T Books

THIS BOOK HELPED ME ALOT TO LEARN HOW TO HELP MY CHILD AFTER WE KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON. GREAT REFERENCE TO HAVE AROUND.

I highly recommend the book "The Highly Sensitive Child" by Elaine Aron to get a different perspective (more positive) on the out of sync child.

This is an excellent book for teachers and parents! It provides useful and very important information to work and deal with kids with sensory integration disorder

As a teacher I found that this book had many fun and functional activities. I do wish this book had more activities for older (teenage) students with moderate to severe disabilities; but, a great book overall.

I *LOVED* this book. It was such a quick read that I got through it in two days, *with* two kids underfoot, but there certainly was no lack in valuable content to read. This has transformed the way that I understand and work with my daughter, and she has had a diagnosis for sensory integration disorder for years! I reccommend this to *any* parent, even those without sensory kids....

Unbelievably inspiring. I challenge you to compare his reading with any one else's or your own in your head. He makes it alive. Not perfect, mind you. You'll find yourself suggesting to him in certain spots that he missed the meaning by putting some emphasis or other on the wrong words. Nevertheless, you know you couldn't do better overall. A real treasure.

My review is of the library binding edition released by Buccaneer Books. It is a very plain and small volume which is wonderfully bound. It contains nothing but the poem itself (including the prose arguments) with the original spelling and punctuation. That means no notes, commentary, or introduction, so if you're looking for lots of in-text help, this isn't what you want. The Fowler, Hughes, or Norton editions are all laden with helpful material like that. But if you just want to experience Milton's masterpiece alone, this is a lovely edition. I found that the book could be purchased much more cheaply if I ordered directly from the publisher's website.

Great for a long drive or while driving cross town in Manhattan. You can debate the issues of suffering with Milton in your head.

Sure do wish it were the whole work.

Contains extensive information in the introduction that is lends an understanding to anyone reading any of Milton's work. This particular version is very inexpensive, and contains everything one would need to understand PL. Excellent!

Milton in Paradise Lost unfurls a morning star banner heralding the cosmic story of the fall of angels and men in language eminently civil. I am sure that Homer and Dante were Milton's schoolmasters yet Milton exceeds them in the slendid language and poetry of this epic creation. Philip Pullman said "No one, not even Shakespeare, surpasses Milton in his command of the sound, the music, the weight and taste and texture of English words". This is a poem of majesty and sublime lyricism as in Milton's description of Mulciber falling: "from Morn
To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve, @@@+PARADISE LOST+@@@
A Summer's day; and with the setting Sun @@@+JOHN MILTON+@@@
Dropt from the Zenith like a falling Star".
Each book of Paradise Lost is introduced with an argument, or summary. These arguments were written by Milton and added because early readers had requested a guide to the poem. Milton's purpose in this masterpiece is to tell about the fall of man and justify God's ways to man. When the angels battle in heaven at one point they pull up mountains and hills and throw them at each other: "So Hills amid the Air encounterd Hills Hurl'd to and fro with jaculation dire, That under ground, they fought in dismal
shade." After their coup attempt in heaven Satan and the other rebel angels are lying stunned on a lake of fire. Satan rises from the lake and makes his way to the shore. He calls the other angels to do the same, and they assemble by and above the lake. Satan tells them that all is not lost and tries to cheer his followers. Led by Mammon and Mulciber, the fallen angels build their capital and palace Pandemonium. They decide to get at God through his new creation and Satan sets off on this mission. In reading Paradise Lost the poem reads the reader while being read. What I mean is that Milton lets his readers go awry in their affections and he corrects and instructs those misreadings as well as anticipates them. In this way the poem becomes a live text with meaning apprehended through the interplay between the peruser of the poem and the text itself. Milton allows the reader to subjectively question the justice of the current religious paradigm and then leads them back to the perspicacity of deity. Ultimately Paradise Lost is Milton's paean to a vast pattern in the universe, the disruption of that pattern by rebels, and the weaving of those rebellion threads back into an ever more beautiful tapestry.

I am stunned by all of the wonderful reviews for this book. I thought it was by far, the worst book I have read since high school. It could not have moved any slower. The thing I did like about it was the ending and things turn around to get you. Just so much of it was completely out of left field. Boring! Boring! Boring!

This is an unbelievably wonderful novel to sink your teeth into. A page turner of high literary merit, accessible and intelligent. Fabulous craft and language, a most diabolical villain who drives even saints to wish him ill.

Yes he is intelligent, arrogant, rough, caustic, poisonous, and evil, all to hide one tiny chink in his armor that nonetheless, one person manages to find.

Read this book! My one regret is that Thomas Savage doesn't know how popular he is today.

The afterword by Annie Proulx reveals even more about Savage's motivation for the novel, and provides an extra ounce of satisfaction to to novel's end.

Read this novel as slowly as you possibly can, for every paragraph is painted with no fewer than two rich coats of molasses-thick paint, and sometimes silver paint in one layer reflects off of another.

Hunted by a dog, chasing prey as a dog, or dog pursuing dog?

Savage leaves nothing to chance, for this novel will speak to all three.


Skip the after-word, initially.

Thank you, Amazon, for recommending this exquisite novel to me as a Gold Box special. With an afterword by Annie Proulx and the recent success of Brokeback Mountain, this exceptional piece of western literature should now find the audience Thomas Savage so richly deserved in 1967. As restrained and sparing in language as its central antagonist, Phil Burbank, Savage has the uncanny gift of eloquence through omission, allowing the reader to read between the lines. I was captivated by his talent, and jolted by an entirely unexpected but immensely satisfying conclusion. This book has been five times optioned for film, yet never made. I doubt that will go on much longer.

A completely unexpected and disturbingly powerful character study of a small group of characters in the West, circa 1940s. The prose here is incredible, and the plot unfolds slowly and myteriously. Palpable tension-- the author knew precisely what he woas doing-- with an ending I truly didn't see coming. One of the most remarkable books I've ever read.

A great book for those engaged in facilitation. It is well written and easy to understand. It is one of the better books I've found on the topic. The reason for 4 start instead of 5 is the price of the book. Books that would compliment this are "Leading Through Collaboration" and Leading Groups to Solutions: A Practical Guide for Facilitators and Team Members

Well written -- brief and to the point. Valuable even if you only read the first and last chapters. If you think you want to work on Facilitation skills -- get this book!

This book starts with good real time situations to describe the common problems in facilitation and how to overcome them. It helps both beginners and serious facilitators. Through a series of real life examples it teaches the best practices for effective facilitation.

I am the Principal of Cohesion Inc, a marketing & business consulting organization, and also a part-time course director in the marketing faculty of the Schulich School of Business, York University in Toronto, Canada.

Facilitation is an important part of my work and teaching, and as such I regularly review literature on this subject to discover new insights and techniques with which to experiment.

Whether you are new to facilitation or already an experienced practitioner, this book will serve as an excellent resource to build your skills in this area.

This is a wonderful, practical, well-written book, with 60 facilitation secrets that are worth far, far more than the price of the pages. In fact, I learned more from this book than I did from a nationally recognized Advanced Facilitation course for $1700.

The chapter on consensus-building, which introduces 4 common techniques for building consensus (Delineation, Strengths and weaknesses, Merge and Weighted Scoring) I found particularly useful. The 6 high-level agendas for common facilitated sessions (among them process improvement and issue resolution) are a must for every facilitator.

I would recommend this book most highly for facilitators who want to build on their existing skills rather than as an introduction to the field, as some of the secrets (those related to dealing with dysfunctional behavior, for example) assume some foundational facilitation skills. However, anyone interested in the field would benefit greatly from the secrets in this book. A truly great addition to the facilitator's library!

Excellent tool for teaching your children about the Orchestra. The CD that comes with it is great.

"Santa" brought this book for our 4 year old. She loves it! It is layed out in a way that we can read just portions of each page without her getting overwhelmed. It is definitely a book she can grow with. Because a mom has to brag: My daughter can now easily name each instrument and knows which "family" it belongs. She laughs hysterically over Beethoven's picture, knows Tchaikovsky composed Swan Lake and the Nutcracker (the sweetest thing is hearing a 4 year old rattle of Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi!) etc. Highly recommended!

We bought this book (with accompanying CD) as a self-contained music course for our homeschooled son (10). Although he had no prior interest in orchestra music, he is reading along together with Mom in the book and listening to an excerpt of orchestra music once a week. The first part of the book has interesting tidbits on musical eras of orchestra music, with biographical overviews of some of the major conductors of each era. The second part of the book contains drawings and descriptions of various orchestra instruments. After a composer or instrument is discussed, the book then refers you to listen to a track on the CD that illustrates the composer's work or the instrument's sound. It's surprisingly difficult to find a good self-contained program for teaching music to children. This book and CD worked well for us.

I purchased this book in preparation for teaching a group of homeschooled students (ages 7-14) a short course in music appreciation. It was a terrific resource for them. The text was brief but engaging; the cartoons were entertaining; and the photography was so eyecatching. It covered the musical periods, with information on several representative composers. Then each of the orchestra sections was covered, with a helpful CD included to hear snips from pieces that featured the instruments. The students all learned quite a bit from this book. I recommend it highly.

I was looking for resources to help make teaching about classical music and composers to primary grade children more entertaining and I found what I needed all wrapped up in this book and CD combination.

Part I of the book concerns composers and is separated into the periods in which they composed, ie., Baroque, etc., with a brief description of art, architecture and feeling of the period. The composers covered for all periods are Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein.

Part II of the book is about the instruments of the orchestra. Again, this is further broken down into the different sections of the orchestra such as strings, woodwinds, etc. Then within each of those sections a feature on the individual instruments.

The accompanying CD has brief examples of the compositions introduced in the composers section and for each instrument. It really helps the kids hear what they've been discussing.

One of the best things about this book are the illustrations. They are colorful and entertaining. Sometimes there are humorous illustrations such as a drawing of the ideal Baroque instrumentalist needing 2 right hands, 3 left hands, and 3 eyes which really had my 3rd grade kids in giggles after hearing the intricacies of "Spring" by Vivaldi. There are also entertaining illustrations showing how an instrument produces its sound and they are mixed with photographs of the instrument itself. I highly recommend this book for music teachers to use as a reference and for parents who have children interested in learning an instrument.

THIS BOOK IS VERY WELL WRITTEN. I LIKE THE MAIN CHARACTER BECAUSE HE IS HUMBLE AND DOWN TO EARTH. JESUS IS VERY WELL DISPLAYED. YOU WANT TO STEP INTO THE BOOK AND MEET THESE CHARACTERS. SCRIPTURE IS PLAYED OUT PERFECTLY.

For years, I've enjoyed Brouwer's mysteries and thrillers. His prose is tight, and he creates memorable characters. I picked up "The Weeping Chamber" wondering if his style would be complimentary to a historical novel. I expected it to be a bit more religious in tone than his previous work, and worried that I might not enjoy it as much.

I should've known better.

As always, Brouwer refuses to fit into preachy boxes. Yes, this is a beautifully written and researched book. It never feels heavy-handed in its details, and yet it feels utterly believable, breathable. Even better, though, it deals with very human struggles. We meet a man named Simeon, who has faced personal grief and resulting guilt. He's lost a child, and his marriage is estranged. Cautious in nature, he's not sure what to think of this new "miracle worker" from Nazareth. Is this man insane, or is he truly God's Son? Soon, Simeon is caught up in the intrigues of those last days of Jesus' life, even intersecting in an unexpected way.

If you want a book that captures the feel of Israel in Jesus' day, and if you want a book that makes those days seem as humanly pregnant with emotion and struggle, then you owe it to yourself to pick up "The Weeping Chamber."

I keep a list of books that have made a strong and marked impact on my life, and this book is very near the top of the list. I found this book in a catalogue and started reading it without any expectations of greatness, but this book made a large impact on my life. Weaving the familiar story of Christ into a person's life, Brouwer threads the pages with truth about God and His love and power. It is not a fast-paced book, but an almost relaxing read. Of course, there are plots turns that will keep your attention, but the soothing way the words flow as you read of the struggles of Simeon is beautiful. I have read this book many times, and I still love it.

This is a great novel--and I'm not too much of a novel reader. I could tell you about the story, but you can read the comments provided by Amazon to get that. I don't have anything else to add to that part. I write the review not to tell you the story, but to tell you that it's a great novel.

I picked this up off a 2-dollar shelf or something--I assure you that this is not the kind of book I would look at and say "Mmmm...now THAT looks interesting." Rather, it is more likely that I would look at this book and think "Mmph...not for me." In retrospect, it is quite remarkable that I bought it at all--regardless of the low price.

So, since I now had the book, I might as well read it, right? So I did. In two days. I don't think I put it down when I had free time. The book is such an easy read, and very entertaining. I was truly impressed by the book. I guess it is one of those books I could call "heartwarming," or "precious." Believe me, coming from a guy, that's quite a compliment (winks). I think I even teared up at the end. Again--coming from a guy, that's kinda impressive, don't you think?

I'm sure the girls are ready to buy it now...just because it made a guy cry...

But guys--don't be turned off becuase I used patty-cake terminology like "precious" to describe this book. It's a great book. It's an entertaining read. It's captivating. It's interesting. It's good. It's not a long book, and I'm pretty sure that if you pick it up, you won't put it down...at least not until you finish it (or it makes you cry too).

Great book.

This might be one of those you look at and a big question mark comes to mind. When my pastor's wife loaned it to me, I'll openly admit it wasn't exactly my first choice of what I wanted to read. We'll, it IS a first recommendation from myself! What a picture.

We join a man named Simeon. A desperate man, to be blunt. To himself, a pathetic man. He has the scars to prove it. But while visiting his cousin, he meets Yeshua. He observes some of his followers, like Peter, and observes the crowds around this amazing man. It is close to Passover. We even get a picture of Pilate, Judas, and many more!

This takes you to the cross. And beyond! You can face tomorrow, people! This actually comes close to "The Passion", but it still touches the heart and pierces the soul.

My final thought is this: If someone loans this to you, read it. Not just another book! I loved it. And it isn't complex, so it makes for an easy read. Wow!

This book was filled with excitment, mistery,strength,triumph,and personel growth. With this combination there was no way for me to put it down. I only stopped reading to relieve myself and there were times when I put that off. I am not a person who loved to read; but with this book, I read it until I finished. My family was glad to get me back. What an adventure it was to read "Afterwhile".

Since I grew up in the South, I found this book to be a nostalgic walk down Memory Lane. It is rich with true to life vignettes about being Black in the '50's & '60's in America. I particularly enjoyed the role the family played in the absence of her mother, documenting the sense of community that formed a nurturing womb for our growth and development.

I enjoyed Afterwhile because it was written from the world view or you could say the universal view of an African American Woman. I also liked it because it was a coming of age book for a Black Woman growing up in the 6o's, 70's through the 90's and so I could relate to it. It shows how you can persevere, love, and remain optimistic through all types of challenges. I also appreciated the part where Mary J. outlined ways of how she cared for and raised her children and how she was devoted to her family as well as her community. Thanks to the author for sharing this story with us.

"AFTERWHILE in it's content is an intriguing look back of a woman's past that also speaks loudly to the power of her character. This book from an exciting new author searches the debt of purpose, reconciliation and the high calling of a woman of power. Giving names and expressions to a small Southern town, AFTERWHILE pulls you into their lives with realism, accuracy and emotion...You'll want to repeat the journey...A inspirational affecting first novel."

The book "Afterwhile" did contain some juicy and revelaing stuff. But is was also full of typos and I found to be too full of characters whose profiles were not adequately developed. The author made a good attempt at organizing the book via the opening and closing with the letter to her friend. However, the table of contents suggested more insightful development of the plot or more spiritual development of the main character. Neither was achieved in my opinion. The author may have written an Iyanla Vanzant-style book of self disclosure, but she forgot to show adequate personal growth of the main character. Or perhaps the point is that the main character is still struggling with these issues. A good first try. Next time have a better proof reader and an exeperienced editor to strengthen what potentially could be a good book.

I was first tuned into Jonah Blank through the Travelers' Tales of India anthology. Reading his hilarious account of discovering that a poorly functioning Delhi airport clock was in fact manually operated, I expected more of the same in this book. While there are more of these entertaining cross-cultural discoveries throughout, this overly ambitious book addresses what you'd expect from a naïve twenty-something writer, covering the broadest of all philosophical topics- with chapter titles including "Rites," "Fate," "Caste," "War," and "Love." The scary thing is that he succeeds, displaying a remarkable ability to grasp complex issues.

This work is held together with a strong narrative thread. Beginning each chapter by retelling a passage from the Ramayana, he then applies this theme to modern Indian culture, and compares this with life in America. Despite a reflexive defensiveness of American culture and government, he portrays a deeply nuanced understanding of the complexities of Indian traditions as they clash with modernity. For example, he dispels any notion that Hindu fatalism is the same thing as passivity. Unlike Christianity, you can't just pray for salvation in Hinduism; you have to earn it and change yourself to adapt to an unchanging world. In a later chapter, he credits Hinduism's adaptability to the well-educated elite's acceptance of metaphorical (rather than literal) interpretation of the Vedas, and credits Sikhism's sustainability to its openness that the Gods of all religions are really different manifestations of the same entity.

In his chapter on love, he respects the value of an arranged marriage in offering stability in a hard peasant life, acknowledges the potential rewards of society's increasing acceptance of the risk of marriage for love, but listens to an individual who swears the happiest people he knows are the ones who arranged marriage through a matchmaker.

Traveling to India is a life-changing experience in itself. This book is one of the most articulate reflections I've seen on what that experience can be like.

This book is a riveting read.
It touches upon a myriad of social, economic, political, emotional and ultimately human themes from the Ramayan epic and juxtapositions them with the present day Indian psyche.
The substance is informative and interesting without falling into the trap of being academic or verbose.
The author's style is succinct, witty and appropriately poignant.
Being a non-resident Indian, I was pleased to read such a well written and objective analysis of such a behemoth of a country.
This is a very vast, tricky and interconnected subject matter to tackle.
Jonah Blank does it with aplomb.
I would recommend that anyone wanting to know about India read this book.

I love India and have been there many times but this book taught me a lot I don't know. The book has an original format which was risky but works. You really get both caught up in the story and then feel like you've visiting the countries he's talking about.

As travel writing, it doesn't get better than this. So refreshing to not be talked down to and he avoids the horrible snobbishness often encountered in the gendre.

I just wanted to savor each page. It's not a book you flip through. I was sorry when I finished it. I just wish I could give it six stars.

I guess this book has been out for some time, but I had not known about it until I stumbled upon it at the bookstore and I am very glad I did. The book is written in a style that is unlike other travel books I have seen or read about India in that it reflects on one of the treasured literary epics in Hindu/Indian culture and mythology--the Ramayana. Each chapter focuses on a single aspect that is explained through the characters in the Ramayana, (caste, kings, swamis, fate...etc..), and each chapter begins with a summarized "Jonah Blank" version of the epic of Rama, Sita, and Hanuman. What I have enjoyed so much about this book is that the point of view that Blank brings is that of a twentysomething who is seeing India from the eyes of a young person who at times is both humorous and skeptical, yet idealistic and hopeful. You can truly tell that Blank, although a young person at the time of the writing, truly has passion and depth of vision about the complexities of India and you yourself get caught up in the majesty and the mysticism of India through his journy and the journey of Rama and Sita.

This is a wonderful book about the travel experiences of a young Harvard scholar in South Asia and how they evoked or resonated with certain episodes of the Ramayana. In one way or another the Ramayana has had an immense influence on South Asian civilization (as well on that of S.E. Asia) so it was interesting to see how Blank brought together, and exposed as timeless, so many of the epic's themes. This is a excellent introduction to India. Highly recommended.

The Bedford Handbook
I was satisfied with my order, and was delivered as it said

i ordered it and got it in a very good condition and in time. customer service is awesome. my blessings. keep up the good work.

this book is good for when you're writing essays and you can't remember a certain format or something and you can flip through the book real quick for examples of essays, outlines and thesis statements, although I wish i had the cd version of it so i can always have it with me instead of toting around the book. they could have made the format of the book better.

for instance i remember seeing a book called "A Writers reference" both are MLA format and one came from my community college and just the way its put together is better over all than this one.

The Bedford Handbook is an excellent guide for anyone enrolled in a college English course. The book gives details on correct grammar usage, as well as descriptions of different essay styles. The book is very helpful to me with my English class.

Diana Hacker has an English comp book for any possible usage, she grinds them out every few years. My college requires me to use this book as a handbook. That is unfortunate.

Of course, this book provides a basic explanation of English composition, grammar, documentation, and document design and critical reading. However, the attempt in this case is to present something that is lighter than Rules for Writers, a full scale manual that is sufficient to use as the only text for a college composition course or as a full writers reference, and her Writers Reference, which is a good handy handbook that is inadequate as a full course book, but is great as a rule book to be used by students taking a course using another text.

Usuing this book, I have had to create supplements from web material for issues that I expect to be covered fully in a college handbook such as the requirements of formal writing.

To be sure there are interesting illustrations and graphics and like her other books, the text is intimately linked with the enormous online network that Hacker and her publishers have created. It is not an awful book to use, but I would prefer Rules for Writers, Jane E. Aaron's Litte Brown Handbook, or Writer's reference.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock is T.S. Eliot at his best. He depicts an entire generation by painting a beautiful and tragic image of the one main character. Eliot's words are both flowing and concise, which is no small feat, and his metaphors and allusions are well chosen and relevant. This poem is absolutely worth reading several times over.


T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland is like the fourth season of Family Guy. It's more of the same from a source that has produced quality work in the past, but falls short this time. Family Guy and T.S. Eliot are each known for their strange connections; T.S. Eliot once compared a skyline to a patient etherized on a table, and Family Guy once compared Ronald Reagan to a toaster. However, in both the newest season of Family Guy and The Wasteland, the randomness gets confusing and just not worth it. Here is how to write a poem like The Wasteland. Copy and paste an introduction and a conclusion from an alternative religion book, come up with some outside the box metaphors, and fill the rest in with pirated foreign literature.

--Ian M.

While I am only an amateur when it comes to poetry, I believe this collection will satisfy any reader looking for a stimulating and engaging experience. I was introduced to T.S. Eliot in my high school English class and read only two of his poems from this collection: one, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and two, The Wasteland. If I had more time to spend with these poems and really analyze them, I would get even more out of them.

TS Eliot portrays an intriguing setting in The Wasteland. He alludes to various religions and gods. In particular, Eliot portrayed a modern European society lacking a sense of unity and control. He makes eccentric references to anything from religious structures, blooming flowers, praised figures, historical events, and influential European cities. After reading this poem, I highly recommend reading the novel The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. This piece by McCarthy was strongly influenced by this particular poem.

Who is Prufrock? In Eliot's, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, he depicts a modern middle-aged man who is very self-conscious; he does not dare speak of love to a woman, which is ironic to the poem's title. The poem epitomizes the frustration and self-consciousness in any human being, which makes it easy to relate to the character. What reader does not enjoy finding familiar satire between the lines of a love poem?

Eliot also references Shakespeare's Hamlet in The Love Song, alluding to his personal insecurity and mental weaknesses, as well as his incapability to handle love appropriately.

Though this is only a small window into T.S. Eliot's assorted collection, I hope I can give you an apposite perspective on his engaging work. I recommend reviewing this collection and strongly encourage spending time with these particular pieces.

Faber and Faber has recently announced they will print "The Complete Prose of T.S. Eliot" in a gargantuan seven-volume set!

Also announced the much anticipated, eagerly awaited second volume of Letters of T.S. Eliot: 1898-1922 edited by Mrs. Valerie Eliot, as well as a completely revised edition of the first volume which will include nearly 200 letters that has surfaced since the initial printing!

Both the seven-volume set and the second edition letters are due out late 2008.

To the all the Eliot nuts out there, this is good news. To those who have not read Eliot's Selected Essays, they are as affecting as his poetry, as important as Johnson, Arnold, and Coleridge in the their times.

His language is effortless in its flow and it is conducive to deep meditation in its style. After reading 'Prufrock', and the 'Hollow Men' I got the sense that this is something truly withstanding and classic - one of our bards of the 20th century.
Only a handfull of modern poets stick in my mind - Elliot, Cummings, Rilke, and Yeats are among them!

I'm not at all rating this book five stars; that's my rating for T.S. Eliot's plays. This book was the typical library edition and has everything wrong with it: the cover of an old, wise Eliot (why not a young maverick one?), "Complete" in the title when it's not at all complete, big, heavy, hardback and way too literary looking for the passing reader to crack the cover.

But look how much T.S. Eliot you already know. The Wasteland may be a maddingly obscure poem sequence built around a book by Jessie Weston, but Pete Townshend used the idea in a song: "Teenage Wasteland." You know from another song that T.S. Eliot, in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" said that life was measured out in coffee spoons. We all know that Old Possum's Book of Practical...plays out dramatically in a musical titled for the last word of that book...Cats. You could have tackled (or rather relaxed with) his most famous poem sequence, Four Quartets and the accompanying readers' guide by Thomas Howard.

But for all those bits of poetic imagery, you still might not stumble on the plays. I've never seen one of Eliot's plays put on, but they make wonderful reading. As an astute reviewer suggested, don't get this volume, which leaves out two of the five plays (or six if you include "Choruses from the Rock," which is not among the best). That reviewer also provided the helpful advice to track down the Faber edition which really does have all the plays. Some of them, notably Murder in the Cathedral, are available in single editions. But don't miss The Confidential Clerk, The Cocktail Party and The Elder Statesman for a great reading experience.

The only other play I know that reads this well is J. M. Barrie's original play of Peter Pan. Murder in the Cathedral is notable because it falls in the Church of England (Anglican) tradition of putting on plays at the Canterbury Festival. Charles Williams also wrote plays related to this event (Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury), as did Dorothy L. Sayers (The Zeal of Thy House, The Devil to Pay). All of which is to say that there is a lot of great dramatic writing to be rediscovered as reading as well as performance (see also my review of Christopher Fry's plays A Phoenix Too Frequent and The Lady's Not for Burning). Many Sayers readers are also aware that she wrote the first radio play for the BBC on the life of Jesus (and updated it to common language), as well as essays on her experience dealing with the Gospel accounts in dramatic form. The best known of these is "The Dogma is the Drama," available in various collections.