Multiples

Though I majored in English, I never took a creative writing course while in college. When I started writing fiction a few years ago, I knew that I couldn't enter an MFA program because I'm a full-time attorney with a family to feed and a mortgage to pay. So, I decided that I should read as much fiction as possible to help teach myself the craft of writing. One of the books I purchased was the then-new 1998 Prize Stories: The O'Henry Awards. I couldn't have made a better choice! In this one volume, I read Lorrie Moore's heartbreaking "People Like That Are the Only People Here," Steven Millhauser's chilling "The Knife Thrower," Alice Munro's evocative "The Children Stay," among many other wonderful and powerful fiction from The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All-Story, Ploughshares, Harper's, and others. Larry Dark, the series editor, and the prize jury, Andrea Barrett, Mary Gaitskill and Rick Moody, did a wonderful job pulling together the best short fiction of that year. This collection not only gave me great joy as a reader, but also wonderful lessons in the art and craft of fiction writing.

Excellent collection of cutting-edge short fiction. If you want to see the extreme edges of today's scene and what, hopefully, is the future of short fiction, buy this collection every year. Extremely compelling work, wide variety of styles, and not the same old names.

As an avid reader of the O.Henry series, I felt that it was in a bit of a rut until this new editor, Larry Dark came along. Last year and especially this year, the O. Henry has become exciting and cutting edge, and Dark must be given all the credit. C'est magnefique Monseiur Dark!!

When's the last time you just had a really good time reading a book? Have you ever finished an anthology and thought, "I'd really like to hang out with those guys!"? If it's been far too long -- for instance, if your answer was something like never -- you're long overdue for a treat. Fortunately, if you're in the mood for a bit of fun, Quantum Musings is just what you need.

Gallant, Coulombe, and Goyette are the minds behind the monthly web-zine Quantum Muse, a particular favourite among internet denizens. This is the hip side of science fiction, fantasy, and alternative fiction -- a judgement that is borne out by Rebecca Kemp's sassy portrait of their Muse that graces the site and the cover of the collection. One look at that tongue-in-cheek graphic and you know in an instant that you are not setting out on your standard genre venture.

That's putting it mildly.

Take a look at Michael Gallant's offerings. "God Picks Up the Tab." Come to think of it, I'd say that title speaks for itself as well as Gallant's slightly twisted sense of humour does. The dry wit and fatalistic attitude of the narrator makes "Staring at Bruno, Waiting to Die" far more poignant than a quick synopsis could possibly convey. The story stands out as one of the most impressive selections in the book. "Alternative" tales would appear to be Gallant's true calling, outshining even his science fiction and fantasy in Quantum Musings.

Now, Raymond M. Coloumbe has a decidedly wicked and skewed way of looking at the world. What he sees is not like Gallant's view, or Goyette's, or yours, or mine. What it does seem most similar to is the way life actually is, if we had the guts to really examine it and see the truth for ourselves. Who really wants to dig deeper into something like "Government Myths"? If you're not going to appreciate the answer, Coloumbe points out, maybe you shouldn't ask the question. If "Death in Haiti" leaves you with one less thing to blame for your troubles, maybe you shouldn't venture there.

In the science fiction portion of Quantum Musings, Timothy O. Goyette's "The Swami of Time" is the showpiece. The interplay between the relatively human hero and the much more likeable squib is a priceless glimpse of the "odd couples" possible when we finally meet up with someone or something completely unlike ourselves. "Human Factors" takes an unflinching look at our all-too human characteristics. Only "The Wishmaker's Magic Box" hints that there might be some of us worth the trouble of saving.

Three different authors with their own styles and outlooks, but the joining is almost seamless. Like their quirky Muse, none of them takes life too seriously, or dismisses it too lightly. The combination makes for a captivating read and a thought-provoking after-read. Not to mention just barely whetting your appetite for more of the same...

The publishing world is changing - slowly, perhaps so slowly that it's hard to notice - but trust me, it is. POD (that's "Publishing on Demand" for you non-biz people) is really starting to become a viable means of presenting the work of both established and up-and-coming authors in an easy, efficient, and, best of all, cheap manner. So don't scoff at Internet publishing just because it doesn't smell of binding glue. Keeping this in mind, checking out this book is a must if you want to see the future of science fiction. Brought to you by the three men who brought you www.quantummuse.com (one of the top-rated new sites for science fiction), "Quantum Musings" is a wonderful collection of stories from the website. What makes them such great stories, in my not-so-humble opinion, is that not only are these men writers, they're gigantic fans of the genre, and that helps a lot - they know what works and what doesn't, and their critical minds and knowledge of convention help make for great stories. Of course, sometimes convention gets tossed out the window, and that's all right as well - every genre needs a little shaking up on occasion. And, in the midst of all this, they don't take themselves too seriously, which is an utter blessing. The humor is rampant through the book, both in the stories and sidenotes - trust me, you'll spend a lot of time laughing when you pick up this volume. I guess my only complaint is that it isn't bigger - but I guess that if you take my advice and buy this book, we can expect to see more volumes in the future of some of the best new voices in sci-fi, fantasy, and alternative literature.

These writers are crazzy, they are just the kind of people I would love to hang out with and talk about everything. I could not put this book down, and I highly recomend it to anyone who not only wants a good laugh, but wants to read what is lacking in many of writings of our day...wit, and intelligence. Do yourself a favour and read something that wont let you down...this collection of stories. Good job Muse!

I have fallen in love with this book. It is simply gorgeous the way that poets have taken love and turned it into verses that can make you cry. Any fan of poetry would agree.

This book would make a wonderful gift from one spouse to another. First of all, the book itself is very attractive - it's a little larger than pocket-sized, with red leather binding and a ribbon to hold your place. Secondly, it's a wonderful collection of love poems, and the poems themselves are a varied group: scorned love, satisfied love, unrequieted love. There's something for everyone here. The book contains the more famous love poems that everyone is familiar with, but it also features some lesser-known works that I'd never read before. I have dog-eared so many pages! I can't pick a favorite!

This is an amazing book. It combines everything about poetry, from love to friendship.
I personally loved it, and read a bit of it everyday. Not to mention, I actually keep it by my bedside.
It's a must-buy for those who love poetry!

OK. The jury has more or less decided that "The Revenger's Tragedy" is not by Cyril Tourneur after all, but by Thomas Middleton. This is on strictly scholarly grounds. Either way, it scarcely matters, as this play is strictly sui generis. It's like nothing else either Tourneur or Middleton ever wrote.

The best way to think of it is as standing in a relation to the classic Jacobean and Elizabethan tragedies of Kyd, Shakespeare, Webster and Middleton sort of like the way Quentin Tarantino's early films stand in relation to previous Hollywood classics. Whoever wrote this, they were Taking The P*ss. The play starts in next-to-top gear, and accelerates into warp speed fairly quickly. Few other plays of the era (this is roughly contemporaneous with "King Lear", to give you an idea) are so ruthlessly efficient. The basic plot is put in motion by two brothers, Vindice and Hippolito, who are a bit cheesed off because the egregious Duke (of wherever) killed Vindice's wife cause she wouldn't put out. From here proceeds a bizarre and increasingly unlikely series of revenges, climaxing in a frankly chortlesome mass slaying. Vindice is the juiciest role - a bit like Shakespeare's Richard III, he guides the audience through the action, but with far greater economy and far less wrangling of conscience, not that Crookback Dick is noted for his remorse.

By the end, the stage is littered with bodies, and Vindice and Hippolito cheerfully go off to execution, with barely a qualm in sight. This is truly the most cynical and the funniest of all Jacobean tragedies. Whoever wrote it, be it Cyril or Tom, was thinking along the same lines Howard Hawks was on when he (Hawks) turned "Rio Bravo" from a Western into a chamber comedy. It's all thoroughly reprehensible, and great fun. You want depth, try John Webster.

There aren't many four-hundred-year-old plays that I laugh aloud at whilst reading, but this is one of them. Pace the opinion below, it couldn't have less to do with Jonson's careful layering of reality if it tried. It's a brisk, bleak, savage cartoon. Full marks, whoever you were.

PreShakespeare, but a lot of fun to read! I enjoyed it very much--- has to do with a man who is carrying around a murdered girlfriend for almost ten years-- he is planning revenge on the king...

This dark tragi-comedy resonates with the dramatic potential of Hamlet, but and edge particular to Jacobean Drama. A play which is still relevant today (many students related it to "The Godfather"), and brimming with cinematic violence, lust, deception, vengence, and, with all this, communicated through beautiful poetry.

As an evangelical, I am suprised that others of my persuasion have not discovered the treasure chest of beauty and devotion in Christian poetry. I consider it truely sublime and find reading it slowly and quietly to be a fountain of great devotional interest. I keep this volume on the shelf next to my bed and turn to it often.

This anthology in particular is an outstanding introduction to the excellence and beauty of Christian poetry. Buy it and read it slowly and prayerfully. Max Lucado is fine but sometimes it's good to think outside the box. Give this a try.

As an evangelical Christian, I continue to wonder why many evangelicals have not discovered Christian poetry for the treasure storehouse that it has always been in the English speaking world. This book is a feast to the mind as well as the spirit and is the perfect introduction to Christian poetry for the thoughtful Christian.

Max Lucado is fine but do yourself a favor and step outside the box. Buy it and read it slowly, carefully, thoughtfully and prayerfully.

This anthology of poetry will serve as an excellent introduction to those unfamiliar with the genre or as a source of refreshing inspiration to those who know the works.

The book, broken into 12 chapters covering various time periods, offers all sorts of Christian poetry over roughly 1,200 years, from early Anglo-Saxon writings up to 20th Century works.

Authors are introduced with short biographies, as are the time periods to help readers get a sense of how language and religious poetic thought developed. The range of material is amazing, from works predating the Venerable Bede to Madeline L'Engle's plea to God to learn how to pray, written as she rode a New York City bus.

I found this to be a beautiful collection of value to anyone interested in Christian thought and prayer.

Needless to say: this book will certainly be one of the fundamentals used in both, undergraduated and graduated curricula, as it covers the roots of adaptive and smart antennas technologies, among other topics. The way it explains the essentials leads to experts and non-experts to get into this field very quickly if also attending onto the cited references. I highly recommend it and the price is worth of it.

I used this book as a source when I did a project in my Wireless & Mobile Comm. course. My topic was Smart Antennas for wireless applications. The book was very helpful. It is well written, organized and easy to read. It provides a lot of research issues and engineering solutions for Smart antennas for next generation wireless systems. I recommend this book for all researchers and engineers working in this field.

The book is very good, to be brief. I have taught a course out this book for senior undergraduates and 1st year graduates. One needs to have a course on electromagnetic fields and a course on stochastic processes and random variables - at the undergraduate level(s).

The book covers a lot of important topics and as the previous critic had opined, this book is really good for all practicing r.f. engineers in the wireless industry.

Book three in the "Mossy Creek Hometown" series, Summer in Mossy Creek is the collaborative effort of twelve women (Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Debra Dixon, Martha Shields, Anne Bishop, Kim Brock, Patti Henry, Judith Kim, Bo Sebastian, Shelly Morris, Susan Goggins, and Carolyn McSparren) and offers the reader a wealth of unique, original, brief, and homespun tales, each of which arises from life in Mossy Creek, Georgia, a warm-hearted mountain town of simple joys, emotional gatherings, and wistful nostalgia. An immensely rewarding joy to read, Summer In Mossy Creek will compel those new to this series to seek out the earlier two volumes, Mossy Creek ... and Reunion At Mossy Creek ... -- and leave those already familiar with this outstanding series to eagerly await the next volume related the adventures of the folks who live, work and love in the community of Mossy Creek!

How to describe the charm of Mossy Creek? By turns hilarious and heartwarming, Mossy Creek is populated with the funniest, homiest, sometimes orneryist bunch of characters south of the Mason-Dixon line. If you like Southern humor and superb writing, go on down to Mossy Creek!

If the Lovin' Spoonful had been in the Georgia village of Mossy Creek rather than Greenwich Village, they would know that hot time, summer in the mountains means plenty of fun, ole southern style. The townsfolk look for a quiet uneventful season, but also know their enemy in slimy Bigelow still remains on the prowl. Meanwhile the librarian pushes the Police Chief into bluffing an abusive parent while the Mayor leads by example applying common sense to seemingly difficult problems. Much of the townsfolk meet eating dessert at the diner, but along with fans will find hot fun in the summertime here.

The third Mossy Creek tale is a series of vignettes written by a virtual whose who of the irons maidens of the south (more talented than steel magnolias). The contributions differ in size while providing a slice of life in a small remote Georgia mountain town. Each story builds up on the previous contribution so that the audience receives an anthology that uses the best elements of a novel and that of a short story into a tremendous collection. SUMMER IN MOSSY CREEK holds its own with its superb predecessors. Fans of the series already know that the first two books flow smoothly; the third tale shares in common with the previous duo a southern comfort smoothness.

Harriet Klausner

After Flash and Filigree, this is the second weakest of Southern's books. It does, however, contain a remarkable short story, "Razor Fight," images from which have remained with me for more than a decade. After reading that Joan Didion used to retype Ernest Hemingway's short stories to gain a better understanding of his style, I did the same thing with "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" and "Razor Fight," and then ran them through the Grammatik grammar checker, which ranks writing according to its succinctness. Both stories were ranked at the third grade level -- no small accomplishment.

Screw prose. Screw plot. This book is so damned funny! It reminds me of the war stories of Michael Herr or the drugged ut fantasies of Hunter Thompson. What about the woman who colors her hair blond, only to return home and have her husband mistake her for a mistress. What about the irreverent humor about Hoover trying some neck-crophilia on JFK's body. This is one of the most original collection of stories I've ever read. It's so hard to find stuff like this nowadays.

Should be required reading in beginning English and journalism classes. Book is date sensitive. Readers can explore the historical context and content. A very funny contribution to journalism.

Fulton is not Dickinson; the comparison is spurious, and a detriment, finally, to Fulton's talent. This is an interesting collection, but, I think, one not able to sustain the hyperbolic praise that is has garnered. Still, it is worth a close read.

Let's preface this review with an explanation -- I'm not an intellectual, and if it wasn't for my perverse sense of humor mixed with my young ambition to take as many courses in mathematics as possible, I would probably never have picked this book up off of a friend of mine's shelf.

That being said, I did pick it up. I opened it, and I had to read the first poem three or four times to make sure it was really as good as I thought. Then I moved on to the next, and the next. Long story short, I bugged the book's owner so much, now the book is mine. I have been thouroughly impressed with each successive poem. Since this (poetry) is not my usual thing, I lack the vocabulary to adequately describe this book.

It appealled to me, a (then) computer science and anthropology double major, and it appealed to my firend, who had a phd in literature.

Bottom line: No matter who you are, buy this book.

It seems like Alice Fulton can bring anything into a poem and make it work. In these poems, for example, there's Elvis Presley, faked orgasms, TV-reruns. But she's not just grabbing images from popular culture to make the poems accessible - she's using them, it seems to me, because they're as much a part of our world, our ways of knowing and feeling, as classical myths, which are also here. (See her fantastic reinterpretation of Daphne and Apollo in the sequence called "Give:") And what's as wonderful to me is the lushness of these poems, the extravagance of language, the way Fulton builds up these crystal-like surfaces from line to line or stanza to stanza and makes them tilt, twist, dance. Alice Fulton's poems are exciting!

.....if you are fairly new to poetry, as I am, then this book is an excellent introduction to American poetry. The book is divided such that a biography for each poet is presented prior to his/her most beloved poetry (as well as lesser known works). We thus learn about the poet and his/her motivations which help us view the poems from a better angle. For those who know and love poetry, this book is an excellent addition to one's home library. I know I will be eager to introduce my children to the poems contained in this anthology someday. My only criticism is that some of the most well known and beautiful poems have been edited down from their original lengths to only a few most loved passages. I hardly think it would have added that many more pages to the collection to present poems such as Whitman's "I Sing the Body Electric" and "Song of Myself" in their entirety! Fortunately, I have a copy of "Leaves of Grass" that a friend had given me ages ago.

This contains the entire works of six influential and distinctly American poets. A compilation of the works of Langston Hughes, Whitman, Frost, Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and Dickinson. This anthology was the result of the efforts of Joel Conarroe, who provides a great down-to-earth introduction as to why he put this together, and what influence poetry has had in his life. While a freshman in college decades ago, a classmate and mentor gave him some off the cuff advice that Conarroe would follow for the rest of his life. Before each author's segment there is a biography describing their life, motivations, and outlook. The book's size is smaller than most hardbacks, making it easy to take on trips both short and long.

"Six American Poets," edited by Joel Conarroe, represents an interesting concept in a poetry anthology. Rather than cover a large number of poets who are represented by just a few poems each, Conarroe decided to focus on six pivotal United States poets and to offer a healthy sampling of some of their most compelling work. Happily, Conarroe succeeds in compiling an excellent volume.

The anthology starts off with the lusty humanism of Walt Whitman and the passionate wit of Emily Dickinson, and then presents some of the choicest fruits from the work of four 20th century greats: Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes. Along the way are some real masterpieces: Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," WCW's poem about the "red wheel / barrow," Frost's "Mending Wall," Hughes' "Mother to Son," and many more.

As a whole, a wonderful variety of poetic forms and themes are represented. The concise but substantial author bios are another strong point of this volume. This book is a wonderful choice both for classroom use and for general reading. You also might want to check out this book's companion volume, "Eight American Poets," also edited by Conarroe.