This was not the first book of Jackie Collins I have read, but it is the best so far! After reading it I couldn't get the sequels fast enough! I read every one of them one right after the other and found them hard to put down. I only wish Jackie Collins would keep writing about the Santangelo family, because I can't get enough! Long live Lucky!

If I could give Chances more than five stars I would! Chances is the first Jackie Collins book that I have ever read and I think that I started with the right one.

Chances takes you from 1913 all the way up to 1979 in a tale that begins with Gino Santagelo the infamous mob boss and his rise to power. Gino came from very humble begings, an abusive father, a mother who abandoned him at the sage of five and a damageing stint in a juvinle detention center yet managed to work his way up to owning two of the most successful hotel & casinos in Las Vegas. But once Gino is force into exile his duaghter the beautiful Lucky Santangelo takes over the family business and makes a name for herself as one of the most powerful women in Las Vegas. And lets not forget the story of Carrie and her son Steven. Carrie was forced into prostitution at a very young age and lived a life filled with drugs and alcohol that took her from various whorehouses to running a very successful one of her own, until the birth of her son Steven that is, when she managed to find a better life for her and her son.

This was a brilliantly written story, however, while the chapters that focused on Gino may have been more exciting, Carrie's story was really superbly written. This book is really a great lead in to the second installment of this series 'LUCKY' which I plan to begin reading right away. I give Chances 6 Stars!

I love this novel. I have read it several times and turned some of my friends onto Jackie Collins with this book. The characters are wonderful. Gino is every woman's dream and Lucky is who every woman wants to be. You will have a hard time putting this book down!

In "Carrying the Fire" Michael Collins has given us a very unusual picture of the manned space program: a human and a humble one. While many of the astronaut autobiographies have been marred by shameless self-promotion ("Off the Planet" by Jerry Linnenger, or "The Last Man On the Moon" by Gene Cernan to name two), Astronaut Collins gives real warmth to his coming of age in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He is surprisingly honest about his own anxieties and fears, as well as candid about his role as "the one who didn't get to walk on the moon" on Apollo 11. Offered command of a later lunar landing, Collins demured, both out of respect for his family and out of a fear of pushing his luck. Collins often comes off as cranky and irritable, but never lets you forget that he started as an "outsider" amd had to climb his way to the top of the Astronaut hierarchy.

I was especially impressed with his candid assessments of the other astronauts.

Overall, a great read. Not as dramatic as some other books of this type, but probably more honest.

Michael Collins was command module pilot of the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon in July 1969. Had he not forged such a distinguished record of achievement in the cockpits of exotic, out-of-this-world air & space craft, first as fighter jet test pilot and then as astronaut, Collins would have likely experienced noteworthy success at the keyboard as a writer. After seeing this book on a recent list of the "100 Greatest Adventure Stories," I decided to give it a read. Collins' brilliant narrative helped me rediscover those feelings of admiration, wonder and awe that I experienced as a young boy while watching the space launches and moon walks on B&W TV. This is a fascinating, revealing and oh so candid first person account of the pathway that took Collins to the moon and back--his early career as a fighter jet test pilot, selection and induction into the astronaut corps, preparation and training of an astronaut, the personalities of many of Collins' colleagues in the space program, the exquisite and intricate planning intended to minimize the risks to these brave explorers and ensure their success, his own anxieties and something of the impact on the families of the astronauts. All of technology's wonderous achievements of the last 20 years, e.g., laptop computers, cellular phones, internet, cable TV, etc. seem to pale in comparison to the marvel of sending man to the moon and bringing him home again...safely. While circling the moon in the command module Columbia, Collins needed to correctly press a sequence of computer buttons 850 times just to manage a successful rendezvous with his partners Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they returned from the surface of the moon in the lunar module Eagle. Just one example among many of the incredible vision and engineering and planning involved in NASA's glory years of success. Despite his wonderful accomplishments, Collins does not take himself too seriously, tells his story with wry humor and is maybe a little irreverent. His story sent tingles up and down my spine again...after all these years!

I admit it, I took this book out from the school library when I was 12 and still have it 20 years later. Even at five cents a week, the overdue fees are not worth thinking about. As a schoolkid in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, not many of us dreamed we could ever be astronauts. After reading this book, I did. It didn't matter that by the early 1980s when I read Carrying the Fire there was no manned space programme to speak of. It didn't much matter that I didn't become an astronaut, just a military pilot.

What matters is that Colins's story touched, inspired and motivated me to believe I could do anything I put my mind to, and showed that there's more to success than glory, adulation or being the one kids can remember in history quizzes.

Good on you, Michael Collins. You're an inspiration. All you Amazonians out there who've leapt onto the space history band-chariot since Apollo 13/Earth to the Moon, take note. This is where it started. Find a copy and read it (just don't bother trying to get one from the Hutt Valley High School Library - it's out on loan right now.)

This book was an awsome book. when all the books were about christina sterling and more christina sterling it was BORING! Nobody wanted to read a book about a bratty girl and her snotty i'm to good for everybody horse. Plus most of us Started reading these books Because they were about racing. so as you can guess i was very glad when the authors listened to us and started writing racing again. Christina has the same bond with Star as Ashligh did with Wonder and thats cool but what about Melanie? well in this book Melanie finds the horse of her dreams. Perfect Image is the horse Melanie has always dreamed of. She's smart but stubborn. Melanie see's her potential and wants to turn it into somthing. She convinces Image's owner Fredricka to let her work with the filly. things dont go as planned right away, but throughout the book the bond grows. Melanie has a horse that matches her personality. The ONLY thing I didnt like about this book was the ending.... it was ok but it was almost exactly like the ending of Without Wonder. talk about a repeat. but aside from that i compleatly loved/love this book. if you havent read it buy it or borrow it from someone who has it. if you love throughbred you gotta read this book!

ok i thought this book was great because, image was spoiled and bratty, and not "perfect" like star. and i realy like how there is a little bit of romance in it with melanie and kevin . i still think they like each other. the only thing i don't like is the way it leaves you hanging for the next one to see what will happen with the unrulely filly . i also think that fredricka should sell melanie her image because image is sooooo like melanie headstrong and full of heart. anyway if you haven't read this book you have to read it now it is amazing and everything is different there is finally a race horse who is causing people trouble! this book is one of the most realistic since the first ones!

This book was really great I recomend anyone who has read and liked thoroughbred books to buy this. It is mostly about Melanie and a filly called Perfect Image. Melanie tries to train her but the filly won't cooperate and seems to bring bad luck. I don't like the way it ended leaving you hanging but it was all worth it. Well If you love Thoroughbred books buy this!

This is a stunning novel, a novel of our times, a novel that speaks to political and social upheaval. It's prophetic!
I cannot recommend this work highly enough, not that I agree with everything the protagonist has to say, but he lays out the political, emotional, and nation landscape, and each reader is left to interpret, defend, or re-interpret their understanding of the world they occupy.
Our bookclub read it and to a man and woman, it raised so many questions about society versus the individual, against nation and other nation, against religion versus other religion.
It is that book you either love or hate, but it does what all great books do, it get you to react!
I can't think of another so called murder mystery that created so much vehement discussion.

Featured on NPR, this book tweaked one of our bookclub member's interest and she suggested it. Despite the rather grim synopsis, weighty issues of dying towns and dismembered bodies (we are a squimish bunch of sage academics), we decided on the book, and it turns out the book was simply the best book we as a group have read ever. We have been meeting for over 6 years, so this is no small accolade. Blending story, politics, mystery and brilliant writing, Collins has created a new literary voice that flirts between popular and serious fiction and breathed life into the novel. It feels like a post 911 book somehow. Yes, we continue to live our day to day existence, but there is a veneer of the political in our lives. We are aware of political menance, of the actions and the life around us, how our politics can have dramatic effects on the world. Again, this book, written in 2000, somehow populates the vacuum we now find ourselves in.

In writing this review, I discovered Collins' book is shortlisted for the world's biggest cash prize literary award, The Impac, and our group takes as a great measure of pride that we discovered this writer before this shortlist nomination.
We recommend this book without reservation as the must read book of the year!

NPR does a great service in bringing us voices that we may otherwise never hear. Michael Collins is one such voice. Hailed in Europe and lauded with prizes, I'd never heard of him. In his interview he gave such a personal account of his struggle and survival in America as a young immigrant, that I decided to read his book. He seemed to suggest that we as a nation had lost our ability to think politically, to react to world affairs. Needless to say, I bristled at this contention. I wanted to ask him why he stayed?
I can't say I agree with everything in this book, but it is an uncanny vision of America, a re-vision of past events overlayed with some heavy, but insightful analysis of us as a country. His contention that over 20,000 people were murdered and this constituted an undeclared revolution within America in the early eighties now seemed more insightful than when I first heard the figure. Collins contended in the interview that Americans were apt to dismiss this figure as gang related, to mitigate the level of violence to a subgroup of our nation. However, in The Keepers of Truth he has created the emotional and political landscape of America, peopled it with all the hopes and fears we share. He shows the rise and fall of characters, not always their own fault, but victims of society, and we are asked to have humanity and understanding for those who fail, and indeed, in this book, failure seems inevitable, or at least decline. (It is hard to decide what I feel about this contention.)
Collins raises serious societal issues in of all genres to adopt, a crime, or mystery novel, and he pulls it off with such verve of language, suspense and pace, that one had to give him his moments on the soapbox. As a denizen of the midwest I can vouch for at least the atmosphere and tension Collins creates. It is a startling achievement for a foreigner to understand, or maybe, not understand, but question us with such probing questions.

This book is about a kid named Scott Pendleton Collins and he was in the World War 2 in 1944.He struggles and gives it all he's got but thats not enough for him. As he is going through running up and down hills and through water and swamps he gets hurt. Find out more about this book in the historical fiction section because I thought it was exciting. I think you will get a shock when you read the book. You will enjoy this book. Check it out at your library today.

The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, by Walter Dean Myers, is a great book about a World War 2 soldier, stuck in the middle of D-Day. He lands on Omaha Beach, and has to run for his life. He watches his friends die, but with a few lucky breaks, he survives the horror. Scott then must continue marching, to capture the German headquarters of St. Lo, and Vire. I deeply enjoyed the book because as it teaches you of the war, in particular D-Day, and of the horrors that the young soldiers had to go through. They had to survive through the death of friends, the death of family, 'Dear John' letters from their girlfriends, and the constant sound of death and explosions around them. They also lived like savages, without sanitation, or good food. The author of The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins, Walter Dean Myers, is a well known historical-fiction writer. He has another book out about the Vietnam War, entitled Fallen Angles. Fallen Angels is a book similar in style, also focusing on the hardships that the G.I.'s had to persevere through. I strongly recommend either of these books to anyone with an interest in war and/or historical-fiction. The are great books that can teach you many important things!

Writing in May_ 1944, 17-year-old Collins has no inkling of the massive military offensive he is about to take part in. Myers captures nicely the shift from the fraternity and the boredom of life on the base to the terror and confusion of D-Day. The action and imagery are explicit but not exploitative as Collins survives the landing and pushes on through subsequent battles and skirmishes to secure the town of St. Lo, which is now little more than a pile of rubble topped by the ruins of Notre Dame. Myers' believable portrayal of Collins as a political naif may surprise readers who know far more about World War II than the soldier caught in its midst. The least successful elements here are the handful of letters to relatives and a girlfriend back home. They barely suggest a home life for Collins and don't reveal much of an inner life either. Though it doesn't dig beneath the surface of D-Day events, this My Name Is America series book is still an emotional read that should easily find an audience.

VENDETTA: LUCKY'S REVENGE, is the 4th in a series of books about Lucky Santangelo, daughter of an italian "businessman" who had ties with the mafia. In this novel, Lucky experiences a series of bad luck, not realizing til much later that this was not bad luck, but an old nemesis Donna Donnatelli Bonnatti taking revenge on the family and on Lucky for murdering Donna's husband Enzio. Lucky's movie studio is taken over by an unknown business woman, and her husband Lennie Goldman is reported missing and dead. It does appear to be bad luck but it takes some heavy duty sleuthing for Lucky to figure out what is really going on. In between this main plot, there are sub plots with various hollywood-type characters. The action never stops, as is typical in any Jackie Collins book.

If you are looking for some fast action, you won't go wrong with LUCKY'S REVENGE.

I really liked that book. From the few Jackie Collins books that I have read, this was by far the best. Lucky is a very strong woman - that's the way today's woman should be! They should not let people walk on their feet. What I admire is the faith and trust that there is in Lucky's and Lennie's marriage. It's not directly their fault if they had both committed adultery, only once. The one to be blamed is Donna. Lucky was trapped in believing that Lennie was dead, that's why she slept with Alex, while Lennie slept with that italian girl so as to save himself. A must read book for all Jackie Collins fan. I am not exactly one of her fans, but I definitely am now after having read Lucky's Revenge!

Jackie Collins is always the best when it comes to fun can't put down reads. In Vendetta Collins proves that she is the queen of the beach read! Vendetta continues the story of Lucky Santangello, this time as the head of her own studio and a happily married woman and devoted mother. All is perfect until Donatella Bonnati takes revenge on Lucky destroying her and those around her. Now Lucky vows to destroy her and get back her and get it all back. Vendetta is a fun read. The characters are interesting, the story may seem far fetched at times, but it keeps the pages turning. Jackie Collins says she wants readers to have fun reading her books and Vendetta lives up to to that promise. I hope that Jackie Collins keeps writing her fun reads, because I always have a good time reading her books.

This book was great! I found out so much about the olsen twins. I learned so many things that I didn't know. This book is great for all olsen twin fans. I am very glad that I read it! I would definitely recommend it to anybody who likes the olsen twins.

There Official Biography is a hit! The famous third-teen year old girls tell all about there elary days on Full House, there many CDS, videos, books, movies, and fashion dolls and video games, and there travels. Theres also some pitures of the twins growing up from babies to teenagers. I think any olsen fan should own this great book. I love it!

The pictures in here are GREAT. There are a bunch from babies to now. I like them because they are candid, some of them anyway. The writing was excellent. Plus there was a lot of stuff in here I didn't know, some of it just cool facts about twins or TV stuff that were barely about the twins. Read this book: It is so cool.

This book is an excellent guide to the world of mutual funds. Eric Tyson does a service to beginning investors by steering them towards the modest goal of getting the same return as the market by investing in low-fee, low turnover mutual funds (preferably index funds).

Tyson covers nearly everything in this book, from how to build a portfolio, to what returns you can reasonably expect, to where to buy the funds. He covers stock funds, bond funds, and money market funds, and shows how you can evaluate them. He does all of this in easy-to-read prose.

I have one small complaint about the book. If Tyson is not paid by Vanguard, he should be. I can understand that given its dedication to low cost and its unique corporate structure among brokerages, Vanguard might be the best place around to buy mutual funds, but Tyson should have made a point to back off just a bit on highlighting the company so egregiously to avoid the appearance of being the company's shill.

But despite this small lapse, I believe Tyson has the best interests of people who want to make a little money for retirement, their children's education, or some other modest goal, but aren't comfortable speculating. He encourages that healthy skepticism towards their ability to make a quick buck and instead teaches them to invest in a way they can have reasonable confidence -- instead of an irrational exuberance -- that they will get the expected return on their money.

After having read many mutual fund books over the last 7 years, this one cuts through the complexity to give you down to earth suggestions you can use. He names funds to buy and some not to buy. He clearly explains the impact of low operating expenses on total return. He is not afraid to criticize financial newsletters and the Morningstar rating system (it has not done very well in predicting future performance). Best mutual fund book I have read.

Many people who are going into mutual funds and investing do so without any knowledge of basic things.

The good points of this book are too many to go into, but I'll say that several things were helpful:

1. Discussion of Indices and the mention that they tend to cary lower expense ratios, etc.

2. Mention of how much you "should" be paying in terms of mutual fund expenses.

3. Demonstration of reasonable rates of returns and fraudulent rates of return as well.

For people who think that it is "worth their time" to pay a consultant or an advisor, this is the book that will save them a lot of money.

ROAD TO PERDITION is a graphic novel by Iowa-based writer Max Allen Collins with illustrations by British comics artist Richard Piers Rayner. As a fan of Collins, I made sure I read his original before heading to the cinemas to see the recent movie adaptation.

Collins has written some great crime thrillers. I wish that his "Quarry" series, about an amoral hit-man, were back in print. Currently, those books are fetching some very high prices, but that's as it should be, because they contain some wonderfully tough and gritty writing. His comics work is of a high caliber as well: his character Ms Tree comes to mind, but there have been many others.

However, the movie and book of ROAD TO PERDITION are two very different animals. The graphic novel is much more of a true-crime actioner, with plenty of shootouts and long silences, where the pictures are allowed to carry the story without many word-balloons or captions. In his intro, Collins describes how the book was inpired by the extremely popular Japanese comics series, LONE WOLF AND CUB (which also was adapted to a movie, "Shogun Assassin"). It's apparent: anyone who has read LONE WOLF will recognize many similarities in the telling of the tale.

Ultimately, the movie (directed by Sam Mendes) does a better job with the framework of the story, deepening the relationship between the two main characters: a young boy and his enforcer father, who have to go on the lam to save themselves, when the father's crime-lord boss murders their family.

While Rayner's pictures are wonderfully evocative of the 1930s Al Capone era, the graphic novel may disappoint those who may have been fans of the movie, and who seek to further their knowledge of the characters. Still, it's a very fast read, and an enjoyable one.

What a powerful read. The pure power of morality and love coupled with the intensity of the violence in these pages make this book unforgettable. The art meshes perfectly with the writing. In fact, if I had to pick Max Allan Collins or Richard Piers Rayner as the star of the book, I'd have to go with Rayner. Some of the detail in his panels are simply mind numbing. Collins has crafted a great father-son/assassin tale along the lines of the Japanese comic Lone Wolf and Cub, but Rayner's work is what really puts Perdition over the top as a graphic novel.

This book is a touching if disturbing look into a mob assassin's relationship with his older son, and his quest for vengence for the death of his wife and younger son. A noir-ish tale deftly told as it weaves in conflicting notions of religious morality, loyalty, vengence, and proper guidance for a child. A gripping tale.

Before I sat down to watch The Road To Perdition recently, I had no idea that the film is based on a graphic novel, from the well known comic book author Max Allan Collins. After seeing the movie, I knew I had to seek out the book. Even though I thought the movie was OK--The book is far better as far as I'm concerned. As with most book to film adaptations, certain things are altered or even deleted all together, for the sake of the cinema format. The Road To Perdition is no excpetion.

The father/son dynamics of the story are brought into greater depth. As is O'Sullivan's role as chief enforcer for the irish crime boss he works for. Due to a tragic turn of events, Michael O'Sullivan and his son are forced to travel a road filled with danger, deception, Al Capone's money, and murder. The book does an even better job tying in historical figures Capone (the one scene of his in the film was cut) and his right hand man Frank Nitti, than the movie did. Collins keeps both men around to tell the story. Collins gives readers a no holds barred look at the 1930s and the mob

The black and white art of Richard Piers Rayner only adds to the gruffness of the story. His work, simple, yet at the same time somehow detailed. By electing to use black and white for the entire layout, one really gets the sense that they are watching a classic older film on the late show. The panels of book indeed, gave director Sam Mendes and crew a baseline, for the movie. I just wish I read the book before I saw the film. One of my criticisms of the movie was that I thought that many of the twists of the story were easy to spot. Since the book goes into certain areas the film barely touches, those twists may not be as easy to forecast

Whether you have seen the film or not, the book is a must read. Don't let the fact that it tells the story in "comic book form deter you. It's not same as reading an issue of Superman or Spiderman. This is not for the kiddies. Collins provides a well written introduction that sets the stage The book has 302 pages and comes highly recommended

Max Allan Collins' novelization of the 1999 film "The Mummy" is a lot of fun. Which is of course what you would expect, since the movie itself was such pure unadulterated fun.

It does what most good novelizations do, it fleshes out the characters a little more. It provides some background information on the characters and storyline. The novelization is also very helpful for explaining a bit more about the ancient Egyptian ceremony where Imhotep tries to resurrect his dead love, Anck-su-namun. The novel also focuses on the romance aspect between Evelyn and O'Connell, much more than the movie.

If you enjoyed the recent Mummy movie, you would probably enjoy this book. It's a fun and fast read. As long as you don't expect anything more from it, you should enjoy this book.

This novel was a real page-turner. I couldn't stop reading, and I finished it in 2 days. It started out slow in the beginning, but got faster as the story built up. The story has a strong plot and the characters were very well-developed. The scenes with the Mummy and the City of the Dead are fantastic. This was probably a great adaptation of the movie, which I'll be seeing. Max Allan Collins probably did the best adaptation of a movie then any other movie-tie in that I've read. I recommend this book to anyone!

OK, "The Mummy" a book written by Max Allan Collins was made into the 1999 sleeper hit, "The Mummy"! Since I'm a big fan of the "Mummy" movie, I just had to read the book. In the book it shows more detail, which makes it much more clarer (that is if you've seen the movie). It starts out with Imotep, High Priest of Osiris. He starts to fall in love with the pharough's wife. Of course the pharough himself finds out and something terrible happens (I won't tell much of the good secrets!) to him! So then his wife, Anuck-Su-Naumn (Pronounced- A-KNOCK-SUE-NA-MOON) does devotes her body to Imotep and then kills her self. So somehow Anuck-Su-Naumn & Imotep framed this "secret" and don't get caught, well she is dead and he tries to ressurect her with a cool underground alter. Imotep is caught and is now one dead mummifed man. So now were in the 1900's, and a women named Evy and Rick join up and accidently raise Imotep alive. he goes back tring to regenerate and get his girlfriend back alive. So now they must save the world, but will they survie? Who knows, unless you read this great book............. PS: There is one turndown on this book, it is in small print and long so kids might have a harder time reading this book!