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Book reviews for "Williamson,_Greg" sorted by average review score:

What's the Recipe for Friends?
Published in Paperback by Peerless Publishing (30 January, 1999)
Authors: Greg M. Williamson and Greg Abele
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Outstanding, should be in every child's library.
Not only is the thought process of this book excellent. The drawings are absolutely phenomenal! This is must reading for every child who is moving and must find the recipe for making friends and it is must reading for every child who comes in contact with "new" kids. It helps them realize what that child is going through

Fabulous!!! My kids loved it!
My kids love Freddy and relate to his quest to make friends. It has been very helpful to me as a parent that has recently relocated.

GREAT for children and parents, helps make relocating easier
This book is just what children need. In the hustle and bustle of today's nomadic families, the children's needs and feelings sometimes get lost in the shuffle. Adults sometimes forget the fears that children have about making new friends, and I think this book helps solve some of those fears and questions through a brilliant use of simplicity...Just follow the RECIPE! The colorful illustrations catch the readers eye as the story moves you through the process of a young boy and his frog following the "recipe for friends!" I love this book and my children have a ball looking at the pictures over and over again.


Errors in the Script: Poems (Sewanee Writers' Series)
Published in Hardcover by Overlook Press (29 March, 2001)
Author: Greg Williamson
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Excellence Exposed
Greg Williamson's book, "Errors in the Script," is evidence that legendary poets can come at all points in history, even now. Williamson's poems are destined to be classics in the years to come.
Williason's use of puns is quite extensive. His poems are both humorous and serious and somehow reflect the life of a poet. "Errors in the Script" was highly enjoyable because of it's evasive style. The poetry in all three sections of the book can never be pinned down with one description of it's style.
Williamson is, by trade, a true poet. He is a poetry machine capable of producing and reproducing ideas and stories in different fashions. Whether in free verse, riddles, or a strict rhyme scheme, the poetry is exquisite. Sometimes Titles in the book can be misleading, but upon deeper reading one can find serious meaning to all of Williamson's poetry. He is a poetry craftsman,writing in forms that have never been written in before. The Creative style of the book always seem to have multiple meanings and/or answers to all questions raised.
In the section of the book titled Double Exposures, the author skillfully writes 26 frames of poetry that can be read in three differnet ways. The playfulness of one of the three ways may turn in to a much more serious expression as in "Billboard with Woman in Mirror." Williamson uses puns like the word fag to describe both a cigarette butt and a drag queen. He gets personal in the end of that poem and tells the reader two lies or two truths or maybe one of each. If you like that sort of mysterious poetry meaning "Errors in the Script" is definitely a must read book.
Lastly, these poems are excellent reads because they prompt the reader to think. Williamson not only tells the stories, he asks readers what the stories he writes about mean to them by asking and answering what poetry and life is to him. Genius, pure Genius.

An Amazing Collection
This collection of poems is united under the theme of "Errors" which comes through in very interesting, and often very amusing ways. Williamson says in one of his poems, "They ask what I can make. 'I make mistakes.'"
Found in the second section of the book, Williamson's "Double Exposures" was fascinating for its completely new dualistic style. I applaud his creativity and skill for the idea of describing a double exposed photograph image through a poem made out of two parts; where each part composes half of a whole poem, or image, and yet where each may stand alone and be read separately without appearing nonsensical. These double exposures fit into the theme of "Errors" in that they were made "accidentally." The poem "Origami" also supports the theme of Errors well; it explores the multiple representations a sheet of paper may take on, from a bed sheet to the mainsail of the Pequod, to a snowball when crumpled at the end of the poem.
Williamson continues to play on words and meanings in his poem entitled "Riddles" which consists of twelve three-lined poems which each represent a riddle with multiple answers, all of which are provided on an "Answer sheet." The entire collection possesses this similar playful tone to it, and contains an infectious sense of amazement and excitement in the hidden meanings of the written word. Readers that enjoy riddles and puns will be enthralled with Willamson's manipulation of words throughout his poems.
In the other sections of the book, ambiguities in language and meaning are further explored in "Top Priority" and in the more serious, darkly humorous, "The Muse Addresses the Poet (and getteth alle up in hys face)" which explores the troubles encountered in modern day poetry writing. We are even taken into the life of a man with astigmatism, the disease of seeing double, in the poem "Binocular Diplopia."
Most of the poems also contain allusions to classic works such as Milton's "Paradise Lost" or Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." There are multiple implications to Hardy's "Darkling Thrush" in Williamson's "The Mockingbird Is Imitating Life." So, for prolific readers, these allusions make the poetry rich through deeper layers of meaning. However, the reader need not have any knowledge or background in poetry or the classics to enjoy this collection since the style used is one that appeals to the general public with its modern themes and new poetic forms. The humor, wit, and innovative writing techniques found in this book are what make it my favorite collection of contemporary poetry to date.

enchanting and thought-provoking
The book is broken up into three sections, the second a section entitled "Double Exposures," a novel form of poetry in which each poem may be read three different ways to get three different meanings. Besides the second section, most of the poems are not intertwined by plot or theme-characters change from poem to poem, however, Greg Williamson seems to be the running thread that connects each poem. In "Origami," he even throws in his name, '"No really, Mr. Greg!"' Others appear to be his opinions and observations on life, for example "Bodies of Water," where he responds to a quote by Seamus Heaney that says, "Glimmerings are what the soul's composed of," with "Yes, but the body is made of water...." "The Dark Days" represents another form of his poems which leans toward reflection, "We should have seen it coming back In June: seeds of unrest..." One of my personal favorites was "Riddles," where Williamson pokes fun at this form of literature, coming up with twelve riddles and twelve sets of five answers that are all probable solutions. But by far the best part of this book was section two, the "Double Exposures." Williamson writes these with such grace and agility-two separate poems that somehow when the lines are alternately linked, fit together and make sense. The endings are especially ingenious-he turns "Swept by the tide, while the sun's filigree Embellishes an opalescent sea." into "...while the sun's filigree Catching the hostess's eye in this tableau Embellishes an opalescent sea Of carefree faces, taken years ago." Reading the second version, one would never assume the "sea" is an actual body of water, yet that is exactly what it is in the first version. It is these ingenious twists Williamson throws at us that makes the middle section of the book so fun to read. However, even if you are not interested in this type of double-poem, the first and last sections provide an ample amount of poems that appear more 'normal' in shape and form. Williamson's tone throughout the book varies, but I found myself laughing out loud to many of his poems, for example, "The Life and Times of Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius," alluding to the television cartoon, where he toasts the coyote for his intellect and quirky inventions, and "The Top Priority," where he questions the English language, "If grocery stores supply a pre-sliced roll, And sliced is sliced, pre-sliced is what? Well, whole." I recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humor or as a gift to anyone who would enjoy a fun twist on poetry.


The Silent Partner
Published in Paperback by Story Line Press (1995)
Author: Greg Williamson
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Great Poetry That Rhymes and Makes Sense!
Following in the grand tradition of New Formalist poets, the author brings his unique contribution to the forefront of poetry that should be read and re-read today. Harking back to Thomas Hardy, W.B.Yeats, Robert Frost,Walter de la Mare, John Masefield, W.H.Auden, A.E.Housman and carrying forward in the footsteps of modern greats like Richard Wilbur, Gjertrud Schnackenburg, Elizabeth Jennings,A.E.Stallings, Dana Gioia,and John Hollander, Mr. Williamson shows he is a poet that is to reckoned with. Although technical prowess is only a necessary, not a sufficient condition to be counted with the masters, Greg is well on his way with the poems selected here. Favorites include Counterfeit and Winter. It would be an even greater tribute to his skill to see some villanelles and sonnets in his next collection. A must have addition to the poetic repertoire of what Yeats called 'words set to life's music'.

A Distinctive New Voice in Poetry
The poems in this volume are rare in contemporary poetry in that they manage to be both clever and moving at the same time. Williamson writes adeptly in regular meter and rhyme, and his take on the world is fresh and often surprising.

Clever, sophisticated and funny
These make me think of snow globes, delightful little worlds in miniature. The topics are clever - the unrecognized artistry of a counterfeiter; the abstract beauty of the world as seen through someone who needs glasses; the historic significance of junkyards full of cars. Because the poems are personal this book would make a nice gift.


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