If you want to read some really deep and powerful insights into the human condition, check out "Mary Winowsky" (written when LH was in HIGH SCHOOL!), "The Gun," Fine Accomodations," "One Friday Morning," "The Little Virgin," "The Young Glory of Him." These stories will make you weep and think about the everyday people you pass in the street and wonder about the stories they may have inside of them. This book should be in EVERY literature class!

This book tells more than just what it is to be Black, it says a lot about being human.

THIS BOOK IS TRULY A MASTERPIECE!I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED LANGSTON HUGHES WHETHER IT WAS HIS POETRY OR HIS SHORT STORIES. HE WAS A VERY INTELLIGIENT MIND(WHAT A BRILLIANT MAN). R.I.P. MY DEAR LANGSTON!

I have recently taken on the project of reading all the classic novels I was suppose to care about in high school and college. I started with Langston Hughes.
I found the introduction to this book most helpful in understanding where Mr. Hughes was writing from. It is odd how little has changed from pre WWII society to today. If you are looking for a wonderful look into the African American mind and world, this is the book to read. Such a vast array of different stories, form merchant steamer to Harlem to South America, this book has it all. I especially recommend you to spend time reading "Cora Unashamed" I read it four times in the first sitting and have now revisited it a number of times finding hidden colors and tones that are remarkable.

This is great book for learning statistics. The best I've seen so far. Statistics is a subject I hate, but this book has given me hope. I know use it as a supplement for other textbooks. It was a book that was written with the student in mind. I am in a class with an awful stats book now, Statistical Methods for Psychology. But, the Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences text will be a permanent fixture on my shelf and I recommend it often. I will continue to look for textbooks written by these guys. Thanks, you made one of my semesters much better.

OK, here it is: I am a math phobic, have been all my life, as long as I can remember myself! So, when I started studying psychology as a second degree, I was kind of anxious about taking all kinds of statistics courses: it seems that statistics are a major part of any psychology degree, & so it was important for me to learn them well, from the beginning. Well, with this book (which I shopped around for, looking for the best introductory book on the subject) my math-phobia has not disappeared, but is slowly & surely getting smaller & smaller. This is a textbook that guides you, step by step, so you can understand all the basic concepts of statistics, without feeling you're making an effort. Lots of problem-solving & learning checks help, lots of revision at the end of each chapter...the book is organized in an excellent & thoughtful way, perfect for a student who will take the time sto study (it covers almost everything) but who wants to do it in an organized way.

I used an older copy of this book as an undergrad and was asked by a fellow doctoral student what I might recommend for use as a good stats book for the "stat phobic" ... Hands down, I say that THIS is the book to use. I've used thinner stats books that pretend to be cute. But if "cute" is not what you need, and you need to learn the stuff as well as reference the stuff. This is the book for you.

I suppose I ought to update my copy ;-) mine is dog eared!

Need stats? Buy this book to learn. Good stuff!

This book provides excellent genealogical resources to help you find your European ancestors from Portugal to Greece.

Baxter explains some of the considerations that are unique to each country. For example, France has a '100 years law' that limits the information that you can access if an individual's record is within the last 100 years. In Italy, there is a record called the Certificate of Family Genealogy (Certificato dello Stato di Famiglia) that can be especially useful. Research in Scandinavian countries, Wales and some areas of the Netherlands and Germany can be difficult because the surnames often changed with each generation.

Some countries receive more or less coverage in this book. For Albania, where most of the church records have been destroyed, there is just a short history. For other countries, there are lists of records, major family names, archives with addresses that you can write to, and information about how records are kept in that country. Often dates are provided indicating when the country first began census and/or church records.

Overall, this book has great details!

Now in a completely revised, updated, and expanded fourth edition, Angus Baxter's In Search Of Your European Roots continues to be the premier guide for the novice genealogist seeking trace ancestors in any and every country throughout Europe. The location of each country's national and municipal archives is recorded, in addition to the location of church records, census returns, the system of civil registrations of births, marriages, and deaths, along with pertinent recommendations on finding and using such records as foundling books, orphans' lists, certificates of domicile, guild records, internal passports, confirmation records, and vaccination lists. Here are a highly recommended wealth of telephone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, and website addresses for most of the major European archives and genealogically relevant organizations. Of special note in this new edition is the attention paid to the changes brought about by German reunification, the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the dismemberments of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia into smaller political states.

If you've ever tried to follow your family tree in your own country and language, just try doing it halfway around the world!

Baxter's book is packed full of useful information for your quest to dig up information about European ancestors. I was particularly interested in the sections on eastern European countries -- these are so often overlooked in "European" reference works, but Baxter has included what was available at the time of publication.

Very helpful are sections on the history of national boundaries (the ancestor you regard as Polish may have been, at the time if his life, German, Austro-Hungarian, Bohemian, Polish, or Russian!), and an index of changed place-names.

This was a very helpful addition to my growing genealogy library, and will be to yours, too.

Based on the "Arthur" episode by the same name, "Buster Baxter, Cat Saver" teaches a lesson, but at the same time includes humor that escalates to greater and greater levels throughout the story. When Buster "rescues" a cat from a tree, he at first denies that it was an act of heroism; he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. As more and more attention starts be heaped on him, he starts to really get into being a hero, even starting a script for his own television series, which he states will be "edutainment." ("It's supposed to be a combination of entertainment and education, but often ends up being the worst of both.") When he starts trying to get the Brain to do his homework and being otherwise pompous, his friends start hatching schemes to try to bring his eager down to size. This is one bunny, though, who isn't so easily swayed.

My class of first graders loved this story. This story hasfunny things happen to the characters. Arthur is upset because Busterthinks he is better than everyone. This story has many plots and mysteries as Buster's friends try to show him that he is not as brave as he thinks. It is easy to read and easy to follow, but NOT BORING!

My 7-year old daughter (2nd grade) loves this entire series of books. When she was younger (up to kindergarten) she loved the "adventure" series of Arthur books. We made the transition to the chapter books because they have so much more story to them. They were perfect at the age where I would just read them to her, and by now we're at the point where she reads them to me. We have LOTS of books, but no others have held her interest as well across these stages. Fantastic value for the money. I automatically buy each new chapter book as they're released.

Baxter Black's poetry and commentary on the ordinary life of cowboys, farmers, ranchers and rural vets is an entertaining look at a slice of disappearing American life. It is Americana at it's best. Baxter is a true original and a treasure.

Baxter Black proves himself to be one who truly understands the way of life of the american cowboy past and present. This collection is sure to intrigue country and city folk alike.

This book is an excellent collection of poems and stories that give a unique insight into a cowboys life and rural ways.

Although I am much more partial to "The Feast of Love," "Shadowplay" is good in its own right. Feast of Love offers readers a glimpse into the interworkings of love and the betrayal of desire. On the other hand, Shadowplay weaves in and out of love, betrayal, enviornmental policy, civic responsibility, familial bonds and the like. It is a complex book full of complex characters who will intrigue the reader from page one until the last. Charles Baxter has a way with words--increasing and decreasing pace in the book which puts the reader deep into the throws of the book. He is the modern John Cheever.
Charles Baxter opens only slightly the issue of civic responsibility and enviornmental duty--resting the reader on the edge of the issue as if to call your attention to such problems without exactly giving you an answer. The main character wallows in these questions throughout the book and never fully resolves them himself giving you ample opportunity to devise an end to the story yourself.
All in all, I enjoyed the book immensely and have recommended it to several of my friends--thinking they will not only love his writing but might learn a little something as well.

Read this book. It's like listening to a really good jazz piece-- intense and light at the same time. It will knock your socks off. And if you ever get the chance to hear Baxter read any of his stuff live, he's a wonderful speaker and storyteller. One of my favorites.

Baxter, known for his various short stories, brings all his literary talents to this novel, Shadow Play. I'll let the other readers' comments cover the basic plot and storyline, which is superb, but I do want to pass this bit of information.

I came away from this novel feeling as if I had just found a modern-day Catcher in the Rye with an adult Holden Caulfield. The writing is so vivid and accurate that I found myself empathizing with many of the characters' thoughts and situations. What "Catcher" was to me at 16, Shadow Play is to me at 29. A very adult examination of an ordinary life in an ordinary town, written in a very unordinary fashion.

A beautiful book for anyone who enjoys a well written yarn.

I used this for a class in creative writing. Anytime I got writers block I would read a few of the stories in Sudden Fiction. It didn't always help but all the stories are highly entertaining and from time to time the stories inspired me to pen up my own experiences in their voice or mine. All in all, whether you're using it seriously or not, you'll enjoy this book's short stories. There's a wide variety for all moods and writing styles. It'd be hard not to like at least some of the stories and if you're a writing student or pro I'd think this type of material would be essential for those lean times.

This is priceless collection of very short stories from all over the world.In this cosmopolitan range of stories many known authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez,Julio Cortazar,Heinrich Boll,Nadine Gordimer and Mrozeck are joined by those we will come to know better later by reading their well crafted short short stories.
I have translated 37 of these collection into Farsi.The Farsi title is Dastan e Nagahan meaning Sudden Fiction.
Thanks to the talented authors of this anthology and its fine predecessors,Sudden Fiction and other titles like Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction Continued.
I recommend the readers to buy this book and enjoy its taste in discovering a world wide scenery,multi cultural surprises and find new friends.
The stories are indeed perfect for bed time reading

A great book for those with short attention spans, short story writers (or aspiring short story writers), and those who want to see the variety of short shorts available. These stories are short but they have a sharp impact on the reader. The Afternotes section provides extra information about the author, which is often not included in short story collections. It also provides interviews with the authors on their inspiration for the story of theirs included in this volume and occasional interviews with translators on how they set about getting the most accurate translation of the story.

Baxter's time was not too unlike our own. Despite there being a large theological agreement that there must be discipline within the Church, very few leaders in the church are willing to carry it out. Baxter reminds us, and convincingly so, that we must do so for not only the good of the soul of the individual, but for the rest of the Church, and even ourselves. Most of the book rotates around the subject of discipline in the pastoral ministry. It also contains many other details concerning the ministry that would be good for any aspiring, or current pastor to read.

The only reason I give the book 4 stars instead of 5 is because this version is the abridged version of what Baxter wrote years ago. However, there is nothing that would tell you this unless you read the preface. I was a little disturbed upon originally reading the preface that this was the case, and that the original work is closer to 700 pages (depending on margins and type settings). This book has a rather tiny font size, and very little margin, so even though it is only over 100 pages, if it were in the typical type setting you see in most books, it would probably be closer to 3-400 pages.

Also, the ancient Elizabethean english has been revised for the modern reader, which probably accounts for the shorter number of pages.

Don't let any of this distract you from getting this book though, there are still many redeeming qualities to it.

Having been a pastor for almost 25 years I admit to initially being angry when I read The Reformed Pastor some years ago.

"Why didn't someone show this book to me before?" I thought to myself.

How foolish a young minister is who enters the Gospel ministry having been told of Baxter but who refuses to read Baxter.

This Puritan of Puritans was wonderfully gifted by God to be a real pastor.

The wisdom of Richard Baxter's THE REFORMED PASTOR should be required readng for all who are even thinking about going into the ministry. It will make you re-think your calling, and look into your personal conviction to Christ like few other books can. A must read.

Many of these brilliant, thoughtful stories are about people at unexpected moments of boiling over. Something is wrong in these characters' lives--a minister anchored in security who desperately needs his own sermon on fear; an adult ed. teacher questioning what he believes and teaches--their emotional well-being, as a whole, may not be in peril, but something is. And Baxter has the grace and patience to take us about as far as one could go into small yet poignant circumstances of recognizable characters. Baxter's prose is lilting yet potent: "He was ball-and-chained to his emotions. On some days the obsession weighed him down so heavily that he could not get out of bed to go to work without groaning and reaching for his hair, as if to drag himself up bodily for the working day." This passage from "Saul and Patsy are Pregnant" illustrates Baxter's gift for confusing the comic and tragic--should these be opposites, one thinks--after reading this stunning collection.

The author provides an excellent portrayal of ordinary people faced with frequently occurring dilemmas of comtemporary living. Each story is succinct and well-written. The author conveys a sympathetic tone to these often lonely people. I found the writting style subtle and open to interpretation but not distracting. I would recommend the book to those of a more literary nature.

My favorite story in this solid collection is "The Disappeared" -- a Swedish engineer comes to Detroit on business and tries to make sense of the world he finds himself in. It's one of the best stories I've read this decade, and a number of others in this collection rival it as well. (I liked this collection more than "Believers" and "Harmony of the World" -- but his essay collection Burning Down the House is great, too.) Baxter's not a flashy writer, but he's never simple -- more Edward Hopper than Norman Rockwell. Sample one story and you'll probably find the collection worth buying. These stories should last.

Baxter's story is inspiring. He maintains hope and committment in the face of huge opposition from the State. I first read it 30 years ago and it really made an impact on my thinking and outlook on life.

I am not good enough at writing to put together a review that does this book justice. All I can say is that Archibald Baxter was a true hero, the bravest man I know of, and this is the saddest book I have ever read.

This is an amazing book written by an amazing man. As powerful as "All Quiet On The Western Front" ,it points out the extremes of human nature as well as the vulnerability of every person to persecution by even "democratic" governments. Unfortunatly, the hard reality revealed in this book is that the majority of humans are only capable of blind allegience to a state, and too few willing to resist whatever the cost. I don't think I could have done what Archie Baxter did, and I pray I never have to find out!