Fan Fiction Books

I have not been to a ballgame yet but when I do, i will bring this book with me. It is a great guide with tips on how to get a baseball(get to the game early, etc.) I am glad that there is someone from New York who agrees with me about the kid who reached onto the field in Yankee stadium. Recommended for any baseball fans. END

We snagged a baseball within 24 hours after the book arrived, at Shea Stadium, from reliever Armando Benitez. Never thought it would be possible!!

My ten year old grandson is a baseball nut. His greatest dream is to snag a ball at a major league baseball game. I gave Zack Hample's HOW TO SNAG MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALLS to him and he can't wait for the season to start so that he can put into practice what this so smart book teaches him to do.

This book will put a major league baseball in your hands. I stumbled on some of the tips Zack explains in trying to get a ball myself. But Zack outlines many more - most common sense - but easy to overlook unless you have the single-minded devotion to major league baseball acquisition that characterizes Zack. This is a book for all little boys and girls, even those over ten (or forty) years of age, whose passion is to hold their own major league baseball.

I bought Fred Day's book for my husband, the sports nut. He loved it! He encouraged me to read it and I hesitated, since I only half-heartedly pay attention to whatever game-de-jour he has on TV. Well, for once he was right! I don't know that much about sports, but I found this book fascinating. You'll love Day's well-written and compelling stories. It's a look at sports from another angle...one that even I could relate to. Who'd have thought a book by a lawyer about sports could be so interesting, amusing, and memorable! I would highly recommend this book--to sportsfans or not!

I found the author's writing to be clear and concise, easy to understand, no legalese. The author's subtle humor and well-researched documentation of both little-known and well-known sports facts, legal manipulations involved, and legal precedents make this compilation of legal cases such an easy, pleasurable read that even those who thought they knew all there was to know in the sports world will be amazed, surprised, and enlightened. A great book for anyone who loves sports trivia. Knowledge of law not a prerequisite. Think Christmas gift!

WOW! What a fun time I had reading this, and I'm neither a sports nut nor a lawyer (though I did manage to learn alot about both). I can only imagine that those who are sports crazed and/or legal beagles would be even more impressed with Frederick Day's amazing collection of anecdotes.

Dark Side Of The Moon by Tami Parrington is the story of Kia Lambert, an idealistic and newly hired female assistant to the massively famous and popular musician Gabriel Evans. But when the musician's fabulous life starts to crumble apart, all Kia's imagined solutions fall to ruin and she must ultimately learn that sometimes one must allow a loved one to fall and fail. Dark Side Of The Moon is commended as a powerful and entertaining saga of transcendence, bitter wisdom, and learning to accept harsh realities.

The book is about Kia Lambert who finds herself working for the greatest entertainer of all time - her dream job! She has had a secret plan, and it's working...

At first glance, you've got a pretty cool plot.

What makes it cool is not only the plot, though, but the book describes the fanworld to such a perfection I was wondering if she was describing me or not... And the rest of the entertaiment world? Seemed freakishly accurate to what I've heard.

And not only that! The book has more twists and turns than the internet has webpages, but... Tami Parrrington manages to keep it easy to follow... Quite a ride!

Read the book! You will not regret it!

An innocent obsession forces Kia Lambert, a sweet yet determined Midwestern
girl, to work her way into the entourage of Gabriel Evans, the world's most
famous pop-star. Getting close and intimate with the living legend is her
primary goal, and it seems just as unreachable as flying to the moon. Yet
soon her wits and charm allow her to enter his life.

One thing she doesn't know is that in a while she might want to escape. But
what sacrifice will it take?

Gabriel Evans's glittering world is built on the dark secrets of his past.
But no secret can stay a secret forever. Running along the edge of a blade,
torn between the all-mighty image demands, the never-ending wars of the
entertainment business and his own withered dreams of art and freedom, he
has enough problems without a smart fangirl conniving her way up to his
personal assistant position.

One thing he doesn't know is that she might be his destiny. Or his jinx?
It's a vivid story of falling stars, broken hearts and the choices we make.

The Essential J.R.R. Tolkien Sourcebook by George Beahm is a superbly presented, fan-centered guide to the fantasy world of Middle Earth, a magical land originally envisioned by celebrated author J.R.R. Tolkien in his famous trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" and his other thematically related writings. Featuring information about Lord of the Rings merchandise and collectibles, books about Tolkien, computer software, Tolkien-themed websites, and other online Tolkien related resources, The Essential J.R.R. Tolkien Sourcebook is highly recommended (indeed, an essential reference) for anyone seriously interested in learning more about the fan-culture surrounding this epic and enduringly popular literary saga.

George Beahm's love for Tolkien's work shines through every page of The Essential J.R.R. Tolkien Sourcebook.

Beahm starts with the Lord of the Rings books themselves and their various editions, from "the most elegant edition" to "the cleverest packaging." From there he branches out to chronicle related works by Tolkien and about Tolkien and LotR, and of course he examines the visual adaptations. He is both reverent and critical. He has harsh words, for instance, for the "full-screen" version of The Fellowship of the Ring, which is "severely cropped to fit the conventional television screen," and warns that the binding of one lavish edition "will not hold up after repeated readings." Audio adaptations, printed products, book- and movie-related collectibles, ring replicas, games and miniatures, websites...these and more fall under Beahm's Sauron-like all-seeing eye.

Then there's Chapter 11, my favorite, that delves into Tolkien-inspired art. Illustrations by Colleen Doran, Tim Kirk, David Wenzel, Steve Hickman, and Donato Giancola enhance an informative chapter on Tolkien artists from the Hildebrandts to Michael Whelan. Doran contributes a number of lovely and delicate full-page illustrations to the book and also provides spot art and illustrated chapter headings, elegant touches that give evidence to Beahm's genuine love for the subject matter.

For fans of Middle Earth, George Beahm's The Essential J.R.R. Tolkien Sourcebook is just that...essential.

George Beahm's new book takes a long overdue look at the world of JRR Tolkien: not the world of Middle Earth itself, but rather the extraordinary industry which has grown up around the writer's creation. Upon perusing this book the Tolkien fan, both expert and novice, will find a wealth of information regarding just how much is available to them. Beahm provides clear and concise reviews of all manner of Tolkien books, art, games, DVDs, collectibles and merchandise; and provides details of various rare editions which the true fan may want to track down.

All this is backed up with in-depth interviews with the best of the Tolkien artists, including Michael Whelan, Tim Kirk and Colleen Doran. Indeed, Doran provides a host of new drawings especially for this book - and magnificent they are too!

For the Tolkien fan wondering where to go next, this book is a must.

Only book I've read.

If you've never read anything from "Trek - The Magazine for Star Trek fans" , don't worry, you're not the only one. I haven't. When i got this book, the only Star Trek Magazine was the official one, Communicator.So, ignoring the fact, I read it, originally thinking it was a fanfiction book. But it was actually a book about facts, opinin and debate. It had intresting situations, about characters from the series, Classic Trek vs 90's trek, Trekkie conventions and more.The book got me more interested in Star Trek itself, and would highly reccomended it for any Trekkie, casual viewer, or someone who is just slightly interested in.

I'f you've never read Trek magazine (or even heard of it),don't worry. You're not alone. Until i read this book, i thought the only Star Trek mag was Communicator. Ignoring that, I picked up the book and startred reading. It was full of opinions, facts and debate. It had lots of interesting topics, like who would be my most logical woman for Spock, How Star Trek movies are like literature, and why Classic Trek is better than the '90s trek shows (my favourite). The Best of Trek is Trek at it's Best.

Following the enchanting Swordbird, Sword Quest is better! How interesting that this book is a prequel and can be read alone but is better when reading them in order. Nancy Yi Fan says her next book will fall between the two books sequentially so there looks like we may have another great series in the making. As a Reading teacher, my 6th graders loved this book and so did I! The way the birds become human-like characters is so interesting and engages your emotions and heart!

Ranks up there with the Warrior and the Seekers series. If you like them, you will love these!

My third grade son claims Sword Bird as his favorite book and says that he liked this prequel "almost as much." He reads constantly, so naming a book as a favorite is a big claim for him. He and a number of friends his age have reporting loving Sword Quest because the characters and action are so interesting. I think they also are intrigued that it was written by such a young person.

My 7-year old son and I read Swordbird first before reading this prequel and I enjoyed both books every bit as much as he did if not more. To think a 12-year old girl imagined this wonderful story filled with rich characters is both humbling and fascinating. I dearly hope Nancy Yi Fan will continue writing this series. I would put her series in a league near Harry Potter.

I loved every minute of this book!!! The book is fun, and a good change from the serious subjects of the teenage world. The main character, C.C. has a funny personality, and reminds me of a lot of my friends. Cluck is "delicious" as Grace says, and Natalie is the queen of clothes. All the characters remind me of real life people, and the book was realistic in a crazy way. I'm gonna read more of the author's works. I just hope they halfway resemble this book!

I read about this book in a review in seventh grade and wanted to read it so badly, my mom and I searched libraries everywhere! We finally got it through an inter-library loan from Vancouver, Canada. As soon as I picked up the book, I knew all of our hard work was worth it. I was wrapped up in the story of beautiful C. C. I read the story in two hours flat; not because it was easy. Just because I couldn't put it down. Pre-teens and teenage girls everywhere--this is the book. If you own one book in all of your teenage years, make it this one. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

An excellent collection of short fiction. Each tale is as compelling, as it is entertaining. Conrad is one of the best short story writers ever he is like a darker Stevenson who delves into the human psyche.

I read this book for a graduate Humanities course. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, written in 1899 is a seminal work about the ills of colonialism, as well as a postmodern look at the subject of mankind. Conrad's book had a crucial influence on five important works of the twentieth century: J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land, Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces, and Francis Ford Coppolla's movie Apocalypse Now, screenplay by John Milius, was based on Conrad's book. Another interesting fact is that this work was read by Orson Welle's Mercury Theater Players on the radio and was to be his first movie. After doing some work on it he abandoned the project to do Citizen Kane! I would have loved to of seen what Welles could have done with this story. Conrad's story is so riveting in part, because he himself served as a riverboat captain. High school teachers and college professors who have discussed this book in thousands of classrooms over the years tend to do so in terms of Freud, Jung, and Nietzsche; of classical myth, Victorian innocence, and original sin; of postmodernism, postcolonialism, and poststructuralism.

Just a taste of the plot reels you in! Marlow, the narrator of Heart of Darkness and Conrad's alter ego, is hired by an ivory-trading company to sail a steamboat up an unnamed river whose shape on the map resembles "an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country and its tail lost in the depths of the land" (8). His destination is a post where the company's brilliant, ambitious star agent, Mr. Kurtz, is stationed. Kurtz has collected legendary quantities of ivory, but, Marlow learns along the way, is also rumored to have sunk into unspecified savagery. Marlow's steamer survives an attack by blacks and picks up a load of ivory and the ill Kurtz; Kurtz, talking of his grandiose plans, dies on board as they travel, downstream.

Sketched with only a few bold strokes, Kurtz's image has nonetheless remained in the memories of millions of readers: the lone white agent far up the great river, with his dreams of grandeur,his great store of precious ivory, and his fiefdom carved out of the African jungle. Perhaps more than anything, we remember Marlow, on the steamboat, looking through binoculars at what he thinks are ornamental knobs atop the fence posts in front of Kurtz's house and then finding that each is "black, dried, sunken, with closed eyelids-a head that seemed to sleep at the top of that pole, and with the shrunken dry lips showing a narrow white line of the teeth" (57).

I especially became interested in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness from the movie Apocalypse Now. There is a scene in the movie that shows Colonel Kurtz's nightstand in his cave. T. S. Elliott's poem the Waste Land is one of three books on the nightstand. The other two are Jessie L. Weston's book From Ritual to Romance, and J. G. Frazier's book The Golden Bough. Anyone wanting to understand the movie Apocalypse Now, especially the character of Colonel Kurtz, and what Milius and Copolla are trying to tell their audience need to read these three books as well as Conrad's Heart of Darkness!

As a graduate student reading in philosophy and history I recommend this book for anyone interested in literature, myth, history, philosophy, religion and fans of Apocalypse Now.

A first book by a new author, this is an excellent detective story, written by someone who obviously knows whereof he speaks. I found it started a little slowly, but the more I read, the better it got and the more engrossed I became. Then it just took off and I couldn't put it down. The characters are excellently idiosyncratic, the author nails the dialog and interactions between his people, the plot is gripping and well-paced, the narrative involving, and the resolution ultimately very satisfying.
Do yourself a favor, read this and pass it on-publishers need to be encouraged to publish more books like this.

I found this book to have all the elements needed to make reading a pleasant experience. The characters take on a life all their own. It is very apparent that Charles Porter has worked in the detective field for many years, as the plot is beleivable and is interesting until the very end. This is a book that rates right up there with some of the best I've ever read and I recomend it to anyone that takes pleasure in reading. One word of caution, make sure you don't have any up and coming plans, the book is difficult to put down

This is a very entertaining book and not difficult to read. Most book lovers will love the book. In my review below I do not give away the plot. That is left for the reader to discover.

I read "Dubliners" and then read the present 250 page book as a warm up to ease into "Ulysses." This is a better book than "Dubliners" and we see the genius of Joyce without being intimidated - as the reader can be with "Ulysses." As a side note, the protagonist Stephen Dedalus has the same name and is similar to one of the three main characters in "Ulysses."

If you are looking for a lot of analysis this is probably not the only book to buy. This Signet version contains the story plus Langdon Hammer's 18 page introduction. I avoided reading that first, because it seems to give away most of the key parts, or at least enough that one does not want to read it until later. Overall, I loved the book and thought the analysis was good but short.

The book starts with Joyce recalling a few childhood memories, and it will probably stir some memories in the reader as well. He has very colourful descriptions of his parents, relatives, and his teachers, especially various Irish Catholic priests.

Is Joyce a genius or just crazy? He seems to have a bit of the crazy streak in him, and perhaps that why the novel is so creative. The prose and writing is among the most impressive that most will ever see. The book contains beautiful descriptions of his childhood, then Catholic schools, and then his college days. The prose and vocabulary is Joyce's own. It is laced with Irish expressions and phrases - not the lengthy descriptive phrases of a Hemingway, but dense, and expressive, sometimes quickly changing as we read. Sometimes it is long and rambling as he describes a scene beside the ocean or brings us into one of his dreams. It is a wonderful experience, and I found myself being thankful that I had decided to read this Joyce novel. It is probably in the top 10 for writing and creativity, weak on structure.

People looking for a story and structure will be annoyed as was the person who rejected the first publishing. It is a superb mixture of memories, dreams, and fiction, all blended together.

Joyce provides no narration; he writes as if we are watching a movie, mostly going forward in time but not always. The reader is left to sort out the time and place or if it is real or just a dream as we travel from scene to scene through the book. As noted in the analysis, Joyce is in direct contact with the reader. There is nobody in between to guide the reader and explain what it means. You determine that from the dialogue. In any case, we follow him from a young school lad to his college days. We learn of his struggle to whether embrace the Catholic Church and be a priest, or whether to take another path.

This is superb writing, and one appreciates why Joyce is famous. As a novel it is a bit lacking but few will notice any flaws.

I bought this book but it took me a long time to get into it. The "Moo-cow" business I didn't get. It seemed so silly and trivial and I, of course, was very, very serious. But one day I don't know why I just sat down and started reading it. Being Irish and Catholic the book became very pertinent in a short number of pages. At the time I read this book I was shocked that somebody should know my personal story and personal thoughts so vividly. I realize now that this is the personal story of a myriad of young Irish Catholic boys. This was a very good book and it tackled some very serious issues regarding faith, religion, and the Catholic Church.
This book was partially responsible for my life long interest in reading. Once I understood that the people who wrote books were the people who were speaking my language and translating my thoughts, I was hooked. Books were not all Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland.