This was the first true crime book I ever read. Was in the library in college looking for a book and came across this one. I have read many true crime books since that time but this one always stands out. I have recomended it time and time again and have had everyone agree how incredible it is. I live in Texas only a few miles away from the murder scene. Many of the landmarks were familiar to me. I have read over 100 true crime books since this first introduction to this one but have come across few that are this good. I couldn't read fast enough...truly could NOT put the book down. Another great one is "Lethal Marriage."

This is a very exciting book that you cant put down. I would recomend this to anyone who likes to be put at the edge of their seat.

Thanks, Pam Shangle

I was fortunate to find this book. I have wanted to read the book after working as an extra in the made-for-tv movie based upon the story called "A Killing in a Small Town" that was filmed in Dallas in the mid-80s. Even with knowing the outcome of the story, I found the book to be incredibly spellbinding. The authors do a marvelous job of telling the story in a way that builds the suspense and also follows the logical progression of events. I highly recommend this book for everyone. Also, see the movie if you can. Check it out.

This book has the most outstanding photos and directions for making amazing cakes- all created by this talented woman. From the most basic of instructions to the finest detail of a work of art!! This is the first book I bought on wedding cakes when I opened my own cake business and made my first sugarpaste flowers following her instructions. Very contemporary in style, whilst still capturing the wonder of a romantic and unique wedding day. Definitely a must-have!!

I have always enjoyed cake decorating but most of the books I looked at seem to lack interests and seem to repeat much of the same (Pretty) cakes. But Anna Von Marbug's Cakes in Bloom is in a class by itself. It is pure art. These cakes should be in galleries. The color photos are very well taken showing these lovely and quite unique decorated cakes. Also this book offers guidance on what equipments is used to decorate, including step by step illustration in B/W photographs, cakes and frosting recipes, plus advice on which cakes works well with what style of frosting for decorating. The only problem I have with this book is that I wanted to see more. I hope she comes out with a nice chunky cake decorating book with new design soon.

If you have to have a book in your personal library that can be used as both a reference and a motivator, then search no more. Anna's talent is phenomenal! The visual beauty, the fluid structure of her creations need to be seen in order to be appreciated. She is truly a talented and gifted artist. If for no other reason, the photography is fabulous (even a hesitant baker would be inspired to make her creations!) This is one of my most prized cake decorating books and I refer to it constantly. To achieve her level of talent may seem overwhelming at first but with patience and practice, you will be able to create the fantasies in the book. Another great piece of news is that she will be coming out with a new book entitled "Birthday Cakes" some time this year. This will definitely need to be another addition into your reference library!

This winter break I went on a Shakespeare buying spree, and this book is one of the fine gems I found. A large, but fascinating book, this work of great scholarship and excitement takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Shakespeare, even into rather obscure corners of his works (Trollius and Cressida, Timon of Athens). This book is a must read for any would be deep thinker about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare as Political Thinker is a must for everyone interested in the political thought of William Shakespeare. This reprint will finally allow new comers to become familair with a commonsensical approach to Shakespeare's plays. The introductory chapter by John Alvis is worth the price. Perhaps the best Shakespearean critic alive, Alvis has an uncanny ability to show Shakespeare's moral seriousness without making the bard an unquestioning adherent to any political school or theological creed. Many of the essays that follow are also well done: Jaffa's chapter on Shakespeare's entire corpus, Laurence Berns' meditation on Lear etc.

The second printing of Shakespeare as Political Thinker gives hope to those interested in relearning ancient wisdom and pays tribute to its inspiration, Shakespeare's Politics (Allan Bloom).

Anne Thackeray Ritchie's journals and letters provide a significant source of social and literary information for mid-Victorian to turn-of-the century historians and literary critics. As the editor and principal force behind Cornhill Magazine, Lady Ritchie knew all writers "worth knowing," and can provide intimate daily life insights into the closed world of British publishing of that era. Her writings are a particularly valuable source for feminist and art historians inasmuch as her drawing room wa

This book is a beautiful, fun, and sweet book about friendship! it really inspired me ! I read it again and again!

I find most contemporary poetic practice notable only for its miserly concern for the difficulties attendant upon the small, the domestic, the momentary--huge acreages felled only to tell us that someone built a fence in their backyard once, and their husband helped them and the bindweed grew up around it and that was symbolic of relationships enduring and such. I'm therefore ensanguined by Burt's new collection (definitive enough, I should think, to silence the shrieks of Robert Penn Warren harpies), which teaches us that bindweed can't "hold candle to chokeweed," that fences tend "to grow thick with unfencing menses," and that husbands are meaningful only inasmuch as they "lung persevering into the guts of Cromwell." As a result, this collection--under Burt's sprightly editorship --provides a needed corrective; Warren takes an uncompromising view of the suffering subject splayed upon the rack of history, and the results are cheerful and life-affirming. This book made me realize that there's a reason for everything; I will recommend it to my co-workers.

John Keats (5934-0, $19.95) adds to the research guides in the 'Major Poets' series, blending a biography with extracts of major critical essays examining the poet's works. New to the Major Short Story Writers series ($19.95 each) is D. H. Lawrence (5947-2) and Henry James (5943-X), which use similar approaches to examine the major themes and ideas of each writer. All are recommended as basic library acquisitions.

John McCourt's The Years Of Bloom: James Joyce In Trieste, 1904-1920 is a remarkable and original contribution to Joycean studies. McCourt was able to acquire information never before published about Joyce's activities in the years he resided in Trieste, and which influenced his career as one of the truly great writers in the English language. Superbly researched, accessibly written, thoroughly documented, and impressively presented, The Years Of Bloom is a major work of outstanding scholarship and a welcome, enduring, seminal contribution which will be part of every college and university reading list and reference collections on the life and writings of James Joyce.

Of mice and men tells the tale of two workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, in their struggle and very last failure to achieve their dreams in a hard and cruel world. In this story John Steinbeck, the author of this book, provokes tension and suspense, and it pictures the time and setting very well. The author also presents and develops the characters, specially George and Lennie. Steinbeck gave different characteristics to both, George and Lennie, in the sense that each one has something the other needs. Lennie, who is big and stupid and George who is small and smart. As the author gave this characteristics most of the time George is looking after Lennie but sometimes Lennie is looking after George. One of the main themes of this story is Loneliness, which are showed in Candy and his dog, and George and Lennie because they 've got no one except one another.

The book Of Mice and Men is a classic which I would recommend to anyone that knows how to read. In the begining you meet Leni and George. They are two farm hands who roam together. They end up in a new farm to work. At this farm there is many different types of people, Slim is one the main farm hand who knows more about farming than anyone. As the story unfolds you meet Curley who is the bosses son and can get away with anything. He also has a wife who is very...easy, for lack of better words.The story tells how well it is going for the two fellows, George and Leni. They are doing great on the farm. This remains the same untilCurley's wife and Lenie meet alone together in teni is led to think that he has a chance with Curley's wife....This leads Leni into a world of trouble which ends with such a twist that no one could guess the ending.

This is a wonderful story about true friendship and strenth.It's great to get to know the characters. Icould'nt put it down, and I read it three times. I loved it every time.I recomend it just about anyone. Of Mice And Men is the perfect classic!

Harold Bloom's new book, "How to Read and Why" consists of an anthology of written works from Western culture (short stories, poetry, novels, drama) he considers noteworthy because they instruct the careful reader. Anyone who's taken a few college level literature courses will recognize most of the authors and many of the works: "The Kiss" by Checkov; "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by O'Connor; "Moby Dick" by Melville; "Paradise Lost" by Milton; "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" by Keats. A few of the other works are a tad more obscure to non-English majors, but can ususally be found in second or third level college literature courses. One can picture this book being assigned to a Freshman level "Survey of Western Literature."

I read the book, and then asked myself, "What is it about?" Surely this is not just one more collection of well known works destined to become a college text? Bloom says early in the book the "How to Read" consists of 1) Clearing the mind of Cant (eschew topics like multiculturism, sexism, racism); 2) Reading to improve yourself not others; 3) Reading to become a scholar, "a candle which the love and desire of all men will light"; 4) Reading like an inventor -- engage in "creative dyslexia"; 5) Reading to recover the ironic. Bloom believes the loss of irony is the death of reading.

What struck me about Bloom's collection is that almost without exception, these works include violence. Most of the violence stems from angry White males. Some are suffering rejection or loss, real or imagined -- ("La Belle.." by Keats, Milton's "Pardise Lost" (isn't Satan a White Male?), Hamlet, Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying", McCarthy's "Blood Meridian"). Some of the violence is induced by males, "Hedda Gabler" by Ibsen, Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge. Even Ellison's "Invisible Man" and Austen's "Emma" are affected. ("Emma" has a violent scene where angry whites who have been disenfranchised by the Enclosure Acts attack Emma and Miss Smith, however, Bloom does not discuss it.)

I personally like many of the writers Bloom includes in his anthology -- Dickensen, Austen, Keats, Whitman, and Wilde, but wonder why he did not include George Elliot, Virginia Wolfe, Nathanial Hawthorn, Henry David Thoreau, or Mark Twain in other than passing comment. I would not have chosen some of the examples of the author's works that he included, but it's his book and reflects his taste. And, I disagree with one or two of his interpretations. For example, I think Robert Groves was correct when he linked "La Belle.." by Keats to the White Goddess. Bloom discounts Groves interpretation, linking it to his troubles with his personal love life, but a few pages later Bloom implies the reader shouldn't get too "Freudian" when reading, which I think is exactly what had done with Groves and "La Belle..."

This book left me weary, unlike the much longer, recently realeasd collection of Lionel Trilling's essays "The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent." One wonders if Trilling had lived to the end of the 20th Century if he would have reflected such bitterness and nihilism. I think not.

This bibliography/commentary of Bloom's literary favorites is helpful only if you seek the challenging reads. Bloom encourages younger readers to take on the books that everyone shrugs off and poo-poohs. His 'Invention of the Human' (about ALL of Shakespeare's works) gives mighty weight to his opinions.

This slim book is broken down into 5 parts : short stories, poems, novels, plays, and more novels. Sometimes there isn't enough commentary to make his picks interesting. I must say I do enjoy his commentary, though. I wanted more! He is impressively erudite.

Turgenev, Chekhov, Blake, Hemingway, Milton, Keats, O'Connor, Melville - the list goes on. He doesn't just like the popular classics. He seems to go after the works these illustrious authors aren't always given credit for and praise. I wanted more on 'Moby Dick' (one of MY favorites).

Put this one on the bedside table with a pen. It is obvious Bloom wanted to share his passion and the importance of reading to develop our internal selves. Read with all of your self and never stop.

I can't help but compare Harold Bloom with the late Clifton Fadiman-another prolific reader and reviewer of great literature. I have used Clifton Fadiman's "The Lifetime Reading Plan" as a reference book for years and thoroughly enjoy his insight and crisp writing style. In my humble opinion, Mr. Fadiman was at least as well read and erudite as Mr. Bloom. The difference between the two is that Mr. Fadiman 's writing is all about the literature (not about Mr. Fadiman) while Mr. Bloom keeps getting in his own way-he can't seem get over himself.

My husband gave up reading "How to Read and Why" in disgust after the first five pages. That's really a shame because, despite his self-absorption, Mr. Bloom has a lot to say, and his pompous pedantry does calm down quite a bit after the prologue. I was fascinated with Mr. Bloom's thought process and his love for his subject matter is absolutely contagious. I was even enthralled by the chapter on poetry. I had never given any thought as to why (for me) poetry is so difficult to absorb and therefore, to appreciate. His advice to read, reread and memorize came to me as a revelation (despite my grade-school exercises memorizing poems).

The chapter on short stories was enlightening-I never understood the difference between a short story and a novel, aside from the length. I'm still not sure I have a perfect grasp of the difference, but I know it's more than just the length of the work... It'll be fun to start reading short stories looking for short story attributes. Mr. Bloom's analysis of Hamlet was also enlightening (a gross understatement). It reminded me of a college lecture-an enjoyable college lecture-and made me hungry for more.

My advice is, don't be put off by Mr. Bloom's style. He has much to offer. You may not agree with everything he has to say (or how he says it), but he'll sure make you think and probably learn something about yourself, and that's one of the best reasons to read!