This book is full of history, anecdotes, personal stories, samples from comedians' stand-up material and movie dialog, and immigrant sociology and circumstances. He even gives details tying Yiddish language to Jewish American humor. He tells of vaudeville artists adapting to radio, then tv. So many details provided! At first I was not going to buy it (I am a frugal African American who buys paperbacks), but I am glad I did. Also, at first, I thought it was going to be too scholarly and dry, but once I got INTO IT -- I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!! BUY IT, BUY IT, BUY IT! And share it with your friends.

This book is a wonderful look at the many Jewish comedians- from the Marx Brothers to Jerry Seinfeld- who have made America (and the world) laugh over the years. This book is more than just a superficial look at Jewish humor, however. It's an insightful and thoughtful probe into the sources of Jewish humor and a tribute to the strength and courage of a people who managed to find humor in even the most desperate of circumstances.American humor just would not be the same without Jewish comedic genius. This book clearly points that out. I thought this was expertly written and very entertaining. Highly recommended.

In 1979 Jews made up three percent of the US population and 80 percent of its professional comedians. To win acceptance, Jews could remake themselves in comedy. The populism of Jewish humor, its basis in language, and its self-mockery spoke for a nation of immigrants. Puns and irreverent satire allowed sanctioned subversion. After all, Judaism would question even God. The more the US knew alienation, insecurity, and intellectual questioning, the more it embraced the pain and liberation of the Jewish experience. Psychologist Samuel Janus found in 76 Jewish comedians a common depression and alienation. From his own interviews, Epstein (English, Suffolk County Community College) fleshes out these statistics with biographical nuggets. He demonstrates how Jewish comedy changed with the US's popular culture: vaudeville, radio, film comedy, Borscht belt, early television, the Mort Sahl revolution in stand-up, post-Woody Allen film, the Seinfeld/Roseanne TV generation, the performance art of Andy Kaufman and Sandra Bernhard. He closes with a chapter on new Jewish comedians and a fine appendix on the nature and sources of Jewish humor. Rippling with exemplary jokes, this shrewd social history belongs in all performing arts collections.

This little book is a reflective how-to manual on continuous prayer/meditation. It takes the reader step by step to the point where he or she is ready to practice what today we would call the centering prayer. It was the text for a workshop on prayer I recently attended, and all of the participants agreed it was a great help. It's also a great guide to books and movies that deal with prayer and meditation.

I wish Walters has written this book 25 years ago, when I was struggling (fruitlessly) with prayer. My failure to make any sort of meaningful connection soured me on the whole thing for the next twenty years. Walters hits the nail on the head in this step-by-step retreat on prayer/meditation. The problem I made years ago, and the problem too many other people make, is that we try too hard when it comes to praying. Letting go is a lot more difficult than grabbing onto. Anybody who wants a richer prayer life will cherish this little book.

I don't much like your typical retreat or howtodoit spirituality book, but this one is different. The best way to describe it is a Zen approach to Xtian prayer, where the reader/retreatist discovers that he's the riddle that needs to be solved. Very good. (although I can't figure out what the description listed by amazon.com has to do with the book. seems like it should be for another book)

The situations and the characters are very charming. Theillustrations are lovely. My nephew loooooved it.

THE FORGETFUL BEARS is a wonderful and entertaining story for young children. We have used the book in here classes at Seton School with great success, our young students always entranced with the stirring plot (and the concomitant moral values). Kudos to the authors!

My little girl simply loves The Forgetful Bears story. And as all us parents know, five-year olds are never wrong--about anything. It's a bed time favorite around our house.

I have read Lawrence Watt-Evans' entire world of Esthar series and enjoyed the majority of the books in that series. Based on my experience with the Ethshar series, I decided to give the "Lords of Dus" series a try and having completed the first book I can say the following: The storyline is an entertaining but fairly stock fantasy plot, a hero's quest for glory. The protagonist is well fleshed out, likeable yet pragmatic and complete with personality flaws that make him believable. The world setting is vivid and described well enough, but it would have been nice to have a bit more of the history revealed, explaining the current state of events. For the majority of the book, the plotting was good and moved along at the right clip, only bogging down in a couple of sections. Characters development outside of the protagonist did come across as weak with the majority of the other characters in the story seemingly designed to be disposable. Perhaps this was done intentionally as a way to emphasize the aloofness that a member the main character's race feels towards mere men, but it would still have been nice to have some of the other characters built up a bit. Overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to picking up the remaining books in the series.

Take an overmna, mix in mages, fantastic beasts, a quest, wise women of ordunin, and high adventure and you have some gr8 stuff.
Too bad he doesn't write more of this series.
Great interesting stuff that doesn't try and copy tolkien.
very d&d

Watt-Evens is an excellent, if overlooked sci-fi/fantasy writer, and I have been a fan almost as long as he's been writing. This book, the first of the Lords Of Dus or Garth series was the first he published, Dus is his best work, and this is the best of Dus. I can still remember the amazement I felt reading Watt-Evens' book, one of those rare fantasy novels that seems surrounded by a very real and fleshed out world. The main character, acting out of neither good nor noble compunctions is however, a good 'man', which gives hint to the complexity with which Watt-Evens draws his characters and spins his plots. Nothing is as it seems in a Watt-Evens story, and surprise lurks around every corner, and The Lure Of The Basilisk is no exception. I especially enjoyed Garth's practical matter of fact take on everything, truly a convincing character. Shang, The Baron and even The King In Yellow are also fascinating, well drawn characters with complex motivations and realistic reactions. But oh, Garth's poor feet!

Remember when Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small tales were about all there was of Jewish crime fiction? No longer, as editor Lawrence W. Raphael makes clear in "Mystery Midrash: An Anthology of Jewish Mystery and Detective Fiction." Some familiar wordsmiths and characters are to be found in these pages, from Stuart M. Kaminsky (whose Chicago detective, Abe Lieberman, here takes a confession from a lapsed and irate Jew) to Ronald Levitsky (contributing a story in which civil-liberties lawyer Nate Rosen faces a truly unique First Amendment case) and Howard Engel (providing P.I. Benny Cooperman with a light-hearted locked-room puzzle). Although Raphael's selections often deal with Jewish issues, fans of this book will likely stretch across the religious spectrum. ...

A Yiddishe Kop, I know... but a Yiddishe Cop? Will dvar mysteries replace dvar torahs on Shabbat morn? Will parents stop hoping their child will be a doctor or a lawyer, and hope for a Jewish cop or detective? What is midrash? Isn't it a deep investigation of the text in order to learn more about it, and piece things together, to compare various texts and clues? Isn't that what a P.I. (Private Investigator) does, too? In this book are original stories by notable mystery writers. Batya contributes "Kaddish", a mystery about a secular Jew who must console a dead rabbi's family by helping them focus on the rabbi's goodness and not the alleged, scandalous events surrounding his death. In "Bread of Affliction" by Michael Kahn (author of the Rachel Gold series, Sheer Gall, Grave Designs), Chicago Attorney Rachel Gold must use her knowledge of Pesach to solve a mystery surrounding a contested will. Richard Fliegel, creator of the Jewish detective, Shelly Lowenkopf ("A Minyan for the Dead"), writes in "A Final Midrash" about four rabbi's who help a detective solve a murder that one of them has committed. If I had a sack of cash, I would certainly option the film rights for "A Final Midrash"! For not only is it an interesting short mystery, but it is a well crafted allusion to the 3 rabbis who entered Pardes with Rabbi Akiva, as well as the four ways to create a drash, namely Pshat, Sot, Drash, and Mysticism. Other contributors include: Toni Brill, Howard Engel, Stuart Kaminsky, Faye Kellerman, Ronald Levitsky, Ellen Rawlings, Shelly Singer, Bob Sloan, Janice Steinberg, and James Yaffe. I was not used to reading mysteries prior to reading this book, but I think this anthology has sparked that "Pintelye Mystery".

Clever, funny, humane, with a nod at the dark side of the human mind, Mystery Midrash is just what it says: the exploration and development of a common theme, in this case, the mystery short story. As with all midrash, each different take on a story tells us something new; as with all good midrash, that something new returns us to the innate unchangability of the human dilemma, and to humankind's steady relationship with the forces of order in a world of chaos.

Even readers who are not sure why a cheeseburger is a moral decision for a Jew will love this feast.

As a Southern California-based mystery writer, I have been genuinely impressed by Martha Lawrence's works. Many people initially react to Ms. Lawrence's psychic detective as a silly gimmick. As created by Ms. Lawrence, Elizabeth Chase is a fully-realized and realistic character. In this fourth outing,PISCES RISING, Elizabeth is mourning the death of her lover, and she becomes involved in investigating homicides that occur on an Indian reservation. Gambling issues play a major part in this novel, as does Native American beliefs. Ms. Lawrence tells a fine tale with a swiftly moving plot and fabulously drawn characters. Another winner for Martha Lawrence.

I just love entering Martha Lawrence's world, and I so hate to leave it! This one is her best yet, and the others are terrific too. ( I'd recommend reading them all chronologically.) I applaud her gutsiness as an author in doing away with appealing characters in situations that realistically might call for that. (I'm reminded of T. Jefferson Parker doing the same with Tim Hess in The Blue Light--a very interesting and appealing character.) ... was a real loss, I felt, but it's clear that she has even better characters up her sleeve.. I'm particularly drawn to the Sequoia character in this book. Wish I knew someone like him.

Her ear for dialogue is unerring...I'm a stickler for fake-sounding conversation and I can't find remember a false note being struck in any of her books. Wish you could write faster, Martha!

I've been a fan of Martha Lawrence ever since her first book, following her psychic detective, Elizabeth Chase, around the zodiac from Murder in Scorpio to the current Pisces Rising. Her gutsy detective, Chase, combining sound detective skills with her psychic gifts, sets out to discover the murderer of casino owner, Dan Aquillo. Along the way she encounters one of Lawrence's most compelling characters, the Native American shaman, Sequoia. Lawrence introduces the reader to some fascinating Native American lore, as she combines a taut, thrilling tale with tantalizing psychic phenomena. Combining suspense with New Age is rare, but fascinating. The only other book I can think of that does that successfully is "The President's Astrologer", which interweaves an exciting political drama with the world of astrology.

It's a short book- and it works to have both authors in one book... it inspired me to think a little bit like them- but I feel like I need more- to constantly inspire me to remember God. A daily meditation book on this subject would be great!

A wonderfully thought provoking book. It should be required reading for every Christian. If you have ever read Charles Sheldon's book "In His Steps" and said, "Boy that was neat...what if we really did ask ourselves 'What Would Jesus Do' instead of just wearing a bracelet" well here is the story of two real people who strived to do just that.

As Christians we are called to strive to be more and more like Christ (sanctification) and this book sets up a fine example of how that can be achieved. Unlike a how to book this book shows you that growing in the knowledge of God is a process that does not happen over night. I highly recomend this book. Just one word of caution...do not read this book with the idea that it could never happen today. It will only never happen if we don't make the attempt. May we all joing Brother Lawarenc and Frank in the Practice of HIS Presencs!

This book is AWESOME. It totally inspired me. Frank Laubach's part especially showed me that I needed to seriously give God more time. In reading about these two people's journey's closer to God, I was able to see that I needed to do the same thing. In calling God to mind as often as possible, your whole spirit changes. You become more willing and eager to live your ALL for Him, just as He wishes. This book can help you find more ways to bring God into your life, and give you examples of the great faith God gives to those who try and practice this; His presence.

I always enjoy a good biography, especially those of the nearly forgotten silent screen stars. This biography of Florence Lawrence was well researched and had many wonderful photos. The author did a good job with the resources available. Most of the films and people involved in silents are gone now, so the job is doubly difficult. Although pricey, this biography is well worth reading.

Florence Lawrence was an enigma I had always wanted to know about, having been interested in silent films for many years. Information on her was scarce, save for some still photographs in silent movie history books. Kelly Brown really did her homework, in what must have been a difficult task, digging up information about a star whose heyday was almost 90 years ago! Congratulations, Kelly, on a job well done! I can't recommend this book highly enough!

A nicely researched and insightful biography of Florence Lawrence, one of the most shadowy yet important figures of early cinema. Many things about Florence's life and career will perhaps always remain vague, but Kelly Brown gives a worthy account of America's "first movie star." It is refreshing to know that Flo is finally getting the recognition she deserves. This book is a must for the true film buff.

As a college placement counselor in a highly-competitive preparatory school for many years, I have found this book to be most valuable in preparing parents for dealing with the angst of a young adult who is going away to college. It also tells you what to expect during their first years away. Buy it early in a student's senior year for the greatest benefit. This is a classic and a jewel!

This book is very easy to read and provides useful information to parents of new college students. I am the author of The ABC's of College Life, a hip street-smart guide for college bound students and I give Letting Go two thumbs up!!

This book and When Your Kid Goes to College were worth many hours of therapy during the late summer and early fall of my son's first quarter at college, especially around the time we took him down to school. I preferred Letting Go because it was more comprehensive, but other parents might prefer When Your Kid...There is a wide array of situations to learn from and to place your own experience in context. The authors provide trend material from their long-term research to help parents distinguish their child's college context from their own. I observed other parents coping with this transition unaided. Some were fine but others were having trouble and personalized the experience. Facts do help mitigate emotions. I recommended this book to one overwhelmed mother whose prodigy had gone far away to pursue her talent. Her response was "Thank you, I'll let you know when I am ready for a book (ital.)" as if this would be cold comfort for her personal loss. But the fact is, the authors know way more than most of our friends and relatives do; and the number of parents going through this experience is very large (check the book for figures). There is a great deal to learn both from the academic analysis and from the many examples of parents' experiences. Well researched, well written, logical and helpful.