THE TOYNBEE CONVECTOR is a collection of twenty-three short stories from the pen of Ray Bradbury. There isn't much to tie this anthology together; the only real thing these stories have in common is their Bradbury-ian wistful flavor and that each one is well worth reading. These stories cover quite a distance in terms of their styles and genres. We go from stories of time travel to gothic horror tales. From stories about a child's imagination to straight romance. Although I honestly enjoyed each one of these episodes, there were several standouts. The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair is a pure romance story with no strange, science-fiction, fantasy or horror elements to be seen. But it's one of the most emotional, bittersweet and heartbreaking works I've read by Bradbury. The title story is a nice little bit of time travel fiction about how the past and present influence the future. Trapdoor is one of the most fun horror tales I've read in a long while. And Come, and Bring Constance! is just a great comedy. It's difficult to sum up a collection like this simply because of the variety of styles on display. So I'll quote from Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Mummy. In this story, in order to liven up a boring, creaky small town, a Colonel and a neighborhood boy fake the discovery of an Egyptian mummy. The mannequin is said to be constructed from: a bundle of old Sunday comic pages... a stand of papyrus left in an autumn field long before Moses... a chart-map of Siam, Blue River Nile source... all the confetti of lost trolley transfers... all the crushed flowers from brand new weddings, dreadful old funerals... punched tickets for sleepless Egyptian Pharaoh midnight trains. Written promises, worthless stocks, crumbled deeds. Circus posters -- see there? A nice description, not only of the items in this book, but in Bradbury's whole body of work. THE TOYNBEE CONVECTOR is a great place to look if you really want to see the sheer diversity of Bradbury's output. For convenience's sake, I'm including the table of contents here: The Toynbee Convector Trapdoor On the Orient, North One Night in Your Life West of October The Last Circus The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair I Suppose You Are Wondering Why We Are Here? Lafayette, Farewell Banshee Promises, Promises The Love Affair One for His Lordship, and One for the Road! At Midnight, in the Month of June Bless Me, Father, for I Have Sinned By the Numbers! A Tough of Petulance Long Division Come, and Bring Constance! Junior The Tombstone The Thing at the Top of the Stairs Colonel Stonesteel's Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Mummy