"Annoyingly" this page is devoted to the stories of Dylan Thomas; also"annoyingly", both the Publishers Weekly review as well as that of a disgrunted reader refer stories by Leslie Norris; Norris' book may be splendid; I don't know; I have read Dylan's stories and honor and love them (they are live things wearing incandescent prose -- believe me); perhaps Amazon could reassign the aforementioned reviews and those of us who -- on this page at least -- have (happily) written about the appropriate book will be left to bask unannoyed.

Annoyingly, both of the reviews already posted on this page for the "Collected Stories" of Welsh writer Leslie Norris refer to the "Collected Stories" of Welsh writer Dylan Thomas, which Leslie Norris designed but did not (obviously) write. This review, then, is an actual review of Leslie Norris' "Collected Stories"!

Leslie Norris's collected stories are a sort of bittersweet beauty very much in the Joycean tradition (think especially of "Dubliners"). They begin with some sort of pivotal moment at which confusion either enters into or peaks in the protagonist's young life, and they end with an epiphany that seems sweetly to keep the bitter at bay, but knows that the respite is at best only temporary.

Also a poet (see his "Collected Poems" as well), like fellow Welshman Thomas, Norris's language is simple but fresh, and sumptuous when necessary, a prose tone perfectly in step with the state of his protagonists. Often (if not always), they are young boys on the brink of a knowledge that will disillusion them and send them closer to the concerns of adulthood.

In "Sliding," an accident during an afternoon of sliding across a frozen pond upsets a group of boys, their first initiation into the idea of impermanence. In "Kingfisher," a boy, who has just been with his father to visit his dying grandmother, sees in the garden the dead body of a bird that he and his father had only that morning watched together; in a moment of suddenly adult consciousness, he takes it upon himself to conceal the bad news of mortality from his father. In "Shaving," one of my faves from the collection, an athlete in the full strength of youth returns triumphant from the rugby field to shave his ailing father, who, in the full fading of disease, is too weak to shave himself.

This volume collects Norris's previous two (unfortunately long out-of-print) books, "Sliding" and "The Girl from Cardigan," putting them together with a few new stories in book form for the first time.

Norris excels at awakening emotion, but is subtle enough and careful enough not to hit you over the head with the hammer of sentimentality. If you appreciate and enjoy fiction that looks at those moments that we all know, where we begin to feel ourselves a part of the knowledge that life ends up teaching everyone sooner or later, then this book is a terrific buy.

Was Dylan thomas the consummate craftsman? Indeed, he was; and took real delight in his gifts and his exercise of them; he was a Celtic bard in the truest sense of that role -- the lonely public/private man who carried within him the lyric history of his race, the love of his language and a very vocal sense of wonder over his role in life; that he had song, yes; that he was funny, loud, boisterous, cautious, selfish, rude, unforgettable -- all of that and more; he was the poet's poet and the singer for those who longed for lost boyhood, who raged at death and who marvelled at the all the world's words rediscovered in a dewdrop; his stories, like his poems, should be read aloud; there is an incantatory quality to them -- as if something profoundly old and grandfatherly were suddenly shared with the reader; Thomas himself was a great reader; to hear him is to savor him at his best and to feel deeply and sweetly the majesty and holy compulsion of our mother tongue; the stories, while less charged than the poems, nonetheless captivate and break into a kind of lyricism that gladdens the heart and restores the ear. If he wasn't the best of our poets, he was easily the most tuneful and spoke from a very deep place that only the purest of us can truly know.

An informative book of the current situation of SMEs. It is really easy to read with a broad discussion of a range of activities in which SMEs are involved.
Each chapter provides learning objectives as well as final questions, which may be usefull when teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels.
Ideal book for those interesting in Entrepreneurship and Small Business

Oh, this is a creepy thriller. I thought it might turn out to be a run-of-the-mill Brit serial-killer novel, but it has many more chills than the average. The cover compares it to Silence of the Lambs, but you never get as close to the protagonist as you do to Clarice Starling. The villain gets you, though, just like Hannibal. This book is strong for such a slim volume.

Outside the Rules is creepy and scary, pretty high praise for this particular genre.

Laura

A friend sent me an email a while back telling me she would mail me a copy of this as she had received it from one of her reading pals. I finished it late one Sunday afternoon and realized the weekend was lost...I could NOT put this down. It's one of the most disturbing serial killer novels I've read, and from my reading experiences that's saying something. My expectations were high and I try to be cautious about this as it's inevitable to be disappointed, but I almost stood up and applauded when it was over. Dylan Jones is most certainly on my must-read list now and I'm amazed that this novel was published five years ago without my knowing about it. It deserves every bit of recognition Silence of the Lambs gets. Incidently, this once again reaffirms my belief that St Martin's Press is a can't-miss publisher. Every novel I've read published them has become a favorite of mine!

Dylan Thomas was a weirdo and i think that this book illistrates that in a wonderful manner. he was awesome

Years ago i read "do not go gentle into that good night" and i was introduced to dylan thomas. i quickly went out and bought his collected poems, and was totally enraptured by the poet. he has stayed on the top of my favorites, even as i read more and more poetry. this collection is not a complete works. it contains what Daniel Jones (a friend of DT's) selected out of thomas' works. the collected poems and about 100 other poems, one additional incomplete poem, and 26 poems from DT's juvenalia. it's a good collection, but you can see why dylan thomas did not include these extra poems in his collected poems. they aren't as great as what he can produce. if you love dylan thomas, like i do, then this is a great book to buy, otherwise, you can just stick with the collected poems (those poems were selected by DT himself, as the work he wanted to "save").

A thoroughly enjoyable tome, liberally sprinkled with black and white and colour illustrations of many Easy practitioners and their groooovy album covers. Definitely the right book to leaf through while sipping your highball and listening to John Barry.

This a strange book for me indeed. I loved the photos, especially those of The Doors performing, but the writing is bad and depressing. Dylan Jones fails to do anything to capture the essence of Jim Morrison's art and instead writes a book that basically paints a depressing picture. It appears he takes a lot of gossip as truth (though Morrison was known for his "wild child" activities) and I don't understand why so much effort was put into such a gorgeous-looking book when the writing burns the main character. Jones obviously does not understand or feel anything about The Doors considering he called "Waiting For The Sun" a disappointing work and trashes a great song like "Not To Touch The Earth." I'm also surprised he has so many pictures of Morrison at concerts when he totally trashes his moves and wild performances on stage. This is a weird book in that it has so many great pictures, it is a photographic record, but the writing does not strive to dissect The Doors art, it only focuses on the negative aspects of the life of Jim Morrison. I very much more enjoyed the biography "Break On Through" which was smoothly written and treated the bad stuff with style and really dissected Morrison's work. Great photos, disappointing book.

This book is gorgeous. If you love the young, pouty lion-god, you will love the photos in this book. If you're interested in the rest of the Doors...look elsewhere. This book is largely a paraphrase of Patricia Kennealy-Morrison's _Strange Days_. Yeah, yeah, we already read that one.

I bought this book and had it finished in one week. Thomas does and excellent job of describing the life of Jim Morrison, AKA the lizard king, it was one of turmoil and confusion. But Morrison was quite an intellect and poet. Many of the Doors songs spawned from books Morrison had read and he had an unquenched love for the beat generation works, mythology and philosophers. On stage he was an amazing showman and gave the fans what they wanted. But all too many times he would become unruly and downright deplorable. Yet he still was a tremendous thinker, and was the perfect image of a rock and roll star. He truly was a remarkable poet and writer, it is too bad he left the Earth so soon.