books tagged “novel”

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American Pastoral
by Philip Roth

ISBN 0375701427 (0-375-70142-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
Philip Roth's 22nd book takes a life-long view of the American experience in this thoughtful investigation of the century's most divisive and explosive of decades, the '60s. Returning again to the voice of his literary alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, Roth is at the top of his form. His prose is carefully controlled yet always fresh and intellectually subtle as he reconstructs the halcyon days, circa World War II, of Seymour "the Swede" Levov, a high school sports hero and all-around Great Guy who wants nothing more than to live in tranquillity. But as the Swede grows older and America crazier, history sweeps his family inexorably into its grip: His own daughter, Merry, commits an unpardonable act of "protest" against the Vietnam war that ultimately severs the Swede from any hope of happiness, family, or spiritual coherence. [via]
More editions of American Pastoral:
- American Pastoral: ISBN 0395860210 (0-395-86021-0)
  Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
- American Pastoral: ISBN 0375701427 (0-375-70142-7)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
August 1914
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, H.T. Willetts

ISBN 0140071229 (0-14-007122-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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In his monumental narrative of the outbreak of the First World War and the ill-fated Russian offensive into East Prussia, Solzhenitsyn has written what Nina Krushcheva, in The Nation, calls "a dramatically new interpretation of Russian history." The assassination of tsarist prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, a crucial event in the years leading up to the Revolution of 1917, is reconstructed from the alienating viewpoints of historical witnesses. The sole voice of reason among the advisers to Tsar Nikolai II, Stolypin died at the hands of the anarchist Mordko Bogrov, and with him perished Russia's last hope for reform. Translated by H.T. Willetts.

August 1914 is the first volume of Solzhenitsyn's epic, The Red Wheel; the second is November 1916. Each of the subsequent volumes will concentrate on another critical moment or "knot," in the history of the Revolution. Translated by H.T. Willetts.
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The Big Sleep
by Raymond Chandler

ISBN 0394758285 (0-394-75828-5)
Softcover, Vintage Books

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"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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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake

ISBN 0141301155 (0-14-130115-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated

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Book summary:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, along with Roald Dahl's other tales for younger readers, make him a true star of children's literature. Dahl seems to know just how far to go with his oddball fantasies; in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example, nasty Violet Beauregarde blows up into a blueberry from sneaking forbidden chewing gum, and bratty Augustus Gloop is carried away on the river of chocolate he wouldn't resist. In fact, all manner of disasters can happen to the most obnoxiously deserving of children because Dahl portrays each incident with such resourcefulness and humor.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a singular delight, crammed with mad fantasy, childhood justice and revenge, and as much candy as you can eat. The book is also available in Spanish (Charlie y la Fabrica de Chocolate). (The suggested age range for this book is 9-12, but nobody this reviewer has met can resist it, including New York City bellhops, flight attendants, and grumpy teenagers.) [via]
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Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
by Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake

ISBN 0141301120 (0-14-130112-0)
Softcover, Puffin

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Picking right up where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator continues the adventures of Charlie Bucket, his family, and Willy Wonka, the eccentric candy maker. As the book begins, our heroes are shooting into the sky in a glass elevator, headed for destinations unknown. What follows is exactly the kind of high-spirited magical madness and mayhem we've all come to expect from Willy Wonka and his creator Roald Dahl. The American space race gets a send-up, as does the President, and Charlie's family gets a second chance at childhood. Throw in the Vermicious Knids, Gnoolies, and Minusland and we once again witness pure genius. (Ages 9 to 12) [via]
More editions of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator:
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: ISBN 0141301120 (0-14-130112-0)
  Softcover, Puffin
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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
by Gregory Maguire, Bill Sanderson

ISBN 0060987529 (0-06-098752-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness.
But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers.
When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly swirl around in a heated mix:
Everything about this moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in, strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy. Extreme beauty is an affliction...
But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister:
- Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: ISBN 0060392827 (0-06-039282-7)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: ISBN 0060987529 (0-06-098752-9)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Dahl Diary, 1992
by Roald Dahl

ISBN 0140346473 (0-14-034647-3)
Softcover, Penguin USA

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Book summary:
Each month kicks off with some of Roald Dahl's own diary jottings, in which he tells all sorts of facts about his life, as well as a lot of detailed nature notes for each month of the year. The pages are also full of favourite characters from his books. [via]
More editions of The Dahl Diary, 1992:
- The Dahl Diary, 1992: ISBN 0140346473 (0-14-034647-3)
  Softcover, Penguin USA
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The Devil Wears Prada
by Lauren Weisberger

ISBN 0307275558 (0-307-27555-8)
Softcover, Bantam Books

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It's a killer title: The Devil Wears Prada. And it's killer material: author Lauren Weisberger did a stint as assistant to Anna Wintour, the all-powerful editor of Vogue magazine. Now she's written a book, and this is its theme: narrator Andrea Sachs goes to work for Miranda Priestly, the all-powerful editor of Runway magazine. Turns out Miranda is quite the bossyboots. That's pretty much the extent of the novel, but it's plenty. Miranda's behavior is so insanely over-the-top that it's a gas to see what she'll do next, and to try to guess which incidents were culled from the real-life antics of the woman who's been called Anna "Nuclear" Wintour. For instance, when Miranda goes to Paris for the collections, Andrea receives a call back at the New York office (where, incidentally, she's not allowed to leave her desk to eat or go to the bathroom, lest her boss should call). Miranda bellows over the line: "I am standing in the pouring rain on the rue de Rivoli and my driver has vanished. Vanished! Find him immediately!"
This kind of thing is delicious fun to read about, though not as well written as its obvious antecedent, The Nanny Diaries. And therein lies the essential problem of the book. Andrea's goal in life is to work for The New Yorker--she's only sticking it out with Miranda for a job recommendation. But author Weisberger is such an inept, ungrammatical writer, you're positively rooting for her fictional alter ego not to get anywhere near The New Yorker. Still, Weisberger has certainly one-upped Me Times Three author Alix Witchel, whose magazine-world novel never gave us the inside dope that was the book's whole raison d' etre. For the most part, The Devil Wears Prada focuses on the outrageous Miranda Priestly, and she's an irresistible spectacle. --Claire Dederer [via]
More editions of The Devil Wears Prada:
- The Devil Wears Prada: ISBN 038550926X (0-385-50926-X)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
- The Devil Wears Prada: ISBN 0307275558 (0-307-27555-8)
  Softcover, Bantam Books
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Disclosure
by Michael Crichton

ISBN 0345391055 (0-345-39105-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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"Expertly crafted, ingenious and absorbing." The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The #1 Bestseller by the author of "Jurassic Park." As he did in "Rising Sun," Crichton focuses on a topic as close as today's newspaper headlines: sexual harassment.
Tom Sanders is an up-and-coming executive at the computer firm DigiCom. When his new boss turns out to be a woman who is both his former lover and a business rival, Sanders determines to be professional. But after a closed-door meeting, the woman accuses him of sexual harassment. It's her word against his, and suddenly Sanders finds himself caught in a nightmarish web of deceit in which he is branded as the villian. As he scrambles to save his career and his reputation, Sanders uncovers an electronic trail into DigiCom's secrets . . . and the cynical scheme devised to bring him down. [via]
More editions of Disclosure:
- Disclosure: ISBN 0345418948 (0-345-41894-8)
  Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
- Disclosure: ISBN 0345391055 (0-345-39105-5)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson

ISBN 014600177X (0-14-600177-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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You are walking through the streets of London. It is getting dark and you want to get home quickly. You enter a narrow side-street. Everything is quiet, but as you pass the door of a large, windowless building, you hear a key turning in the lock. A man comes out and looks at you. You have never seen him before, but you realize immediately that he hates you. You are shocked to discover, also, that you hate him. Who is this man that everybody hates? And why is he coming out of the laboratory of the very respectable Dr Jekyll? [via]
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Ellen Foster
by Kaye Gibbons

ISBN 0375703055 (0-375-70305-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Oprah Book Club® Selection, October 1997: Kaye Gibbons is a writer who brings a short story sensibility to her novels. Rather than take advantage of the novel's longer form to paint her visions in broad, sweeping strokes, Gibbons prefers to concentrate on just one corner of the canvas and only a few colors to produce her small masterpieces. In Gibbons's case, her canvas is the American South and her colors are all the shades of gray.
In Ellen Foster, the title character is an 11-year-old orphan who refers to herself as "old Ellen," an appellation that is disturbingly apt. Ellen is an old woman in a child's body; her frail, unhappy mother dies, her abusive father alternately neglects her and makes advances on her, and she is shuttled from one uncaring relative's home to another before she finally takes matters into her own hands and finds herself a place to belong. There is something almost Dickensian about Ellen's tribulations; like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or a host of other literary child heroes, Ellen is at the mercy of predatory adults, with only her own wit and courage--and the occasional kindness of others--to help her through. That she does, in fact, survive her childhood and even rise above it is the book's bittersweet victory. [via]
More editions of Ellen Foster:
- Ellen Foster: ISBN 0394757572 (0-394-75757-2)
  Softcover, Vintage Books
- Ellen Foster: ISBN 0375703055 (0-375-70305-5)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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End of the Affair
by Graham Greene

ISBN 0140291091 (0-14-029109-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Set in London during and just after World War II, Graham Greene's The End of the Affair is a pathos-laden examination of a three-way collision between love of self, love of another, and love of God. The affair in question involves Maurice Bendrix, a solipsistic novelist, and a dutifully married woman, Sarah Miles. The lovers meet at a party thrown by Sarah's dreary civil-servant husband, and proceed to liberate each other from boredom and routine unhappiness. Reflecting on the ebullient beginnings of their romance, Bendrix recalls: "There was never any question in those days of who wanted whom--we were together in desire." Indeed, the affair goes on unchecked for several years until, during an afternoon tryst, Bendrix goes downstairs to look for intruders in his basement and a bomb falls on the building. Sarah rushes down to find him lying under a fallen door, and immediately makes a deal with God, whom she has never particularly cared for. "I love him and I'll do anything if you'll make him alive.... I'll give him up forever, only let him be alive with a chance.... People can love each other without seeing each other, can't they, they love You all their lives without seeing You."
Bendrix, as evidenced by his ability to tell the story, is not dead, merely unconscious, and so Sarah must keep her promise. She breaks off the relationship without giving a reason, leaving Bendrix mystified and angry. The only explanation he can think of is that she's left him for another man. It isn't until years later, when he hires a private detective to ascertain the truth, that he learns of her impassioned vow. Sarah herself comes to understand her move through a strange rationalization. Writing to God in her journal, she says:
You willed our separation, but he [Bendrix] willed it too. He worked for it with his anger and his jealousy, and he worked for it with his love. For he gave me so much love, and I gave him so much love that soon there wasn't anything left, when we'd finished, but You.
It's as though the pull toward faith were inevitable, if incomprehensible--perhaps as punishment for her sin of adultery. In her final years, Sarah's faith only deepens, even as she remains haunted by the bombing and the power of her own attraction to God. Set against the backdrop of a war-ravaged city, The End of the Affair is equally haunting as it lays forth the question of what constitutes love in troubling, unequivocal terms. --Melanie Rehak [via]
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The First Circle
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

ISBN 0060916834 (0-06-091683-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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A major literary event 50 years in the making:In the First Circle is the first complete English translation of Nobel Prizewinner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns best novel (Washington Post). With an introduction by Edward Erickson, this work by the author of The Gulag Archipelago is the story of a brilliant mathematician who finds himself locked in a Moscow prison filled with the countrys brightest minds and must decide whether to aid Stalins repressive state. [via]
More editions of The First Circle:
- The First Circle: ISBN 0060139498 (0-06-013949-8)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- The First Circle: ISBN 0060916834 (0-06-091683-4)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Gaudy Night
by Dorothy Leigh Sayers

ISBN 0061043494 (0-06-104349-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Obscene graffiti, poison pen letters and a disgusting effigy greeted Harriet Vane on her return to Oxford. A graduate of ten years before and now a successful novelist, this should have been a pleasant, nostalgic visit for her. She asks her lover, Lord Peter Wimsey, for help. [via]
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God Emperor of Dune
by Frank Herbert

ISBN 0441294677 (0-441-29467-7)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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More than three thousand years have passed since the first events recorded in DUNE. Only one link survives with those tumultuous times: the grotesque figure of Leto Atreides, son of the prophet Paul Muad'Dib, and now the virtually immortal God Emperor of Dune. He alone understands the future, and he knows with a terrible certainty that the evolution of his race is at an end unless he can breed new qualities into his species. But to achieve his final victory, Leto Atreides must also bring about his own downfall ... [via]
More editions of God Emperor of Dune:
- God Emperor of Dune: ISBN 0399125930 (0-399-12593-0)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
- God Emperor of Dune: ISBN 0441294677 (0-441-29467-7)
  Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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The History of Love
by Nicole Krauss

ISBN 0393328627 (0-393-32862-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book.
The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed.
The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg [via]
More editions of The History of Love:
- The History of Love: ISBN 0393060349 (0-393-06034-9)
  Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The History of Love: ISBN 0393328627 (0-393-32862-7)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach

ISBN 0380012863 (0-380-01286-3)
Softcover, Avon Books

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"Most gulls don't bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight--how to get from shore to food and back again," writes author Richard Bach in this allegory about a unique bird named Jonathan Livingston Seagull. "For most gulls it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight." Flight is indeed the metaphor that makes the story soar. Ultimately this is a fable about the importance of seeking a higher purpose in life, even if your flock, tribe, or neighborhood finds your ambition threatening. (At one point our beloved gull is even banished from his flock.) By not compromising his higher vision, Jonathan gets the ultimate payoff: transcendence. Ultimately, he learns the meaning of love and kindness. The dreamy seagull photographs by Russell Munson provide just the right illustrations--although the overall packaging does seem a bit dated (keep in mind that it was first published in 1970). Nonetheless, this is a spirituality classic, and an especially engaging parable for adolescents. --Gail Hudson [via]
More editions of Jonathan Livingston Seagull:
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull: ISBN 0380012863 (0-380-01286-3)
  Softcover, Avon Books
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The Kitchen God's Wife
by Amy Tan

ISBN 0143038109 (0-14-303810-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Tan follows up the success of The Joy Luck Club with this moving story of two women who have kept each other's secrets for 40 years. 12 cassettes. [via]
More editions of The Kitchen God's Wife:
- The Kitchen God's Wife: ISBN 0399135782 (0-399-13578-2)
  Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
- The Kitchen God's Wife: ISBN 0143038109 (0-14-303810-9)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
by Charles Dickens

ISBN 0192545086 (0-19-254508-6)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Our hero confronts a large and varied cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures up and down the country. Punishing wickedness, befriending the helpless, strutting the stage, and falling in love, Nicholas shares some of his creator's energy and earnestness as he faces the pressing issues of early Victorian society. [via]
More editions of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby:
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby: ISBN 0192545086 (0-19-254508-6)
  Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Little Dorrit: Library Edition
by Charles Dickens, Stephen Wall, Helen Small

ISBN 0141439963 (0-14-143996-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Highly regarded today as one of the greatest novels in English literature, Little Dorrit presents both a scathing indictment of mid-Victorian England and a devastating insight into the human condition. Examining the many social and mental prisons which incarcerate men and women, the novel also considers the nature of true spiritual freedom. Against a background of administrative and financial scandal, Dickens tells the moving story of the old Marshalsea prisoner who inherits a fortune and his devoted daughter's love for a man who believes he has done with love. He draws widely on the events of his own life and times, yet focuses a powerful imaginative vision which is as universal as it is specific, immediate, and intense. In Little Dorrit Dickens displays his characteristic mastery of irony and pathos, of satire and comedy, and the novel exemplifies his most mature, ambitious, and effective writing. This edition, which has the definitive Clarendon text, also includes Dickens's working notes and eight of the original illustrations from the first edition by 'Phiz'. [via]
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Motherless Brooklyn
by Jonathan Lethem

ISBN 0375724834 (0-375-72483-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Pop quiz. Please complete the following sentence: "There are days when I get up in the morning and stagger into the bathroom and begin running water and then I look up and I don't even recognize my own _." If you answered face, then your name is obviously not Jonathan Lethem. Instead of taking the easy out, the genre-busting novelist concludes this by-the-numbers string of words with toothbrush in the mirror.
This brilliant sentence and a lot of other really excellent ones compose Lethem's engaging fifth novel, Motherless Brooklyn. Lionel Essrog, a detective suffering from Tourette's syndrome, spins the narrative as he tracks down the killer of his boss, Frank Minna. Minna enlisted Lionel and his friends when they were teenagers living at Saint Vincent's Home for Boys, ostensibly to perform odd jobs (we're talking very odd) and over the years trained them to become a team of investigators. The Minna men face their most daunting case when they find their mentor in a Dumpster bleeding from stab wounds delivered by an assailant whose identity he refuses to reveal--even while he's dying on the way to the hospital.
Detectives? Brooklyn? Is this the same Lethem who danced the postapocalypso in Amnesia Moon? Incredibly, yes, and rarely has such a departure been pulled off with this much aplomb. As in the "toothbrush" passage above, Lethem sets himself up with the imposing task of making tired conventions new. Brooklyn accents? Fuggetaboutit. Lethem's dialogue is as light on its feet as a prize fighter. Lionel's Tourette's could have been an easy joke, but Lethem probes so convincingly into the disorder that you feel simultaneously rattled, sympathetic, and irritated by the guy. Sure, the story is a mystery, but Motherless Brooklyn could be about flower arranging, for all we care. What counts is Lionel's tic-ridden take on a world full of surprises, propelling this fiction forward at edgy, breakneck speed. --Ryan Boudinot [via]
More editions of Motherless Brooklyn:
- Motherless Brooklyn: ISBN 0385491832 (0-385-49183-2)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
- Motherless Brooklyn: ISBN 0375724834 (0-375-72483-4)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie

ISBN 0425173755 (0-425-17375-5)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group

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Book summary:
The bestselling mystery writer of all time. The greatest detective of the century. The romance of the Orient Express. The murder and the mystery that has shocked--and stumped--readers for the past six decades. This is Murder on the Orient Express.

"Christie keeps her readers enthralled and guessing to the end."-- Times Literary Supplement (from the original 1934 review) [via]
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Nicholas Nickleby: Library Edition
by Charles Dickens, Mark Ford, Hablot Knight Browne

ISBN 0140435123 (0-14-043512-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Our hero confronts a large and varied cast, including Wackford Squeers, the fantastic ogre of a schoolmaster, and Vincent Crummles, the grandiloquent ham actor, on his comic and satirical adventures up and down the country. Punishing wickedness, befriending the helpless, strutting the stage, and falling in love, Nicholas shares some of his creator's energy and earnestness as he faces the pressing issues of early Victorian society. [via]
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O Pioneers!
by Willa Cather

ISBN 0140187758 (0-14-018775-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
O Pioneers!, Willa Cather's second novel, tells the story of an immigrant family's struggle to save their Nebraska farm. Cather's placement of a strong and capable woman at the center of the story, her realistic depiction of life on the midwestern prairie, and her vivid portrayal of the immigrant experience at the turn of the century make O Pioneers! a true American classic. [via]
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O Pioneers! and Other Tales of the Praire
by Willa Cather

ISBN 0385487207 (0-385-48720-7)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing

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Book summary:
The transcontinental express swung along the windings of the Sand River Valley, and in the rear seat of the observation car a young man sat greatly at his ease, not in the least discomfited by the fierce sunlight which beat in upon his brown face and neck and strong back. There was a look of relaxation and of great passivity about his broad shoulders, which seemed almost too heavy until he stood up and squared them. He wore a pale flannel shirt and a blue silk necktie with loose ends. His trousers were wide and belted at the waist, and his short sack coat hung open. His heavy shoes had seen good service. His reddish-brown hair, like his clothes, had a foreign cut. He had deep-set, dark blue eyes under heavy reddish eyebrows. His face was kept clean only by close shaving, and even the sharpest razor left a glint of yellow in the smooth brown of his skin. His teeth and the palms of his hands were very white. His head, which looked hard and stubborn, lay indolently in the green cushion of the wicker chair, and as he looked out at the ripe summer country a teasing, not unkindly smile played over his lips. Once, as he basked thus comfortably, a quick light flashed in his eyes, curiously dilating the pupils, and his mouth became a hard, straight line, gradually relaxing into its former smile of rather kindly mockery. He told himself, apparently, that there was no point in getting excited; and he seemed a master hand at taking his ease when he could. Neither the sharp whistle of the locomotive nor the brakeman's call disturbed him. It was not until after the train had stopped that he rose, put on a Panama hat, took from the rack a small valise and a flute case, and stepped deliberately to the station platform. The baggage was already unloaded, and the stranger presented a check for a battered sole-leather steamer trunk.

"Can you keep it here for a day or two?" he asked the agent. "I may send for it, and I may not. [via]
More editions of O Pioneers! and Other Tales of the Praire:
- O Pioneers! and Other Tales of the Praire: ISBN 0385487207 (0-385-48720-7)
  Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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Regeneration
by Pat Barker

ISBN 0140236236 (0-14-023623-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Regeneration, one in Pat Barker's series of novels confronting the psychological effects of World War I, focuses on treatment methods during the war and the story of a decorated English officer sent to a military hospital after publicly declaring he will no longer fight. Yet the novel is much more. Written in sparse prose that is shockingly clear -- the descriptions of electronic treatments are particularly harrowing -- it combines real-life characters and events with fictional ones in a work that examines the insanity of war like no other. Barker also weaves in issues of class and politics in this compactly powerful book. Other books in the series include The Eye in the Door and the Booker Award winner The Ghost Road. [via]
More editions of Regeneration:
- Regeneration: ISBN 0140236236 (0-14-023623-6)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl

ISBN 0140311254 (0-14-031125-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Roald Dahl's much-loved story about how Charlie Bucket wins a ticket to visit Willy Wonka's amazing chocolate factory is turned into a play for children to act. With tips about scenery, props and lighting, the play is easy to stage and there are lots of parts for everyone. Roald Dahl, the best-loved of children's writers, died in 1990 but his books continue to be bestsellers. Richard George was an elementary school teacher in New York when he wrote this stage adaptation of Roald Dahl's bestselling story - and Roald Dahl himself recommended that it should be published. [via]
More editions of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory:
- Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: ISBN 0140311254 (0-14-031125-4)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Small World
by David Lodge

ISBN 0140244867 (0-14-024486-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
The unbridled greed, pettiness, buffoonery and intellectual gobbledygook in the world of higher scholarship are the topics of this thorough and thoroughly funny roman a' English department. It's interesting for a couple of reasons, aside from its humor and spoofiness: it's an insider's view of things -- always the best kind -- and it takes its old-fashioned time telling a story, complete with reasonable digressions about the state of literary criticism and what may or may not be a realistic view of the academic life. [via]
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Special Topics in Calamity Physics
by Marisha Pessl

ISBN 0143112120 (0-14-311212-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
?Dazzling,? (People) ?Exuberant,? (Vogue) ?marvelously entertaining,? (The Dallas Morning News) Marisha Pessl?s mesmerizing debut has critics raving and heralds the arrival of a vibrant new voice in American fiction. At the center of this ?cracking good read?4 is clever, deadpan Blue van Meer, who has a head full of literary, philosophical, scientific, and cinematic knowledge. But she could use some friends. Upon entering the elite St. Gallway school, she finds some?a clique of eccentrics known as the Bluebloods. One drowning and one hanging later, Blue finds herself puzzling out a byzantine murder mystery. Nabokov meets Donna Tartt (then invites the rest of the Western Canon to the party) in this novel?with ?visual aids? drawn by the author?that has won over readers of all ages. [via]
More editions of Special Topics in Calamity Physics:
- Special Topics in Calamity Physics: ISBN 0143112120 (0-14-311212-0)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston
by Robert Louis Stevenson, Emma Letley

ISBN 019281740X (0-19-281740-X)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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Book summary:
This volume includes Stevenson's famous spine-chilling thriller Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Weir of Hermiston, a brilliant autobiographical portrayal of a father-son relationship. [via]
More editions of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston:
- The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston: ISBN 0192834312 (0-19-283431-2)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Weir of Hermiston: ISBN 019281740X (0-19-281740-X)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Mighall

ISBN 0141439734 (0-14-143973-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

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Book summary:
Robert Louis Stevenson originally wrote "Dr. Jekyll And Mr Hyde" as a "chilling shocker." He then burned the draft and, upon his wife's advice, rewrote it as the darkly complex tale it is today. Stark, skillfully woven, this fascinating novel explores the curious turnings of human character through the strange case of Dr. Jekyll, a kindly scientist who by night takes on his stunted evil self, Mr. Hyde. Anticipating modern psychology, "Jekyll And Hyde" is a brilliantly original study of man's dual nature -- as well as an immortal tale of suspense and terror. Published in 1866, "Jekyll And Hyde" was an instant success and brought Stevenson his first taste of fame. Though sometimes dismissed as a mere mystery story, the book has evoked much literary admirations. Vladimir Nabokov likened it to "Madame Bovary" and "Dead Souls" as "a fable that lies nearer to poetry than to ordinary prose fiction." [via]
More editions of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde:
- The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde: And Other Stories: ISBN 0140431179 (0-14-043117-9)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: ISBN 0141439734 (0-14-143973-4)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Strange Cases of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
by Katherine Linehan, Robert Louis Stevenson

ISBN 0393974650 (0-393-97465-0)
Softcover, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.

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Book summary:
The young Robert Louis Stevenson suffered from repeated nightmares of living a double life, in which by day he worked as a respectable doctor and by night he roamed the back alleys of old-town Edinburgh. In three days of furious writing, he produced a story about his dream existence. His wife found it too gruesome, so he promptly burned the manuscript. In another three days, he wrote it again. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was published as a "shilling shocker" in 1886, and became an instant classic. In the first six months, 40,000 copies were sold. Queen Victoria read it. Sermons and editorials were written about it. When Stevenson and his family visited America a year later, they were mobbed by reporters at the dock in New York City. Compulsively readable from its opening pages, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is still one of the best tales ever written about the divided self.
This University of Nebraska Press edition is a small, exquisitely produced paperback. The book design, based on the original first edition of 1886, includes wide margins, decorative capitals on the title page and first page of each chapter, and a clean, readable font that is 19th-century in style. Joyce Carol Oates contributes a foreword in which she calls Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a "mythopoetic figure" like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Alice in Wonderland, and compares Stevenson's creation to doubled selves in the works of Plato, Poe, Wilde, and Dickens.
This edition also features 12 full-page wood engravings by renowned illustrator Barry Moser. Moser is a skillful reader and interpreter as well as artist, and his afterword to the book, in which he explains the process by which he chose a self-portrait motif for the suite of engravings, is fascinating. For the image of Edward Hyde, he writes, "I went so far as to have my dentist fit me out with a carefully sculpted prosthetic of evil-looking teeth. But in the final moments I had to abandon the idea as being inappropriate. It was more important to stay in keeping with the text and, like Stevenson, not show Hyde's face." (Also recommended: the edition of Frankenstein illustrated by Barry Moser) --Fiona Webster [via]
More editions of The Strange Cases of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
- The Strange Cases of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: ISBN 0393974650 (0-393-97465-0)
  Softcover, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W.
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Tales of the City
by Armistead Maupin

ISBN 0060964049 (0-06-096404-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
Since 1976, Maupin's Tales of the City has etched itself upon the hearts and minds of its readers, both straight and gay. From a groundbreaking newspaper serial in the San Francisco Chronicle to a bestselling novel to a critically acclaimed PBS series, Tales (all six of them) contains the universe--if not in a grain of sand, then in one apartment house. [via]
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