Political Books - Page 14

The Devils: The Possessed (Penguin Classics)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin Classics Amazon Marketplace: 58 new & used starting at $2.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> Russian
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Foreign Language Fiction -> Russian

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

'Oxford World Classics' delivers again with Devils. 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

If it were up to me there wouldn't be so many translations and so many publications of the old Russian classics. That's partially why I'm writing this review: to help you decide which version you want to purchase. Really, I think it can be narrowed down to two choices.

If you want hardcover I suggest the luxurious Demons (Everyman's Library, 182). It's the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation, which has been praised by critics, but hasn't been praised by me. There's nothing blairingly wrong with the P/V translation and I certainly wouldn't call it bad. I just don't think it's as good as the Constance Garnett classic translation.

My favorite Dostoevsky translator is Michael Katz (Ralph E. Matlaw is good too). His are based on the Garnett translations, but are slightly revised. He updates Garnett (who's translations are said to be somewhat dated), and he reworks the parts of Garnett that strayed too far from Dostoevsky's original Russian.

It's the Katz's translation you'll be getting if you purchase Devils: The Possessed (Oxford World's Classics). Here is a fine quality paperback. Paper, Ink, Binding are all satisfactory; they seem to last longer than most paperbacks do. Endnotes, Character list, Dostoevsky/Historical timelines are included--all that extra good stuff; perhaps even more of it (certainly no less) than the Hardcover Everyman's edition. Of course, it's half the price.

As a novel, I highly recommend Devils. Set in provincial Russia, the story is eerily prophetic of the Russian revolution that would take place some fifty years later. The story begins with a lengthy biographical sketch of two characters. Then, the focus shifts to those character's sons, who happen to be at the head of a group of pseudo-revolutionaries. Multiple scandals ensue.

In Devils, Dostoevsky addresses his own concerns about the existence of god. He questions the merits of wholesale social/political reform and the Revolutionary groups who propose said reform. As always, Dostoevksy impressively displays the realistic psychological nuances of his characters. As an added bonus, there's also a parody of the Russian writer Turgenev.

If you haven't read any Dostoevsky before this is a good a place as any to start, though you might try Crime and Punishment first.

Editorial Review:

The third of Dostoevsky's five major novels, Devils (1871-2), also known as The Possessed, is at once a powerful political tract and a profound study of atheism, depicting the disarray that follows the appearance of a band of modish radicals in a small provincial town. This new translation includes the chapter "Stavrogin's confession," initially censored by Dostoevsky's publisher.

God Is Dead

Jr., Ron Currie

Amazon Price: $11.90 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 68 new & used starting at $1.53

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Literary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

very intriguing 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

this book caught my eye on a recent trip to borders; and, after reading the back cover copy, i decided to pick it up. it's a quick read, and really intriguing. it's a collection of short stories, built around a common fictional thread. the stories aren't interconnected like the movies crash or babel, but are, rather, a series of isolated snapshots spinning out of the implications of the first story.

that first story is that god has temporarily incarnated in the body of a dinka woman in africa, and during a rebel raid, is killed. theological inacuracy aside, the fictional ruminations of a world without god (or, as the a-theistic author would likely say, a world that learns god is dead and ceases all belief in god) are fascinating. it's not a john lennon "imagine there's no heaven" pretty picture -- it's a bloomin' mess! ferel dogs eat a small bit of the woman's body, and begin speaking in aramaic, and -- pretty soon -- the word is out.

it's an extremely imaginative collection of implications, with large portions of the macro narrative told through implication and color commentary. for instance, one of the stories is the first-person narrative of a guy who works for the government agency that exists to get parents to stop worshiping their children by weekly sessions to strong-arm parents into seeing the averageness of their children. but the contextual bits let us in on the reality that, in the wake of any reason for church, and with nothing else to worship, parents around the world begin worshipping their own children.

the stories have a chronology to them, only in that each subsequent story takes place further in time from the death of god. i didn't enjoy the last one or two chapters as much as the first 4/5 of the book, as the story thread seemed to unwind a bit. and, of course, none of this lines up with anything that would remotely be considered biblical theology. but it's fiction - and it's an interesting exploration of a world without god (or, at least, without belief in god). as a christian reading the book, i found myself, of course, thinking the implications would be even more dramatic. but, still, the theologically impossible core concept was interesting to explore.

Editorial Review:

An electrifying debut from a provocative new voice in fiction that will remind readers of the best of Vonnegut

Ron Currie ’s guts y, funny book is instantly gripping: If God takes human form and dies, what would become of life as we know it? Effortlessly combining outlandish humor with big questions about mortality, ethics, and human weakness, Ron Currie, Jr., holds a funhouse mirror to our present-day world. God has inhabited the mortal body of a young Dinka woman in the Sudan. When she is killed in the Darfur desert, he dies along with her, and word of his death soon begins to spread. Faced with the hard proof that there is no supreme being in charge, the world is irrevocably transformed, yet remains oddly recognizable.

Ex Machina, Vol. 5: Smoke, Smoke

Brian K. Vaughan

Amazon Price: $10.39 List Price: $12.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wildstorm Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $5.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Comic Strips -> General
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Comic Strips -> General AAS
Subjects -> Comics & Graphic Novels -> Graphic Novels -> Superheroes

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Latest in a BRILLIANT series... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

As any lover of Brian K Vaughan could tell you, this guy is a genius. Whether it's a group of misfit, teen-age, evil-villian-parent-murdering crimestoppers; a family of bomb-dodging lions that escape a half-demolished zoo in Baghdad; a man named Yoric who survives a "plague" that wipes out every male on earth (except him and his pet capuchin Ampersand); or, in the case of Ex Machina, a hero-turned-polictician who just happens to be able to communicate with machinery, Vaughan delivers, every time. NOBODY who calls themselves comic book geek can live without reading this series. END OF REVIEW :):)

Comic book writing and art just doesn't get better than this 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

For anyone who grew up with comic books and love the medium, this is the perfect series to graduate to. It is stunningly beautiful and the writing is topical and smart. It's such a cliche, but it feels like an HBO show done in comic book form. Mayor Mitchell Hundred deals with tricky political situations with integrity, but never finds an easy time of it. He has a wisdom about him, but isn't above revisiting his ethics and decisions as he does in this volume with his arrest of a small-time pot dealer.

Trade paperback is the ideal format for Ex Machina, as the collected issues focus on themes and a collection of storylines. It's far more satisfying than reading it in monthly comics form. I highly recommend this volume and this series!

The Dragons of Blueland (My Father's Dragon Trilogy (Sagebrush))

Ruth Stiles Gannett

Amazon Price: $17.60 List Price: $17.60 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Topeka Bindery Amazon Marketplace: 5 new & used starting at $13.39

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Authors & Illustrators, A-Z -> ( G ) -> Gannett, Ruth Stiles
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Action & Adventure
Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Elmer's adventures come to an end 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Elmer has arrived safely home, but not for long. When his friend the Dragon leaves to find his own family, he discovers they've been taken prisoner by some men who want to sell them to zoos. Now the Dragon must find Elmer in time to help his family without being spotted by other humans. But what if Elmer can't come up with a plan?

This is the final in the My Father's Dragon series. It lives up to the second book, but both fall a little short of the creativity and humor of the first. Still, fans will want to know how the series ends and won't be disappointed with the story presented here. As with the others, the storyline and vocabulary are perfect for the beginning reader or as a read aloud story.

This series is a great way to introduce kids to the joys of reading. Parents will also enjoy the clever fantasy storylines. This is a fun book in a fun series that will entertain children of all ages.

Editorial Review:

The third volume of the My Father's Dragon trilogy, this adventure may be enjoyed on its own. Here, the baby dragon summons Elmer to help save his family from hunters. "Elmer's plan is ingenious and plausible, the fantasy well-sustained."--(starred) Library Journal.

In the Convent of Little Flowers: Stories

Indu Sundaresan

Amazon Price: $14.96 List Price: $22.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Atria Amazon Marketplace: 36 new & used starting at $10.54

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> United States
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Short Stories -> General

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

Editorial Review:

Bestselling author Indu Sundaresan presents a candid and stunning collection of stories about contemporary Indians and the cutting-edge issues surrounding them -- where ancient tradition and modernity can often clash.

A young woman who was adopted by an American family in Seattle receives a letter from Sister Mary Theresa, nun at the Convent of Little Flowers in Chennai where she stayed as a child. Unbeknownst to her, the nun is her biological mother's sister. The grandmother of an Indian journalist begs him to intervene with her husband -- his grandfather -- to prevent a young widow from being burned alive. A child born out of wedlock to the sixteen-year-old daughter of a peon on an engineering college campus throws the entire family into turmoil.

With the lush prose, vividly rendered settings, complex and appealing characters, and compelling narratives, the stories that comprise In the Convent of Little Flowers illuminate the lives of Indians at home and abroad today, where modernity offers them opportunities that their grandmothers only dreamed of, while others experience just as much oppression as ever. Indu Sundaresan brings together stories that both embrace and reject modern values with an authenticity that only a writer of her caliber could do.

Torpedo: A Surface Warfare Thriller

Jeff Edwards

List Price: $19.95 By: iUniverse, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $15.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> War
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An accident at a German nuclear plant, an illegal arms deal, and a biological warfare attack on the British Embassy in Washington, DC, combine to ignite an international crisis that threatens to draw Western Europe, the Middle East, and the United States into all-out war. To prevent it, a handful of U.S. Navy destroyers and frigates must track down and destroy a Wolfpack of state-of-the-art submarines. The enemy is a NATO Ally: trained in U.S. naval warfare tactics, skilled in deception, and thoroughly lethal. Out-gunned, out-maneuvered, and out-thought, the crews of the U.S. Navy ships must become as devious as their enemies.

“Edwards wields politics and naval combat tactics with a skill equal to the acknowledged masters of military fiction.”
—Military Press

“[TORPEDO] is the Top Gun of Surface Warfare.”
—Barnes & Noble online customer review

“As the former Commanding Officer of a U.S. Navy warship, I was awestruck by the realism and plausibility of this novel. We’ve got to consider this scenario in the Global War on Terrorism.”
—David Armstrong, Commander, USN (Ret.)

“TORPEDO kicks ass! Smart and involving, with an action through-line that shoots ahead like its namesake—fast and lethal.”
—Paul L. Sandberg, producer of The Bourne Supremacy

Murder at the Opera: A Capital Crimes Novel (Truman, Margaret, Capital Crimes Series.)

Margaret Truman

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 98 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Margaret Truman, who knows where all the bodies are buried inside the Beltway, has written her most thrilling novel of suspense yet. Murder at the Opera features the popular crime-fighting couple Mac Smith and his wife, Annabel Reed-Smith, as they navigate the glitz, glamour, and grime that is Washington, D.C.

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings . . . but the show hasn’t even started yet when a diva is found dead. The soprano in question, a petite young Asian Canadian named Charise Lee, was scarcely a star at the Washington National Opera. But when the aspiring singer is stabbed in the heart backstage during rehearsals, she suddenly takes center stage.

Georgetown law professor Mac Smith thought he’d just be carrying a rapier in Tosca as a favor for his beloved Annabel, but now they’re both being pressured by the panicked theater board to unmask a killer. Providing accompaniment will be former homicide detective, current P.I., and eternal opera fan Raymond Pawkins.

Soon the Smiths find themselves dangerously improvising among an expanding cast of suspects with all sorts of scores to settle. What they uncover is an increasingly complex case reaching far beyond Washington to a dark world of informers and terror alerts in Iraq, and climaxing on a fateful night at the opera attended by none other than the President himself.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Invisible

Andrew Britton

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Kensington Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $3.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With searing narrative twists, The Invisible plunges us headlong into today's shadowy, fever-pitched battle between terrorism and intelligence, as a covert counterterrorism operative risks everything, including the woman he loves, to save the life of one person...

For more than a decade, Ryan Kealey has been a key player in the war on terror. First, as a captain in the U.S. Army's third Special Forces Group, then as a contract operative with the CIA. His actions have saved thousands of lives, including that of the U.S. President. Now once again, Kealey receives the call of duty--only this time, the odds for success are slim to none...

Tensions between Pakistan and India are at an all-time high. To complicate matters, twelve American climbers have disappeared in the snow-capped peaks of Pakistan's Hindu Kush range. The President is demanding answers, but neither government is supplying them.

As the conflict escalates, Brynn Fitzgerald departs Washington D.C. on her first official trip as acting secretary of state. Her goal is to serve as an intermediary between the leaders of both nations as well as to ensure all efforts are being made in the search for the missing American climbers. But when Fitzgerald's motorcade is ambushed on the outskirts of Islamabad, her back-up team arrives to discover a disastrous scene: dozens are dead, including seven diplomatic security agents, and the secretary of state has vanished without a trace.

In the wake of the unprecedented attack, Kealey's operation goes into high gear. Once again, he is joined by Naomi Kharmai, the British-born analyst who has taken on a daring new role with the Agency. But Kharmai is becoming as unpredictable as the man they're going after, and as they work their way toward the target, it becomes clear to Kealey that anyone is fair game--and no one can be trusted.

Mortal Allies

Brian Haig

Amazon Price: $7.99 List Price: $7.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Grand Central Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 99 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Horror -> Occult
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Sean Drummond is back in a provocative mystery featuring the clever,irreverent JAG lawyer introduced in Brian Haig's debut thriller (Secret Sanction). Ordered toSeoul to assist a civilian lawyer representing an army captain charged withraping and murdering the son of the South Korean defense minister, Sean ischagrined to discover that he's second-chairing his old law school rival, thebrilliant, beautiful Katherine Carlson, who's famous for challenging themilitary's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Katherine insists that ThomasWhitehall was framed by the Army because of his sexual orientation; whileDrummond agrees that Whitehall might be the victim of a conspiracy, he thinks ithas more to do with espionage than homophobia. By the time he uncovers a plot todestabilize the alliance between the U.S. and South Korea and rid the region ofAmerican troops, he's been threatened, bugged, and embarrassed--and that's byhis own co-counsel, whose motives and intentions he's entirely misread! WhileKatherine is almost a parody of a legal provocateur, Sean comes across as anengaging fellow with a ready wit, a well-honed legal mind, and a willingness toconfront his own prejudices that wins the reader's admiration. So does Haig,(incidentally, the son of Colonel Alexander "I'm in charge here" Haig) whoseskillful pacing and narrative gifts mark him as a writer worth watching.--Jane Adams

Meridian

Alice Walker

Amazon Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvest Books Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $5.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( W ) -> Walker, Alice
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Historical
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Political

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

She has done better work 2 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This book is an enjoyable read if you have nothing better to do. I failed to be captivated by it. The characters lack the heartwrenching dramatic intensity that you find in her other works. Maybe it is because Alice Walker is such a phenominal author that people just expect so much from her. Still, this book is NOT making the cut for my personal library.

Editorial Review:

Meridian Hill is a young woman at an Atlanta college attempting to find her place in the revolution for racial and social equality. She discovers the limits beyond which she will not go for the cause, but despite her decision not to follow the path of some of her peers, she makes significant sacrifices in order to further her beliefs. Working in a campaign to register African American voters, Meridian cares broadly and deeply for the people she visits, and, while her coworkers quit and move to comfortable homes, she continues to work in the deep South despite a paralyzing illness. Meridian's nonviolent methods, though seemingly less radical than the methods of others, prove to be an effective means of furthering her beliefs.