Authors Books

Crossing the Danger Water is a wonderful text for several reasons. As reviewers have noted, it includes both historical texts as well as representative examples of fiction and poetry. The editor did a masterful job of selecting the texts, and, as a result, the anthology provides reader with an excellent overview of the African American contribution to politics and literature. Secondly, it is much less expensive than most textbooks, making it a wonderful choice. And finally, Crossing makes a great reference tool.
I have used this book for over five years in my introductory Black Studies class and cannot say enough about it.

This book is very informative because it tells the story of black slaves from their point of view.

This book contains just about everything of importance in black history. It includes an information page about each person's work that is in the book, people like Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Alice Walker, Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey to name a few. I use this book extensively when teaching my history classes.

It's a shame this book is not better known than it is. It is a classic collection of lesser-known writings of Black history mixed with familiar things such as MLK's Dream Speech and Booker T. Washington's Atlanta address. Among the lesser known items are important, but seldom-read documents such as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments (reparations fans would do well to read article 4 of the latter document), and my favorite is Frances Harper's moving letter of sympathy for John Brown's widow (studients in my own Black history classes have always been in awe of this as I've read it aloud).

But enough said, read it, learn, think, and enjoy.

I used this book while taking a Black History course. Everyone in the course agreed that it was the best book we had read on Black History. This was not just a book on history or literature (like most Black History books are) but a very enlightening combination of both subjects. The first thing that caught our attention was how it touched on those people that were involved in our history that are rarely if ever talked about. Also, some of the literature was from African stories that touched on the history of slavery from Africa. This was important to me, because many people blame slavery totally on whites, without an understanding that Blacks held slaves (in Africa and America also) and captured slaves for White Europeans. The letters written, such as those by the lawyers for Dred Scott, and John Brown gave you an interesting perspective of the struggles and the twisted legalities of the decisions passed down in those cases. Also, the personality differences revealed between some of our early leaders, such as W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington and other contemporaries further demonstrated why our fight for freedom has been such a struggle. This is a very good book and one worth reading and adding to your personal library.

Reviewed by Gina Holland for RebeccasReads (5/08)

Do you remember Rosemary's Baby? A scary novel and film that made lots and lots of money, it has nothing on the novel "Dark Lullaby," which was terrific, thrilling and mind bending! The story is actually much different than Rosemary's Baby, but I'm reminded all the same. There is a baby involved, but that comes later. Mayra Calvani did an excellent job writing, and I was so captivated by the book, I kept turning the pages, no matter how many other things I needed to do.

"Dark Lullaby" starts off with two young people who have just ended a long-term relationship months before, but still remain friends. Gabriel and Liz are definitely two different people, but both have a great heart and love for family. Gabriel thinks about moving on with his life, but Liz is still madly in love. Liz finds it hard to stay friends, so she is contemplating staying away from him. Then, while sitting together in a public place, discussing their opinions on different subjects, a beautiful young lady named Kamilah joins in on the conversation. Immediately, Gabriel is mesmerized by her looks and the way she speaks. Liz is very agitated by Kamilah's intrusion, as she sees the sparks fly between Kamilah and Gabriel. If it wasn't jealousy before for Liz, it will be now.

Gabriel has a twin sister named Elena, who is getting very close to giving birth to a baby girl. Elena and her husband Brandon had a baby once that died. So both are very nervous about this birth. The doctors tell Elena she has nothing to worry about; the baby is going to be fine. Elena keeps in constant touch with Gabriel and since they are so very close, she wants Gabriel to be at the birth of the baby with her. He has taken a week's vacation from his job just to be there with his loving sister.

After Gabriel and Kamilah meet, they start spending all their time together. A lot of strange things are happening for Gabriel, Liz, and also for Elena and her husband Brandon. Things that none of them seem to be able to explain. Does any of this strangeness have anything to do with Kamilah? Bad dreams are becoming too real for Gabriel and Elena. They may not be the exact same dream but they are disturbing dreams nonetheless. The more Gabriel is with Kamilah, the stranger things seem to get.

When Gabriel and Kamilah take a long trip to Kamilah's homeland the week before he is to go visit his sister Elena, Gabriel starts realizing that something is wrong, very, very wrong. He has lost his cell phone, knowing for sure he packed it, he blacks out at times and the only explanation Kamilah has for him is that he fell asleep. He starts to feel sick and he has a strange pain on his left side. What is going on? He can't help but wonder if all of this has something to do with Kamilah; with her beauty, her hot to the touch skin, and her childish nature. Are his dreams of someone doing something bad to him, real?

If you read this novel, you will be so fascinated that you will not want it to end. I, for one, am in hopes that Calvani will be kind enough to write a sequel to her novel. The ending is very stunning, surprising and will leave you with wonder. There is no other way to describe this book other than it was a terrific read. I wanted to read every word. I commend Mayra on "Dark Lullaby," and I look forward to her future novels.

Dark, exotic, and filled with chilling twists and turns, "Dark Lullaby" by Marya Calvani is horror story that grabs you right away and doesn't release its grip until the final word is read.

Astrophysicist Gabriel Diaz believes in the higher good and that everything can be explained by science and logic. One night in a tavern, a mysterious and intriguing woman captivates his body and soul. After spending the next several days with the mysterious Kamilah, Gabriel is convinced to join her in Turkey to visit her family's cottage, even though he can't push away the nightmares of his sister Elena's unborn child.

Plagued by a strange illness that leaves him weakened and sore, Gabriel begins to wonder who or what Kamilah really is. With the help of a village merchant and a one-eyed witch, Gabriel makes a startling discovery, calling into question all he believes in and forcing him to come to terms with his past so he can save Elena's baby.

Equally scary and beautiful, Mayra Calvani has drawn the beauty of Turkey into a chilling paranormal tale unlike any I've ever read. The descriptions throughout this book were stunning. I walked along the hike up a Turkish mountainside, lived inside Gabriel's head during his disturbing dreams, and stood beside him as he looked into the strangely carved trees in the forest leading up to Kamilah's cottage.

A master storyteller, Calvani hooked me from the first moment in the tavern to the very last page. This is truly a unique story that I look forward to reading again.

"Dark Lullaby" will capture you with its rich descriptions, its exotic location, and the need to uncover the dark secrets hidden within its pages.

The next time you feel like curling up with a scary book, get a copy of author Mayra Calvani's Dark Lullaby, a riviting page turner that will keep you reading straight through until the end. The story begins in Baltimore where Puerto Rican born Gabriel Diaz meets the lovely young woman Kamilah. Very soon she has his undivided attention.

Tension builds as Kamilah works her way into Gabriel's life. They spend almost every moment together, and it is then that his nightmares begin. A part of him suspects a connection to the new woman in his life, but ultimately his attraction to her pushes his concerns aside. In his apartment are photos of his twin sister Elena who is expecting a baby in a few weeks. He is anxious about Elena because her first child died soon after birth. Gabriel is very close to his sister and has promised to be with her when this child is born. Kamilah finds this admirable and wants to hear everything about Elena and her efforts to have a healthy baby. But first the exotic beauty convinces Gabriel that he has time to come with her to her family's small cottage in a beautiful, somewhat desolate area of northern Turkey. Just for a week, she says. Gabriel agrees then quickly regrets this decision. His nightmares worsen. He hears sounds of frightened children in the forest, and sees grotesque faces of babies in the bark of trees. All too quickly the nightmares become reality.

Dark Lullaby is a must read for those who enjoy novels of horror. Calvani keeps the tension tight throughout this gripping novel.

Astrophysicist Gabriel Diaz enjoys an intellectual debate especially over beer, but recently he has had doubts he will ever find a passionate love as his relationship with Liz went from girlfriend to friend. Meanwhile the only person he loves, his pregnant Elena begs him to be there when she gives birth as she is frightened having lost a newborn three years ago. Gabriel would do anything for Elena so he promises to come to Belgium where she lives.

However, his sibling's need vanishes form his brain when he meets Kamilah. She challenges his intellect with debates on good and evil and what is justice. Instead of going to Belgium, he accompanies Kamilah to her home in the Turkish mountains overlooking the Black Sea. Once in Rize, Gabriel loses his cell phone and becomes very sick suffering from nightmares that make sleep horrendous and he suffers even worse hallucinations when awake. As an increasingly paranoid Gabriel fears for his mind and wonders if somehow Kamilah is behind his descent into insanity and overall ill health, a panic stricken Elena keeps wondering where he is as he never failed her unlike their parents and she cannot believe he will fail his soon to be born niece.

This is a terrific horror tale that hooks readers who in spite of knowing that Kamilah is malevolent from almost the first siren meeting with Gabriel wonder what her her motive is and who she is. Fans will assume due to Gabriel's descent into paranoia and Elena's increasing manic panic attacks and anxiety-depression that borders on bipolar that this is a psychological thriller; but the Turkish locale and Kamilah make it so much more. Maria Calvani will have fans hooked in a one sitting read as the author's appreciative attentive audience will want to know is it madness or something more paranormally chilling.

Harriet Klausner

Premise: Gabriel Diaz is an idealist. He loves debating about good and evil, justice versus murder. His relationship with his ex-girlfriend Liz is friendly, though he knows she would let it be more again if he wanted. But he doesn't think he loves her. Yet more fodder for moral discussions in his own mind. His childhood in Puerto Rico was not a happy one. Though he and his twin sister survived, it has colored his perceptions. The unusual bond he and his twin share hasn't failed to impart to him her fears of her current pregnancy, having lost a daughter hours after birth three years ago. Yet all these hanging issues and more get put on hold when he meets Kamilah. Foreign and beautiful, she drives him to distraction. And she seems as fascinated by the moral issues of justice and darkness as he is himself. Then little things start happening the closer the time for his trip to visit his sister for the impending birth comes. Is there a form of darkness at work here or is he only letting his imagination and worries run away with him?

Review: Filled with several exotic locals, Dark Lullaby makes for a plethora of the unusual and foreign. The Middle Eastern mythology used is also not one seen often, so it made for a very refreshing change and caused the horror aspects to be even more poignant. Gabriel has to face the very moral issues he's been battling in his mind, pushed and prodded toward an end that will affect the lives of more than just himself. While who the evil persona is was never in question, the goals and resolution weren't clear until the end, making the read much more exciting. If you like chills, foreign settings, and moral dilemmas, this book is for you!

Do you wonder what scares your favorite horror writers? Would you like to know who influenced them, or where they get their ideas? Wonder no longer--the answers to these and other intriguing questions can be found in Dark Thoughts On Writing. Editor Wiater, drawing on interviews he's conducted with fifty writers of horror and suspense, presents their responses to these questions and their opinions on censorship, the affect of fame and fortune, and why they choose to write in the genre. The result is a plethora of colorful opinions, surprising anecdotes, and useful advice from a wide selection of horror writers, including Stephen King, Anne Rice, Jack Ketchum, Ira Levin, Clive Barker, Matthew Costello, Charles L. Grant, Nancy A. Collins, F. Paul Wilson and Richard Matheson. Must reading for horror fans and aspiring writers in all genres.

This is a book that will be of interest to the struggling writer and the devoted fan alike: the author culls thought-provoking, helpful, and at times highly amusing quotes from his series of interviews with the giants of dark fiction and distills them into one handy volume.

As a writer, one topic I found particularly interesting was the matter of influences: discovering who inspired the authors and artists who inspire me was fascinating.

...and quite possibly the best collection of quotes from the broadest range of leaders in the field that I have ever devoured. I started reading it with a highlighter to cover the best advice. Excluding the front and back covers and the title page, the book is now entirely yellow. From veterans to fresh meat on the hook, this is the bloody book to read if you want to take your craft seriously. What more can I say to rave about this? Buy it. Read it. Then read it again. Keep it within reach of your desk for inspiration when the words just don't seem to flow. It's like a horror convention in your brain!

This book is so inspirational it amazes me. It is quote after quote by famous authors on different topics that apply to horror writing. I think this is one of the most inspirational books on horror writing. I love this book!

As an aspiring writer, I was especially interested in these writers' basic influences, fears, and drives. After the first chapter, I was glued to this book, absorbing the thoughts of writers such as Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Anne Rice, and many others. This is a great gift for a horror fan.

It has been said that the Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. This evokes a hearty laugh or two. But Maude Schuyler Clay's Delta, this land of her black and white photograph collection, bears little humor at all.

Clay, the contributing photographer for The Oxford American (the nearly defunct glossy southern literary magazine) is a Sumner County, Mississippi, native. Back to the Delta to live and work after a decade in New York City, Clay combines landscapes, or the Delta flatscape, with the stark loneliness of the occasional roadside dog. Few humans don the pages of Delta Land.

Mississippi writer Lewis Nordan, a Delta native himself, writes a provocative and interpretive introduction to the book, one that is witty and piercing in its critical and story-like style.

The book's sepia-toned landscapes show the one constant in a region dominated for millennia by the mighty Mississippi River. That constant is erosion. Many of the photos recall decay and loss. Such is the depiction of the Tallahatchie Bridge of Billy Joe McAllister's jump to the depths below.

This coffee table book, a collection of minimalist and postmodern art, promises to deliver a true, honest, dispassionate and yet emphatic view of the Delta for all who read its words and view its pictorial depictions. The book, not far removed from the documentary eye of Walker Evans, is about memory and the hard, melancholic road that memory often takes us. I recommend it for all who love or long for the land it memorializes.

---------Reviewed by Dayne Sherman

If you feel a special attachment to your particular place on the planet, this book is for you. If you feel a great longing for a place that was once home, this book is for you. If there is no such place for you, but you wish there were, this book is for you. If you simply want to see a place, any place, through the eyes of someone who feels *place* keenly, deeply, naturally, this book is for you.

In *Delta Land*, Maude Schuyler Clay shares her love of place, warts and all, with you. The photographs are luminous and tender and crafted strongly, and filled with a deep, genetic understanding of the Mississippi Delta. If place has any meaning for you at all, you will find your own sensibilities on every page.

Place matters most perhaps to those who no longer have a place. Maude Schuyler Clay's *Delta Land* shows why.

Currenting residing in Germany (and England before that), I often think about the Mississippi in which I grew up with mixed emotions. Maude Schuyler Clay's stunning photographs, with their dark aesthetic, render visible some of the emotional landscapes and scenes that I visit occasionally in my dreams (which border on the nightmarish). Her photographs are, in my opinion, meditations on loss, on some truth of the past that slips irrevocably beyond grasp at the moment of its apperception. The artist shows us ash-covered, post-nuclear landscapes whose projection of annihilation is terrifyingly beautiful and profound. As Lewis Nordan's wonderfully written introduction points out, there are no pictures of cotton pickers in this collection of Mississippi images. The subject of these photos is far more interior and complex, inspiring reflection on the passage of time, memory, death, guilt, and the fragility of the human condition.

As a child of this place called the Delta, this was my world. This was home. Ms. Clay has captured it as it was in my childhood - and as it, to some extent, continues to be. The scenes she portrayed were classics. I may not have seen a particular church or bayou, but I have undoubtedly seen its twin. The black-and-white photographs add a timelessness that color could not. These photographs could have been made in the 50's as easily as the 90's. Much remains the same in the Delta today. Delta Land is a must for all who call this place home. Thanks, Ms. Clay. This book is what I was looking for - even though I didn't realize it until I first turned its pages.

... to borrow a book title from a few years back, is what Maude Schuyler Clay captures for the reader in this lovely work. The Delta is also the most un-suburban place in America. Many artists (including other photographers) have tackled the subject before. However, I know of no one who has transmitted the visual essence -- at once quiet and powerful -- of what this place is quite like native daughter Clay: she has given us a glimpse into the other-worldliness of her home. While distinct qualities of American regional identity fade elsewhere, the Mississippi Delta remains our wild country, where the land and its knowing tenants make no mistake that they are in an untamed place of severe beauty, devoid of sentimentality. The photographer from Sumner has gotten all of this right.

Desires is a beautifully put together book with enticing cover art and provocative stories. AmarMira has done an excellent job. Desires is a great compilation of well-known and soon-to-be well-known erotica authors. I applaud Benedicks and Sengupta on their choice of contributors and eagerly await volume two.

DESIRES contains some of the most sensual and literary fiction available today. While many other erotica anthologies tend to either forgo the sensual aspect in favor of dry, intellectual writing or rely on clichéd stories, DESIRES beautifully merges lush descriptions of sexuality with thought-provoking, emotional scenarios.

The variety of writing styles from the 24 talented authors provides an outstanding complement to the stories themselves. For example, Robert Schaffer's "Fried Blonde Tomatoes" is a hard-edged, sharp narrative about a man's craving for "burnt-out blondes," while Elana White's "Wee Sunny Garrett" is a highly poetic and rewarding story about a woman's rediscovery of herself in the warmth of a French village. James Martin's "The Civil Servant" is a delicious story involving a wife's sexual commands over the telephone, and Debra Hyde's "Weigh Station" is a reunion of two lovers and the subsequent revelation of both masochistic tendencies and futile realizations. There are also excellent stories by well-known erotica authors such as Maryanne Mohanraj, Cecilia Tan, Maxim Jakubowski, and Thomas Roche. The stories involve a range of exceptional characters and situations, all of which appeal to the intellect as well as the libido. This emphasis on the intellect especially distinguishes this anthology.

Another element that sets DESIRES apart from the norm is the discerning and intelligent "dialogue" between the two editors, which touches upon such issues as porn versus erotica, Barthes' and Battailes' respective philosophies about eroticism, the psychological aspects of erotic fiction, "sex as ritual," and Tantric philosophies. The dialogue serves to enhance the collection by providing greater insight into the essential meaning of both the chosen stories and erotica as a genre.

DESIRES is a truly superb and unique collection, with the editorial dialogue providing a very stimulating closure to the book. Collections such as this one serve not only to hold erotic fiction to a much higher standard, but also to encourage both readers and writers to examine the emotional and intellectual underpinnings of sensual literature. With DESIRES as a model of excellence, the erotica genre will surely attain the literary respect and authority it so deserves. Read it for pleasure and for both sexual and intellectual stimulation!

This is book is a tantalising potpourri of scintillating erotica. With twenty four short stories and an very interesting appendix, by Adrienne Benedicks and Shivaji Sengupta, the reader is introduced to the different erotic writing style of different Authors. It is unusual to find an erotic book of such a sophisticated quality that grips the readers imagination from start to finish and then compels you to go back and start reading it again and again. A well written work of art.

Desires is a collection of erotica that features many sexy stories which also have strong literary merit. Editors Adrienne Benedicks and Shivaji Sengupta have fulfilled their goal of raising the level of erotic fiction,which all too often is confined to pushing the buttons of arousal while recycling cliches and cliched situations. Stories like "Bottomless in Bourbon" by Maxim Jakubowshi, "Crooked Kwan" by Cecilia Tan, Sengupta's own "The Lady and the Chauffeur," and Marilyn Jaye Lewis's "Stranger than Fiction" provide trenchant dialogue, lean but intricate plots that explore interesting cultural configurations ranging from the encounters of different classes, nationalities, and subcultures, strong descriptive elements, and emotional as well as erotic clout. I also enjoyed the editors' dialogue that serves as an Afterword to the collection. Benedicks and Sengupta engage in a fascinating discussion of two strikingly different attitudes toward the erotic in literature and culture.

I've never sent a review in to Amazon before, but this book is a little different. Benedicks and Sengupta have collected some of the best erotic stories I've read in quite some time. Not only have they published stories in the book from writers such as Jakubowski, Mohanraj, Roche and Reed. They have introduced me to some new and very talented authors. Authors I hope to see more of in the future. The stories are erotic, romantic, hot, humorous, and lusty. A very beautiful gamut of reading material. I hope to see more from them in the future. This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Very entertaining and enlightening. Pepys gives us a glimpse of what life was like in that period before the "Glorious Revolution" in England which was so important in the developement of democracy in England and the United States. Pepys was on the wrong side of that revolution - a loyalist to King Charles II, although he was never convicted of treason. Good thing, since there seemed to be a lot of beheadings, etc. in that era. Occasionally, it is not absolutely clear what Pepys is talking about, and sometimes the vocabulary is not easily understood,as language and customs have changed, but that is to be expected.

I've long been a student and a collector of information on the personalities of Restoration England, growing out of a desire to know more about the background in literature classes. The Restoration crowd loved life, and in this volume (and presumably the next) you see how tenuous their lives were -- 5000 a week in the City of London dying of plague, two fleets of 100 ships each at war in a narrow sea, everyone so intent on feathering their nest and getting their next place, and an honest man rarest commodity of all. I love all these diaries. I've learned to ignore a lot of the textural (not text) notes that tell you if there was a blot on the page, or the symbol was not quite clear, but the footnotes are amazing and so is the information. Love Sam; he could have done pretty much as he pleased with me, I fear. But in his daily strolls of 5 miles and more I fear I could never have kept up as he went up and down the town, up and down the river. I've been to London and took the boat tour on the Thames from the houses of Parliament down to Greenwich to see the naval museum and Queen's house -- and he would walk, day or night, from London to Depworth, to Woolwich, to Greenwich (though he'd borrow the boat if he could) and pay attention to all he passed. What a companion!

Unfortunately for my budget's sake I started buying these in 3s and am now having trouble filling up 1666-1669. I will persevere, though, and anticipate a re-read of all or part probably every summer (while TV takes a dive and there's good light to read by until long into the evening). The only thing I have wished for is more portraits of the people he is speaking of--and the portraits by Huysmans and Lely that he reports having seen fresh painted. However, financially that may not have been doable. Will have to keep searching for a companion Restoration Portraits volume to keep me happy.

Great reading - do start from the beginning to get into the swing of things. A random paragraph doesn't put you "in the life" like the unrolling panorama does. A better map of London at your elbow (though there is one in the back of each volume) will also increase your pleasure.

It is kind of hard to match up these reviews of the Pepys' Diary with specific volumes, probably due to the nature of ISBN numbers. However, this review is about Volume 10, the Companion to the 10 vol. set of paperbacks (complete edition) by the University of California Press. IT IS a valuable book indeed, being 1700 entries, alphabetically arranged, on the details about the people and places mentioned in the Diary. It has 626 numbered pages and genealogical tables and maps.

When I started reading the diary, I expected it to be extremely boring and very old fashioned (seeing how it was written in the 1600's) - how wrong I was!!!
Samuel Pepys (pronounced 'peeps') is a human, funny, moody man who has his ups and downs like the rest of us. His narrative during the plague records his concern about neighbors, and his real sorrow when people he knows succumb to it. He also records his experiences during the great fire of London in 1666 and his first mention of it strikes me as entirely human - he says that his maids wake him as they have heard of the fire and as it is not near his doorstep he simply goes back to bed as he's tired. He has arguments with his wife, and has cast a lusty eye upon the kings mistress for years! He also has, what I call 'mini affairs' where he kisses and fondles women quite regularly, (including his own maids) and seems to have no guilt about this whatsoever. Most mornings he 'drinks' his breakfast and at one point is outraged that his new wig is teeming with nits! An historical and very human read. Makes me realise that after 450 years we are all no different at all........

There are on the Amazon site two excellent, informative reviews of the Pepys' diaries. They say far more than my own contribution.
I have read in and out of the Pepys' diary more than once. I did this in part because I have read many times that they are the ' best diaries' ever written. Without contending with that I found that they were not for me the most interesting. This probably shows more about my own shortcomings than it does about the work of Pepys.
Pepys' work is filled with description of the life of the time. It is rich in perception of the great city of London in Restoration times. It is filled with personal anecdote, gossip including that relating to his prodigious sexual appetite and activity. It is a busy, businesslike work. And it tells more about a world outside than a world in.
In the diaries I most love there is the quest of the soul to deeply understand itself and its relation to other people, and God. I find that the flurry of activity in the life of Pepys does not lead to this kind of reflectiveness. And thus for me the 'diary' is not a highly significant work personally.

I read Different Roads while traveling cross country and really loved it.

The story propels from the first page through the last and gives the reader a sense that all things are interconnected and happen for a reason. The dialogue is snappy and right on the money.

All the characters were memorable, but Jaycee, the feisty young girl who grows up into a strong, opinionated woman, really shines. The reader can't help but root for her through all her hardships and tough decisions.

I highly recommend this book.

Rarely does a character in a book jump into my heart from the first page. Jaycee, the main character in Different Roads, written by Joyce Sterling Scarbrough, was one of those rare characters. She grabbed me from the first paragraph and hasn't let go since.
Ms. Scarbrough has a writing style that draws the reader in quickly and keeps the interest until the very end. Not one to read many romances, I was a bit skeptical at first. This is no ordinary mushy romance novel, however; the relationship between the two main characters is passionate and fraught with more twists and turns than a Class Five hurricane.
As I followed Jaycee and Bud through their relationship, I laughed loudly and cried hard. At one point I was glad Joyce Scarbrough wasn't near because I wasn't sure if I'd hug her for writing such a powerful book or strangle her for causing such an emotional upheaval within me. The characters are so real, the feelings so true-to-life, you will forget you are reading a book and actually feel you know the people involved.
This book deals with some heavy topics, but does so with skill and finesse. Ms. Scarbrough understand completely the inner workings of her characters and helps the reader understand as well. Her understanding of human nature is exceptional.
If you are looking for a mere quick read, this isn't a book for you. If, however, you want a story that draws you deeply within the story and allows you to feel the emotions fully, this is a must-read. You will not regret for one moment buying and reading Different Roads. I will caution readers--be prepared for an emotion journey unlike any you have experienced.

I really enjoyed reading this book. If you liked "Tru Blue Forever" written by this author then you will like this book. It does have some bad language in it, if you can look past that, I highly recommend the book. I loved it as I did her first book. Can't wait for the next one. Loved it and will probably read it again while waiting on the 3rd book from this author.

Jaycee Stevens breaks the mold. No Yankee can read this book and think Southern Bells populate the South. Her tough persona captivates the reader because her quick firing of insults and threats articulated with such aplomb that people let her do anything she wants. Jaycee says things openly that many of us privately wish we had the courage to come out of our own mouths. Most of us lack her charm and courage. The fact that she's sexy and attractive with big boobs makes men melt. They allow her to do things that would irritate most people, yet she pulls it off with them apologizing to her. They rationalize that she is being playful when, in fact, she directs her deep-seated anger at them.

Jaycee's mother died when she was young and she was raised by an alcoholic father who neglected her or beat her. Mostly he ignored her and she grew up taking care of herself in any manner that she could. She became a fighter with a cutting tongue to hide her fear of abandonment.

She lived on the wrong side of town and lost her first love to parents who felt she wasn't good enough for their son. She's a gifted writer which wins her an opportunity to leave behind all the negatives that comprised her being. While in college, she meets Bud Stanton, a rich boy suffering the same feelings of neglect and abandonment. They are so much alike that they truly do understand each other, but they act out and often Jaycee lashes out at poor Bud. He tends to pout and withdraw.

Bud starves for his father's approval and display jealousy when Mack becomes Jaycee's surrogate father. Bud wonders if more is going on than a father/daughter relationship. He is very possessive of Jaycee. This creates many of their battles. Their pattern is to fight, make up, then make love very passionately. Jaycee, with Mack's help, becomes a published author of children's books. She feels she is finally overcoming her past when she find out the truth about her chance to go to New York and be a journalist while in college. This upsets Jaycee so much that she leaves Bud and heads home to her dying father. There she discovers more truths that nearly destroy her. Only Bud holds the key to Jaycee's acceptance of herself. But will Bud take her back?

This book, by Joyce Sterling Scarbrough, is a winner. I admit it is not in my usual genre, but I found myself turning pages long after my allotted reading time each night.
Joyce writes with an energy and passion that shines through in all her characters.
Jaycee, the main character, the product of a dysfunctional family background, is a load to handle and she makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes. Her growth toward maturity is not easy, but is evident.
Joyce has crafted a realistic adventure of two young people on the way to adulthood along a rocky road. There are both smiles and frowns along the way.
I strongly recommend this book as a "must read." It's well worth the time.

Marilyn Krysl is one of the most elegant writers around. This book deserves its Sullivan Award and should be on the front table in every bookstore. Her stories are edgy, ironic, fun to read and full of Krysl's magical gift of satire. This would be a great book for any group that is wanting to venture into something more experimental and political than usual, and you'll get even more than you bargained for, since Krsyl is a gifted poet as well, and her prose is full of her careful, cutting observation. Savor this book word by word!

Krysl's DINNER WITH OSAMA is a literally and literarily a serious romp. Each story tingles with laughter but behind that laughter is gravity whether it is of the world situation or women's images of themselves. They are exquisitely layered like the strata of phyllo dough with pain and delight. The exceptions are the two last and most harrowing stores in the book "Mitosis" and "Welcome to the Torture Center, Love."
The delicious craziness of the idea of an ordinary woman in Boulder, planning a menu and cooking for Osama is balanced by Osama coming back at her in the middle of the meal and asking in the very American language of Colorado, "Why aren't you sitting Georgie boy down and telling HIM to love the neighbors?" In "Belly" the narrator gives up her lover to her friend who needs him more. Despite the light touch these are not cotton candy fantasies. There is complete understanding that happiness or resolution, require serious work and sacrifice.
The third section of the book is located in the Sudan. Krysle is a world traveler, one who has dared to experience the Sudan beyond newspaper reports. In her last stories the lightness, the filminess of love is shredded by the horrors of incidental circumstance. She is flat out realistic about what happens, what we don't seem to be able to stop from happening. But love and peace, however torn and maimed, are still possibilities as real as the horrors and ours to chose.

I loved Marilyn Krysl's latest collection of short stories, "Dinner with Osama." The stories are quite diverse and range in topic from satire about the current so-called War on Terror to a very moving depiction of the lives of Sudanese refugees, fleeing genocide. Krysl is always fair, and her satire takes aim not only at religious extremists and militarists but also naive would-be do-gooders, whose self-righteousness she shows can be as dangerous as others' ignorance. One of my favorite stories is called "Cherry Garcia, Pistachio Cream." I thought this might be a yuppie satire but in fact the story is about a mother and daughter, cherishing the good moments we have in our lives, and how fragile we all are. It is a story that celebrates our common humanity; and the writing is gorgeous. Her story "Mitosis," set in the Sudan, is one of the most beautiful love stories I've ever read. Krysl celebrates the human spirit in the face of great adversity. And her prose reads like poetry. She is an amazing writer!! I'm going to recommend this to my book club. I think there's a lot to like and a lot to talk about.

The comical elegance of Marilyn Krysl's new book, featuring a spare but expensive table setting and a place card for its title guest, perfectly mirrors the elegant prose inside. Krysl serves up substantial portions of reality, made not just palatable, but savory by the humor and originality she mixes in. Her compassionate, idiosyncratic depictions of those who suffer famine and war teases each individual character out from the masses we too often imagine as an inhuman blur. She sears their suffering into our memory. But just as we don't think we can swallow another bite of such truth, she refreshes our palate with a zesty rendering of mother-daughter love, or a treatise on the beauty of belly fat, or the imperious, altruistic narrative voice of the Egyptian goddess Hathor and her pal Akka, the 12th Century Indian feminist. The two put George W. Bush and Osama Bin Laden in time out together and make them take deep breaths. If you like your truth buttered in wisdom, and, like me, need to laugh in order to stay sane, read Dinner with Osama.

This very powerful and moving literary work, Dinner with Osama, is yet another mighty testament to Marilyn Krysl's masterful writing talent. The writing is so vivid and true that I felt as if I was physically present in each story. Marilyn's ingenious idea for the book's title work is bold and wonderful. This book is simply amazing and absolutely appropriate in light of current world affairs.

I'm a sucker for this contemporary short fiction. Much in the style of Larry Brown, Carver, and not so much Bukowski, Crocker draws you into his characters. When you try to leave, he won't let you. In this tale you are the guest that sits in discomfort and wants to leave the setting...but you are Trapped. The stories ends in resolve, something that is not done easily. Bravo! The full twenty-three stories will read like a fun weekend in Jersey City. I enjoyed this very much.

Everyone out there certainly owes it to themselves to dive into this fascinating collection of short stories.--Joe Verilli

I picked up this book a few weeks ago and couldn't put it down until I had read it all and some of the stories twice. It's an amazing mix of the experimental and ordinary life. At times, it's even creepy, in a good way.

Daniel Crocker is the new laureate of working class America.--Gerald Nicosia, author of Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac

Daniel Crocker is one of the two or three best writers of short fiction to emerge from the small press in the last couple of decades.--Gerald Locklin.

The variety of worlds and realities written about in contemporary fiction are often exciting, extraordinary, and out of this world. Pages in today's fiction share a common theme, portraying and spurring on characters that are larger than life, characters that are out of this world. As readers we follow the story from chapter to chapter with the anticipation and realization of how every instance of drama is continued or concluded. We gnaw our own knuckles hoping true love is created, or dispersed. Sometimes it's true evil we watch out for, sometimes goodness or wholesomeness. Often it seems like it is the writer's job and duty to create super-real scenarios that the writer's audience can munch on. Readers often begin to represent hyenas munching on the flesh and bone of a prey-like book. We eat words rarely understanding our addiction to action and drama that is blown out of proportion to everyday life. Yet this is not so with Ted Delaney's The Drowning and Other Stories.
In this collection of short stories, Delaney reminds us of the real world. The real world is the world that is slower, quieter, humbler, and grimmer. The real world is most often about day-by-day existence where the smallest, most taken-for granted things are often the most important. Delaney is able to present the life inside his stories with an alternative, far less glamorous style. Delaney fortunately does not appear to be pushing buttons in response to mainstream literature, nor is he trying to be boring or dull. He is instead attempting to present the style of the ultimate realist writer by portraying life through an objective lens. The lens hovering above the people in Delaney's stories is a lens that bellows like a fog horn. It is a call to the reader, heralding desensitization. Delaney's work, however, comes with the cost of dragging the reader excitedly into his work.
Objectification should not come as a surprise when regarding Delaney's work. Having written for innumerous newspapers and magazines, Delaney carries the true spirit of the journalist. Some journalists focus on sensationalism, but Delaney carries a stern, matter-of-fact voice. Delaney's voice cuts deep into the fleshy substance that makes up reality. He has taken his background as a journalist and transferred it, philosophically and artistically, into his stories of fiction.
Unlike the boxed-in assignments of the reporter, Delaney is contrastingly able to choose the characters and environments in his stories. At first glance it is easy to call the freedom of choice in Delaney's stories merely a form of idealization; however, Delaney never lets his journalist guard down. The world or worlds his characters live in are not filled with explosions or first kisses. Delaney keeps his characters confined. Each foot of each character is masterfully restricted and forced to follow the rules and regulations--the narrative laws--of the world in which they live. Often this technique results in stories that are dark and anti-climactic. Often Delaney's stories are not capable of producing the typical form of enjoyment that most fiction is able to evoke from within the reader.
In "A Visit to My Uncle," the protagonist Mark struggles to try and find himself as part of an immediate, as well as extended, family that is both economically poor and socially disconnected. Mark wants to go to medical school and his parents cannot afford to send him, so Mark ends up visiting his rich lawyer uncle, who the family has not had contact with for some time, in an attempt to ask for help. The uncle does not agree to give Mark money on the grounds that Mark will not study law. The story results in disappointment that is hardly satisfying for the reader, yet all the while the story does not overhype the hard instances of reality.
But Delaney is not only about being a naturalistic or deterministic writer. "Notes Toward My Absolution" is a dark yet humorous look at the life of a man who is not morally capable of robbing convenience stores with guns that have bullets in them, and so his life as a criminal becomes a quirky roam through the life of the mediocre outsider. Delaney fascinatingly incorporates the theme of the comic social deviant throughout the story collection. The story "Conspiracy Blues" brings to the forefront Lyle, a man who enjoys a serious obsession with conspiracy theories, yet is unable to get over his own paranoia. "The Anchor and Me" is told from the point of view of an up-and-coming news anchor's significant other. The anchor tries desperately to be the best in her position, yet by holding herself up to the pedestal, she is unable to notice her own hubris lingering below, and fails in a fashion miserable and hysterical.
The pinnacle point in Delaney's book of stories is "Travels With Mr. Slush." This story is perhaps the most original and outstanding of all the stories, but at the same time it is also the most absurd. The protagonist only goes by "Mr. Slush," a young man who is on parole and has to work as a truck vendor travelling from street to street, neighborhood to neighborhood, selling ice slushy drinks. Even after the story's conflict and impending climax, the protagonist remains where he began: a truck vendor selling ice slushy drinks.
The cyclic monotony of everyday human existence is believable in Delaney's stories, but it is often overbearingly off-putting. While Delaney writes beautiful prose that describes environments and inhabitants accurately, he does not highlight, emphasize or blow up any aspect of each story. Many readers will find Delaney's style difficult to get a grip on or take a bit out of. But for those who are looking to read and experience the objective point of view on life that is relatable, believable, and seeable, the stories in this collection will succeed.

Received this book from a friend who loved it and thought I would also. She was absolutely right. The weird added bonus was that I soon realized that Mr. Delaney was my college creative writing professor over 12 years ago!

This is a review to look at:

From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly The credible, plainspeaking characters in Delaney's sure-footed first collection of nine stories--priests, drunks, conspiracy theorists, criminals--have taken wrong turns in the past that lend their present lives a sad irony. In "Travels with Mr. Slush," an ex-felon who drives a truck that sells crushed, flavored ice through urban neighborhoods suddenly finds himself the victim of crime when youths steal his car battery on the hottest day of the summer, melting his entire load. Yet the tale closes with a surprising, cautious optimism. In "O Beauty! O Truth!" a boy who ridicules his strict teachers foreshadows his shooting death years later by police officers as he leaves a crime scene. Characters usually find crucial life decisions made for them by forces beyond their control. The 17-year-old narrator of "A Visit to My Uncle" travels to New York to ask his rich, estranged relative for money for medical school; he is nonplused when his uncle (a lawyer) offers to pay his way, but only under manipulative conditions. The standout title story tells of a tormented former priest who suddenly emigrates in middle age from Ireland to America. His new life includes a new vocation as hod carrier and a new name, an act born of panicked necessity after he disposes of the dead body of a possible traitor, a constable in the RIC, in a lake. In the less dramatic pieces, Delaney wisely lets a poignant situation tell its own story. In "The Anchor and Me," a mild-tempered husband is unable to say whether he feels jealous or proud of his anchorwoman spouse's driven, successful life and career; the antihero of "Notes Toward My Absolution" robs convenience stores with an unloaded gun. Delaney's measured pace imparts a grace to his tales, which at their best are reminiscent of Cheever or Updike's grittiest efforts. Few words are wasted in this quietly triumphant collection. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Some of our best writers honed their craft in the belly of newspapers. Ted Delaney numbers among those. I have followed the work of Mr. Delaney since his days as a reporter for the Denver Post and then as a columnist for the newspaper in Colorado Springs. In 1990, he left daily journalism to teach college journalism near his hometown of Fall River, Mass. In the ensuing years, he has had great success in placing his fiction in famous magazines and in small literary quarterlies. Finally, we have them all in one place. One of the things I like most about Mr. Delaney is that his fiction is never about some angst-ridden writer looking for success or meaning. If you were to guess his occupation from his writing, you might guess he was a blue-collar narrator. That's because Mr. Delaney has lived life beyond his belly button, contemplating what it means to be a person, to really live. The son of a medical doctor, Mr. Delaney once dreamed of anthropology as a profession. As a writer, he has become that. He shows us what makes us work; in his work, we see ourselves or someone we know. We have been the places, emotionally, at least, his characters have been. His title story, The Drowning, which was an O'Henry award winner as well as Best Short Story winner, is worth the price of the book. Mr. Delaney is only beginning. Watch for more of this talented writer's work. Read him now so that you can say you knew of him before everyone else. It'll be a boast you'll love to make at your reading club.

These stories really touched a chord... quiet but very moving