Sylvia Townsend Warner counted herself very lucky to have William Maxwell as her New Yorker editor and readers of this volume of their correspondence would agree Warner wrote 153 stories between 1936 and 1977 and found a devoted and discering fan in Maxwell. Many of the letters deal with both Warner's and Maxwell's writing. On occasion Maxwell has to gracefully reject one of Warner's stories (usually with the reassurance that the story is wonderful "but not for The New Yorker"). But what the reader comes to appreciate are the writers' accounts of momentous occasions and everyday life. Maxwell gives us wonderful accounts of an Adlai Stevenson rally and the Vietnam Moratorium. His account of the NYC blackout (in a letter dated November 17, 1965)is one of the best things I've ever read and worth the price of the book. It's such a seamless piece of writing, with each detail depending on what came before, that to quote bits of it would be to trivialize it.
Maxwell, who lived with his wife and two daughters in NYC, is also good with domestic detail and affecting and funny observations. He relates a conversation in which his small daughter laments that he is bald."'Would you trade me in for a daddy with more hair?'" 'Yes," she says, teaching me a lesson."
And on his resuming piano lessons in middle age: ". . .And Mozart is sustaining though I cannot do it. I would rather not be able to do Mozart than any composer I can think of."
Townsend who lived in England with her companion, Valentine Ackland offers a number of home remedies for illness, my favorite being champagne for any ailment above the waist, brandy for anything below. And she writes with droll humor of her life in an English village: "Poor Niou (a Siamese cat) has just had her first affair of the heart, and of course it was a tragedy. As a rule he flies from strange men, cursing under his breath, and keeping very low to the ground. Yesterday an electrician came; a grave mackintoshed man, but to Niou all that was romantic and lovely. He gazed at him, he rubbed against him, he lay in an ecstasy on the tool-bag. The electrician felt much the same, and gave him little washers to play with. He said he would come again today to to finish off properly. Niou understands everything awaited him in dreamy transports and practising his best and most amorous squint. The electrician came, Niou was waiting him on the windowsill. A paroxysm of stage-fright came over him, and he rushed into the garden and disappeared.
He'll get over it in time; but just now he's terribly downcast."
The volume is filled with fine writing and the reader wants very much to know these two people personally.

I picked up this book to fill a rainy day. It quickly drew me into the story and I couldn't put it down. The story line included Roman emperors, vestal virgins and a young moralistic officer on the rise. Each individual tested their own beliefs against the corruption of the Roman system. Who will win out? It held me until the end. Even more fascinating was when I discovered that some of the events and rituals that I thought were created for the story line were actually historical fact. The sexual rituals, the dinner parties, the punishments meted out are all true which made me appreciate the novel even more.

There are a lot of retirement books out there, so I went with the one with a recognizable name and I'm glad I did. My parents haven't thought enough about retirement and I wanted to spur them to action. They were pleased to find out that there were many things they could do now, even at this late date, to help them, and they even starting giving me tips on ways I could start planning. So then I gave this book to my husband's parents who are already retired, and they ended up buying it for friends too. There are tons of tips, easy things you can do, worksheets, charts, action lists, tips--even a section on how to overcome adverse events like losing your job and divorce. It is worth the read. You'll learn a lot and be happy you did.

As a Grade 12 student in Canada, I have found this book to be excellent, informative, and concise. This book lays a solid foundation of introductory biology. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in biology. I believe you will find this book to be useful and helpful.

I would definitely recommend these short stories to anyone who wants to become familar with Europe's great Modern fiction writers. Kafka, Joyce, Sartre, Camus, Mann, Chekhov, Conrad, Dineson, and Lawrence are all represented, but you can read these authors in any mediocre anthology; I like this anthology because it includes many lesser known authors like Alberto Moravia and Yuri Kazakov. If you want an intro to Modernism without having to delve through Ulysses or Magic Mountain, start here.

A revised and expanded edition of The Facts on File Dictionary of 20th Century Allusions (CH, Jun'91), this volume contains 600 new entries covering the Middle Ages through the 20 century, excluding classical and biblical allusions. It includes terms from literary works, cartoons, historical and fictional characters, places, and mass culture--movies (Thelma and Louise), television (M*A*S*H), radio (Information, Please), newspapers ("Dear Abby"), cartoons (Peanuts), politics ("give 'em hell Harry"), sports ("doubleheader"), and commercial products (Marlboro Man). Entries are alphabetically arranged, Abbott and Costello to Ziegfeld Girls, and are 25 words to a page in length. For some, usage examples are given, and for most, literary citations; each ends with a definition that gives original and current meanings.

In this juicy, lively memoir of the Boston poetry scene in the 1950's, Davison dishes the dirt not only on himself but also on such luminaries as Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Robert Frost. The decade of the 1950's was a time of delirious creativity for these poets perched on the threshold of fame and notoriety, and at the center of the vortex sat Robert Lowell, brilliant teacher, mentor and model of the wounded artist. Davison's group portrait shows men dominating these mythologized poetic years with the women cajoling, wheedling and flirting to be noticed, and then, once they had the men's attention, stepping forward with fierce work to be taken seriously. As readers will see, Plath and Sexton were up to any challenge and left behind for posterity both their great works and tales of their wild vamping exploits. Although Davison makes no secret that everybody in the group drank like fish and acted out with impunity, he ultimately celebrates those years as the apex of his social and creative life, a time populated by people of immense charisma and talent. The book is simply a love letter to the difficult geniuses of one of the great moments in 20th century American literary history.

"Fashionable Food" serves up the most entertaining overview of mealtime in America since Jane and Michael Stern's "Square Meals." From tasty to trendy to just plain oddball, if it was embraced by the guardians of hearth and home, you'll find it here.

Relive the era of Prohibition with "Flapper Pudding", explore new frontiers of soup with a 1930s "Mystery Cake" courtesy of Campbell's, endure the restrictions of the 40s war years - and celebrate the glory of the "goodbye to rations" post-war era. Go swank with a 50s Cocktail Party or sophisticated as you explore 60s gourmet cuisine. Get back to earth with 70s health food and expand your palate with the regional foods of the 80s.

Sprinkled throughout are tantalizing tidbits from re-visiting old friends like The Mystery Chef and Sheila Hibben to rediscovering the wonders of Chinese and Hawaiian cuisine when they were new and exotic. From crockpots to fondues; from Betty Crocker to Alice Waters; from Trader Vic's to Elmer Fudpucker's; if it's part of our gastronomical history, it's part of this entertaining hodgepodge of American food.

What a strange little book indeed and I gave it 5 stars, not because I thought it was great, or got me to where I wanted to go but, because it was written for the reader that is into the rubber thing .... I must add this is a deviation from the Blue Moon regular fare that tends to steer towards the S&M, spank, dominationa and discipline type of fare .....

Ursula, a 27 year old beauty has a strong urges for latex (OK so I called it rubber, shows what I know) ever since she got a glimpse of her father having a shower while wearing a snug black latex shower cap. Without going into the little girls and their fathers thing, something snapped (forgive the latex visualization here) in Ursula and she was hooked into finding men wearing latex on the beaches.

The story then starts with Ursula meeting latex clad Adrian (of course) and his very young gay lover at a motel pool, and, certainly it doesn't take long for Ursula to be in their room sucking in more than one or two of the ice cold martinis that were being enjoyed by our happy threeesome. I kind of like that cause the martinis gave the book a grown up 'sauvoi faire' mood.

What makes this fetish book stand swim caps above the crowd is that there is a small story here as all the characters struggle with their homosexuality and love of latex, and, I might add enough of a story that I did manage to finish the book ..... now what in the world did I do with that latex swim cap cause I've gotta stop writing this review and get the the beach ....

If you've ever tried to learn about the people who inhabited the Los Angeles area prior to colonization, you understand what a frustrating task it is. It comes in bits and pieces, often almost accidentally discovered (ever try looking up "Gabrielino" in a library computer?).

In a well-organized, clearly-written manner, William McCawley has taken the scraps out of the basket and fashioned a beautiful quilt that brings light and life to an oft-maligned people.

He has done an amazing amount of research in putting together this volume. If "God is in the details", then it is the details of religion and custom that elevate a people from the mere "diggers" I learned about in school to an intelligent society well-adapted to its environment. This is an essential resource for anyone studying or teaching about California (including fourth-grade teachers), and invaluable to those who simply enjoy learning more about Southern California history.