Authors Books

100% pure, unadulterated Cronk! You will not be disappointed.

No sob story here, Cronk relates with unblinking candor and clever turn of phrase the pain, disillusionment and consequences resulting from the choices she's made. What is so compelling about this work is that amid the gritty reporting of her foibles and of those close to her, is the sense that she's through with the self-destruction, and that through her honest introspection which is so clearly expressed in this book, she'll not only survive, but thrive.

This collection of writings is thought provoking to say the least. Each one, no matter how brief is a novel of thought. Want to know what it's like to be on the inside of a troubled life looking out, this book is the picture window. If you are fan of the poetry of Jim Morrison this is required reading.

The most original, gripping piece of work I've ever seen. There are some books you read that you never forget, and THIS is one of them. Very profound and mesmerizing. I don't normally read poetry, yet I couldn't stop reading this! The brilliance of words is playfully thought out. The author's humor shines despite all the pain.

For any desperate junkies out there, you have a chance. There's no excuse for anyone who dies with a needle in their arm. Drug Deal With God will open your mind, once the despair wears off. The impression I got, is that the world doesn't do anything to you...it's how you choose to react to the world. I now realize, that any misery I've experienced, is strictly self-imposed. This book will literally open the prison cell your mind has locked you in, and let you out!

Earl Hamner is genious, intelligent, heartfelt, honest man. He created the best show on t.v., "The Waltons." This books opens a lot of interesting history of his career and family. The author spends too much time indulging other writers works, and trying to compare them to Earl Hamner. I wish Earl was the author of his bio. You will discover his works from Charlotte's Web, Falcon Crest, Snowy River, Spencer's Mountain, The Homecoming,and of course, The Waltons.
Sections of the book gets very boring, and turns away from Earl's life. The rest of the book is well written. We need more writers & producers like Earl Hamner.
God Bless The Waltons!

Earl Hamner,Jr. is as familiar to some of us as our own father, or grandfather.He has been a part of our lives for as much as the last thirty or so years,since his book "The Homecoming" aired as a made for tv Christmas movie,and the long running series,"The Waltons" took over our living rooms every Thursday night.
The series was based on Mr. Hamner's life growing up in the Blue Ridge Mountains during the depression,and the stories related to many of us,having touched on our families and their histories,stories that were told to us by our parents and grandparents,and some that lived through those times themselves.
Earl had a special gift in his ability to tie that world in with ours,reminding us even still today the meaning of family.He could even make those without a family feel like they were part of one.
Mr. Person's book not only presents a great tribute to a great man, but his writing also has the ability to make the reader feel as though they are reading about one of thier own family,but with some surprises along the way.If I had only one comment about the book it would be that I only wish there were more pages to read in it! Great job,Mr.Person!

It was the best bio I have ever read.It made me feel like I was part of the Hamner family.When I watched the waltons as a kid I did not know it was based on a real family. Now when I watch the Waltons it has a whole new meaning

This book provides excellant insight on Earl Hamner. My wife and I belong to the International Walton's Fan Club and have meet Earl several times at Walton Reunions. Mr. Hamner is a talented writter and a wonderful person.

Mention 'Earl Hamner' and savvy book readers will instantly recognize his name as the creator of the beloved Waltons, which became a hit TV show - but there's more to his life than Walton's Mountain, as Earl Hamner: From Walton's Mountain To Tomorrow reveals. Hamner was raised in small town Virginia and discovered writing at a young age, becoming a published writer at the age of six. He did much more than just The Waltons: he produced eight scripts for The Twilight Zone, did the screenplay for Charlotte's Web, and was loved and respected for his talents. A fine account of his lively career and many literary contributions evolves.

Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine October 2002 VOYA
Growing up in San Jose, California, Arturo Rodriguez and his brothers and sister endured an abusive father, their parents' unhappy marriage, and their father's absence after he returned to Mexico. Rodriguez coped as best he could, but his drinking and drug use, in the wrong place at the wrong times led to his incarceration in California's prison system for young offenders. Against all odds, he put his past behind him, married and had a family, and worked hard to overcome injustices and start a successful business. After his retirement Rodriguez began writing about his life and his family. This book is sequel to East Side Dreams (Dream House, 2001, published in Spanish as Sueños del Lado Este. In this second autobiographical book, he writes about childhood pranks and misdeeds, his mother's near fatal illness, his parent's divorce, the birth of his first child, and how his parents even eventually became friends.
The writing here is unpolished but sincere in true, and the reminiscences and descriptions are vivid and true to life. Neither how he grew to understand his father and other relatives whom he loved despite their flaws. His message for young readers is clear. It is possible to survived and overcome injustices and hardships. Rodriguez maintains a Web site at www EastSideDreams. com and invites readers to visit, view his picture alum, and perhaps send him an e-message. He will answer.-Sherry York Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine

The Midwest Book Review. May 7, 2002
East Side Dreams by Art Rodriguez is full of energy and the struggles that the author himself endured while growing up on the east side of San Jose, California in 1966.
I enjoyed reading this inspirational novel derived from the memories of a teenager who is now a mature and successful businessman.
East Side Dreams has been translated into Spanish to reach the Spanish speaking population in the United States.
As I read the troubling times of Art Rodriguez I couldn't relate to many of his predicaments, but I certainly felt compassion toward him and thanked God for my "normal" life. Mr. Rodriguez touches your heart as you read his passionate book of self-taught lessons.
As you read East Side Dreams, which captures the hopelessness of growing up with an unpleasant childhood, keep in mind that this life drove the author to his true passion-writing!
The author, Art Rodriguez has been honored by the New York Library System to be on the "2001 Books for Teenage List" for his book East Side Dreams. He was also given "The Mariposa Award-Best First Book" at the Latino Literary Hall of fame for this same book. Bravo! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and encourage young readers to read it, as there are plenty to learn from this book. It will bring tears to your eyes.

James A. Cox
Editor-in -Chief
The Midwest Book Review.

East Side Dreams is the debut book and memoir Art Rodriguez, of a Latino American who survived growing up on the rough side, at odds with a dictatorial father, and once an inmate of the California Youth Authority -- a prison system for young lawbreakers. Reflections on both happy and miserable times of his childhood, growing up, learning maturity and finally making a comfortable life for himself fill this heartfelt and revealing personal testimony. Highly recommended reading for young adults, East Side Dreams has justly earned the distinctions of being named the "Best First Book of the Latino Literary Hall of Fame", and has been honored as one of 200 Best Teenage Books in the United States by the New York Public Library System.

My son who is 21 came home with this book and said Mom you have got to read this book it is so good. So I said o.k. mejio let me read it! When I started to ready it it brought back so many memories (I grew up in the East Side of San Jose) and most of the things he was talking about I lived it. I laughed and cried and could not put down the book. This is a great book for all ages. After I got done reading it I gave it to my Father to read and he enjoyed it too.

Art Rodriguez takes us to jail with him so that we never need to go. He sits us next to him in his cell with nothing left to do but sit and remember. We try with him to connect the memories to being imprisoned, but there is no connection at all.

Although Art had an abusive father, he never once cites this as a reason for his violent behavior. He was a kid that made poor choices and got what he deserved. He blames no one but himself, and it is with this realization of responsibility that Art turns his life around. He went from street punk to a successful business man, a supportive father and an award winning author. He shows us that people can change and that bad mistakes are not the end of your life unless you allow them to be. Art Rodriguez is the silent roll model all troubled children are looking for.

This book is a great experience for audiences young and old. Buy it and read it.

Incredible Play; Beautifully written; compassionate & thought
provoking, not to mention profoundly educational.
I've never learned so many new words @ once . Get out your OED !

Last year I had the opportunity to play Echo in a production of this wonderful play. All I can do is thank Lee Blessing, and my director for giving me this once in a lifetime experience. Of all the productions I have performed in none has moved me, brought me closer to my fellow actors, nor changed me in the ways that this play has. In exploring the relationships between three generations of extraordinary women, Mr. Blessing reveals so much about mothers and their daughters (it amazes me that a man could write about women and their feelings so accurately). There is basically no set, no costume changes, and very few props, which means that the play itself must be powerful enough to keep the attention of the audience for about two hours. This is no easy task, but the play moves so quickly and smoothly through a series of flashbacks, that it transports the audience into the world of these women and holds them there until the very end. Because the show was double cast, I had the unique opportunity of being both a performer and an audience member. Both experiences were equally intense, and if I ever get the opportunity to be either again I won't hesitate to take it. I enthusiastically recommend this play to actors, directors, audience members or even just to someone who is looking for a good read. Enjoy. -One Echo

Reading this play was the most touching inspiration anyone could ask for. It's complex imagery and natural poeticism moves the reader, and the audience, through the story of three women's linear relationship with one another. Each scene reveals to us another facet of their fears, their needs, harshnesses and vulnerabilities. I had the honor of playing Dorothea in a production recently, and fell in love with the craft of acting all over again. Anyone who is thinking about staging this play will find themselves open to a world of technical possibility as well as interpretive direction. If you don't push it too hard you will notice that there is no need to; Mr. Blessing has already done most of the work for you. Think simply, and the beauty and profuound relevence of this play will unwrap itself before the audience, like a gift.

I have never seen this play performed, but after reading the script I would love to. Setting and action are kept to a minimum, allowing the dialogue to express more clearly the relationships between the three characters. Mr. Blessing demonstrates a wonderful grasp of familial relationships.

Eleemosynary - charatible, the giving of alms.

And so begins one of the real gems of the contemporary American Theatre written by perhaps the best home-grown playwrights to appear in the last 15 years.

In Eleemosynary playwright Lee Blessing, like he does in all his work, celebrates the joy of language and its intrinsic power to create storms of imagery. In this short, eliptical and direct play which demands a symbolic staging, Blessing gives us three generations of Westbrook women- a unique family blessed (and cursed) with supreme intelligence and eccentricity.

I have directed the play once and seen it staged several times and each encounter has proven fullfilling past expectation. It is poetic without pretension and it is charatible without resorting to maudlin posings. The matriarch of the clan- the bold Dorothea is so carefully drawn as is her daughter Artie and grandaughter Echo. Dorothea's eccentricities do not become shallow manipulations here (as say similar characters do in Steel Magnolies for example), and that truly is a testement to Blessings sublime mastery of language and space. Like all great plays, Eleemosynary touches the heart and the head at the same time as it is filled with laughs and tears.

Discover and savor this highly polished diamond!

I have read every Elric novel. I own 500 kilos of fantasy paperbacks. This book brought me as much joy, inspiration and satisfaction as any book I have ever read. Elric was the first "evil" hero. Every fantasy writer has taken a peice of elric to produce their characters. Drizt Do'urden is a shadow of Elric. Raistlen is almost an exact copy of Elric. Darth vader's sinister life, dependence on technology/sorcery and eventual noble self sacrifice are in mimicry of Elric. In this book so many authors who wanted to write Elric stories, some who had made great fame and fortune copying Moorcock, were given licence to write as they pleased. Every short story in the book is its authors best work because as they write about their own dark heros in their own novels they are thinking about Elric. My highest praise: I want a sequel.. or two... or ten... a series published monthly untill I am old and grey.

I highly enjoyed this book, the dark and gothic theme created a great anti-hero in my opinion. It took a bit of time to get into the "setting" of the book, but once I did I was able to immerse myself in the story and thoroughly enjoy it.

Elric, last Prince of Melnibone. Elric makes you feel that your right there with him and drawing the from the dreaded runsword Stormbringer, all his pain,sorrow,grief you feel it all. This pale,weak being could be any of us, and yet it`s his weakness that gives him the strainth to weld such enormus power and to control the uncontrolable. Elric will make you cry, make you feel that you could defeat the Lords of Chaos your self and forever will you bare some of his burden. Your life will never be the same, the way you look at things such as the ocean will change and you`ll catch yourself try to summon the water element himself. For such a being to exist in your mind alone is enough.

Elric of Melnibone' represents a departure from the era of Tarzan and Conan, giving people a dark prince for a protagonist. This book helps put together a group of stories written for the first time by other authors and show how dynamic Michael Moorcock's Elric really is.

This is the first of the Elric saga Ive read. I found it most exhilirating. The dark antihero and his struggle for his humanity is almost sorrowful. His sword is legendary amonst who has lived to tell about it. Not many have though. Elric is an outcast among his people.It is one of the best books I have read in a long time.

This small book is glorious. It is beautiful and poetic. It contains much self analysis on the part of Manrique, and has many intimate details on the men featured therein. It is extremely inspiring and should be read by anyone with even the slightest interest. I will read his other works now. Bravo Jaime!!

Jaime Manrique writes clearly and with precision about himself and the three authors he joins with himself as "eminent maricones." I found this book to be very enjoyable and educational. I was familiar with all of these authors, and now feel closer to each of them. I hope that this book will be read by Latin Americans who like to read; by North Americans interested in Hispanic-American culture; by gay activists interested in our history and the coming-out process.

Simply stated, I learned plenty about these great literary heroes. Manrique does not pretend to know everything, but he has much to share in this touching memoir about his encounters with Lorca, Puig and Arenas. I commend Manrique for showing us how human--vulnerable and flawed--these men were. Grounded in a prose that is unpretentious and generous with glimpses of writers at their best and at their worst, this is a must for any collector of Lorca, Puig or Arenas scholarship.

Emminent Maricones is a treasure. It is rare that a writer of Manrique's skill takes the time to lovingly explore the very human side of the lives and literary contributions of fellow writers. This is not a an irreverant comparison of whether or not Puig, Lorca, and Arenas were able to write well BECAUSE they were gay but how perhaps their perception and world view was more acute because of their sexuality. I found it irresistable and read through this little jewel of a book twice in one sitting, the next logical step being to return to the recommended books Manrique thoughtfully suggests!

"Eminent Maricones: Arenas, Lorca, Puig, and Me" is an extraordinary achievement by author Jaime Manrique. The book combines autobiographical material by the Colombian-born Manrique with chapters about three other gay male Hispanic writers: Cuba's Reinaldo Arenas, Spain's Federico Garcia Lorca, and Argentina's Manuel Puig. The book thus constitutes an exploration of a sort of pan-Hispanic gay male identity, as well as a moving meditation on the place of the literary artist in the modern world. Portions of the book have been previously published in both Spanish and English.

Manrique's autobiographical writing is fascinating. He describes his childhood in Colombia, his emigration to the United States, and his "births" as both a writer and a gay man. Particularly powerful is his memoir of learning how to read; for him, awakening to the power of literacy was a life-changing revelation: "I felt as Balboa must have felt when he first glimpsed the Pacific."

Manrique knew both Arenas and Puig personally, and he writes with tenderness and insight of the last days of these two great writers. In his chapter on Lorca, he "reconstructs" a portrait of the man and the artist through second-hand accounts and through readings of Lorca's own fascinating writings.

Manrique describes Arenas, Lorca, and Puig as "the great triumvirate of openly homosexual writers who have written in Spanish." Reading his reclamation of these three writers as his literary forbears, I was reminded of the work done by African-American writer Alice Walker to recover Zora Neale Hurston as a black literary foremother. Like Walker, Manrique honors those whose revolutionary literature continues to inspire new generations of writers.

Ultimately, Manrique expresses solidarity with and compassion for all who have suffered dispossession or persecution due to the prejudice of an entrenched status quo. I recommend "Eminent Maricones" to those interested in Latin American and pan-Hispanic studies, gay literature, and contemporary autobiography.

I found this book by accident and it has become a personal favorite. I casually opened it while standing at the counter in my kitchen and found myself still standing until it was finished. Have given it to all my children and most of my friends. Poignant without being overly sentimental, the poetry evokes tender feelings and allows us to ponder anew the experiences we have had in our own lives, and those yet to come. Some books come and go...this one is a keeper...can't lend this one as I read it everyday.

Reading this book is like sitting down with a comfortable friend who knows all the poems you'd like to hear and many more that you've never come across, but should have. Here's a friend who doesn't mind sharing all sorts of interesting tidbits of knowledge about the poet and the art, but is never didactic. Dr. Hardy has chosen well, selecting poems that span both millennia and miles. The book includes poems that cover the great range of familial relationships, and the resulting interesting and complex emotions. His concise comments on the poets and their circumstances enhanced my enjoyment and understanding of the material, though all these poems can stand alone. A great read for the glancer-througher and for the serious reader alike. Highly recommended.

Grant Hardy's collection of poems, some of which he translated from the Chinese, gave me comfort and perspective at a crucial time in my life; I read them in a hospital awaiting exploratory cardiac surgery. I had read many of the poets before, but only one of the poems, so there was a freshness to the experience. Mr. Hardy's biographical insights are printed on the same page as the poems, providing interesting connections between poet and poem. The experience led me to look back and forward on my life and prepared me for whatever the future held.

I was so moved by the poems in this collection. Because of his obvious knowledge of the Chinese language, he brought forth poems that I would never have had access to before. Having experienced the birth of a child and the loss of the loved one in the same year, it was a wonderful experience to read the poems relating to those life changes. It is so wonderful to read poems compiled by an author who values family!

Janice Johnson

Grant Hardy has created a collection of poetry that is accessible for the casual reader of poetry, while being a pleasure for the serious student of literature as well. Through his tasteful selection of poems, Mr. Hardy captures the beautiful and sometimes painful gamut of emotion that family life can entail, without lapsing into sentimentality. Mr. Hardy's helpful footnotes give insight into the poetry, and more importantly, into the lives of the poets themselves. The effect is a book that I continually read for wisdom, perspective, and enjoyment. I have given it to family members and friends of all ages, since the poems cover all different stages of family life, so there will always be a topic that one finds pertinent. This book will be a cherished volume in anyone's library.

I bought two of this item. My step mother wanted to find this storybook for a long time friend. So one for my stepmom and one for her friend. Both books arrived in first class condition and the subject matter was exactly what was wanted. Worth the price and I'm thankful that such literature is still printed. I was surprised to find the story was about early Nove Scotia and it's people.

Carries me away. Great read. This guy can write...has a great future. It is entrancing, haunting. I wanted it to go on. In addition to the lyrical euphoria, this gives a great perception of the life and times surrounding the historic conflict and relocation. I am encouraging all my friends to put down their heavy, current books and revive the other side of their brains.

Evangeline is Longfellow's masterpiece. The poem begins with
the famous "forest primeval" . The reader is taken to the home
of the Acadian farmers and the famous village reminescent
of a variety of tradespeople. The work describes whole
communities dispersed and separated from the homeland in the
mid-1700s. Evangeline and Gabriel flee home and experience
the pain of separation despite the fact that Gabriel seems to
keep a step ahead during a major part of the story. The work
attests to the beauty and strength of a woman's devotion.
In many ways, our fate and destiny tend to be random events which are out of our immediate control. This work traces the
fate of important characters living in a state of uncontrolled
flux and uncertainty . Readers of the poem will discover
how the story unfolds and the difficult choices presented
at various stages of Longfellow's journey. The work is
written utilizing an advanced vocabulary typical of the
writers during this period .

I heard about this book from my mom a few weeks ago after I went to see the movie Serendipity. I told her about the plot of the two people in love searching for one another and just missing every time. She said it reminded her of another story, Evangeline. Since i attend an engineering school I am always very eager to read books with real meaning behind them, given that all my textbooks focus on is wastewater treatment, biological processes, etc... So given that I wasn't really expecting too much but a relief from textbooks when I picked up this book. Little did I know it was soon to become one of my favorites. I was pleasantly surprised by the Christian influences behind the poem and found myself crying a lot more than I expected. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a great appreciation for well written, romantic poetry and literature.

I have a passion for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's lyrical lines of Evangeline. Therefore, I was uneasy in the purchase of Evangeline, A Novel. I shouldn't have been. Finis Fox's insight into the lives, loves and losses of the Acadians is remarkable. He adds to the story lines rather than detracting from them. His words are at once romantic and colorful, lulling you into passive reflection. The emotions are all there, the joy, the pain and the suffering. He does not stray far from Longfellow's poem, using the same names of people and places. It is a story worth reading! It would be worth the price if it were twice as much. I wish it could have been longer, but in staying true to Longfellow, the story moved much the same as did the poem. If you loved Evangeline, you will love this novel as much or maybe more!

This book is awesome. The stories are engrossing and the characters engaging. Unexpected connections and twists make this an intellectual minefield. I highly recommend this book and any work that follows to anyone who enjoys a complex, richly written story!

Wow I love these stories!!! I can't wait for the next volume!

This book is just amazing, I couldn't put it down. I tend to read a lot of the same types of books and don't go outside that very often and I'm very glad I did with this one. I'm eagerly awaiting the other books in the series.

I could not put Everything In It's Right Place down once I began to read it.
I devoured this book within a day, and suddenly I feel that I need to read it all over again just to absorb it more fully.

I cannot wait for the other two books, I hope that the author never stops writing he is a fabulous author. It is very rare to find a book that completely draws a reader into the stories. Especially when one reads the book and can almost visualize the scenes as one is reading them. Stephen has a fantastic way of allowing the reader to imagine it in their own way, while still allowing how he might see it to come through.

I have not been sucked into a fictional universe like this in a very long time, and this is just Volume 1! The characters are believeable and the stories are very engrossing. I'm amazed at how things are seamlessly and subtly interwoven. I constantly found myself turning back and flipping forward again to make connections. The details are obviously very carefully thought out and planned so as not to contradict themselves. I am anxiously awaiting further volumes. :)

Beautifully written stories that explore relationships; the difficulty of maintaining them and the quagmires created with a breakup. To some extent we are all messed up and we have all made bad decisions and questionable choices. We've all felt stuck. Ms. Ehrhardt doesn't ask us to pity her characters, most of whom are cheating on their husbands or thinking about cheating, but to understand the complexities of the human heart.

As a prelude to her stories, Pia Ehrhardt quotes Robert Lowell, saying, "Yet why not say what happened?" The implication, of course, is that saying what happened is what we avoid. Not so Ehrhardt, whose stories take an unflinching look at heartbreaking moments, situations, relationships and choices that life dishes out. From "A Man," where a maimed rape victim tries to find consolation in her rescuer, to the provocative adolescent sexuality of "Famous Fathers," Ehrhardt refuses to back down. This is what life is like, her stories say. Deal with it. Even better is the way Ehrhardt says 'what happened.' Her sentences are taut and elegant. Her observations are both funny and judicious. Her characters don bear suits, and trespass to climb water towers--broaching intimacies at dizzying heights. This is a debut that not only faces down life, it entertains, so we can face it, too. Read it.

FAMOUS FATHERS by Pia Z. Ehrhardt. Wow! Winner of the Narrative Prize, Pia Z. Ehrhardt creates landscapes of the physical world and the heart that are equally vivid, lush and invigorating. As adept with universal human understanding as she is with the wild, uncontrolled, and brilliant nature of the feminine, Ehrhardt's authorial light infuses her stories and sends readers into the space of the forbidden, a liminal encounter with secrecy, intimacy, loyalty, and power. With stories in McSweeney's, Narrative Magazine, Mississippi Review, Pindeldyboz, and Wild Strawberries, her work evokes the pursuit of self and other in a contemporary fusion of that which is at once female and daunting. This is a marvelous story collection by a proven writer with precise and luminous prose. Go buy it right now!

A character in one of these short stories expresses herself by quoting famous people, and as I neared the end of this outstanding collection, I thought of General Sherman's observation, "It is well that war is so terrible--or men would love it too much." These stories seem to say "It is just as well that adultery is so terrible, or men and women would love it too much." Except for the very first one, these stories are beautiful and true. The most attractive and characteristic element of Pia Ehrhardt's writing is her unique voice and narrative persona, which is simultaneously energetic, observant, sensitive, sensuous as well as sensual, and honest, but also cold, ruthless, matter-of-fact, skittering along the edge of deception and self-deception (but almost always saved by the authorial consciousness floating above), and deeply funny. Being funny requires a writer to maintain perspective, and an often painfully honest perspective also generates the honesty in the voice and narrative persona of these stories. Nietzsche couldn't resist cheap shots, and he wrote things he knew to be untrue just because they were witty, but in the imaginative world of FAMOUS FATHERS, humour is always true, always honest, always cleansing--even if having alcohol poured over an open wound hurts like hell. The short story, FAMOUS FATHERS makes me realise, is the perfect form for depicting adultery--a drama of concentrated choice, a fateful act, the fulfillment of a doomed wish. There is no future to adultery, because if there is, it becomes something else. Is it a coincidence that some of the greatest works of literature have adultery as the mainspring of their plots--THE ILIAD, the AGAMEMNON of Aeschylus, the story of David and Bathsheba (and poor Uriah the Hittite), MADAME BOVARY, and ANNA KARENINA? These works all go on to explore other aspects of life, but Ehrhardt stays intensely focused on adultery itself, and her fascination, her attraction to it, and her honesty make these stories extremely compelling. The range and depth of Ehrhardt's treatment of the subject can be seen in excerpts from two stories. The story "Stop" closes with a beautifully seductive image of the momentary freedom and joy that adultery offers: "Try to forget that jumping-on-a-tramopoline feeling, when life is the top of the bounce, and the view up there is scary and crazy and sweet. The two of you with your hair flying, his unbuttoned shirt caping behind him, and eight feet of air under your feet." But these, and other passages describing the attractions of adultery are balanced by the deeper truth revealed in the story "How it Floods", in the context of a character's child: "I pray that he falls in love the way other people fall in love, where it's just a gift offered by a man and a woman at about the same time, where their hearts are flying toward one another, sure and scared." Unlike the primitive and emotionally stunted content of "Adult" entertainment fare, these stories really are for adults, for those willing to humbly, honestly, and observantly read about, and reflect on, the inexplicable, and finally unknowable, desires of the human heart.

Pia Z. Ehrhardt's stories are a pleasure to read, even when the people (and they feel like people, not characters) are suffering. She understands the mistakes we make, and the sometimes clumsy gestures we offer, afterwards. Her stories, mostly set in New Orleans, are lush and atmospheric, but the focus is always on the heart. Ehrhardt is too honest to offer easy solutions--she understands that love is a serious, messy business--but she honors the effort. Each story arrives fully bloomed--the shorter stories work as glimpes, broken snapshots--but her longer stories, like Alice Munro's, carry the emotional weight of novels. Forgiveness is everything. My favorites are "Driveway" and "The Longest Part of the Day," but every story here, every sentence, is a hard-won gift.