Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (Nonpareil Book)
by Will Cuppy
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Paperback (01 March, 1998)
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Reviews (27)

the funniest history book ever written
I must have read this book twenty times at least, and I never get tired of it.Every time it seems just as funny, as Will Cuppy tells us about the lives of historical characters, from Cheops ( or khufu) through to Catherine the Great, taking in such diverse characters as Cleopatra, Attila the hun, Lady Godiva, henry the eight, John Smith, and miles Standish. His wonderful dry comments are hilarious, as on Charlemagne who was born in the dark ages when people were not very bright.They have been getting brighter and brighter ever since, until finally the are like they are now'Or on the American revolution , started because the colonists had to pay takes to which their consent had not been asked ' today we pay taxesbut our consent has been asked, and we have told the government to go ahead and tax us all they want to.We like it'This is a sublime book, the one I'd take with me to a desert island if i had to choose only one.

man, will cuppy...
is amazing.

please do yourselves a favor and run out and read this book. right now. I'm serious. it's for your own good.

and when you've finished it and love it as much as I do, you can send me flowers and thank you cards, because I did you the great favor of recommending that you read it.

you better be buying it already. right now.

stop reading this and hurry up.

you're welcome.

d <3

Will Cuppy is to history what Mad Magazine is to literature
By page two I felt cheated.It is poorly written, in a smirking quasi-intellectual style that is neither funny nor educational.

This is an awful book.Don't buy it unless you have an off balance table and you need something just this size to slip under the table leg. ... Read more

Isbn: 0879235144
Sales Rank: 306885
Subjects:  1. American Satire And Humor    2. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, e    3. Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc    4. Form - Parodies    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: American    8. Humor    9. Reference    10. World history   

Three Junes
by JULIA GLASS
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (22 April, 2003)
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Reviews (190)

in my top ten
I felt that the author really explored three different people thoroughly.

Something to Try
Everyone has different tastes as readers. I personally feel "THE THREE JUNES" is excellent but I can see where it is not everyone's taste. What is? "THE THREE JUNES" is not a dare to be different book like "MIDDLESEX" or "MY FRACTURED LIFE" nor does it have the universally appealing spiritual elements of "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES" or "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN." Those are different types of books, different "tastes." I like all of them, "THE THREE JUNES" among them. Just like at a restaurant, you don't know if you like something unless you try it.

YOU DON'T KNOW UNLESS YOU TRY IT
Everyone has different tastes as readers. I personally feel "THE THREE JUNES" is excellent but I can see where it is not everyone's taste. What is? "THE THREE JUNES" is not a dare to be different book like "MIDDLESEX" or "MY FRACTURED LIFE" nor does it have the universally appealing spiritual elements of "THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES" or "THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN." Those are different types of books, different "tastes." I like all of them, "THE THREE JUNES" among them. Just like at a restaurant, you don't know if you like something unless you try it. ... Read more

Isbn: 0385721420
Sales Rank: 2058
Subjects:  1. Fathers and sons    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Gay men    5. Literary    6. Long Island (N.Y.)    7. Psychological    8. Scots    9. United States    10. Fiction / Literary    11. Reading Group Guide   

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary
by Simon Winchester
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (August, 1999)
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Editorial Review

When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies."

Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book. --Tjames Madison ... Read more

Reviews (366)

Great story
This was a fascinating story. An American doctor, his mind lost, possibly from horrors he saw during service in the Civil War, moves to London to escape his demons. Since the demons are all in his mind, they remain with him and one morning it comes to a head when he shoots a man he believes was in his room. The man was merely walking to work at the wrong place and wrong time. Dcotor W.C. Minor is found to be insane and sent to Broadmoor Asylum for Criminal Lunatics. The only thing that keeps the brilliant doctor going is his books which he continues to collect. Through chance he finds a flyer in one of the books asking for volunteers to help compile the first Oxford English Dictionary, an undertaking that will span 70 years. Over the next 20 years Minor is instrumental in helping to edit one of the greatest undertakings in English literature. Because his correspondence was done through the mail, it's 8 years before the main editor, James Murray, finds out his most impressive helper is working from an asylum. After meeting him, they strike up a friendship.

This books flows beautifully through this story, giving you background on James Murray and Dr. Minor. You come to see Murray for the kind of person he is, who sees Minor as more than a man who has lost his mind. With Dr. Minor you realize how fragile the human psyche is. Over 100 years later, we can now treat illnesses like his, but still don't know what causes them. He spent 38 years suffering the worst paranoid delusions, but was also a major figure in a great literary achievement. I for one am glad someone brought this story to light.

peaks early
This book is well written and pulls the reader in. Unfortunatley after about the first few pages of the story, it begins to spiral inward explaining nuances of the story that are no longer that interesting (and are already clearly understandable in the larger summary). I recommend reading the first few chapters and then quitting.

Intriguing Read!
I read this book for one of my classes in grad school.It is an amazing book.It was difficult for me to get through the areas of discussing the OED, but overall a great book.

The author takes you into the life of Dr. Minor who is a genius, but is also clinically insane.It appears he had some sort of paranoid schizophrenia although I do not believe they ever come out and say exactly what it was he had (as they just declared everyone insane at that time).Dr. Minor was a great contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, but had many inner demons he fought for the majority of his life.

You learn a little about the inner workings of the mental hospitals at the time as well.I encourage those of you who are into history as well as mystery to read this book.A good read also for those who are interested or are currently in school for psychology. ... Read more

Isbn: 006099486X
Subjects:  1. Biography / Autobiography    2. General    3. Historical - British    4. Historical - U.S.    5. History    6. History: World    7. Specific Groups - Special Needs    8. Reading Group Guide   

Everything's Eventual : 14 Dark Tales
by Stephen King
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (30 December, 2002)
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Editorial Review

In his introduction to Everything's Eventual, horror author extraordinaire Stephen King describes how he used a deck of playing cards to select the order in which these 14 tales of the macabre would appear. Judging by the impact of these stories, from the first words of the darkly fascinating "Autopsy Room Four" to the haunting final pages of "Luckey Quarter," one can almost believe King truly is guided by forces from beyond.

His first collection of short stories since the release of Nightmares & Dreamscapes in 1993, Everything's Eventual represents King at his most undiluted. The short story format showcases King's ability to spook readers using the most mundane settings (a yard sale) and comfortable memories (a boyhood fishing excursion). The dark tales collected here are some of King's finest, including an O. Henry Prize winner and "Riding the Bullet," published originally as an e-book and at one time expected by some to be the death knell of the physical publishing world. True to form, each of these stories draws the reader into King's slightly off-center world from the first page, developing characters and atmosphere more fully in the span of 50 pages than many authors can in a full novel.

For most rabid King fans, chief among the tales in this volume will be "The Little Sisters of Eluria," a novella that first appeared in the fantasy collection Legends, set in King's ever-expanding Dark Tower universe. In this story, set prior to the first Dark Tower volume, the reader finds Gunslinger Roland of Gilead wounded and under the care of nurses with very dubious intentions. Also included in this collection are "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French," the story of a woman's personal hell; "1408," in which a writer of haunted tour guides finally encounters the real thing; "Everything's Eventual," the title story, about a boy with a dream job that turns out to be more of a nightmare; and "L.T.'s Theory of Pets," a story of divorce with a bloody surprise ending.

King also includes an introductory essay on the lost art of short fiction and brief explanatory notes that give the reader background on his intentions and inspirations for each story. As with any occasion when King directly addresses his dear Constant Readers, his tone is that of a camp counselor who's almost apologetic for the scare his fireside tales are about to throw into his charges, yet unwilling to soften the blow. And any campers gathered around this author's fire would be wise to heed his warnings, for when King goes bump in the night, it's never just a branch on the window. --Benjamin Reese ... Read more

Reviews (267)

A bit of a mixed bag ...
I really wasn't expecting much from this anthology but I was pleasantly surprised. It starts out poorly with a few hit and miss stories but it improves as it goes on and some of the stories are King at his best.

My Synopsis
===============
Autopsy Room 4:No as terrifying as I expected it to be.The humorous tone reassures the reader that everything will come out all right in the end.

All that you love ... It has some atmospheric appeal but it plods on too long and the ending is a damp squib ... also what's with SK's bathroom obsession? Are we seriously supposed to care about the fate of a guy whose hobby is deconstructing bathroom graffiti?

The Man in Black: Has all the faked up 'horror' and irrelevance of 'From a Buick 8'.Yet again SKintroduces a piece of cheap bathroom humour which destroys any credibility this piece might have had ...

The Death of Jack Hamilton:Pure and utter filler.It plodded on forever -I nearly gave up at this point.

In the Deathroom:Starts out well, but King never achieves the Kafkaesque mood he aspires to - too many heavy hints that the hero will make a heroic escape destroys the tension for the reader.

Little Sisters of Eluria.Sorry didn't read this one, the words 'gunslinger' were enough, I don't rate King's attempts at fantasy.

Everything's Eventual.This was the first story to show real promise.It goes nowhere in the end but this was the point where I started to hope.

Theory of Pets.This reminded me a lot of vintage King stories such as 'The Body' which, while not particularly frightening, show off his story-telling skills at their best.

The Road Virus Heads North.This frightened the wits out of me - the first time I've been moved to check the doors and windows by a SK story in a LONG time ...

The Gotham Cafe.Doesn't quite work, but nonetheless left a lasting impression on me.

Things you can only say ...The second best story in this collection IMO.I had to keep reading it over again to savour its meaning.

1408.The best story in the collection - in fact one of the best he has ever written.Borrows a lot from 'The Haunting of Hill House' but none the worse for that.

Riding the Bullet.Unlike most other people this was a new one for me - and it worked in a very basic way.Probably by this point I would have been spooked by my own shadow. I had forgotten my old rule - never read SK after darkness falls. Not really necessary with most of his latest stuff which is more likely to prove a cure for insomnia, than induce it!

The Luckey Quarter.Just read this one on my way to work.Not frightening but is a movingdepiction of the effect of poverty on a woman's hopes and dreams.

So only seven stories out of 14 I can praise wholeheartedly - but I felt it was worth the 4 star rating for those alone.

A short story sage
This is a wonderful book that easily makes you laugh. The characters are lively and easy to love, and their actions are majestic. They remind me of the characters in Janvier Tisi's THE USURPER , who despite their strengths are victims of the situations they find themselves in. This book will be fun to readers of all age groups.

Written for Dr. Boyd
Everything's Eventual is a collection of short stories written by Stephen King.The stories deal with everything from being trapped in a paralyzed body to suicide.The moods of the stories also vary greatly.Some are sad, depressing stories about the death of a friend while others are just outright scary.
In the book, some of the stories were actually scary.A few examples of this were Autopsy Room Four which deals with having an autopsy performed on you while you are still alive and The Man in the Black Suit which is about a boy who comes across the devil while he is fishing. There is also Lunch at the Gotham Café, which is about a couple who have a run in with a deranged waiter.
Other stories are less scary and simply tell a story.An example of this would be All That You Love Will Be Carried Away. This story tells about a man that is sick of his life of being a T.V. dinner salesman and is trying to decide whether or not to commit suicide.
Overall, I thought most of the stories were very good.They were all very different which made it easy to go from one to the other.The ones that were supposed to be frightening were just that, and the stories that were supposed to be suspenseful or teach a life story also did their job very well. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to be scared, read a touching story of friendship, or even someone interested in the thoughts of an old man that doesn't feel important enough to continue living.
A review I read on Amazon.com from Lynn Harnett said that the book had a good balance between the stories.I disagree with this because it seemed like some of the shorter or less interesting stories were overshadowed by the longer, more intense ones.However, I agree with someone named Luke who posted a review saying that the variation between stories helped keep him interested.The large differences between stories created the same effect on me.One story would be really scary but the next would be calmer.This created a nice change of pace that helped me keep reading.
... Read more

Isbn: 0743457358
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - Horror    3. Horror - General    4. Horror fiction    5. Horror tales, American    6. Literary    7. Short Stories (single author)    8. Short stories    9. Fiction / General   

Jim the Boy : A Novel
by Tony Earley
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 2001)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Editorial Review

Tony Earley made his debut with Here We Are in Paradise, a superbly understated collection of (mostly) small-town vignettes. He returns to the same terrain in his first novel, Jim the Boy, setting this coming-of-age story in a remote North Carolina hamlet. The year is 1934, and like the rest of the country, Aliceville is feeling the pinch of the Great Depression. Yet neither Jim nor his mother nor his three uncles--who have split the paternal role neatly among themselves since the death of Jim's father a decade earlier--are feeling much in the way of economic pain. Indeed, if you stuck a satellite dish on the front lawn, the story might be taking place in the New South rather than the older, bucolic one.

This isn't to suggest that Earley is deaf to social detail. Indeed, there are all sorts of wonderful touches, like the d&eacute;cor in Jim's classroom,with its "large, colorful maps of the United States, the Confederacy, and the Holy Land during the time of Jesus." But Jim the Boy is very much the tale of a 10-year-old's expanding consciousness, which at first barely extends beyond the family property. Earley has a real gift for conveying childhood epiphanies, like Jim's sudden apprehension of the wider world during a trip in Uncle Al's truck:

Two thoughts came to Jim at once, joined by a thread of amazement: he thought, People live here, and he thought, They don't know who I am. At that moment the world opened up around Jim like hands that, until that moment, had been cupped around him; he felt very small, almost invisible, in the open air of their center, but knew that the hands would not let him go. It was almost like flying.

The simple lyricism and anti-ironic sweetness work mostly to the book's advantage. There are times, it's true, when Earley sands his prose down to an unnatural smoothness, and we seem to be edging toward the sentimental precincts of a young-adult novel. But on the whole, Jim the Boy is a lovely, meticulous work--a song of innocence and (eventually) experience, delivered with just a hint of a North Carolina accent. --James Marcus ... Read more

Reviews (78)

Who is Jim
Jim the Boy is a great book. It tells the story of a normal life, not an adventure you will never go on. It is about a boy growing up with his family and having to live with the fact that his father has died. It takes place during the Great Depression. Very important new things are brought to his town, like electricity. One of the things I think Jim learns is that life is not perfect. This book shows that the world is not always nice, but that there are still nice things. I think this book is one of those nice things.

Why I Liked This Book
Jim the Boy is a great, thrilling, and exciting book for all ages. It is a very thrilling book about a young boy and hardships on a farm and a very big hardship towards the end of the book. Young Robert is a boy, 12 years of age, almost a man, which he becomes in the end of the book. Something dramatic happens at the end something that will change his life. Rob is a Shaker boy who likes almost every thing bout his religion besides one thing. He can't go to Sunday baseball games because his religion doesn't let him. I encourage you to read this book, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll love every page of this amazing book. I know I did.

Fiction with freshness and credibility
In 1930s small-town North Carolina, the story starts on the day Jim turns ten; he is being raised by his widowed mother and her three unmarried brothers, the Uncles, two of whom are twins.Over the course of the next year he makes a good friend and rival; watches unobserved as his mother refuses a suitor; and learns more about his father, another Jim, who died shortly before Jim the Boy's birth.
The style is one of unmannered simplicity; the freshness of Jim's perceptions become fresh for us too.As pointed out in an earlier review, one of the story's most striking moments is when he first sees the big city of Charlotte, "Two thoughts came to Jim at once, joined by a thread of amazement:he thought,
People live here, and he thought, They don't know who I am."Most importantly, none of the situations are from stock.Yes, he encounters danger, but it doesn't turn out as expected; yes, he finally "meets" his father's estranged father, but the encounter is not what you were expecting.
Though it's hackneyed to say so, Jim the Boy really is one of those novels which you might call "a book for young readers," if that includes anybody who remembers being young.It is sweet, but not cloying; and, more importantly, and unlike some fiction nowadays, you can believe every word.
... Read more

Isbn: 0316198951
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Fiction / General   

How to Be Alone: Essays
by Jonathan Franzen
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (01 October, 2002)
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Editorial Review

Jonathan Franzen is smart and brash, the kind of person you want as your social critic but not as a brother-in-law. Many of the 14 essays in How to Be Alone, by the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Corrections, first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and elsewhere. A long, much-discussed rumination on the American novel, (newly) titled "Why Bother?," is included, as well as essays on privacy obsession, the U.S. post office, New York City, big tobacco, and new prisons. At his best, as in "My Father's Brain," a piece on his father's struggle with Alzheimer's, Franzen can make the ordinary world utterly riveting. But at times, it can be difficult to discern where Franzen stands on any particular subject, as he often takes both sides of an argument. Valid attempts to reflect ambiguity s! ometimes lead to obfuscation, especially in his essays on privacy and tobacco, although his belief that small-town America of years gone by offered the individual little privacy certainly rings true. Franzen can write with panache, as in this comment after he watched, without headphones, a TV show during a flight: "(It) became an exposé of the hydraulics of insincere smiles." A few of the shorter pieces appear to be filler. Franzen shines brightest when he gets edgy and a little angry, as in "The Reader in Exile": "Instead of Manassas battlefield, a historical theme park. Instead of organizing narratives, a map of the world as complex as the world itself. Instead of a soul, membership in a crowd. Instead of wisdom, data." --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca ... Read more

Reviews (36)

Uneven
After reading 'The Corrections' I was expecting to be enlightened by 'How to be alone'. Or at least delighted by it.

I did feel enlightened and delighted, only not as often as I hoped. Reading his essays it was impossible not to picture Franzen as a self-righteous, pedant and ultimately insecure character. This setback could easily be overlooked, but Franzen insisted in a conversational tone that really brought him to life in every essay. Unfortunately, his presence was one I would have chosen not to share.

This said, there is a fair amount of insight to be found throughout the book, even when surrounded by some equally fair amount of bs and self serving arguments.

To his merit, I must admit that even when he sounded wrong he made me think about what he was saying. All in all a good bathroom read!

stick to fiction
I read a good short story by Franzen in The New Yorker a couple years ago, but this book is lame.The essays contain little to no humor or insight- they are just lengthy, boring opinions on various subjects.Imagine if you can a duller, less-relavant Andy Rooney.

my first exposure to Franzen
Franzen writes in such an evenhanded tone that it is hard to imagine anyone being mad at him.He is by turns incisive, thoughtful, and intellectual, but his terrain is a personal one, in which he reflects on himself and his reaction to the modern world.Hardly the stuff of polemics.

As the cliche goes, though, beauty is only skin deep and where I see at worst banal observations about Franzen's attempts to make sense of his disconnectedness from the world, he finds people who react to him negatively; those who call him an 'elitist' or an intellectual do not like the fact that he has used the word 'diurnality' in his prose.

Now, here's a curious phenomenon: Franzen, an author who seems quite at odds with the modern world, achieves success in the form of an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey.Ophah Winfrey, who could hardly be less controversial and more banal than Franzen, endorsed his novel "The Corrections".Suddenly, Franzen had more publicity than he had ever had before; a film crew wanted him to go back to his childhood house in St. Louis, and he started receiving hate mail, from those self-satisfied mensches in the midwest who do not like the "diurnality" in his prose.

What do we have here?Well, I'm not an earnest person, and my admittedly cynical take on this whole scenario (which at once seems to befuddle and concern Franzen) is that many people who could charitably be called casual readers have their choices distilled for them by Oprah.In general, this is an admirable goal; anything that increases the amount people read has to be a good thing if we accept that reading itself is intrinsically good.But a unexpected problem arises when you are dealing with a person like Winfrey.Winfrey is successful because of her safe banality; she does not, to use a cliche, push boundaries, nor does she demand much of her viewers.Her "I'm Ok, you're OK" rhetoric has earned her millions, in both fans and dollars.

Thus, we have the endorsement of a novel like "The Corrections," which, as I understand it, explores the existential angst of three smug, self-absorbed urbanites who, in certain ways, pine for the quotidian pleasures that their suburban parents take for granted.All well and good.But, ahh, that writing.The demands, the heavy use of abstruse words.Why "diurnality"?Why not just "daily" or some such other simple, immediately accessible word?We want our reading like we want our Oprah!Spoonfed to us so we know what to think, what to feel, and how to react.

Therein lies Franzen's troubles: he wants to be alone in the world, to think, to cogitate, to enjoy language and the written word, and, well, everyone else seems to want the artifice of American pop culture. ... Read more

Isbn: 0374173273
Subjects:  1. American - General    2. Essays    3. Literary Collections    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Sociology   

The Lovely Bones: A Novel
by Alice Sebold
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (June, 2002)
list price: $21.95 -- our price: $14.93
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Editorial Review

On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.

Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue."

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife.Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons ... Read more

Reviews (2263)

I couldn't put the book down!
I had originally came across this book in a Houston airport. I had read the first few pages but didn't buy the book. I didn't want a "morbid" read for my flight home. However, I kept thinking about the book and what I had read intrigued me, so much that I went out and picked it up. I'm so glad I did. It was a very telling story of a young girl who is murdered. Although it is a very sad story, Alice Sebold is a great author. I couldn't find enough time in the day to finish it and I tried. Once I had some quiet time, I couldn't put the book down. I was disappointed to find out that the killer basically got away with it. I wanted it to have revenge, justice or something to "sock it" to the killer...but none of that happened. All in all, it was a great read.

A+ story with a D- ending.
The story had a unique slant that rivited my attention through all its zillion pages.I was so certain the murderer was going to come to a well-deserved end.Wrong.The ending she concocted for this vile human was about as meaningful as if he was run down by an average housewife eager to grab the best parking spot at the mall and knocked unnoticed into a drainage ditch.I felt all my reading time was wasted. If she could spin all that malarkey about Ray and Susie having their moment at the end of the book, she could have come up with at least an average finish instead of this muck.If the end only had the quality of the first portion of the book, I would have given it five stars.I do think Ms. Sebold has great promise as a writer, but she needs to produce a complete quality product, not something else that is three quarters baked.

What can i say other than, WOW!
The Lovely Bones is a deeply compelling book about a young girl "Susie Salmon" who is raped then murdered. The story starts off with a young girl walking home from school while she is stopped by her next door neighbor Mr. Harvey . Her neighbor then invites her into a "little hiding place" where he rapes her and murders her. Immediately after Susie Salmon's (like the fish) death, she goes to "her heaven" where she gets what ever she designers when ever she wants. In her heaven she can look down at her family and observe their every move and their everyday life. She then realizes the impact her death left upon then.
If you are the type of person who loves to read a drama/thriller/exciting book, than this is a must read. This book is wonderfully written, Alice Sebold does a wonderful job on creating such characters and such poetic lines. This book will bring you through so many emotions that you thought you never had, with its intense climatic scenes, and its disturbing descriptions all the way to its nice and happy ending. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold should be in every school library, and should be read in every English class. This book would be great for the ages of 14-20, because that is the age of the main character "Susie" and people could relate to her, but this book can be read by any age! I defiantly hope you give The Lovely Bones a chance, because I did, and I loved it, and I know you will as well.
... Read more

Isbn: 0316666343
Subjects:  1. Crimes against    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Literary    5. Murder victims' families    6. Psychological    7. Psychological fiction    8. Teenage girls    9. Fiction / Psychological   

Pure Drivel
by Steve Martin
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (06 October, 1999)
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Editorial Review

Steve Martin has always been one of the most intelligent of comedians (you won't find Adam Sandler writing a play about Einstein and Picasso anytime soon), but this intelligence is manifested in gymnastically absurdist flights of fancy, rather than the politically informed riffs typical of performers like Lenny Bruce. Pure Drivel is a collection of pieces, most of them written for the New Yorker, that demonstrate Martin's playful way with words and his unerring ability to create a feeling of serendipitous improvisation even on the printed page. Here's a passage from a piece that announces a shortage of periods in the Times Roman font:

"Most vulnerable are writers who work in short, choppy sentences," said a spokesperson for Times Roman, who continued, "We are trying to remedy the situation and have suggested alternatives, like umlauts, since we have plenty of umlauts--and, in fact, have more umlauts than we could possibly use in a lifetime! Don't forget, umlauts can really spice up a page with their delicate symmetry--resting often midway in a word, letters spilling on either side--and not only indicate the pronunciation of a word but also contribute to a writer's greater glory because they're fancy, not to mention that they even look like periods, indeed, are indistinguishable from periods, and will lead casual readers to believe that the article actually contains periods!"

Although some of these pieces flirted with topicality when they first appeared, Martin is most successful when he leaves the real world behind and gives his wit free rein. This collection preserves the best (so far) of his glorious improvisations. --Simon Leake ... Read more

Reviews (146)

HORRIBLE
This book was a waste of time. Not funny at all. I may have chuckled a few times, but overall it was a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT. If you want to read a funny book, get a George Carlin book.

I suppose it succeeds on its own submediocre terms
Too many of these feuilletons are showbiz-related. Steve even relocates Lolita Haze to LA for the purpose of eliciting hot opalescent tears of boredom in LOLITA AT 50. Did you know that Steve once had a cat named Dr. Forbes? Steve is so cat-centric that when it comes to coining a term for the alienation that a New Yorker feels when visiting LA, Steve describes it as a "hissy fit".

Wild and Crazy Bathos
The more comedy is analyzed, the less amusing it becomes, so I'll be as brief as possible. If I had to pick one characteristic that defines Steve Martin's prose it would be bathos.

This is not surprising from a comedian who studied philosophy in college. Philosophers leap easily from the sublime to the ridiculous -- and often fail to make the return trip. A satire on the death of Plato appeared in one of Martin's 1980s TV specials, which are long overdue for release on VHS or DVD. Here a Socratic dialogue is used to poke fun at the paparazzi. In fact, Martin takes several devastating shots at the press, an easy target given that they are like a postmodern Margaret Dumont, though more toxic and intrusive.

When Martin burst onto the scene in the early 1970s, the politicizing of comedy, Lenny Bruce's for example, was still in the air. Martin, for his part, appeared on stage wearing bunny ears and an arrow through the head. By doing so, he was bringing whimsy, imagination, and fun to comedy while sending anger and derision back to the editorial pages.

In his movies Martin often calls to mind the antics and wordplay of Groucho Marx. In his prose he sounds like another Groucho admirer, Woody Allen. It is likely that Martin the aspiring comic was aware of Allen's prose, given that Martin was doing stand-up in the early 1970s during roughly the same period that Allen was writing and doing stand-up of his own. It is interesting also that both men have literary and artistic pretensions, evidenced by their subject matter and by having published their work in The New Yorker, at one time the high church for intellectuals.

Allen's prose, while hilarious, hits the bathetic note so often that it becomes formulaic. The comparison with Martin is obvious. Allen: "Should I marry W.? Not if she won't tell me the rest of the letters in her name." Martin: "I see you've read Goethe, the Snooky Lanson translation." Both men are compressing an idea into as few words as possible. Henny Youngman, Rodney Dangerfield, and Steven Wright are also masters of compression. The rhythm is the familiar rim shot; the content moves quickly from profound to mundane. Neither Martin nor Allen invented this method -- you can probably find it as far back as Chaucer and Shakespeare -- but it is a method both employ to great effect.

It is only when Martin's reflections become solipsistic that the humor begins to run dry, from the confessional acknowledgments ("a reorganization of my entire self") to the several essays which focus on verbal games ("there has been increasing pressure on the ellipsis..."). This is, after all, a surprisingly thin book. Nevertheless it often made me laugh out loud, and that is something writers rarely do. ... Read more

Isbn: 078688505X
Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Form - Essays    3. General    4. Humor    5. Humor / General   

Shopgirl
by Steve Martin
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (05 September, 2001)
list price: $11.95 -- our price: $9.56
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Editorial Review

Steve Martin's first foray into fiction is as assured as it issurprising. Set in Los Angeles, its fascination with the surreal body fascism ofthe upper classes feels like the comedian's familiar territory, but the shopgirlof the book's title may surprise his fans. Mirabelle works in the glovedepartment of Neiman's, "selling things that nobody buys any more." Spending herdays waiting for customers to appear, Mirabelle "looks like a puppy standing onits hind legs, and the two brown dots of her eyes, set in the china plate of herface, make her seem very cute and noticeable." Lonely and vulnerable, she passesher evenings taking prescription drugs and drawing "dead things," while pursuingan on-off relationship with the hopeless Jeremy, who possesses "a slouch soextreme that he appears to have left his skeleton at home." Then Mr. Ray Portersteps into Mirabelle's life. He is much older, rich, successful, divorced, andselfish, desiring her "without obligation." Complicating the picture isMirabelle's voracious rival, her fellow Neiman's employee Lisa, who uses sex"for attracting and discarding men."

The mutual incomprehension, psychological damage, and sheer vacuity practiced byall four of Martin's characters sees Shopgirl veer rather uncomfortablybetween a comedy of manners and a much darker work. There are some startlingpassages of description and interior monologue, but the characters are oftenrather hazy types. Martin tries too hard in his attempt to write apsychologically intense novel about West Coast anomie, but Shopgirl isstill an enjoyable, if rather light, read. --Jerry Brotton ... Read more

Reviews (326)

An Unexpected Gem
After reading a recommendation for this book, I picked it up and was very impressed with the story and Steve Martin's writing style.Martin is incredibly insightful into human nature and the ways in which men and women fail to connect.Mirabelle and Ray are two damaged individuals who are drawn to each other in a sort of co-dependent, unhealthy way.They are both bound by some personal dysfuction -- for Mirabelle, it's debilitating depression and a lack of self-esteem, and for Ray, it's an emotional distance that prevents him from relating to people beyond what his wealth and privilege allows.On some level, they both know the relationship isn't healthy or meant to last, but they are unable to admit this or accept it, whether it be out of loneliness or self-deception.I thought the ending was perfect in showing how they both grew and learned about themselves through the experience.These are people we've either known or observed or maybe been at one time ourselves; for those reviewers who said the characters were flat or unrealistic or uninteresting, you're obviously entitled to your opinion, but I wholeheartedly disagree with you, and furthermore, I wonder what world you're living in.

To those who said the plot wasn't impressive, this is *literary* fiction as opposed to popular or contemporary fiction, with the primary difference being literary fiction is character-driven, not plot-driven.Literary fiction is about life, and life isn't always full of high drama.If you need for buildings to burn down or people to die to feel like a book has a good plot, this isn't the book for you.But if you enjoy a funny but bittersweet poignant story that looks at the way people relate to each other and learn through experience, this is for you.

Steve is a purveyor of cartoon sensitivity
The characters are stick figures who are dead on the page. There's one fab quote and this is it: "An important part of the celebrity-couple shopping ritual is that the two shoppers appear exclusive, their world is so extraordinary, so charged, that their movement through the regular unexclusive world scatters little dewdrops of diamonds. Mirabelle had once waited on such a couple, when she stood in at the Comme des Garcons section, and felt her own transparency. It was as though she were a chalk outline of herself, animated by an inferior life force."

Wait a minute. I was wrong. There's one more fab quote: "Her nipples are the color of bubblegum, and the silicone makes them resilient enough to chew like bubblegum, and now, between her legs, is the nicest little piece o' property west of Texas."

Steve essayed the role of Vladimir in a production of WAITING FOR GODOT. Here's what Tom Stoppard said about WAITING FOR GODOT: "It redefined the minima of theatrical validity." Okay, now compare that comment to the following line from SHOPGIRL: "Meanwhile, his eye roams around and focuses his unconscious on what can be a woman's smallest desirable quanta."

Steve Martin is a prose virtuoso
Ok, the plot in Shopgirl is contrived and flimsy.But that's not the point.The point is to showcase Steve Martin's surprising gifts: an acute eye for character and detail, and a prose style that manages to be both sharp and sweet.His characterizations are dead on.His prose ranges from the exceedingly caustic to the tender, but always hitting exactly the right note.

I enjoyed his next book, The Pleasure of my Company, even more.The writing is just as good and the characters are much better. ... Read more

Isbn: 0786885688
Subjects:  1. Beverly Hills (Calif.)    2. Clerks (Retail trade)    3. Department stores    4. Fantasy - Short Stories    5. Fiction    6. Fiction - General    7. General    8. Medication abuse   

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
by Joyce Carol Oates
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (29 April, 2003)
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Reviews (51)

easy book with good messages for all young adults!
Although this book starts out very slowly in the beginning, once it gets going, it's very easy to read and keeps your attention!It has great messages for all young adults, such as right vs wrong and what true friendship really is.I really recommend this to all young adults because of these great messages and it gives you a perspective that most of us don't usually see!

To know who are your friends!
Ursula Riggs is 16 years old and an outsider but she does not care about it. The other major character is Matt and very popular until he is accused blowing up the school. Every friend breaks up the contact and only Ursula wants to prove his innocence. They become friends very slowly and at the end they even come together.
I do not like that you need a very long breath to read through this book. You are waiting that something happens and it does not. It is sometimes very boring. What I like is the growing friendship between Ursula and Matt. At the beginning they do not know each other and later they realize who are their real friends.
In addition to that I would say that it is not written in a difficult English and it could be read by people at the age of 14.

NotAll That Exciting
This book that I read was about a boy named Matt Donaghy (Big Mouth) and a girl named Ursula Riggs (Ugly Girl). It is about how when someone hears something and they misinterpret it, it can make your whole life different.It is about how when people you think are your friends, maybe really aren't your friends.It is about how if only only one person in your whole school believes you are innocent, it can help you.
Matt and Ursula go to Rocky River High School in Westchester, NY.Matt is accused of making a bomb threat to blow up his high school, and hardly anyone believes he didn't do it.Even his friends, Russ, Skeet, and Trevor wouldn't even stand up for him through it all.However, Ursula did believe Matt, and it really helped him.
I didn't really like this book as much as others, because it's not all that exciting.I like mystery stories, and this one wasn't much of a mystery.It was a good book, but it's for someone who doesn't like a lot of different things going on in the story.It's for someone who doesn't like stories about ghosts, death, or mystery.It's for someone who doesn't like things in the story changing real fast.

Minnie [14 years old]

... Read more

Isbn: 0064473473
Sales Rank: 59728
Subjects:  1. Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Fiction    4. Friendship    5. High schools    6. Juvenile Fiction    7. School & Education    8. Schools    9. Social Situations - Friendship    10. Social Situations - Prejudice & Racism    11. Social Situations - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance    12. Juvenile Fiction / Social Situations / Friendship    13. Reading Group Guide   

How to Be Good
by Nick Hornby
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (30 April, 2002)
list price: $14.00 -- our price: $11.20
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Editorial Review

In Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, Katie Carr is certainly trying to be. That's why she became a GP. That's why she cares about Third World debt and homelessness, and struggles to raise her children with a conscience. It's also why she puts up with her husband David, the self-styled Angriest Man in Holloway. But one fateful day, she finds herself in a Leeds parking lot, having just slept with another man. What Katie doesn't yet realize is that her fall from grace is just the first step on a spiritual journey more torturous than the interstate at rush hour. Because, prompted by his wife's actions, David is about to stop being angry. He's about to become good--not politically correct, organic-food-eating good, but good in the fashion of the Gospels. And that's no easier in modern-day Holloway than it was in ancient Israel.

Hornby means us to take his title literally: How can we be good, and what does that mean? However, quite apart from demanding that his readers scrub their souls with the nearest available Brillo pad, he also mesmerizes us with that cocktail of wit and compassion that has become his trademark. The result is a multifaceted jewel of a book: a hilarious romp, a painstaking dissection of middle-class mores, and a powerfully sympathetic portrait of a marriage in its death throes. It's hard to know whether to laugh or cry as we watch David forcing his kids to give away their computers, drawing up schemes for the mass redistribution of wealth, and inviting his wife's most desolate patients round for a Sunday roast. But that's because How to Be Good manages to be both brutally truthful and full of hope. It won't outsell the Bible, but it's a lot funnier. --Matthew Baylis ... Read more

Reviews (256)

Odd, but original
The plot of this book is a bit far-fetched, but I have to say it was very creative.I don't think I've ever read anything very similar.And while I can't see this book turning into a movie like About a Boy or High Fidelity, it's still a worthwhile read, and quite amusing as well.I thought it was hilarious that throughout the book Katie kept saying "I'm a doctor.I'm a good person."And as always, if you want an extremely uplifting and hopeful ending, Nick Hornby is probably not the author for you.But that's not to say that the ending isn't meaningful ... it's just very realistic for some people's taste.

*@$#!%@#!THE HOMELESS!!!
I am kind of dumbfounded by the negative and low ratings, this book has received.While I have only read Fever Pitch, and only seen High Fidelity on film, my main foray into "How To Be Good" was incredibly satisfying.

I thought Hornby took a lot of chances with this book writing from the mindset of a female, and also from a very flawed character.The lifestyle portrait he describes of a falling apart married couple and the subsequent odd epiphany of her husband made for an ingenious story.A guy like DJ Goodnews is not a common stereotyped character you just find lying around in every book you come across.

There were sections that had me howling when I read it.I think what stood out the most and made this story unique was the way Hornby really nails what I would call "the liberal nightmare".In this book a character forces himself to live by his morals, and finds that while his wife in 'principal' has always felt this way and supportive of those ideas, she is abhored by the fact that now she is forced to put up or shut up on those beliefs or face constant consternation.

The ending is great, it's flawed, on purpose for a reason.We are all fragile and flawed in our beliefs and mistakes life is imperfect.Enjoy!

An armchair, feminist, post-modern "Candide"
If you're at all interested in practical ethics (Is there any other kind?), you'll be fascinated with Hornby's HOW TO BE GOOD. Told from the perspective of a woman doctor whose misanthropic husband suddenly stumbles across his own personal stash of holiness, coincidentally at the time the good doctor is engaging in a half-hearted love affair. The husband's newfound spirituality and concern for the poor sends Dr. Carr and the couple's two children into a bit of a tailspin. Everyone in the family must wrestle with what it means to be good (and to be "good enough). Like Voltaire's great satire, the puzzled heroine-narrator is forced to confront many of society's sacred cows (New Age spirituality, conventional charity, the Church, careerism, marital fidelity, the nuclear family, art, literature, and the role of pop culture).

Hornby's ability to draw flawed but likeable characters infused with wit and humor (even the children) keeps this somewhat uneventful novel from ever becoming dull or pointless. In the end, I very much identified with Dr. Carr and her ambiguous feelings about everything she holds dear. Her questioning helped me question all my relatiionships--with family members, friends, significant others, my church, and my job. It's very much the kind of novel I want to pass on to a friend. ... Read more

Isbn: 1573229326
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Romance - Contemporary    5. Romance: Modern   

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight : An African Childhood
by Alexandra Fuller
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (11 March, 2003)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $10.46
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Reviews (125)

Not everyone will love this...

I had a mixed reaction to "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight." For the first 100 pages, I was engrossed in the fascinating details of Alexandra Fuller's African girlhood. Fuller is an accomplished writer, and she brings the unusual (to me) world to life with lyrical, evocative prose. Parts of her story had me near tears. But, as the book progressed I found myself increasingly frustrated with her stream-of-consciousness style. She weaves time around much like a person who speaks well but is too easily prone to digression. At times I wished she had adopted a more linear approach. I enjoyed best the vignettes about her family and homelife, but wasbored the further the family went from the homebase. Several characters seem vague and several crucial events do not seem resolved by the book's end. All of this may be fine for some storytelling, but I'm not sure this particular tale ever really feels finished. Much like life, I suppose, it remains open ended. But don't we turn to books because they are slightly tidier and more resolute than life?

I don't regret reading "Don't Let's Go" but I'm not sure it's really all it's cracked up to be.

Excellent read
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a brutal portrayal of war-time Zimbabwe. It certainly hides a lot about the wonderful side of Africa and gives a false image of what is good about the magnificent continent and its people .The Story of an African Farm , Disciples of Fortune, The usurper and other Stories, triple agent, Double Cross are similarly insteresting stories to read.

One of my new favorite books...
This is a simply beautiful book. I didn't really know what to expect, as I don't know that much about Africa, but the author eases you into her life quite quickly. By the middle of the book, it's as if you're being dragged in, and it becomes impossible to stop reading. She makes Africa a very tangible thing, something you can almost sense. This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. ... Read more

Isbn: 0375758992
Sales Rank: 1269
Subjects:  1. 1969-    2. Africa - General    3. Biography    4. Biography & Autobiography    5. Biography / Autobiography    6. Biography/Autobiography    7. Childhood Memoir    8. Childhood and youth    9. Fuller, Alexandra,    10. Girls    11. Historical - General    12. Literary    13. Zimbabwe    14. Biography & Autobiography / General    15. Reading Group Guide   

The Nanny Diaries: A Novel
by Emma McLaughlin, Nicola Kraus
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (18 March, 2003)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Editorial Review

The Nanny Diaries is an absolutely addictive peek into the utterly weird world of child rearing in the upper reaches of Manhattan's social strata. Cowritten by two former nannies, Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, the novel follows the adventures of the aptly named Nan as she negotiates the Byzantine byways of working for Mrs. X, a Park Avenue mommy. Nan's 4-year-old charge, the hilariously named Grayer (his pals include Josephina, Christabelle, Brandford, and Darwin) is a genuinely good sort. He can't help it if his mom has scheduled him for every activity known to the Upper East Side, including ice skating, French lessons, and a Mommy and Me group largely attended by nannies. What makes the book so impossible toput down is the suspense of finding out what the unbelievably inconsiderate Mrs. X will demand of Nan next. One pictures the two authors having the last hearty laugh on their former employers. --Claire Dederer ... Read more

Reviews (1256)

For me...snooze-ville
Sorry, but I found this book incredibly dull after all the hype that surrounded it. I guess I expected something better.

So great!
This book was amazing. The writing was so fast paced and exciting. I didn't want the book to end, and when it did I shed a tear for little Grayer. I think that anyone who knows and loves a child will understand the most important lesson of this book: Every child needs to feel loved and comforted by those closes to them. I have recommended this book to all of my friends and family, it's just that good! The main character, Nanny, is such a well written character that I think anyone who has ever had the remotest experience with baby sitting (or being an under-paid live in 'mother') will be able to identify with her. Super wonderful book!

Redeemed itself in the third act (3 1/2 stars)
Nanny has been taking care of kids to get herself through school at NYU. She has been advertising herself on the bulletin board at the parents' league, but her real shot at a high paying job comes when she is strolling through the park. Mrs. X very quickly snatches her up as her new nanny for her only son, Grayer.

At first, Mrs. X seems totally normal, which is probably why Nanny goes to work for the family. Grayer doesn't seem to take to her right away, but he grows to love her the longer she stays. Mr. and Mrs. X do not have the best relationship, as Nanny finds out when she finds Mr. X's "secretary" in the their apartment wearing only a silk kimono. Nan finds that she is not the first person who stole Mr. X from his wife, as Mrs. X once did the same.

Their relationship starts coming apart at the seams, and as this happens, Mrs. X takes it out on Nan. She is condescending, rude, unappreciative, and doesn't even care about her child. (Though how picky she is about what he wears, eats, and does would *seem* otherwise.) It appears that she had him not realizing that she would have to "raise" him, and gets others to do the dirty work, while she locks herself away for some "quiet time."

Will Nanny survive the X's tumultuous relationship and show Grayer the love he has never had? Will she find a life for herself and maybe a new boyfriend?

It started to slow down in the middle of the book, but got very good at the end. (To me, it seems the ending is the most important part!) All of a sudden it was packed with drama and emotion and I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

Even though this story is supposed to be "fictitious," I just want to say that if there is some grain of truth in this story, if the co-authors were ever really treated this way by former bosses, then revenge is definitely sweet. ... Read more

Isbn: 0312291639
Subjects:  1. Reading Group Guide   

The Island of Lost Maps : A True Story of Cartographic Crime
by MILES HARVEY
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (04 September, 2001)
list price: $14.95 -- our price: $10.17
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Editorial Review

In 1995, a watchful patron alerted a librarian at Johns Hopkins University that another patron, a middle-aged and well-dressed man, was behaving suspiciously. The librarian called the police, who discovered that the man, a Floridian named Gilbert Bland, had cut four maps from a set of rare books. On investigation, the police were able to attribute dozens of similar thefts to Bland, thefts that had taken place at a score of the country's best-regarded--and, presumably, best-protected--scholarly institutions.

Like countless other readers, Miles Harvey, a writer for Outside magazine, encountered the news of Bland's arrest as a brief item in the back pages of the morning newspaper. The story stayed with Harvey, who wondered why otherwise law-abiding people behave so badly around antiquities. In The Island of Lost Maps, a wonderfully rich excursion into the demimonde of what might be called cartographomania, Harvey follows Bland's tracks from library to library, reconstructing the crimes of the man he deems the Al Capone of map theft, following the contours of Bland's complex, sinister character. Along the way, Harvey examines the history of cartography generally, and the ravenous market for old maps--once the quiet province of a few knowing collectors, now invaded by speculators. These maps are just another corner of the overpriced status-symbol commodity market--and one that richly rewarded Bland's nefarious work.

Harvey's winding narrative, full of learned detours, adds up to a superbly rendered tale of true crime (and, many readers might object, of insufficient punishment), one that will appeal to book lovers and mystery buffs in equal measure. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (68)

Getting lost in Baltimore
This is the story of a map thief--Gilbert Bland--who cut maps out of rare books in libraries all over the country. He finally got caught at the Peabody Library in Baltimore in 1995. Much of the book is about maps and map making in general; little is about Bland who refuses to talk. Most interesting to me was how Bland got away with it so long: apparently famous university libraries refused to acknowledge the fact that someone had rifled their books, going into complete denial, thus never reporting thefts when they occurred. Amazin'.

Mr. Harvey is more interesting than his subject Mr. Bland...
I love looking over maps and always have, so I absolutely understand Miles Harvey's motivation for writing this book."Island of Lost Maps" was generated by an article that Harvey wrote for "Outside" magazine, about the crime-spree theft of countless valuable old maps by one Gilbert Bland.Harvey tracks Bland and his insidious razor-blade across the country as Bland moved from library to library slicing maps out of old atlases at rare-books libraries, then follows Bland through the justice system.

Bland's story, however, is just not strong enough to bear the weight of a full-length book.When Harvey interweaves the Bland story with the history of exploration, of mapping, and the story of Harvey's own obsession with maps, he has my full attention, and he writes with interest and passion.(For this, I wish I could give the book 3 and a half stars instead of only three.)

But honestly the Bland story holds him back.Bland is not himself a fascinating or exceptional character, his life just isn't that interesting, and in fact Harvey never even gets a chance to meet him, so the drama that can be wrung from this turnip is limited.At one point Harvey is so desparate for drama that he compares the mild-mannered and virtually invisible Bland to the impetuous 19th-century adventurer John Charles Fremont, who first rafted down the Colorado river without even scouting it first.

Although I basically liked this book, I just can't see a parallel between a guy who runs rapids and a guy who razorblades maps out of atlases!

Glad I bought it overstock
Aside from the poor writing style, this book is effectively about nothing yet Harvey tries to write about everything. The book never comes to a focus, but instead dances around many many topics related and unrelated to cartography. The interesting thing is that the author poised himself as a researcher, yet this book couldn't feel less thought out. Thank goodness for the overstock section at my local bookstore. ... Read more

Isbn: 0767908260
Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Criminology    3. Current Affairs    4. General    5. History    6. Law    7. Libraries    8. Map thefts    9. Maps    10. Politics/International Relations    11. Sociology    12. Special collections    13. United States    14. Current Events / General   

The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
by Paulo Coelho
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (10 May, 1995)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Editorial Review

Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.

Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." --Gail Hudson ... Read more

Reviews (715)

The Alchemist - A Bland Tale
The 3 stars are given for the author for trying. Overall, the concepts and ideas in this book are very attractive and interesting. I really respect the author for coming up with such an unique tale. However, maybe it is due to bad translation, but the writing is just so bland that I feel it is very hard to keep the reading going for more than 20 minutes each time. It almost feels as if the book is a collection of the most wordly cliches. One thing that I feel the author neglected to emphasize is what are all these ideas and concepts mean outside of the story? How should we relate the "omens" and "Soul of the World" in real life? It leaves me a bit lost and confused. But then again, maybe that was the point.

the soul of the world
Paulo Coelho's THE ALCHEMIST is a wonderfully charming book for anyone at any age. I received this book as a gift from a friend and a gift it truly is. This is the absolute book of following a dream through to the ends of the earth and discovering that what that dream is can change over the course of time. Although a fiction book, it holds far more truth than most non-fiction readers.

"When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you achieve it." - Melchizedek/King of Salem

This timeless treasure of a book, begins with the shepherd boy Santiago recounting his dream of a journey to the Egyptian pyramids and the gypsy woman in Tarifa who interpreted dreams.

"At a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."

Upon receiving the stones of Urim & Thummim he embarks upon his journey for Egypt, abandoning his sheep that he loved so much in search of his destiny.

Maktub. - 'It is written.'

"Treasure is uncovered by the force of flowing water, and it is buried by the same currents."

The Alchemist tells of things that aren't what they seem, omens that are to be heeded and ways of the Universe that guide our souls in the directions that are best for us. Santiago struggle takes his thru Africa where he encounters thieves, to a crystal merchant he begins working for who not only teaches him, but he helps increase business for, and onto a caravan headed to meet the Arab who resides at Al-Fayoum oasis that possessed exceptional powers.

"The closer one gets to realizing his destiny the more that destiny becomes his true reason for living."

His journey takes him to meet Fatima; the name of the Prophet's daughter. Although great his love for her, she knows he must continue on his journey and tells him "Maktub. If I am really a part of your dream, you'll come back one day."

"If what one finds is made of pure matter, it will never spoil. And one can always come back. "

As you can see this book has some beautiful inspirational teachings underlying this storyline. If you have ever had a dream, or fallen in love, this book will put a bit of joy in your heart, inspire you to pursue what you love and want to share the wonderful story with others.

And that is truly a gift.

Great order
The order went very well.It took a bit longer to get than I had expected, but well recieved.Thanks! ... Read more

Isbn: 0062502182
Subjects:  1. Fables    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Literary    5. Visionary & Metaphysical    6. Fiction / Literary    7. Reading Group Guide   

Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (20 August, 2002)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
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Editorial Review

To the list of great American child narrators that includes Huck Finnand Scout Finch, let us now add Reuben "Rube" Land, the asthmatic 11-year-oldboy at the center of Leif Enger's remarkable first novel, Peace Like aRiver. Rube recalls the events of his childhood, in small-town Minnesota circa1962, in a voice that perfectly captures the poetic, verbal stoicism of thenorthern Great Plains. "Here's what I saw," Rube warns his readers. "Here's howit went. Make of it what you will." And Rube sees plenty.

In the winter of his 11th year, two schoolyard bullies break into the Lands'house, and Rube's big brother Davy guns them down with a Winchester. Shortlyafter his arrest, Davy breaks out of jail and goes on the lam. Swede is Rube'syounger sister, a precocious writer who crafts rhymed epics of romantic Westernoutlawry. Shortly after Davy's escape, Rube, Swede, and their father, a widowedschool custodian, hit the road too, swerving this way and that across Minnesotaand North Dakota, determined to find their lost outlaw Davy. In the end it's notRube who haunts the reader's imagination, it's his father, torn between love forhis outlaw son and the duty to do the right, honest thing. Enger finds somethingquietly heroic in the bred-in-the-bone Minnesota decency of America's heartland.Peace Like a River opens up a new chapter in Midwestern literature.--Claire Dederer ... Read more

Reviews (277)

Rich, moving and enveloping
Okay, I'm jumping onto the bandwagon with gusto. I very highly recommend this novel. It is written in a style that is lush but not pretentious. Though the story-teller is Ruben as an adult, the words and thoughts of the children are very authentic and the emotions are founded in reality even though the events are often supernatural. It is spiritual but not preachy. It is engaging and funny. I am a language arts teacher and will include this on my list of summer reading for my students. For the reader who was disgusted by the lack of commas and the word "and" placed after semicolons -- relax, will you? This is a novel, not a term paper. An author has the right to play it fast and loose with punctuation, grammar and syntax in order to create a desired effect. If you read fiction with the eye of a proof reader, you risk sacrificing the ephemeral on the alter of the practical.

Live with Hope
I really recommend this book because it teaches that no matter how righ or poor a person is, they will still face unpredictable situation in life.For instant, Reuben was born with no air in his lings, which we can say he was dead, but then he was revived.I believe that these miracles still exists in this present time, but most people they do not recognize them as Jeremiah did. This novel reminds me that going through life is never smooth and straight.Not only do we have to depend on our own natural abilities, but also on divinity, destiny and trusting in God.In the world, we see and read about troubles all over but neither human beings nor organizations have been able to bring peace to the world.Jeremiah was a very patient father, took care of three kids and tried to save all of his children's lives. For example, he sold-off everything and spent time traveling to search for one of his sons and also said that he would exchange his life with his son Davy's, if the law accepted. This is assuring me that he had never given up hope to find Davy even though he did not have a definite destination. Thank goodness for those kind people such as August, Birdie and Roxanna that provide food and shelter to these travellers.Along their journey, we can imagine the beauty of many places and the excitment of the sound of the river that seem to be singing louder than ever. Can we ever hope to experience the peacefulness like a stream of continuous flowing water? We can, but we can be sure it can not last forever.The moral of the story is to enjoy life in its simplicity.There are always ups and downs and we must learn to accept them. Be prepared for the unexpected; you never know when our lives can be changed or can be easily snatched away.Strive to be happy!

A Gifted Author's First Work
Apart from my work, I read fiction almost exclusively. I have rarely come across an author with as stunning an ability to capture emotion and event, with such economy of words, as Mr. Enger. For those who enjoy fiction, and who would consider for an instant that this world offers profound experiences, this book is a wonderful read. The descriptions are vivid and succinct. His characters are credible, and lovely. The plot is suspenseful. I loved this book and can't wait for Mr. Enger's next story. ... Read more

Isbn: 0802139256
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Sagas    5. Reading Group Guide   

Night
by Elie Wiesel, Stella Rodway, Francois Mauriac
Average Customer Review:
Mass Market Paperback (01 March, 1982)
list price: $5.99 -- our price: $5.39
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Editorial Review

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's wrenching attempt to find meaning in the horror of the Holocaust is technically a novel, but it's based so closely on his own experiences in Birkenau, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald that it's generally--and not inaccurately--read as an autobiography. Like Wiesel himself, the protagonist of Night is a scholarly, pious teenager racked with guilt at having survived the genocidal campaign that consumed his family. His memories of the nightmare world of the death camps present him with an intolerable question: how can the God he once so fervently believed in have allowed these monstrous events to occur? There are no easy answers in this harrowing book, which probes life's essential riddles with the lucid anguish only great literature achieves. It marks the crucial first step in Wiesel's lifelong project to bear witness for those who died. ... Read more

Reviews (827)

Night
I read the book called Night by Elie Wiesel. Night is about the time when WWII started. Elie was a young boy who lived in a small town known as Sighet, in Transylvania. This town was totally jewish and it was a nice town. The WWII started when Hitler came to Elie's town and took them all to a concentration camp known as Auschwitz. This camp took the lives of millions of jewish people. All of his family were broken up and he knew he would never see them again. His last memory of his mom and sister was in the line splitting man from woman. People were burned up alive because they werent good enough to work. At the end of the book, Elie is the only one from his family to actually survive the war. He saw himself in the mirror for the first time after the war, he saw a corpse looking back at him. This is a great book to read and it is amazing to see what the character of the book has been through. It is important that these chain of events never happen happen again. I greatly and respectively recommend this book to all people out there to read.

Night
A book for ages 15 and up. As a young Jewish boy from Transylvania growing in the early 1940's; Elie Wiesel and his family have heard about the "German War Machine," but never believed that it would affect them. Elie must fight for every last breath, and the only thing worth fighting for is his dad. But how long will his fifty-year-old starving father last in Auschwitz?
A short but powerful book, "Night," puts the audience in Elie Wiesel's place, shows you what he sees, and even makes you feel what he feels. A quick read that will stay with you longer then most other books.

Night
Ages 13 and up. Night portrays a Jewish family torn from their home, from their community, and from each other. Written by Elie Wiesel the story is set in the concentration of Auschwitz. Elie and his father find themselves going through the roughest time in history, the Holocaust. While witnessing death, beatings, horrors, and the brutality of the German guards Eile and his father struggle in between a thin line separating life and death. Their only means of survival is to stick together and never loose faith. Night covers the horrible mistreatment and horror of the Holocaust with out the sugarcoat story. Its truthfulness and being straightforward makes Night one of the best selling books in the world. Night truly is the book that will touch and break your heart at the exact same time. ... Read more

Isbn: 0553272535
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    5. Historical - Holocaust    6. Jewish authors    7. Literary    8. Personal narratives    9. Personal narratives, Jewish    10. World War, 1939-1945    11. Biography & Autobiography / Entertainment & Performing Arts