I bought this book for the short stories. They are like small diamonds on a necklace, sparkling in a row, each one a wonder. Fitzgerald's short stories are like that.

"The Off Shore Pirate" is hilarious. The "Ice Palace" is strange and beautiful. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is about a baby born very old who gets younger every year.

"The Diamond As Big As The Ritz" is classic Fitzgerald, about the rich.

The story that is missing is "The Rich Boy." This is the story that started the famous spat between Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

In this short story, Fitzgerald writes: "The rich are very different from you and me." Hemingway responds in his short story, "The Snows Of Kilimanjaro:" "Yes, they have more money."

But you will not find "The Rich Boy" in this book. Too bad.

Included with the short stories are two novels:: This Side Of Paradise and The Beautiful And Damned. They are very adolescent novels. High school students might enjoy them.

Maybe not.

The short stories do more to describe the Jazz Age than his novels.

If you are serious about this author, his greatest novel is The Great Gatsby. His next best novel is Tender Is The Night. "The Rich Boy" is his best short story.

This is a very attractive packaged, comprehensive collection of Fitzgerald's early work, containing his first two novels (This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful & Damned) and his first two short story collections. Included are some classic short stories such as May Day and The Diamond As Big As The Ritz. Some of the other stories are less than classic, but all are enjoyable. As is the case with all Library of America volumes, the book is very easy to handle and read. There is a useful set of notes and chronology of Fitzergald's life in the back. All in all, this is well worth the price.

Most of us are quite aware that a positive attitude helps us feel better but fewer people are aware of why. A positive attitude stimulates certain hormones and enzymes that strengthen our immune system and can give us an overall feeling of improved well being. In this book the reader will learn how stress, tension, anger, loneliness, depression and negative feelings in general can lead to a variety of physical ailments. It also shows how positive influences in our life can improve our health and contribute to a longer life. Music, biofeedback, prayer, meditation, happy fulfilling relationships, pets and basic responses, such as laughing or the feeling of a warm touch not only increase our emotional state of well being, but they can actually improve our physical state as well. Stress is a personal affair. Each one of us must discover what activities cause us stress and which ones help to relieve our stress and soothe away inner tensions.

As a counsellor, it has become apparent to me that many individuals often recognize when they are under stress, but most people are not able to determine for themselves the "degree" of stress that plaques them. A prime example of this is high blood pressure. One individual may have apparent symptoms while another may have no significant symptoms at all until a stroke or heart attack strikes. "Feeling Good Is Good For You" is an excellent book which helps the reader understand the connection between mind and body, and how, to a certain extent, we can control the state of our well being. There has obviously been an extensive amount of research undertaken in writing this book, and it is one well worth reading.

Those who enjoyed and learned from Dr. Dean Ornish's fine book, Love and Survival, will be glad they read Feeling Good Is Good for You. Drs. Charnetski and Brennan report on fascinating scientific research in human studies concerning the positive influence that various pleasurable experiences and influences can have on the body's immune system. "The human drive for pleasure, if satisfied in moderation, can assist us on the pathway to good health." The authors make it clear that pleasurable experiences and environments are not the only ways that the immune system can be supported.

The book provides a basic overview of how your immune system operates, and how various diseases are encouraged or repelled by strengthening or weakening immune responses.

The starting point for all kinds of mind-body research (psychoneuroimmunology or PNI, in this case) is the well-known placebo effect. Many people get better if they think they are receiving medications, even when they are not. The placebo effect works best when the evidence of receiving medication is strongest (such as through an IV in a hospital). This effect is a real one because the brain can calm stress-based hormonal and chemical turbulence, trigger feel-good chemicals, and cause chemicals to be released that stimulate the effectiveness of the immune system.

The book goes on to take a detailed look at how optimism versus pessimism, hostility, stress, music, friends, love, touching, pets, laughing, light, visualization, religious practices, eating and drinking habits, and the degrees of these factors influence specific parts of the immune system. At the end of each subject, you are given suggestions for ways to apply the lessons to your own life. In several sections (such as the one about stress on pages 76 and 77) you will find tests you can take to measure how this factor affects your life now.

The key lessons of these practices are summarized on page 181 as a 13 point pleasure formula.

One impressive part of the book was that the authors look at the implications of following these practices if these scientific studies are later overturned by newer research. Their argument that following this advice will do no harm seems persuasive.

Although I was aware of much of this kind of research from reading other books, I found many studies here that I had not read about before. Of particularly interest was the new research that the immune system can be conditioned to become stronger.

The big surprise for me was to see that one quiz showed my stress level to be apparently much greater than I would have subjectively described it as being. I wonder if you can build up an immunity to feeling stressed, even as potentially stress-inducing situations occur. Also, I wonder if different factors affect individuals differently. I find considerable pleasure in some of the "stressful" events on the list.

After you finish enjoying applying this book's "pleasure in moderation" lessons for a few days, I suggest that you think back to other things you have done in the past that have brought you stress reduction, contentment, moderate pleasure, or peace. How can you also incorporate those activities and elements into your life now?

Give a boost to the moderate enjoyment instincts of those you meet!

excellent book for those who like to know more about Somalia

it's the most valueble book i ever rea

This book was great. The author does a great job talking about the FIDE in the first half of the book, just to inform you about the technicalities of playing in a World Championship match. The author talks about "The War of Nerves" theory, the somewhate eccentric Bobby Fischer, but at the same time, the outstanding play of him also. Part two of the book is absolutely great. It is a game-by-game analysis, showing other possible moves, a full rundown of the game, move by move, and what I enjoyed, the final position of the pieces. That truely gives you a chance to "get inside" the mind of these great chess players. If you are interested in chess, or want to get interested in chess, read this book!

This book was written by a panel of experts and afficianados -- ranging from music and news editors to chess grandmasters. It follows the most highly publicized chess match ever played. Expert analysis of each game is combined with personal and historical context.

The title of my review refers to the fact that I was in Iceland with my father (Richard J Roberts) and the others as we watched the matches, and was somewhat privy to much of the the behind-the-scenes reporting (as privy as a 10 year old could be).

This book is a gem and should be on the reading list of any fan of Fitzgerald or Hemingway. Much of the contents are anecdotal recollections of Hemingway regarding Fitzgerald who he regarded as immensely talented but weak and dominated (by Zelda and the bottle). A variety of letters between the two help to bring to life the closeness that was in evidence in the early friendship before Fitzgerald's decline and Hemingway's enormous success (followed by his growing intolerance of the waning and less successful like FSF). This book also does not attempt to hide the sometimes incomprehensible mean -spiritedness of Hemingway when despite all his success (largely aided by the early support of others he later cast aside) still felt enough threatened to throw his drowning friends an anchor.

This has new stuff that wasn't in Brucolli's previous book on the two authors SCOTT AND ERNEST. I read that one, and when starting FITZGERALD AND HEMINGWAY, thought I'd read the same book, but with a few added facts. Well, there are tons of new facts in F & H that are EXTREMELY interesting to the Fitzgerald and Hemingway fan. I recommend this book highly. I've read much of it more than once.

I have read this book three times and I can read it again. I really enjoyed this novel. I recomended to anyone who loves to read novels that include drama and suspense.

This is a novel of one man's heart wrenching battle to gain the love of a women who is emotionally blind. Gastby once turned down for being poor feels the same rejection now as he is rich. Throughout the whole novel his life is read aloud by his only friend who loves him for himself...the narrator. The compelling drama of this story brings ones own life into reality....do we actually form materialistic relatioships? That may be one question worth asking yourself at the closing of the novel. From the destruction of his massive parties inflicted by his "friends" to the destruction of himself from his beloved Daisy, one wishes they may reach in the book and and make Gatsby see what everyone but himself can see. His goal in life...his compelling love, is leading to his inevitable destruction.

This book is truly a work of art. The plot, the characters, the similes, and the quotes are superb. The story is about Jay Gatsby,the man who did everything to achieve love. But he still failed. The theme is illusion. This is a great classic which reflects upon the lives of American people. It is not at all slow and boring. U will definitly enjoy this book. Mark my words

F.S. Fitzgerald had successfully depicted the glamorous lives of the American upper class during the 1920s. The story centers on Jay Gatsby, a millionaire, whose past is a mystery, but with his tremendous wealth, he is able to attract everyone into his life circle. However, his entire motive is to win back his old lover, Daisy; his loyalty of love eventually leads to his tragic ending.

This book has allowed me to start living and feeling again after 23 years. I appreciate the courage it took to not only go onto healing from abortion and its aftermath but to assist others in their journey toward healing.

Thank you and God Bless Holly

"Always remember that JESUS forgives you, loves you and is healing you every single day! The peace of Christ be with you!"...These words are the last 2 sentences in the Book, 5 Steps toward POST-ABORTION HEALING. Those are the most comforting, most peaceful words that I read over and over again that help me get through the roughest guilt-ridden days. I wanted a miracle and I wanted to be healed 'right now'... so I skipped to the last chapter -Step 5- entitled "Rejoice and Renew" I didn't want to go through Remembering that I really, actually, murdered 3 of my children and who knows how many grandchildren. The did not want to go through the painful, slow process of post-abortion healing, so I skipped to the INSTANT CURE: Forgiveness. I received this booklet from the SISTERS OF LIFE in NEW YORK; They gave it to me for free on October 11th, 2002 one month after "9/ll" which pales in comparison to the 41+million thats 41,000,000 babies who have been murdered in the United States at the hands of their own mothers before they even had a chance to work in the Twin Towers...and I am own of those Mothers who murdered her own children. The most difficult chapter that I have not been able to get through is Step 2-Looking Back-Retracing Events-Forgiving-Birth and Death Dates. I cannot remember, that's how far back in my denial memory that I have pushed it. I do not know. I remember having more guilt over stealing a 1 cent pretzel when I was a kid, than after "having an abortion". I didn't know that "having an abortion" was actually murdering my own flesh and blood just like the woman who is going to prison for drowning her 5 children. I had help doing Step 3-Naming your child after going to a Project Rachel Retreat. I did Step one, one day 5 or 6 years ago. I ran through all the 10 commandments one at a time and I had committed all of them...When I got to the 7th Commandment, "Thou shalt not Kill" I said I didn't know that having an Abortion was Murder like shooting someone with a gun. It is easy for me to relate to Step Four entitled ."Turning to Mary, the Sorrowful Mother...I am a Sorrowful Mother too, but I did it to myself as the difference JESUS was an INNOCENT victim like the babies who died at the hands of others. In Step 5 - The "TEN SUGGESTIONS for Reaching Out...is what I have been doing to stay out of Self Pity and Depression. I have been trying to find copies of , "5 Steps toward Post-Abortion Healing" to buy and give to others or leave on the back of the Church rack. Step 2 chapter about Forgiving the People Involved, Well I hope they forgive me for having them drive me their as an accomplice to murder. I am angry at Planned Parenthood for not explaining to me what I was doing. No Counseling Before or After. I needed the STEPS to walk me through forgiveness of "Planned Premeditated Murder" They never have 'Planned' any of my pregnancies...they only tried to Prevent them and 3 times their methods of birth control failed. STEP FIVE - REJOICE and RENEW focuses on REACHING OUT...TEN WAYS to STAY ALIVE and help other people which gives me a reason to live. PLEASE GET THIS BOOK and READ THIS BOOK AND START THE HEALING JOURNEY..."TRUST JESUS IN HIS LOVE FOR US AND YOU WILL NEVER BE AFRAID" as a final note on p. 55-56 "God Bless you on your journey toward healing...

With "Flowers for the Judge" Margery Allingham signals the change in her writing style which was first hinted at in "Police at the Funeral." Campion has matured a bit and changed from a hapless zany to someone just a bit more like a friend of the family. Still occasionally fatuous, but, more often, showing flashes of brilliance. In keeping with this, the stories themselves are shifting away from adventure tales and becoming more typical of detective stories. While Allingham is rarely very good at keeping secrets, there really are mysteries and inexplicable clues to puzzle out.

The mystery in "Flowers for the Judge," is who murdered Paul Brande in the cellar lock room of Barnabas Limited. Brande is one of the owners of this respectable publishing firm, along with his cousins John Widdowson and Michael Wedgewood. Paul, noted for running off without notice, and being a bit hare-brained to boot, leaves behind his wife Gina. He had proven himself somewhat lacking as a husband and Gina was in the process of trying to divorce him. To make this even more suspicious, her relationship with Michael, while not exactly improper, is a bit too close to be considered a simple friendship.

When the police discover that the murder weapon was Michael's car, which was used to pump carbon monoxide into the lock room, suspicions blossom. With Michael unable to produce an alibi, the result of the inquest is a forgone conclusion, and Michael is remanded over for trial. Gina and Ritchie Barnabas (another cousin) turn to Campion for help.

The case is complicated by other events and hints of scandal, yet provides Campion with only fragmentary evidence with which to track down the truth. Driven by the need to exonerate Michael rather than simple get him released, Campion's task seems impossible. He leaves no stone unturned in his efforts, and, in the end, risks his own life to reveal the true murderer.

I rather like the new Campion. And the change in writing style introduces considerable depth and emotional content than was present in the more light hearted romances of the past. Characters are more developed and accessible, as well. Not only is "Flowers for the Judge" a great story in it's own right, it is also a portent of more wonderful tales to come.

Albert Campion, universal uncle and amateur detective, is invited into the family circle of staid British publisher Barnaby. There he finds an enmeshed family system, and a series of mysteries. Twenty years before one of the brothers vanished into thin air, while walking down a London street. Now Paul has been found dead in the manuscript vault. His cousin Mike (who is fond of the widow) is prime suspect. It was his car, left running outside the vault room's ventilator, that caused Paul's death of carbon monoxide poisoning. Cousin Ritchie, the reclusive manuscript reader, offers his eccentric assistance. A wonderful surprise ending to all this, which will be welcomed by anyone who's worked in a stuffy publishing house, or endured an asphyxiating family firm.

Finally, Mr. McDonald has brought Flynn back. This book is great, just as great as the previous three entries. Pick this one up right away! And don't worry, you don't need to read the first three to follow this story. Now if we can only get him to write another Fletch.

Flynn's World is an excellent return to the Flynn series. It takes place shortly after the previous Flynn novel finished, but you do not need to have read any of the other Flynn novels to enjoy this one (you will not understand 2 or 3 obscure references, but they are not critical in any way to the enjoyment of the book).

There are 3 main plots: a boy gets his ear nailed to a tree, an aging professor is being threatened, and a fellow police officer is apparently arresting only minorities. Each plot illustrates the theme of the book (basically, 'you must know where you're coming from to understand/have any idea of where you're going').

The subplot of the boy nailed to the tree gets the most attention, and it is the most interesting one as well. Its resolution is heartwarming. The subplot of the harassed professor is interesting, but I figured it out as soon as the harassing character appeared. The discussions of campus/office politics around this plot are interesting.

The subplot of the bigoted police office gets the least amount of space, and lacks interest as well. It seems tacked on.

It is good to see that Cocky has been reinstated.

If you've read and enjoyed previous Flynn novels, or other McDonald novels, you won't need a positive review to convince you to buy this book.

If you've never read anything by McDonald, this is as good a place to start, and I highly recommend that you do start. He's a real treat to read.