World Literature Books - Page 12

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)

George R.R. Martin

Amazon Price: $18.48 List Price: $28.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Spectra Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $8.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Martin, George R.R. -> General
Subjects -> Science Fiction & Fantasy -> Authors, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Martin, George R.R. -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1522 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hailed as a classic, George R. R. Martin’s stunning series is destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

A GAME OF THRONES

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens.

Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Shantaram (Spanish) (Spanish Edition)

Gregory David Roberts

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Umbriel Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $13.15

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Foreign Language Fiction -> Spanish
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> Australia & New Zealand
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 282 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."

So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.

Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.

As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.

Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas---this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.

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: 142 new & used starting at $6.22

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Huxley, Aldous
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> British -> General

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.

Eragon (Inheritance, Book 1)

Christopher Paolini

List Price: $22.95 By: Paolini International Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $18.42

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( P ) -> Paolini, Christopher
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Series -> Fantasy & Adventure -> Inheritance

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2700 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A exellent book, what's with all the bad reviews? 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Unlike other people, I saw the movie before I read the book. People talked to me about it, but I thought it was a depressing book series with the last dragon on earth in it.

But after seeing the movie and learning I had been mistaken in this viewpoint, I got the book from the library and am now reading 'Brisingr'.



A young boy named Eragon, raised by his Uncle Garrow and Aunt Marian in the land of Alagaesia, where the evil King Galbatorix lords over the land, finds a saphire colored egg and thinks it is some sort of valuable stone. He tries to sell it, but it ends out hatching, and revealing a small dragon inside.

Eragon raises the dragon, and gleans information about them from Brom, the village's storyteller. He gives his female dragon the name 'Saphira', from a dragon name that Brom gives him.

Soon, evil beings called the Ra'zac come to Eragon's village, and murder his uncle Garrow (his cousin Roran being somewhere else, and his aunt having died years before), leaving Eragon with a heavy thirst for revenge.

Brom finds Eragon and Saphira, says he knows about dragons, and insists that he allow him to train Eragon, so he might live though his quest to kill the Ra'zac. Eragon agrees, and him and Brom and Saphira leave, for the Ra'zac are leaving, and the trio don't want to lose them.

After dropping off at a massacered village, having Eragon's fortune told by Angela, and getting information from Jeod, a wealthy merchant and an old friend of Brom's, they try to find out the Ra'zac's hiding place, which leads to them fleeing for their lives from Hellegrid.

While on the run from Ra'zac, they get attacked, and Brom is wounded. A young man named Murtagh rescues Eragon and Saphira, and offers to help them with their quest. They reach a hidden cave, where Brom wakes up and tells Eragon he was a Dragon Rider, and that his dragon, Saphira, was killed by the traitor Morzan. He then dies, leaving Eragon heartbroken.

Shortly after they get captured, and Eragon meets Duraz, a evil Shade that is intent on learning Eragon's true name (learning the true name of a person will allow anyone control over a person). With a little bit of luck, Eragon and Murtagh escape to join Saphira, rescuing a elf woman in the process.

When they reach safty, Eragon heals her, and finds out from her mind the way to the Varden, and that she must have medicine from them is she wants to be healed. They journey there, where and Saphira discover that Murtagh is Morzan's son, (Morzan being the traitor Dragon Rider that allied with Galbatorix, the evil king of Alagaesia, to kill the rest of the Dragon Riders and in doing so killed all the dragons that did not escape Alagaesia), and ally themselves to the Varden.

A battle is waged, and Eragon and Saphira must fight against the Shade Duraz, or die in the process...



All together, a great book.

Editorial Review:

Gifted only with an ancient red sword, the brilliant-blue dragon Saphira, and advice from the old storyteller Brom, the young man Eragon is entangled in an intricate tapestry of destiny, magic, ancient glory, and love. His saga carries readers through a fantastical land filled with beauty and brooding danger as he flees the tyrannical king, Galbatorix. A mysterious elven woman haunts Eragon’s dreams, while an ancient legacy and an unexpected inheritance shape his destiny.

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

Patrick McCarthy

Amazon Price: $16.19 List Price: $17.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $9.33

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Books & Reading -> Reference
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Books & Reading -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Books & Reading -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
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

Beloved

Toni Morrison

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 280 new & used starting at $5.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Morrison, Toni -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Morrison, Toni -> Paperback
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( M ) -> Morrison, Toni -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 89 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Raw & Powerful 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Toni's Morrison's Beloved is a hard, frustrating, and emotionally draining piece of literary art. Saying this, her prose is written like something I've never read. She throws you in the middle of the narrative and does not tell you why her characters are saying or acting like they are. It is a finely written detective story that is heartbreaking. Everyone needs to read this Nobel Prize novel. If you believe yourself to know about slavery and how slaves "survived" on plantations and farms, Morrison will open your eyes to the reality of that life. Set between 1855 and 1873, Morrison weaves a raw tale about Sethe, a former slave, and her daughter Denver living in a house haunted by the ghost of Sethe's third child who was murdered. The book is hard to read because of the graphic images burnt into one's mind as one reads it, but also, because you have to be patient; Morrison will reveal to the reader what has just happened in a scene a few pages or chapters later. This is the beauty and genius of Morrison's writing. You will never be the same after reading this book.

Editorial Review:

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.

Redeeming Love

Francine Rivers

List Price: $13.99 By: Multnomah Books Amazon Marketplace: 75 new & used starting at $0.33

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 574 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Can God’s Love Save Anyone?

Bestselling author Francine Rivers skillfully retells the biblical love story of Gomer and Hosea in a tale set against the exciting backdrop of the California Gold Rush. The heroine, Angel, is a young woman who was sold into prostitution as a child. Michael Hosea is a godly man sent into Angel’s life to draw her into the Savior’s redeeming love. This remarkable novel has sold over a million copies and is among the top twenty on the ECPA fiction bestsellers list for four years running. A six-part study guide, suitable for individual use or group discussion, is included in this bestselling novel.

ALSO AVAILABLE: Now own this beloved classic in the keepsake hardcover edition!

California’s gold country, 1850. A time when men sold their souls for a bag of gold and women sold their bodies for a place to sleep.

Angel expects nothing from men but betrayal. Sold into prostitution as a child, she survives by keeping her hatred alive. And what she hates most are the men who use her, leaving her empty and dead inside.

Then she meets Michael Hosea.

A man who seeks his Father’s heart in everything, Michael Hosea obeys God’s call to marry Angel and to love her unconditionally. Slowly, day by day, he defies Angel’s every bitter expectation until, despite her resistance her frozen heart begins to thaw. But with her unexpected softening come overwhelming feelings of unworthiness and fear. And so Angel runs. Back to the darkness, away from her husband’s pursuing love, terrified of the truth she can no longer deny: Her final healing must come from the One who loves her even more than Michael Hosea does…the One who will never let her go.

A powerful retelling of the book of Hosea, Redeeming Love is a life-changing story of God’s unconditional, redemptive, all-consuming love.


Story Behind the Book

“Writing Redeeming Love was a form of worship for me. Through it, I was able to thank God for loving me even when I was defiant, rebellious, contemptuous of what I thought being a Christian meant, and afraid to give my heart away. I had wanted to be my own god and have control of my life the way Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Now I know to be loved by Christ is the ultimate joy and fulfillment. Everything in Redeeming Love was a gift from the Lord: plot, characters, theme. None of it is mine to claim.”

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Christopher Moore

Amazon Price: $11.19 List Price: $13.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 82 new & used starting at $5.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Horror -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Horror -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 510 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Satire at its Best 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In the words of Christopher Moore, "... if one's faith can be shaken by stories in a humorous novel, one may need a bit more praying to do." While some of the elements of "Lamb" may lend a new perspective to the times of Jesus, is it a work of fiction. Futhermore, it is satire. The idea of giving Jesus a flamboyant friend to follow him from childhood through his ministry gives the Gospel stories a different perspective. For most people, the perspective is worth many laughs.

The New Testament tells very little of the childhood of Jesus. Since there is little reason to believe that these gaps will ever be filled, Christopher Moore took the liberty of filling in the gap with proper historical context. It is admirable that much of the writing is so true to the time period. From the first miracles of Jesus as a child, Biff follows the Messiah with a sense of wonder. Yet at the same time, Biff is somewhat rough around the edges while trying to protect a friend he views to be naive. Two thousand years after Jesus's ministry, Biff is raised from the dead to tell his story. With the angel Raziel to supervise his writing in a modern hotel, Moore alternates between past and present.

The puns and twists are unlikely to offend many, but certainly some will find reason to object. It seems as though it is a divine gift of comedy. From circumcisions to bacon to human sexuality, few topics are off limits. It is the type of book that you will want to quote to friends like a classic Monty Python skit.

Editorial Review:

The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years -- except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshuafrom his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more -- except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala -- and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

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: 37 new & used starting at $8.15

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Historical
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> British -> Historical
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

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.

The Shadow of the Wind: A Novel

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Press HC, The Amazon Marketplace: 103 new & used starting at $2.80

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Books & Reading -> Antiquarian & Rare Books
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Historical
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> Spanish

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 523 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The international literary sensation-a runaway bestseller in Spain, rights sold in more than 20 countries-about a boy's quest through the secrets and shadows of postwar Barcelona for a mysterious author whose book has proved as dangerous to own as it is impossible to forget.

Barcelona, 1945-just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his eleventh birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again. Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness and doomed love. And before long he realizes that if he doesn't find out the truth about Julian Carax, he and those closest to him will suffer horribly.

As with all astounding novels, The Shadow of the Wind sends the mind groping for comparisons-The Crimson Petal and the White? The novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte? Of Victor Hugo? Love in the Time of Cholera?-but in the end, as with all astounding novels, no comparison can suffice. As one leading Spanish reviewer wrote, "The originality of Ruiz Zafón's voice is bombproof and displays a diabolical talent. The Shadow of the Wind announces a phenomenon in Spanish literature." An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art.

Translated by Lucia Graves.