Stan

Love and gossip, and the rich and the poor, all come together in a small town on the Brazilian coast in the 1920s. So put on some samba music - or even better, Milton Nascimento's Cravo e Canela, find a hammock, and start reading. For more of Amado's magic, read Tent of Miracles and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.

Now, I don't read tabloids and I avoid reality TV, but I love literary gossip, or - I should say - facts and background (but really gossip) about authors I have read or intend to read. When I noticed that the first essay in this book was about Isaac Babel, I couldn't resist it. So here was Babel, and Tolstoy, and Dostoyevsky...and King Kong. Find out where the big ape fits in these narratives, along with the New Turkic Alphabet and Uzbeki poets, and enjoy the company of a smart and funny woman that I would like to meet. - Stan

An enthusiastic and entertaining overview of classic works: what to look for, what to skip, the best line, what's sexy. Murninghan is funny and down-to-earth, and transmits his love for these works without being cloying, pompous or cutesy. Another case of some of the best education being outside the classroom. - Stan

Having grown up reading MAD magazine, I've always loved parody. It can be instructional as well as fun - showing technique and the strengths & weaknesses of a work. Not necessarily cynical, it helps tell real sentiment from saccharin. So consider Steven Hely's book a reading diet guide. it parodies show you what & what not to digest as you read - how to distinguish healthy empathy from mind-clogging treacle. He doesn't tell, he shows - and you get it... - Stan

This is a delightful book, combining Anthony Trollope's sense of the importance of everyday decisions with a P.G. Wodehouse awareness of the comic potential of situations. You will end up rooting for the Major as he deals with family and friends in a small English village. I loved this book, and can imagine it going to screen. - Stan