If your idea of love is limited to visions of puppies and balloons, The Thing About Love Is... probably not for you. In Polyphony Press' first effort, the heavy topic of love is tackled in gritty, gutsy pieces that cut to core of this complex emotion. Sometimes it's bliss, sometimes it's bizarre, and quite often it hurts, but regardless of its form, love is always intriguing. This anthology is in keeping with that notion. With a variety of styles and voices, the works featured here are unanimous in their ability to draw the reader in and keep him hooked. It is truly a great read that may challenge one's personal definition of love. Call it an enjoyable experiment in mind expansion!

It's difficult to find an anthology that has as much stopping power as this one. Reading it, I was impressed not only by the diversity of the authorial voices, but also by their veracity. Each story, poem and play seems to have come straight from the gut. What's more, the contributing writers help to remove our blinders; particularly when it comes to matters of the heart. Love, they argue, is nothing less than a battlefield on which each of us daily chances victory or defeat.Those seeking to enter the contest fully armed would do well to buy this book.

Anthologies are not my usual choice of reading material, but as this was recommended to me, I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised. While I could not relate to some of the pieces here, I enjoyed the underlying topic immensely. The poetry, drama, and short stories were a good blend. The Thing About Love Is... an enjoyable and fast read, but has a peculiar lingering effect that required that I return to it for further exploration. It's a perfect book to read from the relative comfort and safety of your best chair, where you know that you can dip into the joy and angst of love and for once, walk away unscathed.

I read this book some years ago but it struck me by with its focused anger and its accurate commentary on contemporary life in the decadent west. Certainly an interesting read for some one with an open mind and interest in independent thought.

This scary collection is risky to read too (you may not like where Hickins settles his gaze), but sublimely worth it -- don't miss it. Hickins is enormously talented. Prepare yourself for this book like you would for a Queens streetfight (you know how, don't you?) and hope you don't identify too much with Michael Missing(s).

Great read.

This guy is so in-your-face you'll need a sneeze guard to get through the whole book. I think the author also invented a new literary device by giving us a series of eleven different stories about eleven different characters, all named Michael Missing. It was a way of giving us eleven different perspectives on the same person, though, and the stories were all riveting. But lots of anger, sex and very bizarre relationships. Not your typical read to say the least.

In this curious autobiiography, Anthony Trollope sketches in the outlines of his life. He relates the misery of his childhood, the heroism of his mother, the tragedy and ultimate failure of his father. If not banal, at least typical material for an autobiography, and makes for good reading. The second two-thirds of the book summarizes his writings, and relate his ideas on everything from literary criticism to suggestions for young writers. Perhaps most interesting are his assessments of his own work, praising or condemning them with little emotion. Of course there is the famous analysis of his working methods, where he counts words and disciplines himself to an astonishingly regular routine of writing. He produced 47 novels, edited and wrote for magazines, all the while working full time for the post office. One distressing feature of this work is the almost complete lack of intormation about his wife and family....It is clear that he lived with and loved his fictional characters more than his corporeal family. Also, the grammar and punctuation are often awkward but this is still a highly readable and fascinating book.

If one has read a number of Trollope's novels, one would expect that Trollope would have written precisely this sort of autobiography. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine it having taken any other form.

Trollope writes not so much of his life (though he does touch upon the major events), as of his occupation. Although employed most of his adult life by the postal service, Trollope decided to engage in a second and parallel career as a writer. He is forthright about his motives: the satisfaction of writing, but also fame, financial reward, and social standing. Looking back on his career, Trollope is proud of a job well done. The oddity is that he seems quite as happy telling us about how much he sold each work for, and the financial dealings with his publishers, as he does about his books and characters. In fact, near the end of the book he gives a complete list of his novels and how much he managed to sell each one for (with very few exceptions, he preferred to sell the rights to a novel, rather than getting a percentage of sales). What emerges is a portrait of the novelist not as an artist so much as a dedicated, disciplined craftsman. He explicitly denigrates the value of genius and creativity in a novelist in favor of hard work and keeping to a schedule of writing.

The early sections of the book dealing with his childhood are fascinating. By all measures, Trollope had a bad childhood. His discussions of his father are full of pathos and sadness. What is especially shocking is the lack of credit he gives to his mother, who, in early middle age, realizing that her husband was a perpetual financial failure, decided to salvage the family's fortunes by becoming a novelist. He notes that while nursing several children dying from consumption, she wrote a huge succession of books, enabling the family to live a greatly improved mode of existence. Her achievement must strike an outside observer as an incredibly heroic undertaking. Trollope seems scarcely impressed.

Some of the more interesting parts of the book are his evaluation of the work of many of his contemporaries. History has not agreed completely with all of his assessments. For instance, he rates Thackery as the greatest novelist of his generation, and HENRY ESMOND as the greatest novel in the language. HENRY ESMOND is still somewhat read, but it hardly receives the kind of regard that Trollope heaped on it, and it is certainly not as highly regarded as VANITY FAIR. Trollope's remarks on George Eliot are, however, far closer to general opinion. His remarks concerning Dickens, are, however, bizarre. It is obvious that Trollope really dislikes him, even while grudgingly offering some compliments. Quite perceptively, Trollope remarks that Dickens's famous characters are not lifelike or human (anticipating E. M. Forster's assessment that Dickens's characters are "flat" rather than "round" like those of Tolstoy or Austen) and that Dickens's famous pathos is artificial and inhuman (anticipating Oscar Wilde's wonderful witticism that "It would take a man with a heart of stone to cry at the death of Little Nell"). Even the most avid fan of Dickens would admit that his characters, while enormously vivid and well drawn, are nonetheless a bit cartoonish, and that much of the pathos is a tad over the top. But Trollope goes on to attack Dickens's prose: "Of Dickens's style it is impossible to speak in praise. It is jerky, ungrammatical, and created by himself in defiance of rules . . . . To readers who have taught themselves to regard language, it must therefore be unpleasant." If one had not read Dickens, after reading Trollope on Dickens, one would wonder why anyone bothered to read him at all. One wonders if some of Trollope's problems with Dickens was professional jealousy. For whatever reason, he clearly believes that Dickens receives far more than his due.

Favorite moment: Trollope recounts being in a club working on the novel that turned into THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET, when he overheard two clergymen discussing his novels, unaware that he was sitting near them. One of them complained of the continual reappearance of several characters in the Barsetshire series, in particular Mrs. Proudie. Trollope then introduces himself, apologizes for the reappearing Mrs. Proudie, and promises, "I will go home and kill her before the week is over." Which, he says, he proceeded to do.

you should consider reading this too! Trollope writes candidly about his education (and about being a poor, mostly overlooked student), his lack of professional ambition (and how he finally got around to witing his first novel),and the ups and downs of his literary career (and his early rejections). He does all of this in the same conversational tone employed in his novels, making this autobiography feel more like a chat with an older, experienced friend than a learned, classic autobiography

Bad Girls is an excellent collection of mystery short stories. Who knew women could be so bad? All of the stories are good but a couple are really great. The endings are unpredictable and will give you a surprise. This book works well for mystery lovers who don't have time to read a lot but want to enjoy a good mystery quickly.

Michael's Bracken's Bad Girls contains a dozen twisted stories, featuring the sort of women your mother probably warned you about. Provided she wasn't one herself. Mr. Bracken uses a tight, precise writing style that keeps the story moving quickly from beginning to end. Nothing is wasted in his writing, everything counts, so pay close attention, 'cause little things can mean the difference between life and death. My personal favorites, "Husks" and "Glass Houses" had a bittersweet edge. Another fun story, "First Blonde on the Left" featured a woman who really knew how to make the best use of her assets. Great bedtime reading!

Collections of short stories, like boxes of bon-bons, should not be consumed at a single sitting, but rather parceled out over time in order to appreciate their flavor.

This is certainly true of BAD GIRLS, a gathering of twelve hard-edged stories by Michael Bracken, all but two of which previously appeared in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, Gent, Espionage, and other publications. Each story prominently features a woman- beautiful, seductive, buxom, and usually treacherous-as perpetrator or participant in crime; sometimes she gets away with it, other times she doesn't. A slim (135 pages), well-produced trade paperback volume with an appropriately lurid cover, BAD GIRLS packs a lot of wallop in its tales of spying, lying and dying. The deceitful women range from double-dealing double agents to wicked waitresses, and from cheating wives to murderous mistresses, who star in stories with titles like "Three's a Shroud" and "Vengeance to Show in the Third."

The language of BAD GIRLS is crisp, no-nonsense, and dialogue is often tinged with rough humor befitting the hard-boiled genre:

"I want to see Eddie," I said.

"You seen him," he said, "if you used both your eyes."

Much-published author Michael Bracken writes smoothly and fluidly with few wasted words. BAD GIRLS will provide an entertaining read for those who have always believed the female is just as deadly as the male, and who enjoy a taste of crime in bite-sized pieces.

It's hard to tell from the title, but this is neither a conspiracy book nor (entirely) a whitewash of Adm. Kimmel but a fairly good overview. The book covers the comprehensive blind spots, especially those in Washington, that lead to the surprise at Pearl Harbor. Gannon writes entertainingly and covers detail well. However I think his (deserved) admiration for Kimmel leads him to soft-pedal the parts of the evidence that suggest his culpability. The admiral deserves, although not the whole blame for being unprepared, a sizeable amount of it. Gordon Prange's relatively hard to find "Pearl Harbor: the Verdict of History" covers much the same ground as Gannon but does not hesitate to point out Kimmel's and Short's mistakes alongside everyone else's. And Prange (himself a WWII vet) knew and liked Kimmel personally. I don't regret buying Gannon's book but I would hate to use it for my sole resource on the subject.

It's hard to decide which is more disturbing: the oversights, omissions, and bad decisions that led to America's unpreparedness in the face of Japan's devastating attack on Pearl Harbor ... or the desperation, speed, and skill with which senior military and political officials unjustly made Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter Short the scapegoats for what happened.

Both elements are exposed to view in Michael Gannon's excellent book -- a fine addition to the Pearl Harbor bookshelf.

Gannon does a very good job sorting out who was in possession of what intelligence information in the weeks and days leading up to the attack. The 'betrayal' -- one of them, anyway -- was that, for a variety of reasons, much of that information never ended up in the hands of the on-scene commanders, who needed it most.

As Gannon summarizes, 'An Army Chief of Staff orders that no operational intelligence drawn from Magic be sent to his menaced commander in Hawaii, then later states that he was unaware that enemy intelligence was denied him ... An Army intelligence chief, representing the service specifically charged with defending the fleet at Pearl, punts on the grounds that fleet ships, after all, belong to the Navy ... A Navy war plans chief states that any transmission of operational intelligence of this kind should have been sent out by ONI [office of naval intelligence], something he himself never permitted to happen ... A director of naval intelligence discerns in bomb plot messages no more than Japanese curiosity and "nicety" of detail about the time required for ships to sortie from harbor ... and a CNO [chief of naval operations], as uninformed at the time on this espionage as was the Army Chief of Staff, states four years later that ONI should have sent the information to Kimmel -- in direct violation of restraints that his own OpNav office had placed on ONI ... Surely, if ever there was a "fog of pre-war," it hung over Washington in the fall of '41' (p. 195, ellipses in original).

(Gannon firmly rejects the 'Roosevelt knew' hypothesis. He also treats Stinnett's 'Day of Deceit' to only a paragraph or so of scathing analysis, noting in italics, 'It is important to recognize that no naval operational message text in JN-25B [code] was read by the United States prior to 7 December' [p. 206].)

But the intelligence failure was only part, albeit the largest part, of the 'betrayal.' Early in the book, Gannon lists a damning catalog of the ways higher-ups in D.C rejected Kimmel and Short's pleas for men and materiel. More patrol planes? Denied. More AA guns? Denied. Money for more airstrips, so planes could be dispersed more widely? Sorry. Not in the budget. More radar installations? Maybe in the future. More trained gunners and patrol pilots? Sorry. We need them elsewhere. And on, and on, and on. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, don't give us the tools and we can't do the job.

And yet, Kimmel and Short were scapegoated precisely for their alleged 'failure' to do the job. In the end, Gannon explicitly declines to draw conclusions, leaving that, on his last page of text, to the reader. It may not be too much of a reach, though, to suggest that Gannon seems to agree with Admiral Raymond Spruance, whom Gannon quotes at the start of his final chapter: 'I have always felt that Kimmel and Short were held responsible for Pearl Harbor in order that the American people might have no reason to lose confidence in their Government in Washington. This was probably justifiable under the circumstance at the time, but it does not justify forever damning these two fine officers' (p. 261).

Personally, I think losing confidence in the 'Government in Washington' is precisely the conclusion that *should* be drawn from Gannon's analysis, 'circumstance at the time' be damned. As an illustration of bureaucracy's ability to shift blame away from itself and sweep unpleasant facts under the rug, the story of Pearl Harbor is unsurpassed. And Gannon is an excellent and insightful storyteller. I recommend this book to any student of Pearl Harbor.

December 7, 1941-Who was to blame? This book attempts to answer this burning question and does a pretty good job. There are several different points that the author makes in this book, but his main thesis is that Admiral Kimmel, Commander-in Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, was denied valuable information which, in his mind, could have prevented or in the least alerted the U.S. forces to the impending Japanese attack. The author brings up several points to prove his case. For instance, Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner, chief of the war plans division, believed that Kimmel had in his possession a "Purple" machine, which could decipher the Japanese diplomatic code, and that Kimmel was reading all of the information that Washington was receiving. This was not true. The Purple machine that was supposed to go to Pearl Harbor was instead sent to the British. Admiral Stark and General Marshall are also singled out by the author. No "clear" war warning message was sent to Kimmel by Washington, and on the Day of the attack, Marshall was out horseback riding and did not arrive in his office until approximately an hour before the attack began. A warning was sent when he arrived, but it was delayed by atmospheric problems and could only be transmitted as a telegram. Kimmel received this message about an hour after the attack began. In retrospect, Washington must shoulder some of the blame for failing to keep its Hawaiian commanders informed, but Kimmel and his subordinates must share some of the blame as well. For example, the author tells of the story of the Japanese submarine that was spotted and sunk off the harbor entrance. Why was there no alert after this sinking? Also, two army privates spotted the Japanese attack planes on radar while they were still over 100 miles from Pearl Harbor. Still, no alert was issued. This book also has excellent excerpts from the Congressional Hearings held in 1945-46. Overall, I think this book is a excellent, although short, examination of Kimmel and Washington.

Michael Bishop, Nebula Award-winning author of No Enemy but Time, has just released Blue Kansas Sky, which collects four of his short works - one never before been seen in print - in a single volume. These stories showcase his mastery of different genres, and provide the reader with an sampling from various phases in Bishop's writing career.

"Blue Kansas Sky" is a moving story of a young boy in 1950s small-town America, who struggles between his love for an uncle just released from prison and loyalty to his mother (who blames the man for her husband's death). Bishop incorporated many details from his own childhood to make this tale come alive. There's no science fiction here at all - just an engaging tale, extremely well written. Michael Bishop is adept at incorporating fresh words and unexpected turns of phrase without making the reader scramble for a thesaurus.

In "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thurbana," a well-to-do Afrikaner "ghosts" in and out of reality after a freak auto accident and is forced to watch as the security police interrogate two black laborers - one who plays around with cosmic string theory as a hobby; another who receives pirate radio broadcasts courtesy of a metal plate in his skull. This story is very difficult to get through - not because it is poorly written (indeed, just the opposite); but because it captures in chilling detail the horrors of the old Apartheid system.

"Cri de Coeur" (Cry from the Heart) tells the story of a man who must cope with the responsibilities, and revel in the joys, of raising a son with Down's Syndrome aboard a generational starship seeking to colonize another star system.

"Death and Designation among the Asadi" deals with a human anthropologist living in the wilds of an alien planet, struggling to understand the enigmatic rituals of its lion-maned hominids - without losing his sanity. [After reading this story I asked the author what I should do if I didn't fully understand it - read it again, or embrace the mystery? His answer: "Death and Designation" is my Solaris (a novel by Stanislaw Lem). Real aliens, Lem implies, defy comprehension because they ARE alien. On the other hand, you could read my novel Transfigurations, which incorporates the novella, and which more than one critic badmouthed for explaining rather than embracing the original mystery. They may have done so with some justice.]

Blue Kansas Sky is a wonderful collection of stories that I heartily recommend. It's published by Golden Gryphon Press (a small firm specializing in anthologies).

Blue Kansas Sky is a collection of 4 novellas spanning 3 decades and the full spectrum of Bishop's talent. The title story is a sweet, poignant coming-of-age story set in Bishop's semi-fictional Van Luna, KS: it's all about life and growing up and the random difficulties of doing so. The last line is guaranteed to send you reeling. "Cri di Coeur" and "Death and Designation among the Asadi" are stunning morality tales in the guise of science fiction; as usual, Bishop's characters, no matter where or when they are, portray humanity at its most believable, wanderers who find hope in the most fragile of circumstances. The ringer for me, though, is "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana," a magical-realistic look at the horror of racism, the sin of inaction, all neatly and convincingly tied up with the Theory of Everything. Quite simply: amazing.

This is a collection for fantasists, for realists, for anyone who enjoys one of our best unsung writers at his very best.

Michael Bishop is a Nebula and World Fantasy Awards winning author. Blue Kansas Sky showcases four of his best novellas under one cover. These superbly written stories include Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thuban; Cri De Coeur; Death and Designation Among the Asadi; and the title piece, Blue Kansas Sky. This outstanding anthology is enhanced for the readers with an informative introduction to Michael Bishop and his writing by James Morrow. Blue Kansas Sky is "must reading" for Bishop's legion of science fiction and fantasy fans.

Bruce Coville has written a collection of wholesome short stories extolling the virtues of faith, patience, reconciliation, peace, remembrance, inner beauty and forgiveness. Incidentally, none of the tales really appeal to me, since I don't tend to like stories with Wholesome Messages. Most of them come across as a little bland and predictable, and I particularly didn't like the message about faith in "The Box." I love stories that have a surprising or chilling twist at the end-- exemplified in Patricia C. Wrede's "Cruel Sisters" and Vivian Vande Velde's "Straw into Gold" and "Lost Soul" and "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. The stories found in Oddly Enough are neither inspiring nor inspired, and I would tend to agree with Coville when he said he never thought of himself as a short story writer. However, I can see how these stories might appeal to younger fantasy readers, and parents should certainly approve of them. The cover art is also gorgeous; it is only unfortunate the stories did not turn out to be as spontaneous and surreal. If you like your stories with a bit more...attitude, I would suggest Wrede's excellent anthology, The Book of Enchantments, Vivian Vande Velde's Curses, Inc., or A Wizard's Dozen, which is a good collection of YA fantasy stories by different authors.

Ailanna

ODDLY ENOUGH is an amazing book with content ranging from the spooky "Language of Blood" to the funny "Clean as a Whistle!" All the different stories were great and I really liked each one of them. This book is great for all ages and all people, from fantasy-lovers to horror-readers! I highly recommend this book to everyone and anyone! It is truly a GREAT book!

This is a very good book. I'm a big Bruce Coville fan and I say it is his second best. For his first best is INTO THE LAND OF THE UNICORNS. But going back to ODDLY ENOUGH the favorite story of mine in the book is THE BOX. I recommend this book. Ihope you enjoy the story as well as I did. ;-) :-} :~]

The Wishbone series,I thought ,was one of those nice, quick reads.I am captivated by his elegant and lively writing.
The story is about a little white-with-brown-and-black-spots dog,Wishbone and his friend,Joe,Sam and David help to save the missing history of Oakdale together .The saving action Starts after they found out the card of LINDSAY GROVES(the relief pitcher for the Oakdale Oaks baseball team),and discovered the records of 1933 Oakdale Oaks baseball team has hidden ,even being erase.As a result,the 3 kids and Wishbone try their best to cover up the truth of the Oakdale's history.Eventually,the 1933 National Champion,the Oakdale Oaks gets their right to keep record on their victorious pass ,so the Oakdale's heroes will never been forgotten!!It is a nice work,I loved the lovely Wishbone,the enthusiastic,funny dogs which always think of pepper onion chesse Italian pizza!
It is a worthy piece of work to read.Don't miss the chance to enter the adventurous world with WISHBONE!!!Read the book!

"sitting on the back of the car,waving to the crowd, was Lindsay Groves.....in his original Oakdale Oaks baseball uniform....... On the sign of the car,a sign read LINDSAY GROVES----RELIEF PITCHER FOR THE OAKDALE OAKS, NEGRO LEAGUE NATIONAL CHAMPS,1933......"The truth of Oakdale's past will never be hidden again,because of the little dogs,Wishbone and his friend.It is really a worth book to read. If you want to know more about the secret from Oakdale's past,read this book, you will have great fun by this....

I loved this book because I was always wondering what was going to happen next. Wishbone, Joe, Sam, and David want to find out more about the Oakdale baseball team, the Oakdale Oaks. But the books, newspaper articles, and everything else about the Oaks has mysteriously dissapeared. They try to figure out why someone would do that. Then they learn that years and years ago, something really bad happened in Oakdale. I thought this book was very exciting. Some people who wrote reviews about this book, I won't say who, said it was confusing, and not mysterious, YA RIGHT! They're WRONG! It's not confusing, and it is mysterious so HA! It's not confusing, because I read it, and it's a really great book!

It's a nice compilation of stories that takes now and brings it into a look-ahead perspective. It's got a lot of variety, so you won't get bored that easily. Ranging from sibling rivalries to dating hassles, all the short stories have some common trait we all can relate to like fear, loyality, faith, love, envy, anger, hatred and so on. The best story in my opinion (which actually boosts this rating) is the one written by the compiler himself. Cart's pre-millenium tale about a boy in love with a priest's daughter is pretty good and the climax of the boy's choice over right and wrong, between love and faith is released very well. All in all, the book's not a bad read...worth a look but not a buy.

This is quite possibly one of the best compilations of short stories I've ever read... each one good in its own way. This is a great book for someone of the middle school to highschool range, there's a lot of stories to relate to. Its very magical in the way it captures you... even more so than most adult novels I've read. This book really makes you think!!!

The Last Dog is a great, funny story by Katherine Paterson. The story takes place in the future. A man named Brock lives in a dome with other humans. They think the water and the air are poisoned from pollution. One day Brock went outside of the dome. Brock sees a dog in the wild and names him Brog. He takes Brog to the dome. When he is there, the other scientist wanted to experiment on Brog. Brock tries to save the dog.

this collection contains a good deal of godd ghost stories, like an eddy on the floor and the shadow on the wall, making it a worthwhile read. old fashioned ghost stories. silent, subtle, growing on you. why only three stars? well, the uninteresting stories in the collections are really uninteresting. sometimes i don't see the interest at all. but you should still buy this.

These stories offer layer upon layer of Victorian manners, Victorian attitudes, and sumptuous settings. Nineteenth century England through the eyes of its contemporaries is fascinating--and uncomfortably familiar. The befuddled rich and the harried servants. Being afraid to tell someone what you saw. Being afraid of rocking the boat. These stories are really about the consequences of one's deeds--how even the grave cannot set one free of one's angst. Two sisters in love with the same man. The domineering father who disapproves of his daughter's choice in a husband. The amoral medical student who will do anything to stay in the spotlight. The terrible vow uttered in a moment of passion, which echoes throughout one's entire life. The secret obsession we all have about what really happens after we close our eyes for the last time. If you're fascinated by the endless labyrinth of the human heart, and relish the sensation of the hair on your neck standing up, then this book's for you.

I cannot get enough of James, Gaskell, Le Fanu, Dickens...I have discovered I'm an Anglophile. I adore all that fog, gloom, polite horror and ghosts with lovely elocution. These stories are like a box of your favorite candy. You'll love them!