The author is extremely astute about human nature and uses personal experience and a down to earth writing style that makes this book fun and easy to understand. (O.K. he likes to CAP words a lot, but it ends up being CHARMING instead of annoying.)

In this edition of the continual homage paid to Lovecraftian lore, there are two above average tales and five standout pieces that bring this 258 page edition to life, making it well worth buying. Briefly breaking some of them down and leaving out two well-crafted pieces, ( "Darkness, my name is," by Eddie Bertin, and The Terror from the Depths," by Fritz Leber, which spatial constrains keep me from going into detail about) and one above average tale ("Where Yidhra Walks, "by Walter Debill, Jr.) they are:

"The Fairground Horror," by Brain Lumley, deals with the great tentacled one's priests and the mark they bare. It begins by focusing on Hodgson's Funfair and a man named Anderson Tharpe who has recently added a new freak-house frontage called "Tomb Of The Great Old Ones." Within it are the normal oddities that freakshows like to use, the cons that have been sold throughout the ages, but there are also some other things, pieces taken from his younger brother, Hamiliton. Without delving too much into it, this is basically a lesson in why you should try to play with things belonging to the sleeping old one.

"The Silence of Erika Zann," by James Wade, plays off of a previously introduced idea by modernizing it, placing Erich Zann's granddaughter in a Rock Band that delves into some odd forums. Any time they play, there is a strange roar that seems to come from nowhere, and it seems to be taking its toll on her. What is it, the main character asks over and over? Well, its an above average tale that is good but loses some ground when compared to the works around it.

"All-Eye," by Bob Laerhoven, is an odd mixture of story with a surprise ending. Initially, I wasn't certain I would like it at all because it seemed like the basic forum introduced, the "found a book, it had a map, I went looking and something happened" story design, but that quickly changed when I read all the way through. Its hard to say that much about it without ruining the story, so I'll simply state that the style used pleasantly different.

"The Tugging," by Ramsey Campbell, shows exactly how talented this word painter actually is, with his analogies and comparisons actually deserving a bit of acclaim. It focuses on Ingels, a man plagued by dreams that he and his father seem to share. When he sleeps he dreams of a city beneath the waves and that the clouds in the sky are becoming something, but he always awakens before he find out exactly what that is. The dreams provoke a dread for sleep, an insomnia that begins to interrupt reality, and before Ingels knows he sees a correlation between both realms as they mesh together. Again, without giving away too much, this story is well worth you time to read.

Glimpse, by A.A. Attansio, is an odd tale involving the Lord of Holes himself, Yog-Sothoth, revolving around an oddly pierced stone that defies description. Sometimes it seems like a simple stone, other times it seems like a strange congammeration of ribbons. Our initial main character, Gene Mirandola, is given it when he goes to meet with his uncle, an oddly eclectic individual that tells him to take it to a Dr. Marc Souvate. Well, he does, and finds out the oddities of the One-in-All and All-in-One, things that deal directly with his uncle and that deal with Souvate's odd history as well. The story takes a strange turn in the center, taking a simple threat to one soul by Yog and his followers to one that threatens the entirety of the world. It's actually really well done.

The next, by Robert Price, is entitled "Dope War of the Black Tong," Its a story revolving around the Tcho-Tcho and their worshipping habits, reminding me very much of something Robert E. Howard would have done. It has all the essentials; a storyline, some tentacles, a bit of death, and Asian oddities.

Again, this set of stories is well worth checking out because their focus is not uniformed and their styles certainly differ. It is in this variety that you gain something, something wonderfully evil, and evil meshing with all-encompassing madness is always a wonderful thing.

However, I frankly did not find Mr Liebling's life to be so interesting that I wanted to read about it. Nor did I find his writing to be particulary humourous or engaging. This could well be due to my lack of sympathy for Mr Liebling's view of the world. In particular, his espousal of the virtues of being fat, and his disparaging remarks on the form of the 50s woman I found exceedingly disconcerting.

So, yes, I do realise that he is supposed to be a classic food writer of his age, but I will say that perhaps he has not worn well with time. (Although if I wanted to read a writer of about the same period, I'd go to M K Fisher any day!)

My Personal Rating Scale:
5 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative, thought provoking, pushes the envelope in one or more ways, a classic.
4 stars: Engaging, well-written, highly entertaining or informative. Book that delivers well in terms of its specific genre or type, but does not do more than that.
3 stars: Competent. Does what it sets out to do competently, either on its own terms on within the genre, but is nothing special. May be clichéd but is still entertaining.
2 stars: Fails to deliver in various respects. Significantly clichéd. Writing is poor or pedestrian. Failed to hold my attention.
1 star: Abysmal. Fails in all respects.

Wartime events led to misunderstandings with Moscow; they didn't realize that the resistance to the German and Italian invasion and occupation went on together with a domestic revolution. The latter caused friction with Great Britain (p.8). Moscow did not comprehend the fact that the Yugoslav Partisans grew into a regular army; Russian partisans were an auxiliary to their army. Tito's policy was to first look after their army and people, as in arranging an exchange of prisoners (p.10). The next was to form a new provisional government. While acting in their own interests, they followed the lead of Moscow (p.11). Djilas says their idolatry of Stalin resulted in an irrational acceptance of "unpleasant facts" (p.12). Djilas noted that Stalin's style was colorless, meager, and a jumble of vulgar journalism and the Bible (an ex-seminarian). Perhaps their hero worship was due to their need for a hero in their struggle against foreign and domestic enemies? Stalin's prediction of war's end in 1942 may have been a threat of a separate peace if no Second Front occurred.

In 1944 a delegation was sent to Moscow (p.13). It had a balanced ticket: General Terzich, Party leader Djilas, a financial expert, atomic physicist Savich, a sculptor.Djilas had never been to Russia and was not tainted with any "factional or deviationist past". They hoped to be recognized as the provisional legal government. Yugoslavia was famous in Russia for their 1941 revolt (p.43). Djilas' article were severely edited; were they afraid of a plain language code (p.44)? Stalin's army purges removed the incompetent and promoted younger and talented men (p.50). One day Djilas was told of an important matter; once in the car he is told he will meet Stalin (p.57). Stalin was of small stature and ungainly, with the white face of an office worker (p.61). Stalin spoke Russian well, but with an accent; he had a real knowledge of political history. Stalin had a sense of humor, and was very close to Molotov. Stalin spoke of 'Russia", not the 'Soviet Union'. While Stalin did not promise to recognize the National Committee as the provisional Yugoslav government, that was his favor. Stalin agreed to give military aid, but said an air base in Italy would be needed; it was soon established (p.64). After the Red Army reached Yugoslavia supplies came by land. Stalin warned Djilas of English duplicity, using the example of General Sikorski's plane crash (p.73). This may have decided Tito's flight to Rumania in 9/21/1944.

"Life is no respecter of desires or designs, but imposes patterns which no one is capable of foreseeing" (p.104). The "cult of the personality" caused this leader to disregard the changing needs and desires or others (p.106). (Another argument for term limits?) Stalin's behavior was no different from a tsar or hereditary king; Djilas expected better. Djilas writes a flattering description of Khrushchev, who was then in power (p.119-120). "No one can take freedom from another without losing his own" (p.133). Is this a principle or just empty rhetoric?

While some of the advice offered by this book was well recieved and noted, much of the book was about writing effective spams (thus rebuking the subtitle, "Without getting Flamed"). Also, much of the web information was badly out of date; at one point he claims that a mere 15% or web users can view graphics.

Say What? Sorry, but "forget using graphics" does *not* imply good marketing strategy to me. While I understand that Vitale was trying to avoid being technical, he would have done well to drop a few web tips like "forget black-on-grey".

If you want to write spam, buy this book. If you're overly new to the internet and need help with the basic culture, buy this book. If you want to write effective web pages (like I do), do yourself a favor and search "David Seigel". His book on third-generation web sites laps this book in effective web sales.

Sure, many in the advertising game will disagree with Joe. They'll tell you it's image, image, image that works. Bull! The stuff in Joe's book really works and anyone involved in direct mail, or internet marketing should take the time to read this book with an open mind.