Reviews Books

Diana Rigg has compiled the most hilarious book I've ever read. If you keep it in the bathroom guests or other family members will wonder why you are roaring with laughter behind the commode door. British wit and droll sarcasm at its finest.

One of those rare books that consistently leaves the reader in tears of laughter (albeit at someone else's expense).
I must say that I have newfound respect for actors after reading this book. The performers in these pages are some of the world's most renowned actors and yet no one escapes unscathed.
My favorite selection is the diary of an actress in a touring company of Romeo and Juliet and her description of the problems she encounters during a performance.
I wish I could give it more than five stars!

The world of theatre criticism can be a brutal and mean place where careers are lost and broken. The chance for comedy is just as enormous. Diana Rigg has compiled some of the meanest, nastiest, and funniest theatre reviews ever published. Playwrights, actors, actresses, directors and the productions themselves are all hung out to dry. This book is a hilarious addition to anyone's collection.

Diana Rigg, as an actor, has turned the other cheek by collecting and editing reviews of theatrical productions, past and present. Although the reviews are often at the expense of the principals in a production, they are written and edited in such a manner that makes them possibly more interesting than the production itself. If biting wit that sometimes draws blood is your thing, then you will enjoy this book.

A style all his own, with linguistic skills targeting your funny bone. He finds humor everywhere and shares it with you masterfully. Build your vocabulary and increase your insight into others while laughing so hard you make people wonder what you are reading.

Wit is often not associated with the academe. Therefore it is a suprise to see such wit in Stephen Leacock. As a professor of Economics at McGill University in the mid 20th century, Leacock was counted among Canada's greatest humorists.
In the Nonsense Novels, Leacocks unleashes parodies of most literary genres: The Great Detective, the first tale, satirizes Arthur Conan Doyle's Scandal in Bohemia.
There are tales of capers involving gullible women, a desert island landing with an alternate ending, analysis of societal conditions, and some stories that are plain nonsense.
A Hero in Homespun and the Man in Asbetoes are two worth reading; the latter being a farcical exposition on the future of capitalism and scientific advancement - very scary, if it were not so funny.

I was introduced to Leacock while browsing gutenberg.org, and have not been disappointed.
If you feel overwhelmed by the importance attached to triviality today, then you might do well to pick up and read the Nonsense Novels.

Where do I begin to describe the absolutely astonishing quality of Leacock's work? I first heard of Stephen Leacock when reading a book about the Marx brothers. It seems Groucho was on a train, and happened to pass the room of Jack Benny (who was traveling with them, working on the same vaudeville circuit. Groucho heard Benny screaming with laughter, and popped his head into Benny's room to see what the commotion was. Benny told Groucho that it was a book by Leacock, whom Groucho admitted to not knowing. Benny told Groucho, "It's the funniest stuff I've ever read!" Groucho later bought a copy of the book, loved it as much as Benny, and said that he always looked for anything written by Stephen Leacock.

Okay, but what about his stories? Leacock's stock in trade was the parody of classic literature - stories about humble girls of (unknowingly) noble ancestry, who are engaged to work as servants for title lords, only to fall in love with the son of the mansion are turned into hysterically funny romps, where the lies not in the intentionally funny line, but in carefully crafted twists of standard sentence construction.

A sample, from the above-described story, called "Gertrude the Governess; or Simply Seventeen":

"Young Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the house, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions."

Leacock treats the classic tale of knighthood (handsome, strong knight declares his love for the gentle maiden of the castle, and she loves him too, though they've never met) to similarly wicked entanglement of story and prose.

"Sorrows of a Super Soul" tells the classic Russian tale of an unrequited love, while "Carolyn's Christmas" the story of the old farmer, his family away (one son in the city, another in prison), his farm mortgaged, and a strange girl happening upon the family on Christmas Eve, with a baby, but no wedding ring. Both of these, and all other stories in this slim book, will have you laughing until you cry.

Buy a copy, get hooked. If Groucho and Jack Benny thought this was the best humor ever, how can it not satisfy you too?

Leacock is one of a handful of literary parodists and humorists (Perelman, Benchley, Twain) whose parodies, though more or less a century old, are still laugh-out-loud funny. If you're a Sherlock Holmes fan, Leacock's "Maddened by Mystery: or, The Defective Detective" will make you chortle. If you appreciate romance novels, "Gertrude The Governess" will still tickle. Canadian Leacock was a master humorist with a light touch, and an unerring deflator of cliche and presumption. This collection of short pieces will still entertain the sophisticated fan of written humor, and should be in every collection.

*Note: The full text of this book is available online.

This book helped me prepare for my test. I passed my course with good grades.

This book is well-organized and has tons of questions about the field of maternal-newborn nursing. My only problem (which obviously it's huge, as I still give this book 5 stars) is that the answers and their rationales are all at the END of each chapter, instead of on the same page a sthe question. It still is a wonderful study material to help you pass your class.

Without this book, I would not have achieved an "A" in peds and OB! This book is a MUST HAVE for all nursing students, as are all Nursetest books! The rationales are an excellent help when preparing for a test.

This book helped me pass NUR 112! The author really helped me to understand all the concepts of Maternal-Newborn Nursing. 5 star rating from me!

Real interesting book. We have different places to go in Colorado now that we didn't know about before.

If you live in Colorado, or just want to learn some interesting and fun trivia about this wonderful state, this little book is well worth the money! For example, the first restaurant in Denver, CO to receive the liquor license # 1 is still in business! Every state should have something like this! Hmmm maybe Jerome Pohlen would like to take on this little endeavor? LOL

This book is incredible! I have both the Colorado and Illinois ODDBALL books, and they are hilarious. I had no idea the amount of odd stuff that could be in one state. This is a great travel book! And makes a great gift!

We recently moved to Colorado and purchased about a dozen travel guides to help us get oriented. Oddball Colorado was one we just sort of grabbed in the melee. My wife and I would burst out in spontaneous laughter as we read it. Rather than read it cover to cover, I found myself bouncing around from page to page. Just when I thought I had finished it I would discover another golden nugget I had overlooked. It was a sad day when I realized I had finally finished it!

Now all other travel guides seem inconsequential. Pohlen identifies the natural wonders that really matter (to me!). The cheesy roadside attractions that seemed to capture my father's big station wagon with their tractor beams. Reading the book is like taking a ride with my dad all over again.

Now I've moved onto Oddball Illinois. And I thought nothing could make me want to visit Illinois!

This is a touching portrait of difficult lives. Beautiful without being "precious"; a must for every history buff.

My first introduction to Jana Harris' poetry was in a writing class in which her "I canned those pears" was used as a example. The poem was, I was told, something that came out of research with the migrant fruit workers. True or not, that description fits Oh How can I Keep on Singing?: Voices of Pioneer Women.

I was raised partially in the Okanogan so I can't claim to be impartial in my praise of these poems. They do a wonderful job of bringing forth the dirt, hunger, poverty and violence of the pioneer days in the Okanogan. Therefore, the poems nicely counterbalance the tendency to idealize the pioneer era - this is no House on the Praire.

Jana Harris has done an excellent job of giving the pioneer women individual voices - these are poems of a collection of individuals not of a homogenious mass of "pioneer women".

Finally, as tightly written poems, the stories have more emotional impact than they might have had in prose.

(I will confess that I also recommend anything by Jana Harris but this or Mahattan as a Second Language is the place to start.)

Beautiful and haunting, this tiny book has been read and read again and now stands in a place of importance in my bookshelf. As deep as "Wounded Knee," it is very special.

"Although this is a book of poems and the author is most definitely a poet, she also writes - and this is meant as a complement - like a journalist. From meticulous research, Harris has reconstructed in verse the world of women living in Washington State at the turn of the century. So vivid are the voices of the pioneer teachers, missionaries and the original Native Americans that you occasionally need to turn to the author's notes to be reminded that this collection was written by one contemporary woman. The tone of the pieces is undeniably feminist - the women are earthy and frank, honest about the drudgery of their lives and the ironies of being socially powerless members of their society. But their concerns are not entirely insular. In accessible, not overly poetic language, Harris includes accounts of Native American and white settler distrust and racism, and such real-life events as the Salmon City flood of 1894 and the cattle-killing winters not uncommon in those parts. It's too bad that poetry almost automatically gets shunted into the hardly-read category; this collection belongs in the enlightening historical fiction department. - Sara Nelson

I am impressed with The New York Review's revival of this unexpectedly non-Jamesian title. A truly unique James choice to bring back to life--it's been done so with a cover so compelling (I'm not a tradional James fan) I opened the book which I found locally in a brick and mortar as they are now called, book shop. The internet cannot do justice to the thoughtful sophistication of this book's packaging. (But I can purchase another copy here more easily!) The publisher's comments about the work were also compelling and complimentary to the cover art. The Other House is a mystery, a detective story, a love triangle with more than three angles--a true page turner--with a timelessly human plot and "modern" characters. Anyone thriller fan would be enchanted with it. And turning every page, holding the book, is a sensory thrill. Paper, writing, art--all representative of what any literary rebirth deserves. If it's worth bringing back--do it with quality, I say! They did--along with a whole marvelous collection of equally intriguing books, with well written new introductions. Good choices--the pieces themselves, the introduction authors and the book artist designers. Truly timeless in all ways!

This book is a novelization of the play by the same name. And you can see the stageplay - the characters are continually coming and going - and there's stage business - all of which I think shows some stiffness - yet about half way through the novel I was startled at how much the characters were real, rounded - I could just about see them - they ached with life - I was always aware of the stage during the novel - the story itself is rather shocking - it's a mystery novel! - it's all very well done - it's short - and it's very psychological

A trusted friend sent me a copy of this new edition of The Other House, insisting that I'd enjoy it. It looked intriguing. I felt obligated to at least give it a try. I still trust the friend! I can't believe this is what is known as a Classic. I thought they were all very boring. I couldn't wait to get back to this plot and I'd never have thought it was written in the uptight Victorian era. It's more like a movie special of the week or one of the top ten best selling novels. Read it then recommend it and impress your friends with your literary depth.

It's hard to believe that James's theatrical turn of the late 19th century ended with his audience "booing" him off the stage. This novelized play reads quickly and delightfully. I've read more than twenty of his novels, and this was the quickest of them all.

The plot is simple enough (at least for James): two houses, apparently back to back, in Wilverley, a small English village, set the scene. One contains a widow, the other a young married couple. The young wife widows the young husband, and he becomes Wilverley's "most eligible bachelor," except for the fact that he promised his dying wife that he would never marry again, at least not during the life of his child. So somebody has to kill the child, right?

Enter James's genius for character. There's Paul, the huge, infinitely imperturbable son of the wealthy Mrs. Beever; the diminutive and impetuous Dennis Vidal; Tony Bream himself, a remarkably good-natured but insensitive fool; and the powerful Mrs. Beever, whose awful determination cows every one else before her. Like James's best writing, his characters become interesting on their own; his fictions become an opportunity to satisfy curiosity. I think that's what makes this book a "page-turner"; the characters are interesting enough that I want to know what's going to happen.

In the end, I suppose, what makes this book succeed is what would have made the dramatic version fail: James's endless fascination with the workings of the human mind must have become either painfully boring or just incomprehensible to a theatrical audience. However it came about, I recommend it unequivocally.

I enjoyed reading this book and hope others will too.It help refreshes ones knowledge especially those in training to be a paediatric neurologist.A recommended book for the Advanced Master Medicine(paediatric Neurology)University Sains Malaysia

I found this to be the best organized and most clearly written of the case based reviews for the oral boards. The cases discussed in this book were very similar to vignettes presented in the oral examination and this review covered almost all of the questions I was asked. I'm glad that I went through this book twice before boards and recommend it highly.

This is an excellent case-based review of pediatric neurology. Dr. Rosser presents a wide variety of cases. These are followed by an elegant and consistent approach to the analysis of each case. The analysis of the cases includes; localization, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, and appropriate work-up.

This book could be even better if it included a DVD with videos and illustrations of the various conditions described.

I'll be taking my oral exam this year and ordered this as prep. I am about half-way through and it's been a great investment so far... Well written, easy to understand and pinpoints some cases you never thought of...

Excellent review material; closest review to actual test. I will use again when I recert.

This was an excellent review book and I really recommend reading it from front to back 2-3 times! It provides information in an organized manner that allows for easy recall! I will definitly refer to this book in my practice.

This review guide is an excellent resource for the PNP exam and PNP program. I would highly recommend it.

Read this book front to back 2-3 times and you can rest assure that you will pass the PNP exam. This is an excellent review of pertinent information and is also my most used reference now that I am a certified APRN in practice.
Excellent review guide.

Brilliant in every way, David Kidd's carefully weaved tale of the end of Old China, as seen through the eyes of an upper class family, is profoundly personal and endearing. As it wavers between fact and fiction its underlining message becomes abundantly clear: the Old China is gone and never to be forgotten, even as those who lived it fall into the abyss of time. A moving,humorous, delightful, and sorrowful read. Simply brilliant.

This book haunts..it stays with you as a most intimate portrait of those special and tender people caught in the transition between the old China and the Revolution in 1948. No account has ever brought more tears and love for those real people who saw and felt their world change almost beyond their understanding.

Beautifully, lyrically rendered in the author's inimitable voice, full of haunting descriptions of a world that is gone forever yet never to be forgotten. David Kidd was truly one of a kind, unique in every way.

Memoirs of the surviving privileged classes who lost everything in twentieth-century revolutions can often seem terribly materialistic and self-pitying: when displaced aristocrats wail and wail for their lost tiaras or smashed porcelain, without a jot of sympathy for why they were asked to leave in the first place, you can begin perversely to develop sympathy for the cadres who called these people class parasites and threw them out. David Kidd's memoir of marrying into an ancient and wealthy Chinese family in 1948 shows every sign of such a work, but it's far better than it starts out to be (given his adoration for lives of privilege and his almost willfuil refusal to see the point of view of why anyone would support the Communists in 1949 in the first place). The superb descriptions of the Yu family's rotting but beautiful manor are done with great humor and artistry as well as with melancholy, and the very memorable portrait of the phlegmatic and wry Yus themselves seems to bring additional perspective and depth to the material. What emerges in the end is (despite the book's brevity) a very artful and moving snapshot of a world in transition

Funny, absurd, and heartbreaking moments abound in this memoir, which offers an incredibly dispassionate account of being raised, on the brink of poverty, by a freeloading father and codependent mother. In a surprising and original way, the extreme differences between his parents seem to operate like yin and yang forces that converge into the strangely sane wholeness of Dirk's own mindful and even compassionate perspective on his parents and his past.

Once you open this book, you won't be able to put it down until it's finished. There's never a dull moment. The story is heartbreaking and pretty funny at times & the author's writing style is sharp and smart.

Perishable has a lot in common with The Glass Castle, which is one of my favorite memoirs. Both stories make you wonder what in the hell the parents are thinking.

I'm very curious about what happens to the family after the book ends. I can't wait to read the author's next book.

The title of Dirk Jamison's slender memoir Perishable is a reference to the most striking oddity of the author's childhood, that his father--a man for whom the notion of responsibility was anathema--undertook to feed his family of five for a number of years by "trashing," taking recently discarded food prised from dumpsters home to the family dinner table. This was a lifestyle choice rather than necessity. Able-bodied but unwilling to waste his time on a paying job, the author's father saw eating trash as a means of gaining free time: "More trash means less work. Less work means more time." But his enthusiasm for jars of expired pickled eggs and the like was not shared by the rest of the family. The elder Jamison's bizarre take on life was coupled with a selfish abdication of parental responsibility. But his father's instability, if perhaps the worst of what the author endured growing up, was not the whole of it. Jamison's mother was the better parent of the two, but she brought her own problems to the familial mix. Now "slinking off to cry with slabs of chocolate," now refusing a knee operation because she was sure it implied temporary amputation of the affected limb, Jamison's mother, the author explains, was not so much crazy as stupid: "'Ma'am, are you insane?' is the question that nobody ever asks. But I can see that question in their eyes, and it's a misdiagnosis I'm always grateful for. Much preferable to the actual problem, which appears to be staggering stupidity." There were also the regular abuses of Jamison's Mengele-esque older sister and, in the author's adolescence, the in-retrospect-inappropriate attention of "Scoutmaster Gary," the Mormon overseer of a series of Church-sponsored activities in which Jamison took part. In short, the author's home life was unstable, and his father's mode of parenting arguably a form of abuse. Jamison and his siblings lacked dependable adult figures who were capable of making rational decisions on behalf of the family.

Jamison tells the story of his unusual childhood in spare, unflinching prose. Neither sentimental nor self-pitying, the author approaches his subject with something like journalistic dispassion. He is startlingly frank. This is most admirable not when he is detailing his family's failures but rather when he confesses to poor behavior of his own during the period. In the end Jamison's remarkable account of his peculiar upbringing is probably more universal in its scope than he intended. My guess is that a lot of readers will find much that's familiar in the book, their own imperfect familial relationships here writ more extreme. Thus Perishable isn't merely a good read. It may help you laugh at your own crazy relatives.

Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)

All of us grew up in families that were more or less dysfunctional. But this one takes the cake. Well, it wasn't as bad as those families you see on the TV news where a child is actually killed, but boy was it bizarre. In fact it seems remarkable that Mr. Jamison grew up at all, let alone sane enough to put enough sentences together to write a book like this. Then when you find the humor and understanding that he brings to the book and you have to realize that almost regardless of what you do to them kids seem to shake it off and grow up.

The story is delightful (so long as you didn't have to live it). This is what happened to the true hippies who never became part of society. Or as viewed from the standpoint of the author realizing that everyone in your family is a lunatic. To summarize: Dad's dropped out, working sucks and he isn't going to do it any more; Mom is a Mormon whose main goal is to get her children into heaven; sis is trying to kill him. They are all nuts, but as it is described, they're nuts in a delightful way.

Highly amusing read.