Book Description
Michael Tolliver, the sweet-spirited Southerner in Armistead Maupin's classic Tales of the City series, is arguably one of the most widely loved characters in contem-porary fiction. Now, almost twenty years after ending his ground-breaking saga of San Francisco life, Maupin revisits his all-too-human hero, letting the fifty-five-year-old gardener tell his story in his own voice.
Having survived the plague that took so many of his friends and lovers, Michael has learned to embrace the random pleasures of life, the tender alliances that sustain him in the hardest of times. Michael Tolliver Lives follows its protagonist as he finds love with a younger man, attends to his dying fundamentalist mother in Florida, and finally reaffirms his allegiance to a wise octogenarian who was once his landlady.
Though this is a stand-alone novel—accessible to fans of Tales of the City and new readers alike—a reassuring number of familiar faces appear along the way. As usual, the author's mordant wit and ear for pitch-perfect dialogue serve every aspect of the story—from the bawdy to the bittersweet. Michael Tolliver Lives is a novel about the act of growing older joyfully and the everyday miracles that somehow make that possible.
Customer Reviews:
ANother great tale of the city!.......2007-10-19
If you liked Tales of the City and Further Tales of the city, you will love Michael Tolliver Lives! The tv series was great too.
A Major disappointment........2007-10-17
I am an avid fan of the Tales of the City series.They are among the books I buy that I keep to reread and to loan to friends.I was elated to find a new title so my disappointment was acute.The repetitive sex scenes seemed unnecessary to me and,frankly,boring.I gave up part way through,which is a rarity with me.Perhaps I am not Mr.Maupin's target audience but,sadly, I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.
a must.......2007-10-11
Fascinating for those who read Tales of the City and its follow-ons. The characters that virtually became part of our circle of friends grew wiser.....and so did we...
A nice return to a semi-Tales novel.......2007-10-07
They say everything gets better with age.
But in the world of homosexuality, where an obsession with perfect looks, body and clothes is a contact sport (and the same goes for world, really, but I think its more prevalent with us gays) , most young gays would like nothing to do with anyone older than say 25. And heaven forbid you even think that they have sex.
When Armistead Maupin began his Tales of The City series for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1976, I'm sure no one thought how important the stories of Michael, Brian, Mary Ann, Mona and Mrs Madrigal would become. It was then, the first chronicle of modern gay life, filled with the joys and pains of being who you are and accepted by your "logical" family instead of your biological one. Maupin would eventually write five novels based on those stories from the newspaper, centering on the characters who live at 28 Barbary Lane. A sixth novel was published in 1989.
The cultural impact of those books fed a generation of gay men and women already living in the era, plus the ones who came after, which was I, when I started reading them around 1987-88. Of course, I knew about them before I picked up the first book, but until I got a bit older and finally accepted who I was did I want to read them.
With Sure of You, the sixth book in the series published in 1989, we left our characters coping with problems the 1980's brought on: AIDS and the rise of the conservative movement. Now, Maupin -who had wanted to do a novel about aging gay men and how they fit within the current fixation that after the age of 25 in gay life, you might as well as never go out again - found the perfect voice to do it in, good old Mouse.
Michael Tolliver Lives, is in many ways -like all of Maupin's Tales books - semi-autobiographical. Michael is 55, HIV positive and now married to Ben, who is 21-years younger than him. In real life, Maupin has the same arraignment.
The novel itself is wonderfully written -and to be honest, you don't have to read the previous 6 books in the series (even though Maupin says this book is not the seventh volume), as he gives updates on all the characters. The author's talent has aged well, and he gets across the message that just because you are, say in your 50's, you can still be attracted to men younger than you.
After all, straight men have been doing for years, marrying women as much as 30 years younger than they are. So, I guess, there is hope for me.
autumnal.......2007-10-06
This postscript to the Tales of the City series of novels is a delight.
There's abundant warmth, wit and wisdom. There's only a scant plot but that scarcely matters, and it's cleverly resolved at the end.
True, it's not a sequel.
Unlike the others, this is a first person narrative. Not all the previous cast are present or accounted for.
The focus is squarely on Michael Tolliver, now known as Mouse only to the grown up Shawna. Many of us must have feared that Michael must have died fairly soon after the sixth novel concluded. This novel is a hymn of praise to his survival, to his marriage and to what remains of his self chosen, "logical" [as opposed to biological] family.
There's an autumnal sadness here, with the inevitablities of ageing, the probable fragility of sexual attraction and the passage of time since the golden seventies. It's a far harsher political climate, too. Much of Maupin's devastating humour is aimed at right wing fundamentalists,and not only for their denial of civil rights to gays.
This could probably be read as a stand alone novel but I would not recommend it. So much in the earlier works resonates even more fully with the retrospective benefit of Michael's mature perspective. Moreover, anyone who reads this first and then progresses to the other novels will find their enjoyment a little compromised because they know more than they should.
So - anyone who has not yet read Maupin's marvelous sequence of novels should end, not start, here.
Book Description
Maybe the Moon, Armistead Maupin's first novel since ending his bestselling Tales of the City series, is the audaciously original chronicle of Cadence Roth -- Hollywood actress, singer, iconoclast and former Guiness Book record holder as the world's shortest woman.
All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town where -- as she says -- "you can die of encouragement." Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now, after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and bat mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star.
In a series of mordantly funny journal entries, Maupin tracks his spunky heroine across the saffron-hazed wasteland of Los Angeles -- from her all-too-infrequent meetings with agents and studio moguls to her regular harrowing encounters with small children, large dogs and human ignorance. Then one day a lanky piano player saunters into Cady's life, unleashing heady new emotions, and she finds herself going for broke, shooting the moon with a scheme so harebrained and daring that it just might succeed. Her accomplice in the venture is her best friend, Jeff, a gay waiter who sees Cady's struggle for visibility as a natural extension of his own war against the Hollywood Closet.
As clear-eyed as it is charming, Maybe the Moon is a modern parable about the mythology of the movies and the toll it exacts from it participants on both sides of the screen. It is a work that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit from a perspective rarely found in literature.
Customer Reviews:
One of my all-time favorite books.......2007-07-30
My title says it all. I'm not going to write a long, involved review. Suffice to say, I read a lot. A LOT. And this one is definitely in my top 5.
I noticed below under "tag suggestions" that it has "gay fiction" and "gay classic" (I assume because the author is gay), and I want to point out that (from what I remember) there is no homosexuality in this book. (Not that there's anything wrong with homosexuality, yada, yada, yada...)
It's funny and touching. I've read it several times over the years, and it's always stayed with me.
His "Tales of the City" books are great too, but this one just stood out for me as an all-time great.
Not Maupin's best work.......2005-10-17
I did not care for this work about the drarf although I imagine she like so many people who are different had a very difficult time in life the suibject matter was not my cup of tea as to reading material. It's a well written piece of work if you're into dwarfs' life stories.
Surprisingly fantastic.......2004-12-05
Received this book out of the blue from a seller on Amazon who bundled this with an order I placed. Tossed it aside for half a year before I sat down to read it last night and did NOT put it down until the last page -- then went back to the beginning once more. Touching, warm, creative, full of personality. At worst, it's entertaining. Do read it.
Fantastic.......2004-02-01
This is one of the best fiction books I have read. As an average sized person, I found this extraordinarily enlightening as to the difficulties and prejudices that little people go through each and every day. It was one of the most unique love stories ever and it really, truly made me feel the full gamut of emotions. If you buy one fiction book in your life, this is the one.
Oh, triple wow.......2003-12-13
Armistead Maupin has been one of my favorite writers since way back when his Tales of the City was serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle. I read all of them and then just kept going, reading everything he's ever written. Maybe the Moon is one of his most poignant and one of his best.
For this masterpiece, we have a change of venue from SF to LA, and instead of the broad humor with which Maupin painted the characters in the Tales series, he's delved deeply into the development of his protagonist, Cadence Roth, a dwarf. Although teensy, there's nothing small about her personality, a personality that is thwarted only by the fact that she rose to movie fame wearing a highly-recognizable costume in a famous sci-fi movie - and by contract she's forbidden from revealing her real ID. We follow her from one career disappointment to the next, and her personal life isn't very hopeful, either. In spite of a bit of a shocker ending, Maybe the Moon (great title, very apt) is really a paean of hopefulness for people who are different, and you end up smiling thru your tears.
Amazon.com
Since 1976, Maupin's Tales of the City has etched itself upon the hearts and minds of its readers, both straight and gay. From a groundbreaking newspaper serial in the San Francisco Chronicle to a bestselling novel to a critically acclaimed PBS series, Tales (all six of them) contains the universe--if not in a grain of sand, then in one apartment house.
Book Description
Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has blazed a singular trail through popular culture -- from a groundbreaking newspaper serial to a classic novel to a television event that entranced millions around the world. The first of six novels about the denizens of the mythic apartment house at 28 Barbary Lane, Tales is both a wry comedy of manners and a deeply involving portrait of a vanished era.
Customer Reviews:
A Modern Day Classic.......2007-10-02
Armistead Maupin not only captures the zeitgeist of San Francisco in the '70s, but through his characters, carries us through moments of the human condition, seperate from time, place and gender.
Very interesting characters.......2007-09-01
This book really gets involved with individual characters which make it extremely interesting...All the different types that their paths meet and how different people can be but how they can all connect with one another in their own individual way. It is a very fun reading book. I enjoyed it.
A glimpse at a time and a place ..........2007-08-10
Every now and then an author is able to capture the "magic" - flavor may be a more accurate description - of a time and place. Armistead Maupin has done that in _Tales of the City_.
Set in San Francisco in the mid-1970's, the lives of his characters cross each other and intertwine. Originally written as a serial in the San Francisco _Chronicle_, it is reminiscent of Dickens: short vignettes with sharply drawn characters, plenty of drama and tension (sexual and otherwise) that frequently leave the reader with a cliff-hanger at the end of the chapter leaving you hungering for more.
The writing is witty (every few pages I was laughing out loud - much to the chagrin of those sitting around me at the coffee shop where I was reading most of the book), a bit irreverant (sexuality, gender, race and class are all targets of Maupin's pen), and utterly entertaining. I thorougly enjoyed the stories, and I highly recommend it.
Masterful comic soap.......2007-06-16
Centred on 28 Barbary Lane, San Francisco, the home of Anna Madrigal, Tales of the City chronicles the day to day life of Mrs Madrigal and her assorted tenants, along with their friends and colleagues. The eccentric Mrs Madrigal considers her residents as her family, leaves them notes accompanied by a joint and serves brownies suitably fortified. The residents include twenty five year old Mary Anne, a naïve young secretary newly arrived from Cleveland; Mona, a successful copywriter working for ad agency Halcyon Communications; Brian Hawkins, a randy waiter and one time lawyer in his thirties; and Michael (Mouse) Tolliver, a thoroughly likeable lively gay twink. Among the friends and colleagues, and very much part of the story are Edgar Halcyon, head of Halcyon Communications; and Beauchamp Day, his promiscuous son-in-law and business partner; along with their respective wives. By a remarkable series of coincidences the lives of residents, friends and acquaintances connect and interweave to comic effect.
Their escapades range from the devious to the outrageous, ruthless to movingly caring; their sexual interests/orientation from straight to gay, and not always necessarily consistent; the whole providing an hilarious and touching account full of adventure.
A thoroughly entertaining, funny and fast moving read, with some endearing and very likeable characters, I highly recommended it; and very much look forward to the subsequent developments in the many sequels.
The sun always shines on Barbary Lane.......2007-01-02
When you're sitting in a gloomy room in England with the sun having vanished months ago, there is nothing like re-reading the brilliant Armistead Maupin's 'Tales of the City' books. If you are new to these, they tell you all about the bohemian existence of some colourful and wonderful characters in historic San Francisco. The stories are wonderful and the books flow well into each other so that reading five in a row is actually quite easy and very rewarding. One of my favourite series I think.
Book Description
The tenants of 28 Barbary Lane have fled their cozy nest for adventures far afield. Mary Ann Singleton finds love at sea with a forgetful stranger, Mona Ramsey discovers her doppelgänger in a desert whorehouse, and Michael Tolliver bumps into his favorite gynecologist in a Mexican bar. Meanwhile, their venerable landlady takes the biggest journey of all—without ever leaving home.
Customer Reviews:
Worthy follow up.......2007-08-26
This is the second of Maupin's 'Tales of the City' books. It's like a soap opera, in that the book is a continuation into the trials and tribulations in the lives of the residents at 28 Barbary Lane.
This book delves into the American psyche of the late 1970's. Maupin does a great job of interweaving social issues into the characters' lives without getting preachy. For example, he has Michael's parents becoming anti-gay crusaders. I understand that Maupin became less subtle about his political agendas in later books, but in this one he does a good job of it.
Maupin does a masterful job in making all of the characters believable and sympathetic (with the exception of Beauchamp Day). They are all people that you and I know. The dialogue is a little snappier than most normal people can manage, but is still engaging and witty.
Then, there are the inevitable surprise twists that Maupin puts in that make these books such fun to read. I won't give any of them away, but they are good.
This is a fine second effort for Maupin.
Every bit as good as the Tales of the City.......2007-06-28
More Tales of the City maintains the standard set in the first book as the coincidences become more bizarre and the characters reveal more of their secrets. Of the latter Anna Madrigal has some real shockers; but there is a shock of a different kind in store for the adorable Michael Tolliver; and yet another for the insufferable Beauchamp. But before that Mary Anne and the Michael go on a cruise together and neither returns empty handed. We meet some new characters and some of the old ones play a bigger part.
Very funny and entertaining, with some amateur sleuthing which involves several of the residents of 28 Barbary Lane keeping us guessing to the end, this is a most enjoyable read.
Even Lombard Street isn't this convoluted.......2006-05-05
More Tales of the City beat Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City with its gaylit/chick lit twist on the menagerie of personalities at Barbery Lane. This sequel reveals more of the mysterious Mrs. Madrigal than ever with twists and turns only possible in San Francisco. You WILL laugh yourself to tears!
Continuation with more surprise twists and intrigue.......2005-03-04
After I finished reading the first novel at a friend's insistence, I was so hooked by the end of it that I got the Omnibus of the first three novels and one of the final three novels so I can continue reading the saga of the residents of Barbary Lane.
The first half of this novel, I thought was better than the first novel, as I simply couldn't put the book down. I had to read "just one more" chapter, and since most chapters ran no more than three pages or so, one chapter turned into several chapters. The different story lines are interspersed, and I found that my curiosity switched from one to another as I read more. Some story lines didn't interest me (regarding DeeDee Halcyon Day and her mother), while others had me hooked (Mona Ramsey's vacation to a ranch in Nevada where she has an amazing coincidence that reveals a deeper connection between her and another character). I also enjoyed reading about Mary Ann Singleton and Michael Mouse Tolliver as they grow closer in friendship and take a cruise to Mexico together. On the cruise, they meet a man whom they don't know if he'd go for Mary Ann or Michael, and some of the wit apparent in the dialogue is laugh out loud funny. The plot moves towards a strange, and a bit far fetched, conclusion built around a mystery of one man's amnesia and the bits he remembers and some odd personality quirks. I didn't find their discovery to be realistic, but its not enough to take away from my enjoyment of the novel. Overall, I still like the first one better, but I'm really glad to see a continuation of these characters. The ending hints of things to come, so of course I plan to read the rest of the series in the next month or two. Like the first novel, the dialogue is simply amazing, full of wit, and laugh out loud funny. Armistead Maupin is a conversational genius and knows how to hook a reader. My only critique would be more time spent on descriptions, offering more details and observations. These novels read like a screenplay, but that's probably a big reason why this novel is so easy to read through. I can't wait to read what will happen next!
A solid and entertaining sequel.......2003-04-18
Ever notice you read a lot faster pre-college than postgraduate school? I suspect that has to do with the kind of books being read. This book definitely falls into the category of those fast reading books. It is unlikely you will go away with the feeling of utter awe, but you will be extremely entertained. Maupin maintains the momentum he built from Tales of the City, as his character continue to grow in this story. If you liked the first book, this is a worthy sequel. The lives of the occupants of 28 Barbary Lane goes on, and it feels as if you never left them. Okay, so the way things unfold is little preposterous, but most likely you won't care and you will just go with the flow. I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.
And if you ever visit San Francisco, you will probably be seized with the urge to go visit at least one place mentioned in this book.
Book Description
The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons an anchorwoman in her basement, Michael Tolliver looks for love at the National Gay Rodeo, DeDe Halcyon Day and Mary Ann Singleton track a charismatic psychopath across Alaska, and society columnist Prue Giroux loses her heart to a derelict living in San Francisco park.
Customer Reviews:
More bizarre action for the residents of Barbary Lane.......2007-07-13
Further tales of the City jumps forward a few years from More Tales of the City, but most of our favourite characters are still there; the residents of 28 Barbary Lane; Anna Madrigal's children. The improbable events and unlikely coincidences continue with unabated abandon, but this is part of the charm of the stories. But what holds the book together is the skilful way that Maupin involves all the regular characters in the main plot; and main plot there certainly is (with a Jonestown connection), a plot which keeps one guessing to the end.
It's every bit as good as and possibly even funnier than its predecessors; highly recommended.
I want to move to 28 Barbery Lane!.......2006-05-05
Oh those gay 70's days in San Francisco when "cherez la femme" ruled the original Pink Village. Armistead Maupin revealed a zany twist of relationships in the most liberal city during its most liberal times long before the late 90's tech boom. Tales of the City depicted just how much ahead of the times San Francisco has always been.
Not as good as the first two, but entertaining nonetheless.......2005-07-30
This novel picks up five years after "More Tales of the City". but it doesn't really pick up until the second half of the novel, when the plot revolves around the mysterious Luke, a homeless man with a shack in Golden Gate Park. Mona Ramsey is not in this one and Anna Madrigal is hardly seen until halfway through the novel. I was surprised, as Anna is the focal point of the series and my favorite of the characters.
The basic plot of this novel continues the storyline that began in "More Tales..." when DeeDee Halcyon Day ran off to Guyana to join members of the People's Temple in Jim Jones' nightmarish utopia. When "Further Tales..." begins, the massacre at Jonestown had happened, leaving DeeDee's mother severely depressed and lonely (her husband Edgar died at the end of "Tales of the City", her son-in-law died in "More Tales...", and now she's despondent that her daughter seems to have died as well). Mary Ann Singleton is now the host of a daytime show where she introduces classic movies; and her relationship with the womanizing Brian has grown into couplehood. Michael Tolliver, we discover, is no longer with Jon and living out his fantasy of hooking up with cops, movie stars, and construction workers.
This novel rests on the entire fallout of the Jim Jones tragedy and it kept me up late as I wanted to read chapter after chapter. Armistead continues his brilliant pacing, dialogue, and intriguing twists, all elements that make this, like the others, an addictive reading pleasure. By the end, the situation involving the kidnapping of children and a wild goose chase resolves itself in an interesting manner, reminding me a little bit about how the first novel ended. To reveal any more is to give away the surprises, so this is one you should read to discover for yourself. Ultimately though, I think "More Tales from the City" is the best of the three I've read and I found this one a pale imitation. I do plan to read the other three novels in this series, because the characters are people I can visualize and have come to know as friends I'd love to have. I only wish that Anna played a larger role in this one.
Further Tales of the City..........2004-10-07
This book started strong but couldn't continue. In my opionion, the ending was week and unpolished. It was as if the writer rushed his ideas and didn't take the time to come up with a creative ending to complement the beginning. However, I did like how the author created the various story lines. The reader doesn't constantly read about a character(s) because Maupin breaks them up by reverting to a new chapter that introduces a the storyline by which in the end they are all connect somehow.
BEWARE: This book does contains adult situations and material. Ex: marijuana smoking characters, homosexuality and lesbian relationships, reference to the Jim Jones and Jonesburg situation, kidnapping of adults and children, ect...
More fun with the tenants of 28 Barbary Lane.......2003-08-04
MORE TALES OF THE CITY by Armistead Maupin
MORE TALES OF THE CITY is volume two in a 6 book series by Armistead Maupin. This second book picks up where the first book, TALES OF THE CITY, left off. The focal point is the apartment building located at 28 Barbary Lane, in the heart of San Francisco. The books depict life and love in the town that Tony Bennett left his heart in. The reader gets involved with a number of esoteric characters, and some ordinary ones too, that have somehow found their lives tangled together in the late 1970's.
Mary Ann, who moved to San Francisco from the Midwest in TALES OF THE CITY, now sees SF as home. She and Michael (Mouse) have become good friends and they take off on a cruise together. Michael wants a lover, as does Mary Ann, and as they both happen to be two lonely adults they decide to hang out together and have fun in the sun. It's Mary Ann, however, that gets lucky on the cruise, although her new lover does have one problem: he has amnesia. Michael, in the mean time, is still pining away for his gynecologist love Jon, while Mary Ann and her boyfriend Burke get very cozy on the high seas.
Back home, Mrs. Madrigal, the landlady of 28 Barbary Lane, has a big secret that is revealed early on in the story. Her connections to her favorite tenant, Mona, and a prostitution house in Reno, seem rather far-fetched but it is one of the big shockers of TALES OF THE CITY.
Brian, another tenant, is in the midst of some weird love affair, where he makes contact with a woman in the building across the way while he spies on her with his binoculars. Who this woman ends up to be is another shocker.
The story of Dede Halcyon continues, and the mystery of D'orothea is also revealed, with her story and her relationship with her family gone into great detail. The two women become fast friends in this book, with the promise of future appearances in successive books.
The book comes to a bang of an ending with Mary Ann and her lover Burke trying to figure out who he really is, and this mystery leads them on a very wild adventure involving a cult!
MORES TALES OF THE CITY is yet another fun romp in the lives of these quirky people from 28 Barbary Lane. I enjoyed it as much as I did the first book, and am looking forward to reading the third book in the series, FURTHER TALES OF THE CITY. Armistead Maupin has a way of bringing these eccentric characters to life, which is the reason to read the rest of the series. Two thumbs up for MORE TALES OF THE CITY.
Book Description
A fiercely ambitious TV talk show host finds she must choose between national stardom in New York and a husband and child in San Francisco. Caught in the middle is their longtime friend, a gay man whose own future is even more uncertain. Wistful and compassionate, yet subversively funny, Sure of You could only come from Armistead Maupin.
Customer Reviews:
Moving on.......2007-06-06
This is a toughie. This is Maupin's most beautifully written entry in the "Tales" series (owing partly to the fact that it was not originally written as a serial), but it's also the most disappointing. To this day, I'm still a bit confused as to why Maupin made Mary Ann turn out the way she did. Over the years, the more people I've talked to, the more I realized I wasn't alone. Some said Mary Ann was never quite the character we perceived her to be from the start but if that's so, why did so many feel so let down by her? Maybe Maupin's ideas of her and the reader's perception never matched from Book 1. Perhaps things would be different had Maupin not had Mary Ann be the first character introduced. We see San Francisco through her eyes, and we identify with her. What's that say about us when she ends up cold and unfeeling?
Time hasn't helped the case for the book either. Once the miniseries came out and Laura Linney became THE Mary Ann, it's even harder to read this final book. In the end, the fact that this book's still has people talking 18 years after it's release shows how much we grew to love these characters. This book is full of sadness, but also hope. Michael has AIDS and San Francisco is a different place than it was only a decade earlier, but we get glimmers of the new activism that rose out of the AIDS crisis, and would eventually help fuel the "gay 90s."
I am glad that Maupin will have a new book out soon that, while not officially a Tales book with its multi-character stories, will feature some of the old gang; it's been much too long. "Sure of You" may have been the end of the series but it's a classy, sad, depressing, troubling, frustrating and great finale.
IS THIS THE END???.......2007-02-17
After reading all of the comments on SURE OF YOU (TOTC, #6), I was a little reluctant to read it. I hadn't even finished reading BABYCAKES(TOTC, #4) yet, and I couldn't wait to get to the sixth and final book of the series, so I peaked at the reviews.
I know, bad move--I should have waited. Well, I finished books 4 and 5 and so, with a deep breath, plunged into book 6.
Needless to say, all of Maupin's engaging writing style is still there along with all the characters we TALES OF THE CITY fans have grown to love.
But, I have to disagree with other fans that say it wasn't a fairy tale ending. It was a fairy tale ending for each of the characters, according to their own stories, being that they got what they wanted...but it wasn't the fairy tale ending I wanted.
As far as Mary Anne becoming a hated character, I don't hate her. Was I ready for what was to come? No...but I understand it.
Perhaps this is what makes Maupin's TALES...series so endearing, because the stories are about people, life and change. And unfortunately people grow apart, life around us changes, and nothing stays the same.
I know this is the final TOTC book and even though MICHAEL TOLLIVER LIVES is coming out in June '07, Maupin says it won't be TOTC #7. Hopefully, he'll reconsider that or at least write a TOTC #7.
So, if you've read TOTC up to book 5, then you might as well read the last one. No, it won't be the ending you would want or even expect, but at least you'll get closure.
Mary Ann Singleton - the heroine who betrayed Barbery Lane.......2006-05-08
Mary Ann Singleton first saw San Francisco at 25, everyone fell in love with the midwest transplant, but then when fame and ambition made her betray those closest to her ... she ran to New York and away from it all. It was characteristic of the ultimate lesson of the 80's. While the Tales of the City characters galavanted around in adventure during the 1970's ... the 80's greed and ambition transformed TV star Mary Ann into a cruel yuppie. Ending the saga ... culiminating in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake and Mary Ann abandoning all those who supported her throughout the years. Tales began and ended with Mary Ann ... and it was all just bittersweet.
Not a fairytale ending just painfully realistic.......2005-06-09
The residents of 28 Barbary Lane first came into my life in 1991 and they've remained firmly amongst my favourite literary characters of all time. Having read several reviews of "Sure of You" expressing feelings of disappointment and betrayal, I felt I had to chip in with my "twopenny" worth.
The evolution of all of the main characters (guided by Maupin's prodigiously talented hand) is achingly believable and, I for one think that, as an epilogue, "Sure of You" hits exactly the right notes. The many Mary Ann fans out there who felt particularly let down are maybe in need of a reality check. Look at what has happened to these people in the 12 tumultuous years from 1976 to 1988. How can we realistically expect the warm, cosy, fun-loving and uncomplicated world of the "20somethings" in "Tales" to be untouched by the passage of time as they approach middle age. Mary Ann, in spite of flashes of good, was always an essentially selfish character (very early on she dropped the flaky, but undeniably good-hearted, Connie like a hot potato once she had no more use for her and her apartment). She only really began to warm to Brian once she found out he was an ex-lawyer giving a very early indication that social standing meant a great deal to her. By book three she was well on her way up the greasy pole and woe be-tide anyone who crossed her. The lusty, heart on his sleeve, happy-go-lucky Brian seemed always pre-destined to be left behind in her wake. None of these observations are to her credit but nor do they make her a monster, just a believable human being of the "ambitious, go-getting type" - a type, incidentally, often highly prized by a Society where people who don't achieve materially seem to be routinely referred to as "losers." Mary Ann achieved fame and fortune and I should hazard a guess that those two things change people for the worse far more often than for the better.
I absolutely agree that the last installment made for uneasy reading, but to rate this excellently written book as a one star turkey just because you don't like the direction of the story and development of the characters seems a little absurd.
Well done Armistead Maupin for so effectively holding up a mirror to our collective faces. Let's not blame him if we don't like everything we see in it. In any case Michael, Mrs M and Brian are as likeable in the last book as they are in the first - Brian perhaps more so.
I only hope Michael Mouse made it (I suspect, however, that it was unlikely that he would). The Tales Anthology is not a fairy story with a happy ending (watch the Wizard of Oz if you want that). It's simply a brilliant series of books with some of the richest characters and best dialogue ever put into print.
Mary Ann, Mary Ann...........2004-06-26
How could Armistead Maupin betray one of his most wonderful creations? How could he make his readers hate someone that we all fell in love with? Please let this book be the last.
Amazon.com
Many years ago, when the first volume of Tales of the City was going to press, Christopher Isherwood compared its author's narrative gifts to those of Charles Dickens. This has proven to be the blurb of a lifetime, an ever-renewable currency appearing on almost all of Armistead Maupin's subsequent books. Yet it has held up well--Dickens's gentle satire and broad good humor live on in Maupin more than in any other English-speaking writer. The Night Listener is his most ambitious work to date. While not strictly autobiographical, the story does teasingly suggest correspondences to the author's own life in a way that will delight and frustrate his many fans. The main character, Gabriel Noone, is a professional storyteller who broadcasts roughly autobiographical sketches for a long-running PBS series, "Noone at Night," stories about people "caught in the supreme joke of modern life who were forced to survive by making families of their friends." When the novel opens, Gabriel is still reeling from the announcement that his much younger, longtime partner Jess (a.k.a. Jamie in the "Noone at Night" stories, and a.k.a. Terry Anderson, Maupin's real-life, much-younger partner, for those who like to track associations) wants to move into his own apartment and start dating other men. With the success of his HIV cocktail, Jess has exceeded his own life expectancy. Having prepared himself so well to die, he now needs to learn how to live again. To Gabriel's distress, Jess's new life involves leather, multiple piercings, and books on men's drumming circles.
When an editor sends Gabriel yet another book to blurb, he reluctantly opens the package to find a long, rending memoir by Pete Lomax, an HIV-positive 13-year-old survivor of incest, rape, and sexual slavery. The book is called The Blacking Factory, after the miserable London bottling factory where Dickens spent part of his poverty-stricken childhood. As Gabriel reflects:
Pete thinks we all have a blacking factory, some awful moment, early on, when we surrender our childish hearts as surely as we lose our baby teeth. And the outcome can't be called. Some of us end up like Dickens; others like Jeffrey Dahmer. It's not a question of good or evil, Pete believes. Just the random brutality of the universe and our native ability to withstand it.
After Pete escaped from his parents and was adopted by a therapist named Donna Lomax, his slow recovery was helped along by his memoir-writing and by frequent doses of "Noone at Night."
Touched by Pete's devotion to his stories, as well as the boy's obvious need for a father figure, Gabriel finds himself drawn into an intense relationship with his young fan, involving long, late-night phone calls that begin to worry Gabriel's friends. And, other than their mutual need, how much does he really know about Pete, anyway? As Gabriel begins to question his own motives, as well as those of the boy, The Night Listener transforms itself from an absorbing but quotidian story of loss and midlife angst into a dark and suspenseful page-turner with a playful metaphysical aspect and an un-Dickensian sexual candor. --Regina Marler
Book Description
"I'm a fabulist by trade," warns Gabriel Noone, a late-night radio storyteller, as he begins to untangle the skeins of his tumultuous life: his crumbling ten-year love affair, his disaffection from his Southern father, his longtime weakness for ignoring reality. Gabriel's most sympathetic listener is Pete Lomax, a thirteen-year-old fan in Wisconsin whose own horrific past has left him wise and generous beyond his years. But when this virtual father-son relationship is rocked by doubt, a desperate search for the truth ensues. Welcome to the complex, vertiginous world of The Night Listener.
Customer Reviews:
You have to be a member of the choir to enjoy this sermon.......2007-10-01
For the life of me, I can't understand where all the praise comes from for this novel. Granted there are some beautifully written passages, mainly toward the end of the book, and the author strikes me as a clever, intelligent man--the word suave comes to mind, but as a story, this book is a disaster.
The main problem is the central character and narrator himself. Upon losing his lover, this middle-aged man becomes the most self-absorbed, self-pitying, whining protagonist in the history of literature. At the same time he's obsessed with his own celebrity status, so we get whipsawed between his pathetic hand-wringing and his narcissism. You're constantly wanting to slap him up and say, "Grow up! You're 53 for God's sake!"
The revealing low point occurred when he "outs" a man he's just had sex with at a truck stop. Why? Because the man had the temerity to admit he was unaware of the protagonist's celebrity status.
The story might work as a tale of suspense, except for the narrator's shaky emotional state, which makes it obvious he's vulnerable to being conned, so midway through the book you already know how it's going to end.
Maybe in the past this author has done some fine work that makes the Faithful wait on his every word, but that doesn't impress an outsider much. I have to admit, he has tons of talent--but talent and name recognition, albeit important, are never sufficient to make a story engaging.
True Story.......2007-01-14
The reviews I have read miss the fact that book is a true story about what Armistad Maupin when through in his dealings with Anthony Godby Johnson the 14 year old who wrote A Rock and a Hard Place: One Boy's Triumphant Story.
The contraversy with this book is not whether what Armistad Maupin went through was fact or fiction it's whether Anthony Godby Johnson is real or not. I urge you to read both books and do a little research on the case, it gets more interesting the more research and reading you do.
A Nail Biter.......2006-11-08
Thoroughly enjoyed every intriguing page. Even the somewhat "unfinished" but surprising ending. Maupin's still got IT.
For Once, the Movie is Better Than the Book.......2006-09-13
Gabriel Noone is a 53 year old gay man with his own radio show which comes on at 11 PM. He's upset because his lover of 10 years has left because he needed space. Into his life comes a book written by 13 year old Pete Lomax (although it took him 2 years to write the book and he began it when he was 12 - so he should be at least 14) about the abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents and the pedophiles they sold him to. Pete has been listening to Gabriel's show and admires him very much.
Well, Gabe calls up little Pete and begins a friendship. He tells Pete all his personal problems and Pete sympathizes and gives him advice.
Later, he begins to doubt Pete's existence because no one has ever seen him. He lives with his adoptive mom Donna - sometimes she's a PhD psychologist, and sometimes she's a psychiatrist (MD) - according to Gabe anyway. (Gabe also has a lot of issues with his Dad - which are neatly resolved by the end).
The movie version goes into much more depth, and is much spookier and actually thought provoking regarding Donna' motives, without dwelling on unnecessary sexual descriptions and details that are important on Gabe's agenda.
It's unlikely that anyone would believe that a 13 year old boy would listen to NPR, or even know what it was. Much less have the patience to listen to a grown man's whining about his love life.
See the movie.
MAUPIN'S PROSE IS ENTHRALLING - HIS VOICE ARRESTING.......2006-09-04
While the movie version of The Night Listener certainly didn't set any box office records, for this listener the audio rates high largely because of the affecting narration provided by author Armistead Maupin. This is a poignant story of a man who feels lost and unloved, and Maupin reads it with insight, illuminating the fears and doubts that possess protagonist Gabriel Noone.
Gabriel comes to life at night - he's a Manhattan based late hours radio host, Noone At Night. He's also a gay man who has broken up with his partner, Jess. After finding himself evidently free of the AIDS virus Jess wants more in life than he is finding with Gabriel. While Gabriel only wanted Jess. Especially vulnerable due to an abusive father who publicly ridiculed him and would never recognize his homosexuality, Gabriel is depressed and feels useless.
He seeks to assuage that feeling by connecting with a young fan, Pete Lomax, who lives in Wisconsin. Pete has suffered as much or more than Gabriel at the hands of physically abusive parents, and now in a struggle with AIDS. The two, Gabriel and Pete, quickly develop a warm, supportive father/son relationship all by telephone. Gabriel, of course, again feels needed.
Eventually, Gabriel decides to go to Wisconsin to see Pete. What he finds there is totally unexpected.
Those who enjoyed Tales of the City will once again find themselves enthralled by Maupin's prose. His voice is icing on the cake.
- Gail Cooke
Book Description
"An extended love letter to a magical San Francisco."
--New York Times Book Review
When an ordinary househusband and his ambitious wife decide to start a family, they discover there's more to making a baby then meets the eye. Help arrives in the form of a grieving gay neighbor, a visiting monarch, and the dashing young lieutenant who defects from her yacht. Bittersweet and profoundly affecting, Babycakes was the first work of fiction to acknowledge the arrival of AIDS.
"Armistead is a true original. His tales are bang up-to-date. They will surprise and maybe even shock you, but, I promise, they will make you laugh."
--Ian McKellen
"Maupin has a genius for observation. His characters have the timing of vaudeville comics, flawed by human frailty and fueled by blind hop."
--Denver Post
"Armistead Maupin's San Francisco saga careens beautifully on."
-- New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
A darker time begins.......2007-06-18
A lot of readers consider this the beginning of the darker "Tales" books, but that's only half-true. "Babycakes" does go into darker territory, reflecting the changes happening in San Francisco, but the following book in the "Tales" series, "Significant Others" is lighter and has some classic moments. Maupin has said he could not ignore what was happening in the gay community at the time, and who can blame him? To have written another "Tales" story set in 1983 and not mention the AIDS crisis would have been silly. Yes, we liked our SF stories light, but the books never shied away from cultural commentary.
That said, I will be honest and say "Babycakes" is my least favorite of the "Tales" series. It's not because of the mention of AIDS (plus, Maupin's writing in this book is even stronger then before), it's partly because of the grayness. This book seems to be set in perpetual rainfall, drizzle, overcast skies. This also reflects on the characters (Mary Ann and Brian even have gray industrial carpet) and their actions.
But my biggest problem of all with the novel is the character of Simon. Maupin has always written cleverly and often, we have no idea where a story will end up (as seen in this same book when Michael discovers Mona in the UK), but with Simon, the reader knows exactly where the story's going. There's no fun mystery, and indeed, only a last minute (but highly, HIGHLY implausible) revelation by Simon gives this a tiny moment of the unexpected. Simon also never comes alive as a character as do other new characters introduced in the book (like Wilfred and Teddy) and may as well walk around with "plot device" on his shirt.
On the plus side, it's great to see Mona again. If you're not happy with this book, just remember it's not the end of the Barbary Lane gang so just see it as a book of character growth and development and wish them well for their next adventure.
Maupin's Magical San Francisco.......2006-05-06
Mrs. Madrigal and her team of tenants continue to reveal the wacky and zany "only in San Francisco" adventures on Barbery Lane. If New York was the haven for the Mid-West "oddballs" ... San Francisco was the paradise for every "oddball" in the world. Psychedelic without apology, rebellious with a cause, exerpimental without limit, Tales of the City's Babycakes are yet another chapter in the social commentary of the most beautiful and most "dancing to the beat of their own drum" city in the world.
Very disappointing.......2004-06-26
After reading and loving the first 3 "Tales of the City" books, I couldn't wait to read this book. What a terrible shame - I started to hate characters that I'd fallen in love with, and had considered them my extended fictional family. I just hope this isn't made into a movie too, or even more fans will be disappointed.
Beautiful, quirky, diverse, magical Baghdad by the Bay.......2003-06-27
The late, great SF Chronicle columnist Herb Caen coined the term Baghdad by the Bay for the city that captured his heart, San Francisco. And Armisted Maupin peopled his Tales of the City series (first serialized in the Chronicle in 1976) with a huge assortment of eccentric, quirky, diverse characters that capture your heart and keep you reading, reading, reading even when you know you should have turned off the light hours ago. Babycakes, in which ambitious Mary Ann (the wide-eyed innocent from the Midwest through whose eyes we earlier came to see an ingenue's view of live and love in the City) has a baby, was the first work of fiction to recognize the scourge of AIDS in SF.
Drop dead funny, bittersweet, and enchanting, Babycakes dangles intricate and outrageously interwoven plot threads in front of the readers, and it all just makes you want more, more, more.
Another good read from Maupin.......2001-07-15
Yet another series of adventures for the delightful characters that populate Maupin's books, this time with a bittersweet twist: the reality of AIDS. Because Maupin's Tales of the City books are generally so lighthearted, zany and playful, when the story opens with Michael mourning his lover, it hits pretty hard.
Despite the slight bittersweetness, this installment of the series features all of Maupin's signature flourishes and his wonderful sense of humor.
If your looking for light, breezy stories and likable characters you couldn't find anywhere but San Francisco, then buy this series of books and get started reading. You'll quickly get addicted. For those of you San Franciscans past and present who've never read Maupin, he's worth a look. If nothing else his books will make you remember why San Francisco was once such an interesting and fun place to live and what's sorely missing from it today!
Average customer rating:
- Summer camp
- I Only Wish It Were Longer
- Different Time...different people.
- A lyrical account of gay San Francisco
- Oh dear.
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Significant Others (The Tales of the City Series, V. 5)
Armistead Maupin
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Binding: Paperback
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Maupin, Armistead
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ASIN: 0060924810 |
Book Description
"An extended love letter to a magical San Francisco."
--New York Times Book Review
Tranquillity reigns in the ancient redwood forest until a women-only music festival sets up camp downriver from an all-male retreat for the ruling class. Among those entangled in the ensuing mayhem are a lovesick nurseryman, a panic-stricken philanderer and the world's most beautiful fat woman. Significant Others is Armistead Maupin's cunningly observed meditation on marriage, friendship, and sexual nostalgia.
"Comedy in its most classical form...some of the sharpest and most speakable dialogue you are ever likely to read."
--The Guardian
"The color is wonderful, the line bold and flowing. It is also wise, witty, loving and caring about the foibles and frailties we all seem to have."
--David Hockney
Customer Reviews:
Summer camp.......2007-06-29
Armistead Maupin is a famously misplaced Southern writer. Mary Ann is a talk show hostess. Brian Hawkins is her husband. The couple and their daughter, Shawna, have moved from Anna Madrigal's 28 Barbary Lane rental to the Summit.
Brian asks Mrs. Madrigal if his nephew Jed may stay in his old apartment. Wren Douglas feels that hotel rooms are the best part of a book tour. The fat woman, Wren Douglas, is to be a guest on Mary Ann's show. (One of the segments of the show is called Latchkey Kitchen.) Brian's nephew Jed is careerist. Brian sees that in twenty years things have changed radically.
DeDe's twins are called Edgar and Anna. She wants to take them to Wimminwood, a women's festival. Her mother's husband is going to Bohemian Grove at the same time. This is very much a case of writing about an ensemble. In addition to Mrs. Madrigal, Michael Tolliver, a character from the earlier books in the series appears.
One of the employees of Michael's nursery business, Polly, attends Wimminwood and runs into DeDe there. In another instance Michael and Wren are described talking about DeDe's stepfather, Booter Manigault. Michael tells Wren that his friend delivered DeDe's children, Booter's step grandchildren. DeDe tells Polly that she had been someone who joined the People's Temple in Guyana. One farcical scene ensues after Booter's canoe drifts over to the other camp, Wimminwood.
The beauty of the books in this series is that with some rough, deft, and astute strokes setting out the characters the author is able to portray the humor incident to their clash of interests and wills.
I Only Wish It Were Longer.......2006-11-07
I've loved all of Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" books, but this one holds a special place in my heart because of the wonderful juxtoposition of the Bohemian Grove and the Wimmin's Music Weekend.
Different Time...different people........2006-10-19
When I first started reading Significant Others, I didn't think I would like it. First off, two of the residents of Barbary Lane moved to another place, which kind of broke up the family feel of the story. The time is supposed to be either '85 or '86 and there is one main character who seems to be regulated to the background (I'm not talking about Mona).
But as I kept on reading, the story lines sucked me back in. Maupin is a great story teller that keeps the reader hooked, even though the time is different, places are different, and the beloved characters are different. Remember, the story takes place nine or ten years after we've been introduced to the Barbary Lane family, and they're not the same people they were in '76.
I'm not going to give away any secrets from SO. Just know that although the story and characters have evolved, Barbary Lane retains that human interaction/warmth(?) element, which seems to be the thread linking all of the Tales of the City books together.
But on the other hand, SO does feel like a "darker" book. Perhaps it's because the characters have grown up. Maybe it's because they've become cynical. Maybe it was the disease that was devouring the city. Or maybe, I feel that SO is darker because I know it's the second to the last of the TOTC series...and the realization that nothing lasts forever, finally hit me.
A lyrical account of gay San Francisco.......2006-05-06
This was the one that tackled the effect of AIDS on the gay community in San Francisco. When Dr. John Fielding dies it was a significant marker to the era that San Francisco became renowned for. Still comedic but always heart endearing ... Maupin makes anyone yearn for the City by the Bay.
Oh dear........2004-06-26
What a shame - more wonderful characters either being under-used or over-abused. I really wish I hadn't read this book.
Book Description
"These novels are as difficult to put down as a dish of pistachios. The reader starts playing the old childhood game of 'Just one more chapter and I'll turn out the lights,' only to look up and discover it's after midnight."
-- Charles Solomon, Los Angeles Times Book Review
Armistead Maupin's uproarious and moving Tales of the City novels--the first three of which are collected in the is omnibus edition--have earned a unique niche in American literature, not only as matchless entertainment, but as indelible documents of cultural change in the seventies and eighties.
When originally serialized in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tales of the City (1978), More Tales of the City (1980) and Futher Tales of the City (1982) afforded a mainstream audience of millions its first exposure to straight and gay characters experiencing on equal terms the follies of urban life.
Among the cast of this groundbreaking saga are the lovelorn residents of 28 Barbary Lane: the bewildered but aspiring Mary Ann Singleton, the libidinous Brain Hawkins; Mona Ramsey, still in a sixties trance, Michael "Mouse" Tolliver, forever in bright-eyed pursuit of Mr. Right; and their marijuana-growing landlady, the indefatigable Mrs. Madrigal.
Hurdling barriers both social and sexual, Maupin leads them through heartbreak and triumph, through mail-biting terrors and gleeful coincidences. The result is a glittering and addictive comedy of manners that continues to beguile new generations of readers.
With a foreword by the author.
Customer Reviews:
754 Pages of Absolute Reading Bliss!.......2007-05-29
I read the "Tales of the City", "More Tales of the City", and "Further Tales of the City" when they were originally published. After receiving this omnibus as a gift it sat on my shelf for several years as I had no interest because I had already read them. I recently read an article on Armistead Maupin where it stated that there is a new novel on the market that brings us up to date on Michael (probably one of my favorite characters) and how he is doing these days. At that point I thought, I am going to revisit the original three novels. What a treat! They were even better this time around. Maupin has developed such rich characters in this series, re-reading them was like one terrific long visit with some old friends. Everything about the characters, the situations (for the most part) are so true to life. Michael, Mary Ann, Mrs. Madrigal, Brian, Jon, Mona, D'Or and the list goes on and on are probably some of the best characters ever written. I have never watched the movie versions of these stories, but why would you want to when the words of the book jump off the page and it is so marvelously well written. If you haven't read the books before, don't miss out ~ if you have read them in the past, take some time to revisit some wonderful friends... I am sure you'll be as glad to see them as I was.
AS WONDERFUL NOW AS WHEN IT WAS NEW.......2007-04-15
I'm re-reading this in anticipation of the newest additon to the series. I loved it when it was new, and I love it now. Now that I'm older, I appreciate it more.
Why many of our hearts are left in San Francisco.......2006-05-08
Tales of the City fans will LOVE this Omnibus ... and the collected memories that chroncile the lives of the bubbly Barbery Lane residents. A very much "made in San Francisco" collage of characters, plot line, situations, and comedic twists of a freer time.
A Look Back.......2004-10-20
Armistead Maupin wasn't the only gay writer active in the 70's, but his "Tales of the City" books were among the most popular reads. Beginning as a newspaper column, Maupin had the idea to allow reads to direct the story to a certain extent. They would write in to tell him how the story should go, and he would decide which idea he liked best. So I've heard, at least.
These books are filled with rich characters. Mr. Maupin was excellent at drawing readers into his stories by making sure that the people one found in them were people one would want to know. They seemed not only real in that they were multi-faceted personalities of their own, but real in that they were surrounded by the events and culture of the 70's, which were beautifully captured.
Someone reading the books now, when stumbling across a reference to LeCar or Jim Jones, will be transported back in time. Readers not old enough to remember the 70s will get a good glimpse of what gay culture was like then... or a part of it, at least.
Maupin's characters experience situations that just about everyone can relate to. There are also situations that are extraordinary, but it's the day to day that make Mouse, Anna Madrigal and the rest seem like the folks who live next door. The "28 Barbary Lane" volume includes the first three books in the series. It's a wonderfully rich read. Not complicated or highbrow, perhaps, but not all stories should be. This is one of those "curl up next to the fire" books and I can't imagine my collection being without it.
I wanna live at 28 Barbary Lane........2003-04-27
Having the first three books in the "Tales of the City" series all in one place is a huge convenience as I am continually reading them. There is an absurd joy I get whenever I read these stories. Please understand, I realize these characters are fictional, but I so want to be friends with them and take part in their bizarre adventures. Maupin has a very minimalist writing style. The chapters are rarely more than three pages long, and in some cases almost entirely dialogue; yet somehow Maupin is able to create a world so real I feel I know these character intimately.
What makes this collection so wonderful is that it does not contain the final three books in the series. It helps to maintain my delusion that the last three book simply don't exist and the action stops at the end of book three. I highly recommend this collection.
Books:
- Moby-Dick (Bantam Classics)
- Modal and Tonal Counterpoint: From Josquin to Stravinsky
- Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life
- Music Is My Mistress (Da Capo Paperback)
- Nicolas Poussin 1594-1665
- No Vivaldi in the Garage: A Requiem for Classical Music in North America
- Out of Sync
- Programming 16-Bit PIC Microcontrollers in C: Learning to Fly the PIC 24 (Embedded Technology) (Embedded Technology)
- Red Moon Rising: How 24-7 Prayer is Awakening a Generation
- Ricky Ricotta's Mighty Robot Collection: Box Set (Books 1-4)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Rescuing Da Vinci: Hitler and the Nazis Stole Europe's Great Art - America and Her Allies Recovered
- Foot Soldiers: Stories from the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk
- Tropic Moon
- Who Goes Home
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
- Geophysical Inverse Theory and Regularization Problems
- Electrical Contacts
- The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics
- Verdura: The Life and Work of a Master Jeweler
- Making Money in China & Hong Kong. Making Money Internationally Series
Tales of the City: A Novel (P.S.)
Call Me by Your Name: A Novel
Shortbus (Unrated Edition)
The Back Passage
The Beloved Son
