*Murder Boogies with Elvis* is the eighth and final book in the Southern Sisters mystery series by Anne George. As with the previous seven novels, I loved every minute spent with Mary Alice and Patricia Anne and their families. If you haven't read these yet, definitely try the first novel, *Murder on a Girls' Night Out.*

In *Elvis*, Mary Alice is planning her fourth marriage (widowed three times) to Sheriff Virgil Stukey and Patricia Anne is continuing to enjoy her retirement and planning the return of her pregnant daughter, Haley, and her husband Phillip from Russia. When Stukey and Mary Alice invite Patricia and her husband to a night of fundraising to renovate everyone's favorite semi-attired statue, Vulcan, the Rockette-like Elvis impersonator routine ends in one less Elvis. Unfortunately, the murder weapon is found in Patricia Anne's purse days later, and once again, the two sisters jump into the investigation, hoping to find the murderer in time for Mary Alice's wedding.

What an enjoyable end to the Southern Sister series. We will mourn the loss of Anne George and enjoy the entire series for years to come.

I am a huge fan of Anne Carroll George. I love all of her books. "Murder Boogies with Elvis" is a wonderful continuation of her previous books. Her books are one continuing story of Patricia Anne, Mary Alice, Fred, Woofer - I could name them all but anyone who has read any of her books knows all of the characters by name, too. Unfortunately, the story is ending with this book. I am so sad that this is the last book. I want to "watch" Debbie's twin girls and Brother grow; I want to know about the birth of Joanna, Haley's baby; I want to know if Haley will let Patricia Anne keep Muffin when she and Philip return from Warsaw; I want to know about the next murder that Patricia Anne and Mary Alice will investigate. There are so many quirky characters whose lives make her books so interesting. It is very sad that Ms. George's life was cut short. I miss her, but at least we have the few books she wrote to keep us company.

This book is a must read for all fans of Ms. George. Her writing from one book to the next is so consistent - she never skips anything from one book to the next.

As always, I looked forward to the next installment of the Southern Sisters mysteries. When I discovered that Mrs. George had recently passed away, I broke down and sobbed. I felt it was not only the loss of a great talent, but the loss of a friend as well. After reading her first book, I had written her a fan letter because I, too, had an Aunt Sister. She not only graciously answered my letter, but sent me her home address so it wouldn't take so long for my letters to reach her through the book company and later sent me her e-mail address. We corresponded after each book and when my dog passed away, she wrote me a letter that I will always treasure. All of her books are wonderful and this one doesn't disappoint. Patricia Ann and Mary Alice are up to it again trying to solve the murder of an Elvis impersonator. If you have never read any of her books, start with the first one and read them all. I plan to read them all again. Thank you, Mrs. George. You will be missed.

I love the Southern Sisters Mystery series by Anne George. Murder Carries a Torch is the seventh serving of this wonderful series. Sister and Mouse encounter a missing cousin, snake-handlers and two murders on this latest romp thru Birmingham and places nearby. Most authors get stale after writing about the same characters, but not Anne George. The seventh book is as fresh as the first. My only regret is that I'll have to wait another year before another Southern Sister Mystery comes out. I don't know if I can stand the suspense. If you are looking for a lighthearted good read with a heart, you need to read Murder Carries A Torch.

Have you ever had your two favourite aunts go away for a year on an adventure....then have them return to share with you the trouble they got themselves into. This is what reading an Anne George Southern Sisters mystery is like. These books make me laugh until I can't breath, bring tears to my eyes and keep me on the edge of my chair until the last tale has been told. Murder Carries a Torch is indeed a visit with those whacky relatives. You've got dead snake-charmers, purple boots, angel-sightings, pukey cousins, disappearing wives and the most loveable sisters in mystery today. The fact that one of the the ladies is now 'wired' is a bonus...the part describing Patricia Anne's experience with e-mail 'spam' is hilarious, and I was smart enough this time round not to have a mouthfull of anything when I read it. Like the rest of the books in this series, Torch is pure heaven. The only downside here is the wait for the next one!

Murder Carries A Torch proves what I've been claiming loudly for years: Anne Carroll George is one of the country's best writers, whether she bends her talents to literary novels like This One and Magic Life, or her Southern Sisters mysteries. Whatever world she decides to inhabit, you can bet she will bring that world alive for her readers.

In Murder Carries a Torch, Patricia Anne and Mary Alice are again drawn most plausibly into the most implausible circumstances, chasing a murderer through a snake-handling church in northern Alabama. The unusual religious characters are treated respectfully, the snakes are genuinely scary, Mary Alice gets a new boyfriend, and Patricia Anne is... well, the lovable and slightly acerbic Patricia Anne.

The best thing about reading all of Anne Carroll George's books is that you become part of a wonderful family universe. Visiting with Patricia Anne and Mary Alice is like joining a funny, interesting, eccentric family. George parcels out personal information much the same way you would get to know friends in real life. With each new novel, the joy of small discoveries draws you more and more easily into a warm, familiar environment.

For myself, I'm too impatient to wait for the paperback. If like me, you need your prescription of Anne Carroll George right now, add Murder Carries a Torch to your shopping cart. I guarantee you'll love this book.

The weirdest thing about this book is that the beginning is so true-to-life. The book was written several years ago, but the story is very much in sync with what is going on in the world today. This is my fifth Marcinko book and it's one of his best. It's his second fiction work, a follow up to Rouge Warrior: Red Cell, which is the main reason I didn't give it five stars. The action scenes in Green Team are much more exciting than Red Cell, but the plot just doesn't stand up to the latter. It develops at a break neck speed, but its quality fluctuates right up to the end. First time Marcinko readers will probably get hooked, just like I did with Rogue Warrior: Task Force Blue, only to be more pleased with the discovery of his first and second books. Marcinko's crossing of the thin line between reality and fiction might annoy some readers who are not used to his style, but I think it's a very original welcomed breather from the "2+2=4" formulas of other action books. Marcinko is not the writer Tom Clancy is, but then again, Tom Clancy is not the warrior Marcinko is.

Marcinko lives large and plays hard. This book, along with the rest of the Rogue Warrior Series, is hard hitting and action packed. This dude does it all, says it all, and doesn't take crap from no one. Execellent reading for someone whose tired of the slow moving far fetched action of most fiction books out there. I read Red Cell just three months ago, and I've read almost all his books to date. It's KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) read the book and get hooked!!! Anyone for a Bombay?

I'll admit to this guilty pleasure: I love the Rogue Warrior books. Not because they're great literature, but because they're just plain fun. I'm a Marine combat vet, so I can usually detect the (very) fuzzy line between military fact and fiction, but with Marcinko's books I throw up my hands in the amphibious salute and just go with it. Demo Dick's literary swagger is intoxicating, and his larger than life character is THE male archetype. All of us guys want to pump iron at Rogue Manor, throw down the double Bombays, and go shooting and looting with the SEALs' best.

It's not "the best book I've ever read," nor is it the SPECWAR primer that Rogue Warrior is. But for some unadulterated macho fun, Green Team (like the others in the series) can't be beat.

I can't speak for the latest Arkady Renko novel, "Havana Bay," having not read it yet, but for me, the finest of the first three is the magnificent "Red Square," one of the most gripping and memorable thrillers I've read in a long time.

For those that have never read any of Martin Cruz Smith's novels featuring modern fiction most's unique detective (the others being "Gorky Park" and "Polar Star"), you might be surprised by what you find. Smith is no Mickey Spillane--he is a literate, cerebral writer and a first-rate novelist with an unusual gift for both probing, insightful characterizations and heart- pounding, edge-of-your-seat storytelling. His Renko novels can best be described as Saul Bellow meets Robert Ludlum, and Smith's voice is distinctive and unmistakable.

"Red Square" finds Arkady in post-Cold War Russia, investigating murder and intrigue in a society rife with corruption and desperation. He also reunites with his great love from "Gorky Park," and Smith's description of the reunion is among his very best writing. "Red Square" also features Smith's characteristically convoluted plotting, which can at times get confusing, but eventually resolves itself with the most satisfying ending he has yet written for a Renko novel.

All in all, "Red Square," despite a rather slow first 40 pages or so, was one of the most fascinating and unforgettable thrillers of the decade. Outstanding.

All I have to say is if you are thinking of buying this book, do it. If you have not read Gorky Park or Polar Star first, then I strongly suggest you do so. The excellent aspect, I believe, of this book is its connection with the past two. While I enjoyed Gorky Park, Polar Star is where I fell in love with reading about Renko. By the time I read through Red Square, I came immediately online to see if there is another Renko novel to read. There is, Havana Bay, thank goodness, I don't know what I would have done if there wasn't. This is the perfect series of books to read, for anyone who does not mind a little challenge. Enjoy!

If you're reading this review it's probably because you haven't read Martin Cruz Smith's Red Square yet. And that's too bad, because you're missing a vivid glimpse into both the mafia-riddled new Russia and the loyalties of the human heart. Arkady Renko, the homicide detective hero of Smith's earlier books Gorky Park and Polar Star, returns to Moscow and finds himself battling an international crime ring in a story that crosses the German border and brings him face-to-face with his longed-for lost love. The gripping plot and Smith's masterful ability to capture the nuances of these complex geographical and psychological landscapes make this a book you will remember every time you pick up a copy of your favorite news magazine.

G!G! is the brilliant introduction to Sam Vimes and the Night Watch (eventually the City Watch) of Ankh-Morpork. Fencing (sort of), fighting (rather one-sided), torture (only a little bit), revenge (maybe some), giants (my, but Carrot certainly is tall), monsters (dragons and trolls count, right?), chases (when the Night Watch runs away), escapes (see previous), true love (sort of), miracles (one in a million chance)...
Sam Vimes and Carrot Ironfoundersson are my two favorite characters on the whole Disc, after Death. I just have to love this book, mostly because it gave us the characters. It sets the stage for the later books, and the City Watch subseries is the most dedicated to internal consistency and continuity among all the Discworld books. This is an essential book to see the beginning of the rise of the Night Watch and Sam Vimes, and it really sets the character of Carrot. The literal-mindedness of Carrot in this gives one an even deeper appreciation of some of the later jokes surrounding him.

The reason, I think, that Pratchett has managed to keep Discworld viable after over two dozen novels while other series seem to fade after four or five is that Pratchett continually introduces new characters and new tracts in his Discworld books -- Rincewind, Granny Weatherwax or Death, for instance.

"Guards! Guards!" is the first book to follow the adventures of Captain Vimes, and is easily as good as any other Pratchett has written. Our stalwart quartet of well-meaning bufoons provides an incredibly entertaining satire of medieval sword 'n sorcery epics -- you know, the kind where the boy finds a magic sword or slays a dragon and is therefore crowned king, regardless of any actual qualifications he may have.

I am attempting to work through the Discworld novels chronologically, so I don't know if Vimes, Carrot, Nobby and Colon show up again in this series. But I certainly hope so. Pratchett has rapidly ascended my all-time favorite authors list.

This is a review of the entire "Watch" series, not just GUARDS! GUARDS!, which is the first novel of the series and the first Pratchett book I ever read. In the first two, GUARDS! GUARDS! and MEN AT ARMS, Sam Vimes meets and marries the Dragon Lady, Sibyl Ramkin, and we get the most loving satire of a formidable upper-class old maid that I've ever read. Their romance is as unlikely and as touching as the one between Death and Miss Flitworth in REAPER MAN.

I loved the affirmative action developments in the second book, though the dragon plot in the first one seems almost superfluous compared to the evolution of Vimes' character from the time we meet him drunk in the gutter to the changes Sybil helps bring about -- and we read the subsequent Watch novels in wonder as Sam goes on to become a reluctant knight, then a duke and an expectant dad. Equally fascinating are Angua the werewolf and Cheery Littlebottom the dwarf, two of the new "men" at arms whom we get to know better in each book. Even Carrot, who is usually too good to be interesting, starts to develop some fascinating flaws in THE FIFTH ELEPHANT.

That's the joy of the Watch novels, as well as the Witch and Death ones, and a few one-shot protagonists like Teppic in PYRAMIDS. Here are people who change and evolve, in other words, people who come alive. (Even Death does -- wonderfully.) Although the password scene at the beginning of GUARDS! GUARDS! is one of Pratchett's funniest, there is none of the sneering and lampooning that make the Rincewind stories tedious. I am ever so glad that this was the first Pratchett book I read; had it been one of the Rincewind stories, chances are I'd never have gone back to the PRA's on the bookstore shelves.

I just discovered Earlene Fowler and Benni Harper! Wow! Seven Sisters was so good that I'm backtracking now to read all her previous books. Fowler's characters are so unique. Nadine, the waitress, has to be my favorite. Fowler is able to give descriptions that put you right there and make you feel you know or have met all her characters at one time or another. Good suspense. Unique twists in the story. I'm reading my second book now and look forward to knowing Benni Harper really well.

Earlene Fowler did it again-Seven Sisters is a hit! I enjoyed the reunion with several characters from earlier in the series-like D-Daddy. Earlene has a magic feel for just when to add a new character or revisit the old ones. I never get bored. Benni Harper is so easy to get to know. It is no wonder that clues fall into her lap-folks just want to share their lives with her. I enjoyed sharing a late evening with Benni myself, as I couldn't put down this book.

Okay, maybe this is a terrible way to review a book, but I have to say that Earlene Fowler has created a character that I know if he were real I would have a major crush on!! Gabe Ortiz! I am absolutely addicted to this series of books and I am not sure I can make it until the next one. But on a serious note I think the reason Seven Sisters and all of her books are so enjoyable is the character development. I wish Dove were MY grandmother and all these characters were part of my life.

Harriet Vane is long past marrying age, independent (like Ms. Sayers herself, she is a mystery writer) ... and on top of all that, she was the primary suspect in the murder of her own fiancé not too long ago. So can she possibly be a good choice as the person that her alma mater, Oxford's [fictional] Shrewsbury College turns to in order to help solving crimes ranging from poison pen letters to acts of vandalism and assault? Not all of the college's dons think so. In fact, even before being called on for this delicate task, upon returning to Oxford for the first time in years for a school reunion ("Gaudy Night"), Harriet's presence in the college triggers thinly-veiled inquiries into the details of her encounter with the criminal justice system and, coincidentally with that experience, into her difficult friendship with Lord Peter Wimsey (much-acclaimed graduate of another Oxford college, diplomat, amateur sleuth and, for much of his career, one of literary history's most dashing bachelors). Shrewsbury's teachers and students, past and present, heatedly discuss issues ranging from a woman's choice between profession and family, and the respective values of independence and loyalty, to the meaning of truth and accuracy in a scholar's work ethics. Those who were never in favor of the college's decision to ask Harriet to help unraveling the secret behind the progressively evil deeds plaguing Shrewsbury are, predictably, even more scandalized when she ultimately brings in Lord Peter Wimsey; who after all, as everybody has long since concluded, is vying for her hand in marriage. Ultimately, however, the dons find themselves almost uniformly grateful to Harriet and Lord Peter: The perpetrator's identity is revealed, and the sleuthing pair has managed to keep the affair out of the headlines and out of the local police's reach - which would have meant immeasurable damage to the college's reputation, so crucial at a time when the presence of women on the sacred grounds of a traditional and highly acclaimed university was anything but a given.

This novel has it all: the best of Dorothy Sayer's writing (rich characters, intimate knowledge of her subject and the setting of her story, suspense, humor and a thoroughly believable plot), a profound and engrossing discussion of moral issues way before her time and, last but not least, one of the classiest and most unusual marriage proposals I know of, in fact or fiction. ("Placet, magistra?") Unlike many other mysteries it does not open with the crime to be solved; rather, Ms. Sayers leads the reader into the story through Harriet's reflections upon returning to Oxford for her school's reunion. This book, then, is not to be measured by the standards or the sensationalism of an action thriller - it follows the beat of a more measured drummer, although tensions are certainly running high throughout the story; emotionally, socially and otherwise. This is one of Dorothy Sayer's best works, and not only a great mystery story but as truly rewarding and lasting a reading experience as any literature ever will be.

Dorothy L. Sayers wrote some of the best mystery novels that ever appeared in print. In fact she wrote most of them.

Gaudy Night is mainly a novel of Oxford, despite its being ostensibly a mystery. Harriet Vane is the main character of this novel, though of course Sayers' best creation, Lord Peter Wimsey, plays an important part in this book. The dialogue is as clever and wonderfully piffling as ever, the story thought-provoking, and best of all it is here that Peter is finally successful in wooing his Harriet. (The punt scene! And the finale...)

There never was a better mystery writer. I would suggest, before reading this, that you read Strong Poison and Have His Carcase for the full effect. Oh, and follow Gaudy Night up with Busman's Honeymoon.

Gaudy Night has long been my favorite Dorothy Sayers mystery. The plot involves Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey investigating a murder at Harriet's old college at Oxford. The plotting is excellent and the dialogue intelligent and witty. This is classic Sayers. What really adds to the story is the continuing love story between Harriet and Peter. Before Harriet came along, Wimsey seemed to me to not be a fully fleshed out character. Adding Harriet to the mix livens up Wimsey and makes him seem more real and more human. This is an excellent golden age mystery from a master writer. Highly recommended.

While often embarrassing in a public place, laughing out loud while reading is an example of pure pleasure that so rarely occurs that any author capable of producing this effect should be commended. Douglas Adams is such an author. The only problem is his writing style should be taken in small doses, because when read all together you start to get buried in all the clever little comments and they lose their effectiveness. The first two novels in this series are two of the funniest books I have ever read. The basic plot is simple: Earth is destroyed to make way for an interstellar highway and Arthur Dent, one particularly hapless Earthman, is taken along by an interstellar hitchhiker to the far reaches of space. This synopsis does not do justice to the incredible universe Adams drags us into: Ships that run on improbability factors or restaurants checks, a two headed former president of the galaxy who is looking for a real good time, and other events and people too bizarre and numerous to summarize. The problem is that each succeeding book seems to jettison some whimsy for a more serious form of science fiction until in the last book the laughs are hard to find. The first two books deserve the highest rating, but this review is based on all the content contained within. But once you start, you'll want to read all of them, Adams does make sure that the reader wants to know how it all turns out. Hopefully you'll enjoy the journey.

This collection deserves to be read in one continuous read. It refers to itself backwards and forwards, sideways and down, so it's a real treat (and quite a convenience) to have the whole tangled mess between two covers. However, each of the six sections deserves its own sub-review.

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' is the name of both the most popular portable comprehensive galactic encyclopedia, and the book that begins Douglas Adams hilarious space saga. It neatly sets up the tale by giving away the answer to the meaning of life! Don't panic, it's not all it's cracked up to be, because they don't have the question! We meet a great cast of eccentric characters, get to fly around on the 'Heart of Gold' (powered by the ludicrously simplistic Improbability Drive), and discover that planet Earth will be destroyed to make way for an interstellar roadway.

'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' builds on the logic of the first book, and tweaks it enough to keep things really interesting. Milliways (the aforementioned restaurant) is a great comic creation, walking a grossly absurd existential tightrope to become a fascinating setpiece. There's a great moment about how Zaphod Beeblebrox's great-grandfather is named 'Zaphod the fourth' while he's 'Zaphod the first' ("An accident involving a contraceptive and a time machine"). The whole gang narrowly escapes flying into the sun, and are saved by a piece of specious bureaucracy. The whole mess ends with Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent landing on a familiar planet, and discover that evolution ain't all it's cracked up to be.

The strength of the first two books is that when Adams goes off on these incredible leaps in logic and flights of fancy (two of my favourite modes of transportation) they always seem to follow some kind of narrative thrust. In 'Life, the Universe, and Everything', they seem like non-sequiters, or at most just interesting tangents. I enjoyed the concept of the poem that was never written due to a reckless time travel expedition, and the guy who was injected with too much truth serum and now told The Truth. But they seemed more ornamental than consequential to me. Maybe I just didn't understand the plethora of cricket references (although I did get a kick out of them). Furthermore, the installment was hurt by a serious deficiency in Zaphod Beeblebrox.

A grand comeback is made in 'So Long and Thanks for all the Fish'. This manages to be a really touching love story, interlaced with grand questions about the nature of existence and what happened to all the dolphins. Arthur Dent and Fenchurch (don't call her Fenny) slowly but surely realize that the universe has a higher purpose for them, and they have no choice but to fall in love. And the scene describing their first consummation of that love is actually quite original, and very beautiful. That all being said, the story still manages to be a strong link in the overall chain of events, periodically keeping track of Ford Prefect until it becomes necessary for him to swoop in near the end (deux es machinas-style) and save the cosmic day. Adams also manages to include several more comic illogicalities (probably not a word, but whose rules am I following here?), the standout being the description of Wonko the Sane's inside-out house. A great little interlude, that.

'Young Zaphod Plays it Safe' is a confusing little mess, that I hope gains some meaning in hindsight, once the entire book is complete (**I've just finished reading 'Mostly Harmless', and I'm still in the dark over this one. Oh well.)

'Mostly Harmless' is a little less frenetic than its predecessors are, and a little more assured in its narrative structure. Its story is one of those that begins with three different plots, and as time goes on the plots slowly begin to converge into one final conclusion (kind of like an episode of Seinfeld, now that I think about it). Arthur and Ford get into some seriously mixed up situations, but they are perfectly explained through some more of that demented Douglas Adams logic. Ford actually jumps to his death, miraculously escapes, and then jumps again. And he has a perfectly good reason for doing it both times. My one complaint is that the book doesn't give each plot equal attention, so when you haven't read about one of the characters in a while, you tend to forget what they were doing when last you met them. On a positive note, the whole enterprise actually validates the mess that was 'Life, the Universe, and Everything'.

The series can be read in two ways: as comic fluff (albeit high comic fluff), or as a satire on the nature of existence. A third way, and probably the most effective, would be to read it as both. Or neither. Just read it!

Quite humbly, there is nothing as funny as this book, this collection, this window to the universe, whatever you'd like to call it. There's a reason for that. As unbelievably all-over-the-place whacky as the book's plot can be, a reader should expect to finish reading the book with the knowledge that, amazingly, the universe really is just that strange and wonderful.

I happen to love life with a passion and laugh near continually. I've never laughed as hard or as often reading than I did while reading this book. Never. Not even close. Imagine the person sitting next to you in a plane, seemingly without provocation, belly-laughs and can't stop. Then imagine it happening on a regular basis. You might wonder one of two things - when will he shut up and/or what is it that's making him laugh?

If you are at all curious why people laugh so hard so often and enjoy life so much...read this book. Please. No, really.

It's not just funny. If you can say 'just' and the type of extreme hilarity I mean in the same sentence without blasting the meaning out of the word 'just.' It's life Essential. I happen to love reading philosophy, eastern, christian, anything I can get my hands on. I'm so glad I got my hands on this collection. You finish the book and realize that you know a whole lot more than you thought you did about your world. Fortunately, a great deal of that knowledge consists of knowing you barely know anything at all. One of my favorite passages, to end...

'"Look," he said in a stern voice. But he wasn't certain how far saying "Look" in a stern voice was necessarily going to get him, and time was not on his side. What the hell, he thought, you're only young once, and threw himself out the window. That would at lesat keep the element of surpise on his side.'

...Please, for yourself and your happiness in life, read this book. If you come away and are anything but overjoyed to be alive...read it again. You must have missed something. =)

-Mike Fliss - mdf@duke.edu

I've read most of Pratchett's novels, in publication order, up to the most recent handful, and this is by far my favorite, along with INTERESTING TIMES. The City Guard of Ankh-Morpork is a happy concept, and all the books about the Guards are way above Pratchett's average.

Imagine a police procedural in which very few of the policemen are human. Comic book writer Alan Moore currently has a series which takes this to the n-th degree... none of the policemen are human, and no two are alike: TOP TEN. If you want to try a Pratchett novel, try GUARDS, GUARDS! or MEN AT ARMS or FEET OF CLAY. Excellent introductions to his "cosmos" and to his unique style of wit. "DON'T SALUTE!!!" (You'll learn why.)

Men At Arms, another installment in the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, is a wonderful continuation of the characters from Guards Guards and a fuller look at the famed city of Ankh-Morpork. Not only is there a continuation of characters, but new ones are added, and further developed. Terry Pratchett shows he is a REAL writer by his ability to interweave a funny, uplifting book, with true drama, a plot, and a mystery type story, of whodunnit? If you like "buddy flicks" and enjoy excellent humor, this is a must read. Even though it is a continuation from a previous book, the reader does not need to read Guards Guards! to fully understand the characters, for Pratchett's writing style allows the new reader to become comfortable with the characters within a few pages. The only warning i give to the reader is, not all books are completely happy go lucky, for drama is truly woven in with surprising occurences. Enjoy this book! If you are a fan of Pratchett in the least sense, you will love Men At Arms

Unlike the Hitchhiker's Trilogy from the late Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett's Discworld books have managed to stay fresh and original through not a mere five, but 27 installments. The reason for this, I think, is that Pratchett uses the format to its fullest potential, creating several groups of characters that he visits time and again, never having any single group act as the star of the entire series, and using it to tackle diverse subjects without ever repeating himself.

"Men at Arms" is the second Discworld book to focus on Captain Vimes and the men -- um... humans... er... beings -- of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (the first being "Guards! Guards!") and it has firmly cemented these characters as my favorite recurring heroes in the Discworld universe.

Time is running out for Captain Sam Vimes -- because he's getting married. Furthermore, his beloved night watch is being tampered with by higher-ups calling for "greater diversity" in the hirings, forcing him to welcome trolls, dwarfs and women into the group. To make matters worse, someone has stolen a strange new weapon from the assassin's guild and is using it to kill people. Vimes, Carrot, Nobby and the gang have to find the murderer and save the day.

Funny, yes, but also particularly poignant in light of recent events in the Washington D.C. area. I read this book a few months ago, before the unpleasantness began... this may be just the thing to help you cope.

Matt Groening and the team that brings The Simpsons into your homes each week, collaborated on this irreverent book, that looks at life through the eyes of 10 year old Bart Simpson.

Like the show that inspired it, the book is filled with hilarious, and often times biting satire about the world in which we live. Even though the book is more than ten years old now, the humor in the guide still holds up very well, and it never seems outdated. All of life's little pleasuers and nesscessities are put through "Yellow Filters" and given that Simpson edge, after being turned upside down, and inside out. My favorite catagories of the book are: Food, Religion, Language and Communication, School, Sex, Work and Money. Each topic is explored over several pages. Each topic is jam packed with the clever wit and wisdom of Bart Simpson No topic is off limits and part of the reason the book is so good. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the book, is at times laugh out loud till it you turn diferent colors, either. All of the main charaters as well as the supporting players from the series are featured throughout the book

I would caution though that the full color 187 page book (including intro/index) may not be for you, unless you are a Simpson's fan. The book is highly recommended (Heck even the book's back cover is good for a laugh) You can't go wrong

some of these other reviews ticked me off! i thought this book was excellent! i bought it when it first came out(1993) and i STILL love to read it from beginning to end! this isn't a story book, it pretty much is a guide to life! it is filled with different sections including school, food, xmas, art & culture, parents, etc.. i LOVED it! each page was also filled with colorful illustrations. there is a lot of info in this book, like a section where it gives you a list of phobias AND foreign language section! it tells you how to pronounce and write 6 "bart like" phrases and gives the english approximation for them in 7 different languages! there is SOOO much more in here i can't write it all! if you have any questions, PLEASE e-mail me! (pyro1821@yahoo.com) BUY IT! NOW! it is REALLY worth the cash!

This well, wonderfully blunt written book is 175 (even the covers!) pages of great laughs and things you could even relate to. If you love or like the Simpsons, you'll love this book. If you don't favor the Simpsons, you'll love this book anyway. This cute little devil has really done it this time-and I'm glad he did. This is best for those who still have an immature, realistic view on life and aren't afraid to crack a smile at another wondrous creation of Matt Groening. I can read and re-read and never grow tired of it. This is definitely worth a few inches of shelf space and a few hours or so of your time. A pleasant keeper for life (at times you may have to refer to it later and you'll be thankful to have it).