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Black Water 2: More Tales of the Fantastic

1 review
Alberto Manguel

Three Rivers Press, 1990

Nothing Short of Fantastic
I stumbled upon Alberto Manguel's first anthology of fantastic literature, BLACKWATER (sadly, out of print now), when a friend gave me her well-worn copy. Five years later, the book was almost in shreds, and I was searching for another that was as eclectic, as multi-cultural, and (most importantly) as unsettling. My search ended only when Manguel published a sequel to his brilliant first ...

In Another Part Of The Forest:: An Anthology of Gay Short Fiction

4 reviews
Alberto Manguel

Three Rivers Press, 1994

Fabulous and Forgotten, Literary and Lasting
In the mid-1990s there was a plethora of gay and lesbian literary anthologies and this one was by far one of the best gay-themed ones in terms of literary quality, gathering fiction by gay and non-gay writers that might have otherwise been forgotten or overlooked. I note, for example, the superb Isaac Bashevis Singer story, "Two," which is not included in Singer's "Collected Stories," Graham ...

The City of Words

1 review
Alberto Manguel

Continuum, 2008

`.. is it possible for stories to change us and the world we live in?'
I am reading this book for the second time: there was too much for me to consider and integrate on one reading. Alberto Manguel looks at the rise of violent intolerance in our societies. As part of this, he invites the reader to look at what is written (by visionaries, poets, novelists and essayists) and presented visually (by filmmakers) about the building of societies. Under the following ...

The Library at Night

10 reviews

Yale University Press, 2008

The Romance of Reading
Alberto Manguel has produced a romantic history of libraries which incorporates their best feature: the ability to wander down hitherto unsuspected byways and make new discoveries, often winding up far from your original objective but still satisfied by what you have found instead. This is a discursive history of libraries through various categories: Myth, Order, etc. with fascinating essays for ...

Unreasonable Hours (Passport Books (Series).)

2 reviews
Julio Cortazar

Coach House Press, 1995

truly jarring stories
For this tiny volume of stories, I feel most of all a frequent hunger to reread. This collection provides a fine introduction to Cortazar's writing, for those who do not want to dive into Hopscotch or The Blow-Up without evidence of the author's skill to turn tales. There are two stories in this volume that I utterly love. The one presents a rather twisted world of the late high school or early ...

Ports of Call

15 reviews
Amin Maalouf

Harvill Press, 1999

My Favourite
This is the most outstanding of all the Maalouf novels I have read- and I must tell you I read almost all. This is probably also because the novel starts at my birthplace Adana, a southern town in Turkey. The novel is loaded with overflowing emotions. Not only I read it once every year but also I have gifted it at least 3-4 times.

Magic Land of Toys

1 review
Alberto Manguel

Vendome Press, 2006

Nostalgic, culturally inspiring, and an outstanding tribute
Enhanced with more than 600 full color illustrations (including 86 double-page spreads), "Magic Land Of Toys" compiled and with commentary by anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor and author Alberto Manguel is a 256-page coffee table masterpiece showcasing and celebrating Parisian The Musee des Arts Decoratifs fabulous collection of over twelve thousand toys, making it one of the ...

With Borges

2 reviews
Alberto Manguel

Telegram Books, 2006

Short But Sweet
This is a book you can easily devour in one sitting (about an hour and a half should do it), especially if you know and love the writings of Jorge Luis Borges the way I do. The author, Alberto Manguel, was a bookstore clerk that Borges enlisted to read out loud to him, being himself blind. For several years beginning in 1964, Manguel showed up at Borges's apartment at Maipú 994 regularly for ...

The Ark in the Garden: Fables for Our Times

1 review

MacFarlane Walter & Ross, 1998

Why should kids have all the fun?
This is a terrific series of fables written by famous contemporary Canadian authors. Like children's fables, they are mostly a vehicle for the authors to moralize... in this case about the state of the country. Quebec separatists, the Tory Ontario government, and the general trend towards government cutbacks all provide fodder for stories by the likes of Margaret Atwood, Rohinton Mistry, ...

A Blue Tale and Other Stories

1 review
Marguerite Yourcenar

University Of Chicago Press, 1995

A Blue Tale and ther Stories
This collection of three stories were the last of her fiction to be translated into English. It is surprising that she is not better known in the United States. Yourcenar lived most of her life in North East Harbor, Maine; and was the first woman elected to the Academie Francaise in 1980. I also recommend her masterpiece novel, 'Memoirs of Hadrian.'

On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton

2 reviews
G. K. Chesterton

Bayeux Arts, Inc., 2000

An Absolute Treasure
What an absolute joy! Chesterton is among my favorite authors, and this collection of essays lived up to my expectations. Ranging from reflections on Shakespeare and "penny dreadfuls" to essays on losing a piece of chalk and the Book of Job, these articles have a lot to offer by way of lessons on life, literature, theology, and philosophy. Chesterton is often called "the apostle of common ...

Mothers and Daughters: An Anthology

1 review
Chronicle Books LLC Staff, Alberto Manguel

Amazon Remainders Account, 1998

Mothers & Daughters - An Anthology
Based on the mother/daughter bond, Alberto Manguel has brought together the short stories of some of our best contemporary writers. Each story is a treasure in itself; powerful and beautifully written. Manguel's selection of stories highlights the complexity of the relationship between mothers and daughters. The collection is both thoughtful and thought-provoking.

A Reading Diary

6 reviews
Alberto Manguel

Vintage Canada, 2005

a reading of "the reading diary"
Alberto Manguel hits the nail on the head as he shows the relationship between the reader and the books read. At the deeper level of a serious reader it should become a conversation, as it does with Manguel.

Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey (Books That Changed the World)

1 review
Alberto Manguel

Tantor Media, 2008

An erudite and impressive literary critique
Alberto Manguel's latest volume does not contain the text of The Iliad and The Odyssey. Instead, It is a "biography" in the sense of being a commentary on how Homer's works have been translated, interpreted, adapted, vilified, and lauded for more than 2,500 years. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Manguel says, stand at the fountainhead, or primordial spring, of Western culture. Indeed, without these ...

Dictionary of Imaginary Places

26 reviews
Alberto Manguel, Gianni Guadalupi

HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1981

Curiously Addictive
The work principally concerns itself with literary locations, set on this earth, and should not be criticized for failing to list locales from every US television program to have ever aired. My greatest problem has always been the difficulty in putting it down. You open it as a reference book to see if it will help illumine some question in your mind in regard to a book (it probably will), but ...

A History of Reading

25 reviews
Alberto Manguel

Alfred A. Knopf, 1998

For anybody who has been graced to read to live, and others too!
When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in a white man's prison for being black he acknowledged that books kept him sane. When Somerset Maugham went travelling through Malaya early last century his companions were books. Any reader can identify with these two quite different gentlemen - Virginia Woolf wrote whilst at school "I have sometimes dreamt that when the day of judgement dawns ...

Oriental Tales

2 reviews
Marguerite Yourcenar

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986

Oriental Tales
If you enjoy finely crafted story telling, exquisite imagery, painterly prose, and highly imaginative explorations of timeless emotional and philosophical themes then this book of short stories is for you. Comprised of Yourcenar's reinterpretation of folk tales from various cultures, as well as tales of her own imagining, the author herself pointed out in her introduction to the work that the ...

Black Water: The Book of Fantastic Literature

2 reviews
Alberto Manguel

Three Rivers Press, 1984

Bring back this astounding anthology.
I have a very old, bent copy of this incredible anthology that's falling apart because I've read it through six times. What's so great about it is that editor Alberto Manguel understands that the term, "fantastic," does not preclude the sublime. Entries here range from slow creepers like Julio Cortazar's unsettling "House Taken Over" and Horacio Quiroga's "The Feather Pillow," to more ...

Gates Of Paradise, The: An Anthology: of Erotic Short Fiction

2 reviews
Alberto Manguel

Three Rivers Press, 1993

Eros is Alive and Well!
This anthology is a tasteful and diverse collection of some of the world's most compelling tales of erotic short fiction. This well thought out assemblige of stories gives an insightful gaze into the variety with which we view and experience human sexuality both historically and culturally. The editor, Alberto Manguel, not only gives a comprehensive introduction to the entire collection, but ...

Bulfinch's Mythology (Modern Library Paperbacks)

17 reviews
Thomas Bulfinch

Modern Library, 1998

Good infornation to put in your background
I'm a foreign student studying in the US. I listened to this audiobook while I was preparing for GRE. I learned many new vocabulary from the audiobook. Later when I took western philosophy class, I understood what my professor was talking about because I had learned about Greek mythology from this audiobook. I also notice people often use idioms derived from Greek Mythology in their writing ...

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