The original "Froggy Gets Dressed" book was extremely clever. But this book is the weakest brand extension since Lego clothing. It includes the basic Froggy elements (sound effects starting with z, authority figures yelling "FRROOGGYY", and our noble protagonist turning more red than green) but you have to wonder when the most original part of the story is Froggy picking his nose. Of course, if your child likes Froggy and likes soccer they will love the book, but I wish the authors had put a bit more effort into it.

I would recommend this book if your child likes soccer or if you are hoping your child will like soccer, otherwise not such a great book.... I thought it was cute but definitely something a child who likes soccer can only appreciate

An adorable book. Froggy books are great...if you like the others this is a must have; especially if you knwo someone who loves soccer!

I read this to my kindergarden students who loved it. The book is a consciousness raising story for children about how to behave in a restaurant. From an adult perspective the author should have had the parents say at the end, "Froggy, we should have realized that you are not grown up enough for a fancy restaurant," since it was a mistake to take him; the ending would have made better sense. While none of the students said they thought Froggy was being rewarded for his bad behavior with a trip to "Burger and Flies", it looked that way to me.

This book is so darn cute. Kids probably love them, and if I were still a youngin' I would like these books.

This story tells the tale of the considerable agony that children go through when eating at a fancy restaurant.

While it is true that Froggy misbehaved, it's not true that he wasn't punished. He unknowingly punished himself by enduring the humiliation of his actions in front of Frogilina.

This is a brightly colored and captivating book, my 2-year old loves it.

This is a brilliant serial killer novel, not just for it's plot (which is actually somewhat run of the mill) but mainly for it's engrossing setting, Jerusalem. I've not read a fictional book set here before, and i found this new experience thoroughly engrossing and interesing. The descriptions about the culture were informative, and again very interesting, and gave a sharp edge of realism to the novel.

The characters a great, each one is developed well, and their trypes are many and varied. The writing is fresh and pulls you in, although sometimes Kellerman does go off on a tangent a bit when he puts in a rather long paragraph about Israeli history, which while some of it is interesting, some of it is also unnecesary and dull.

I didn't find the political tone too distracting, as some appear to have done. I admit, he does have slightly biased leanings, but you can't exactly blame him. He is Jewish, after all.

This is a big book, but it speeds along quickly. It's compelling, and grows dull very little, which is surprising considering it's length. The plot is adequate, the psychology is great, the insights into foreign culture marvellous, and the finale is excellent.

the immense scope of this book is as large as the view from the top of Mount Scopus.

I've just started reading Kellerman's books, and thought Dani Sharavi's character was also in WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS. The fact that the story is set in Israel just thrilled me after meeting this character in the aforementioned book. Kellerman did a marvelous job of developing the character of Pakad Sharavi and the rest of his detectives...all of whom were part of the intricate web of searching for a devious and warped killer. The book races, you can't put it down. I lost sleep with this one reading into the night. Hopefully we'll see more of Pakad Daniel Sharavi and his entourage...I really enjoyed him.

This book ranks as one of Jonathan Kellerman's best and shows his excellence at the writing craft. He does an excellent job of conveying the atmosphere and attitudes of the region. As usual, his characters are both realistic and interesting.

The pacing sometimes lagged, but the overall effect was satisfying. Pakad Dani Sharavi, the detective, was a particularly fascinating character. He makes a return in The Clinic, but I, for one, would like to see him return for another encore.

Although the book relected racial attitudes of the region, I did not find the book to be racist as some readers have mentioned. Perhaps, I'm not as sensitive to these issues.

Carroll is one of my favorite authors and he doesn't dissapoint with "Kissing The Beehive." However, this novel is much more a straight mystery story than Carroll's other efforts that always seem to have several fantastical elements to them. I gave the book only four stars because it was missing that bizarre twist that seems to surface halfway through other Carroll novels (e.g., the dog talking in Land of Laughs). Regardless, I do recommend this book. As with all of Carroll's work, it keeps you totally engrossed in the story till the very end.

I believe that this is one of Jonathan Carroll's best works to date. (Yes, I've read them all.) While I adored "Bones of the Moon", "Kissing the Beehive" is only the second of his works that I've finished completely satisfied. I can live without the usual magical plot devices if I get the plot and character quality of this book in its place.

Kissing the Beehive Carroll's latest foray into sinister stealth

By Bram Eisenthal

It was 1985 when I first discovered one of the horror field's greatest latter-day writers. I asked a clerk at Ottawa's House of Speculative Fiction if he could recommend someone really unusual - I had my fill of early Stephen King at the time - and he immediately whipped out a book and thrust it at me. "Land of Laughs," he said. "It's unbelievable... really different."

I had never even heard of Jonathan Carroll before and I generally knew my horror authors, so I was perturbed. How good could he be? Published in 1980 and the New York-born resident of Vienna's first novel, The Land of Laughs lived up to the clerk's billing. Highly imaginative and very frightening, it showcased the talents of a writer who excels at setting a macabre stage by allowing the horror to creep up on you v-e-r-r-r-y slowly. His tales are happy, funny and whimsical to start with, but chapter by chapter, Carroll adds sinister elements. Before you realize it, you're staring death squarely in the face. His second, Voice of Our Shadow, is even more shocking for its sinister stealth.

Kissing the Beehive is Carroll's tenth novel; one of the more recent ones, The Panic Hand, is a Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology that I highly recommend. As with the others, Beehive begins innocently enough, with a few stragglers rather than the swarm yet to come. Author Sam Bayer is in a slump, meeting with his agent in an attempt to untangle the cobwebs responsible for his terrible writer's block. His pending divorce is really creating havoc. Later, at a book signing, he meets an incredibly gorgeous fan, a California blonde named Veronica Lake. She really knows her Bayer, down to her business card, which contains an image from his novel The Tatooed City.

Bayer jogs his sluggish memory in an attempt to birth ideas. He drives to his hometown of Crane's View, visits old haunts, looks through high-school yearbooks and greets former acquaintances. The trip is the perfect panacea for his blues, as Bayer delves into an unsolved boyhood murder mystery, that of a free-spirited young woman named Pauline Ostrova. Her nude body, which had spawned so many adolescent fantasies, had been found by the young Bayer. Over the years, he had shunted the awful memory aside, but now he seizes the opportunity to gather important facts and unburden his soul.

During the excitement, unable to get her out of his thoughts, Bayer contacts Veronica Lake, they meet again and make love. He tells her about the burgeoning plot for his new novel and she is thrilled about her confidante status. Remember, she is his number one fan, like the character in Stephen King's Misery... only much more dangerous.

Bayer heads back to Crane's View, his teenaged daughter Cassandra in tow. He meets up with Frannie McCabe, childhood bad-boy turned chief of police, and brings up the Ostrova mystery. The police chief has his own take on the dossier and suspects that the town's crime boss, Gordon Cadmus, since murdered, had something to do with her demise. She had been seeing his son David, now a Hollywood film producer... and the old man as well.

In typical Carroll fashion, the story begins its slow spiral into madness just as Bayer and McCabe initiate their joint sleuthing. Also, something is terribly wrong with Veronica Lake. Bayer uncovers unsettling facts about her, most notably the fact she was two-time porn movie headliner Marzi Pan and a member of an infamous suicide cult. He decides not to see her any more, which first saddens and then infuriates her. Meanwhile, someone with knowledge of their unofficial Ostrova investigation is following Bayer and McCabe around, as well as videotaping unspeakable things, like the murder of David Cadmus on an L.A. street.

Lake, whom Bayer is trying to ignore, is in-his-face throughout. She slyly interacts with all his witnesses, subtly threatens his daughter and her boyfriend and, after McCabe barely survives an attempt on his life, befriends the cop. We also learn that she is a deft film technician and has been taping lots of footage, including shots of Bayer taken in a suit he had discarded years before and explicit images of them having sex.

The horror escalates when Cassandra goes missing, every father's nightmare but nothing compared to Bayer's ultimate scenario. His novel has taken the most sinister twist possible.

Jonathan Carroll is still unknown to many fans of mainstream horror literature, rather surprising in light of the stellar quality of every single one of his works. The author humbly pays homage to "Pat Conroy, Stephen King, Michael Moorcock, Paul West - Friends, Mentors, Wizards" - in the dedication, but I dare say that he has earned the right to appear right up there with them on that marquee.

In Doubleday's press release on Kissing the Beehive, King is equally complimentary, one master of the macabre to another. "A stunning novel of obsession and memory by the always amazing Jonathan Carroll. A brilliant writer - Jonathan Carroll is as scary as Hitchcock, when he isn't being as funny as Jim Carrey."

-30-

Kissing the Beehive Nan A. Talese, an imprint of Doubleday HC, 232 pgs., $31.95

This mystery is easy to get into, but hard to get out of! Kellerman keeps digging this mystery hole... you feel that you'll never find the ending with all the twists and turns and new information that Alex uncovers! Great book... completely engrossing! Another winner in Kellerman's Alex Delaware novels! This mystery gets a bit strange in parts (reminds me of Twin Peaks)... but it doesn't get too strange! (you will no doubt read the book with great haste!) As always, I was 'chomping at the bit' to discover how it resolves!

Silent Partner was truely a great book, though that wasn't what I had expected when I first borrowed it from the library. Its a high gripping tension book which I had throughly enjoyed. Though the plot was slightly slow, I still found the book exciting as Jonathan Kellerman brought me through Alex Delaware's uncovering of a truely cunning and complex live of Sharon Ransom. A great read

This is another very strong entry in his Delaware series. Reading them in order, i now find myself liking this book and Over the Edge, my previous favourite, equally. The plot is interesting and complex (sometimes a bit too complex...) and In my opinion this is one of the best books written about conflicting twins that i have ever come across. Alex Delaware is a consumate professional and a likeable protagonist, but I fear that if i were to read this entire series over a relatively short space of time, i would get rather tired of him. So i shant...i shall space the reading over these books out over time.

The characters are well drawn and realistic, and the plot is developed well and is very unpredictable. As well as the main mystery of events, there is another, equally engaging mystery within this book. And that is the character of Sharon Ransom. Why she is how she is, who she really is, why she acts as she does and who helped cause it, is as interesting as the main plot.

However, sometimes Kellerman's characters seem rather run of the mill, as does his writing style. Even though it is incredibly readable, it lacks anything really indivudal about it, and hsi tone sometimes seems far too detached. You never feel quite as emotionally connected to his characters as you would, say, in a book by James Lee Burke or Michael Connelly. But still, this is a good mystery, with a great sting in its tail.

Let's face it - most folks will come to this book to get their Rabbit fix, so let's deal with that story first. We readers spent a lot of time in the four Rabbit books being exasperated, if not saddened, by Nelson, Rabbit's unfortunate, screwed-up son. Well, here, finally, Nelson comes into his own. He has hit his stride. We readers become - dare I say it? - downright proud of him. And how is Rabbit remembered? You need only observe his children, in whom he lives on. (Check out the last word and re-read the question it answers. Hmmm...) Also, you don't need to read the first four Rabbit books to enjoy or understand this story; it's satisfying on its own - cinema verite in book form.

The other stories are not terribly memorable or compelling. Nevertheless they fit just like a comfortable old pair of shoes. One wonders if they might not be simply necessary, a chance for Updike to work through the late-arriving gremlins of his own memory. If you want to read only one or two of these stories, I'd recommend "Natural Color" very highly for its great insights and the title track, "Licks of Love in the Heart of the Cold War," as a better-than-average plot. Mr. Bech also makes an appearance ("His Oeuvre"), and the excerpts from his (Bech's) writings are as diverting to read as ever, as is the sad conclusion he makes at the end of the story.

Read the novella ("Rabbit Remembered") first; it's worth the price of the book all by itself. A very interesting fictional experiment -- a piece about the lingering influence of a man ten years dead on his family and acquaintances. I have read all the earlier Rabbit Angstrom novels (several times) and enjoyed this thoroughly; I'm not sure how much you will like it if you are not familiar with the earlier works.

As to the other stories...well, bad Updike is better than most other authors' best efforts. These are not his best and are disappointing after his most recent short story collection (The Afterlife and Other Stories).

If you're new to Updike don't start here -- but if you are already a fan there is much to enjoy. As usual the prose is flawless and delightful even though some of the characters are underdone and some of the stories structurally flawed -- a rarity in Updike's work.

This collection is a well-written short story anthology centering on the foibles of loving someone more than one love oneself. In addition to the dozen tales, the legendary John Updike includes a novella about the Rabbit family. That tale, ?Rabbit Remembered? is worth the ?steep? price of admission by itself.

The short stories are enjoyable, but Mr. Updike has plowed no new ground. Perhaps it is this reviewer at fault as a rabid Rabbit fan, but the fantastic novella clearly owns the book. Fans of the previous four books will want to read this posthumous story while new readers will scramble for the four novels that have made Mr. Updike a well deserved award winning author. Without giving away the plot, the deceased Rabbit?s illegitimate daughter meets the rest of the family in a humorous but, often melancholy way. This clearly enables the tying up of the previous stories into a fabulous complete package worth reading.

Harriet Klausner

I enjoy Jonathan Carroll's novels more than his short stories but this is a good collection. If you haven't read him before this will get you interested in pursuing his other works. The title story is particularly haunting. In his books he writes of death and angels and meeting the devil at a coffee shop in Vienna. His works often start out about ordinary people who slowly find themselves in creepy situations, I usually start getting chills up my spine after 50 pages or so when I realize somthing is going wrong for this poor person. Another interesting thing he does is bring back characters from earlier novels. Panic Hand is highly recommended.

I hate to harp on it, but Jonathan Carroll has problems ending stories. I would like to say I don't care because even a partial story by Carroll is enough, but the truth is that I'm always left with a craving that you get when you read a story and you're wrapped up into it and you require completion. Supposedly American audiences require a "happy" completion, but I hope I'm beyond that. "Uh-oh City" has all the things that are quintessential Carroll: characters who are intrinsically interesting, a doozy of a "weirdness," and the, unfortunately, open ending. The premise is that there are 36 people who are God, but not individually, but collectively. One-thirty-sixth of God is still pretty much amazing, though, and when God(sub36) tells you that they are dying and you are next in line to become part of the 36thhood, what can you say? Complications ensue, as they usually do, and things are never as they seem in a Carroll story, but after the final twisty turn we reach the last sentence and we are still on the precipice of understanding, and need a final push to put us over...and it never comes.

The other stories here are more of the same wild, wonderful fare. The Panic Hand was originally published in Germany with a slightly different table of contents. I own a copy of that book, but being unable to read German was slightly hampered in trying to understand the stories. Carroll's better at the long form--his favorite literary device is the untrustworthy narrator, and it takes at least 50 pages to set up a story with one of those that won't annoy the reader. Even still, his tendency for the twist and his incredible way of creating characters that you would like to know in a few sentences is enjoyable even in the short form.

(This "review" originally appeared in First Impressions Installment Twenty-One [http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/fi.contents.html]. For more information about Jonathan Carroll, see http://www.owt.com/users/gcox/carroll.html)

I found "The Panic Hand" to be one of the most original collection of stories I've read in some time. Jonathan Carroll's imagination both stuns and fascinates. At times, I dreaded knowing how a story would end, but I could never put the book down without finishing that story. My senses were chilled and delighted. Mr. Carroll is similar to Stephen King and Rupert Thomson in his use of imagery and horror. I eagerly await more of Mr. Carroll's work

I was disappointed in this book. Even though the author succeeds in painting quite a clear canvas of eighteenth-century London's underworld, she fails to make her subject - the two famed criminals - interesting. I didn't find their personalities gripping, or their stories attractive in the least. The narrative is reiterative, the same things being mentioned again and again, and disjointed, lacking cohesiveness. Curiously, the most interesting parts were those which were accessory to the main story, such as the description of the legal system and medical practice. I wouldn't completely dismiss Lucy Moore as a historian, though - she undoubtedly has done a thorough research, and is not totally ungifted as a writer - but I still think this material would have merited a better rendering.

The lives of Johnathan Wild and Tom Sheppard could have been told with so much more color. For the most part, I steadfastly plowed through this mostly boring book just to absorb some facts. It was rarely entertaining. The author mostly writes in a formal style. But, then occasionally she will throw in a zinger using conversational English. These breaks with formality were refreshing, interesting and I appreciated it. The most interesting parts of the book were the descriptions of the times, such as the laws, customs, homes, prisons, bribery and corruption, hangings, etc. The author gave an altogether graphic picture of what happens when a person is hanged.

Lucy Moore, in The Thieves' Opera, has explored an interesting topic that takes the reader through the world of London from the slums to, on occasion, the mansions. Using the characters of Jonathan Wild and the folk hero/criminal Jack Sheppard, the author expands the narrative to show the entire world of crime and punishment that existed at this time. Very little seemed, at times, to separate those committing the crimes from those prosecuting the criminals and it is easy to see why Jack Sheppard, with his numerous escapes, could become such a hero in such a corrupt system. The story is told in a way that leads the reader from the beginnings of a system that would lead to crime to the execution of the criminal. The two lead criminals sometimes fall by the wayside in their own story but interest is maintained nonetheless by looking at the larger canvas. An interesting read.

For someone completely ignorant on the making of "homosexuality" or the arguments between essentialists and constructionalists, et al. this may be a eye opening and engaging read. I was certainly intrigued many of the stories, particularly in their letter fragments to describe their attachements to each other. However, Katz, really is quite repetitive, with almost every chapter failing to build beyond his initial arguments. There are many overwrought suppositions and readings into the many different texts, particularly Whitman. In fact, I feel that Katz's "readings" distracted from what I really desired, actually getting to read the letters for myself and make my own decisions. I felt many times that it is hard to feel that Katz is anything but an untrustworthy or unwitting guide.

I think a much more interesting and better written book on the same topic is "Same-Sex dynamics between 19th Century Americas: A Mormon Example" by D. Quinn.

..and then was very disappointed in the content. When I bought the book, I assumed it was truly about "sex between men before homosexuality." Instead, I found a thinly veiled biography of Walt Whitman and his writings. Nowhere on the cover does it indicate this. Only way in the back in the acknowledgments, is this "acknowledged." When I started the book, the section on Abraham Lincoln was fascinating and I'm glad Katz advocates ensuring we look at relationships within their own context of society and culture. But he spends too much time on Whitman and hyperanalyzing every word he wrote. I am not interested at all in poetry or Walt Whitman, so it was a shame that I bought this hardcover and had to try and pick out the parts without Whitman. The only time this became interesting was toward the end where the focus was more on Whitman's life.
The best part of the book, and I have to agree with another reviewer, are the wonderful vintage photographs.
While I believe Katz is an expert and writes fairly well, I would not recommend this book to someone looking for a wide range of subjects.

"Love Stories" is about a struggle for men who love men to find a place for themselves within their own imaginations. Katz examines the 19th century intellectual nexus where same-sex male lust, emotional intimacy between men and, to a lesser extent, male femininity meet and from which the origins of contemporary gay male identity are found. This book gives context to those who believe the "gay community" as it is popularly thought of today is not a point of arrival, but a temporary and, in the history of same-sex attraction, relatively short-lived form. In a time when being gay is a commodified identity analagous to rooting for a sports team, Love Stories gives substance, history and meaning to those seeking to understand where we come from. Love Letters reads easy, in parts like a Vanity Fair-style social history, with famous names and well-known historical circumstances. I hope Jonathan Ned Katz lives, researches and writes forever.

This is the first of the series and it is a decent read, but at times looks like a first novel. It drags a bit but like I have said before Kellerman is not capable of writing a bad book. His average one's are better than 50 percent of what is being published today!

Kellerman does a superb job of detailing a 7-year old who is the possible only witness to a crime and her down-and-out mother, who should take parenting classes. I won't give away much, but this shows enough to get u hooked on Kellerman, Delaware (the main character), and Milo (his friend). A worthy debut!

Kellerman exhibits charcterization, smooth storytelling, and fantastic plotting. The only draw-back is lengthy conversations and parts that are a little slow. Nothing to convince u NOT to PURCHASE the BOOK!

Good job, Jon!

This is my first book by Kellerman. And i was very impressed. It's a very good debut novel. The plotting is tight and the writing is sharp. The book is, basically, incredibly fun to read. (As another reviewer has said, you get the sense that all Kellerman was doing was writing for his own amusement and fun, and it really comes across in the writing. Very fun, enjoyable story, despite its focus on child-abuse.)

Alex Delaware is a great character. He is well drawn and realistic. instantly likeable, immediately an everyman who most readers will be able to identify with. He is supported by some other great characters. Milo, his police-detective friend. And Robin, his partner. (A likeable character at first, but if she carries on as she is, she may get a tad annoying in a few books time)

The plotting is clever, and the climax great. I see a strength in the series, available in his ability to portray likeable children very well. Unfortunately, in this book little Melody Quinn (the child in this book) seems to drop out of the story about a quarter of the way through, only to re-appear in a privotal role at the end.

The child-abuse is depicted well, the plotting is strong and realistic. The effects of the child abuse are also described well. Peadophillia is dealt with tactfully, and this book does not sensationalise it. In the end, the villains all get their commupeance, and Milo Strugis really shows his true colours.

This is a very good debut novel. A fast paced pageturner, with an addictive writing style, i fairly raced through this book. I am hugely looking forward to getting my teeth into other books by Kellerman.

This was the first book I read by Kellerman, and I still feel it's his best. The author spins a well-woven drama, with important characters and a steady build. It was at times difficult, but really more sad, only because of what happens to a child. The tale is gripping. It got me hooked on Alex Delaware novels. I've read most of them since reading "When The Bough Breaks". If you haven't read any of Kellerman's Alex Delaware novels, and read but one, make it this one. Then you'll find you've made a liar out of yourself. It'll hook you.