Authors Books

Geoff Dyer's But Beautiful: A Book about Jazz is much more than an extended critical essay on a still-evolving, vital musical genre and a great deal more than fictional portrayals of Jazz legends. Here, Dyer focuses his considerable talents on creating a kind of Jazz-in-print, seeking to emulate the frenzied riffing, explosive spontaneity and creative interplay, which has given Jazz music so much more vitality than many other genres' created in the 20th century. Without question, one would have to agree that he has succeeded, totally to the readers' enrichment.

But Beautiful hits the reader on several levels; we are taken on a series of journeys into the lives, thoughts, conversations and seminal events of eight Jazz musicians. Between each chapter is inserted a fictional, road-tripping almost ghostly presence of Duke Ellington, a father figure of modern Jazz who may well have known, recorded and very likely influenced all eight men whom Dyer chose to write/riff about. What's real about the eight musicians are the bare-bones facts known to many Jazz fans; Lester Young court-martialed by the Army because of an inability to cope with a racist Drill Sergeant, Chet Baker's teeth knocked out by an angry drug dealer in a seedy, San Francisco diner, Art Pepper sentenced to five years in prison on a Heroin possession conviction and so on. What's possible, and perhaps no less real to the reader are the details of their lives, their anguish and the self-destructive passions which attend the day to day living of so many creative people. Dyer draws these details in part through listening to the music and inspiration gained by looking at photographs of some of the musicians. 'Not as they were but as they appear to me....' Dyer asks the reader to see the musicians as he sees them, to believe in the memory of what these photos inspired. The men and their lives are portrayed, much like Jazz itself, with a kind of heart-stopping intensity and a poignant, empathetic acknowledgement of lives spent creating and being swallowed whole by the gift that makes creation possible. On Thelonious Monk; "Whatever it was inside him was very delicate, he had to keep it very still, slow himself right down so that nothing affected it." On Ben Webster; "He carried his loneliness around with him like an instrument case. It never left his side."

Very little, insightful criticism or critical essays have been produced regarding Jazz and the people who play it and live it. Dyer has done more than write mere history or criticism in But Beautiful, he has written (and played) a genre-exploding, lyrical meditation on Jazz and on the terrifying, exhilarating possibilities of the music itself and what ought to be recognized as a new form of fictional riffing.

If you ever loved a jazz tune, you will love these pages. Not for anything else but for beauty in the art itself. Sobering, BUT BEAUTIFUL.

This book captures the essence of jazz. Every nuance from languid to livid, sad to sublime is etched out by Dyer's poetic and harmonious flow of prose. If you are familiar with these artists, his stories encourage you to say, put on your favorite album by Monk while you read about him -- or after you read about him, so you can reflect on how the writer has connected with the soul of the music. If you aren't familiar with the artists, this work will definitely urge you to acquire some of their music. This book is simply an extended poem, traced so delicately that it allows the experienced and the novice alike, the opportunity to peer through a window and into the soul of Jazz.

Picture this: "Onstage at Birdland, eyes shut, one arm hanging at his side....trumpet raised to his lips like a brandy bottle--not playing the horn but swigging from it, sipping it."

Geoff Dyer's employs his exquisite imagery as a starting point for his "imaginative criticism" of the celebrated and tragic lives of several iconic jazz musicians (including figures such as Chet Baker, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Ben Webster, Charles Mingus, and Bud Powell). While photographs are the inspiration, Dyer's writing is so precise and sensual that he need only describe the photographs (the book has only one small photo). And this is just right for a book about music, his writing is so lyrical that we almost hear the sounds while reading. (In fact. the least effective aspect of the book is the Duke Ellington "road trip" that introduces each chapter, perhaps because the narrative is not connected to any particular Ellington sound.)

Many of the scenes and dialogue (especially the inner dialogue) are necessarily fictions, "assume that what's here has been invented or altered rather than quoted." But Dyer's explains that while his version may veer from the truth, "it keeps faith with the improvisational prerogatives of the form." He mixes truth and fiction into portraits that illuminate what strictly factual history cannot always convey. (Think of Robert Graves' in his WWI memoir/fiction "Goodbye to All That."). Dyer explains that while a photo depicts only a "split second," its "felt duration" may include the unseen moments before and after that split second. "But Beautiful" invites us to improvise (as Dyer does) into that unseen time, and discover our own subjective relationship to the music.

Listen to this: "Chet put nothing of himself into his music and that's what lent his playing its pathos...Every time he played a note he waved it goodbye. Sometimes he didn't even wave."

The evocative word pictures are unusually perceptive and sensitive. Although personal and often imagined, it's really like an improvised solo that either feels "right" or not. I think "But Beautiful" hits the right notes and rhythms: his words evoke the music, and, after reading it, the music will evoke the words. Not without its flaws, it is still an astonishing feat.

This work, along with James Baldwin's short story, "Sonny's Blues," is as good as any I've read about the jazz life, its creators and innovators, and the high cost of such terrible beauty. I had the advantage of being present while Lester was lost on stage in an alcoholic stupor; Monk was dancing around the piano, knocking over cymbals, rather than playing the instrument; Chet Baker, unable to stand, was expending his last breaths on "The Thrill Is Gone"; and Duke was waiting for Harry Carney to swing by with the car to chauffeur him through the wintry night from Kenosha, Wisconsin to Kansas City. But how a young writer like Dyer managed to capture these moments before his time, freezing them unforgettably in a literary living moment, I can't imagine.

Dyer knows that the foremost responsibility of a music critic is not to critique but to verbalize his non-verbal subject, bringing it to life for the reader. He does so admirably, creating believable, recognizable, fascinating portraits in unlabored, unpretentious prose.

His portraits of the artist ring completely true to the ears of this fellow observer--penetrating glimpses of the creative child trapped in a man's body now reduced to fighting a losing battle against physical and mental entropy. Yet his faith in the living tradition of jazz is refreshing, as is his characterization of the jazz musician's struggle as a valiant contest with the precursor, not unlike that of the strong poet's.

Though there's an elegaic tone throughout the book, it's never ponderous or depressing. In fact, its human portraits are more likely to interest newcomers than the many text books that catalog styles and names.

This is not to say the book is without shortcomings. The author is much better at capturing the musicians for us than their music. And his appreciation and understanding of Duke Ellington's music seems somewhat limited. Too bad he didn't give at least as much attention to the colorful cast of characters on the band bus as to the private conveyance preferred by Duke.

Yet any listener who has the slightest interest in jazz and its makers simply cannot afford to pass this one up. And it goes a long way toward fleshing out some of the caricatures served up on the Ken Burns' television series.

This is a really fun book that everyone can enjoy. There are a lot of hidden meanings. The author makes you feel in the end that how you make money is probably just as or even more important than how much you make. I think this is a book for every one.

SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!
I love this book! It is so awesome. Singh really leaves you hanging. You never know what will jump out at you next.

You wanna laugh, don't miss this one. I don't know about what the others are talking about, I didn't get any deep meanings out of this. But what I did get was great entertainment. get this one for your collection. Also nice to add to your collection are: Aesop for Children (Winter), Grimm's complete fairy tales (Grimm), Great Children's stories (Richardson). There are many other great children's books out there, but these were the ones I enjoyed the most. Oh, and I almost forgot the two classics that no children should ever be deprived of: The Little Prince (Exupery) and Charlotte's Web (White).

A brilliant story of contemporary philosophy which draws upon fable, fairy tale, and mythology-as well as modern aesthetic and mathematical thought. Even more brilliant is the style in which it was written, a literary equivalent to Cubism with all sorts of pleasant repetitions and poetic phrases. If Picasso had been a writer, I imagine him writing something like this, although he probably would have stayed away from caterpillars and butterflies, especially pink and blue ones.

The only writer who has made me laugh and cry in the same book. It can be slow at times,but trust me, stick with it! I have recommended it to many others who have told me how they laughed out loud and even cried in cafes, getting a whole lot of other people interested in the book. Now I see why so many people are enjoying and talking about what is but a simple tale of a caterpillar searching for its food plant. I think my only problem with the book is that the author didn't give the caterpillar a name. I think this bothered a lot of people. Poor thing needs a name. Instead she is always referred to as THE BRAVE LITTLE CATERPILLAR. It's tedious and tiring and I wish he had given her a name, any name, couldn't have been that hard. Personally I would have named her. But that's not reason enough to bash a book that has won the heart of so many young Asians. And if great art bears true witness to an experience, I think Singh has quite honestly captured the ambitions and anxieties, the experience, of second generation American Asians, be they Indian, Korean, or Japanese. Myself I had a dad who ever since I was a child would sneak into my room while I was sleeping and whisper, in my ear, 'Doctor, doctor, I want to be a doctor,' in a sad and futile hope to subliminally mold my dreams and desires. But when he saw that wasn't working, it was sort of forced upon me and sadly this was for his own ego. So now for his ego I truly believe I'm wasting my time studying something I really don't want to be studying. But, slowly but surely, I'm summoning up the courage to leave the 'Silk Palace' and pursue my 'food plant' whatever it may be. I admittedly don't know yet. But that's more because I regrettably let someone else define my life. In writing this, I see and feel how powerful this book is and I look forward to anything else this author has to say.

I read this book a few years ago but still recall its images vividly. The interwoven stories, foreshadowing, and imagery are quite masterful and overall present a great narrative.

Es un libro un tanto complicado, pero muy interesante. Tiene todos los elementos para vivir un poco de risas, muchos escalofríos, un buen absurdo y mucho del ser humano. Una novela que leí hace varios años y que aún recuerdo como cuando la estaba leyendo. Muy pocos libros logran eso.

Poniéndome en plan exigente, me hubiera gustado un poco mas de claridad en el ritmo de la historia, pero aún con eso, es un libro que cualquier amante de la novela debe leer.

(va sin acentos)
Este libro me parecio interesante pero no lo suficientemente bueno para darle 5 estrellas. Tuve un problema con el "ritmo" de libro en especial al principio (digamos a "grosso modo" la primera mitad), ya que me parecio dificil de leer. El autor no parecia tener la fluidez suficiente para llevar la historia, rica en personajes altos en color. En la segunda mitad, cuando se desencadenan las acciones que guiaran al lector al final del libro, se nota una fluidez en la pluma que le da al libro un impulso definitivo. En suma, me parece un buen libro, un poco desigual para ser sincera, con un cierto abuso de adjetivos y una puntuacion un poco marcada que me irritaron en un cierto momento: los que lean el libro quizas comprenderan lo que digo. No merece un 3 en la clasificacion, mas no merece un 5. Puede ser que el prologo, en el que se habla de la admiracion del autor por Garcia Marquez y su amistad con el escritor colombiano hizo crecer una expectativa que no fue completamente satisfecha y esto es quizas, tambien, un error personal.

Compre este libro hace 4 años y acabo de leerlo, no se como pude esperar tanto. Si de mi dependiera no le daria un premio sino dos. El mejor libro que he leido en este año.

El manejo del absurdo en la novela es un arte bastante delicado pues se puede convertir en ridículo o tonto con solo pequeños errores. Estos están completamente ausentes en esta novela, en la cual la locura se explica a si misma a través de millones de pequeños sub cuentos que el autor logra enlazar una historia coherente, donde un cubano ex-veterano de la guerra de Angola en su desespero por escapar de un tigre alado imaginario ( o tal vez no) que lo persigue secuestra un grupo de muchachos que lo único que querían era un poco de sexo en su noche de graduación del colegio. Sin embargo esta trama es solo incidental para que el autor nos pueda presentar como en un mundo incoherente la "locura" es un medio tal válido para darle sentido como cualquier otro.

La novela es simplemente genial.

This book was very insightful and I felt it put into words what I feel as an African American woman in today's society. I felt the characters are real and exist. Each story is unique. The one that stand out all by itself and is really great is Prince William blows Good.

I had the pleasure of meeting Prof. Allen at a seminar at a local library. My wife is an English student of his. I read the book and found it very entertaining. His writing skill is great. His life story from car salesman to auther is inspireing. His capacity to change into all these different types characters (and include your life occurances) in both Bounce and Church Boys and Other Sinners is spectacular. It is amazing how he can change from this intellectual man, into a poor woman. Amazingly, his stories were short, but to the point. His characters seem to deveolpe quite rapidly and mature fully as the story tanspires. I found it more enjoyable to hear his lecture and stories than to read them myself. As a speaker he is capable of capturing the audiences attention as well keeping them entertained, much as in his short stories. I wish he would consider writing novels or epic stories, preferably non-fiction (science fiction, fantasy just to name two). I really think his character development in these areas will defiantly get him a new audience as well as some writing award.

The Elwyn stories in this collection need to become a novel. I would pay to read that because they are funny, sweet segments, and the author comes pretty close to making some profound and unique statements about love and faith. Is Elwyn evil for loving Sister Morrisohn? Is their love a sin? They are so holy, and genuinely righteous, in every other way. The other story that touched me was "Get Some." Especially the idea of each of us being a diifferent colored crayon in the crayon box. "Is Randy Roberts There" is a trip! Men are little piglets! That one had me trippin. All the stories in the book are so good that I had to read the one I liked least, "JACK MOVE," twice so that I could really get it. I had come to trust the writer, and I knew he must be saying something in that one that I just didn't get. The second time through it, I focused on his style and the voice that was telling the story, and I came up with something interesting. This character, Chapman, the gay man, turned out to be a churchboy just like Elwyn in the Sister Morrisohn stories, but his question of faith is way more critical: does God consider his homosexuality evil? Notice that after his mugging, he flees back home to that place that he most associated, not with his father (who is just a symbol), but with his childhood and God. Childhood being the time we are most innocent and faith believing. Notice that the room is black and white: everything is either good or evil; he has come home to be judged by the God of his Old Testament. I started liking the story more and looking for symbols after that. I'm just guessing now, but his name is Chap-man (chapter-man--chapters in the bible man). His transvestite girflriend's name is cricket (locust--one of the plagues). Hannibal the bouncer (Hannibal tried to sack Rome, right, the seat of Christianity?). Another good story in the book is "Prince William," even though you will probably figure out its ending before you get there, it is excellent, merging jazz, blues, infidelity, and ambition into a Greek tragedy.

Nelly Fisher

I really enjoyed reading the stories from "Church Boys and Other Sinners."

Growing up in South America and having little exposure to US religions, I never realized how Christians in America behaved and thought. After I came to this country, I started getting involved with local church activities. That is how I realized how different they think and behave in America. Back home I get the feeling that people are involved with God, but they do whatever they want to do with their lives in their non-church time. There aren't so many "rules" to follow as there are here. You kind of accept that you are a Christian. You don't have to prove it as much.

Some of the stories, especially the first three and the Elwyn stories, showed me how the American kind of religion, or maybe religion in general, drives people to do things that they believe are wrong in God's eyes, and so often, despite their resolve, they end up yielding to temptation.

In the first story, Monique is this "statuesque" woman who has serious self esteem issues. In a way, she wears this mask and behaves like everything is fine, but inside she feels weak and wants to be loved. The first love of her life ruined love and trust for her when he played with her feelings. From that point on, she just couldn't value herself as she would have if nothing like this had happened. I feel like religion in her life was just a big disappointment. After having an affair with the pastor of her church, she saw him as a manipulator of minds; everybody's minds, including hers. She was not able to separate a relationship with God and religion itself. Moreover, the biggest disappointment was being dumped for the pastor's wife and being asked to pay for her own abortion of the child she carried for the philandering minister.

Allen redeems Monique by having her change over time, though. She realized that life was not a game and started giving herself more value as she rejects the pretty boy Johnny and never again answers his calls. I would really like to read a continuation of that story, which begins the collection. Hopefully, Monique will find someone trustworthy that would love and respect her and more importantly, teach her how to love and respect herself.

In "Get Some," this eighth grader, Junior, had even worse self esteem issues than Monique in my opinion. Junior could never get over the fact that his father left the family and perhaps even blames himself. Junior constantly rants that no one understood him, and even though he secretly wanted to be "perfect" like his father's other son, he would get into all kinds of trouble. In my opinion, the father figure was missing in the protagonist's life, and he did all he could to get people's attention. I feel like Junior was hostile and angry, but on the inside he was a sweet child just wanting to be loved and understood.

In "Thirty Fingers," the war within the main character between the realism of life and his idealism to keep himself "holy" is very well presented by the dialogs among characters as well as with himself. There is always a struggle to keep on being "the perfect brethren of God." Elwyn finds himself in love and gets very disappointed when he finds out that the love of his life is actually in love with someone else and even worse, committed a "horrible" sin. Angry, Elwyn, like every other human being, just yields to the desires of the flesh. I am actually very glad this story continues, but even if it didn't, I would have been glad with the end of it. Peachie did not deserve to stay with Elwyn, and in a way, he needed what he got. He is too selfish and too blind. He is too much of a "churchboy," which is the point of the whole book I think because these Elwyn stories continue throughout. In fact, after you finish reading the stories, even though only the Elwyn ones are connected, you feel as though you have read a novel. Great job, Preston L. Allen. I am surprised I haven't heard of you before. I am going to read more of your books.

Preston L. Allen is a powerful new voice in African-American fiction. He evokes wonder, amusement, and profundity with every word. These (mostly) coming of age stories are at the same time absorbing and insightful, revealing the author's budding genius for the poignant epiphany and the wry-witted subtext. This is a marvelous book. This is African American literature--American Literature--at its finest and most unapologetic.

In many ways, this collection is a culmination of the pet issues that have heretofore been explored in Allen's diverse and expanding body of work: faith, affection, crime, fatherhood, duty, and especially forbidden and/or unrequited love, which I find particularly well done. For example, in both "Hoochie Mama" (his cynical literary masterpiece cum mystery/thriller) and "Bounce" (cynical literary masterpiece cum erotic urban romance), Allen's vision of romantic love is marked by overt sexual magnificence in the bedroom and a suppression of genuine emotion (or concealing of true desire) in the heart. In other words, there is a clear divide between the physical and the emotional as sexual dynamism replaces affections.

Thus, M Gantry, Allen's hoochie mama cop, can "physically" grope and be groped by her boyfriend Dake (the villain), but her heart yearns for the lesbian girlfriend of her childood. In "Bounce," Roderick Redd makes passionate love to Cindique, but his heart yearns for his ex-wife/cousin. The problem, as always, is that the object of true affection is forbidden, or restricted by a taboo (homosexuality, incest) that the protagonist adheres to.

In "Churchboys and Other Sinners," this idea is played out in a number of the stories: "C+ Baptist Virgin" has the black protagonist fall in love with a white woman; "Prince William Blows Good," an archetypal, Oedipal masterpiece, has the protagonist "desire" his vanished daughter; "His Baby Momma" has a bride-to-be responding sexually to her ex-boyfriend on her wedding day; In "Is Randy Roberts There?", Monique ever longs for Randy Roberts, her first love, no matter who she happens to be with at the time.

Nowhere in the book is the idea more advanced than in the four stories involving the teen evangelical Elwyn Parker in his pursuit of the much older and very beautiful Sister Morrisohn. First, Elwyn pursues Sister Morrisohn, but loves and longs for his childhood crush, Peachie Gregory-McGowan. Then the idea undergoes a brilliant pyscho/social extrapolation, as the protagonist's affection for Peachie wanes; namely, in the later stories we have Elwyn "loving" Sister Morrisohn, but "yearning" for the love he once had for God and the church.

True, it can be argued that perhaps Elwyn's longing is merely a sort of nostalgia, but the motif persists throughout the latter stories to the point where the grown-up Elwyn, long after the affair has so dramatically ended (I shan't reveal how), saying things like "God is Love" and visiting the religious haunts of his childhood.

Finally, Allen does something with this book that few titles by African-American writers have been able to accomplish successfully: he creates stories that are interesting and engaging as stories, not just as examples of the "ethnic" or "minority" flavor of the moment. I have seen him compared to langston Hughes because of his church-based themes, but that is only a superficial connection. I have seen him compared to John Hawkes, and that is perhaps more accurate, for both are master wordsmiths, storytellers, cynics, eroticians. The truth is that Preston L. Allen, with this work, has created genuine "literature" of the sort that Hemingway, Faulkner, Bronte, Shakespeare, and Tolstoi have created: Literature for the world. These stories are not strictly for African Americans, though the protagonists in each are black; these stories are for anyone who wants to read a good story.

Gertrude D., University of Florida

Very addicting! I did not want to put the book down. I can't wait to read his other books.

I thoroughly enjoyed Collateral Damage. Hannibal Jones deeply cared about people. He longed to have a private life, but always gave in to helping people who needed a "trouble shooter". I believe he could have pursued a more profitable career, however, he chose the lesser paying one to help the troubled souls who needed him the most. It was evident that he had a soft spot for women and children. He was soft spoken and easy going, but could get rough when he had too.
His perception was keen. He could read people under the surface. Once he was hired to get to the truth there was no holding him back.
I'm looking forward to reading the other three in the series: Blood and Bones, Damaged Goods, and The Trouble Shooter.

Austin Camacho's Collateral Damage is an entertaining whodunit with a cool detective and an eclectic collection of characters. The story is fast paced with some neat sleight-of-hand twists -and I'll always be a sucker for a PI who listens to Journey in the privacy of his car, and has a healthy obsession with all things barbecued. Bring your appetite for this one.

Collateral Damage is an excellent mystery set in and around Washington DC. It's a good solid story with well developed characters, plot twists and turns and kept me going right to the end. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Within the first few pages of Collateral Damage, I was hooked! I enjoyed the suspense, and how all of the characters were different, and unique. The storyline came together at the end with a bang!

Dahl's stories were always unique. I first read most of these in '60's and '70's and find them as fascinating today as I did then. The early ones that I had not read have still not been read as I've concentrated on the favorites.

forces you to look in the mirror. I was introduced to Dahl by my 8th grade English teacher who saw something very dark inside of me (yes, another plug for better teacher pay!). "Pig" gave me nightmares, "Skin" made me wonder about the greed of human beings. What's missing are the "My Uncle Oswald" stories, but this collection is absolutely priceless!

Excellent book from all points of view. Sewn edition, bound and quality of printing. I have another edition of Roald Dahl but unfortunately it's a paperback edition and the pages disappear one after another. I decided never to buy again paperback books. When I saw that Roald Dahl was published in Everyman's Library I immediately decided to order it and I am more than happy with what I received. It's very good for work with my students and I will leave it to my children as well. Many thanks to the publishers.

I actually have a compendium of Roald Dahl's stories in a different edition but when I came across this edition with the inimitable Mr Dahl on the cover I had to buy it. It is a lovely edition that collects all of Dahl's short stories in one book, and I love the fact that it comes with a lovely red satin page marker! A great addition to any library.

Once again! the Everyman's Library has outdone any other publisher's job of creating a thorough and precise piece of book history. This is the third book I have purchased and read through Everyman's Library and I sincerely feel their books are the only ones I will buy when creating my own hardcover collection. The quality of paper, the texture of the outer red cover, the beauty of the chronological timeline of events in the author's life, they not only think of it all, but go so far beyond what is called for in a $20 book. If I were a tree that died in the name of paper, I would only hope my flesh would go towards another Everyman's success.
On to Roald Dahl. Best writer Ever. Best collection Ever. Best stories I have Ever read. Best organization of stories contained within a single volume. This book is Paper Gold. My favorite writer and my favorite book publish company smooshed into a magnificent creation that is the perfect size for the average human; hand and lap!!! Touch the hard cover. Feel it upon your cheek. Smell the pages... In the name of all that is holy!

I am 56 and have been reading sci fi/fantasy since, oh, about 10. This is one of the best collection of stories I have ever read. You'll be glad you read it. The fact of the color of the writers is interesting, but not important. I have read so much sci fi, and even taken a writing course. The bottom line - this is great science fiction.

I've long suspected there were more writers of color out there besides Octivia Butler and Samuel Delany. Ms. Thomas introduces a rich collection spanning decades. My only question is when will volume 2 be published? If you love SF, add this brilliant work to your collection.

A huge sci-fi and fantasy reader I am also getting ready to be a high school teacher of special ed, reading & English. This is a book that will go on my list of books to write lesson plans about and to make sure my students read. The one complaint I have about this book is that I'd read the Butler, Delany & Saunders already. Couldn't we have gotten new stories for this historic anthology? But other writers were a revelation to me.
A great book! Nalo Hopkinson's story about a (...)gone amuck, Tannarive Due's story about the very human side of cloning and Steven Barnes' chilling almost apocalytic picture of a modern African state after a coup are all terrific reading-- and why my students -- and you -- should be excited!

Writers of African descent have played a long and important role in the history of speculative literature, even though that's not always recognized, either in the past or today. But this book opened my eyes to how much wonderful talent has gone underappreciated until now. Often raw, but always colorful and deep, many of the stories in this collection have the quality to be compared with the masters of the past and present. As both a reader and a writer, this collection inspired me greatly.

I highly recommend it to anyone who's a true officianado of speculative literature.

This is a collection that the literary world needed badly. Typical 'speculative fiction' (encompassing sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and other literary persuasions) often features humanity uniting against common enemies or disasters. But for people of color, the alternative present or near-future utopia/dystopia in any speculative story probably won't be so rosy. Technological advancement, alien contact, or astronomical disasters probably won't eliminate prejudice and inequality, as the writers of African descent collected here show us in consistently hard-hitting ways.

The settings and themes of these short stories are uniformly fascinating and thought-provoking for any intelligent reader. As with any collection of works from various writers, the quality of the stories varies a bit, and this book does have a few bumps in the road that deserve the thumbs-down for heavy-handedness. Examples include the predictable melodrama of 'The Woman in the Wall' by Steven Barnes, or the poorly-plotted conspiracy theories of 'The Space Traders' by Derrick Bell. However, these are minor quibbles, and even these stories contribute to the sheer fascination of this book as a whole.

My favorites include the supremely moving Jazz Age vampire story 'Chicago 1927' by Jewelle Gomez, an outstanding look at the human costs of cloning in 'Like Daughter' by Tananarive Due, the creepy erotic thriller 'Ganger (Ball Lightning)' by Nalo Hopkinson, and the heartbreaking dark fantasy of 'Gimmile's Songs' by Charles Saunders. Of historical interest we have 'Aye, and Gomorrah...' from the master Samuel Delany, the groundbreaking 'The Goophered Grapevine' from way back in 1887 by Charles Chesnutt, and the very chilling 'The Comet' by W.E.B. DuBois (I had forgotten that DuBois wrote fiction, and his important stories are ripe for rediscovery). Kudos to Sheree Thomas for creating this hugely important, haunting, and illuminating anthology. [~doomsdayer520~]

This is a very black, dark book. This is not a book for kids, nor is it a book for people who haven't read anything by Ellison previously. Harlan Ellison is one of those rare writers that can finish a story so powerfully, that you'll feel like you've been literally stabbed in the heart. Like many of Ellison's short story collections, he deals with a specific theme. In this book, he writes short stories about gods, in all their myriad shapes and forms. Gods of machines, pain, rocks, speed, revenge, among others. Of the 19 stories in this collection, let me tell you what I consider to be the best. THE WHIMPER OF WHIPPED DOGS: Ellison's award-winning retelling of the Kitty Genovese incident. Never heard of Kitty Genovese? Don't worry, after reading this chilling tale, you'll make sure you remember. BASILISK: A traitor to his country comes home and finds that he is not welcome. A little confusing at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it. PRETTY MAGGIE MONEYEYES: Don't let the strange title deceive you. This is Ellison in TOP form. Ever wondered what gods reside at the casinos and what they have in mind. It's not PRETTY, I can assure you. ERNEST AND THE MACHINE GOD: An easy-to-visualize story about a girl in a car-accident and her meetings at a gas station. ADRIFT OFF THE ISLETS OF LANGERHANS . . . : Another award-winning story about a man trying to find the geographical location of his soul. THE DEATHBIRD: Still another award-winner. This one is Ellison's retelling of Genesis. This story has a very innovative structure to it. You'll see what I mean, when you buy this book.

While I typically associate Harlan Ellison with Science Fiction, I'm somewhat hesitant to call all of these stories SciFi... they are more like Twilight Zone episodes. They are 19 short stories that involve individuals getting caught up in all sorts of fantastic situations. While there is a general underlying theme of the stories involving "Gods", I found that the main uniting feature was the fantastic nature of the stories.

Some sample reviews from the collection:

ALONG THE SCENIC ROUTE(1969)***** - Ellison published this tale of "Road Rage" way back in the late 60's. It is definately a classic, and one of the more SciFi-esque stories from this collection. Richard K. Morgan recently tried to do a modern "Road Rage" novel, MARKET FORCES(2005)***, which takes ideas from ALONG THE SCENIC ROUTE, but ultimately falls flat.

O YE OF LITTLE FAITH(1968)**** - A young man of no faith in any god, is accompanying his mid-30's girlfriend back from a quick Tijuana abortion, in this pre-Roe vs. Wade world (Roe vs. Wade was decided in late 1973), and finds himself transported to a world populated by gods nobody believes in any longer.

PRETTY MAGGIE MONEYEYES(1967)*** - A sad story of two people's fateful encounter via a Slot Machine in a Las Vegas Casino. One is a pretty poor girl, who turns to prostitution to claw her way from the ghetto to Beverly Hills; the other is a long-time Vegas loser, who is down to his last dollar, and who's luck is about to change, but is it for the better?

CORPSE(1972)**** - A Latin American Studies professor from Columbia University, a man of some faith in Christianity, begins to see the emergence of a new type of god - the Automobile God, but ultimately fails to realize the inevitability and make the transition to the new faith.

SHATTERED LIKE A GLASS GOBLIN(1969)***** - A Marine, recently back from Vietnam, enters and becomes consumed by the varied pesonalities and drugs in a 60's "Party House"... reminds me of an old house my recently graduated high school buddies rented in San Diego, CA in the 70's (and which was slated to be razed along with the adjacent drive-in theater, to make way for a new shopping center). Like O YE OF LITTLE FAITH, this story is notable for the snapshot it gives of a Beatle's White Album-era America. Indeed, having just said that, I just realized that the title of this story SHATTERED LIKE A GLASS GOBLIN(1969), seems to be a play on the title of the Beatle's White Album song LOOKING THROUGH A GLASS ONION(1968).

This book has recently been republished by the SFBC in December 2005, as part of the third set of books in the SFBC 50th Anniversary Collection.

Harlan presents some stellar stories here about what modern gods might be like in what one would call a pessimistic, cynical outlook. He moves through such milieus as sci-fi, high fantasy and even urban fantasy through this book.

The best stories are very hard-hitting and emotionally affecting. These include The Whimper of Whipped Dogs, a retelling of the Kitty Genovese episode about the alleged god of New York City, The Basilisk, where the most terrifying aspect of the story is how a small town treats a returning POW and Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes where a manipulative woman continues to manipulate even after death. There are some other good stories, such as the road rage tale, though not as emotionally hard-hitting.

The problems in several of the stories stem from an abundance of cleverness. Rather than letting the story take the forefront, Harlan chooses to favor style over substance in an attempt to showcase his virtuoisity in the various methods of writing. This lessened some of his stories for me. He is most successful doing this in the titular tale, The Deathbird, but it was still distracting even there.

A very good collection though, despite the flaws. It is unapologetic and uncomprimising demanding you take the stories on their own terms.

For those fans of Ellison, you will not be disappointed, for those of you not familiar with Ellison, this one will have you hitting the used book stores in a vain hope of finding more fodder for your mind. (Don't bother looking, I already hit every book store myself.) Reading this book is like seeing Mohammed Ali box or Stevie Ray Vaughn play the guitar, you get the feeling of seeing the best at his best. Every story in this collection is a gem, some more than others. "The Whimpering of Whipped Dogs" is a classic in and of itself. "The Deathbird" is the most amazing story ever created by a fantasy writer and I say this with no hyperbole. Go out and get this book . . . NOW! It will change the way you view the world and yourself. Other books make this promise, Deathbird Stories is the only book I've ever read that actually delivers.

I read this book because, in the acknowledgements his wonderful novel "American Gods," neil gaiman said this book burned itself into the back of brain when he was still young enough for something like that to happen.

Well, how can you resist an endorsement like that? So, I raced up to the nearest library that had this book (an hour or so away, I'll have you know) and checked it out. And befoul these modern gods if it didn't blow my mind. At least, parts of it did.

Most of the stories - "the Whimper of Whipped Dogs," "Shattered Like a Glass Goblin," "Basilisk," and "Ernest and the Machine God," just to name a few - are really brilliant. They will twist your mind around like only certain versions of certain myths can. They will smack your conciousness around until you think there really are gods in the engine of your car and that traitors really are the high priests of Aries. They will, as Niel Gaiman says, burn themselves into the back of your brain.

Others, however, are not so brilliant. A few simply repeated ideas put forth in other, better stories. Some were simply not as interesting as the others, and some were both uninteresting and sordid. But please note that "some" could and should be read as "one, two at the outside." The majority are amazing.

On the whole, however, this is a wonderful book. I am shocked and dismayed to find that it it unavailable. I think anybody who is into mythology should read this book, just for some of the ideas expressed in it. So should anyone who read "American Gods" and thought it was cool, too. They should have a good time pointing to certain stories and saying, "Neil Gaiman lifted that, that and that." I recommend this book highly. Even with the few faulty tales herein, it is definately worth the time.

I can't stop flipping through the pages of this book. Each page sparks a different memory from Iraq. The recipes are so easy to follow and turn out so well. The best cook book EVER.

My wife is a first class Chef and needed information abiout Iraqi Cooking
to prepare and serve at Master classes
On the WWW there was only 11 recipies
So doing a search on AMazon.com walla a book. The book has many recipies and information about Iraqi Culture it is easily to read and is very informative, it is pity that the Americans went in on a false premise and are surely destroying a vibrant culture.

A great cookbook. Easy to follow for those not familiar with Arabic/Middle Eastern Cooking. Good back stories and illustrations. A true one of a kind work. Be sure to buy this treasure before it goes out of print. A delight as the title suggests.

Thanks to Nawal for writting this excellent cookbook which includes almost all the iraqi recipes in such nice order.

As a kurd I found many recipes that brought back memories from my childhood, even the terms/words used!

I looked through the whole book briefly, the recipes look easy and well written, not many pictures but I doubt they are needed. Can't wait to try more recipes.

I know I will treasure this book for life..

I received this cookbook as a birthday gift two years ago. When I opened it, I was excited to find a Middle Eastern cookbook, but was not expecting it to 'measure up' to the 10 or so Middle Eastern/North African cookbooks in my collection, as the author is not well known as are the authors of many of the other books. After all this time, I have made quite a few recipes from this book, and all were fantastic. That being said, I feel that I haven't even scratched the surface of this book. The number of good recipes in the book is astounding, and the history portion of the book is very interesting. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested in learning more about cooking Middle Eastern food, and learning about its roots.

I'm still reading this book and it has brought many good things to light for me. I'm sending my copy to a friend so she can read it and understand more things about herself.

This book was so inspiring and at time overwhelming... It will make you cry with the poetic reverence, and laugh with its abunding charm.... It give great insight on comming out, and It helps you to decide when is right for you to enter into your own journey on the road to being free.. to being OUT

This book unites the coming out experiences of black women from different socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds.
This collection of 49 short stories/poems/essays and interviews offers an insight into the complexities and issues surrounding women of colour as they search for and claim their identities. The selections which are fictional and non-fictional, are personal, daring, honest, funny, moving and thought provoking.
In short, this is a powerful book which easily transcends the Women's Studies/African American Studies and the Gay and Lesbian arenas, making it the quintessential "must read" for all.

READING THIS BOOK WAS AN INSIDE PEEP AT WHAT GOES ON INSIDE THE HEART AND SOUL OF EVERY WOMAN WHO EVER THOUGHT ABOUT LOVING ANOTHER WOMAN....IT CONFIRMED THAT THE WARMTH, INTIMACY, CLOSENESS, SISTERGIRL CONNECTION THAT I FEEL WHEN IM WITH MY SPECIAL FRIEND IS NOT SICK, OR IMMORAL BUT SPECIAL AND WORTH HOLDING ON TO DESPITE WHAT PEOPLE WHO CANT RELATE MIGHT THINK. THANK YOU TO ALL THE WRITERS AND ESPECIALLY LISA C. MOORE. LOOKING FORWARD TO DOES YOUR POPS KNOW ? (SMILE)

"Does Your Mama Know?" was worth the time and effort that I spent visiting four different bookstores and walking a total of four miles or so. "Does Your Mama Know?" is like "The Color Purple," "The Women of Brewster Place" and "Zami" but better. Similar to these books, Moore's book validated my experiences as a lesbian of color. Her well-chosen stories highlight almost every conceivable coming out experience. Although the book is VERY hard to find -- there are only 8,000 copies floating around the world -- I would recommend this to any black lesbian, regardless of nationality.