The Bears' Famous Invasion of Sicily7 reviews Lemony Snicket HarperCollins, 2005 A Tender, Somber Fable Parent and grandparents who think children ought to be shielded from reading fiction about love, honor, war, sacrifice, timidity, valor, betrayal, selfishness, vanity, illness, death, renunciation and the importance of self-awareness should on no account give Dino Buzzati's The Bears' Famous ...             Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories9 reviews W. W. Norton & Company, 1996 Maximus Minimus + not always easy to understand + Very Tiny Fiction There is something peculiarly strange and enticing about a 250 word or less short story, which is what Micro-Fiction is all about. Nietzsche said, "It is my ambition to say in ten sentences; what others say in a whole book." and this pocket-sized book quite nearly delivers on that idea. With the ...             Bizarre Books: A Compendium of Classic Oddities8 reviews Russell Ash, Brian Lake Harper Perennial, 2007 Side-splitting laughter! + following its own path to the stars, i assume + More excerpts, please! + Hilarious             Exit The King (A play) Eugene Ionesco Grove Press, 1963 1963 Grove Press. First Edition. Hardcover, 95 pages. Exit the king is a highly stylized, ritualistic death rite, in which a once great king, Berenger I, is shown during his last hours of life, surrounded by his two wives, his physician, and a few other members of the decayed court. The setting is the king's throne room, in which all the action takes place. But perhaps action is too strong a ...             Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts.2 reviews Donald. Barthelme Noonday Press, 1977 A collection of surreal stories + Washington Post-Modernist Marsh "Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts" is a collection of 15 short stories by Donald Barthelme. The pieces contained are as follows: "The Indian Uprising," "The Balloon," "The Newspaper Here," Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning," "Report," "The Dolt," "The Police Band," "Edward and Pia," "A Few ...             The Twilight Zone Companion62 reviews Marc Scott Zicree Silman-James Press, 1992 Doesn't Hit the Mark + Great source of summary information + "You unlock this door with the key to imagination...." Jason Collison's review on this site hits the mark. Zicree's book is good but isn't the final word on the matter. The book is littered with errors. The wrong airdate for "Long Distance Call" and William Froug's faulted memory regarding the cost factors in "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge" has ...             Ficciones (English Translation)70 reviews Jorge Luis Borges Grove Press, 1994 Borges is the original Neo (The Matrix) + The labyrinth that consists of a single straight line + An ingenious labyrinthine narrative.... + So much more             The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books9 reviews W. W. Norton, 2007 THE BEST OF THE BEST + Enjoyed browsing this I stumbled across this wonderful book by accident--well, not quite by accident since as an inveterate list maker myself, I am intrigued by other list makers. But, for me, the lists are not what make this book so important. It's the 544 titles and the concise synopsis of each which help answer ...             Mr. Palomar12 reviews Italo Calvino Harvest Books, 1986 When Aristotle Met James Thurber + Dream of Saturn + "We don't know what they mean..." The 27 reveries of Mr. Palomar are filled with paradox; in them we find gently profound ruminations on the cosmos as well as the embarrassments of ordinary human interaction. This is a book that makes us see the world around us in a different way. Mr. Palomar, who shares the name of the ...             Dave Barry's History of the Millennium (So Far)24 reviews Dave Barry Putnam Adult, 2007 Kept me laughing + Typically amusing Dave Barry book! + Absolutely Freaking Hilarious + 208 chuckles             Songs Of Innocence And Of Experience15 reviews William Blake Filiquarian, 2007 Blake's most popular illuminated works in a fine edition + gem + The Other Blake + poems of perspective from childhood and adulthood + The Oxford Paperbacks edition is superb             Break It Down (High Risk Books)10 reviews Lydia Davis Serpent's Tail, 1996 Her sentences are like little gilt-wrapped presents that explode when opened. + Well, to tell you the truth I haven't officially read the book yet... + Uneven- yet often brilliant + Often personal, often objective...a wide scope of style             Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations26 reviews Simon Rich Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007 Best Book of 2007--By Far + Pretty funny, and QUICK read + "I'm not trying to get negative, I'm just...(Sighs)" + If you don't laugh at the very first 2 pages, you need to check your pulse.             The Black Sheep and Other Fables1 review Augusto Monterroso acorn book company, 2005 A Masterpiece of Brevity & Wit "This small volume of extremely short fables -- many only a page or a few paragraphs in length -- is a virtuoso display of writing.... Clever, amusing, and thoughtful, with nary a wasted word, These small pieces are weightier than many a full-sized novel.... Because of the precision of the texts ...             This Shape We're In10 reviews Jonathan Lethem McSweeney's, 2001 the best of Lethem! + Philip K. Dick Would Be Proud of This Little Book + Satire + More soothing than a cup of Mint Moments tea!             Chronicle of a Death Foretold121 reviews Gabriel Garcia Marquez Vintage, 2003 Creative, Brilliant Novella - Absolutely Fascinating, Even After Repeated Readings Through the Years + Death foretold; character revealed + Marquez & magic realism---start here Chronicle of a Death Foretold was published in 1981, the year before Gabriel Garcia Marquez was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The story begins with sentence: "On the day they were going to kill him, Santiago Nasar got up at five-thirty in the morning to wait for the boat that the bishop ...             Dreamtigers (Texas Pan American Series)7 reviews Jorge Luis Borges University of Texas Press, 1985 Genius in Fragments and Sketches + Borges as Borges the 'maker' + GREAT INTRODUCTION TO BORGES'S SHORTER WORKS + excellent if you're in the proper frame of mind + One of my favorite books of all time.             Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid14 reviews Lemony Snicket HarperCollins, 2007 Classic Snicket + short but bittersweet A little book of random quotes dealing with several facets of life. It is classic Snicket.             The Portable James Joyce5 reviews James Joyce Penguin (Non-Classics), 1976 For a little more money, get a lot more JOYCE! + Perfect, for a Joyce fan who owns Ulysses and Finnegans Wake + A good sample of Joyce + Laptop Joyce + A fantastic collection of Joyce's major works             Candide (Dover Thrift Editions)26 reviews Voltaire Dover Publications, 1991 The best of all possible worlds?? Candidly, point well made... + A Philosophical Adventure At a time that followed witch hunts and religious persecution, Voltaire wrote Candid as a scream in the face of church's authority and nobility's arrogance. Candid is a simple Pollyannaish young man who mirrored all the views of his tutor Pangloss, who has the optimistic belief that this world ...