Literary Books - Page 2

Netherland: A Novel

Joseph O'Neill

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In a New York City made phantasmagorical by the events of 9/11, Hans--a banker originally from the Netherlands--finds himself marooned among the strange occupants of the Chelsea Hotel after his English wife and son return to London. Alone and untethered, feeling lost in the country he had come to regard as home, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure who is part idealist and part operator, introduces Hans to an “other” New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality. Hans is alternately seduced and instructed by Chuck’s particular brand of naivete and chutzpah--by his ability to a hold fast to a sense of American and human possibility in which Hans has come to lose faith.

Netherland gives us both a flawlessly drawn picture of a little-known New York and a story of much larger, and brilliantly achieved ambition: the grand strangeness and fading promise of 21st century America from an outsider’s vantage point, and the complicated relationship between the American dream and the particular dreamers. Most immediately, though, it is the story of one man--of a marriage foundering and recuperating in its mystery and ordinariness, of the shallows and depths of male friendship, of mourning and memory. Joseph O’Neill’s prose, in its conscientiousness and beauty, involves us utterly in the struggle for meaning that governs any single life.

The Pillars of the Earth

Ken Follett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1324 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth Reading 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I enjoyed reading this book because I had no idea how gruesome it was to live during the middle ages. I also had no idea the hardships people endured merely to survive! I appreciated the graphic detail of how people lived in those days because it really puts you in their shoes. If you like to learn about history through fantastic novels, this is a perfect book to read about medieval times.

I also thought it was clever how he gave each character more than one personality trait. For example, there was no bad guy that was 100% evil 100% of the time, even the worst characters had very weak spots. Although, I do have to say that the worst bad guy is so horrible, it's infuriating. I enjoyed the depth he gave each character and I enjoyed learning about how they thought and communicated in order to get what they needed. I liked watching the characters grow and mature- some of them got worse, but still it was a nice evolution.

It did get a little soap-opera-ish half way through, but, luckily, I kept reading and found it to be a brilliant piece of literature in the end.

Editorial Review:

The Pillars of the Earth sweeps through four decades of 12th Century England drawing the listener into the raw, flamboyant middle ages. It is a shining saga of good and evil, treachery and intrigue, violence and beauty. Not-so-noble knights, righteous heroes, valiant heroines and both virtuous and immoral men of God highlight this story. They manipulate, and are in turn manipulated by, the political turmoil and unrest between the reigns of Henry I and Henry II.

The listener will cheer on the fates of the virtuous and hiss at the evil-doers. A truly fascinating story that the listener will never forget.

Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries)

Richard Yates

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 116 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lying and Loathing in the Suburbs... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It is a period in the middle of the twentieth century - the hopeful 1950s - and a young couple, Frank and April Wheeler, begin their marriage in New York. Soon after, they are suburbanites, living in a development in Connecticut, on Revolutionary Road.

Their marriage had begun after an unexpected pregnancy. After the birth of the first child, a second followed. They seemed to be a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented...Maybe Frank's job is dull and perhaps April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they always believed, deep down, that greatness is just around the corner. And then, as the reality of their own limitations hits them with an almost blunt force, their illusions begin to crumble.

First come the dull, routine days, followed by the drunken fights. Then follows the almost manic plan to pull up stakes and move to Europe, where they can be glamorous expatriates, with April working at the embassy and Frank "finding himself", discovering his hidden talents.

When another unexpected pregnancy blasts them off course, the soul searching begins.

In one enlightened moment, following a terrible fight when each of them flung unforgivable words at each other, April comes to the following conclusions: "...In a sentimentally lonely time long ago, she had found it easy and agreeable to believe whatever this one particular boy felt like saying, and to repay him for that pleasure by telling easy, agreeable lies of her own, until each was saying what the other most wanted to hear - until he was saying `I love you' and she was saying `Really, I mean it; you're the most interesting person I've ever met.'...Soon you were saying `I'm sorry, of course you're right,' and `Whatever you think is
best,' ...and the next thing you knew all honesty, all truth, was as far away and glimmering, as hopelessly unattainable as the world of the golden people..."

Thus sums up the marriage for April on that day at the end...And then she does something so horrifying, so completely unexpected, yet expected at the same time and life for this couple is forever altered.

Revolutionary Road (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage Contemporaries) is a disturbingly authentic portrayal of what might seem to be a typical suburban young couple at a time when life was golden. Soon to be released as a movie, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, the characters are memorable and chillingly haunting.

Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
Miles to Go, etc.

Editorial Review:

In the hopeful 1950s, Frank and April Wheeler appear to be a model couple: bright, beautiful, talented, with two young children and a starter home in the suburbs. Perhaps they married too young and started a family too early. Maybe Frank's job is dull. And April never saw herself as a housewife. Yet they have always lived on the assumption that greatness is only just around the corner. But now that certainty is about to crumble.

With heartbreaking compassion and remorseless clarity, Richard Yates shows how Frank and April mortgage their spiritual birthright, betraying not only each other, but their best selves.

The Road (Movie Tie-in Edition)

Cormac Mccarthy

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1675 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

PULITZER PRIZE WINNER
National Book Critic's Circle Award Finalist

A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year
The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Denver Post, The Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Times, New York, People, Rocky Mountain News, Time, The Village Voice, The Washington Post

The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Northern Clemency

Philip Hensher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The award-winning author of The Mulberry Empire brings us a sweeping chronicle of ordinary lives profoundly shaped by both the subtleties of everyday experience and the larger forces of history.

In 1974, the Sellers family is transplanted from London to Sheffield in northern England. On the day they move in, the Glover household across the street is in upheaval: convinced that his wife is having an affair, Malcolm Glover has suddenly disappeared. The reverberations of this rupture will echo through the years to come as the connection between the families deepens. But it will be the particular crises of ten-year-old Tim Glover—set off by two seemingly inconsequential but ultimately indelible acts of cruelty—that will erupt, full-blown, two decades later.

These lives unfold against the vividly rendered backdrop of twentieth-century England at the dawn of the Thatcher era: prosperity for some and disenfranchisement for others, which will have a drastic impact on both families.

Expansive and deeply felt, The Northern Clemency shows Philip Hensher to be one of our most masterly chroniclers of modern English life, and a storyteller of virtuosic gifts.

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

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Total reviews: 1306 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

My Heart Is Afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky."Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."

Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. The Alchemist is such a book. With over a million and a half copies sold around the world, The Alchemist has already established itself as a modern classic, universally admired. Paulo Coelho's charming fable, now available in English for the first time, will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come.

The Alchemist is the magical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure as extravagant as any ever found. From his home in Spain he journeys to the markets of Tangiers and across the Egyptian desert to a fateful encounter with the alchemist.

The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us, as only a few stories have done, about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, above all, following our dreams.

The Reader (Movie Tie-in Edition) (Vintage International)

Bernhard Schlink

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 785 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

The Reader 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Although the story is quite good it is simply not a good translation of the original.

Have insomnia? Then this is the story for youl. 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I was hoping this would be a great story (being that the movie is causing all sorts of hype and it won a number of awards). I had a lot of trouble finishing this book. The characters never fully develop. The writing is sparse and poor. The main character asks questions throughout that are meant to be thought-provoking but detract from the story and make you feel like you're sitting through a seminar with a boring professor. There are plenty of good books about the Holocaust--and this isn't one of them. Don't waste your money OR your time.

Editorial Review:

Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.

When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

The Kite Runner Illustrated Edition

Khaled Hosseini

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Total reviews: 2541 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A deluxe collector's edition of the phenomenally bestselling The Kite Runner, filled with striking and memorable photographs that bring Khaled Hosseini's compelling story to life.

Since its publication in 2003, The Kite Runner has shipped over four million copies and spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy through the horrific rule of the Taliban, The Kite Runner is the heartbreaking story of the unlikely and inseparable friendship between a wealthy Afghan boy and the son of his father's servant, both of whom are caught in the tragic sweep of history. Published in the aftermath of America's invasion of Afghanistan, Khaled Hosseini's haunting writing brought a part of the world to vivid life that was previously unknown.

Now this beautifully produced, collectible hardcover enhances Khaled Hosseini's story with unforgettable color and black-and-white photographs of the people of Afghanistan and their surroundings, further illustrating the world in which the story is set and heightening the already powerful experience of reading this incredible book.

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

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Total reviews: 1465 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

gripping tale 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Sue Monk Kidd tells a story of love and understanding that forgives an era and sheds light on true intrinsic human emotions that are our shared legacy , no matter what the color is of ones skin .

Editorial Review:

Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the town's fiercest racists, Lily decides they should both escape to Tiburon, South Carolina--a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. There they are taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters who introduce Lily to a mesmerizing world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna who presides over their household. This is a remarkable story about divine female power and the transforming power of love--a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.

Out Stealing Horses: A Novel

Per Petterson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 110 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Vague, Slow, Waiting for Something to Happen 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

For some reason I'm drawn to books about Scandinavia. Perhaps it's because I'm half Finnish, and I lived in Finland for a couple of years. So I opened this book with excitement, ready to be transported to Norway.

It started out quite interesting and had a nice, easy feel. I liked the point of view of the story being told by an "old" man--looking back on a significant time in his childhood.

But, for me, the book went nowhere. Yes, there is a melancholy and yes, it's an interesting relationship study between a father and his son. But it you're going to read this book get ready for many significant unanswered questions and a story that meanders and meanders and meanders some more.

I have a theory that those who liked the book read so many books--that they're just happy to read something different--even if that means sacrificing their time for an ultimately non-compelling story.

Editorial Review:

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
A TIME MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
WINNER OF THE IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

Out Stealing Horses has been embraced across the world as a classic, a novel of universal relevance and power. Panoramic and gripping, it tells the story of Trond Sander, a sixty-seven-year-old man who has moved from the city to a remote, riverside cabin, only to have all the turbulence, grief, and overwhelming beauty of his youth come back to him one night while he's out on a walk. From the moment Trond sees a strange figure coming out of the dark behind his home, the reader is immersed in a decades-deep story of searching and loss, and in the precise, irresistible prose of a newly crowned master of fiction.