Rating: 
Summary: Intense... wonderful... LITTLE masterpieces.
Review: Raold Dahl's short stories are each little masterpieces. This collection has stories - each of a completely different subject and nature - but each of the fantastic quality to stand on its own.
In "the surgeon" a man is rewarded for his good nature, then his good fortune seems to reverse - and in the end, justice is served.
In "skin", Dahl critiques the materialistic nature of the art world... in a purely sick way! =)
In "my lady love, my dove", dahl shows a twist - the character's find out something unexpected - but then he shocks you again by their unexpected reaction."Skin" shows Dahl's ability to write for all ages... this is an adult collection of short stories, that makes an adult chuckle.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: Roald Dahl has always been one of my favorite children's book writers. It wasn;t until I picked up his other stroy collection, the Umbrella man, that I realized he was also a wonderful short story writer. This book is simply fabulous. "Lamb to the Slaughter," "The Surgeon" and the title story were my favorites. Every story also has Dahl's quintessential dark humor, which is something I've always enjoyed in his books. Everyone should read this and the umbrella man and be introduced to another side of roald Dahl.
Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining!
Review: Roald Dahl is a wonderful short story writer. He introduces all the characters in a very descriptive manner and ends his storys with twists that will make you want to read them over and over agian. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of the stories but when reccommend them to teenagers 13 and above as some of them have a vast range of vocbulary that is sometimes confusing. I would suggest this book to all my friends. It is definitely worth buying! :)
Rating:
Summary: This a thrilling book that keeps you wanting to read...
Review: Summary: A collection of short stories by Roald Dahl, compiled especially to introduce teenage readers to his adult work. Each story carries the Dahl trademark of wickedness, often involving a protagonist who has an exciting improbable idea, and who then works to make it a reality.
"Skin" is about a man who sees the work of a famous artist on display in a gallery. Seeing the work, he realizes that he knew the artist before the artist became famous, and that he convinced the artist to tattoo a masterpiece on his back. When the gallery owner sees the tattoo, he tries to figure out a way to own it.
"Lamb to the Slaughter" is about an old woman who kills her husband with a leg of lamb, and then serves it to the investigating police officers while they speculate on the location of the murder weapon.
"The Sound Machine" is about an engineer who builds a machine that can allow him to hear the pain that plants feel when they are cut or otherwise damaged.
"An African Story," which is told using a frame device involving a RAF member, is about an old African man who discovers that a young man living alongside him is violently insane. When he discovers that a black mamba is stealing milk from his cow every night, he hatches a plot
"Galloping Foxley" is about a sheltered man, the epitome of the staid British gentleman, has his commuting routine disrupted by the introduction of a stranger onto his train car. He soon remembers that the stranger is a prefect, who used to torture him mercilessly as a boy.
"The Wish" is about an imaginative boy who fantasizes that a successful trek across a rug, while avoiding dangers represented by the different colors, will result in getting a puppy.
"The Surgeon" follows the story of a doctor who is rewarded by a very rich patient with a diamond worth about a million dollars. After hiding the diamond by freezing it into an ice cube, the house is burgled. Features a rare unalloyed happy ending.
"Dip in the Pool" is about a man who gets the idea to cheat in a daily pool held aboard an ocean cruiser. The pool involves auctioning off a range of numbers which represent the predicted number of miles that the ship will travel in a day. When the weather turns his "low field" sure thing into an almost certain loss of his life savings, he decides to jump off the ship in order to slow the ships progress as he is rescued.
"The Champion of the World" seems to be the genesis for the famous children's book "Danny, Champion of the World," and it involves a pair of men who decide to poach a wealthy landowner's pheasants by slipping them sleeping pills.
"Beware of the Dog" is about an RAF member who lands, badly injured and unconscious, he knows not where. When he wakes up, he begins to suspect that he is not actually in England, but rather in the clutches of the enemy.
"My Lady Love, My Dove" is about an obnoxious wife and a slightly less obnoxious husband who agrees against his better judgment to wiretap the bedroom of some visiting bridge partners.
The Good and the Bad:
Without a doubt, the best tale is "An African Story," which has the ability to evoke all sorts of emotions in the reader. The moral shadings of the course of action that the man decides upon are interesting; the odd elements of the story, especially the strange, almost-believable actions of the Mamba snake, are fascinating. The triple-coming of the snake, and other elements, give the story some common elements with classic fairy tales. The younger character, Judson, who is driven to murder by the sounds of other creatures masticating, is creepy as hell. And, finally, the brief frame story involving the RAF member is simultaneously interesting on its own, and useful in giving the inner story a sense of plausibility. In fact, as I write the praises, I think that this may be one of the best short stories Dahl has ever done (although the competition for that title would be fierce indeed).
Two of the stories, Champion of the World and Galloping Foxley, are basically rehashes of material made more famous in later incarnations, and so they were much less interesting to me.
Many of the stories were not up to the standards that I have come to expect from Dahl; I suppose the publishers had a slim stack of excellent writing that hasn't already been used in more famous collections.
The Surgeon was interesting, but felt like only half of a story. With the fate of the diamond put in jeopardy by a random burgling that happened to involve an accidental ingestion of the diamond, credibility was strained. Some of the character reactions just didn't seem very well done either.
Others, such as "The Wish" "Beware of the Dog," and "My Lady Love, My Dove," were so weak that they seemed almost unfinished. Clearly, they are from early in Dahl's career. A more polished Dahl would have had a better payoff to a proposed wiretap, in my opinion. I also questioned ending the book with the wiretap story; unless the world disagrees with my low rating of it, I think it should have been buried somewhere in the middle.
"Dip in the Pool" was very good, although a little rushed, and I similarly enjoyed "Skin," the opening.
Overall, I have to say that that book fell a little below my expectations, but was still a joy to read. I only wish that Dahl had written more; his body of work is substantial, but still leaves me wanting.
What I learned: The betting pool on the cruise ship's daily mileage must have been based on reality. Also, apparently inviting a couple to play bridge in postwar England and then to spend the night was not an unusual situation.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay if you Like SICK & Twisted - But not for young readers
Review: This was a bit of a shocker considering it is reccommended for young readers. Roald Dahl is Y2K's answer to Poe. His stories are sick and twisted and too deep for younger kids. Adults should definitely read prior to sharing with their child to make sure they feel it is appropriate. My son loves HP - but would find these stories disturbing.
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