If you love obscure ,low budget movies,this is the book for you.It's obvious that the authors have a great deal of affection for these movies.My only complaint is they include a few too many movies that aren't really horror in my opinion-westerns with some spooky touches,etc.All in all,though,this is an excellent book.

This is seriously the best book on movies I've ever read. With a few exceptions--"White Zombie," "Murder by Television"--these films are totally unknown. Until now.

Every movie in here was put out by the lesser-known studios--Monogram,Mascot,Chesterfield,ect. The book covers a wide range of sub-genres, from jungle exploitation films to action serials to sinister westerns, so long as there are vague horror elements.

The authors have done a great service, and their writing style is very eloquent. By all means purchase this and seek out some of these films.

There are two "losses" here: the author's loss of his first love, a kind man named James, to impulsive infidelity (the author's); and the world's loss, that of author Michael Grumley, to AIDS, ten years ago. This autobiographical novel is many things: well-written, simply told, generous to his quite wonderful family and the place he grew up in. It's also heartbreaking because the reader knows from the outset that Grumley has died of AIDS; the introduction is a beautiful one, a eulogy really, by Edmund White. A good book for gay teenagers -- the observant and comforting portrayal of childhood, adolescence, and (blissfuly untormented) emerging sexuality amidst the comfort of a good family is refreshing and heart-warming. The descriptions of nature, people, and New Orleans are precise and seem effortlessly well-wrought. The requisite trip to early- 1960's California is (sanely) made brief, and Grumley returns home to Iowa none the worse for wear -- and ready to take on his future. I really liked this man and the story he tells, and it breaks my heart to know that's he's gone.

Being true to yourself is almost impossible without being true to others. This is one lesson the hero of "Life Drawing" almost learns. At its heart, this book is about relationships. Mickey is looking for a place to fit in. He loses his chance with James because he is blind to the fact that his place is already secure. As the innocence of Youth drowns in possibilities, this journey of discovery stretches down to New Orleans and extends to the West Coast. The journey is a

reflection of the one we all must take and the opportunities we recognize or ignore.

I found this book not only to be filled with the wonderfull works of Claude Monete but it also has a great insight to his life and the imprssion he left on modern art today. This book also contains full fold-out pictures of some of the artists best works. For anyone who has ever enjoyed any of Monets work you will love this book.

This book is a perfect addition to any art library. Having seen "Monet in the 20th Century" in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts, I was well prepared for the exhibit by having read the book first. I found the exhibit to be an extraordinary example of Monet's achievment in his later years. This book focuses on the works of Monet starting at the start of this century right up to his death in 1928. All through this period of Monet's life and including the representation of the body of work produced within those years, this book never skips a beat. Although not an all-encompassing look at his complete works of that period, this book offers the best look out there of his paintings as well as his development throughout the last quarter-century of his life. I found it to be in keeping with what is already known about Monet's later years, but certainly not devoid of interesting insights. The quality of the book, it's contents, including all of the color plates reproduced within is very good. I would not have an art library without Monet representation, and this is the ideal book for an addition or a starter.

Berkeley is one of the great philosophers, although arguably the one whose position as one is the most tenuous. His argument is that matter doesn't exist, and all there is are ideas and impressions that comes to us from God. It's an argument that can be easily destroyed by even an amateur philosopher, but Berkeley writes so beautifully that he does at least make you stop and consider, if only for a moment, that perhaps he may just be right. He's worth reading if only for entertainment - I have to say that I think he is the best writer of all the great philosophers (except possibly Nietzsche), even though his system is the one I like the least.

If you are studying Berkeley seriously then it would be best to get the Oxford editions of his Principals and Three Dialogues. They contain much longer and better introductions and numerous other notes. But it may also be worth your money to buy this book too. Although the majority of this book is the two works just mentioned, also included in this collection are several other rare works of Berkeley's including his notebooks and De Motu among others. It's extremely difficult to get hold of these outside of the reprint of the 1901 Collected Works, and so if like me you don't have $450 to throw around, this is your best option, especially since it is so cheap.

This book has proven to me to be one of the best philosophical works from the 18th century. Its clearness and lucidness surpasses many of the philosophers of that period. Even though Berkeley's theory and arguments may be considered most radical, he explains them with great care and you can almost take them for a fact.

Berkeley's concepts can be only examined out of pure reason basically, since his theory rest merely on speculative thought. Nor is it possible to show any concrete proof for his arguments, however I find it much harder to disapprove his concepts since it all depends on rational thinking and not material evidence. His views provoke an exciting approach to a new metaphysics and reality.

This book should be read with the utmost clearness of mind, and one must eliminate all prejudice from the mind. Although a fairly easy book to read, one must dedicate time to deep reflection when considering its arguments.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in philosophy, specially in metaphysics, this is a must-read!

Sir Gibbie is an exquisitely written children's classic, depicting in poetic,vivid detail a country of lush beauty as viewed from the eyes of a small city waif, whose father has perished, leaving his young son with nothing more than a full, loving heart; a gracious, generous nature; and a warm, open personality bent on doing good for others by every means in his power. The adventures of the ill-clad child begin as he travels the open road, in response to his father's constant words "Up Daurside!", where he befriends the herdboy Donal, is taken in by his parents, Robert and Janet Grant, and rescues the young lady Ginevra from a natural catastrophe. Sweet, tender Gibbie automatically floats into one's heart as one follows him from town vagrant to benevolent gentleman, and remains there long after the book's pages are closed. His growing awareness of the world in both materialistic and spiritual matters holds the reader captivated. Geroge Macdonald has compos! ed a nineteenth century story in true Scottish style, where one may observe everything in the universe from the grace of the mountaintops to the wonder of human beings through innocence, peace, and love. Written in an almost angelic manner, Sir Gibbie transports one to the realm where nature and piety and loveliness are intertwined, and produces a magical air which no one can fail but love, and desire to experience over and over again.

The author, George MacDonald, was a prolific Scottish writer who lived from 1824 to 1905. He knew Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll. He was the favorite author of C.S. Lewis (author of the Narnia books). This book is thought by many to have provided inspiration and several plot elements for Twain's "Huckleberry Finn". It is an excellent story and is especially good as a read-aloud. The adventures of this ragged, barefoot street urchin as he finds his destiny are truly compelling. Little Gibbie is mute (unable to speak) but has a heart of gold and his greatest joy lies in helping others. After the tragic death of his titled but penniless father, Gibbie is the horror-stricken witness to a violent murder. His faith in humanity shaken, he flees the city in hopes of discovering a new life in the highlands.

The mystery in this book was a bit more complex than that in George's first book in this series: the solution was not as apparent. Unfortunately, there were so many secondary characters that it was hard to keep them straight. It was obvious that these characters were there to act as "red herrings".

I also thought that the coincidence of Lady Helen being on the scene of a murder, and intimately involved, was a bit of a stretch, but was able to accept it with just a grain of salt.

George did a fairly good job of giving us more insight into the main characters (Lynley, Havers, Helen, and Deborah) and fleshed out their backgrounds quite well.

I thought that the last third of the book was far too dragged out...I found myself skimming a lot.

I enjoy the Lynley/Havers series very much and found this book very hard to put down. The central mystery involves the death of a Playwright on a Scottish estate and the cast of suspects that were involved. The story moves from the estate to various other locations which keeps the reader interested.

There were some problems that I had with the story. There were too many characters and sub-plots involved that took away from the main mystery- including the romantic turmoil of Lynley and some past crimes. There was also a conspiracy plot thrown which only took away from the main mystery.

I did like the character development and I did feel for Lynley and Havers at various times during the novel. This is still a good mystery to add to your collection and I will continue to follow this series.

Even though George paints a somewhat old-fashioned portrait of English life, she is still able to write very very good mysteries.

Her detecive thrillers are clever, intuitive, have nice twists, good, well evoked settings, and are very well written, if somewhat OVER written.

the mystery here is first class as ever. she writes with the style of agatha christie, and comes up with solutions that the dead queen would be proud of. It is only a shame that Lynley is not quite as interesting as Poirot. However, the relationships the main characters 5 characters really are VERY interesting. they add weight, credibility, and realism to the story. they add a more personal and intimate side, and prove an ongoing drama to mix with that of the different crimes which come up in each book.

She is very good at drawing her character, and very good at coming up with agatha christie style plots. her psychology is accurate, and her writing very descriptive.

Definitely worth a read. This second book was very very good. So far, i dont think she written a bad one, and i've read nearly all of them. A good build up A Great Deliverance, and got the series off to a really smashing start.

Mike Ashley has assembled a large collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories, mostly new to this collection (three are reprinted, but I only had the previous appearance of one of these).

If you are someone who is a fan of Sherlock Holmes and is always looking for more, than this is a book you will want. The stories are of a consistent quality, written by authors who are practiced in their art, and involve Holmes and Watson considering problems whose solutions are not normally obvious from the outset.

For me, while none of the stories were particularly outstanding in either good or bad terms. I enjoyed Stephen Baxter's 'The Adventure of the Inertial Adjustor', Peter Crowther's 'The Adventure of the Touch of God' and Zakaria Erzinçlioglu's 'The Adventure of the Bulgarian Diplomat' marginally more than the others.

I'd recommend this book to Holmes enthusiasts, or to those with little exposure to the Great Detective. It is a good collection of decent quality.

I find myself disagreeing with many of the other reviewers here, but I found only a very few of the stories as good as the Doyle originals. And I think I know why they didn't grab me like the originals do. The originals were written by a man living in Victorian England while these stories were all written almost 100 years later by writers trying to interpret Victorian England. I think that's why the originals ring more true to me. Conan Doyle had all the little details right at his fingertips because he was living in the period. Modern writers try but I don't find the little touches needed to evoke the period. I also found that many writers strained to add those little deductive touches that Conan Doyle always managed to put in. Some of the examples of "deduction" were downright silly.

That said, there are a few stories that do come close with "The Adventure of the Bulgarian Diplomat" being my favorite. If you really like the Conan Doyle originals you may be disappointed in this collection.

This is a wonderful collection! As with any collection of Holmes stories by modern writers, there are bound to be a few clunkers. What impresses me is that, even though a few of the stories are slightly off the mark, the vast majority of the stories are dead on.

Only one of the cases, in which a series of grisly killings are investigated, is not quite in the voice of Doyle (mostly due to the graphic descriptions). However, this case also lets Watson shine. Rather than the standard Watsonish "Amazing!" or "Remarkable, Holmes!" every time Sherlock utters a revelation, Watson gets to do a little detecting of his own, albeit medical. What I particularly liked in the story was that Watson is not left to simply marvel at Holmes, but gets to contribute more than just the use of his service revolver.

The timeline at the end of the book is also helpful in putting Sherlockia in some sense time-wise. When did Holmes first begin detecting, when did he stop, when did such-and-such a case occur? All are nicely laid out.

The book is divided into the early years of Holmes' career, his middle years, and later years. We get to see early cases, and his final case.

The choices of stories by the editor are first rate. This is easily the best collection of new Holmes you're likely to find on the market.

The voice of the Master can be heard throughout the book!

This superlative, award winning film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play is as delightful today as when it was first filmed, nearly sixty five years ago. This ageless story, based upon greek mythology in which an ivory statue of a maiden, Galatea, is brought to life by the prayers of its sculptor, Pygmalion, features a professor of linguistics, Henry Higgins (Leslie Howard), who takes a cockney flower seller, Eliza Doolittle (Wendy Hiller), and bets that, within a matter of six months, he can turn her into a lady who can pass in high society without betraying her lowly origins.

Leslie Howard, wonderful in the role, is the quintessential Henry Higgins, playing him as an arrogant, aristocratic misogynist whose own mother (Marie Lohr) barely finds him tolerable. Henry makes his bet about his prospective success with Eliza with his friend, the kindly Col. George Pickering (Scott Sunderland), a wealthy gentleman who bankrolls the costs of Eliza's transformation from guttersnipe to royal pretender.

Wendy Hiller is perfectly cast in the role of Eliza, having a certain earthiness about her, which makes her so believable as the cockney upstart. Yet, she has enough of an incandescence about her, so as to make her believable in her transition from gutter to drawing room. Scott Sunderland is wonderful as Col. Pickering, the buffer between Henry and Eliza. Marie Lohr is excellent as Mrs. Higgins, Henry's exasperated mother. The scene in which Eliza has tea with Henry's unsuspecting mother and her guests is one of the funniest on the silver screen. Look also to a wonderful, comedic foray by Wildred Lawson, as Eliza's father, Alfred Doolittle.

All in all, this is a film that has withstood the test of time. The precursor for the musical adaptation "My Fair Lady", Pygmalion reigns supreme. Nominated for four Academy Awards and winning two, this is the definitive adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play, sharp and witty. Deftly directed by Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith, it is simply a magnificently acted, comedic film, and one that those who love classic, vintage films will enjoy. Bravo!

This is an enchanting film for which George Bernard Shaw won an Oscar (which I believe he displayed proudly) for best screenplay after adapting the play "Pygmalion." It is true that the movie lacks the grand production values of "My Fair Lady," but it is much closer to the drama that Shaw had in mind. The dialogue is much richer than "My Fair Lady," which still managed to keep much of the language of the play and some of the movie.

Like many of Shaw's plays, it is built around his pet ideas -- here (in a simple form) the notion that class distinctions are not genuine and could be overcome through education. Unlike some of Shaw's plays which read like socialist tracts, this one has very human characters who keep your interest throughout (in contrast to "Major Barabara" which was a rather tedious movie).

For me, Wendy Hiller make a marvelous Eliza Doolittle. Although Leslie Howard is very good (and presumably what Shaw had in mind), it is hard to forget the bluster Rex Harrison -- a great actor himself -- brought to the role of Professor Higgins. Hiller brings a wonderful dignity and pathos to the role of Eliza Doolittle. The rest of the cast is very good and the sets are very authentically set in Edwardian England.

This is definite buy if you like Shaw, theatre in general, good movies from the 30s, or want to see a richer version of "My Fair Lady."

It started out as a play by George Bernard Shaw based on the Greek myth of a man who created a statue and then fell in love with it. The play, which was a spoof on the British upper class, was an immediate success and several movie versions followed. This 1938 version, in black and white, was nominated for four academy awards in 1939 and won an Oscar for best screenplay. Later, it was adapted to the musical hit, "My Fair Lady." The rest, as they say, is history. But Pygmalion should certainly not be forgotten.

The cast is excellent. Leslie Howard is perfect as Henry Higgins, the professor of dialects who transforms a flower girl into a lady. And Wendy Hiller is sensational as Eliza Doolittle. There's a certain regal freshness and her British authenticity comes across beautifully. Even though "the rain in Spain" is spoken, rather than sung, it still keeps the same quality. And there is music throughout as background, lively original music created especially for the film. The supporting cast was excellent too. I particularly loved the performance by Wilfrid Larson as Eliza's father. The film moved fast and kept me totally captivated. The costumes were wonderful and the timing for the comedic moments perfect. I found myself laughing out loud in places and smiling to myself throughout. Certainly, this film has stood the test of time and even though it will always be compared to the musical we all know and love, I must say that Pygmalion can definitely stand on its own. Give yourself a treat and check it out. Highly recommended.

So I'm sitting here wondering about what I loved about this book and what I hated about it. The plot moves swiftly and the suspense is well painted throughtout making the reader move fast from page to page, as a suspense novel it's great as a horror novel it falls short and I'm not to sure what Ira Levin was aiming for. The ending leaves a lot to be desired but after reading it your not exactly kicking yourself for doing so due to the fact it isn't a huge book to read, the ending although a little weak does not detract altogether from this book cause it's still a good book, but it isn't for those searching for edge of your seat stuff, this is a suspenseful thriller and the ending wasn't gripping enough for me to run out and buy the sequel THE SON OF ROSEMARY, those of you who are looking for a suspense with more chilling results should look to the EXORCIST. As for Rosemarys Baby it reaches for the above average score and holds it firmly.

Even though the ending to this book is known by all, you are still likely to find yourself in suspense over whether or not the nice old neighbors are really just nice old neighbors or if they are going to sacrifice the baby. Ira Levin writes breezy thrillers, well-crafted from beginning to end with compelling characters, nicely woven plots and several surprises. It's not until you read several badly contrived thrillers and horror books that you realize how much skill it takes to write one that works on all levels.

There aren't many insights into the human condition. This book will not make you look at your life in a whole new way and it probably won't make you suspicious if you are pregnant. Ira Levin even has an introduction to one edition complaining about people taking the book to the ridiculous levels of seriousness (you can read the "Left Behind" series if you want a 'serious' novel about Satanic conspiracies). What this book will give you is an enjoyable reading experience that will either be a relief from whatever deep and heavy book you've read or the bad thrillers.

And by the way, this is one of those cases where the book and the movie are almost identical except I think that there is more about the Satanic cult's origins in the book.

I have been on an Ira Levin marathon since reading the sequel to this book. So, I went back and read R's Baby after not having read it in thirty years. It is such an amazing book on so many levels it's hard to talk about. Everything, description, dialogue, characters, setting, and most of all plot, mesh seamlessly in one of the great reads of all time. If you've never read it you are in for a treat. As a side note, the film version by Roman Polanski is also a masterpiece. It is the best adaptation of book to film ever done. The reason for this is simple: It IS the book. Polanski didn't know he could change anything so 95% of the dialogue is taken verbatim from the book and the other five percent is paraphrased. It helps that Levin writes the best dialogue of anyone writing fiction today. But the more amazing thing is, that visual touches that I've been ascribing to Polanski all these years are ALSO right out of the book, as are several costume descriptions. Were it only that more movie adaptations were this faithful and we weren't subjected to baboon screenwriters' "fixing" of novels. For the clearest example of horrifying adaptation, one only need turn to Mr. Joe Estherhaz' adaptation of Ira Levin's Sliver

I run an internet company and was looking for a book on some good guerilla marketing, i.e, cheap, ways of getting our name out there. I was excited about getting this book, but quickly realized within the 1st 5 pages that this book is terrible. He spends more than half the time trying to convince me that the internet is important. What a joke. I learned nothing. It is much more valuable and cheaper to read something online. Now I'll have to do that or look deeper for a good PR book.

Here's an excellent book with great inside information from one of America's top PR talents. Michael Levine has put together cutting-edge techniques that he uses himself in his highly-respected PR firm (I'm on his emailing list even though I've only met him once very briefly). But this book has some excellent features that I particularly like such as: sample press releases, sample link proposals, detailed summaries at the end of each chapter, an appendix with media contact information, and a test at the end of the book.

This book has been handy for me as a small press author with a limited promotional budget and a really good website. I just completed an email campaign based on this book for Valentine's Day radio shows. This book would be worth it just for the "11 Levine's Lessons for Guerillas" and the "Portraits of a Guerilla" examples.

While there are other books on publicity and PR from small-time authors, agents and publicists, here's a complete piece of work from one of the big shots of PR.

If you have a website for commerce or are an author like me you've got to read this book. There's nothing else like it.

For those of you who had negative things to say about Guerrilla PR, I want you to write your own book that clearly explains what you thought this book wasn't saying. The fact that you took the time to even read the doggone book lets me know that there was some interest to you. If you can come up with something better, let me know when it hits the top sellers list!