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books tagged “social commentary” (Social commentary)
books tagged “social commentary”
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Absalom, Absalom!by William FaulknerISBN 0394747755 (0-394-74775-5)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Absalom, Absalom!'Book summary:Read, read, read. Read everythingtrash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! Youll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, youll find out. If its not, throw it out the window. William Faulkner
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Absalom, Absalom! is Faulkners epic tale of Thomas Sutpen, an enigmatic stranger who comes to Jefferson, Mississippi, in the early 1830s to wrest his mansion out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. He was a man, Faulkner said, who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him. -
Acid Rowby Minette WaltersISBN 0399148620 (0-399-14862-0)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Acid Row'Book summary:A writer of unquestioned talent and power, Minette Walters has electrified readers around the globe with her fiercely compelling and utterly riveting thrillers that have earned her comparisons to Ruth Rendell and P. D. James. In Acid Row, she takes us to a place that is all the more frightening because it is so real.
Acid Row. The name beleaguered inhabitants give their crime-riddled, decaying housing project. It's a no-man's land of single mothers and fatherless children, where angry, alienated youths control the streets.
Into this battleground comes Sophie Morrison, a young doctor visiting a patient there-and unaware that she is entering the home of a known pedophile. With reports circulating that a child has disappeared into this bedlam, the vigilantes are out in force. Sophie is trapped at the center of this terrifying siege, wth a man who can and will harm her . . . and the mob is out for blood. [via]More editions of Acid Row:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found Thereby Lewis Carroll, John TennielISBN 0394869362 (0-394-86936-2)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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Along the Edge of Americaby Peter JenkinsISBN 0395877377 (0-395-87737-7)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Along the Edge of America'Book summary:In the past, Peter Jenkins' explorations (The Walk West, A Walk Across America, The Road Unseen) have been confined to land, but now Jenkins takes to the watery edge of the Gulf Coast, traveling in a 25-foot cruiser from the Florida Keys to Texas cattle country. Jenkins's riveting storytelling is all the more fascinating because his adventure is not just a paean to dare-devil accomplishments. Jenkins explains from the start that this trip was meant to renew the confidence he'd had before a bad divorce laid him low. But while he rediscovers his zest for life, he also learns how to operate a boat, navigate a storm, and avoid getting hijacked--all the while sharing the stories of the individuals he meets, from the alligator-wrestling Parker brothers to Mr. James Bloodworth and Bloodworth's Drugstore, where you can still get a hand-scooped milkshake for $1.15. Jenkins relates a great tale, with honesty, humor, and a fine ear for language. [via]
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American Storiesby Calvin TrillinISBN 0395647290 (0-395-64729-0)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The American Scene: A Readerby H. L. Mencken, Huntington CairnsISBN 0394752147 (0-394-75214-7)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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Among Schoolchildrenby Tracy KidderISBN 0395475910 (0-395-47591-0)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Among Schoolchildren'Book summary:Brimming with the exuberance and innocence of childhood, Among School Children is the intense and affecting chronicle of a Holyoke, Massachusetts, fifth-grade teacher's passionate dedication to the children in her classroom.#Houghton Mifflin. (Nonfiction) [via]
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Are Men Necessary?: When Sexes Collideby Maureen DowdISBN 0399153322 (0-399-15332-2)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Are Men Necessary?: When Sexes Collide'Book summary:She may be smart, incisive, witty, and keenly observant but with the release of Are Men Necessary?--a series of pithy (some might say piqued) ruminations on the sexes--Maureen Dowd will never, ever be championed by guys. Not that she cares. Even those who seek to avoid her columns in the august pages of The New York Times are certain to stumble over her invective in syndication. Dowd, it often seems, is everywhere. So those seeking even more via this book should be warned: Are Men Necessary? not only asks the eponymous question; it seeks to answer it with myriad examples (some convincing, some not) drawn from the Toronto Star to Kenneth Starr, from Cosmopolitan to Condoleezza Rice. You can bet a lot of folks aren't going to relish the answer.
With hands on hips and eyes wide open, Dowd surveys gender relations in contemporary settings such as the workplace, the White House, the mall, and the media, comparing and contrasting as she goes. And while her secondary sources are endless--and, let's face it, the subject of gender inequality is not exactly new--Dowd manages to produce a fair share of bons mots. To wit, this pearl on the subject of plastic surgery and men: "I have yet to see a man come out of cosmetic surgery without looking transformed into some permanently astonished lesbian version of himself," Dowd quotes a source as saying. "It's terrifying. My friend's father had just his eyes done by the best, most highly sought-after cosmetic surgeon in New York City. And he doesn't look refreshed or well rested. He looks like he's being stabbed to death by invisible people." Dowd's generously dispersed anecdotes, though seldom as funny, are equally readable. In the end, though, one wishes Are Men Necessary? went beyond simply grocery listing examples of sexual disparity to offer concrete suggestions for change. Then again, maybe that's too great a task even for a woman like Dowd. --Kim Hughes [via]
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The Awakeningby Kate ChopinISBN 0399500316 (0-399-50031-6)
Softcover, Berkley Pub Group
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The Best American Essays 1998by Cynthia OzickISBN 0395860512 (0-395-86051-2)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The Best American Essays, 1998by Robert Atwan, Cynthia OzickISBN 0395860520 (0-395-86052-0)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin Company
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Best of Sydney J. Harrisby J. R. R. TolkienISBN 0395249732 (0-395-24973-2)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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Bleak House: Riverside Editionby Charles DickensISBN 0395051045 (0-395-05104-5)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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Blind Dateby Jerzy KosinskiISBN 0395257816 (0-395-25781-6)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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Celebration of Awareness: A Call for Institutional Revolutionby Ivan IllichISBN 0394714725 (0-394-71472-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Chapterhouse Duneby Frank HerbertISBN 0399130276 (0-399-13027-6)
Hardcover, Smithmark Pub
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Chapterhouse Dune'Book summary:The desert planet Arrakis, called Dune, has been destroyed. Now, the Bene Gesserit, heirs to Dune's power, have colonized a green world--and are turning it into a desert, mile by scorched mile.Here is the last book Frank Herbert wrote before his death. A stunning climax to the epic Dune legend that will live on forever... [via]
Charles Kuralt's America: Charles Kuraltby Charles KuraltISBN 0399140832 (0-399-14083-2)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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Cockpitby Jerzy N. KosinskiISBN 0395206715 (0-395-20671-5)
Hardcover, Bookthrift Co
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Complete Novels of Jane Austenby Jane AustenISBN 0394718917 (0-394-71891-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Crackpot : The Obssessions of John Watersby John WatersISBN 0394755340 (0-394-75534-0)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crackpot : The Obssessions of John Waters'Book summary:This hilarious collection of essays by the offbeat writer and director is a treat for fans of the "Pope of Trash" and the perfect introduction for those who have not yet discovered his eccentric charms. [via]
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The Crying of Lot 49by Thomas PynchonISBN 0397004184 (0-397-00418-4)
Hardcover, Lippincott
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Crying of Lot 49'Book summary:The highly original satire about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy, meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self knowledge.
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Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Knowby E.D. HirschISBN 039543095X (0-395-43095-X)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know'Book summary:In this forceful manifesto, Hirsch argues that children in the U.S. are being deprived of the basic knowledge that would enable them to function in contemporary society. Includes 5,000 essential facts to know. [via]
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Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Knowby Joseph F. Kett, E.D. Hirsch, James S. TrefilISBN 0394758439 (0-394-75843-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know'Book summary:In this forceful manifesto, hirsch argues that children in the u.s. Are being deprived of the basic knowledge that would enable them to function in contemporary society. Includes 5,000 essential facts to know [via]
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The Dancers of Arunby Elizabeth A. LynnISBN 0399124098 (0-399-12409-8)
Hardcover
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Demonby John VarleyISBN 0399129456 (0-399-12945-6)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Demon'Book summary:The satellite-sized alien Gaea has gone completely insane. She has transformed her love of old movies into monstrous realities. She is Marilyn Monroe. She is King Kong. And now she must be destroyed. [via]
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Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of Americaby Morgan SpurlockISBN 0399152601 (0-399-15260-1)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America'Book summary:The literary debut of the funniest and most incisive new voice to come along since Michael Moore-and the acclaimed director of the film phenomenon of the year.
Can man live on fast food alone? Morgan Spurlock tried to do just that. For thirty days, he ate nothing but three "squares" a day from McDonald's as part of an investigation into the effects of fast food on American health. The resulting documentary won him resounding applause and a worldwide release that broke box-office records. Audiences were captivated by Spurlock's experiment, during which he gained twenty-five pounds, his blood pressure skyrocketed, and his libido all but disappeared.
But this story goes far beyond Spurlock's good-humored "Mc-Sickness." He traveled across the country-into schools, hospitals, and people's homes -to investigate school lunch programs, the marketing of fast food, and the declining emphasis on health and physical education. He looks at why fast food is so tasty, cheap, and ultimately seductive, and what Americans can do to turn the rising tide of obesity, hypertension, and diabetes that have accompanied its ever-growing popularity. He interviewed experts in twenty U.S. cities-from surgeon generals and kids to lawmakers and marketing gurus-who share their research, opinions, and "gut feelings" on our ever-expanding girth and what we can all do to offset a health crisis of supersized proportions.
In this groundbreaking, hilarious book, "benevolent muckraker" Morgan Spurlock debuts a wry investigative voice that will appeal to anyone interested in the health of our country, our children, and ourselves. [via]More editions of Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America:
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Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spiritby Al GoreISBN 0395578213 (0-395-57821-3)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit'Book summary:What's most inspiring about Earth in the Balance is who wrote it. It's a big deal, after all, that a sitting senator was willing to write, "We must make the rescue of the environment the central organizing principle for civilization." And that's not all. In his 1992 book, Al Gore also wrote:
I have become very impatient with my own tendency to put a finger to the political winds and proceed cautiously.... [E]very time I pause to consider whether I have gone too far out on a limb, I look at the new facts [on the environment crisis] that continue to pour in from around the world and conclude that I have not gone far enough.... [T]he time has long since come to take more political risks--and endure more political criticism--by proposing tougher, more effective solutions and fighting hard for their enactments.
And the buzz on the street is that Gore actually wrote those words himself.
When Earth in the Balance first came out, it caused quite a stir--and for good reason. It convincingly makes the case that a crisis of epidemic proportions is nearly upon us and that if the world doesn't get its act together soon and agree to some kind of "Global Marshall Plan" to protect the environment, we're all up a polluted creek without a paddle. Myriad plagues are upon us, but the worst include the loss of biodiversity, the depletion of the ozone layer, the slash-and-burn destruction of rainforests, and the onset of global warming. None of this is new, of course, nor was it new in 1992. But most environmentalists will still get a giddy feeling reading such a call to action as written by a prominent politician.
The book is arranged into three sections: the first describes the plagues; the second looks at how we got ourselves into this mess; and the final chapters present ways out. Gore gets his points across in a serviceable way, though he could have benefited from a firmer editor's hand; at times the analogies are arcane and the pacing is odd--kind of like a Gore speech that climaxes at weird points and then sinks just as the audience is about to clap. Still, at the end you understand what's been said. Gore believes that if we apply some American ingenuity, the twin engines of democracy and capitalism can be rigged to help us stabilize world population growth, spread social justice, boost education levels, create environmentally appropriate technologies, and negotiate international agreements to bring us back from the brink. For example, a worldwide shift to clean, renewable energy sources would create huge economic opportunities for companies large and small to design, build, and maintain solar panels, wind turbines, fuel cells, and other ecofriendly innovations.
Gore doesn't mince words when describing just how hard it will be to get out of this jam. Real hope is contingent on a swelling up of concern among the public--and fast. A year into the vice presidency, in an interview with writer Bill McKibben, Gore paraphrased a key passage in his book, "The minimum that is scientifically necessary far exceeds the maximum that is politically feasible." Ah, a political out. Some readers will ask of Gore: what has he done since publishing his book to advance the political feasibility of decisive environmental action? --Chip Giller [via]
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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!by Lynne Truss, Bonnie TimmonsISBN 0399244913 (0-399-24491-3)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!'Book summary:[via]Illuminating the comical confusion the lowly comma can cause, this new edition of Eats, Shoots & Leaves uses lively, subversive illustrations to show how misplacing or leaving out a comma can change the meaning of a sentence completely.
This picture book is sure to elicit gales of laughterand better punctuationfrom all who read it.
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Even Cowgirls Get the Bluesby Tom RobbinsISBN 0395245109 (0-395-24510-9)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Even Cowgirls Get the Blues'Book summary:Listeners follow Sissy Hankshaw's odyssey from Virginia to chic Manhattan to the Dakota Badlands, where FBI agents, cowgirls, and ecstatic whooping cranes explode in a deliciously drawn-out climax. Unabridged. 12 CDs.[via]More editions of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues:
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Frankensteinby Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Larry Weinberg, Ken BarrISBN 0394848276 (0-394-84827-6)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frankenstein'Book summary:Victor Frankenstein learns the secret of producing life, and so, by putting together parts of various corpses, he creates the Frankenstein monster. The monster is huge and disformed, but he means no harm to anyone--until constant ill treatment drives him to murder and revenge. This easy-to-read version of Mary Shelley's long-standing masterpiece easily captures the sadness and horror of the original. [via]
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Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheusby Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyISBN 0396082777 (0-396-08277-7)
Hardcover, Dodd Mead
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Gift from the Seaby Anne Morrow LindberghISBN 0394724550 (0-394-72455-0)
Hardcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gift from the Sea'Book summary:I found a 1955 printing of this book in an old waterfront cabin and was struck by the care with which the previous owner had read it. Eve (the name inscribed inside the front cover and then again above the heading for chapter 3) made pencil marks on nearly every paragraph of the book, underlining a phrase, highlighting many passages with strong vertical marks, scratching out some words that she seems to have found superfluous and even x-ing out whole sections that apparently missed their mark with her altogether. Two rusting paper clips isolate several pages, absent any marking at all. Anne Morrow Lindbergh's lyrical words are still relevant and presage so many of the themes of today's most popular books: simplicity, peaceful solitude, caring for the soul, a woman finding her place in society and life. I heard that the woman who had lived in the cabin had actually passed away some time before. Thank you, Eve, for your gift... from the sea. [via]
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Gluttons and Libertines; Human Problems of Being Naturalby Marston BatesISBN 0394712676 (0-394-71267-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gluttons and Libertines; Human Problems of Being Natural'Book summary:Human problems of being natural [via]
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Go Down, Mosesby William FaulknerISBN 0394718844 (0-394-71884-4)
Hardcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Go Down, Moses'Book summary:I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. William Faulkner, on receiving the Nobel Prize
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Go Down, Moses is composed of seven interrelated stories, all of them set in Faulkners mythic Yoknapatawpha County. From a variety of perspectives, Faulkner examines the complex, changing relationships between blacks and whites, between man and nature, weaving a cohesive novel rich in implication and insight.More editions of Go Down, Moses:
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God Emperor of Duneby Frank HerbertISBN 0399125930 (0-399-12593-0)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'God Emperor of Dune'Book summary: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]
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Great Expectationsby Charles DickensISBN 039608687X (0-396-08687-X)
Hardcover, Dodd Mead
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Expectations'Book summary:An absorbing mystery as well as a morality tale, the story of Pip, a poor village lad, and his expectations of wealth is Dickens at his most deliciously readable. The cast of characters includes kindly Joe Gargery, the loyal convict Abel Magwitch and the haunting Miss Havisham. If you have heartstrings, count on them being tugged. [via]
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Gulliver's Travelsby Jonathan SwiftISBN 0395051460 (0-395-05146-0)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gulliver's Travels'Book summary:This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition" includes a glossary and readers notes to help the modern reader contend with Swifts complex references and vocabulary. First published anonymously in 1727, Jonathan Swifts Gullivers Travels created a storm of criticismfrom those who believed the stories to be true and knew exactly who Lemuel Gulliver was, to those who demanded that the writer of the seditious tales be hunted down and executed for high treason. Even today, Swifts vitriolic attacks on politics, culture, and human nature itself have earned him the reputation of a crazed misanthrope. Swift, through his hero, consistently rails against political whims, human follies, and the bestial behaviors of the human race: In Lilliput, Gulliver is twelve times the size of the European-like natives. In Brobdingnag, he is one-twelfth the size of the primitive but moral inhabitants. In Laputa, buildings collapse and clothing does not fit, although constructed by the most modern and reasonable means. Finally, in the land of the horse-like Houyhnhnms Gulliver realizes that he and his race are nothing but a brood of Yahoos. [via]
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Herlandby Charlotte Perkins GilmanISBN 0394736656 (0-394-73665-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Herland'Book summary:On the eve of World War I, an all-female society is discovered somewhere in the distant reaches of the earth by three male explorers who are now forced to re-examine their assumptions about women's roles in society. [via]
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Hocus Pocusby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0399135243 (0-399-13524-3)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hocus Pocus'Book summary:Hocus Pocus is the fictional autobiography of a West Point graduate who was in charge of the humiliating evacuation of U.S. personnel from the Saigon rooftops at the close of the Vietnam War. Returning home from the war, he unknowingly fathered an illegitimate son. In 2001, the son begins a search for his father and catches up with him just in time to see him arrested for masterminding the prison break of 10,000 convicts.
Using his famous brand of satire and wit, Vonnegut captures twenty-first century America as only he could foresee it. In Hocus Pocus, listeners will find a fresh novel, as fascinating and brilliantly offbeat as anything he's written. [via] 
Houseby Tracy KidderISBN 0395363179 (0-395-36317-9)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The Jane Austen Book Clubby Karen Joy FowlerISBN 0399151613 (0-399-15161-3)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Jane Austen Book Club'Book summary:Six people - five women and a man - meet once a month in California's Central Valley to discuss Jane Austen's novels. They are ordinary people, neither happy nor unhappy, but each of them is wounded in different ways, they are all mixed up about their lives and relationships. Over the six months they meet, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable - under the guiding eye of Jane Austen a couple of them even fall in love..."I was enchanted. A charming and intelligent read, with the best appendix I've come across since Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"" - Kate Long, author of "The Bad Mother's Handbook". [via]
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Jane Eyreby Charlotte Bronte, Monro S. OrrISBN 0396082599 (0-396-08259-9)
Hardcover, Dodd Mead
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Joseph Andrewsby Henry FieldingISBN 0395051576 (0-395-05157-6)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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Jude the Obscureby Thomas HardyISBN 0395051916 (0-395-05191-6)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jude the Obscure'Book summary:This is the story of a struggle between the flesh and spirit. It concerns Jude Fawley, a young Wessex villager of exceptional promise, who goes to Oxford, contracts a loveless marriage and becomes embroiled in a doomed love affair with his cousin. [via]
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Les Miserablesby Victor HugoISBN 0396084311 (0-396-08431-1)
Hardcover, Dodd Mead
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Familiesby James Agee, Webster's II DictionariesISBN 039529696X (0-395-29696-X)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families'Book summary:Just what kind of book is Let Us Now Praise Famous Men? It contains many things: poems; confessional reveries; disquisitions on the proper way to listen to Beethoven; snippets of dialogue, both real and imagined; a lengthy response to a survey from the Partisan Review; exhaustive catalogs of furniture, clothing, objects, and smells. And then there are Walker Evans's famously stark portraits of depression-era sharecroppers--photographs that both stand apart from and reinforce James Agee's words.
Assigned to do a story for Fortune magazine about sharecroppers in the Deep South, Agee and Evans spent four weeks living with a poor white tenant family, winning the Burroughs's trust and immersing themselves in a sharecropper's daily existence. Given a first draft of the resulting article, the editors at Fortune quite understandably threw up their hands--as did several other editors who subsequently worked with a later book-length manuscript. The writing was contrary. It refused to accommodate itself to the reader, and at times it positively bristled with hostility. (What other book could take Marx as the epigraph and then announce: "These words are quoted here to mislead those who will be misled by them"?) Response to the book was puzzled or unfriendly, and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men sputtered out of print only a few short years after its publication. It took the 1960s, and a vogue for social justice, to bring Agee's masterwork the audience it deserved.
Yet the book is far more interesting--aesthetically and morally--than the sort of guilty-liberal tract for which it is often mistaken. On an existential level, Agee's text is a deeply felt examination of what it means to suffer, to struggle to live in spite of suffering. On a personal level, it is the painful, beautifully written portrait of one man's obsession. In its collaboration with Evans's photographs, the book is also a groundbreaking experiment in form. In the end, however, it is more than merely the sum of its parts. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is, quite simply, a book unlike any other, simmering with anger and beauty and mystery. --Mary Park [via]
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: 3 Tenant Familiesby Walker Evans, James AgeeISBN 0395957710 (0-395-95771-0)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: 3 Tenant Families'Book summary:Just what kind of book is Let Us Now Praise Famous Men? It contains many things: poems; confessional reveries; disquisitions on the proper way to listen to Beethoven; snippets of dialogue, both real and imagined; a lengthy response to a survey from the Partisan Review; exhaustive catalogs of furniture, clothing, objects, and smells. And then there are Walker Evans's famously stark portraits of depression-era sharecroppers--photographs that both stand apart from and reinforce James Agee's words.
Assigned to do a story for Fortune magazine about sharecroppers in the Deep South, Agee and Evans spent four weeks living with a poor white tenant family, winning the Burroughs's trust and immersing themselves in a sharecropper's daily existence. Given a first draft of the resulting article, the editors at Fortune quite understandably threw up their hands--as did several other editors who subsequently worked with a later book-length manuscript. The writing was contrary. It refused to accommodate itself to the reader, and at times it positively bristled with hostility. (What other book could take Marx as the epigraph and then announce: "These words are quoted here to mislead those who will be misled by them"?) Response to the book was puzzled or unfriendly, and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men sputtered out of print only a few short years after its publication. It took the 1960s, and a vogue for social justice, to bring Agee's masterwork the audience it deserved.
Yet the book is far more interesting--aesthetically and morally--than the sort of guilty-liberal tract for which it is often mistaken. On an existential level, Agee's text is a deeply felt examination of what it means to suffer, to struggle to live in spite of suffering. On a personal level, it is the painful, beautifully written portrait of one man's obsession. In its collaboration with Evans's photographs, the book is also a groundbreaking experiment in form. In the end, however, it is more than merely the sum of its parts. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is, quite simply, a book unlike any other, simmering with anger and beauty and mystery. --Mary Park [via]
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The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waughby Charlotte Mosley, Nancy Mitford, Evelyn WaughISBN 0395740150 (0-395-74015-0)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Company
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh'Book summary:Charlotte Mosley's careful collection of Nancy Mitford's and Evelyn Waugh's delightfully careless letters immerses one in a lost whirl. The two writers met in London in the late 1920s, but their correspondence didn't take off until mid-World War II, when it quickly became an exaggeration-fest. Mitford, for example, matches Waugh's surreal reports from Europe with one about an M.P. swelling up before his fellow politicians' eyes: "Well, it took 2 ambulances to get him away & now he lies on 4 beds with his trunk hanging out the window. Let nobody say that war time London lacks fantasy."
For the next 21 years, these gifted gossips would render the ridiculous sublime and vice versa, turning (and then only mildly) serious in discussions of reading and writing, preferring to glide over the problematic and emotional. Throughout, Mitford likes to play the euphoric, lazy pupil, Waugh the master grammarian, theologian, and meanie. The exchanges on their own works in progress--particularly on Brideshead Revisited and The Pursuit of Love--are an important addition to literary history, but the book's true exhilaration lies in Mitford and Waugh's knowing--and knowingly vile--comic timing. Irresistibly offensive. [via]
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A Little Princessby Frances Hodgson Burnett, Tasha TudorISBN 0397306938 (0-397-30693-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Little Princess'Book summary:Sara Crewe seemed just like a real princess... When Sara Crewe arrives at Miss Minchin's London boarding school, she seems just like a real little princess. She wears beautiful clothes, has gracious manners, and tells the most wonderful stories. Then one day, Sara suddenly becomes penniless. Now she must wear rags, sleep in the school's dreary attic, and work for her living. Sara is all alone, but keeps telling herself that she can still be a princess inside, if only she tries hard enough. [via]
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The Loraxby SeussISBN 0394823370 (0-394-82337-0)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lorax'Book summary:When Dr. Seuss gets serious, you know it must be important. Published in 1971, and perhaps inspired by the "save our planet" mindset of the 1960s, The Lorax is an ecological warning that still rings true today amidst the dangers of clear-cutting, pollution, and disregard for the earth's environment. In The Lorax, we find what we've come to expect from the illustrious doctor: brilliantly whimsical rhymes, delightfully original creatures, and weirdly undulating illustrations. But here there is also something more--a powerful message that Seuss implores both adults and children to heed.
The now remorseful Once-ler--our faceless, bodiless narrator--tells the story himself. Long ago this enterprising villain chances upon a place filled with wondrous Truffula Trees, Swomee-Swans, Brown Bar-ba- loots, and Humming-Fishes. Bewitched by the beauty of the Truffula Tree tufts, he greedily chops them down to produce and mass-market Thneeds. ("It's a shirt. It's a sock. It's a glove. It's a hat.") As the trees swiftly disappear and the denizens leave for greener pastures, the fuzzy yellow Lorax (who speaks for the trees "for the trees have no tongues") repeatedly warns the Once-ler, but his words of wisdom are for naught. Finally the Lorax extricates himself from the scorched earth (by the seat of his own furry pants), leaving only a rock engraved "UNLESS." Thus, with his own colorful version of a compelling morality play, Dr. Seuss teaches readers not to fool with Mother Nature. But as you might expect from Seuss, all hope is not lost--the Once-ler has saved a single Truffula Tree seed! Our fate now rests in the hands of a caring child, who becomes our last chance for a clean, green future. (Ages 4 to 8) [via]
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Madame Bovaryby Gustave FlaubertISBN 0395052106 (0-395-05210-6)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Madame Bovary'Book summary:542pages. poche. broché. [via]
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The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmareby G. K. ChestertonISBN 0399501517 (0-399-50151-7)
Softcover, Perigee
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Manhattan Transferby John DOS PassosISBN 0395574234 (0-395-57423-4)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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Marxism After Marx: An Introductionby David McLellanISBN 0395315417 (0-395-31541-7)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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Maus a Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds Historyby Art SpiegelmanISBN 0394747232 (0-394-74723-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Maus a Survivors Tale: My Father Bleeds History'Book summary:Some historical events simply beggar any attempt at description--the Holocaust is one of these. Therefore, as it recedes and the people able to bear witness die, it becomes more and more essential that novel, vigorous methods are used to describe the indescribable. Examined in these terms, Art Spiegelman's Maus is a tremendous achievement, from a historical perspective as well as an artistic one.
Spiegelman, a stalwart of the underground comics scene of the 1960s and '70s, interviewed his father, Vladek, a Holocaust survivor living outside New York City, about his experiences. The artist then deftly translated that story into a graphic novel. By portraying a true story of the Holocaust in comic form--the Jews are mice, the Germans cats, the Poles pigs, the French frogs, and the Americans dogs--Spiegelman compels the reader to imagine the action, to fill in the blanks that are so often shied away from. Reading Maus, you are forced to examine the Holocaust anew.
This is neither easy nor pleasant. However, Vladek Spiegelman and his wife Anna are resourceful heroes, and enough acts of kindness and decency appear in the tale to spur the reader onward (we also know that the protagonists survive, else reading would be too painful). This first volume introduces Vladek as a happy young man on the make in pre-war Poland. With outside events growing ever more ominous, we watch his marriage to Anna, his enlistment in the Polish army after the outbreak of hostilities, his and Anna's life in the ghetto, and then their flight into hiding as the Final Solution is put into effect. The ending is stark and terrible, but the worst is yet to come--in the second volume of this Pulitzer Prize-winning set. --Michael Gerber [via]
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Mencken Chrestomathyby H. L. MenckenISBN 0394752090 (0-394-75209-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Middlemarchby George Eliot, Gordon S. HaightISBN 0395051053 (0-395-05105-3)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Middlemarch'Book summary:Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life is a novel by George Eliot, . Her seventh novel, begun in 1869 and then put aside during the final illness of Thornton Lewes, the son of her companion George Henry Lewes. During the following year Eliot resumed work, fusing together several stories into a coherent whole, and during 187172 the novel appeared in serial form. The first one-volume edition was published in 1874, and attracted large sales. The novel is set in the fictitious Midlands town of Middlemarch during the period 183032. It has multiple plots with a large cast of characters, and in addition to its distinct though interlocking narratives it pursues a number of underlying themes, including the status of women, the nature of marriage, idealism and self-interest, religion and hypocrisy, political reform, and education. Mary Anne Evans (22 November 1819 22 December 1880), better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Middlemarch (187172), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of them set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight. [via]
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The Money Gameby Adam SmithISBN 0394721039 (0-394-72103-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Oliver Twistby Charles DickensISBN 0396082610 (0-396-08261-0)
Hardcover, Dodd Mead
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The Once and Future Kingby Terence Hanbury WhiteISBN 0399105972 (0-399-10597-2)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Once and Future King'Book summary:T.H. White, whose The Sword in the Stone has been read by hundreds of thousands, now at last has turned his hand to retelling the entire Arthurian Epic. The Once and Future King takes Arthur from the glorious lyrical phase of his youth through the disillusioning early years of his reign to the mature years in which his vision of the Round Table develops into the search for the Holy Grail and finally to his weary old age.[via]In part, T.H. White has drawn on published material which he has revised and reworked heavily to bring form and continuity to an overall work, a tetralogy which will stand as unique and vivid and quite apart from the individual effects of the various particular books. And in part the author has created new material as enchanting as any he has ever set on paper.
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Painted Birdby Jerzy KosinskiISBN 0395242916 (0-395-24291-6)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Painted Bird'Book summary:Many writers have portrayed the cruelty people inflict upon each other in the name of war or ideology or garden-variety hate, but few books will surpass Kosinski's first novel, The Painted Bird, for the sheer creepiness in its savagery. The story follows an abandoned young boy who wanders alone through the frozen bogs and broken towns of Eastern Europe during and after World War II, trying to survive. His experiences and actions occur at and beyond the limits of what might be called humanity, but Kosinski never averts his eyes, nor allows us to. [via]
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Prozac Nationby Elizabeth WurtzelISBN 039568093X (0-395-68093-X)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Prozac Nation'Book summary:Elizabeth Wertzel writes with her finger in the faint pulse of a generation whose ruling icons are Kurt Cobain, Xanax, and pierced tongues. A memoir of her bouts with depression and skirmishes with drugs, Prozac Nation still manages to be a witty and sharp account of the psychopharmacology of an era. [via]
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The Pursuit of Inequalityby Philip GreenISBN 0394706544 (0-394-70654-4)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Reflections on Languageby Noam ChomskyISBN 0394731239 (0-394-73123-9)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cryby Mildred D. TaylorISBN 0395775302 (0-395-77530-2)
Hardcover, McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry'Book summary:CLEAN, NO WRITING, TIGHT BINDING, stamped on inside with ownership [via]
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A Room With a Viewby E. M. ForsterISBN 0394743180 (0-394-74318-0)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Room With a View'Book summary:The graded readers in this series aim to provide learners of English with a pleasurable reading experience. The series, which should appeal to a wide age range, exposes students to a variety of styles and kinds of English and the books contain puzzles and exercises based on the text. The grading system is based on lexical controls, structural controls and guidelines on sentence length and complexity. Books in Level 3 have a vocabulary of 1000 words. [via]
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The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel HawthorneISBN 0395051428 (0-395-05142-8)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Scarlet Letter'Book summary:This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871 edition. Excerpt: ...scholar-like renown still lived in Oxford, was considered by his more fervent admirers as little less than a heavenly-ordained apostle, destined, should he live and labor for the ordinary term of life, to do as great deeds for the now feeble New England Church, as the early Fathers had achieved for the infancy of the Christian faith. About this period, however, the health of Mr. Dimmesdale had evidently' begun to fail. By those best acquainted with his habits, the paleness of the young minister's cheek was accounted for by his too earnest devotion to study, his scrupulous fulfilment of parochial duty, and, more than all, by the fasts and vigils of which he made a frequent practice, in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp. Some declared, that, if Mr. Dimmesdale were really going to die, it was cause enough, that the world was not worthy to be any onger trodden by his feet. He himself, on the other hand, with characteristic humility, avowed his belief, that, if Providence should see fit to remove him, it would be because of his own unworthiness to perform its humblest mission here on earth. With all this difference of opinion as to the cause of his decline, there could be no question of the fact. His form grew emaciated; his voice, though still rich and sweet, had a certain melancholy prophecy of decay in it; he was often observed, on any slight alarm or other sudden accident, to put his hand over his heart, with first a flush and then a paleness, indicative of pain. Such was the young clergyman's condition, and so imminent the prospect that his dawning light would be extinguished, all untimely, when Koger Chillingworth made his advent to the town. His first entry on the scene, few people... [via]
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Scarlet Letter and Other Tales of the Puritansby Hawthorne LevinISBN 0395051533 (0-395-05153-3)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poeby Edgar Allan PoeISBN 039505110X (0-395-05110-X)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe'Book summary:Edgar Allan Poes works, with their gothic and often obsessive themes, have had a significant influence on American literature.
In this Norton Critical Edition, G. R. Thompson has fully introduced, annotated, and edited each text.
Backgrounds and Contexts includes fifty-seven carefully chosen documents that illuminate Poes prolific but short career, among them reviews, prefaces, and correspondence by Poe as well as thematic pieces dealing with Transcendentalism and alternative romanticism, sciences of the mind, sensation fiction, and the South and slavery.
Fourteen judiciously selected critical essays address Poes poetry, fiction, politics, and psychology. Contributors include Floyd Stovall, Robert C. McLean, Richard Wilbur, James W. Gargano, Joseph J. Moldenhauer, Paul John Eakin, Grace Farrell, Liahna Klenman Babener, Barton Levi St. Armand, Joseph N. Riddel, J. Gerald Kennedy, John Carlos Rowe, Terence Whalen, and John T. Irwin.
A Selected Bibliography is also included. [via]More editions of Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe:
Six Plays by Lillian Hellmanby Lillian HellmanISBN 0394741129 (0-394-74112-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Snobbery: The American Versionby Joseph EpsteinISBN 0395944171 (0-395-94417-1)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Snobbery: The American Version'Book summary:Joseph Epstein's highly entertaining new book takes up the subject of snobbery in America after the fall of the prominence of the old Wasp culture of prep schools, Ivy League colleges, cotillions, debutante balls, the Social Register, and the rest of it. With ample humor and insight, Epstein uncovers the new outlets upon which the old snobbery has fastened: food and wine, fashion, high-achieving children, schools, politics, health, being with-it, name-dropping, and much else, including the roles of Jews and homosexuals in the development of snobbery. He also raises the question of whether snobbery might, alas, be a part of human nature. Snobbery: The American Versionis the first book in English devoted exclusively to the subject since Thackeray's THE BOOK OF SNOBS.[via]More editions of Snobbery: The American Version:
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The Sound and the Furyby William FaulknerISBN 0394747747 (0-394-74774-7)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Sound and the Fury'Book summary:The ostensible subject of The Sound and the Fury is the dissolution of the Compsons, one of those august old Mississippi families that fell on hard times and wild eccentricity after the Civil War. But in fact what William Faulkner is really after in his legendary novel is the kaleidoscope of consciousness--the overwrought mind caught in the act of thought. His rich, dark, scandal-ridden story of squandered fortune, incest (in thought if not in deed), madness, congenital brain damage, theft, illegitimacy, and stoic endurance is told in the interior voices of three Compson brothers: first Benjy, the "idiot" man-child who blurs together three decades of inchoate sensations as he stalks the fringes of the family's former pasture; next Quentin, torturing himself brilliantly, obsessively over Caddy's lost virginity and his own failure to recover the family's honor as he wanders around the seedy fringes of Boston; and finally Jason, heartless, shrewd, sneaking, nursing a perpetual sense of injury and outrage against his outrageous family.
If Benjy's section is the most daringly experimental, Jason's is the most harrowing. "Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say," he begins, lacing into Caddy's illegitimate daughter, and then proceeds to hurl mud at blacks, Jews, his sacred Compson ancestors, his glamorous, promiscuous sister, his doomed brother Quentin, his ailing mother, and the long-suffering black servant Dilsey who holds the family together by sheer force of character.
Notoriously "difficult," The Sound and the Fury is actually one of Faulkner's more accessible works once you get past the abrupt, unannounced time shifts--and certainly the most powerful emotionally. Everything is here: the complex equilibrium of pre-civil rights race relations; the conflict between Yankee capitalism and Southern agrarian values; a meditation on time, consciousness, and Western philosophy. And all of it is rendered in prose so gorgeous it can take your breath away. Here, for instance, Quentin recalls an autumnal encounter back home with the old black possum hunter Uncle Louis:
And we'd sit in the dry leaves that whispered a little with the slow respiration of our waiting and with the slow breathing of the earth and the windless October, the rank smell of the lantern fouling the brittle air, listening to the dogs and to the echo of Louis' voice dying away. He never raised it, yet on a still night we have heard it from our front porch. When he called the dogs in he sounded just like the horn he carried slung on his shoulder and never used, but clearer, mellower, as though his voice were a part of darkness and silence, coiling out of it, coiling into it again. WhoOoooo. WhoOoooo. WhoOooooooooooooooo.
What Faulkner has created is a modernist epic in which characters assume the stature of gods and the primal family events resonate like myths. It is The Sound and the Fury that secures his place in what Edmund Wilson called "the full-dressed post-Flaubert group of Conrad, Joyce, and Proust." --David Laskin [via]More editions of The Sound and the Fury:
Stepsby Jerzy N. KosinskiISBN 0394757165 (0-394-75716-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The Strangerby Chris Van AllsburgISBN 0395423317 (0-395-42331-7)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Stranger'Book summary:The Stranger [Hardcover] by Van Allsburg, Chris [via]
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A Tale of Two Citiesby Charles DickensISBN 0396085350 (0-396-08535-0)
Hardcover, Dodd Mead
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Tess of the D'Urbervillesby Thomas HardyISBN 0395051444 (0-395-05144-4)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles'Book summary:When John Durberyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the d'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. [via]
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The Things They Carriedby Tim O'BrienISBN 039551598X (0-395-51598-X)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Things They Carried'Book summary:"They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing--these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice.... Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to."
A finalist for both the 1990 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Things They Carried marks a subtle but definitive line of demarcation between Tim O'Brien's earlier works about Vietnam, the memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone and the fictional Going After Cacciato, and this sly, almost hallucinatory book that is neither memoir nor novel nor collection of short stories but rather an artful combination of all three. Vietnam is still O'Brien's theme, but in this book he seems less interested in the war itself than in the myriad different perspectives from which he depicts it. Whereas Going After Cacciato played with reality, The Things They Carried plays with truth. The narrator of most of these stories is "Tim"; yet O'Brien freely admits that many of the events he chronicles in this collection never really happened. He never killed a man as "Tim" does in "The Man I Killed," and unlike Tim in "Ambush," he has no daughter named Kathleen. But just because a thing never happened doesn't make it any less true. In "On the Rainy River," the character Tim O'Brien responds to his draft notice by driving north, to the Canadian border where he spends six days in a deserted lodge in the company of an old man named Elroy while he wrestles with the choice between dodging the draft or going to war. The real Tim O'Brien never drove north, never found himself in a fishing boat 20 yards off the Canadian shore with a decision to make. The real Tim O'Brien quietly boarded the bus to Sioux Falls and was inducted into the United States Army. But the truth of "On the Rainy River" lies not in facts but in the genuineness of the experience it depicts: both Tims went to a war they didn't believe in; both considered themselves cowards for doing so. Every story in The Things They Carried speaks another truth that Tim O'Brien learned in Vietnam; it is this blurred line between truth and reality, fact and fiction, that makes his book unforgettable. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Time Machineby H. G. WellsISBN 0394847210 (0-394-84721-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Timequakeby Kurt VonnegutISBN 0399137378 (0-399-13737-8)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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Titanby John VarleyISBN 0399123261 (0-399-12326-1)
Hardcover, Putnam Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Titan'Book summary:Twenty years ago, the Gaean Trilogy dazzled critics and readers. Now a new generation will discover that brilliant world--beginning with Titan.[via]More editions of Titan:
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Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonderby Richard DawkinsISBN 0395883822 (0-395-88382-2)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin Company
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder'Book summary:Why do poets and artists so often disparage science in their work? For that matter, why does so much scientific literature compare poorly with, say, the phone book? After struggling with questions like these for years, biologist Richard Dawkins has taken a wide-ranging view of the subjects of meaning and beauty in Unweaving the Rainbow, a deeply humanistic examination of science, mysticism, and human nature. Notably strong-willed in a profession of bet-hedgers and wait-and-seers, Dawkins carries the reader along on a romp through the natural and cultural worlds, determined that "science, at its best, should leave room for poetry."
Inspired by the frequently asked question, "Why do you bother getting up in the morning?" following publication of his book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins set out determined to show that understanding nature's mechanics need not sap one's zest for life. Alternately enlightening and maddening, Unweaving the Rainbow will appeal to all thoughtful readers, whether wild-eyed technophiles or grumpy, cabin-dwelling Luddites. Excoriations of newspaper astrology columns follow quotes from Blake and Shakespeare, which are sandwiched between sparkling, easy-to-follow discussions of probability, behavior, and evolution. In Dawkins's world (and, he hopes, in ours), science is poetry; he ends his journey by referring to his title's author and subject, maintaining that "A Keats and a Newton, listening to each other, might hear the galaxies sing." --Rob Lightner [via]
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Vanity Fairby William Makepeace ThackeryISBN 0395051614 (0-395-05161-4)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Vanity Fair'Book summary:The story of English society in the early nineteenth century. [via]
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Walden And Civil Disobedienceby Henry David Thoreau, Paul LauterISBN 0395980771 (0-395-98077-1)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Walden And Civil Disobedience'Book summary:Henry David Thoreau was a sturdy individualist and a lover of nature. In March, 1845, he built himself a wooden hut on the edge of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, where he lived until September 1847. Walden is Thoreaus autobiograophical account of his Robinson Crusoe existence, bare of creature comforts but rich in contemplation of the wonders of nature and the ways of man. On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience is the classic protest against government's interference with individual liberty, and is considered one of the most famous essays ever written. This newly repackaged edition also includes a selection of Thoreau's poetry. [via]
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The Weaker Vesselby Antonia FraserISBN 0394732510 (0-394-73251-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Weaker Vessel'Book summary:Drawing from a wondrously deep well of diaries, letters, and papers from 17th-century England, the gifted historian Antonia Fraser gives the image of the "softer sex" a drubbing, plunging readers into the lives of "heiresses and dairy maids, holy women and prostitutes, criminals and educators, widows and witches, midwives and mothers, heroines, courtesans, prophetesses, businesswomen, ladies of the court, and that new breed, the actress." Prophetess Jane Hawkins, called "a witty crafty baggage" by one angry bishop, got around the ironclad law forbidding women to preach by claiming inspiration from God, while Catholic Mary Ward risked her neck repeatedly to found a string of convents and schools for girls on the European continent. Although several good wives of London beat the Lord Mayor in 1649 for his part in trying to arrest five members of Parliament, it's certainly true that most Englishwomen of the time were hemmed in by the whims and fears of men. Wealthy girls were routinely used as chips to bolster family fortunes through marriage, and any old, poor woman unfortunate enough to have "a furred brow, a hairy lip, a squint eye, a squeaking voice or a scolding tongue" lived under suspicion of witchcraft, wrote one contemporary observer. In Fraser's sure hands and supple prose, memorable and execrable historic moments spring to life. --Francesca Coltrera [via]
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Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin College Div
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Wizardby John VarleyISBN 0399124721 (0-399-12472-1)
Hardcover, Berkley Pub Group
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Softcover, Random House Inc
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