History & Criticism Books - Page 3

On Writing

Stephen King

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 827 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

More than just the master of horror! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have been a fan of Stephen King since I was a teenager. This book give the reader both an inside look into his rise to fame and some very sound writing advice. I had been an aspiring writer since my teens as well, but I could never get it quite right. My scripts had a good scene or two, but then they felt forced. Then I read "On Writing," and King's method of developing characters made perfect sense to me. Every writer could find not only writing tips but also inspiration in this book.

Now I'm a published author with an award-winning book (Rowan of the Wood), and it is in part due to what I learned from this book.

Editorial Review:

"Long live the King," hailed Entertainment Weekly upon the publication of Stephen King's On Writing. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 -- and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it -- fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1766 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Race and Class in the Deep South 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

It is perhaps appropriate that this was the first book I read after the election of America's first black President. My real reason for re-reading it, however, was for the purposes of comparison with Faulkner's "Intruder in the Dust", which deals with a similar theme. Indeed, I recently came across an allegation that Harper Lee's novel was essentially a plagiarism of Faulkner's.

The book is set in Maycomb County, Alabama, during the depression era of the 1930s. It is a first-person narrative told through the eyes of Jean Louise Finch who, for some reason, goes by the nickname Scout. Although she is only a child at the time of the events described, the narrative voice is that of the adult Jean Louise looking back at her childhood from some point in the future. The action of "Intruder in the Dust" is set over a few days and tells the story of one single incident, the murder of Vinson Gowrie; "To Kill a Mockingbird" is set over a period of about two years and essentially tells the story of Jean Louise's childhood between the ages of six and eight, although it concentrates on one crucial incident. The main characters, apart from Jean Louise herself, are her brother Jem and their friend Dill (another unexplained nickname; his real name is Charles).

Jean Louise and Jem are the children of Atticus Finch, a widowed lawyer. The book's central incident is the trial of a black man, Tom Robinson, for the alleged rape of a white woman, Mayella Ewell; Atticus is Robinson's defence attorney. Like Faulkner, Lee uses a classic thriller plot- the fight to prove the innocence of a man wrongly accused- to explore racism in America's Deep South. Although Robinson is clearly innocent of the charge, the all-white jury nevertheless vote to convict him, largely because to admit that a white woman, even one as sluttish as Mayella, was capable of making false accusations would force them to abandon their cherished ideas about the purity of Southern womanhood.

Harper Lee's concerns are wider than just the race issue. The book also has a lot to say about attitudes to social class among the white community, contrasting affluent middle-class families like the Finches with the likes of the Ewells, who can quite literally be classified as poor white trash. The family live in a shack next to the town's rubbish dump, where Mayella's father Bob earns his living as a scavenger. A favourite saying of the liberal, tolerant Atticus, who believes that most people, when you get to know them, are essentially kind, is that you should never judge a man until you have stood in his shoes and walked around in them. (At times the tone seemed quite preachy, as though Harper Lee were writing an extended sermon on tolerance).

Atticus applies this principle of non-judgementalism not only to racial issues but also to various acquaintances whom his children dislike or disapprove of for one reason or another. He applies it to Boo Radley, a simple-minded and reclusive, but inwardly kindly, neighbour, to the cantankerous old Mrs Dubose and to the Cunninghams, another poor white family but one who have retained a greater dignity and self-respect than the Ewells. The title of the book refers to a saying of Atticus that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they never do any harm, but it is a phrase which also refers to his philosophy of life. At various times several characters in the book- Robinson, Boo Radley, the children- can be seen as "mockingbirds", harmless creatures in need of protection.

One problem with the book is that Lee never really explores the tension between Atticus's liberal philosophy of life, and the problem of human evil as exemplified in the book by Bob Ewell, who is neither misjudged nor misunderstood but just plain wicked. Not only does he give perjured evidence in the hope of getting an innocent man sent to the gallows, and encourages his daughter to do the same, he also makes a vicious and cowardly attack on Atticus's children. Trying to stand in such a man's shoes would not, I feel, be a very productive exercise.

My other criticism of the book would be that it explores the question of racism from an exclusively white perspective, albeit a liberal one. For a number of reasons I think that "To Kill a Mockingbird" is a better book than "Intruder in the Dust", the most important being that Harper Lee's prose style is much more fluent and readable than Faulkner's often impenetrable sentences. Nevertheless, Faulkner creates, in Lucas Beauchamp, a black character who is much more well-rounded than any of those in Lee's book. Tom Robinson is little more than a plot device; the most prominent black character is Calpurnia, the Finch family's maid, who is that common literary stereotype, the faithful black servant. The book would have been better if Lee had given us a black perspective on the events she describes.

Those criticisms apart, I found this an excellent book, with a number vividly drawn characters, especially the spirited, loveable young Jean Louise and her father, who was memorably played by Gregory Peck in the brilliant film adaptation. Despite the limitations of his world view Atticus is an admirable character, who shows, in his defence of Robinson, not only great moral courage but also great physical courage as well. The immense improvement which has taken place in race relations in America since 1960 is owed, in part, to men like Atticus Finch, and also to women like Harper Lee who were prepared to confront the endemic racist attitudes of their society.

Editorial Review:

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. Most recently, librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century.

Fahrenheit 451 (Cliffs Notes)

Kristi Hiner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1272 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Science Fiction Masked In A Glaze Of Poetic Impulse 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

If ever there is a formula for the perfect novel, 451 has the ingredients. It would be one part science fiction masked in a glaze of poetic impulse, settled on a bed of classic literature soaking up the juices of vast philosophical thought. The burning of books is a horror to any who love the written word and our freedom to dream. It would be our worst nightmare for society to regress to a state of anti-intellectualism so staunch that ideas themselves have become the enemy. Ray Bradbury not only captures our fears in this post nuclear world but also touches upon our often forgotten love for the stories that have captured our hearts. This is a must read for anyone who has ever loved a book.

Editorial Review:

This is Bradbury's best-known novel. The science fiction tale concerns censorship and anti-intellectualism, carried on in an alternate society that conducts huge book burnings as part of the social agenda. It is a spooky and yet uplifting book.

This concise supplement to Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 helps students understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.

The Things They Carried (Spark Notes Edition)

Tim O'Brien, SparkNotes Editors

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 712 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Absolutely a number 10 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Of all the books published on the Vietnam War, this is the grandaddy. O'Brien's ability to capture the mood and setting of grunts sent to fight an unjust war is amazing and heartrending. While surviving with your buddy was the most important task in 'Nam, the ways to make that happen differed dramatically. If it meant fragging your Lieutenant, it was often done. If it meant shooting yourself in the foot, lots of soldiers didn't hesitate. O'Brien shows us the insanity of the times, putting the reader in the middle of firefights and boredom. His writing is above the genre' and even develops a style of its own, often copied. O'Brien is the master.
Ron Lealos author of Don't Mean Nuthin'

Editorial Review:

In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato--a novel about the Vietnam War--won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America two decades later.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

Thomas Cathcart, Daniel Klein

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Total reviews: 129 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

wonderful gift book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a wonderful book to enjoy and to give as a gift. It includes insights, wisdom, and great jokes!

A Very Funny Book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a very funny book. Cathcart and Klein manage to teach a little philosophy along with the humor. They seem to understand their subject and they make it fun for the reader.

I enjoyed this book even more than their other, similar, book:

Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington

I enjoyed this book and wholeheartedly recommend it to others.

Editorial Review:

Here’s a lively, hilarious, not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical traditions, schools, concepts, and thinkers. It’s Philosophy 101 for everyone who knows not to take all this heavy stuff too seriously. Some of the Big Ideas are Existentialism (what do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?), Philosophy of Language (how to express what it’s like being stranded on a desert island with Halle Berry), Feminist Philosophy (why, in the end, a man is always a man), and much more. Finally—it all makes sense!

“I laughed, I learned, I loved it!” Roy Blount Jr.

The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen: Volume II: Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 906 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth paying for on the Kindle 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Kindle owners hopefully are aware of the wealth of free editions of the classics which are available through Feedbooks and other sources.

I obtained a copy of P&P from feedbooks originally and while it was easy to get and the price was right, the overall quality of the text is not great. I've found several typos, presumably the result of OCR errors and it's somewhat distracting.

Since P&P is one of my wife's favorite books, I was delighted to see
Penguin had released an electronic edition for $0.50 complete with the usual footnotes, essays and maps that one's used to
finding in textbook editions of the classics.

The table of contents is pretty minimal. The headings include the editor's material, and the three volume headings.

Editorial Review:

This is the first of the novels published in 'The Oxford Illustrated Jane Austen' series, illustrated with early nineteenth-century plates. From its famous opening sentence, the story of the Bennet family and of the novel's two protagonists, Elizabeth and Darcy, told with a wit that its author feared might prove 'rather too light and bright, and sparkling, ' delights its most familiar readers as thoroughly as it does those who encounter it for the first time. And while she entertains us, Jane Austen teaches us the wisdom of balance, the folly of 'pride' and 'prejudice.'

Fountainhead

Ayn Rand

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 970 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

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

I bought a used book in good condition. This book arrived very fast and of course was in a better condition than my expectation. I am happy with my current purchase and would like to continue in future.

Poorly written, even for failed philosophy 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Ok, to start off lets forget all about the B.S Philosophy of Ayn Rand and focus purely on the writing content of the story itself.

I give it one star, simply for the character development which seems to follow her philosophy fairly well. She seems to have developed the Protagonist and the antagonist very well, though it seems she did this by accident if only to fill her philosophical ideals. It's apparent because the supporting characters seem shallow and their interactions in no way resemble true human relationships.

Rand seems like she tries to make up for this with excruciating and painfully dull, redundant, and useless detail such as the one sentence that almost made me burn the damn thing. "They went on, to move, to feel the movement, to know the feeling of their own muscles moving"

If rand wanted to create a nice piece of literature and not just a semi creative philosophy book, she could have cut out the redundant details and focused more on tying in all the complex details and philosophy of the book itself with a viable and decent story line. If you cut out all the useless B.S the book itself would be about 1/3 shorter and easier to read.

This book is a good example of why many famous philosophers such as Aristotle and Cicero stuck to the non-fiction genre. Philosophy alone doesn't make a good story.

Editorial Review:

Howard Roark is an architect whose genius and integrity will not be comprised. He has ideas that work against conventional standards.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston

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Total reviews: 407 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is a luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern black woman in the 1930s whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to seventy years.

This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates, boldly and brilliantly, African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a black woman, who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.

Originally published in 1937, Their Eyes Were Watching God met significant commercial but divided critical acclaim. Somewhat forgotten after her death, Zora Neale Hurston was rediscovered by a number of black authors in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and reintroduced to a greater readership by Alice Walker in her 1972 essay "In Search of Zora Neale Hurston," written for Ms. magazine. Long out of print, the book was reissued after a petition was circulated at the Modern Language Association Convention in 1975, and nearly three decades later Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered a seminal novel of American fiction.

With a new foreword by the celebrated novelist Edwidge Danticat -- author of Eyes, Breath, Memory; The Farming of Bones; and Krik?Krak! -- this edition of Their Eyes Were Watching God commemorates the singular, inimitable voice in America's literary canon and highlights its unusual publication history.

Camus: The Stranger (A Student Guide: Landmarks of World Literature)

Patrick McCarthy

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Total reviews: 535 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

NOT WHAT IT APPEARS TO BE! 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book is NOT Camus's "The Stranger"! It is a literary review of the work, and NOT the work itself. If you are looking to read Camus's "The Stranger" DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! I feel that Amazon should refund/not charge for those who buy this book thinking they are going to read Camus!

NOT CAMUS "THE STRANGER" NOT NOT NOT!

Simple on the Surface.......But Not Simple 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"The Stranger" is one of those novels that operates on multiple levels. On the surface, it is the brief story of Meursault, a man who attends his mother's funeral, meets a new girlfriend, goes to work, helps a neighbor get revenge on a bad girlfriend, then ends up murdering a man and going to jail and trial. It is an easy to read little book written/translated in an efficient Hemingwayesque style. In some ways, not much happens. In other ways, quite a lot happens. But throughout, the reader keeps wondering just where the story is going

On the next level, the book is about Meursault's existentialist view of life. From his point of view, everything that happens to him simply happens. When his mother dies...she dies. If his girlfriend wants to get married, it is ok...they can. If his boss transfers him to Paris, so be it. If incarcerated, he will pass the time studying stones or watching the sky. If he is sentenced to death....well, he dies. Nothing is important. Nothing really matters.

There are other levels as well, including one in which the story is an allegory for the European imperialist presence in Africa. And so on.....

I was intrigued by this book. Though short and easy to read, it provides a wealth of food for thought and discussion. It is not, however, an uplifting book. And frankly, I remain unsure about exactly why this book earned Camus a Nobel Prize.

Editorial Review:

Patrick McCarthy analyzes The Stranger, one of the vital texts of existentialism and twentieth-century literature, in the context of French and French-Algerian history and culture. McCarthy examines how the work undermines traditional concepts of fiction and explores parallels and contrasts between Camus's work and that of Jean-Paul Sartre. Providing students with a useful companion to The Stranger, this second edition features a revised guide to further reading and a new chapter on Camus and the Algerian War. First Edition Hb (1988): 0-521-32958-2 First Edition Pb (1988): 0-521-33851-4

The Red Tent (Barnes and Noble Reader's Companion) (Barnes & Noble Reader's Companion)

Anita Diamant

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Total reviews: 1442 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Bible stories from a woman's eye 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Stories of women in the Bible are few and far between. When they are included, they are often temptresses, harlots, or victims. Occassionally they are heroes. Because of the time and influences of authors and editors, their stories are limited and culled. Anita Diamant examines the life of one of these women, Dinah. In Genesis 34, the story of her rape and the revenge enacted by two of her brothers (of the 12 sons of Israel) is presented, but nothing is ever written about her again. Diamant tells her tale from Dinah's point of view. She begins by telling the stories of the wives of Jacob, which to her are as important as the life of Dinah.

Diamant shows her love of Biblical history and scholarship by presenting the smallest details and showing their importance. She embraces the tone of a woman of the time. She takes every scrap of mention of the women in Jacob's life and weaves a beautiful and compelling tale. She creates characters with spirits. You'd swear they were women you could meet soon, women you could admire and learn from. While reading many Bible stories, I've often be confused by the motives of the characters and wanted to know why they acted a certain way. I knew why the women in the book did everything they did. I still don't understand why the men acted the way they did.

This is a very female story. The title of the book should make that obvious-it's named for the isolation of women during their periods. Every day life is important-cooking, cleaning, weaving, child-rearing. Some of the best writing she does is when she describes childbirth. I rarely get weepy when reading, but I did choke up when Dinah describes the need for a special song or prayer for a mother when she first looks upon her newborn. She also describes the distance women in this time had from Jacob's god and reminds the reader that when this story was written, the world was still polytheistic, ruled by many gods, of which, the god of Abraham was one.

I've read about midrashes, stories that rabbi's wrote to explain the actions of the characters in the Bible or because there seems to be a gap. The story of Lilith as the first wife of Adam is one of these, if memory serves me correctly. I think that Diamant wrote this in that tradition. I commend her efforts and wish that other novels taking on the lives of women of the Bible were so well-written and concieved. This is an interesting one to read with The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library).

Editorial Review:

Anita Diamant's bestseller The Red Tent boldly reimagines the biblical story of Dinah, a woman who makes only a brief, tragic appearance in the book of Genesis. Diamant's controversial novel has fascinated countless readers and enraged others, who believe it takes too many liberties with Hebrew scripture. Learn more, and see what you think about this:

• How much of The Red Tent is really based on known biblical history?
• Why did Diamant make the changes she made to the original biblical story?
• Why is the story of Dinah so different when told from a woman's perspective?