Literature Books

Another entertaining, stimulating and vibrant work from the inimitable Wodehouse. This book of short golf stories is the perfect gift for everyone who is a golfer, or aspires to be one. That is, if you can bear to part with such a brilliant piece of literature! Wodehouse rules!

It`s a nice hole in one , for all the 36 handicaps ! . Enjoy , read this book and your slices and hooks will be painless . Evem if you play with your wife/husband !!!

If you or someone you know likes golf,OR if you or someone you know likes P.G.Wodehouse,I promise you cant go wrong with this book. All of his golfing stories are here and they are all top notch. A keeper.

The manner in which Wodehouse has developed the characters in the stories is indeed amazing. One hilarius feature I noticed in many of the stories is the attempt made by the victim (listener) to escape from the oldest member's clutches whenever he begins to narrate a story.

Wodehouse is at the top of his form in this one. Die hard Wodehouse fans should not die without reading this one.

Great literature is supposed to bring you an appreciation of something you hadn't considered before. Wodehouse's golf stories did it for me like few others. None are terribly subtle--most are told by the Oldest Member, who on the first half-page collars a helpless younger golfer and tells him a story that turns out to be worth staying for. The narration is slightly sarcastic, and there are only two types of stories at heart: guy and girl made for each other get married because of golf, or guy uses golf to avoid girl unfit for him. There's always a subplot of a bad golfer breaking 100 or two longtime rivals in an 18 hole match, but nothing seems to get reused.

Despite using upper-crust characters in his stories, Wodehouse's work exhibits only a fake pretension. Plus there are cool names and recurring characters such as the golf champ Sandy McHoots. It's a bit more comprehensible than some Yoknapathawpa nonsense. A love triangle through three stories features a poet who(gasp) recites his poetry while people focus loses a golferess to a golfer, almost regains her, and then tries to learn golf courting her sister. Nobody is evil, although some people deserve--and get--a good comic socking.

But what makes Wodehouse appealing is how his characters are comically obsessed with golf. I have better things to be obsessed with, but I was able to connect with this and recognize how Wodehouse laughs at them. After I stopped laughing.

I've never read a collection of stories more insightful, easy to follow and enjoyable.

As an avid fan of short story writing, this is an attention getter. Let this Generation X author take you on a path of morbid destruction then have him lead you back to the inner sanctuary of your soul. A true self-discovery of courage and elightenment. "Destination Life," "Destination Nirvana."

Not what I expected from a USC grad, but the book reads easily, almost as if the book is saying,"Come on Hepner!"

Surreal-YES? My only question.......are the characters for real? Zsatkowski gives you the opportunity to ghost ride in this book, making you realize that this is the perspective you want to watch from.

Stunning first novel....the tone has been set......

Black light flows very nicely, and Szatkowski knows how to engage the reader with just the right amount of details without bludgeoning him/her with long, flowery descriptions. Often he finds just the right turn of phrase to describe a character or situation that really gives it an interesting idiosyncrasy or quirk to remember it by. Still, there were some people I wish could have been fleshed out just a little more and a few periphery people who were pretty one-dimensional. That's inevitable with any book, but I felt more connected to characters like Jim--who popped in and out in a chapter--than some people I had seen through most of the novel. Szatkowski does a good job with dialogue and displaying personalities through the way they talk. And even though some short sections I thought were a hair cliche (description of the murder and Tommy and Matthias' reactions to it, for example) other parts were very realistic and insightful, like the acid trip and visits with family. And I think it makes a lot more sense if you know this is only the first part in a series, so I look forward to reading the rest!

This is a great fast-paced adventure novel. I enjoyed the way the author created vivid images of places I've never been (a rave party) and others I have (Dairy Queen at Picacho Peak). I found that I wanted just a little bit more at the climax, though. I'll definitely look for his next work.

I thoroughly enjoyed this author's tale of adventure. The two main characters are particularly intriguing. Credit to the author for capturing their wild, yet naive side so vividly.

Christopher Szatkowski has shown in his new book, Black Light, that adventure is where you find it. I felt compelled to read right through the book, because I was so intrigued with the storyline and characters! Great book! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an exciting journey to experience.

The life - project of Pessoa in his making of multiple poetic alter egos, reminds of the life - project of Kierkegaard who explored various aspects of the religious life through use of alter egos often representing different faculties, approaches and moods of life. But if Kierkegaard's aim is to bring the reader to realization of what it might be to be in true connection with God, Pessoa's seems to be more to dissipate the notion of unique identity completely out of existence. Thus the fragments he shores around his own ruin and attributes to alter ego , heteronym Bernard Soares have within them a strong nihilistic self- and - world denying element.
Yet and here is the contradiction and the deeper truth they also reveal a kind of beauty both in perception and in the varied motion of the mental life itself. Lonely solitary lost fragmented Pessoa knows no human sacrifice like that of Kierkegaard with Regina, knows no dedication to his father's task of doing God's duty in the most ultimate way. He instead seems to reveal hidden realities as he conceals that beyond them all may well lie an eternal nothing. Kierkegaard is the many- selved servant of God, and Pessoa the many - selved servant of nothing more holy than human poetry.

"If i think, it all seems absurd to me; if i feel, it all seems strange; if i desire, he who desires is something inside of me."
Sums up the book perfectly. Pessoa explores one of his many personalities. "The Book of Disquiet" explains, in complete depth and faith, the beauty of a lonely, existential, moment by moment life. He explains the beauty that people forget. He explains the world, his perception, as if every moment were the last.
"The book of disquiet" is one of the most insightful books a person can read, but only if one has imagination and an ability to let go. Bernardo Soars, Pessoa's personality who wrote the book, is extreme and eccentric. It isn't easy reading, and it won't affect you if you can't overlook the fact that life doesn't go on like Soars'; that there is more in thinking, dreaming, and desiring than Soars admits. What makes the book so special is how Soars can forget everything but the thought and the moment, and how he can analyze and critique and put into words something that most of us forget to remember. "The book of disquiet" reminds me, at least, of how to appreciate my own mind. It is the only philosophy-like book that i enjoy (as yet) because it is the real thing and encompasses a forgotten part of real life.

Fernando Pesoa's genius lies within who Pesoa was as nil and not. He wasn't anyone. Only somene who continually writes in "disquiet" his persona's variable exegesis. The writing is in the book but the author who wrote it, Fernando Pesoa does not "feel himself" as actually being who he is. So, maybe he's actually a different author, with a different name who begins to write a different book. There's all of the writing there, its genius evident in the mystery of the writing itself. All the writing invested with absolute revelation of numinous absence. The absence is that of the author's presence. Magic? Truly. The author is not there. But he must be "there" because he has no choice but to write. What's the answer for the author who is finds himself as absent? He must undertake the creation of the abent author's presence. How? By literally creating a utterly unique form of literature. A literature whose grammar is of being literal by making it possible to write of the absence of an author to himself into a presence to be known as the once absent identity. Writing through a textual hermeticism capable of transmutation through written words of the emanation of an author as "logos," or the Word. "In the beginning there was the Word." Through the Word as logos, all identity is created in the appearance, ex nilho, of the writer mediated solely through himself in this the new logos of writing itself. Pesoa is not himself. He's a man who achieves glimpses of a unmanifest self-referential identity only through his books. In the work of writing these books, this identity is made manifest as the author's anamnesis. Seemingly he finds out (remembers) he is, and always was, a certain author he now "remembers" as himself as a manifested presence. An absolute genius manifested as the author himself being (repeatedly) annihilated through radical self-doubt. Only later remembering who he was as absolute presence never to be lost again. Until this is accomplished all of the laborious, literal negotiations must of necessity begin anew, and are written as literature whose search arises from absence's discontent becomes the new discourse as the art and improvisation of real identity forged in the alchemy of narrative. This peculiar narative reaveals itself as a lived experience of self-discovery. One man of many parts dismembered in his own identity become self-inflicted and religious. Pesoa's own holy inquisition seeking and finding the indentity he is spurious, a phantasm of derealized personality perpetually guilty of having a persona found lacking, Wriiten out in texts as being found guilty of the "heresy" of having an identity. Never before Pesoa has an identity crisis of infinite magnitude been witnessed in Pesoa absence made real presence in some of the 2OTH century's finest writing and poetry. of the 20TH century in The writing of a man named Fernando Pesoa. A man lost to himself, in search of the "person" underneath the name. Personality and identity as reality grounded in a mystery only to be known by itself: self found through words that are the artifacts of the self discovered. A genius lost to himself and calling his absent identity into gradual existence by a person's absence fading into a personality that's presented in multiple, shifting Heteronyms, or cases of terminal identity lost and regained.

Poetry often speaks to us; we see something in it, something recognizable, and it's like we are shown a piece of ourselves that had been hidden for a lifetime before. Finding Pessoa's *Book of Disquiet* was like finding a piece of myself. In the pages of this poetic novel you will find honesty, often self-disparaging, and you will find beauty in the smallest observation. However, be forewarned, this is not a book that should be picked up with the idea of light reading in mind. In fact, you may find that you have to put it down, repeatedly, to get away from it, to think, but you will always, always come back to it. Keep it close to hand.

there are few poets able to assume so many diferent personalites as Fernando Pessoa. But Bernardo Soares is not a diferent personality, is just the other side of his personnal mirror, an escape to his tortured soul. Probably that is why The Book of Disquiet is so universal, a portait of the human fears, an example of a lonely man,travelling across his own mind, looking at the world through the most ironic eyes. Fernando Pessoa was able to understand dissapointment and regreat in a intemporal way, as a natural part of human nature. So, this book has the ability to make you look inside yourself, guide by one of the best poets of all times!

A must read. A great selection of non-fiction material. If you know and like Borges you know you'll be pleased, if this is your first time reading Borges I guarantee that it won't be your last, you'll keep buying all his work. Borges wasn't a man, he was a library, a portal to knowledge and wisdom.

Enjoy

To read Borges, you become Borges. You see yourself in his mirrors, you regard the books you read as the books he reads. You appreciate what he appreciates, loving the literature he has absorbed, finding your way through the complex interweaving of his passions: Romantic English Poetry, Shakespeare, H.G. Well, Edgar Allan Poe, Dante, Icelandic Sagas, German Idealism, the Kabbala, Schopenhauer, Bergson, English Empiricism, Sufism, etc... All literary roads lead to Borges.

He lived a long, rich life. He is the Librarian you might meet in heaven. If only he were still alive to guide the reading public. If only he lived today and had a website, to think of all the books he might recommend. And wouldn't it be wonderful, to learn about his opinions on modern writers.

With the Collected Fictions, this book is a testament to the literary critic/philosphical wanderer in us all. Each essay is a delicate delicacy. This book is for you if you're a gourmand of good writing, great thinking and the pleasure of exploring the vast expanding world of literature. This book is rich, complex and wondrous. His writings on Dante and Shakespeare, his reviews, his philosophical essays... just read the book and become Borges becoming you.

Eliot Weinberger has done a real service to the world of literature by selecting, and translating these pieces. They show the range of interest, the incredible ability to make inventive creative cross- connections of one of Modern Literature's true masters, Borges.
Borges covers worlds in his writing, worlds of Literature , worlds of the Argentinean society he and some of his ancestors grew up in, worlds given in a universal encycopediac reading, which seems to cover all continents and all cultures.
Borges greatest work is considered to be his ' Ficciones'. But his signature is present in all , in a single page of a book- review or a philosphical meditation.
For him worlds mingle and combine, and are retranslated in such a way as to reappear as Literature.
He also in this work reveals himself to be a decent and courageous opponent of Fascism.
He confounds and surprises us at times with these strange mixings of things, but the poetic and parable- like element is so strong in this work that it engages us, and forces us to question our own small pictures of reality.
What a great and interesting writer. What a pleasure to have this work to enrich our minds with.

Because Borges lived and worked in Argentina, few have heard of him in the English-speaking world. Those that have are probably most familiar with his fiction stories. This book of non-fiction essays shows the vast knowledge and wide variation of interests of Borges. Therefore, this collection really does have something for everyone. Unfortunately, there are also many essays that are unreadable, some annoying repititions, and some essays are just plain dull.

So, what does Borges write about? He covers some metaphysical ground on the nature of time and infinity. He defines heaven as an infinite library, and then goes into the nature of infinity. On the more mundane end, he reviews movies and gives capsule biographies of authors - King Kong, Citizen Kane, and more obscure (and not necessarily Hollywood) films. He writes on contemporary (at the time) politics - Nazi Germany, the curators of the national library, etc. He gets intensely personal - there is one essay on the progression of his blindness. But if there is a main theme that permeates these pieces, it's his love of literature in all languages - Spanish, English (old and modern), German. He has an abiding love of the Greek classics (Homer, Virgil) and great admiration for Joyce, Poe, and Chesterton.

Unfortunately, those of us with a less classical education cannot keep up to everything that Borges says - I, for one, will never have the time to learn ancient Greek! - which makes certain essays difficult. There are other essays (especially early on) that are simply unintellegible (this may be the fault of the translators, especially since there are times when two or three essays cover the same ground with increasing degrees of murkiness). But it always happened that a real gem would appear just when I was getting frustrated with a series of uninteresting essays.

On the balance, about a third of the essays are not interesting (or badly translated, or repetitions), a third are interesting if not spectacular, and the final third have at least one moment of sheer brilliance. It's well worth buying, but it's unlikely you'll read it from cover to cover without taking a break - I took many breaks to read other things, and it took me over 1.5 years to complete the whole book. But you know what? - on the balance, I like his non-fiction better than his fiction

Borges claims in one of these articles that he was "more proud of the books he has read than the books he has written." I imagine I would feel the same way, had I written any books! And I think this statement captures the unifying theme of this compendium. Herein Borges will astonish and charm you with the breadth, variety, and whimsy of his literary taste.

The book is a compilation of critical essays, social commentary, reviews of the fledgling film art, and other oddities published in various media from throughout Borges's literary life. Each offers you new horizens for literary pursuit and further reading, and all are executed with Borges's renowned concision.

What I like most of all is that Borges is more interested the kinds of books people really enjoy reading, such as Bradbury, HG Wells, Lord Dunsany, and Kipling, rather than the fossilized academic "classics." One of my favorite features are the several recommended reading lists, in which Borges passes on his own most pleasurable reading experiences. There is also a refreshing eclecticism in Borges's taste--for example, this book lead me to Mathematics and the Imagination, a fun popular math book. Another personal highlight is the essay on Edward Fitzgerald.

This volume is not something one would read from cover to cover in several sittings, but rather a treasure trove to be mined from time to time, like the famous cave discovered by Ali Baba in that book so dear to Borges's heart!

This is a fabulous dual-language collection of some of the most sensual, passionate poems written in modern times. Whether he imagines himself as an insect making a journey "from your hips to your feet", traveling to distant places with his beloved by his side, or as a soldier who must leave but whose love will "go on singing until the end of life", Neruda writes with exquisite simplicity, and great beauty.

I find this to be the most accessible of Neruda's books that I have read, perhaps because its subject was a central part of his life. As explained in the introduction of the book, these poems are autobiographical, and written about his wife, Matilde Urrutia. First published anonymously in 1952, they were released in 1963 under his own name, but only after much thought, because of their "intimate birth".
The translations by Donald D. Walsh are superb. He has captured the fluid rhythm, the emotion, and the fire.

He was fortunate to have had this remarkable relationship, as well as the ability to express his feelings with such uncommon depth, but for those men who lack Neruda's poetic genius, and who would like to melt the heart of the woman they love, this might be the perfect gift to go along with that bunch of flowers.

This is quite possibly the most beautiful book of poetry that I have ever read.

An excellent gift to one that you love passionately.

The most amazing and sesitive book that I ever had read about Pablo Neruda.
Pablo es capaz de modelar como nadie las imagenes y meterte en un libro tan hermoso y poderoso. "La muerta" es un claro ejemplo de la belleza y la fuerza de su poesía.

I bought this book because for the long time I wanted to read something by Neruda, and this bilingual edition offered an opportunity to read the original Spanish alongside with the English translation. Since I know a bit of Spanish, this was an opportunity to practice it and improve it, as well as get exposed to some of the most sensual and inspiring poems in any language. Neruda's idiom is rich with metaphors, and he takes everyday objects and situations and imbues them with poetic and emotional undertones. This fascination with common objects is particularly useful for someone who is learning Spanish - it provides a great and enjoyable vocabulary-building opportunity. However, be warned - some phrases and words are a bit risque, and you shouldn't be too liberal at trying to impress your Spanish speaking friends at parties. It may lead to some interesting situations.

I had heard about Pablo Neruda a few years before and I wasn't too fond of his poetry. When I opened "The Captain's Verses" in a bookstore a few months ago, I knew that I had to have it. Since then this has become my most treasured book of poetry. I don't even know how to describe Pablo Neruda. When you read his poetry you just become entranced by the way he is so accurately able to convey such passion in his simple words and beautiful imagery. Even now after I have read each poem in this book at least a hundred times I am still amazed by the way he does it. I have not yet found another book of poetry that can evoke such feeling as "The Captain's Verses." I believe that this is essential to any poetry lover's collection of poetry and that those who are not big fans of poetry would enjoy the love poems of Pablo Neruda.

I gave this book four stars because it's not Pulitzer material. But it's an excellent novel. The story unfolds with enough background to allow us to begin immediately to feel involved, and builds on the basic information with just the right amount of well-timed exposition. Each character "unfolds" exceptionally well so that the reader definitely experiences "getting to know" them moments. It's a skill to be able to do that well, and Debbie Lee Wesselmann is a skilled story-teller.

The basics of the story have been outlined well by other reviewers so I won't recap those. What I will say is that the book is one to be savored because the themes the author offers us are worthy of careful consideration. As I savored this book, I realized that it's not just about the "captivity" of the primates... or, rather, it IS about the captivity of ALL of the primates, including the human ones. And the careful reader will be fascinated by how each handles their "imprisonment" and if or how each escapes.

And, in the meantime, reading about ape behavior is fascinating and great fun. And you may also enjoy the irony of learning about how university boards and funding committees can behave.

Good book. I recommend it.

Debbie Lee Wesselmann provides a spell binding novel which sheds light on the precarious plight of chimpanzees which are raised in captivity and after having served the purpose of humans ... their lives are left in limbo. In a world concerned with saving our planet by going green, decreasing carbon dioxide emissions from gas-guzzling automobiles to keep our air cleaner and prevent global warming from destroying everything - here is another cause which deserves our attention and support with economic resources. The book is written with sensitivity, compassion, and knowledge about the lives of chimpanzees in captivity. It is a superbly written highly original novel which combines adventure, romance, and human interest, maintaining the reader's attention from start to finish.

Essentially, the book is about the scientist, Dr. Dana Armstrong, Director of the South Carolina Primate Project and her attempts to keep afloat the sanctuary which serves as home to chimpanzees who have been discarded after being involuntary participants in scientific experiments at labs or residents at zoos which have closed. The major problem she is facing is how to convince the Unviersity president and a major donor that her facility is a safe place for the animals and is not a threat to the neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was a break-in at the sanctuary and the animals were freed ... someone obtained a key and simply opened up the cages, letting the animals roam about the offices, sanctuary and beyond, into the nearby family neighborhood.

Dana, Andy, the vet for the animals, Mary one of the research associates and graduate students helped round up the missing animals - all except one - the most dangerous, named Benji. Benji had been owned by a cruel animal trainer and had unpredicatable behavior as a result. Dana had to call the local sheriff to help find him and she had to admit Benji could be dangerous. Sadly, when Benji was found - he was dead, having been hit by a car. It caused Dana much grief because it reminded her of Annie, a chimp with whom she was raised as a child. The chimp came into their household as an experiment by her psychologist father, who wanted it treated as a family member. Annie was taken away after an unfortunate incident occurred to Dana ... Annie was supposed to have gone to a lab for experiments but the trail as to what really happened to her led to a dead-end. No one knows whether Annie was alive or dead. No one knows what kind of experiments were performed on Annie. This incident haunted Dana ...

Unexpectedly, a free lance reporter Sam Wendt entered Dana's life. He threw her world upside down. Initially, he asked questions about the experiment led by her father, regarding teaching chimps the use of language. Later, after learning about the break-in and delving deeply into the politics of animal research and competition for funding, Sam became a willing accomplice in her quest to save the chimps and discover who was behind this disastrous event. The author deftly connects a haunting past event in Dana's life to her present predicament, where her qualifications to lead and direct this sanctuary are being seriously questioned ... The reader will learn much about the sad circumstances which surround the lives of these most endearing animals, chimpanzees. Most readers will empathize with their condition and be hooked on this story where the goal is to keep this non-threatening primate sanctuary thriving and maintain the safety of its residents. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

The real-life background of "Captivity" is the often-unwittingly callous experimentation done during the Seventies, when baby chimpanzees were raised as human children, in human households, and taught sign language and human mannerisms--only to be inhumanely discarded when the research was completed. Most famous were the Nim Chimpsky and Washoe projects, done partly in response to Noam Chomsky's thesis that language is a uniquely human attribute.

Fast forward three decades and Dana, one of the children in the experiments, now a primatologist, has assumed responsibility for a sanctuary for chimpanzee survivors of HIV testing and ill-kempt zoos and behavior modification. The center is confronted by a public-relations disaster when the chimps are released in the dead of night, endangering themselves and the tranquility of the surrounding neighborhood--and unleashing the always-latent NIMBY currents unique to American suburbia. Complicating things are Dana's brother, Zack, approaching middle age and clinging to adolescence; animal rights activists who are ambivalent and confused about the sanctuary's purpose; a well-meaning journalist writing a follow-up story about children who were raised with chimps; and an unscrupulous psychologist, a longtime family enemy, who hopes to wrest control of the primate sanctuary from his colleagues in anthropology.

The sanctuary's chimpanzees, credibly portrayed, often steal the scenes. Yet the author, wisely, avoids spinning an anthropomorphic tale of human-chimp interaction; you won't find here the literary fiction equivalent of "The Secret of NIMH." True, "Captivity" does examine the ways in which our species projects its attributes (and foibles) on the animals with which we grudgingly share the earth and, more specifically, it imagines the psychological trauma suffered by two adults who, as involuntary children-subjects in simian experiments, lost a family member they believed to be more a sibling than a pet.

But the novel establishes its story on a broader stage than the confines of the sanctuary might suggest; it is a compelling, empathetic drama about a truly dysfunctional family. While the story of Dana and Zack would seem to prove Tolstoy's aphorism that every unhappy family is unhappy for its own reason, the loss and betrayal endured by this hapless pair, as well as their paths to self-discovery, are common to us all.

Born to a middle-class academic family, Dana Armstrong might have expected to lead a sedate life. She had loving parents, a younger brother, Zack, and a "sister" - Annie. Interacting with loving care to each other, they seemed the ideal family. But there was a discontinuity - Annie was a chimpanzee. The trio was part of an experiment by Dana's father Reginald. Primate researchers in the 1960s were eager to learn if human-chimp communications could be achieved. Living with a human family continuously instead of in a labatory facility seemed the best opportunity. Wesselmann, in a finely wrought tale of the experiment and its consequences has provided us with a stirring, yet sensitive tale.

She opens with Dana well along in her life. She's gained a PhD in Primatology, following her father's path, and operates a sanctuary for chimps that have been subjected to a range of medical experiments, including being given AIDS. Her South Carolina site seems ideal, isolated, well protected to reduce outsider concerns, and supplied by caring donors. She's on the local university staff, keeping her academic foundation sound. Yet, somebody has gained access to the site, releasing the chimps. In the course of recovering them, one of the chimps is struck by a car and killed. The facility is hardly a secret, but the community rises in protest. It also garners the attention of somebody Dana had been trying to forget - Prof. Richard Lamier. Complicating her circumstances yet further, a new element enters her life in the person of Sam Wendt. Just what she doesn't need now is a critical journalist writing to an already hostile community. But Sam says magic words about her childhood with Annie. He's not to be summarily dismissed.

Wesselmann builds her story and her characters with seemingly effortless grace. It is only as event progress and interaction builds that the power of her prose emerges. The pace is swift and furious - this is not a book easily set aside - but nothing is forced or contrived. Dana is beset by many foils - Lamier emerges with increasing presence from the background, but it's her own brother Zack on whom much of this story hinges. He's a wastrel, an emotional nomad, and a constant pressure on her goodwill and energy. There's a hint that he may have had something to do with releasing the chimps, although motivation seems lacking. The chimp release leads to widespread implications with the future of the sanctuary and Dana's own career hanging over an abyss. She has little but her own resources of strength and cunning to draw on. Can that possibly be enough with all that's arrayed against her?

The author's account goes beyond prose skills. Clearly this work rests on a solid research base. It's easy to believe Wesselmann was at the side of more than one primatologist, likely in a refuge such as the one depicted here. Chimp behaviours - including one young one obviously brought up among humans, who insists on clothes and a potty, are too vividly depicted and explained to be fabricated. Her research points up the underlying importance of the subjects in this tale - can we justify what we do in experimenting on animals. Especially our closest living cousins [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

"There are no boring stories. There are only boring writers."

These were the words of my first newspaper editor, words conveyed to me after I had turned in an excrutiatingly dull story about a mechanical engineering conference. A good writer can take any subject, no matter how mundane, and make it an exceptional read. Take primatology, for example; while certainly a topic of interest to some, it's not a theme one would expect for a novel. My interest in primate studies/behavior was nominal, which is why I picked up Debbie Lee Wesselmann's latest novel with some trepidation. My fears were for naught; Wesselmann delivers a fast-paced, informative tale of intrigue and political posturing in her novel CAPTIVITY.

Make no mistake: This is a novel far removed from Wesselmann's earlier title, "Trudor & The Balloonist." CAPTIVITY demonstrates how much the author has progressed as a novelist; the descriptions of primate captivity and behavior and human interaction were fascinating, and indicative this author really did her homework. Furthermore, the narrative was strong, compelling, and thoroughly character-driven. Here's but one example:

"He followed her gaze and found he, too, was mesmerized by the proximity of the drug. The lull of it. The scratch of it that now clawed inside his veins, begging for release. The happiness that lay there, if only brief and illusory. The duality of freedom and enslavement. This he could share with Becca; they could fall down the abyss together and enjoy the free fall like kids on a roller coaster who did not know the track would end suddenly, midair.
Yes, he thought. Yes."

That's good stuff.

This is a novel that examines the dynamic of trying to keep a university primate sanctuary afloat (amidst never-ending political posturing) while Dana Armstrong, the protagonist, tries to juggle a relationship with a most dysfunctional brother. I had no idea of the politics involved--all the behind the scenes machinations--in the field of primatology, so this novel informs as it entertains. Plus, a freelance journalist, for once, is presented in a favorable light, and that's a good thing. Primatology may not be your cup of tea, but Debbie Lee Wesselmann definitely makes it palatable; CAPTIVITY is a page-turner, an enlightening and pleasurable read.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

With lush prose and surgical precision, Nahai examines pre-revolutionary Iran, a country hobbled by a social system so oppressive it crushes every one within it. Muslims and Jews live side by side, and each of their worlds is as socially stratified as the other. The novel is narrated by the young daughter of a wealthy Jew and her penniless mother, and she details their increasing desperation as her father falls in love with a Muslim woman. His abandonment of them leaves them emotionally bereft and socially isolated in a world that has no place for them. Brilliant and affecting. You will think about this novel for days after reading it.

Gina Nahai is one the most creative and literate authors working today and should find a regular place on the bestseller lists for her impressive storytelling talent. Her exquisite writing and character development never fails to keep me coming back for more.

Once I started reading "Caspian Rain" I couldn't put it down. Without giving away too much of the story, all I can say is that Ms. Nahai captures your interest with her complex and fascinating characters examined and described in her exquisite prose. You feel the heart and soul of the characters and every moment and situations resonates that much more deeply. I love to read anything Ms. Nahai writes and look forward to her next novel. I highly recommend "Caspian Rain" to anyone who loves to be drawn into a story that takes you to a place about universal themes dealing with real human emotions of loss and acceptance.

"Caspian Rain" by Gina Nahai is a true literary masterpiece and one of the most beautifully written, insightful, touching, and stirring novels of our time. Set in pre-revolutionary Iran, Nahai tells the story of a young girl named Yaas, who faces the tragedy of slowly going deaf at the age of ten and watches in silence and fear while her parents marriage falls apart at the seams. Nahai captures the character of Yaas, who narrates the story, and manages beautifully to express Yaas' sadness, desperation, and incredible wisdom. Nahai's writing style is not only magical and poetic, but she manages to be straightforward in her plot scheme and make the readers feel as if they are sitting in Yaas' bedroom as she whispers her tales into their ears. Nahai's "Caspian Rain" is one of the rare novels one will find that has the power to change lives, touch hearts, and make a difference. This novel hardly falls short of perfection and should be read by all.

A hidden treasure. A fabulous story with a shocking ending. These characters stayed with me for days.

Reading Caspian Rain, by Gina Nahai, is like opening a golden treasure chest. Inside it, you will find all kinds of intriguing and fascinating objects. There are several interconnected stories being told . First there is the heartbreaking story of an innocent little girl, Yaas, who desperately longs for the love of her parents. In reading the book, the reader can feel her anguish, as she tries every which way to be noticed and loved. There is the story of the intelligent and ambitious Bahar, Yaas's mother, a story in which the reader can actually taste the bitterness that Bahar is left with, when she realizes that she cannot conquer any of the barriers that will forever keep her from realizing any of her dreams. There is the story of Omid, an emotionally stunted man who, while being the son of privilege, has come from a community which, as a result of being faced with deep prejudices, has had to downplay its' ethnicity and become self loathing . Finally, there are the very rich descriptions of the sounds, sights and smells of Tehran, a fourth character in the novel; a bustling city where the contradictions between the old and the new are funny, tragic and endless. The book was truly unforgettable.

A great book that talks about other animals that lay eggs other than chickens. I read this book to my preschool children and they loved it very much. The pictures are bright and very colourful. It's a must buy!

This was my favorite book growing up, because of it's catchy rhyming story, accompanied by colorful, ecclectic illustrations... and now, it is my sons favorite book - so much so, that I'm now looking into buying Ruth Heller's other science books. My 4 year old loves them, and the colorful picutres hold my 2 year olds attention (a feat in itself) so well, I'm amazed!

I'm so glad I've kept this book around long enough to pass it on to my son, who already has a great understanding of any animal, who is an "Oviparous"

I think it's really great that Ruth Heller introduces a complex subject in a children's book without talking down to the children. It's great that she uses "big" words like "oviparous"--kids, after all, can remember lengthy dinosaur names; there's no reason why they can't handle other long scientific words.
But I do have slight qualms. For instance, the part about amphibians says that amphibians don't have claws--what about African clawed frogs?
The illustrations are engaging, and the use of rhyme in prose makes the text flow nicely. The subject is interesting, too. I just wonder a bit about the accuracy of the "facts" presented here.

I enjoy the realistic non-anthropomorphic pictures Ruth Heller, author/illustrator, placed on each page. They are colorful, accurate and fun to look at. Some pages have just one animal and other pages are filled with lively looking insects and their eggs. I also enjoyed how she showed the size, coloring, shape and form difference between all types of eggs. I learned a lot from this book and think that kids over 3 will enjoy having this read to them. The only downfall I see in this story is that sometimes the words and sentences are in rhyming form and sometimes they aren't. I would've preferred one OR the other, not both. It doesn't flow as well with the two methods of writ, but other than that it was a good book.

Egg lovers, egg heads will especially enjoy this book by Ruth Heller a beautiful story. Oviperous you are, if you slithered or crawled or burst from your shell. Lots of children certainly love the expressions eggs generate. Crack open that shell and enjoy this play on the question, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?" Egg-xactly.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ruth Heller and husband in two completely different times in my life, in a bookstore in Carmel and on another rainy day in a bookstore in Ventura,CA. Both times I had her books, didn't know she was there, coincidental encounters, so I could and did get autographs. My girls loved her Designs for Coloring: Birds (Designs for Coloring), hint, hint parents. She was so tiny...and obviously a lovely person to get to say to, "I'm a teacher that always wanted to thank you for...."

Right now my first graders are reading about chicks, ducks and other egg tales. So showing the Reading Rainbow that contains this book being featured and read aloud is perfect. Heller's book is read by Georgia Engles with her interesting lilt it makes the poetic text very nice for them. It's still a bit hard to read for a few but I do have a set left over from days I taught not from canned scripts but from content connected literature. A few pieces of this text I'll quote hoping to get the sound which is so gentle and lovely, " Chickens lay the eggs you buy......Chickens aren't the only ones. Every bird wild or tame does the same. The ostrich lays the largest egg, the hummingbird the smallest. .."
As you read her lovely drawings bring you the text illustrated very factually and wonderful rendered. I always see those psychedelic 60 rock posters. I don't know why, it just happens in my head. I always enjoy teaching with Heller books. You go on to be introduced to reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects..."mermaid's purses", seahorses...moon snails, lots of ways to appreciate the egg layers.

If you enjoy video showing the Reading Rainbow: Farm Life with this is a great idea because you'll go to the farm to see a chick break out of the egg, watch loggerhead turtles be laid and hatched and see some great facts about egg layers. I can't imagine Ruth Heller's book out of the context of this tape because it expands the constructs so beautifully.

And if you love this "Animals Born Alive and Well (Picture Books) " is another great one from the author.

A WONDERFULLY TOLD CAT-TAIL! THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE LOVELY AND APPROPRIATE TO THE PLAYFUL THEME OF THE BOOK.

This is a fantastic story. It sparks children and adults (I'm 53!) the imagination and creativity that will help make the world a more beautiful place. I hence started to write my own children's stories. Amy Tan is my inspiration, and I hope she becomes yours.

I am the mother of 2 boys and have little knowledge of "girl" books. I bought this book for 2 little girls ages 4 and 5. The parents of each girl said their daughters were thrilled with the book and asked that it be read to them twice the day the book arrived. I bought the book because I love Amy Tan's novels and assumed that a child's book would be just as engaging. Amy Tan's story and the beautiful illustrations did not let me down.

The most exquisitely illustrated book I've ever owned! A fun, fictitious way to describe how white siamese kittens get their colors.
It's a bit long for a bed time story, but really fun! Kids ages 8 or 9 and up may be able to read it themselves, but the beginners may have a hard time.

I've read Amy Tan's "Joy Luck Club" and "Kitchen God's Wife" and had no idea that she's a wonderful children's author as well. I learned about this book from watching the same titled PBS series. The series is cute for kids, but the book is a wonderful story, rich in history and beautifully illustrated. Tan is a gifted writer that children and adults can appreciate.

I was not familiar with Singer's work at all -- having not even seen the movie "Yentl" which was based on one of them, but the stories are quite engaging, with compelling characters and surprising plot twists. Singer is a masterful storytelller; and though obviously rooted in Jewish culture (both his father and grandfather were Rabbis) his exploration of the vicissitudes of life, character and relationships is universal.

A collection of Jewish tales, essentially from Poland and full of the fatalistic themes permeating the diaspora, along with a spicy dash of the demonistic.

This is the first ive read of Bashevi Singers work but its sure aint the last.
Ive read quite a lot of the classics and more than a couple of the Nobel prize winners, but I can honestly say that I have a hard time remembering such joyous storytelling. Singer was amazing; it all seems so easy when he tells his stories; its almost like the stories flows from his pen.
The fact that the stories often stem from the culturally rich jewish community in Europe makes it even more interesting. We tend to forget today, that much of what we call art was carried at great length by that community, together with the russian.
Anyway...if we forget all this and center on the prose, i end up with the following recommendation:
If you want to read something marvellous, enchanting and extraordinary,
dont miss Singer.

This truly excellent collection of Singer's stories (all originally composed in the Yiddish language) are as colorful as the people about whom the stories were written. Here are tales of weddings, of jokesters, of happy occasions of all variety, of feuding farmwives, and of unrepentant fools. After reading through a handful of Singer's works, a person gets the feeling of how it must have been to live as a Jew in eastern Europe a hundred years ago. This was a culture rich in its traditions and lore, a people who loved life and kept their identity through good times and bad. Singer, himself born and raised in the region so many of his short stories describe, was one of very few authors I would unhesitantly dub "a human treasure".

Isaac Bashevis Singer was a master storyteller and any reader will be well-rewarded for spending time with his "Collected Stories." Many of these stories are set in Poland before World War II or post-war New York City, but there is a spiritual energy that drives all of these tales, regardless of location. Old World demons and devils can be found in "The Unseen," "The Destruction of Kreshev," "Henne Fire," "Zeidlus the Pope," about the Devil tempting a Rabbi into becoming the Pope, and one of the collection's best, "The Dead Fiddler," about a would-be bride inhabited by dueling dybbuks. New World mystical forces are recounted in "Powers," about a man's seductive past, and "The Psychic Journey," about war breaking out during a writer's trip to Israel. Several stories involve survivors of World War II, among them "The Cafeteria," about a woman who imagines seeing Hitler in a New York City deli, and the unexpectedly heartbreaking "The Joke," about a practical joke taken seriously. Every story is deeply felt and richly detailed, including the more comic ones such as "Gimpel the Fool," "The Yearning Heifer," and "The Admirer," about a writer's fan disrupting his day. Choosing favorite stories in this collection is almost impossible, because they are all unforgettable, but ones that resonated most richly for me include "Taibele and her Demon," about a woman's mysterious night visitor, "The Little Shoemakers," about a family of cobblers who courageously survive two world wars, "The Manuscript," about a mistress who saves her lover's novel from destruction, and the transformative "A Crown of Feathers," about a young woman losing and then trying to regain her faith.