Henry Miller Books

This book covers in a unique way the period when railroads were still making the transition from a ubiquitous public carrier to a limited market high volume transportation mechanism (one that the Boston and Maine never fully made). It was a period of optomism that technology and good management could change things even in the face of the decline of the New England mill economy.

But this is no dry economic tome. Neal covers the Boston and Maine through a series of vignettes of the diverse work force that keeps a railroad going. Each is interesting and well written. With a perspective of 50 years in the future we can see Neal was overoptomistic and maybe not challenging enough at times, but book freezes a railroad in time in a manner which can sustain multiple readings. My dog eared copy is a prized treasure.

Please note that this review is of the book, and not the audio tapes. Also, please check out www dot yourwords dot ca for this review and others.

While there is normally (and quite understandably) a certain stigma attached to essay collections, this is one very noteworthy exception. Covering topics from political discourse and sociological perspective to Shakespeare and "penny-dreadfuls," each essay is written fluidly and intelligently, with insight and understanding. In fact noteworthy is a perfect word to describe Orwell's writing, as I found myself jotting down notes constantly while I read.

In my final year of high school, my English teacher whom I'd respected very much handed out photocopies of an essay called "Politics and the English Language" and encouraged us to read it on our own time- assuring us that it had blown him away. Needless to say, and though I had understood significantly little of the essay at first reading, I too was taken by the ideas within the text and have read it repeatedly since then. After randomly picking up "Inside the whale..." in a used-book shop and seeing "Politics..." in the index, I knew I had to have this book.

There are far too many ideas in the book to discuss at length, but what can be said is that Orwell's breadth of ideas is staggering. I find myself reluctant to continue this review because I cannot intelligently say enough to give anyone a proper idea of just how influential several of these essays were on me, so consider my words to be inadequate as you read on. 'Politics and the English Language' and 'The Prevention of Literature' both observe the decay of language and literature in the face of oppressive governments in so accurate an analysis that this reader couldn't help but nod in solemn agreement as the words enlivened my imagination. It is within these two essays that many ideas later used in 1984 can be found germinating in the writer. The only essay I found to be laborious was the last of the collection, 'Boys' Weeklies,' in which he describes various comics that many young men of his generation grew up reading. This simply didn't interest me because I had never heard of any of the comics, and so the point was ultimately lost on me. 'Shooting an Elephant' could well have been a chapter straight out of Burmese Days, and is particularly noteworthy for Orwell's very personal account of social expectation forcing one to do what one otherwise would not.

If you're into Orwell's writing, this book is a must-have. If you aren't, there are several essays within the collection that everyone should read- even if only to consider the ideas put forth, as they are ideas that do and will affect anyone born into a society such as ours.

Tim is followed home by a stray dog and decides to find the owner of the friendly pup - which leds him to an adventure packed with car chases, mystery, and espionage in Joshua Doder's A DOG CALLED GRK. Middle school grades will appreciate the blend of humor and action which goes beyond the usual dog bonding story and enters into the realm of action and adventure.

Although literary studies have gone through significant changes in recent years, it is always a good idea to look back and re-view how old scholarship has confronted canonical texts in a different context and time. This book is a good sample of such works.

The book is beautifully written and at the time Ruffner
was President of Washington College now Washington and
Lee University. The book was considered to be one of the
first publications to deal with antisemitism. Ruffners
other writings on religion are profound.

For six of its seven scenes, this "melo-melo" is a brilliant play full of associations with the whole range of theater, and then Miller pulls off a little coup de théâtre that makes it really touching and virtuosic.

The dialogue is interestingly keyed for the theater. For example, the Midget says, "Shucks! It's always hopeless, isn't it? All we can do is love." If this were a film, "Shucks!" would be "Aw!" and "we" would be "you".

I bought this book to read the author's thoughts on Bukowski and Miller and was quite impressed with the passion and clarity of his criticism. The best thing about it for me, however, was an introduction into the works of B. Traven, a writer I had never heard of before this book. Traven, the author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and many other novels, is a forgotten treasure in our literature.

I highly recommend this slender volume to anyone interested in discussions of contemporary American literature. Be warned, though: This is not dry, academic discourse. William Joyce, for all of his erudition, is a bloody, passionate thinker and a living man. In other words, he's the perfect sort of fellow to write criticism of Bukowski, Miller and B. Traven.

Loved this book! I have been reading all of Anais Nin and Henry Miller's books and they kept mentioning "Alf"....who is the author of this wonderful gem of a book. I just loved it. HM came to life for me in a way he had never in the other books. I actually enjoyed this book more than HM's books he wrote himself!...Well-written, interesting anecdotes and a fun read. Anyone who is interested in Paris in the 20's and 30's, HM, AN will love this book. He does talk about AN but since AN's husband was still alive he creates two women to describe AN...

Table of Contents:


The Education of Tigress Macardle C. M. Kornbluth
All the Colors of the Rainbow Leigh Brackett
Now Let Us Sleep Avram Davidson
Vengeance for Nikolai Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Seat of Judgment Lester Del Rey
Buy Jupiter! Isaac Asimov
And Then She Found Him . . . Algis Budrys
Before the Talent Dies Henry Slesar
The Comedian's Children Theodore Sturgeon

Katherine has put together an excellent org com textbook: well-written, concise and very well organized. From Time-Motion Studies to Maslow to Theory Y, Ms. Miller gets down to the point, uses tremendous examples and gives excellent bibloigraphic information for further study.

I took Org. Com. as the first communication class I ever had, and although it was a 400-level course, Kathy's book helped make it not only a pleasure and a joy, but the defining class in my determination to pursue an MA in Communication in the Fall of 2002.