As all of Domini's work, this is a rolicking good read. He is the master of character, and he captures with a great ear and deft hand, the mood of our time and place. I recommend him highly for anybody who is alive and kicking.

Domini has done it once again. This time, Domini spills more than the usual fanfare of guts and glory as he winds us down the road toward fantastic character development and edge-of-your-seat tales. This wonderful opus is a must for any reader who enjoys escape into fantasies that unlock imagination and emotions. Truly a joyous read!

THis is a great book to escape into. Losers and unsettled types lead the reader to self evaluation. Through their struggles with the tribulations and the moral implications of the decisions they make, we face our own issues.

Slip into an easy chair and slide into another universe. This set of short stories wends its way through recognizable, contemporary America and fantasy.

John Domini, even as far back as 1976 when BEDLAM was first issued, could write about anyplace, anytime, anybody: a soldier, a stockbrocker, a banker, a devil. AND make the writing read effortless--straight from the brain, to fingers, to paper. I picked up this story collection out of curiosity after reading HIGHWAY TRADE (Red Hen Press, 1997) and getting hooked on Domini. I got hooked on BEDLAM too, on Young Domini's sophistication, wit and imagination, but especially on his ability to tailor voice and language to each story.

In the first story, "Over 4000 Square Miles," Domini writes about a former prisoner of the Vietnam War on a trip to the Florida Everglades where a TV docu-drama of this wartime experiences is being filmed. "Hartley always thought he'd be a success at adultry." But he doesn't succeed. Following a fling with a woman with "almond French-Canadian eyes," he winds his way through the Everglades "in a black and silver fit of searching for where he would die." But he doesn't do that either.

Wow! Mr. Domini has taken us to some fascinating places indeed. Among these are Hell, after Judgement Day -- and that's in what turns out to be a love story -- and the mind of a celebrated Vietnam vet wrestling with his first difficult taste of adultery. The writing itself is really something, almost poetry at times, and the plotlines shock me with their surprises and their humor. Great, lively stuff.

John Domini does it again. He's the real thing, and we really do need more writers like him. In this novel, he creates a topsy turvy world featuring a large, colorful cast of characters, and composed of healthy doses of politics, subterfuge, literature, journalism, and sex, and somehow ties everything together with style, wit, and intelligence. There are no loose ends, and his characters are memorable -- originals, all of them. With this exploration of the seventies, Domini shows us how deeply he cares about the state of the world as it is now, and those of us who inhabit it.

Here's an important book that's also a pleasure to read. "Talking Heads: 77" is rich with ideas; it is intense, original and finely crafted. John Domini has painted with words a masterpiece.

John Domini has brilliantly turned one of literary fiction's neatest tricks: he has vividly and accurately evoked a past time and milieu-the alternative cultural scene of the mid-70s-and in the process he has illuminated our own times with dazzling clarity. Talking Heads: 77 also manages to be both cutting-edge innovative and splendidly readable. This book is a flat-out delight.

If you are familiar with the Sardinian area and the food of the land, you will LOVE this book. It is beautifully written and the pictures will astound you. Take the time to buy and enjoy this book, you'll have it for a long time.

My household is full of eaters who are allergic to dairy products - but are Italian and love Italian food. Bugialli's book on Sardinian cooking saved the day. This book lets US-based cooks, using common (or easy to find) ingredients, create authentic Italian dishes that taste wonderful and are virtually dairy-free. The desserts section, of course, relies fairly heavily on dairy products. But the flavors provided by the main courses are so intense and clean, you can skip dessert and still be completely satisfied. Grazie, Signor Bugialli

Mr. Bugialli's book is a classic combination of coffee table picture book and fine cookbook. The recipes do not represent many of the standard Italian "classics." (from the tourist point of view). Instead, they take you deeper into Italian cuisine. The recipe for Torta di funghi was worth the price of the book according to the friends I served it to. Some recipes involve unusual ingredients, but that is OK with me. I care more about authenticity, than about convenience.

The fact that the text and pictures take you on a mini-tour of Italy makes this a great book, not just a great cookbook.

Giuliano Bugialli's "Foods of Tuscany" has a perfect balance -- probably 90% recipes and 10% pictures and background. The pictures are wonderful, the recipes are delicious, and the background information displays a surprising level of erudition. My only criticism would be that many of the recipes are very labor-intensive; Julia Child's typical recipes seem easy in comparison. But the results are worth the effort

I LOVE this book. It's a collectors item no doubt. Pics of Frank that you've never seen before. Classics with Frank and Jackie Gleason and Sammy Davis jr. Frank at his house, on the massage table, in private places never seen. You can tell he wasn't posing for these pics. All naturally which is why it is so unique. And the texts keeps you wanting to roll thru the book without putting it down. What a life he had! What a book this is!!

Michael Brandmeier

I first encountered Lidia Bastianich through the public television program, "New York, The Great Chefs." Ms. Bastianich made Grapes in Grappa. I had never heard of grappa but I knew I wanted to copy that recipe and so I bought the companion book for the series. Many years later, La Cucina di Lidia crossed my hands and I'm glad it did. And not just for the recipes, which are superb. Lidia and I are the same age. While I grew up is a working class suburb in the American Midwest,with its small lots ringed by chainlink fence, Lidia grew up in a country still scarred by WWII. We were not wealthy -- my father, who never went to high school, was a skilled laborer -- but we never had the sort of struggle to put food on the table that Lidia's family had. That struggle and the story of her families immigration is told in this cookbook. And, yes, it is a cookbook, but it is just as interesting as a document of perhaps the "other side" of the Baby Boom generation that has been soundly criticised for materialism and self-indulgence. From generations of Istrian cooks, Lidia learned how to feed a family suberbly. To my Irish and Polish family, the Italian dishes that were making their way into the Midwest in the 1950s were exotic. I remember my mother buying the "spaghetti kit," (can I mention the brand - Chef Boyardee) a yellow, rectangular box in which there was a long, thin box of dry spaghetti, a medium size can of tomato sauce and a small can of grated cheese. When there were only 2 children in the family, we were fed from one box, but as the children grew in size and increased in number, so did the number of boxes it took to feed the family. It was with considerable trepidation that my mother bought her first pound of dry pasta and cans of whole tomatoes and tomato paste and made her first "Italian" dinner from scratch. More than red sauce, this is a wonderful book that captures an era and an area. By the way, Lidia also answers the question of dry v. "fresh" pasta. A great book.

A book close to my heart. My family hails from the island of Krk just south of Istria. As a first generation American I am fortunate to have the flavorings of the Adriatic in my soul and palate. This book literally brought tears to my eyes. My family will have hours of enjoyment from this book. As a fellow child of Astoria,Queens---HVALA LIDIA!!!