This is a collection of three of playwright Arthur Miller's short stories. The stories all take place in New York--before, during, and after WWII. I did not enjoy the title story "Homely Girl, a Life." I found it overly simplistic and offensive overall, although there were passages of beautiful language. The opening scene of the story is wonderful. The second story, "Fame," seems fairly lightweight but enjoyable. I loved the last story, "Fitter's Night," about an unhappy man's shot at redemption working in a Navy Yard during the war. That one, where the plot is intertwined with a background of the protagonist's life, was just stunning. The language, again, was beautiful. This was Miller at his best, I think. For short story fans, it's a mixed bag. Fans of Miller's plays might enjoy seeing the author at work in a different genre. The last story alone is probably worth the price of the book.

Checking out audio versions of Sherlock Holmes stories from the library is as close as you can get to a sure thing, since Arthur Conan Doyle's writing is generally superb even in the lesser tales, and the interplay between Watson and Holmes tends to be more entertaining in audio format. I therefore pounced on this unabridged recording of Hound of the Baskervilles read by David Case when I saw it at the local library.

Readers familiar with the Holmes canon are probably familiar with the story, as Holmes is hired to investigate the recent death of his client's uncle at Baskerville Hall, a gloomy old manor on the edge of the moor allegedly haunted by a vicious beast. The very first chapter sets a wonderful tone for the rest of the lengthy story, as Holmes and Watson use logic and a handful of clues to guess the age and employment of a visitor solely by examining the visitor's walking cane, left by accident at Holmes' flat on Baker Street while our hero was away.

The mystery at Baskerville Hall is an effective one, putting Holmes and Watson in the path of sneaky butlers, dangerous fugitives and con artists, while being watched and pursued themselves.

Although the story is very well-written, I was somewhat taken aback by the strange reading by David Case. His British accents for the characters seemed almost intentionally overblown, as if this whole reading was a Monty Python sketch about haughty British windbags. To his credit he does make each character's voice sound different. For some of the characters, Case resorts to a voice so bizarre it sounded as if he was speaking while inhaling. There is certainly some comic relief to this presentation, and after awhile you forget about the narrative foibles and get wrapped up in the story. I give the recording a lukewarm three stars.

The book does not live up to expectations. Yes it does have a variety of info but it is poorly edited. You have to search for many of the non-std abrieviations. Many of the tables could have been far more useful if their content was expanded. Little backup explanation is offered. Units are not rigidly adhered to. Publishing quality is one step above a Xerox copier. Overall, not a complete waste of money but also not all it could be.

This book provides a valuable service to readers of the Hebrew Bible in that it makes Ibn Ezra's commentary comprehensible even to the non-scholar. The authors have based their work on scholarly interpretations of Ibn Ezra's sometimes telegraphic comments, which are often obscure in their original form. My main reservations concern the format of massive foot-noting, and the use of English transliterations instead of Hebrew in cases where the whole point of the commentary may be a fine distinction in spelling or vocalization of the Hebrew text.

...walking silently at night trying to catch fireflies and capture them in your glass jar so you could figure out how on earth they produced a small light?

We did as children in Africa and there were plenty of insects to observe. Actually, they are not flies at all, but are beetles. In Africa, the beetles can be quite annoying if they get into your house at night because they bang up against the walls as they fly and can drive you quite insane unless you catch them and release them back out into the wild.

Anyway, in this book, they explain how fireflies, their eggs and even the grubs that hatch from the eggs glow. This light has almost no heat.

The contents include:

The Beautiful Dragon (Dragonfly)
Twiggy the Walking Stick
The Little Worker Ants
The Hungry Cloud (Grasshopper)
Lady Luck (The Ladybird beetle)
The Home-Wrecker (The Termite)
The Green Grabber (The Praying Mantis)
The Spinaround (The Whirligig Beetle)
The Runaround Water Strider
The Housebuilder Caddisfly
The Bug Backswimmer
The Enemies (Mosquito and Housefly)
The Marvelous Journey (The Monarch butterfly)
The Silk-Spinner (The Silkworm)
The High Jumper (The Flea)
The Honey Factory (The Honeybee)
The Flying Flashlight (The Firefly)

Isn't it amazing as you grow up how little attention you pay to some of natures most fascinating creatures. Reading this book brought back all sorts of childhood memories. The first day we found a praying mantis or the day I first saw ants carrying away a grasshopper and was amazed at their strength. I also remember thinking I was seeing things when I first saw a walking stick sitting on a wooden fence.

As children, my brothers and I also raised silk worms and I remember climbing over two fences to go get mulberry leaves
to keep them fed each day. There was a way to have them spin you all sorts of things and then still let them have enough silk
to wrap themselves up in. It was a fascinating process and not only taught us responsiblity, but showed how life is constantly changing and how even the smallest of insects change into what they were meant to be.

Each section gives just enough information to make any child curious enough to go out and look for these creatures.

This book gives good, clear coverage of the mayor areas in the philosophy of science and diversity of the viewpoints within those areas without suggesting that they are equally accepted. It cannot be faulted for being sparse since it is an introductory book, but an introductory textbook should not be a dead end. The lack of an index and a robust set of recommended readings is frustrating if one wants to use this text as basic reference and a springboard to the important literature in the field. This book should only be worth about $20 especially since it is paperback. The price asked is likely due to the publisher taking advantage of the demand induced by university instructors when they list this as a required textbook.

As can be seen from the title, this book steps outside the realm of "normal" Arthurian legend simply by stating that Arthur and Guinevere had a child. The writing is good but not great, and the story is enjoyable but not completely gripping. Parts of the portrayal of Urselet seemed incongruent with other parts of the same book. Ambris's character was more believable. Though I have read better, I think anyone interested in Arthurian legend would enjoy this book, and I recommend it to them.

It is never revealed but this play is written about a real person whom Miller had intimate knowledge of. Although disguised somewhat, it is a second hand description of my mothers psychiatric hospitalization in 1968. Much of the the dialogue were exact quotes from my father(Hamilton in the story).
It documents an outsiders view of a deeply traumatic, turbulent time in my family, that only skims the surface of one of the characters(Hamilton). It was so much more than that.

Two works of intermediate length are published together in this volume by the colossus of science fiction. The protagonists are both young men whose dissatisfaction with the stagnation of their respective societies leads them on quests for change and growth; one visits the legendary Comarre, and the other finds his destiny in the stars. "The Lion of Comarre" is a longish short story featuring Richard Peyton III, a young man who, much to the dismay of his illustrious family, loves gadgets - a waste, since his society believes that everything that can be invented already has been. Having bigger dreams, however, he goes off to find the secret of the legendary Comarre, a self-contained city built by a long-dead ancestor. With the help of an amicable lion, he overcomes the dangers of the citadel, and discovers its long-buried secrets. "Against the Fall of Night" is closer to a short novel, and was actually rewritten by Clarke as the novel The City and the Stars. In this story, Alvin feels trapped in the isolated tower city of Diaspar, the last great refuge on Earth. Its inhabitants possess immortality, but are still constrained by their fear of the world outside. Alvin does not share their fear and finds his way to the previously unknown city of Lys, where life is short, but people have mastered the art of telepathy. Alvin continues to make more discoveries, finally revealing secrets that rewrite the history of humanity, and eventually point to the stars. There are plenty of interesting ideas thrown around in these two stories, although in neither case does Clarke develop them as fully as he perhaps should have. Both characters are flat, uninteresting, mere charicatures of inquisitive young men. As such the shorter "Lion" works better, since it tries to do less and has a tighter plot. "Night" has very little more substance to it story-wise, since it's just the same "discovery" plot over and over as new wonders are uncovered. As to the wonders themselves, they're clearly intended to be the stars of the show; but to today's readers, intelligent machines and underground transport centers may seem like pretty standard sci-fi fare. This book is recommended for younger readers just discovering science fiction, since there is no exclusively adult content, but more experienced readers will probably want something meatier.

Good!Good!Good!Good!Good!Good!Good!