This is a wonderful revisionary view of a bunch of authors who put me to sleep in high school. Peyser pulls the pants down on the "old grey ladies" of American literature. Someone had to do it (I guess) and I'm glad it was him and not me, but I'm also glad to have this rather strange and wondrous book.

Up until now, Peyser has been known mostly for his uproarious commentaries on NPR, and for his notorious flipping off of Cokie Roberts on the old David Brinkley show. (He has never been invited back.) I have to admit that when I first saw this book I just assumed it was another of his spoofs, but it turns out that Peyser is a bona fide literary critic. There is some very funny stuff about the vastly overrated Charlotte Perkins Gilman--Peyser cuts the old trog down to size--but mostly this is very smart and very down-to-earth cultural criticism. We have to be grateful for this book, but I for one cannot help but feel a little sad, too, since it would seem that with its publication P. has shed his youthful guise of hilarity, and that he has now stepped into full manhood, revealing what most of us have always suspected underlay the shimmering surface of his speech: knowledge of what Matt Arnold named "the eternal note of sadness."

You know, this is not the sort of book I would normally read. But there it was, suddenly, on the coffee table one night. How it got there I have no idea. Just curious, I began to leaf through the pages, and the words began to resonate with me. Unable to sleep, I read it through in one sitting by candlelight. The next morning, I began to look at things around me differently. First, I removed several unessential appliances from the house in an effort to simplify my existence. Then it became time to de-clutter and I threw out several items I realized I had no more use for. Then, and this all seemed so logical in light of the things I'd read, I divorced the wife and sent her on her why. Sure, she cried a bit, but I knew I was doing the right thing. And I've never regretted it. This is, indeed, one of the best books I've read all year.

to read this honest, large-hearted, memoir, told in a series of short (often only a paragraph, sometimes a page) vignettes. You won't regret it. Thomas reveals a life lived fully, with all senses engaged, smell, taste, touch, in these pieces about her first marriage when she was a pregnant teenager, to a second with a much older physicist ("Dance for me while the chicken is cooking," he says to her) whom she divorces and later becomes very good friends with, to her third, happy coupling, and the children she had during them. I could not stop reading this and suspect you won't be able to either. This book makes you feel full inside.

weep and laugh and most of all feel all the emotions life holds...Thomas writes______"this is not what I expected. I expected pure joy, and here are joy and sorrow mixing into the same moment." Doesn't that express so often how we feel, this book is filled with so many moments that I identified with...how can you not love a woman who writes ..the truth was she didn't keep the can opener anywhere. The can opener was wherever she'd last left it; the can opener was where she found it. Abigail Thomas reveals so much of herself in this book but even more one finds so much of theirself as well...it does leave one wanting to know even more about Thomas and her life.

I saw Abigail Thomas read at a library bookfair in my town. She was wonderful. I bought the book and inhaled it. You will become a part of her life. Her food, her children, her parents, her husbands. Her. There is no other book like this. It stands completly alone.

Will the future include people of color? Do Non-Europeans have fantastic myths from their cultures? If you are a reader of speculative fiction, you will probably answer no to both of the preceding questions. Speculative fiction has mostly ignored everything except the western way of perceiving the world. Many people do not read SF because they see nothing in it that speaks to them. SF seems like a big happy party where only whites are invited.

Now the party crasher has arrived. "Dark Matter" not only bum rushes the party yelling, "We are here and things will never be the same!" It also informs the partygoers that we have always been here.

"Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora" is an important anthology that sends an important message. Sheree R. Thomas has compiled a wonderful collection of SF from all over the African Diaspora. Every aspect of SF is covered in the wonderful tales that are included in this book.

Steven Barnes' "The Woman in the Wall" is the best fiction I read from him. This story is definitely one of the emotional highlights of the anthology. Nalo Hopkinson has two stories and both are excellent. "The Space Traders" by Derrick Bell brings up many important issues concerning the role African Americans play in our society. This book is full on many more examples of thought provoking and emotional fiction.

The essays included in this book will give you a better understanding of racism within the science fiction community and hope for a more inclusive future.

I hope that every SF fan embraces this book.

This white guy Iowa boy gets skeptical when confrounted with ethno-centric titles, not to mention ponderous ones. I won't go out of my way to give special attention to anyone based on ethnic heritage. But, it was an SF book in the new section of the library, and I am ALWAYS on the lookout for good, new SF since almost all of the Golden Age boys are dead and most of the new stuff is recycled bug-eyed monsters or Tolkein wannabees.

Some of the authors - Butler, Delany - I knew. Any friend of Dahlgren's is likely to be a friend of mine. Checked it out.

Start to finish, this anthology introduced me to people I would likely never have read - only because I had no idea who they were. Now I have a whole new reading list from authors I met in this collection. I have yet to be disappointed in a novel from any of the authors I met here, and I continue to seek out their work at the library.

Thank you Sheree R. Thomas for putting these works together for me to sample many new-to-me authors of speculative/science fiction.

I'm not a big sf reader. I'm even less of an anthology reader and tend to skip around from story to story, eventually leaving the book half finished and moving on to something new. DARK MATTER was an entirely DIFFERENT MATTER! I read it from cover to cover and was drooling for more. Found myself having to put the book down and catch my breath at times. Even had a dream about being chased by a horny,electric doppelganger from one of the stories. Amazing! It was a very unexpected treat (borrowed it from a friend on a whim). Thank you Sheree Thomas. I was truly blown away.

Unless a person has been isolated in Siberia I think everyone has heard of the Mel Brooks hit musical "The Producers". Written by Brooks and Thomas Meehan it is probably the biggest hit on Broadway in the past 50 years. Tickets are unavailable until July 2002 and "prime" seats are fetching $480. Is the show worth it? You bet and so is the book. And it is only ...
The book is a wonderful coffee table volume full of wonderful photographs from the production, rehearsal, casting and out of town tryout. There are stories from the stellar cast such as Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Roger Bart, Gary Beach, Brad Oscar and Cady Huffman. Madeleine Doherty relates her hilarious audition as a little "old lady" and Brad Oscar's rise from a swing/understudy to the permanent part of Franz Liebking when another actor was injured.
All of the lyrics and most of the book are included Act by Act. The lyrics for some of the songs that were deleted are hilarious. With Mel Brooks heavily involved in the book, we get to know how this valentine to Broadway was created and how the original 1968 film came to be.
Miramax Books is to be given a standing ovation for the gorgeous design on this publication.
If you have seen "The Producers" in New York as I did one month ago, this book is a wonderful souvenir and a necessary addition to your bookshelf. If you haven't seen it yet, it is still a wonderfully enjoyable volume. Anyone interested in Broadway or musical theatre will pore over the pages for hours.
I highly recommend it and it would make a great gift.

Caution: This book contains vulgar three and four letter words in the libretto and lyrics of The Producers. The intent behind the use of these words is humor, rather than prurience.

The Producers is by far the best book I have ever read about the development and staging of a Broadway show. Anyone who likes Broadway, comedy, or Mr. Mel Books will find this book to be irresistible! For those who cannot get tickets to The Producers (or have tickets for 2003), this book is your best bet to enjoy this marvelous musical in the near future. I strongly recommend this book as a gift item for those who don't mind some salty language and references.

This book contains reminiscences of the show's development from the first contact by Mr. David Geffen to Mr. Mel Brooks to encourage Mr. Brooks to create a Broadway musical version of the 1968 motion picture of The Producers by Mr. Brooks. Each personal statement is accompanied by beautiful, lighthearted candid photographs of the people involved. One of the most touching sections involves how Ms. Susan Stroman was chosen to direct and choreograph the show after her talented husband and artistic partner, Mike Ockrent died, and Ms. Stroman was still in mourning. The stories about the first reading for producers will leave you with a tingle of excitement. After the first act was read, Mr. Rocco Landesman offered the St. James Theatre. Fourteen producers present eventually invested in the show, after Mr. Geffen had to bail out due to other commitments. The accounts are full of one-liners to keep you laughing as you learn. For example, turning a movie with two songs into a musical with 16 more is described as being "not unlike trying to translate it from English into Serbo-Croatian."

Although the feedback was good all along, everyone kept waiting for something to go wrong. But it never did. The most negative thing anyone said about the show was Mr. Brooks. "It's not funnier than Blazing Saddles." When the New York Times Review came in, it was an amazing rave that began with "How do you single out highlights in a bonfire?" You then get some background on sets, costumes, and winning 12 Tony awards.

From there, the book presents the libretto of the show and the lyrics of the songs. The only thing that's missing is the musical score. But you can sing to yourself, and enjoy the many wonderful photographs of the 22 person cast (featuring Nathan Lane as Max Bialystock and Matthew Broderick as Leo Bloom -- with full allusions to Ulysses intended). This is an annotated version, so it includes notes about what the draft versions had called for and the reasons why certain changes were made. Having seen the changes, I must agree that the decisions were unerringly improvements. Some of the false starts are pretty funny, too, such as the planned beginning with a "Hey, Nebraska" spoof of a well-known Broadway musical.

If you are one of the few people who doesn't know the story line, let me give you a brief summary without spoiling it for you. Max has just had a flop ("Funny Boy" based on Hamlet). Accountant Leo notices that Max made a small profit and speculates that a lot of money could be made by over raising money for a flop on which little was spent. Max falls in love with the idea, and draws Leo into a plot to do this. They find a story called "Springtime for Hitler" which they feel will offend practically everybody, and hire a director to make an outrageous version. Max raises the money by romancing elderly female investors. The rest of the story takes a number of unexpected twists that will delight and entertain you. One of my favorite lines from the show comes in Act 1, Scene 1 when Max comments that "the reviews come out a lot faster when the critics leave at intermission."

The appeal of the story is that it ultimately upholds positive values while poking good-natured fun at everyone involved in the Broadway community. Since no one is spared by the satirical spear, no one can be terribly offended. There's a lot of cross-dressing to spread out the small cast that gives the show some of the sophomoric appeal of a Hasty Pudding theatrical, which is well captured in the photographs.

Creativity experts say that you can find improved solutions by trying to do the opposite of what you've been trying to do. So the notion of trying to make something bad . . . to find something good . . . is a well established one. Turning something from one form into another one is also advised. So you can learn new ways to solve old problems, even from Broadway musicals!

As I've written elsewhere, if you can't get a ticket to this, the greatest Broadway show of all time, here's what you should do, courtesy of Amazon.com.

1. BUY THIS BOOK. It contains all of the lyrics, super pictures, and more important, not only the entire script, but the entire chronology, from its inception as a movie to creating the stage story to slapping together the first few songs to nervously hosting the first previews in Chicago to its blockbuster grand opening at the St. James Theater in New York! It doesn't get more comprehensive than this!

2. BUY THE ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM ON CD. This contains every song, from start to finish, sung by the award winning cast. The lyrics are here too.

3. BUY THE DVD/VIDEO, "Recording The 'Producers' - A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks." This is the closest you can get to seeing the musical, albeit not on stage. And don't be fooled by the liner notes. This isn't ONLY the 85 minute version that aired on PBS, it has extra footage that clocks the package at around 1 hour and 40 minutes!

I saw the show in October and I'm going back to New York to see it again in March. I've NEVER been this INSANE about any entertainment product (books, films, music, staged theater) in my LIFE.

With all three items -- the book, the CD and the DVD/video -- you get a pretty good idea of what makes "The Producers," with its spectacular mix of merriment and mirth, mayhem and satire, so great! It deserves all of its hype. You can't oversell it!

Every song is a show-stopper, a throwback to the riffs that feel like a "best hits" package from the greatest musicals ever made. A little bit of Cole Porter, Gershwin, vaudeville and classic dance melodies reminiscent of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly (e.g., "Gotta Sing-Sing!" -- as in prison!), with lyrics that are so happily vulgar and irreverent that you're lucky you're not more doubled-over in pain from laughing so hard if you could only see the girls wearing pretzels on their heads and others doing the swastika "circle" march (visible via a tilted mirror toward the audience), done in Busby Berkeley style! Heck, there's even a bit of an homage to the Andrew Sisters (e.g., "He's a Hot-sie-tot-sie Nazi! Woo-woo, he's a hot-sie-tot-sie Nazi! Woo-woo! The Fuhrer...is in a FUROR!")...

Sadly, this original cast won't be together much longer, but the traveling show officially begins next year (it'll be in San Diego from December 2002 to January 2003)! So the wait won't be as long as we thought!

To recap -- get the CD, the DVD/Video and THIS BOOK! Then you'll save some big-time $$$ until the show arrives in your backyard! Whatta deal!

Amelia Bedelia was written by Peggy parish. The seriousness of these books are to funny. Amelia Bedelia is my favorite character because she is unique in many ways. She has the quality of bringing happiness to your family. I am sure these books will make you laugh because of how she acts. In the book Amelia Bedelia makes her job more difficult then it seems. But one thing I like about her is she always has a smile on her face. The qualities she has are cooking, and making sure everything gets done. This is why Amelia Bedelia is a great person and story.

I am a seven year old reader who enjoyed this book very much. My Mom helped me type this review. Amelia Bedelia got mixed up on the chores she was supposed to do. She dressed a chicken in clothes! She put powder on furniture to dust it! They were angry with her at first for making such a mess of things, but then they tasted her pie and they thought it was great. They wanted Amelia Bedelia to stay but they made sure they gave careful instructions.I think anyone would enjoy reading about the funny things she does.

My daughter was having some trouble coming up to speed on her reading skills, and this book was really helpful to her.

I tend to like the I Can Read Books, anyway, but this one in particular helped my daughter, because she was so fond of the story itself.

Amelia Bedelia is loveable and absurd. Kids can really relate to the humor -- Amelia Bedelia finds herself in trouble over misunderstanding the dual meanings of words.

This is a good illustration of what not understanding the full meaning of a word can do to a person (and all the trouble that it can create) and it's something that every child has come across at some point or another.

It is ridiculous and funny, and what kid doesn't like ridiculous and funny?

This is a good one, particularly for girls, I think, since the Amelia is female, and there don't seem to be as many books out there starring women or girls as there should be.

Having heard all of Dr. Childer's excellent audio courses available from the Teaching Company, I had very high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed; Wings of Morning is an exceptional book that details the war time experiences of a B-24 bomber crew from their initial induction and training, to their deployment to England as part of the 8th Air Force, through their fateful final mission in the closing days of Word War II. A final mission, incidentally, that the reader can not help but conclude should have never been flown.

Based on hundreds of crewmember letters home, Wings of Morning provides insights that go far beyond the usual combat narrative. The combat experience is here to be sure, but so is the training, off-duty hours, weekend leaves, camaraderie, devotion to duty, exhilaration, boredom, bravery, fear, hope for the future, and the families back home. This book, more than any I've ever read, gave me an appreciation for the near constant tension that these men must have felt. I repeatedly found myself asking what I would have done in similar situations and realizing anew why those who fought World War II are rightly called the "Greatest Generation".

Wings of Morning does not end with the loss of a B-24 crew over Regensburg, Germany, in April of 1945 nor with the War Department notifications to the families waiting at home. Professor Childer's uncle was a crew member on that tragic flight and the final chapters of this extraordinary book detail his quest to reconstruct the final mission of a B-24 known as the Black Cat.

I've read and own many good books about World War II but none has had the impact of Wings of Morning. Thank you, Dr. Childers, for this insightful and thought provoking work...

What a visceral impact Tom Childers' Wings of Morning had on me. Unable to put the book down, I read it in two days. Not only does the author vividly describe the training and every day life of a WWII bomber crew, he also makes you feel like Goodner's family, anxiously awaiting the next letter. Not wanting to give away the results of a frantic search to find out what happened to this crew after being shot down over Germany, let me suggest that you buy the book, curl up in your chair, and read as one hell of a story unfolds. Next to Guy Sajer's "The Forgotten Soldier", you'll have a hard time finding a better account of the war and the men who fought it. As an aside, Professor Childers has a superb course on WWII available through the Teaching Company. And I encourage all of you to seek it out as well.

I would conservatively estimate that I have read 500 books on WWII, and this would rate in the top three. I cannot recall a book that more completely gripped me from start to finish. Childers' unique "first person" story telling breathes life into young men that have long passed from this world. Through dialogue that seems very easy to accept as real, he makes us love and respect these true American heroes, and then causes us to feel the loss (albeit a minute fraction) that their families and friends felt almost sixty years ago. I cannot recommend a book more highly, even if you are not a WWII scholar. If you are, it is a MUST read.

I used to read this book to my son, John, when he was little and he absolutely loved it. He never tired of hearing me read it to him.

The story is funny and involves lots of jungle animals. It also has suspense. Will the elephant sneeze or not? This book allows the reader to use a lot of different voices and a lot of drama, something young children love.

Later, when my son had grown older, I joined an acting troupe, memorized this book and performed it in children's theater. It was always a hit.

I highly recommend this story to people who have or work with young children.

I used to read this book to my son, John, when he was little and he absolutely loved it. He never tired of hearing me read it to him. John will soon be 27 years old, but he still remembers this story and so do I.

The story is funny and involves a variety of jungle animals. It is also filled with suspense. Will the elephant sneeze -- or not? This book allows the reader to use several different voices and a lot of drama, something young children love.

When my son grew older, I joined an acting troupe, memorized this story, and performed it in children's theater, with others acting out the parts of the various animals. It was always a hit!

Somehow my original copy was lost and I have searched for years for another one. No one ever seemed to know about this book. I never even found anyone else who had ever read it. I am so happy that I now have a chance to get another copy and to get additional copies for all of the nieces and nephews in my family and for! ! the children and grandchildren of my friends. It will make a fantastic gift that will be greatly enjoyed and remembered for years.

I highly recommend this story to people who have, know, or work with young children.

This is a wonderful book. It's funny, full of surprises, and the rhythm of the rhyming is so well done. I read this book to my children when they were young and it was one of their favorites. Now I read it to my grandchildren and they love it as well. The humorous but touching story line and the rhyming verses make the children want to learn to read it themselves. It's a classic and should be in every child's reading library.

A wonderful story that really brings home the meaning of why we are here, and the search to find happiness. This book really helped me reassess the relationships and experiences in my life and to be grateful for the opportunities they have presented.

Easy to read, but full of messages.

I have read all of the books written by Kryon and Lee Carroll and have found that this one book summarizes everything I have ever read on the topics of spiritual growth and enlightenment. It is a book I give freely to people who cross my path because I think it offers the purest message on God and the meaning of life on this planet. Kryon goes, step-by-step, through the process we all need to take to find our true sense of Joy on this planet. It is though-provoking, funny, and incredibly uplifting. It shows that everything we do, that everything we experience has value in the eyes of God and the Universe. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is seeking to find their own sense of the Truth.

I found this audio book tape excellent. I have read many new age books and this one is easy and understandable. I said to a friend, this book explains everything you want to say and don't know how to. It is the total sum to my belief in the way and why we are here. It is CLARITY. A must read !

Thomas Lion's autobiographical book, "I was an Unsolved Mystery," immediately drops the reader into the unfamiliar, underground world of a fugitive. We watch Lion as he naively steps into this all-consuming existence. We see the mind-work and quick thinking essential for him to keep a wife, contact with family, money, and most vital, freedom. We witness his surface façades and chronic inner-battles with the decisions he makes in hopes of keeping his life whole. We are forced to question the War on Drugs and the laws surrounding this cause.

Lion's life on-the-run is narrated openly and honestly. The book begins with an intensity that is maintained throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend this story and am looking forward to reading Lion's other book, "Chelan."

T.Lion has his second hit book this year.Chelan was fabulous and now Unsolved. When will this government figure out the "wharehousing" of peaceful citizens in the name of marijuana is a very bad joke !!! Draconian sentencing for "herb" people should END ! Lion's unrelenting fight for freedom and fairness can finally be heard. Please take a special note how our government rewards violent criminals to get "their" man. Unsolved could be the new bible of the underground. A GREAT true story!

There is something that attracts most of us about a true story. This story is better than most. Both romantic, and dark, Lions takes you through an almost unbelievable journey that keeps your eyes glued to the pages. I was shocked at the way he escaped the hand of the law, and how the law finally tracked him down. This is a must read book!

Thomas Vasseur's Discovering The World: Collected Stories is an outstanding anthology of thirteen stories set in the disappearing rural South, the New South, and the grand world at large. Variety spices the tales, from a little boy who discovers the wonder of flight to the rocky relationship between a German woman who has immigrated to the Deep South and her troubled teenage daughter. In the title novella, a "Southern Native" and a veteran of the Vietnam War travel to an island in Fiji to repair a damaged sailboat. A common theme of looking within the self unites all the tales, which take a hard look at America's class structure and at human spirituality. Thomas Vasseur's stories are as original and thought-provoking as they are highly recommended.

Author Thomas Vasseur's Discovering The World: Collected Stories is an outstanding anthology of thirteen stories set in the disappearing rural South, the New South, and the grand world at large. Variety spices the tales, from a little boy who discovers the wonder of flight to the rocky relationship between a German woman who has immigrated to the Deep South and her troubled teenage daughter. In the title novella, a "Southern Native" and a veteran of the Vietnam War travel to an island in Fiji to repair a damaged sailboat. A common theme of looking within the self unites all the tales, which take a hard look at America's class structure and at human spirituality. Thomas Vasseur's stories are as original and thought-provoking as they are highly recommended.

Thomas Vasseur's Discovering The World: Collected Stories is an outstanding anthology of thirteen stories set in the disappearing rural South, the New South, and the grand world at large. Variety spices the tales, from a little boy who discovers the wonder of flight to the rocky relationship between a German woman who has immigrated to the Deep South and her troubled teenage daughter. In the title novella, a "Southern Native" and a veteran of the Vietnam War travel to an island in Fiji to repair a damaged sailboat. A common theme of looking within the self unites all the tales, which take a hard look at America's class structure and at human spirituality. Thomas Vasseur's stories are as original and thought-provoking as they are highly recommended.