books tagged “college”

books tagged “college”

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  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
    by Mark Twain
    ISBN 0553211285 (0-553-21128-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Sparkling with mischief, jumping with youthful adventure, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer is one of the most splendid re-creations of childhood in all of literature. It is a lighthearted romp, full of humor and warmth. It shares with its sequel, Huckleberry Finn, not only a set of unforgettable characters--Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly and others--but a profound understanding of humanity as well. Through such hilarious scenes as the famous fence-whitewashing incident, Twain gives a portrait--perceptive yet tender--of a humanity rendered foolish by his own aspirations and obsessions. Written as much for adults as for young boys and girls, Tom Sawyer is the work of a master storyteller performing in his shirt sleeves, using his best talents to everyone's delight. [via]

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  • The Age of Innocence
    by Edith Wharton
    ISBN 0553214500 (0-553-21450-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Somewhere in this book, Wharton observes that clever liars always come up with good stories to back up their fabrications, but that really clever liars don't bother to explain anything at all. This is the kind of insight that makes The Age of Innocence so indispensable. Wharton's story of the upper classes of Old New York, and Newland Archer's impossible love for the disgraced Countess Olenska, is a perfectly wrought book about an era when upper-class culture in this country was still a mixture of American and European extracts, and when "society" had rules as rigid as any in history. [via]

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  • Carroll, Lewis: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    by Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel, Morton N. Cohen
    ISBN 0553211730 (0-553-21173-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
    by Lewis Carroll
    ISBN 0553213458 (0-553-21345-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    That Alice. When she's not traipsing after a rabbit into Wonderland, she's gallivanting off into the topsy-turvy world behind the drawing-room looking glass. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's masterful and zany sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she makes more eccentric acquaintances, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Queen, and a somewhat grumpy Humpty Dumpty. Through a giant and elaborate chess game, Alice explores this odd country, where one must eat dry biscuits to quench thirst, and run like the wind to stay in one place. As in life, Alice must stay on her toes to learn the rules of this game. Through the Looking Glass immediately took its rightful place beside its partner on the shelf of eternal classics. And luckily for generations of enraptured children, Carroll was again able to persuade John Tenniel to create the fantastic woodblock engravings that have become so indelibly associated with the Alice stories. For almost 130 years, Alice's curious adventures have amused, perplexed, and delighted readers, young and old. This gorgeous, deluxe boxed set of both volumes contains engravings from Tenniel's original woodblocks that were discovered in a London bank in 1985, and reproduced for the first time here. "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures?'" What indeed? (All ages) [via]

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  • Anne of Green Gables
    by L.M. Montgomery
    ISBN 055321313X (0-553-21313-X)
    Softcover, Skylark

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    Book summary:

    When Marilla Cuthbert's brother, Matthew, returns home to Green Gables with a chatty redheaded orphan girl, Marilla exclaims, "But we asked for a boy. We have no use for a girl." It's not long, though, before the Cuthberts can't imagine how they could ever do without young Anne of Green Gables--but not for the original reasons they sought an orphan. Somewhere between the time Anne "confesses" to losing Marilla's amethyst pin (which she never took) in hopes of being allowed to go to a picnic, and when Anne accidentally dyes her hated carrot-red hair green, Marilla says to Matthew, "One thing's for certain, no house that Anne's in will ever be dull." And no book that she's in will be, either. This adapted version of the classic, Anne of Green Gables, introduces younger readers to the irrepressible heroine of L.M. Montgomery's many stories. Adapter M.C. Helldorfer includes only a few of Anne's mirthful and poignant adventures, yet manages to capture the freshness of one of children's literature's spunkiest, most beloved characters. There's just enough to make beginning readers want more--luckily, there's a lot more in the originals! Illustrator Ellen Beier creates vibrant pictures to portray the beauty of the land around Green Gables and the spirited nature of Anne herself. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter [via]

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  • Antony and Cleopatra
    by William Shakespeare
    ISBN 0553212893 (0-553-21289-3)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    A magnificent drama of love and war, this riveting tragedy presents one of Shakespeare's greatest female charactersthe seductive, cunning Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The Roman leader Mark Antony, a virtual prisoner of his passion for her, is a man torn between pleasure and virtue, between sensual indolence and duty . . . between an empire and love. Bold, rich, and splendid in its setting and emotions, Antony And Cleopatra ranks among Shakespeare's supreme achievements. [via]

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  • Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories
    by Carson McCullers
    ISBN 0553239805 (0-553-23980-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    A collection of McCullers best short stories about grotesque people and situations in the southern United States. [via]

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  • Being There
    by Jerzy N. Kosinski
    ISBN 0553279300 (0-553-27930-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Chauncey Gardiner is the great enigma:  a hero of the American media.  TV loves him; print pursues him.  He is a household face.  He is the one everybody is talking about, though nobody knows what HE is talking about.  No one knows where he has come from, but everybody knows he has come to money, power and sex.  Was he led to all this by the lovely, well-connected wife of a dying Wall Street tycoon?  Or is Chauncey Gardiner riding the waves all by himself because, like a TV image, he floated into the world buoyed up by a force he did not see and could not name?  Does he know something we don't?  Will he fail?  Will he ever be unhappy?  The reader must decide. [via]

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  • Brief History of Time
    by Stephen W. Hawking
    ISBN 0553380168 (0-553-38016-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton [via]

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  • A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
    by Stephen W. Hawking
    ISBN 0553346148 (0-553-34614-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton [via]

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  • Cannery Row
    by John Steinbeck
    ISBN 0553278231 (0-553-27823-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Unburdened by the material necessities of the more fortunate, the denizens of Cannery Row discover rewards unknown in more traditional society. Henry the painter sorts through junk lots for pieces of wood to incorporate into the boat he is building, while the girls from Dora Floods bordello venture out now and then to enjoy a bit of sunshine. Lee Chong stocks his grocery with almost anything a man could want, and Doc, a young marine biologist who ministers to sick puppies and unhappy souls, unexpectedly finds true love. Cannery Row is just a few blocks long, but the story it harbors is suffused with warmth, understanding, and a great fund of human values.

    First published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is—both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. John Steinbeck draws on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, and interweaves their stories in this world where only the fittest survive—creating what is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works. In Cannery Row, John Steinbeck returns to the setting of Tortilla Flat to create another evocative portrait of life as it is lived by those who unabashedly put the highest value on the intangibles—human warmth, camaraderie, and love.

    [via]

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  • A Canticle for Leibowitz
    by Miller, Walter M., Jr.
    ISBN 0553379267 (0-553-37926-7)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959's A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history. Divided into three sections--Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man), Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light), and Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will Be Done)--Canticle is steeped in Catholicism and Latin, exploring the fascinating, seemingly capricious process of how and why a person is canonized. --Paul Hughes [via]

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  • A Canticle for Leibowitz
    by Walter M. Miller
    ISBN 0553273817 (0-553-27381-7)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance. As 1984 cautioned against Stalinism, so 1959's A Canticle for Leibowitz warns of the threat and implications of nuclear annihilation. Following a cloister of monks in their Utah abbey over some six or seven hundred years, the funny but bleak Canticle tackles the sociological and religious implications of the cyclical rise and fall of civilization, questioning whether humanity can hope for more than repeating its own history. Divided into three sections--Fiat Homo (Let There Be Man), Fiat Lux (Let There Be Light), and Fiat Voluntas Tua (Thy Will Be Done)--Canticle is steeped in Catholicism and Latin, exploring the fascinating, seemingly capricious process of how and why a person is canonized. --Paul Hughes [via]

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  • Caves of Steel
    by Isaac Asimov
    ISBN 0553293400 (0-553-29340-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    A millennium into the future two advancements have altered the course of human history. [via]

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  • The Complete Sherlock Holmes
    by Arthur Conan Doyle
    ISBN 0553328255 (0-553-32825-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1; Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 2. 2 Vols. [via]

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  • Cyrano De Bergerac
    by Edmond Rostand
    ISBN 0553213601 (0-553-21360-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Paperback [via]

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  • Darkness at Noon
    by Arthur Koestler, Daphne Hardy
    ISBN 0553265954 (0-553-26595-4)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Darkness At Noon stands as an unequaled fictional portrayal of the nightmare politics of our time. Its hero is an aging revolutionary, imprisoned and psychologically tortured by the Party to which he has dedicated his life. As the pressure to confess preposterous crimes increases, he re-lives a career that embodies the terrible ironies and human betrayals of a totalitarian movement masking itself as an instrument of deliverance. Almost unbearably vivid in its depiction of one man's solitary agony, Darkness At Noon asks questions about ends and means that have relevance not only for the past but for the perilous present. It isas the Times Literary Supplement has declared"A remarkable book, a grimly fascinating interpretation of the logic of the Russian Revolution, indeed of all revolutionary dictatorships, and at the same time a tense and subtly intellectualized drama..." [via]

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  • Death in Venice and Other Stories
    by Thomas Mann
    ISBN 0553213334 (0-553-21333-4)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    This superb translation of Death in Venice and six other stories by Thomas Mann is a tour de force, deserving to be the definitive text for English-speaking readers. These seven stories represent Manns early writing career and a level of literary quality Mann himself despaired of ever again matching. In these stories he began to grapple with themes that were to recur throughout his work. In Little Herr Friedemann, a characters carefully structured way of life is suddenly threatened by an unexpected sexual passion. In Gladius Dei, puritanical intellect clashes with beauty. In Tristan, Mann presents an ironic and comic account of the tension between an artist and bourgeois society.

    All seven of these stories are accomplished and memorable, but it is Death in Venice that truly forms the centerpiece of the collection. The themes that Mann weaves through the shorter pieces come to a climax in this stunning novella, one of the most hauntingly magnificent tales of art and self-destruction ever written. [via]

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  • Decisions
    by Francine Pascal
    ISBN 0553272780 (0-553-27278-0)
    Softcover, Random House Children's Books

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  • Democracy in America
    by Henry Reeve, Alexis De Tocqueville
    ISBN 0553214640 (0-553-21464-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    From America's call for a free press to its embrace of the capitalist system, Democracy in America--first published in 1835--enlightens, entertains, and endures as a brilliant study of our national government and character. Philosopher John Stuart Mill called it "among the most remarkable productions of our time." Woodrow Wilson wrote that de Tocqueville's ability to illuminate the actual workings of American democracy was "possibly without rival."

    For today's readers, de Tocqueville's concern about the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals remains deeply meaningful. His shrewd observations about the "almost royal prerogatives" of the president and the need for virtue in elected officials are particularly prophetic. His profound insights into the great rewards and responsibilities of democratic government are words every American needs to read, contemplate, and remember.

    From America's call for a free press to its embrace of the capitalist system Democracy in America enlightens, entertains, and endures as a brilliant study of our national government and character. De Toqueville's concern about the effect of majority rule on the rights of individuals remains deeply meaningful. His insights into the great rewards and responsibilities of democratic government are words every American needs to read, contemplate, and remember. [via]

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  • Don't Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training
    by Karen Pryor
    ISBN 0553380397 (0-553-38039-7)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    A Better Way to Better Behavior

    Karen Pryor's clear and entertaining explanation of behavioral training methods made Don't Shoot the Dog! a bestselling classic. Now this revised edition presents more of her insights into animaland humanbehavior.

    A groundbreaking behavioral scientist and dynamic animal trainer, Karen Pryor is a powerful proponent of the principles and practical uses of positive reinforcement in teaching new behaviors. Here are the secrets of changing behavior in pets, kidseven yourselfwithout yelling, threats, force, punishment, guilt trips...or shooting the dog:

    "The principles of the revolutionary "clicker training" method, which owes its phenomenal success to its immediacy of responseso there is no question what action you are rewarding
    "8 methods of ending undesirable habitsfrom furniture-clawing cats to sloppy roommates
    "The 10 laws of "shaping" behaviorfor results without strain or pain through "affection training"
    "Tips for house-training the dog, improving your tennis game, or dealing with an impossible teen
    "Explorations of exciting new uses for reinforcement training

    Learn why pet owners rave, "This book changed our lives!" and how these pioneering techniques can work for you too. [via]

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  • Doomsday Book
    by Connie Willis
    ISBN 0553351672 (0-553-35167-2)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Connie Willis labored five years on this story of a history student in 2048 who is transported to an English village in the 14th century. The student arrives mistakenly on the eve of the onset of the Black Plague. Her dealings with a family of "contemps" in 1348 and with her historian cohorts lead to complications as the book unfolds into a surprisingly dark, deep conclusion. The book, which won Hugo and Nebula Awards, draws upon Willis' understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit. [via]

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  • Faust, Part I
    by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
    ISBN 0553213482 (0-553-21348-2)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Goethes masterpiece and perhaps the greatest work in German literature, Faust has made the legendary German alchemist one of the central myths of the Western world. Here indeed is a monumental Faust, an audacious man boldly wagering with the devil, Mephistopheles, that no magic, sensuality, experience, or knowledge can lead him to a moment he would wish to last forever. Here, in Faust, Part I, the tremendous versatility of Goethes genius creates some of the most beautiful passages in literature. Here too we experience Goethes characteristic humor, the excitement and eroticism of the witches Walpurgis Night, and the moving emotion of Gretchens tragic fate.

    This authoritative edition, which offers Peter Salms wonderfully readable translation as well as the original German on facing pages, brings us Faust in a vital, rhythmic American idiom that carefully preserves the grandeur, integrity, and poetic immediacy of Goethes words. [via]

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  • Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von: Faust/Bilingual
    Faust/Bilingual
    by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
    ISBN 055321182X (0-553-21182-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • Madison, James: Federalist Papers
    Federalist Papers
    by James Madison
    ISBN 0553212222 (0-553-21222-2)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • The Federalist Papers
    by John Jay, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Garry Wills
    ISBN 0553213407 (0-553-21340-7)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    "This country and this people seem to have been made for each other, and it appears as if it was the design of Providence, that an inheritance so proper and convenient for a band of brethren ... should never be split into a number of unsocial, jealous, and alien sovereignties." So wrote John Jay, one of the revolutionary authors of The Federalist Papers, arguing that if the United States was truly to be a single nation, its leaders would have to agree on universally binding rules of governance--in short, a constitution. In a brilliant set of essays, Jay and his colleagues Alexander Hamilton and James Madison explored in minute detail the implications of establishing a kind of rule that would engage as many citizens as possible and that would include a system of checks and balances. Their arguments proved successful in the end, and The Federalist Papers stand as key documents in the founding of the United States. [via]

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  • Bradley, James: Flags of Our Fathers
    Flags of Our Fathers
    by James Bradley, Ron Powers
    ISBN 055338029X (0-553-38029-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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  • For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide
    by Ntozake Shange
    ISBN 0553273256 (0-553-27325-6)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf is a celebration of being black and being a woman. From its beginnings in California to its enormous success at Joseph Papp's Public Theatre and on Broadway, this unique dramatic prose poem has amazed audiences everywhere with its power and grace, with the freshness of its language, with the fierce beauty of its message to the world. [via]

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  • Four Tragedies
    by William Shakespeare
    ISBN 0553212834 (0-553-21283-4)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Hamlet
    One of the most famous plays of all time, the compelling tragedy of the young prince of Denmark who must reconcile his longing for oblivion with his duty to avenge his fathers murder is one of Shakespeares greatest works. The ghost, Ophelias death and burial, the play within a play, and the breathtaking swordplay are just some of the elements that make Hamlet a masterpiece of the theater.

    Othello
    This great tragedy of unsurpassed intensity and emotion is played out against Renaissance splendor. The doomed marriage of Desdemona to the Moor Othello is the focus of a storm of tension, incited by the consummately evil villain Iago, that culminates in one of the most deeply moving scenes in theatrical history.

    King Lear
    Here is the famous and moving tragedy of a king who foolishly divides his kingdom between his two wicked daughters and estranges himself from the young daughter who loves hima theatrical spectacle of outstanding proportions.

    Macbeth
    No dramatist has ever seen with more frightening clarity into the heart and mind of a murderer than has Shakespeare in this brilliant and bloody tragedy of evil. Taunted into asserting his masculinity by his ambitious wife, Macbeth chooses to embrace the Weird Sisters prophecy and kill his kingand thus, seals his own doom.

    Each Edition Includes:
    " Comprehensive explanatory notes
    " Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
    " Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
    " Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
    " An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography [via]

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  • Girls In Pants: The Third Summer Of The Sisterhood
    by Ann Brashares
    ISBN 0553375938 (0-553-37593-8)
    Softcover, Random House Childrens Books

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    Book summary:

    Ages 12 and up. Best buds Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget are back with their magical pair of shared jeans in Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. Each summer brings new and difficult challenges, as the perennially separated friends discover afresh this last season before college. Tibby struggles with the idea of close friend Brian becoming her boyfriend, and their fragile relationship is soon tested by a tragedy in her immediate family. Carmen doesnt know how to react when she finds out that her middle-aged mom is pregnant, and Bridget is unpleasantly surprised to be reunited with the boy who broke her heart two summers ago. Finally, Lena, still coming to terms with the loss of her first love, tries to convince her strict father that art school is a better career path than Greek restaurant management. But through every crisis, each girl is assured of the love and support of the created sisterhood when she pulls on the denim armor of the cherished, and by now, a bit fragrant ("Rule # 1. You must never wash the Pants.") Traveling Pants.

    Full of homey platitudes about life, love and the pursuit of perfect jeans, Girls in Pants occasionally reads like a lengthy Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul entry. But often thats precisely the kind of friendly reassurance female readers are looking for, and fans of the wildly popular series whove journeyed every summer with the "Septembers" will find much to laugh and cry about in this concluding volume. --Jennifer Hubert [via]

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  • Great Expectations
    by Charles Dickens
    ISBN 0553213423 (0-553-21342-3)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    › Find signed collectible books: 'Great Expectations'
    Book summary:

    In the marshy mists of a village churchyard, a  tiny orphan boy named Pip is suddenly terrified by a  shivering, limping convict on the run. Years  later, a supremely arrogant young Pip boards the coach  to London where, by the grace of a mysterious  benefactor, he will join the ranks of the idle rich  and "become a gentleman." Finally, in the  luminous mists of the village at evening, Pip the  man meets Estella, his dazzingly beautiful  tormentor, in a ruined garden--and lays to rest all the  heartaches and illusions that his "great  expectations" have brought upon him. Dickens's  biographer, Edgar H. Johnson, has said that--except  for the author's last-minute tampering with his  original ending--Great Expectations  is "the most perfectly constructed and  perfectly written of all Dickens's works." In John  Irving's Introduction to this edition, the  novelist takes the view that Dickens's revised ending is  "far more that mirror of the quality of trust in  the novel as a whole." Both versions of the  ending are printed here. [via]

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  • Gulliver's Travels and Other Writings
    by Jonathan Swift
    ISBN 055321232X (0-553-21232-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Considered one of English literature's first and greatest satirists, Jonathan Swift possessed a timeless genius for pointing out the foibles of human nature that still has the power to provoke, amuse, and, at times, even outrage our modern sensibilities. This representative collection of Swift's major writings includes the complete Gulliver's Travels as well as A Tale of a Tub, "The Battle of the Books," "A Modest Proposal," "An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity," "The Bickerstaff Papers," and many more of his brilliantly satirical works. Here too are selections from Swift's poetry and portions of his Journal to Stella. Swift's savage ridicule, corrosive wit, and sparkling humor are fully displayed in this comprehensive collection. [via]

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  • Hard Times
    by Charles Dickens
    ISBN 0553210165 (0-553-21016-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Softcover little fold on front cover scratch at the rear cover near a corner [via]

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  • Heart of Darkness and the Secret Sharer
    by Joseph Conrad
    ISBN 0553212141 (0-553-21214-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Heart Of Darkness. The story of the civilized, enlightened Mr. Kurtz who embarks on a harrowing "night journey" into the savage heart of Africa, only to find his dark and evil soul. The Secret Sharer. The saga of a young, inexperienced skipper forced to decide the fate of a fugitive sailor who killed a man in self-defense. As he faces his first moral test the skipper discovers a terrifying truth -- and comes face to face with the secret itself. Heart Of Darkness and The Secret Sharer draw on actual events and people that Conrad met or heard about during his many far-flung travels. In portraying men whose incredible journeys on land and at sea are also symbolic voyages into their own mysterious depths, these two masterful works give credence to Conrad's acclaim as a major psychological writer. [via]

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  • Henry IV. Part 1: Part 1
    by William Shakespeare
    ISBN 0553212931 (0-553-21293-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Written between 1596 and 1597, Henry IV Part One represents Shakespeare's increasingly mature talent in staging the history of the early Tudor monarchy. Midway in the cycle of Shakespeare's History Plays, which begin with Richard II and ultimately culminate in his last play, Henry VIII, Henry IV Part One tells the story of the troubled reign of Henry IV following his deposition of Richard II. The historical action revolves around the attempt by Henry Percy (known as Hotspur) to overthrow Henry at the Battle of Shrewsbury. However, over half the play deals with the transformation of Henry's profligate son, Prince Hal (the future King Henry V), from tavern joker to national icon.

    The whole play is stolen from its kings and princes by Shakespeare's greatest comic creation, the "fat-kidneyed rascal" Sir John Falstaff, king of his own dominions--the taverns and brothels of London's Eastcheap district. The tavern scenes of the play are some of the most evocative accounts of 16th-century popular London life. They revolve around the comical but ultimately sinister relationship between Falstaff and his young apprentice Hal, who learns to "so offend to make offence a skill" as he learns the slippery ropes of realpolitik and kingship. The play is considered by many to be the liveliest and most profound of Shakespeare's History Plays, and remains one of its most popular examples. --Jerry Brotton [via]

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  • Henry V
    by William Shakespeare
    ISBN 0553212958 (0-553-21295-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    A triumphantly patriotic play that also casts a critical eye at war and warriors, this great epic drama depicts a charismatic ruler in a time of national struggle. The young King Henrys victory over the French despite overwhelming odds creates a spectacle of action, color, and thundering battles. Whether the warrior-king is urging his men Once more unto the breach, dear friends, or wooing Katharine of France, Henry is magnificently adapted to the role he must play in Englands greatness. Henry V represents the culmination of Shakespeares art as a writer of historical drama.

    Each Edition Includes:
    " Comprehensive explanatory notes
    " Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
    " Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
    " Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
    " An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography [via]

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  • Hiding Place
    by Corrie Ten Boom
    ISBN 0553256696 (0-553-25669-6)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    The Hiding Place [Paperback] Corrie Ten Boom (Author) [via]

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  • Hersey, John: Hiroshima
    Hiroshima
    by John Hersey
    ISBN 0553260588 (0-553-26058-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • Inherit the Wind
    by Jerome Lawrence
    ISBN 0553254359 (0-553-25435-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    The accused was a slight, frightened man who had  deliberately broken the law. His trial was a Roman  circus. The chief gladiators were two great legal  giants of the century. Like two bull elephants  locked in mortal combat, they bellowed and roared  imprecations and abuse. The spectators sat uneasily  in the sweltering heat with murder in their hearts,  barely able to restrain themselves. At stake was  the freedom of every American. One of the most  moving and meaningful plays of our generation. "a  tidal wave of a drama." -- New York  World-Telegram And Sun [via]

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  • The Island of Dr. Moreau
    by Wells. H. G.
    ISBN 0553214322 (0-553-21432-2)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Ranked among the classic novels of the English language and the inspiration for several unforgettable movies, this early work of H. G. Wells was greeted in 1896 by howls of protest from reviewers, who found it horrifying and blasphemous. They wanted to know more about the wondrous possibilities of science shown in his first book, The Time Machine, not its potential for misuse and terror. In The Island of Dr. Moreau a shipwrecked gentleman named Edward Prendick, stranded on a Pacific island lorded over by the notorious Dr. Moreau, confronts dark secrets, strange creatures, and a reason to run for his life. While this riveting tale was intended to be a commentary on evolution, divine creation, and the tension between human nature and culture, modern readers familiar with genetic engineering will marvel at Wells's prediction of the ethical issues raised by producing "smarter" human beings or bringing back extinct species. These levels of interpretation add a richness to Prendick's adventures on Dr. Moreau's island of lost souls without distracting from what is still a rip-roaring good read. [via]

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  • Jitterbug Perfume
    by Tom Robbins
    ISBN 0553348981 (0-553-34898-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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    Book summary:

    A story beginning in the forests of ancient Bohemia and ending at nine o'clock tonight, Paris time. The hero is a janitor with a missing bottle which is embossed with the image of a goat-horned god and is said to contain the remaining drops of the secret essence of the universe. [via]

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  • The Jungle
    by Upton Beall Sinclair, Morris Dickstein
    ISBN 0553212451 (0-553-21245-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    In this powerful book we enter the world of  Jurgis Rudkus, a young Lithuanian immigrant who arrives  in America fired with dreams of wealth, freedom,  and opportunity. And we discover, with him, the  astonishing truth about "packingtown," the  busy, flourishing, filthy Chicago stockyards, where  new world visions perish in a jungle of human  suffering. Upton Sinclair, master of the  "muckraking" novel, here explores the workingman's  lot at the turn of the century: the backbreaking  labor, the injustices of "wage-slavery,"  the bewildering chaos of urban life. The  Jungle , a story so shocking that it  launched a government investigation, recreates this  startling chapter if our history in unflinching  detail. Always a vigorous champion on political reform,  Sinclair is also a gripping storyteller, and his  1906 novel stands as one of the most important --  and moving -- works in the literature of social  change. [via]

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  • Lila
    by Robert Pirsig
    ISBN 0553299611 (0-553-29961-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    The author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance examines life's essential issues as he recounts the journey down the Hudson River in a sailboat of his philosopher-narrator Phaedrus. Reprint. [via]

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  • The Longest Journey
    by E. M. Forster, Jeffrey Meyers
    ISBN 0553214551 (0-553-21455-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Bookish, sensitive Rickie Elliot is quite at home amid the placid and scholarly environs of Cambridge. That is, until he falls for the shallow young Agnes Pembroke. Forster skewers undergraduate philosophical debate, the opening day of a public school, and tea with a frightful dowager, as the dire consequences of mistaken love later developed in Howard's End take their toll. Together, these elements combine to form a deft blend of tragedy and social satire that readers will savor. [via]

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  • Conrad, Joseph: Lord Jim
    Lord Jim
    by Joseph Conrad
    ISBN 0553210270 (0-553-21027-0)
    Softcover, Ballantine Books

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    Book summary:

    This immortal novel of the sea tells the story of a British sailor haunted by a single youthful act of cowardly betrayal. To the white men in Bombay, Calcutta, and Rangoon, Jim is a man of mystery. To the primitive natives deep in the Malayan jungle, he is a god gifted with supernatural powers. To the beautiful half-caste girl who flees to his hut for protection, he is a lord to be feared and loved.Lord Jim-Conrad's classic portrait of a man's guilt, his search for forgiveness, and his final, tragic redemption-is a work of enduring value and one of the world's great masterpieces. [via]

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  • Love Medicine
    by Louise Erdrich
    ISBN 0553268082 (0-553-26808-2)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Beautiful reissue of Louise Erdrich's most famous novel, from one of the most celebrated American writers of her generation and winner of the National Book Award 2012. Set on and around a North Dakota reservation, 'Love Medicine' tells the story of the Lamartines and the Kashpaws - two extraordinary families whose fates are united and sustained in a harsh world by the strength and diversity of their love. We meet the sensual Lulu Lamartine, whose children have different fathers, but whose passionate tie to her first love, Nector Kashpaw, intensifies over the years; June Kashpaw, who froze to death in a snowstorm; and the philosophical Lipsha Morrissey, June's abandoned son, who makes a love medicine to keep his grandparents together. Greeted with great critical acclaim when first published in 1984, 'Love Medicine' won the US National Book Critics' Circle Award. Louise Erdrich has now substantially revised and expanded the novel for this edition, to complement its companion novels, 'The Beet Queen, 'Tracks' and 'The Bingo Palace'. [via]

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  • Love Story
    by Erich Segal
    ISBN 0553275283 (0-553-27528-3)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    This is the wonderful, tumultuous, heartfelt  story of Oliver Barrett IV and Jenny Cavilleri--the  story of a rich Harvard jock and a wisecracking  Radcliffe music major who have nothing in common but  love . . . and everything else to share but time.  Funny and flip, sad and poignant, Erich Segal's  magnificent novel will grab you, hold you, and stay  with you forever. You, like more than twenty  million others, will fall in love with Love  Story. [via]

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  • Crane, Stephen: Maggie
    Maggie
    by Stephen Crane
    ISBN 0553213555 (0-553-21355-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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  • The Mayor of Casterbridge
    by Thomas Hardy
    ISBN 0553210246 (0-553-21024-6)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    From its spectacular opening-the astonishing scene in which drunken Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a passing sailor at a county fair-to the breathtaking series of discoveries at its conclusion, The Mayor of Casterbridge claims a unique place among Thomas Hardy's finest and most powerful novels.Rooted in an actual case of wife-selling in early nineteenth-century England, the story build into an awesome Sophoclean drama of guilt and revenge, in which the strong, willful Henchard rises to a position of wealth and power-only to suffer a most bitter downfall. Proud, obsessed, ultimately committed to his own destruction, Henchard is, as Albert Guerard has said, "Hardy's Lord Jim...his only tragic hero and one of the greatest tragic heroes in all fiction. [via]

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  • The Merchant of Venice
    by William Shakespeare, David Bevington
    ISBN 0553212990 (0-553-21299-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    "Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?" Shylock's impassioned plea in the middle of The Merchant of Venice is one of its most dramatic moments. After the Holocaust, the play has become a battleground for those who argue that the play represents Shakespeare's ultimate statement against ignorance and anti-Semitism in favour of a liberal vision of tolerance and multiculturalism. Other critics have pointed out that the play is, after all, a comedy that ultimately pokes fun at a 16th-century Jew. In fact, the bare outline of the plot suggests that the play is far more complex than either of these characterisations. Bassanio, a feckless young Venetian, asks his wealthy friend, the merchant Antonio, for money to finance a trip to woo the beautiful Portia in Belmont. Reluctant to refuse his friend (to whom he professes intense love), Antonio borrows the money from the Jewish moneylender. If he reneges on the deal, Shylock jokingly demands a pound of his flesh. When all Antonio's ships are lost at sea, Shylock calls in his debt, and the love and laughter of the first scenes of the play threaten to give way to death and tragedy. The final climactic courtroom scene, complete with a cross-dressed Portia, a knife-wielding Shylock, and the debate on "the quality of mercy" is one of the great dramatic moments in Shakespeare. The controversial subject matter of the play ensures that it continues to repel, divide but also fascinate its many audiences. --Jerry Brotton [via]

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  • Moll Flanders
    by Daniel Defoe
    ISBN 0553213288 (0-553-21328-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    The recent adaptation of Moll Flanders for Masterpiece Theater is a book-lover's dream: the dialogue and scene arrangement are close enough to allow the viewer to follow along in the book. The liberties taken with the tale are few (some years of childhood between the gypsies and the wealthy family are elided; Moll is Moll throughout the tale, rather than Mrs. Betty; Robert becomes Rowland, etc.) and the sets avoid the careless anachronism of the movie version released earlier this year.

    The breasts, raised skirts, tumbling hair and heavy breathing on the small screen might catch you by surprise if you don't read the book carefully (as might Moll's abandonment of her children on more than one occasion). Unlike his near-contemporary John Cleland (_Fanny Hill_), Defoe was trying to keep out of jail, and so didn't dwell on the details of "correspondence" between Moll and her varied lovers. But on the page and on the screen, Moll comes across quite clearly as a woman who might bend, but refuses to break, and who is intent on having as good a life as she can get.

    E. M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel considers Moll and her creator's art in some detail. While he finds much to criticize in Defoe's ability to plot (where did those last two children go, anyway?), he is as besotted with Moll as I am. Immoral? Sure -- but immortal, and never, ever dull. We hope at least a few of the viewers of the recent adaptation take a couple hours to discover the original, inimitable Moll Flanders. [via]

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  • Much Ado About Nothing
    by William Shakespeare, David Bevington
    ISBN 0553213016 (0-553-21301-6)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Like Love's Labour's Lost, Much Ado about Nothing shows Shakespeare moving into a more complex and darker terrain through his exploration of an apparently harmless comical romance. The play revolves around the adventures of the two gallants Claudio and Benedick at the court of Sicily. Claudio falls in love with the governor's daughter Hero, and is eager for his more misanthropic friend Benedick to also find love. Benedick is introduced to the fiery, independent Beatrice, and sparks soon fly as they banter with each other in a more wittier version of Kate and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. Beatrice has some wonderful ripostes to marriage asking why should a woman marry "a clod of wayward marl", whilst Benedick grumbles that "She speaks poniards and every word stabs". Meanwhile, the jealous Don John convinces Claudio that Hero has in fact been unfaithful to him. When Claudio rejects Hero on their wedding day, she faints and is taken for dead. In the hectic final scenes the play moves towards reconciliation between Claudio and Hero, and the tentative admission of the love between Benedick and Beatrice. Famously filmed by Kenneth Branagh in the Tuscan countryside with a cast that included Keanu Reeves, Much Ado about Nothing remains one of Shakespeare's most successful comedies. --Jerry Brotton. [via]

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  • Night
    by Elie Wiesel
    ISBN 0553208071 (0-553-20807-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    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. [via]

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  • Northanger Abbey
    by Jane Austen
    ISBN 0553211978 (0-553-21197-8)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Though Northanger Abbey is one of Jane Austen's earliest novels, it was not published until after her death--well after she'd established her reputation with works such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility. Of all her novels, this one is the most explicitly literary in that it is primarily concerned with books and with readers. In it, Austen skewers the novelistic excesses of her day made popular in such 18th-century Gothic potboilers as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers all figure into Northanger Abbey, but with a decidedly satirical twist. Consider Austen's introduction of her heroine: we are told on the very first page that "no one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine." The author goes on to explain that Miss Morland's father is a clergyman with "a considerable independence, besides two good livings--and he was not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters." Furthermore, her mother does not die giving birth to her, and Catherine herself, far from engaging in "the more heroic enjoyments of infancy, nursing a dormouse, feeding a canary-bird, or watering a rose-bush" vastly prefers playing cricket with her brothers to any girlish pastimes.

    Catherine grows up to be a passably pretty girl and is invited to spend a few weeks in Bath with a family friend. While there she meets Henry Tilney and his sister Eleanor, who invite her to visit their family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Austen amuses herself and us as Catherine, a great reader of Gothic romances, allows her imagination to run wild, finding dreadful portents in the most wonderfully prosaic events. But Austen is after something more than mere parody; she uses her rapier wit to mock not only the essential silliness of "horrid" novels, but to expose the even more horrid workings of polite society, for nothing Catherine imagines could possibly rival the hypocrisy she experiences at the hands of her supposed friends. In many respects Northanger Abbey is the most lighthearted of Jane Austen's novels, yet at its core is a serious, unsentimental commentary on love and marriage, 19th-century British style. --Alix Wilber [via]

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  • Cather, Willa: O Pioneers!
    O Pioneers!
    by Willa Cather
    ISBN 055321358X (0-553-21358-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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  • Dickens, Charles: Our Mutual Friend
    Our Mutual Friend
    by Charles Dickens
    ISBN 0553213865 (0-553-21386-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • The Paradiso
    by Dante Alighieri
    ISBN 0553212044 (0-553-21204-4)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    This brilliant new verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum captures the consummate beauty of the third and last part of Dante's Divine Comedy. The Paradiso is a luminous poem of love and light, of optics, angelology, polemics, prayer, prophecy, and transcendent experience. As Dante ascends to the Celestial Rose, in the tenth and final heaven, all the spectacle and splendor of a great poet's vision now becomes accessible to the modern reader in this highly acclaimed, superb dual language edition. With extensive notes and commentary. [via]

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  • The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings by Oscar Wilde
    by Oscar Wilde
    ISBN 0553212540 (0-553-21254-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife," Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden."

    As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, The Picture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment." [via]

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  • The Pioneers
    by James Fenimore Cooper
    ISBN 0553214179 (0-553-21417-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    From its remarkable first scene--in which a gunshot finds an unintended target--to its fiery climax in the woods of New York State, The Pioneers is a rich chronicle of early frontier life filled with action, adventure, romance, and history.  It is also the work that established James Fenimore Cooper as the first great American novelist.  The first installment if what would later become the famous Leatherstocking Tales, The Pioneers introduces readers to the colorful and enduring character of frontiersman Natty Bumppo.  Forced by a local landowner to obey new hunting laws, Natty Bumppo rebels and finds allies in the landowner's daughter and a mysterious young stranger.  Against the backdrop of the changing seasons, a varied cast of unforgettable characters is caught up in a drama that illuminates the essence of the American character and the conflict between a restlessly expanding society and the unspoiled wilderness that was here before us all. [via]

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  • Pudd'Nhead Wilson
    by Mark Twain
    ISBN 0553211587 (0-553-21158-7)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    At the beginning of Pudd'nhead Wilson a young slave woman, fearing for her infant's son's life, exchanges her light-skinned child with her master's.  From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels.  On its surface, Pudd'nhead Wilson possesses all the elements of an engrossing nineteenth-century mystery:  reversed identities, a horrible crime, an eccentric detective, a suspenseful courtroom drama, and a surprising, unusual solution.  Yet it is not a mystery novel.  Seething with the undercurrents of antebellum southern culture, the book is a savage indictment in which the real criminal is society, and racial prejudice and slavery are the crimes.  Written in 1894, Pudd'nhead Wilson glistens with characteristic Twain humor, with suspense, and with pointed irony:  a gem among the author's later works. [via]

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  • The Purgatorio
    by Dante Alighieri
    ISBN 055321344X (0-553-21344-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    This splendid verse translation by Allen Mandelbaum provides an entirely fresh experience of Dante's great poem of penance and hope. As Dante ascends the Mount of Purgatory toward the Earthly Paradise and his beloved Beatrice, through "that second kingdom in which the human soul is cleansed of sin," all the passion and suffering, poetry and philosophy are rendered with the immediacy of a poet of our own age. With extensive notes and commentary prepared especially for this edition. [via]

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  • Lawrence, D. H.: The Rainbow
    The Rainbow
    by D. H. Lawrence
    ISBN 0553213903 (0-553-21390-3)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • Duncan, David James: River Teeth
    River Teeth
    by David James Duncan
    ISBN 0553378279 (0-553-37827-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

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  • Robinson Crusoe
    by Daniel Defoe
    ISBN 0553213733 (0-553-21373-3)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Daniel Defoe This classic story of a shipwrecked mariner on a deserted island is perhaps the greatest adventure in all of English literature. Fleeing from pirates, Robinson Crusoe is swept ashore in a storm, possessing only a knife, a box of tobacco, a pipe- and the will to survive. His is the saga of a man alone: a man who overcomes self-pity and despair to reconstruct his life; who painstakingly teaches himself how to fashion a pot, bake bread, build a canoe; and who, after twenty-four agonizing years of solitude, discovers a human footprint in the sand... [via]

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  • Romeo and Juliet
    by William Shakespeare, David M. Bevington, David Scott Kastan
    ISBN 0553213059 (0-553-21305-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    This is undoubtedly the greatest love story ever written, spawning a host of imitators on stage and screen, including Leonard Bernstein's smash musical West Side Story, Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet filmed in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann's postmodern film version Romeo + Juliet. The tragic feud between "Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona", the Montagues and Capulets, which ultimately kills the two young "star-crossed lovers" and their "death-marked love" creates issues which have fascinated subsequent generations. The play deals with issues of intergenerational and familial conflict, as well as the power of language and the compelling relationship between sex and death, all of which makes it an incredibly modern play. It is also an early example of Shakespeare fusing poetry with dramatic action, as he moves from Romeo's lyrical account of Juliet--"she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" to the bustle and action of a 16th-century household (the play contains more scenes of ordinary working people than any of Shakespeare's other works). It also represents an experimental attempt to fuse comedy with tragedy. Up to the third act, the play proceeds along the lines of a classic romantic comedy. The turning point comes with the death of one of Shakespeare's finest early dramatic creations--Romeo's sexually ambivalent friend Mercutio, whose "plague o' both your houses" begins the play's descent into tragedy, "For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo". --Jerry Brotton [via]

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  • Rubyfruit Jungle
    by Rita Mae Brown
    ISBN 055327886X (0-553-27886-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    Born a bastard, Molly Bolt is adopted by a dirt-poor southern couple who want something better for their daughter. Molly plays doctor with the boys, beats up Leroy and loses her virginity to her girlfriend in sixth grade. As she grows to realize she's different, Molly decides not to apologize. [via]

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  • The Scarlet Letter
    by Nathaniel Hawthorne
    ISBN 0553210092 (0-553-21009-2)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Hailed by Henry James as "the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country," Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.With The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne became the first American novelist to forge from our Puritan heritage a universal classic, a masterful exploration of humanity's unending struggle with sin, guilt and pride. [via]

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  • The Secret Agent and Almayer's Folly
    by Joseph Conrad
    ISBN 055321134X (0-553-21134-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    In The Secret Agent, Verloc's plans to blow up an English market explode in his face. In Almayer's Folly, a sea trader schemes to amass a fortune in gold before the dark jungle can penetrate his soul. Reprint. [via]

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  • Separate Peace
    by John Knowles
    ISBN 055323224X (0-553-23224-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Pr Ltd

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    Gene was a lonely, introverted intellectual.  Phineas was a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete.  What happened between them at school one summer  during the early years of World War II is the  subject of A Separate Peace. A  great bestseller for over thirty years--one of the  most starkly moving parables ever written of the  dark forces that brood over the tortured world of  adolescence. [via]

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  • Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Dozen
    by Arthur Conan Doyle
    ISBN 0553212419 (0-553-21241-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Sherlock Holmes
    The Complete Novels and Stories

    Volume I

    Since his first appearance in Beetons Christmas Annual in 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most beloved fictional characters ever created. Now, in two paperback volumes, Bantam presents all fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Conan Doyles classic hero--a truly complete collection of Sherlock Holmess adventures in crime!

    Volume I includes the early novel A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the eccentric genius of Sherlock Holmes to the world. This baffling murder mystery, with the cryptic word Rache written in blood, first brought Holmes together with Dr. John Watson. Next, The Sign of Four presents Holmess famous seven percent solution and the strange puzzle of Mary Morstan in the quintessential locked-room mystery.

    Also included are Holmess feats of extraordinary detection in such famous cases as the chilling  The Adventure of the Speckled Band, the baffling riddle of The Musgrave Ritual, and the ingeniously plotted The Five Orange Pips, tales that bring to life a Victorian England of horse-drawn cabs, fogs, and the famous lodgings at 221B Baker Street, where Sherlock Holmes earned his undisputed reputation as the greatest fictional detective of all time. [via]

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  • Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe
    by George Eliot
    ISBN 055321229X (0-553-21229-X)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Embittered by a false accusation, disappointed in friendship and love, the weaver Silas Marner retreats into a long twilight life alone with his loom. . . and his gold. Silas hoards a treasure that kills his spirit until fate steals it from him and replaces it with a golden-haired founding child. Where she came from, who her parents were, and who really stole the gold are the secrets that permeate this moving tale of guilt and innocence. A moral allegory of the redemptive power of love, it is also a finely drawn picture of early nineteenth-century England in the days when spinning wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses, and of a simple way of life that was soon to disappear. [via]

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  • The Song of the Lark
    by Willa Cather
    ISBN 0553213911 (0-553-21391-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    [This is the MP3CD audiobook format in vinyl case.]

    In this semiautobiographical portrait of a young artist in the making, Willa Cather takes us into the heart of a woman coming to know her deepest self.

    Thea Kronborg, a minister's daughter in a provincial Colorado town, has dreams and gifts that her humble hometown will not satisfy. With the support of a few allies who recognize her rare qualities, she follows her ambitions to the big city, determined to be an opera diva. As she moves through a series of music teachers in Chicago, Thea finds that the attitudes and standards of those around her rarely match her own. It is only when she reconnects with pure nature in a brilliant Arizona desert canyon that Thea rediscovers the sensuous, mystical openness that is the source of her art. Realizing she must protect this experience at all costs, she resolves to shed all relationships that don't serve her higher purpose. [via]

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  • Sons and Lovers
    by D. H. Lawrence
    ISBN 0553211927 (0-553-21192-7)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    Sons and Lovers was the first modern portrayal of a phenomenon that later, thanks to Freud, became easily recognizable as the Oedipus complex. Never was a son more indentured to his mother's love and full of hatred for his father than Paul Morel, D.H. Lawrence's young protagonist. Never, that is, except perhaps Lawrence himself. In his 1913 novel he grappled with the discordant loves that haunted him all his life--for his spiritual childhood sweetheart, here called Miriam, and for his mother, whom he transformed into Mrs. Morel. It is, by Lawrence's own account, a book aimed at depicting this woman's grasp: "as her sons grow up she selects them as lovers--first the eldest, then the second. These sons are urged into life by their reciprocal love of their mother--urged on and on. But when they come to manhood, they can't love, because their mother is the strongest power in their lives."

    Of course, Mrs. Morel takes neither of her two elder sons (the first of whom dies early, which further intensifies her grip on Paul) as a literal lover, but nonetheless her psychological snare is immense. She loathes Paul's Miriam from the start, understanding that the girl's deep love of her son will oust her: "She's not like an ordinary woman, who can leave me my share in him. She wants to absorb him." Meanwhile, Paul plays his part with equal fervor, incapable of committing himself in either direction: "Why did his mother sit at home and suffer?... And why did he hate Miriam, and feel so cruel towards her, at the thought of his mother. If Miriam caused his mother suffering, then he hated her--and he easily hated her." Soon thereafter he even confesses to his mother: "I really don't love her. I talk to her, but I want to come home to you."

    The result of all this is that Paul throws Miriam over for a married suffragette, Clara Dawes, who fulfills the sexual component of his ascent to manhood but leaves him, as ever, without a complete relationship to challenge his love for his mother. As Paul voyages from the working-class mining world to the spheres of commerce and art (he has fair success as a painter), he accepts that his own achievements must be equally his mother's. "There was so much to come out of him. Life for her was rich with promise. She was to see herself fulfilled... All his work was hers."

    The cycles of Paul's relationships with these three women are terrifying at times, and Lawrence does nothing to dim their intensity. Nor does he shirk in his vivid, sensuous descriptions of the landscape that offers up its blossoms and beasts and "shimmeriness" to Paul's sensitive spirit. Sons and Lovers lays fully bare the souls of men and earth. Few books tell such whole, complicated truths about the permutations of love as resolutely without resolution. It's nothing short of searing to be brushed by humanity in this manner. --Melanie Rehak [via]

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  • Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
    by Richard P Feynman
    ISBN 0553276646 (0-553-27664-6)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith [via]

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  • Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
    by Richard Phillips Feynman
    ISBN 0553256491 (0-553-25649-1)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith [via]

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  • A Tale of Two Cities
    by Charles Dickens
    ISBN 0553211765 (0-553-21176-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    With his sublime parting words, "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done..." Sidney Carton joins that exhalted group of Dickensian characters who have earned a permanent place in the popular literary imagination. His dramatic story, set against the volcanic fury of the French Revolution and pervaded by the ominous rumble of the death carts trundling toward the guillotine, is the heart-stirring tale of a heroic soul in an age gone mad. A masterful pageant of idealism, love, and adventure -- in a Paris bursting with revolutionary frenzy, and a London alive with anxious anticipation -- A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens's most energetic and exciting works. [via]

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  • Benford, Gregory: Timescape
    Timescape
    by Gregory Benford
    ISBN 0553297090 (0-553-29709-0)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
    by William Shakespeare, David M. Bevington
    ISBN 0553212966 (0-553-21296-6)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    One of Shakespeare's most political plays, Julius Caesar continued Shakespeare's interest in Roman history, first developed in Titus Andronicus. Drawing on Plutarch, the great historian of Rome, Shakespeare dramatises one of the most crucial moments in Roman history--the assassination of Julius Caesar. Loved by the Roman crowd but increasingly feared by the Senators, Caesar increasingly shows signs of his desire to abolish the Republic and crown himself emperor. A conspiracy is hatched, led by Cassius and Brutus, who murder Caesar on the steps of the Capitol. Mourning over his dead friend's body, Mark Antony gives one of the famous rhetorical speeches in literature, asking "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" to lament Caesar's death, privately vowing to "let slip the dogs of war" against those who have shed Caesar's blood. Antony joins forces with Caesar's son Octavius to defeat Cassius and Brutus in battle, and establish an uneasy alliance whose collapse is dramatised in Shakespeare's later play Antony and Cleopatra. Written at the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, Julius Caesar has been seen by many as a radically pro-Republican play which sailed close to the political wind of the time. --Jerry Brotton [via]

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  • James, Henry: The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Fiction
    The Turn of the Screw and Other Short Fiction
    by Henry James
    ISBN 0553210599 (0-553-21059-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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  • Vanity Fair
    by William Makepeace Thackery
    ISBN 0553214624 (0-553-21462-4)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    A deliciously satirical attack on a money-mad society, Vanity Fair, which first appeared in 1847, is an immensely moral novel, and an immensely witty one. Called in its subtitle A Novel Without a Hero, Vanity Fair has instead two heroines: the faithful, loyal Amelia Sedley and the beautiful and scheming social climber Becky Sharp. It also engages a huge cast of wonderful supporting characters as the novel spins from Miss Pinkertons academy for young ladies to affairs of love and war on the Continent to liaisons in the dazzling ballrooms of London. Thackerays forte is the bon mot and it is amply exercised in a novel filled with memorably wicked lines. Lengthy and leisurely in pace, the novel follows the adventures of Becky and Amelia as their fortunes rise and fall, creating a tale of both picaresque and risqué. Thackery mercilessly skewers his society, especially the upper class, poking fun at their shallow values and pointedly jabbing at their hypocritical morals. His weapons, however, are not fire and brimstone but an unerring eye for the absurd and a genius for observation of the foibles of his age. An enduring classic, this great novel is a brilliant study in duplicity and hypocrisy&and a mirror with which to view our own times. [via]

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  • Le Guin, Ursula K.: Very Far Away from Anywhere Else
    Very Far Away from Anywhere Else
    by Ursula K. Le Guin
    ISBN 0553253964 (0-553-25396-4)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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  • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
    by L. Frank Baum
    ISBN 0553213849 (0-553-21384-9)
    Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept

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    Book summary:

    The Wonderful Wizard of Oz By L. Frank Baum [via]

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  • Zen in the Art of Writing
    by Ray Bradbury
    ISBN 0553296345 (0-553-29634-5)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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    Book summary:

    "Every morning I jump out of bed and step on  a land mine. The land mine is me. After the  explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the  pieces back together. Now, it's your turn. Jump!"  Zest. Gusto. Curiosity. These are the qualities  every writer must have, as well as a spirit of  adventure. In this exuberant book, the incomparable  Ray Bradbury shares the wisdom, experience, and  excitement of a lifetime of writing. Here are  practical tips on the art of writing from a master of  the craft-everything from finding original ideas to  developing your own voice and style-as well as the  inside story of Bradbury's own remarkable career  as a prolific author of novels, stories, poems,  films, and plays. Zen In The Art Of  Writing is more than just a how-to manual for the  would-be writer: it is a celebration of the act of  writing itself that will delight, impassion, and  inspire the writer in you. In it, Bradbury  encourages us to follow the unique path of our instincts  and enthusiasms to the place where our inner genius  dwells, and he shows that success as a writer  depends on how well you know one subject: your own  life. [via]

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  • Hyams, Joe: Zen in the Martial Arts
    Zen in the Martial Arts
    by Joe Hyams
    ISBN 0553275593 (0-553-27559-3)
    Softcover, Bantam Books

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