If you've ever been involved in a relationship that gets deep, personal and reveals a you you never knew existed...Shanley's already been there and brilliantly written about it. His ability to peer into the dark, dank depths of the human psyche and then actually write something funny about it is unparalleled. I've seen many of his plays and always left with a sore stomach from laughing so hard. I wanted to read them, too, so I could take the time to savor the deeper understandings. I'm constantly lending my copy to friends to read after they come to me in the throws of personal or relationship crisis. I'm grateful for this collection and can't wait for the next one.

I found the plays in "13 by Shanley" to be as outrageous, quirky, beautiful, and redeeming as his screenwork. Shanley has the uncanny ability to make you read him twice, because one reading doesn't quite settle with you. I found myself reading a play in this collection, all the while thinking, "that's odd. I'm not too sure I care for that one. Oh, well." Then, I'd wake up the next morning, with lines from the play nagging at me. I'd go back to it and, sure enough... "it's brilliant. How did I miss that before?"

Shanley isn't everyone's cup of tea. However, if you have any kind of appreciative bone in your body for passionately quirky romances like "Moonstruck" or moodily misunderstood fairlytales like "Joe Versus The Volcano" (my personal all-time favorite)... then I STRONGLY urge you to pick up "13 by Shanley" for 13 cultured tales of love, beauty, and self-discovery.

Shanley's a genius. He's in a class by himself.

In 1993 We're Back was in theaters. It is my favorite book also , my favorite movie. It was funny and I laughed ,when I read it. It was just great ,everyone should read it. I like the part when all the Dinasaurs screamed, cause they didn't want to get in trouble.

My five year old son loves this book and I've read it to him many times. It's about a group of dinosaurs transported to modern New York and their adventures in the city.

What I especially like about the book is that the humor makes an adult smile and I don't mind reading it repeatedly.

This is truly one of Shanley's greatest works. The play is rich with poetic language and intense characters who live life the way we wish we had the guts to. A quick,easy read and an even better performance, this play is sure to move you, touch you, and make you feel. Shanley presents lives that we can relate to on a male/female level, but also on a human level- his capacity to understand the human psyche amazes me. This piece is a beauty!

I recently filmed a performance of one scene from the play "Savage in Limbo" in Los Angeles and I had to jump on the web and buy the whole play immediately.

John Patrick Shanley's characters are brilliant and rich; the kind actors dream of working with. The play is hilarious and tons of fun, yet tragically real, thus rendering it quite moving.

I absolutely recommend this work to anyone who enjoys theatre. Also, it is an absolute must for actors searching for a neat scene or one act to do. I saw it first in a showcase that lasted a grueling 4 hours, and the scene from "Savage and Limbo" was the only saving grace. The audience laughed hysterically, they loved it, and it made the show.

Buy it and see for yourself!

Why is John Patrick Shanley so irrespresibly delicious to both read and perform? Perhaps it is Mr. Shanley's ubiquitous humor that insidiously weaves through a fabric of raw human cruelty and even harsher reality. Mr. Shanley beautifully and painfully reminds us that life and relationships are often as lonely and unbearable as they are hysterically funny and sweet. Although no *Danny and the Deep Blue Sea* or *Savage in Limbo*, with *Italian American Reconciliation* Mr. Shanley once again delivers his usual cinematic, almost visual dialogue, only to be filled out with mercifully humane and sometimes brutally real characters. For the actor, Shanley's words, characters, and stories are like undiscovered treasure just waiting to be shared; for the reader, we are given the promise and description of the treasure, with the reclamation of the motherload waiting only for our imagination to take us there!

Shanley nailed this play, a tale about a forlorn man who misses his bad-influence wife and so leaves his girlfriend to make a play to get her back. His best friend is stuck in the middle. A dark comedy of sorts, but mostly a lesson in getting over lost love. A must for any hopeless romantic.

Moonstruck and Five Corners are fun reads -- wry and off-beat. Also fun is the introduction written by Shanley, which describes the anxieties, fears, and dating experiences which helped him write these screenplays. Apparently, his writing is very personal. What is disappointing at times is his writing style. The author is a playwright by training and it often shows, particularly in Joe Versus the Volcano -- a very contrived and stagey screenplay.

Alright, let's face it: John Patrick Shanley is a genius. How else can you explain a reader's overwhelming mirth brought on by the simple turn of each page from his fine Oscar-winning screenplay "Moonstruck" nearly 14 years after the movie's release? Who could ever forget Loretta Castorini slapping Ronnie across the face shouting matter-of-factly "Snap out of it!" Or mom Rose, at the kitchen table bellowing "Your life's goin down the toilet!", and last but not least ornery but lovable Cosmo declaring "Everything is temporary!" It's a movie/literary lovers delight... And who could forget Shanley's elevator ride in "Five Corners"... or what Heinz did to his delusional, corinthian topped mother. (It's a shocker!)... Oh, and Joe floating on his trunks in the middle of the ocean, picking at his eukele. Aw, it was so much fun to be able to go back and experience these fine tales. Thank God someone had the sense to publish them. Shanley fans will not be disappointed.

John Patrick Shanley's play psychopathia sexualis is a salty comedy about a painter who is about to get married, but has a problem. He is not the master of his own domain. Arthur, the painter, can only get off while in close proximity to his father's argyle socks. Arthur's therapist, Dr. Brock, tries desperatly to cure Arthur of his fetish, but with no luck. Finally the desperate man takes the socks hostage, and arthur's tough fiance decides to bully Dr. Block to make him "surrender the footwear". This savy play ask us where we draw the line for what is crazy, and who decides how to "cure" us. It shows the power struggles between man and woman, man and man and woman and man. In the end, can we decide who is and isn't crazy? If so, haven't we just erased the line of convention, only to redraw it in another place. How crazy is crazy? And does a guy who makes love wearing his father's argyle socks really need to be fixed?

This has to be rated up there with "Kissing Christine" and "Moonstruck." I absolutely adore this play. Even though it's categorized comedy, it contains many dramatic and true-to-life issues. The characters are lovable, fun, and incredibly entertaining. It is reality with an extra touch of zaniness and cleverness. I would definitely recommend this to any theatre-goer, especially Shanley fans.

Congo opens on a grizzly gorilla attack on a group of explorers. Crichton goes on in telling how the search and or rescue party gets there and the horrific things they experience. With the company of Amy the most advanced ape in the sense of sign language, they learn many things about gorilla life and their past. From Chrichton I've also read Airframe, Sphere, Jurassic Park and The Lost World; personally this is my least favorite of the books. I admit the first few pages grab you with quick and intense action, but the main part of the book, I thought, was extremely boring, no action what so ever not even flared emotions. Written in 1980 it is expected to have out dated technology information, in fact some of things they mention weren't even fathomable then, but now are a part of everyday life and I made a note of that in the back of my mind, but while reading it seemed as though it was in bold print and it simply got annoying. Don't get me wrong it is a well writen book, it's just that I feel is other books are definately more worth reading. The ending as in all books is the most exciting part of the book, overflowing with action that almost makes up for the eye drying middle; almost.

This novel kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time I read. Michael Crichton does a good job displaying realism in this realistic science fiction novel. He creates a story in the darkest region of the Congo, near the Lost City of Zinj,where an eight-person expedition dies brutally in a matter of seconds. At the home base back in Houston, supervisors watch a gruesome video transmission of the ill-fated team: dead bodies, tents crushed, and a blurred dark moving image. A new expedition is sent to the Congo. Some are in search for diamonds while a primatologist is taking his gorilla Amy, who knows sign language, back to her home in the Congo. During the expedition they encounter trouble with the native tribes and man-eating gorillas. Many people die and there is a lot of action in this thriller. Life threatening creatures and jungle weather creates a setting which makes this book so entertaining. This book can be compared to "Jurassic Park." Both display great action scenes and interesting stories by the same author. I recommend this book greatly if you are either a science-fiction or suspense thriller fan.

A Review by Brendan

Michael Crichton has done it again, he wrote a bestselling book once more. If you liked Jurassic park 1+2 you'll love Congo.in the depths of the jungle in Africa, people have been mysteriously killed by some unknown animal. When one scientist discovers and ape is having bad and unnormal dreams he decides to find out what they are. This book is full of adventure and excitement. If you want to know the rest pick up a copy at your local library.

There are so many things Michael Crichton did perfect in this book, but there were a few he could of left out. About 1/3 of the story talks about things we didn't know existed, like all that scientific junk. Do we really care about that? We want the blood and gore{well a lot of us do}.
What he did do well on is the detail and explaining the confusing points. This was a good book and very interesting.

I would recommend this book to readers that like blood and gore. I would also recommend this book to people that like science and mathematics. This book is very good and there are always part that include all readers.