British Books - Page 2

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Modern Classics Amazon Marketplace: 135 new & used starting at $6.29

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 734 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Prompt and accurate 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I was very happy with the speed of delivery and the book's quality (which was on par with what the sender had described). Keep up the good work!

Open your mind 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Although this book was written in 1932, the concepts are as real today as anytime in the past. This is a timely classic allowing us to see a could be society but also the idiosyncrociesof todays society.

One of the scariest books I have ever read. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Brave New World" is a novel of a particular, possible, future and has been a 'classic' since the 1940s. Today (2008), that 'future' still seems all too possible. I think it is one of the scariest books I have ever read. "1984" was one of the other scariest books.

I recommend reading this book as well as "1984". Then, work against both of these possible futures.

Editorial Review:

Aldous Huxley's tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, it remains remarkably relevant to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying entertainment.

Naked

David Sedaris

By: Orion mass market paperback Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $11.75

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The Other Boleyn Girl (Movie Tie-In)

Philippa Gregory

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Touchstone Amazon Marketplace: 170 new & used starting at $2.59

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 834 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The book was great. I watched the movie first and realize it did'nt give the book justice. I love the way the author told the entire story and how she used Mary's point of view. I have since purchased several more of Philippa Gregory's novels and enjoy every one of them.

Editorial Review:

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king.

A rich and compelling novel of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her heart.When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king and take her fate into her own hands.

Sarah's Key

Tatiana de Rosnay

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: St. Martin's Griffin Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $7.64

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 108 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A New York Times bestseller. Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.
Tatiana de Rosnay offers us a brilliantly subtle, compelling portrait of France under occupation and reveals the taboos and silence that surround this painful episode.

Consider the Lobster: And Other Essays

David Foster Wallace

List Price: $24.98 By: Hachette Audio Amazon Marketplace: 6 new & used starting at $8.74

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 49 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not as Good as Most People Think (Still Not Bad) 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 12 people found this review helpful.

I don't get all the 5 star, Wallace loving reviews here. This really isn't spectacular. There are some 5 star essays in the book (Big Red Son, Host). Also some one star ones that are just awful and tedious to read.

Who wants to read 75 pages about his views on language usage. Maybe if your a linguistics major. The tour diary from travelling with McCain loses it's drive halfway through.

Good, but not his best. Start w/ "Infinite Jest" and take it from there.

Editorial Review:

Do lobsters feel pain? Did Franz Kafka have a funny bone? What is John Updike's deal, anyway? And what happens when adult video starlets meet their fans in person? David Foster Wallace answers these questions and more in essays that are also enthralling narrative adventures. Whether covering the three-ring circus of a vicious presidential race, plunging into the wars between dictionary writers, or confronting the World's Largest Lobster Cooker at the annual Maine Lobster Festival, Wallace projects a quality of thought that is uniquely his and a voice as powerful and distinct as any in American letters.

The Screwtape Letters: With, Screwtape Proposes a Toast

C. S. Lewis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 372 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A theological satrical masterpiece, rich in consolation, and a number of belly laughs 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I often say that almost all of my theology comes from reading "The Narnia Suite," which I read for the first time at the age of eight, and more than a dozen times thereafter. I was particularly taken with The Last Battle, in which some people are very surprised indeed to learn that those they thought wouldn't be admitted into Aslan's Land because they fought on "The Wrong Side" of the aforementioned last battle, were in fact instantly admitted because it was their intention and their heart which was judged.

When I was a little older, someone gave me a copy of "The Screwtape Letters," and I have read it probably a dozen or more times over the years as well. Brilliant, allegorical, hilarious in parts, and filled with gentle wisdom, it is a theological masterpiece. I recall the first time I the letter in which one devil brags that he will soon win his first soul for the devil because although the man continues to pray, he doesn't believe what he says any longer. The older, wiser devil releases a stream of invective and explains the younger devil is an idiot, because doesn't the know that "those are the prayers that God loves best!?" How relieved I felt, as a young person, that there was a possibility God might still embrace me, even with all my doubts. Just one of the many gifts Lewis's work offers to those of us searching for a deeper relationship with God.

Editorial Review:

Now available unabridged on cassette and CD--C.S. Lewis’ classic Screwtape Letters--the engaging correspondence between two devils. Read by Joss Ackland.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1364 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Warning, A Prediction...A Terrifying Truth 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

First off, this book is incredible. At 13 years old, I didn't understand every aspect of it, but in a whole, everything made perfect, clear sense.
I'm very interested in socialist governments(no, I don't like communist views; I'm a die-hard patriot at 13!), and I consider myself well-informed on up-to-date politics and such. And so, upon reading this book which was recommended to me by one of my teachers, I was horrified at the resemblances that Oceania and the direction our government is headed shared. The foresight of Orwell was shocking, and he kept the book very interesting.
But a good portion of the middle was....awkward. Like, mature-content awkward (most teachers gave me girl-are-you-crazy? looks when they saw I was reading it. Later, I realized why). I almost didn't finish the book, but knowing its importance to my knowledge, I finished it. I definitely do not recommend it to anyone my age....-shudders-
But its imperative that we as Americans read it. Remembering the mistakes of the past (and, in this case, the future) is imperative to keeping our nation a democracy. If we heed most of Orwell's warnings, we will be better equipped to save the future, and in doing so saving the past.

Editorial Review:

Published in 1949, Ninety Eighty-Four is Orwell's terrifing vision of a totalitarian future. Its hero, Winston Smith, is a worker at the Ministry of Truth, where he falsifies records for the party. Secretly subversive, he and his colleague Julia try to free themselves from political slavery but the price of freedom is betrayal. 6 cassettes.

Katherine

Anya Seton

By: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $35.19

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 262 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Enquirer of the Middle Ages 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This is a fantastic story of the birth of the Tudor family. It is also a story that truly tells how love conquers all.

I was unable to put this book down! It is a mix of a heroine that you love, pity and are sickened with due to her own wants and desires. It is a wonderful story about how we can all lie to ourselves when what we want is morally wrong and what can happen as a result.

Plodding and Flat 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Many people adored this book, as evidenced by all the 5 star reviews, but I was not one of them. It took a real effort of will to trudge through this drawn-out emotionally dry and dusty tale. The writing style reads very much like a romance novel from the 1950's or 60's with characters who seem over-simplified and shallow, rather like how you might tell a story to a small child (except for excruciating detail in just about every other way- down to what each and every serf and shepherd are wearing). I never really understood what drew Katherine and John together because they aren't written as especially engaging or likable characters. They are both good-looking. And he is rich. And she is pious. So if that's what appeals to you in a novel, this may be something that sets your heart on fire. If you are hoping for more, look elsewhere.