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books tagged “women”
books tagged “women”
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1001 Things Everyone Should Know about Women's Historyby Constance JonesISBN 0385483872 (0-385-48387-2)
Softcover, Broadway Books
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Anne Green GablesISBN 0340715006 (0-340-71500-6)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square Books
Find This BookBook summary:A brother and sister send for a boy to help them on their farm, Green Gables. By mistake they are sent an 11-year-old girl. She picks a fight with anyone who mentions the colour of her hair and causes havoc, but ends up being loved. The author wrote "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of Ingleside". [via]
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Anne of Green GablesISBN 0333593359 (0-333-59335-9)
Hardcover, Macmillan Pub Ltd
Find This BookBook summary:When Marilla Cuthbert's brother, Matthew, returns home to Green Gables with a chatty redheaded orphan girl, Marilla exclaims, "But we asked for a boy. We have no use for a girl." It's not long, though, before the Cuthberts can't imagine how they could ever do without young Anne of Green Gables--but not for the original reasons they sought an orphan. Somewhere between the time Anne "confesses" to losing Marilla's amethyst pin (which she never took) in hopes of being allowed to go to a picnic, and when Anne accidentally dyes her hated carrot-red hair green, Marilla says to Matthew, "One thing's for certain, no house that Anne's in will ever be dull." And no book that she's in will be, either. This adapted version of the classic, Anne of Green Gables, introduces younger readers to the irrepressible heroine of L.M. Montgomery's many stories. Adapter M.C. Helldorfer includes only a few of Anne's mirthful and poignant adventures, yet manages to capture the freshness of one of children's literature's spunkiest, most beloved characters. There's just enough to make beginning readers want more--luckily, there's a lot more in the originals! Illustrator Ellen Beier creates vibrant pictures to portray the beauty of the land around Green Gables and the spirited nature of Anne herself. (Ages 5 to 8) --Emilie Coulter [via]
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Bachelor Girl: The Secret History of Single Women in the Twentieth Centuryby Betsy IsraelISBN 0380976498 (0-380-97649-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bachelor Girl: The Secret History of Single Women in the Twentieth Century'Book summary:In this lively and colorful book of popular history, journalist Betsy Israel shines a light on the old stereotypes that have stigmatized single women for years and celebrates their resourceful sense of spirit, enterprise, and unlimited success in a world where it is no longer unusual or unlikely to be unwed.
Drawing extensively on primary sources, including private journals, newspaper stories, magazine articles, advertisements, films, and other materials from popular media, Israel paints remarkably vivid portraits of single women -- and the way they were perceived -- throughout the decades. From the nineteenth-century spinsters, of New England to the Bowery girls of New York City, from the 1920s flappers to the 1940s working women of the war years and the career girls of the 1950s and 1960s, single women have fought to find and feel comfortable in that room of their own. One need only look at Bridget Jones and the Sex and the City gang to see that single women still maintain an uneasy relationship with the rest of society -- and yet they radiate an aura of glamour and mystery in popular culture.
As witty as it is well researched, as thoughtful as it is lively, Bachelor Girl is a must-read for women everywhere.
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Cassandraby Christa WolfISBN 0374519048 (0-374-51904-8)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cassandra'Book summary:In this volume, the distinguished East German writer Christa Wolf retells the story of the fall of Troy, but from the point of view of the woman whose visionary powers earned her contempt and scorn. Written as a result of the author's Greek travels and studies, Cassandra speaks to us in a pressing monologue whose inner focal points are patriarchy and war. In the four accompanying pieces, which take the form of travel reports, journal entries, and a letter, Wolf describes the novel's genesis. Incisive and intelligent, the entire volume represents an urgent call to examine the past in order to insure a future.[via] -
Coming of Age in Mississippiby Anne MoodyISBN 0385337817 (0-385-33781-7)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Coming of Age in Mississippi'Book summary:Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Tills lynching. Before then, she had "known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was&the fear of being killed just because I was black." In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.
An all-A student whose dream of going to college is realized when she wins a basketball scholarship, she finally dares to join the NAACP in her junior year. Through the NAACP and later through CORE and SNCC she has first-hand experience of the demonstrations and sit-ins that were the mainstay of the civil rights movement, and the arrests and jailings, the shotguns, fire hoses, police dogs, billy clubs and deadly force that were used to destroy it.
A deeply personal story but also a portrait of a turning point in our nations destiny, this autobiography lets us see history in the making, through the eyes of one of the footsoldiers in the civil rights movement. [via]More editions of Coming of Age in Mississippi:
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Complete Poems of Emily Dickinsonby Emily DickinsonISBN 0316184136 (0-316-18413-6)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson'Book summary:Emily Dickinson proved that brevity can be beautiful. Only now is her complete oeuvre--all 1,775 poems--available in its original form, uncorrupted by editorial revision, in one volume. Thomas H. Johnson, a longtime Dickinson scholar, arranged the poems in chronological order as far as could be ascertained (the dates for more than 100 are unknown). This organization allows a wide-angle view of Dickinson's poetic development, from the sometimes-clunky rhyme schemes of her juvenilia, including valentines she wrote in the early 1850s, to the gloomy, hell-obsessed writings from her last years. Quite a difference from requisite Dickinson entries in literary anthologies: "There's a certain Slant of light," "Wild Nights--Wild Nights!" and "I taste a liquor never brewed."
The book was compiled from Thomas H. Johnson's hard-to-find variorum from 1955. While some explanatory notes would have been helpful, it's a prodigious collection, showcasing Dickinson's intractable obsession with nature, including death. Poem 1732, which alludes to the deaths of her father and a onetime suitor, illustrates her talent:
My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.The musicality of her punctuation and the outright elegance of her style--akin to Christina Rossetti's hymns, although not nearly so religious--rescue the poems from their occasional abstruseness. The Complete Poems is especially refreshing because Dickinson didn't write for publication; only 11 of her verses appeared in magazines during her lifetime, and she had long-resigned herself to anonymity, or a "Barefoot-Rank," as she phrased it. This is the perfect volume for readers wishing to explore the works of one of America's first poets. [via]
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Confessions of a Shopaholicby Sophie KinsellaISBN 0385335482 (0-385-33548-2)
Softcover, Delta
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Confessions of a Shopaholic'Book summary:If you've ever paid off one credit card with another, thrown out a bill before opening it, or convinced yourself that buying at a two-for-one sale is like making money, then this silly, appealing novel is for you. In the opening pages of Confessions of a Shopaholic, recent college graduate Rebecca Bloomwood is offered a hefty line of credit by a London bank. Within a few months, Sophie Kinsella's heroine has exceeded the limits of this generous offer, and begins furtively to scan her credit-card bills at work, certain that she couldn't have spent the reported sums.
In theory anyway, the world of finance shouldn't be a mystery to Rebecca, since she writes for a magazine called Successful Saving. Struggling with her spendthrift impulses, she tries to heed the advice of an expert and appreciate life's cheaper pleasures: parks, museums, and so forth. Yet her first Saturday at the Victoria and Albert Museum strikes her as a waste. Why? There's not a price tag in sight.
It kind of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? You wander round, just looking at things, and it all gets a bit boring after a while. Whereas if they put price tags on, you'd be far more interested. In fact, I think all museums should put prices on their exhibits. You'd look at a silver chalice or a marble statue or the Mona Lisa or whatever, and admire it for its beauty and historical importance and everything--and then you'd reach for the price tag and gasp, "Hey, look how much this one is!" It would really liven things up.
Eventually, Rebecca's uncontrollable shopping and her "imaginative" solutions to her debt attract the attention not only of her bank manager but of handsome Luke Brandon--a multimillionaire PR representative for a finance group frequently covered in Successful Saving. Unlike her opposite number in Bridget Jones's Diary, however, Rebecca actually seems too scattered and spacey to reel in such a successful man. Maybe it's her Denny and George scarf. In any case, Kinsella's debut makes excellent fantasy reading for the long stretches between white sales and appliance specials. --Regina Marler [via]More editions of Confessions of a Shopaholic:
Daisy Fay And The Miracle Manby Fannie FlaggISBN 0345485602 (0-345-48560-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Daughters of the Houseby Michele RobertsISBN 0312420382 (0-312-42038-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Desert Queen : The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell-Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabiaby Janet WallachISBN 0385495757 (0-385-49575-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia'Book summary:A biography of the woman who, indirectly, was the catalyst for many of the troubles in the Middle East, including the Gulf War. In 1918, Gertrude Bell drew the region's proposed boundaries on a piece of tracing paper. Her qualifications for doing so were her extensive travel, her fluency in both Persian and Arabic, and her relationships with sheiks and tribal and religious leaders. She also possessed an ability to understand the subtle and indirect politeness of the culture, something many of her colonialist comrades were oblivious to. As a self-made statesman her sex was an asset, enabling her to bypass the ladder of protocol and dive into the business of building an Empire. [via]
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- Desert Queen : The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell-Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia: ISBN 0385474083 (0-385-47408-3)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing - Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia: ISBN 0385495757 (0-385-49575-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- Desert Queen : The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell-Adventurer, Advisor to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia: ISBN 0385474083 (0-385-47408-3)
The Dinner Partyby Judy ChicagoISBN 0385145675 (0-385-14567-5)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritageby Judy ChicagoISBN 0385145667 (0-385-14566-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Do They Hear You When You Cryby Fauziya Kassindja, Layli Miller BashirISBN 0385319940 (0-385-31994-0)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Dreaming in Cubanby Cristina GarciaISBN 0345381432 (0-345-38143-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Easter Islandby Jennifer VanderbesISBN 0385336748 (0-385-33674-8)
Softcover, Delta
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Easter Island'Book summary:Set on the cusp of World War One, and in the 1970s, EASTER ISLAND tells the passionate, heart-breaking and ultimately redemptive story of two remarkable women. Elsa, an Edwardian Englishwoman, is forced by circumstance to leave the man she loves and agree to a marriage of convenience. The marriage enables her to fulfil her great dream: to visit Easter Island and to study its mysterious history. But as Elsa becomes bewitched by the island and engrossed in her work, she fails to notice that her beloved sister Alice is becoming caught up in desires of her own, that will threaten not only their work, but also their lives. Sixty years later, Dr Greer Faraday, recently widowed, makes her own journey to the island. Born into a different time and country, Greer nevertheless shares Else's passion for this strange and haunting place. Troubled by unhappy secrets, Greer takes solace in her work, making an island of herself. But as the two women's stories begin to entwine and passions are played out, both Greer and Else must struggle against what society expects of them, and what fate has planned... [via]
Excellent Womenby Barbara PymISBN 0330335049 (0-330-33504-9)
Softcover, Macmillan Pub Ltd
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Fatal Flowersby Rosemary DaniellISBN 0380542544 (0-380-54254-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids and Life in a Half-Changed Worldby Peggy OrensteinISBN 038549887X (0-385-49887-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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French Lieutenant's Womanby John FowlesISBN 0316291161 (0-316-29116-1)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'French Lieutenant's Woman'Book summary:The story of a woman wronged, set against a backdrop of an unrelenting Victorian England. [via]
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The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violenceby Gavin De BeckerISBN 0316235024 (0-316-23502-4)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Company
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence'Book summary:Each hour, 75 women are raped in the United States, and every few seconds, a woman is beaten. Each day, 400 Americans suffer shooting injuries, and another 1,100 face criminals armed with guns. Author Gavin de Becker says victims of violent behavior usually feel a sense of fear before any threat or violence takes place. They may distrust the fear, or it may impel them to some action that saves their lives. A leading expert on predicting violent behavior, de Becker believes we can all learn to recognize these signals of the "universal code of violence," and use them as tools to help us survive. The book teaches how to identify the warning signals of a potential attacker and recommends strategies for dealing with the problem before it becomes life threatening. The case studies are gripping and suspenseful, and include tactics for dealing with similar situations.
People don't just "snap" and become violent, says de Becker, whose clients include federal government agencies, celebrities, police departments, and shelters for battered women. "There is a process as observable, and often as predictable, as water coming to a boil." Learning to predict violence is the cornerstone to preventing it. De Becker is a master of the psychology of violence, and his advice may save your life. --Joan Price [via]
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The Girls of Slender Meansby Muriel SparkISBN 0380709376 (0-380-70937-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Girls of Slender Means'Book summary:"Long ago in 1945 all the nice people in England were poor, allowing for exceptions," begins The Girls of Slender Means, Dame Muriel Spark's tragic and rapier-witted portrait of a London ladies' hostel just emerging from the shadow of World War II.
Like the May of Teck Club itself"three times window shattered since 1940 but never directly hit"its lady inhabitants do their best to act as if the world were back to normal: practicing elocution, and jostling over suitors and a single Schiaparelli gown. The novel's harrowing ending reveals that the girls' giddy literary and amorous peregrinations are hiding some tragically painful war wounds.
Chosen by Anthony Burgess as one of the Best Modern Novels in the Sunday Times of London, The Girls of Slender Means is a taut and eerily perfect novel by an author The New York Times has called "one of this century's finest creators of comic-metaphysical entertainment." [via]More editions of The Girls of Slender Means:
Good Bones and Simple Murdersby Margaret AtwoodISBN 0385471106 (0-385-47110-6)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
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Good Earthby Pearl S. BuckISBN 0381980332 (0-381-98033-2)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Good Earth'Book summary:The story begins on the wedding day of farmer Wang Lung and follows his simple, often one-sided view of the Chinese culture, times, and his connection with the land. The land is a recurring theme throughout the novel, seemingly nurtured by the apparent protagonists, rejected and ruined by the antagonists. The author uses the House of Hwang, a nearby house of nobles, to contrast and predict their rise and fall. As the House of Hwang meets its slow and desperate end, Wang Lung rises.
However, as the weather turns disastrous for farming, Wang Lung's family has to flee to the city to scrape out a meager living. Upon returning home, the family fares better. Wang Lung eventually becomes a prosperous man, his rise contrasting with the downfall of the Hwang family, who lose their connection to the land. At the end of the novel, when Wang Lung is an old man, he overhears his sons plotting to sell some of the land, thus showing the end of the cycle of wealth and downfall. [via]
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Great Books for Girlsby Kathleen OdeanISBN 034540484X (0-345-40484-X)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Great Books for Girls: More Than 600 Recommended Books for Girls Ages 3-14by Kathleen OdeanISBN 0345450213 (0-345-45021-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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House by the Seaby May SartonISBN 0393000699 (0-393-00069-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'House by the Sea'Book summary:In 1973, May Sarton moved to a house on the seacoast of Maine. It was a place that was alone in all but a few months in the summer, with the sea and the woods, and a wide sky ever present. She discovered that what she has to give does not depend on others. This is her journal of that time. Photos. [via]
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The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Clubby Laurie NotaroISBN 0375760911 (0-375-76091-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club'Book summary:Ive changed a bit since high school. Back then I said no to using and selling drugs. I washed on a normal basis and still had good credit.
Introducing Laurie Notaro, the leader of the Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club. Every day she fearlessly rises from bed to defeat the evil machinations of dolts, dimwits, and creepy boyfriendsand thats before she even puts on a bra.
For the past ten years, Notaro has been entertaining Phoenix newspaper readers with her wildly amusing autobiographical exploits and unique life experiences. She writes about a world of hourly-wage jobs that require absolutely no skills, a mother who hands down judgments more forcefully than anyone seated on the Supreme Court, horrific high school reunions, and hangovers that leave her surprised that she woke up in the first place.
The misadventures of Laurie and her fellow Idiot Girls ( too cool to be in the Smart Group ) unfold in a world that everyone will recognize but no one has ever described so hilariously. She delivers the goods: life as we all know it. [via]More editions of The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club:
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In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692by Mary Beth NortonISBN 0375706909 (0-375-70690-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692'Book summary:The story of the Salem witchcraft trials is well known, from both historical accounts and dramatic retellings, such as Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Cornell historian Mary Beth Norton now offers a significant reinterpretation of the events that (by her count) led to legal action against at least 144 people, 54 confessions of witchcraft, 19 hangings, and one "pressing to death ... by heavy stones." Norton's contribution is to contextualize what happened. She studies not just Salem itself, but all of Essex County and northern New England, because so many of the people involved in the witchcraft crisis didn't live in Salem proper. She also says these grim events must be understood in relation to King William's War, which the early Americans called the Second Indian War. This frontier conflict and the religious interpretations thrust upon it created the conditions for what happened in Salem and the surrounding region, which, says Norton, would not have occurred in the war's absence. As might be expected, her narrative does not proceed along traditional lines. It is driven more by the academic imperative to break scholarly ground than by the urge to tell a harrowing story. For readers interested in knowing what really happened at Salem, though, In the Devil's Snare may be the best source. --John J. Miller [via]
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In the Eye of the Sunby Ahdaf SoueifISBN 0385720378 (0-385-72037-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Julian of Norwich: A Revelation of Loveby Julian, John SkinnerISBN 0385487568 (0-385-48756-8)
Softcover, Image Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Julian of Norwich: A Revelation of Love'Book summary:"I have been reading Lady Julian of Norwich," declares C.S. Lewis in a letter to his former pupil, the Benedictine mystic Bede Griffiths. "A dangerous book, clearly. I'm glad I didn't read it much earlier." Thomas Merton wrote simply, "There can be no doubt that Julian is the greatest of the English mystics."
Few texts have had held such interest or been the object of such enduring devotion as has Julian of Norwich's 14th-century classic A Revelation of Love. This great work -- along with The Cloud of Unknowing and Teresa of Avila's The Interior Castle -- form the very heart of Western mysticism, and each generation has cherished its beautiful poetry and profound account of a soul's quest for the divine. This new translation of Julian's mystical writings offers today's reader immediate access to this most powerful spiritual of books written in English. Julian's message of God's intimate and enabling love is revealed as both beguiling and inescapable. The poetry and rhythmic structure of the original Middle English text are respected, yet it is given fresh immediacy since it is now rendered in inclusive language for the first time ever. Moreover Julian's key ideas are easily identified-even by newcomers to her unique system of thought-by means of an original and authoritative linking commentary at the head of each key chapter, as well as continuing support from highly informative footnotes and a detailed glossary of the main terms used. [via]More editions of Julian of Norwich: A Revelation of Love:
The Last Girlsby Lee SmithISBN 0345464958 (0-345-46495-8)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Life of Elizabeth Iby Alison WeirISBN 0345425502 (0-345-42550-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Life of Elizabeth I'Book summary:The long life and powerful personality of England's beloved Virgin Queen have eternal appeal, and popular historian Alison Weir depicts both with panache. She's especially good at evoking the physical texture of Tudor England: the elaborate royal gowns (actually an intricate assembly of separate fabric panels buttoned together over linen shifts), the luxurious but unhygienic palaces (Elizabeth got the only "close stool"; most members of her retinue relieved themselves in the courtyards), the huge meals heavily seasoned to disguise the taste of spoiled meat. Against this earthy backdrop, Elizabeth's intelligence and formidable political skills stand in vivid relief. She may have been autocratic, devious, even deceptive, but these traits were required to perform a 45-year tightrope walk between the two great powers of Europe, France and Spain. Both countries were eager to bring small, weak England under their sway and to safely marry off its inconveniently independent queen. Weir emphasizes Elizabeth's precarious position as a ruling woman in a man's world, suggesting plausibly that the single life was personally appealing as well as politically expedient for someone who had seen many ambitious ladies--including her own mother--ruined and even executed for just the appearance of sexual indiscretions. The author's evaluations of such key figures in Elizabeth's reign as the Earl of Leicester (arguably the only man she ever loved) and William Cecil (her most trusted adviser) are equally cogent and respectful of psychological complexity. Weir does a fine job of retelling this always-popular story for a new generation. --Wendy Smith [via]
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The Love of a Good Womanby Alice MunroISBN 0375703632 (0-375-70363-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Mankiller: A Chief and Her Peopleby Wilma Mankiller, Michael WallisISBN 0312206623 (0-312-20662-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Map of the Worldby Jane HamiltonISBN 0385720106 (0-385-72010-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Map of the World'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, December 1999: In A Map of the World, appearance overwhelms reality and communal hysteria threatens common sense. Howard and Alice Goodheart, the couple at the center of Jane Hamilton's 1994 novel, have labored mightily to create a pastoral paradise in a Wisconsin subdivision. Their 400-acre dairy farm is the last in Prairie Center, and they're working flat out to raise their two young girls in a traditionally bucolic manner. Yet paradoxically, they strike their neighbors as unacceptably modern, and have been treated as interlopers since the day of their arrival. Howard, in love with his vocation, chooses not to believe that they've been frozen out. But Alice, flinty and quick to judge, finds things harder. And her job as school nurse doesn't work wonders for her reputation either. Happily, there's one exception to this epidemic of unfriendliness: their closest neighbors. Theresa and Dan, who also have two young daughters, function as a virtual lifeline for the embattled family.
But in June 1990, whatever idyll the Goodhearts have worked for comes to a permanent end. On a beautiful morning--marred by her 5-year-old's tantrum but still recuperable--Alice looks forward to taking her children and Theresa's youngest for a swim. Distracted for several minutes, she has no idea that the 2-year-old is no longer in the house:
Lizzy had run to the pond and splashed in. It had felt good on her hot feet and she kept running and then she was pedaling and pedaling. She tried to grab hold of the water, pawing for the metal bar, a ladder rung, her mother, but there was nothing. She clutched and flailed.... She sank. The trout that Howard had stocked in the pond swam along through the dark water. They noticed Lizzy out of the corner of their eyes. They had inherited the knowledge of that look, and they knew it by heart.
This is only the first of Alice's body blows. Next, she's questioned about one of her students, a memorably bad seed. On the verge of collapse, she cries out, "I hurt everybody!"--which will later be construed as a confession. Charged with sexual abuse and unable to come up with $100,000 in bail, she is forced to await trial in jail.Narrated first by Alice, then Howard, and then Alice again, A Map of the World moves from intimate domesticity to courtroom drama with grace and subtlety. Hamilton wrote her book when accusations of abuse in schools and day care were peaking, yet this is not a modish work or an "issue novel" but a lasting creation of several complex lives. At one point, fed up with civil mechanisms, Alice tells her lawyer: "'Let Oprah be the judge.... Let Robbie and me, Mrs. Mackessy, Howard, Theresa, Dan, Mrs. Glevitch--let all of us come before Oprah. Let the studio audience decide. They're nice suburban woman, many of them, dressed for a lark. They have common sense and speak their minds.'" Apparently La Winfrey was listening, since she chose this beautifully observed novel for her book club. --Kerry Fried [via]
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- Map of the World: ISBN 0385473117 (0-385-47311-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc - A Map of the World: ISBN 0385473109 (0-385-47310-9)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing - A Map of the World: ISBN 0385500769 (0-385-50076-9)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing - Map of the World: ISBN 0385720106 (0-385-72010-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- Map of the World: ISBN 0385473117 (0-385-47311-7)
The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminismby Katie RoipheISBN 0316754323 (0-316-75432-3)
Softcover, Back Bay Books
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The Morning After: Sex, Fear, and Feminism on Campusby Katie RoipheISBN 0316754315 (0-316-75431-5)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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The Obstacle Raceby Germaine GreerISBN 0374224129 (0-374-22412-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience and Institutionby Adrienne RichISBN 0393023796 (0-393-02379-6)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience and Institution'Book summary:Adrienne Rich's influential and landmark investigation concerns both the experience and the institution of motherhood.
The experience is her ownas a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a motherbut it is an experience determined by the institution, imposed on all women everywhere. She draws on personal materials, history, research, and literature to create a document of universal importance. [via]More editions of Of Woman Born: Motherhood As Experience and Institution:
Our Spoons Came from Woolworthsby Barbara ComynsISBN 0385279604 (0-385-27960-4)
Softcover, Dial Press
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Out of Africaby Isak DinesenISBN 0375508457 (0-375-50845-7)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Out of Africa'Book summary:In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful.
The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called "Announcement Number One." Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company's founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, "Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, 'I've got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let's call it Random House.' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, 'That's a great name. I'll draw your trademark.' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since." Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today.
This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House. [via]More editions of Out of Africa:
Out of Her Mindby Rebecca ShannonhouseISBN 0375755020 (0-375-75502-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Pamelaby Samuel RichardsonISBN 0393001660 (0-393-00166-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pamela'Book summary:Based on actual events, Pamela is the story of a young girl who goes to work in a private residence and finds herself pursued by her employer's son, described as a "gentleman of free principles."
Unfolding through letters, the novel depicts with much feeling Pamela's struggles to decide how to respond to her would-be seducer and to determine her place in society.
Samuel Richardson (16891761), a prominent London printer, is considered by many the father of the English novel, and Pamela the first modern novel. Following its hugely successful publication in 1740, it went on to become one of the most influential books in literary history, setting the course for the novel for the next century and beyond. Pamela reflects changing social roles in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, as a rising middle class offered women more choices and as traditional master-servant relationships underwent change. [via]More editions of Pamela:
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Passingby Nella Larsen, Ntozake ShangeISBN 0375758135 (0-375-75813-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Passing'Book summary:The heroine of Passing takes an elevator from the infernal August Chicago streets to the breezy rooftop of the heavenly Drayton Hotel, "wafted upward on a magic carpet to another world, pleasant, quiet, and strangely remote from the sizzling one that she had left below." Irene is black, but like her author, the Danish-African American Nella Larsen (a star of the 1920s to mid-1930s Harlem Renaissance and the first black woman to win a Guggenheim creative-writing award), she can "pass" in white society. Yet one woman in the tea room, "fair and golden, like a sunlit day," keeps staring at her, and eventually introduces herself as Irene's childhood friend Clare, who left their hometown 12 years before when her father died. Clare's father had been born "on the left hand"--he was the product of a legal marriage between a white man and a black woman and therefore cut off from his inheritance. So she was raised penniless by white racist relatives, and now she passes as white. Even Clare's violent white husband is in the dark about her past, though he teases her about her tan and affectionately calls her "Nig." He laughingly explains: "When we were first married, she was white as--as--well as white as a lily. But I declare she's getting darker and darker." As Larsen makes clear, Passing can also mean dying, and Clare is in peril of losing her identity and her life.
The tale is simple on the surface--a few adventures in Chicago and New York's high life, with lots of real people and race-mixing events described (explicated by Thadious M. Davis's helpful introduction and footnotes). But underneath, it seethes with rage, guilt, sex, and complex deceptions. Irene fears losing her black husband to Clare, who seems increasingly predatory. Or is this all in Irene's mind? And is everyone wearing a mask? Larsen's book is a scary hall of mirrors, a murder mystery that can't resolve itself. It sticks with you. --Tim Appelo [via]
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Pope Joanby Donna Woolfolk CrossISBN 0345416260 (0-345-41626-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Pope Joan'Book summary:One of the most controversial women of history is brought to brilliant life in Donn Woolfolk Cross's tale of Pope Joan, a girl whose origins should have kept her in squalid domesticity. Instead, through her intelligence, indomitability and courage, she ascended to the throne of Rome as Pope John Anglicus.
The time is 814, the place is Ingelheim, a Frankland village. It is the harshest winter in living memory when Joan is born to an English father and a Saxon mother. Her father is a canon, filled with holy zeal and capable of unconscionable cruelty. His piety does not extend to his family members, especially the females. His wife, Gudrun, is a young beauty to whom he was attracted beyond his will--and he hates her for showing him his weakness. Gudrun teaches Joan about her gods, and is repeatedly punished for it by the canon. Joan grows to young womanhood with the combined knowledge of the warlike Saxon gods and the teachings of the Church as her heritage. Both realities inform her life forever.
When her brother John, not a scholarly type, is sent away to school, Joan, who was supposed to be the one sent to school, runs away and joins him in Dorstadt, at Villaris, the home of Gerold, who is central to Joan's story. She falls in love with Gerold and their lives interesect repeatedly even through her Papacy. She is looked upon by all who know that she is a woman as a "lusus naturae," a freak of nature. "She was... male in intellect, female in body, she fit in nowhere; it was as if she belonged to a third amorphous sex." Cross makes the case over and over again that the status of women in the Dark Ages was little better than cattle. They were judged inferior in every way, and necessary evils in the bargain.
After John is killed in a Viking attack, Joan sees her opportunity to escape the fate of all her gender. She cuts her hair, dons her dead brother's clothes and goes into the world as a young boy. Gerold is away from Villaris at the time of the attack and comes home to find his home in ruins, his family killed and Joan among the missing. After the attack, Joan goes to a Benedictine monastery, is accepted as a young man of great learning, and eventually makes her way to Rome.
The author is at pains to tell the reader in an Epilogue that she has written the story as fiction because it is impossible to document Joan's accesion to the Papacy. The Catholic Church has done everything possible to deny this embarrassment. Whether or not one believes in Joan as Pope, this is a compelling story, filled with all kinds of lore: the brutishness of the Dark Ages, Vatican intrigue, politics and favoritism and most of all, the place of women in the Church and in the world. --Valerie Ryan [via]
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Price of Honor: Muslim Women Lift the Veil of Silence on the Islamic Worldby Jan GoodwinISBN 0316320285 (0-316-32028-5)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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The Progress of Loveby Alice MunroISBN 0375724702 (0-375-72470-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Revelations of Divine Loveby Julian, M. L. Del MastroISBN 0385122977 (0-385-12297-7)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Revelations of Divine Loveby Mother Jul, Rhona Pipe, Haleyon BackhouseISBN 0340381701 (0-340-38170-1)
Softcover, Trafalgar Square
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Revelations of Divine Love'Book summary:[via]Mother Julian of Norwich does not set out to teach methods of any kind for the gradual drawing near of man to God, but to record and show forth a revelation, granted once, of God's actual nearness to the soul. For this revelation, she herself had been prepared by the stirring of her conscience, her love, and her understanding.More editions of Revelations of Divine Love:
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The Second Shiftby Anne Machung, Anne HochschildISBN 0380711575 (0-380-71157-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Second Shift'Book summary:In this landmark study, sociologist Arlie Hochschild takes us into the homes of two-career parents to observe what really goes on at the end of the "work day." Overwhelmingly, she discovers, it's the working mother who takes on the second shift. Hochschild finds that men share housework equally with their wives in only twenty percent of dual-career families. While many women accept this inequity in order to keep peace, they tend to suffer from chronic exhaustion, low sex drive, and more frequent illness as a result. The ultimate cost is the forfeited health and happiness of both partners, and often the survival of the marriage itself. [via]
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The Semi-Attached Couple & the Semi-Detached Houseby Emily EdenISBN 0385272170 (0-385-27217-0)
Softcover, Dial Press
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Silencesby Tillie OlsenISBN 038528893X (0-385-28893-X)
Softcover, Dell Publishing
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Silences'Book summary:A study of the crucial relationship between circumstances - of sex, economic class, colour, the times and climate into which one is born - and creativity. The book draws on the lives, letters, diaries and testimonies of writers such as Melville, Hardy, Blake and Rimbaud. Tillie Olsen focuses on the financial and cultural pressures which obstructed, or silenced, their work. She then turns to those who have lost most: women writers, their energies deflected into domesticity and motherhood; black American writers, only 11 of whom published more than two novels from 1850-1950. [via]
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Sister Carrieby Theodore DreiserISBN 0375753214 (0-375-75321-4)
Softcover, Modern Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sister Carrie'Book summary:Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser's revolutionary first novel, was published in 1900--sort of. The story of Carrie Meeber, an 18-year-old country girl who moves to Chicago and becomes a kept woman, was strong stuff at the turn of the century, and what Dreiser's wary publisher released was a highly expurgated version. Times change, and we now have a restored "author's cut" of Sister Carrie that shows how truly ahead of his time Dreiser was. First and foremost, he has written an astute, nonmoralizing account of a woman and her limited options in late-19th-century America. That's impressive in and of itself, but Dreiser doesn't stop there. Digging deeply into the psychological underpinnings of his characters, he gives us people who are often strangers to themselves, drifting numbly until fate pushes them on a path they can later neither defend nor even remember choosing.
Dreiser's story unfolds in the measured cadences of an earlier era. This sometimes works brilliantly as we follow the choices, small and large, that lead some characters to doom and others to glory. On the other hand, the middle chapters--of which there are many--do drag somewhat, even when one appreciates Dreiser's intentions. If you can make it through the sagging midsection, however, you'll be rewarded by Sister Carrie's last 150 pages, which depict the harrowing downward spiral of one of the book's central characters. Here Dreiser portrays with brutal power how the wrong decision--or lack of decision--can lay waste to a life. --Rebecca Gleason [via]
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The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Familyby Mary S. LovellISBN 0393010430 (0-393-01043-0)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family'Book summary:This is the Story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy, the eldest, was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana, married to the Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and imprisoned without trial through most of World War II, was the most hated woman in England; Unity Valkyrie Mitford, born in the mining town of Swastika, Alaska, would become obsessed with Adolf Hitler, whom she met on at least 140 occasions. When war was declared between England and Germany, she shot herself in the head.
The Mitfords had style, presence, and were extremely gifted: four would go on to write best-selling books. Above all, they were funny -- hilariously and often mercilessly so. In this wise, evenhanded, and generous book, Mary Lovell captures the vitality and extraordinary drama of a family that took the twentieth century by the throat and became, in some respects, its victims. [via]
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The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darknessby Karen ArmstrongISBN 0385721277 (0-385-72127-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness'Book summary:Karen Armstrong speaks to the troubling years following her decision to leave the life of a Roman Catholic nun and join the secular world in 1969. What makes this memoir especially fascinating is that Armstrong already wrote about this era once---only it was a disastrous book. It was too soon for her to understand how these dark, struggling years influenced her spiritual development, and she was too immature to protect herself from being be bullied by the publishing world. As a result, she agreed to portray herself only in as "positive and lively a light as possible"---a mandate that gave her permission to deny the truth of her pain and falsify her inner experience. The inspiration for this new approach comes from T. S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday, a series of six poems that speak to the process of spiritual recovery. Eliot metaphorically climbs a spiral staircase in these poems---turning again and again to what he does not want to see as he slowly makes progress toward the light. In revisiting her spiral climb out of her dark night of the soul, Armstrong gives readers a stunningly poignant account about the nature of spiritual growth. Upon leaving the convent, Armstrong grapples with the grief of her abandoned path and the uncertainty of her place in the world. On top of this angst, Armstrong spent years suffering from undiagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy, causing her to have frequent blackout lapses in memory and disturbing hallucinations---crippling symptoms that her psychiatrist adamantly attributed to Armstrong's denial of her femininity and sexuality. The details of this narrative may be specific to Armstrong's life, but the meanin! g she makes of her spiral ascent makes this a universally relevant story. All readers can glean inspiration from her insights into the nature of surrender and the possibilities of finding solace in the absence of hope. Armstrong shows us why spiritual wisdom is often a seasoned gift---no matter how much we strive for understanding, we can't force profound insights to occur simply because our publisher is waiting for them. With her elegant, humble and brave voice, she inspires readers to willingly turn our attention toward our false identities and vigilantly defended beliefs in order to better see the truth and vulnerability of our existence. Herein lies the staircase we can climb to enlightenment. --Gail Hudson [via]
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Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beautyby Nancy EtcoffISBN 0385479425 (0-385-47942-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty'Book summary:In the latter part of the 20th century, the adage "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" has evolved far beyond its original intent as an admonition against false vanity to become a cultural manifesto used to explain phenomena as diverse as the art of Andy Warhol and the rise of a multi-billion-dollar cosmetics industry. But is there something more to human reaction to beauty than a conditioned response to social cues? Yes, says Harvard Medical School psychologist Nancy Etcoff. Survival of the Prettiest argues persuasively that looking good has survival value, and that sensitivity to beauty is a biological adaptation governed by brain circuits shaped by natural selection.
Etcoff synthesizes a fascinating array of scientific research and cultural analysis in support of her thesis. Psychologists find that babies stare significantly longer at the faces adults find appealing, while the mothers of "attractive" babies display more intense bonding behaviors. The symmetrical face of average proportions may have become the optimal design because of evolutionary pressures operating against population extremes. Gentlemen may prefer blondes not so much for their hair color as for the fairness of their skin--which makes it easier to detect the flush of sexual excitement. And high heels accentuate a woman's breasts and buttocks, signaling fertility. Is beauty programmed into our brain circuits as a proxy for health and youth? In marked contrast to other writers like Naomi Wolf (The Beauty Myth), Etcoff argues that it is, noting, "Rather than denigrate one source of women's power, it would seem far more useful for feminists to attempt to elevate all sources of women's power." --Patrizia DiLucchio [via]
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Tell Me a Riddleby Tillie OlsenISBN 0385290101 (0-385-29010-1)
Softcover, Dell Publishing
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The Thorn Birdsby Colleen McCulloughISBN 0380018179 (0-380-01817-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Thorn Birds'Book summary:Product Details Paperback Publisher: Avon Books 1996-03-01 (1996) Language: English [via]
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The Undomestic Goddessby Sophie KinsellaISBN 0385338694 (0-385-33869-4)
Softcover, Dial Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Undomestic Goddess'Book summary:Workaholic attorney Samantha Sweeting has just done the unthinkable. She's made a mistake so huge, it'll wreck any chance of a partnership. Going into utter meltdown, she walks out of her London office, gets on a train, and ends up in the middle of nowhere. Asking for directions at a big, beautiful house, she's mistaken for an interviewee and finds herself being offered a job as housekeeper. Her employers have no idea they've hired a lawyer-and Samantha has no idea how to work the oven. She can't sew on a button, bake a potato, or get the #@%# ironing board to open. How she takes a deep breath and begins to cope-and finds love-is a story as delicious as the bread she learns to bake. But will her old life ever catch up with her? And if it does...will she want it back? [via]
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The Voyage Outby Virginia WoolfISBN 0375757279 (0-375-75727-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Voyage Out'Book summary:The Modern Library is proud to include Virginia Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out--together with a new Introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham. Published to acclaim in England in 1915 and in America five years later, The Voyage Out marks Woolf's beginning as one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and prolific writers.
Less formally experimental than her later novels, The Voyage Out none-theless clearly lays bare the poetic style and innovative technique--with its multiple figures of consciousness, its detailed portraits of characters' inner lives, and its constant shifting between the quotidian and the profound--that are the signature of Woolf's fiction.
Rachel Vinrace, Woolf's first heroine, is a motherless young woman who, at twenty-four, embarks on a sea voyage with a party of other English folk to South America. Guileless, and with only a smattering of education, Rachel is taken under the wing of her aunt Helen, who desires to teach Rachel "how to live."Arriving in Santa Marina, a village on the South American coast, Rachel and Helen are introduced to a group of English expatriates. Among them is the young, sensitive Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer, with whom Rachel falls in love. But theirs is ultimately a tale of doomed love, set against a chorus of other stories and other points of view, as the narrative shifts focus between its central and peripheral characters. E. M. Forster praised The Voyage Out as "a book which attains unity as surely as Wuthering Heights, though by a different path."
This edition includes a new Introduction by Michael Cunningham, bestselling author of The Hours. Cunningham at once unfolds an engaging short essay of Woolf's early life and career, an insightful exploration of the themes to which Woolf returns again and again in her fiction, and a spirited defense of the relevance and lasting importance of her art. Katherine Anne Porter wrote of Woolf: "The world of arts was her native territory; she ranged freely under her own sky, speaking her mother tongue fearlessly."
From the Hardcover edition. [via]More editions of The Voyage Out:
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The Well of Lonelinessby Radclyffe HallISBN 0385416091 (0-385-41609-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Well of Loneliness'Book summary:First published in 1928, this timeless portrayal of lesbian love is now a classic. The thinly disguised story of Hall's own life, it was banned outright upon publication and almost ruined her literary career. [via]
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Whoredom in Kimmage: The World of Irish Womenby Rosemary MahoneyISBN 0385474504 (0-385-47450-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Whoredom in Kimmage: The World of Irish Women'Book summary:great condition! Only read once but good book [via]
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A Widow for One Year: A Novelby John IrvingISBN 0345424719 (0-345-42471-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Widow for One Year: A Novel'Book summary:John Irving fans will not be startled to find that A Widow for One Year is a sprawling farce-tragedy crawling with characters who are writers. In the opening scene, 4-year-old Ruth Cole walks in on her melancholy mother, Marion, who is in flagrante with 16-year-old Eddie, the driver for drunken Ted (Ruth's dad and Marion's estranged, womanizing husband).
Eddie spends the rest of his life obsessively writing novels like Sixty Times, his roman à clef about his 60 seductions by Marion. Ted is a failed novelist who gets rich and famous writing creepy children's stories based on tales he tells Ruth (such as The Mouse Crawling Between the Walls). Marion abandons Ruth, Ted, and Eddie and becomes a successful pseudonymous novelist. And Ruth becomes the most richly celebrated writer of them all because of her early training by Ted, who not only told her stories, but also helped her craft narratives to explain their home's many photographs of her brothers, who died in a gory car wreck the year before she was born. Grief over the boys is why Ruth's mother does not dare to love her.
Ruth, Irving's first female main character, works brilliantly, first as an imaginative, almost Salingeresque child coming to terms with her bewildering family, then as a grownup striving to understand her mother's motives--or at least to track her down. Ted is a mordantly funny caricature, interestingly sinister and plausibly self-justifying when most inexcusable. Eddie is a lovable schlemiel, yet not too sentimentally drawn. And what set pieces Irving can write! The story of the boys' death is horrific and effective in dramatizing the character of Ted, who narrates it. Ted's attempted murder by a spurned lover is as hilarious as the VW-down-the-marble-stairway scene in A Prayer for Owen Meany (which has been adapted by Disney Studios), though not quite on a par with the celebrated "Pension Grillparzer" episode in The World According to Garp (reissued in a 20th anniversary edition by Modern Library).
Irving has the effrontery to get away with practically any scene that comes into his head--Ruth winds up an eyewitness to a hooker's murder in Amsterdam, a Dutch detective starts tracking her down (just as Ruth is hunting Marion), and the multiple plot strands all converge in a finale that neatly echoes the opening scene. It's all done with the outrageously coincidental yet minutely realistic brio of Charles Dickens, with a sad, self-conscious jokiness like that of Irving's mentor, Kurt Vonnegut. --Tim Appelo [via]
More editions of A Widow for One Year: A Novel:
- A Widow for One Year: A Novel: ISBN 0345432835 (0-345-43283-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books - A Widow for One Year: A Novel: ISBN 034543479X (0-345-43479-X)
Softcover, Ballantine Books - A Widow for One Year : A Novel: ISBN 0345469011 (0-345-46901-1)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group - A Widow for One Year : A Novel: ISBN 037570289X (0-375-70289-X)
Softcover, Random House Large Print - A Widow for One Year : A Novel: ISBN 0375501371 (0-375-50137-1)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group - A Widow for One Year: A Novel: ISBN 0345424719 (0-345-42471-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
- A Widow for One Year: A Novel: ISBN 0345432835 (0-345-43283-5)
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Wise Childrenby Angela CarterISBN 0374291330 (0-374-29133-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wise Children'Book summary:Dora and Nora Chance are a famous song-and-dance team of the British music halls. Billed as The Lucky Chances, the sisters are the illegitimate and unacknowledged daughters of Sir Melchoir Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day. At once ribald and sentimental, glittery and tender, this rambunctious family saga is Angela Carter at her bewitching best. [via]
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A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered Cityby Anonymous, Philip BoehmISBN 0312426119 (0-312-42611-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Women of Sand and Myrrhby Hanna Al-Shaykh, Catherine CobhamISBN 0385423586 (0-385-42358-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Women of Sand and Myrrh'Book summary:A powerful and moving novel, by the Arab worlds leading woman novelist, about four women coping with the insular, oppressive society of an unnamed desert state. [via]
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The World According to Garpby John IrvingISBN 034536676X (0-345-36676-X)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The World According to Garp'Book summary:"Garp was a natural storyteller," says the narrator of John Irving's incandescent novel, referring to the book's hero, the novelist Garp, who has much in common with Irving himself. "He could make things up one right after the other, and they seemed to fit."
Irving packs wild characters and weird events into his classic--officially recognized as such in a Modern Library edition with a new introduction by the author--while amazingly maintaining the rough feel of realism in every scene and the pulse of life in every heart. Many novelists of his time might have populated a novel with a novelist protagonist whose life and books comment on each other and the novel we're reading. Transsexual football players, ball turret gunners lobotomized in battle, multiple adultery, unicycling bears, mad feminists who amputate their tongues in sympathy with the celebrated victim of a horrifying rape--Irving made them all people. Even the bear is a fitting character.
In a crucial episode, Garp's wife's seduction of a young man coincidentally occurs at the moment when Garp is delighting their young sons with a reckless car trick (one of the few scenes beautifully, eerily, heartbreakingly captured in the film version as well). Many authors would have been content with the harsh comedy of the scene, but Irving respects its integrity, and he builds the rest of the book on the consequences of the event. How does he get away with his killer cocktail of slapstick and horror? Because it's simply what we all face daily, rearranged into soul-satisfying art. "Life is an X-rated soap opera," according to Garp, and who can contradict him?
Rereading Garp 20 years later, one is struck by how elegantly Irving structures his bizarre and complex story. Take the two most celebrated bits in the book, the Under Toad and Garp's story "The Pension Grillparzer," which shimmers like an exquisite Kafkaesque insect in the amber of the novel. When Garp warns his son about the "undertow" at the beach, the boy imagines a monster out of Beowulf who lurks beneath the waves to suck you under: the "Under Toad." It's funny at first, but we soon find that the Under Toad is a metaphor with teeth--he connects with a prophetic dream of death in "The Pension Grillparzer," set in Vienna. Garp's son's last words are, "It's like a dream!" And as Irving--who studied at the University of Vienna--can certainly tell you, the German word for "death" sounds precisely like the English word "toad."
All that death, and yet Garp is mainly exuberant. This story is, as Garp's stuttering writing teacher puts it, "rich with lu-lu-lunacy and sorrow." It enriches literature, and our lives. --Tim Appelo [via]
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