I bought this book after listening to its sequel, "Long Time, No See" on tape on my daily commute to work. Like its sequel, "Compromising Positions" centers around the life and love interests of Judith Singer. In this book, Judith is in her mid-thirties, a bored housewife with a charming house and less-than-charming dud of a husband. Though the plot of this novel is Judith's involvement in a homicide investigation, I found that the real story was in Judith's marital dilemma. What do you do when you are a bright educated young woman who loves her children but longs for a career and adult companionship? What do you do when your husband works long hours, fails to provide you with the companionship you seek, tells you you've gotten fat, and treats you like the maid? In Judith's case, you have an affair with the lieutenant in charge of the murder investigation.

Judith's investigation into Dr. Bruce Fleckstein's murder is cleverly written and filled with twists and turns. It was interesting, but not the best part of this wonderful story. I appreceiated the author's humor, and her wonderful characterization of Judith, her self-righteous husband Bob, her wickedly clever best friend Nancy Miller, and her law and order lover, Nelson Sharpe. This book left me wanting more. I identified with Judith immensely despite the fact that I do not yet have children and I work outside the home. Read this book for its deft humor, clever mystery and immensely likeable heroine.

I wanted to read "Compromising Positions" before starting its sequel (which has just been released), even though I'd already seen the movie and therefore knew whodunit. I was surprised at the clumsiness of some of Isaac's plotting. I mean, even if I hadn't seen the film, the culprit is pretty darned obvious. And my affections for the heroine, Judith Singer, were severly tested by her carrying on with Lt. Sharpe (a complication Isaacs wisely dropped from her screenplay of the book). On the other hand, I was delighted by the author's sparkling wit and delightfully wicked insights, something I recalled from the hilarious screenplay. The comic elegance of the writing is the real reason to read "Compromising Positions." Isaacs is no Elizabeth George or P.D. James, but of the "lighter" mystery writers, she has few equals.

This is, I think, Susan Isaacs' first book, written in the 70s. At least it's the very first book by her that I read, years ago. A couple of days ago I decided to re-read it, after finishing (& liking) "Long time no see". Well, "Compromising positions" is as good, as easy-to-read as I recalled...but then again, I've got a soft spot for all Susan Isaacs books!

In "Compromising positions" we meet Judith Singer for the first time. An intelligent, attractive (although not exceedingly so), funny & energetic lady. A historian turned housewife & mother, & bored stiff by life in the suburbs. Judith is going from day to day, living with Bob, in a kind of boring but pretty stable marriage, looking after her young kids, & taking pleasure in long, witty conversations with her intelligent & sassy friend, Nancy. At some point, she hears about the murder of the local periodontist & as it turns out, womanizer. The case interests her, & suddenly she finds herself deeply involved in the investigation. And also deeply involved with a certain person who has something to do with the investigation, but that I'll leave you to find out for yourself.

"Compromising positions" is a wonderful, easy read about life in the suburbs, life in the 70s, & life for a bored housewife who yearns for intellectual stimulation. I think this is the first book where Isaacs shows her talent & her ability to draw believable & enjoyable characters. And as a footnote, I'd have to say that in Isaacs work I've read some of the best, funniest & most sexy love affairs that I've found in the book world!! Sit back & enjoy...

The behind the eyes thinking was revealed better in Utopia than Inferno, but I would have liked to have seen more time spent behind Prospero's eyes. Prospero was the only New Law Robot you really get to meet, and for all his faults was complex and manipulative, but unlike Caliban, his thinking was rarely revealed except through overt actions. The governor, formerly police chief had serious planet wide dillemas and his tension was felt more. Since he married his one time adversary Fredda, I would have liked to have seen a more complete interaction than was done. The ending was a bit rushed, and I feel that some serious consequences were not dealt with.

This culmination of the robot series by Roger MacBride Allen is the best in the series. There is plenty of action and suspense, as there was in the second book, "Inferno", and there is plenty of depth, as there was in the first book, "Caliban". The Three-Law robots, Four-Law robots, and No-Law robots create confusion in their interactions with human society and, through that confusion, the impact of technology and artificial intelligence on people is put in the spotlight. This is a well-writen, and well-thought-out book, and it wraps up the series nicely.

Asimov's robots have delighted me since I was a boy, so it was a wonderful surprise to find new robot stories written by a capable author. The philosophy and plot lines of the new novels are true to the Good Doctor's vision and make a fine addition to the legacy left by Asimov. Caliban, Inferno and Utopia are all good, but Utopia is the best. Read them all, and enjoy once again being immersed in the wonderful world Isaac Asimov created for us!

First, of all let, me say that the, book is riddled, with inappropriate, punctuation. It seems as if the book has gone through many lives. There are sentences that are written in the third person. (This is a first person novel). There are sentences that are in past tense and present tense and first and third person in the same sentence. Every sentence ends in an explanation point! The few scenes of action are completely unbelievable and far fetched. The subject matter is what drew me to the book, and I read the whole thing because I am interested in it, but, and I feel I must say this, it is one of the worst written books I have ever read (in its entirety). I don't understand how this got past an editor or a proofreader, as it surely could have benefitted from one, and it might have been a much better book.

Having lived in Zimbabwe for many years, I can identify with the author's story of Ivan Bender. This a great and honest account of the events that unfolded in that country during the time frame 1948 to 1980. It is very believable I know - I was there!

I loved the story of Ivan growing up in Africa. Having lived my youth in Rhodesia before it became Zimbabwe - It is the most enjoyable account of the pre and post UDI books I have read. I too, drink a toast to "The Song Of Africa."

As is often the case in a series, James Nelson has improved in each of the first three books of the "Revolution at sea" saga. Bringing to mind the work of Alexander Kent, he has brought his main character more depth and believability by showing him to be capable of errors in judgment. The conflict between Northern and Southern colonists greatly enhanced the story. I hope Nelson does more to fill out the character of Ezra Rumstick. Overall, this book gives me reason to look forward to the next one.

Generally this is a good historical novel, and has more naval action than the author's last novel. The main problem is the author's refusal to allow the loss of a ship (and the main character's assignment to another ship). The story starts with an improbable, larger-than-life, rescue of the ship from where it was beached at the end of the previous novel. Making things too larger-than-life detracts from an otherwise good story. It is a good account of the creation of a fledgling navy. The politics described were a continuing problem for the young U.S. Navy for a long period of time, e.g., the appointment of officers based on connections rather than ability.

The Colonial Navy is formed at last, and Isaac is placed in charge of the only purpose-built man-o'war brig amongst them. His crew is a different matter: political pressures force the demotion of Rumstick and the installation of an unknown quantity as 1st Lieutenant, who brings with him an abrasive manner and 30 crew to replace those who left for the greater attraction and rewards of privateering.
These 30 consist mainly of Southern convicts - including a deadly sea-lawyer bent on causing havoc (and succeeding admirably) - and this combination twice leads almost to full mutiny, only averted by Isaac's charisma and his friends' loyalty.

Again, a factual account (outlined in the historical postscript) makes for a great read (one wonders if John Adams was really the obnoxious boor portrayed here?) *****

I only have the earlier reviewers to go on, but if this book claims that Newton only turned to alchemy and scriptural exegesis after his nervous breakdown, then that part of the book must also be read as fiction.

Read Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs' scholarly analysis in her book "Foundations of Newton's Alchemy" to see just how strongly the evidence supports the conclusion that he simultaneously investigated the Bible, arcane alchemical claims, optics, metallurgy, astronomy _and_ mathematics for over 30 years, then suppressed everything but the mathematical physics when he wrote his "Principia". In this case, biography truly is stranger than fiction.

"The Newton Letter" is a mere eighty-one pages, a good thing since this imaginative and masterfully written, but often cryptic, novel needs to be read at least twice (if not three times) to fully appreciate John Banville's enigmatic, introspective tale.

Written in the first person, the nameless, fiftyish male narrator of "The Newton Letter" is an historian who has spent seven years writing a book about Sir Isaac Newton. Seeking a sanctuary to finish his work, he rents a small cottage at an estate in southern Ireland known as Fern House, "a big gloomy pile with ivy and peeling walls and a smashed fanlight over the door, the kind of place where you picture a mad stepdaughter locked up in the attic." It is a setting, and a story, heavy with gothic overtones.

In his words, "the book was as good as done, I had only to gather up a few loose ends and write the conclusion-but in those first few weeks at Ferns something started to go wrong . . . I was concentrating, with morbid fascination, on the chapter I had devoted to [Newton's] breakdown and those two letters [Newton had written] to Locke."

He becomes obsessed, however, not only with Newton's two letters to John Locke, but also with the inhabitants of Fern House: Edward, the often drunk master of the house; Charlotte, his wife, a tall, middle-aged woman with an abstracted air and a penchant for gardening; Ottilie, the big, blonde, twenty-four year old niece of Charlotte; and Michael, the adopted son of Edward and Charlotte.

The narrator soon becomes entangled with Ottilie in a mysterious way when she appears at his door. "It's strange to be offered, without conditions, a body you don't really want." But what, exactly, is the nature of his relationship with Ottilie? When he embraces her, he feels "the soft shock of being suddenly, utterly inhabited." In the pervasive aura of the gothic, the reader wonders exactly what is happening, for, as the narrator enigmatically relates in the middle of the novel while making love to Ottilie, "how should I tell her that she was no longer the woman I was holding in my arms?" It is a strange statement, presumably intended to refer to the fact that the narrator's true obsession is with the older, aloof Charlotte, even as he cavorts with Ottilie. The mystery is fed by the narrator's conclusion, where he speaks of brooding on certain words, "succubus for instance." It suggests, in short, a kind of surreal narrative imagining, where the realism of the narrator's struggle with his book on Newton is confounded by the incursion of the strange, enigmatic and, at times, dreamlike inhabitants of Fern House.

"The Newton Letter" is a powerful, intricate and allusive work of imagination that demands the reader's careful and thoughtful attention. Banville shows, with remarkable skillfulness, how the narrator's imagined history of the inhabitants of Fern House is undermined by successive, incremental discoveries of the reality of their lives. At the same time, Banville draws on the gothic to lend his tale an imaginative element that is both a counterpoint to the real lives at Fern House and a touchstone to the enigma of the Newton letters. Like great works of literature, "The Newton Letter" is an ambiguous text open to many interpretations, the writing an elliptical treasure that allows the reader's imagination to run free in the interstices of Banville's creative field.

I had borrowed this book from the library a long long time ago and I somehow happened to pick it up after like 3 books and read it in a span of two days! This was the first time I was venturing to read a Banville and thank god, I did decide to pick it up. A short novella - around 97 pages and riveting!

This book is a letter written by the narrator - who is nameless and has entered the Irish countryside to finish his book on Newton only to discover and re-discover his own denied passions and emotions. His cottage is situated in a place called Fern house where he encounters a strange lot of people - Edward, Charlotte, Edward's Sister Diana and her husband Tom, Ottilie - Charlotte's so-called niece and little Michael. As the narrator gets engrossed in their lives, he loses focus of the book, only to drown it. This is a classic juxtaposition of how Newton one fine day gave up on science and took to alchemy.

This book is one of a kind and when I say this, I really mean it. Banville conjures a mystery, a love story, a discovery sometimes and beauty of language so rare these days in most novels - and where else can one find such a combination and being told in 97 pages!! Wow!!

This compression of Isaac Asimov's earlier autobiographical works will principally be remembered as the book that announced to the world that Asimov died of AIDS. But as a one-volume summary of his life, it enjoys only mixed success.

This book both benefits and suffers from its source material: the best chapters are those on Asimov's early life and career, and were extracted from his first volume of autobiography, In Memory Yet Green, which was strongly narrative and, as a result, stronger; the second volume, In Joy Still Felt, was more anecdotal and quotidian, as Asimov settled into the routine of a workaholic full-time writer, and as a result yielded less insightful material to excerpt.

Like Asimov's third autobiography, I. Asimov: A Memoir, and his collection of letters, Yours, Isaac Asimov, the chapters are topical. While some chapters are solid, others are quite thin: the chapters that simply collect funny anecdotes could have been dispensed with. For example, Chapter 26, "The Bible", includes a couple of not-very-illuminating anecdotes related to Asimov's Guide to the Bible, and could have been folded, along with the chapter on humanism, into a longer chapter on religion and unbelief. I would have preferred fewer, longer chapters that went into more depth. Substantial introductory and connective material to piece Asimov's own work together would have strengthened the book; instead, we're given passages that sometimes look like they were excerpted, word by word, with a razor blade.

On a more mundane level, the proofreading is sometimes surprisingly bad, with several misspelled authors' names and even one book title ("I, Robert"?!?) -- just the sort of thing that Isaac would have found bothersome.

It's been a good life is a good way to describe Asimov's life as he describes it in his own words. An autobiographical account of his life, with inserts by his wife, this book details Asimov's life in a funny and interesting volume.
He starts with his birth and childhood, which is an interesting feat. Not many people can remember their young lives. From there, he describes how he became interested in reading, then writing and finally how he first became published. From there, he describes his academic and writing lives in a clear, paced fasion. Everything blends in perfectly, from birth to death.
I was paticularly fasinated by his writing life, as a fan of his. For most of the book, he describes how he became a novelist, then how he stopped in favor of scientific resources and then how he returned to fiction. Because he wrote this in the first person view, it is entirly too easy to fall right into his head, and see things the way he did. This is expecially true towards the end of the book and his life. I really got the sense that he had too much to do, that he wanted to do and didn't have nearly enough time to accomplish it all.
I have read many of his science fiction novels, and from this book, learned a lot about what drove him to writing the stories I enjoy, but also about his life in general. There was much that I had no idea about. For example, he was in the Army, died of AIDs, due to a blood transfusion, and went through writing cycles.
Paticularly helpful was the editing that his wife did. On almost every section, she inserted references to his life that explained what he was talking about a little better. This book would have been very difficult and/or confusing if they had not been put in.
In addition, this book is an extremely fast read. I finished it in nearly five to six hours and enjoyed every minute of it.
The only complaint that I have with it is that it's too short, almost abridged in sections, that could have had more to it. Other than that, it's a wonderful and entertaining read.

Isaac Asimov can justifably lay claim to having been one of the most prolific writers of modern times, producing science fiction, fantasy, essays and other works. His wife Janet Asimov here edits her husband's personal thoughts about his life and works, including excerpts from his letters and insights into his life experiences throughout the process. Fans of Asimov will find It's Been A Good Life to be a warm and revealing literary biography.

RE: AUDIO CASSETTE VERSION. I don't demand Clancy action from a "LeCarre thriller" but this novel is peopled with soul-less characters waiting...and waiting.... Each seems to have been allocated one bold action then, having exhausted the quota, spends the remainer of the story speaking in trailing-off sentences. After slogging through all this slow motion until you want to slap them silly, the sins-of-the-fathers dark secret payoff has long since lost any impact. The two readers of the audio version only add to the tedium with the female contributing an unconvincing German accent.

I bought this novel mostly because of the title. Luckily the title only barely hints at the contents. Though this book does contain what one reviewer called "revisionist history", it isn't meant as a history text. It is meant as a thriller that gives you pause to consider moral issues.

Neil Gordon's "Sacrifice of Isaac" is a compelling story which had me bound to the text until I finished it. In fact I had taken Gordon's novel along with me on the train to read while traveling to the Indiana Dunes from Chicago and once there found myself sitting on my grandmother's headstone in the Furnessville Cemetery inorder to finish reading a riveting chapter. A suspenseful narration that on occassion might make a reader stop to think about the world as we too often see it or have been taught how to preceive our own cultural environments juxtaposed to so many others.

The book discussion group of Temple Israel in Miller Beach (Gary, Indiana) also chose Gordon's first novel as their summer reading selection, and I've sent copies of "The Sacrifice of Isaac" now available in paperback to friends, and they have all become fans of Neil Gordon's writing too.

Indeed, there's disagreement as to whether this is the first or second Empire novel chronologically, but it's not important since there are no common characters and Earth is peripheral to the events in either novel.

It is good adventure, and there is a fair mystery as to who's responsible for the primary character's death. Of course there's romance complete with complicating misunderstandings, and more importantly, there's the continual power struggle emphasized in the Empire and Foundation novels. And there's some good old fashioned space opera action as the main characters search for the planet harboring a group of rebels. This is classic science-fiction, but don't let that scare you away. There's nothing stodgy about the good Dr. Asimov's story telling.

It is a great shame that Isaac Asimov's fun, if not exactly profound, Empire series is now entirely out of print. Like the rest of the series, the first of them, The Stars, Like Dust, is an entertaining, fun romp that is a quick read that will keep you glued to your seat. The plot is not Asimov's most original, but it is gripping and suspenseful, and will keep you reading (and guessing) right up until the end. Asimov, in his day, tried his hand at writing just very nearly every type of book there was to write, but I, and I am sure most will agree with me, have always felt that his true bread and butter was science fiction. He brought a touch of the mainstream (Asimov was fond of making a murder mystery or logic puzzle out of his SF stories) to the genre, which, along with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things scientific, made him attractive both to the diehards of the genre as well as to more conventional generally-non-SF readers. The Stars, Like Dust is a fine book that deserves to be back in print and deserves to be read. If you're an Asimov fan, I reccommend picking this book up if you see it.

"The Stars, Like Dust" is either the first or second novel, chronologically, in Asimov's Empire Series, depending on whether you believe the consensus (first) or Asimov's Author's Note in Prelude to Foundation (second). Nonetheless, it probably doesn't matter a great deal, the other contender "The Currents of Space" has Trantor as just another would-be empire, and this novel doesn't see any need to bring Trantor into the story. In all other respects too, there's little to connect either book, no common characters, political forces, no anything, beyond a shared past where Earth is radioactive. So read either book in any order you wish. In case it hasn't been hammered in yet, the Empire books form the middle of Asimov's Robots-Empire-Foundation universe timeline.

Beyond that, this is a nice piece of SF that George Lucas wouldn't have trouble making a film around. It's the old story - Boy loses father in confusing circumstances, boy goes to take what is rightfully his and possibly avenge his father's murder at the same time, boy is being chased by mysterious murderous groups, boy meets girl, boy and girl hate each other, boy and girl fall in love... well, ok, it's not the old story, it's half a dozen old stories in one, but it's a good thriller and mystery with enough twists and turns to please anyone.

It's also mercifully short, the characters are fleshed out in a most unasimovian way, and the science is there but not stupifyingly overbearing. My edition includes an apology at the end from the master about his assumption that a lifeless planet would have an oxygen-rich CO2-free atmosphere, and while I know roughly which part of the book is being refered to, it wasn't a big deal.

In all, I think I prefered The Currents of Space, but there's no reason to read one in favour of the other rather than read both. If you can find a copy, and you're after some intelligent light entertainment, you could do worse than read this.

Isaac Asimov's novels and short stories are among my favourite. The first three FOUNDATION books are better than most contemporary works of science fiction, and I, ROBOT is, in my opinion, the best collection of robot stories ever. Even his stories in THE EARLY ASIMOV are a lot of fun.

It is because Asimov has been so good that this collection of puzzle stories was surprising. Asimov clearly has a passion for puzzles but his ability to incorporate that element into a good story is not demonstrated by this book. As one reviewer mentioned, you'll find out all sorts of interesting trivia by reading these stories but you shouldn't expect to arrive at the solutions to the puzzles through deduction. Simply put, if you want to play along (and who doesn't when reading a mystery?), you'll need to know a lot of throw-away information.

Another quibble I had with the Black Widower stories was that the cast consists of Mastermind champions. No piece of information is too obscure or esoteric for the regulars. The alleged 'dumb one' in the group (Mario Gonzalo) is surely one of the brightest dimwits ever to appear in print. In today's world of dumbed-down entertainment, this is refreshing but it also puts the characters on a different playing field than many of the readers. I, for one, can only dream of knowing as much as Gonzalo does.

I can only recommend the Black Widower stories to die-hard Asimov fans. If you're just a casual fan looking for good Asimov mysteries, try the first three robot novels: THE CAVES OF STEEL, THE NAKED SUN, and ROBOTS OF DAWN.

Happy reading!

The Black Widowers meet once a month at the Milano Restaurant, taking the task of host in rotation. Each month the host brings a guest for grilling, traditionally beginning with 'How do you justify your existence?' and ending with ferreting out some mystery. After the six regular members have cleared the ground, the seventh - Henry, the waiter - always solves the problem.

Most of Asimov's Black Widowers stories first saw the light of day in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (EQMM), except those written to round out collections. EQMM retitled half of them; Asimov has reverted all but one title change. The club is based on the real-life Trap Door Spiders, a stag club created so that the members could meet without involving one friend's disagreeable wife. Asimov, as a member, has based some of the Widowers on fellow club-members.

I find the by-play between the Black Widowers entertaining in itself. Drake is the original reason for the no-women rule. Halstead, high school mathematics teacher, has an ongoing hobby of writing limericks for each chapter of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Trumbull works for an unspecified agency as a code-breaker; when he's not host, he's usually chief griller, and is the most apt to shout down the other members when they stray off-topic. Avalon is dignified, pedantic - good for the odd spot of in-character exposition. At the other extreme, Gonzalo, the youngest, is usually eager for each puzzle to appear. As a professional artist, he caricatures each guest, and enjoys trading insults with Rubin (mystery writer and deputy chief griller). Rubin also finds reason, at least once per book, to libel another writer of his acquaintance: one Isaac Asimov. :)

"The Acquisitive Chuckle" - Host: Avalon. Hanley Bartram believes that, as a private investigator, his clients find his existence justified - when he's successful. He asked Avalon for an invitation because he thought the Widowers might help him settle an old case. Anderson, a grasping character, was sure that his fanatically honest ex-business partner had scored off him by taking *something* from his house - but he couldn't figure out *what*.

"Ph As in Phony" - (EQMM = 'The Phony Ph.D.' to avoid confusion with the Graftonesque titles of another author.) Host: Trumbull, whose guest is a Ph.D. in chemistry at Berry, where Drake did his graduate work. Drake is reminded of a fellow student - mediocre in every way - who somehow scored a 96% from the fire-breathing Professor St. George. How did he manage to cheat?

"Truth to Tell" - (EQMM = 'The Man Who Never Told a Lie') Host: Gonzalo, whose guest (the title character) is chief suspect in a theft from his uncle's firm. His uncle knows he wouldn't lie, but without a plausible scenario of what *did* happen, Sands' career is at a dead end.

"Go, Little Book!" - (EQMM = 'The Matchbook Collector') Host: Rubin, whose guest had lunch with the title character the previous day - someone Trumbull's been after for months, who has an unbroken system of passing coded messages. (Obviously predates ultra-strong encryption.)

"Early Sunday Morning" - (EQMM = 'The Biological Clock') Host: Halstead, who complains that the mysteries of the last 4 sessions have been penny-ante, and tries to drum a murder story out of the other Widowers (he hasn't invited a guest). Gonzalo, as it turns out, blames himself for his twin sister's murder - because his biological clock wakes him at eight every morning.

"The Obvious Factor" - Host: Trumbull. Eldridge, a parapsychological investigator, takes on the Widowers' challenge that *nothing* could convince them of parapsychological phenomena.

"The Pointing Finger" - Host: Avalon. Caroline Levy's grandpa kept his savings in negotiable bonds for safety; living with her and her husband Simon, he hid them in the house (insurance that he'd be looked after). But his fatal stroke deprived him of speech to indicate where he'd left them last...

"Miss What?" - (EQMM = 'A Warning to Miss Earth') Host: Gonzalo, whose guest is a plainclothes detective (it's implied that they met during the murder investigation of 'Early Sunday Morning'). A death threat couched in Biblical phrasing was delivered to the Miss Earth contest - but which girl is the target?

"The Lullaby of Broadway" - Host: Rubin, who as absolute monarch has decreed that this month's meeting will be held in his apartment - including Henry, in his role as club member rather than waiter. Rubin throughout his rather harried serving of the meal dribbles out bits and pieces of a story of being disturbed by random hammering at odd hours - until Henry finally calls him on it and asks to grill *him*. :)

"Yankee Doodle Went to Town" - Host: Avalon, bringing an old army buddy as a guest. Davenheim is trying to crack a ring of 'soldiers' who're stealing - he'd have more respect for outright traitors. But it galls him that one of the suspects keeps humming the same tune during interrogation, and it means *something*, but what?

"The Curious Omission" - Host: Halstead. Jeremy Atwood's late friend Lyon was a board game fiend who wanted to play one last time. Lyon left him $10000 in a safety deposit box - if Jeremy can decipher the accompanying clue to the bank's whereabouts within one year: 'The curious omission in Alice.' (I congratulate Asimov on a believable dying clue/missing legacy scenario).

"Out of Sight" - Host: Trumbull. At the last moment, Waldemar Long had to cancel his lecture during a scientific conference/cruise, since the material was still classified. Somebody, however, got at his lecture notes between his notification at the dinner table and his return to his cabin - and Long's career is over unless he can show how anyone could have had opportunity.

I love Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, but if every mystery writer wrote in exactly the same way we wouldn't have flavor and variety in our literary world. The value of these mystery-tidbits is not just merely in the case itself, it's in all the silly random facts you can pick up, it's in the wonderful banter and camaraderie between the men at the dinner table (Asimov even mocks himself through one of his characters in one of the B.W. stories: "Oh, you mean Asimov? The one who talks about himself even more than I do?"), and it's in the delighted gasps of "oh!" as you realize how ingenious his fun little solutions are at the end. These are wonderful characters and tasty little puzzles.

In an age where humor is often laced with profanity or based on the ridicule of others, it is very pleasant to find a collection that is largely clean and often cerebral. This book contains a recollection of Isaac Asimov's favorite jokes along with instructions on how to deliver them. While Asimov is well-known as a prolific author, he was also a very funny man, possessing a sense of comedic timing that helped him earn hefty fees as a speaker.
While the jokes are good, it is clear that many of them would have to be delivered in the right manner to be funny. As you read Asimov's commentary, it is not difficult to imagine someone telling the story to maximum effect. Therefore, the book could also be used as a source for material as well as a primer on how to deliver an ice-breaking joke at the start of a public speech.
Isaac Asimov was a very talented man, capable of writing well about anything. His sense of humor was highly developed, something that is obvious from this book. I enjoyed it immensely and have occasionally used some of the jokes in my classes

This not only shows you the great jokes of all time,
but also HOW to tell the jokes, with examples and samples.
Isaac Asimov does it again.
For everyone who loves telling jokes, this is THE book to get.

I have an older edition of this book...it is priceless. I enjoy it whenever I need a break - keep it at work. We all need humor, and Asimov had the kind of quirky sense of humor that enriches our lives....get this book.