Book Description
David Benioff burst onto the literary scene with The 25th Hour, a debut praised by Janet Maslin of The New York Times for its “pungent, funny urban tableau full of shrewd operators and unfulfilled desires.”
Now, with When the Nines Roll Over, Benioff uses humor and rich characterizations to explore the sometimes thrilling, sometimes pathetic state of the American urban male. Over the course of eight stories, some with an appealing touch of the surreal, we are introduced to a faded football star, soldiers in a Russian winter, a punk rocker, and other young men on the cusp of discovery and loss. As he evokes the various states of agony and pleasure—humiliation, rebellion, camaraderie, and desire— Benioff displays a profound understanding of the contemporary male psyche. With its knowing, often amusing stories, When the Nines Roll Over confirms the promise of a gifted writer emerging as a storytelling force.
Customer Reviews:
An Overlooked Collection of Short Stories.......2005-06-21
A writer friend of mine has a completed novel and a collection of short stories to his credit. He believes the novel is "not bad" but his heart and soul can be found in his short story collection. While he believes his novel will not have too many problems being published, he has less hope for his short story collection. The popular theory in the world of publishing is that short story collections do not capture the reader's attention and the market is very limited. Short story collections do not get the attention or press they often deserve and David Benioff's WHEN THE NINES ROLL OVER & OTHER STORIES is a case in point. This is a great collection of well written and captivating stories but it has hardly received the attention it deserves.
Benioff, who is known for his novel THE 25TH HOUR, his adaptations of books for film (he is currently working on a screen version of THE KITE RUNNER), gives us eight short stories that can engage a reader. The stories are varied and include tales about a recording exec who falls in love with a punk rocker, a man who searches for a girl he met briefly who mesmerized him in high school, a man who is battling AIDS and the moral implications of being a part of a research study as well as other beautifully told tales. Benioff's gifts as a writer are evident throughout, but his ability to create distinct voices in his main characters and tell eight very distinct stories is amazing.
Since Benioff is a young writer, we are certain to be hearing more from him in the years to come, or at least I hope we hear more form him in the future. He has a gift for writing and a voice that is certain to entertain and challenge readers.
Each story is a new suprise!.......2005-05-17
I generally do not enjoy short stories and abhor authors who write a collection of short stories after sucess with a novel. However, David Benioff's When The Nines Roll Over is an excellent collection of short stories. I couldn't put the book down and it is the only book of short stories that I own! Benioff is a master story teller who tantalizes the reader and intrigues you so that you have to finish the story in one sitting. Each story provokes some thought as well as discussion. Many authors short stories are a collection of the same themes and at times seem as though they are the run-on thoughts of the author. This is not true in When the Nines Roll Over, as all the stories vary in theme, setting and have a great diversity of characters to keep one entertained for hours. My personal favorite is The Devil Comes to Orekhovo and I still mull over it now and then! Each story is diversely entertaining and I give this work two thumbs up!!
A Diverse Collection.......2005-05-12
Short stories, by their very nature, do not often lend themselves to detailed character development or complex plot. This book of short stories by David Benioff is no exception. Most of the stories provide brief glimpses into fractured pieces of lives: "Zoanthropy" is the story of a young man whose father, a fabled big game hunter, has come to Manhattan to dispatch one of the lions that periodically roams the city; "De Composition" has as its main character a man who has built a bomb shelter in his backyard and is now in residence, pending the destruction of civilization; "When the Nines Roll Over" concerns a rock band, its drummer, and a female singer.
One story in the collection, however, "The Devil Comes to Orekhovo", is a stand-out. Set in Chechnya, it centers around three Russian soldiers, sent to secure a mansion thought to be an outpost for Chechen rebels. At thirty-six pages, it is the longest, and most developed, story in the collection.
Sex, Lies & Short Stories.......2005-03-09
The short story is underappreciated in our culture so I am always glad to see a new collection published. They are efficient, enjoyable and quickly concluded - intellectual "self -pleasuring," of sorts. Benioff seems to understand this and his stories provide maximum punch with minimal effort by the reader. And like all great short story collections a central theme threads itself across all the stories, creating an illusion of continuity without the 350-page commitment. Whether it's a rock star in search of fame, a man in search of love, or an actress in search of an identity all of Benioff's characters live exactly in the frayed edges of life; the blurred line between reality and fantasy. His stories have the quirky quality of Augusten Burroughs without the homosexuality and the surreal quality of Andre Dubus without all that boring Catholic guilt.
My favorite is "Zoanthropy." The story of a father and son, a sick lion roaming the streets of New York City and the "Greatest Lover on the East Coast, not counting Florida." The plot in the hands of a lesser writer would seem implausible. But Benioff's straightforward, unapologetic writing style carefully glides the reader along until you are left wondering in the end if the lion really does exists or, as the title suggests, was simply a metaphor for the boy's dysfunctional relationship with his father and his own lack of sexual prowess. Good writing allows for interpretation. So, either way, the story works brilliantly.
So for you who are commitment phobic, who look at a novel and see a long-term relationship, the short story is your salvation. The literary equivalent of the perfect one-night stand. I recommend buying this book and keeping it on your bedside table - you won't be disappointed.
An Outstanding Collection.......2005-02-02
I first read Benioff a few years ago in "All-Story" magazine, where three of the stories in this book first appeared (they are actually available online at All Story's site for those interested in sampling his writing). I then read and loved his novel "The 25th Hour", and so am glad to get my hands on this collection of eight stories. There aren't that many young American writers whose work excites me, but Benioff is certainly one of them (Mark Jude Poirier and John McNally are two others). His prose is clear and crisp, without the affectation or self-consciousness one finds in so much coming out these days. The stories collected here show a nice range of subject matter and tone, ranging from pure realism to slight surrealism, but almost all contain threads of loss, disappointment, and forlorn hope. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay to the stories, is that even though I didn't connect with some of them, I still loved reading them.
The opening (and title) story, is one of these, following a record label A&R man (essentially a high-end scout) who pursues a talented punk girl and spirits her away to Los Angeles and out of the life of her drummer boyfriend. It felt a little old-fashioned in a lot of ways. Do record label execs still act like that? Are they really that interested in transforming punk chicks into superstars? But it did nicely capture that moment in relationships when one person has moved on to bigger and presumably better things, and their lover just doesn't fit in the picture any more. Another story, "The Garden of No", is very similar thematically, only here it's a waitress turned television actress, and the man is a short-order cook.
Misfiring romance figures prominently in three other stories as well. "Barefoot Girl in Clover" tells of a 30ish man who tries to track down a girl he hung out with for a day as a teenager. "Neversink" is about a New York couple and the aftermath of their breakup. In "Merde For Luck", a gay man recounts his last relationship from beginning to grim end. What's interesting is that in all three of these stories, the narrator is either missing a crucial piece of information or operating under some major misconception. This allows Benioff to set each up for a major fall late in the story, when all is revealed. The lesson seems to be that if women don't betray you, life will find a way to.
The three other stories are a little harder to categorize. "The Devil Comes to Orekhovo" is a great story with a very traditional feel to it. It follows three Russian soldiers on patrol in Chechnya as they scout out a house that may or may not contain Chechen separatists. Benioff brilliantly captures the unease and awkwardness of the youngest, rawest soldier, as the older men mock him and eventually put him to a nasty test. It deserves a place with Tolstoy and Lermontov's stories of the Russian experience in the Caucuses. "Zoanthropy" is a strange story about a young man whose father is called in to shoot lions when they appear in New York. It left me kind of blah, but again, I enjoyed reading it. Finally, "De Composition", is a Twilight Zone-inspired take on a man locked into a bunker with his computer following some kind of global cataclysm. Felt a little derivative, but nicely done with a clever ending.
On the whole, this is a very strong collection of stories. Hopefully Benioff can find time away from the lucrative world of screenwriting to write another novel.
Book Description
In a stunning follow-up to the breakthrough success of The Perfect Family, bestselling author Patricia Potter turns her talents to the intrigue and romance of the military.
Long ago, in the waning years of World War II, a Nazi train was captured by Allies. Its cargo, a fortune in stolen art and gold dust, vanished. Today, two strangers are about to become engulfed in its tantalizing mystery...an unexpected passion...and inescapable peril.
"A master storyteller." (Debbie Macomber)
"Potter writes romantic adventure like nobody else." (Joan Johnson)
Customer Reviews:
Plot was fine, characterization totally missing.......2002-12-02
There was nothing wrong with the plot of this book, but the characters were no more than cardboard stereotypes, and only the love story between Dusty and Sally was anywhere enjoyable. They, at least, seemed to have a little depth to them. Way too long considering the lack of character development.
Good read........2002-03-30
I recommend this one. It has a good plot and memorable characters. Enjoy.
Danger, intrigue and attempted murder.......2001-12-27
In the waning years of World War II, American soldiers stop a Nazi train bearing the stolen loot of art, gold and jewelry. The treasures vanish and the paper trail, some fifty years later, seems to have vanished with it. Now a Presidential Advisory Commission looking into the Holocaust assets announces that three of its generals are among those suspected of the treasure's disappearance. All three generals are deceased, but the implications threaten their grandchildren.
Irish Flaherty has made a career of remaining coolly aloof in his role in the Army CID as a lieutenant colonel. His father and grandfather instilled his patriotic duty and belief in honor. He intends to prove that his grandfather had nothing to do with the theft. Irish begins a quiet investigation, inadvertently escalating the danger to himself and others. When his investigation leads to Amy, he vows to protect her, despite her rebuffs.
Amy Mallory teaches advanced American history at prestigious Memphis college. She's far more concerned with her upcoming tenure hearing than she is with the clipping from the newspaper about her grandfather. She knows he would never have done something unethical. Now someone wants her dead, committing arson to her home and shooting her when she goes to the university to retrieve several boxes of her grandfather's papers. She can't imagine what those boxes could contain that someone would kill for.
Assistant to the deputy Secretary of Sate Dustin Eachan knew the story was coming, and hoped it would be lost or ignored. His fast track career may easily be derailed by the actions of his grandfather. He warns his cousin Sally to hide a painting they know was part of the treasure, and sends her into hiding as danger approaches. Somewhat protected from danger by his governmental position, he know his weakness is Sally, the cousin he can never marry.
Patricia Potter pens an addictive mystery in BROKEN HONOR that is impossible to put it down. Indeed, BROKEN HONOR blends a carefully detailed mystery with a heated romance, making perfect winter reading. As the suspense builds, readers will be left guessing as to identity of the pursuer, but it'll be the end before the bad guy's identified. Further, Potter's meticulous attention to detail ties off all the loose strings and leaves readers immensely satisfied with the conclusion. In addition, the secondary plot involving cousins provides strong friction, with plenty of intrigue and suspicion. With entrancing characterizations, this intriguing novel belongs on the keeper shelf, and comes very highly recommended.
romance and mystery fans will enjoy.......2001-12-27
In 1945 Austria, American soldiers stop a Nazi train loaded with stolen art, gold and jewelry. General Sam Flaherty has his men catalogue the booty while expecting General Mallory to find a storage area for the valuable loot.
In 2000 Colorado, Lieutenant Colonel Irish Flaherty is stunned by the newspaper account that a Presidential Advisory Commission looking into missing Holocaust treasures names his grandfather as a potential thief. Irish cannot believe his mentor who taught him about honor, duty, and country would do such a deed. Irish decides to prove the innocence of his grandfather and begins making inquiries that take him to Professor Amy Mallory. She also believes her grandfather would never dishonor his uniform.
The third grandchild of the posthumously accused generals, Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State Dustin Eachan knows that his hopes for the top job ended with this story. He informs his cousin to hide a painting that is on the inventory list though he believes that his grandfather is innocent of any real looting.
All three descendants are impacted by the crimes of five decades ago, but o make matters worse, someone wants the trio and anyone close to them dead.
Though romantic intrigue readers will relish Patricia Potter's latest novel, BROKEN HONOR, mystery fans will cherish the tale just as much. The characters are realistic, especially their varying reactions to the media release of the theft. Readers will struggle to ascertain whom the villain is while rooting for the trio to save the reputations of their ancestors. Ms. Potter has written a great story that will gain her a wealth of new fans.
(...)
Average customer rating:
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Broken Trust: A Matter of Honor
Victor Robert Arditti , and
Jim Allen
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Legal | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1413715567 |
Book Description
Randy Allridge never imagined that he would fall in love with a beautiful girl, whose talent and ingenuity would involve him in one of the largest bank fraud trust cases of the century. Only three months after matriculation, Randy's favorite and extremely wealthy Aunt Sarah has a stroke, placing her in Bellevue Hospital's ICU ward. As she is unable to speak or move due to her paralysis, the bank and its accomplices secretly move her to an undisclosed hospital in New York City. By the time Randy is notified of her serious condition, the bank has unlawfully proceeded in disposing of all her properties. Randy, not knowing what to do, turns to his girlfriend, JJ, for help. Randy, JJ and her mentors file suit against the bank and trust department, uncovering countless fraudulent transactions against other widow beneficiaries as well. Their lawsuit becomes a class action, which includes other widows who have also been conned of their properties.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Read.......2004-07-17
Broken Trust is a gripping tale of good vrs evil, based on a complete understanding of the law and courtroom proceedures on the part of both authors.
The young law students and their professors from Texas triumph over heavy odds in the big city. There is also a great element of romance.
Product Description
When she was saved, Vanessa L. Jones was told that when she got saved, her hands would be new, so would her feet, and everything would be just great! But she found that not to be true.
Have you ever wondered why certain things happen to you? Did you know everything that happens to you from the time you are born affects you? The way you are loved when you are a child or abused can be with you for the rest of your life!
This book is a true story (although the names have been changed), a daily journal of the things that happened to Vanessa Jones and how they affected her life. You will be amazed that in this day and time someone can be so transparent. In this book you will see the power of God at work...even in times of pain. You will see how God took a cracked, broken, shattered woman and made her into a vessel of honor.
Average customer rating:
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Love, Honor, and Obey: Broken Vows
Yolanda, Atkins Cotton
Manufacturer: Wheatmark
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Christian Living | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1587366282 |
Book Description
Most people consider marriage to be sacred. When they speak their wedding vows, they believe those vows will never be broken. Then why are so many marriages falling apart?
Yolanda Atkins Cotton laid that question on God's altar when her own marriage was in trouble. The answer that came back to her was this: until we as one receive Jesus as our husbandman, as our sacred friend, and as our sacred lover, we will never be able to walk in unity with one another as a whole.
In Love, Honor, and Obey: Broken Vows, Yolanda speaks frankly about what she has learned from her marital difficulties and her conversations with God. Her messageâthat it is possible to forgive one another's transgressions if you remain faithful to the Lordâwill inspire any Christians who are committed to making their marriages work.
Product Description
A sequel to Cracked, Broken, Shattered...Vessel of Honor, Book 1: Birth to Bahamas, this book details author Vanessa Joness life of going through a wedding and then a divorce. She honestly records the feelings that she encountered while going through her ordeals. This book picks up after her return from the Bahamas and continues on through the divorce. She details her encounters with the Lord Jesus Christ as He strengthens her for her journey.
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Evolution's Darling
Scott Westerfeld
Manufacturer: Four Walls Eight Windows
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
United States
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ASIN: 1568581491 |
Amazon.com
In this disturbing and powerful meditation on consciousness and individuality, Scott Westerfeld captures everything that is wonderful about pure science fiction, but does it at a cost of brutality to his characters. He uses technology to assess something important about human beings--in this case, what makes us sentient, and what part memory plays in our humanity.
Despite the ship captain's best efforts, his navigational computer achieves a Turing level, indicating sentience. When the machine intimately befriends his daughter, the captain tries to have it erased, only to find that his daughter is willing to betray him to preserve her symbiotic love.
Centuries later, the immortally bereft machine, now a being called Darling, searches the universe for meaning and tries not to remember the darkness of his past. When a human assassin on a mission to destroy an AI artist encounters Darling, they begin a relationship that is beyond intense, with a violent sexuality and a deep connection that ultimately calls into question their nature as separate entities.
Westerfeld, the author of Polymorph and Fine Prey, creates a difficult and ultimately despairing future for humans, but one of hope and potential for the artificial intelligences that inherit the mantle of evolution. Beauty, faith, and the power of love are the things that save Darling, if not the humans he remembers, from the maw of oblivion. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
"Does a clone have a soul?" Darling, an astronavigational control unit and personal companion, achieves sentience and wants to know. Now, 200 years and an artificial body later, he is off in search of a dead artist, a living artwork, and the forces behind a mystery that spans the universe. Accompanied by a female assassin, he'll confront the Maker and get the answer.
Average customer rating:
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Evolution of Teacher Policy/JRE-01
Linda Darling-Hammond , and
Barnett Berry
Manufacturer: Rand Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Education
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Reform & Policy
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ASIN: 0833008781 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Review of Contemporary Fiction, published by Review of Contemporary Fiction on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 332 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Evolution's Darling.(Review) (book review)
Author: Trevor Dodge
Publication:
The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: Review of Contemporary Fiction
Volume: 20
Issue: 3
Page: 151
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Bridging the Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative Evangelical Catholic represents a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic community. Today's faithful are searching for an expression of Catholic Christianity that is vibrant, colorful, provocative, counter-cultural, deeply rooted in the tradition, and full of the promise of the Good News. In this timely and prophetic book, Father Robert Barron--himself a member of the younger generation--has minted a new vernacular and blazed a new way that bridges the great divide and gives voice to the concerns of post-liberal, post-conservative, evangelical believers.
Customer Reviews:
The future of theology for the 21st century.......2005-05-14
Fr. Barron's most recent work is one of the most approachable, yet incisive and intelligent accounts of the most exciting movements in recent theology. I have studied with Fr. Barron, and without hyperbole I often remark to friends how he was the best professor I ever had--passionate and excitingly contemporary, immersed in the tradition yet generously critical. A wonderful priest and a masterful teacher.
This book delivers the same invigoration. Fr. Barron's chapters range wide: from the postconciliar liturgy, to Joyce and narrative, to postmodern non-violence. Underlying his various treatments is an attempt at recovery: opposing the often narrow and always self-reflexive modern hermeneutic, begun in Descartes and apotheosized theologically in Schliermacher, Fr. Barron wishes to return us to a more humble, reverent posture before the universe, each other, and most especially, God.
The subtitle "post-liberal, post-conservative" brings this critical, even playful, acumen to bear on current American ecclesial concerns. You will find no naive polemics here: Fr. Barron's attempt to recover a theology (even more: an adequation with reality) that transcends these jejune dichotomies opens the reader to a invigorating purview that commands such different resources as Teilhard, von Balthasar, Bob Dylan, Chesterton, Dorothy Day, and Thomas Aquinas.
Fr. Barron has particular debts as well to the best in recent Protestant theology: a plus that should make this book a resource to those Catholics who stopped with Tillich. No stranger to Rahner, Fr. Barron is also able to underscore the insights he brought, while reading him within the tradition, noting various lacuna. His knowledge of von Balthasar is especially helpful here, and a needed corrective to an often one-sided emphasis in recent Catholic theology.
In short, if you would like to gain a perspective into what is most exciting, most relevant, and most important for not only Catholic theology, but the life of the Church, you will find no better guide than Fr. Barron.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Theological Studies, published by Thomson Gale on December 1, 2005. The length of the article is 869 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Bridging The Great Divide: Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative Evangelical Catholic.(Book Review)
Author: Peter Steinfels
Publication:
Theological Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 66
Issue: 4
Page: 922(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Commonweal, published by Commonweal Foundation on November 18, 2005. The length of the article is 1260 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Troubled Water.(Bridging the Great Divide : Musings of a Post-Liberal, Post-Conservative, Evangelical Catholic)(Book Review)
Author: J. Peter Nixon
Publication:
Commonweal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 18, 2005
Publisher: Commonweal Foundation
Volume: 132
Issue: 20
Page: 26(2)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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- 1,001 Ways to Make More Money as a Speaker, Consultant or Trainer: Plus 300 Rainmaking Strategies for Dry Times
- A Frolic of His Own
- A Hunger Artist (Short Prose of Franz Kafka Series)
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