Alexandre Dumas, pere, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 - December 5, 1870) was a French writer, best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and The Man in the Iron Mask were serialized, and he also wrote plays, magazine articles, and was a prolific correspondent.

Anne Rice (born October 4, 1941) is a best-selling American author of gothic and later religious themed books. She was born Howard Allen O'Brien. Best known for her Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematical focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.

Frederick Forsyth, CBE (born August 25, 1938) is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger and recently The Afghan.

Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 - May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of "hard" science fiction. He set a high standard for science and engineering plausibility that few have equaled, and helped to raise the genre's standards of literary quality. He was the first writer to break into mainstream general magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s with unvarnished science fiction. He was among the first authors of bestselling novel-length science fiction in the modern mass-market era. For many years Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.
The major themes of his work were social: radical individualism, libertarianism, religion, the relationship between physical and emotional love, and speculation about unorthodox family relationships. His iconoclastic approach to these themes led to wildly divergent perceptions of his works. For example, his 1959 novel Starship Troopers was widely viewed as glorifying militarism. By contrast, his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land put him in the unexpected role of pied piper to the sexual revolution and the counterculture.

John Ernst Steinbeck (February 27, 1902 - December 20, 1968) is one of the best-known and most widely read American writers of the 20th century. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, he wrote the novella Of Mice and Men (1937) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1940), both of which examine the lives of the working class and the migrant worker during the Great Depression. Steinbeck populated his stories with struggling characters and is often considered an exponent of the naturalist school. His characters and his stories drew on real historical conditions and events in the first half of the 20th century. His body of work reflects his wide range of interests, including marine biology, jazz, politics, philosophy, history, and myth.

David Duncan is a Canadian fantasy author. He is an award-winning author whose fantasy trilogy, The Seventh Sword, is considered a sword-and-sorcery classic. His numerous novels include The Gilded Chain, Lord of the Fire Lands, and the critically-acclaimed fantasy trilogy The Great Game. He resides in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
He was born in 1933 in Scotland, and educated there at the High School of Dundee and at the University of St Andrews. After graduating in 1955 he moved to Canada where he lived in Calgary, Alberta, and is currently situated on Vancouver Island in Victoria. He has been married since 1959 to his wife, Janet, and currently has one son, two daughters, and four grandchildren.

The book centers on a boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who meets a mysterious man who owns a book shop, and steals a book called The Neverending Story from the man's small antique bookstore. Bastian is initially presented as part of a frame tale in which he is merely the enthralled reader of the book - an adventure story about the land of Fantastica[1], the realm in which all human fantasies and stories are played out. As the book progresses, however, it becomes clear that some of the inhabitants of Fantastica are aware of Bastian, and that he is the key to the success of the quest about which he is reading. Halfway through the book, he enters Fantastica himself, and begins to take an active role in events there. Thus, the work dramatizes the experience of being "caught up" in a story. The second half of the book introduces a number of psychologically rich themes, as Bastian comes to terms with his selfhood, faces his dark side, and moves toward maturity in a world shaped by his wishes.

Icke reveals a sinister web connecting everything from the British royal family to major oil companies, to 33 of the last 40 U.S. presidents, in a global conspiracy masterminded by an interstellar brotherhood vying for planetary control through the manipulation of humanity's very way of life. Icke digs into every facet of contemporary society to expose the invisible horror lurking beneath the calm veneer of everyday life. In the process he gets downright offensive, knocking everything from Judaism to the Denver airport. Even if you can't swallow Icke's distasteful revelations or follow every step of his labyrinthine conspiracy theories, The Biggest Secret is sure to forever change the way you look at the Amoco oil logo.

Before he was sent to federal prison for treason (among other things), Joel Backman was an extremely powerful man. Known as "the broker," Backman was a high roller--a lawyer making $10 million a year who could "open any door in Washington." That is, until he tried to broker a deal selling access to the world's most powerful satellite surveillance system to the highest bidder. When caught, Backman accepted prison as the one option that would keep him safe and alive, since the interested parties (the Israelis, the Saudis, the Russians, and the Chinese) were all itching to get their hands on his secrets at any cost. Little does he know that his own government has designs on accessing that information--or at least letting it die with him. Now, six years after his incarceration, the director of the CIA convinces a lame duck president to pardon Backman, and the broker becomes a free man--and an open target.
The Broker marries the best of John Grisham's many talents--his ability to immerse himself in the culture of small town life (in this case, Bologna, Italy), and his uncanny mastery of the chase. The first half of the book focuses on Backman's transformation from infamous power broker to helpless victim in his own game. Upon his release from prison, Backman is taken into "protective custody" and whisked off to Italy where he is assigned a new identity, and a tutor to help him blend in. Sure he is on the run, but some readers may feel that Backman's time spent in Bologna is a bit too leisurely--readers join him on an almost cinematic tour through the Italian town, complete with language and history lessons. Impatient readers will be happy to know that the final half of the novel is classic Grisham--a fast-paced, thrilling cat and mouse chase pitting Backman against the numerous agencies that want him dead--as the broker makes a move to take back his life.

Eco's work illustrates the postmodernist concept of intertextuality, or the inter-connectedness of all literary works. His novels are full of subtle, often multilingual, references to literature and history. For instance, the character William of Baskerville is a logically-minded Englishman who is a monk and a detective, and his name evokes both William of Ockham and Sherlock Holmes (by way of The Hound of the Baskervilles). Eco cites James Joyce and Jorge Luis Borges as the two modern authors who have influenced his work the most.

Terry Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is a writer of fantasy fiction. Terry Brooks mainly writes high fantasy, and has also written two movie novelizations.
He was born in the rural midwestern town of Sterling, Illinois and spent a large part of his life living there. He is an alumnus of Hamilton College, obtaining his B.A. in English Literature in 1966. He later obtained a J.D. from Washington and Lee University. He was a practicing attorney before becoming a full-time author, and now resides in Seattle, Washington.

The Mephisto Club is a novel that written by Tess Gerritsen. This book was published on September 12, 2006.
This book features a "club" called the Mephisto club, a group of demon hunters who follow evil and study where the outbreaks of evil are in the world. When a woman is found brutally murdered on Christmas Eve, dismembered, and several symbols and a Latin word which translates to "I have sinned" are scrawled on her wall, Maura Isles and Jane Rizzoli are led to Joyce O'Donnell, a psychiatrist who studied serial killers.

Terence David John Pratchett (born 28 April 1948, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England) is an English fantasy author, best known for his Discworld series. As of February 2007 he had sold approximately 50 million books worldwide.
Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by the British author Terry Pratchett set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which are in turn standing on the back of a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody or at least borrow ideas from J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and William Shakespeare, as well as myth, folklore and fairy tales, often using them for satirical parallels with current cultural, technological and scientific issues.

Robert Ludlum (May 25, 1927 New York City - March 12, 2001 Naples, Florida) was an American author of 29 thriller novels. There are more than 210 million of his books in print, and they have been translated into 32 languages. He died in 2001, reportedly leaving behind several unpublished manuscripts and rough outlines, which continue to be dusted off and published with the help of ghostwriters. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.
Ludlum was once a theatrical actor and producer. His theatrical experience may have contributed to his understanding of the energy, escapism and action that the public wanted to see in a novel. He once remarked: "I equate suspense and good theater in a very similar way. I think it's all suspense and what-happens-next. From that point of view, yes, I guess, I am theatrical."
His stories typically feature one man or a small group of individuals up against powerful adversaries capable of using political and economic machinery in frightening ways. Ludlum's vision of the world is one where global corporations, shadowy military forces and government organizations conspire to preserve or undermine the status quo. With the exception of occasional gaps in his knowledge of firearms, his novels are meticulously researched, replete with technical, physical and biological details, including research on amnesia for The Bourne Identity which was a grand success.

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 - October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short story writer, playwright, editor, critic, essayist and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of the macabre and mystery, Poe was one of the early American practitioners of the short story and a progenitor of detective fiction and crime fiction. He is also credited with contributing to the emergent science fiction genre. Poe died at the age of 40. The cause of his death is undetermined and has been attributed to alcohol, drugs, cholera, rabies, suicide (although likely to be mistaken with his suicide attempt in the previous year), tuberculosis, and other agents.

Robert Lynn Asprin is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his humorous series.
Robert (Lynn) Asprin was born in 1946. While he has written some stand alone novels such as Cold Cash War, Tambu, The Bug Wars and also the Duncan and Mallory Illustrated stories, Bob is best known for his series: The Myth Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve; the Phule novels; and, more recently, the Time Scout novels written with Linda Evans. He also edited the groundbreaking Thieves World anthologies with Lynn Abbey. His most recent collaboration is License Invoked written with Jody Lynn Nye. It is set in the French Quarter, New Orleans where he currently lives.

Dune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. A joint winner of the 1966 Hugo Award and the winner of the first Nebula Award for Best Novel, Dune is popularly considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, is frequently cited as the best-selling science fiction novel in history[1] and was the first bestselling hardcover science fiction novel ever.[2] Dune spawned five sequels written by Herbert, and inspired a 1984 film adaptation by David Lynch, two mini-series made by the Sci Fi Channel, computer games, board games, and a series of prequels and sequels co-written by the author's son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

Thomas Harris (born 1940) is an American author of crime novels, most notably The Silence of the Lambs, which was made into a film of the same title starring Jodie Foster as trainee FBI agent Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins in an Oscar-winning portrayal of serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. As of 2007, Harris has published four novels featuring Lecter and one other. All of his novels have been adapted into a film, with six films being based of his books (Red Dragon has been adapted twice).

The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by English academic J.R.R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier fantasy book, The Hobbit, and soon developed into a much larger story. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, with much of it being created during World War II.It was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955 (much to Tolkien's annoyance, since he had intended it to be a single volume). It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into at least 38 languages, becoming one of the most popular works in 20th-century literature.
The action in The Lord of the Rings is set in what the author conceived to be the lands of the real Earth, inhabited by humanity but placed in a fictional past, before our science but after the fall of his version of Atlantis, which he calls Numenor. Tolkien gave this setting a modern English name, Middle-earth, derived from the Old English Middangeard, the realm where humans live in Norse and related Germanic mythologies.
The story concerns peoples such as Hobbits, Elves, Men, Dwarves, Wizards, and Orcs and centres on the Ring of Power made by the Dark Lord Sauron. Starting from quiet beginnings in the Shire, the story ranges across Middle-earth and follows the courses of the War of the Ring. The main story is followed by six appendices that provide a wealth of historical and linguistic background material, as well as an index of characters, place names, and terms of note.

Though there are flashes here of the dramatic verve of The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules , Irving's long-awaited eighth novel is generally a tedious affair: rambling; lacking suspense; devoid of energetic or lyric prose; sometimes verging on farce and other times almost as lethargic as the sultry atmosphere of Bombay, where it is set. Here Irving is concerned again with people who do not feel at home in the world: immigrants, social outcasts, pariahs because of physical handicaps, those uncomfortable with their sexual orientation. The characters include a Bombay-born physician and secret screenwriter who feels as much a foreigner in India as he does in his new home, Toronto; a movie star who is synonymous with the role he plays; his twin brother, who aspires to be a priest but doubts his vocation; assorted circus performers, dwarfs and cripples, prostitutes, transsexuals, policemen, Hollywood figures, a blonde American hippie, Jesuit missionaries and more sad folk teeming with strange quirks and shameful secrets. The plot revolves around the murders of prostitutes by a transsexual serial killer, who carves a winking elephant on their bodies, and the legacies from the past that bring the main characters to the hunt for the murderer. The hefty narrative gives Irving plenty of room to speculate on outcasts of all kinds, the volatility of sexual identity, the false lure of organized religion, the insidious evil of class distinctions, the chasm between appearance and reality. For those looking for his trademark leitmotifs, Irving provides two: falling into the net and allowed to use the lift . He titillates by equipping a character with a giant dildo. He includes a strange homage to novelist James Salter. His attempt to provoke readers into empathy for humanity's lost souls is admirable, but his novel does not engage the reader until the last hundred pages, and that may not be soon enough to satisfy those yearning for a seductive story.

Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451.

Rex Stout, full name Rex Todhunter Stout, (December 1, 1886 - October 27, 1975) was an American writer best known as the creator of the larger-than-life fictional detective Nero Wolfe.
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created by the American mystery writer Rex Stout, who made his debut in 1934. He appeared in 33 novels and 39 short stories from the 1930s to the 1970s, with most of them set in New York City.

A rising young attorney and a public relations specialist believe
their futures are assured at a prestigious Oklahoma City law firm.
That is, until they're brought together on an important case, with
their research revealing the firm's chilling link to a series of
infant abductions. Now in their search for the truth, they will find
that someone will stop at nothing to ensure their silence--even if it
means keeping them quiet in a more permanent way!

At long last, Smith follows up his bestselling first novel, A Simple Plan (1993), the film of which received an Oscar nomination for best screenplay, with a stunning horror thriller. Four American friends on vacation in Cancun, Mexico-Jeff, Amy, Eric and Stacy-meet a German tourist, Mathias, who persuades them to join his hunt for his younger brother, Henrich, last seen headed off with a new girlfriend toward some ruins. The four soon regret their impulsive decision after they find themselves lost in the jungle and freaked out by signs that they're headed for danger. Smith builds suspense through the slow accretion of telling details, until a deadly menace starts taking its toll, leaving the survivors increasingly at each other's throats. While admirers of such classic genre writers as John Wyndham or Algernon Blackwood may find the horror less suggestive than they might wish, the eerie atmosphere and compelling plot should appeal to fans of ABC's hit TV series Lost, who will help propel this page-turner up bestseller lists.

No one does steamy suspense like Brown (Chill Factor), as shown by this expert mix of spicy romance and sharply crafted crime drama. Det. Sgt. Duncan Hatcher, a sexy Savannah homicide cop, falls hard for Elise Laird, a dishy damsel-in-distress, the moment he spots her at a police awards dinner. Too bad she's married to Judge Cato Laird, who consistently subverts Hatcher's efforts to bring local drug lord Robert Savich to justice. When Hatcher and his feisty partner, Det. DeeDee Bowen, are called to the Laird home after Elise supposedly shoots an intruder in self-defense, the desperate trophy wife confides to Hatcher that she believes her husband, a secret Savich crony, intended her to be the intruder's victim. Later, as the uncertain Hatcher grapples with his desires, Elise vanishes, leaving behind another dead body. Tight plotting, a hot love story with some nice twists and a credible ending help make this a stand-out thriller.

In the opening section of the book, the year is 1958 and Ruth Cole is four years old. Although she is a loved child, her parents do not have a happy marriage. Her two older brothers had died four years ago in a car accident, and she is constantly reminded of their presence from the pictures of their childhood hanging on the walls of the Cole family home. Ruth's father, Ted Cole, writes successful children's books, and hires Eddie O'Hare, a teenager who attends Phillips Exeter Academy, the same school as Ruth's two late brothers, to work as his assistant for the summer. Eddie is unwittingly drawn into a plot orchestrated by Ted to drive his unhappy wife, Marion, to infidelity. Marion, unable to forget her dead sons, shows little affection to her daughter. Ted has always conducted extra-marital affairs and would likely lose in a custody battle for Ruth in divorce court. If Marion had an affair, he feels that this would strengthen the case for custody to be awarded to him. Ted picks Eddie specifically to tempt Marion, since he bears a striking resemblance to his two dead sons. Eddie and Marion's affair leads to Marion's disappearance at the end of the summer.

When this true-crime story first appeared in 1980, it made the New York Times bestseller list within weeks. Two decades later, it's being rereleased in conjunction with a film version produced by DreamWorks. In the space of five years, Frank Abagnale passed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries. He did it by pioneering implausible and brazen scams, such as impersonating a Pan Am pilot (puddle jumping around the world in the cockpit, even taking over the controls). He also played the role of a pediatrician and faked his way into the position of temporary resident supervisor at a hospital in Georgia. Posing as a lawyer, he conned his way into a position in a state attorney general's office, and he taught a semester of college-level sociology with a purloined degree from Columbia University.
The kicker is, he was actually a teenage high school dropout. Now an authority on counterfeiting and secure documents, Abagnale tells of his years of impersonations, swindles, and felonies with humor and the kind of confidence that enabled him to pull off his poseur performances. "Modesty is not one of my virtues. At the time, virtue was not one of my virtues," he writes. In fact, he did it all for his overactive libido--he needed money and status to woo the girls. He also loved a challenge and the ego boost that came with playing important men. What's not disclosed in this highly engaging tale is that Abagnale was released from prison after five years on the condition that he help the government write fraud-prevention programs. So, if you're planning to pick up some tips from this highly detailed manifesto on paperhanging, be warned: this master has already foiled you.

Many who have read the New York Times bestseller The Da Vinci Code have questions that arise from seven codes-expressed or implied-in Dan Brown's book. In Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone's Asking, Darrell Bock, Ph.D., responds to the novelist's claims using central ancient texts and answers the following questions:
- Who was Mary Magdalene?
- Was Jesus Married?
- Would Jesus Being Single be Un-Jewish?
- Do the So-Called Secret Gnostic Gospels Help Us Understand Jesus?
- What Is the Remaining Relevance of The Da Vinci Code?
Darrell Bock's research uncovers the origins of these codes by focusing on the 325 years immediately following the birth of Christ, for the claims of The Da Vinci Code rise or fall on the basis of things emerging from this period. Breaking the Da Vinci Code, now available in trade paper, distinguishes fictitious entertainment from historical elements of the Christian faith. For by seeing these differences, one can break the Da Vinci code.

It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire, a papal conclave, mysterious ambigrams, a plot against the Vatican, a mad scientist in a wheelchair, particles of antimatter, jets that can travel 15,000 miles per hour, crafty assassins, a beautiful Italian physicist, and a Harvard professor of religious iconology. It takes talent to make that novel anything but ridiculous. Kudos to Dan Brown (Digital Fortress) for achieving the nearly impossible. Angels & Demons is a no-holds-barred, pull-out-all-the-stops, breathless tangle of a thriller--think Katherine Neville's The Eight (but cleverer) or Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum (but more accessible).
Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is shocked to find proof that the legendary secret society, the Illuminati--dedicated since the time of Galileo to promoting the interests of science and condemning the blind faith of Catholicism--is alive, well, and murderously active. Brilliant physicist Leonardo Vetra has been murdered, his eyes plucked out, and the society's ancient symbol branded upon his chest. His final discovery, antimatter, the most powerful and dangerous energy source known to man, has disappeared--only to be hidden somewhere beneath Vatican City on the eve of the election of a new pope. Langdon and Vittoria, Vetra's daughter and colleague, embark on a frantic hunt through the streets, churches, and catacombs of Rome, following a 400-year-old trail to the lair of the Illuminati, to prevent the incineration of civilization.

Bestselling author Richard Bach explores the meaning of fate and soul mates in this modern-day fairytale based on his real-life relationship with actor Leslie Parrish. "This is a story about a knight who was dying, and the princess who saved his life," Bach writes in his opening greeting. "It's a story about beauty and beasts and spells and fortresses, about death-powers that seem and life-powers that are." Yes, it is all that, and more. On the earthly plane this is about the riveting love affair between two fully human people who are willing to explore time travel and other dimensions together even as they grapple with the earthly struggles of intimacy, commitment, smothering, and whose turn it is to cook. Their love affair and happy ending inspired many enthusiastic fans. Years later, some of these fans were devastated to discover that this match made in heaven didn't manage to stick (the couple are no longer together). But in an Amazon interview, Bach explains that lovers don't have to stay married forever to be lifetime soul mates. Read this as a lesson about love's enchantments and possibilities, but don't count on this book to keep you and your mate on the bridge across forever.

An internationally bestselling fable about a spiritual journey, littered with powerful life lessons that teach us how to abandon consumerism in order to embrace destiny, live life to the full and discover joy. This inspiring tale is based on the author's own search for life's true purpose, providing a step-by-step approach to living with greater courage, balance, abundance and joy. It tells the story of Julian Mantle, a lawyer forced to confront the spiritual crisis of his out-of-balance life: following a heart attack, he decides to sell all his beloved possesions and trek to India. On a life-changing odyssey to an ancient culture, he meets Himalayan gurus who offer powerful, wise and practical lessons that teach us to:- Develop joyful thoughts - Follow our life's mission - Cultivate self-discipline and act courageously - Value time as our most important commodity - Nourish our relationships - Live fully, one day at a time.

Before Woody Allen set his sights on becoming the next Ingmar Bergman, he made a fleeting (but largely successful) attempt at becoming the next S.J Perelman. Side Effects, his third and final collection of humor pieces, shows his efforts. These essays appeared in The New Yorker during the late 1970s, as he showed more and more discontent with his funnyman status. Fear not, humor fans--Allen's still funny. He is less manic, however, than in his positively goofy Getting Even/Without Feathers days, and this makes Side Effects a more nuanced read. Woody picks and chooses when to flash the laughs, as in an article discussing UFOs:
In 1822 Goethe himself notes a strange celestial phenomenon. En route home from the Leipzig Anxiety Festival, he wrote, I was crossing a meadow, when I chanced to look up and saw several fiery red balls suddenly appear in the southern sky. They descended at a great rate of speed and began chasing me. I screamed that I was a genius and consequently could not run very fast, but my words were wasted. I became enraged and shouted imprecations at them, whereupon they flew away frightened. I related this story to Beethoven, not realizing he had already gone deaf, and he smiled and nodded and said, Right.
Though not as explosively, mind-alteringly funny as his earlier books, Side Effects is still loaded with chuckles; the much-anthologized Kugelmass Episode is worth the price of the book. For fans of his films--or for anyone who wants a final glimpse of Woody in his first, best role as court jester, Side Effects is a must-have.

After three decades of prodigious film work (and some unfortunate tabloid adventures as well), it's easy to forget that Woody Allen began his career as one heck of a great comedy writer. Getting Even, a collection of his late '60s magazine pieces, offers a look into Allen's bag of shtick, back when it was new. From the supposed memoirs of Hitler's barber: "Then, in January of 1945, a plot by several generals to shave Hitler's moustache in his sleep failed when von Stauffenberg, in the darkness of Hitler's bedroom, shaved off one of the Fuhrer's eyebrows instead..."
Even though the idea of writing jokes about old Adolf--or addled rabbis, or Maatjes herring--isn't nearly as fresh as it used to be, Getting Even still delivers plenty of laughs. At his best, Woody can achieve a level of transcendent craziness that no other writer can match. If you're looking for a book to dip into at random, or a gift for someone who's seen Sleeper 13 times, Getting Even is a dead lock.

Urban legends and perennial wonders get a witty treatment in this lighthearted guide to largely inconsequential yet intriguing aspects of the human body. Leyner, a novelist whose writing appears regularly in the New Yorker and GQ, and New York physician Goldberg address food and the body (does coffee stunt your growth?), "body oddities" (what are goose bumps?), folk remedies (does breast milk cure warts?), drugs (does marijuana help glaucoma?), bathroom humor (why can you ignite a fart?), medical media (is the show ER accurate?), old wives tales (can lip balm be addictive?) and aging (why do old ladies grow beards?). And then there's the sex chapter-definitely the one where the subtitle is most applicable, with questions like "can people in wheelchairs still have sex?" and "do the kind of underpants men wear affect their fertility?" The book includes e-mail interactions between the authors, which are sometimes funny. Some of the authors' answers are unsatisfactory and, as a whole, this is much more of a humor book than a health one. The truly curious will find better, more in-depth answers on medical Web sites, but those looking for a good laugh will have some fun with this book.

In his latest book, the 65-year-old Cosby targets newly minted seniors (like himself) who find their bodies are heavier, slower and creakier than they ever expected. The title refers to Cosby's own experience with a 30-percent blockage in his carotid artery that qualified him for cardiac rehab and greatly increased his risk of having a stroke or a heart attack. "Now I know I'm a walking time bomb," Cosby writes-and tries to play the situation for laughs. In meandering and exasperatingly redundant prose, Cosby describes how he now must sneak chocolate chip cookies when his wife isn't looking, and how he daydreams about the bacon, butter, ice cream, croissants, pies and "cheese, cheese, cheese" that he used to enjoy before his doctor put him on a diet. While Cosby's previous book, Fatherhood, elicited plenty of belly laughs, they are few and far between here. The biggest chuckles can be found when he segues into a critique of smokers, especially his anecdote about a houseguest who braves the weather to smoke outside, though it's 12 degrees below zero. Cosby also deftly critiques typically American paradoxes such as his mother's inability to stop eating fried lamb chops even after she has a series of strokes, and the whiskey-drinking done by a group of grieving friends after one of their alcoholic buddies dies of cirrhosis. But it's hard to appreciate Cosby's jokes when it's obvious that that the health of the people he makes fun of-including himself-appears doomed.

This is another differences-between-the-sexes-har-har book, and we can't get enough of those, can we? Its advantage vis-{:}a-vis the others is that it is written by Allen more or less in the persona of his character in the TV sitcom, Home Improvement. Unfortunately, it is to a large degree an extended routine that Allen does very well but that features nothing new or really insightful. Such an Allen insight as "It's a man's place to pretend something doesn't hurt" typifies the tenor here, as does the extremely brief chapter "The Secrets Men Never Tell Women," which consists of a single throwaway punch line. As comedy, this has the disadvantage of being static and scripted; as literature, the disadvantage of covering familiar territory familiarly. Oh, it's still funny but probably considerably more so to fans of Allen and his popular TV show than to other readers.