Book Description
Dusty Answer is Judith Earle's story—her solitary childhood spent in the seclusion of her riverside house, her awkward, intense experiences at Cambridge rounded with passion and disillusionment, and her travels abroad with her elegant, socialite mother. Above all, this novel is about Judith's consuming relationship with the Fyfe family, who each fall in love with Judith, transforming her young womanhood.
Customer Reviews:
intense and impassioned.......2006-09-07
_Dusty Answer_ was Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927 when she was just 26. Sales were slow and not much critical notice was taken of the book until Alfred Noyes gave it a glowing review in the Sunday Times, making _Dusty Answer_ a bestseller almost overnight. Its heroine, Judith Earle, is an intelligent, earnest girl who becomes entangled in the lives of five cousins who have occasionally visited at the house next door to Judith's; Judith played with them as a child, and years later, comes to know them again as she enters adulthood. When they reenter her life, she falls desperately in love with one of them. It often lacks narrative drive (especially in the rather uncertain, diffuse ending), but its intense, often idyllic, and impassioned style is compelling, a foretaste of things to come.
Very well written.......1999-07-05
This is the kind of book that you can re-read. (I have several times.) It's really very sad that it and so many of Rosamond Lehmann's other books are out of print. The plot is about a young English girl who falls in love with the family next door...over several years, as she grows up, goes to Cambridge, goes out into the world she keeps meeting various members and has relationships with them. If you like English writers like Elizabeth Taylor or Mary Webb as well as "women's fiction" I would highly recommend not only this book but Lehmann's others, especially "Invitation to the Waltz" and "The Weather in the Streets."
Average customer rating:
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DUSTY ANSWER
LEHMANN
Manufacturer: CHATTO
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S66QL8 |
Product Description
Fiction
Average customer rating:
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Dusty Answer
Rosamond Lehmann
Manufacturer: Reynal & Hitchcock
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000USEYOA |
Product Description
1945 Book of the Month selection. 375 pp. Hardcover w/DJ. A first novel by Rosamond Lehmann, this is the story of Judith, an only child, whose playmates are the children next door. The story follows the group from childhood to early maturity. As they grow up the three boys fall in love with Judith, each in his own way . . .
Average customer rating:
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Dusty Answer
Rosamond Lehmann
Manufacturer: Chatto & Windus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000PRYL44 |
Average customer rating:
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Dusty Answer
Rosamond Lehmann
Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000LSHPM2 |
Average customer rating:
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DUSTY ANSWER.
Manufacturer: P/B
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HJ9Q72 |
Average customer rating:
- Disquieting mix of tragedy, irony, and satire, brilliant if ultimately unemotional
- Of Heirs and Orphans
- Interesting Charactor Study
- Strange characters. Great writer.
- A total bore.
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Heir to the Glimmering World
Cynthia Ozick
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Ozick, Cynthia | ( O ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0618618805 |
Book Description
Cynthia Ozick has been known for decades as one of America's most gifted and extraordinary storytellers; her remarkable new novel has established her as one of the most enticingly readable as well. Heir to the Glimmering World received exuberant reviews after its hardcover publication, and Ozick, on her first-ever book tour, was welcomed by standing-room-only crowds. Reading groups, too, have embraced the novel, which was selected by Ann Patchett for NBC's Today Show Book Club. Set in the New York of the 1930s, Heir to the Glimmering World is an entrancing, richly plotted novel brimming with intriguing characters. Orphaned at eighteen, with few possessions, Rose Meadows finds steady employment with the Mitwisser clan. Recently arrived from Berlin, the Mitwissers rely on the auspices of a generous benefactor, James A'Bair, the discontented heir to a fortune his father, a famous children's author, made from a series of books called The Bear Boy. Rose watches as the refugee family's fortunes rise and fall, against the vivid backdrop of a world in tumult. Ozick's novel is a thrilling read that will undoubtedly gain this lauded author new readers in paperback.
Customer Reviews:
Disquieting mix of tragedy, irony, and satire, brilliant if ultimately unemotional.......2007-08-05
Despite an ending which brings fortune to the surviving characters, this is a tragic tale of loss and misfortune. A German couple -- he a scholar of an ancient Jewish sect, she a physicist -- flees Germany during the rise of Naziism and relocates to Brooklyn. His work captures the interest of John A'Bair, a young man whose father produced a popular children's book series based on the child this young man once was. When his father dies, John inherits his fortune and uses some of it to support the Mitwisser family, at first because he is fascinated by Mitwisser's research and later because he falls for the Mitwissers' eldest daughter. Into the Mitwisser household comes 18-year-old Rose, the orphaned daughter of an algebra teacher at an Upstate NY prep school who is also a gambler. Left penniless when her father dies, Rose lives briefly with her distant cousin Bertram to whom she forms an unrequited romantic attachment. Then she responds to a classified ad to become the 'amanuensis' of Heir Mitwisser, soon finding that the job entails caretaking of the Mitwisser children and their mentally unstable mother. These are some of the events of the plot.
But the book is also a satire of textual and scholarly pursuits, and of Marxist idealism. Through the eyes of the guileless and accepting Rose, we watch Mitwisser toil away in obscurity, the only attention from colleagues coming in the form of criticism and rejection. Wife Elsa's promising career as a physicist ends abruptly with their exile from Germany. In her new home, she assumes the role of the 'madwoman in the attic'. Bertram falls in love with a Marxist revolutionary who takes all his and Rose's money to go fight in the Spanish Civil War, where she dies. All the main characters lose something important -- parents, home, love, career, money, life. No one survives this story unscathed. Fortune sadly returns to the Mitwissers and Bertram with the suicide of John A'Bair, who could never imagine a life for himself outside of the prison of fame garnered by the stories his father contrived. But the only truly fortunate character is Rose, who can finally leave the Mitwissers in the competent hands of Bertram and begin her life unencumbered.
Of Heirs and Orphans.......2007-03-22
Set in the late 1930s, Cynthia Ozick's newest novel is narrated by Rosie, a recently orphaned girl who has come to work as a live-in typist for Professor Mitwisser, an emigrant who fled Nazi Germany with his family for upstate New York and then the Bronx. Mitwisser studies an ancient sect called the Karaites who shun interpretation of the scripture as heresy, even as they write and analyze the fallibility of other religions' commentary on the bible. The family lives off of the generosity of James, an unstable patron and friend of the family who aids as well as disrupts them. Rosie shares a bedroom with the Professor's mentally unstable wife and also occasionally looks after the youngest of the five children. Throughout most of the novel she is alone in a house full of people. However, despite being treated coldly and solely as a "tool" she gains something from this family. In the most ecstatic passages in the novel Rosie describes her role as typist: "a motionless scene, I with my fingers stilled on the light-stippled glass of the typewriter keys, a twisted tail of hair sucked in at the side of my lip, he standing giantly over me, submerged in his dream of forgotten heresies." This beautifully written book raises the question of what can we inherit and from whom, even when "historyless" like this sensitive narrator.
Interesting Charactor Study.......2006-12-31
In this book,a young woman poetically named Rose Meadows goes to work for the Mitwissers,a family of German-Jewish refugees from 1930's Europe. As a typist for the eccentric scholar Mr. Mitwisser as well as helping to look after his now unstable wife, (who worked as a doctor of research in Berlin) and help with their large (5 children strong) family. At first Rose feels unsure of her status within this chaotic household,but she gradually develops a bond with the family,the father in particular. The are in dire straits as far as money is concerned as well and they eagerly await the arrival of mysterious benefactor, James A'Bear,(whose father used as a model for a series of childrens books about a "Bear Boy") Having met the family at a boarding house in upstate New York,he then takes them under his wing by getting them an apartment in the Bronx,so the father can be close to New York and continue his research of an obscure Jewish sect there. James is kind,generous,funny and an achoholic who feels resentment toward his father;therefore he spends his royalties freely on this family and lives a nomadic life-style which later involves the family's eldest daughter Anneliese,who falls hopelessly in love with him. This book, though subtly written,has strong,complex charactors. Even Rose,who is basic a reactionary charactor,has some "skeletons" of her own concerning her father,a compulsive gambler who dies tragically before she goes to work for the Mitwisser's. This also includes a "cousin" who joins the Commmunist party through his infatuatuion with a young woman who calls herself Ninel(Lenin spelt backwards). This book ,in spite of it's rather downbeat subject matter has a dry,ironic tone to it,as well as an unexpected upbeat ending of sorts.As a window into the depression-era as well as the plight of the refugee, this is a sharply written,involving book.
Strange characters. Great writer........2006-11-03
Rose, a smart young woman with little hope of opportunity, finds employment with a family of well-educated Jewish Germans, the Mittwissers, who have traveled to New York evading Nazi persecution. Mr. Mittwisser is harsh & obstinate, finding no scholarly interest for his research. The only time Mr. Mittwisser yields is in the presence of a massively famous children's book heir, James A'Bair, who intermittently showers the family with trivial gifts and funding for Mr. Mittwisser's research. Mrs. Mittwisser is driven to madness by their plight. Once a prominent German physicist and colleague of the famous German physicist Erwin Schrödinger, Mrs. Mittwisser believes she's entitled to his Nobel Prize. The Mittwisser children are arrogant and unruly despite the fact that they have nothing. James A' Bair never seems able to rise above his inheritance & unwanted fame. Rose, only needing a little money to begin her young life, keeps getting sidetracked by others' interference.
The story is mainly character driven, though the plot is sound. The real gem is the writer. Her deft character development makes one actually care what happens to these unnerving people. I can't say that I ever 'liked' them, but I did want to know what happened to them.
I'd recommend this book for those who enjoy historical fiction, Jewish interest, or well written models of character development.
A total bore........2006-07-19
I started out interested, but kept waiting for the story to go somewhere. I was totally bored and gave up at page 100. None of the ladies in my book club (we chose it for our monthly read) liked it. They all thought I made a wise decision, and wished they hadn't wasted time completing it. We questioned the San Francisco Chronicle's description of it as a "rollicking story". Chicago Sun-Times called it "funny and witty and engaging." Did we all read the same book????
Average customer rating:
- I quit after a few dozen pages
- Remember when they used to wash your windows. I hated that. Everyone hated that. That's why they kill us now
- What a great and strange book!
- Good writing, but plot doesn't do much
- What in the H-E-Double Hockeystix Was THAT?
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Glimmering: A Novel
Elizabeth Hand
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Hand, Elizabeth | ( H ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0061012165 |
Amazon.com
In 1999 the world has gone to hell: global warming, AIDS, urban decay, environmental disasters, and, above it all, the Glimmering. The Glimmering is an accident of modern society, a phenomenon that is destroying the ozone layer and killing the earth. In these last days, Jack Finnegan, suffering from AIDS, has come home to his family's decaying Manhattan mansion to die. He will meet Trip Marlowe, a rock star hooked on the hallucinogenic IZE, and unknowingly play out a bizarre drama scripted by his former lover, the "sociocultural pathologist" Leonard Thrope. You won't be able to put down this engrossing tale.
Book Description
It is 1999. The Last Days, or some say, the First. The climate has warmed dramatically, the cities have imploded into riotous shards, and the sky is a glimmering array of reds and greens and golds.
In fin de siecle New York, a millionaire publisher, a jaded rock star and the girl who, in her own way, loves them both are watching the waters rise as the cults begin the frenzies of the Night of the Thousand Years.
This breathtaking novel is Elizabeth Hand's audacious attempt to capture in one explosive story both the unspoken dreams and the unspeakable nightmares of her generation.
And she succeeds.
Customer Reviews:
I quit after a few dozen pages.......2007-04-07
I enjoy books about the end of the world. I always have. When I stumbled across Hand's book I was pleased. Her book was one I had not yet read...and I won't be finishing it. I have only read several dozen pages so I freely admit my view of the book is limited. The characters are all unlikeable. Things that should have been explained never were. Christians are routinely called "Xians". What? Apparently hip Christians are called Xians. O...kay. I finally tossed in the towel when a character - the only interesting one by the way - starts having sex with a Xian rock star in a planetarium. Yeah, sure. That was annoying enough, but previously she had been described as being perhaps 14 years old. Yep, that was it for me.
Remember when they used to wash your windows. I hated that. Everyone hated that. That's why they kill us now.......2006-11-20
I loved and hated this book. I loved how it would get super freaky at the beginning with the main character having a very weird vision. I kept on reading just to get some more moments like that. Finally I got another equally odd moment, 400 pages later!!! Still, the book has great writing and will keep you into it all of the way. I really could have done without all of the gay men and their thoughts but there is definitely normal sex also. Finally when the movie settles down at the end we get some pretty crazy moments. I almost got bored with the whole world falling apart theme of the book and ended up finding the characters much more interesting. The ending, I didn't like.
What a great and strange book!.......2006-07-07
I see that this book has only a 3 star rating and I wonder why. It's an adventurous style of writing with fascinating characters. This may sound strange, but I compare it to watching a King Crimson concert (one just don't always know what's going to happen next so one is sitting on the edge of one's seat) or listening to the live music of people like Coltrane, Davis, and other such jazzmen. One doesn't know where they are going to go either. Comparing a book with music! What the hell! They are different but connected arts. This is a ten star book!!
Good writing, but plot doesn't do much.......2005-07-26
Props go first to Hand's writing. She writes, albeit differently in some areas, with an ease that you don't find too often. Her images are appealing and imaginative.
Beyond that, though, this book doesn't do much. The first 300 pages leave you wondering if the storyline will ever go anywhere, and then it jumps head long and connects the characters, only to leave you with a feeling of incompleteness. Sex scenes were thrown in haphazardly, for no real reason at all. I don't mind a good sex scene, when it adds to the story, but, for the most part, the sex scenes in this book didn't do for much. Leonord's character seemed to play a large role in the happenings of this book, but you don't see him too often. Additionally, he had one good chapter that made him look the cool character (the underground party), but other than that I couldn't care less for him.
All in all, I was disappointed, because her writing was good but the story had no purpose at all. Even the characters, Trip and Jack, were connected together so loosely that it detracted from the story rather than brought the story together. Because of her writing, a three star.
What in the H-E-Double Hockeystix Was THAT?.......2000-12-02
I have long been a die hard fan of intense science fiction. The one star I'll give Hand for this book is for her excellent use of deep imagery in the work to invoke almost physical responses from the reader.
However, the rest of what makes a story into a novel is missing. The characters are lackluster (at best), having no real passion or direction, and gaining none as the story progresses. For a while I was truly enthralled by the read, one page pulling me into the next until I had burned through the first three hundred pages in as many minutes.
And then it died...not in a blast, or a convoluted plot twist, or even in any way that could be defined as heroic, romantic, philosophical, or otherwise. It faded as if it had never been. The story just seems to stop (like a car stalling silently on a fast highway) the story coasts in neutral for about 150 pages, flares like the engine sputtering to life for a heartbeat, (but not really) and then sliding onto the shoulder, making you wonder why you got in the car at all!
Even if you like the occasional anticlimactic plot twist, this takes the concept a step further, where the only characters who receive any sort of finality die in ignoble, boring ways. I am also a male reader, but unlike one of my fellow reviewers, I don't need a huge hollywood style ending.
I would, however, like an ACTUAL ending.
Book Description
Glimmering Girls tells the story of three extraordinary American women during a time of sexual and cultural repression. Francie and her friends Liz and Amanda are college students, coming of age intellectually, emotionally, and physically in a setting where men were forbidden entry to women's dorm rooms, and women were locked into those rooms after curfew. College life for women was governed by one simple, cardinal rule: Marry Before Graduation or Be Lost Forever. Any thirst for adventure was supposed to be satisfied by the occasional panty raid. Francie and friends, however, find all this hard to swallow, and they resist their appointed futures as elementary school teachers and holders of the precious "MRS" degree. Doing the unthinkable, the three move off campus to live in a house with three men-Liz's boyfriend and two handsome, mysterious Southern twins who fix foreign cars in a shop off campus. There the young women's rebellion against expectations deepens, and they begin the real-world education of pursuing their dreams. Francie yearns to be a writer, and is encouraged by her Russian literature professor. Then she meets Joshua, a talented and dedicated piano student, who presents the ultimate challenge: does she maintain her "virtue," or give in to her sexual desires, finally breaking fully free of repressive "respectability"? Glimmering Girls follows Francie, Liz, and Amanda through this and other discoveries and adventures. Ultimately, each finds a way to live fully at a time when their entire culture seemed arrayed against them.
Customer Reviews:
from Hadassah Magazine, Aug/Sept 2005 by Joan Baum.......2005-08-31
Hadassah Magazine August/Sept 2005
Glimmering Girls: A Novel of the Fifties by Merrill Joan Gerber, The University of Wisconsin Press, 249 pp., $26.95.
Merrill Joan Gerber's Glimmering Girls recreates with cool humor and aching passion what it was like for college-educated young women to grow up at a time when the spirit of the age remained the `50s, even when the decade changed. The story is set in conservative 1959 and ends with Francie's college graduation. Although the feminist, free-wheeling `60s don't explode until the new decade is half over, Francie's not waiting. A good Jewish girl, whose letters home to her parents in Brooklyn are filled with appreciation and updates on her life--from studying hard on a pro forma education major to observing the rules of the heavily chaperoned dorm. Restless to experience life, and unlike her more typical roommate Mary Ella Root, who looks to get a Mrs. degree, Francie falls in with Liz and Amanda. The two propose that they move in together off campus - with three guys. one of whom, though of Francie's "tribe," is in love with Liz. The other two are amiable identical twins in love with cars.
As Francie discovers, however, experiencing life involves secrecy and taking half-understood risks, some of which propel her into anxiety. Having run off for a couple of days with Liz and Amanda and the twins to a lakeside cabin, will she ever get back to finish her term paper? Could she become pregnant if semen leaks through her skirt? Will she ever get back to civilization and her term paper, having run off for a couple of days with Liz and Amanda and the twins to a lakeside cabin? Will she and Joshua, a Jewish boy and fine pianist whom she beds and loves, get together again?
Meanwhile, Francie, a Phi Beta determined to be a writer, is turned down for a graduate school fellowship by a dean who says women are unreliable. Though she is poised on the edge, uncertain, Francie senses that "something is definitely going on here, something shattering and monumental enough to bring tears to her eyes." One thing's for sure, Francie and Liz have escaped from "the innocence of the Garden of Eden, no longer glimmering girls, more like illuminated women.
Gerber movingly captures the ambivalence of the coming of age of bright young women, and of the brave new world in which they will make their way. That Francie is Jewish and far from home gives the tale special resonance. Her path may be rougher than Liz's or Amanda's, but then again, she's burning bright.
--Joan Baum
Gerber seems to remember my youth better than I do!!!!.......2005-05-15
Although I "went away to school" to what I would have thought was college vastly differernt from the Florida university that is the scene of Gerber's most recent triumph, the similarities among the experiences of her young woman protagonist and mine and those of my friends startled me. I guess that for almost everyone who was a teen in the 1950s in the USA the intense repressiveness made secret-keepers and rule-breakers of us all. Glimmering Girls is both a wonderful novel, beautifully written and absorbing, and an important social document that I hope will be read by many. Gerber successfully recreates a time when women's bodies didn't belong to us, when female sexuality was supposed to be an oxymoron, when the MRS. was a degree more devoutly to be wished for than a PhD, and "true love" and its "inevitable" consequence -- a happy marriage -- was the only legitimate transition to adulthood for a girl. And yet, for all the astute revelations of the repressiveness of life for women in the decade before the Women's Liberation Movement began to stir, there is no hint in this book of the polemic; it's just a wonderful story about a time that is thankfully past (although the current administration seems to be doing its best to revive it) -- or is it?
Average customer rating:
- Behind the Glitz and Glamour
- Very Interesting and insightful
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Beyond the Glimmering Lights: The Pride And Perseverance of African americans in Las Vegas
Trish Geran
Manufacturer: Stephens Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Nevada | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
West | State & Local | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
African-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1932173471 |
Customer Reviews:
Behind the Glitz and Glamour.......2006-07-25
Beyond the Glimmering Lights is a very unique book that takes a look into the segregated past of Las Vegas. Author Trish Geran shows through the experiences of her Aunt Magnolia that there is more to Las Vegas than the bright lights. A wonderful read that show the perseverance of the African American community. Through the brilliant efforts of celebrities such as Sammy Davis Jr., Josephine Baker and the general community they were able to tear down the racial boundaries and helped shape America's playground.
Very Interesting and insightful.......2006-07-10
I just finished reading Beyond the Glimmering Lights: The Pride And Perseverance of African americans in Las Vegas.
Using memories of her Aunt Magnolia for structure, Ms. Geran paints a vivid picture of what it was like to be African American in Las Vegas between the periods of 1940s and the 1960s.
As a fairly recent newbie to Las Vegas, this book provided a very interesting and insightful look at the history of African Americans in the area and the role they played in the shaping of an intergrated Las Vegas.
It is a very easy read and I highly recommend it :)
I eagerly await the next book by Trish Geran.
Average customer rating:
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Glimmering
Manufacturer: Harper Prism, U.S.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKKG52 |
Average customer rating:
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Glimmering
Elizabeth Hand
Manufacturer: Harper Prism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEQT5W |
Average customer rating:
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Glimmering
Manufacturer: Harper Prism, U.S.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HKFZLM |
Average customer rating:
- Super-Human Agony
- Review by Ray Tate of Silver Bullet Comics
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Super-Human: An Anthology
Dan Membiela
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Adventure
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Anthologies
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Short Stories
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1591290023 |
Book Description
Super-Human: an Anthology is a collection of stories, which are loosely connected, pertaining to a world where a certain few men and women don aliases, masks, and civic responsibilities. These stories explore a sampling of lives filled with secrets, super-powers, and heroism. Generally the stories have science fiction elements as well as adventure qualities. The stories in this anthology skirt the questions that super-heroes pose in realistic fiction, but rather than giving any specific answers, we see how things might be in a world with super-heroes, rather than anything as absolute as how things must be. The first and last stories especially deal with the human side of the super-human, and how a life begins down the path of the super-hero and how a life of super-heroics comes to an end.
Customer Reviews:
Super-Human Agony.......2006-03-02
Super-Human starts with its best foot forward, a story called First Step. Unfortunately this mediocre story really is the best this book has to offer. It's clichéd prose and amateur patter prepare the reader for a hundred very long pages of tripe. This book has clearly been self published and should be a lesson to all of us against self-publishing. I would love to read Mr. Membiela's other stories that have been made into real comics or into real magazines as he looks like a true comic fan and I'd like to believe anyone with this much determination could crank out something better than the trash in Super-Human: an Anthology. No one interested in stories about superheroes should pick this up unless they couldn't care less about how grueling and banal their experience was in learning about the tired heroes Mr. Membeila presents. Dan Membiela looks like a true comic fan and like many comic fans would love to be able to pierce the reality membrane and allows super heroes in. Mr. Membeila falls far short of this in his "anthology" of his own stories. For $17.00, I expected more ... a lot more. Now, I simply have to put myself through the effort and Amazon through the expense of sending this back. Sorry Dan.
Review by Ray Tate of Silver Bullet Comics.......2002-11-24
Dan Membiela was the writer of London Night's only really interesting book (comic book)--Poizon. His handle on the super-hero concept and comic book writing is without question strong, but what happens when you take away the pictures?
Mr. Membiela's anthology does not break new ground. Not counting pulp adventurers such as those partaken by the Shadow and Doc Savage, as early as the forties, comic book companies and comic strip producers began translating what was on the colorful pages into more adult-accessable prose. The Invisible Scarlet O'Neil for instance appeared in gently illustrated novels as did the Phantom. In the fifties as well as the eighties and nineties, Superman soared. The Avengers appeared in the sixties, and both Batman and Wonder Woman fought the good fight in thick as brick anthologies during the early nineties. Outside of what we normally think of the super-hero world, the late great Isaac Asimov and editor extraordinaire Martin Greenberg pulled several super-heroes out of the annals of science fiction for a rewarding anthology. In this history, where does Mr. Membiela's anthology fit? At the progressive end, in another step of evolution bringing the super-hero sub-genre of science fiction to widespread and critical acceptance.
Mr. Membiela begins his anthology appropriately with "First Step" a story that captures a moment particularly intrinsic to the world of the super-hero. It's a more literate vignette than to what most comic book readers have grown accustomed. The conflict arises not from a villain or disaster but from the courage of the narrator. The story also shows the power of the media in which Mr. Membiela works. Were the short to be shown in the comic book, it would seem far too brief and not quite as powerful as the written word description. The volume of words captures the emotion better than a simple drawing--no matter how skilful the artist.
In "A Brief History of Super Heroics," Mr. Membiela details a short history of one hero with a prolonged lifespan within the recognizable eras of our world. The story's goal is ambitious, and the ambitions of the author are well met. The twists in what we've seen are ingenious, and because the narrator is so inviting and friendly in voice, actions which some may consider decidedly unheroic become acceptable. As you read the story, the plot in fact enhances the characterization, and Iron Jack outgrows his archetype to become original.
The next story is the kind of comic book story most have seen. I happen to know that Mr. Membiela was set to write a new comic book version of Sheena, the legendary jungle woman on par with Tarzan. These plans for some reason or other fell by the wayside. Instead, Mr. Membiela gives us in "Soothe the Savage Beast" Keera. What this story shows is how a new character can be grown from the inspiration of an old one. Keera really does not come out of the story looking to be a sub-par Sheena. Indeed, her voice sounds nothing like Geena Lee Nolin's memorable portrayal of the character or the original Sheena Irish McCalla. Again, the strength of the author's writing makes Keera into an original creation whose superficial attributes fit the archetype both she and Sheena represent. Keera's story begins slowly. It quietly introduces the reader to this hero in a robustly described setting then tangles her into a pulpy story featuring a true nut bar of a villain and action galore. While the plot is indeed from a cliffhanger, the dialogue and the certainty in describing the action raises it far above [common] serial fare.
"It Came From Between Space" would have benefited from artwork. Those unfamiliar with the concept of parallel earths may have trouble visualizing the scope of the Wing Men. I don't believe Mr. Membiela's words are sufficient to bring the idea of this multiverse across. This is not to say it's a bad story. Rather it seems more like a draft bereft of supporting character depth which accompanying artwork could have fleshed out. A story should be able to stand on its own, and in order to imagine this particular story I had to recall events in DC's Crisis of Infinite Earths.
"The Return of the Hyena" is a creepy take on the hero/villain schism. The characterization in the story is thin, but actually, the more referable nature of the heroes works in the story's favor. This tale deconstructs Batman and Robin, and what it says would have worked nicely as a DC Elseworld which places recognizable heroes in different time-periods or situations. Artwork isn't needed to describe the narrator's descent into darkness, and the consistent onomatopoeia gets under the reader's skin and accents the eerie atmosphere of what is a psychological thriller in miniature. While I certainly do not agree with the central point. It did make me think. It also warns against the idea of sending the wrong message through storytelling.
"Memoranda" is an interesting experiment, but I've seen this type of experiment before. The story unfolds at a good pace, and the ending nicely examines the question what makes a hero. "Bastard" I have no use for since it takes the villain's point of view without any heroic release. It's still well written if you like that sort of thing. Finally, "The Last Laugh" takes a decidedly morose look at the thankless world of the super-hero, but toward the end, you realize the somber mood and purposely dejected character sets up a splendid joke. Super-Human: an Anthology is recommended for readers who look for strong characterization and character study.
Book Description
"Wine is not to fear or revere, but to enjoy," says Leslie Sbrocco, wine expert. And that's exactly what she shows you how to do in Wine for Women, the first wine book written exclusively for women -- the majority of wine consumers.
In Wine for Women, Leslie Sbrocco scraps the stuffy wine-speak and deals with what women really want to know about wine. The book includes shopping guides with hundreds of recommended wines, quick ideas for wine-friendly meals, and creative tips for sharing wine with family and friends.
Organized into easy-to-manage sections, Wine for Women appeals to all levels of wine lovers. From Sauvignon Blanc to Chenin Blanc, Merlot to Malbec, and pink wines to dessert wines, Leslie Sbrocco makes her enormous knowledge of wine entertaining enough for the serious wine lover and accessible enough so any novice can feel like an expert.
Each chapter focuses on a different variety of wine, and covers what Leslie calls the big three -- how to buy, pair, and share wine. You'll learn how to make smart buying decisions in stores and restaurants. Leslie also gives you practical advice for pairing wine and food and offers insights on entertaining with wine, whether you're having an informal picnic or planning the most formal of weddings.
Confused between Chardonnay and Champagne? Think little black dress versus sequins. And Pinot Gris? Think your wine wardrobe's basic jeans. With her relaxed, friendly approach, Leslie makes it easy to understand the differences between wines and encourages women to explore and enjoy wine in their everyday lives.
Keep Wine for Women in your kitchen. Bring it into your living room. Refer to it before you hit the wine shop, or when you just want an excuse to read, relax, and have a sip of something that's really you.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent guide.......2007-05-30
I found this book to be easy to use. It is very comprehensive in terms of the grape varietals it covers. I like that it gives some "context" into where the wines are grown, so even if you're unable to buy the exact wine mentioned in the book, you can use the information to select an alternative. Additionally, I enjoyed the fact that the author covers not only California or Europe vintages....but other countries and states as well.
Good info - but not to read cover to cover.......2006-03-10
If you want to know about a certian wine, this is an excellent resource. I personally couldn't pick up the book and read it from front to back. Definately for me, it is much more of a resource.
Better than I expected..........2005-08-02
I bought this "bargain" book not expecting a whole lot. It is really pretty interesting and informative. I learned quite a bit about wine without being terribly bored. I hate the title, but if you can look past that, it's a good book!
A great book for anyone who wants to learn about wine .......2005-01-20
I borrowed this book from the library and loved it! It was not enough for me to just borrow and read it, I had to get a copy for myself from Amazon. It's easy to read, has plenty of information about wine in detailand, is also great resource book for anyone who wants to start your wine experience.
Easy to Read - Very Helpful.......2004-05-14
This book is great for anyone who enjoys wine. It helps pair food & wine, gives great tips on how to read the labels, & really helps with understanding wine from the time it is a grape on the vine to the time it is poured into a wine glass. I continue to find it very helpful when planning parties or just opening a bottle to try for myself.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Wines & Vines, published by Hiaring Company on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1299 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: Wine, women & marketing: Leslie Sbrocco puts it in writing.(Wine for Women: A Guide to Buying, Pairing and Sharing)
Author: Tina Caputo
Publication:
Wines & Vines (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2003
Publisher: Hiaring Company
Volume: 84
Issue: 8
Page: 30(3)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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