Reds Books

I challenge anyone to read this book and look at roadside beggars in the same way as before. It is impossible, because you now know that the next beggar you pass just might be another Bruce Moody. Bruce Moody breaks all the steretypes. This is perhaps the most honest book I've ever read, and Moody's willingness to share with readers his inner process is extraordinary. Most people would find the mere act of standing on a street corner begging for work or money utterly embarrassing, and indeed, Moody himself struggles mightily with shame. But Moody courageously shares everything: not just the doing of it, but his self-condemnation, his stereotyping judgments of passersby (who will give? who won't give?), his struggles with guilt, fear, rage -- all the demons. Rarely does one encounter such an act of generosity as this book represents, when an author shares so intimately with readers. Because of Bruce Moody's generosity and his willingness to put truth before ego, I am able to learn something rich and rare about the human condition, and about myself -- because I am that same human being and I have my own roadsides. Although I have never literally had to beg on a roadside, I found myself irresistably identifying with Moody in his self-discoveries: I, too, am prejudiced; I, too, try to control the people, places and things around me; I, too, have moments when I am merciless with myself and with others; I, too, desire God; I, too, wonder about the source and meaning of blessing.

But most of all, I am glad I read this book for the hope it gives. If I am ever faced with a desperate situation, Bruce Moody will be there in the back of my mind, coaching. I read this book with a chilly spine, I'll tell you, for the prospect of losing your home and going begging is terrifying. But at the same time I read with a sense of adventure, wonder, and even joy. Joy? Yes, joy. That's where Bruce Moody ultimately takes his readers, straight into the realm of joy, right there in the most unexpected of places, along the roadside. To me, that's the greatest message of the book. It's the treasure buried in the field, and thank you Bruce for digging it up and sharing it with all of us. Congratulations!

Take Dostoyevsky's "Notes from the Underground," mix it with the Biblical stories of Job's travails and Jacob's wrestling, simmer for 60 years, stir in American optimism and the popular career book, "What Color is Your Parachute," bring to a rolling boil, remove from heat, let cool, serve, and you'll have Bruce Moody's memoir, "Will Work for Food or $."

All who have encountered beggars in America should read Mr. Moody's memoir. It makes no difference whether you've agonized over the plight of beggars, as I have, or criticized them for being too picky in their job searches, as I also have. You will find Moody's experiences and soul searching powerful and interesting on several levels.

Moody's memoir takes us into the mind and experiences of an honest senior citizen begging for work to stay afloat. His experience is not the result of a contrived, self-imposed literary or journalistic assignment but instead comes from his struggle to survive and keep his home. Political and intellectual motives can drive authors to concoct or artificially partake of experiences inorder to make points or satisfy intellectual curiosity, but such works lack the deep, poetic soul searching and humor of Moody's work.

His memoir contains much more than temporal descriptions of financial and employment predicaments. It reveals Moody's deepest thoughts of optimism, self-doubt, prejudice, humility, spirituality, pride, desire, honesty, discipline and survival. It stays away from politicizing and intellectualizing the problems of homelessness and poverty in America, and instead focuses on people in their essence in face-to-face encounters. He doesn't confine his spiritual thoughts to an abstract world but lets them stand and sit freely with him by the roadside. People frequently surprised Moody while he begged, and me, too, as I read the book.

Moody's writing style reflects the openness and honesty of his accounts. He is not constrained by rules of grammar. His writing is more akin to poetry and therefore better conveys his thoughts and emotions than prosaic, proper English. He knows what he's doing, though, and I'm not the only one who thinks so: in his memoir we learn The New Yorker and other prestigious magazines published other works of his years before his financial plight. We also learn about his great love of acting and his successful pursuit of work in theater and film.

This memoir shows its author to be highly principled and disciplined. He strives to stick to his self-promises, such as writing about people who helped him while he begged. My only criticism is small and is related to this honoring: the last fourth of the book inspired me less and seemed a little bit like some sort of acknowledgement roll call, though not actually becoming perfunctory. But Moody promised he would acknowledge these people, and he does. I enthusiastically recommend "Will Work for Food or $." Everyone should read it and every home library should have it. There is no other book quite like it.

At the age of 60, Yale educated Bruce Moody was fired from his job in the Bay area and could not get another. As homelessness loomed, he took what he perceived as the only way out: he became a beggar. In the year he spent standing on the off-ramp of a major highway with a sign reading,"Will Work for Food or $" and blessing the cars as they passed, the task he had set himself, Moody had plenty of time to contemplate the most unlovely contents of his own mind. He confronted shame and regret and opinion-making and grandiosity and all the rest of the baggage with which we are all saddled. Again and again, he encountered bliss. People, he reports, treated him impeccably--and this includes the people, very few, who insulted,or bullied him. Moody ceased being a victim and became something else entirely, a wide-awake human being. This book is remarkable not only as the account of an eccentric and dignified spiritual journey but also as a masterpiece of elegant prose.

At the age of 60, Bruce Moody found out the hard way that education from Yale and Columbia, published writing credits, a strong acting resume and years of work in the business world (as a contract employee) could not protect him from economic downturn. His struggle to keep a roof over his head, pay his bills, continue to develop and maintain his self-respect, and cope with his sister's serious illness, without burdening his family financially, is a story as suspenseful as anything by Ken Follett. Of interest to anyone, especially persons involved with human growth, spirituality, the arts, and any of us who've ever whizzed by those guys with the placards at freeway offramps, is this memoir. It details how, with fear and trepidation, Bruce Moody decided to trust his wellbeing to the kindness of strangers and stand by the roadside with the proverbial sign: "Will work for food or $". His expectations and prejudices are shattered as he finds that his life is being supported by people he does not know and, in many cases, will never know. How he handles, with grace and spiritual insight, this radical shift in his living patterns, until he can locate steady work, is a fascinating and thought-provoking memoir. Highly recommended and quite unexpected.

The devotion to detail, the honesty, the dignity, the humanity, the willingness to put a personal philosophy to the test-all these qualities come up roses in this book.

On both levels, the level of person and the level of writer, the author seized the authentic moment of his reality and recognized the power that flows from his being able to totally accept and acknowledge himself, where he's at, and once able to do that with surprise, openness, a lack of bitterness, and an absorption in the moment, he's on your way.

Have you ever been 1500 miles away from home, with $3 in your pocket (between the 3 of us) and watched as your horse beats a guy out of $1200 playing 9-Ball, and then beat's the same guy 22 games in a row, playing $500 a game onepocket?.. We thought the guy was gonna have a coronary at the end.. He was all red and flustered, and breathing funny.. Best part is, when they first started gambling, my guy put the coldest move on him.. Since we where on the air barrel, he told the guy (as he reached into his pocket, as if to pull out some $$$) " Do you wanna post?.. Nah, you don't have to post with me.. I trust you".. LOL..

That's how it is on the road, where you play onepocket for the big bucks, and 9-Ball to pay the room rent.. And that's what this book is about, hard nosed gamblers, playing a man's game.. This book is written by some of the greatest players that ever played, and thoroughly covers most aspects of the game.. From power onepocket, to the "wedge" game, and including a "Shots From the Past" section, that is sure to amaze..

Plus, 'Winning One-Pocket' delves into many finer nuances of the game.. Secrets that take years to aquire, and infact, most of the time only get passed from champion, to protege.. Things such as logical end game strategies, and uptable traps.. Moreover, the book discusses high concept of knowing how AND WHEN to apply pressure, and more importantly, when to back off.. After all, it's about getting the money, and this book will give you better insight on how to do just that..

I have personally spent thousands of hours playing and gambling at pool.. My brother is the 1999 US Open Onepocket Champion (He is also the 2003 US Open 9-Ball Champ).. He and I both have copies of this book, and we (I'm sure he would agree) recommend this book, highly, if you can find a copy..

This book is a great resource for shots rarely seen. This book has brought my One Pocket game over the top. I have won more games after practicing some of these shots. I have lost a lot of money players after execution of these shots as well for the cash. I am telling you, this book will be the most valuable investment for serious players.

I bought the book about 2 years ago when I was young to one pocket. And still today, I like to browse through it and solve problems. It has great commentary and advise from some of the best players, and interesting stories along the way to let your brain rest. This book is a must for beginners to experienced players.

This is an excellent book on how that most esoteric and frustrating of pocket billiard games should be played.

The diagrams are very helpful and the discussion of the theory behind each of the possible shots really helps make a difficult game more approachable.

For this edition the authors also made an effort to capture a lot of stories about "best" one-pocket shots across the years.

Having this book and working through just the beginning points has already added 2 balls to my game.

The only problem? It is not available. I actually ahd to go to e-bay and pay more than 2x the original price for it. But it was worth it!

This book gives tremendous insight into one of pocket billiards most cerebral games. One-pocket is a game where knowledge of the "moves" of the games are as important as playing ability. What I found particularly good about the book that seperates it from others is the way it offers multiple solutions to common situations with some of the game's greatest players all giving opinions on what particular shot they liked best and why. The book is well illustrated and has rare photos of tournament players as well as legendary road players. The book is quality bound, is oversized and I for one am glad that I bought this when it was new. The other one pocket book by Eddie Robin "Shots, Moves and Strategies" is also very well done.

An excellent comprehensive review of the players, management, & even the broadcast team who painted the picture for fans in the '67 season. I find it intriguing to read not only about the star players (Lonborg & Yaz) also the fringe players (Joe Foy, Dan Osinski, Don McMahon, etc.)whose journey in their baseball career enabled them to play on the'Impossible Dream'. The members of SABR (Society of American Research)hit a homer on this product!I'm a Yankee fan & I recommend this to any1!

1967 marks the first year that I really became a baseball fan, and the first year I saw Fenway Park. I remember my first sight of the storied Green Monster as if it were yesterday. As much as I am enjoying the more recent success of the Red Sox, there will never be another year like '67.

I do not exagerate and I say in confidence that I enjoyed this book more than any sports book that I have ever read. It brought back 1967, and some of my best childhood memories. It also preserves a great time in baseball history, along with the stories of the young men who comprised this team, hero and benchwarmer alike. I, along with Red Sox (and baseball) fans everywhere owe the authors a debt of gratitude. One can sense the dedication of the editors in compiling this great volume.

Especially if you are a Red Sox fan and remember '67, but even if you are a casual baseball fan, this is an unbelievable bargain - at this price you simply must get this book.

For red sox fans the year 1967 is not remember for only the summer of love ,its the year of the impossible dream . The sox had not won a pennant for 21 long years and it was the start of red sox nation as we know it . The book is fantastic it covers the 67 team .The words of the players are very interesting .The bio of them are great ,knowing how they became sox, and how they did on and off the field .enjoy it

This was one of the best books I have ever read. The book goes into great detail about every member on the '67 team. All the contributors of the book should be commended for brining 1967 back to life. I wasn't born in '67 but by reading the book I felt like I was there.
I really enjoyed the chapter about Tony Conigliaro, my favorite member of the team. It's terrible what happened to him. God bless your soul Tony C.

This is not only a great companion to the recently released Impossible To Forget DVD, but it also puts every other book on the 1967 Red Sox, and there are many, to shame. The best part for me are the individual biographies of every player who played that historic season; even the ones who only got into a few games. The book proves that every single player on the team contributed to the pennant. Put another way, when you win by one game, take one player away, no matter how insignificant, and the team would have ended up in second place. A remarkable team. A remarkable book.

Sharma's tale is a great mixture of the glamorous and the familiar, within which nothing ends predictably. As a result, I devoured this in two days because I couldn't wait to find out what happened. It delves into several topics that influence many of us yet are seldom brought into as sharp relief as when seen through Monica's eyes.

Highly recommended!

I thoroughly enjoyed All Eyes on Her. I had read the author's prior novel, Girl Most Likely To, and was reassured to find the same wit and originality in this second novel, along with a fresh perspective that took on new layers for characters and plot. When a novel finds an enthusiastic audience, the next novel from the author often attempts to recycle the ingredients that make the first novel such a hit. That approach tends to be a recipe for a lackluster read. So glad that that was not the case here- enjoyed the second novel so much that I'm ready for the third! When will there be more?? :)

Poonam definitely captured the dynamics between women in the corporate world. Even if you're not a high powered, fashionable, independent woman, you won't be able to put this book down. I was in my own world laughing with and feeling for Monica. Great book for a vacation or just to liven up your daily train commute.

I enjoyed "All eyes on Her" for a number of reasons. I live in LA so I could relate to some of the experiences in the book, I found myself eye-rolling, nodding and laughing along. I also enjoyed the characters and found them easy to get into, I loved some, hated others, all the emotions you want to come from a great book! I also appreciated the personal growth you see the main character go through. You really feel as if you are right there with her experiencing the ebbs and flows of life and the difficulty in making high-impact personal & professional decisions.

fun, feisty and fearless...after having read Girl Most Likely To, I was unsure whether or not to expect a sequel which can be *yawn* boring (take bridget jones or devil wears prada, can anyone even name the titles that followed those bestsellers?). but All Eyes on Her is a fresh, if not at times painfully honest and insightful look at the world viewed through the sexy lens of a single, successful thirtysomething woman who confronts the emotional drama that all women encounter. brava! the author has taken the bull by the horns and will hopefully ride us into a third novel.

I am a personal assistant and I read this book in an afternoon. I found myself highlighting every word!! It is a must read for those experienced and unexperienced assistants in the field. This book is a keeper in my library of "tools in life." This is a book that you will refer back to time and time again - trust me! When you think that you are on top of your game, a book like this one crosses your path. PURCHASE IT - you will not regret it; it's NOT just another "how to" book!

I would recommend this book if you are serious about becoming a personal assistant, or wanting new ideas of skill building. It's very resourceful and a book you'd always look back to.

Every thing I read is great input for becoming a personal assistant. The book even provides websites for you to research

I first heard about a job as a Celebrity Personal Assistant from some overdramatized, hyped show promising all sorts of glam and goodies. When I went to begin a more serious inquiry into it as a real career I found a lot of equally useless websites and guides that just glossed over the "perks" and didn't detail any real practical advice on this topic. Until I found Beyond the Red Carpet. This is a comprehensive book that offers a complete view of the vital role that Personal Assistants play in the world of celebrities and high profile successful people. It offers a clear list of the skills, temperments and abilities required for this job as well as sound,concrete steps that you can take to be successful in this career. At about 25 bucks you get a wealth of knowledge, know-how and insight. It covers the pitfalls, expectations and some of the frustatrations one might face as well as the upside - well balanced, clearly written and practical it's obvious that the writer knew her topic throughly - living it not just reporting or glamourizing it. Despite an incredibly tight budget, I invested the extra monies to take the actual workshop at their Atlanta headquarters and found their help invaluable. This is a professional text written by a talented, focused and knowledgeable woman and is a link to a much broader network of experience and expertise. I was frustrated and lost before attending and through the staff's help, the information from this text and meeting other dynamic individuals pursuing this challenging, but exciting career; I found the inspiration to make a new, more focused start. After getting home I rewrote my resume using their suggestions and was told that my it stood out amid over 400 who had applied for an Executive Assistant/Personal Assistant job to a local CEO. The comment by the HR person was - Yours was the first resume that made me stop what I was doing and pick up the phone to call you. I've accepted the position and am happily pursuing it as the next step to building the kind of experience that will land me a Celebrity position. Don't be fooled by the sales pitch flashy books out there. If you're serious about this as a career - get this book and look into their workshop. I found the author and her entire staff to be bright, energetic and talented business professionals with the experience and connections to make great things happen. RHExecAssistant at AOL

Beyond the Red Carpet, is a great book that details how a high-profile person whether celebrity, professional, educator, or even a athlete can gain the necessary support to be able to concentrate on daily responsibilities for their career. Beyond the Red Carpet, entails so much rich information that every person in a profession should read! It's entertaining, informative, effective and just a great book that should be in everyone's book collection.

"Bound by Red Clay" continues to astound the contemporary poetry market! It has been nominated for these awards: Georgia Writers Inc. Book of the Year--Poetry Category, Tufts Discovery Award, and the poem "Gopher Tortoise" was nominated for the coveted Pushcart Prize. The first run sold out in 6 months, and the second printing has sold 50% in only a month. Neca Stoller's work is indeed slated to become one of America's best.

When I ordered Neca Stoller's book I wondered if the high standard I had admired in examples of her work I'd seen on the net would be sustained through a book. It was.

My other concern was whether poetry specifically drawing on a Georgia, USA, landscape would be relevant in Australia. It was. Australian friends have validated my opinion on this.

Like the book itself the poetry is spare, direct and captures the essence of her subjects. Her focus is not distracted by any vanities. The discipline of Japanese genres shines through. The poetry is strong and credible.

I commend it to anyone with a sense of place and community, no matter where in the world they are centered.

Neca Stoller is a poet rooted in the soil of the rural South. Her latest volume is filled with images of the red clay of her home state, as well as characters from her family, uncles and aunts and cousins, former college roommates, and others who populate the Georgia backwoods.

Stoller, born in Savannah and educated at the University of Georgia during the tumultuous 60s, has spent the past several years living, working, and writing on a Georgia cattle farm. Her love of the land and the gentle rhythms of rural life sparkle in her poems. Bound by Red Clay is a slim volume of 60 selections, arranged in five titled chapters. It comes after numerous accolades for her verse from such diverse organizations as the Palomar Showcase and the Haiku Society of America.

Ms. Stoller is at once both peaceful and poignant when she focuses on the slow and repeating meter of country life. "Sultry Evening" is an evocative short poem about the pleasures of rocking on a porch hammock while crickets harmonize on summer evenings. In "Red Clay," we follow along as she wanders through sites of the Civil War, still heavy with memory. "Baling Hay" reminds us of the heat of such summer work, but rewards us with an image of " an iced mason jar/ black tea thick with sugar."

Stoller's themes throughout the book are telling: homecoming, death, lost love, the summer's heat, rural life, the social history of the South. She obviously has roots in her homeland, and that foundation creates lovely verse. The truths she finds among Georgia's red clay and pine forests ring true through time and space.

Even the title of Neca Stoller's first book of poems--Bound by Red Clay--tells us we're dealing with a Southern poet who deals with solid images. Many of these pictures painted by this Savannah poet are Southern and specifically Georgian: magnolias, lowland graveyards, 1960's protest marches, Cherokee excavations, front porches on sultry evenings, even a moonshiner by the name of "Flem." Red clay is a good image for the poets of Georgia, especially those who have left the land: Anyone who has tried to scrub the knees of a child's pants or footprints left on a beige carpet knows that red clay stains will always remain. One might be able to dull their immediate brilliance, but the brick-red trace will remain truly bound to the material.

That fading but "bound" sense of images propels the poet--and then the reader--through this book. The volume contains poems that are slim on words and fat on images. Stoller paints tiny pictures that loom large in one's verbal and pictorial memory. A pair of pinking shears "left marks like a bobcat's bite." Corpses are freed from their graves during the Flint River flood of 1994; "their hands rose and waved . . . they sat in the mud, naked-- / grinning--not a bit shy." On the morning after a lovers' tryst, the poet bittersweetly proclaims, "Such a short night, / still out of breath."

The poet reminds us we are tourists passing by a world full of scenes; the most important admonition someone can make to us is simply to look. Her haiku-like poems resonate with ideas and emotions that emerge out of the things pictured here. For instance, there's "White Chrysanthemum": "tucked between / fallen leaves / a white chrysanthemum / once pinned to my lapel / by your unsteady hands."

After a while, the poems begin to resonate with each other. Arranged into sections that Stoller calls "Chapters," the volume is like a collection of minimalist short stories: The poet's youth, a set of scenes with a former lover, her experiences during the University of Georgia's first year of integration, scenes from nature, and Stoller's own shifting and meditative identity as a poet.

Every semester, I post a new poem on my office door. I try to find one that immediately charms and then provides an opportunity for me, pausing with keys in hand, or for my students waiting for their office conference, to reflect. Stoller has given me a new volume's worth of poems to place on my door; this book will provide you with a similar opportunity to recognize and meditate.

"Bound by Red Clay," by Neca Stoller, is a collection of poems which allows the reader a brief peek into Stoller's life in Georgia during the 1960s. Stoller recounts moments through lively, visual poetry. She is unusually attuned to her surroundings and is able to describe scences with sharp detail and flowing verse. A poem titled "The Shrimp Boat" displays this talent. "Pushing through, past the channel markers, her name so faint, blurred by salt and time the bow appearing then reappearing, as her distant, tall mast crosses the marsh... Docked; still the boat' hole brims with shrimp, as the sunset slips down through the rigging, and as the full moon rises to surf the black waves." This careful attention to minutia draws the reader into Stoller's Georgia, puts the the reader right on the deck of a coastal shrimp boat. Another fresh aspect of Stoller's writung is the absence of too much emotion. Some poets go so deep into their inner thoughts the reader can become derailed and miss the meaning. But Stoller incorporates just enough feeling to touch her audience without overwhelming them. "Never meaning to grow old, in the mirror I am astonished to see age spots in a face more my mother's than my own...,"writes Stoller in "The Fire." With only a few words, Stoller captures the experience of aging. "Bound by Red Clay" is an ensemble of mature and well-written poetry which parallels life, detailing a range of experiences, experiences that run from disturbing events to moments of calmness. In one poem titled, "Sand Dollar," Stoller describes the last moments of a young soldier's life, and in another, "Rain," she explains how rain falls to the earth. It is apparent poetry for Stoller is a craft and for lovers of poetry she is a great gift.

Reviewed by Steven Hansen for Small Spiral Notebook

The terms 'memoir' and 'novel' are not as easily blended as PB&J; nor do they make half as good a sandwich. But when it comes to literature instead of low cuisine, these two forms of creative expression are hardly mutually exclusive; making fiction out of one's own life is nothing new. There are many examples of work that blurs the line between nonfiction and fiction, memoir and novel, upright citizen and (...)child.

The only question anyone who reads such an admixture should care about is: Does the author transform the highly personal into something universal?

For the most part, Diane Payne's memoir/novel hybrid Burning Tulips does.

The books only flaw is the putrid, one-note character of the father, who not only is the Vietnam War-loving stereotype of the union thug and domestic tyrant, but just happens to sexually molest his daughters, too. There may be such monsters in real life, but, at least in this instance, it doesn't make for compelling fiction. After a few run-ins with him, you're already desensitized. It's not that the author should have included some sappy detail about his secret hobby of raising orphaned bunnies, it's just that once you get to the chapter where he's in the garage slaughtering rabbits you're already so saturated with his malice that all you can do is chuckle and say, "Ho hum."

The father, though, is really nothing but a foil for the main relationship of the book between the terminally ill mother and her bridge-over-troubled-water daughter.

When Dad touches me, I can tell that he doesn't hate me, and I don't hate him. I don't hate him until he gets out of bed and starts screaming at my mother before he goes to work, once again making me invisible, forgetting that he was happy just moments ago.

The mother and daughter cling to each other like two tourists who've been abducted by a terrorist long enough to start making excuses for him, exhibiting the classic symptom of Stockholm Syndrome. In the chapter titled "The Trash Bin", the mother admonishes her daughter to not think too harshly of a vagrant bum who copped a feel. It's as if she's indirectly apologizing to her daughter for ignoring her husband's incestuous ways.

"It won't look good to say my daughter was touched by an old man. From now on, stay away from old men. They get like that. Don't you go telling anyone what he did. ... Some things need to stay in the family."

Adding to the ambiguous nature of this memoir/novel is the fact the chapters can also be looked upon as stand alone short stories, autonomous in their own right, even as they work within the larger frame of the book. In the story, "The Keyhole", the young girl spies on her post-mastectomy mother preparing to bathe.

Mom's skin is red and raw, crusted with wounds that will become thick scars. Blood drips from the stitches. She looks bruised and off balance, but not untouchable.

The daughter's impulse to mother her mother overrides her fear of being pushed away, and she opens the door and walks into the bathroom. Over the protestations of her mother, the girl picks up the soap and begins to wash her mother's back.

"You're too young to see this."
"I saw it through the keyhole, Ma. It ain't that bad."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."

As the daughter hits her teen years, she becomes a self-described 'Jesus Freak' who in the story/chapter, "Tongue-Tied" tries to proselytize at a crash pad inhabited by bikers.

"You know, I was wondering if the Road Knights might like to get involved with my church. You know, start a club called Jesus' Mufflers, or something like that."

The big man spits out his beer laughing. Leaning over the kitchen table, he pounds another guy on the shoulder, the one who is waiting for him to get back to their poker game, and says, "Did you hear that? She wants us to start a motorcycle club called Jesus' Mufflers!"

Bouncing from tragedy to comedy and a little bit of in between, these stories casually intertwine to create a lushly colored, painstakingly-rendered portrait of a family, their community, and the unsettled times in which they live.

I don't usually like reading books that take place when my parents were kids, but I read Burning Tulips and actually liked most of the short stories. The author does a good job showing what it is like to grow up. She shows the good and the bad. I think more kids should read this book.

I absolutely loved this quirky, poignant, heartbreaking novel.

Although it invites comparison with other compelling coming-of-age stories such as Sandra Cisneros' "House on Mango Street" and Eric Miles Williamson's "East Bay Grease," this is a unique work of art that goes beyond the expectations of the dysfunctional family genre.

The heroine does face some of the hardships familiar to that genre--an alcoholic, lecherous father, a mother dying of cancer, the sort of relatives that try to discourage smart girls from reading too much, and the humiliations of poverty.

Yet it is not just the unusual setting--a working-class neighborhood in Michigan settled by three generations of Dutch immigrants--that makes this interesting. The reader is drawn in by the utter dauntlessness and insistent decency of the heroine, who, despite her own considerable psychic injuries, spends her indignation and compassion on the penned-up dogs, the little kids who get bullied at school, and most of all, on her slowly dying mother.

If you can imagine a combination of Antigone and Pippi Longstockings and Bernard Shaw's version of Joan of Arc, you will have some idea of this character's appeal. Yet she is neither self-righteous, self-pitying, sentimental, nor bitter.

But don't try to imagine her--just read the book. It is as hard to describe fully as it is to over-praise.

Having been disappointed so often, I've become somewhat wary of the contemporary novel. Burning Tulips, rich with honest experience, is a surprising exception; the book successfully captures the rare tenderness of a daughter for her mother.

Reminiscent of the writings of Joyce Carol Oates and Tillie Olsen, Burning Tulips is a story of coming of age. It's the story of an adolescent's struggle to find stability in a world where there seems to be little one can trust .

In my opinion, this novel would make terrific reading for high school students. The fast pace and sharp description are guaranteed to hold the interest of even the most jaded young reader, and the narrative is a testament to the power of the honest truth, told without apology or resentment or hyperbole.

Reviewed for Nights and Weekends by John Sheirer

The nameless young girl at the center of Diane Payne's wonderful Burning Tulips is asked to write about an "important human" for a school assignment. She chooses instead to write about the family dog because, in her own words, "... it seems like all my important humans would make a sad story."

Such is life for Payne's protagonist, who grows from age five to eighteen and must deal with her mother's cancer, her father's abuse, her family's poverty, her growing sexuality, her constant spiritual crisis, her sense of social injustice during the turbulent 1960s-even her poor penmanship. With so much stacked against her, readers might expect a stereotypical self-pitying child/adolescent/teenager. She does experience plenty of anger, fear, shame, and sadness, but Payne has crafted a complex character brimming with humor, hope, strength, love, and a burning sense that her life has an abundant future despite her deprived and isolated present.

Payne's work has appeared widely in print and internet literary publications. In fact, many sections of Burning Tulips first appeared as outstanding stand-alone pieces, usually under the banner of "memoir." Whether this book is a partially fictionalized memoir or fiction based on the author's own experiences is an interesting question. But more important is how Payne deftly employs a memoirist's psychological insight along with a novelist's skill in structure, pace, and narrative voice to create a haunting book that resonates authentic depth of emotion.

Burning Tulips comes to us through Red Hen Press, a lively independent publisher bringing out some terrific poetry, memoir, and fiction that would never find a place with today's megapublishers focused on high-concept bestsellers. Bestsellers have their place: the beach or long airplane flights-situations where passing the time is more important than challenging the heart and mind with literature. Discerning readers will instead be far more satisfied with the excellent Burning Tulips than any garden-variety bestseller. In short, it's a beautiful book well worth reading.

NOTE! I am actually seventeen, but I'm also lazy and didn't want to do all that extra work. ^_^ My review is below.

From the very first page--which shows Sakura crying over her brother's loss of magical power *cough*Yue's fault*cough*--to the last, you will be hooked on this volume. I speak from experience. It is the absolute cutest volume of the entire twelve-book series. There are no flaws in it whatsoever. *SPOILER!* My favorite part is where Sakura-chan finally confesses her love to Yukito-san. *SPOILER'S END* But anyway, please pick up the original first six, read them, read Master of the Clow 1-3, then take a deep breath and read this one. I was absolutely thrilled with my purchase, and I have a feeling you will be, too! Elissachan has spoken.

Card captors is about a 5th grader girl with the magic of the clow cards which are these cards that each have there own magic.When Sakura relizes the clow master is going to die she must find out the 2 yes 2 people who will take his place. It is pretty easy to guess who they are but still reading the books is still alot of fun. Very cute books. Like in the second book Sakura gets attacked by a giant teddy bear!The art is great too.Great book for all ages and Tokyo mew mew and Salior Moon fans.(to tell you the truth I like this book even more then Salior Moon ^_^!)
~*~Purin~*~

This continues along from the plots in the previous comic, which you should get before purchasing this or you'll be lost.
Summary:
The Tomoda kids host a cafe. There, Sakura confesses her feelings to Yukito. And then we can't forget about Clow Reed, who continues to test her. Later, we find out about Clow Reed, Kero, and Yue's past. If you want to find out about more stuff leading to the next book.

This is the best book in the cardcaptor collection.Sakura tells Yukito that she loves him but finds out that she does not love him in a #1 kind of way but as a father.Li helps her fell better .She desides to make a kinmoyo for him so that Li can go to a festivel with her and Tomoyo(my favoite character)you'll love this book if you're a card captor fan.

I will read them all! By the time I'm done, the sweetness of the series will probably have rotted my teeth out, but at least I will be a happy toothless person. In this book, Sakura finally deals with her feelings for Yukito, along with the usual battling of the Clow Cards. Sakura's talk with Li about her feelings for Yukito was, I think, the best reason to have this book. The Cardcaptor books always make me smile, even during a reread, which is as good a reason as any to get something, I think.

Why spend a few good evenings re-discovering life through the eyes of an autistic boy? The answer to that lies in this intriguing novel. While most fifteen-year-olds spend their time playing basketball or crunching popcorn at the movies, Christopher Boone - our protagonist - prefers cracking difficult maths puzzles and investigating the death of his neighbour's poodle. The latter event eventually leads him on an adventure that forms the bulk of the plot - a discovery of the untold back-story to his parents' troubled marriage.

The main selling point of the book, however, lies not so much in the story per se as having the story rendered through Christopher's eyes. And what he brings is a wholly refreshing perspective on life - from the details he picks out with his unbelievably photographic memory to his manic obsession with order. How many people actually can - or will bother to - remember the number (and colour and size and disposition) of cows they've just seen on a random field? This raises serious questions about the things we `normal people' choose to see and not to see. The language too is perfect - methodical, matter-of-fact and well-suited to the subject matter and how our protagonist relates to it.

A truly refreshing and thought-provoking read.

Mark Haddon is an author, a poet, and an artist who is best known for his book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. He has even won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and Commonwealth Writers' Prize Overall Best First Book for this novel. Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a moving look into the life of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. Everyday is a challenge for him, but life gets even harder when Christopher, the protagonist of the story, discovers his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, stabbed to death in his neighbor's backyard. Christopher loved Wellington very much, and he decides to find out who murdered him. Even though Christopher is determined to solve the mystery, it is an extremely difficult task for him. Because of his autism, he hates to be touched. Being touched causes him to scream uncontrollably. Furthermore, Christopher cannot understand many basic emotions other than happy, sad, and mad. These personal challenges make his case a tough, frightening mystery. What all starts as an investigation of a friend's death turns into something much bigger, more than Christopher could ever imagine. One might even say that the story reveals something more than Christopher ever wanted to know.
I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. To be honest, I am not much of a reader, but I could not put this book down. This just might be the best book I have ever read. It is an absolute must on your reading list. Mark Haddon's character, Christopher comes to life and shows what life with autism is like from a first person view. This book gives insight into the fact that every individual can view the world completely different. The author did a phenomenal job of telling the story as if he was an autistic himself. Even though I think this is more of a book for teenagers, I would definitely tell Oprah to put it on her list of books to read because this book is one you just can not miss out on.

The book portrays the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher. It did it so well that I was tempted to rate the book lower just based on that. It leaves you feeling that you might just understand what autism really is and does it so well that it implies that the specific range of emotion that Christopher has and how he deals with it is what it is all about. My own experiences suggest that this boy's emotional range and response is just one vantage point.

In some cases the incidents that take place in the search for the dog are funny. At the same time the focus on emotion and feelings are so well done that, rather than funny, it might be said that it is chilling.

It took a long time for me to be willing to recommend this book to those in my life who are closer to autism. The book, if anything, is too powerful in getting a message across that is a hard message. No one would want to think that someone they loved really had to spend their life dealing with emotion in this way. On the other hand the more you read the more you want to read. The book was one I read from beginning to end in one sitting.

The author did a great job of using the story to teach us but what he taught us may have narrowed our previous points of view more than it expanded them.

In the second chapter of this book (actually labelled as "3" because this is the second prime number), we are introduced to Christopher, the narrator, who is writing a mystery novel as a class project. Christopher is an extremely intelligent 15-year old who just happens to be autistic. He begins his tale by relating his discovery of a neighbor's dog, which had been murdered with a garden fork. Because he likes both dogs and mysteries, Christopher sets off to find the killer, but what starts as a story about a dog becomes a story about Christopher's life. Not only do we learn about Christopher's many quirks, but also we learn the explanations for his seemingly irrational behavior, making it seem almost logical. The book is surprising funny, as Christopher, with his limited emotional range, makes the perfect straight man. As a psychologist, I found that the depiction of Christopher rang true, and overall, I found this novel to be a delightful, different, and quick little read.

Writing this first novel from the point of view of an autistic 15-year-old, Mark Haddon takes the reader into the chaos of autism and creates a character of such empathy that many readers will begin to feel for the first time what it is like to live a life in which there are no filters to eliminate or order the millions of pieces of information that come to us through our senses every instant of the day. For the autistic person, most stimuli register with equal impact, and Christopher's teacher Siobhan, at the special school he attends, has been trying to teach him to deal with the confusing outside world more effectively. At fifteen he is on the verge of gaining some tenuous control over the mass of stimuli which often sidetrack him.

When the dog across the street is stabbed and dies, Christopher decides to solve the mystery and write a book about it. His favorite novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes his model as he investigates the crime, uncovering many secrets involving his own family in the process. Innocent and honest, he sees things logically and interprets the spoken word literally, unable to recognize the clues which would tell him if someone is being dishonest, devious, or even facetious. As he tells his story in a simple subject-verb-object sentence pattern, Christopher tries to communicate and give order to his world, and the reader can easily see how desperate he is to find some pattern which will enable him to make sense of it.

Christopher's investigations eventually require him to make some remarkably brave decisions, and when he faces his fears and moves beyond his immediate neighborhood, the magnitude of this challenge is both dramatic and poignant. Strange places have always been traumatic for him, and he has difficulties with his emotions. "Feelings," he says, "are just having a picture on the screen in your head." He responds either with logic or with the anger which sometimes overwhelms him as result of fear or frustration, and the reader cannot help aching for him and empathizing with his family.

Christopher's coming-of-age story is most unusual, if not unique, and he ends the book a much more mature 15-year-old than he was when he started. With warmth and humor, Haddon creates a fascinating main character, allowing the reader to share in his world and experience his ups and downs, his trials and successes. In providing a vivid world in which the reader participates vicariously, Haddon fulfills the most important requirements of fiction, entertaining at the same time that he broadens the reader's perspective and allows him to gain knowledge. Mary Whipple

The end, on post-production, is priceless. Especially the material about adding the score. But I think Louis B. Mayer comes out as the true hero, because of his skill at balancing commercial and artistic considerations.

Lillian Ross's books "Picture" and "Portrait of Hemingway" were listed as two of the top 100 best-of-the-century works of Journalism compiled by 36 judges working under the aegis of New York University.

Lillian Ross made her name with this New Yorker series about a half century ago. It was startling in its cynical and very humerous view of the self important and self delusional power players at MGM. With all that we have learned about this industry during the intervening 50 years the story has lost much of its potency, but is still a classic of the genre.

I read it in its original form all those years ago. It was a wonderful and hilarious read. But the protagonists, of course, were extremely upset and hated it. Happily,Lillian has survived; still writing for New Yorker.

Lillian Ross has given movie fans and those with a serious interest in film an extraordinary book about the final days of the studio system--and shows exactly why it collapsed. A few years later the independent film-maker emerged, and another book details that experience. Interestingly enough, both books deal with Audie Murphy. Like the Ross book, A THINKER'S DAMN by William Russo recounts the foibles of movie-making, this time in Saigon with Joe Mankiewicz in 1957. Each provides a timeless impression of a bygone movie era.

Lillian Ross, a writer for the New Yorker, heads to Hollywood in 1950 to watch John Huston make his next picture, "The Red Badge of Courage" at MGM, and manages to capture a horrifying snapshot of the studio system at its worst during a difficult time of transition for the film industry. She happens to be on hand to see Louis B. Mayer forced out and Dore Schary installed as studio head while the film is in mid-production. There are several scenes of Huston grinning and bearing it as Schary pompously lectures the great director of "The Maltese Falcon," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The African Queen" on how to make a movie. Schary pompously cites how he "solved story problems" in several of his own stodgy, now-forgotten pet projects as producer, like "The Next Voice You Hear." In one hillarious scene we see Arthur Freed, MGM's great producer of musicals, playing yes-man to Schary, and we glean, perhaps, how Freed, by appeasing the new boss, managed to keep some autonomy for his own expensive production unit through much of Schary's cost-cutting reign.

Then come the ill-conceived (or deliberately rigged) sneak previews. This serious war drama is screened at a local theater for an audience that came to see a Ginger Rogers romantic comedy, and the audience response is... (surprise!) vociferously negative. They find the film depressing, and many walk out. The old adage that new executives try to kill the projects put into the works by their predecessors may apply. Schary uses these preview results to justify having the movie re-cut while Huston is out of the country working on another film.

Anyone who suspects that there never was a golden age of Hollywood without inept executives and corporate committees will enjoy this book. You wonder how anything good ever gets made. Cynics will chuckle, film lovers will just shake their heads in sorrow. Of course, there is that other adage about not wanting to see how the sausage gets made...