Outstanding

It is an entertaining story, a light and fast read. The format gives it an interactive feel -- there are no transitions between letters, thus readers take a more active role in re-orienting themselves as to time and place and recipient of each letter. The lack of transitions is effectively used to surprise the reader with events that occur between letters. Some of the best are comic surprises, for example when one letter ends with the protagonist insisting she will just absolutely never ever agree to some thing - and the next beginning with her having acquiesced ... the reader smiles knowingly while imagining the details of what led to the compromise. The novel even exposes a little about the work of a producer -- and while watching a movie this weekend, I found myself appreciating the ratio of "covered" to "exterior" locations.

I would have liked something more at the very beginning of the story to help me buy into the protagonist's dedication to handwritten letters ... I kept thinking, "why not e-mails?" One answer is because the letters were all dated in 1998 and 1999, when e-mail was still revving up -- but then that made me wonder, "Why specify 1999?" in a novel published in 2004. There was also a reference to paper airline tickets, which felt dated. And the letter format eventually became tiresome. Exhausting, even. It is the ultimate in first-person point of view, and I craved a break from being inside the protagonist's brain, yet kept reading "just one more" and then "just one more" instead of putting the book aside for awhile.

Read this novel for its poignant glimpse into life's important relationships, and especially for its entertaining glimpse into the business of Hollywood.

You know, on first glance it gives the appearance of being a rather trivial book, because of both it's format; which consists entirely of faxes, letters, and emails, which make for a very quick read...and because of the subject matter; single 30+ female tries to produce her first movie and is dealing with assorted Hollywood stereotypes, ex-boyfriend, and sick sibling at the same time.

HOWEVER, this book really has some wonderful prose and is much more than a fun page-turner. The following quote from the book (a letter to her ex-boyfriend) was also in a review of the novel. It's an example of some of the beautiful writing which runs throughout this fine book:

"Maybe we're all born with a protective mental coating like a pomegranate seed has, an invisible placenta that prevents reality from piercing our tender brains, that allows us to fool ourselves until our last breath, that lets us actually believe that one day we'll be discovered and one day we'll be rich, one day the world will see our hidden genius, that lets me believe that somewhere in the recesses of your sweet heart and hard head you still care for me".

If you like this kind of writing, and want to get quickly involved in an interesting, sometimes funny/sweet /sad novel, this one is for you.

I was " turned " on to Collect Your Money by Cody Flecker after one of my colleagues told me about this collections professional out on the West Coast and the book that he wrote to help professionals like my wife and myself.

"Collect Your Money" gets to the heart of the matter. Since using the techniques as outlined in the book our recovery rates have gone up dramatically, while not disturbing the good will of our clients. The letters as outlined by Cody Flecker were to the point, and sincere. They did bring in the required results that we were looking for.

Other good points about Collect Your Money were the telephone conversations, not so much what you say, but what your reply would be once the patient/debtor makes his statement to you and expects an answer.

My wife and I are foreigners and our command of the English language is not always up to par. Collect Your Money did the trick for us. We recommend this book to every small business trying to bring back some of those lost dollars.

The text is misleading and in some parts downright wrong. In many cases, you are left to figure out your own dimensions.

Do not cut anything based solely on the cut lists in this book. The best advice I could give you is to use the plans in this book as a guide - NOTHING MORE!

Make your own drawings and double - triple check the dimensions before you cut a single board.

Coming from Taunton Press - the publishers of Fine Woodworking magazine, I would have expected meticulous attention to detail in this book. Unfortunately, fine woodworkers do not necessarily make fine writers.

There is information on storage design, with different storage nook options based on the expected use of the desk. Information on material selection for the desk based on how a desk is used. Different joinery methods and why they are better/worse for the usage of a desk.

If you are wanting to build a desk, of any style, this would be a very useful book to have.

This book is a smorgasbord of modern day poets. It turned me on to such vastly different talents as Ginsberg, Robert Penn Warren, and Mark Strand. It starts with Robert Lowell telling us, "I want words meat-hooked from the living steer, but a cold flame of tinfoil licks the metal log, beautiful unchanging fire of vision..." and ends with Gjertrud Schnackenberg, "Covered with snow, and snow in clouds above it, And drifts and swirls too deep to understand. Still, I must try to think a little of it, with so much winter in my head and hand." There is a description of each writer straightforward and unpretentious. In its compactness, 65 writers are covered with each represented by 3-14 poems each.

I was pretty surprised to see only one review written for this book here on Amazon. I sure hope more people are owning, reading, and cherishing this book than reviewing it because to let it fall by the wayside would be something literally tragic. It's a jumping off point, a springboard. A beginning to discovery of writers and word, beautiful, unique, gymnastically agile words. We like it so much, we have two copies, one I had for myself and one I bought for my wife before we were married. Now which one will I read tonight?

Despite the small size there is plenty to enjoy in this well printed book. All the Rockwell's and Leyendecker's are here and into the forties and fifties you can follow Albert Staele's cover paintings of his spaniel Butch, or the regular winter snow scene covers painted by John Clymer. My favourite is Stevan Dohanos, he seemed to delight in cramming in as much detail as possible, offering reader's a reassurance of the familiar and everday. Some publisher should do a book of his Post covers.

I was interested to see the covers of the short-lived new look Post from September 61 to June 62, these were created by the famous designer Herb Lubalin but his creative efforts did not impress Middle America and the cover and inside look returned to the regular style. I always thought they looked great and I would love to have these 37 issues in my Post collection (send me an email if you have them)

From late 1962 the Post covers were almost all photographic, just like any other mass market magazine and the last weekly issue came out on February 8 1969. This book is a visual record of a unique American publication, just have your magnifying glass handy to enjoy the experience.

It's nice to see a collection from the Saturday Evening Post that doesn't center on Norman Rockwell--which is why I chose this particular one. I wanted to see the works of the lesser-known artists as well, primarily those of Leyendecker...

This is the one book I've found that was thorough enough to include everyone. Though I would love to find a book that presents them as something bigger than a 2x3" thumbnail of the covers.

I wouldn't call it a good read, but rather a nice sit-and-lookthrough passtime, sort of like flipping through someone's photo album...