[Steven Schroeder]

I don't think I have, but the reviews have influenced me into books I was already considering or out of books I was leaning away from.

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Steve Schroeder

[Terese Coe]

Noticed my comments on Sam Gwynn never appeared on amazon, so I've posted there again.

[Margaret Moore]

As there has been some negative publicity about Amazon reviews in the press recently (people puffing their own work etc) I guess someone alighting on this thread with little or no acquaintance with other boards might characterise us as a Mutual Admiration Society.Such suspicions will I hope be quickly corrected by a browse through the first dozen threads on TDE and Non-Met.
Here (with apologies for a header that may seem more appropriate to a fizzy drink)is my recent review of Kate Benedict's collection 'Here from away'.
'Energising.
Accessible, versatile, accomplished, compassionate, yes. And in parts very, very funny. Benedict's 'Rienelle' was in itself well worth the purchase price of the volume to this mildly cynical reader:

No meaning, no import, no point, no wit.
I speak of nothing, not even weather.
I've nothing to say and I'm saying it.

Her elegy for the Iranian conjoined twins was vivid and touching without the least hint of false semtimentality.

The vignettes of life in a New York apartment building illuminate corners unfamiliar to those of us who know her city mainly through TV, film or popular fiction.

If, however, I was asked for one word to apply to the collection it would be 'energising'. Which is why I'm about to order a copy as a present for a good friend.'
Margaret.

[Janet Kenny]

Amazon published my review of David Anthony's book "Words To Say" but they took their time about it.

Words To Say

by David Gwilym Anthony

I enthusiastically recommend this book.

If anyone wants to understand what it was like to be a decent man who lived in England in the second half of the 20th century, they would find most answers in these poems.

David Anthony is completely comfortable with the sonnet which he uses as naturally as ordinary speech. His sonnets encompass many moods and events.

His villanelle “Plague”, about the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001, is a heart-breaking evocation of the British countryside during that experience. It must be a poem that will stay in the literature.

His humorous poems are genuinely funny. His serious poems are grave and unforced.

The poem’s content always conceals the consummate craft that contains
it. Because the poems make no strident effort to be noticed they sink deeper into the reader’s mind.

Sensationalised events become human again in this poet’s quiet words. Topics that only a real poet dare approach, such as the murder of little Jamie Bulger by two older children, are seen with wide compassion and social involvement.

There is something almost Shakespearean about his ability to respect each character in his poems. There are no small roles here.
“On the Suicide of a Friend” is intimate and loving.
“Boy Soldier” inspired by a faded photo of his father at the age of fourteen is quietly poignant.

A peopled landscape is always present.

These poems will give great pleasure to those without expert knowledge and even more to those who realise how much skill was needed to produce such simplicity.

[jasonhuff]

Tim, I've reread your books and everyone is right, VFN is the better of the two. But to be far, I read them earlier in my education. My tastes have improved since then.
Jason

[Margaret Moore]

It's going to be several months before I immerse myself in the Sullivan and Murphy Beowulf. For the benefit of those who get there sooner, I'm drawing attention to Alan's post on Accomplished Members.
Margaret.

[Terese Coe]

I recently posted a short comment on Charles Martin's delightful translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, mentioning that my class was rapt when I read the section on Phaeton to them. It was several pages long too. That myth in particular speaks to young people so well!

[epigone]

A person going by the handle of “Jerry Quarry” seems to be going on a rampage against books by folks near and dear to the ‘Sphere. Here is the link. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...031364-9009407

All of the reviews were written during a one-week span in March.

His review of Rhina’s book seems to include an anti-Semitic smear for good measure. Does anybody know if there is a way to alert Amazon to this and whether they might care?

epigone

[Tim Murphy]

Jerry Quarry is Leo Yankevitch. He smears Rhina and tackles me on grounds which can only be considered homophobic. I hear he's gone after everyone else who pulled an e-book too. I've no idea how to contact Amazon, but if anyone does, you might point out that Leo breathlessly and pseudonymously reviews his own self-published book for Amazon. They need to filter him from the net and be vigilant, just as we have been.

[Terese Coe]

This deserves a bounce. Sphereans reviewing books of poems, not only for Amazon.