You Can Write a Mystery (You Can Write)

Book Description

Have you ever thought about writing a mystery, and gave up the idea because you weren't sure how to start it? Well now is your chance to go out and write that mystery you have always dreamed of. You Can Write A Mystery, written by Gillian Roberts, author of the Anthony Award-winning Amanda Pepper Series, will help you start your mystery and guide you through to the end.

"The 'rules' that govern the mystery are the rules that govern all fiction. Every novel needs suspense and drama," says Roberts. With this book you'll learn how to build your story from the grave up. Roberts focuses on what she calls the "SEVEN C'S", why you need them and how they help your story. She offers examples and exercises that will help you complete your story filled with cliffhangers, intriguing characters and hooks. This book also offers practical suggestions for handling problems likely to arise during the writing process. Along the way, Robert's will teach you:

- The 15 commandments for mystery
- How to design your sleuth
- The Seven Cs your book can't do without - characters, conflict, causality, complications, change, crisis and closure
- How to hide clue, and exploit red-herrings
- Research techniques
- How to develop a style, find a tone and construct a killer plot

You Can Write A Mystery, offers practical guidance for the first-time writer. Its easy-to-understand format will help the most amateur to become a mystery writer. In addition to the practical writing advice supplied, Roberts also offers expert advice for editing, revising and submitting a top-notch manuscript.

Customer Reviews:

Great Support for Mystery Writers.......2007-10-05

This book is a wonderful collection of mystery writing dos and don'ts. If you're even considering authoring a mystery book, then this book will give you great tips and hints at perfecting your craft.

Concise, yet packed with great information.......2007-10-01

I purchased this book for a seminar. It pleased me to find this slender work contains so much information. It's not wordy, repetitive or crammed with filler like many of these kinds of books. And best yet, it helped me work through some of the kinks in my novel TRUE/FALSE. Thank you Gillian Roberts. I highly recommend this book to anyone writing a mystery novel or story.

Compact and Inspiring.......2007-09-03

I did not know Gillian Roberts as an author but had the fortunate encounter with her few months back. I bought this book after her talk in the Philadelphia Writers' Conference. This book proved my belief she is a very good teacher of fiction.
To begin with, the book is only 124 pages (including an index).
As I open the book now to write this review, I find lines highlighted on practically every page.
The first chapter gives us fifteen commandments. Since I finished the book every day I open it and briefly go through them. I loved the three like 'thou shalt begin and keep going till you're through. Thou shalt write for yourself, not the market and thou shalt not wait for visits from the muse.'
In the second chapter you've 7 Cs: Character, Conflict, Causality, Complications, Change, Crisis, Closure. She writes all the ingredients that we need.
How to get ideas is another eye opening chapter. I knew it is important to develop characters in any genre but the way G Roberts guides us through character development is not only thorough but entertaining.
The rest of the book has the usual ingredients like setting (physical as well as emotional), points of view, using five senses, back story, flashbacks. I particularly liked the page on building the plot with false leads.
Then we hear: Tell yourself your story often.
Interaction with others is dramatic and provides tension.
It can be useful to think in terms of stage and screen.
Another important chapter is "What you don't know." This is about developing credibility to your setting and characters. I also learnt about the structure when you have all the material like opening and closing scenes, length of the chapters, pacing and important: not to cheat the readers to build the suspense.
G Roberts doesn't leave dialogue out of the guide and finally, not also the marketing aspects.
I found this book very useful and I feel it is indespensable for anyone who is planning to write a mystery.

A must have for aspiring mystery writers.......2007-08-04

This book is a great, pragmatic approach to mystery writing. The reader is encouraged to go through the book whilst simultaneously writing a mystery novel. The book doesn't waste too much time with examples, although I found that there were still too many for my liking. Despite this, I think the book delivers on its promise - since reading it I am going to start tackling a mystery, better prepared than ever before. It's a must read for anyone looking for a mystery. I prowled the internet - including amazon - for the perfect book for writing mysteries, and You Can Write a Mystery repeatedly received flying colours, far more than any other books. It is simply the best on the market. Prior to purchasing it, I got Writing Mysteries by the Mystery Writers of America, but it was far too fragmented for my liking. This little book is much smaller, at a little over 120 pages, but it is better by far.

A Great Little Book That Covers Everything You Need to Write a Mystery.......2006-04-03

I first purchased this book a few years ago and read it through. Recently, I wanted to look at it again, but couldn't find it. That's why I purchased it a second time. It made a good first impression on me. After reading it again, I can see why I liked it so much. First and foremost, it isn't full of 100 to 200 pages of absolute fluff. I really like the way that it gets down to the brass tacks of writing a mystery, in only 121 pages of text. If I wanted to read a gazillion examples of fiction, I'd just read fiction. This book has just enough concise examples to make the point clear (when examples are needed), and they're always relevant to the topic, unlike many writing books. What you'll get in this book is good solid information, and a good bit of it could easily be applied to other genres. If you're thinking about writing mysteries and you're new to writing, this book is a great place to start. All of the bases are covered. The "Writing Lessons" section at the author's website will give you an idea of the kind of writing you will find in this book. In this book, you'll find ideas about things like "What has to happen before the rest can happen?" You'll also get information about developing false leads, avoiding mystery story cliches, organizing your ideas, and getting past the midbook blues -- just to name a few. If you're an experience writer, you'll probably find plenty of good nuggets in this book. If you're just getting started, buy this book. It's that simple.

Book Description

Millionaire Jan Palmer's fortunes abruptly change when the seal on an ancient Arabian copper jar is broken and a powerful and relentless evil is released - Zongri the Jinn. Imprisoned for thousands of years, Zongri has sworn that whoever sets him free will die. But when he fulfills this vow by slashing Professor Frobish in two, it is Jan Palmer, holding the bloody scimitar, who is caught by the police.

For Jan, his problems have just begun: Zongri, before departing, curses him with "Eternal Wakefulness." Locked in a prison cell, charged with murder, Jan comes to a horrible realization of what this means. As he drifts into slumber he finds himself in a strange world, one where humans rank below slaves, where evil Jinn reign and danger is all too real. On Earth he is Jan Palmer, imprisoned for murder, and in the land of the Jinn he is "Tiger," the swashbuckling rogue - but in both, he faces death at every turn.

Customer Reviews:

Great stories!.......2003-03-04

1) The audiobook reading by Rene Auberjonois was excellent! 'nuff said!

2) Story about dream worlds and genies..."original" material, not your standard hack-n-slash/magical fantasy or alien/colonizing sci-fi.

3)I agree with the other two reviews that this kept you wondering what was going to happen next.

Highly Recommend

Found this book very hard to put down.......1999-01-20

Probably the best fantasy book I have ever read. The story keeps you wondering where it will go next. Don't start reading this book late at night, because you won't be able to put it down. It is full of satire and adventure in two alternating worlds. This is an example of why Hubbard was such a popular writer in his time.

Delightful, entertaining - kept me reading to the wee hours........1996-10-01

This was an engrossing story, unlike any other I've read. It takes one right into an alternative world and builds a fantasy (or was it?) without many of the usual trappings of sword 'n sorcery. Intertwined with the real world,the goings-on in this fantasy world were highly satirical. This is a book you want to read without stopping. (I admit, I finished this book at 3 AM one night shortly after starting it.) Highly amusing, it left one with a lift.

Slaves of Sleep and The Masters of Sleep

Average customer rating:

Slaves of Sleep and The Masters of Sleep

Manufacturer: Bridge Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HKLB6U

Amazon.com

Fitness is a lifetime commitment, but you can accelerate results and transform your body in 12 weeks, says Bob Greene, best known as Oprah Winfrey's personal trainer. Not for the "move a little" crowd, this program is intense and challenging, whatever your starting level. "It's a bit like boot camp," Greene acknowledges. You'll do vigorous aerobic exercise 15 (beginning level), 30 (intermediates), or 45 (advanced) minutes 6 days a week, and increase 2 minutes each week--and double your usual minutes for one workout a week. You'll also strength train with dumbbells or machines and do functional training (strengthening stabilizing muscles).

The eating plan is not a diet--rather Greene describes 5 eating rules to help you eat fewer and burn more calories: curb emotional eating, eat breakfast, establish an eating cut-off time, drink lots of water, and limit alcohol. You'll get enough calories to sustain your intense exercise routine, but cut out the calories otherwise stored as fat.

Greene, author of Get With the Program and Make the Connection, also analyzes popular diets, and fills the book with motivational stories of his successful clients. Recommended for those who are ready to commit to an intense program to burn fat, increase metabolism, and change habits for the long haul. --Joan Price

Amazon.com Exclusive Content

Special Interview with Bob Greene
Not for the "move a little" crowd, Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover promises "Maximum Results in Minimum Time" to readers who are ready to commit to an intense exercise regimen during this twelve-week program. Sounds simple enough--but it wouldn't do the book justice to oversimplify its premise. Greene's genuine attachment to address the root causes for poor eating and activity habits, and to guide the reader through building the strong emotional foundation necessary to undergo physical changes, make Total Body Makeover a standout companion to transforming your body, inside and out. Amazon.com editor Nathalie Farage recently caught up with Greene. Read on.

Book Description

From Bob Greene, bestselling author of Get With the Program!, comes a comprehensive, innovative twelve-week plan for transforming your body inside and out. With Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover, you'll achieve maximum results in a minimum amount of time!

Knowing that great health and fitness begin with the right state of mind, Greene addresses the important emotional issues behind poor exercise and eating patterns and provides the motivational tools needed to achieve your fitness goals, as well as develop practical and beneficial habits for lasting results. You'll be inspired and moved by reading the compelling true-life success stories of real people who have taken the challenge and who have changed their bodies -- and lives -- in ways they never dreamed possible! Whether you're struggling to lose that last ten pounds or searching for a radical weight-loss solution, the twelve-week makeover challenge is the answer to your fitness goals.

After committing to the program, you'll find illustrated step-by-step workout guides for all fitness levels, combining progressive cardiovascular and intensive strength training exercises designed to revitalize your metabolism and get noticeable results fast. Each of the accelerated workouts has been created to energize and invigorate your body and mind while you have fun and trim down in the process! In addition, Greene takes a fresh approach to the question of diets by providing key nutritional guidelines that work in conjunction with any healthy eating plan, and he explains many of the popular diets on the market today to help you choose the one that's right for you.

Finally, there is helpful advice on making the transition back to your everyday life: how to avoid regaining the weight you've lost, and how to maintain healthy exercise and eating habits for life. While many books leave you wondering what to do next, Bob Greene's Total Body Makeover offers enthusiastic and informative hands-on advice and tips beyond eating and exercise, and teaches you how to make your own happiness and well-being the foundation of an active and healthy life.

Customer Reviews:

The Book of an Expert.......2007-09-21

There is no doubt hat Bob Geen is an expert in his field. Just enough to look at Oprah Winfrey today and compare her image with that one of a few years ago... I do appreciate the fact that Mr. Green takes it slowly and does not promise overnight results. He also presents some sensible dieting rules like avoiding "emotional eating" (a big problem for many people), establishing daily cut-off time for eating, and drinking a lot of water. These are all very similar suggestion that I have also found in the book Can We Live 150 Year by Tombak. In addition, Dr. Tombak suggests a special fasting schedule for the purpose of cleansing your body and adopting a new life style. The resulting loss of weight is a natural outcome of that life style.

Hype exceeds content.......2007-09-09

Although informative, this lacked any new information and seemed more motivational than helpful. As a reader, I was disappointed although for someone just beginning the process, helpful.

At home or in the gym.......2007-03-31

This quick weight loss plan gives inspirational stories and an exercise plan that can be done at home or in the gym.

good book, total makeover.......2007-02-20

I liked the book and it was pretty good at describing the exercises.

ONE WORD BORING.......2007-02-12

I am a bit of a fanatic o.k. obsessive, about dieting I have read alot of books but this one was so dull I actually skipped some of it. Unless you have a lot of time it starts at 30 or 60(if your in shape) to somedays you have to exercise 60-90 minutes to follow the program. Who really has the time? Anyhow there are tons of inspirational stories actually it seemed like half the book. I don't recommend it!

Average customer rating:
Masters of American cookery--M.F.K. Fisher, James Andrews Beard, Raymond Craig Claiborne, Julia McWilliams Child
Betty Harper Fussell
Manufacturer: Times Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Vintage)

ASIN: 0812910621

Average customer rating:

A must read for potential dog owners

A must have for any dog owner

it covers dog *and* owner behavior

A philosphical look at dog training

Dog behavior unleashed!

The Latchkey Dog: How the Way You Live Shapes the Behavior of the Dog You Love
Jodi Andersen
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Care & Health | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Dogs | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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I'll be Home Soon

Shelby Marlo's New Art of Dog Training

Dog Language: An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior

On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals

Help for Your Shy Dog: Turning Your Terrified Dog into a Terrific Pet

ASIN: 0062702408
Release Date: 2000-12-05

Book Description

Does your dog's schedule need more arranging than your own? Does the mere prospect of leaving your dog make your spine stiffen? While you are at work earning the money to buy dog food, is your dog having your dining room chairs for lunch? Are you searching for the line on your tax form that says "co-dependent?" If the answer to even one of these questions is "yes," the odds are that you are living with a Latchkey Dog.

With more men and women on career paths that require extended office hours leaving "nine to five" in the dust, the dog, which was for centuries a worker, has now become a waiter. The dog's day no longer revolves around "what can I do?" but instead "where is everybody?"

Anyone who has ever owned a dog knows well the depth of love and attachment that instantly develops, rearranging your heart-and your life-so that nothing will ever be the same again. Add to this love a good dose of daily guilt at leaving your beloved canine behind, and the result is a dog whose behavior resembles that of El Nino It seems that somewhere between Donna Reed and surfing the Net, we've created the Latchkey Dog.

As significant trends emerge in dog behavior, dog trainers, canine behaviorists, and veterinarians are being called upon to address such sensitive issues as separation anxiety, aggression, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Jodi Andersen takes a closer look at what prompts such behavior. In a world in which indulgence is often mistaken for love, and in which dog training has become synonymous with discipline, many dog lovers are struggling to find a balance between the kind of love that makes us feel good and the kind of love that is good for our dogs. Andersen believes that a balance can be found.

The Latchkey Dog offers a remarkably insightful and unprecedented view of the modern dog and owner. Using as examples the dogs and owners she's come to know through many years of canine training, Anderson offers extremely clear and manageable, step-by-step instructions that will permit you to get your house back in order, while teaching your dog to be useful, working member of your family.The result will be a return to a harmonious and healthy household -- for you and your dog.

Customer Reviews:

A must read for potential dog owners.......2007-04-02

If it were up to me, people would be forced to read books like this before adopting. The book clearly shows how damaging it can be to a dog to be left alone all day or treated like a human. It shows that dog ownership is NOT easy and that even healthy, well behaved dogs can learn to behave badly when they are not treated correctly. Buying yourself an already trained dog or going to basic obedience alone are not nearly enough to prepare you for the truth behind the dog.

One of the things that this book stresses a lot, is that dogs need some sort of a "job." They are left alone all day with too much energy, and when we get home we expect them to behave perfectly. The book helped me realize that my dog's behavior isn't just annoying... he DOES accept the cat as a pack member, but he wants some sort of purpose so much, that he fixes his attention on her and basically wants to guard and monitor her because he has no other outlet for his energy. I believe that with regular exercise and training that works WITH his guarding instincts instead of against them, he will be a much healthier and happy dog.

Another thing that I thought was particularly important, was the reason basic obedience is so important. It's not about making your dog do tricks just to show off... it's important to have some form of communication that you can both understand. I imagine how hard it would be to live in a foreign country, not knowing their ethics or beliefs, and only understanding one word. That's the life of so many dogs out there. The communication between owner and dog are so blurry that the dog is lost and behaving in his own natural way, not the way that you want.

This book is full of a lot of stories of different dogs, and I was sad to find that there wasn't a single dog in the book that resembled my dog enough for me to use the same feedback, but it was interesting to read. There are a lot of stories about the different dogs the auther had worked with. I was interested enough to read the book almost nonstop.

This is a good book if you want to arm yourself with general knowledge and a better understanding of WHY things need to happen the way they do for a dog to be happy. This is NOT a training guide though. Think of it as more of an insightful novel than a training guide, and you won't be dissappointed.

A must have for any dog owner.......2007-03-24

This book should be read by all those who are new dog owners or those who already own dogs who are having behavioral issues! My Vet suggested I read this book to help me better understand why my dog's behavior. It is easy to read and makes so much sense to those of us who love our dogs but need assistance in training them and yourself to being a better owner.

it covers dog *and* owner behavior.......2006-07-28

I am only partway through this book, but have already told friends how useful it is already. I've talked to vets and trainers, and read some other training books to deal with my two recently adopted 8 year old dogs, and this is the first one that really gets into how the owner's behavior affects the dog's behavior beyond "be alpha."

A philosphical look at dog training.......2005-09-03

This is by far the best dog book I have ever read. If you are looking for a quick set of exercises that will help you fix some acute problem with your dog right now, then this is probably not what you are looking for. The book really talks about how to approach training. The author gives some basic ideas about how dogs communicate and then leaves it to the reader to work through with their dogs. There is no substitute for professional training. However, this book really gives you a construct of a successful dog and dog-owner relationship. Anyone who is getting or thinking of getting a dog should read this book cover to cover. Also very well written, its a casual straight forward tone. A pleasure to read

Dog behavior unleashed!.......2003-10-06

This book was too good to pass up cosidering the title and subject matter. It seems that our canine friends are much more intelligent and perceptive than we give them credit for. The author believes the our own behavior impacts our canine companions behavior. Much of the book examines this dynamic relationship.

I enjoyed the stories and the systematic approach by the author to resolve them, in a break it down into pieces to tackle each behaviorial issue seperately.

I wish the book would have included a list of common behaviorial problems and solutions on how to resolve them in an appendix for quick reference.

I would highly recommend this book to the owner at his wits ends with his dogs behavior.

Average customer rating:
The Latchkey Dog: How the Way You Live Shapes the Behavior of the Dog You Love
Jodi Andersen
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OESRP2

Book Description

As early settlers to California, Oregon and Washington came around the Horn and sailed north from San Francisco, lumber for homes and industry went south by sea from the Northwest. And with nothing to guide them but the wind, compass, sextant, stars and a sixth sense, the sturdy little ships struggled through fog and gales; more than half of them foundering. This is the story of those ships and of the intrepid pioneers who built them. Through many old photographs and stirring true stories, an appreciation for the schooners, barkentines and other wind vessels and their crew is constructed to bring this golden age of wind ships to life. The Appendix presents lists of vessels over and under 100 tons made on the Pacific coast between 1850 and 1921, of all the skippers and all the ships specialized for the lumber and seal trades.

Book Description

The Proclamation of Jesus seeks to place Jesus in the context of first-century Palestinian Judaism. The authors hope to discern the essence of his preaching, his concept of the kingdom of God, and the place of purity in his teaching and activities. Better methods for assessing not simply the authenticity of reported sayings and deeds, but for tracing the development of tradition are considered. The authors are convinced that most of the Synoptic tradition is authentic, but that much of it has been reinterpreted and recontextualized. Herein lies the real challenge for those investigating the historical Jesus. The Proclamation of Jesus opens up new avenues of study and makes new proposals for understanding Jesus in the context of his place and time.

Product Description

Ever since (and well before) Godine published her first book, A Farmer's Alphabet in 1981, Mary Azarian has been hard at work cutting soft pine in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Last year she was awarded what she richly deserves: the Caldecott Medal. This retrospective volume is not intended to illustrate a particular story, but to display the full range of her abilities, and it is arranged (as seems logical to us) according to the seasons she celebrates in her art. In all, we have reproduced fifty of her hand-colored woodcuts in full color and an equal number in black and white. The book is large format because that is the way she works and that's what does her work justice. The text, written by her friend Lilias Hart, discusses not only her work, but also what life is like in the rigorous reaches of Northern Vermont.

It would be unfortunate if Mary's acheivement was relegated to the realm of "illustration." She is not an "illustrator" but an artist who works in wood, in a technique that has been all but forgotten by modern practitioners. She does it as well as anyone of her generation, and this ambitious, oversize book will show the full amplitude and genius of her work.

Customer Reviews:

woodcut art.......2007-07-30

Azarian has a wonderful "primitive" style that belies her technical mastery of woodblock printmaking. A feast for the eyes. Book itself is well made.

Average customer rating:

Family snapshots

The Long and the Short of It

Excellent and different

acerbic, caustic memoir examines Jewish immigrant culture

Hungry for Justice & Life

How I Came Into My Inheritance: And Other True Stories
Dorothy Gallagher
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Everyman

ASIN: 0375707506
Release Date: 2002-02-05

Book Description

Dorothy Gallagher began her literary career fabricating stories about celebrities for a pulp magazine. Nothing she invented, however, could rival the facts surrounding her own family.

In a singular voice–intimate, fierce, hilarious–Gallagher takes you into the heart of her Russian Jewish heritage with stories as elegant and stylish as fiction. From the wrenching last stages of her parents’ lives, Gallagher moves back through time: to her parents’ beginnings, the adventures of her extended family, and the communist ideology to which they cling. Her aunt Lily sells lingerie to prostitutes; a family friend is found murdered in a bathtub; her cousin Meyer returns to the Ukraine to find his village near death from starvation; and a young Gallagher endures sessions in self-criticism at a Workers’ Children’s camp. Together these episodes tell the larger story of a generation living through tumultuous history, and record the acts of loving defiance of a daughter on her path to independence.

Customer Reviews:

Family snapshots.......2004-12-18

HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE by Dorothy Gallagher is a story of family, or rather, episodes from a family history. About halfway through, I realized that Dorothy's immediate forebears had a history much similar to mine. Around the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, her maternal grandparents and their youngest children emigrated to the U.S. from the Ukraine, following their three eldest children sent over previously. About the same time, my paternal grandparents emigrated to America from Romania with their youngest offspring, the oldest son having gone on before. In both cases, additional children were born in the States. There was a shared experience there, however nebulous, that made me appreciate this book more than I might have.

Unlike the five-star SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS by Laura Shaine Cunningham, HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE is less of a warm and fuzzy celebration of family. The latter is perhaps more interesting than engaging, more poignant than charming. Each exhibits its author's own brand of humor, Gallagher's being a bit drier. Cunningham's pivot is always herself growing up, while Gallagher's stories often focus on her mother, father, and various aunts with only tangential reference to herself. Gallagher's have a discontinuous feel, although there is a broad, overlying time frame.

The politics of Dorothy's parents and aunts is perhaps unusual among written memoirs of the U.S. between the world wars. They were passionately Red. Lenin's photo had a place of honor on the wall; Uncle Joe Stalin and the victories of the Soviet armies against the Nazi invaders were much admired. During the Depression, capitalism in America appeared to be moribund, and the family was prepared to welcome the new socialist world order. Oddly, Gallagher doesn't mention how much of this revolutionary spirit she retained. Apparently, it just failed to take, as the political and religious passions of parents often do in their offspring.

For me, HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE hit its stride and was at its most interesting when Gallagher recounts her early efforts as a writer, first scribbling dubious stories about celebrities in such scandal mags as "Screen Stars" and "Movie World", forerunners of today's checkstand tabloids. Then, there was the agony of her first book, ALL THE RIGHT ENEMIES: THE LIFE AND MURDER OF CARLO TRESCA. Saddest is the second-to-last chapter, "The Last Indian", about her youngest aunt, Rachile, otherwise mostly ignored up to that point. Rachile outlived all of her siblings, dying convinced that she'd been terribly wronged throughout life by her brothers and sisters.

HOW I CAME INTO MY INHERITANCE suffers greatly from not including a section of visual snapshots. While Dorothy can see with her mind's eye, the reader needs to be shown faces. While it might not have made the narrative more joyful, it would've put flesh on the past and given it a more balanced perspective. (I remember my own maternal grandmother dying as a bitter, unhappy old woman. It's good that I have photos of her cheerfully and vibrantly young. One forgets from where the aged come.)

It appears to me that writing this book was the author's way of seeking closure. In the very last chapter, she recounts visiting Romania - as near as she could get to the Old Country - five years after her parents' deaths, and writes in the last paragraph:

"And now, in this odd and wracked corner of the world, on this hill ... grief slipped away. I felt happy as the day is long."

The Long and the Short of It.......2004-09-11

Dorothy Gallagher's "How I Came into My Inheritance" is a Hoot: rich with the humor of real events derived from real experience and real people. Even though Gallagher seems like she doesn't mean to be funny, she is...and some of these anecdotes are laugh out loud hilarious.
In many ways, we can all relate to this type of family expose in that most of us have had these same types of experiences with our own families. What most of us don't have though, is Gallagher's talent and her facility with the English language, which makes all of this come alive.
Though some of "HICIMI" is sad as befits the subject matter, most of this book is dangerously witty and underhandedly sly. This is the perfect book to give to your Mom, Dad, Aunts and Uncles for Christmas. Then you can all read from it around the Christmas dinner table and laugh till you puke.

Excellent and different.......2003-05-13

I've read any number of books -- memoirs and novels -- about women growing up in the late thirties/early forties in New York City, with immigrant parents involved in Communism. This was among the best -- clever, ironic, touching, laugh-out-loud funny. Only complaint: too short. I wanted to know more and more about Dorothy Gallagher and her family.

acerbic, caustic memoir examines Jewish immigrant culture.......2002-08-31

Dorothy Gallagher's trim memoir, "How I Came into My Inheritance," reminds readers that autobiographical writing can indeed be morbidly funny and acidic in its portrait of family life. Never once stopping to worry about the level of acid in these wonderfully crafted stories about her Russian-Jewish immigrant family, Gallagher at one glorifies and criticizes the conflicts, expectations and ambitions her parents' generation manifest after having arrived in the promised land, the United States.

Gallagher rebels against her family's orthodox ideology, not of being Jewish, but of complete devotion to communism. She notes that "a photograph of Lenin hung on the attic wall (I used to think it was my grandfather)." Perpetually a disappointment to her cantankerous father and her sarcastic and manipulative mother, Gallagher fights to reconcile her "evidently selfish and frivolous nature" with her parents' zealous dedication to "the Struggle for a Better World [emphasis is the author's]." Despite Gallagher's evident creative, discursive personality, nothing she can do measures up to her mother's morally rigid standards. Thus, readers observe Gallagher as a disappointment to her parents and at odds with herself.

Not once does the author lapse into self-pity. Instead, her chaotic, sarcasm-laden life becomes grist for a vocation which at least sounds respectable, that of being a writer. Her account of her evolution as a writer is the highlight of the memoir. She rubs shoulders with such luminaries as Bruce Jay Friedman and Mario Puzo while pounding out bilge for pulp magazines. As she hones her skills, she dismisses her later books with a self-deprecatory wave. Her willingness to mock her own self-presumed failures -- as a daughter, as a wife, as a worker -- makes one wonder how much of her parents' lack of approbation she absorbed during her childhood.

Dorothy Gallagher would dismiss sympathy for her life as misplaced sentiment. Instead, she writes her memoir with enough tartness to make any reader's mouth pucker. Her relatives are rough-and-tumble greenhorns who may or may not make peace with their new land. Foibles, failures and faults flow throughout this slender, wry memoir. As to her inheritance, Dorothy Gallager permits the reader to discern what wealth truly exists in her family.

Hungry for Justice & Life.......2002-04-14

Started it on the bus home at 10:30. Took time out to walk the dog. Didn't put it down until I finished it at nearly 4a.m. E-mailed my friends about it. Loaned it to my neighbor: now there's a waiting list for my copy.
Every one here is fully alive, but their privacy is never betrayed. The swirl of the family life of large, committed characters, pulls the reader in, as if it were one's own. Their stories inform mine, but with tougher wit. The miserable uncle whom life always betrays until, widowed at the end, he gets a whole year of happiness with an ex-lover. The bossy aunt who runs everyone's life but, finally, does not have the courage to dump a featureless husband, chained to him in Art Deco Miami. The aunt & uncle who barely escape their return to a Russian worker's paradise. The author's own betrayal of her principles in order to avoid jail for having an abortion in the bad old days. Terry Southern, Mario Puzo & Bruce Jay Friedman have all written of their peonage at "True," but Ms. Gallagher fills in more of that story of creating reporting with no basis. These stories bring glamour to the lives of people who didn't have much, didn't get much & bothered the hell out of you, but had a large hunger for life & justice.

how i came into my inheritance and other true stories

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how i came into my inheritance and other true stories

Manufacturer: random house
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICRM92

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