Dance Books

At first this book reminded me of Of Human Bondage (Signet Classics) or Lolita By Vladimir Nabokov, but he seems to have avoided the pit falls in this novel.
It is more like star crossed lovers by the end:
the older man and the brilliant young girl he loves.
It has depth and full flowering of passion and experience.
It is better written than the history by Melvyn Bragg that got me interested.
It pretty much covers a lot of bases in the love affair area:
Love, obsession, deception, romance, infidelity.
It is certain;y one of the best novels I have read lately.
It even has suggested reading: William Hazlitt's Liber Amortis.

This is a well-written, beautifully evocative story of an illicit, thinly veiled relationship between a retired bank manager and an 18-year old young woman in the North of England in the late 1980s.

On the face of it, this story evokes reminders of Nabokov's "Lolita". Yet, as "A TIME TO DANCE" unfolds, the reader sees the blossoming of a relationship between a retired bank manager (who remains nameless) and Bernadette Kennedy, a young lady from a socially disadvantaged background who first comes to the attention of the retired bank manager through an essay she had submitted to a literary contest sponsored by the Rotary Club to which the aforesaid retired bank manager belonged.

Impressed by the quality of Bernadette's essay, he helps carry the winning vote for her. It wasn't until a little later in the story that he meets Bernadette for the first time to congratulate her for winning the top prize, and by degrees, their relationship grows and deepens.

Later in the story, complications develop in the relationship, which cause it to break up.

While this is a story of a love between 2 people from different generations, it is also a very deeply affecting human drama. "A TIME TO DANCE" will leave the reader with nary a dry eye, seeing how it is that Love on a very personal level can broaden and enrich our everyday lives.

This is a well-written, beautifully evocative story of an illicit, thinly veiled relationship between a retired bank manager and an 18-year old young woman in the North of England in the late 1980s.

On the face of it, this story evokes reminders of Nabokov's "Lolita". Yet, as "A TIME TO DANCE" unfolds, the reader sees the blossoming of a relationship between a retired bank manager (who remains nameless) and Bernadette Kennedy, a young lady from a socially disadvantaged background who first comes to the attention of the retired bank manager through an essay she had submitted to a literary contest sponsored by the Rotary Club to which the aforesaid retired bank manager belonged.

Impressed by the quality of Bernadette's essay, he helps carry the winning vote for her. It wasn't until a little later in the story that he meets Bernadette for the first time to congratulate her for winning the top prize, and by degrees, their relationship grows and deepens.

Later in the story, complications develop in the relationship, which cause it to break up.

While this is a story of a love between 2 people from different generations, it is also a very deeply affecting human drama. "A TIME TO DANCE" will leave the reader with nary a dry eye, seeing how it is that Love on a very personal level can broaden and enrich our everyday lives.

This novel is in the form of a long letter from a 54-year-old man to his 18-year-old lover. At first it sounds like the man is more in love with love than with Bernadette, his lover. He is also married, not necessarily unhappily either, though his wife is ill and soon (conveniently for the plot) dies. But before that happens, Bernadette becomes pregnant,and the story deepens from that point on. He and Bernadette decide to see each other while his wife is ill, though he continues to care for his wife with much love and tenderness. Bernadette tells him she will wait for him, and she does. Some of this comes across as just a tad too pat and unmessy - too idealistic - but Bragg is an excellent writer, and it's impossible not to find this book interesting: he pulls you right into the story.

David M. Lubin's "Titanic" offers valuable and interesting insights into James Cameron's 1997 Academy Award-winning film by the same title. Lubin, a professor of art at Wake Forest University, brilliantly positions the film within its artistic, historic and cultural context, relating it to art (Frederic Church's "The Icebergs" and "Heart of the Andes," George Caleb Bingham, Jacques-Louis David, among others), literature (Crane, London, Twain, Whitman, et al.), music (Offenbach's "Orpheus in the Underworld," Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde," etc.), theatre (the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, etc.), and even to still photography (Lewis Hines' "Young Russian Jewess at Ellis Island," Alfred Stieglitz's "The Steerage"). Lubin also connects "Titanic" to numerous other films, especially "It Happened One Night" and "A Night to Remember," and filmmakers, including Hitchcock, Welles, Ford and Kubrick. Lubin says "Titanic" is "not by any means an intellectual film," yet his book seems to belie this statement. How could a film that poses "questions about society's divide between rich and poor, the nature of love, the meaning of sacrifice, and modernity's faith in...technological prowess and mastery over nature" be anything but an intellectual film?

For a movie that was almost universally loathed by "high-brow" critics, "Titanic" gets a very lovingly detailed and in-depth analysis courtesy of Mr. Lubin. His analysis is interesting and well-researched without going too overboard or reaching too far for metaphors and artsy-fartsy obscure parallels, as some BFI contributing authors have.

This book afforded me a fascinating 12th look at a film I've already seen 11 times, and I feel enriched for having read it. It is scholarly without being boorishly so, and resists the chance to take gratuitous potshots at the flimsiest part of the film -- the dialogue. Lubin rightfully defends writer/director James Cameron's film even at its weakest points, probably because to single out the flimsy and shallow dialogue is to overlook the mastery that went into every other single detail of getting this epic film made. Visually, it is so rich in detail and craft that to malign it for "teen-speak" dialogue is just to be petty. But make no mistake --- Lubin is not playing the cheerleader for the sake of doing so. He is carefully examining the film for its comments on class distinctions, its parallels to art and opera, its classic story structure, and how the timing of the making and release of the film is nearly as significant as the timing of the actual sinking from the perspective of changing cultural and social mores. Or something like that -- Lubin phrases it so much better than I ever could.

To those who would chastise Cameron for the dialogue, let's see how well YOU do writing dialogue while simultaneously juggling the 40 thousand details, large and small, of a project this massive!

Lubin acknowledges the film's flaws but also pays due heed to the elements that work well, and the film is full of them.

Just read the damn book, folks.

Any movie as large (in every respect) as James Cameron's TITANIC, deserves to be understood, not only in the contemporary consumer context in which it was created, but also through the complex philosophical, cultural, and artistic history which served as its genesis. David Lubin's splendid, captivating, and handsomely packaged little book is a rare jewel for any reader interested in popular culture as subject for serious analysis. We come to understand Cameron's film, although cloaked in melodrama and crude dialogue, as a fully realized "synaesthesia," striving (not entirely unsuccessfully) to consume and re-imagine everything that came before it. Lubin, without a hint of pedantry, goes a long way towards revealing the mysterious zeitgeist at the heart of a global blockbuster. This is a marvelous book, and it deserves to be read.

You think you understood this simple (if expensive) movie? Think again. David Lubin demonstrates why Titanic can really be seen as an allegory--about race and class, humanity and technology, and much more--with amazing depth and sophistication. He's an academic but he writes like a journalist, and you'll be amazed at all the fascinating tidbits he comes up with. Plus the book is beautifully produced with dozens of photos from the film to illustrate (literally) the points he's making. Just a great read.

This is a great collection of Tom Stoppard plays, and includes some of his best works.

Arcadia is one of Stoppard's greatest plays - a bizarre combination of physics, mathematics, poetry, a good old-fashioned academic stoush and romance (or lust) to boot. A fantastic play to see, but very good to read also.

The Real Thing, Hapgood and Indian Ink are also among Stoppard's more mature and better plays, and nicely round out this collection. These are some of Stoppard's better known plays (and you can read reviews of them on their own pages) but I'll just summarise by saying that I think they are fantastic.

Night and Day is an earlier Stoppard play and maybe not quite as good - it is concerned with journalism in war-torn Africa and does take a deep look at issues faced by a journalist in that situation. However, in comparison to the other plays in this volume, it just doesn't seem quite as good - however it is still a fine play in its own right and does make for interesting reading nonetheless.

Overall, I definitely reccomend this volume, particularly since it's cheaper than buying each of the plays individually.

Tom Stoppard is arguably one of the greatest playwrights of all time (and I do say arguably), and this collection only proves it. I am currently away at college while I write this review, and have pitifully forgotten my battered, dog-eared copy of this book at home, and so I'm pining away because it really is such a staple in my life - I cannot count the amount of times I've pulled out the book and read "The Real Thing", but I'm nearly sure it runs toward the hundred mark. All the plays are exceptional, although the aforementioned "The Real Thing" stands out, along with "Aracadia" and the wonderfully underrated "Indian Ink."

Every time I pick up this collection, I find myself sitting and reading for hours. Something about Stoppard's command of the language, his own personal calling card, is undeniably riveting.

And though there are times (especially in Day & Night) where it seems that characters are too clever for their own good, his sense of timing and his love for delivering a smart, believable group of people amazes me.

This collection is wonderful in its scope, including everything from the frequently produced "Hapgood" to the more recent treasure "Indian Ink." It's a must-have.

After seeing Stoppard's "The Real Thing" in London, I was blown away. I purchased this collection to have "The Real Thing," and was blown away but all 5 of Stoppard's masterpieces. He writes convincingly of love, redemption and what it means to exist and to live. I cannot recommend this collection (or anything by Stoppard) enough.

For any theatre professional, student or enthusiast. Highly recommend watching "My Dinner With Andre" as well. It's a film by Wallace Shawn.

Comprehending this book is no small feat. Sure, you start with the premise that competing with the technical spectacle of movies and TV is a fruitless pursuit. That's not difficult. Neither is the idea of embracing poverty in theatre and making the human being the only center of performance. That's dead easy. Spare costumes, little or no makeup, no sound effects, as few light effects as possible. Who can argue with that?

But this doesn't mean everybody can embrace Grotowski's vision of Poor Theatre. His is one that involves stripping away all preconceived notions of theatre from the early Modern period on. This will never fly in commercial theatre, dependent as it is on technology, nor will it satisfy many recent playwrights, who depend on technical do-funnies to make their shows work.

Grotowski also takes a funny view of plays, playwrights, and theoreticians who don't agree with him. Among other things, he considers playwrights as hired talent and plays as essentially malleable. He also suggests that the only way the writings of Artaud are useful in theatre is if they are taken elementally rather than globally - a position sure not to sit well with many avant-garde directors.

Because this book isn't a straight-ahead statement of principles, ideas, and practices, it yields its secrets only with difficulty. Parts of it aren't even written by Grotowski, but are interviews by other authors, or even observations that don't include quotes from the man himself. It was basically compiled to provide an overview of the ideas and products of the Polish Laboratory Theatre up to that time, and it encourages experiment and development by the reader.

This isn't to say that it isn't actually useful. There are exercises for actors; there are statements of theory for directors; there are even sketches, diagrams, and photos for designers. However, expect to wrestle with this book if you're going to unlock its secrets. Once you elect to start down this path, you have a long row to hoe

"Towards A Poor Theatre" by Jerzy Grotowski is probably the most important book written on acting since Stainslavsky's three famous character books. There is so little known about Grotowski and many people have tried to fake his work and people need to read the man's original words. Grotowski's vision of theatre has had the greatest effect on me more than any other person in theatre. He saw acting as a Holy experience where both the actor and spectator were transformed after the performance. Grotowski expanded from where Stainslavsky left off and drew his ideas everywhere from modern art to religious rituals to primitive theatre. Any one interested in theatre must read this book somehow and be changed forever like I have.

There is no better book that I have read on the theory and practice of theatre. As Peter Brook says in the preface, "Grotowski is unique. Why? Because no-one else in the world, to my knowledge, no-one since Stanislavsky, has investigated the nature of acting, its phenomenon, its meaning, the nature and science of its mental-physical-emotional processes as deeply and completely as Grotowski."

Grotowski argues effectively that the split of the stage and the screen necessitates that the stage redefine its focus. The screen with its higher budget and countless retakes will always beat the stage in richness. So, Grotowski posits "If it [the stage] cannot be richer than the cinema, then let it be poor." The rest of the book illustrates what such a poor theatre means in practice. Brilliant.

I loved the first volume that Mark and Matt put together, and the second was even better. Being a post-GDW-collapse convert to Space: 1889, I didn't even realize that there had been a "Transactions" fanzine. I think that the new format does more justice to the efforts of Mark and the varied authors to improve upon the basic game materials than the fanzine. I think that the second volume would be more useful to those who are looking for more general information on Victorian Era Gaming and not just for Space: 1889. Loved it! Eagerly awaiting the 3rd Volume.

This volume collects the first four issues of the Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society, a formerly-defunct magazine for GDW's late, lamented Space:1889. I regretted not acquiring these issues when they came out, but now I'm glad I waited. This combined edition is greatly superior to the originals: layout is improved, there are more graphics, and it is nice to have everything combined under one set of covers. The articles themselves are good-to-excellent in quality, and are frequently better than the material released for the original game. Many of the authors are professional historians or graduate students of history, and their depth of knowledge shows. The only thing preventing me from giving this product five stars were the facts that a: my copy (and mine alone, it seems, since I spoke with others who purchased this) was a little defective, and b: this product only covers Space: 1889--which was entirely fine by me, but might limit its appeal to other Victorian-era gamers who aren't great fans of the Space: 1889 universe. Future issues will broaden the coverage, I am told.

I am also told that the editors believe that this product was not 100% perfect, and that there is room for improvement. Personally, I don't see how. I found the product to be excellent, and welcome its release. And if volume 2 is going to be better than this, as the editors promise, it will be _extremely_ impressive indeed.

If you like role playing in the Victorian Era, this is a resource that you won't want to pass on.

There are all sorts of nifty things, adventures, floorplans, characters, cross over ideas, and background flavor.

Space 1889 was not the greatest game ever produced. The marketing of the game seemed weak. And, to be perfectly frank (pun intended), many of the illustrations were terrible! But, inspite of that and the demise of GDW (a tragedy in my not-so-humble opinion), the game lives on in the small enclaves here and there, joined by the internet.

I think that really says the ideas behind the game mechanics were brilliant. And I'm grateful to those who produced the game.

Transactions was a great fanzine. It, too, had an ignominious end. Now, with these compilations, it lives again. And better, far better than before!

This compilation has accounts of two miniatures games, which lend a great deal to the playing of the game.

If you enjoy movies like "Zulu", "Rogues March", "Beau Geste", "Four Feathers" and "the Light That Failed", you'll love this book.

i rarely write reviews unless i'm ticked off.

i own a used copy of the original hardcover, back in the days before amazon.com, when it was a real accomplishment to find a rare used book. fred allen has been a favorite of mine since i was 12 years old and discovered old time radio. in fact, it's in hommage to f.a. that i have always typed in all lower case, as he did in his letters (see the other great book in the allen trio, "fred allen's letters". "much ado about me" is also wonderful, but unfortunately not quite finished when allen passed away.)

so my criticism is painful. . . i was so excited to see this book reprinted that i actually posted an announcement to the old time radio internet digest, encouraging folks to check it out. i ordered a copy myself, even though i own the original, just to throw a teeny bit of financial support at such a surprising endeavor. it seems quite unlikely to me that enough folks have even heard of fred allen these days to make this reprint a financial success (which would then, hopefully, spur more of this material to surface).

as i paged through the book i've read 100 times already, i could tell that the reprint was made from the original plates. the ink bleeds badly on many pages, and one page (which i can't seem to find now) was even printed slanted. the front cover is acceptable, even if as minimalist as one could make it given that it features a hirshfeld drawing. the back cover looks just awful, a plain white page with a bar code at the bottom and a small paragraph describing the book.

it's just simply a very cheap affair, despite the quality of the writing itself.

one other note: be aware that at least 50% of the book consists of script excerpts. when the book was published in 1953, no one had even conceived of the idea that one day people would be listening to these shows on reel to reel tapes, then lps, then cassettes, then mp3s. so to give the reader a sampling of the flavor of the show with these excerpts made sense.

now, however, anyone with enough interest in f.a. to buy this book most likely has had access to the shows one way or another. having a large collection myself, i was disappointed that i had heard many of the shows excerpted already.

but this is a minor reservation on a truly delightful, honest, witty, and funny account of allen's days in radio.

"Treadmill To Oblivion" is the definitive book of Fred Allen's wit, humor, and charm. It traces his adventures in radio from 1932 to 1949. Within, we get samples of rountines, brilliantly funny jabs (Bewtween he and Jack Benny) and insight into the comic, concentrated mind of Fred Allen; one of America's greatests comedians. Also, there are sevral humorous observations, asides, and quips that reveal Allen's biting ever-throbbing wit. A MUST-READ for any lover of wit, wisdom, and humor. A good companion to this book is the honestly warm "Much Ado About Me", Fred Allen's subsequent book, telling the tale of his life before radio. Regardless, READ THIS BOOK!!!!!

"Treadmill To Oblivion" is the definitive book of Fred Allen's wit, humor, and charm. It traces his adventures in radio from 1932 to 1949. Within, we get samples of rountines, brilliantly funny jabs (Bewtween he and Jack Benny) and insight into the comic, concentrated mind of Fred Allen; one of America's greatests comedians. Also, there are sevral humorous observations, asides, and quips that reveal Allen's biting ever-throbbing wit. A MUST-READ for any lover of wit, wisdom, and humor. A good companion to this book is the honestly warm "Much Ado About Me", Fred Allen's subsequent book, telling the tale of his life before radio. Regardless, READ THIS BOOK!!!!!

Have owned & loaned both.In Treadmill To OblivionFred tells of his greedyagent booking him into themuddiest place in AustraliaHis early bookings & dealings with this agentare an Allen gem. All About Me was mostly hisradio scripts. Finished byhis daughter. Excellent forwriters of comedy. Successto all that follow in hissteps.

aight y'alls i aint playin' when i be sayin this book is the bomb. shoo, i'se be cookin' ups a storms ups in my kitchens with thems resepees. thems fired mens are crispy like my chinkens.
i'se didn't realizes that them shows on tv was so funny and mades me feel good and i'se cried me some tears, yo.
anyways, goods readin' and keep writin' these guides.

before i read tvtherapy i was just a poor sap cluelessly watching television. this book is such a great guide for someone like me who knows nothin' about the healing qualities of television.
i've discovered the joys of picking the right shows to set my different moods.
thank you bev and jason for enriching my life.before i read tvtherapy i was just a poor sap cluelessly watching television. this book is such a great guide for someone like me who knows nothin' about the healing qualities of television.
i've discovered the joys of picking the right shows to set my different moods.
thank you bev and jason for enriching my life.

Sparkling with slick prose, and some downright funny quotes from a variety of TV shows, TV Therapy picks out perceptive aspects from your favorite TV shows that will have you watching them again with fresh eyes. With the food and drink recipies, you'll have culinary company that adds more dimension to the experience, whether it's burritos for dinner, or cocktails and party platters with friends.

This is the third book that I own from the Cinematherapy series, and it's wonderful. Like most people in New England, I'll be spending more time indoors as the weather gets colder and the book is packed with reviews of just about every TV show neatly arranged by type, in addition to some very creative recipes for the novice and seasoned chef alike.

There are some very funny TV quotes peppered in here and there and i can't forget to mention the drink recipes that will take care of the winter blues.

This book is a must for any TV buff.

I never really watched The Twilight Zone all that much. However, I stumbled on an episode called "Black leather Jackets" on YouTube. I enjoyed the episode so much I wanted to learn everything I could about it. And this book definitely helped me do that! I would definitely recommend this book to everyone from Rod Serling neophytes to seasoned experts on that "other dimension!"

Earl Hamner Jr wrote some of the finest Twilight Zone scripts aired on TV. This book is simply a sample of his greatest work in script form. It is a book meant for those who want to see how the original script read. I am one of those people. I personally believe the TWILIGHT ZONE is one of the most imaginitive shows ever developed for Television, and any time I can get the scripts in written form will be a treasure.
If you are a fan of the Twilight Zone, you will enjoy this treasure this book has to offer. Since I am an avid fan, this book comes as a wonderful asset to my collection.
I would like to see EVERY TZ story written for fans to read. As for now, we have these treasures to enjoy along with some written by Rod Serling himself and others.
I hope to see more books like this one that are written for avid viewers of the original Twilight Zone like myself.

Having read and/or casually perused more than thirty so-called 'TV script books', I can easily say that this new book is one of the best. As has been mentioned, Earl Hamner was among the forgotten writers of "The Twilight Zone" (Montgomery Pittman, Hamner, Jerry Sohl, plus a handful of others who wrote only one or two segments). His contribution to the series numbers only eight episodes, but two of these are surely among the most memorable in the entire series ("Jess-Belle", "Stopover in a Quiet Town").

At this juncture, three other volumes of "Twilight Zone"
scripts are available to us, including those of Richard
Matheson and George Clayton Johnson. Rod Serling's scripts
have not as yet been published, nor have those of
Charles Beaumont. The two "Twilight Zone Scripts" volumes containing the scripts of Matheson, released in 2001 and 2002, as well as the "Twilight Zone Scripts and Stories" of Johnson were somewhat of a disappointment. Not the scripts themselves, but the way in which they were presented.
Those of Matheson were edited (if you can call it that)
by Stanley Wiater. But really, Wiater did little more than re-state what has already been said elsewhere about Matheson's
episodes. Here and there, a new tidbit from Matheson himself is added into the commentary, nothing too special. No interviews with actors from Matheson's episodes were done,
nor is there any special insight into the material. Johnson's
volume (now out of print) is welcome, but slim and altogether lacking commentary.

So, it is with "The Twilight Zone Scripts of Hamner" that we get what we were after. The scripts are preceded by thoughtful, thorough, and occasionally critical commentary by Albarella that matches or surpasses the level of Marc Zicree's in "The Twilight Zone Companion". Albarella obviously went to great lengths to get anecdotes from stars of Hamner episodes including such luminaries whose voices we don't hear often: Anne Francis, James Best, Barry Morse, plus lesser-known actors Nancy Malone, Kevin Hagen, and Michael Forest. Of course, background as to the genesis of each story is detailed with comments from Hamner himself. The commentaries are welcome in more ways than one; after all, haven't fans been reading and taking to heart the critiques of "The Companion" for the last 21 years? Time for some new blood in the pool.

Also included is a section of production and publicity photos from each episode, as well as recent shots taken in 2002 at the "Stars of the Zone" Convention (the first convention
for "Twilight Zone") of several actors appearing in Hamner's episodes. Unfortunately the quality of many of these shots is only marginal.

As the ardent fan of the original series knows, Hamner occupied an oddly interesting place amongst the core of writers from the series. Serling focused on bespectacled bank clerks and high-paid businessmen suffering from ulcers who craved serenity in another time period. Matheson usually focused on realism and the writing is often extremely despondent and horrific. Beaumont gave us the extraordinary. Hamner's 'dissertation for Twilight Zone' compares and contrasts country folk ("The Hunt", "Jess-Belle") with city folk ("You Drive", "Stopover in a Quiet Town", "Black Leather Jackets", "The Bewitchin' Pool"). Two fantasy stories, "Ring a Ding Girl" and "A Piano in the House" round things out nicely. Needless to say, the eight shows by Hamner generate a great deal of interest,
if for no other reason that they examine a number of interesting
ideas. Luckily, the ideas are now in print!

Hopefully the future will see the release of the scripts of
Serling; while you wait for that book, this is the book to read.

Earl Hamner is truly the "lost" writer of the Twilight Zone. Author of eight scripts for the original series, making him fourth in terms of production (behind Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont, and Richard Matheson, in that order), he has nonetheless failed to achieve a major reputation in the world of Twilight Zone fans. Part of this may be due to the fact that Marc Scott Zicree all but ignored Hamner's contributions in his seminal analysis of the series, "The Twilight Zone Companion"; another likely factor is that Hamner later made his reputation with "The Waltons," about as un-Twilight Zoneish a TV program as it is possible to imagine.

But this wonderful collection makes it clear that, though not on the level of the "big three," Hamner was an important writer for the series, bringing a down-home rural sensibility to a program which was more often urban and contemporary in focus. Several of his works published here, including "Jess-Belle," "The Hunt," and "Stopover in a Quiet Town," deserve to rank highly in any overall assessment of the series. All are classics, and have stood the test of time.

It must be admitted, however, that this handsomely-produced volume also points up Hamner's limitations as a Twilight Zone writer. Some of the scripts, such as "A Piano in the House," are merely mediocre. But some are truly ghastly--none more so than "Black Leather Jackets," a notorious stink-bomb of an episode from the final season (featuring, and I am not making this up, beatnik bikers from outer space!). Incredibly--almost unbelievably--the original script as published in this collection is even worse than the transcendentally-terrible episode as aired, with even more absurd dialogue and ludicrous plot develoments.

But in truth, for the devoted Twilight Zone fan, even the bad scripts and episodes have their value--if only to point up the wild contrast with the show's established classics. At its worst, as in "Black Leather Jackets," Twilight Zone still remained enormously enjoyable television, and reading the weakest scripts contained in this book is still fun. It is worth noting, too, that in at least one case, a Hamner episode generally dismissed as a failure as produced is revealed to have been simply a victim of poor acting and directing. "The Bewitchin' Pool," Twilight Zone's final program, is never more than intermittently interesting on screen, but the script is a lovely effort, beautifully written and paced.

Finally, a word of commendation is due Tony Albarella for his superb commentaries on each of Hamner's efforts. These essays are surely the most complete analyses of any Twilight Zone works since Marc Scott Zicree, and Albarella's keen insights offer a necessary corrective to Zicree's often overzealous and dismissive criticisms. The writer also offers original interview material with many of the actors from Hamner's episodes, making this book not only a testament to Hamner's talents but also a celebration of the program itself. A generous photo section (unusual in books of this type) adds to the nostalgic glow of this volume.

In all, a wonderful contribution to the literature of the Twilight Zone. What a pleasure to see Earl Hamner, the "lost" Twilight Zone writer, once again found!

Oh the American celebrities - why does no one take them seriously? They have so many opinions that they want to share with us, so many enlightening thoughts, but every time they open their mouths the common people turn away in disgust. Just what is going on? Well, read this book and find out.

This hilarious book is filled with goofy quotes and silly anecdotes. Hear the words of wisdom of Drew Barrymore, Sharon Stone, Britney Spears, Tom Cruise, Tommy Lee, among many, and be amazed! Why do we follow their every move? It must be for the comedy value! Get this book and learn the truth about America's glitterati!

I read this book while stuck on a train that was delayed for hours. It was so really ENTERTAINING that the time flew by!

I can tell you that I will never, ever look at any "star" with the same sense of admiration. Sometimes behind the sparkling image there is absolutely nothing of any value. Combine those empty-heads with a super-sized false sense of entitlement and a BIG MOUTH, and you've got the mega-laughs of Kathryn & Ross Petras' wonderful book!

This book was one of the more entertaining ones I've read. I was in suspense most the time and laughed until my stomach hurt. Great writers and great info. I reccomend this book to all who enjoy celebrity gossip and stories.

If you ever wondered what your favorite celebrities are like in "real life", you've GOT to read this book. Mostly, you will find yourself laughing out loud but be warned some of the quotes in Unusually Stupid Celebrities are so shockingly stupid, they may bring you to tears. All in all, this book is great, light-reading fun! I highly recommend it. Kathryn and Ross Petras have once again produced a well-written, hilarious, winner! (Take this one to the beach.)

Put a great voice to use as a voiceover actor in VOICEOVERS, a survey of opportunities in everything from network promos and documentaries to books on tape, radio, and animated films. A CD-ROM holds vocal exercises and interviews with voiceover actors, while tips for building strong demos rounds out an excellent survey. Other books don't go nearly as far: if only one on the topic were to be chosen for a business library, it should be VOICEOVERS: TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS FOR SUCCESS.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

If you've heard all your life "you have such a great voice, you should be doing voiceovers," but written off the idea because A. you don't live in California, B. you don't live in New York, C. you haven't got a clue how to get started, Janet Wilcox has written the book for you!

Expert, practical, and complete, Wilcox leads you through what it takes to go from cocktail-party compliment to working professionalism, including lessons, classes, coaches, renting facilities, setting up a studio, and creating not just a demo, but the best demo you can. She explains the always-fascinating problem of getting an agent and assures you that if you ARE good enough, professional enough, and persistent enough, you will find one.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of VOICEOVERS for this reviewer, who has been told she has a great voice and has actually had a lead in one TV commercial, is that its conversational writing is so appealing that you are convinced to embark on the process of becoming a "voice actor" despite how much work it entails. Exercises and contact numbers are provided, along with a CD, making the book a great workbook as well as an inspiration.

What distinguishes the "voice actor" from the "good voice"? According to Wilcox, the ability to create character and explain "who, what, when, where, and why?" in the matter of seconds.

A handbook for beginners and a guide along the way for working professionals by an extremely expert and experienced "voice actor," VOICEOVERS: TECHNIQUES AND TACTICS FOR SUCCESS is also a fascinating read for audiences who wonder how the people you hear got the jobs they did.

As an actor seeking work in the voice-over business, you have two choices. The first is to spend several years trying to figure it all out. The second is to accept the experience of someone who has been successfully working in the field for a long time.

There are just too many mistakes and misconceptions that can hold an actor back in an audition and later in a session. If you want to get work doing voice-overs, then read VOICEOVERS.

Ms. Wilcox knows the terrain and all the land mines and all the tricks. I highly recommend the book.

Allen Blumberg

Janet has managed to do the impossible - create a book that guides, informs and encourages newcomers and voice-over pro's alike.

With a witty, and conversational writing style and clever analogies to sports and games, Janet manages to make the pragmatic process of polishing your voice style and delivery - the real work - fun. Plus, she generously shares real-world career advice learned over many years as working voiceover professional. This is a wonderful - and practical - new book from an accomplished performer and teacher.