History & Criticism Books

Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon

Melissa Anelli

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Product Description:
***Featuring a Foreward by J.K. Rowling***

The Harry Potter Books Were Just the Beginning of the Story. . .

During the brief span of just one decade, hundreds of millions of perfectly ordinary people made history: they became the only ones who would remember what it was like when the Harry Potter saga was still unfinished. What it was like to seek out friends, families, online forums, fan fiction, and podcasts to get a fix between novels. When the death of a character was a hotter bet than the World Series. When the unfolding story of a boy wizard changed the way books are read for all time.

And as webmistress of The Leaky Cauldron, one of the most popular Harry Potter sites on the Internet, Melissa Anelli had a front row seat to it all. Whether it was helping Scholastic stop leaks and track down counterfeiters, hosting live PotterCasts at bookstores across the country, touring with the wizard rock band Harry and the Potters, or traveling to Edinburgh to interview J. K. Rowling personally, Melissa was at the center of the Harry Potter tornado, and nothing about her life would ever be the same.

The Harry Potter books are a triumph of the imagination that did far more than break sales records for all time. They restored the world's sense of wonder, and took on a magical life of their own. Now the series has ended, but the story is not over. With remembrances from J. K. Rowling's editors, agents, publicists, fans, and Rowling herself, Melissa Anelli takes us on a personal journey through every aspect of the Harry Potter phenomenon—from his very first spell to his lasting impact on the way we live and dream.

The Marvel Encyclopedia

Daniel Wallace, Tom Brevoort, Andrew J. Darling, Tom DeFalco, Peter Sanderson, Michael Teitelbaum

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A must have for any comic book fan!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you love comic books, you will love the Marvel Encyclopedia. If you're new to the whole comic book thing, you will LOVE the Marvel Encyclopedia! :) It's a great little reference to have!

Editorial Review:

Marvel Comics' character roster boasts some of the best known and most popular characters ever conceived-heroes that are international household names, both as comic book stars and movie stars, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk and Wolverine. This unique, one-volume encyclopedia contains more than 1000 of Marvel's greatest, with full details of their powers and their thrill-packed careers. The encyclopedia's range of spectacular art features eye-popping work by Marvel's finest artists, while the authoritative text is supplied by a team of top Marvel comic book writers. In addition, double-page features, illustrated with classic covers, trace the fascinating story of Marvel Comics through the decades. The Marvel Comics Encyclopedia is an essential book both for new fans and for those who grew up loving the excitement, heroism and humor of the Marvel Universe. Includes a foreword by Stan Lee.

Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s

Philip K. Dick

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Jonathan Lethem, editor

"The most outré science fiction writer of the 20th century has finally entered the canon," exclaimed Wired Magazine upon The Library of America's May 2007 publication of Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s, edited by Jonathan Lethem. Now comes a companion volume collecting five novels that offer a breathtaking overview of the range of this science-fiction master.

Philip K. Dick (1928-82) was a writer of incandescent imagination who made and unmade world-systems with ferocious rapidity and unbridled speculative daring. "The floor joists of the universe," he once wrote, "are visible in my novels." Martian Time-Slip (1964) unfolds on a parched and thinly colonized Red Planet where schizophrenia is a contagion and the unscrupulous seek to profit from a troubled child's time-fracturing visions. Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965) chronicles the deeply-interwoven stories of a multi-racial community of survivors, including the scientist who may have been responsible for World War III. Famous, among other reasons, for a therapy session involving a talking taxicab, Now Wait for Last Year (1966) explores the effects of JJ-180, a hallucinogen that alters not only perception, but reality. In Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974), a television star seeks to unravel a mystery that has left him stripped of his identity. A Scanner Darkly (1977), the basis for the 2006 film, envisions a drug-addled world in which a narcotics officer's tenuous hold on sanity is strained by his new surveillance assignment: himself. Mixing metaphysics and madness, phantasmagoric visions of a post-nuclear world and invading extraterrestrial authoritarians, and all-too-real evocations of the drugged-out America of the 70s, Dick's work remains exhilarating and unsettling in equal measure.

Unlocking Harry Potter: Five Keys for the Serious Reader

John Granger

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

UNLOCKING HARRY POTTER gives you five essential keys for understanding the HARRY POTTER series. Not just who will live or die in DEATHLY HOLLOWS, but how J.K. Rowling created the most successful books of our times. To understand the story behind the stories, John Granger, author of THE HIDDEN KEY TO HARRY POTTER and editor of WHO KILLED ALBUS DUMBLEDORE?, introduces the themes and patterns Rowling uses to write books that resonate with readers of all ages. This book is for "serious readers" but Granger writes in a very entertaining style. If you never understood the term "postmodernism" or how "literary alchemy" is used by great authors from Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling, then this is a fun way to learn. UNLOCKING HARRY POTTER is the only book to examine in depth the importance of what Rowling said in an interview from 1998, that "to invent this wizard world" she had to learn about alchemy "in order to set the parameters and establish the stories' internal logic." - . - . - . - . - Here's what other HARRY POTTER authors and experts have to say about UNLOCKING HARRY POTTER: - . - . - . - . - "I got so hooked I had to stop everything else and just read, read, read. I carried it around the house, read it while using the excercycle, I hid in rooms away from the action of daily life so I could take it all in. I haven't had that reaction to a book since, well, THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. A spectacular read for all serious fans of Rowling's works. Compelling, well-argued, fun and funny. Engaging. Thought provoking. Erudite." - Tom Morris, author of IF HARRY POTTER RAN GENERAL ELECTRIC and PHILOSOPHY FOR DUMMIES. - . - . - . - . - "John Granger peels back the layers of Rowling's stories and sees patterns the rest of us miss - and he never forgets to be a fan, engaging in fun speculation about what will come in the finale. Once more Granger has shown himself to be second to none among Potter commentators and literary sleuths. Some books are meant to be ingested quickly. Not this one. Serious fans of HARRY POTTER will relish it." - David Baggett, editor of HARRY POTTER AND PHILOSOPHY.

Doctor Who Encyclopedia (Doctor Who (BBC Hardcover))

Gary Russell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A fun and engrossing reference book for "New Who" 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I suppose one could use Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia to actually look things up, but really, I think it's more fun to start with the letter A and peruse its entries in order. This ensures that you don't miss any of the goodies within, while providing almost as chaotic a tour of the worlds of Doctor Who as one might get in the TARDIS itself.

Take the letter D, for example. Here you learn why Madame de Pompadour was once called Madame d'Etoiles, what newspaper the Absorbaloff was reading when Ursula noticed his alien hands, the name of the beach where Rose said goodbye to the Doctor, the human name of the Slitheen in charge of the North Sea Boating Club, the provenance of the Doctor's claim that Martha was from Freedonia, the name of the Cabinet minister who called Saxon "insane" - and, of course, quite a bit about the words "Doctor" and "Daleks." The above list doesn't cover even half of the D entries found in the book, ranging in length from a sentence to an entire page each.

Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia covers the first three seasons of the 2005-present revival of the series, plus the occasional mention of real-world creators of songs, films, etc. that appear in the show. I imagine the book could prove invaluable for the novice Doctor Who fan in learning more about the show's characters and continuity. Even a serious Doctor Who addict such as myself will find nuggets of forgotten or unsuspected detail, such as corporate information gleaned from a reception guest's telephone, or character names that were never actually heard on screen, or simply went by too fast.

To keep the book to a manageable length (and possibly for licensing reasons), virtually nothing from the 1963-1989 adventures is mentioned unless it has been referenced in the new series, in which case a few older details are sometimes included. A few entries are misleadingly incomplete as a result. Aside from some awkward or repetitive wording, this is my only quibble with the book. I'm glad I bought it, and will almost certainly buy it again if there is a second edition after more adventures are aired, providing a basis for the not-yet entries author Gary Russell teases in his introduction.

Editorial Review:

The definitive A-Z packed with never seen before photos, concept drawings and special effects artwork this is a must for every fan of the new series Doctor Who. Covering both Christopher Eccelston and David Tennant's Doctors this encyclopedia is the perfect companion for anyone wishing to know more about the Doctor, the Tardis, his friends and enemies and the worlds through which he travels. This is the Doctor Who book all the fans have been waiting for. It is written by Gary Russell the author of the bestselling Doctor Who: Inside Story.

The Turtle Moves!: Discworld's Story Unauthorized

Lawrence Watt-Evans

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

So, you think you know Discworld? 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.

So, you think you know Terry Pratchett's Discworld, do you? Even if you have read and re-read Pratchett's thirty-plus Discworld novels (and companion books), Lawrence Watt-Evans's "The Turtle Moves: Discworld's Story Unauthorized" will still teach you a new thing or two, I suspect -- new insights into characters, new ways of looking at the novels.

Watt-Evans, a noted science fiction/fantasy author himself, has created a respectful, genial, and thoughtful look at the Discworld universe, discussing each novel and story and placing them in context of "sub-series" (within the overall Discworld series). He does this with a tone of mock frustration ("How come Pratchett can write such an extraordinarily successful series of books and I can't?!?" -- well, maybe Watt-Evans's frustration isn't wholly fictional; surely, any author must envy such a creation), but it is clear throughout that Watt-Evans is first and foremost a fan of Discworld -- not blind to its occasional minor flaws, but overall deeply impressed with its high quality.

In his introductions, Watt-Evans explains that he is writing the book both for fans of the Discworld tales and also for those readers yet unfamiliar with them. Oh, and also to make money while trying to understand the roots of Pratchett's success (I am sure this is said tongue-in-cheek, although he wouldn't mind making the money).

"The Turtle Moves" is a pleasure, and as truly informative as it is amusing to read. As the cover blurb says: "The greatest British fantasy series by a living author who doesn't go by initials is Terry Pratchett's Discworld".

Editorial Review:

From the banks of the river Ankh to the walls of Sto Lat, the entirety of Terry Pratchett’s renowned Discworld series is explored in this expansive resource. Essays discussing a range of topics—among them Pratchett’s place in literary canon, the nature of the Disc itself, and the causes and results of the Discworld phenomenon—accompany a chronological account of the more than three dozen novels in the series. Perfect for veteran fans and neophytes alike, this is the complete guide to the world on the cosmic turtle’s back.

The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition)

Karen Wynn Fonstad

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Total reviews: 80 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The publishing world is full of Tolkien spinoff products, some trivial and ephemeral--but some, like this thoroughly researched atlas, are genuinely classy. Karen Wynn Fonstad is a qualified geographer and cartographer who first mapped Middle-Earth in 1981 and has since added much new detail based on those endless volumes of drafts, abandoned passages, alternative versions, and laundry lists published since Tolkien's death. She fills in gaps and details in the familiar Third Age maps from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, goes back in time to map Middle-Earth's First and Second Ages, and reconstructs the route and timescale of every important journey in the stories. There are local maps of key places like the Mines of Moria, Lothlorien, Isengard, Minas Tirth, the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and the volcanic Mount Doom. War maps cover the saga's notable battles, up to the hopeless last stand at Mordor gate and the tiny later skirmish known in Shire records as the Battle of Bywater. Thematic maps show Middle-Earth's distribution of climate, geological features, vegetation, people, and (most importantly to Tolkien) languages.... It's all done tremendously seriously and would make a fine gift for enthusiastic Tolkien fans, except that they'll have bought it already. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

Frankenstein (Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism)

Mary Shelley

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Critical Theory and Frankenstein 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This edition contains several critical essays about Frankenstein (they follow the actual story). Each essay uses a particular literary theory and applies it to the text 9in front of the essay is a description/analysis of the theory being used). For example, one essay applies Freud's Oedipus Complex and Lacan's Mirror Stage to the development of Victor and the monster. Some of the other theories are Feminism, Marxism and New Historicism. It is interesting to see the novel from all these different perspectives. Expect to see contradictions in interruptions from theory to theory. My only complaint is the selection of essays. Half of them are poorly chosen (ex. Psychoanalysis and Feminism). I could have selected a better selection. The essays can be very confusing; jumping all over the place and trying to cover to many ideas at once. It takes awhile simply to figure out exactly what the author's main point is. You would have better luck simply researching the theory and then applying what you know yourself to the text. Either way, it is a fun exercise and makes one appreciate even more just how amazing a book it truly is.

Editorial Review:

This revision of a widely adopted critical edition presents the 1831 text of Mary Shelley’s English Romantic novel along with critical essays that introduce students to Frankenstein from contemporary psychoanalytic, Marxist, feminist, gender, and cultural studies perspectives. An additional essay demonstrates how various critical perspectives can be combined. In the second edition, 3 of the 6 essays are new. The text and essays are complemented by contextual documents, introductions (with bibliographies), and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms.

Frankenstein: the original 1818 text (Broadview Literary Texts)

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, D.L. Macdonald, Kathleen Scherf

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 319 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Frankenstein, loved by many decades of readers and praised by such eminent literary critics as Harold Bloom, seems hardly to need a recommendation. If you haven't read it recently, though, you may not remember the sweeping force of the prose, the grotesque, surreal imagery, and the multilayered doppelgänger themes of Mary Shelley's masterpiece. As fantasy writer Jane Yolen writes of this (the reviewer's favorite) edition, "The strong black and whites of the main text [illustrations] are dark and brooding, with unremitting shadows and stark contrasts. But the central conversation with the monster--who owes nothing to the overused movie image … but is rather the novel's charnel-house composite--is where [Barry] Moser's illustrations show their greatest power ... The viewer can all but smell the powerful stench of the monster's breath as its words spill out across the page. Strong book-making for one of the world's strongest and most remarkable books." Includes an illuminating afterword by Joyce Carol Oates.

The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy: One Book to Rule Them All (Popular Culture and Philosophy)

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

I waited this long for this? 2 out of 5 stars.
32 of 37 people found this review helpful.

the most disappointing so far in the 'popular culture and philosophy' series, these essays have little to do with either LotR or Philosophy in the traditional sense, instead attempting to cover everything from environmentalism to narrative structure. As a general format, the authors state their intentions to mold Tolkien's world to their own pet ideas and quote profusely while saying little that convinces. One of the essays even admits that the Buddist parallels it's spent the last few pages proposing are clearly "superficial" - why waste the print, then? Another oddity here is a collection of quotes by various noted philosophers that have nothing to do with either the themes in LotR, or, in many cases, the topics the essays address. Extremely discouraging.

Editorial Review:

Can power be wielded for good, or must it always corrupt? Does technology destroy the truly human? Is beer essential to the good life? The Lord of the Rings raises many such searching questions, and this book attempts some answers. Divided into five sections concerned with power and the Ring, the quest for happiness, good and evil in Middle-earth, time and mortality, and the relevance of fairy tales, The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy mines Tolkien’s fantasy worlds for wisdom in areas including the menace of technology, addiction and fetishism, the vitality of tradition, the environmental implications of Tolkien's thought, Middle-earth's relationship to Buddhism and Taoism, and more.