Piranhas (Complete Pet Owner's Manuals)

Book Description

Contrary to their undeserved reputation, piranhas are shy, nervous fish that frighten easily. This book enlightens aquarium enthusiasts on details of the piranha's native habitats, behavior, anatomy and sensory systems, and gives practical advice on keeping these fascinating creatures. There is information on selecting and transporting healthy piranhas to the home aquarium, maintaining aquarium filtration and heating, feeding the fish and protecting them against bacterial, fungal, and parasitic hazards, and breeding and raising young piranhas.

Customer Reviews:

Great for a beginner.......2005-10-09

Whether you're interested in learning about piranhas for your own enlightenment or starting your own piranha tank, this book is great. There's a little information on most different types of piranhas and a lot of general information for piranha care. The author also goes into detail of his own experiences with piranhas in their natural environment.

not worth it.......2003-12-15

there isnt any information in here that anyone who has kept a successful fish tank wouldnt already know, and it seems like none of then info is specific to piranhas. he doesnt go over what size tanks piranhas need, or that they dont like a lot of light, or that they need a heater guard to prevent them from breaking it, or that they can chew through air hoses. seems like a basic fish keeping book plus 2 chapters on piranha history and species.

this book has lots of info.......2002-07-18

I just bought this book today and have already read it. I also just got 5 baby piranhas and loving it. This book was well put together and is very helpful. Get it if you've got questions about piranhas.....

Piranhas : Everything About Selection, Care, Nutrition, Dise.......2001-12-06

Great book and you can buy most of these piranhas on the internet (...), You buy them over a secure server and their delivered right to your door. Its great.

Want Piranhas??? This is a Must!.......2001-02-13

I have been exposed to Piranhas as pets for nearly 3 years. Two of my college roomates kept them and I found them to be excellent pets. When I endevoured into my own world of piranhas I found this book to be an extrememly helful tool in understanding the behavior and environment of the piranha. A must have for the beginer or an excellent addition for the more experienced.

Average customer rating:

Preschoolers LOVE IT
Frolicsome and Frisky
Ten Sly Piranhas: A Counting Story in Reverse

Ten Sly Piranhas
William Wise , and Victoria Chess
Manufacturer: Puffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0142400742

Book Description

Ten sly piranhas are swimming in a river, but one at a time they disappear, until there is only one left. Now that this proud overeater is the only surviving piranha, he is confident that he can eat anybody. But while he may be the cleverest fish in the river, he is no match for the giant crocodile lurking on the bank. Children will love learning to count backward in this crafty tale about one very hungry piranha.

Customer Reviews:

Preschoolers LOVE IT.......2007-08-11

I've taught preschoolers for 11 years and this book beginning to end captivates and it is FUN to read. The original reviewer must not know anything about what is child centered and this book can be used in several areas of curriculum. For math there is the obvious counting backward from 10, one to one correspondence thru 10. For literacy there is the/p/ sound for piranha, phonemic awareness of rhyming words and chanting in a rhythm. With a couple of readings your kids will anticipate the rhyme word and fill it in for you. There is alliteration for beginning sound phonemic word segmenting and then if you write out the alliterations on a sentence strip you have an awesome extension activity for print awareness, awareness of letters in print, ask the children "what is the 1st sound in the words gulp and gurgle?" they answer then have them find the letters in the sentence and circle them. Plus singing it is very fun so you get playing with language. buy it you won't regret it.

Frolicsome and Frisky.......2002-06-21

You will want to read this book to your youngster. The rhyme and the rhythm of it will entice you both. Very enjoyable to read aloud. "Frolicsome and frisky and yet greatly to be feared" sounds even more fun in a Scottish accent, perhaps a la John Cleese. The pictures are colorful. This is the kind of thing you want to memorize so that you can entertain a little one someday when you are caught in a big traffic jam on the highway.

Ten Sly Piranhas: A Counting Story in Reverse.......2000-08-03

A clever little tail in rhyme about a group of devious fish and a surprise that awaits the most clever. I often read this tale to my first born and have returned to read it to my youngest. The first book is now worn and torn.

Piranha: Dale Brown's Dreamland (Dreamland (Harper Paperback))

Average customer rating:

Brown's fourth book gets four stars
Worth a read
One of the best Dreamland books I've read

Piranha: Dale Brown's Dreamland (Dreamland (Harper Paperback))
Dale Brown , and Jim Defelice
Manufacturer: Jove
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 051513581X
Release Date: 2003-07-29

Book Description

The bestselling author of Wings of Fire returns 0with a brand new cutting-edge thriller that goes beneath the surface of war.

Customer Reviews:

Brown's fourth book gets four stars.......2006-05-03

A typical novel of Dale Brown, consisting of the usual high tech weaponry and battle scenes. Set in the United States, the corporation of Dreamland is back with a new probe, Piranha for testing. However they must deloy this drawing board product before a nuclear war can be waged between China and India. The intensive briefing and exciting battle sections is what captivates an audience to continue reading throughout the series. Dale Brown ties in the use of high tech weaponary, yet in the same time allowing us to visualize the realism of these high tech gadgets. As the climax of the story builds up from all the different components from previous books, the uprising feel of anxiety rushes to all readers as the novel reveals the truth. The only downfall of this book lies upon it's the consistent and repeatative in context of the foreshadowing. Reader's can simply understand the foreshdadow, causing the ending to be less surprising than expected.

Worth a read.......2004-01-09

I tried three times to get back into this novel. The early pages didn't really have much punch and consisted of too many characters, jargon and acronyms. Near the middle my persistence paid off and I couldn't put the book down. The flights were exciting and the combats (too few) were realistic.

The technology was quite believable and and always seen to work better than expected. You got the feeling that Dreamland really does exist!

One of the best Dreamland books I've read.......2003-11-23

India and China are getting ready to rumble. They have two fleets heading for each other. The Indian navy has a new weapon called Kali--a cruise missile that can be fired like a torpedoe thus hiding the attacking submarine.

However, a joint air force / navy group is testing an advanced underwater imaging system called Piranha. Naturally Dreamland and 3 Megafortresses are tagged to run the initial tests. WHen things heat up in the Pacific, they deploy Piranha to keep track of the opposing fleets and prevent the conflagration.

The story is set in 1997, and some of the technology described here might have already made its way from the drawing board to implementation. Clearly, recent events in Afghanistan and Iraq demostrate US technically superiority over everyone else.

This book is tightly written and real joy to read. There is absolutely nothing described here that isn't possible and that's what makes it so great.

Average customer rating:

Extreme Encounters

Do you want to FEEL a quick thrill

So-so

A Quirky Reprise of Multifarious Demise

So what DOES it feel to die?

Extreme Encounters: How It Feels to Be Drowned in Quicksand, Shredded by Piranhas, Swept Up in a Tornado, and Dozens of Other Unpleasant Experiences--
Greg Emmanuel
Manufacturer: Quirk Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Esquire Presents: What It Feels Like: *To Walk on the Moon*To Be Gored by a Bull*To Survive an Avalanche *To Swallow Swords*To Go Over Niagara Falls in a Barrel*To Be Shot in the Head*To Win the L

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ASIN: 1931686009

Book Description

After reading The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, did you ever wonder what it s like to be struck by lightning? To run with the bulls in Pamplona? To ride the crushing swell of an avalanche? Extreme Encounters describes these adventures and 37 others with endlessly addictive you-are-there second-person narratives so you chill to the numbing effects of frostbite, you hear the 110-decibel roar of a grizzly bear, and you feel the stomach-lurching drop of an elevator freefall. Extreme Encounters is a moment-by-moment, blow-by-blow account of what happens to you physically, emotionally, and scientifically during life s most perilous experiences. Like a cross between The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook and Into Thin Air, these heart-racing stories take readers where few have gone before.

Customer Reviews:

Extreme Encounters.......2006-11-10

For those who have always dreamed of moments after seeing Jaws, and the like, this book is perfect. Describing all the goriest details in the second person view. I found this book extremely interesting, along as educational with all the scientific phenomena associated with each painful experience.

Do you want to FEEL a quick thrill.......2006-06-08

This book was outstanding. The only complaint I have is that it wasn't longer. What I enjoyed most was that each story refers to the characters as YOU, and has enough scenerary information to give you a clear image in your head of where your suppossed to be, then BAM something crazy happens and your drowning in a lake in the middle of nowhere. I could literally taste the water in my mouth during that story. Then after the climax of each story the author throughly describes how each situation can kill you. He is very descriptive and interprets it in an easy to understand language. He must have done his homework to be able to describe those many different situations as he did. I loved this book, it is a quick fun and factual read for anybody at any age level.

So-so.......2006-05-07

I thought the concept for the book a little more exciting than the book itself. The stories seemed too short, and a few end abruptly without much explanation as to what happened next. It seems only obvious that extreme encounters should have extreme details, but that's not the case here. Overall, I think 5th through 8th graders would appreciate this book most.

A Quirky Reprise of Multifarious Demise.......2006-02-02

Quirky apropos of its publisher, Quirk Books, "Extreme Encounters" is formatted like one of those books to keep in the bathroom: the information is fascinating but not sufficiently in depth for anything more than morbid curiosity. Nevertheless, this is a fun little book to read, with anecdotes of demise as diverse as the effects of a shark attack to Civil War amputations. In a break from the subject matter (which mostly deal with death or dismemberment), author Greg Emmanuel also describes the experiences of sky diving and rocketing into space in a Gemini capsule.

Emmanuel is definitely on to something with "Extreme Encounters". We are drawn by our fears toward descriptions of what scares us the most, and the author does describe some of the neurological processes that govern our behavior while under life-threatening stress, but the book is a little haphazard and mixed-one can envision a series of books on this topic, more in depth, with the non-lethal, purely experiential anecdotes such as sky diving filling a book of their own.

A consistent theme in this book is our neurological responses to stress in life-threatening situations. Readers can get more information about these responses than Emmanuel offers with Laurence Gonzales' book "Deep Survival".

So what DOES it feel to die?.......2005-06-01

So what does it feel like to die? According to author Greg Emmanuel, it all depends on how you go. 39 separate, horrible fates are chronicled in this book, and though not all of them end in death, they do all make your skin crawl. The categories include When Animals Attack, The Great Outdoors, Somebody Get a Doctor, Crime and Punishment, Everyday Mishaps, and Going to Extremes. Most of the scenarios only last for 2-3 pages which makes this a great book to pull out at parties and read aloud from, or take with you on vacation. The story style is conversational and informal, and the book length is a scant 175 pages, so it's a quick read all around.

Yes, the stories are creepy and gross, and at times they'll make you laugh though you might feel a little guilty for doing so. This is a novel and fun book.

Average customer rating:

A great guide to this cool fish
Apsolute Waste of Money
my first piranha book
Generall Piranhas
Nice book for begenner, but lacks in breeding information

The Guide to Owning Piranhas
Manolito Pinkguni
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0793803632

Customer Reviews:

A great guide to this cool fish.......2005-12-07

Before I got my Piranha, I bought this book. This book helped me decide what size tank I would get, helped me with the chemical levels that would be an ideal home for the fish, I learned about what they like to eat, and mor

In February, for mt 12th birthay, I got a Red-Bellied Piranha. This book has helped me mantain the tank and keep my fish alive. It is now December and my fish is still alive and is about 5 1/2 inches. The book is a must for any Piranha owner.

Apsolute Waste of Money.......2005-10-23

What a waste of money. You'd better of reading an article or an expert advise on the Internet than reading the entire book. Which adds to my frustration is the extra cost I encountered on shipping the book internationally.

It has absolutely neither a meaningful new peace of information nor a serious know how.

my first piranha book.......2000-08-12

i first got this book b4 i got the fish and found it to be most informative with good pictures and information contained threw out a good buy for any person wanting or thinking about keeping these fish... it is a book that is serious in the right places but not a real professional book like some that i have read

Generall Piranhas.......1999-07-29

64 pages Over 10 Section (What Are Piranhas? , Aquaria , Understanding Them , Feeding , The Setting Up , The Truth , Breeding , Species , Keeping Piranhas Happy and Healty) . The pictures are extra ordinary high quality , very easy to read .

Nice book for begenner, but lacks in breeding information.......1999-02-20

Good information, excellent photos, easy to read. I was expecting a upto date discussion about breeding and information on feeding (other than gold fish). I was disappointed

Average customer rating:

How to Survive Among Piranhas
Joachim De Posada
Manufacturer: Planeta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Success | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0974872466
Release Date: 2004-12-01

Product Description

"How to Survive among Piranhas is a mini-encyclopedia containing some of the best ideas available in the areas of business and personal development. In addition to the wonderful ideas on such topicas as motivation, sales, marketing, negotiation, and customer srvice, Joachim De Posada will entertain and fascinate you with personal stories of his life. Read, learn, and enjoy." Michael LeBoeuf, author of "The Millionaire in You"

Average customer rating:

Great Marine Warfare Story
Interesting read.
A good exciting read
Quite possibly DiMercurio's Best work-to-date...
Another Knockout!

Piranha: Firing Point
Michael DiMercurio
Manufacturer: Onyx
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0451408764

Customer Reviews:

Great Marine Warfare Story.......2006-02-13

111 ships and 20 submarines sunk, numerous aircrafts and choppers downed, plus one surviving sub and another damaged sub. Sunken vessels include three latest version of US aircraft carriers. MiG51s, F-22s, great stuffs. On top of that you have a malfunctioning sub operational software.

In the near future, China has recently had a civil war, thus, Red and White China. The Reds are losing fast, thus, they have managed to obtain stolen subs. Not to be confused with ordinary subs, they are the most advance Japanese model being tested for their seaworthiness. Lots of naval actions.

Michael diMercurio explained the armaments and submarines involved in his plot so deftly, that one might imagine they are real. Submarine and military fiction enthusiasts will be thrilled.

The only thing diMercurio is flailing behind are the Asian pronounciations of the names. He should have done a couple more hours of research on the names.

Overall, an excellent four-star fiction read.

Interesting read........2005-02-17

This book has a good story line, but it has a few problems:

1. A submersible sneaks up on a high-tech submarine that can later detect submarines miles away.

2. When the Red Chinese start to attack the White Chinese, the U.S. knows everything about their actions, but the White Chinese are taken completely by surprise.

3. A submarine receives a message to get out of an area as fast as possible. They obey and are racing out of there when they are hit by a torpedo. Later, the captain (who escapes) says that they were at "5 knots". That's a big difference from the 40 knots they were really at. Not only that, but the 5 knots story is repeated twice.

4. The author overdoes his desciptions. He puts a lot of detail into not only people's looks, but also things like explosions.

Overall, this book could have been a lot better. I would still recommend it if you are just looking for a military fiction book to read. If you care about details, you probably would not like this book.

A good exciting read.......2002-04-17

... it is a good book - lots of action, gadgets, tension and a bit of romance. BUT - let me ask you this - how the [heck] does a submersible submarine get within cooee of a supposedly state-of-the-art nuclear submarine without being detected, and not only do that, but also dock with and enter it with an armed force, totally surprising the crew?. Considering that later in the book those same submarines are able to detect enemy submarines that are miles away, it makes this premise a mite unbelievable. Some may say a small point, but unfortunately the entire plot revolves round the stealing of the Rising Sun submarines in the first place.
And also - the US command actually believes that ALL SIX Rising Sun submarines sank AT THE SAME TIME. Come on - one sinking, maybe, two possibly, but all six?
So ...yes I agree with the absurdity of a submersible sneaking up on a nuc sub and taking it over (did I mention not once, but six times??).
And ... yes, it is an exciting book etc etc. It's just a bit far fetched in some areas.
So, three stars from this reader...

Quite possibly DiMercurio's Best work-to-date..........2001-06-11

As a longtime submarine novel fan, and one of DiMercurio's biggest supporters, I am happy to endorse 'Piranha: Firing Point' as easily one of the best adventure/sub novels ever written. DiMercurio rely's upon his previous history as a submariner in this yarn about a broken-in-two China ready to spark World War III. Obviously America cannot stand idly by and allow this to happen, but first we have to understand that it IS happening right under our noses.

Japanese subs are being hijacked and only Pacino's mentor realizes this, but nobody seems to want to accept his theory and ultimately rejects his advice as ramblings of a dying man. Rejected by everyone except Michael 'Patch' Pacino, decorated American Sub Hero. Once this theory has been proven, the race to avert all-out war is on.

I found the SSNX to be DiMercurio's finest creation-under-the-seas to date and very much worthy of a novel such as this. I applaud the storyline that while not necessarily torn from the headlines, certainly COULD become fact any day. If you have read DiMercurio's previous submarine tales, you are in for a treat with this latest offering. A fine sub tale told with style and a great deal of adventure.

Another Knockout!.......2001-01-03

Might be the best one yet. But if you haven't read his previous works, you'd be well served to do so - because they only make a great story better. I couldn't put this one down, completing it in only a couple days.

I've been particularly happy with the continued development of a number of characters - Pacino, Donchez, Phillips, Warner etc. as they really enrich the story.

Wonderful ability to translate and not overdue the technical components - helping us understand the capabilities of the technology at hand and the human feelings in such environments.

Reading Threat Vector now and looking forward to next release in Nov/Dec.

Thanks Michael for the opportunity to escape a little.

Average customer rating:

Edward Falco: Master Writer

a master storyteller....

A wonderful collections of short stories

terrific suspense anthology

Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha: New and Selected Stories
Edward Falco
Manufacturer: Unbridled Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1932961054

Book Description

For a long time now, Edward Falco has quietly established his place among the absolute best American storytellers. Those who haven't yet read him don't want to miss this chance. That's why we're so excited to offer the very best of his work, gathered together here for the first time, to a wider readership. Falco's stories are unforgettable, dangerous as a high-wire act without a net, filled with dramatic action, and peopled with believable characters challenged by events into making risky moral choices, so emotionally true that readers will carry them around for a long time. In story after story, Falco's characters find the order of their lives ambushed by an upswelling of dark forces beyond their control. In order to protect the lives of family--lovers, wives, and especially children--they often must summon up the personal courage to turn from their own private monsters. The decisions they make reveal their bonds, the set of their hearts, and the harsh nature of the culture we all live in today. If someone out there could write the contemporary counterpart to Flannery O'Connor's classic "A Good Man is Hard to Find," it would be Falco. His are good, old-fashioned, hard-to-find stories set way out there on the edge.

Customer Reviews:

Edward Falco: Master Writer.......2005-08-15

Falco is a master of a writer, forging character and plot into engaging stories. Many of the stories of this collection involve teens involved in precarious, often sexual, situations. Falco exposes the minds of these teens as he leads them into dark predicaments and then takes them back out again. In one story, "Sweet", Falco discribes a pot-bellied middle-aged man's lust for a teen-age girl almost as well as Nabokov; but he does it differently. Without the paint and wordplay of Nabokov, Falco does it straightforward, and in his own realistic, believable manner.

In "Instruments of Peace", Falco puts the father of a sixteen year old girl into a morally challenging position. At the end, the reader is left just thinking, "Wow!". This story was originally published in Playboy. Who says that magazine is only for the pictures?

SABBATH NIGHT... has a lot of conversations in cars, a lot of teen sexuality, a lot of family men taken out of their traditional roles and plopped down in the middle of a moral predicament. Falco handles plot, characterization, point-of-view, pacing, all the elements of fiction like a master. It's amazing that this guy is not better known.

a master storyteller...........2005-07-11

The press release accompanying this book of short stories states that Edward Falco has been quietly establishing himself as master storyteller for years. His stories have appeared in Atlantic Monthly and Playboy as well as prestigious anthologies. His fans will relish this collection. Readers
unfamiliar with his work, like me, will remember Edward Falco's name from now on.

Each one of the sixteen stories in this collection is distinct. Falco gives us mysteries, unexpected salvations or revelations, and forces us to examine the sacred and profane with fresh eyes. His plots are gripping, woven from threads familiar to us all: dysfuntional families that somehow work; people who wear their human vulnerabilities like a badge of honor as they flounder; lives derailed or hopelessly wrecked by choice or circumstance; hapless mortals forced to deal with the unthinkable and horrible; and unacceptable but inevitable compromises made amidst chaos. Characters vary, from
peaceful people just trying to survive, to teenagers struggling to find their own identity, to dangerous or pathetic human animals at heart. Regardless of the milieu in which the author places them, each character is solid and memorable.

Falco reveals the rage and fear that often trembles hidden at our core. His prose is alternately haunting and tender, comforting and disturbing. Edward Falco's writing beautifully explores the lights and shadows of human existence.

A wonderful collections of short stories.......2005-05-28

As a writer, some publishers have told me that the platform of short stories is slowly becoming a thing of the past with readers. Edward Falco is here to prove that theory wrong. Here we have a fantastic collection of 16 unique stories reflecting the uniqueness that Falco possesses. The story lines are familiar as we play witness to characters that don't quite fit into the world around them attempting to struggle with the intense situations they find themselves in. The reader finds themselves able to relate to some aspects of each character and are quickly consumed into the story. A noteworthy read that should not be passed up by anyone.

Frederick A. Babb

terrific suspense anthology.......2005-05-28

This sixteen short story anthology is a great collection starring individuals with flaws that lead them into precarious situations often not of their direct making. Each story is loaded with unbridled suspense as the prime characters find themselves going from the frying pan into the fire as the heroes struggle with dark forces that seem overwhelming to the protagonist (and the reader). Interestingly in spite of these being shorts, in most cases the beleaguered hero seems developed enough to star in a novel. The audience will appreciate the genius of Edward Falco, as in almost every entry, a reader can picture themselves falling into the same type calamity that beguiled the respective lead character. Title aside since it is taken from one of the tales, courage comes from within, but that does not guarantee the outcome as piranhas feed on nice innocent victims too. This novel is worth reading but readers should keep the lights on or better yet peruse it in daytime.

Harriet Klausner

The Piranha Club: Power and Influence in Formula One

Average customer rating:

More anecdotes please...

The Piranha Club: Power and Influence in Formula One
Timothy Collings
Manufacturer: Virgin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0753509652

Book Description

Now fully updated, The Piranha Club is the first serious study of Formula One's most intriguing and influential figures - the men who wield the real power. It is an entertaining and incisive analysis of the Formula One paddock, explaining how it works, who runs it, how it makes money and what sort of people exist there. Formula One is the meeting point of sport, commerce, showbusiness, technology, industry and international politics. You are as likely to share a table for lunch in the paddock with Naomi Campbell or Michael Douglas as with a politician, a royal or a pop singer. Those who run it are the most intriguing of all: Bernie Ecclestone and Max Moseley, Jackie Stewart, Ron Dennis, Frank Williams, Eddie Jordan and the rest. Though from various backgrounds, they share the common interest of Formula One motor racing - and finding a way of making money successfully.

Customer Reviews:

More anecdotes please..........2003-09-20

This book chronicles the different life stories of the prominent personalities of the F1 paddock - Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis as well as some of the old members like Enzo Ferrari, Walker, Cooper and Chapman. Also chronicles the rise of Paul Stoddart, the owner of the Minardi Team.

Instead of delving on the inner workings of the Piranha Club, the author opts to present a collection of biographies of the more prominent members of the Club. There are some anecdotes on the inner workings interwoven between the life stories of the team principals(e.g. Schumacher's transfer from Jordan to Benetton, poaching of Minardi's chief engineer by Toyota, Frank Williams closeness with Ron Dennis) but they are few and far between.

Book Description

For twenty years, readers of The Christian Science Monitor have enjoyed the musings of a singular writer who has brought his talent to bear on a wide range of human-interest subjects. Robert Klose has attracted fans from all walks of life, from physicians to farmers to teachers, and his unique insights on life are seasoned with gentle, often laugh-out-loud humor.

The cream of Klose's columns has now been gathered in this delightful book culled largely from the more than 250 pieces written for the Monitor. Small Worlds captures his graceful prose and engaging voice in brief essays whose subjects range from the joys of small-town hardware stores and Converse sneakers to the challenges of learning a foreign language or traveling abroad.

In these pieces, readers will find themselves in the company of a wordsmith who is warm, funny, and smart--a man passionate about many subjects. Within these pages are memorable stories about Klose's life: his childhood pet piranha, his love of the clarinet, his attempts to learn Polish. He shares touching moments of his experience raising adoptive sons, from his first encounter with Alyosha in a Russian orphanage--a bond sealed with a Pez dispenser--to learning to counsel six-year-old Anton about puppy love. Klose also depicts his life in Maine, where pursuit of warmth is a prime occupation and culture is best defined by a deserted Downeast beach or a pick-your-own strawberry farm.

Whether poignantly reflecting on the parent-child relationship or nostalgically recollecting the old-fashioned ice cream soda, Robert Klose is a writer whose voice rings true and is sure to appeal to fans of other humorists like Garrison Keillor or Jean Shepherd.

Customer Reviews:

Up Klose and Personal.......2007-01-19

Robert Klose's second book enables the reader to sit down and listen to Klose's story telling as if one were sitting around a family fireplace listening to a favorite uncle. His reprinted stories from the Christian Science Monitor, especially those about his two adopted Russian sons, are like listening to favorite family stories told again and again. One can never tire of these tales, especially the debate over buying Alyosha's new sneakers or Anton's plans to run away. In addition, Klose's personal tales of growing up sketch scenarios into which one could be in the street playing ball with Klose's buddies or tooting the clarinet in the music lesson. The story of Klose's first clarinet recital left us laughing for hours. This is a book for everyone, and reads well as a family book for read-aloud activities. There's something here for everyone, and in true Prarie Home Companion style, we find ourselves laughing and crying together.

Very much like chicken soup for the everyday soul........2006-11-18

Small Worlds by Robert Klose creates for the reader a poetic feeling for ordinary things in everyday life. It is an easy and entertaining read perfect for curling up by a warm fire on a cold day. The stories he tells are very discriptive and gives you the feeling of being there. River Pumpkins and Joe Piranha Days made me laugh out-loud while reading. A great little book I would highly recommend.

"Small Worlds" is a Book for Everyone.......2006-11-14

Robert Klose, a prolific writer from Maine, has compiled an excellent collection of his truly heartwarming essays. His writing style is always direct yet homey and very very captivating. Klose writes of his experiences growing up and what it was like to be young in the fifties and sixties but he also makes you feel a part of his family when writes about raising two adopted sons. This is an excellent book -- an easy read that can be enjoyed by young adults and their elders.

Revisiting old friends.......2006-10-11

I read many of these columns when they were originally in the Christian Science Monitor. They were warm, soft slippers on a cold, winter night back then.
Now, all together in this one volume, they're the steaming stove, the hot mug of mulled cider and bowl of popcorn PLUS the slippers, all rolled into one.
To say these gems are easy to look at, is easy to say. What's hard, is putting the book down after finishing one...because you want to read just one more before going to sleep.

Very enjoyable!.......2006-09-29

After reading Adopting Alyosha (a few years ago) and loving it, I just knew I had to read Klose's new book. I was also familiar with some of his essays written in the Christian Science Monitor (loved them as well). Klose's new book is an extremely pleasurable read. His style of writing brings the reader in entirely. I especially enjoyed the chapter on nostalgia. I highly recommend this book to everyone!!!!

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