmed by any reader of Mr. Parker's book, Nudist Among Us.

On a visit to Allen's house in Virginia, he handed me a manuscript he had put together. He told me it was a collection of his humorous anecdotes. What he didn't tell me was that it was in the hands of a publisher and destined to come out as a book just months later.

Allen is one of those people who can turn the most mundane experience (at least the way he relates it) into a thigh-slapping yarn. Whether it's a story of his substituting on a paper route as a boy, or as an adult husband and father on a camping trip, Allen invests each story with his own particular brand of comic timing. Each yarn has the unmistakable flavor of the South. You can almost hear Allen's Virginia drawl as you read. Were these stories true? Probably. Have they been recorded accurately? Probably not--at least totally. But that's not the point. The best part of the story is in the telling, and Allen performs that task admirably well.

Allen's style is straightforward and without unnecessary decoration. Often, he's the brunt of his humor, sometimes his long-suffering wife and son. But the humor is never hurtful, or unkind. When you finish reading one of his rambling mishaps, you feel as though you had just listened to him tell the tale first-hand, while sitting in his living room with a cup of coffee.

My advice? Pick up Nudist Among Us, make yourself a cup of coffee, curl up in your favorite easy chair and let this facile storyteller charm you with his wit and homespun humor. When you've read the last chapter, you'll wish the book were longer.

Want some fun? Read "Nudist Among Us" and fun is yours. Parker has penned a creative uniquely quirky laughfest that makes you think,too... Three cheers for the comedic writing gifts of Allen Parker. I want more...get writing.

If laughs are worth a nickel a piece, this book is a bargain at twice the price. There is something in this book for everyone because it captures the trials and follies in all of us. The short stories are good reads and play to one's imagination. It is a great afternoon escape. I highly recommend it.

This book is laugh out loud funny. It must be really hard being a nudist and an active member of the church! My mother is 78 years old and she doesn't understand that nudity is funny. This book is a great collection of short stories to make you feel less stupid than you feel in everyday life. Also, a nice little paperback stocking stuffer for Christmas. What a hoot!

My copy of Nudist Among Us came with a "Skinny Dipper's License," but it should have come with a 10%-off coupon for a divorce lawyer because I woke my husband so many times from laughing aloud while reading in bed that he threatened to divorce me.

Chester's adventures as a Christian nudist make for the funniest book I've read in a long time and, oddly enough, many of his self-deprecating insights about life, love and family ring completely true, even to someone who would sooner take a beating than appear in public au naturel. Chester is irresistibly endearing, and if there is any similarity between the author and his protagonist, Allen Parker's wife gets my vote for sainthood. But I'm sure she's also glad she has such a fun-loving, devoted husband who clearly loves her almost as much as he loves getting into trouble.

Take a vacation from life's pressures and read Nudist Among Us. It's guaranteed to put a smile on your face and a prayer of thanks on your lips that Chester is not part of your family.

I have just recently become interested in the whole horror film genre and a friend recommended that I read Mr. Soister's book. I'm glad I did. I learned lots of interesting stuff about the whole Universal horror film business and had an easy time pouring through the chapters. It was fun reading and Mr. Soister's keen insights and humorous style kept me wanting more. I hope he has another book waiting in the wings! Congratulations on delivering a winner.

John Soister has been a contributor to various horror books in the past. His ability to capture the details of the horror films of the 20's & 30's truly entertaining. He expresses his opinions with humor yet based on fact.

Mr. Soister has done a remarkable job here! Not only has he covered some of Universal's greatest horror films, he has given them a new, fresh perspective. All the greats are covered here, FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA, THE MUMMY, etc., but he has also written about much lesser known and borderline horror films that I've NEVER seen written about, like the entire Crime Club series of the late 1930's. His book covers in great detail Universal's horror and mystery output from the 1930's, and wonderfully so! Here's hoping he does another volume for the 1940's films. Can't wait to see what he writes about JUNGLE WOMAN!! A 'must have' for any horror film fan!

Wonderfully written, full of intelligent, objective opinions, Soister's book is a breath of fresh air on a subject that I suspect most fans feel they already know thoroughly. "Of Gods and Monsters" opened my eyes to the many dozens of "forgotten" Universal films made in the 1930s, particularly their oddball mysteries (like the fascinating "Inner Sanctum" series). Sadly, few of these films are available on home video... yet. One hopes that perhaps NBC-Universal's execs will read this book and learn about their past history, and open up the vaults so that fans can enjoy these classics again, instead of having them gather dust.

If you have Soister's book, along with the Brunas/Brunas/Weaver "Universal Horrors: The Studio's Classic Films" (also from McFarland), you've got a fairly well-rounded coverage of Hollywood's great horror classics. I only wish that the publishers would consider allowing the author to do a second volume covering the rest of Universal's classic mystery/SF/horror films from 1940-1959. That would tell the rest of the story, particularly for the 1940s, which was a very rich period for the studio.

Usually I skip long, detailed plot synopses in movie books, but with Soister I look forward to them. Like most critics, Soister is even more entertaining when discussing a bad film -- I laughed out loud through his description of several stinkers in this entertaining book -- but this teacher from Pensylvania is never less than authoritative. Soister covers all the Universal horror, sci-fi, and related films 1929-1939 in this handsome volume, which no fan of the genres should be without. It doesn't matter that "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" have been discussed at length in previous works -- do yourself a favor and "see" them once more through the eyes of John Soister!

This book haunts me. I keep going back to it. Ive never reviewed a book but I felt the need here. Ive real endless books but this one is different. read it.

Truly one of the great works of recent French literature.

Michel Tournier is, without doubt, the most important French writer of the last 50 years. One of his biographers has spoken of him having "Reconceived the very nature of fiction". 'The Ogre' (his second book) is widely regarded as one of the greatest novels of that same period and yet it seems to have fallen, if not into obscurity, then at least somewhat out of the spotlight.

Tournier is most interested in the essential myths of Western culture. He reinterprets these in his novels and uses them to critique the assumptions and the norms of our society.

'The Ogre' or 'The Erl-King' as it was originally titled, is an utterly extraordinary book. It concerns the life of Abel Tiffauges, a physical monster, but also an innocent. His story is set largely among the rise and fall of the third Reich, but encompasses a breathtaking array of mythological, psychological and spiritual ideas.

The language of the novel is sumptuous, the attention to detail unparallelled. Certain passages of the book are completely heart-breaking, particularly when exposing the casual cruelty of man, whilst others are entrancingly beautiful.

Alongside that the book is also a compulsively readable tale of adventure, destiny and discovery. Full of wonderfully arcane details and fabulously structured parallels and mirrors the book continually delights and enriches the reader.

I've just finished re-reading 'The Ogre', some 12 or so years after my first encounter, and I can honestly say it's still the best book I've ever read.

All lovers of Nabokov, Calvino, Borges, Joyce & John Banville, to name a few, should order their copy now!

Although considered part of the Western Canon (by Harold Bloom), you won't find this one on any of the lists of the Best Novels of the 20th Century. It's a shame that a work of this quality and power has not reached a wider audience, or has been so readily forgotten, especially since it deals with one of the most significant events of the 20th century: the Holocaust.

The Ogre is the story of of a French mechanic whose bizarre habits (eating raw meat, photographing and tape-recording children) would send most people running from his company, but Abel Tuffauges is an innocent who is slowly sucked into the German war machine. His adventures take him deeper into Germany, into the imaginative wilderness of his youth, and deeper into the past, illustrating the contrast between the French and the German cultures. The story is framed with wonderful mythoological images, from the story of St. Cristopher to a blind moose that visits Abel in 'Canada' -- a secluded cabin in the German hinterland.

The novel achieves its full power when Abel is drawn into recruting for the Hitler youth, though he does not realize what fate he has doomed his beloved boys to until he finds a Jewish child who has escaped from Auchwitz. Abel realizes that he has been living a life of ghastly inversions and that the only way to redeem himself is to rescue this child.

The Ogre is a stunning meditation on the nature of evil, and innocence, and the character of Abel Tuffagues has all the strange originality of literature's most memorable personages. Unlike Schindler's List, The Ogre deals ambiguously with the unambiguous evil of the Holocaust, and thus, offers a far more interesting, troubling and rewarding perspetive on the subject. Highly recommended.

When Michel Tournier is mentioned to someone, you often hear comments like: "Isn't that the author who could only write about human sexual perversions?", but if you examine his work more deeply, you'll see that there is a lot more to his writing than that.

"The Ogre" is his second novel and it starts by telling us the story of a French mechanic named Abel Tiffauges, living during the end of 1930's, who one day injures his right hand.

This fascinating novel is divided into six segments, from wich the first (and the longest) is the most fascinating, as it deals with this multi-dimencional character's past and present by the way of one year's worth of diaries wich he starts writing with his left hand after the previously mentioned accident. By the end of the segment this strange character of Abel Tiffauges with his peculiar habits and personality feels extremely real and deep, hence securing the feeling of reality of the whole artistically written book. Finally, the segment ends as Tiffauges stops writing after the beginning of the war between France and Germany.

The first segment is followed by three weaker segments wich, unlike the first one, are told in a traditional third-person narrating and are filled with surprisingly unlikely coincidences and forced events as they describe Tiffauges' journey through nazi-Germany, first as a French soldier, then as a prisoner of war, and finally a ranger.

Then the novel improves again as it gets to its fift segment, wich almost raises to the level of the first one. It shows us an itriquing transformation process, as, again by ridiculously not beliavable coincidences, Tiffauges ends up being an SS-officer and an instructor in a Hitler-Jugend training facility.

Step by step this first reluctant character grows more and more fascinated with anti-semitism and the complex scientific assumptions about racial differences. The segment is dark and unsettling, as the character is devided into two, when he can't separate reality with what he's been thought.

In the sixth and final segment the reader gets to witness Tiffauges' journey through chaos, as he experiences an enlightment that leads to his understanding of his own inner evil and eventually to self-destruction. This process is unevenly described, and not sufficiently explained, as it occurs suddenly and doesn't really lead anywhere.

The ending of the book is blurry, and it leaves the reader frustrated, as it leaves issues unfinished and not dealt with.

In the end "The Ogre" is a book that I recommend to anyone, even though many people will probably not like it as much as I did.

But weather you like it or not, don't leave it unfinished. Once you start it, you'll have to see it through.

This book was great. It felt like I was reading about 3 dimensional characters, not stereotypical cops. An excellent plot that unfolds a little at a time. I would have to say that author CAUNITZ owes a great deal to the late, great ED McBAIN. For a first novel, CAUNITZ delivers a polished product and succeeds on many different levels. I have never been a police detective so I would not really know the authenticity of their dialogue but these detectives talk like real people. All in all a great book and I am glad I picked it up at the library and am looking forward to reading more from this author.

Strong character development, plausible plot, realistic dialogue with a splash of sexuality. Opening pages can be a bit disturbing; not for the faint of heart. Well worth reading; a good book to read when you don't sleep alone. And hope no one you care about ends up in the scenes he describes!

I had nightmares after the first night of reading due to Caunitz's vivid depiction of a murder scene. The book had a marvelous pace and had nice character and plot development. If you like whodunits you'll love "One Police Plaza"

When the body of Sara Eisinger, travel agent is found, it is just another homicide for Detective Lieutenant Dan Malone and his detectives. Then a few of her possessions are checked and things don't add up. A key that gives access to an exclusive sex club. Two phone numbers that are unlisted CIA. Definitely not your typical travel agent.

These cause Malone and his team to become embroiled in a mystery involving the NYPD, CIA and Mossad. His bosses try to stop the investigation from proceeding but it's already too late and the action carries on until the inevitable violent conclusion in Brooklyn.

Overall this book is a good read. As the author is a retired Detective Lieutenant of the NYPD, you can't help wonder how much of Dan Malone is based around William J. Caunitz. As would be expected, the routine police work is detailed and is interspersed well with some of the action sequences.

This is the authors first book, which is maybe why everything is oriented around the main character, whom just happens to be something that the author once was. Not that this is a negative point, the story line works well and although the main story-line itself is not too plausible, IMO, the way that it is constructed has given the book a feeling of authenticity that someone without the authors background would maybe not have been able to do.

David Lucas (davidlu@sco.com).

The drab, dangerous and often funny details of police work give One Police Plaza a hard-boiled realism. Caunitz shows how government hacks, Mafiosi, reporters, spies and even New York's Catholic Diocese are linked to the cops and each other by a system of favors Malone's manipulation of his superiors and his relentless dedication give this novel the page-turning pull we expect from a good thriller. Its special strength is its carefully exacting depiction of what the working life of a big city police department really is like. With the same bold clarity that served him as a New York City police detective, first-novelist Caunitz delivers a powerful tale of murder and espionage. . . Caunitz expertly depicts the stark reality of the police officer's life and work, and his hard-edged prose drives the story to a stunning conclusion.

After 13 years since I read this book for the first time, it still remains one of my favorites. I find it so dense of deep meanings, and so pleasant to read, that every now and then I'm still captured to read a chapter here and there, when I happen to have it in my hands. I will try to describe it in a few lines, despite that a comprehensive review of the book would require much more effort, which such a masterpiece would certainly deserve.

It is an outstanding philosophical and psychological novel, fresh and humoristic, but deep and contemplative at the same time, that deals with the theme of 'identity'. It develops concepts that foresee our contemporary sensibility so well, that after almost a century their validity is perfectly unchanged.

Reality is illusory, relative and subjective, and always becomes the expression of personal interpretations. Communication is made out of subjective distortions, of standardized definitions through `labels' that are attached to persons and situations. And the characters built by these labels end up by having their own lives, in the projection of our ego in the perception of the others, as well as in our occasional will to become what the others want us to be.

But our identity is fluid, in a `continuous becoming'. It cannot be made still, in a definition, if not at the price of losing its dynamic character, or even its transitory reality. Such lack of identification leads each of us to become, in the end, absolutely alone, with our own misperception of ourselves, unknown even to ourselves.

It is a 'cerebral' writing, full of contorted but still delicious meditations that give the reader the chance to recognize himself into the main character of the novel, "Vitangelo Moscarda". The style is however bright and colorful, at times able to admirably convey inner sensations in the description of certain landscapes, at times so immediate and simple in the use of humor and comicity, to effectively entertain the reader throughout the book.

Admirers of Pirandello's plays will be grateful for the new translation of the author's 1926 novel, "One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand," for it illuminates the background of Pirandello's theatrical works.The novel includes similar legerdemain; the reader observes the author playing with time, people and places. It reflects his cross-eyed way of looking at life and society, later seen in his major plays, "Six Characters in Search of an Author," "As You Desire Me" and "Tonight We Improvise."

The central character in the novel, a small-town squire, looks in the mirror one day, touches a nostril and feels some pain. His wife tells him his nose tilts to the right, something he had not realized before. Catching sight of his reflection in the mirror again, he concludes that he possesses different personalities. So begins a search to discover his various selves. After a series of bizarre incidents, he is deserted by his wife and is declared insane. The court gives his money to a poorhouse; he becomes its first guest. In the poorhouse, he becomes the "no one"of the book's title.

By being no one, the squire becomes everyone. He can be reborn again and again. "I am I and you are you," the squire, speaking as the first-person narrator of the novel, declares. In the end, he says: "I no longer look at myself in the mirror, and it never even occurs to me to want to know what has happened to my face and to my whole appearance. The one I had for the others must have seemed greatly changed and in a very comical way, judging by the wonder and the laughter that greeted me."

Trying to explain a Pirandello plot is like trying to catch a tiger by the tail or walking with Vulcan on the lava of Mount Etna: dangerous. Put it this way: "One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand" is Pirandellian...

Rarely a soliloquy is so interesting and fun to read. Pirandello has masterfully achieved both. This is the story of man searching through his monologues to find out himself as seen by others and as he assumes he really is wihout what he has assumed all his life. Each brief chapter is a exploration of the different aspects of the man's reality, examined now from a detached position. The reflections are serious and profound, but they keep a good sense of humor through out the whole narrative. It is a recommended reading for anybody.

This book is something you must read if you feel like people don't understand you. You must read this book when you think your friends know you. This is a book one must read alone, in a room, in front of a mirror - you'll be trying to catch yourself in the mirror as others see you.

This short book by Pirandello is a quick read, but if you're like me the ideas will stay with you. Pirandello explores the nature of personal identity and the disconnect between self-image and the views that others have of us. It's not a great book, but it is a very good one and is definitely worth the afternoon spent reading.

I would recommend this book to anyone seriously wanting to get an idea of what it takes to become a Navy SEAL. This photo essay chronicles the journey of an actual BUD/s class from start to finish. While I have read other accounts, the pictorial evidence really clarifies some of what happens and why so many would-be SEALs drop out during the process. Only the most determined and mentally tough make it through these lengthy, grueling tests of strength and character. These men have my respect and my admiration.

Bravo to Richard for his hard work and dedication to the SEAL/SOF community. I was an instructor in BUDS during the making of Richards book and couldnt have asked for a more genuinely interested person to be around us. Richard has the unique ability of photographing his subjects in the most intimate situations, all while maintaining unshakeable rapport with instructors and students alike. Richard has given a much needed inside look (without going too far) at what these men go through during training. Hats off to Richard for a first class photo journal. BH

This oversized pictorial book describes the training conducted at BUD/S in pretty good detail. In my opinion the photographer, did a fairly decent job with the capture methods used to entail the rigorous training involved in the six month training program.

First of all, it's HUGE and BOLD! ... not wimpy on presentation. Very interesting narrative you don't normally see in photographer's projects; you can really follow these soldiers through their intriguing training process and their "becoming".

I must admit I am a bit biased. My son was in Buds class 246 which is the subject of the book. It gave me a real life insight into what BUDs is really all about. I had a difficult time finding the book a local books stores and really appreciated the fact that Amazon carried it. Some hard to find dealers wanted as much as $120.00 for a used copy of it.

Full of brilliant characters and bursting with wry humour, "The Swords of Lankmar" (the novel forming half of this volume) is illuminating about the inhabitants of our world whilst being most entertainingly set in Leiber's alternative one. This transcends its genre to be wonderful literature.

Set mostly within Lankhmar - Above and Below - The Swords of Lankhmar is the obvious one here for maximum entertainment value, incorporating lots of great characters, F.L's passion for contact sports, and the Twains' willingness to indulge in such, given opportunity - yet always ready to defend Lankhmar, if coincident with their own interests. This is a book in its own right, with a huge amount of detail and plot for a hair over two hundred pages. A short mid section comprising a half dozen very short stories, leads onto, The Frost Monstreme and Rime Isle ( two parts of a novella, precursor to the fourth volume of the set, Farewell to Lankhmar). Reviews that I have read regarding these last two stories describe them as being below par, and drab. I don't agree with this at all. They are of the same quality as, The Swords of Lankhmar, except Lankhmar isn't much a part of the picture, and the cast of characters aren't as dramatically differentiated: No eight teated rat-queen (Hisvet), white-hot-wire whip wielding mistress ( Samanda), invisible girl-ghoul ( Bonny-bones), bat-carrier albatross, Glipkerio, Skwee, etc. F. L's use of language, and ability to integrate a lot of unlikely themes - not so much the Twains' use of weapons - are the primary factors, which make these stories work so well today. I'm not saying that it's style over content, but without it, they would come across as pulp adventure tales, for which they were geared towards in the first place, and where in-depth character development was inappropriate. So whilst the last two stories are, in essence, as good as the first of the book, with respect to style and construction, they lack colour due to the reduction in location and up-front character dynamics, needing more of the character insight details as used in, The Mouser goes Below (Farewell to Lankhmar ), to compensate.

Essentially two relatively brief novels with six short stories intermixed between, Leiber continues the adventures of two of the most original characters to grace fantasy fiction, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Though after reading "Ill Met in Lankhmar" and "Lean Times in Lankhmar" Leiber's at times over-worked prose is beginning here to wear thin, he nonetheless retains an ability for vividly worded description and a well-turned phrase that sets his work apart from other fantasy fiction. Ever inventive in plot, Leiber is even able to construct a war between Lankmar's human inhabitants and underworld rats and pull it off, creating the best fable of human and rodent relationships since the "Pied Piper of Hamlin."

While I would agree with an earlier reviewer regarding the last two tales included--"The Frost Monstreme" and "Rime Island"--I would have to say that at least four of the included short stories are insubstantial, including "The Sadness of the Executioner" lauded below. Further, there has been better rounded works in fantasy published since Leiber wrote this series. Nonetheless, this belongs on any serious fantasy afficianado's reading list; though, being out of print, one may need to undergo some effort to find it.

Fritz Leiber was a fantasy writer when that genre existed in people's minds, Jeckyll and Hyde style, as either the Christian allegories of the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams) or the garish pulp of Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert E. Howard. Leiber, no shrinking violet, considered himself the literary equivilent of the former but embraced the visceral stylings of the latter. Indeed, the Lankhmar books, Leiber's penultimate achievement, are a much more enjoyable read when one has seen Leiber's notes and commentary on his contemporaries and predecessors.

This is why White Wolf Publishing's new collection of Leiber's Lankhmar tales is such a fine accomplishment. In addition to the stories themselves, a number of Leiber forwards, postscripts, correspondence, and related writings are included in each volume, giving the readers rare and valuable insight into the author of these fantasy favorites. Indeed, the heart of any literary fan must go aflutter at the possibilities when Leiber writes off-hand about his near-attempts to write stories based on the Cthulhu mythos of contemporary and friend H.P. Lovecraft. Those musings, along with the greatest of Leiber's works, "Swords of Lankhmar", and others are included in this third part of White Wolf's reissue.

"Return to Lankhmar" is, far and away, the most enjoyable and engaging of White Wolf's Lankhmar compendium, both for the casual scholar and voracious fantasy reader. "Swords of Lankhmar", apart from being Leiber's greatest story, is one of the high watermarks in fantasy literature all together - a mix of action, wit, and self-reference that is sure to win over the hearts of any fans of the genre. A must on anyone's "To Read" fantasy list and a book (indeed the whole series) that should find a home on the shelf of any fan.

Leiber is one of the best writers of this century in or out of the fantasy genre. His stories are amazing poetic works -- as well as brilliant tales. His two heroic but flawed and realistic characters were the first complex and adult protaganists in pulp fiction -- far more interesting to watch while saving the world (or simply their own skins) than the belligerent Conan or self absorbed Elric. That Leiber also includes some other elements rare in fantasy lit is a bonus: realistic combat (based on his own fencing knowledge), a wry but understanding knowledge of religion, comments on metaphysics and philosophy, the nature of true friendship, complicated relationship and sexual situations (including more than of a touch of the fetishistic and kinky), unnerving elements of horror, and especially the more than waiting-to-be-rescued women of his stories. The Swords of Lhankmar is his only novel of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser -- and it is easily the best adult fantasy novel ever written. From it's ironic and violent opening to it's last-minute rescue finish, it is better than anything published in this field since. It is strange, violent, a bit perverse, and very funny. The story The Sadness of the Executioner -- which is in Swords and Ice Magic -- gets my vote as the most elegant peice of fantastic literature ever written. A short, short story that is mostly a prose poem about the nature of mortality, it is surprising, somber and funny, all within a dozen pages.

And what of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser themselves? Fafhrd is the surprisingly complex barbarian warrior with a poet's heart and sometimes gullible nature. The Mouser is ever cynical, slightly evil, always self-involved, and too clever by half. The two are unbeatable in battle, but too likely to fall for the right scam or the wrong set of lovely eyes. The argue, brawl, drink, discuss the nature of reality, explore, steal, serve masters good and ill, and swashbuckle their way across the most imaginative stories ever... Read and enjoy.

Megan Feb. 20, 2007

Over the Moon By. Elissa Haden Guest ISBN= 0-553-26565-2

The Journey of a Young Woman

Have you ever felt alone? Like you cant call home? Like you can never go back? This is just the way Kate felt when she ran off to find her sister in Nova Scotia. A week or so after her birthday. This book is about a teenage girl who sets off to find her sister and on the way falls in love. This book is a totally realistic book.

This book is an awesome book for young adults who enjoy love stories. I enjoyed this book because it is a fast moving book with my favorite genre love. I would totally recommend this to all who enjoy love stories.

This book is fast moving and every page you turn there is another exciting and well written page about the memories problems she faces along her journey.

This book was not boring it is very well written and explained in beautiful words. Guest wrote this book very well and there was not a page that I was ever bored. You should defiantly read this book.

I have had this book for years, and I love it so much.
"Over the Moon" tells the story of 16-year-old Kate and her family, which was shaken by the death of both parents in a car accident a few years before and is still feeling the subsequent repercussions of the event: the disappearance of moody Mattie, the unpredictable older sister; the internalized anger of brother Jay; and the loving but overprotective nature of their guardian Aunt Georgia.

Following her 16th birthday, Kate begins a transformative journey into young adulthood, first traveling back to the old family home in New York City with Jay and tormenting herself with a visit to her old crush (and Mattie's ex boyfriend) Will, then later learning Mattie's whereabouts and making a trek to Canada to find her. In her reunion with her sister, who often caused so much strife in the family, Kate gets to know Mattie in a new light, but also gets to know herself at a new plane in her life. An encounter with Max, another young traveler, helps Kate to further grow into her more mature character.

Despite the fact that the main character/narrator is only 16, this is not a story that's limited to younger readers. The descriptive writing is wonderful (their home in Massachusetts, the trip to New York, Kate's journey and Mattie's home are all filled with marvelous descriptions and details), and the characters are very real: realistically flawed, troubled but not melodramatically so, and dynamic in the way that real people are (and too often characters in books are not).

This story for me is timeless. I first found this book when I was 11; I am now in my mid-20s and still come back to it on occasion. I would recommend it to anyone seeking a mature coming-of-age story or a portrait of character growth. Both are realized in the character of Kate.

This is a wonderful book, beautifully written, with interesting, believable characters you really care about right away. There's a strong sense of place and a totally enveloping mood; it's a book you don't want to leave once you start. I've read this book once a year for four years, and I want to buy it but it's out of print. I think that's really sad; Elissa Haden Guest is a talented writer and I hope she's still writing books.

This is an incredible book. I first read it when I was about 11 and have been able to read it over and over without being dissapointed. The thing that hits me the most about this book is the authors use of language and discription. Every time I read it I find myself wishing that I could live in it.

Over The Moon was really fabulous- but then again maybe I'm just prejudiced because I'm friends with the author's daughter and the author. Still, it was much more than what I read about on the back- I was very impressed by the used of a sort of simple, non-overwhelming feeling of the words, while it retained a great emotional value.