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books tagged “american lit” (American lit)
books tagged “american lit”
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Accordion Crimesby E. Annie ProulxISBN 0786208015 (0-7862-0801-5)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Accordion Crimes'Book summary:Proulx found fertile, if rocky, soil for her first two novels (Postcards and The Shipping News) in the far northeastern corner of North America. In Accordion Crimes she ranges much further afield. The novel follows an accordion from the hands of its maker in Sicily in 1890 until it is flattened by a truck in Florida in 1996. In the intervening century it passes through the hands of a host of unlucky owners and their kin: Abelardo Relampago, who dies from the bite of a poisonous spider; Dolor Gagnon, decapitated by his own chain saw; Silvano, cut down in the jungles of Venezuela by an Indian's arrow. [via]
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain, Mark Adventures of Huckleberry Finn TwainISBN 0762401141 (0-7624-0114-1)
Hardcover, Courage Books
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An American Tragedyby Theodore DreiserISBN 0808509519 (0-8085-0951-9)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
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Angels & Demonsby Dan BrownISBN 074349346X (0-7434-9346-X)
Softcover, Washington Square Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Angels & Demons'Book summary:Hardcover Special Illustrated edition of Angels & Demons [via]
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Angels and Demonsby Dan BrownISBN 0743277716 (0-7432-7771-6)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Angels and Demons'Book summary:It takes guts to write a novel that combines an ancient secret brotherhood, the Swiss Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, 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.
Brown seems as much juggler as author--there are lots and lots of balls in the air in this novel, yet Brown manages to hurl the reader headlong into an almost surreal suspension of disbelief. While the reader might wish for a little more sardonic humor from Langdon, and a little less bombastic philosophizing on the eternal conflict between religion and science, these are less fatal flaws than niggling annoyances--readers should have no trouble skimming past them and immersing themselves in a heck of a good read. "Brain candy" it may be, but my! It's tasty. --Kelly Flynn [via]
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The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklinby Benjamin Franklin, Lewis LearyISBN 0743255062 (0-7432-5506-2)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin'Book summary:"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" is one of the most important and influential works in American history. It tells the story of Franklin's life from his humble beginnings to his emergence as a leading figure in the American colonies. In the process, it creates a portrait of Franklin as the quintessential American. Because of the book, Franklin became a role model for future generations of Americans, who hoped to emulate his rags to riches story. "The Autobiography" has also become one of the central works not just for understanding Franklin but for understanding America. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a man of many roles-printer, author, philosopher, scientist, inventor, diplomat, and politician to name only a few. He lived a wide and varied life and found himself at the center of virtually every major event involving America during the second half of the eighteenth century. He was so successful as a businessman that he was able to retire at the age of 42. He proved equally adept at science, and his experiments in electricity made him the most famous American in the colonies. Politics and diplomacy occupied him for most of the latter half of his life. [via]
More editions of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: ISBN 0760768617 (0-7607-6861-7)
Softcover, Barnes & Noble Books - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: ISBN 080490071X (0-8049-0071-X)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: ISBN 0743255062 (0-7432-5506-2)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: ISBN 0760768617 (0-7607-6861-7)
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The Awakening and Selected Stories of Kate Chopinby Kate Chopin, Nina Baym, Alyssa HaradISBN 0743487672 (0-7434-8767-2)
Softcover, Pocket Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Awakening and Selected Stories of Kate Chopin'Book summary:I used this book for a college class... But read it again because it was SOOOO good! [via]
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Bee Seasonby Myla GoldbergISBN 0786225440 (0-7862-2544-0)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bee Season'Book summary:In Myla Goldberg's outstanding first novel, a family is shaken apart by a small but unexpected shift in the prospects of one of its members. When 9-year-old Eliza Naumann, an otherwise indifferent student, takes first prize in her school spelling bee, it is as if rays of light have begun to emanate from her head. Teachers regard her with a new fondness; the studious girls begin to save a place for her at lunch. Even Eliza can sense herself changing. She had "often felt that her outsides were too dull for her insides, that deep within her there was something better than what everyone else could see."
Eliza's father, Saul, a scholar and cantor, had long since given up expecting sparks of brilliance on her part. While her brother, Aaron, had taken pride in reciting his Bar Mitzvah prayers from memory, she had typically preferred television reruns to homework or reading. This belated evidence of a miraculous talent encourages Saul to reassess his daughter. And after she wins the statewide bee, he begins tutoring her for the national competition, devoting to Eliza the hours he once spent with Aaron. His daughter flowers under his care, eventually coming to look at life "in alphabetical terms." "Consonants are the camels of language," she realizes, "proudly carrying their lingual loads."
Vowels, however, are a different species, the fish that flash and glisten in the watery depths. Vowels are elastic and inconstant, fickle and unfaithful.... Before the bee, Eliza had been a consonant, slow and unsurprising. With her bee success, she has entered vowelhood.
When Saul sees the state of transcendence that she effortlessly achieves in competition, he encourages his daughter to explore the mystical states that have eluded him--the influx of God-knowledge (shefa) described by the Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia. Although Saul has little idea what he has set in motion, "even the sound of Abulafia's name sets off music in her head. A-bu-la-fi-a. It's magic, the open sesame that unblocked the path to her father and then to language itself."Meanwhile, stunned by his father's defection, Aaron begins a troubling religious quest. Eliza's brainy, compulsive mother is also unmoored by her success. The spelling champion's newfound gift for concentration reminds Miriam of herself as a girl, and she feels a pang for not having seen her daughter more clearly before. But Eliza's clumsy response to Miriam's overtures convinces her mother that she has no real ties to her daughter. This final disappointment precipitates her departure into a stunning secret life. The reader is left wondering what would have happened if the Naumanns' spiritual thirsts had not been set in restless motion. A poignant and exceptionally well crafted tale, Bee Season has a slow beginning but a tour-de-force conclusion. --Regina Marler [via]
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The Beet Queen: A Novelby Louise ErdrichISBN 0805000585 (0-8050-0058-5)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co
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Big Fishby Daniel WallaceISBN 0786230436 (0-7862-3043-6)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Big Fish'Book summary:In Big Fish, Daniel Wallace angles in search of a father and hooks instead a fictional debut as winning as any this year. From his son's standpoint, Edward Bloom leaves much to be desired. He was never around when William was growing up; he eludes serious questions with a string of tall tales and jokes. This is subject matter as old as the hills, but Wallace's take is nothing if not original. Desperate to know his father before he dies, William recreates his father's life as the stuff of legend itself. In chapters titled "In Which He Speaks to Animals," "How He Tamed the Giant," "His Immortality," and the like, Edward Bloom walks miles through a blizzard, charms the socks off a giant, even runs so fast that "he could arrive in a place before setting out to get there." In between these heroic episodes, Bloom dies not once but four times, working subtle variations on a single scene in which he counters his son's questions with stories--some of which are actually very witty, indeed. After all, he admits, "...if I shared my doubts with you, about God and love and life and death, that's all you'd have: a bunch of doubts. But now, see, you've got all these great jokes." The structure is a clever conceit, and the end product is both funny and wise. At the heart of both legends and death scenes live the same age-old questions: Who are you? What matters to you? Was I a good father? Was I a good son? In mapping the territory where myth meets everyday life, Wallace plunges straight through to fatherhood's archaic and mysterious heart. --Mary Park [via]
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The Big Sleepby Raymond ChandlerISBN 0762188804 (0-7621-8880-4)
Hardcover, Scriptorium Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Big Sleep'Book summary:"His thin, claw-like hands were folded loosely on the rug, purple-nailed. A few locks of dry white hair clung to his scalp, like wild flowers fighting for life on a bare rock." Published in 1939, when Raymond Chandler was 50, this is the first of the Philip Marlowe novels. Its bursts of sex, violence, and explosively direct prose changed detective fiction forever. "She was trouble. She was tall and rangy and strong-looking. Her hair was black and wiry and parted in the middle. She had a good mouth and a good chin. There was a sulky droop to her lips and the lower lip was full." [via]
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Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Storiesby Herman MelvilleISBN 0808519425 (0-8085-1942-5)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories'Book summary:Melville's short stories are masterpieces. The best are to be appreciated on more than one level and those presented here are rich with symbolism and spiritual depth. Set in 1797, Billy Budd, Foretopman exploits the tension of this period during the war between England and France to create a tale of satanic treachery, tragedy and great pathos that explores human relationships and the inherently ambiguous nature of man-made justice. Tales such as Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The Lightning Rod Man, The Tartarus of Maids or I and My Chimney, show the timeless poetic power of Melville's writing as he consciously uses the disguise of allegory in various ways and to various ends. [via]
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The Body Artistby Don DelilloISBN 0743203968 (0-7432-0396-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Body Artist'Book summary:In The Body Artist, Don DeLillo sacrifices breadth for depth, narrowing his focus to a single life, a single death. The protagonist is Lauren Hartke, who we see sharing breakfast with her husband, Rey, in the opening pages. This 18-page sequence is a tour de force (albeit a less showy one than the author's initial salvo in Underworld)--an intricate, funny notation of Lauren's consciousness as she pours cereal, peers out the window and makes idle chat. Rey, alas, will proceed directly from the breakfast table to the home of his former wife, where he'll unceremoniously blow his brains out.
What follows is one of the strangest ghost stories since The Turn of the Screw. Returning to their summer rental after Rey's funeral, Lauren discovers a strange stowaway living in a spare room: an inarticulate young man, perhaps retarded, who may have been there for weeks. His very presence is hard for her to pin down: "There was something elusive in his aspect, moment to moment, a thinning of physical address." Yet soon this mysterious figure begins to speak in Rey's voice, and her own, playing back entire conversations from the days preceding the suicide. Has Lauren's husband been reincarnated? Or is the man simply an eavesdropping idiot savant, reproducing sentences he'd heard earlier from his concealment?
DeLillo refuses any definitive answer. Instead he lets Lauren steep in her grief and growing puzzlement, and speculates in his own voice about this apparent intersection of past and present, life and death. At times his rhetoric gets away from him, an odd thing for such a superbly controlled writer. "How could such a surplus of vulnerability find itself alone in the world?" he asks, sounding as though he's discussing a sick puppy. Still, when DeLillo reigns in the abstractions and bears down, the results are heartbreaking.
At this stage of his career, a thin book is an adventure for DeLillo. So is his willingness to risk sentimentality, to immerse us in personal rather than national traumas. For all its flaws, then, The Body Artist is a real, raw accomplishment, and a reminder that bigger, even for so capacious an imagination as DeLillo's, isn't always better. --James Marcus [via]
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Bridge Of San Luis Reyby Thornton Wilder, Amy DrevenstedtISBN 076619440X (0-7661-9440-X)
Softcover, Kessinger Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bridge Of San Luis Rey'Book summary:1928. Wilder's second novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize. The book begins with the collapse of the finest bridge in all Peru and the deaths of five people. Brother Juniper, a Franciscan missionary, who witnesses the tragedy, asks Why did these five die? To explain Divine Providence, he sets out to interpret the lives of the five victims and to understand why they died. At the end, his writings are considered heretical and both Juniper and his work are burned by the Inquisition. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. [via]
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Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplayby Annie ProulxISBN 0743271327 (0-7432-7132-7)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay'Book summary:Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, "Brokeback Mountain" is her masterpiece.
Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.
Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.
The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain," and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance. [via]
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The Cat Who Tailed a Thiefby Lilian Jackson BraunISBN 0783880464 (0-7838-8046-4)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cat Who Tailed a Thief'Book summary:Lillian Jackson Braun never seems to run out of ideas for her popular series of mysteries featuring journalist Jim Qwilleran and his feline cohort, Koko. In this latest, The Cat Who Tailed A Thief, Koko again exhibits her preternatural intelligence by trying to tip off Qwilleran to important clues to a murder. That Qwilleran is not possessed of the same mental acuity as his cat is what makes this series work. Braun may not be noted for refined prose, perceptive characterizations, or stunningly original plots, but what she does do well is cats. Fans of felines in general and Koko in particular will find this book, the 19th in the Qwilleran series, almost as irresistible as, well, catnip. Some would even say it's purr-fect. [via]
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Cat's Cradleby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0805013199 (0-8050-1319-9)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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The Chosenby Harold BloomISBN 0791081737 (0-7910-8173-7)
Hardcover, Facts on File
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Chosen'Book summary:Enjoy a comprehensive analysis and summary of The Chosen. Includes biographical sketches, summaries, an annotated bibliography, contributor profiles and index. [via]
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Cider House Rulesby John IrvingISBN 0786885238 (0-7868-8523-8)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cider House Rules'Book summary:First published in 1985, The Cider House Rules is John Irving's sixth novel. Set in rural Maine in the first half of this century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch--saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud's, ether addict and abortionist. It is also the story of Dr. Larch's favorite orphan, Homer Wells, who is never adopted. [via]
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Close Rangeby Annie ProulxISBN 0783886772 (0-7838-8677-2)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Close Range'Book summary:A breathtaking collection of unabridged stories from the Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes
Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love.
Close Range features stories of desperation, hard times, and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both brutal and magnificent. Enlivened by folk tales, flights of fancy, and details of ranch and rural work, they juxtapose Wyoming's traditional character and attitudes -- confrontation of tough problems, prejudice, persistence in the face of difficulty -- with the more benign values of the new west.
Stories in Close Range have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's and GQ. They have been selected for the O. Henry Stories 1998 and The Best American Short Stories of the Century and have won the National Magazine Award for Fiction. This is work by an author writing at the peak of her craft. [via]
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The Collected Stories of Amy Hempelby Amy Hempel, Rick MoodyISBN 0743291638 (0-7432-9163-8)
Softcover, Scribner
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An Edited Edition of Sarah Orne Jewett's the Country of the Pointed Firsby Sarah Orne Jewett, Jeff MorganISBN 077346588X (0-7734-6588-X)
Hardcover, Edwin Mellen Pr
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Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Gardenby Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jason Cockcroft, Gillian CrossISBN 0753454793 (0-7534-5479-3)
Hardcover, Kingfisher Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden'Book summary:Children's Books [via]
More editions of Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden:
- Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden: ISBN 0766607178 (0-7666-0717-8)
Hardcover, Modern Pub - Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden: ISBN 0753406020 (0-7534-0602-0)
Hardcover, Kingfisher - Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden: ISBN 0805002774 (0-8050-0277-4)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co - Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden: ISBN 0753454793 (0-7534-5479-3)
Hardcover, Kingfisher Books
- Frances Hodgson Burnett's the Secret Garden: ISBN 0766607178 (0-7666-0717-8)
Great Novels of Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, And the Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark TwainISBN 0756779812 (0-7567-7981-2)
Hardcover, Diane Pub Co
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Gynecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminismby Mary DalyISBN 0807014133 (0-8070-1413-3)
Softcover, Beacon Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gynecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism'Book summary:This revised edition includes a New Intergalactic Introduction by the Author.
Mary Daly's New Intergalactic Introduction explores her process as a Crafty Pirate on the Journey of Writing Gyn/Ecology and reveals the autobiographical context of this "Thunderbolt of Rage" that she first hurled against the patriarchs in 1979 and no hurls again in the Re-Surging Movement of Radical Feminism in the Be-Dazzling Nineties. [via]More editions of Gynecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism:
The Heart of Darknessby Joseph ConradISBN 0804901120 (0-8049-0112-0)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co
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Henry James's the Portrait of a Ladyby Harold BloomISBN 0791045145 (0-7910-4514-5)
Hardcover, Facts on File
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Henry James's the Portrait of a Lady'Book summary:In his introduction Harold Bloom calls Henry James "an endlessly fecund novelist and short-story writer." He goes on to suggest that character-portraiture was one of his superb skills. This superb collection of essays touches on topics such as character delineation in the novel, narrative method, imagery, diction, and method. This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School. These texts are the ideal aid for all students of literature, presenting concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on a specific literary work. Also provided are multiple sources for book reports and term papers with a wealth of information on literary works, authors, and major characters. [via]
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Holesby Louis SacharISBN 0747546487 (0-7475-4648-7)
Softcover, Bloomsbury Pub Ltd
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Holes'Book summary:"If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to get along with the Lord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as thick as the irony.
It's a strange story, but strangely compelling and lovely too. Louis Sachar uses poker-faced understatement to create a bizarre but believable landscape--a place where Major Major Major Major of Catch-22 would feel right at home. But while there is humor and absurdity here, there is also a deep understanding of friendship and a searing compassion for society's underdogs. As Stanley unknowingly begins to fulfill his destiny--the dual plots coming together to reveal that fate has big plans in store--we can't help but cheer for the good guys, and all the Yelnats everywhere. (Ages 10 and older) --Brangien Davis [via]
Icy Sparks: Library Editionby Gwyn Hyman RubioISBN 0783895100 (0-7838-9510-0)
Softcover, Thorndike Pr
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Islands in the Streamby Ernest HemingwayISBN 0743253426 (0-7432-5342-6)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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Jazzby Toni MorrisonISBN 0785719857 (0-7857-1985-7)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jazz'Book summary:Jazz embraces the vibrant music and lifestyle of 1920s Harlem, an urban renaissance of opportunity and glamour. A novel of murder, hard lives, and broken dreams, Jazz sways with a lyric medley of voices and human consciousness.
Narrated by the author, Toni Morrison, this is an intense but gratifying three hours of tape. Background jazz music enhances the feel of '20s Harlem, a city that attracted thousands of black southerners hoping for better lives. Joe Trace and his wife Violet were part of this migration; madly in love with each other and the idea of this urban mecca, they "traindanced into the city." But like so many of the marriages in Morrison's novels, this union crumbles, and the dreams for a better life fade away. Joe finds another, a love "that made him so sad and happy he shot her just to keep the feeling going."
In Jazz, time ebbs and flows like human memory, traversing between recollections of the past and expectations for the future; likewise, jazz music is often wild and chaotic. Here Morrison once again exemplifies herself as both a superb writer and a masterful storyteller. [via]
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Juggling the Stars/a Novel of Menaceby Tim ParksISBN 0802115012 (0-8021-1501-2)
Hardcover, Grove Pr
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Ladder of Yearsby Anne TylerISBN 0804113475 (0-8041-1347-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ladder of Years'Book summary:"UTTERLY COMPELLING . . . WONDERFULLY SATISFYING . . . VIRTUALLY FLAWLESS."
--Chicago Tribune
BALTIMORE WOMAN DISAPPEARS DURING FAMILY VACATION, declares the headline. Forty-year-old Delia Grinstead is last seen strolling down the Delaware shore, wearing nothing more than a bathing suit and carrying a beach tote with five hundred dollars tucked inside. To her husband and three almost-grown children, she has vanished without trace or reason. But for Delia, who feels like a tiny gnat buzzing around her family's edges, "walking away from it all" is not a premeditated act but an impulse that will lead her into a new, exciting, and unimagined life. . . .
"TYLER DETAILS DELIA'S ADVENTURE WITH GREAT SKILL. . . . As so often in her earlier fiction, [she] creates distinct characters caught in poignantly funny situations. . . . Tyler writes with a clarity that makes the commonplace seem fresh and the pathetic touching."
--The New York Times [via]More editions of Ladder of Years:
The Last of the Mohicansby James Fenimore CooperISBN 0804900051 (0-8049-0005-1)
Softcover, Alex m Yudkin Assoc
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The Last of the Mohicans/ Book With Kitby James Fenimore CooperISBN 0764170481 (0-7641-7048-1)
Hardcover, Barrons Juveniles
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last of the Mohicans/ Book With Kit'Book summary:The Last of the Mohicans/ Book With Kit (Living Classics Series) [via]
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Life on the Mississippiby Mark TwainISBN 0804900558 (0-8049-0055-8)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co
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The Love Letterby Cathleen SchineISBN 0783814518 (0-7838-1451-8)
Hardcover, G K Hall & Co
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Main Streetby Sinclair Lewis, Matthew Joseph BruccoliISBN 0786703253 (0-7867-0325-3)
Softcover, Carroll & Graf Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Main Street'Book summary:This classic by Sinclair Lewis shattered the sentimental American myth of happy small-town life with its satire. "Main Street" attacks the conformity and dullness of early 20th Century midwestern village life in the story of Carol Milford, the city girl who marries the town doctor. Her efforts to bring culture to the prairie village are met by a wall of gossip, greed, and petty small-minded bigotry. Lewis's complex and compelling work established him as an important character in American literature. [via]
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Map of the Worldby Jane HamiltonISBN 0783811896 (0-7838-1189-6)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Map of the World'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, December 1999: In A Map of the World, appearance overwhelms reality and communal hysteria threatens common sense. Howard and Alice Goodheart, the couple at the center of Jane Hamilton's 1994 novel, have labored mightily to create a pastoral paradise in a Wisconsin subdivision. Their 400-acre dairy farm is the last in Prairie Center, and they're working flat out to raise their two young girls in a traditionally bucolic manner. Yet paradoxically, they strike their neighbors as unacceptably modern, and have been treated as interlopers since the day of their arrival. Howard, in love with his vocation, chooses not to believe that they've been frozen out. But Alice, flinty and quick to judge, finds things harder. And her job as school nurse doesn't work wonders for her reputation either. Happily, there's one exception to this epidemic of unfriendliness: their closest neighbors. Theresa and Dan, who also have two young daughters, function as a virtual lifeline for the embattled family.
But in June 1990, whatever idyll the Goodhearts have worked for comes to a permanent end. On a beautiful morning--marred by her 5-year-old's tantrum but still recuperable--Alice looks forward to taking her children and Theresa's youngest for a swim. Distracted for several minutes, she has no idea that the 2-year-old is no longer in the house:
Lizzy had run to the pond and splashed in. It had felt good on her hot feet and she kept running and then she was pedaling and pedaling. She tried to grab hold of the water, pawing for the metal bar, a ladder rung, her mother, but there was nothing. She clutched and flailed.... She sank. The trout that Howard had stocked in the pond swam along through the dark water. They noticed Lizzy out of the corner of their eyes. They had inherited the knowledge of that look, and they knew it by heart.
This is only the first of Alice's body blows. Next, she's questioned about one of her students, a memorably bad seed. On the verge of collapse, she cries out, "I hurt everybody!"--which will later be construed as a confession. Charged with sexual abuse and unable to come up with $100,000 in bail, she is forced to await trial in jail.Narrated first by Alice, then Howard, and then Alice again, A Map of the World moves from intimate domesticity to courtroom drama with grace and subtlety. Hamilton wrote her book when accusations of abuse in schools and day care were peaking, yet this is not a modish work or an "issue novel" but a lasting creation of several complex lives. At one point, fed up with civil mechanisms, Alice tells her lawyer: "'Let Oprah be the judge.... Let Robbie and me, Mrs. Mackessy, Howard, Theresa, Dan, Mrs. Glevitch--let all of us come before Oprah. Let the studio audience decide. They're nice suburban woman, many of them, dressed for a lark. They have common sense and speak their minds.'" Apparently La Winfrey was listening, since she chose this beautifully observed novel for her book club. --Kerry Fried [via]
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Me Talk Pretty One Dayby David SedarisISBN 0783892799 (0-7838-9279-9)
Softcover, G K Hall & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Me Talk Pretty One Day'Book summary:"It's a pretty grim world when I can't even feel superior to a toddler." Welcome to the curious mind of David Sedaris, where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and French toddlers unmask the inadequacies of the American male. Sedaris inhabits this world as a misanthrope chronicling all things petty and small. In Me Talk Pretty One Day Sedaris is as determined as ever to be nobody's hero--he never triumphs, he never conquers--and somehow, with each failure, he inadvertently becomes everybody's favorite underdog. The world's most eloquent malcontent, Sedaris has turned self-deprecation into a celebrated art form--one that is perhaps best experienced in audio. "Go Carolina," his account of "the first battle of my war against the letter s" is particularly poignant. Unable to disguise the lisp that has become his trademark, Sedaris highlights (to hilarious extent) the frustration of reading "childish s-laden texts recounting the adventures of seals or settlers named Sassy or Samuel." Including 23 of the book version's 28 stories, two live performances complete with involuntary laughter, and an uncannily accurate Billie Holiday impersonation, the audio is more than a companion to the text; it stands alone as a performance piece--only without the sock monkeys. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Daphne Durham [via]
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The Naked and the Deadby Norman MailerISBN 0805060189 (0-8050-6018-9)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Naked and the Dead'Book summary:Hailed as one of the finest novels to come out of the Second World War, The Naked and the Dead received unprecedented critical acclaim upon its publication and has since enjoyed a long and well-deserved tenure in the American canon. This fiftieth anniversary edition features a new introduction created especially for the occasion by Norman Mailer.[via]
Written in gritty, journalistic detail, the story follows a platoon of Marines who are stationed on the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Composed in 1948 with the wisdom of a man twice Mailer's age and the raw courage of the young man he was, The Naked and the Dead is representative of the best in twentieth-century American writing.More editions of The Naked and the Dead:
- The Naked and the Dead: ISBN 0805005218 (0-8050-0521-8)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co - The Naked and the Dead: ISBN 0805060170 (0-8050-6017-0)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co - The Naked and the Dead: ISBN 0805012737 (0-8050-1273-7)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co - The Naked and the Dead: ISBN 0805060189 (0-8050-6018-9)
Hardcover, Henry Holt & Co
- The Naked and the Dead: ISBN 0805005218 (0-8050-0521-8)
Nexusby Henry MillerISBN 0802151787 (0-8021-5178-7)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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One for the Moneyby Janet EvanovichISBN 0743267710 (0-7432-6771-0)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One for the Money'Book summary:Stephanie Plum is so smart, so honest, and so funny that her narrative charm could drive a documentary on termites. But this tough gal from New Jersey, an unemployed discount lingerie buyer, has a much more interesting story to tell: She has to say that her Miata has been repossessed and that she's so poor at the moment that she just drank her last bottle of beer for breakfast. She has to say that her only chance out of her present rut is her repugnant cousin Vinnie and his bail-bond business. She has to say that she blackmailed Vinnie into giving her a bail-bond recovery job worth $10,000 (for a murder suspect), even though she doesn't own a gun and has never apprehended a person in her life. And she has to say that the guy she has to get, Joe Morelli, is the same creep who charmed away her teenage virginity behind the pastry case in the Trenton bakery where she worked after school.
If that hard-luck story doesn't sound compelling enough, Stephanie's several unsuccessful attempts at pulling in Joe make a downright hilarious and suspenseful tale of murder and deceit. Along the way, several more outlandish (but unrelentingly real) characters join the story, including Benito Ramirez, a champion boxer who seems to be following Stephanie Plum wherever she goes.
Janet Evanovich shares an authentic feel for the streets of Trenton in her debut mystery (she developed her talents in a string of romance novels before creating Ms. Plum), and her tough, frank, and funny first-person narrator offers a winning mix of vulgarity and sensitivity. Evanovich is certainly among the best of the new voices to emerge in the mystery field of the 1990s. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
The Place of Dead Roadsby William S. BurroughsISBN 0805015418 (0-8050-1541-8)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Place of Dead Roads'Book summary:A good old-fashioned shoot-out in the American West of the frontier days serves as the springboard for this hyperkinetic adventure in which gunslingers lead by Kim Carson fight for galactic freedom.AUTHORBIO: William S. Burroughs was born in St. Louis in 1914.His many other works include NAKED LUNCH and JUNKY.Described by Norman Mailer as one of Americas few writers genuinely possessed by genius, he died in 1997.
[via]
Plexusby Henry MillerISBN 0802151795 (0-8021-5179-5)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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Practical Magicby Alice HoffmanISBN 0786205148 (0-7862-0514-8)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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Pudd'Nhead Wilsonby Mark Twain, Alyssa Harad, Cynthia Brantley JohnsonISBN 0743487788 (0-7434-8778-8)
Softcover, Pocket Classics
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The Rapture of Canaanby Sheri ReynoldsISBN 078388270X (0-7838-8270-X)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Rapture of Canaan'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 1997: Members of the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind spend their days and nights serving the Lord and waiting for the Rapture--that moment just before the Second Coming of Christ when the saved will be lifted bodily to heaven and the damned will be left behind to face the thousand years of tribulation on earth. The tribulation, according to Grandpa Herman, founder of Fire and Brimstone, will be an ugly time: "He said that we'd run out of food. That big bugs would chase us around and sting us with their tails . . . He said we'd turn on the faucet in the bathroom and find only blood running out . . . He said evil multitudes would come unto us and cut off our limbs, and that we wouldn't die . . . And then he'd say, 'But you don't have to be left behind. You can go straight to Heaven with all of God's special children if you'll only open your hearts to Jesus . . .'"
Such talk of damnation weighs heavy on the mind of Ninah Huff, the 15-year-old narrator of Sheri Reynolds's second novel, The Rapture of Canaan. To distract her from sinful thoughts about her prayer partner James, Ninah puts pecan shells in her shoes and nettles in her bed. But concentrating on the Passion of Jesus cannot, in the end, deter Ninah and James from their passion for each other, and the consequences prove both tragic and transforming for the entire community.
The Rapture of Canaan is a book about miracles, and in writing it, Reynolds has performed something of a miracle herself. Although the church's beliefs and practices may seem extreme (sleeping in an open grave, mortifying the flesh with barbed wire), its members are complex and profoundly sympathetic as they wrestle with the contradictions of Fire and Brimstone's theology, the temptations of the outside world, and the frailties of the human heart. [via]
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The Red Badge of Courageby Stephen CraneISBN 076072847X (0-7607-2847-X)
Hardcover, Barnes & Noble
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Roughing Itby Mark Twain, Henry B. WonhamISBN 0743436504 (0-7434-3650-4)
Softcover, Pocket Classics
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Roughing It'Book summary:There is no nicer surprise for a reader than to discover that an acknowledged classic really does deliver the goods. Mark Twain's Roughing It is just such a book. The adventure tale is a delight from start to finish and is just as engrossing today as it was 125 years ago when it first appeared.
Roughing It tells the true-ish escapades of Twain in the American West. Although he clearly "speaks with forked tongue," Roughing It is informative as well as humorous. From stagecoach travel to the etiquette of prospecting, the modern reader gains considerable insight into that much-fictionalized time and place. Do you know about sagebrush, for example?
Sage-brush is very fair fuel, but as a vegetable it is a distinguished failure. Nothing can abide the taste of it but the jackass and his illegitimate child, the mule. But their testimony to its nutritiousness is worth nothing, for they will eat pine knots, or anthracite coal, or brass filings, or lead pipe, or old bottles, or anything that comes handy, and then go off looking as grateful as if they had had oysters for dinner.
Roughing It is informally structured around the narrator's attempts to strike it rich. He meets a motley, colorful crew in the process; many mishaps occur, and it shouldn't surprise you that Twain does not emerge a man of means. But he withstands it all in such a relentless good humor that his misfortune inspires laughter. Roughing It is wonderful entertainment and reminds you how funny the world can be--even its grimmer districts--when you're traveling with the right writer. [via]More editions of Roughing It:
Sexusby Henry MillerISBN 0802151809 (0-8021-5180-9)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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The Shipping News : A Novelby E. Annie ProulxISBN 0743225406 (0-7432-2540-6)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Shipping News : A Novel'Book summary:In this touching and atmospheric novel set among the fishermen of Newfoundland, Proulx tells the story of Quoyle. From all outward appearances, Quoyle has gone through his first 36 years on earth as a big schlump of a loser. He's not attractive, he's not brilliant or witty or talented, and he's not the kind of person who typically assumes the central position in a novel. But Proulx creates a simple and compelling tale of Quoyle's psychological and spiritual growth. Along the way, we get to look in on the maritime beauty of what is probably a disappearing way of life. [via]
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Shoeless Joeby W.P. KinsellaISBN 078572902X (0-7857-2902-X)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shoeless Joe'Book summary:W. P. Kinsella plays with both myth and fantasy in his lyrical novel, which was adapted into the enormously popular movie, Field of Dreams. It begins with the magic of a godlike voice in a cornfield, and ends with the magic of a son playing catch with the ghost of his father. In Kinsella's hands, it's all about as simple, and complex, as the object of baseball itself: coming home. Like Ring Lardner and Bernard Malamud before him, Kinsella spins baseball as backdrop and metaphor, and, like his predecessors, uses the game to tell us a little something more about who we are and what we need. [via]
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Shopgirlby Steve MartinISBN 0786885688 (0-7868-8568-8)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shopgirl'Book summary:Steve Martin's first foray into fiction is as assured as it is surprising. Set in Los Angeles, its fascination with the surreal body fascism of the upper classes feels like the comedian's familiar territory, but the shopgirl of the book's title may surprise his fans. Mirabelle works in the glove department of Neiman's, "selling things that nobody buys any more." Spending her days waiting for customers to appear, Mirabelle "looks like a puppy standing on its hind legs, and the two brown dots of her eyes, set in the china plate of her face, make her seem very cute and noticeable." Lonely and vulnerable, she passes her evenings taking prescription drugs and drawing "dead things," while pursuing an on-off relationship with the hopeless Jeremy, who possesses "a slouch so extreme that he appears to have left his skeleton at home." Then Mr. Ray Porter steps into Mirabelle's life. He is much older, rich, successful, divorced, and selfish, desiring her "without obligation." Complicating the picture is Mirabelle'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 by all four of Martin's characters sees Shopgirl veer rather uncomfortably between a comedy of manners and a much darker work. There are some startling passages of description and interior monologue, but the characters are often rather hazy types. Martin tries too hard in his attempt to write a psychologically intense novel about West Coast anomie, but Shopgirl is still an enjoyable, if rather light, read. --Jerry Brotton [via]
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Summerby Edith WhartonISBN 0783818319 (0-7838-1831-9)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Summer'Book summary:A groundbreaking study of society, nature, and human needs, Edith Wharton's starkly simple Summer---a portrayal of a young woman's sexual and social awakening---is admittedly one of the author's favorites.[via]More editions of Summer:
The Ticket That Explodedby William S. BurroughsISBN 0802151507 (0-8021-5150-7)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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The Tidewater Talesby John BarthISBN 080185556X (0-8018-5556-X)
Softcover, Johns Hopkins Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tidewater Tales'Book summary:"Tell me a story..." Katherine Shorter Sherritt Sagamore, 8 1/2 months pregnant, is a blue-blooded library scientist and founding mother of the American Society for the Preservation of Storytelling. Her husband Peter, 8 1/2 months nervous, is a blue-collar storyteller with a penchant for brevity. Sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, they tell each other tales to break the writer's block handed Peter by his Muse, to ease the weight of Katherine's pregnancy, to entertain, and to enlighten. Along with their stories, we learn of the Bay itselfpast and present. The beloved Chesapeake, where young Peter once indulged his Huck Finn fantasy, is in danger of becoming what he dubs a moral cesspool; where nature is in a losing struggle with man; where the hallowed Deniston School for Girls is being pressured by the CIA to sell land to the Soviet embassy; and where the old Sagamore homestead might or might not be the newest espionage station on the shoreline.
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Tropic of Capricornby Henry MillerISBN 0802151825 (0-8021-5182-5)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tropic of Capricorn'Book summary:Great classic work, by Arthir Miller [via]
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The Voyage of the Narwhalby Andrea BarrettISBN 0786217510 (0-7862-1751-0)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Voyage of the Narwhal'Book summary:In Andrea Barrett's extraordinary novel of Arctic and personal exploration, maps are deceitful, ice all-powerful, and reputation more important than truth or human lives. When the Narwhal sets sail from Philadelphia in May 1855, its ostensible goal is to find the crew of a long-vanished expedition--or at least their relics--and be home before winter. Of course, if the men can chart new coasts and stock up on specimens en route, so much the better. And then there's the keen prospect of selling their story, fraught with danger and discovery, to a public thirsting for excitement. Zeke Voorhees, the Narwhal's young commander, is so handsome that he makes women stare and men "hum with envy"--perhaps not the best qualification for his post--but he seems loved by all. Only his brother-in-law-to-be, a naturalist, quietly mistrusts him, though he's determined to stand by the youth for his sister Lavinia's sake. At 40, eternal low-profiler Erasmus Darwin Wells has one disastrous expedition behind him and is praying for another scientific chance. He is, however, familiar with the physical risks they're taking, as well as the "long stretches when nothing happened except that one's ties to home were imperceptibly dissolved and one became a stranger to one's life."
And what of the women left behind? Lavinia knows little of the dangers of ice (though she's well schooled in isolation) and lives only for Zeke's return. Her companion, Alexandra Copeland, is less sanguine. Even after she's been given a secret career break--ghosting for an ailing engraver--she knows how invisible she is and how threatening her family's "dense net of obligations" will always be. Though they get less page time, Barrett is in fact as concerned with these women as she is with her seafarers. Like the heroines of her National Book Award-winning
There is tyranny on board the Narwhal as well, as Zeke alternates between good will and paranoia, his closest companion an arctic fox he has "civilized" and who sits on his shoulder "like a white epaulet." (Alas, Sabine, like many of the men, is not to survive the journey.) Encounters with the Esquimaux--who might know more about the lost expedition than they're willing to share--not having gone according to plan, Zeke determines in late August to head for Smith Sound rather than home, despite the crew's protests. By mid-September, however, the craft is ice-locked, and it's clear they'll have to "winter over." At first the men make the best of their situation, magically sculpting cottages, castles, palaces, even a whale--and offering informal seminars in butchery, Bible studies, and basic navigation. However, as the weather worsens and Zeke grows increasingly despotic, morale plummets.
Barrett excels in both physical and social description, writing with a naturalist's precision and a passionate imagination. With quick strokes (backed up by intense research), she can fill us in on some sensible but threatening Esquimaux footgear: "All five were dressed in fur jackets and breeches, with high boots made from the leg skins of white bears. The men's feet, Erasmus saw, were sheltered by the bears' feet, with claws protruding like overgrown human toenails. Walking, the men left bear prints on the snow." The author also shines in panoramic scenes--her descriptions of the Arctic can only be called magnificent--and in small, precarious, personal moments. When Erasmus eventually returns to Philadelphia, minus his toes and his future brother-in-law, a grieving Lavinia takes to her bed. Eventually, however, she relents: "Lavinia stared straight ahead. Straight at Erasmus, her right hand tucked in her lap while her left turned a silver spoon back to front, front to back, the reflections melting, re-forming, and melting again.... Lavinia said softly, 'I forgive you.' Everyone knew she was speaking to Erasmus."
The Voyage of the Narwhal is full of blood-freezing surprises, a score of indelible characters, and heart-stopping mysteries. As Erasmus watches Alexandra draw landscapes he has seen before but missed something in, each pencil stroke is "like a chisel held to a cleavage plane: tap, tap, and the rock split into two sharp pieces, the world cracked and spoke to him." Readers of Andrea Barrett's novel will experience this sensation again and again. Packed with harsh truths about the not-always-true art of discovery, it is also among the most emotionally wrenching, subtle works of the century. --Kerry Fried [via]
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The Wings of the Doveby Henry JamesISBN 0786882514 (0-7868-8251-4)
Softcover, Hyperion Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wings of the Dove'Book summary:The Wings of the Dove is a classic example of Henry James's morality tales that play off the naiveté of an American protagonist abroad. In early-20th-century London, Kate Croy and Merton Densher are engaged in a passionate, clandestine love affair. Croy is desperately in love with Densher, who has all the qualities of a potentially excellent husband: he's handsome, witty, and idealistic--the one thing he lacks is money, which ultimately renders him unsuitable as a mate. By chance, Croy befriends a young American heiress, Milly Theale. When Croy discovers that Theale suffers from a mysterious and fatal malady, she hatches a plan that can give all three characters something that they want--at a price. Croy and Densher plan to accompany the young woman to Venice where Densher, according to Croy's design, will seduce the ailing heiress. The two hope that Theale will find love and happiness in her last days and--when she dies--will leave her fortune to Densher, so that he and Croy can live happily ever after. The scheme that at first develops as planned begins to founder when Theale discovers the pair's true motives shortly before her death. Densher struggles with unanticipated feelings of love for his new paramour, and his guilt may obstruct his ability to avail himself of Theale's gift. James deftly navigates the complexities and irony of such moral treachery in this stirring novel. [via]
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The Wizard of Ozby L. Frank Baum, Michael HagueISBN 0756762626 (0-7567-6262-6)
Hardcover, Diane Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wizard of Oz'Book summary:Classic Literature adapated for young readers by Amber D. Smith [via]
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- The Wizard of Oz: ISBN 0766607712 (0-7666-0771-2)
Hardcover, Modern Pub - The Wizard of Oz: ISBN 0764170465 (0-7641-7046-5)
Hardcover, Barrons Juveniles - The Wizard of Oz: ISBN 0789444445 (0-7894-4444-5)
Hardcover, Dk Pub - The Wizard of Oz: ISBN 0805002219 (0-8050-0221-9)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry - The Wizard of Oz: ISBN 0756762626 (0-7567-6262-6)
Hardcover, Diane Pub Co
- The Wizard of Oz: ISBN 0766607712 (0-7666-0771-2)
The Wizard of Ozby M. P. Hearn, L. Frank Baum, W. W. DenslowISBN 0805238123 (0-8052-3812-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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The Wizard of Oz : Celebrating the Hundredth Anniversaryby L. Frank Baum, Michael HagueISBN 0805064303 (0-8050-6430-3)
Hardcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wizard of Oz : Celebrating the Hundredth Anniversary'Book summary:For many of us, the adventures of Dorothy in Oz will forever be associated not with Judy Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" but with W. W. Denslow's exceedingly odd line drawings for the original editions of Baum's Oz series. The Viennese artist Lisbeth Zwerger, however, goes a long way toward providing a new and refreshed set of images for the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the humbug wizard. These illustrations are often cockeyed, with occasional realistic details thrown in, like a crow with a corncob in its beak in the first portrait of the Scarecrow. The characters have a poignance and oddity that escaped the makers of the Oz movie. [via]
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The Wizard of Oz: Easy Pianoby Carol CuellarISBN 0769200958 (0-7692-0095-8)
Softcover, Alfred Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wizard of Oz: Easy Piano'Book summary:Dan Coates applies his popular Easy Piano arrangements to the delightful score from this timeless movie classic. Here's a collector's item for players of all ages. Songs include: Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead
* If Only I Had a Brain
* If I Were the King of the Forest
* Over the Rainbow
* We're Off to See the Wizard and more. [via]More editions of The Wizard of Oz: Easy Piano:
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The Wonderful Wizard of Ozby L. Frank BaumISBN 0804900698 (0-8049-0069-8)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'Book summary:Originally published in 1900, the story of Dorothy's trip to Oz was the first truly American fairy tale. Here's a dazzling new way to enjoy L. Frank Baum's classic story about the little girl from rural Kansas who flew away on a tornado. Lavish full-color illustrations by Greg Hildebrandt, one of our finest fantasy artists, bring to life the world of the Tin Woodman, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and Wizard.[via]More editions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz:
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz : Centennial Editionby iBooks StaffISBN 0743412982 (0-7434-1298-2)
Softcover, ibooks, Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz : Centennial Edition'Book summary:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz must be one of the best-known, charming and unique children's stories ever but it is also more than a children's story, Oz stands as a demarcation point between American's rural past and urban future, harmoniously uniting a democratic spirit and a utopian vision with a prescient dark undercurrent that foreshadowed the Great Depression. This centennial edition, elegantly designed for all ages, includes rare and illuminating materials of interest to both first-time Oz readers and bibliophiles alike. About the Author L. Frank Baum is the author of 14 Oz books, as well as many other classics of American fantasy. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is the best known of his legendary books. [via]
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