World Literature Books - Page 4

Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl

Stacey O'Brien

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 80 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Way of The Owl & The Harmonizing of Opposites... 5 out of 5 stars.
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With nearly eighty reviews at the time I write this, there probably isn't much more stellar insight that I can give, which hasn't already been given so much more eloquently. However, I will add my voice to the growing collection in appreciation for the amazing story and for the brave author. This book, for me, was one of my "on a whim" buys. I was poking around for information about owls one night, and the book popped up in the particular search that I was doing. The cover appealed to me, the "Look Inside" feature captured my attention, and I was indeed interested in learning "The Way of the Owl" concept because I actually wondered if it could be compared / contrasted in any fashion to "The Way of the Tao" of Chinese philosophy, the embracing of harmony, allowing nature to take its course, the recognition, yet appreciation for opposites, Yin Yang, etc. I know that is a strange connection to have made! However, something in the preview material I read and the circle-shaped picture on the cover--with the lady and owl--inspired that line of thinking and questioning. Here was a vivid, modern story filled with opposites, all in the process of achieving harmony: male-female; human-bird; civilized-wild; diurnal -nocturnal; educated-uneducated; pain-pleasure; confusion-calm; discomfort-comfort; life-death; hopelessness-hope; weakness-strength; truth-lie; cowardice-courage; good-bad; safety-danger; protection-distruction; spare-kill; justice-mercy; natural-unnatural; predator-prey; fingers-talons; freedom-captivity --to name only a few! I wanted to experience the story for myself. Also...being something of Harry Potter fan, I am attracted to owl stories or clever owls as characters within stories. So, I ordered the book in the expectation that there would be some genuine connections and nuggets of wisdom, spirit, hope, compassion, humor within the pages.

I actually read (perhaps the verb should be devoured) the book the same day it arrived in the mail! LOL :) And yes! I found a few intriguing connections in Wesley's Way (his own owl nature) and with Taoism's "letting nature have its course." "Wesley the Owl" is NOT a book on Taoism or really any particular religion, yet one cannot help but find some strong (inspiring) spiritual threads in this beautiful tapestry of love, devotion, and life. As the story unfolds, readers see that the unreleasible wild owl, of course, is a being of nature, still operating according to his own deep instincts and simple interpretations of the world, though he, for his survival, must adapt to live in human environments just as his human companion, Stacey O'Brien, must adapt to live with him as he is, feathers, mice, and all. He and his human mommy-mate work together to achieve a new harmony--a balance, where opposites beings are married to the same "greater than self" ideas: routines, rhythms, relationships, sacrifice, and trust. For me, the most stirring statements in the book that capture all my ramblings above are these:

"To that which you tame, you owe your life" (Page 18). And O'Brien's story proves this!

"It seems to be universally understood among all sentient animals, even reptiles, that the eyes are the windows to the mind of the being within." (Page 53-54; HP fans will appreciate this passage.)

"Owls do not tolerate lies" (Page 95).

"I had chose to tame him and thereby made him vulnerable. I had taught him to trust me implicitly, no matter what. After so many years this trust was perfect and unbroken.....the Way of the Owl. You commit for life, you finish what you start, you give unconditional love, and that is enough. I looked into the eyes of the owl, found the way of God there..." (Page 211).

Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher, is credited with saying, "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage" and "I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures." [quotes from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors /l/lao_tzu.html] Wesley the Owl's story definitely exhibits the first quote. Stacey O'Brien, her family, her friends, and special barn owl created a powerful, life-preserving, life-enhancing circle of love that is refreshing in today's fast-paced, ego-driven, often selfish world. Both Wesley and Stacey were saved by love. // Through working with Wesley, the humans learned to appreciate the three most important lessons of living (treasures): simplicity --in a steady diet of one item, mice; patience--in sharing space with an intelligent, vocal non-human who had his own personality, needs, wishes, fears, expectations, and requests; compassion--in the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly care-giving to a wild animal that might have otherwise have died.

So, in my opinion, this is a book worth reading. I enjoyed it from cover to cover because it opened my mind to new worlds and to new perspectives on ideas related to philosophy, science, and humanity. I would recommend it for those who are considering "wild pets," especially for HP fans who are thinking how cool it would be to have an owl! I would recommend it for newlywed and for new parents. I would recommend it for high school and college reading lists. However, due to some of detailed descriptions and events in the book, I think the readers should be at least 13 or 14 or better...with adult supervision for young teens, especially those who may have questions or concerns. PARENTS' NOTE: This is a book that openly discusses natural, personal, and often mature topics. Certain parts may create some serious concerns and / or strong categorical rejections for some readers, particularly those who hold certain political, economic, social, moral, or religious beliefs:

1) Preparing / killing the mice for the owl to eat. These sections may disturb young readers if they are not taught about predator-prey relationships or about the care and feeding of unusual animal "pets;" they may disturb readers concerned about animals rights and the ethics of science and scientific research. (I confess to being disturbed by some of these passages myself though I understand that Wesley had to eat, and in his situation, he could not obtain the items himself, naturally from the wild as free barn owls would do. Forgive me, Ms. O'Brien, but I could not keep mice meat in my freezer / refrigerator or use my microwave to defrost it. If a bird lived with me, he would have to be able to stomach turkey, hamburger, and KFC! LOL :)

2) Owl excretions...er... and Owl sex... [No further comment! :) ]

3) Career & life style choices, activities, and attitudes of some of the people within the story, including the author herself.

In my opinion, this book is best enjoyed by those who honor diversity and who keep an opened, inquisitive mind. It can be helpful for those who want to stretch their readerships by exploring people and activities outside of their regular patterns.

Editorial Review:

Written with the same heartwarming sentiment that made the memoir Marley & Me a runaway bestseller, biologist and owl expert Stacey O'Brien chronicles her rescue of an adorable, abandoned baby barn owl---and their astonishing and unprecedented nineteen-year life together.

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

Max Brooks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 381 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Don’t be carefree and foolish with your most precious asset—life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it. The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through trusted, proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead. It is a book that can save your life.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Gregory Maguire

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1538 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Following the traditions of Gabriel GarcÍa Marqu,z, John Gardner and J.R.R. Tolkien, Wicked is a richly woven tale that takes us to the other, darker side of the rainbow as novelist Gregory Maguire chronicles the Wicked Witch of the West's odyssey through the complex world of Oz -- where people call you wicked if you tell the truth.

Years before Dorothy and her dog crash-land, another little girl makes her presence known in Oz. This girl, Elphaba, is born with emerald-green skin -- no easy burden in a land as mean and poor as Oz, where superstition and magic are not strong enough to explain or to overcome the natural disasters of flood and famine. But Elphaba is smart, and by the time she enters the university in Shiz, she becomes a member of a charmed circle of Oz' most promising young citizens.

Elphaba's Oz is no utopia. The Wizard's secret police are everywhere. Animals -- those creatures with voices, souls and minds -- are threatened with exile. Young Elphaba, green and wild and misunderstood, is determined to protect the Animals -- even it means combating the mysterious Wizard, even if it means risking her single chance at romance. Even wiser in guilt and sorrow, she can find herself grateful when the world declares her a witch. And she can even make herself glad for that young girl from Kansas.

In Wicked, Gregory Maguire has taken the largely unknown world of Oz and populated it with the power of his own imagination. Fast-paced, fantastically real and supremely entertaining, this is a novel of vision and re-vision. Oz never will be the same again.

The Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1466 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

i thought this book wuz great 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

sue monk kidd did a fabulous piece of work. i instantly became connected with all the characters the pain and hope lily has is so mature for her age. even though i really wanted her to tell the truth earlier and this could not really happen the plot is perfect. i adored the stories of black mary and all the love@the boatwrights give to lily and rosalene. she tells the story with such couragesnous it is a must read. great@ for women or girls preteen and up.

Very rewarding book to read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I enjoyed this book very much and in many situations it hit home with me. It was funny, sad and a learning experience. It will make you laugh, cry and think about what you have gone through and what it was like in the 60's.

Lunda Sexton Knoxville TN
Amazing I Loved It 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I couldnt put this book down. I wanted to see the movie but I wanted to read the book first now I cant wait to see the movie. It is a book that warms the heart . Great JOB I cant wait for a sequel.

Editorial Review:

A New York Times Bestseller

A remarkable story about mothers and daughters and the women in our lives who become our true mothers, this is a stunning debut whose rich, assured, irresistible voice gathers us up and doesn't let go, not for a moment.

More Information Than You Require

John Hodgman

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The bestselling author of The Areas of My Expertise— also known as The Daily Show’s “Resident Expert” and the PC in the iconic Mac ads—picks up exactly where his first book left off. Exactly.

Like its predecessor, MORE INFORMATION THAN YOU REQUIRE compiles incredibly handy made up facts into brief articles, overlong lists, frighteningly complex charts, and beguiling narratives on new and familiar themes such as:
THE PAST (because there is always more)
THE FUTURE (because they say there is still some left to discuss)
THE METHOD BY WHICH WE “ELECT” OUR PRESIDENTS (as this will be happening soon)
THE STRANGE OKAPI (an actual animal) GAMBLING: THE SPORT OF THE ASTHMATIC MAN (includes hermit crab racing)
HOW TO BE A FAMOUS MINOR TELEVISION PERSONALITY (hint: go on television)
PLUS: 700 MOLE-MAN NAMES (and their occupations)

Yes. HODGMAN MAY HAVE BEEN BRIEFLY ABSENT FROM YOUR LIFE, but with this volume he is ready to pick up exactly where THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE left off—specifically AT PAGE 237.

The Poets' Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family

John Lithgow

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From listening to his grandmother recite epic poems from memory to curling up in bed while his father read funny verses, award-winning actor John Lithgow grew up with poetry. Ever since, John has been an enthusiastic seeker of poetic experience, whether reading, reciting, or listening to great poems.


The wide variety of carefully selected poems in this book provides the perfect introduction to appeal to readers new to poetry, and for poetry lovers to experience beloved verses in a fresh, vivid way. William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Dylan Thomas are just a few names among Lithgow's comprehensive list of poetry masters. His essential criterion is that "each poem's light shines more brightly when read aloud." This unique package provides a multimedia poetry experience with a bonus MP3 CD of revelatory poetry readings by John and the familiar voices of such notable performers as Eileen Atkins, Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Billy Connolly, Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, Lynn Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Gary Sinise, and Sam Waterston.


Every reader will enjoy reciting or listening to these poems with the entire family, appreciating how each one comes to life through the spoken word in this superlative poetry collection.

Out Stealing Horses (Wheeler Large Print Book Series)

Per Petterson

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Total reviews: 111 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

In 1948, when he is fifteen, Trond spends a summer in the country with his father. The events — the accidental death of a child, his best friend’s feelings of guilt and eventual disappearance, his father’s decision to leave the family for another woman — will change his life forever. An early morning adventure out stealing horses leaves Trond bruised and puzzled by his friend Jon’s sudden breakdown. The tragedy that lies behind this scene becomes the catalyst for the two boys’ families to gradually fall apart.

As a 67-year-old man, and following the death of his wife, Trond has moved to an isolated part of Norway to live in solitude. But a chance encounter with a character from the fateful summer of 1948 brings the painful memories of that year flooding back, and will leave Trond even more convinced of his decision to end his days alone.
Per Petterson, defeated eight finalists, including Julian Barnes, J.M. Coetzee, Salman Rushdie and Cormac McCarthy to win the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for Out Stealing Horses.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

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Total reviews: 471 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.


Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war

“I found ‘Patient Zero’ behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.’ I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.” —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China


“‘Shock and Awe’? Perfect name. . . . But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!” —Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers


“Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.” —General Travis D’Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell

Tucker Max

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Total reviews: 298 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead. But, I do contribute to humanity in one very important way: I share my adventures with the world. —from the Introduction Actual reader feedback:

"I am completely baffled as to how you can congratulate yourself for being a womanizer and a raging drunk, or think anyone cares about an idiot like you. Do you really think that exploiting the insecurities of others while getting wasted is a legitimate thing to offer?"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you—for sharing with us your wonderful tales of drunken revelry, for teaching me what it means to be a man, for just existing so I know that there is another option; I too can say ‘screw the system’ and be myself and have fun. My life truly began when I finished reading your stories. Now, when faced with a quandary about what course of action I should take, I just ask myself, ‘What Would Tucker Do?’—and I do it, and I am a better man for it."

"I find it truly appalling that there are people in the world like you. You are a disgusting, vile, repulsive, repugnant, foul creature. Because of you, I don’t believe in God anymore. No just God would allow someone like you to exist."

"I’ll stay with God as my lord, but you are my savior. I just finished reading your brilliant stories, and I laughed so hard I almost vomited. I want to bring that kind of joy to people. You’re an artist of the highest order and a true humanitarian to boot. I'm in both shock and awe at how much I want to be you."

"You are the coolest person I can even imagine existing. If you slept with my girlfriend, it'd make me love her more."

The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

Annette Gordon-Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Slavery from the Slaves Point of View 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a fascinating but too long and over detailed discussion of the Hemings family, owned by Thomas Jefferson, the man who told us "all men are created equal." It is probably not fair to judge the lives of slaves from the Hemings family because they were, in the context of that society, always over privileged, having been the children of a black mother, Elizabeth Hemings and a white father, John Wayles. They were always house servants, some of them men were free to work for wages with Jefferson's permission, one of them, James, became an accomplished French chef while Jefferson was our envoy to France, but they clearly remained slaves until late in Jefferson's life, when he freed some of them. Sally Hemings was able to negotiate freedom for the children she had with Jefferson. And, of course, this tale cuts Thomas Jefferson down to size, a brilliant man who was nevertheless not true to his own rhetoric and who truly believed in white and male supremacy.

Editorial Review:

Historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family, and their close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson.