I am a student majoring in Education at Macon State College. Several students (including myself) chose to read Marva Collins' Way and present our information to the class. We thought it best to actually do a skit from the first chapter to show our fellow students just how Marva's methods of teaching got through to her students. Needless to say, we received rave reviews from our fellow students! In a nut shell, Marva's methods on teaching stem from SELF-ESTEEM. Marva builds on that and the skies the limit! Marva's teaching methods reflect so much of Emerson's Self-Reliance - it's all about the student's perception of the teacher and how that teacher views the student. If you have a chance, go online and read Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson and compare it to Marva's methods. This will give you a better idea just how Marva can take negativities in students and change them into positive aspirations. Marva Collins' Way was very easy to read and had a fantastic preface. I was "sold" on the book as much as Marva's students were "sold" on learning. I thought the book put a bit too much emphasis on this being a way to teach African American children and not enough emphasis on "Returning to Excellence in Education" which is something I fell breaks through all racial barriers, yet keeps diversity intact. I would suggest this book to anyone, not just teachers, who would like to reinforce positive attitudes in children both in and out of school. With all the reference material provided at the back of the book, it is a must have!!! With positive self-esteem, anything is possible! After all, "Man is his own star" - Emerson.

I am a college student majoring in education and I read this for a class. I like the way Marva told about her family life to show what strenghts she focus on and how she was able to pass those strenghts on to others. She also revealed how to break those barriers that some children tend to build around themselves. I felt that this book is a great resource for many different situations and how to relate to children. Learning what is needed on your behalf is what it takes in order to be a good teacher that gives understanding, love, and patience to every child. Once you put forth every effort you'll get your students to put forth every effort. I truly enjoyed this book. I find it to be very helpful. It's great!!

Loved the book, MARVA COLLINS' WAY by Marva Collins and
Civia Tamarkin . . . this is the inspirational story of a woman who started her own school in Chicago and made a difference in the lives of her students . . . it is a MUST READ for anybody interested in education--or, in general, having children succeed in life.

Her thinking makes so much sense . . . for instance, she tells
teachers to not mark papers with wrong answers; instead, tell
students how many they got right.

There were many memorable passages; among them:
[talking to a student] "Very good, James. You're so clever,
but I don't want to see you put your head on the desk. If you are leepy, you should be home. This is a classroom, not a hospital or a hotel. I don't ever want to see any of you napping in your seats or just sitting with your hands folded, doing nothing. This is not a prayer meeting. If I see your hands folded, I'm going to put a Bible in them."

When Tracy rummaged through her lunch sack a half hour before noon, arva reminded, "Don't worry so much about feeding your stomach. Feed your brain first and you'll always find a way to get food for your stomach."

[to a student who was erasing her wrong answer] "No, darling.
Remember, we draw a circle around the error and put the
correct answer above it. We proofread mistakes, we don't
erase them. When you erase a mistake from the paper,
you erase it from your mind, too, and you will make
the same mistake over again."

Tennis Confidential by Paul Fein is a logically organized collection of essays, reports on remarkable matches, and interviews, that I found serendipitously searching the web, and read with the appreciation of the author's ability to get deep into the topic while enjoying plastic description of events, matches, broader impact of events for pro-tennis, and post-game interviews etc. The style of writing was concise and to the point. The author is at his best in the middle of the book conveying the ongoing issues of pro-tennis from the possible rule changes, computer and year to date; to the Prize-Money equality/inequalities. This book wont help to improve your game, but will definitely provide a collection of deep thoughts about the game of tennis, and the paradoxical and complicated psyche of the players that have shaped the Open-Era. In my opinion, the book reaches the quality of B. Collins's My Life with the Pros, and P. Bodo's The Courts of Babylon, while keeping its own unique concept of tennis and style, and selection of topics surviving the tests of time. TC II deserves its consideration

If you like Tennis, its stars and the whole package, you will definitely enjoy this book. The book starts off with a series of portraits of great players, followed up by unique interviews, which are both fun and enlightening to read. We get close to the Williams sisters, Sampras, Arthur Ashe, Jimbo, Guga, etc. After this, we move into some more serious issues with entries concerning burning issues, such as "Bad Dads" in Tennis. Lastly, the book hits the sweet spot with stunning accounts of some of the greatest matches in Tennis history. This writing is short and concise and makes the matches come alive. I was 13 years old when Borg beat MacEnroe in 1980 and I felt the special vibes again just reading the two page description in Fein's book.
- If there ever was a Book on Tennis which manages to bring the sport alive, and make you a little bit smarter at the same time, this is it.

Paul Fein's new book, Tennis Confidential, is a wonderful book filled with interesting facts, great interviews and profiles, accounts of his choices for the 10 greatest matches, and intriguing discussions of tennis's current and past controversies. I bought the book on a Friday evening and spent most of the next two days reading it. I found it completely engrossing.

The book is divided into 6 major sections: Portraits of the Stars, Memorable Interviews, Topical Trends and Burning Issues, The Great Controversies, 20th Century Retrospectives, and The 10 Greatest Matches in Tennis History. This collection of articles, many of which won journalism awards, runs the gamut of the current players such as Venus and Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, and Pete Sampras, to the stars of the late 1970s and 80s such as Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, and Jimmy Conners to several of the games legends such as Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe and Bobby Riggs. Yes, there are some players missing, mostly due to space limitations, I suspect. I would have enjoyed profiles and/or interviews with Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Hingis, and Monica Seles on the women's side. On the men's side, Ken Rosewall, Stefan Edberg, Bill Tilden, and Don Budge. However, he writes about several of these players in the section on the 10 greatest matches, so perhaps I'm just greedy.

Regarding the controversies and burning issues, he writes about the problems with the advancing technology in racket manufacturing, and the effect these advances have had in the power game, especially in the men's game. He also discusses such critical issues as the role parents (especially fathers) have taken in developing their child's game. He deals with most of the famous "Bad Dads, " only really missing the recent addition of Jelena Dokic's father. He talks about the need for the Grand Slam to be accomplished in one calendar year, why we should keep the let serve rule, the use and possible misuse of the tiebreak rule, the ranking system problems, why Wimbledon should remain a grass court tournament, the problems that occur with letting teens play early and often, the issue of equal pay for men and women, and the effect that more black players could have on the game, including the inherent problems in attracting and keeping black athletes in tennis.

I don't have any complaints about the book. There are several items I might have liked to read about, but I fully recognize the limitations and choices one needs to make in such a work. One extra I would have enjoyed is a brief player update after the original profile and/or interview. Although most of these are from 1997 on, there are few from earlier that an update would have been nice. For instance, there are two interviews with the late Arthur Ashe. Many people who have become interested in tennis in the past five years or so, may not have much of a sense of his contribution. The interviews help in that regard, but it would have been nice to have a brief obituary about his death. The same would have been nice in regards to Bobby Riggs and Ted Tinling who have died since their interviews were done.

Also, to no surprise, there are several matches I would consider in the last few years that could rank among the best. One, in terms of historical importance, would be the Bobby Riggs/Billie Jean King "Battle of the Sexes" in the Astrodome in 1973. This match helped to put women's (at least American women's) tennis on the map. In a period where the women's game is so much more vital and interesting than the men's, this match's importance cannot be overstated, even though it was nearly 30 years ago. Also, there have been three great women's matches in the last three years that I would place somewhere: the Graf/Hingis French Open Final in 1999 (I thank Paul for reminding me of this one), the Clijsters/Capriati French Open Final in 2001, and the Hingis/Capriati Australian Open Final in 2002. But these are quibbles on my part.

All in all, I found this a wonderful read. I had a lot of trouble putting the book down. Anyone who appreciates tennis and good writing cannot go wrong in purchasing this book. I am a big fan of tennis and there aren't a lot of great books available. Through the years, there have been some, but not nearly the wealth as there is for baseball. Do yourself a favor, buy it, read it, tell others. Let's encourage those who write and write well about tennis. I'd love to see more by Paul Fein, and will be looking forward to more.

Taking the apparent simplicity of a small town murder as its hook, Collins subverts the murder mystery genre in this highly unusual, psychological novel. Signposted with cultural references, we are transported back first to the late seventies, then further back to the fifties, wherein lies the secret to unraveling the plot. The sheer level of detail, both physical and psychological, the mood of the novel is done brilliantly. The Resurrectionists is a form of time travel.
Peppered with a host of surreal characters, from Frank's wife Honey to their two children, Robert Lee and Ernie, we share the foibles and fears of a family. We witness the interplay of nurture vs. nature as the two kids are exposed to the manic wandering and searching of its two main characters. We see life weigh down on the children with such moments of bone chilling realism that it reminded me of seeing people at stores who attack their children, or abuse them. The instinct is to protect them. However, the relationship with the children is far more complex, abuse, love and ultimately acceptance comes through. There are no easy answers in this novel. It's complex, often disorienting, given we are dealing with a narrator who is unreliable, a victim of shock treatment. What makes this novel stand apart are the moments of poignancy, bone chilling realism, and at times horror of real life. It holds no punches. It depicts a side of life and people we are at times wont to turn our backs on.... Highly recommended.

Truth seems to be at the center of Collins' writing. Truth was in his award-winning novel, The Keepers of Truth, a brilliant twisted tale of murder and mystery in small-town America. When I provisionally read the blurb, I thought, is this previously charted terrain. It's a reason I kept from buying the book until I found it second hand. (Apologies to the author.)
I could not have been further wrong, though The Resurrectionists concerns a murder, and its attenuated mystery, Collins has gone deeper, and created an intriguing and daring novel that charts the sub-conscious mind of a trouble man who witnessed, and was accused of setting the fire which killed his parents when he was five. The psychological trauma, and the narrator's subsequent care under psychiatrists who hypnotized him and his later episodes with shock treatment, create a fragmented and shifting reality, and as others have noted, Collins has deftly utilized the unreliable narrator technique like no other writer I've read. Collins' particular genius is wedding a story, idea and plot element to a literary technique, and here, Collins actually makes his reader experience the profound sense of loss and disorientation his narrator feels throughout the novel, as he moves close to solving the mystery at the heart of the novel - who is the mysterious murder suspect who now lies in a coma at the county hospital after having hung himself after killing the narrator's uncle at the beginning of the novel.
That Collins balances a mystery with a socio-political and psychological deep novel is noteworthy. He has an ability to make apparently simple stuff complicated, for isn't all life complicated at its core. What is misconceiving is how we don't see the ambiguities in life. Collins makes them shimmer. He goes digging in the dirt of the subconscious.
This was in my top two novels of 2002, second only by a hair's breath to, Middlesex.

Set against the troubled psychos of our Cold War era, The Resurrectionists works as allegory, a tale of a dysfunctional family who embark on a journey across America in search of answers to an old family secret.

Beginning as a road novel, the book moved across America, a journey back in time, from the heat of New Jersey to the refrigerator cold of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This is one of the most ambitious novels you will read this year, or any year.
What is at the heart of this "Cold War Story" is the uncovering of Truth, a recurrent theme in Collins' work. The conceit in the book is that our history was kept from us during the paranoia of the Cold War politics, both by our political leaders, Nixon and Co. Everybody in the book is reacting in someway to Nixon's betrayal in the book. Frank, the main character has a adopted son Robert Lee who has a Nixon pez despenser, his father who's on death row killed the people he did in the wake of watching the Watergate hearings. Also, at work is the fact that uncovering history, or finding the Truth is almost impossible. Things become jumbled, we have to rely on people to tell us what happened, therefore, history is open to interpretation. All this may sound too intellectual, but garbed in the story and characters Collins presents, the allegory works brilliantly.
Throughout the book, the use of reruns is masterfully manipulated, so that themes, and moments have a deja vu feel. The main character, having been a victim of Shock Treatment and hypnosis for an event he witnessed as a child, is unreliable, and his sense of history is skewed. For much of the book, we wonder if we are getting the real "Truth."

With so many divergent themes that do come together, it's hard encapsulating this book. There's the Sleeper, the comatose figure who murdered a man who lies dormant. What secrets does he hold? There's the main character working through his own memories of the past, there's the wife with the ex-husband, a guy on death row who wants to be executed, who is giving his organs up to his hosts. His wife fears he will come after her in the body of one of these hosts.
Mixing the surreal, the gothic, the crime genre, the literary novel, Collins gives us a virtuoso performance, an outside looking in at us. This is by all accounts a near literary masterpiece of emotional and psychological fallout, a starkly told and often brutal and political novel, but for all its apparent bleakness, it is a novel of hope. It shows in quite an extraordinary way toward the end, how we Americans survive. How Collins pulls off this twist, how he gets himself out of the mire of despair is again testimony to his insight into the American Condition.

DARK ANGEL: BEFORE THE DAWN is a fascinating prequel novel that is a treat for any DA fan to read. Max Collins has all the characters down pat, and the backgrounding he does for Max, Original Cindy, Logan, and the other regulars of the show is fascinating. After reading this book one can go back and view Season 1 and Season 2 of the series in a slightly different light, picking up clues that were not noticed before that lead back to Max's earlier life before she came to Seattle. Mr. Collins also does an excellent job of foreshadowing things-to-come in the DA universe, threads that will undoubtedly be continued in his DA sequel novel SKIN GAME which picks up the storyline after the last televised episode of the show. If you're a DARK ANGEL fan, please buy BEFORE THE DAWN! The read is well worth your time!

Beautifully written, 'Before The Dawn' would be required reading for die-hard Dark Angel fans even if the series were still running. Max Allan Collins has given us what we crave -- the Dark Angel "fix" fans have needed since we first heard the series was going to be cancelled early in 2002. This book isn't just terrific brain candy -- it takes a deeper look at some things we saw in the show (such as Max's thoughts as she escaped, and life with her first 'adopted' family), and it fills in a lot of gaps in Max's history as a Manticore escapee on the run in pre- and post-pulse America. I'll be watching eagerly for future DA works from Mr. Collins.

When I first heard that they were taking the Dark Angel series off the air I was really mad. That series was perfect. Perfect actors, perfect future depiction, perfect characters, perfect plot. Perfect right? So why [did]Fox chose to take it off the air I fear I will never know. So needless to say when I heard that Max Allan Collins was writing a book to continue the series, I perked up considerably. I was really worried that this was going to be one of those books that didn't connect with the TV series, but Collins did an excellent job of portraying the characters just as they were on TV. My only complaint was that Collins put Max's leaving phrase was "Gotta blaze," when on the series it was "I gotta bounce." But that was pretty much my only complaint. Anyway, I'm getting off subject. Over all this book is a great uplifter for the rest of us X5's who are still seriously depressed that our brothers and sisters were taken off air. Anyway, this is a great book and definitely worth the money to buy it.(I've already read it and it's sequal about ten or more times apiece.) It may be off the air, but Dark Angel continues.

I LOVE THIS BOOK!!! I JUST FINISHED READING IT FOR THE SECOND TIME. ITS AMAZING HOW JACKIE COLLINS CAN CREATE A WORLD, A WORLD THAT YOU JUST DONT WANT TO LEAVE. THE CHARACTERS IN THIS BOOK ARE SO REAL THAT YOU FEEL LIKE YOUVE KNOWN THEM FOREVER. THIS BOOK IS LIKE A DRUG, YOU WONT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN, I GUARANTEE THAT! I CRIED FOR THE SECOND TIME AND IM A LITTLE DEPRESSED SO IVE GOT TO FIND A NEW JACKIE COLLINS TO READ!!!

This was the best book Jackie Collins ever wrote, and I've read every one of them. I loved Nick and Lauren's star-crossed love story, and the mystery surrounding Cyndra was top-notch. Ooh, it was such a good book. Ooh, it made me go to the store and buy "Power." Reading Jackie Collins is like eating chocolate eclairs. Gooey and fun. Ooh. Ooh,yummy Jackie Collins is the best glitz novel writer there is.

American Star is about the story of two people: Nick Angel, one of the hottest actors in Hollywood; and Lauren Roberts, The Face of the Decade. Their story starts when they are in highschool, growing up in Kansas in a small town called Bosewell. Nick Angelo comes from a broken home and lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Lauren has a home life that seems to be perfect. Yet the two meet and become star crossed lovers. Tragedy breaks them apart, and years later they meet up again. Both had moved on, yet neither of them had forgotten the other.

In between the story of Nick and Lauren, there are other sub plots: Nick's step sister Cyndra and her struggle to become a famous singer; an accidental death; and of course the usual sex and drugs that comes with any Jackie Collins novel.

I enjoyed this book very much. I'd say this is one of Jackie Collins' better novels. It read well, and I liked the characters she portrayed in the book. I wouldnt' mind reading a sequel to this novel.

'LUCKY' is the second installment of the Lucky Santangelo series and in a departure from the first book 'CHANCES'; 'LUCKY' puts the focus on the beautiful and headstrong daughter of former mobster Gino Santangelo.

In this second installment Lucky takes on the task of building her own hotel in Atlantic City but runs into a few obstacles as well as old friends along the way. Lucky's childhood friend Olympia Stanislopolus is reintroduced to us in this novel as a twenty-seven year old, thrice divorced heiress with a lust for rock stars, drugs and sex. We are also reintroduced to Olympia's father, Demitri Stanislopolus, the founder of one of the world's largest shipping empires and one of the richest men in the world, who, without giving away too much, is inexplicably drawn to Lucky whom he'd only seen as a child before but now sees as a woman. Jackie Collins also introduces us to a host of new characters such as Lennie Golden, an attractive up and coming comedian who after a chance encounter with Lucky at the Magiriano, the Las Vegas hotel owned by Lucky and Gino, has his sights set on the dark haired beauty. Then there is Jess a blackjack dealer at the Magiriano and Lennie's best friend who, after tragedy strikes, ends up making a new life for herself by taking Lennie's career in her hands. We also meet Santino Bonnatti, son of Enzio Bonnatti a long time Santangelo family rival, who vows to take revenge on Lucky after his father's death.

'LUCKY' is a great follow up to 'CHANCES' and gives the reader a taste of what's to come for Lucky and Gino in the future Lucky Santangelo novels. The only complaint that I had with this novel is that Collins did not focus enough on the building relationship between Gino, Lucky and Steven Berkley, Gino's newfound son. But overall 'LUCKY' is another excellent book by Collins. 4 ½ stars!

Its better than ever...Lucky's stamina is thrilling ..the Magriano, Atlantic city....and Lennie is simply adorable...all chracters r fun nd u'll luv to read 'em..... Olympia, Brigitte,Steven,Carrie(she's a darling), jess ,matt .u'll luv them all...i cant wait to read the next sequel 'lady boss' nd 'Lucky's Vendetta' ...a must for all...never knew when i finished the book.

Jackie Collins knows how to keep a reader reading. The plot was excellent and Lucky was the bomb. She either liked you or she didn't and she read people like an open book. She was determined to be the "Woman" in a so called man's world. She took care of her responsibilities like a true lady. Lucky and Lennie were made for each other, even though they had many obstacles in their way. The Bonnatti's have once again learned not to mess with the Santangelo's. Gino and Lucky are still on top and loving it. This book has everything, so if you're hesitant about buying it, don't be. Collins knows how to write about a true woman.

This playful and imaginative book is about an elephant that comes across a bird that is extremely stressed and does not wish to sit on her egg anymore. So Horton decides to sit on the egg so the bird can take a break. Well the bird ends up taking a tropical vacation and doesn't want to return. Well Horton very patiently sat on the egg through sleet and rain and the most horrible conditions. Well some people decide that this is a hilarious site and feel that he should be on display for all to see. So the men dig up the tree in which Horton is patiently perched and is taken down south. When Horton and the tree reach the south the mother bird finds Horton just as his egg starts to hatch and she demands it back. Horton is very displeased and states that he did all the work and deserves the egg. Well just as that was said out of the egg jumps an Elephant bird, which is a trophy for all Horton's hard work.
Dr. Seuss yet again did a wonderful job with rhymes and engaging children to read. I love the moral that was being put into place that if you work hard and stay focused then it will all pay off and you will be rewarded in the end.
This is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss book if not my favorite. I have always been a fan of his ability to draw children in and engage them in reading. Also the rhymes and silly words are great for young readers. Also what better then to have a moral tied along with it?

This is the tale of a bird that has an egg but he gets bored sitting on it. He decided to ask Horton the elephant to sit on the egg for him. He says he will and the bird flies away to go on vacation. He sits and sits on the egg and the bird doesn't come back. Eventually people find the elephant sitting up in the tree and he will not leave because he promises he will sit on it for the bird. Some people take him to a carnival as a show. Then the bird shows up at the carnival and sees the elephant on the tree. The egg starts to hatch and the bird comes back to take all the credit for it but when the egg is hatch it is an elephant bird.
This is a story that shows that you can't just let someone else do all the work and expect to get something. This is a great moralistic tale and I think Dr. Suess does a really good job illustrating this point. I think that this is a great book for children because it teaches them a lesson and it is a fun story at the same time. It also has great pictures as all of Dr. Suess books do.

This book clearly deserves more than five stars!

Horton Hatches the Egg is one of my very favorite children's books. The story opens with Mayzie, a lazy bird, sitting on her nest hatching an egg. She's terribly bored and tired and wants a break. She persuades Horton, the elephant, to take over for her. This is a good choice on her part because, "An elephant's faithful -- one hundred percent!"

So Horton props up the tree so it can take his weight, climbs up onto the nest, and ever so gently . . . sits on the egg.

Mayzie decides a little vacation in Palm Beach will be in order. Once there, she says . . . "why bother?" and abandons her egg.

What Horton didn't know is that this egg needed 51 more weeks of hatching! But, never mind. "He said what he meant and he meant what he said." He sat on that egg, no matter what.

Through a long series of misadventures, Mayzie and Horton are reunited just as the egg hatches. Mayzie wants her egg back, and Horton doesn't agree. Then the big surprise happens and Horton gets his reward!

Teaching children patience and persistence . . . well, that takes a lot of patience and persistence. Horton Hatches the Egg is a way to provide a small fictional example when setbacks and delays occur. My youngsters didn't understand Thomas Edison's comment about genius being 99 percent perspiration until they were well past their Dr. Seuss days. I like to think that their hard-working adult selves (for the three who are adults) were formed in part by Horton's example in this book.

This book contains many valuable lessons to encourage such as: keeping your word; being honest; looking out for those in need; sticking through to the end; facing your fears; and many others. It's a remarkable thing to realize also how well the ridiculous image of an unhappy elephant sitting on a nest is a bare tree can create all of those good notions. Way to go, Dr. Seuss!

Ten young Florentine noblemen and women escaping the Black Death in Florence in 1348 entertain themselves by each relating a story per day for ten days - 100 entertaining stories in all, mostly set in and around medieval Florence. Although famously naughty, none of these stories strikes a modern reader as more than mildly erotic. Rather, they consistently astonish by their thoroughly modern message that women are as good as men, nobility doesn't come from birth, sanctity doesn't come from the church, and - above all - true love must never be denied. Amazingly, Boccaccio often delivers this message while pretending to say the exact opposite; sometimes he presents very sympathetic characters who get away with things thought scandalous in his time, offering a mere token condemnation at the end, while other times he depicts someone actually following the accepted code and committing some horrible act of cruelty in the process. Either way - and despite his claims to be upholding convention - we always know what he really means, and apparently he didn't fool too many people in his own day either.

But one doesn't need to focus on the revolutionary aspects of the Decameron to enjoy the book; each of the stories delights the reader with a different tasty morsel, and, you can read as much or as little at a time as you please. Once you get past the introduction, (and that's probably the most serious part of the book, so be sure not to give up before you get to the first story) the stories will make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you sit on the edge of your seat. Inspiring authors from Chaucer to Shakespeare and entertaining audiences for over 700 years, the Decameron continues to delight.

I had to read a good part of "The Decameron" last quarter and I have gone back to read more stories from it even though the Fall quarter is over. This is a great book: funny, entertaining, subtly revolutionary, insightful, and superbly well-written. Approach it without fear. It is a Classic, but it will have you laughing, thinking, and learning far better than any current best-seller. Anyone with an interest in journalism and/or history will profit from Boccaccio's Introduction, at the beginning of the First Day. His description of the Plague in Florence is vivid and gripping, and this eventually provides the background for the setting of the one hundred and one tales that seven young women and three young men will narrate in a villa away from the dying city. Also, the Introduction to the Fourth Day presents the reader with an unfinished, but hilarious story about a man who has been kept away from women. This story is what my teacher called the 101st, and I have to agree with her.

Do not think that all "The Decameron" deals with is sex. The mostly illicit sexual encounters depicted are some times funny, sometimes sad, but they share a common trait with the stories from the Tenth Day, for example (these ones are mostly about sacrifice, abnegation, and servitude), or with those of the Second: Boccaccio's concern for his society and the terrible tensions that had reached a breaking point by the 14th century. The Plague, in Boccaccio's universe, acts as a catalyst of emotions, desires, and changes that had to come.

Read, then, about Alibech putting the Devil back in Hell, Lisabetta and her pot of basil, Ser Ceperello and his "saintly" life, Griselda and her incredible loyalty in spite of the suffering at the hands of a God-like husband, Tancredi and his disturbing love for his daughter, Masetto and the new kind of society he helps create with some less-than-religious nuns, and then it will be easier to understand why Boccaccio is so popular after 650 years. And although it may be skipped by most readers, do not miss the Translator's (G. M. McWilliam) introduction on the history of "The Decameron" proper, and that of its many, and mostly unfortunate, translations into English. This book is one of the wisest, most economic ways of obtaining entertainment and culture. Do not miss it.

Giovanni Boccaccio THE DECAMERON. Second Edition. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by G. H. McWilliam. cli + 909 pages. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044629-X (Pbk).

Second-hand opinions can do a lot of harm. Most of us have been given the impression that The Decameron is a lightweight collection of bawdy tales which, though it may appeal to the salacious, sober readers would do well to avoid. The more literate will probably be aware that the book is made up of one hundred stories told on ten consecutive days in 1348 by ten charming young Florentines who have fled to an amply stocked country villa to take refuge from the plague which is ravaging Florence.

Idle tales of love and adventure, then, told merely to pass the time by a group of pampered aristocrats, and written by an author who was quite without the technical equipment of a modern story-teller such as Flannery O'Connor. But how, one wonders, could it have survived for over six hundred years if that's all there were to it? And why has it so often been censored? Why have there always been those who don't want us to read it?

A puritan has been described as someone who has an awful feeling that somebody somewhere may be enjoying themselves, and since The Decameron offers the reader many pleasures it becomes automatically suspect to such minds. In the first place it is a comic masterpiece, a collection of entertaining tales many of which are as genuinely funny as Chaucer's, and it offers us the pleasure of savoring the witty, ironic, and highly refined sensibility of a writer who was also a bit of a rogue. It also provides us with an engaging portrait of the Middle Ages, and one in which we are pleasantly surprised to find that the people of those days were every bit as human as we are, and in some ways considerably more delicate.

We are also given an ongoing hilarious and devastating portrayal of the corruption and hypocrisy of the medieval Church. Another target of Boccaccio's satire is human gullibility in matters religious, since, then as now, most folks could be trusted to believe whatever they were told by authority figures. And for those who have always found Dante to be a crushing bore, the sheer good fun of The Decameron, as Human Comedy, becomes, by implication (since Boccaccio was a personal friend of Dante), a powerful and compassionate counterblast to the solemn and cruel anti-life nonsense of The Divine Comedy.

There is a pagan exuberance to Boccaccio, a frank and wholesome celebration of the flesh; in contrast to medieval Christianity's loathing of woman we find in him what David Denby beautifully describes as "a tribute to the deep-down lovableness of women" (Denby, p.249). And today, when so many women are being taught by anti-sex radical feminists to deny their own bodies and feelings, Boccaccio's celebration of the sexual avidity of the natural woman should come as a very welcome antidote. For Denby, who has written a superb essay on The Decameron that can be strongly recommended, Boccaccio's is a scandalous book, a book that liberates, a book that returns us to "the paradise from which, long ago, we had been expelled" (Denby, p.248).

The present Penguin Classics edition, besides containing Boccaccio's complete text, also includes a 122-page Introduction, a Select Bibliography, 67 pages of Notes, four excellent Maps and two Indexes. McWilliam, who is a Boccaccio scholar, writes in a supple, refined, elegant and truly impressive English which successfully captures the highly sophisticated sensibility of Boccaccio himself. His translation reads not so much as a translation as an original work, though his Introduction (which seems to cover everything except what is most important) should definitely be supplemented by Denby's wonderfully insightful and stimulating essay, details of which follow:

Chapter 17 - 'Boccaccio,' in 'GREAT BOOKS - My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World'
by David Denby. pp.241-249. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83533-9 (Pbk).

You will laugh, cry and be confused when you read this book. This book can teach you that what you think is good is not always good.

There is a boy named Peter Pan. He sprinkles fairy dust in Wendy and her two brothers. Then he shows them how to fly. He takes them to Neverland and shows them to the Lost Boys who live there. Wendy becomes their mother. She makes up rules, like any other mother would do. The boys have to follow these rules. Everything was fine until Captain Hook came with his crew to where the boys and Wendy were. While Wendy and the boys were at the lagoon, where they go every day after dinner, they see a girl named Tiger Lily, princess of her tribe. She was captured by Smee, one of Captain Hook's men. Then Peter saved her. A few days later Wendy and the boys were on their way to Wendy's house when they too were all captured by Captain Hook. Then Peter saves them. Then the lost boys, Wendy and her brothers go home. All except for Peter.

It is mostly about what the people in the book think is right with childhood. The kids in the book think that if you grow up it is bad, but in our case it is actually good.

Peter Pan is a violent book not really made for children under the age of 10 but people 10 and up can read it. It is violent because of the language that is spoken and the idea that killing could be fun. Also, the vocabulary is very difficult for children under 10 to understand. Even if you're older it is difficult to understand.

Overall, it is a good book but watch out for the violent ideas if you are reading it to little children.

When talking of literature, people tend to look solely at books they read today but forget what they used to read, namely the ones we read as children. It is a common misunderstanding that children's literature is to be read by children and children only, but when we come to think of it, which one of us are not children, at least in our hearts?

One of the best books any child, young or old, can read is Barrie's Peter Pan. Although written in the past century, it has something for any generation at any time. Its humorous views at the world from a child's mind left me rolling over the floor, laughing; the exciting storyline kept me busy with reading until the end; and the serious undertone made me think of whether the world wouldn't be a better place if we realised that deep down, however deep, we are in fact all children. So if YOU are a child, which you most certainly are, get yourself a copy and enjoy your ongoing childhood.

This is an utterly charming work. It has been retold myriad times, but nobody else has done it as well as the original teller, J. M. Barrie.

It's difficult to know what to say about a book like this... everybody knows the story. But I guess that unless you've read this book (not just seen a movie or read a retelling), you don't really know the character Peter Pan, and without knowing the character, you don't really know the story. So read it.

By the way, if you enjoy this, you probably would also like "Sentimental Tommy" and its sequel "Tommy and Grizel", both by Barrie. There are differences (for one thing they're not fantasy), but there are also compelling similarities. Anybody who found Peter Pan a deep and slightly bittersweet book would be sure to enjoy them.

-Stephen