Fan Fiction Books

This one was a really delightful page-turner! I must confess that I originally bought it because the author and I are both named Elise. But I really got into it right from the get-go and stayed up late several nights reading it. VERY ENJOYABLE!!

If you're looking for a fun book to read, this one's for you! This book grabbed my attention from the very first page, and I never wanted to put it down. A perfect blend of fantasy and the real world...makes you realize that maybe the real world is pretty great after all.

Reviewed by Katherine Darnell, Small Spiral Notebook

Star Craving Mad, a first novel from Elise Abrams Miller is a charming read. While it hews close to the conventions of so-called "chick lit," the novel finds a pace and style all its own through the witty protagonist Maddy Braverman, an acerbic New York City first-grade teacher. Maddy is entranced with celebrities and she hungrily reads "Celeb File Weekly" for all the glamorous updates on her favorite stars. The novel gets its start when Lola Seabolt, the child of Hollywood's biggest couple, walks in to Maddy's classroom on the first day of a new school year. In short order Maddy becomes tangled up in the Seabolt's world and she launches a wild flirtation with the magnetic Mr. Seabolt. It doesn't take long before it is revealed that everything inside the Seabolt marriage is not as sunny as Maddy's treasured tabloid would have her believe.

What distinguishes this novel from the rest of the chick lit pack is an above-average wit and bawdy sense of impropriety. A hilarious and candid appreciation for sex gives Star Craving Mad a tenor all its own. There's no delicate, romantic fade-out's in the bedroom and Elise Abrams Miller isn't afraid to humorously discuss the fluctuating heat levels of Maddy's pants. There is a glorious level of tongue-in-cheek wit operating at all times. Maddy has a vigorous aptitude for good-natured and boozy trouble, and she has never met a hot celebrity that she wouldn't like to bed. Somewhat predictably, Mr. Seabolt's charms prove too enticing to resist; even with Maddy's moral qualms about his being the father of her student, as well as his being married to the uber-shrew Mrs. Seabolt, Maddy finds herself in compromising situations with the hot movie star. The novel focuses on Maddy trying to balance a responsibility to herself, to the children's novel that she's recently started writing, the emerging feelings that her cute assistant teacher evokes, and the unreal, gilded way that Mr. Seabolt makes her feel.

Miller is an apt writer, capable of weaving her narrative with wry moments of humor, which utilize gentle, knowing sarcasm. Clear moments of insight punctuate the narrative, like when Nick Seabolt comes to the school to retrieve his daughter, who has just broken her arm, and Maddy notes, "Although his expression is genuine, it strikes me as strange, because I've seen him exactly like this before - in Bluebell, the epic film, where his mistress dies giving birth to their secret love child." Miller also possesses a strong visually descriptive eye, giving even her minor characters vivid traits. Mrs. Seabolt's sinister healer, Dr. Kiki Joypain, is described succinctly as looking like a Modigliani painting, "as if she were made of taffy and had been stretched into an unwieldy rope. The turquoise beads around her neck are the size of giant gum balls and look excruciatingly heavy, as if at any moment their weight alone could slice her head clean off her pashmina-clad shoulders."

Miller has dreamed up characters that are memorable and earnest, and even if the outcome feels a bit inevitable, the ride is still fun. Because these characters are flawed in ways that feel more real and compelling than Bridget Jones' measly ten extra pounds - Miller's characters in Star Craving Mad are a little slutty and a little grungy and authentically broke and embarrassed and earnest - it quickly becomes hard to put the book down. Even if you know that celeb-obsessed Maddy Braverman will indeed find her happily ever after, you'll find yourself wishing hard for it, reading on as the pages fly by, anxious to get to the part where her battles are won and she can finally fall into the arms of her true prince charming, winning redemption and becoming her own kind of star.

If this is what Chit Lit is all about then NO Thanks! I'll stick with regualr romance where the characters are more sympathetic rather than pathetic, thanks very much.

The best chick lit twist I have ever read. It wasn't predictable! Fast paced and the plot is so nice I kept on hugging the book when I finished reading. You'll never get bored!

For someone growing up in Baltimore in the 50's ,this brought back great memories .The '59 Championship game against the Giant ,which I can remember watching with my father.The players who were members of the Baltimore neighborhood ( Johnny Unitas got his hair cut at my barbershop).Sunday was Colt football from morning when everyone went to their neighborhood bar,then got on buses to the stadium and after the game came back to the bars.With no real college football team in Baltimore, the Colts were everyone's team .I grew up blocks away from the stadium.This book brings back all these memories.It is a great read .

I agree with one of the posts in that the author does have a tendency to focus on his life a bit, but taken in the context of just how much the Colts meant to his family during that period of time, it's understandable to a degree. However, the best thing about the book is the individual stories (Gino Marchetti & Alan Ameche especially) as to how players during that era were real human beings who were elbow to elbow with the working class public on a day to day basis; not the pompus, self-indulgent & ego-centric clowns of today's sport scene.

When you compare the game of yesteryear to that of today's NFL with the constant in your face marketing and overcommercialization, the greed and waste of public money to subsidize the new palaces for the spoiled and calloused athletes of today, it truly does make you wish that time had stood still and remained as it did in the 1950's.

The book talks too much about the author's life and his father. Very little about the games. Some of the material is based upon interviews with former Colts that were conducted for the author. Some of the information about the Colts before 1952 (when they were the Dallas Texans), and particularily the Colts of the AAFC I had not heard before, but it makes up just a few pages of the book.

I"ve been in love with the Colts (no need to add Baltimore - since they stole away in the night I have referred to that other team as the Indianapolis Irsays)since childhood. This book allowed me to relive it all. And it made me so very nostalgic. Players who were part of the community. Crime going down when the Colts played. Gino Marchetti - nothing needs to be added to that name. The joke in my family was that my mom went into labor with me at a Colts game. I was her first child and she knew the labor would be long so she stayed for the end of the game (which we won). Folks not from Baltimore find that story odd. Anyone from the Baltimore Colts days takes it completely in stride....of course you would wait for the end of the game. Union Memorial Hospital is only a couple of blocks away. And my very first memory is of the 1958 champsionship game with the Giants. We we all faithfully gathered around our TV with the adored baby (me) in the seat of honor on the floor surrounded by doting adults and stuffed animals. Until the cable went out and I experienced total abandonment! Dad went out the back door to see if the neighbor's TV had gone blank, mom went out to the car to try to tune in the game on the radio and grandmother streaked upstairs to find her radio. I wailed! Where had the good guys (the Colts) disappeared to? As I said, I was ALWAYS a fan! Thank you so very much for these memories Mr. Gildea! This book is a treasure!

A wonderful diary about not only a great, "hall of famer" loaded team (the Old Baltimore Colts) but a very supportive city - and the partnership that they forged.

It just ain't the same anymore.

For a "complete" Colts' book collection get this one, "Sundays at 2:00 with the Baltimore Colts," and anything with the name of John Steadman on it.

I picked up this book expecting it to be quite good. There are many hard-to-understand beliefs and issues in the world of the uber-religious, and having them explained by a seasoned writer can be educational, thought-provoking, and even entertaining. This book was none of the above. Since the cover writeup points towards the humorous end of religion, I expected it to be of the caliber of Frank Schaeffer's Portofino. I was sorely disappointed. The writing is distant and half-formed, and I never fully identify with or understand Roxanne, the protagonist. The subject matter is halfway interesting, but Huffey's rendition takes the book down to mediocre. Retrospectively, literary tension between the extremely religious and "those of this world" takes one of two paths-gently humorous yet understanding, like Schaeffer's Portofino; or a cynical look at faith from a soul who has been tortured by it, like Mary Potter Engel's A Woman of Salt. I would steer you away from Hallelujah Side and towards either of those books if you're looking for well-written novels with religion as the subject matter. (Another good choice: Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.)

If you are not already a Holy Roller, reading "The Hallelujah Side" will make one of you. You'll roll in the floor laughing. The author does not ridicule Pentecostals. She writes from the perspective of an insider who has learned to laugh at herself. Anyone with a sense of humor will enjoy this book, regardless of their religious affiliation, or lack of it. Evangelical Christians with a Holiness or Pentecostal background, will especially relate.

Those who find this book interesting will definitely enjoy "Growing Up Pentecostal," a non-fiction book on the same subject by J. Sephen Conn.

"The Hallelujah Side" is indeed an interesting and unusual book dealing with a rare subject: an extremely stigmatized religion as seen through the eyes of a little girl who has never known anything else. The story takes many funny turns as Roxanne Fish, the main character, attempts to balance religion and rock n' roll. Definitely worth a read.

Roxanne Fish, the young heroine of Rhoda Huffey's enchanting debut novel "the Hallelujah Side," hears voices. They are the voices of her parents, devout leaders of the First Assembly of God Church and they are the skeptical, worldy voices of her "sinful" neighbors, the Woolworths. They are the voices of her own personal demon, Fred, who regularly berates her attempts at religious devotion and assure he she will surely roast in hell, and the comforting imaginary sounds of the hedge around her church which assures her that her secrets are safe. The sounds come from her rebellious and captivating older sister, Colleen, who insists that she truly does not belong to this arcane family. The voices come from Little Richard and Aretha Franklin, who, almost as if in conspiracy against God, liberate Roxanne to discover who and what she is.

This fast-paced novel, after all, deals with life in capital letters. There are the Christians (renouncing the corrupt world in which they life and always preparing, always anticipating Rapture) and the Sinners (people like me, who enjoy the world and all of its illicit pleasures). Despite Winston's valiant attempts to purify his family (this pastor even enjoys deconstructing Das Kapital to prove its irrelevance to Christians), he never loses his humanity, and his resolve to live a morally pure life contains an unalloyed dignity. Winston repudiates travelling evangelists (whom Huffey scathingly portrays as hypocrites and con-men) and even literally throws money away from an airplane as an object lesson about devotion to his conflicted daughter. He is a strong father and the reader cannot help but like him.

The true beauty of the novel lives in Roxanne, whose adventures in the real world contain a surreal quality. Never permitted to experience life as her contemporaries did in the 1950s, Roxanne must rely on her imagination and her desperate need to disover her authentic voice. As Roxanne tells us, God does not like "alcohol, tobacco, sleeveless dresses, all nudity, lipstick, fingernail polish, earrings, rock and roll, Elvis Presley, dancing, movies, roller skating, swearing, murder, lies...and...Partagas Robusto cigars. The rest Roxy tried not to think about." Despite this (or perhaps because of it), Roxanne's spiritual quest is all the more compelling. How she reconciles faith and ability, religion and music, family and the world are skillfully rendered by an author whose own experience with faith and art give her first novel an air of authenticity.

Huffey tells her story without mocking or parodying her subject matter. This is a significant accomplishment when you consider that she is taking on organized evangelical religion, the 1950s, and the midwest, all in the same book. The book is wonderfully comic, and her nine-year-old narrator is neither cloying nor terminally cute. I laughed out loud on just about every page. Reading this book gave me a bit more sympathy for organized religion, something this old cynic hasn't felt for many years. I recommend this novel very highly, and I can't wait until Ms. Huffey writes another one.

damn, this book was funny as hell! the main character was always getting into screwy situations, it seemed as if everything was going wrong for him and then the best thing happened, the planet blew up. maybe it wasnt the best thing, but it shure was a turning point for him. after the planet goes the story delivers non-stop laughs and the craziest things happen, this story keeps you giggling and interested until the very last word. i would reccomend this book to someone looking for a really un-serious story of complete mayhem and calamity.

h

Let's face it. The "Hitchhiker's Guide" books aren't well written. . . but they sure are fun to read!!!! If you want to why the first book has some problems with cohesions, read this book. If you want to know what influenced the increasingly misnamed trilogy, read this book. It is worth it! (and besides, it is written by Neil Gaiman who's work bears Adam's influence!)

For anyone interested in how the Hitchhiker's Guide came into being, this is essential reading. For anyone interested in the evolution of a great idea into a radio series, album, TV series, computer game, five books, and more than one attempt at a film script, this is equally vital.

I found it particularly helpful in providing explanations of why:

1. episodes five and six of the first radio series have a different style to the wonderful episodes 1 to 4.

2. the second radio series was so sloppy in comparison to the first.

It's fascinating to read Douglas Adams' original summary of the Hitchhiker concept. (Goodness knows why Arther Dent was originally going to be called Alaric!) It was depressing to read how Adams and John Lloyd (co-writer of episodes 5 and 6) fell out when Adams changed his mind about co-writing the first book, but encouraging that they put their differences behind them and went on to collaborate on works like 'The Meaning of Liff'.

There are plenty of bits of unused dialogue spread across the pages of this book. It is partly a biography of Adams and partly a biography of the Hitchhikers Guide itself. There is a BBC-produced double cassette tape which also tells the story of the Hitchhiker but tends to gloss over most of the disagreements that Adams had with various BBC colleagues and publishers.

I would strongly recommend Hitchhiker fans to get this book.

OK, after two Pangalactic Gargleblasters, I think I can get something about sci-fi writer Neil Gaiman's nonfiction work, Don't Panic, which chronicles the evolution of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy through its incarnations as radio series, novel, computer game, towel, and TV series. Due to a totally original idea, well, kind of, as he got the idea lying on the grass thinking that there should be something like The Hitchhiker's Guide To Galaxy, HGTTG and its sequels became another dollop of Britannia that was rabidly slurped up by USA-ers that they did the Beatles and Monty Python. But it also explains the success of HH, as it came out in the wake of Star Wars and Close Encounters making sci-fi acceptable entertainment for mass consumption.

It reveals that Adams was quite a talent at an early age, from his short story submission for The Eagle at age 12, to a hilarious very Pythonseque Kamikaze Briefing sketch included here that I really enjoyed that he did pre-HH. His secret? "Writing comes easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank piece of paper until your forehead bleeds." Thank goodness I had those paper towels to clean up my computer screen.

Part of this is a biography of Adams, from his days at Cambridge, to his wilderness years doing odd jobs, including being a bodyguard for some Arabs, and doing collaborations with other writers, many of which fell through. Despite initially being mistaken for being the sixth Python member, he did work with Graham Chapman, but that didn't work out, as Chapman was struggling with alcoholism at the time. His time as Doctor Who's script editor from 1978-1979, and the three stories he personally wrote for the series, is explained, and the reason why he hated being script editor. But there is also a synopsis of the stillborn Dr. Who and the Krikkitmen at the back of the book, parts of which later became Life, The Universe, And Everything, the knotty but still well-written third book.

Adams reveals to have some sensitive yet artistic side of him. He doesn't seem to like remembering about writing his books because of some bad memories and hardships he had to go through. And time-oriented is NOT the word to describe him. For writing my and his personal favourite in the series, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, he had to be locked up in an apartment in an ascetic-like existence for four weeks, with Paul Simon's One Trick Pony as his only companion.

Neither is deadline a word found in Adams' dictionary. Apart from only doing three essays during his time at Cambridge, there was even a time during the second series of the radio programme that "they were recording the show in one part of the studio, while I was in another part of the studio actually writing the next scene."(!!!)

Mixed inbetween are script excerpts from dialogue never used in the radio series. There's also a list of the most asked questions to Adams, of which most of them are either brief and to the point or totally deranged, but he did answer one I wondered, which was the Dire Straits song he referred to in So Long..., which was "Tunnel of Love" from Making Movies.

This goes up to the first Dirk Gently novel, done in 1987, and it's a good read for those into HH or wanting to learn about the story and history about HH after reading the series. Whoops, time for another Pangalactic Gargleblaster and a slice of Arcturan Megadonkey.

This volume was pretty exiting as Dee and Ryo investigate a series of murders and discover a connection between the suspect of the murders and Ryo's past.

The next story is about J.J., who is a friend of Dee from the days of police school. J.J. meets a friend from his past, whom he hasn't seen in a long time, and it seems as if this friend isn't the same man J.J. once has known.

At last there is a story with Bikky and Carol and their friends Ray and Lacy. Ray is from a rich family and he and Bikky get kidnapped. They manage to escape but not without Ray and Lacy using powers, which doesn't seem quite normal for regular kids.

This is my all time favorite series - even though it's only Shonen Ai it is the greatest Manga Series out there. The art is great and the story is funny and sweet in a lot of places, especially when it reveals how much the two main characters care for one another. It focuses on Dee Laytner and his persistence to get into the pants of his new partner Ryo Maclean, your average uke not knowing what to make of Dee's advances and Dee isn't the only one after Ryo, their new boss Berkley Rose is and Dee has his own admirers including one hyperactive jealous JJ, who hates Ryo. This is a must have series for any Yaoi or Shonen Ai Fan!

The non-working of the plot is worse then in the other volumes. The Guys behave like teenage girls. Pschychic characters from other comics show up in the Binki's storyline once again.

I am only reading this for pretty fictional boys kissing.

Fake 3 was just as good as the first two mangas. In this volume you do learn alot about Ryo and how hard his parents murders were makin g him feel. Dee as always was there for him when needed. Which in my opinion was very sweet! Buy the book! You most definately won't regret it. Ja-ne

I'll have to admit that when I first started reading FAKE, I wasn't crazy about it. I liked it, bit I wasn't on my list of favorites. As I have progressed in the story, that has changed. I love watching how Ryo and Dee's relationship changes as time goes on. And let's not forget Bikky!! He's my favorite character in the series!!

Book 5 of FAKE is one of the darker books of the series. Ryo has to again deal with the mystery surrounding his parents death. His relationship with Dee is put under a lot of strain as Ryo becomes obsessed with finding out the truth. Also in Book 5 is a side story dealing with JJ and a friend from the Police Academy. JJ is forced to realize that not all officers share the same "protect and serve" ideals.

Overall, FAKE book 5 is full of angst, comedy and some very nice romantice scenes ^_^'.

This is a haunting book. I mean that in a good way. You probably know somebody who is only a couple of clicks away from turning into The Fan. It's an especially appealing book if you love baseball, of course. The author does a great job of making you continue to feel for The Fan even though he is very selfish, and not merely disturbed -- although he is clearly that, too.

I think this was a good book. Just when the suspense started to ease up, the author would drop a bomb on you. The book started so strong, but the finish was far from great. The ending left you hanging, but not a good hanging, a ending that didn't conlcude the book or characters. This book was a 4 until the author got tired of writing and wrote a ending like a 5th grader.

Gil Renard is an unforgetable, but unlovable charater in Peter Abrahams's "The Fan". He is slowly simmering over the crap that other people give him, with stupid bosses selling crappy knives and blaming him for them not selling. His ex is also shrewish, and he tries to relate to his son, but fails. Soon, Gil finds himself getting closer to a star hitter for the Sox(a unnamed city, but we know he's talking about Boston), while Gil himself starts descending in murder and theft. The commentary about Sox Fans is mostly true, and the ending is definately out of science fiction.

Gil Renard is a failed knife salesman, failed husband and a failed father. Gil lives in the distant past when he was twelve years old and the MVP of his little league team. Gil is fueled by rage at the world who doesn't see his importance. Gil is going to prove to the world that he does matter by getting baseball player Bobby Rayburn out of his batting slump, no matter who or what gets in his way.

This book is a slow read and doesn't get going at all until the last sixty pages when Gil's pent up rage explodes.

Bobby Rayburn, the best hitter in professional baseball, has just signed on with the Boston Red Sox, an act which most believe will ensure the team a pennant. There's just one problem--early in the season, Bobby becomes mired in a slump of epic proportions.

Gil Renard is also in a deep slump. His life is a shambles--he's lost his job, his ex-wife won't let him see his son, and he's drifted into a life of crime to make ends meet. The only things that make his life bearable are baseball and his beloved Red Sox.

Two men, at crossroads in their lives, with little in common except baseball. The Fan tells the tale of how they meet, and the deadly and bloody results as hero worship degenerates into loathing.

Abrahams masterfully draws readers into his narrative, never relaxing his iron tight grip on their attention; then, just when you think you might have guessed where he's going, he delivers a knockout punch guaranteed to leave you reeling right until the very last line of the novel. The last few chapters go by in a blur, as you turn the pages with ever increasing velocity. Taut, tense and terrifying, The Fan is vintage Abrahams, another satisfying thriller from a true master of suspense.

Melodramatics from Lady Windermere. Mrs. Erlynne and Lord Windermere meeting but incomprehensibly deaf to the rumors about them. Yes, this is not Oscar Wilde's best play but, oh, the zingers he does get in, namely through Cecil Graham. Example: "Well, there's nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It's a thing no married man knows anything about." Read it for the pithy lines.

I have always enjoyed all of Oscar Wilde's works, but this is not very good compared with the others, but none the less still worth reading. The characters were sort of dull, but the plot intresting which made up for it. I'd reccomend this to fans of Oscar Wilde, but if you have just discovered Wilde, skip this and start with either, "The picture of dorian gray" or "the importance of being Earnest".

I just wanted to say that i really love this play and that i highly suggest that everyone should read this funny and witty masterpiece. Lady Windermere is so naive but i liked the bit when she threatens to slap Mrs Erlynne across the face. That's what i call Girl Power!!

Anyway, i wanted to know if there are any notes to accompany this play. I need some notes that focus on the language of the play, social context, characters, etc.

I would be eternally grateful if anyone could help.

Oscar Wilde entirely dedicates this play to the exploration of the way a woman can be saved from destruction in this society of appearances. A woman was the victim of an imbroglio in the past and abandoned her daughter. This woman comes back and the daughter ignores her relation to her. She is brought back into societry by the daughter's husband who knows the truth but does not want his wife to know it. But there is some kind of malediction that flies over the heads of these women. The daughter nearly does the same mistake as her mother but she is saved by her mother who accepts to be tainted in her daughter's place. Bus Oscar Wilde must think there is some kind of reward for a good deed and all is well that ends well, and this play has a happy ending. In spite of all the melodramatic sentimentalese atmosphere, Oscar Wilde definitely explores in this play the great disadvantage of a woman in society. Men can do nearly all they want. Women are extremely limited and have to walk a very straight and narrow line. Oscar Wilde seems to be ahead of his time as for the fate of women: he seems to aspire for real equality for them, though he shows in all possible ways that this is impossible in his society.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

My first experience reading Oscar Wilde... and certainly not my last.

Wilde's sardonic wit and ineffable satire had me enchanted from page one. Wilde writes with devastatingly appealing witticisms, and with a style and cleverness matched by few other authors. It is said that he is one of the more oft-quoted authors in the English language, and I now understand why.

In addition to axioms and aphorisms of pure genius, the plot both captivates and surprises the reader. Lady Windermere discovers that her husband has been cheating on her, and a folly of misunderstandings and poor advice then unfolds; all the while satirizing society.

if i could only buy one book in my whole life, this would be it

If you want to know the poem that inspired the Disney fillm you can't go wrong with this book. You get the entire original poem along with a beautiful presentation. The poem is very short, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in style and mood. From the outset this is a different kind of book. There is no binding, instead it is one long sheet of parer folded back and forth. This give's the reader the sense they are reading an authentic Chinese document. The photos, drawings, sketches, and Chinese writing inside only heighten this impression. It's also a facinating study in how the film was structured. You can see where Disney added to the story or left things out, as well as see the the visual development of Mulan and her world as told by the pre-production art work. Wthout a doubt, this makes for the best book of a Disney film yet!

I love Disney & what they have done with the books they have made into movies and how they added their touch, often changing the ending to fit their ideas.

Having said that it is also nice & very important for us to read or the author's original story. Hans Christian Anderson's was a gifted writer & story teller of many wonderful books. In his book the Little Mermaid it has a much sadder ending than Disney's. But again, it's important to know the original story.

This is one of my favorite Mulan books, simply because it was done not as a traditional book, but as a Chinese folding style book. The book has 2 red covers - red is a very special color for the Chinese. The paper that was chosen looks like it is handmade paper and that just add to the beauty of this book. I also like that the poem is in English and also Chinese Characters. The author put alot of thought into this book, and it really shines!

This is definately one of my most treasured books!

Most of the reasons I get any Disney book is because I want to know how to draw the characters(and because I just like the movie).For Mulan, I heard it was an ancient poem before a movie, so I wanted to read the actual poem. I was browsing around in the Disney store when, low and behold, there was the poem. Inside was also a lot of rough pencil drawigs to help me draw the characters. This is a collectible book for any Disney or Mulan fan.

There's and old quote that says that the greatest perfumes come in small bottles. This applies for this little, but beautiful book about an ancient Chinese poem that serves as the inspiration for Disney's Mulan.

First you get a little red box, inside you find a scroll made in the typical Chinese way. You unfold little by little the pages that reach almost 240 inches long. And while you read the poem, one really get in the mood because it includes the poem in chinese characters as well.

And if you are looking for illustrations, the book includes some in color, some made by pencil and even a couple of what seems original Chinese paintings.

You get that much in a little book! isn't it great?

I got this book mainly because Mick Foley wrote it and I have a great deal of respect for him due to his wrestling career. At the point I got the book I didn't read alot, and when I did I almost never finished the book. I picked up Scooter and everything changed!

It conatins the story of a kid growing up in the South Bronx at the point right before and during its downfall. It told me alot about New York City and some interesting Yankees information. This book really makes you root for the hero and at times it makes you want to jump into that story and help Scooter out!

It is very real as well. It deals with how life really is, at first it seems like the story shouldn't be done and after a whiel you realize that life is really like how it is in the book (you really need to know the end to understand what I mean).

This is a very good read and also very addicting. I suggest you take a day of two off of work to read it so you can truly focus on it. Scooter is well worth the 20 bucks to buy it, and if you can't afford it, get it from the library!

I had a friend who really liked Mick Foley, so I read "Have a Nice Day". I thought for what it was it was well written. It was filled with a lot of referential humor that it took a little Googleing to understand but it was a sweet well written journey into the world of wrestling. After that I kept up reading his books, (but not the children's books) and of course read Tietam Brown. I thought Tietam was a good first effort at fiction, so that lead me to pick up Scooter.. Bang Bang as his wrestling fans say. This is a really well written book. It took me on a roller coaster ride. 1/2 way through I though "oh no, here's where it happens" where the book takes you a place you don't want to go. But that is part of his skill as a writer. As jaded as you might be he is able to throw you for a loop. The book has a lot of Baseball references. Mostly of the turbulent 70's Yankees and the "Burning of the Bronx". But don't let that turn you off. This highly cynical, reader, non baseball fan truly enjoyed this book.

I really like Mick the more I get to know him. If I ever see him at a signing though, I might just only want to "shake his hand".

To date I have read all of Mick Foley's books. I have enjoyed each of them. They cover a wide range from children's books and novels, to memoirs. Each book, and this one is no exception, are easy to read and you easily begin to genuinely care for the characters. There is a smooth, almost conversational, tone to the books. Thanks Mick!

This book is a warm, relatively light read, but heavily references baseball throughout. If you aren't into baseball, which some find the most boring sport on earth, this tends to get in the way of the rest of the story.

Having read (and loved) Foley's 'Tietam Brown', I had no idea what to expect, but I couldn't wait to read this book. Foley accomplished a lot with 'Scooter', maybe even too much.
Like 'Tietam Brown', 'Scooter' is the story of a boy and his family. However, this isn't a 'Happy Days' family. This family has a load of problems and unfortunately, poor Scooter bears the brunt of the load. Wherever Scooter turns in his family, he finds problems and pain.
Still Scooter grows up and we follow him through more pain. He does have his share of successes along the way, but the torment seems to be there all of the time.
It is a gripping story, but somehow I was a bit disappointed. Maybe I expected too much or maybe Foley attempted too much. After a while, some of the events in Scooter's life seem to make this tale too unrealistic, even as fiction. Scooter is the type of character which can easily be revisited in another book, which is maybe where some of the parts of 'Scooter' should have been placed.
If you can suspend your belief just a bit, you will totally enjoy this book.

I very nice story that any baseball fan would like. A good story for teaching children about illness and how to deal with it.

This book is very special to me since it is based on the life of my nephew. The book displays the courage of a little boy. Lives can be changed after reading this book. We are never too old or young to learn that we are put here for a purpose and we should make the most of every day we are given and work through any adversities that are put in our life's path.

Sometimes it is a children's book that should be read by ALL young and old alike.
Ray Negron's book is one of those books. A wonderful story with a great uplifting message
for children AND adults.
Moms and Dads should read this one to ALL the children and teachers should be encouraged
to add it to their class curriculum.

Just a great book---that does not come around too often. BUY this one!!! You will NOT be disappointed!!

If you want to bawl, this is the book to read. Written with alot of love and tenderness and history of the NY Yankees, by a guy who works in the Yankees front office. A++++

A Great Book For Children Also For Adults. It Shows A Never Give Up Attitude In Life And That Some Dreams Can Come True. It Also Clearly Shows Beyond Any Doubt That The New York Yankees Are By Far The Greatest Sports Franchise Ever.