Butler Books

After reading Lillian Schlissel's excellent book "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey" I was stricken by the 'curiosity bug' and NEEDED to read more. I turned therefore to Mr. Holmes, a recognized name in this field.

His series, "Covered Wagon Women", currently consists of 11 volumes, although this review is just about the first book. Volume One consists of entries from the very first period of westward migration: 1840 to 1849. The authors are women who write of their experiences in a way that reflects both their ages and educational levels -- and it is fascinating.

For example, from Keturah Belknap we discover how families prepared for the 8 month trip. She tells of difficult goodbye's to family and friends; how she spun wool so that she could have a friend weave it 'just-so' to make good solid wagon covers; and even how she and her husband packed their wagons. And from many of the journals we find out how absolutely difficult it was to cross the mountains. How in snow and rain they had to ratchet the wagons up by hoists and chains to get over huge boulders, and then lower them down the steep declines with breaks on the rear wheels. There are also the sad records left by the Donner party participants, and those that witnessed the drownings and accidents along the way.

To his merit, Mr. Holmes has left these records pretty much alone. He has not changed the writers creative spelling nor punctuation, except to provide [spaces] where the sentences are run on and the meaning consequently obscured.

In addition to the original writings, Mr. Holmes provides background information for each diarist, and footnotes throughout. While I found the footnotes interesting and informative, the introductory material dealt almost exclusively with with genealogy (rather than historical backdrop) and so was not of much assistance to me in trying to understand the emigrant's experience.

Here are the Chapter headings:

Editor's Introduction
Across the Plains in 1845, by Betsy Bayley
A Letter from the Luckiamute Valley, by Anna Maria King
A Brimfield Heroine, by Tabitha Brown
The Donner Party letters [note: by Tamsen Donner and Virginia Reed]
Two letters of Phoebe Stanton
Letters from a Quaker Woman: Rachel Fisher
The Diary of Elizabeth Dixon Smith
A Pioneer Mormon Diary: Patty Sessions
The Commentaries of Keturah Belknap
The Diary of a Pioneer Girl, by Sallie Hester
A Letter from California, by Louisiana Strentzel
Running a Boarding House in the Mines

Four Stars [B-]. The diaries and letters published here are valuable historical records that thankfully have not been tampered with: the reader gets the full flavor of the writers. There is one map showing the routes, but almost no pictures of the women involved. And annoyingly there is NO Bibliography in this volume, with sole exception of the one provided for the one Mormon entry. Sources are listed throughout.

If you are a newbie (like myself) interested in this timeframe and in written records of women, I would suggest you read up on the period first, or concurrently, before beginning this series. Personally, I would not have gotten as much enjoyment out of this book if I had not read Lillian Schlissel's book first.

Lillian Schlissel's book "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey": Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey

I got this book yesterday in the mail and it is already read. This book takes letters, diaries and other correspondence of women who shaped the frontier and gives the reader an insight into the hardships that their families faced making the long western crossing to the hope of a better future in Oregon and California.
The author has tapped many sources in libraries all across the west to get this information together. He makes a point in the introduction that this is information compiled nowhere else. He deals with lesser known narratives except he does include a journal from Virginia Reed a child travelling with the Donner Party and Tabitha Brown one of the top 10 figures in shaping Oregon history.
Very informative and educational! Can't wait to start the next book in the series.

The study of women's history has blossomed during the past several decades, and the result has been the production of several outstanding works on the subject. "Covered Wagon Women" is an important contribution to this growing field of investigation. It is a useful work that makes available to historian and buff alike several fascinating letters and diaries written by women involved in the westward movement of the 1840s. The editor, Kenneth L. Holmes and the publisher have undertaken an ambitious project, and, this work, and others in this series, represent a benchmark in this field's historiography.

The material presented in this first volume has been arranged by the editor into twelve chapters with entries by fourteen women. These accounts are representative rather than exhaustive. However, there are important documents discussing the experiences of several intelligent and articulate women on the Oregon, California, Santa Fe, and Mormon trails. The editor chose his documents well. They are all primary resources, written at the time of the incidents described or immediately thereafter. More important, Holmes did not reprint commonly used diaries. I was pleasantly surprised that Susan Magoffin's diary of her trip to Santa Fe in 1846 was not included in the collection. It is an outstanding diary but readily available elsewhere. Instead, Holmes scoured the nation's archives and libraries, and solicited copies of documents from individuals, to assemble what should be considered an exemplary collection of manuscripts.

Holmes's editorial work is also outstanding. He allows the individual writers to tell their own story without correcting grammar, punctuation, and syntax. He adds, moreover, useful annotations providing additional background information about key personalities and events without overediting, certainly no easy task judging from the number of edited works that suffer from this defect.

The editor gives considerable attention to Mormon women during the westward trek to Utah. Holmes includes as a major piece within the collection a diary of Patty Bartlett Sessions, dated June 21, 1847, through September 26, 1847. The original, located in the Historical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been well used by scholars investigating the Mormon trek to Utah, the role of women in the Church and in western history, and the development of medical treatment, but its publication for a wider audience is most welcome.

While "Covered Wagon Women" is a fine book of lasting historical value, it could have been made better with additional work. For instance, the editor chose to omit both a bibliography and an index, opting for the issuance of a cumulative bibliography and index in the tenth volume of the series. This decision will, of course, make the volume less usable by researchers in the interim. Additionally, Holmes is inconsistent in his editorial work. He is at his best in his treatment of the diary of Patty Sessions. First, it has an excellent introduction that draws heavily upon the research of such leaders in the study of Mormon women on the frontier as Leonard J. Arrington and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher. Second, it includes a useful dramatis personae, briefly describing characters mentioned in the diary. Finally, Holmes attaches a solid bibliography pointing the direction for further study. In contrast, Holmes's editing of other diaries and letters possesses nothing approaching the depth of scholarship he demonstrates in his work on Sessions. Most other entries contain only a cursory introduction, and none has either a description of characters or bibliography. It would have been commendable had Holmes been able to bring to the other accounts in this volume the fine editorial work he displays in his work on the Sessions diary.

In spite of these shortcomings, Kenneth Holmes has compiled a well-balanced, enjoyable book that should be of interest to all readers concerned with the study of women, the frontier movement, the overland trail, and Mormonism. This type of documentary history, although until recent years considered somewhat esoteric, should be encouraged, for it can open entirely new avenues of investigation when handled by skilled historians.

Authentic, bold and openhearted accounts from 1840's emigrant women. Historians and the general reader should be so fortunate that these noble women took the time out of their busy, hectic days to write letters and diaries of their westward travels. Secondly, we should also be grateful that these narratives have survived for us future readers to somewhat comprehend their stamina, perserverence and gutsy character.
Heartfelt accounts of river fordings, lack of food and/or water for livestock and people, Indian misconducts, wagon breakdowns, disease and death of loved ones, vivid landscape and countryside descriptions and the numerous day to day occurences for survival. To mention a few of the dozen writings:
Betsey Bayley and Anna Marie King's accounts of the perilous 1845 Stephen Meek Cutoff.
Tabitha Brown's 1846 account of emigration along the Applegate Cutoff.
Letters from Tamsen Donner and thirteen year old Virginia Reed's trip with the horrific Donner Party of 1846.
Patty Sessions who drove her own wagon to Salt Lake in 1847 and delivered several babies along the way (midwifed nearly 4,000 deliveries in her lifetime).
Rachel Fisher's travels in 1847 who lost her husband and a child during the emigration.
Elizabeth Dixon Smith's party of 1847 that lost several emigrants during their journey.
Editing by Dr. Holmes is second to none.

I have read all 11 books in this series over and over, and I would recomend them all. It is like looking over the shoulder of the rugged pioneer women as they took time, almost every day, to document what would probably be the most important event in their lives. Tired,wet, and sometimes hungry, they brought stability to the west. I have also traveled and seen many sights that still remain as evidence of the Oregon Trail. We can't travel back in time, but this is the next best thing!

A combination of "Romeo and Juliet," "Much Ado About Nothing," "As You Like It," and "King Lear?" Well somehow, Shakespeare made it work. Like "Romeo and Juliet" we have a protagonist (Imogen) who falls under her father's rages because she will not marry who he wants her to. Like "Much Ado About Nothing," we have a villain (Iachimo) who tries to convince a man (Posthumus) that the woman he loves is full of infidelity. Like "As You Like It," we have exiled people who praise life in the wilderness and a woman who disguises herself as a man to search for her family in the wilderness. Like "King Lear," we have a king who's rages and miscaculated judgement lead to disastorous consequences. What else is there? Only beautiful language, multiple plots, an evil queen who tries to undermind the king, an action filled war, suspense, a dream with visions of Pagan gods, and a beautiful scene of reconciliation at the end. While this is certainly one of Shakespeare's longer plays, it is well worth the time.

This is probably one of the most outdated and misleading of the Arden editions. Nosworthy really doesn't like the play and dismisses it as an experiment leading up to _The Tempest_. Even his editing of the text is affected by his reading of the play. Only scholars who know something about Shakespeare should venture here.

"Cymbeline" is my favourite Shakespeare play. It's also probably his loopiest. It has three plots, managing to drag in a banishment, a murder, a wicked queen, a moment of almost sheer pornography, a full-on battle between the Romans and the British, a spunky heroine, her jealous but not-really-all-that-bad husband, some fantastic poetry and Jupiter himself descending out of heaven on an eagle to tell the husband to pull his finger out and get looking for his wife. Finally, just when your head is spinning with all the cross-purposes and dangling resolutions, Shakespeare pulls it all together with shameless neatness and everybody lives happily ever after. Except for the wicked queen, and her son, who had his head cut off in Act 4.

"Cymbeline" is, then, completely nuts, but it manages also to be very moving. Quentin Tarantino once described his method as "placing genre characters in real-life situations" - Shakespeare pulls off the far more rewarding trick of placing realistic characters in genre situations. Kicking off with one of the most brazen bits of expository dialogue he ever created, not even bothering to give the two lords who have to explain the back story an ounce of personality, Shakespeare quickly recovers full control and races through his long, complex and deeply implausible narrative at a headlong pace. The play is outrageously theatrical, and yet intensely observed. Imogen's reaction on reading her husband's false accusation of her infidelity is a riveting mixture of hurt and anger; she goes through as much tragedy as a Juliet, yet is less inclined to buckle and snap under the pressure. When she wakes up next to a headless body that she believes to be her husband, her aria of grief is one of the finest WS ever wrote. No less impressive is her plucky determination to get on with her life, rather than follow her hubby into the grave.

Posthumus, the hubby in question, is made of less attractive stuff, but when he comes to believe that Imogen is dead, as he ordered (this play is full of people getting things wrong and suffering for it), he rejects his earlier jealousy and starts to redeem himself a tad. There's a vicious misogyny near the heart of this play, as Shakespeare biographer Park Honan observed, kept in balance by a hatred of violence against women. The oafish prince Cloten, who lusts after Imogen, is a truly repellent piece of work, without even the intelligence of Iago or the horrified panic of Macbeth; his plan to kill Posthumus and rape Imogen before her husband's body is just about as squalid and vindictive as we expect of this louse, and when a long-lost son of the king (don't even _ask_) lops Cloten's head off, there are cheers all round.

Shakespeare sends himself up all through "Cymbeline". I wonder if the almost ludicrously informative opening exposition scene isn't a bit of a gag on his part, but when a tired and angry Posthumus breaks into rhyming couplets, then catches himself and observes "You have put me into rhyme", we know that Shakespeare is having us on a little. Likewise, the final scene, when all is resolved, goes totally over the top in its piling-on "But-what-of-such-and-such?" and "My-Lord-I-forgot-to-mention" moments.

Yet the moments of terror and pity are deep enough to make the jokiness feel truly earned. When Imogen is laid to rest and her adoptive brothers recite "Fear no more the heat o' the sun" over her body, it's as affecting as any moment in the canon. That she isn't actually dead, we don't find out until a few moments later, but it's still a great moment.

Playful, confusing, enigmatic, funny and shot through with a frightening darkness, this is another top job by the Stratford boy. Well done.

Cymbeline was a British king in Roman times ( Augustus Caesar's time).
Devices used in the Play:
1) a woman plays a man/ boy role ( several of his plays : As You Like it,
Twelfth Night))
2) a deception by a villain to lie the virtue of a Lady ( Much Ado about
Nothing)
3) Princes kidnapped and brought up as common men ( I don't know if he
uses this in other plays)
4) poison that causes a coma ( Romeo and Juliet)
5) a Prince who is a vile fool ( used in his historical plays)
6) a Queen who is a plotter and evil ( Macbeth)
7) a Prince who kills another Prince and it redeemed by his hidden
identity
8) a Prince sentenced to hang by mistake
9) a King who condemns his daughter wrongly ( King Lear)
One wonders how much of this is historical fact and how much pure fiction.
With all this scheming in the plot , it should be a very successful
play.
It is a total flop!
What it comes out is seeming unreal and contrived.
You get that happy ending feel that is so much in his comedies
but it has a very false feeling to it.
That's probably why Cymbeline isn't performed much.
If he hadn't gone for all these at once it might have worked, but the
result is that you see the playwright as ....
If anyone wants to take the air out of a Shakespeare pedant,
this is the play to do it with! He makes Shaw and Eugene O'neil l
look good. He even make Rogers and Hammerstein and Gilbert and
Sullivan look better, ha, ha...
This play is not Shakespeare's finest hour!

Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's least performed and least read plays. You do not stumble on it, you work your way through Shakespeare's opus and finally get there. The historical context is the war between Britain and the Roman Empire, and the action is hot and heavy, requiring five acts and twenty-seven scenes. Perhaps it is this complexity of plot that retarded Shakespeare's character development. Fewer lines have entered our lexicon from this play than most. Two exceptions are "the tongue is sharper than the sword," and to have "a bellyful of fighting." It is an excellent tragedy, however, combining elements of King Lear and elements of Othello. In its mystic elements it also resembles The Tempest.

The core of the plot is the bet between Posthumous, the king's son, and Iachimo, who wagers ten thousand ducats that he can seduce Posthumous' wife, Imogen. Posthumous, in turn, wagers a ring that Imogen has given him that Iachimo will not succeed. Initially, we amused by the idea, but upon further reflection, it is clear that the gambit cannot have a happy ending. Either the seduction is successful, breaking up the marriage, or it isn't, in which case Iachimo will certainly claim that he has secuced Imogen, simply to win the ring. In the process he sets himself the Iago-like task of converting love to hate.

The play is also full of classic Shakespearean gadgetry, including a potion that causes a trance resembling death, mystical soothsayers, the intervention of gods, women disguised as men, and a historical tableau which would have been familiar to Shakespeare's audience. It is a quintessential Shakespearean play, comprising nearly all of the classical elements of tragedy. If the plot could have been pruned, and the characters given more of the dimensionality that we expect from Shakespeare, Cymbeline would stand on a higher pedestal.

The Folger Shakespeare Library's annotated edition is excellent. It provides just the right notation on the page facing the text, and can be studied or ignored to suit the reader's purpose.

I found this to an excellent source of "how to's" and "where to find's". It was well laid out, easy to use and information was very valuable. The reference subjects were comprehensive also for the age group.

Bring on the next age ranges!!!!!

I found this book to be very helpful,
easy to find what you are looking for,
and well indexed.

I would recommend this to any parent of
pre-schoolers.

The Field Guide to Parenting is the best 'user friendly' book on parenting today. This book provides quality and reliable information in practical language. The Field Guide to Parenting is what every parent &/or educator needs for today's busy lifestyle. As a parent/family life educator, i consider this book a must for all book shelves, in homes, schools, libraries, counseling offices, community centers....wherever, parents congregate!
Buy one for yourself, a friend and your child's teacher.

sincerely,
joan Henderson

I found this to be a good composite of imformation from many famous authorities on child-rearing. However, some of the areas addressed don't go into enough detail on the subjects- I found consulting the individual authors' own books a little more helpful in putting things into greater context. Overall, a good book though.

This fantastic resource is one that I can't imagine doing without. Throughout the past three years, I have grabbed this great 580-page guide and easily found advice and ideas about everything from whining to macaroni art! The Field Guide to Parenting is organized so that you can find this fast, with development stages listed for benchmarking your child's accomplishments, then great ideas for projects and fun games that enhance mental, physical and emotional growth, followed by a huge section that covers more than 60 topics. Each topic is explained, expectations listed, approaches to dealing with that subject from experts in child development, when to get more help and a resource section listing Web sites, books, videos, 800 numbers and more!
What I like the most about this book is that one person is not telling me what is the "right" way to parent. The compilation of advice comes from so many experts that the reader can choose what is right for him or her. This is a welcome change from the trends in parenting styles that seem to dominate the shelves.

I highly recommend having this book around from birth (even before when there is time to read!) to well past your child's 5th birthday. Mine is well worn, and still on an easy-to-reach shelf!

I enjoyed reading Brett Butler's autobiography and have read it quite a few times. It's a wonderful read about love for God and overcoming odds and tragedies. (I love the chapter of his first encounters with his future wife Eveline. It made me laugh out loud.)

An inspiring, touching story. I followed Brett's career ever since I first saw him play in Atlanta in 1982. His story is a glowing example of the power of our living God. Hopefully this book will bless you the way it has blessed me. I've read it four times now, and still enjoy it every time. Oh, I have the honor of saying a letter I wrote the day he was diagnosed is on page 218 of this book. God bless you, Brett.

"Hope" is an inspiring story of a man who was told in his early life he wouldn't make it in baseball. Mr. Butler proved that hard work and determination does indeed payoff. He is refreshingly honest about his shortcomings and his belief in Jesus Christ. His wife, Eveline, narrates a good portion of the book giving her views on their life together, with the trials and tribulations that goes with any marriage. Another title for this book could have been, "Winners never Quit". They are both just that, winners, only they're winning in the game of life.

If you're looking for an inspiring story, this is a great one. It shows what grit and determination can do in a life. It is also a wonderful book for the Christian, thought-provoking and a fine example of the way Christ can guide you through even the most terrible of situations.

Brett Butler has led a life of overcoming the odds. In his youth Brett was told he was too small to make it in pro baseball. Brett kept fighting and he finally made it. Once in the majors, Brett was told he would never be a star. Again he kept fighting and he made the All-Star team. When Brett found out he had cancer, he decided to fight once again. Once again he won.
Butler reveals his thoughts throughout all of his triumphs and disappointments. He discusses his Christianity without coming across as preachy. He is a man of faith and love and he proudly expresses this.
The book is very uplifting. It is a real inspirational story from truly one of the good guys!

Useful basics for any professional whose work with patients requires cooperation. Health practitioners working to improve their ability to assess, motivate, and educate patients as partners for better health outcomes will want to read this honest, practical yet reflective book twice - and then again - while trying out its ideas, practicing, and growing into its approach to care. Useful both for persons in training and already in practice.

It's a bit unusual for me to agree with customer reviews that both praise and criticize a book, but in this case I do. On the one hand, Rollnick et al, have done an amazing job of applying motivational interviewing and stages of change theory to the short interchanges common with patients in a medical setting. For those readers already well-versed in stages of change, this is an excellent and thought-provoking approach. I believe many "counselors" of various stripes would benefit from the applications advocated in this book.

On the other hand, I found the theoretical foundation wholly inadequate. While I appreciated the attempts of the authors to carefully distinguish between evidence-based substantiation of their guidelines and the weaker suggestions based on clinical practice, I felt that there was a preponderance of the latter.

I was also overwhelmed by the repetition included in the three final "application" chapters. Surely there is a better way to present this material! Frankly, the final chapters are so tedious to read that I suspect the average medical professional tends to conclude this volume with a less-than-enthusiastic feeling regarding the guidance.

My advice is to read through chapter 5, at the most, and to consult chapters 6-8 only after encountering specific problems in applying the techniques provided.

This book gave helpful perspectives regarding doctor-patient communication, but was not very enlightening. The problem might be that it was written from the perspective that the doctor is always correct, and the patient is always some poor sap who needs to be enlightened and trained as you would a child. I don't see this book awakening the human within some budding physician and transforming the physician into some effective communicator. The worst part was how many pages it took to convey helpful information.

This is surprising because the motivational interviewing video training from these authors is exemplary. Maybe the video approach did not transfer well to book.

I gave it more than one star because it does have good strategies in it, and I believe reading it would be better than reading nothing.

Health Behavior Change dramatically simplifies and expands the Motivational Interviewing counseling style techniques underlined in Motivational Interviewing by Miller and Rollnick (1991). Health Behavior Change is very easy to read and provides a practical menu of "tools" that could assist individuals thinking and/or committed to behavioral change. Although the authors' targets are medical professionals, the book is a must for everyone involve in health care promotion and/or counseling (prevention workers, outreach workers, treatment advocates, drug and alcohol counselors, psychotherapists). It is also a great book to pass along to family members and anyone concerned in assisting others to move in the direction of change. The most important message: when we are moving in the direction of behavioral change, we need helpers who care, remain non-judgmental and help us tip the balance towards healthier behaviors. Assisting people to set their own realistic goals --however small, is crucial to facilitate meaningful, long lasting change. Love this book!!!!

HIV Service Provider and Trainer, San Francisco Bay Area, CA

A simple, easy, and yet deep, thought-provoking book. ONLY ONE of this kind.

I am tring hard to implement some of their methods in Japan.

As a native of Little Rock, Arkansas I am always alert to novels set in my home state and especially my home town. This is easily one of the finest novels ever set or written in the state and easily the finest set in Little Rock.

The historical context for this novel is important. It was published at a time when Bill Clinton was entering the White House, but the setting for the novel was over a decade earlier, during the two year period when Clinton had been defeated in the governor's race by the widely ridiculed Frank White. The latter became governor largely because Clinton had raised the fees for license plates and because the state had some difficulty dealing with his then-feminist wife Hillary (she was still progressive politically back then, instead of the right-leaning senator she is today--and anyone who thinks Hillary is a liberal is focusing on the right-wing hype and ignoring the realities of her actual positions on the issues). White achieved eternal notoriety in the state when he blithely signed into the law allowing the teaching of creationism in public schools, which resulted in the most famous trial since Scopes regarding evolution and the Bible. (A popular item in the state at the time was a Frank White doll holding a banana.) It was an interesting period. Pulaski County sheriff Tommy Robinson was outraging many citizens and delighting others with his "Walking Tall" antics, such as chaining prisoners to trees when the jails got overcrowded. Robinson, who is pilloried in this novel by another county sheriff, went on to become a profoundly undistinguished one-term congressman who got caught up in the House post office scandal. Arkansas guard U. S. Reed really did hit a half court shot as time expired to fuel a victory for the Razorbacks. And there was a very famous murder and investigation of a Little Rock millionaire who was charged with murdering his wife. Charles Morrison, the protagonist of this novel, is loosely based on that incident (a murder that has been covered in several of the television tabloid series). What emerges is a highly evocative and compelling portrait of the city immediately before it began to emerge into the national spotlight.

I love the narrative device that holds the novel together. Many novels, of course, feature omniscient narrators, though rarely is the legitimacy of this technique established. Here, however, Butler lays claim to the ultimate omniscient narrator, for the story is told by none other than the Holy Ghost. This is typical of the way loves to play with one's expectations throughout the novel.

Like a lot of Arkansas novelists (I think of Charles Portis here as well), Butler is a subtly funny writer. Maybe living in the reason necessitates a sense of humor. The book is filled with wonderfully grotesque characters and utterly unexpected twists. It is just an enormously entertaining book. I must confess to owning four copies of the book--a galley proof that I read before it was originally published, a pristine hardback first edition, a second hardback first edition that I lend to friends, and a curious British paperback edition that features a rather surreal cover. On the latter there are cactuses in the background of the cover painting, leading me to wonder if the British book designer somehow or other confused Arkansas and Arizona. I can state with no fear of contradiction that cacti form no part of the flora of Arkansas. As for my lender copy, I've allowed a number of my friends to read the book, and all have responded with great delight.

However, as a longtime Cub fan, I do have a minor bone to pick. In the spring of 1981 (the time when the novel was set) Harry Caray was not the announcer for the Cubs: he was still with the White Sox. The Cubs were sold to the Trib and in the fall of 1981 Harry was hired as the voice of the Cubs. The rest is, as they say, history.

It is truly awful that this novel is out of print. It is definitely worth searching out. Unless some publisher has the good sense to reprint it, I think this is going to be one of those novels that generates its own little fan club, whose members pass on the knowledge of the book to other deserving souls. I confess that I find it painful that a fine book like this is allowed to go out of print while a neverending stream of junk novels stay in print. Please do yourself a favor and pick this one up and read it. You will be glad that you did.

LLR (to use the author's own shorthand) is a book to be reread. It bursts with linguistic and literary trickery: a Finnegan's Wake for this generation. It swoops between characters and narrative devices with virtuousity, and leaves memory trails long after you have finished. Make no mistake, this is a difficult book to read. However since when does difficulty have anything to do with artistic merit, and this is a work of art. It evokes a now distant past of unforgotten history, though we may not wish to recall some of it. The Morrisons' are upwardly mobile, enlightened liberals (a dirty word now) who are targetted by all manner of evils. You should discover the plot yourself and in doing so discover perhaps the most talented of current writers: a Burgess like love of language; A Joycean eye for invention. Each character is complete, believable, and has their own voice: Lianne's stilted thought process; Laugh's self awareness; even the dog. Embedded in this murderous plot are sacred homilies: "...he could have touched if touch was touch was all...", touching personlities and a sense of conteporaneity. This is perhaps the great American novel, something which none of the great American novellists has yet produced. And it took a poet to do it.

This book takes the six guitar strings that travel the length of your torso. Then it alternately plays on the fretboard of your intellect, strums your heart, and grabs your whammy bar.

Buy a copy for yourself. Then buy one for everyone you know who doesn't believe in the transformative powers of fiction; everyone you know who believes the novel is dead; and anyone who needs to have the focus of their worldview adjusted to sharpen the magic and blur the ordinary.

The other reviews on this page are well-put, but this novel is much more than regional work or a humorous look at the early 80s. What's it about? Everything. Mysticism, sex, and death. And it's hilarious. Because things are funny in direct proportion to their gravity. I can never teach a class on the American Novel again without somehow dealing with this book, and the sooner it's back in print, the better.

I don't intend this to be a full review. There are some interesting points to make about this book. They are as much about Little Rock as about the book, but since the book has so much to do with Little Rock itself (actual and symbolic), I do not think they are out of order here.

Butler's use of Little Rock as the location for this novel makes the work exceptional. Little Rock is an extraordinary city with an extraordinary history. As a native Arkansan and former long-time Little Rock resident, I believe Little Rock to have been one of the south's most progressive cities. Some would say it was because of this progressive nature that Little Rock was chosen as the place to make the first major move to integrate public schools. Little Rock and Arkansas have fostered exceptional national leaders: William Fulbright (despite his positions on integration), Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and, yes, Bill Clinton, as well as others.

At the same time, Little Rock has been yanked violently backward by other Arkansas forces, often in the form of self-serving politicians. This often dramatic interplay between good and evil in Little Rock sets the stage for this tale which, I believe is symbolic of the south and of our nation.

The book presents so very clearly the contrasts which we allow in our world. (In a sense we allow them and in a sense we battle them, but they flourish, so I believe "allow" is apt.) Little Rock and Arkansas elected a Bill Clinton (perhaps not the best example of progressive leadership, but good enough for this argument) and they elected a legislature and another governor who voted in a creation science bill--the bill and associated trial which figure prominently in the book. Little Rock and Arkansas elected wise and thoughtful leaders such as Dale Bumpers; they also engaged in an extended flirtation with a high-profile sheriff known for chaining prisoners to the fence of a State prison, sporting a pump shotgun on television spots, and engaging in bizarre witch-hunting investigations. (This sheriff also figures prominently in the book.)

Perhaps the contrast and irony is more muted elsewhere, but in Little Rock it is vibrantly clear. Unlike the Alabama reviewer, I do think this book captures a true sense of a progressive and tragically flawed city. But then, is Little Rock all that different from the rest of the nation? Not so very different, I think. The contrast is just so much clearer in Little Rock, at

least it was at the time at which Butler set his story.

This contrast, really a balance, is so fragile. Butler plays this out over and over in the book. People with bright futures face destruction because of almost coincidental brushes with evil. This book isn't about characters who take on evil. I don't view them as taking courageous stands; they are forced to react to the evil which overtakes them. If the protagonist does have a fatal flaw, it is his obliviousness. But then, when we delightedly elect shotgun-toting, conspiracy-promoting law officers and governors ready and willing to embroil us in debates over what can and cannot be taught in schools, can we, any of us, be really very safe? Are we not ourselves oblivious to the evil which will harm us?

Many readers won't know how much of this book is very close to the news stories which appeared in Little Rock's press throughout the time of this book. Few would believe them. They're all to real. Many will attribute parts of this book to Butler's fine sense of irony--and his is as well developed as some of the greatest southern authors of the past--when those happenings are in fact drawn from pages of Arkansas newspapers. The setting of Little Rock was perfect for this book. No other city or time could have worked for this story. Happy (or unhappy) accident? Of course not, but this book works just as much because of the truth of the events depicted as because of the author's skill--and he is quite

skilled.

This book is wonderful. I don't know whether Butler considers it to be a cautionary tale, but I certainly do. It has the tragedy of opera and the plot of a saga of the past--and more of it is real life than most will ever imagine.

Now, a few final points: this book must be read aloud, preferably by a southerner (I don't think anyone will really "get" the narration of the Holy Ghost otherwise); I loved the author's pool-playing visit with the protagonist, as well as his encounter with the canine ghost; Butler's depictions of physical Little Rock and its people are great; and who, really, is the farting therapist?

I ordered this book as required reading for a class I am Taking. I received the book in excellent condition in a timely manner.

Building on the work of Craig Dykstra (author of "Edcuation and Christian pracitices") Bass shows how intentional pariticpation in Christian practices can help transform stagnent established congregations into intentional and practicing ones. She finds that the real differnce between Christians in America is not between liberals and conservatives or right and left but those who seek to intentionally be people of God and those who are satisfied with being merely an established and static organization. While trying to find common ground with conservatives Bass does at times revert to a smugness that can sound condeseding at times. This book is best viewed in conjuction with the Dykstra book mentioned above which presents a clearer and more systematic argument for the role of Christian practices within the congregation and world. I do highly recomentd this work because it has much to add to the deabte

I actually heard Dr. Butler Bass present this material at a clergy day in my diocese last year. Her work is both insightful and challenging. I especially appreciate her willingness to admit the shortcomings of her theories, not just gloss over them. The three-dimensional grid was particularly helpful, especially for those of us in the lower left quadrant -- progressive emergers. It can seem like a very lonely place indeed!

Kudos to Dr. Butler Bass on clarifying with some of the harder elements of the emerging post-modern church by not fearing to "complexify" the issues.

This book tells of the fabulous success stories still hidden amongst the headlines of mainline decline. It shows that tradition can still be held on to when there is openness to change and to do what is necessary to keep mainline churches alive and thriving.

This book re-affirmed my experience: that much of mainline Christianity (or at least those who lead it) are more interested in the practices and structure of Christianity than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. However, I found much of instructional value here about church history, and practice. Great insights into tradition, the various traditions that compete for allegiance in churches of all denominations.
Many congregations are doing the right things, I'm just concerned that they are building on a foundation with significant holes. For many in mainline Christianity, Jesus is more of a something -- a theory, an idea -- not a SOMEONE who values our relationship with God above our activities. Is the practice fulfilling? Is the worship service aesthetically pleasing? Are the activities healthy? Are social actions of your church just and good? Fantastic, but it's all empty without recognizing Christ as someone real, living, active. Still, there are many in the Christian world who are so inward-focused that it seems they believe Jesus is only interested in them -- those folks need a kick out the door, to go do something. This book reaffirms that idea as well.

I picked this up after visiting Canterbury. Ashamed to say, I didn't really know much about Becket and the conflict between him and the King. Much less, the disappearance of his shrine and bones. Fascinating reading, I wish it included more information and more illustrations about the shrine and its original location, its appearance, etc.

Until now, all I knew about Thomas Becket was that he, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was killed by several of Henry II's knights, and the only real mystery was whether or not Henry actually meant the words literally when he expressed a desire to have Becket taken care of. This is an utterly fascinating book, replete with images of the Canterbury Cathedral and vintage art pieces depicting the murder of Becket. The text itself is well-written, impeccably organized, and never dull for one moment. As it turns out, Becket's murder was just the beginning of the story, one that imparts much insight into the history of England itself.

History tells us that Becket, a good friend of Henry II before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, was talked into returning from exile in France only to be brutally murdered soon thereafter, in December 1170, in Canterbury Cathedral itself by four knights of the king. He sustained serious head wounds, and one of his murderers even pried out some portion of his brain and scattered it upon the floor. The next day, his body was buried in a marble or stone coffin in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity at the eastern end of the crypt; while the body was moved temporarily at least once to guard against theft, Becket's relics basically remained in this spot for the next fifty years. In 1220, the relics were moved to a shrine in the Trinity Chapel, and pilgrims came in droves to see the holy relics and to seek miraculous cures (and there apparently were some). Then came Henry VIII and the Reformation. In 1538, he ordered all religious shrines and relics destroyed, including (and especially) Thomas Becket's relics, at the hands of the Royal Commissioners for the Destruction of Shrines. Conventional wisdom said the sacred bones were burned and scattered in the wind, and the outcry of Roman Catholics throughout Europe at this perfidious action echoes still today. And so Thomas Becket's tragic story ended.

Then, in 1881, workers discovered a skeleton in the eastern crypt of the Cathedral; buried only a few inches below the ground, it lay in close proximity to the site of Becket's original resting place. Suddenly, the true fate of Becket's relics was in serious question; this was still an important issue in England as well as Europe, as the Roman Catholic - Anglican conflict still simmered if not verily seethed at the time (and Becket is historically the most venerable of the Roman Catholic saints of England, which is exactly why Henry VIII tried to erase him from history). The skeleton was arranged in a special way, and it was determined that the newly discovered body was that of a man somewhere around Becket's age who died of serious head wounds. Even as the remains were returned to the crypt, experts soon lined up on both sides of "the Becket hypothesis." In 1949, the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury had the bones exhumed once again and more advanced scientific tests were performed on them - the results of these tests quieted debate, but there continued to be individuals who insisted that the bones either were Becket's or were somehow related to Becket's relics.

Butler does a wonderful job presenting the history and controversy in a well-balanced manner, taking us carefully from 1170 up to the present. Since the vast majority of the story revolved around the bones discovered in 1881, it did come as something of a surprise two-thirds of the way into the book to learn that a 1951 report essentially proved the bones in the crypt were not Becket's, but this revelation did little to slow down the narrative; in fact, the surprising results of the 1951 study (of the bones from the crypt) only deepened the mystery. In the end, Butler basically ends up where he started, but that's okay. He has, in the meantime, made a convincing argument to the effect that there is no direct, contemporary evidence that the Canterbury Commissioners burned the bones removed from the shrine of St. Thomas in 1538. He closes by comparing and contrasting the five basic hypotheses that can be drawn from the evidence - while he names several other suggested burial sites for Becket's bones, he does not champion a gut theory of his own, and that makes for a most refreshing conclusion to the book. The mystery as to what really happened to Becket's bones (as well as the question of whose skeleton was discovered in the crypt in 1881) makes for a fascinating story sure to keep the inquisitive reader's mind engaged from start to finish.

Always fascinated by Becket's story, I eagerly began this book hoping to discover a definitive solution to the mystery of the whereabouts of his vanished bones. I didn't find the answer (probably too much to hope for), but the book does provide a thorough compilation of the possibilities. Butler's style is smooth and readable, and he does a commendable, objective job of analyzing the facts. To his credit, he does not try to "sell" his own ideas on which of the scenarios is most likely. A worthwhile study of one of history's enduring mysteries.

At a time when 'The Da Vinci Code' is poised to open strongly at the box office, it's nice to find a historical mystery that is actually grounded in reality! In this case, it's the mystery surrounding the remains of St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Following his murder in 1170, Becket's remains were interred in two places within the Carterbury Catherdral - a below-ground crypt from 1170 through 1220, and an above-ground shrine from 1220 through the shrine's destruction in 1538. Thereafter, numerous theories described how his remains were rescued from the destruction... but no one could authoritatively determine where they were. Then, in 1888, a shallow grave just beneath the shrine's former location was opened, revealing a man's bones. Could these be the relics of the sainted Thomas Becket, the most revered person in English Catholicism?

The mystery didn't end there, and in fact, the book begins with a Da Vinci Code-like event in the early 1990s. It may not thrill quite like Dan Brown's novel, and that's about the only drawback to an otherwise great read. Truth IS stranger than fiction!

This interesting book by John Butler traces the history behind the disappearance of the remains of England's greatest saint, St. Thomas Becket. The remains which until 1538, rested in Canterbury Cathedral, have gone "missing". The author gave several possible outcome although from the tone of the book, it appears that the bones of St. Thomas might be gone forever. That was due to the fact that in 1538, Henry VIII who in his height of reformation fever and his stuggles against the Pope, ordered the destruction of St. Thomas' remains. And even if that order was avoided and the body reburied in secret, to find that possible body would mean tearing up the floor of this historical and holy cathedral. So in some weird way, the remains of St. Thomas will probably be lost forever.

The book proves to be well written, researched and interesting bit of history's mysteries. It come well illustrated with diagrams and photographs which helped with the narrative. Thus, the book come highly recommended.

As one of the publisher reviews points out, Severance is really a series of prose poems, which is made obvious by the explicit device of keeping them the same length according to the formula (1.5 minutes x 160 words/minute). In the sense that they are meditative more than narrative, they work better when thought of as poetry. Then you can see the variety of language possible within the form, which shows the different kinds of reflections of the characters depicted using the form. These are, after all, meditations about language use in extremis (including what animals would say if they could speak and, pace Wittgenstein, what we would understand from them if they could speak), and together they create a haunting and beautiful depiction of lives remembered. If you had only 240 words to sum up your final thoughts, what would you say? Do it in a minute and a half, knowing they're your last seconds on Earth. That kind of evanescence--not necessarily rushed, not necessarily resistant to death--is what Butler captures so well. The set of poems has pathos without sentimentality, and charm without preciousness. Read it, and be glad your time is not yet up, and your head is still on your shoulders.

There are a lot of things to admire about this collection--Butler is very creative with his choices of heads and often tackles the question of what final thoughts may go through a mind in its final 90 seconds between decapitation and death (according to the famous epigram by Dr. Dassy D'Estaing) in intriguing ways . Butler manages to surprise often in this historical sequence, from convicts to unfaithful (maybe) spouses to beasts and myths to royalty. The premise itself is intriguing--a sequence of monologues from decapitated heads working on the conceits that a head can live for 90 seconds after decapitation and humans speak at a rate of 160 words a second when in a "heightened state of emotion," for a grand total of 240 words for each monologue. Butler also mixes humor and pathos through many of these choices, to deal with the horror of violence (as in the monologue from Nicole Brown Simpson) to the lighter side of decapitation (as in a chicken chosen to be an evening meal).

But despite all of this praise, I must admit that I found the basic motif a little tiresome in its less than stellar moments. Butler is very much of a formalist, and sticks to his guns when it comes to form rather than exploring within it. Butler's best book, _A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain_, suffers less for this and only stifles itself in minor moments. In collections like _Tabloid Dreams_, however, the conceit (in this one, Butler takes _Weekly World News_ headlines and uses them as the ground situations of stories) wears thin after some gems because he remains rooted to that premise rather than exploring the boundaries of it.

This book suffers the same fate. While the choice of subject matter is intriguing and promising, and his attitude of pathos and humor is wonderful, and monologues like Nicole Brown Simpson and Cicero and a mythical dragon are inspiring, and even though there are some thoughtful correlations made here between the French Revolution and Henry VIII and the modern 'war on terror,' it is the 240-word formula of the monologues that wears thin after a while. Rather than play with the limit, the monologues become 'just another 240 words,' and Butler doesn't seem to play with what defines 240 words but restricts himself to formality in this respect rather than creativity.

In the end, my attitude may just be curmudgeonly, but I would rather read the work and be delighted by it in all ways rather than be reminded constantly of its format.

Robert Olen Butler is such a fine, creative writer that his works can always be trusted by even the most discerning reader. The intial impact of his latest book SEVERANCE - from the strange but hauntingly beautiful cover art to the premise of the book - may put some readers off: has Butler found a writing gimmick for the sole purpose of getting another novel out on the stands while his glimmer of greatness still is alight?

The answer is easily resolved by reading a few of the vignettes that comprise this remarkable book. Butler takes his concept from two postulates: 'After decapitation, the human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for one and one-half minutes. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute.' Fascinating information this and Butler takes it and runs - but with his usual skills and care for the English language and his tireless imagination coupled with historical investigation.

What follows are black pages of introduction of people who have been decapitated from Mud man ca. 40,000 BC through the Roman times with the likes of John the Baptist and St Paul, the dragon slain by St George, the multiple beheadings surrounding King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, through the French Revolution guillotine victims such as Robespierre, Marie Antoinette and Andre Chenier, to some grisly 19th century machine beheadings, black slaves, Vietnamese, the artist Mishima who requested beheading as part of his ritualistic disembowelment, down to more contemporary times such as the accident that made Jayne Mansfield lose her head to Saddam Hussein's machinations and unknown victims and ending with Butler giving his own elegy from his future beheading in 2008!, and after the black introductions are terse 240 word pieces of thoughts as these people died.

If this sounds like a series of 240 word essays on the horrors of dying then the reader has not read much Robert Olen Butler. What he has given us is a minute and a half flashback of history of each victim that traipses through the highlights of living and the expectations and disappointments that could so easily be imagined 'as your life flashes in front of you' at the time of death. Brilliantly written and endlessly informative and fascinating, this is a book not to be read at the rate that beheaded people speak: this is a series of moving pages of lives condensed and poetically arranged for perusing at various times when the reader hungers for something refreshingly new. Grady Harp, November 06

This little book is flat-out brilliant. Butler captures the final thoughts/fleeting images of 62 decapitations, some famous (John the Baptist, Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette), some ludicrously unknown (Mud, a prehistoric fellow done in by a saber-toothed tiger; St. George's dragon; an Alabama chicken).

These quick vignettes, each one exactly 240 words (the book's epigraphs and other Amazon reviewers will explain), capture with beauty and startling clarity that precious last moment. Often touching, occasionally humorous (the chicken! at long last we know that elusive answer!), these prose poems sing. Demented, yeah, but also wonderful, this book a roaring tour de force.

Butler has created an incredibly interesting portrayal of human life and death in one amazing book. The book is based on the premise of Dr. Dassy D'Estaing in 1883 that after decapitation, the human mind remains conscious for 1 ½ minutes. In addition, people speak at approximately 160 words a minutes when in a heightened state of emotion.

Based on these premises, Butler creates a series of stories that represent the thoughts of real people who have been decapitated and their thoughts in the 90 seconds following that decapitation. These people are in fact real people who had been decapitated. Most of them were decapitated via the guillotine. Some of the people Butler portrays in the book are as follows: Marie Antoinette, King Louis the XVI, Jayne Mansfield, John the Baptist, The Apostle Paul, Sir Thomas More, Lady Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, Mary Queen of Scots, Robespierre, Robert Kornbluth, Nicole Brown Simpson and many more.

Each story is exactly 240 words; representing the amount of words that would be spoken in 90 seconds, post decapitation. The stories are in essence the distillation of an entire lifetime, through the eyes of the deceased person. The elements of their life that are of significance to the victim are presented by Butler to the reader.

The book is experimental in its form. And the creation of the stories and their content are uniquely fascinating. Butler has in fact created a truly brilliant concept in this book. The people are mostly recognizable by name, but also Butler gives a very brief comment on each one of them indicating who they were. The book is highly recommended for readers who enjoy unusual and expertly written short stories with a surreal content that tickles the imagination. Severance is truly a cerebral experience for those readers who wish to be intrigued by what might flash before a person's eyes upon the knowledge that their death is imminent.

"Very Good Jeeves" is the third book to be 'completely' dedicated to PG Wodehouse's famous duo - Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves. The book, first published in 1930, is a collection of eleven short stories that had previously been published in Strand Magazine.

The book features Wodehouse's best known creations : Bertie Wooster and his valet, Jeeves. Bertie is the book's wealthy, good-natured and rather dim narrator. He's a member of the "idle rich" and, rather than having to work for a living, lives off an allowance provided by his uncle. He spends much of his time in the bar-room of the Drones Club, is fond of the occasional wager and has an appalling dress sense. Luckily, Bertie has Jeeves, to look after him. Without Jeeves, Bertie's life would be a mess : he makes an excellent hangover cure, his bets usually win and is intelligent enough to rescue Bertie from nearly any situation. He disapproves of Bertie's more garish items of clothing, and will - occasionally - take it upon himself to deal with the offending item.

Bertie's fearsome Aunt Agatha plays a small part in some of the stories, but the consequences tend to be immense. Agatha, who regularly takes it upon herself to decide what's best for Bertie, holds her dog, Macintosh, in higher esteem than her nephew. It's not only Bertie's life she interferes with, though. Te story I enjoyed most centred on Bertie's Uncle George - who'd been prevented from marrying the love of his life (a barmaid) by Agatha many years earlier. Now, George has set his sights on marrying a waitress - and Agatha, once again, has decided this must be stopped. Needless to say, she decides to drag Bertie into it.

Tuppy Glossop also turns up in a few stories - Tuppy and Bertie were at school together, though following a prank at the Drones Club, Bertie is in the mood for a spot of revenge. However, Bertie's cousin Angela is very taken with Tuppy and, when the course of true loves doesn't run running smooth, Aunt Dahlia drafts Bertie and Jeeves to help. Tuppy is also a nephew of Sir Roderick Glossop, who holds the view that Bertie is insane - largely thanks to Bingo Little, it has to be said. Unfortunately, Sir Roderick turns up again in this book, and Bertie doesn't do much to improve Sir Roderick's opinion of him. (Bingo, now married, also appears in a couple of stories).

There are also a couple of appearances for Bobbie Wickham. Where Bertie regularly finds himself accidentally engaged, Bobbie is - very unusually - someone Bertie actually wants to marry. However, Jeeves doesn't approve - while she is a little free-spirited and something of a practical joker, I'm not entirely sure Jeeves was being entirely altruistic in 'rescuing' Bertie from her womanly snares. (There's also a brief appearance of another girlfriend - an artist called Gwladys Pendlebury. In this case, Aunt Dahlia joins Jeeves in disapproving. Luckily, Bertie also has to deal with a rival by the name of Pim).

A very easy and enjoyable read, certainly recommended.

No one does comic short stories better than P.G. Wodehouse, and the eleven offerings in "Very Good, Jeeves" are among his very best.

This book was all right. It was a nice little break from The Master and Margarita, the book I had read before it. It is very light reading in every sense of the word. It's easy and the material is as fluffy as meringue. Basically you have the extremely well off gentleman of the early 20th century in England--Bertie Wooster--and his multitude of acquaintances who are constantly getting him into hijinks. His "genius" of a butler, Jeeves, always helps him out of these situations, which he often attempts to solve himself only to go crying out to Jeeves when nothing works out the way he thought it would.
Bertie Wooster often complains of his aunt Agatha. She deems him a crime on humanity, and to be totally honest, I would agree with her. All Bertie Wooster does is sit on his bum all day and have people wait and serve on him and think totally of himself. His problems are always just "problems". It's amazing that Wodehouse managed to fill as many pages with the storyline as he did. While it was nice to read about something completely not serious for a bit, it got old after awhile and found myself rolling my eyes. I really began to dislike Bertie simply because he isn't all that great of a person in that he is totally self-involved. He is probably also one of THE most sheltered characters ever. So, overall, I would say the book was all right for the reading of one story every so often, but all at once really makes me want to gag.

While I enjoyed most of the stories in this collection, I didn't generally find them terribly funny--though throughout it's always entertaining to hear Bertie Wooster's take on things--but there is at least one story, The Song of Songs, that is knock-down hilarious. I wouldn't want to give anyone too high expectations, but for days after reading the story I would think of it again and again, chuckling like an idiot. There's an ingenious situation, and Bertie's exchanges with Jeeves and his narration ("I commended my soul to God and went forth ...", "Well, they didn't rush the stage") are wildly funny. (That is, if you're into this sort of humor; if you don't like Song of Songs I doubt you'll like any Wodehouse.) Now I've read several of Wodehouse's novels, there are times when I'm not all that thrilled with the stuff, it seems almost formulaic, or clever but shy of brilliant, but Song of Songs is a masterpiece, than which it's hard for me to think of a funnier story or passage I've read anywhere.

BTW, among the Wodehouse I've read so far besides this, I guess I liked Code of the Woosters and some of the other Bertie-Jeeves stories best, did not like the Blandings, Psmith or Mulliner stories as much. If you're new to Wodehouse, I might recommend you first read one or two of the Bertie-Jeeves novels--my first was Code of the Woosters, which was great but has had the drawback that, so far anyway, few of his other works quite match that level of hilarity, at least for me.

Previous: Carry On, Jeeves

The third and last short story collection, this volume contains some of the very best Jeeves and Bertie stories, again, stand-alone and unrelated. My favorite in this collection-and my favorite short story overall-is the brilliant Jeeves and the Impending Doom. Not only is the plot wonderfully eccentric, Jeeves manages to get in a very subtle jab at Bertie's intelligence which is particularly well-timed and memorable. Notable also is Jeeves and the Song of Songs, which is outright hilarious. And notable primarily for the irony of the story is The Love that Purifies, in which the kids vow to live upright lives, while the adults go out of their way to corrupt them into bad behavior. Memorable and hilarious stuff!

Next: Thank You, Jeeves