This short story collection is a worthwhile read, and I will be looking up some of the authors featured. In particular, Andrew Sean Greer's story is heartbreaking; William J. Cyr's story has an interesting conversational, matter-of-fact tone; and the curiously named author "wormser" has a short but sweet entry. The best part of this collection, for me, is the interview with author Richard Bausch. I found it thoroughly inspiring, as it touches upon such problems as writer's block and having the confidence and determination to live a writer's life. The best part about Glimmer Train collections as a whole is that they give unpublished writers their first break, in addition to publishing established writers. More literary magazines of this caliber and spirit of inclusiveness are sorely needed!

This is an enjoyable collection of short stories; although, as with other collections, there are a couple of weak links in the chain. Nevertheless, it's worth buying for Andrew Greer's story alone. Others are also quite good, such as Karen Outen's fictional debate on whether to have a baby, Wormser's story about a childhood friend, and William Cyr's original and witty (and, at the same time, chilling) story of a bad stepfather. I also enjoyed the whole presentation--with baby photos of the authors (as well as current shots) and their personal comments. Established author Richard Bausch talks about writing, racism, and life in general in an engaging interview. Definitely worth a read!

We are from Argentina and learning English. Our teacher recommended the book Romeo + Juliet, we thought this book was going to increase our vocabulary and help us understand better the English language, but it didn't, instead it made it more difficult. Shakespeare used old English and played with words.
For those who aren't aware, "Romeo and Juliet" tells the tale of two "star-cross'" teenage lovers who secretly fall for each other and marry. Their families, the Montagues and Capulets, have been fierce enemies for decades, and, even as Romeo and Juliet say their wedding vows, new violence breaks out between the clans. In the end, their love is doomed. When Romeo mistakenly believes Juliet is dead, he poisons himself. And, when Juliet discovers that he is dead, she too commits suicide.
Shakespeare's writings are always beautiful but in this case he decorates with details a simple story, and that makes it boring and difficult to follow the plot.
The characters all have different personalities, for example the peaceful characters, hot-tempered, romantic, aggressive, impulsive, strict, etc. And that is what perhaps could make it interesting. In our opinion the best character is the nurse because she says always what she feels and not what is better for her.
In conclusion, we could only understand the story because as we continued reading, we also saw the film, which we recommend you to see.

I went throughout high school never reading this book. It's so well-known; everyone knows what it is about and how it ends. Movie after movie has come out depicting the events. However, I will honestly say that it is definitely worth the read. It's a beautiful story of two lovers who suffer from forbidden love. I hate sappy books. I despise them. But this one was different. I don't know if it was because it was fast paced or if it's the fact that people were always dueling, or what. However, I will say that Shakepeare is brillant. This, along with so many of his other stories are great. ROMEO AND JULIET is a brillant tale, and after reading it, I am more able to appreciate everything I have seen and heard about it. If nothing else, it's a wonderful play about honor, devotion, independence, and unification. And this edition is really helpful in understanding Shakespeare's language, for on each page, there are notations that tell what his words and phrases mean today...which is REALLY helpful.

I have seen all movie versions about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and still love the book everytime I revisit the story. Every word captivates the reader into truly feeling the passion and tragedy of these two lovers. Even a character such as Tybalt Capulet won me over as far as description goes. Shakespearian writing is very much complex and confusing but it has a touch romance and anger which adds to the emotion of the story. Read this classic tragedy!

I read 'Echoes in the Darkness' and absolutely loved it, and was convinced of Jay Smith and Bill Bradfield's guilt and involvement in Susan Reinert's (and her children's) murders. But this book made me think twice. A lot of new information has come to light and this book explores those other theories, witnesses, and (yes, it's true) facts that never came to light. I am not 100% convinced of Jay Smith's innocence, because the whole situation is rather bizarre, to say the least, but this book put some doubts into my head. I find it appalling that police cover-ups and dishonesty can tarnish a trial and skew the entire outcome . . . I mean, maybe Smith WAS intricately involved, but we may never know the whole truth. And a few over-zealous policemen or investigators really did fabricate some things. It is a sad commentary on the American justice system. All in all, it was a good book, and you really can't know the whole story until you read both 'Echoes' and this book. My only major complaint is that the author (Costopoulos) was a little wordy, a little annoying, and VERY high on himself. Generally, I just don't think he is a very good writer. I was not interested in his physical descriptions, or what he was wearing, or what the other lawyers were wearing, or what color their hair was. I don't care that Costopoulos was compared to Burt Reynolds. I don't care that everyone looked up to Costopoulos and he was well-respected in his community. That doesn't add to the story. He is obviously QUITE proud of himself and his ability to boss people around. But what do you expect?? He's a lawyer!

I READ THE BOOK ECHOES IN THE DARKNESS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES IN 1997. ON OR ABOUT SEPT.1979 I HAD AN EXPERIENCED AT A LOCATION NOT TO BE DISCUSSED ONLINE. AT THIS LOCATION THERE IS A SQUARE AND DRIVEWAY, WHICH COULD BE THE SQUARE AND LINE VINCE VALATIS CLAIMS BRADFIELD DREW. THE DRIVEWAY GOES TO A POND. ALSO DISCUSSED IN BOTH BOOKS IS SLAG.THERE IS ALSO A CLOSED STEEL FACTORY NEXT TO THE SQUARE AND INDUSTURIAL WASTE MOST LIKLY SLAG. I GAVE THIS INFORMATION TO THE PA. STATE POLICE PRIOR TO THE REOPENING OF THE INVESTAGATION. I DISCUSSED OTHER THINGS WITH THE STATE POLICE ABOUT EVENTS AT THIS LOCATION. I HAVE NOT BEEN TOLD IF THE INFORMATION I GAVE THEM DOES HAVE SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE CASE. I BELIEVE JAY SMITH IS GUILTY. I beleive we will never know the truth. All involved are sworn to secrecy. Maybe One of those involved will break down and come forward. Note: I beleive Jay Smith may be protecting someone. If this location and conversation I had with someone there has nothing to do with the crime, Than all I can say is what a coincidance and many of them.
04/11/03
This location is
2522 State Road
Bensalem Township
Bucks County, Pa.
There is now a building on the (ground which was in the shape of a Square.) There was never any earth disturbance where this building is. There were some digs in the area one to the left of the driveway going to the pond, the other about 120 ft. straight in the woods above the pond.

What a brilliant book! William Costopoulos tells the story of his lonely battle to free a man from death row, a man put there by hearsay, payoffs, hysteria, and criminal acts by state police and prosecutors. Wambaugh's book about the main line murders of Susan Reinert and her two young children was a great story, but this book is the truth! As usual, non-fiction trumps even good storytelling. The writing is sophisticated, and Mr. C. is clearly the finest example of what a criminal defense lawyer should aspire to be. Thank God he persisted, freed Jay Smith, and in the process got Pennsylvania law changed so that defendants in death penalty cases who are convicted due to perjury and prosecutorial misconduct, are freed without retrial. What an accomplishment! Read this book. It's important.

it may be good for the novice, but as i already know 3 other languages i found it slow and missing alot of important information. It goes straight in with programing examples and doesnt provide a good foundation for understanding how delphi programs are structured. The tiny chapter on objects was very poor. Also they never explained how find the info on the components. I think the fact that delhpi is so easy to use may make this book seem better than it is. It is a bit like giving people instructions without ever helping them to undestand what they are doing. I expect beginers will like it because it avoids the in depth explanations and is more about trying out examples.

If you are already a proficient programer then you will find this book far to long. It could be easily sumarised it into 50 pages and still contain all the info. If you want to learn about Object Orientated programing forget this book. The thing that most anoyed me was the fact that they had code snippets that were numbered as if from line 1 when the code was not from the start of the program. To the novice programer this could be very confusing. And they had snippets with no line numbering. Are they purposly trying to confuse people.

If you have never programmed in Turbo Pascal, than you should almost certainly get a copy of this book. It does indeed teach Delphi from grounds up and you will learn a great deal.

If you are fully conversant with Pascal Syntax and structure, you might gain something reading through this book, but I do believe that you will gain more by reading through Tom Swan's book Delphi Bible followed by Charles Calvert Delphi Unleashed

I found this book to be very good in presenting Delphi in a understandable manner. Having a computer science background, I could grasp the concepts easily and never seem to get bored of the book. Even if you don't have a background in programming, I definitely recommend this book to start you off because its an easy read, and you will not have go through tons of concepts before reaching the code but instead, it'll present useful coded examples followed with important explainations on how/why its done.

I got this book because I wanted to start off my Delphi adventure, and it delivered! Its also comforting to know that its not a thick book!! It gives you plenty of examples and teaches you what you REALLY need to know, using Object Pascal and the RAD components! Not only that, it gives you self-review and practice questions to work on after each chapter. So basically it cuts to the chase and tells you what you ought to learn rather than what you might find useful.

As a conclusion, I recommend that you buy this book whatever your level of programming may be as it not only shows you how Delphi is used but also builds up your foundation on programming principles as shown in the book.

I can understand the first reviewer's comment about not being able to get past the beginning of this book. I could not tolerate the dialog without quotation marks and the jumping from place to place and person to person. It was difficult to follow the time line and characters from the start. I will not give this book another attempt.

I read this book three times and each time it seemed like a new novel. After my first read, I thought I'd read a love story, after the other two, I was captivated by history and technique. We learn at the beginning of the novel that the Queen of Naples is none other than the sister of the recently guillotined, Marie Antoinette. Both Austrian women were sent to foreign lands to reign as queens. The contempt of the people, actually displaced subversion toward their inept spouses, was mismanaged by both sisters. Both, failed to transcend the 'foreign' cloak. They had none of the scheming, political savy of their mother, Maria Theresa. The Royal Court of Napels is impossibly crude. We are introduced to the maloderous, strainings and grunts of the sovereign's daily bowel movements, to which Ambassador, Lord Hamilton, bestower of the title of the book, is honored by a position closest to the specially constructed raised,'throne.' The dull-witted, physicaly repulsive monarch, besides keeping his wife chronically pregnant, with offspring numbering in the teens, has one other passion, which he indulges with equal lust. That is his daily 'hunting' of hundreds of animals, which are dragged and thrown in the streets and there left to rot. A self-indulgent glutton; those many hungry subjects receive nothing from the daily slaughter.
Lord and Lady Hamilton are the sole intimates of the monarchs, despite her Ladyship's low origins, evening performances and love for spirits. In the glorious Naples, these two British subjects live in marked splendor surrounded by Hamilton's obsession with 'treasures' he unearths from his obsession with Vesuvious.
The love affair that is ignited when Nelson's fleet comes to rest in the bay is one of the great passions of history and the details are satisfying to romantic readers. The years pass and Emma grows fat and more frequently drunk. Nelson loses his sight in one eye and an arm, but continues to be victorious on the sea. Love is blind, the two are consumed with the perfection of the other. Lady Hamilton continues to sing and 'pose' but she is fat and bloated, her voice lost. The British hero does not follow orders, stays too long, and returns to transport his friends and the royal family when outbreaks of violence threaten their lives.
Human and volcanic, the lava flow of war and destruction, the end of a kind of civilization flows into the equally bloody sea. Vesuvious is the only lord, he issues warnings and humanity at play must reckon with their ultimate mortality. Love and civilizations die, and who among us are equally dormant, in our fear, in our passions? The Volcano Lover is an intensely vital and artistically flawless work. It is a cautionary and thereby completely modern tale of the fate of nations and individuals who fail to honor the Gods.

Susan Sontag's THE VOLCANO LOVER (1992) is about Sir William Hamiliton, for decades British Embassador to the Court of Naples, his young wife Emma (who clearly was not of our class) and her lover, the Great Hero, Horatio Nelson. The three of them were bound together in a very odd relationship. The kind, elderly Hamilton had a brilliant aesthetic eye and was a connoisseur of beautiful antiquities. He assembled a great collection, much of which is now in the British Museum, including the sublime 1st century Roman cameo glass vessel, the PORTLAND VASE. THE VOLCANO LOVER is also about Vesuvius, a still active volcano which periodically puts on a show, and about passion, acquisitiveness, beauty, romance, corruption and lots more. The first three-quarters of this dense novel is rendered mostly in the present tense: the style is quite formal and slightly archaic: the voice is cool, uninflected, detached - but not unfeeling. For the attentive reader, the effect is hypnotic. Sontag is an admirably careful, spare writer. Her distinctive, emphatic rhythms are always evident, but never obtrusive.

"Epitaph of a Small Winner" is NOT the title of this book. The original title, "Memorias Posthumas de Bras Cubas," can only be accurately translated as "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas." Why did they give this edition of the book such a weird title? I don't know--probably for the same reason that they didn't translate it well! I read this translation of the book, because the foreward by Susan Sontag led me to believe it would be the best. But though it wasn't awful, it was sufficiently awkward that I had to force my way through it. Granted, I enjoyed the book, because Machado de Assis is a superb master of comic narrative, inverting into parody just about every literary convention of his nineteenth century. But think how much MORE I would have enjoyed it if I had known that there was another translation of the book, which, far from awkward, was masterful and elegant, by the acclaimed translator Gregory Rabassa (of One Hundred Years of Solitude fame). Also to its credit, that other translation correctly renders the title as "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas." So don't make the mistake I made: don't waste your time with any other editions, like the lame-ass one on this page. (I make due apologies to Susan Sontag.) Move your buns over to the page for "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas." And relax! Machado de Assis was an ingenious author, prefiguring such diverse talents as Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Franz Kafka, John Barth, and even Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. If you like them, you're going to like him.

Quoting D.H. Lawrence is his review of "Moby Dick", "this is one of the strangest and most wonderful books I've ever read"

Well, maybe not that wonderful.

"Epitaph of a Small Winner" was the second book of Machado de Assis' collection that I read, the first being "Dom Casmurro."

This novel innaugurated Realism in Brazil, at a time when most writers were trying to break away from Romanticism. It is a strange book, narrated in first person by the deceased himself, Bras Cubas. I would not consider it easy to read. Some of its passages are pretty hard on the reader, specially if you read it in Portuguese (as I did). I recall having to go back in the chapter to understand what Machado was trying to say.

"Epitaph of A Small Winner" is required reading in most Brazilian schools. I believe it shouldn't be, since some of its language and style is a bit incomprehensive for teenagers. I read it for the first time when I was 29, so that might give you a picture of what I am trying to say.

Machado de Assis is regarded as "Brazil's finest writer." I do not agree with this point of view, since the country has many fantastic writers, such as Jose de Alencar and Aluizio Azevedo. Rating Assis as "the greatest" would be, at least, overrating him

The bottom line is that if you want to get acquainted with early 20th Century Brazilian literature, this book is a good start. Maybe you might want to investigate this South American country's writers further, and make your own mind if Machado is really the finest

Brazil has produced a number of wonderful novels. I can name "Rebellion in the Backlands" by Euclides da Cunha, "The Devil to Pay in the Backlands" by João Guimaraes Rosa, "The Tent of Miracles" and "Gabriela; Clove and Cinnamon" by Jorge Amado, and "The Three Marias" by Rachel de Queiroz, but these are only a few. You have to add to this list at least a couple novels by J. M. Machado de Assis, Brazil's greatest writer of the 19th century, (he died in 1908) and one of the greatest writing anywhere at that time. EPITAPH OF A SMALL WINNER would be on that list for sure. I can hear you say, "Can you really compare this fellow to writers like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Balzac, Zola, Melville, Austen, or Eliot ?" My answer would be "yes" and "no". That's because I like definite answers. Sorry, just kidding. I would say "no" because Machado de Assis doesn't write like any of the others. His style is unique and his choice of perspective also. He is the opposite of a realist. He never hits you over the head with any serious descriptive narrative. His characters speak throughout. So, how could you compare him effectively with the others ? But, I would say "yes" because he is a master of subtle story telling, of wit, satire, and irony. This novel, like his others, does not resemble any other work. He is certainly among the greats.

Braz Cubas, the narrator of the novel, is already dead when we meet him. So he has plenty of time to tell about his life. As he notes, "death does not age one"; he can afford to ramble a bit. What we receive, through his life story, is a satirized view of the indolence and lack of intellectual rigor of the Brazilian upper class of the time. We read the life of a man who did nothing at all in 64 years. Or almost nothing. He didn't study, he didn't work, he didn't marry, and he didn't have any direction. He became a parliamentary deputy through connections and did absolutely nothing while there. He enjoyed the physical pleasures of life, he envied others, he had ambitions that he did next to nothing to fulfill. He failed at nearly everything, then at last he croaked. The reason why he feels (from beyond the grave) that he wasn't such a loser after all is the author's final bit of irony. Machado de Assis employs his usual style---160 short chapters in 223 pages---with the title of each chapter used to spice up the progress of the novel, which in turn is full of irony, with, whimsy, and very clever writing, full of ingenious metaphors. You cannot say that this is a "page turner" in any conventional sense. It is rather philosophical, but as the author says, "a philosophy wanting in uniformity, now austere, now playful...." To quote from chapter 124, which is all of 9 lines long---"To hop from a character study to an epitaph may be realistic and even commonplace, but the reader probably would not have taken refuge in this book if he had not wished to escape the realistic and the commonplace." That is my recommendation to you. Escape both the realistic and the commonplace and read this book. You won't regret it.

This book is good, not great. Its to small and many of the illistrations are too small,and hard to see. But for the money its worth it. They have many other books that are a bit better than this one. Here is one that is very good 'Masterpieces of the J.Paul Getty Museum Illuminated Manuscripts'. This book is awesome with easy to read text and wonderful pictures. Happy Reading.

This is one of my favorite illumination books. Being a practicing illuminator, I need photos much more than I need lengthy discussions, historical analyses, elaborate provenance notes, etc. They have to be color photos and they have to be large enough, and at a high enough resolution, that I can learn something from them--and maybe even copy an initial, a diapering pattern, a bit of the border, or more.

This book satisfies all these criteria. In fact, the only thing I dislike about this book is the fact that it's so small, it's really hard to keep open while I paint from it. REALLY hard, because if you get large and heavy enough items to hold both sides down, inevitably the items obscure parts of the page you are painting from!

Its size can be an advantage, though. I purchased this at the National Gallery in Washington, on a midday jaunt during a conference, then went back for the next conference presentation. When the speaker turned out to be droningly boring, I brought out this tiny book and paged through it inconspicuously under the table. Could I have done that with Janet Backhouse's monumental work? I think not...;)

The selections are wonderful, and they're usefully broken down into sections based on content--excellent when you need to find a quick animal or floral image for a border, a rendering of a king or queen, or a picture of a dragon or other supernatural being. Not so excellent when you need to find an example of, say, a late 1400's eastern French book of hours (there are many, just not in any kind of chronological or geographical order). But then, there are other resources that do that. This book is interesting for its variety, its excellent reproductions, and its well-selected and unusual miniatures.

Excellent reproduction of a number of styles, with reasonable commentary. Very valuable for me as a newbie, to provide a sense of medieval style and composition. The size is at once very handy and very frustrating.

The story starts well. Brady Coyne is a very likeable character, as is his client-- the irascable Florence Gresham. The seeming suicide of George seems open-and-shut, but Florence keeps the pressure on Brady to come up with an answer other than suicide. The plot wanders a bit too much for me, with too many characters and details, and some unfortunately rather predictable elements.

This re-release of the first Brady Coyne novel is certainly welcome. From the get-go, Tapply spins a thrilling yarn that's the very best kind of fact-based fiction. Even if he doesn't want to be one, Brady makes a heck of fine detective. A keeper, for sure. Check out the new intro that Tapply wrote specifically for this editon.

This is a collection of dozens of folktales culled from the Gullah tradition. They are mostly from the mid to later part of the 19th century from the coastal lowlands area of Georgia. The hundred + year-old tales are transcribed in a dialect, but they shouldn't be considered authentic renditions of the Gullah creolized language. The book has a great introduction that explains how Jones came to compile the work and write other books on a range of subjects. The dialect of the stories take a while to understand, but the glossary at the end of the book helps explain unfamiliar words. The stories are really good ones, and it is great to see this important book in print.

A must for study of the Gullah culture of the Southern Atlantic states. It is wonderful that the University of Georgia press reprinted Jones's 1888 collection.

"Inversions" is the latest in Iain M. Bank's science fiction novels, and illustrates some of the growing literary skills he has developed in his mainstream fiction over the last couple of novels. Writing two plots in parallel, Banks develops an intricate, multilayered novel. Set on an unnamed world, technologically and culturally equivalent to our sixteenth or seventeenth century, it is less obvioulsy science fiction than his previous genre work. There are two central characters, Vossil the King's doctor, and DeWar, bodyguard to the usurper, UrLeyn. They never meet, but their stories intertwine, both within the narratives themselves, and in their own pasts. Both are outsiders, trusted by their masters, but are feared and hated by others. They must both deal with deceit and intrigue, and above all, hide away a secret love. This is Banks at his most lyrical and literary. Don't expect thrills and spills, but do expect his usual wit, strong characterisation, and intricate storylines. The one downside of this book is that many of its subtleties can only be appreciated by reading Bank's earlier work, especially his Culture novels. Don't let this put you off if you have never read him before, its a strong enough novel to stand alone, but you will get more out of it if you are already au fait with the mythos of the Culture.

Inversions divulges from the usual sci-fi novels written by Banks. Away from the skein of space , strange species and mind blowingly complex ships inversions gives an example of the work of a specific branch of Special Circumstances. Worlds like Earth have not yet been enlightened to what is really happening in the universe, and manipulators are sent ,undercover, from the culture to twist the future of certain planets to accomadate the culture. This book ties in with the rest of the culture novels, especially 'The Use of Weapons'. A great read , but please read all of the others first to get the most from this one.