These stories are supposed to blur the line between genres, but with a few exceptions (most notably "7C" by Jason Roberts), I didn't find that too many of them fit that bill. While several of the stories were very good, others were not of the caliber that I would have suspected given the talent that wrote them.

"7C" by Jason Roberts is a blend of horror and science fiction that I needed to reread again to truly appreciate. Jonathan Lethem's "Vivian Relf" was also interesting and I particularly enjoyed it since I have one of those faces that is always causing people to ask, "Don't I know you?" Other stellar stories were China Mieville's "Reports of Certain Events in London," "Minnow" by Ayelet Waldman, Poppy Z. Brite's "The Devil of Delery Street," and "Delmonico" by Daniel Handler. I think I would have liked "The Fabled Light-House of Vina Del Mar" by Joyce Carol Oates more if it would have been tighter.

My favorite in the collection was "Lisey in the Madman" by Stephen King. I am a huge Stephen King fan and despite my disappointment in the last Dark Tower book, I felt that this story was a return to the King that I know and love. I would be delighted if the rumor that this is actually a snippet from a yet unpublished book turns out to be true. I would love to know more about Lisey and Scott Landen's lifes.

An uneven collection in all since I didn't like some of the stories at all (Peter Straub's "Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle" being my least favorite), but still with enough good ones to make picking this book up worthwhile.

On March 15, 1832, a baby is discovered on the doorstep of the British Import and Export Company is Valaparaiso, Chile. Rose Sommers, the sister of Jeremy Sommers, one of the main figures at the company, immediately falls in love with the child and adopted into the family.

Eliza, as the baby is named, has a life of privelge and learns of the world from her two very different mothers - Rose, the upper crust, very correct Englishwoman, and Mama Fresia, the Chilean cook. Her life is pretty straightforward until, at the age of sixteen, she meets Joaquin Andieta and falls desperately in love. Shortly after their affair begins, he leaves her to travel to California, hoping to become rich in the gold rush fever sweeping the world.

A few months after he leaves, Eliza, too consumed with her love for him for them to remain apart, decides to leave Chile and find him so they can be reunited. Thus begins a journey of thousands of miles and many years.

I found Daughter of Fortune to be absolutely riveting. Allende manages to bring not only Eliza and Joaquin's story to the front, but also dozens of other characters. I found myself getting lost in several of these other people's stories and almost forgetting that the book was actually about Eliza.

The descriptions of life in other parts of the world - particularly that of China and of California during the 1850s - was fascinating, though the corruption and inhuman treatment of minorities was deplorable and extremely disheartening.

The only problem that I really had with the book was that the ending was too abrupt for my liking. Several revelations were made that I wish would have played out more amongst the characters. I would have liked to have seen a more final conclusion than the one that was presented.

On a side note, this book has the absolute longest paragraphs I have ever come across. In some places, the same paragraph would last for a few pages. I can't recall the last time I've been struck by paragraph length while reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Isabel Allende's works in the future.

As the story begins, we meet Anna Frith. She is the housemaid for the rectory in a small Derbyshire village. The year before, in the Spring of 1665, a tailor inadvertently brought the plague to the town on an infected bolt of cloth. People begin to sicken and die, causing Michael Mompellion, the rector, to propose a plan to the townspeople.

His plan is that the town seals itself off from the rest of the world (aided in part by a local earl who is willing to give them with supplies) so that they don't spread the disease. However, this means that those that are healthy now run the risk of possibly getting sick in the future.

Despite the fact that the most prominent family in town decide to flee, everyone else stays. As more and more of the townspeople get sick, a friendship between Anna and the rector's wife Elinor grows as they try and battle the disease. This complicates the feelings that, after the plague has just about run its course, are starting to develop between Anna and Michael, leading to an ending that I never expected.

The novel is actually historical fiction, inspired by the English town of Eyam, making it easy to feel like you've been transported in time and are experiencing what life for those townspeople must have been like.

I truly loved this book. I found the story to be many things: sad (Anna's longing for her children and the time she could have spent with George Viccars was heartbreaking), courageous (the towns willingness to sacrifice themselves to help stop an outbreak), inspiring, and just downright interesting.

My only problem is with the abruptness of the novel's conclusion. Most of it was told as a flashback to the time of the plague's outbreak, so when we get back to present time, there's very little of the book left. Considering what we find out about certain things, I would have appreciated Brooks taking more time to deal with these revelations.

All in all, though, I found it to be an engrossing read with characters that I really cared about, making me want to find out what would happen to them as the plague decimated the town. I also enjoyed seeing a woman gain indepence and self-reliance in a time when it was rare for so many. Definitely well worth reading.

When our story starts off, we're treated to the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, swooping down on her broom to spy on Dororthy Gale and her group as they discuss her origin. The majority of the book is then told as a flashback, beginning with Elphaba's mother getting ready to shortly give birth to her.

Honestly, I don't feel like recapping the entire story, so I'm not. I liked about the first half of the book, but once Elphaba left for the Vinkus, I really felt like the story bogged down. Up until then, it had been interesting with political discourse, love affairs, and interesting characters. After that point, however, it seemed to just drag on and on with no real purpose.

Once the final events leading to Elphaba's death start to get put in motion, I felt like they were very haphazad and didn't relate well and were just rushed to finish the book up. The whole part about a possible conspiracy drawing the lives of the three witches together also never set very well with me.

I'm torn whether I would recommend this book or not. Ultimately I found it disappointing, but so many people really love it that it might be worth your time to read.

Being a big fan of the all of the movie that the Coen brothers have done, I was very excited to see that Ethan Coen had written a book of short stories (anthologies have always been one of my favorite things to read). I figured that the strikingly strange characters that populate their movies would have no problem coming to life on the pages of a book.

Unfortunately, I could never get interested in either the people or their situations, with the exception of a few of the stories. These stories just never came to life for me the way that they have on the big screen.

The stories that I did enjoy were A Fever in the Blood (a private detective goes deaf after having his ear biten off by a by a deranged thug), I Killed Phil Shapario (a Jewish son kills his father, though I'm really not sure why), and Gates of Eden (a weights and measures man is seduced by a beautiful Japanese lady for nefarious reasons).

All in all, I was greatly disappointed iwith this anthology. The book did get good reviews over at Amazon.com however, so you might like it even if I didn't.

In late September of 1874, Margaret Prior becomes a Lady Visitor - a woman who visits the inmates giving them friendship and guidance in hope that when they are released they will better their lives and turn away from crime - to Millbank Prison in London.

The prison is, of course, a dark, sad place with two hundred and seventy women incarcerated (there are also men, but they don't figure into the story). On her first visit she is captivated by the sight of a young woman holding a violet that she puts to her lips and breathes upon.

She becomes enthralled by this woman, a medium with the beautiful name of Selina Dawes and a face like that of an angel by the painter Crivelli, and an unlikely friendship which soon becomes fraught with much more.

I don't want to say much more about the plot of the novel since half of its intrigue was in determining what had happened, not only to Selina but also to Miss Prior. Why is she watched so closely by her mother? What is the illness that she speaks of?

I enjoyed reading the book and trying to figure out where the story would go next. It was delightfully entertaining despite the somber tones of the novel. Highly recommended for those that like their stories enigmatic and a bit dark.

At the beginning of this saga (this compiliation was almost seven hundred pages), we meet Pug, a thirteen-year-old orphan who lives at the castle Crydee in the peaceful Kingdom of the Isles. He is best friends with Tomas and the two enjoy their boyhood not knowing the destinies that await them.

Soon, Pug is apprenticed to Kulgan, the castle's magician, and Tomas is choosen to be a soldier. However, strange happenings are soon to occur that plunges not only their world, but also another, into an epic fight spanning decades with repercussions that they never could have dreamed of.

This is another one of my purposely vague reviews because I want this book to be as much a surprise for you as it was for me. I was about half way through when I happened upon a reivew that contained a spolier that would have ruined much of the novel for me if I hadn't almost reached that part already.

This was definitely one of the better books I've read all year and I read most of it in one sitting despite its length. I was constantly amazed at how well he was able to create what amounted to dozens of main characters, all of whom I felt connected to and very interested in seeing how their lives would play out.

If you are a fan of adventures, swords and sorcery, or just love a good yarn, then you cannot go wrong with these books. I have ordered the next book in the Riftwar Saga, Silverthorn, and am anxiously awaiting the time I can return to the world of Pug, Tomas, and so many others.

Unbeknownst to most people, Central Park in New York City is a habitat to hundreds of birds, butterflies, plants, and small mammals. There are many dedicated people that watch and meticulously record where these animals can be found, how they live, and what they do. Marie Winn fell in love with the Bird Registry (the book that records this information) and became a dedicated bird watcher herself.

In the spring of 1992, a pair of red-tailed hawks began trying to raise a family amongst the skyscapers in this urban jungle. The Regulars, the dedicated nature lovers in charge of the Registry, breathlessly watched and recorded the struggles of this family.

I've only been to New York City once and didn't get to see Central Park, so I had no idea that so much life was contained in its boundries. The book definitely makes me want to visit Central Park next time I go to New York City. However, I could never get into the story.

I found the struggle of the hawks very interesting, but most of the book seemed to revolve around other, smaller dramas that couldn't quite capture my attention whole-heartedly. I'm a nature lover myself, so I'm not sure what I felt was lacking to really make this book a page turner for me, though some of it had to do with the fact that I never felt that I truly knew The Regulars and had a hard time keeping each ones specialty (be it butterfly knowledge, plant knowledge, or whatnot) straight. This tended to distract me from the story.

As much as I wanted this to become a gripping story, it fell flat for me and I really couldn't recommend it except to the most ardent nature lover.

Morgan Snow is one of New York's top sex therapists. One of her clients, Cleo Thane, is an extremely well-paid, very discreet, prostitute dealing with some of the most influential men in the world. Cleo, however, has decided to write a tell-all memoir and even though she disguises the men in her book, it's still pretty easy to figure out who they are.

Then one week, Cleo misses her regular appointment, something she's never done. Morgan is concerned and eventually reaches both Cleo's boyfriend and her business partner. Her concern escalates since a serial killer, dubbed the Magdalene Murderer, has begun to kill prostitutes in a highly ritualized manner and Morgan fears that Cleo has fallen victim to this madman.

She meets Detective Noah Jordan, the policeman assigned to the case, and despite his warnings, attempts to solve this mystery herself. A spark between the two also develops, complicating matters.

For the most part, I liked this book but never found it to be a mesmerizing read or get too involved with the characters. I'm not sure what it is that I felt it lacked, but it really never ranked above a slightly better than average read. This is the first in a new series, however, so the subsequent books may be worth checking out to see if they improve.

I honestly don't know what to say here. I've been reading the Dark Tower series since I read The Gunslinger for the first time in the late 80s. There was something about the book that hooked me and I was desperate for the next novels in the series. The Drawing of the Three drew me even further into Roland's universe and with the additions of Eddie and Susannah, made me wonder what was going to happen and fear for these characters that I was beginning to love. The Waste Lands, with Jake coming back into Roland's life, and the new band of gunslingers left in Blaine the Mono's insane grasp only underlined this fear. And then the waiting began.

For almost six years Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy sat in Blaine and I waited to see how their dreadful rhyming contest would end. When Wizard & Glass was finally published, putting an end to Blaine and giving us all the information we needed to see why Roland became the man that he became, I was estactic. Surely, this would be the greatest series ever written. Surely, a series with four incredible novels like these could only be destined to be the best epic ever told.

Alas, it was not to be. While Wolves of the Calla was still pretty much classic Dark Tower, you could tell by Song of Susannah that the path to the Tower had been lost. This is not to say that they aren't fine books - they are; I particularly enjoyed Wolves of the Calla. But looking at the Dark Tower series as a whole, they don't hold up to the previous books. I believe the difference in the change of tone of the series is King's insertion of himself into the story line as a character, and one that is more important than even Roland himself.

Which brings us to final book in the series, The Dark Tower. For the first four hundred pages or so, despite my misgivings over King becoming a character in his own novels, I still felt that the book was fairly true to the Path of the Beam, if you will. However, after the battle at Algul Siento, where Eddie is shot and killed, breaking the band of gunslingers ka-tet irrevocably, that was no longer true for me.

This is not to say that I didn't expect any of the gunslingers to die; I did, though honestly I thought it would be Roland that did not make it to the Tower's top. What I disliked and thought was untrue to the series was the way that the group disintegrated with that death. At that, the novel quit being about the people that I have loved and worried about became characters in a story.

To me, ever since The Drawing of the Three, this series has been about the people - Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy. By destroying the bonds between them so that I barely recognized who they were anymore. The scene between Susannah and Roland where she elects to leave him and try her luck in the alternate New York is an example. In that scene Oy barely remembers Jake, his best friend, and I just don't buy it. Despite the emotion between Susannah and Roland and the despair that was felt, it all just fell flat for me. Never should their ka-tet have been broken so easily. Logically, I understand that this breaking apart had to happen so that the ending could play out as it did. In my heart, however, I just can't accept it. Thoughout these novels, one of the underlying themes was the way that Roland was able to feel again and learn redemption, especially with Jake. The changes in him have been profound and I don't believe he would let his ka-tet fall apart like that, even if he had to fight Gan himself.

Circling back to King's own role in the story, I did not like it. When the idea of King as a part of the story was introduced at the end of Wolves I remember being apprehensive and thinking that this would either be a brilliant or a horrible move for the book. It's hard for me to really put it into words, but the whole thing came off as a cheat, a way to get out of having to come up with any real story. I'm sure that lots of you will disagree, but that was all that was going through my head the more that I read of The Dark Tower.

In a way, I can relate it to the deus ex machina that was used at Dandelo's house. The first time I came across the term (literally meaning machine of the gods, it's an "unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot" - definition from Dictionary.com) was in one of King's books, perhaps Misery, though I'm not entirely sure. In Misery Paul Sheldon was faced with the difficult task of bringing back to life a dead character, but in a way that was fair; in other words, her death just couldn't have been a dream or some other nonsense. Paul Sheldon was able to pull it off without a deus ex machina; Stephen King was not. I think that right there is telling enough of how the series degenerated.

However, the biggest give away that the novel is not up to par, is King's imploration not to read the coda - where the ending is - and the author's note. In the coda we find out that Roland has been completing his quest for the Dark Tower countless times over. Every time he reaches the top of the Tower, only to begin again in the desert where The Gunslinger began. This revelation made me feel cheated.

I've been reading these books for about half of my life. To have no true ending (though one may argue that since Roland picked up the horn of Arthur Eld that maybe the next iteration will be the final one) is disappointing beyond words. The only redeeming quality is that maybe in the future a final Dark Tower book may be written or that at least I can create an ending that I find more fitting in my own imagination.

I've always looked forward to reading the Author's Note that are usually included at the end of King's novels. In these notes I've always felt that King is, while maybe not my friend, friendly and both respects and appreciates me. In the final paragraph, though, when King says that he doesn't want anyone to drop in on him to discuss the ending and that, "(m)y books are my way of knowing you. Let them be your way of knowing me, as well," I almost feel insulted. Never before has he had to warn readers away from him and a note like this isn't going to change some crazy, determined reader from visiting him and the rest of us already know not to. It's almost an admission that he knows he did not end the series rightly, fairly, and this is his way of avoiding taking responsibility.

I'm afraid that this long-winded post has not been able to truly express how I feel and there are other parts that I didn't even get to (For example, why was the battle at Jericho Hill never explained? We found out nothing more about Cuthbert, Alain, and the others past Wizard & Glass. I also believe that Randall Flagg - a truly evil, sly figure - wouldn't have died as easily as he did at Mordred hands). This series has been such a big part of my life (there were years where not a day went by that I did not think of Roland and his ka-tet and what the future held for them) that maybe no ending would have been able to satisfy me, but deep in my heart, I know that to be untrue. I needed this last novel to give me more closure than it has. Maybe in my dreams Roland will reach the Tower and be able to halt his quest and hopefully, Eddie, Susannah, Jake, and Oy will be there as well.

Fred Rogers, known to children and adults throughout the world simply as Mister Rogers, was one of the most well-known and beloved television figures. His message was simple - everyone is precious, love your neighbors, treat people right, and believe in yourself.

The collection was divided into four sections: The Courage to Be Yourself, Understanding Love, The Challenges of Inner Discipline, and We Are All Neighbors. A foreward by his wife Joanne was also included which contained my favorite quote, though it wasn't by Mister Rogers. It was from Mary Lou Kownacki and said, "There isn't anyone you couldn't love once you've heard their story." What could be a better definition of empathy and tolerance?

I've been going through some rough times lately and I'm not ashamed to admit that reading some of Mister Rogers words made me cry, mostly because they made me feel better about myself than I have in a long time.

Part of a public service announcement that he made for the first anniversary of September 11th, included this, "I would like to tell you what I often told you when you were much younger: I like you just the way you are." Is there anything more comforting to know that Mister Rogers loves you and, more importantly, likes you for who you are? Somehow I don't think so.

Again, it's 1985, England is the world's biggest superpower and a virtual police state seemingly controlled by the mega-corporation Goliath. Thursday Next, Special Operations Literary Detective, has managed to infuriate Mr. Schitt-Hawse, a Goliath executive, by imprisioning his half-brother Jack Schitt in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." Schitt-Hawse proceeds to blackmail Thursday into getting his half-brother back by eradicating any trace of her new husband so that she's the only one who even remembers him.

To make matters worse, a bunch of bizarre coincidences have resulted in accidents that almost take her life and she still has to figure out if the newly discovered Shakespearean play was really penned by the bard and save the world from turing into a ball of pink sludge.

As with The Eyre Affair, one has to have a certain suspension of disbelief, but I completely loved the book. The literary references and jokes were wonderful and trying to figure out how Thursday's going to deal with everything that's going on is both interesting and fun. I really look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Well of Lost Plots

T.S. Garp was born to Jenny Fields, an independent minded woman and young nurse during World War II. Jenny becomes a nurse at the Steering School for boys and raises Garp there. After Garp graduates, he and Jenny move to Vienna where she writes the novel that will make her popular as a feminist leader and Garp begins his writing career.

I don't want to give anything away, so I'm going to keep this review intentionally vague. The book covers Garp's life as a writer and a father, his marriage, and the lives of his family and friends, including Roberta, a former Eagles tackle who is now a woman after having a sex change operation.

The World According to Garp was both funny and sad, reflective and exciting. I found the writing style to be very inviting and I'm not surprised that this book made Random House's Modern Library 100 Best Fiction Books of the 20th Century. I highly recommend it.

House Arrest is an English reality television show like Big Brother that's in its third year of production. There are ten contestants, thirty cameras, forty microphones, and 24/7 coverage. When the book begins, we are on day twenty-nine and Chief Inspector Coleridge is attempting to figure out who committed murder, witnessed by 47,000 people via a live Internet feed, that took place on day twenty-seven.

Coleridge himself is in his fifties and is quite old-fashioned. He cannot understand what would prompt someone to go live in a house, giving up their privacy in a desperate attempt to become famous or why the world would be interested in these people. Nonetheless, he's determined to find the killer.

At first, I had the hardest time getting into Dead Famous. I felt like I'd been dropped into the story midway through and it was difficult for me to keep the characters straight. About fifty pages or so in, though, I found the story really catching my attention, especially since the identity of the murder victim themself isn't revealed for quite some time.

While I wouldn't say that the ending of the story was completely unexpected, it still took me a while to see it coming and, all in all, once the book got past its slow start, I really enjoyed reading it.

You see, before the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and even God are who they are now, they used to be creatures from Greek mythology with completely different aspects and desires. The Tooth Fairy, though, is the only one that retains her persona from that time and she's done with the way things are now. Her seduction of Santa Claus sets in motion events that have huge repercussions not just for these magical creatures, but for several humans as well.

At first, I had great difficulty getting into the book and I suspected that I wasn't going to like it. Yes, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are having wild, kinky sex (occasionally in the bed of a sleeping child, nonetheless). Yes, it's terribly shocking to see figures from our childhood given such base emotions. But is it a good read?

I was inclined to say no and half believing I wasn't even going to finish the novel when, for whatever reason, I found myself becoming more interested in the story and the characters and wondering how it was going to turn out. While it never will never make my favorite book list, Santa Steps Out did manage to hold my attention and I enjoyed the way the book ended.