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books:

2 reviews
Joyce Carol Oates

The Vanguard Press, 1973

painful, haunting, good
Oates knows what happens to girls whose self-esteem has been shot to hell. Her depiction of such a girl and the pathologically passive woman she becomes made me ache. The hope-filled ending made me sigh.

Heat and Other Stories (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)

4 reviews
Joyce Carol Oates

Plume, 1992

Oates is a master of the short story!
I loved this book. It's been years since I read it, but several of the stories have stuck with me. My favorite is called "Why Don't You Come Live with Me It's Time," about a woman's recollections of her grandmother. It's an absolutely bizarre story, almost like an LSD trip, but the narration, the urgency of the words, many of them italicized, and the far-out imagery convey a poweful sense of ...

The Assignation

4 reviews
Joyce Carol Oates

Ecco, 1996

Assignation
This book is my all-time favorite Oates book. I've read it years ago and find myself re-reading it from time to time. In this collection of short stories, Oates finds a way to drive home the utter despair of the human condition. "A Touch of the Flu" twisted my insides and gave me that sick feeling I get when I think about death. My favorite story is "In Traction"-- the hopelessness of the ...

The Dark Descent

13 reviews
Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, ...

Tor Books, 1997

Alone in the Library---with Spooks.
Disaster! That super-secret hush-hush Project the military was supposed to have under control has torn a rift into another dimension just ten miles from town, and maniacal flesh-hungry monsters are pouring through by the score, tearing their shrieking victims apart and turning the world as you know it into a charnel house. You've got to pack up and get outta Dodge quick---but what to take? ...

A Bloodsmoor Romance

7 reviews
Joyce Carol Oates

Warner Books, 1983

19 C feminism in a funny, surprising Cinderella story
It's popular in some circles to turn up noses at "romance" novels. If you're in one of those, don't turn up your nose at this one! In it Oates has captured the style of the 19th Century Gothic Romance novel down the the last crossed t and dotted i. It's also a beautifully researched picture of how women lived in the late-1800s, written in the language of the time -- or at least a very good ...

The Oxford Book of American Short Stories

5 reviews

Oxford University Press, USA, 1992

A solid sampling of U.S. stories
"The Oxford Book of American Short Stories," edited by Joyce Carol Oates, is an impressive anthology. The editor herself is well-known as a master writer of short stories, so you know that she has insights into the genre. This is a truly sweeping anthology. The authors (56 altogether) range chronologically from Washington Irving (1783-1859) to Pinckney Benedict (b. 1964). Many of the "giants" of ...

Wheel of Love and Other Stories

2 reviews
Joyce Carol Oates

Vanguard Pr, 1970

A key short story collection of the last 30 years.
It's a shame this collection is no longer in print. When it came out in 1970, it created a huge stir (Oates had just won the National Book Award for the novel "them") and signalled the full flowering of a brilliant short story writer. Oates has released several fine collections over the years--my second favorite by her is "Last Days" (1984)--but this one has the strongest impact. Anyone who ...

Best New American Voices 2003 (Best New American Voices)

2 reviews

Harvest Books, 2002

A Wonderful Collection of New Writers
The Best New American Voices 2003 is a superb collection of stories from new writers working in graduate writing programs, arts organizations, workshops and summer conferences. The stories stretch over a wide variety of subjects representing areas from many different cultures. In "Good" a woman named Jeanie has a confusing affair with a man she meets while visiting her dying mother in the ...

The Philosopher's Stone

3 reviews
Colin Wilson

Warner Books, 1974

this is a companion to Wilson's "Mind Parasites"
Colin Wilson continues his exploration of "Intentionality" as a key element in his existential philosophy. If you liked The Mind Parasites, then you owe it to yourself to read this book (as well as The Space Vampires). His use of fiction as a vehicle to philosophical discourse is worth the effort to find these books.

The Dark Descent

1 review
Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, ...

Tor Books, 1997

A surprising anthology of horror classics
I originally ordered this book thinking it was just a small collection of short stories. However, the total in this book is a whopping 56 stories, and only acouple under 10 pages. Keep in mind though, this is no small book. It's more on the size of a dictionary then a novel, weighing in at almost 3 pounds and clocking over 1000 pages. The book contains a massive collection of stories by about ...

Masters of Darkness III (Masters of Darkness)

1 review
Clive Barker, Stephen King, ...

Tor Books, 1991

Terror is in the Eye of the Beholder...
Contributing Authors: Clive Barker Stephen King Dean R. Koontz David Morrell Joyce Carol Oates Jack Vance And More!

Where Is Here

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Harper Perennial, 1993

Area Man Found Crucified
One of the nation's most talented writers is without a doubt, Joyce Carol Oates. This particular collection of short stories is a true pleasure to read. I have read "Area Man Found Crucified" and "Lethal" aloud to several of my friends. Her prose reads much like poetry to me. I find Joyce's ability to find her way into the dark underbelly of the human psyche astounding. Reading Joyce's work is ...

Where I've Been, and Where I'm Going: Essays, Reviews, Prose

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Plume, 1999

Impressive work from a master craft artist
This book demonstrates once more why JCO's literary output is without rival. It would seem she goes without stop... not even to take a breath. This tome includes witty, sensitive and accurate reviews of books and writers (including a tremendously touching piece on Sylvia Plath's work and eventual fate)... also features excerts rom diaries and unpublished works, selected as if to be part of a ...

Reading the Fights

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Henry Holt & Company, 1988

An excellent collection by a very diverse group of writers.
I begin by admitting some prejudice: I am one of the authors included, and the name of the volume was taken from my essay (publisher's choice, not my pushiness!) This is an excellent collection, including Mailer, Liebling, Oates, and many others. Not quite the wonderful cornucopia that The Fireside Book of Boxing was some 30 or 40 years ago (that was one of the great sports' anthologies of ...

Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers: Magical Tales of Love and Seduction

1 review
Ellen (Editor), and Windling, Terri (Editor), with Oates, Joyce Carol, and Gaiman, Neil, and Constantine, Storm, et al Datlow

Eos / Harper Collins, 2002

Marvellous! Sexy AND well-written!
Most erotica is rather sloppily written, on the theory that the people who are interested in it are not, in fact, interested in literary value, but in sexual arousal; the authors and editors of this book understand, delightfully, that there are those of us out here who enjoy an arousing story who are sufficiently literate as to be completely distracted from our arousal by poor writing, and they ...

New heaven, new earth: The visionary experience in literature

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Vanguard Press, 1974

Perceptive visionary criticism
These essays reveal Oates as formidable and perceptive critic. There are nine essays in the volume, the first in which she discusses the ' art of relationships ' in Henry James and Virginia Woolf, both of whom she sees as ' spiritual visionaries' . The second essay is on the poetry of D. H.Lawrence .The third is on Samuel Beckett's 'Trilogy'. The fourth essay is on the work of a lesser known ...

Raven's Wing

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Dutton Adult, 1986

Genius At Work
This mid-1980's short story anthology shows Oates's talents just as strong at mid-career as ever. In the title story, a playboy finds his luck tied to the rise and fall of a race horse named Raven's Wing. In "Leilia Lee" a bank teller from the east coast escapes to a small southern town after a cruel divorce and in a deed she soon rues, marries the local country squire. She finds herself stuck ...

Hover : Photographs

1 review
Rick Moody, Darcey Steinke, ...

Artspace Books, 1998

Excellent!!!!
Hover has beautiful, intriguing photographs. The stories are haunting and wonderfully written to match the photographs. I highly recommend this delightful book.

Night-Side: 18 Tales

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Vanguard Pr, 1977

Intricate Psychological Tales
Oates' darkest collection and probably her best. These stories range in setting from 1880's Cambridge, Massachusetts, to 1970's California and are concerned with the "night side" of human cogitation. What are we all truthfully deep down inside? DO we know ourselves? Is the side we think we live in day after day, the conscious side, truly our dominant hemisphere? Not one bad story here and several ...

The Gravedigger's Daughter Unabridged Cds Library Edition

1 review
Joyce Carol Oates

Books on Taple, 2007

Masterful and Powerful Book
I first read Joyce Carol Oates' short stories and early novels back in Moscow when I was a teenager. In the 70s, she had been already a well established internationally renowned writer of a strong, passionate, lyrical, penetrating talent. Her books were translated to many languages including Russian, and she was popular among the intellectual readers. One of her short stories, "Where Are You ...

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