"Life of the Body" is a short story indeed, which I read in "Prize Stories 1996: The O. Henry Awards." It is one of the best stories in that book. Although it starts politely, the reader hearing the elusive voice of a woman who has lost her daughter and found comfort in the arms of a lover, the erotic tension of the situation incrementally becomes graphic, after which a decline in her marital life is inevitable. The story ends in a surprising twist, which made me feel really like having a really intimate conversation with the fictitious character. The elaborate thought of Sarah are wittily written. Joy.
I haven't read "A Pair Of Gloves" but frankly I wouldn't pay $300 for two stories. Buy the prize stories book instead!
Tip: Tea lovers will find a little bonus in this story.

This is a big book, immense really, containing some 17 sagas and tales of the Icelanders. It is a selection from the even larger collection of Viking sagas called "The Complete Sagas of Icelanders." Readers interested in Medieval Literature will surely want to add this book to their collection. These are crisp, new translations that bring the stories of the Vikings to life.

Fans of the literature of the Mediterranean region a thousand years ago, works such as "Poem of the Cid" or "Song of Roland" will notice great differences here. Unlike much of the epic poetry there, the Icelandic Sagas are written in prose. Even so, many of the tales include extensive poetry, for the Vikings admired warrior-poets.

Many of these tales read like history and cover long sequences of time. They "feel" very real. For example, in "Egil's Saga" many generations pass before it is over. Egil himself doesn't make an appearance in the story until almost midway through. The sagas are often the stories of ordinary people rather than kings and knights. But be forewarned, there is much violence here. The modern reader may be bothered by the tendency toward quick violence and sudden death as characters punish with a sudden ax to the head those who have "wronged" them and are admired for such behavior. "The Sagas of Icelanders" includes extensive introductory essays and appendices to help the reader understand this fascinating period of time and these unique peoples.

The Sagas of the Icelanders is an excellent collection of nordic literature in an affordable and attractive book. Heavily notated, with maps detailing the settings of some of the stories, this is an excellent way to get started in learning about the lives of the Scandanavian and Icelandic people.

The stories richly describe the heroism, psychology, strength, values and day to day life and decision making of the people within these tales. This is inspiring and entertaining literature which should grace the shelf of anyone interested in the study of history, anthropology, epic literature, or norse religion.

This is a great value. A wide collection of Icelandic sagas and short stories. Some of the short stories I've never heard of before.
The one about the Pagan ghosts messing with the Christian while he was using the outhouse was very funny. If you are at all interested in the sagas, buy this book. Many of the used copies go for under ten bucks. Can't bet it.

An interesting conjoining of two very different stories. I read them in order, starting with "Ordinary Love" and then moving on to "Good Will." At the end, I found myself wondering what links the two stories?

In both, there is a father who directs his family to such an extent that he could be called controlling or even an egomaniac. In "Ordinary Love" the father is not present; he is the "fifth man", invisible, but the scars left by his words and actions have sunk deep. In "Good Will", the father is the protagonist, and through his own eyes we see the results of his actions.

Unlike the other reviewers here, I preferred "Ordinary Love." I enjoyed the character of the mother, who narrates the story. She strives to be objective and offer a balanced viewpoint. She has a depth of self-knowledge. Also, she watches her children with great love, and that lends the story real warmth, which I thought was missing from "Good Will."

I plan to read both stories again. There's a depth of character and thought here that can't be fully taken in with one reading.

Smiley gives us an intimate view into two very different families and the ways in which their different parenting styles affected their children's lives irrevocably. Smiley is a master of character development. When each story begins, you have a certain view of the protagonist and other characters. As the stories unfold, your feelings about each character change. This is a book to be read more than once.

Good Will is by far one of the best novels I've ever read. Ordinary Love was good too. There is nothing ordinary about Jane Smiley's characterizations in Good Will. Those characters could not have been more real if they were real people in the room with me. The psychological, emotional, and moral complexities and motivations they display, the remarkable way in which it was all written and put together..2 years after reading this book, I'm still in awe of it.

Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House" was more than just a book of short stories, it was a work of art. Mr. Vonnegut creates a perfect blend of comedy, drama, action and suspense. He has a certain way of having tons of detail but not so much that it bores you. You feel as much a part of the story as the characters. One of the stories, "Epicac," takes place when the first super computer is created. One night, a man stays late and talks about his love life with the machine. The computer has great solutions for him that work out for the man. Then, the computer burns out trying to figure out why he can't be loved. Another story, "Welcome to the Monkey House," takes place when the population is so massive that sex is outlawed. When a man refuses to take his hormonal pills, the police look for him. He then kidnaps a girl and takes her to a hidden place where he has sex with her. It changes the woman's feelings in the process. This is a great book for any reader. I was hesitant as many when about to embark on reading it but don't regret it at all. I suspect many who read it will also have a problem putting it down as i did.

From the wonderous humanity of EPICAC, the computer who loved a girl, to the simply yet imaginatively told story of "Thomas Edison's Shaggy Dog", to the black American soldier's relationship with a certain displaced person ("D.P.") to the title story's grim view of the future population (see also "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", the last story in the collection), Vonnegut surprises with his humor, and then delivers a knockout punch with his pathos. *SPOILER* The story about the boy who cannot tell his parents that he didn't get in the School, and "The Kid Noone Could Handle" *END* Is the "fifty-year man" the real "Deer in the Woods"? One of my favorite stories has always been "More Stately Mansions" about the woman who yearns for a more perfect abode as collected and clipped from many home decorating magazines. The realism of his stories is kind of spooky sometimes. His prose writing is amazing--a master of the quick turn of phrase, the one-sentence description that reads like a book, the presence behind the prose somehow is able to make complex, profound ideas more simple, and vice versa. I first read this volume in 1974 on airplanes and while traveling to Africa at the age of 12. Some of it escaped me then, but by now I think I get it. And I recommend it highly!

Don't bi-pass "Welcome to the Monkey House" just because it's a short story collection. Next to "Slaughterhouse 5", this is easily the most necessary Vonnegut book to own. Here, he sets free both his imagination AND his senses of humor and adventure to come up with some of the best short works published in this century. Just look at this list: "Harrison Bergeron", "Thomas Edison's Dog", a truly hysterical piece on assisted suicide and a truly suspenceful piece on a game of chess played with real people. Most of these styles have since, of course,been copied to death. But has anyone really cut as deep or as precisely into the public consciousness as did Vonnegut here? One wishes he would have continued writing short stories, at least occasionally, and we could have more collections as diverse, entertaining, and thought provoking as this is. By itself, though, "Monkey House" is one residency to make sure you visit

This review concerns the original 1932 edition as well as the revised 1968 edition which tells a story similar to the original. Nancy mistakenly receives a letter intended for another Nancy Drew, informing her that she has inherited a large sum of money. Also, when Nancy invites her elderly mailman in for a drink of cocoa, his mailbag is stolen from Nancy's porch. Nancy sets out to find the other Nancy Drew and to locate the person who took the mailbag so that she can restore the tarnished reputation of her mailman. Personally, I found this book to be very boring. The mystery is not exciting and there is very little action in the book. Nancy solves the mystery in the end, but it is not through brilliant detective work, it is because she attends a football game at Emerson University. I know that chance encounters always play a big part in solving the case in Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries, but this was just pure dumb luck and nothing else. I wouldn't even waste your time on this one.

I thought it was a awesome book, especially if you love mysteries and old fashioned fun. When I read it, I just couldn't take my eyes off of it. It is fun, frightening, and wonderfully entertainig. at first, I thought I was going to be scared to death, but it was really cool. I totally recomend it.

When beloved teen sleuth Nancy Drew receives a mysterious letter from London informing her that she is the heir to a fortune, she sets out to find another person named Nancy Drew, who is the real heir to the fortune. But what she finds is mystery in every turn.

This was an exciting Nancy Drew mystery, that young readers will relish in. They will get to join Nancy on a mystery of a lifetime, and see if they can solve the case before Nancy herself. A very enjoyable book, and a must have for Nancy Drew fans everywhere.

Erika Sorocco

A friend of mine recommended this book years ago, and just recently I got around to reading it. What an experience! Smiley has managed to capture the essence of a Norse saga here in content and language; often the words seem a translation of some ancient text. It's simply enthralling, from the characters you watch grow and change over decades to the unchanging, foreign, and overwhelming landscape of Greenland. Highly recommended, especially for anyone who enjoys historical fiction. This strange and beautiful novel was the best book I've read in years.

Many readers will be put off by the bare-bones approach Jan Smiley takes in her novel The Greenlanders (which contrasts starkly with the very personal style found in her previous book, The Age of Grief). And it's true that immersing oneself in this multi-generational epic set in medieval Greenland does bring on a kind of culture shock not unlike trying to adjust to a long stay abroad. But for those who are up to it, this is one of the main hooks of the work.

Anyone who has had an intimate relationship with a "non-expressive" person will find a lot to recognize in the inhabitants of The Greenlanders. Despite the exotic setting, Smiley's portraits are so recognizable that all of the many characters, both central and peripheral, come very much to life in this novel.

But this book is about more than just personal interactions; it's about finding love and meaning in the face of the most hostile of environments, and why this task can often take a lifetime.

Despite Greenlanders's prodigous length, Smiley never breaks the spell and this reviewer was so sorry to come to the end that the epilogue was a very welcome addendum.

Smiley's novel fills the reader with both admiration for the writer's skill and gratitude for being born just about anywhere but 13th century Greenland. A great winter read!

I don't know anything about Jane Smiley - and not much about the historical background of this tale - but it certainly captured me for a time. At first, I was a bit confused about the fast pacing of the book, but then I started thinking that really was the point. The endless cycle of generations and human destinies came alive before me. Smiley's epic is extraordinary in that she doesn't try to make up drama. I felt she was a historian, a chronologist, who merely wrote up things as they happened. The objectiveness of her style is amazing. Someone dies, someone is born, a great wrong is done, life goes on. Cold-bloodedly Smiley describes hunger, disease, violence and all kinds of disaster, often wiping a significant amount of central characters out in a sudden rush - but that was how they went, the unfortunate lives of these people.

What adds to the book is the chilling knowledge, close to the end, that Gunnar, Johanna and the rest were to be the last of their people. That much I know about the history. In a sense, Smiley is being much more merciless than epic writers usually. She doens't set the reader free in the end. After all this suffering, there is no rest for these people - except in death. The ending is surely one of the most impressive I've read.

The best book I've read for a while.

Jane Smiley is a leading contemporary novelist whose insight into the difficult arcane world of writing for profit is helpful in reviewing our greatest English novelist. As self-described Charles Dickens was the "inimitable." Dickens draws a broad stoke as his thousands of characters lie, cheat,[borrow], love, live and [end life] on the canvas of humanity.
As one who has read all the standard biographies of the 19th behemoth of literature that was Dickens I can highly recommend this excellent book.
Smiley provides a sketch of Dickens life including warts and all. Her dissection of the affair the middle aged author engaged in with actress Ellen Ternan was well done in looking at what may have motivated Dickens to break with his wife Catherine and thumb his nose at Victorian respectability.
Dickens is a mixture of good and bad with the humanity and essential goodness of the man on display.
This little book in the excellent Penguin Viking Biography series could be well used in an introductory course on Dickens, the nineteenth century English novel or on the art of literary biography.
Smiley made me smile and laugh as I explored the mind of a genius with this gifted biographer. It is the best biography I have so far read in this series.

This lively book provides an overview of the literary achievements and personal life of Charles Dickens. For those Amazon.com customers who, like me, don't know how to approach this writer's vast achievements, I provide this advice from Smiley, who is an intelligent, charming, and enthusiastic biographer: "But a newcomer to Dickens can do no better than to begin with a novel-my suggestions are David Copperfield, to be followed by Great Expectations, Dombey and Son, A Tale of Two Cities, and Our Mutual Friend, in that order, light, dark, light, dark, light, a wonderful chiaroscuro of Dickens's most characteristic and accessible work." Bravo for Jane and her fun and concise treatment of an enormous subject!

I've read about half the books in the Penguin series and I'd rate this at the top (other favorites are the bios of Leonardo da Vinci and James Joyce). It's only 207 pages long but there is no sense that anything important was left out. I hadn't realized that Dickens was such an astounding character--Ms. Smiley brings him to life with precise detail, through knowledge, and insights that DESERVE to be called insights. She's obviously an excellent writer herself and every page radiates her professionalism.

Victor Davis Hanson is a rarity among classical scholars: he writes with elegance and conviction not only about classics (I admired Who Killed Homer?, which he wrote with John Heath), but about the decline of independent farming in America. A fifth-generation California grape farmer, he has written previously in Fields Without Dreams about his struggles to retain the family farm. (He wrote so passionately, in fact, that I used to read quotes aloud to my husband after dinner, alternately enthralled by brilliant insights and disturbed by weird tangents into political conservativism). A classicist myself, I am startled and impressed by his ability to relate the experiences of farmers in America to ancient Greek agriculture. Though I still read Latin on weekends with my husband, I have known very few classicists who can write compellingly about anything outside their narrow field of knowledge This new collection of essays, The Land Was Everything, is more palatable to the common reader than Fields Without Dreams: he educates the general public about the social and economic whys and wherefores of independent farming in the twenty-first century. His book pays homage to J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, a Frenchman who wrote Letters from an American Farmer in 1782, and explores American farmers' options, describing their war on pests and weeds,the history of chemical poisons and pesticides, the impact of suburban sprawl, weather, trespassers, and other enemies of agriculture. I'm a fan of this gallant classicist-farmer curmudgeon, though I don't agree with all he says.

Agrarianism goes down to a hard and dusty death. The realities of growing commodities as a family in California are tough. Hanson does know what he's talking about, contra reader S.M. Stirling, below (I wonder if this fellow even read the book, his comments are so off, not to mention being practically a personal attack on Hanson); he lives the reality of this difficult life while also being a classical scholar. He seems uniquely qualified to illuminate the Greek and Latin roots of agrarianism as the foundation of democracy, and with a lifelong interest in the classics, I found this very interesting; I learned a lot. I highly recommend this book, which I found compelling...

This is one of those few books that I enjoyed and thought about so much that I bought six copies from Amazon to hand out to friends who I believed would also appreciate Hanson's efforts. It really is that exceptional! The thing most notable about "The Land Is Everything" is how much response it will provoke out of you if are a "thinking type". That doesn't mean you will love or hate it all...you will, however, THINK! Despite the definite order the book is arranged in, you will get a sense that much of it was almost written in streams of thought. Hanson seems to meander on tangents at times and in other places even rants but, this stream is still flowing briskly! He focusses in on "Man versus Nature", "Man versus Man", and "Man versus Self" in the realm of small-scale farming.

Hanson is uniquely qualified to write about the subject of farming and it's effects on character. He is a fifth generation grape farmer in California while also a Professor of Classics at CSU Fresno. The clincher is that he can convey his beliefs to paper with a VENGEANCE! The crux of this book is showing how the decline of self-reliant family farms in America is sapping the core character of what an "American" was in our first 200 years. He passionately describes the life, both good and bad, of the American farmer and gives numerous examples of issues that influence his/her character and culture. The fact that America, up until fairly recently, was predominantly a land of farmers is elaborated on at length. Hanson admires and respects the ways the brutal realities of farming the land force farmers to stay literally rooted in hard work, ethics, and honesty even if it sometimes makes them crazy! He then launches into his assessments of the effects on the gradual loss of this culture on the United States today as it becomes more and more "urban" and "cosmopolitan".

One thing I can almost promise: you WILL have an opinion on this book once you've read it. There will be points that you will agree or disagree with strongly and many others that will fall somewhere in between. The bottom line is that you will definitely feel better for having read it.

Finally, if you have found yourself drawn to understand the heroism and motivation of the New York City fireman who fought and died at the World Trade Center attack on 9/11, I doubly recommend this book.

I admit, I bought this so I could listen to Alan Rickman for hours on end. However, when listening to that first chapter, I was wondering if I was going to be able to endure the following cassettes... To my suprise, after that dreadful, long-winded, over-descriptive first chapter, the story line really picked up and I actually quite enjoyed the entire story!

Not being a literature-buff, this book becomes a fascinating history lesson as well, with words and situations appearing that I thought were only pertinent to the 20th century, not 19th. There were also, the obligatory words that we no longer use (but only a bare handful...). This (for me) all added an extra richness to the story that Hardy tells.

Alan Rickman's reading was delightful, with him displaying consistency throughout in portraying all the characters. Like other reviewers before me, to listen to Mr Rickman singing the fench song Tape 8 is worth a listen in itself!

All in all, listening to this story unfold by cassette probably makes it more enjoyable than trying to read the book, where I am sure most would give up before finishing the first chapter...

When I began reading the book, I could not see the point of long descriptions of everyone and everything but as I kept on reading, I understood its' significance. The vivid description unconsciously painted the picture of the heath and the people living there. It took me some time to understand the character of Eustacia but her thoughts, passions and feelings seemed real and felt as if such a person actually existed. The edition of the book I read, after the tragic ending, had another chapter which Thomas Hardy added later, on the readers' demand (because when this book was originally published, some people considered it too tragic). But I think that howsoever tragic, the ending was a suitable one and left an impression for the reader to always remember the story. The later addition of another chapter was unnecessary and side tracked from the original essence of the story. Still, its a great work and worth reading.

What struck me on reading this book was his modern understanding of the motivations that determine the relations between men and women. Of course, the setting is crucial in any Hardy novel. Mankind's trivial concerns in this unchanging and unforgiving landscape. What is interesting is the dialogue between Wildeve (great name for a lover of nightlife) and Eustacia. The weakness and inconstancy in his character rather than evil and the troubled beauty and vanity of Eustacia's combined for predictable longing, rejection, and ultimately tragedy. He's the only game in town for this bored beauty, and when Clym pops up with his Parisian past, Wildeve was history for the moment. When Eustacia no longer showed interest, he was dying for her. Loved the reddleman who was always Johhny on the spot. The whole gambling sequence and the interplay with Wildeve and the hapless fool that lost Mom's money and then Reddleman's great comeback was wonderful. Hardy claimed that Clym was the center of the novel, but obviously the dullest thing in it. Only the Reddleman shines and in the end comes clean.

In THE MILL ON THE FLOSS George Eliot provides an insightful and intelligent story depicting rural Victorian society. Set in the parish of St. Ogg's, Maggie and Tom Tulliver endure childhood and young adulthood while experiencing the harsh realities of poverty, devotion, love, and societal reputation. I emphasized greatly with Maggie as I have experienced some of her own lived experiences. I truly loved every chapter of this book and didn't want it to end. It is indeed very rare that I have this type of reaction to a book. Although this book was published during the Victorian era, it's amazing how Eliot's prose flows virtually unobstructed. The reader is given a rare glimpse into rural life during the 19th century and is treated to how strictly structured society was then. I am now a fan of Eliot and look forward to reading her other novels.

Bottom line: THE MILL ON THE FLOSS is an excellent novel. Enjoy!

George Eliot was truly a writer ahead of her time. she definitely knows how to create characters which have soul and substance. Mill on the floss is much more then a mere tragic story; if the reader looks more carefully she or he can see the various social themes that Eliot tackled in this book. Themes I might add that are still around today. The rich against the poor, eg, Edward Tolliver's struggle against Wickem. Sexism, prejudice against people with disabilities, hypocrisy social judgement and morality. All these issues were raised in this story of family love, duty and trajedy. This book though classifyed as classic literature can still teach us a lot about the human condition. Its underlining messages still very much relevant today. I especially found the scene of maggie and Steven in the Inn very poignant. one could truly feel what Maggie was going through at that moment. Another outstanding scene was the one where Tom confronts Philip in the woods and berates him for having the boldness to court his sister. pointing out his deformaty he usues it as a weapon to drive Philip to the ground despite the fact that class wise philip was above Tom. George Eliot (Mary Anne Evens) must be laughing somewhere seeing how her books are still talked about today. Finally, I have to congradulate Naxos on producing another great audiobook. Sara Kestelman does an excellent job at narrating this lovely story.

The Mill on the Floss has one of the most appealing young girl characterss of all 19th c. literature--Maggie Tolliver. The relationship between her and her brother is at once beautiful, horrible, and probably indicative of much that was true for boys and girls in 19th century England. Whenever I read the book (and I've read it a few times), I am again in love with Maggie, delighted with the people around her, and saddened by the heavy events that bring her down. George Eliot doesn't pull punches--when you've read one of her books, you know you've been somewhere else, experienced something powerful