I have read this short story and it is actually part of the novel, Forward the Foundation. I highly suggest this book as opposed to Cleon 1, for it is much better on a whole and goes into more detail.

I first read this book more than 15 years ago, and it was my introduction to Susan Isaacs' work. Since then, my coopy has literally fallen aprt, and I was delighted to see a reprint.

The heroine, Marcia, has a good life. Her family wants her to have a different life. How Marcia gets what she alsways dreamed of and makes her family happy is a funny, bitter, and very true story. Anyone who has ever tried to forge a life of their own will see themselves in Marcia.

I know this book so well, I sometimes quote parts of it. It has never failed to give me pleasure, and it has the right mix of good writing, good characters and good plot to keep the story moving.

Buy it and read it before Labor Day!

A fine addition to the LUG line of Role playing games, the book is complete with all that is needed to start play. The game system in general is easy and fun and takes little time to understand. Trek fans in general should be interested in this book/game as the background information on things such as Starfleet, Ship Systems and Klingons is as close to the old series in both fact as well as spirit. Look for the Map of All Known Space, which does a good job of giving the imprsession where things are in the Trek Universe. The game is fully suported by Paramount and the Star Trek Production office and all material undergoes a thorough check before release. Also suggest you get the Narrators Toolkit and Amoung the Clans: The Andorians.

Although I don't agree that every story analyzed in this book is great, I did find the commentary to be helpful. It has been said many times over that if you want to write good fiction, you need to read good fiction. However, this won't work if you don't analyze what you read as well. This book walks you through the process, providing sage advice from and excellent writer (Asimov) and world-class editor (Greenberg).

This book was published in 1992. I found it in a smallish Jewish book/gift store in Minneapolis (St. Louis Park, which my anti-Semitic relatives call "St. Jewish Park.") Can it be that no other Jews have read this book? Isaac Mayer Wise FOUNDED Reform Judaism in our privileged country. He made it possible for us to be both Jewish and American.

Who has said Kaddish for this man? Does anybody, these days, even know who he is?

Wise strove for unity among a small, disparate Jewish community. He was THE wise man of his time... a teacher, i.e. rabbi. Not only was he a pioneer of his time, he a was a pioneer for which American Reform Jews should thank God at every chance.

Do you know about this man? Well, you should...

It's probably not even in print anymore. The first print was "Isaac Mayer Mise, Shaping American Judaism," part of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization series, Oxford University Press. I have the first British edition, but I know it has been published in the USA. Your know what(!), find out for yourself... If you are part of the Reform movement, it will be more,(much more),than worth your effort...

Shalom, B'nai B'rith!

John Proesch

Please e-mail me with comment, questions, at JVProesch@aol.com. Thanks!

Shalom...

John V. Proesch JVP@aol.com

Master story teller Isaac Bashevis Singer regales us once again with this remarkable collection of short stories. Woe to those who are faint of heart or have inflexible moral standards. His stories are sure to give you a coronary as you are confronted with issues of blasphemy, debauchery, mystery and intrigue. Singer assaults the whole of human fickleness in his tales.

Yet his tales are not all sordid. In "The Bitter Truth" we see a man's loyalty to his friend over-rides a secret that could spell disaster. "House Friend" will have you laughing at the mere concept of a friend having sexual relations with another friend's wife with full hearted encouragement from the friend. Go figure? Singer's stories are down to earth and deal with the varied human negativities that we display unashamedly. God's presence is very much in the foreground of the stories as the characters stuggle with their own ethical isssues. Despite the fact that we as a human race can be sordid, the collection as a whole points out that we are redeemable and can display the best of ourselves. Laugh, cry, become shocked and fearful as you enter the complexities of humanity through the eyes of Singer. No collection of his is complete without this book.

This is a noteworthy book for science fiction fans. The Time Travel team from Mojave Center goes back in time to Soviet Russia during World War II to find another component of MC governor.The action is paced well, and the story line is good. Definetely recommended for anyone who enjoys science fiction and history.

....easy-to-use dictionarylike reference book on alchemical symbolism. Pick it up if you see it somewhere. Not hugely comprehensive but a good quick resource.

Some of these stories are dreadful. You will read them and wonder about the standards of the magazines they appeared in. After a little thought, you will wonder all the more because many of them really aren't so dreadful as all that. "Ring Around the Sun" had a hard time being published despite that fact that it was probably a lot better than most of its competition - and no worse than a lot of stuff finding its way into magazines today. We don't live in a golden age now, either. The bad stories of today are merely bad in a different way.

But the real story is the story of how Asimov came to be a science fiction writer, with samples of his work thrown in at the relevant moments. It was a departure for him. He'd published short story collections before this: but, for some reason, he thought, "Why not publish a collection of EVERY SURVIVING story from 1938 to 1949, and make an autobiography out of it?" Unfortunately it leaves out those stories which were otherwise in print at the time the book was published - a serious omission, I think. The book surely ought to have included "Nightfall", for historical reasons, at least.

But despite what I said about the fiction being dreadful, despite the fact that he left out all stories that he'd previously decided were worth reprinting, some nice pieces remain. "Author! Author!" is Asimov's funniest work and this is the only place you're likely to find it. "The Red Queen's Race" and "Mother Earth" are also very good.

This book had more of an impact on science fiction than most people realise. Its immediate effect must have been to make editors swear. I'll bet that when it was published, "Analog", "Galaxy", "Fantasy and Science Fiction" and "If" were innundated with hundreds of extra manuscripts from young writers who had fallen in love with the era Asimov described.

With the passage of time, the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower takes on added interest for understanding U.S. policy in the Middle East. Here was the one case of an American president who seemed to accept the Arabist view that good relations with Israel must harm those with the Arabs. When push came to shove, Eisenhower acted on this belief, compelling the Israelis to evacuate the Sinai Peninsula following the Suez War. Decades later, Arab leaders like Yasir Arafat still dream that another American president might "do what Eisenhower did" and force the Israelis from the West Bank and Golan Heights. Alteras shows in his thoroughly researched and elegantly presented study that the reality of U.S.-Israel relations in the 1950s differed substantially from their image. True, Eisenhower did minimize relations with Israel, but he did not reduce the U.S. commitment to the existence and survival of Israel. Even more striking, Alteras argues that "if the Eisenhower administration was less free with pro-Israeli declarations [than the Truman administration], it was more forthcoming with pro-Israel deeds" (shades of George Bush!). Eisenhower and Israel has much else to tell, including the story how Congress first became involved in a major way in U.S.-Israel relations and how the Israel lobby emerged. In short, Alteras masterfully traces today's American debate over the Arab-Israeli conflict to its origins in the 1950s.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1994