Reviews Books

i like this book...and how subjects are presented..has lots of good must know and good to know topics. good for step 1 prep.

This book was extremely helpful for preparing for the NBME gross anatomy shelf exam. It has standard outlines of stuff you need to know and lots of pertinent clinical situations too.

I also have a recent past edition of BRS gross, and this book was far better. There are two practice exams at the end of the book with organized, detailed explanations, and the questions were very similar to those on the shelf exam. This book also uses pink ink to enhance the text, which is written in black. I would definitely recommend this book as a comprehensive review source.

In preparing for the gross NBME shelf exam I used this text and went all the way through it in 3 days. The NBME mainly tests the important concepts with emphasis on the clinical correlations, which this book emphasizes. I was surprised that there were very few questions on the exam that I thought were outside the realm of what I prepared for (something I can't say for the previous NBME's I've taken: phys/histology/biochem).

My approach that worked well: Pick a region (i.e. thorax) go page by page through an atlas and refresh your memory on the relationships. Then read the chapter in your review book. I also read through all the netter clinical pearls in the hours before the exam.

I have looked at both BRS Gross Anatomy (Board Review Series) and this book, and I believe that this book, despite being about 200 pages shorter, is the perfect review book to accompany Netter while taking Gross Anatomy as an M1. A lot of people get BRS because it's longer, and they think that this makes it a better companion while you are actually in the class. It is a good book, and you would be fine if you got it, but I decided on this book because:
1) It's written better and more concisely yet still covers nearly all questions on MY exams.
2) It uses few diagrams and uses them only to make essential points clear. And the illustrations are "crammable." My beef with BRS is that it doesn't have that much more information than this book (and what it does have extra is lower yield anyway), but it is filled with muscle tables and crappy illustrations as if it is trying to replace Netter (or any other real atlas) but ends up clouding an otherwise fine review book. (I know Netter doesn't have muscle tables in the book, but it does have them on www.netteranatomy.com )

I have my anatomy text and use it, but to be honest one could probably get by with using only this book, Netter, and lecture and lab.

In the early 1980s, Dartmouth English Professor Perrin was asked by the Washington Post to write a book review column called "Rediscoveries," in which he could review and tout his favorite obscure books. His rules were that the book had to be at least 15 years old (so that nothing from after the mid-1960s qualifies) and that no more than three of his colleagues could have read it. These were to be books he loved and wanted to reintroduce to the world. This collects those reviews of forty works (38 books and 2 poems), and from what I can tell, the essays are largely unrevised from their original publication.

I love the concept behind this book, because it's easy to find lists of acclaimed authors and titles, but by sheer probability, one has to acknowledge that there are lots and lots of volumes of buried treasure out there awaiting rediscovery. Indeed, part of the appeal of the book is that some of his selections require a bit of effort to track down (although thanks to the internet, not nearly as much as when the book first appeared). I found myself dipping in and out of this book as I found books that appealed to me and skimmed those that didn't. Perrin does an excellent job of explaining what makes each of his selections special, although he does tend to offer a good deal too much plot summary for my taste.

Still, this is a book well worth checking out by any open-minded avid reader, as it is likely to send you looking for 3-4 books to add to your "to read" list. Of course, personal taste plays a large role in whether or not you find this book useful. And while I skimmed the entries concerning memoirs and collections of letters, there were plenty of other things for me to dig into, such as comedy, and even science fiction. On the whole, good fun for bibliophiles.

An interesting collection of reviews of books you wish you could have read. I've always been interested in old books, and now, thanks to this book, I've got a couple I'm definitely keeping my eye out for

I discovered this book when I was 14, and have reread it almost annually. Many of the books Perrin recommended have become favorites of mine also, and even when they haven't, this book is still worth it for Perrin's great writing and his deep affection and understanding of what the printed word can do. It's honest, refreshingly unpretentious, and compulsively readable. This book makes you happy to be alive and glad to be an inveterate reader. I highly, highly recommend it!

Even though I worked in a library for years and read dozens of books a month, I am ashamed to admit that I hadn't read any of Noel Perrin's recommendations outlined in "A Reader's Delight". I have now, though.

In essay after wonderful essay, Perrin uncovers gem after glorious gem. From Russian Sci-Fi ("Far Rainbow") to World War II memoirs ("When the Snow Comes, They Will Take You") , from lyrical fiction ("The Bottom of the Harbor") to the next-best-thing to Jane Austen ("The Semi-Attached Couple"), many of these books are out-of-print, some truly obscure, and all of them terrific.

Startling eclectic, Perrin discuses books from virtually every genre and he does so with grace and wit. There's tales of ancient China, old journals, satires, children's books and even a poem. This is guy who not only knows good books, but adores them, and he doesn't care where he finds them. In the introduction, Perrin tells about a professor he knew who cited the "Little House on the Prairie" books among his all time favorites, and Perrin makes it clear that true book-lovers know no snobbishness.

Some of these books will be a bit hard to track down, but most can be had by simply utilizing your local interlibrary loan program. In any case, "A Reader's Delight" is a must have for those who love a good read, not only for the recommendations but for Perrin's own stylish writing.

GRADE: B+

A very helpful guide for managers who have the task of doing Performance appraisals , with ready to use appraisal forms! Very helpful for the always busy Manager.

This book is great. If you are just starting out writing appraisals or just want something fresh and new, this is a great book to use. With this book it was a time saver for me because it addresses pretty much every area that I needed for my associate reviews. Best of all, it's user friendly. I highly recommend this book.

This is an excellent book, and contains both good advice and practical applications. Readers of this book gain access to online tools that they can begin to use immediately, and which will not only boost the efficiency of their performance reviews, but also their effectiveness.

This is a great tool for managers who are responsible for writing performance reviews for their staff. It provides an actionable outline for the performance review process (if your company doesn't already have one). Most importantly, it provides pre-written paragraphs and text to help you articulate how employees exceeded or didn't meet expectations. (Great for those who don't have much experience writing reviews or those who just need some fresh ways to express their thoughts.)

What a novel idea, that movies are more than just entertainment. The author points out that watching some of the traditional Christmas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol) makes us feel safe and comfortable. They relieve stress and give us a feeling of control.
I remember my family having a ritual of watching Yankee Doodle Dandy every fourth of July. Even now, if I sing a few lines from one of those songs, my sisters join in (40 years later) with all the words.
Movies like these, are "very rich in spiritual messages," according to the author.

"Reel Fulfillment"
A 12-Step Plan For Transforming Your Life Through Movies
Maria Grace, Author
McGraw Hill, Publisher
ISBN 0-07-145907-3

Reviewed by Donna Van Straten Remmert,
Author of "The Littlest Big Kid" and "The Jitterbug Girl"

If you love movies as much as I do, "Reel Fulfillment" is an insightful guidebook that will entertain as well as transform you. It will explain why you love some movies enough to see them over and over again, and why you laugh or cry your heart out each time. Psychotherapist and author Maria Grace is well known in Austin for her live, standing-room-only movie reviews that humorously and poignantly probe into our psychological make-up and help us realize truths about ourselves, as reflected by characters in the movies. She is also well known at SCN for her fabulous Be Our Guest presentation. If you've witnessed Maria's gigs, I know you haven't forgotten how delightful they were. The same is true about "Reel Fulfillment". It's delightful.

Maria moved to New York City a few years ago, and she has already received a great deal of praise and recognition for her inspiring book, her seminars, and her ezine that I highly recommend as a way to continue analyzing your responses to movies after you've read "Reel Fulfillment". Each week's ezine is about something new and different and it's always fun and thought provoking. This week's challenge, for instance, is to watch movies that are about food cravings. She tells you some of her secrets for relating to food in a more healthy way, learned from having attended a spa in Brazil, she invites you to click onto her 60-minute seminar "Eating Without Guilt: The Joy of Conscious Eating" and she asks you to watch two fabulous movies about food to better understand yourself: "Chocolat" and "Real Women Have Curves". Go to www.mariagrace.com to learn about Maria's adventures and to read more about the ezine that's free for the asking. Subscribe!

Thanks to "Reel Fulfillment", I can now say it right out-I am a movie addict! I watch at least one, sometimes two, movies a day. In the privacy of my bedroom where I can laugh or cry to my heart's content. I'm obsessed, and I now know that I don't need to feel shame or guilt for spending so much relaxation time in bed, because through my obsession and with the help of Maria's 12-step plan for transforming my life through movies, I accomplish major self-awareness fetes. There is a Questions to Answer section in each chapter of "Reel Fulfillment". I glance at these questions in advance of watching a movie recommended by Maria in that chapter. Then, as I'm watching, I think about possible answers to these questions, viewing the movie as if it were a story about my life. Metaphorically, it usually is!

After my movie(s) for the night is over, I sink into my unconscious for a good night of dreaming. When the movies I've seen are especially relevant to my life, they often trigger fantastic dreams that reveal things about me that I'd otherwise not know consciously. What a gift! Imagine all of the unlived lives I've been able to experience through this process!

I am so in love with Maria's work that I flew to NYC to attend one of her seminars. She's better than ever, and what a good excuse for having fun in The Big Apple. Reading "Reel Fulfillment" is like being with Maria again. Order an autographed copy and browse her other learning tools at her online store at www.mariagrace.com.

Life should be as happy as we can make it. Life should be as fulfilling as we can make it. Life should be as free of fear and doubt as we can make it. No one book, no one program can provide all these needs. But this work, Reel Fulfillment, is certainly a tool you will want to add to your tool box. If you are building a house, you cannot do it with only a hammer. You must have saws, screwdrivers, rulers, pliers, and on and on. To build a full life you must have many tools also. Most certainly, this work, I feel, can be one of those tools, quite an important tool, actually. What a unique and fascinating concept...using movies to help analyze your life and help correct those little and big blimps and bumps in life that we all encounter. This is not a just a book about "going to a movie and feeling good." It is far more. The author, Dr. Grace, gives us a twelve step plan or program for truly changing the way we perceive ourselves and the way we meet and treat the various crises and challenges we all encounter. The subjects, Gaining Inner Clarity, Emotional Health, Joy, and Gaining Spiritual Fitness, are all more or less hung on a unique framework, on the concept of movies, on the stories that we can relate our own experiences to, and learn from, which we see on the screen. We can and, indeed, do learn from these stories.

Movie, of course, are art. Who has not been emotionally changed by a great piece of literature, a great painting, a wonderful photograph, a deeply felt and written poem or one of the world's great paintings. Most of us can be driven to either tears or great joy by any of these. Movies are no different. More importantly, with movies, we can learn from the stories these artists, the movie makers, writers and actors bring us. We can relate. I dare say that not one person reading this review has ever not been moved, in some way, after watching some film story at some time in their life. Dr. Grace has given order to this. Each chapter includes a wonderful section of self examination, profound questions, which, if answered truthfully by the reader, can indeed shed great light on our inner being. She has been able to articulate what most of us actually know, but we simply did not know we knew. She has given us a tool and then explained how to use that tool effectively.

Now, this work, like any work in this particular genre, is only effective if you actually DO IT! I wonder how many "self help books" are purchased, skimmed, shelved and forgotten. You actually have to work through the program for it to help. Folks, there are no free lunches...you get out of something just about what you put into it. This book is no exception.

On the other hand, if you want to purchase it, skim it and then shelf it, that is okay too. As an added bonus, even it you don't work through the doctor's program, you will certainly pick up some great tips to make your movie going far more pleasurable. You really cannot loose with this one. I highly recommend! Recommend you add this one to your library.

This new self-help book is really good with this new method of watching movies combined with exercises in each step to find fulfillment.

At the beginning I thought it was about analyzing movies but was pleasently surprised that the method uses the movies to help the reader find answers and create awareness. I did watch a couple of the movies suggested and then followed the exercises and it really works.

I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes movies. Watching them from this new angle will make you enjoy even more your favorite films and even better appreciate the ones not so good.

"Reliquary" offers us two distinct pleasures not often encountered in poetry today. The first is the pleasure of pure learnedness, the pleasure all poets feel, whether they admit it or not, in participating in the age-old conversation among words and books.
The second pleasure offered up by the book is the rather voyeuristic one of partaking of another's spiritual yearning, in this case mediated through a close and loving observation of the natural world. Few poets today have the courage to reveal their craving for spiritual comfort so nakedly. I for one am grateful for it. Keep writing!

Ande writes with the close confessional voice of Sharon Olds, the ecstatic vision of Blake and the scientific pinpoint accuracy of Pattiann Rogers. Weaving through almost every poem is her quiet yet almost slap-stick sense of humor, if there is such a thing as spiritual slap-stick. Hopeful and wise, these poems are welcome in these troubled, self-absorbed times.

Jan Lee Ande's second full-length book of poems "Reliquary," solidly enriches what the reader encountered in the poet's first offering "Instructions for Walking on Water." Reliquary, defined as a receptacle, such as a coffer or shrine, for keeping or displaying relics is such an apt title because in "Reliquary" the poet invites the reader into a showroom where they find moments of consciousness where words push up against themselves and reveal new meaning. Words are given the sacred task to speak to worlds beyond and sometimes below. I was surprised as I engaged in the depth of the journey. If we think of books as sacred objects the poems of "Reliquary" must be thought of as sacred glimpses. Each poem opens a door. The poet provides the key. I have been involved in the medical field for twenty years so it isn't surprising that I was drawn to the poem "Learning Anatomy." Here a mother, as "study partner," is stationed next to her son and a human skeleton where they take on the task of learning the bones of the body and what each one means on many levels. What is surprising is what the poet finds in her dialogue with these bones and their articulations. The poem concludes, "After the soul has fled the body, after the organs / crumble into dust, bones pass time in the urn of the earth." This is what you'll find in reading Jan Lee Ande. Surprise! Regardless of background I'm convinced a door can open for anyone who is moved to read her. She pushes the reader beyond the ordinary and into realms where the familiar is new and fresh.

Ande's Reliquary is a superbly crafted collection of poetry that cracks through surfaces and reveals the sacredness and connected nature of underlying things: the celestial mix of physical and mystical that permeates rocks, trees, hearts, thoughts and which drives science, religion, and wonder.

Ande invites us:

If you are lost in this world, bewildered
in the middle ground
between heaven and earth, stand here.

And so begins the delicious ascent into the incredible world of Ande's language and imagery, for the very first thing one notices, before one even considers poetic form, is the sheer beauty of the language and the freshness of the imagery. In her poetry, words exceed their representational function - they sparkle, they shoot like stars through the soul - and, as one rereads each piece, the words emerge and reemerge in a metamorphosis that, for all its metaphysical qualities, is at the same time as grounded in realism as the texture of the page upon which the images are so craftfully arranged.

The title poem, "Reliquary," epitomizes the book's theme of sacredness-in-the-ordinary. Ande writes:

I do not have a theca issued by the pope
- the red wax seal and a length of thread -
to prove these relics are authentic.

My theca is the pollen sac of an anther,
spore case of a greeny moss,
outer layer of the pupa of the rose weevil.

However, it is the intangible collection of reliquaries that gives the poem a deeper import: questions (Do you believe in nature spirits, / can oak trees talk, have you walked on water?) and embellished remembrances (My sky blue traveling case. Sarcophagus / of the holy bones of my black dog who could fly.) remind the reader that relics are more than carefully preserved items - they are magical, they house our dreams, they hold incredible secrets.

Ande's gift for blending concrete and metaphysical images infuses her work. Yet, there is a fine balance between Ande's poetic gifts and the poems' forms, as well. Usually filling just one page, and usually written in couplets or triplets, the poems are easy on the eye; as a result, their framework provides just the right space for the reader to perfectly engage with the spirit of the poem.

This book was the single thing i studied and i passed with flying colors. I studied about 2 weeks in advance. The test was so close to the book, and i felt like it prepared me! Thanks for the great book, i would suggest it to anyone wanting to become certified.

I took the test once! This book helped me a lot! Get this book and keep practicing. The only problem you need to get some extra help for new drugs on the market or new generics now available.

I've been in pharmacy for 10 years; CPhT for 7. This was the only book I needed.
Highly recommend!!!

I took the March 2006 PTCE and began studying for it in November 2005. Over that time I aquired many different books (as I suggest you do if you already haven't) to study for the test (Check out the rates of passing on ptcb.org).

When used with a multitude of other books it will obviously take a lot more time to get through all of the books in entirity.

this book in particular is a bire more of a review over many things you may already know. So I wouldn't necessarily reccomend this as the first book you begin study with.

I found this to be very informative and helpful. Every chapter is like a review and it is followed by a series of quizzes.

But if this is one of the books you are using to study (keep in mind studying for more than 20 minutes at a time is considered cramming and you absorb less of what you read) you may just possibly want to begin studying sooner than I had.

This, is no small book. You need a very fair amount of time to properly read through then review all you should have learned by books end.

This is a great book, telling the story of a man who has inspired generations of doctors (and non-doctors) to try to cure more than just human disease. Norman Bethune, whose life this book describes, was a multifaceted man, for whom the adjective "great" would be quite appropriate. He was a surgeon, a health activist, a communist, a poet, a painter, a journalist and above all a great human being. This book describes his early life, his battle against tuberculosis,against fascism and all those who injure other human beings. Quoting his speeches,his newspaper articles and his journal extensively, the book informs and inspires and should be a must read for everyone who aspires to be a doctor or just loves humanity.

There are simple people and there are complicated people. Norm Bethune was definitely of the latter strain. Independent, erratic, gifted, persistent-ever searching for the next direction, or "mission."

His parents were great admirers of D.L. Moody. His father was a pastor at various small towns throughout Ontario, Canada, and his mother was a missionary. Bethune himself didn't seem to have the same interest as his parents in the things of God. But his mother's missionary fervor was obviously a very prominent influence in his life.

His genius as a surgeon first emerged when he contracted tuberculosis and decided that he must prepare to die. He encouraged his wife to divorce him, and he went to a sanitarium. But once he got there, he found the boredom of waiting to die was more tortuous than the illness itself, and he began to research the disease. His fortunes changed drastically when he happened upon a book describing a new procedure which involved removing part of the ribs to collapse an ailing lung. This procedure was new-only about a year old, but Bethune was interested. He was determined to be a beneficiary of this new innovation, and this determination eventually led to his recovery. It was 1927.

After his recovery, he became a thoracic surgeon. But he was frustrated by the numbers of indigent patients who did not get timely treatment because they were too poor. His preoccupation with, an concern for the "underdogs" of the world eventually led him to Spain, where he got involved in the Spanish civil war, working with the forces battling Franco. This experience had a profound effect on his thinking. He joined the Communist Party, and campaigned for support for the resistance forces.

But the heart of this book really begins when Dr. Bethune goes to China. His experiences as a battlefield surgeon make fascinating reading. He was hot-tempered and impatient, but his decision to use his genius as a surgeon to help the guerrilla fighters has given us a story well worth the reading. Edison said that "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration." Well, I don't know about the actual percentages, but it is clear that Bethune's life had a good dose of both. He was not only a physician, he was an inventor. He invented 12 different surgical instruments, and published 14 articles outlining his innovations in surgical technique. He was very creative, and a very, very hard worker. And he would not tolerate incompetence. He was vehement almost to the point of violence in his determination to give the best possible treatment to the wounded. The descriptions of battlefield surgery in this book are sometimes painful to read, but very, very compelling.

But I am not a medical person. My primary interest in this book stems from my interest in history. There are several ways that this book is helpful in that area. First of all, the story takes place during the Sino-Japanese war, a time in which Jiang jieshi got a lot of criticism from the Americans because of his refusal to fight the Japanese. Jiang jieshi always said, "The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart." Although, he certainly did not want the Japanese to overrun China, he was very hesitant to expend men and resources against what he saw as a major enemy of the Communist armies, which he despised. He obviously felt that if he burned himself out fighting the Japanese, he would make it that much easier for the Communists to take over. That being the case, I have always wondered how much the Communists concentrated on fighting the Japanese themselves. This book answers that question. The wounds Bethune treated were inflicted by the Japanese. And the book gives weight to the idea that perhaps Jiang jie shi's approach backfired, because his refusal to fight the Japanese caused the Chinese people to lose respect for him.

Bethune died of septicemia in November of 1939. In her forward to the book, Soong Ching ling makes much of the charge that his death was due to the fact that the Guomindang refused to let the medicine through. I don't know about that. But it is terribly frustrating to read a story like this, because it is clear that a simple antibiotic could have saved him, as well as many other soldiers he would have been able to save if he had lived.

Finally, Bethune's life had a unique influence on history in a way that I am sure he never could have anticipated. During the days before the opening of China, which began with Nixon's visit in 1972, very few countries had any relationship at all with China. But Canada was a notable exception. Mao and others in China always viewed Canada in a positive light, and much of this was due to the overwhelming tendency to identify Canada with Dr. Norman Bethune, who is a national hero in China.

This is a book that should be on the essential reading list for those planning a career in medicine (surgery). It is truly inspiring, and it provides an interesting history of the early years of thoracic surgery, transfusion medicine, and humanitarian committment. I recommend those who have the opportunity to visit the Bethune Peace Hospital in China, about a two hour drive from Beijing. The Bethune Museum there is wonderful.

I remember this story from my mother reading it to me a s a child and again reading it as a highschool student. I gave me hope that one person can make a difference. That we can do things to help people not for fame and fortune but because people need our help and we have the expertise to help ease their pain and suffering.

Norman bethume was such a man and his story needs to be told again and again. I highly recommend it to anyone who values the efforts of individulas and the love of community.

Chester

That's the eye catching sub-head for Mr. Cohen's very candid essay on the making of the movie "Bounce." It is not even a movie I saw and yet, I couldn't get myself to put down the book (and get back to work) until I finished this painfully insightful memoir by writer/director Don Roos.

In fact, the entire book is a little tough to put down because each story gets your foot inside the door of what writers had to endure to get their stories on the big screen. In some cases, you get the impression that the stories glided between the cracks. But in most cases, you wonder how anyone could ever have the tenacity to see a script to the end. And in many cases they don't. A recurring theme in these pages is how often the script changes hands, as old writers are fired, new one's hired, and the first one re-hired. Ugh. Makes me glad that I'm a Graphic Designer...something I thought I'd never say.

Surprisingly, the best story is found right smack dab at the beginning from Mr. Cohen himself. I'm talking about the Introduction, which most people skip. Don't do that. Read the introduction. All of it. It's honest. It's brave. And it's even more tell-all than the stories that come after it. Oh, and it's so funny at times that I embarrassed myself when laughing at the bookstore. I wrote the author an email, giving him a little wink about his story. He wrote back. That was enough for me to buy the book.

One more great thing about this book. I've always felt that writers are the last vestige of the world's wisemen. They have an insight about people, places and situations that when I read books like these I begin to wonder if I'm really reading a psychological self-help book. I've underlined quite a few snippets, as so much of what is shared resonated with my own experiences as a creative person. It's very difficult to stand by and watch someone "bend" your idea until it breaks (that's me paraphrasing Mr. Cohen in his Introduction).

So the point is, Get this book. If misery indeed loves company, you'll have plenty of it.

Have you ever loved a book and then been disappointed by how it was butchered in the movie? Or, thought a book was nothing more than a movie script, and then be enchanted at how it came alive on screen?

This fbook traces the stories of how 25 movies made that transition, and I enjoyed every step of the way. Cohen interviews the "writer and explores the sometimes torturous path from idea to finished film from its very root the transformations.

Writers are sometimes blamed for the failures. But Cohen credits the complaint that changes in the scripts by directors, actors, and studio executives sometimes ruined the movie. On the other hand, Alan Ball believes changes to American Beauty he had strongly resisted significantly improved the film.

I found several of the interviews especially instructive: Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), and John Logan (The Aviator).

Cohen's quotes from his interview with Michael Cunningham, who wrote "The Hours" and has written for the screen, taught me something fundamental about movies (and novels and short stories for that matter):

"A novel can include a sort of panorama of characters, a little like the Breughel painting with Icarus going down in the lower right-hand corner of the canvas. That's one of the reasons there are novels. That's one of the reasons we need novels and we need movies. A novel can account for randomness and can include a wide range of people whose fates just barely impinge on one another. I can't think of a way to tell a story like that in a movie that I would want to see.

"I think movies are more closely related to short stories than to novels. A short story actually involves the compression you need for a movie, whereas a novel is another category of thing entirely. Was it Henry James who called a novel a big, baggy monster? That's what it is. That's why we love them. I think a short story, very much like a movie, has no room in it for extra baggage. It needs to move, it doesn't need to move directly, but it needs to move swiftly. It needs to be lithe and light and nimble, and though that forty-page digression to the Crimean War and how it resembles what's happening at the family dinner may be interesting, there's no room in a short story for it. Nor is there room in a screenplay for it."

I'm sure that aspiring screenwriters would learn a great deal by reading about the successes and failures described in this book. It will certainly inform and enrich my own movie viewing in the future.

Robert C. Ross, 2008

I've been a working writer for 30 years, so David Cohen's book is deliciously like listening in on the personal conversations of compatriots in the craft--but the more I read, the more relieved I was that I'd never been attracted to screenwriting. Cohen's fresh, entertaining and whip-smart insights help to lace these in-depth interviews with meaning and pathos, even when the writers themselves border on the vapid--and those with the most to say shine through, thanks to the author's careful balance between commentary and reportage. We may cringe when we read of a writer's summary dismissal from the movie script he's slaved over for years, but there are enough delightful stories in this book to make the chilling ones a bit more bearable. One way or another, we've all been there.

We get to know the inner Cohen as well, from his own foray into writing for Star Trek to his early naivete at the junket buffet table. Overall, this book is a great read.

Cohen's genius is giving us the real story of how things happen, by letting us drop in (sometimes mercifully briefly) on the minds and tormented, heartbroken lives of actual screenwriters and their actual screenplays. I work with book authors who often want to make the leap to screen, so I bought this to see what they might be up against. Normally I have to force myself to read writerly books like this (parceling out a chapter every few days, dutifully, 'cause it's so much a part of my day job), but I took this one to bed and read it like a novel. The stories are so wonderfully f$%!d up... you find yourself overwhelmed with pity, schadenfreude, horror, amusement you name it. It must have been hell to make some of these movies.

The most interesting surprises for me were the backstories on two directors whose films normally do little for me personally: Todd Solondz and John Waters. I've always considered them overrated in a hipster-annoying kind of way (ditto the Cohens and the Sedarises, zzzz), but both men came off as brilliant personally, and so much more in control of what happens with their films. They make you wonder why anyone would want to get involved with the studio system at all... both seem so sane by comparison to some of the studio writers in the other stories.

The best thing this book did for me is make screenwriting seem do-able, by actual humans, rather than something demigods accomplish for little reconition and erratic pay. It's a job, like plumbing, and people have this job and make it work for them. I'm going to buy several copies and give them out to would-be screenwriter clients. Great work: author, author!

David S. Cohen gives us the back story on 25 movies (from the sublime, like The Hours, to the incredibly bad, like Random Hearts): how they evolved from screenplay to screen.
Although it's not a how-to book, I suspect budding and aspiring screenwriters everywhere will receive Screen Plays like a man stranded in the desert welcomes water.

Following these films from the birth of the idea until the films came into the theaters and left as classics, embarrassing flops, or somewhere in between, Cohen is smart enough not to offer glib answers about why the result was what it was. Writing, for example, about the very talented people who were behind Random Hearts (which I suspect will always be in the list of worst movies I've seen in my life), he ends quoting Harrison Ford, who instead of trying to explain the process of making the film, simply said: "You sort of had to be there." Regular film lovers can't be there for the journey, but Cohen does a really good job showing you photos of the trip.

Unplug the phone, cancel all your appointments, put the cat out -- okay, you can keep the cat. But Robert Walser's wonderful "Selected Stories" must be read in an atmosphere of silence, with complete attention. You owe it to yourself to have a chance to appreciate this utterly distinctive voice. Others have called him a "comic Kafka," and others have complained that he is not a "comic Kafka," so perhaps we can stipulate that he is "the writer who is not a comic Kafka." He is, indeed a good deal more hospitable and accessible than Kafka, but he is not always comic in "A Little Ramble," (which might be my favorite of these collected short items), he can stop you in your tracks. I haven't read Walser's novel, "Jakob von Gunten," yet (though I certainly plan to) but I wonder if Walser's peculiar talents aren't particularly suited to a form that is ephemeral, almost furtive.

Read "The She Owl," which has a gentle charm. Read "Parisian Newspapers," which has an edge. Oh, read them all, listening to catch Walser's extraordinary voice. And aboave all, read "A Little Ramble," which might be the best onc-page story in the language.

Although his novel "Jakob von Gunten" is a masterpiece, the maniacal genius of Walser is more easily discovered in his short fiction. If Kafka's vision is maddening and claustrophobic, Walser, who deals with a similar kind of surrealistic world, applies a lighter, more deftly playful touch. Sometimes, the puns and literary license Walser take can be willful and test a reader's patience, but the sheer force of his philosophy and world view contained in these miniaturist stories are awe-inspiring, and are on par with the delirious vision of Kafka. Walser is a kind of a writer who can turn from anger to unbearable tenderness within a sentence. Many of these stories will move you and frustrate you at the same time, but all the risks he takes are still, and I suspect always will be, thrillingly modern and relevant. I only wish his excellent reworkings of fairy tales (I'm thinking especially of 'Snow White') could have been included in this volume. Walser has been neglected for far too long, and the longer his work languishes in obscurity, the world is that much more at a loss.

Robert Walser. I came to this Teutonic scribner by way of a jackass professor I had in graduate school. In his class on Modern European literature we read "Jacob von Gunten," a 1st person neurotic diatribe about a man enrolled in a servant's college. Unlike the professor's lectures, I enjoyed certain passages of that work immensely, especially the transcendental moments where the main character describes how he melts into the shuffling masses in the city where he lives. Other sections were less engaging.

I believe that Walser's short stories, at least the ones collected here, are better able to display his literary gifts than that novella. Clearly the masses are an issue he enjoyed writing about, and there are several stories that deal vividly with the dehumanizing reality of city living, as well as office work. Clearly, Walser writes most prolifically in the fist person, a voice that is often driven by angst and inflected with various neuroses (Walser himself ended up in a mental hospital). But what I enjoyed most about this collection were the stories that differed from his normal style. Stories like the "She-Owl," "Balloon Journey," and "Kliest in Thum" are some examples. These are short third-person pieces, often only a page and a half long, which tell simple stories as they bend perception, causing the reader to see the world with new eyes. I find these short pieces more entertaining than the fist-person stories, which tend to be heavy on the solipsism and lack structure (see "The Walk"). There is something Borges about the economy of these stories, and maybe some Cortazar in their oddness. This collection rewards a thorough reading. And afterward the reader will get a better appreciation for Walser's influence upon two of the world's greatest writers - Kafka and WG Sebald. Does Walser eclipse his literary offspring? I'll leave that up to you to decide. But one thing is clear, Walser's literary reputation needs to be reinstated -- and this collection helps.

"Wandering, what a brilliant, light blue joy you are!"

If the absolute inevitable truth of every word of that sentence isn't immediately clear to you, you may not be the kind of reader who will be knocked off your feet by Robert Walser, whose typical prose piece is always a kind of wandering. The most acclaimed piece (and the best, I think) in this collection is in fact titled "The Walk," a perfectly honest title that serves to summarize the plot.

If you're one who needs beginnings, middles, and ends...
If you insist on naturalistic dialogue...
If you want at least a modicum of happening...
you may not be the kind of reader who will rave about Walser to your friends, as I have been doing since I started reading him a couple years ago.

Walser was roughly a contemporary of Franz Kafka, who read and seems to have been influenced by Walser. Although Walser wrote four long pieces usually labeled as novels, his most characteristic works are short sketches, two to ten pages, only rarely resembling anything most people would call a story. Some of Walser's work was published in his lifetime, and he had a coterie of distinguished fans like Hermann Hesse. Then, after 1933, when he was committed to a "madhouse," he was as forgotten as a politician's promise. His rediscovery began with American and English readers, especially translator Christopher Middleton.

By our times, Walser is widely perceived as a pioneer surrealist; his work certainly has surreal effects, but his intentions, as I read him, were never to extend reality but merely to capture it as he alone saw it. That he was, perhaps, slightly mad and certainly eccentric did refract his vision in unexpected and original colors. His subject, even when writing in his not-fooling-anyone disguise as a simple man, was always his own strange, joyful, aimless personality.

Catch the word "joyful" there! Walser is NOT a depressing writer. He's a man enchanted with everything, from mustard to mountains. He's wry, salty, silly, satirical, and sooo penetrating.

The translations in this collection are close to the character of Walser's "wandering" German. There's another collection - Masquerade - translated by Susan Bernofsky. I prefer Bernofsky somewhat for syntactical cleverness in translating, but this collection includes The Walk, the most picturesquely brilliant of all Walser's prose.

Some critics have said that Walser was a columnist before there were columns, and it's easy to imagine Walser being a huge success reading his pieces on NPR, but for all their apparent inconsequentiality, Walser's works have a profundity that will accumulate as you read.

As a Shelley lover I've read numerous biographies, but this will be the last one as no amount of research or writing talent can improve on this book. Richard Holmes clearly did an enormous amount of research and his attention to detail is extraordinary. His love for his subject comes through strongly yet he remains objective throughout and is not blind to Shelley's flaws. His descriptive writing also paints a fascinating picture of the interesting and tough times during which Shelley lived and his wonderful vocabulary had me reaching for my dictionary many times!. He pays as much attention to the other colourful characters in Shelley's life as he does to the poet himself. His analysis of Shelley's complex psyche is intense and I believe his perceptions are very accurate. This book impressed and excited me more than any biography I have ever read.

How is it possible that the world's largest online bookstore doesn't stock any biography of Shelley? He was, after all, not just a poet, but a fascinating character even without taking his literary accomplishments into account. I found Mr. Holmes's great biography in an Oxford, UK bookstore. And I must say it's amazing. I can't believe it was written by a 28-year-old. The research done here is nothing short of astounding. I must say, however, that the long pages devoted to Shelley's political creed and activities can get a bit wearisome - at least for me, who was more interested in the personal and literary aspects of his life, than in the political ones - but then, I understand that this reflects my personal preferences, and admit it doesn't much deter from the book's qualities. In fact, you could say it makes it more solid and thorough, in including a part of Shelley's life that has been traditionally neglected by his biographers.

A nice feature of Mr. Holmes's work is the description of the physical places in Shelley's life - for instance, the house where he was born and the ones which he inhabited during his years in Italy. All of these had some endearing and fascinating trait, from the rolling lawns of Field Place to the sun-soaked terrace of the Casa Magni. I only wish these descriptions had been more in-depth, since it is obvious that Shelley often built strong emotional connections with the places where he lived. I look forward to reading "Footsteps", which is the account of Holmes's literary travels and research, and which is already awaiting me in my bookshelf!

It's probably time for a new Shelley biography, despite Holmes' excellent work. I couldn't recommend this book without a number of caveats.

It was valuable in its time, for countering that Victorian view of the angelic depoliticised and emasculated Shelley. But it's still a document of its time.

There are two things that were wrong with the book even at the time it was written. One is the constant failure to mention instances of Shelley's extraordinary generosity and kindness to others. Maybe it was boring, to a 1970s writer, to mention the old women carried in out of the cold, the children fed, the money given away to strangers in hard times: but to leave most of it out badly distorts the reality of Shelley. He was no saint, but he was a remarkably kind person, and practical with it, and that central and salient characteristic is glossed over, though "gloss" is not quite the word. White's earlier biography is actually more comprehensive on this sort of thing.

The second issue is a grotesque mis-reading of the "Adelaide Shelley" affair, in which Shelley put his name down as the father of an Italian baby. Holmes invents from whole cloth an incident in which Shelley seduced the maid, turning her out of the house when she became pregnant. This is simply bizarre, as Holmes himself later acknowledged. In his next book, "Footsteps", Holmes concedes that not only was there no evidence in favour of this claim, but that it would have been completely out of character for all three of the key figures (Shelley, Claire Clairemont and the maid whose name, from memory, is something like Paola Foggi) who would have had to have been involved in Holmes' scenario.

The story, acknowledged by Holmes to be false, did Shelley's reputation enormous harm (Paul Johnson siezed on it, and added inaccuracies of his own, for his attack on Shelley in the ludicrous "Intellectuals" book; Johnson's Shelley chapter is virtually a cut and paste job from Holmes).

So this has always frustrated me: Why on earth hasn't Holmes corrected it in a later edition? I suspect that Holmes feels that it is a form of integrity, of trueness to himself as a young man, or something, to leave the book in its current form. But since the book is supposed to be a record about Shelley, not Holmes, I'd rather he made this and other corrections.

As well as that, there's new information about the circumstances of Shelley's break with his family, and about his life in Italy, which Holmes doesn't include, because they are based on documents that have only recently come to light or been studied.

So while this was a landmark in its time, it is from this distance not as good as some earlier biographies, and it is due for replacement. If I were to recommend a biographical work to someone with a strong interest in Shelley, I'd recommend his Letters.

Laon (no relation)

After reading Miranda Seymour's biography of Mary Shelley I looked around for an account of P. B. Shelley and found this excellent biography of the poet. The whole generation and family from Mary Wollstonecraft onwards makes a dynastic epic, and a good history of the social politics of a radical generation living through the Restoration. There the ethereal Shelley myth is corrected by a portrait of a radical who had the courage and will to attempt to extract himself form his aristocratic family and class to pursue a radical dream in the unforgiving world of the reactionary wake of the French Revolution. Literary portraits of Shelley still suffer the fate of the poet's work after his death when his reputation was crippled by the conservative age against he revolted. It reminds one of the fate of the Sixties in the minds of the (current) powers that be. It is significant, and mostly forgotten, that the early Queen Mab that so shocked the establishments of the times passed into the bloodstream of the left via the radical underground press, thence to influence the early labor movements and Chartists. Meanwhile the image of Shelley was sanctified by several packs of lies as the quality of genius forced its way into anthological immortality.