Book Description
The stories in this book, all written between 1929 and 1954, share the themes that feature so strongly in Graham Greene’s novels: humour and violence, pity and hatred, betrayal and pursuit. Comic, sad, shocking and tragic, they recount the tales of Mr. Maling’s loud stomach, destructive gangs of children, indiscretions revealed and secrets uncovered.
Customer Reviews:
Master storyteller of 20th century Britain.......2004-05-19
Graham Greene just doesn't get the recognition he deserves as a short story writer. As a novelist, his reputation has been well-established, fortunately. This collection, "Twenty-One Stories" is a fine sampler of Greene's abilities in the shorter genre. Many of the elements that feature so prominently in his novels also figure in these stories: the spontaneity of violence; ruthless polictics; looming secrets; greed; and the complex situations that life drops on you.
Here are some brief looks at my favorite stories:
"The Destructors" is Greene's examination of horrific, calculated vandalism in the extreme, made even more horrifying by the coolness with which it is carried out.
An event in a man's past comes back to haunt him in "The Blue Film". Strangely, the haunting specter doesn't frighten him so much as saddens him.
Purely-plot driven, "The Case for the Defence" is still a brilliant tale worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
"Brother" explores the nature of political allegiances and the risks of making them known.
Lastly, "The End of the Party" is a harrowing tale of identical twins playing hide and seek at a party. The ending paragraph left goosebumps on my skin for days.
For those who have never read Graham Greene, "Twenty-One Stories" ought to be your starting point.
Book Description
For over a decade the Sower's Seeds books have been a wonderful resource for teachers, preachers, and anyone who has to speak in front of an audience. Now author Brian Cavanaugh has revised and expanded his original volume--with twenty new stories--for old fans as well as a whole new audience.
He includes stories of inspiration, warmth, and insight arranged around numerous universal themes ranging from awareness, compassion, perseverance, and wisdom, to such unusual themes as baseball, Thomas Edison, hospitality, and risk-taking.
While the majority of stories are anonymous, there are some attributed to well known names like Zig Ziglar, Mickey Mantle, and Theodore Roosevelt.
Years before there was Chicken Soup, Sower's Seeds was making readers laugh, cry, and come away with a warm heart. The newest book--like the others in the series--is ideal both for quiet inspiration and for handy, on-the-run fun. This is storytelling at its best.
Customer Reviews:
Review of Sower.......2007-03-09
This is a very good resource for any public speaker. Highly Recommended.
The Sower's Seeds: One Hundred Inspiring Stories for Preachi.......2000-09-27
What a treasure for parents, grandparents, teachers,and youth leaders who want to plant seeds that will produce compassion, generosity, honesty, and appreciation in the lives of their favorite children. Readers of all ages will find in these stories the inspiration to plant seeds in their own lives that will make a better life, a better family, and a better world.
Book Description
From Cecila Tan and Lori Perkins, two of the best connected women in erotica today, comes what could become Blue Moon's most successful title in recent seasons. Here, for the first time ever, is an anthology of short erotic stories centered on the theme of MILFs. MILF, if you haven't seen the movie American Pie, stands for "mother I'd love to f***). More specifically, these are stories of horny young men and the voluptuous older women they crave. For legal reasons, the characters in the stories are all over 18 years of age, but there is plenty of "Mrs. Robinson" spark. (Think about a hottie like Ashton Kutcher getting it on with sexy mom Demi Moore and you are going in the right direction.) Inexperience meets experience—does the wiser, savvier older woman tame the young buck, or set him free in a whole new way? Or does he teach her some new tricks?
Customer Reviews:
Good, But Not Quite as MILFy as I'd Hoped.......2007-09-29
Call me shallow or easily manipulated, but the cover of this book hooked me like a bass on a popping frog. The subject is a longtime personal favorite (thanks, ME), but that photo had me clicking to buy before I'd even read the abstracts and editorial reviews. That being said, it's a mystery what this photo is really about, and why it affects me so. The nails, lipstick and eye makeup don't match, but somehow they all work together, inexplicably trashy and classy at the same time. There's a maybe-faux, maybe real knot of diamonds on the right hand, but the left is an unseen mystery; I like that touch. There's the clear hint of age in her lips, eyes and neck, but she could be thirty or fifty. And the tight pearls across the open mouth and subtly uneven bottom teeth, the eyes clinched in rapture or pain or maybe even regret. Maybe it's ecstasy, maybe she's checking to see if they're real. I guess it's this range of possibilities which has got me.
Okay, enough obsession with the MILF on the cover. Overall, it's a good read, easy and quick. Of course, the stories move very quickly, with character development at an, ahem, bare minimum. We have to know the relative MILFy angle on each protagonette, of course, married, divorced, widowed or engaged, and that is provided quickly enough. And character motivation: I mean, really, as if a book like this has to have any character motivation whatsoever.
The overall content disappointed me a bit. When I think "MILF," my mental picture is the repressed 30- or 40-something, the cougar on the cover, just back from the morning tennis lesson at the club, who's got a couple of wicked hours to kill with the FedEx guy before the crew arrives to clean the Persian rugs and before she's got to go out for two hours of volunteer time at the assisted living facility. But the MILFs in this collection get a broader interpretation. A number of them are recent or not-so-recent divorcees, DILFs, I guess. Yeah, the authors check the block with a passing mention of a kid at college, and that checks the block. They're moms, then, so it's okay to move the story on down its road.
The fantasy, of course, is that the MILF/DILF is the one more or less in charge, and I guess that is the allure. That's the expected equation, and for the most part in these stories, it works. I did like "CATRR" in particular, because it took this premise and worked it very cleverly with a couple of good, ahem, twists, and some welcome deviation from the narrative coital norm. In the rest of the stories there's a bit of lesbian sex, a bit of power play, a bit of multiple partner, just enough to cover the bases, but disappointingly nothing really off the wall or unexpected.
Bottom line: This is a fun, distractive read which certainly delivers on its promise of MILFy smut. You can blow through these 21 stories in an evening if you'd like, or you can savor them before bed each night for three weeks. Let your partner put on a string of nice pearls and decide on your schedule.
Book Description
This book series is intended to enlighten the world about people living with depression. Its main objective is to remove the public stigma keeping tens of millions of sufferers from seeking treatment for this illness. We believe if people read about what actually has happened in the lives of those with a mental illness, it will dispel their fears and ultimately end the stigma. After all, most of our reactions to life are nothing more than learned behaviors and habits. We hope, by reading this book and the series to follow, you will change your attitudes and interactions toward the mentally ill. Its that simple.
Customer Reviews:
Find out that you are not alone!.......2001-06-14
I am the webowner of the Mental Health Sanctuary and added a story to this book. When the book came out and I was able to read other's stories, not only was the book very interesting to read, but it helped to comfort me, realizing that what I endured in my life was shared by many people. I felt so much less alone as I read other people's stories - their hardships, their pain and how they worked through it - what gave them strength, etc.
If you are hurting and you are feeling alone and perhaps that there is no way out in your life, this book is for you. If you are a family member and you are having a difficult time understanding your loved one, this book is for you
A "must read" for anyone who is a human being.......2001-04-11
I could not put this book down. Each person's poignant story gave me a new understanding and compassion for mental illness of all kinds. I believe it will go a long way in healing the fear and stigma surrounding those who suffer from this kind of illness. As John Brown states in his introduction, "No one feels more lost, alone, misunderstood, confused, and hopeless than someone experiencing a depressive episode. This book will not only benefit the patient; it will also aid their family members, who are just as confused and bewildered."
Product Description
Beginning with an inspired lesson from teens in foster care (and some giant sequoias), this collection explores ideas ranging from the power of intention and the role of our perceptions to themes of self-image, resiliency, expectations, authenticity, the language of strengths, improvisational parenting, giving ourselves a break and the power of one. Collectiverly, they are an inspired and personal short-course on shifting our focus from fixing what is wrong to growing what is right. Separately, they are daily meditations, discussion starters, training tools and a reminder that "where we focus, grows."
Customer Reviews:
An important contribution .......2007-09-04
Reflecting Strengths is an important contribution to the fields of positive youth development and youth resiliency. Chris Trout's stories read with the authenticity of someone who has a wealth of experience with youth as well as a commitment to helping youth to become more aware of their own strengths. Each beautifully written entry is followed by reflection questions and ideas for applying key lessons. But, Reflecting Strengths is not your standard "how-to" book. It is a research-backed and heart-filled resource that would be interesting and inspiring for educators, youth workers, parents or anyone else who wants to help youth to thrive.
Polished Insight.......2006-09-14
Reflecting Strengths draws on author Chris Trout's life experience and storytelling skills to yield a new prism through which we might see the youth in our lives. Trout's tales help us to see the strengths that have been in front of us all along, turning attitudes about what is wrong with our kids into a practical look at what makes young people strong and resilient.
If any book can help you break through gridlock with young people in your life, this is it. Reflecting Strengths is a powerful paradigm shifter. Highly reccomended.
A parent's best friend.......2006-09-07
Chris Trout's "Reflecting Strengths" is one of the most useful parenting resources I have ever read. His up beat, positive spin is just what parents need when they sense they have lost touch with their teen and don't know what else to do. The stories are easy to relate to and messages applicable to everyone who is trying to nurture a teen. It feels so good to be brought back to the positive and reminded of the strengths in everyone.
Angie Arndt, Mother of two teens and Parent Educator
Motivational Stories!.......2006-09-07
Reflecting Strengths is such a powerful twist on how we look at and interact with our youth. I use the stories as conversation starters at weekly staff meetings. Looking at these reflections and talking about them in relation to the children we work with brings new life and energy into our daily interactions with them. Reflecting Strengths is a "must read" for anyone who has relationships with kids, no matter what age.
A Real Gift.......2006-09-07
Reflecting Strengths is practical, uplifting and clear-headed--a combination not often seen in such books. As a developmental clinician, I was surprised to find it not only full of good common sense for parents, but developmentally sound, as well. I would recommend it highly for all parents, but particularly those raising a birth, foster or adopted child with challenges. The audio version is a particular treat, as the author's emphases, and his empathy, come through clearly. I can imagine a couple benefitting by listening to it together.
Customer Reviews:
21 Stories.......2007-03-09
An excellent collection of stories. I recommend this to anyone who likes to read short stories that make you think.
Brilliant .......2006-09-17
To describe this book would exhaust superlatives. From familiar favourites such as "The Tell-Tale heart" (Poe) and "What Stumped the Bluejays" (Mark Twain) to stories almost unheard of - "Eve in Darkness" (Kaatje Hurlburt) and "So Much Unfairness of Things" (C. D. B. Bryan), every one of these stories is a gem, a find, a transcending experience. I had to ration myself to one story every two days, not only to make the book last longer, but so my brain could be properly marinated in the sublime perfection of each of them.
If you only ever read one set of short stories, let this be it. I cannot recommend it too strongly.
a wonderful collection.......2000-07-19
This collection of short stories is absolutely perfect. They are all classics by well-known writers. I enjoyed reading each and every one of them.
Book Description
After fourteen years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge was completed, much to the delight of the sister cities it connected: Brooklyn and New York City. Fireworks and top hats filled the air in celebration when the magnificent bridge opened in 1883. But some wondered just how much weight the new bridge could hold. Was it truly safe? One man seized the opportunity to show people in Brooklyn, New York and the world that the Brooklyn Bridge was in fact strong enough to hold even the heaviest of passengers. P. T. Barnum, creator of "The Greatest Show on Earth," would present a show too big for the Big Top and too wondrous to forget.
Customer Reviews:
It reads with the drama of fiction but is based on fact, which is even more intriguing.......2005-11-04
It took fourteen years of construction to build the Brooklyn Bridge, connecting Brooklyn and New York - but some wondered how much weight the new bridge could safely handle. One man decided to show them it was strong enough to hold even the heaviest passenger -- and demonstrated this with elephants. The man's name? P.T. Barnum. It reads with the drama of fiction but Twenty-one Elephants And Still Standing is based on fact, which is even more intriguing.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating!.......2005-06-28
I'll get the flaws out of the way first. First, the author alternates frequently between the SLA members' actual names and their code names. That was a little confusing. Probably it was his intention to make the reader familiar with both.
Secondly, the book was very thorough on details. But maybe it was a little too thorough, particularly on the biographical detail of the key SLA players. Also, in the period following the siege of the LA house that resulted in the deaths of most of the original SLA, there was an infusion of new members and a complex web of shifting loyalties. In these aspects, I think the authors should have saved some of that minutia for appendices. If you're using this as a research project source, the more detail the better. But for the casual reader, it's a lot of detail to wade through. You can do some selective skimming and the whole of the book remains coherent.
But those are minor flaws, and even as flaws they're erring on the side of completeness. This book reads very well; I couldn't put it down. The book opened with background about the politicization of prisoners in California due to outside volunteer groups, in the hopes of rehabilitation. Very perceptive of the authors to recognize the role this phenomenon played.
The authors presented an enlightening analysis of just what the SLA's ideology was; what motivated these people to do what they did. At the point in the story where Patty Hearst joined the SLA and transformed to Tania, the authors presented some helpful background about "brainwashing" (to the extent that such a phenomenon as the public conceives it even exists).
In short, not only is the research of the facts excellent, but the analysis is superb. It's objective. It's not overly stylized nor overly speculative. (None of which can be said for the sickly account, "Exclusive! The inside story of Patricia Hearst and the SLA" by Marilyn Baker. ) The book's power to engross relies on its substance.
Voices of Guns account of the Symbionese Liberation army.......2000-10-23
This is one of the two key accounts of the Symbionese Liberation Army. The other is the Patricia Hearst autobiography "Every Secret Thing" (rereleased as "Patty Hearst"). Voices of Guns is an excellent book on the SLA considering that it was released in 1977 before all of the information on the case became public. The most notable error: VOG correctly stated that after the Hearst guilty verdict the DA's said that Hearst began cooperating with police AFTER being given a 35 year preliminary sentence. In actuality Hearst had beeen secretly cooperating with two FBI agents soon after her capture. The original judge knew this but the prosecutors didn't. Other than that the authors seemed like they didn't want to burn bridges with their sources so there is a bit of transparent pandering but this is easy to notice and work around. Overall, an excellent book on the SLA that is very balanced.
Customer Reviews:
Miller's propagandizing ruins an adequate anthology.......2007-05-01
A series of stories selected by Miller to advance his anti-war, anti-mankind view of the world shortly before his suicide at the end of years of clinical depression. Some are clearly post-apocalyptic, while others are less firmly of that genre. Much less thought-provoking that I had hoped; in great part due to Miller's ramblings ahead of each piece. Instead of simply introducing the story, Miller uses the opportunity to preach his convictions about the sordidness of war and politics and the human condition. The comments and characterizations grow so venomous that it makes the cast of St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman seem saintly.
Best reprint anthology of post-apocalyptic SF.......2004-01-20
This book contains the following stories:
"Salvador" by Lucius Shepard
"The Store of the Worlds" by Robert Sheckley
"The Big Flash" by Norman Spinrad
"Lot" by Ward Moore
"Day at the Beach" by Carol Emshwiller
"The Wheel" by John Wyndham
"Jody After the War" by Edward Bryant
"The Terminal Beach" by J. G. Ballard
"Tomorrow's Children" by Poul Anderson
"Heirs Apparent" by Robert Abernathy
"A Master of Babylon" by Edgar Pangborn
"Game Preserve" by Rog Phillips
"By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benét
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury
"To the Chicago Abyss" by Ray Bradbury
"Lucifer" by Roger Zelazny
"Eastward Ho!" by William Tenn
"The Feast of Saint Janis" by Michael Swanwick
"If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth..." by Arthur C. Clarke
"A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison
"My Life in the Jungle" by Jim Aikin
The ultimate apocalyptic short story collection.......2003-01-18
This anthology contains the very best of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic short fiction, including such hard-to find classics as Harlan Elison's "A Boy and His Dog". Other personal favorites are Norman Spinrad's "The Big Flash", Edgar Pangborn's "A MAster of Babylon", Stephen Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon", William Tenn's "Eastward Ho!", Lucius Shepard's "Salvador" and... it's all there, really. Include an interesting and to-the-point foreword by editor Walter M. Miller (author of "A Canticle for Leibowitz"), and you've got the ultimate treat for a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction.
(Note: Published in the UK as "Beyond Armageddon: Survivors of the Megawar" Robinson, 1985)
This must be a mistake..........1999-04-20
Yes, the book is out of print, but when I ordered it, the page said that it was still available, and I received it in 2 days. Hmmm... There's good and bad to this collection of 21 stories of nuclear devastation. *Bad* - Walter M. Miller's lengthy, rambling, and ultimately pointless foreword and story introductions, and the abundance of typos (did anyone proofread this?). *Good* - The selection of works. Bradbury, Ellison, Clarke, Zelazny, Pangborn, and many others. Plus, it includes one of my personal favorites, "By the Waters of Babylon" by Steven Vincent Benet. The cover is intriguing, as well... looks like Stanislaw Fernandes?
Customer Reviews:
A masterpiece collection .......2004-10-11
This is a collection of stories by one of the great masters of the form. Agnon in Hebrew writes on many levels at once, and shows a deep mastery of the traditional sources. It is difficult to translate this . Yet he does more and presents characters and situations which move us to a sense of the holiness , mystery and beauty of life. Of all the remarkable stories in this collection one, ' The Scribe' remains strongest in my mind. For it gives an image of purity in life and love, an image of holiness that inspires and augments the reader's love of life.
Meeting this work is meeting one of Literature's great masters.
Books:
- Ulysses Annotated
- Unburnable: A Novel
- Under Western Eyes (Penguin Classics)
- Wandering Home: A Long Walk Across America's Most Hopeful Landscape:Vermont's Champlain Valley and New York's Adirondacks (Crown Journeys)
- Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity
- Writings of St. Paul (Norton Critical Edition)
- Wuthering Heights (Collected Works of Emily Bronte)
- 21: The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (Aubrey/Maturin Series)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Signet Classics)
- American Short Story Masterpieces
Books Index
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Greene, Graham
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The Donnie Darko Book
Complete Short Stories (Penguin Classics)
Watership Down: A Novel
Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time
Our Man in Havana (Penguin Classics)
