Letters from the Earth

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Summary: Brilliant Twain social commentary
Review: Twain at his best, taking on morality and organized religion. Takes the form of a series of letters from Lucifer (the Angel, visiting "God's experiment"), to Gabriel. Needless to say, Twain's tone is more than a little ironic. Extremely funny, but difficult for the weak of faith.

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Summary: If you hated church, you'll love this book!
Review: Twain describes for us (through the character of Satan) how boring the Christian heaven is: lots of singing and playing on harps, but no sexual intercourse! Satan, you devil.

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Summary: Uniquely summarizes the difference between men and women.
Review: Twain recognizes many of life's "truths" in this book. His concept of the difference between men and women is unique, way ahead of his contemporaries, and certainly lays the ground work for modern books like "women are from Venus, Men are from Mars." My favorite book to give as a gift.

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Summary: Cogent critique of "religion"
Review: Twain's "Letters from the Earth" turns fundamentalist Bible dogma on its ear. This, maybe moreso than "Tom Sawyer," should be required reading for everyone. Yes, some of it is a bit heavy-going, such as the critique on Cooper's prose style, but Twain is right-on with his observations. Some of the "Letters" are repetitious, but I've never read anything else that debunked fundamentalist Bible thumping the way this did. The "Burlesque on Books of Etiquette" is laugh-out-loud funny, and the Cat Tale is wonderful.