Sweet Dreams, Irene: An Irene Kelly Novel

Book Description

Irene Kelly is a reporter with a fierce integrity. Detective Frank Harriman is her lover and friend. Now they're both about to be plunged into political hellfire when a ruthless politician rocks a race for district attorney with a stunning allegation: his opponent's son is in the clutches of a satanic cult. The charge takes a fatal turn when a local woman is brutally murdered, and the grisly crime scene bears unholy implications. Tracking the clues takes Irene behind the closed doors of an isolated home for troubled youths, where obscuring the truth is only part of a stranger's diabolic game. To win it, Irene will have the devil to pay.

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Customer Reviews:

Read Them All.......2007-06-29

Burke's Irene Kelly stories are superb. I suggest you read them all. You'll enjoy the ride.

They just keep getting better and better!.......2005-07-07

This was my second Irene Kelly novel and it was even better than the first! It had a unique story with plenty of twists. After Irene had been taken and then rescued, the emotions she felt were so descriptive that I felt for her. I can only imagine what an experience like that would do to a person. I believe this book accurately portrayed those feelings. Also, I just love the romance between Irene and Frank! It's a nice touch to this series. I'm going to continue reading this series. It's great!

Irene & Cohorts Are Back With Non-Stop Drama!.......2005-03-21

Once again Irene Kelly, veteran reporter for the News Express, in the fictional Southern California town of Las Piernas, investigates some serious crime. One of Irene's flaws, unfortunately, is stubbornness which borders on the extreme. As intelligent as she is, she frequently acts on impulse and winds up doing what she has been specifically told not to do, often with life-threatening results. Frank Harriman, a homicide detective with La Piernas Police Department, is Irene's boyfriend and emotional support system.

Jacob Henderson, teenaged son of a district attorney candidate, comes to Irene claiming his father's opponent intends to use smear tactics and claim he is involved in a Satanic cult. A photograph was taken of the boy at a coven gathering, but he was there to convince a young girl, his friend Gethsemane (Sammy), to leave with him. Irene talks to the troubled girl, who substantiates Jacob's story. She tells the reporter that the cult is Wiccan, not Satanist. There are disturbing signs of cult activity in town, most of which seem to have a connection to a local runway shelter, which is sponsored by Frank's neighbor and dear friend, 80 year-old Althea Fremont. That same evening, Halloween, Mrs. Fremont is murdered and Satanic ritual symbols are left on her door. Irene begins to suspect there is more to this coven than meets the eye. Then Sammy disappears and a human heart is left on Irene's doorstep. Danger to Irene escalates when there are no indications she will back-off the case. This is a darker, edgier novel then the previous one, with some grim, brutal torture scenes. To come out of this alive, Irene will have to face-down the devil.

"Sweet Dreams, Irene" is non-stop drama, thrills and chills. However, the narrative is not as taut as I expected it to be, having read two of the author's other books. The primary focus here is on Irene's relationship with Frank - which I actually enjoy. They are both fascinating, well developed characters and the chemistry between them is electric. As usual, Ms. Burke surrounds Irene with a number of interesting and memorable friends and family members, characters who add to the depth and richness of the novel. Our heroine does less investigating than usual here, and, more or less, stumbles into trouble and onto clues rather than initiating the action. This is novel #2 in the series, and the author is just beginning to develop the background storyline and characters. Her writing becomes much tighter, and her plots more well defined, in future books. But this one is well worth the read - so don't miss it.
JANA

Slickly written.......2004-06-07

This is the second volume in the Irene Kelly/Frank Harrison series .Set as previously in California the book involves newspaperwoman Irene Kelly in shady politics and smear campaigns .She is approached by the 16 year old son of a DA candidate a personable young man who is being wrongly accused of involvement in a Satanic cult .He was present at a meeting of such a group but was seeking to persuade a friend to leave the meeting .The friend in question is Sally a homeless girl who has taken refuge from an unsatisactory home life by running away and is currently living in a shelter for street kids .This is run by Irene's neighbour the kindly Mrs Fremont who is brutally slain in a mannner suggesting Satanic involvemnet .
Soon after Sally is also killed and the reasons are linked to her diary which contains revelations .Before the case is resolved Irene is kidnapped and beaten by two thugs Devon and Raney -and some will find these scenes rather strong meat .
The captivity scenes are quite harrowing and tend to distoirt the novel somewhat .

Its a decent enough book but somewhat clumsily structured -the identity of the killer is revealed with about a quarter of the book remaining while the revelation of the man behind all the violence comes as no great suprise
There is rather too much time given to the familial troubles of Irene's lover the cop Frank Harrison ,in particular his mother's resisitance to the relationship but a lively sea bound climax brings thinks to a satisfactory ending

It marks no real advance on its predecessor but those who enjoyed that book will enjoy this volume too.

Miles ahead.......2004-02-03

This one is miles ahead of "Goodnight Irene," though I liked that one as well. It's just that the author has matured somewhat and so has the style. At any rate, "Sweet Dreams" is another in the "Irene" series and well worth the time and money you invest in it. Highly recommended--it's a fun read.

Customer Reviews:

Sweet Dreams.......2002-04-06

I loved the illistrations they are excelent for keeping the little ones attention. Beautiful pictures and loved the story.

Book Description

By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.

Customer Reviews:

enough to fire your enthusiasm.......2006-08-09

I read this book as a new science teacher, and it made me realise that all research and teaching can be enlivened by the characters that populate the scientific world. It certainly is not just for academics. I recommend this to everybody - I loved every page. Both Watson and Crick were insufferably arrogant, loud, ostentatious, obnoxious - but it allows the reader to see that enthusiasm and shear pushiness gets places. One sees the boundries set in academic research, and understands also the content of their work. A MUST read. As relevent today as in 1968.

a favorite........2006-05-25

this is easily one of my favorite books. some dislike it for watson's dramatization of certain social elements in the story, and for the way in which crick and watson made their discovery. but i think the book should be appreciated as a text which makes science more accessible to the general public. and perhaps most impressive is how watson does manage to include some science in a way which i think will not distract the lay reader, or bore him.

take it with a grain of salt.......2005-11-24

While James Watson is not on the list of authors I'd generally recommend reading, this book is an exception. Those interested in the history of molecular biology should definitely read this book. Given the nature of the topic, it is light and enjoyable reading. Certainly this account is biased to some extent, which makes it necessary to read other books on the topic as well. Further reading on Francis Crick and Rosalind Franklin, among other personalities mentioned in the Double Helix, are highly recommended, and necessary for fair balance.

2 Helix as 1.......2005-11-23

The Double Helix was a one of the books on my high school biology teacher's reading list for the class. The name itself, The Double Helix, had shied me away from reading it; it sounds like some boring old book that will describe the structure of DNA in some very big and boring words. However, after finally reading the book, I completely changed my thoughts on this book. I found the novel to be an easy and exciting to read in an almost fictious hero-like story.
Watson's story is not just a mere account of the events that occurred, but it also contains many of his personal thoughts and views of the events. Watson's purpose for writing The Double Helix was to explain that scientific research was a combination of "the contradictory pulls of ambition and the sense of fair play." Watson involves the reader in the "race" of the DNA structure with Linus Pauling and in the underhanded use of Rosalind Franklin's X-ray data. I, like many others, was sucked into the thrill of Watson's first-hand account of this dishonest race. During many points in the course of the novel, I was anxiously waiting to turn the page to see what Watson or Crick might do next. As Sir Lawrence Bragg puts it in the foreword, "I do not know any other instance where one is able to share so intimately in the researcher's struggle and doubts and final triumph."
The Double Helix was not only a good read, but also it has reinvigorated my spirit in the field of research, especially the active field of genetics. My first year of college courses in chemistry and biology had began to turn me away from research in particular areas, for the courses just did not seem to interest me anymore. However, this book has provided me with a new avenue into the exciting world and life of scientific research; I am again looking forward to going into the genetic research field.
I observed a very interesting point in the book, which is that all the data and diagrams that were discussed throughout the novel are also taught in our chemistry classes; it is in this fact that I find science's beauty, that only 50 years ago this data was used to solve the structure of a totally unknown molecule/idea and is now taught in elementary chemistry classes.
The Double Helix is an exceptional novel that I recommend to all.

A dishonourment to Rosalind Franklin's memory.......2005-11-18

This book is an innaccurate version of events in the the discovery of teh structure of DNA. What most people don't know is that Rosalind Franklin was crucial to the discovery of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick actually stole most of her data via Wilson, her supervisor, adn passed it off as their own discoverery. She was a brilliant scientist and should have been an independent researcher at Kings College, but because she was a woman she was made an assistant to Wilson. She was extremely dedicated and plowed through all the obstacles at Kings College. However, her supervisor, Wilson, showed most of her data to his old friend Crick, who shared it with his partner Watson. They too were studying DNA, although they were on completely wrong track. The data that was pilfered included the famous photo 51, which Franklin obtained over a course of years' work and revealed the spiral shape of DNA. They also positioned the competent of DNA, such as the bases, exactly as she hypothesized. Watson, Crick, and Wilson received the Nobel Prize, while Franklin could not, because she died at the age of 38 due to radiation exposure from the X-rays she used to capture photo 51. The men only mentioned her in passing when accepting their prize, and definitely not as the source of the actual discovery. Then Watson had the gall to write a book that casts her in a horrible light, as an inferior person who was bad tempered and selfishly hoarded her information. He also calls her `Rosy' throughout the entire book, although she despised that name. He once even went up to Rosalind and demanded that she hand over her data. He was a complete bigot, and thought her inferior and was furious when she refused to share her own findings to him. He harps about her appearance in the book, and it is obvious that is the only way he perceives her, and not as a thinking person. And for the record, she was actually quite striking, and wore the latest in French fashions. She was extremely dedicated, and her level of determination would have been completely accepted in a man. That's why I give this book a one, and if I could I'd give it a zero. Watson is just begging for comeuppance for what he wrote in this book. I would reccomend reading other books about Rosalind's struggle, such as 'Rosalind Franklin: The dark lady of DNA'

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (Norton Critical Editions)

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DNA discovery
The drama behind the DNA
Understated Account of a Really Big Event
The Double Helix

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (Norton Critical Editions)
James D. Watson
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0393950751

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"Science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders," writes James Watson in The Double Helix, his account of his codiscovery (along with Francis Crick) of the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick won Nobel Prizes for their work, and their names are memorized by biology students around the world. But as in all of history, the real story behind the deceptively simple outcome was messy, intense, and sometimes truly hilarious. To preserve the "real" story for the world, James Watson attempted to record his first impressions as soon after the events of 1951-1953 as possible, with all their unpleasant realities and "spirit of adventure" intact.

Watson holds nothing back when revealing the petty sniping and backbiting among his colleagues, while acknowledging that he himself was a willing participant in the melodrama. In particular, Watson reveals his mixed feelings about his famous colleague in discovery, Francis Crick, who many thought of as an arrogant man who talked too much, and whose brilliance was appreciated by few. This is the joy of The Double Helix--instead of a chronicle of stainless-steel heroes toiling away in their sparkling labs, Watson's chronicle gives readers an idea of what living science is like, warts and all. The Double Helix is a startling window into the scientific method, full of insight and wit, and packed with the kind of science anecdotes that are told and retold in the halls of universities and laboratories everywhere. It's the stuff of legends. --Therese Littleton

Book Description

The classic personal account of one of the great scientific discoveries of the century.

By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a brilliant young zoologist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science's greatest unsolved mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick's desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of the life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. He is impressed by the achievements of the young man he was, but clear-eyed about his limitations. Never has such a brilliant scientist also been so gifted, and so truthful, in capturing in words the flavor of his work.

Customer Reviews:

Which edition to get ?.......2007-04-18

I ended up getting copies of two different paperback editions.

The Simon & Schuster Touchstone Book, with a little bit of an introduction by Sylvia Nasar, has easy-to-read print and the photographs are pleasantly large. Good for reading in the subway.

But the Norton Critical edition, edited by Gunther S. Stent, is the one to get if you can only afford one. Its typeface leaves much to be desired, and, in my copy, some of the pages are hard to read because the printer seems to have run out of ink in the middle of the job. But the edition has materials that are indispensable for an understanding of this classic work of science. I enjoyed, most of all, Stent's essay "reviewing the reviews," showing both the wisdom (by some) and the foolishness (by others) with which the Double Helix was received by the scientific community.

DNA discovery.......2007-03-18

Excellent book formulating the personalities and egos behind the race for DNA. Interesting and well written. Add a star if you are in the field.

The drama behind the DNA.......2007-03-09

I read this as a requirement for a class but actually found it interesting. It show the human sides to the people behing the discovery of DNA and exposes the drama and gossip going on. It also shows just how difficult it was and is to be a woman scientist (Rosalind's story).
It is a short book, an easy read, I recommend it.

Understated Account of a Really Big Event.......2002-11-08

Clarification is in order. First of all, this is not a substantive science book. For all the significance of the discovery it chronicles, The Double Helix never bothers to explain how, for example, x-ray crystallography actually works, or what the difference between a keto- and an -enol is, or even why Watson's and Crick's discovery brought on a new era in the life sciences. Aspiring students of genetics and molecular biology are urged to inquire elsewhere for answers to these questions.

Second, to label The Double Helix a book on scientific method is almost equally misleading - the reason being that there is no room in the rarefied formalism extolled by the likes of Karl Popper for Watson's subjectivity and sarcasm, not to mention the latter's frequent excursions on nubile au pairs and the deplorable student housing market at Cambridge.

Third (not that it matters for an appreciation of the book, but it's a common misunderstanding), Watson and Crick did not discover DNA itself, or even the function of DNA. Rather, they were awarded the Nobel Prize for solving the molecular structure of DNA.

With those clarifications in mind, The Double Helix is a profitable read. Watson shows us non-scientists that the practice of science is "just" another human endeavor, and not some remote, sterilized activity conducted by emotional eunuchs in white coats. Watson's first-person narrative is downright conversational, as if he's talking shop over a pint of stout in an English pub. He is unabashedly honest about both his ambitions and his naivete (he was only 23 at the time the events in the book took place). And his sometimes scathing portrayals of his colleagues - in all their brilliance and banality - give the impression that working in a world-class research facility is a lot like working anywhere else.

Francis Crick comes across as that certain guy we all knew in college (wherever and whenever that was) - impish and boisterous, egocentric but big-hearted, who might be dapper if he didn't sleep in his clothes, whose eccentricity is the bane of faculty advisors, whose attention is everywhere but on task, whose breath sometimes smells like beer after lunch, and whose serendipitous genius comes through at all the right times. The supporting cast is equally colorful: Maurice Wilkins, the quintessential English academic stuffed corpse; Rosalind Franklin, a Freudian caricature of icy feminine competence in a man's world; the godlike Linus Pauling playing with his tinker toy molecular models in California.

And it wasn't just his colleagues who made Watson's work interesting. There were the aforementioned au pairs, the pubs and the parties and the formal receptions, there was the professional competitiveness between the English and the Americans - with Watson (a Yank in Cambridge) more of an American insurance policy against the Brits getting all the credit for solving DNA if Pauling wasn't fast enough. And there was the Cold War, which had an impact on research priorities and, sometimes, hampered communication in the scientific community.

But most importantly - although Watson never deigns to make this point explicit - The Double Helix is a fascinating chronicle of the scientific method in action, notwithstanding the politics, the distractions, and the idiosyncrasies of the protagonists. The task itself was daunting. Watson and Crick already knew what DNA was composed of, and they knew with some certainty the proportions in which the bases were represented, but there could only be one correct way to put all the pieces together and the haystack was a big one. The researchers were quick to offer and to accept criticism, and false leads were abandoned without regard to ego or sunk time. Even though each wanted to get there first, London shared their findings with Cambridge, Cambridge shared their insights with London, and England and California held nothing from each other for long - admirable examples of the "sociable competition" of science that expedites discovery.

In the end, Watson's and Crick's success relied heavily on Wilkins's and Franklin's crystallography, with important contributions from whomever happened to stop by the lab during the two year period, and insights from conferences and the textbooks and articles Watson happened to read at the time. Creativity, serendipity, and openness to the ideas of others eventually yielded hypotheses, which were tested using Pauling's modeling methods. It could not have been done alone, as Watson makes clear, and the structure of DNA would have been discovered sooner or later. While ultimately it doesn't matter who gets the credit for the discovery, the world seems a better place for James Watson's being involved, if only because The Double Helix is such an entertaining read.

The Double Helix.......2002-10-29

The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA written by James D. Watson is a rather engaging with a easily readable down to earth style book on the discovery of the structure of DNA. James D. Watson and Francis Crick worked on the structure of DNA, as did other of the time L. Pauling and R. Franklin were hot on the heals of Watson and Crick.

This is the story of how they made history, a story by a scientist about scientists, this is a superbly human tale of how a very unusual 23 year old American saw his chance for scientific immortality and set out to seize it.

If you like reading about about discovery and how it was done, then you'll like this book. Written in a folksy mannor, this is a book that is thrilling as you get to experience the discovery firsthand. Here you'll read about observation, the suspense of making this discovery before others and the mounting tension associated with science. You'll feel Watson's brilliance come through the narrative, his frank tone mixed with humor all making this a fast read, but never boring.

You'll be transported back to college, Cambridge, off to London and Paris, experience things like wine, movies, and girls, but you'll feel the undertone of scientific politics at its finest. This is a very entertaining book about the beautiful experience of making a great scientific discovery.

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The double helix: A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA
James D Watson
Manufacturer: Weidenfeld and Nicolson
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA

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The Double Helix...a Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James D. Watson
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H3JDI0

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The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
James D. Watson
Manufacturer: Atheneum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B0007FM7A4

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Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of Dna
James D. Watson
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Double Helix: a personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA
JAMES D WATSON
Manufacturer: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORXK88

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The double helix: A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA
James D Watson
Manufacturer: Readers Union
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Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006DBHFI

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The Double Helix: a Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of Dna

Manufacturer: new American Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HJOHEE

Customer Reviews:

Strange and Wonderful..........2006-01-22

The minority report is a great book if you like short science fiction. Phillip Dick is one of the masters of the genre. Dick also wrote the stories for Blade Runner and Total Recall in case you didn't know. The title story [made into the Tom Cruise movie] is only a small part of this collection. Frankly, the story has a slightly different ending, and in my opinion, more conceptually pleasing. What I enjoyed about this book is that there are lots of stories. Some are hits, and some are misses, but all of them illustrate Dick's ability to create worlds and characters that are flawed and believable. There are no clear-cut heroes in the stories - they often have ulterior motives. The one common thread running through all of his works is that they are strange. It is almost as if his mind worked differently than the rest of the human races. He sees things, and has ideas that are so complex and innovative that it baffles the mind that people like Dan Brown gain fame for the Da Vinci Code, and Phillip Dick died Poor, and largely unrecognized outside a small group of science fiction fans. If you want the challenge yourself, and expand your mind, buy this book and give his writings a chance.

Relic113

One of Phillip K. Dick's better collections of short stories.......2005-06-18

The Minority Report is volume four of the collected shorts of the late, and very great, Phillip K. Dick. This collection spans his writing period between 1954 and 1964, but you may be surprised at how up to date the feel of Dick's fiction is. In spite of their age, these stories have maintained a freshness that can only be found with excellent human characterizations nestled inside technical sci-fi.

Along with the short, The Minority Report, which the 2002 Spielberg movie starring Tom Cruise was based upon, there are many other strange treats in store for your science fiction palate. Here are a few of my favorites:

Autofac, where a post-war network insists on running the world for the good of the citizens. The Mold Of Yancy, a lovely yarn about a seemingly harmless autocrat on an outer colony. The Unreconstructed M, where murder comes in small, shifty boxes. Explorers We, a never-ending cycle of hopes dashed. War Game, the harmless, or not so harmless, tactics of market domination. What The Dead Men Say, exploring a world where half-life after death is expected. Oh, To Be A Blobel digests the aftereffects of infiltrating the enemy's forces by changing appearances. And my favorite, The Days Of Perky Pat, where survivors of the last great war fight their battles with dollhouses.

I believe that this is one of Dick's better collections, so if you are hankering for some good, old-fashioned sci-fi that will let you kick back into the future, pick up The Minority report, and Enjoy!

TOC:
AutoFac
Service Call
Captive Market
The Mold Of Yancy
The Minority Report
Recall Mechanism
The Unreconstructed M
Explorers We
War Game
If There Were No Benny Cemoli
Novelty Act
WaterSpider
What The Dead Men Say
Orpheus With Clay Feet
The Days Of Perky Pat
Stand-By
What'll We Do With Ragland Park?
Oh, To Be A Blobel

Enjoy the book!

Interesting--to say the least.......2003-07-16

This was my first introduction to PKD, and although all the stories aren't the best they do entertain. My biggest complaint is many of the stories overlap in odd ways, and in turn make them feel a tad repetative. An example is the pre-cog (used for full effect in 'Minority Report') is brought up in numerous other stories although these stories take place in alternate futures. Dick seems almost obsessed with a nuclear fallout future, and although some of these stories are interesting, many are just dull.

I enjoyed the stories as a whole, and recommend them to anyone who enjoys looking into the art of the short story and the mind of PKD.

Dick the Revelator.......2002-06-21

A decade ago, Philip K. Dick's complete short stories were published as a five volume series. Prospective buyers should note that this is simply a reissue of the fourth of those five volumes. It isn't a "best of" short story collection; you get the brilliant along with stories tossed off to keep bread on the table. It's still worth four stars. (The fifth volume is also particularly worth owning, and all five are still in print on backorder.)

You can't compare Philip K. Dick to any other science fiction writer. About the only other author he can be fairly compared to at all is Franz Kafka - but a workingman's Kafka, shorn of all pretension or artiness. All his heros are the same besieged everyman as K., wrestling with elusive metaphysics, impossible transformations, a cosmic bureaucracy, and a dysfunctional society - but also with overdue rent bills, insistent advertising, and messy divorces.

Precogs show up in many of Philip K. Dick's works, but Dick himself was not particularly in the prediction business. Nearly every world he created, large (in his novels) or small (in stories like these) was a future dystopia. But whereas the dystopias of other sf writers make you shudder and think, "Yes, it could be like that... If Things Go On," Dick's have a different flavor, a different kind of immediacy.

And the reason for that is, that Philip K. Dick was not so much a science fiction writer as a prophet. He showed us a future that mirrored the present so faithfully that he could convince us of what he always felt - that dystopia is already here; apocalypse is already here. All you have to do (the original meaning of apocalypse) is tear away the veils.

Many people are going to take a fresh interest in Mr. Dick's writings because of the movie Minority Report. For them, I give this advice: go first to his novels (some of the best ones are "Ubik", "A Scanner Darkly", "Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch", "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"). You have to immerse yourself in his world to grasp where he's coming from, and short stories don't give you room to do that. The novels do.

For those who already know his stuff, this book is a treat. Besides the great title story, you'll see the seeds of several of his novels here ("Palmer Eldritch" prefigured in "Days of Perky Pat", "Simulacrum" in "The Mold of Yancy", and "Ubik" in "What the Dead Men Say").

Unbelievable.......2002-05-27

Although these are not necessarily Philip K. Dick's best short works, they are necessary reading for every fan. As the writer in the introduction says, the reason I read PKD is because he has that oddest and most unique of all virtues in a writer - strangeness. You'll be hard-pressed to find stories stranger than this anywhere. As PKD himself says in the notes section at the end of the book, he often sold his stories to the flexible SF magazine Galaxy, as the more famous Astounding and its editor, John W. Campbell, considered his stories "nuts." Also, this notes section is very interesting for other reasons: it becomes apparent in reading them that these stories have much deeper meanings than they at first appear to have. It is quite entertaining enough to read them for their sure strangeness - you will laugh out loud often reading PKD - mostly at the dialogue, which you'll be hard-pressed to determine whether it is entirely unreal, or more real than most. However, deeper and more profound themes were always resonating at the bottom of the well of Philip K. Dick's stories. Although he was quite consistent and extremely prolific with his writings, some of his stories were definitely better than others. Still, everything the man ever wrote is worth reading. This particular collection contains some of his best - and most interesting - shorter works. Covering the period from 1954-1964, we get such classic stories as The Minority Report, an all-time classic SF story; The Unreconstructed M, a dramatic story of spine-tingling SF suspense; and many others - classic stories, profound stories, and just plain weird stories. This is some of the best science fiction published since the Golden Age of Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov. Essential reading for any fan of science fiction, or of off-kilter writing in general.

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Minority Report & Other Classic Stories
Philip K Dick
Manufacturer: CITADEL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000Q2W0AK

The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick

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The Minority Report and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Manufacturer: Citadel/ Kensington
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ASIN: B000LNJDZO

Minority Report and Other Classic Stories, The

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Minority Report and Other Classic Stories, The

Manufacturer: Citadel Press
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ASIN: B000HM5T3Y

Book Description

"This is a powerful documentary of a movement whose greatest visibility was in the barrios and inside the church, where the least history is known, where much uncovering has to be accomplished in order for the Chicano community to begin to know its own Catholic history."

—Rodolfo Rosales, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Texas at San Antonio

From the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the 1960s, Mexican American Catholics experienced racism and discrimination within the U.S. Catholic church, as white priests and bishops maintained a racial divide in all areas of the church's ministry. To oppose this religious apartheid and challenge the church to minister fairly to all of its faithful, a group of Chicano priests formed PADRES (Padres Asociados para Derechos Religiosos, Educativos y Sociales, or Priests Associated for Religious, Educational, and Social Rights) in 1969. Over the next twenty years of its existence, PADRES became a powerful force for change within the Catholic church and for social justice within American society.

This book offers the first history of the founding, activism, victories, and defeats of PADRES. At the heart of the book are oral history interviews with the founders of PADRES, who describe how their ministries in poor Mexican American parishes, as well as their own experiences of racism and discrimination within and outside the church, galvanized them into starting and sustaining the movement. Richard Martínez traces the ways in which PADRES was inspired by the Chicano movement and other civil rights struggles of the 1960s and also probes its linkages with liberation theology in Latin America. He uses a combination of social movement theory and organizational theory to explain why the group emerged, flourished, and eventually disbanded in 1989.

PADRES: THE NATIONAL CHICANO PRIEST MOVEMENT

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PADRES: THE NATIONAL CHICANO PRIEST MOVEMENT

Manufacturer: University of Texas Press Austin, TX
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IA03LI

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