The first story, "The Benchmark," is one of the best pieces stories I've ever read. It's just one of those perfect stories. That the book isn't able to keep up with that level of performance isn't surprising but it's disappointing. There are good stories here but there are some mediocre stories too and I spent the last few stories wondering when I would be done with the book.

For a great book of stories go to Tobias Wolff's _Back in the World_ or Thom Jones' _The Pugilist at Rest_. Dorris has crafted some good things here but there's not enough to hold the whole thing together.

Having owned this for years I recently dug it out (literally, from under a pile of similarly-owned books) and discovered a collection of stories that improves upon rereading. I recall I took readily to Dorris's style during the early nineties, a time in which everything for him looked bright and his marriage to Louise Erdrich remained intact and healthy, at least to the outside world. He and Louise seemed such soulmates--at least in the literary vein. Here was a man with promise, with a raw talent that surely would develop and refine with time, time that Dorris stole from himself with his suicide. Dorris's death makes the reading of these stories all the more pointed. Dorris saw so clearly within his words, within his writings he honed in on lives mundane and not so. His stories deal with the stuff of life: loss, love, work, family. That Dorris is no longer with us makes these stories resonate even further. For what lays beyond his fiction is this fact: Dorris' voice is worth remembering, worth taking out from time to time, worth sitting with up late in the quiet after one's own hard day of work. Within these pages are diamonds of pure truths.

Working Men is a varied yet cohesive volume of short stories that left me breathless. Dorris unfolds each story and character flawlessly. Each emotion is crystalline and each presentation is a rare and gentle treat. Working Men is meant to be read and reread.

As a former english professor from Stetson University in Deland, Florida, I found Mr. Pallagi's work marginal at best. After reading the posted reviews I decided I would enjoy the exhiliration of something new and different for myself. Much to my dismay, I realized that I should have taken Mr. Pallagi's advice, and planned differently by selecting another book.

The work, though thought provoking at times, had a kindergarten-like charm. The 10 short stories may be great for a creative wrting class in Junior Highschool, but nothing that I feel should be shared on a global scale. Please don't let me keep you from reading this work for yourself, but trust and old author when I tell you this, the Nutritional Information on a box of Milk Duds is more revealing.

Knowing Mr. Pallagi personally, I will admit that I went into reading this book with a healthy dose of bias towards the "good" end of reviewing. Fortunately, after reading his first (to my knowledge) published work, I can say that my interest was indeed justified.

The stories told in here (particularly the opening story, which is also the title of the collection) are interesting and daring. Mr. Pallagi risks losing his audience in the controversy of his subject matter and even risks retribution by parents, and parent groups by taking a different view. Which is also a good way to describe the whole of the work: "A different view." Mr. Pallagi consistantly takes his stories in different angles or approaches than the reader might expect, and in turn presents readers with thoughts he or she might not have had before.

Still, the work is not completely without it's faults. Some stories seem to get lost in Mr. Pallagi's style and suffer from some flaws typical of young writers.

In the end however, I do STRONGLY recommend this book. It is worth the read not only for the material itself (which is intriguing and fun to read), but can also be something for a young writer to read as an example of how to tell stories effectively.

this book was a truly awe-inspiring piece of work. it gets in touch with the creative aspect and allows the reader to enjoy a splurge in a thing we seem to miss a lot of in life, slipping away for a while in a good story. the stories contributed by mike pallagi are very good at putting you in the aspect of another person. i especially applaud the piece that helps the reader see something as tragic as the shooting at columbine through the eyes of one of the shooters. it is a difficult and perhaps controversial move, but definately a bold and refreshing one. for the people that i associate with that enjoy good creative writing and the challenge of associating themselves in particularly difficult positions and roles, this is a book i would recommend. so if you a person that has an open mind and enjoys reading deep creative writing, purchase and enjoy this book.

This neat collection of southern fried stories is most notable for some of the remarkable characters who come alive in its pages. Despite the title, many of the stories have no canine characters. All of them, however, play on the themes that grow from man's relationship with his favorite pet. Pride, devotion, fidelity, death--all the emotions that come to light through man's bond with dog--are intimately woven together to create tales of honest humanity.

Some of the stories resonate enough to recall Faulkner, in particular "A Bad Man So Pretty", about a hardscrabble delinquent and his long-suffering brother. "Tenant" is another story dripping with southern nostalgia for the nobility and grandeur of times past.

A couple of the stories, while interesting, seem misplaced in this collection. "Amelia Earhardt's Coat", about a little girl's encounter with the famous aviatrix while growing up in the social heights of Rye, New York, seems more suited to a John Cheever collection. Others, like "Sundays" and "Poker", don't rise to the quality of the rest--they seem like practice runs, sophomoric and self-conscious.

Ultimately the stories' strength rests in the complexity and colors of its many memorable characters. While the collection overall is uneven and the writing sometimes underdeveloped, the people in the stories become outrageous stories themselves.

I picked up this book after reading 'Killing Stonewall Jackson', the author's contribution to the outstanding collection STORIES FROM THE BLUE MOON CAFÉ. I enjoyed what I found here, but not as much as that story - which is not to say for a moment that Knight is not a talented writer.

The works that touched me the most in this slim volume were 'Gerald's monkey' (a terrific coming-of-age piece in which a privileged young man experiences the shock of empathizing with some of the workers at his uncle's shipyard); 'A bad man, so pretty' (another coming-of-age tale in which a young man watches his brother throw away any chances of making it in life); 'The man who went out for cigarettes' (a look at a man toiling over an excruciating, life-changing decision); 'Sundays' (one of the most painfully evocative depictions of loneliness I've read); and 'Tenant' (in which a college professor comes to know his landlady after her death, through her German shepherd.

Knight's characterizations are well drawn and compelling - the people in these stories never come across as false or contrived. I didn't find myself drawn into the action or premise of every single story - the ones mentioned above managed to do that, exerting quite a strong pull on me. 'Killing Stonewall Jackson' is, I think, a newer work, with more of a surreal quality to it than anything here - I'll definitely be inclined to check out anything I find by Knight in the future.

There's something about Michael Knight's writing that keeps me turning each and every page. I loved every story in this book. If any other author had written these stories, they would most likely only be mediocre, but Michael Knight can take these stories and make them real. He's an extraordinary writer, a wonderful teacher, and a great person.

Beware! If you love James or desire to discover him, this new edition of OUP's anthology is not the way to go. A previous and superb OUP edition was edited and annotated by Michael Cox. His fascinating comments are cued by asterisks that are liberally sprinkled throughout the text. In the current version, all the annotations are gone--but the asterisks remain! One can imagine how many readers must be scratching their heads over them. In place of Cox's excellent work, there is an innane introduction by the fashionable novelist Michael Chabon, who tells nothing of James's publications and incredibly little of his life (not even his dates), and explores only one of the stories, persistently misidentifying the protagonist, Parkins, as Parkes. You can't make this stuff up. What was OUP thinking? Why fix something that not only wasn't broken, but was something to be admired? I bought this volume as a gift--it's a handsome hardback--but plan on asking for a refund.

First, about M.R. James:

He is excellent! He is one of the best, most underappreciated voices in horror. Lovecraft admired him. His stories, though old, are quite scary. Also, they are very well written. As Chabon points out in his intro, Poe and Lovecraft weren't the best literary stylists. Most people cite "Oh, Whistle..." as James's best story, but I think I'll vote for "Count Magnus." Certainly all of them are good. More than that, they are REQUIRED reading for anyone who wants to have a basic understanding of horror literature. It is also a hell of a good read.

Second, this edition:

I was greatful to a previous reviewer for explaining the asterisks. There are asterisks without footnotes all over this book, as well as other Oxford University Press books (The Monk). Now we know that these are residue from a previous edition that HAD footnotes. Perhaps you might want to get that version.

However, I take great issue with the disparaging of Michael Chabon's essay on M.R. James. If you don't get the edition with his introduction, I recommend going to the bookstore and reading through it anyway. His comments are very illuminating on James and ghost stories in general.

The art of Dr. James is by no means haphazard, and in the preface to one of his collections he has formulated three very sound rules for
macabre composition. A ghost story, he believes, should have a familiar setting in the modern period, in order to approach closely the
reader's sphere of experience. Its spectral phenomena, moreover, should be malevolent rather than beneficent; since fear is the emotion
primarily to be excited. And finally, the technical patois of 'occultism' or pseudo-science ought carefully to be avoided; lest the charm of
casual verisimilitude be smothered in unconvincing pedantry.
-H.P. Lovecraft

Though less well remembered today than some other authors of Gothic ghost stories--like J. S. [John Sheridan] LeFanu, whose work he
edited, Bram Stoker, and Henry James (no relation), or their successors H.P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, and the like--M. R. James is
one of the great early horror writers. This story, which concerns a mysterious and unpleasant Mr. Karswell, who takes creepy exception to a
negative review of his book, The Truth of Alchemy, shows off James's talents to good effect, combining genuine scares with a droll wit.
But what makes this edition particularly appealing are the 12 splendid black-and-white drawings by Jeff White--an artist with whom I am not
familiar and about whom I could find nearly nothing on the Web--that accompany the text. This slender volume seems certain to get any
reader looking for more stories by Mr. James and more books illustrated by the estimable Mr. White

GRADE : A

I'd like to give it a score of "-5" but 1 is the lowest available here. This is absolutely and positively the ugliest artistic rendition of Oscar Wilde's beautiful fairy tales and of that of thousands of children's books I have read or collected over many years. The comic book style illustrations draw the reader away from the inner poetry and beauty of Wilde's prose. This is truly the first book I have ever thought of burning - it would make good kindling for the fireplace.

P. Craig Russell's pen makes sparks fly as it gives depth, color and life to every brilliant fold and cascade and ripple of luxury. More sparks fly as the pen portrays the poor and the raggled: the thinness of their bones, the dirtiness of their quarters, and, most poignantly of all, the pitiably concave looks on their scrawny faces. P Craig Russel makes Oscar Wilde's otherwise beautiful fairytales into something far beyond beautiful. The magic of the words and glistening sketches combined are enough to make one weep or wonder at the miracle of someone so talented as P. Craig Russell, and someone so talented as Oscar Wilde. Please buy this book knowing that it will bring you a treat like you have never experienced.

I have a vivid memory of a film strip adaptation of "The Selfish Giant" that I saw several times in kindergarten and first grade. I didn't really understand the Christian allegory at the time, but I was entranced by the beautiful, melancholy nature of the story. Years later I still find it deeply moving, and P. Craig Russell's adaptation is as perfect a retelling as I can imagine. Though a non-Christian, I find that the story loses none of its impact or beauty. This is a story for anyone with an open mind and a love of well-told children's tales. Russell is one of the modern masters of cartooning, and his artwork and sense of design really compliment the story. His second collection of Wilde's fairy tales is also highly recommended, as are his adaptations of various operas and the fantasy stories of Michael Moorcock.

Although I'm not prone to reading short stories, anything by author Michael Malone is usually priceless. This collection is no exception. A terrific concept is this, the grouping of Malone's fictional observations of a dozen Southern women, as diverse a group as the real tapestry of women in the south.

Led by Malone's award-winning "Stella, Red Clay" - which is more of a look into the relationship between a father and son, both of whom admire ex-Hollywood star Stella, from a distance, this story was worth the price of the book and definitely deserved the two national awards it garnered. In the collection, about 7 of the pieces are well-developed, and the rest fall a little short of the artistry you've come to expect from Malone's novels. My personal favorite was the look into the soul of a battered woman in "Charmain, White Trash Noir" - Malone perfectly captures the lack of self-esteem, yet the ladylike manner a real Charmain would display when confronted with the dilemma of airing her marital dirty laundry in order to save herself from a conviction.

I granted 4 instead of 5 stars because I particularly disliked the snapshot of Malone's "Justin-Cuddy" series...all about a local deb in Hillston (Patty, Love & Other Crimes). It definitely did not do the series justice.

From the creation of the concept, the cleverness of the cover in the oversize paperback, the ebb and flow of Malone's poetry written as prose, you'll enjoy this collection. And, if you do, be sure to gather Malone's other gems, his novels, which are amazing!

Mr. Malone, I wish you would stick with Cuddy and Justin as they are your finest, in my opinion. The very best story here is Maddie and I wish you had developed her into a full length book. That story was greeeeat. A good mystery, good historical stuff and a good twist in the end although I think I saw it coming. I cannot get enough of Cuddy and Justin so please carry them on into the future. Please????

The Italians have a word for it: "sprezzatura," meaning "the art of effortless mastery." Michael Malone, North Carolina's twenty-first century Prospero has exactly this kind of prestidigitator's touch with the short story form. His collection entitled: "Red Clay, Blue Cadillac" has a natural flow which makes reading it pleasurably easy. Proof of his legerdemain? Presto! Two of these stories garnered national prizes: "Stella, Red Clay" won the Edgar Allen Poe award and "Meredith: Fast Love" the O.Henry laurel.

A notoriously difficult literary form, the short story usually entails a five point structure: 1. situation 2. generating circumstances 3. rising action 4. climax and 5. denouement. Such literary strictures apparently pose no hardship for Malone who, while maintaining his necromancer's panache with narrative, never loses his inventive prowess. His humor and command of southern speak shine. Here, the novelist presents the reader with a dozen distillate vignettes, every conception dazzlingly real.

Each story bears a woman's name and there are as many types as stories: the omnipotent femme fatale, the psychologically abused wife, the easy sexpot, a feisty and unsinkable old African-American... to name only a quarter ot the total. Malone doesn't limit his magician's sleight of hand to the distaff side either; there are fascinating guys too: a good ole boy hunter type personifying bumpkinhood, a clueless, abusive husband, a slick upper class lawyer, and a harried sports manager. These lists omit many memorable minor characters.

I was delighted when Malone's sleuthing duo, police chief Cuddy Mangum and chief detective Justin Savile whom we know from "Time's Witness" and "Civil Seasons" showed up in the seventh story: "Patty: Love and Other Crimes." A Cahner's Business Information, Inc. critic called this story, "pedestrian." I found it anything but. "Patty" fits the classic pattern snugly; plus it has an ingenious plot, insight into the human psyche, really funny dialogue, and enough twists and surprises to keep the reader happily engaged. Loving Savile, as I do, I was disappointed that Cuddy has more hilarious conversations with "Bubba Percy, the star (in his opinion) reporter for the Hillston Star," than he does with his chief detective.

I always envy those who have yet to succumb to the enchantment of a Malone book for the first time. My initial reading brought Robert Louis Stevenson's appreciative lines to mind: "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be happy as kings." Malone's version of the new south is on target and fits this quotation. I'll betcha it'll prove even more rewarding the second time around.

Postscript: When reading a work so full and varied, surely, one must wonder about the inscrutable interior stratagems involved in the creative process. In the fourth story "Charmain: White Trash Noir" there are four words which may hold subtle clues to the internal windmills turning inside the learned, labyrinthine mind of Michael Malone. Tenuous intimations to be sure, but ones too plain to be coincidence. Charmain's patrician young lawyer's name is Tilden Snow and his ancestral home is called "Heaven's Hill." These phrases may jangle, even fibrillate your mindsprings if you have read "The Last Noel," Malone's novel which begins as a rare southern snow is falling. It's memorable heroine's name is Noelle Katherine Tilden and her old southern mansion is known as Heaven's Hill. Mysterioso!

The problem with using advoates as authors is that you only get one side of the story. In the case of EMDR, for instance, there is research that says a) the eye movements are unnecessary and b) its effects do not last as long as Cognitive-Behavior Therapy based exposure procedures. This really undercuts the second part of the title of this book "for Long-Term Change". Stories and anecdotes are often entertaining but for true treatment help see a professional who reads the scientific research and is not a cheerleader for every fad that comes along.

I found this book to be a remarkable and consise description of a complicated topic. The authors summarized the state of the field of short term dynamic therapy. They held no information back and identified the areas of controversy, particularly conflicting opinions and data on the use of confrontation in the Davanloo approach versus the approach preferred by McCullough and Alpert. Furthermore, the inclusion of EMDR as a dynamic treatment was inovative and exciting. Neborsky and Solomon's chapter on "Changing the Love Imprint" explained how EMDR and the STDP's may have a common therapeutic action, which was helpful to me as was their integration of attachment theory. Finally, David Malan's chapter on the science of outcome evaluation and what we might learn from his career was an inspiration to read. I hope this group continues to write and create more material for clinicians like this!

The recent no-name reviewer from Atlanta who attacked Short-Term Therapy for Long-Term Change's lack of research must have bought some bootleg copy that omitted its hundreds of endnotes and citations. Its dozens of pages of transcribed therapy sessions will hardly be dismissed as "anecdotes" by any mindful reader. The book's six contributors are tops in their fields. Calling them "cheerleaders," as no-name does, is a whooper bordering on delusion. This book is the best available overview of the latest breakthroughs in short-term psychotherapy available.

No one can reasonably expect to sum up Nietzche's views and philosophy in under 100 pages. The reader should not go into this work expecting to come out understanding Nietzsche, but maybe make him a little less obscure or receive a slight bit more context in which to read Nietzsche's books. For those who have already read some Nietzsche and are left nonplussed, this tiny book may help you out as well (it did me).

The book follows Nietzsche's publications more or less in chronological order. The longest and most difficult chapter is the one on "The Birth of Tragedy." This work gets the most attention of all of Nietzsche's works, presumably because it is easier to "sum up" or encapsulate than any of his other works. For instance, the section on "The Genealogy of Morals" will leave you wondering what the book is about (in fact, reading the book itself may also have this effect - it's a tad difficult).

"Morality and its Discontents" is one of the most illuminating chapters, and will shed some light on Nietzsche's proclamation that "God is dead" which is probably his most infamous and misunderstood concept (there's also a lot more meat to it than the eternal recurrence and the Ubermensch, which Tanner points out).

Overall I agree with Tanner's assessment of Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra." It was the first book of his I read, and I came out of the experience energized, but I had no idea why. "Zarathustra" is a passionate but potentially misleading read. It's nothing like his other works, and introduces concepts that never come up again, though they seem to be of utmost importance in the context of the book (i.e., the eternal recurrence, Ubermensch, and the will to power - at least in his published works).

The pace of Tanner's book quickens and the delineation of Nietzsche's texts becomes more and more sparse towards the final few chapters. There is very little information about Nietzsche's insanity, or Lou Salomé or even the details of his life. The book is almost completely dedicated to Nietzsche's philosophy. In fact, the book ends as abruptly as Nietzsche's own sane life must have. There's a slight feeling of "so what's next?!?" at the end of the last and shortest chapter that discusses the works of 1888 in a flash.

Nietzsche is a huge subject, and his books are thick conceptually if not physically. He was a thinker that wanted to teach us to think differently, which makes him a valuable read no matter what your stance on the views he covers. This minute book will help you peek through the keyhole of this enormous and overwhelming subject.

Lastly, Richard Wagner figures hugely in Nietzsche's work. Knowing more about Wagner will only elucidate some of Nietzsche's works and concepts. Tanner also supports this view.

Tanner's NIETZSCHE provides as plain-spoken an account as can be managed of what the philosopher was all about, taking the reader through Nietzsche's life and work step by step. There are a few things about the book I do not like -- for instance, insufficient discussion of the abuses of Nietzsche by others, too short shrift to THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA, and an unhelpful final chapter of assessment -- but its merits outweigh these several flaws. I would definitely recommend that others read this book before tackling Nietzsche's works directly.

Tanner here provides a wonderful overview of Nietzsche's philosophy--not an easy task, since Nietzsche had no "philosophy" in the usual sense. He is an anti-philosopher philosopher. Tanner concentrates on what Nietzsche said in his published works, considering the "Will to Power" fragments suspect. He distrusts the French poststructuralist interpretations of Nietzsche, which emphasize his perspectivism. To get a good idea of this side of Nietzsche, read Alex Nehamas's "Nietzsche: Life as Literature." There is no better introduction to Nietzsche than Nietzsche himself, perhaps in "Beyond Good and Evil," but he is among the most complex of modern "philosphers," and Tanner's book is quite helpful for the novice.

I guess i'm one of the only people who did NOT like this book. I got about 30 pages into it before I decided to take it back. It's neither clear nor concise and some of the "recipes" that were provided didn't even work. (And yes, I followed them step by step to the letter.)

This books achieves in a few pages what other huge books try to achieve in a volume: to teach advanced techniques in a straightforward way. You may be missing some of the best techniques if you don't have this book.

I found this book to be an excellent resource. The content is very well organized and is very thorough. The book was very effective in introducing me to new application options and techniques of photoshop. The writer is clearly very knowledgeable and has an easy to follow writing style with excellent examples and illustrations. I highly recommend this book.

Michael Chabon is a very talented author, but you don't get the impression by reading this weak collection of stories. Each story is written with no apparent finale. When it does have an ending, it tends to baffle the reader rather than offer closure. I especially disliked the title story where the first person narrator is omniscient only half the time. It's more annoying than innovative. It seems that Chabon didn't have enough materials to write a novel, and thought, "why not write a bunch of stories with disputable continuity and call them vignettes?" I suggest that you skip this book, or you'll be thinking less of a great writer.

I must say, I'm a huge Michael Chabon fan. His books are always filled with dynamic characters in fascinating situations, and A Model World is no different. But where some of his books have a more airy feel, the stories in this collection are dark. the underlying theme to almost every story in this colelction is family breakdown. the worlds in Chabon's book are certainly not the model that anyone would like to follow.

That being said, the writing is as strong as ever and the stories are engaging. From the dark, satirical humour of the first story, to the tense nail-chewing fear in the last, Chabon takes us on a ride.

Chabon is a writer who, in a rare case, is actually living up to his hype. Read A Model World; it's worth it.

There is something about really good short stories that makes me want to write. I am not looking at writing a novel that will define a generation, but a simple story. For some reason a short story seems to be a good small attainable goal. Who doesn't have a story in him that is worth telling? The trick, I suppose, is to tell the story in such a way that someone will want to read it.

In thinking about working on a short story, I am afraid if I try I will only be disappointed because the end result would not be Michael Chabon's "A Model World." His stories feel so real, with a touch of quirkiness that either make you jealous of the characters' lives, or make you feel glad that your life is normal by comparison. I have absolutely no reservations in recommending this collection to anyone. A perfect read to get you out of whatever funk you are in.