Excellent book. Loads of valuable info and packed with humor.
Definitely earns two thumbs up!!!

I think the author's research is thorough and compelling, giving us a new perspective on the intricate world of Borges writing. This book will give Borges readers a new glimpse on Borges times,(and its influence on him), his relation to the present, the many aspects that influenced Borges in his way of writing and his influence in many other aspects of literature and art. It will also expand and challenge the way many readers and critics understand Borges writings and style. This book will encourage them to understand the realtionship between Borges fictional texts and the culture industry, as well as many other issues still not explored before. The author has a strong argument, which I applaud and respect.

This is the eleventh book in Chaosium's Cthulhu Cycle series. This volume features tales of Lovecraft's most well-known creation, the octopus-headed entity, Cthulhu. Included are the foundational stories (i.e. "The Call Of Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft and "The Black Island" by August W. Derleth), some rare reprints (i.e. "Some Notes Concerning A Green Box" by Alan Dean Foster) and some interesting new stories of Cthulhu in the modern world (i.e. "Rude Awakening" by Will Murray). In any collection the stories are of varied quality but I enoyed the majority of the works collected. If you are a reader of Lovecraft's Mythos fiction then this is a must for your library.

ARISTEO BRITO'S NOVEL IS AN EMOTIONAL JOURNEY. HIS SINCERITY IS OBVIOUS AND HIS IMAGES ARE TRUE PRINTS OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT.I HAVE NOT BEEN SO MOVED BY THE INTENSITY OF A NOVEL IN A LONG TIME. THE PLIGHT AND HEROISISM OF A PEOPLE SO OPPRESSED COULD ONLY BE DESCRIBED SO ELOQUENTLY BY ARISTEO BRITO. I AM ONLY SADDENED THAT I COULD NOT READ IT IN IT'S FIRST EDITION OF SPANISH, BECAUSE I IMAGINE HIS WORDS WERE EVEN MORE COMPELLING AND BEAUTIFUL.

I've recently gotten hold of this wonderful book for a research I'm doing on a semi-related subject and have come to realize that I couldn't have found a better source of analysis and information than this jewel written by Mr. David W. Foster. Not only is it an insight review of different books through the history of latin american writing, but it's also a remarkable effort in trying to look deeply into the always controversial subject of homosexuality in a culture where it has been allowed little space, both in terms of social recognition/acceptance/attention and of literary production. A book that will leave you thinking, will instruct you on the subject and -all at the same time- will suck you down 'til you finish it. Not throughly easy to read, since Mr. Foster's wording is very appropiately complicated, but it NEVER borders on rhetorical ramblings. Get this!

MiG Alley To Mu Ghia Pass: Memoirs of A Korean War Ace is the military memoir of Cecil Foster, a young man born into poverty and hardship, and who joined the Army Air Force in 1943 as a private, eventually retiring in 1975 as a lieutenant colonel. Foster served a multitude of tasks during his Air Force career, but perhaps the most outstanding and remarkable part of his autobiographical history was his service as a high-scoring ace pilot in the aerial battles of the Korean War. Foster's record of nine destroyed MiGs earned him 12th place on a list of 38 aces. Each of the aircraft he destroyed was shot down in a section of airspace called "MiG Alley," which runs along the Yalu River that separates North Korea from China. MiG Alley Mu Ghia Pass is an involving, personal look into one of the countless people who have staked their lives to serve and protect the United States of America. Highly recommended for students of military aviation history in general, and the Korean War in particular.

How is it that the Final Opus of Leon Solomon is out of print in both hardcover and paperback?

The book's author, Jerome Badanes, died halfway through the sequel to The Final Opus of Leon Solomon. What he had written, and revised himself, was a pretty amazing 100 page novella called Change or Die which appears in Issue number #5 of Open City in its entirety.

It is always a peculiar thing when you take a piece of writing that has so much peculiar character and substance, and lump it in with all the other stuff that happens to comprise that issue of the magazine.

This issue has some absurd wild cards - when seen in the light of its central feature, "Change or Die," - such as an Irvine Welsh story he wrote shortly after completely Trainspotting, and this wonderful piece of non-sense that Delmore Schwartz wrote about T.S. Eliot's anti-Semitism. That is the one interesting thematic thread in this issue--Both Shwartz and the academic protagonist of Change or Die (a man trying to recover from Shakespeare,) have a certain lovely fatedness about them.

And Change or Die has one of my favorite short lead sentences:

"The Blik family was a dream and an education."

What a great beginning to such a great story!

(And what a concise and honest use of the short sentence, which has been bastardized and beaten up on any number of fronts, from Hemingway imitators to the cold pragmatism of news providers).

If this whole computer as a means to shop for books is to have any good side, then it is that finding a book like, "The Final Opus of Leon Solomon," or getting your hands on the novella "Change of Die" is something you MUST GET! If only to make use of the fact that you are sitting in front of a computer and perusing.

Jerome Badanes. He is coming back in the only way he can.

Miguel Mendez' response to the social ills of the day is to write about the crude realities of some of the experiences of the undocumented immigrant on his way to the U.S. Mendez lets us know that he will be using the voice of the oppressed to describe their suffering. In Pilgrims in Aztlan, Mendez writes about the soical and political by talking about borders. Borders that are difficult to explained and be visualized.In Mendez's story there is no protagonist, only the human journey of people who seem to have no names. Everything gets in the way of this human journey. The place of exodus, poor, uncaring, does't seem to mind. The place of destination does not welcome them only exploits them. Suffering is universal and knows no borders or time. Yet, the universal suffering of mankind are but individual stories of people. To describe these suffering Mendez has used the tool of literature to document and tell stories of human suffering, least they be forgotten.

A must read for people interested in the environment and how to interpret their surroundings. Beautifully written, thoughtful and intelligent. One of the best books I've read.

This is an excellent study of John Paul II's difficult encyclical on faith and reason. Most of the contributions deal with the vexed issue of "Christian philosophy," a much disputed topic in the 1930s which has been given new life by our reigning philosopher-pope. Highlights are the fine essays by Avery Cardinal Dulles, placing the current issues in historical context, and the remrkable essay by David Meconi on the Marian dimension of philosophy.