Literature & Fiction Books - Page 10

I Hate Your Guts

Jim Norton

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When New York Times bestselling author and comedian Jim Norton isn't paying for massages with happy endings, or pretending to be fooled by transsexuals he picks up, he spends his time wondering what certain people would look like on fire...

What do Heather Mills, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and Dr. Phil have in common? Jim Norton hates their guts. And he probably hates yours, too, especially if you're a New York Yankee, Starbucks employee, or Steve Martin.

In thirty-five hilarious essays, New York Times bestselling author and comedian Jim Norton spews bile on the people he loathes. Enjoy his blistering attacks on Derek Jeter, Hillary Clinton, fatso Al Roker, and mush-mouthed Jesse Jackson. It's utterly hilarious -- and utterly relatable if you've ever bitten a stranger's face or thrown a bottle through the TV screen while watching the news.

But don't think Jim just dishes loads of shit on his self-proclaimed enemies; he is equally atrocious to himself. He savages himself for his humiliating days as a white homeboy, his balletlike spins in the outfield during a little league game, and his embarrassingly botched attempt at a celebrity shout-out while taping his new HBO stand-up series.

Uncomfortably honest, I Hate Your Guts is probably the best example of emotional vomiting you'll ever read. But there is hope; at the end of each essay, Jim generously offers helpful suggestions as to how the offender can make things right again: Eliot Spitzer: If you run for re-election, instead of shaking hands with voters, let them smell your fingers.

Reverend Al Sharpton: The next time you feel the need to protest, do so dressed as an elk in Ted Nugent's backyard.

Hillary Clinton: When you absolutely must make a point of laughing publicly, don't fake it. Just think of something that genuinely makes you laugh, like lowering taxes or any random male having his penis cut off.

For the legions of devoted fans who know Jim Norton for his raw, sometimes brutal comedy, I Hate Your Guts is what you've been waiting for. But even more important -- it's a great book to read while taking a shit.

Out Stealing Horses

Per Petterson

By: Harvill Secker Amazon Marketplace: 3 new & used starting at $22.15

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A beautifully crafted novel 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the best novels I've read in years, and (in my opinion) one of the finest works of the past few decades. A story that begins (unpromisingly in my initial assessment) with a teenage boy spending his summer in the Norwegian countryside, twists and turns most unexpectedly. Like all great novels, it is ultimately about life and the challenge of living it well. The characters are complex, the story absorbing, the lesson - no man is an island - timeless. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys great literature.

Norwegian Hemingway 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I don't know if it was the translator or Per Petterson, but one of them captured Hemingway's rhythm almost perfectly. This is the main character, Trond Sander describing how his father, some neighbors and he cut trees to be floated downstream to a Swedish lumber mill: "...when you are in the swing, and all of you have fallen into a good rhythm, the beginning and the end have no meaning at all, not there, not then, and the only vital thing is that you keep going until everything merges into a single pulse that beats and works under its own steam, and you take a break at the right time and you work again, and you eat enough but not too much, and you drink enough but not too much, and sleep well when the times comes; eight hours at night, and at least one hour during the day."

Nothing much happens in the story. Trond, a sixty-seven-year old man moves to a cabin north of Oslo. His wife has recently died and he wants to be alone, but he meets a man named Lars who turns out to be somebody he knows from his youth. The story flashes back to the last time Trond had seen his father, who eventually left his family. The story flashes further back to the time Trond's father fought for the Norwegian resistance during World War II. And that's how he met Lars' mother, whom he would leave his family for. Then there's the curious statement "Out stealing horses," which was a code for a messenger carrying papers between Germany and Sweden. It was the same expression Lars' brother Jon used when he and Trond would go to a neighbor's corral and ride the horses there, pretending to be stealing them. Jon was so consumed by the horses and other mischief that he forgot he was supposed to watch his little brothers and there was a terrible accident.

The adult Trond Sanders is a moody, moody man who is more consumed by his father's abandonment than he is by his family. When his daughter comes to see him, he's not even sure he wants to see her. He relates better to his dog, Lyra, than he does to human beings. We know Trond was married and has two daughters but we learn nothing about his wife and the other daughter is invisible.

Readers will be frustrated by the lack of resolution. We assume Trond's father raised Lars, but we never find out for sure. Trond seems afraid to ask. Perhaps Trond is hesitant because he doesn't want to establish a human relationship with Lars. Although Lars recognizes Trond and vice versa, they spend an entire afternoon sawing a tree that has fallen in Trond's yard, but their conversation is never more significant than a discussion of the weather. Petterson seemed to be aiming for emotional impact rather than story resolution. I did feel sorry for Trond, but I also wanted to kick him in the butt.

Editorial Review:

An early morning adventure out stealing horses leads to the tragic death of one boy and a resulting lifetime of guilt and isolation for his friend, in this moving tale about the painful loss of innocence and of traditional ways of life gone forever.

The Other Queen: A Novel

Philippa Gregory

Amazon Price: $15.57 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Touchstone Amazon Marketplace: 62 new & used starting at $11.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Two women competing for a man's heart
Two queens fighting to the death for dominance
The untold story of Mary, Queen of Scots

This dazzling novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory presents a new and unique view of one of history's most intriguing, romantic, and maddening heroines. Biographers often neglect the captive years of Mary, Queen of Scots, who trusted Queen Elizabeth's promise of sanctuary when she fled from rebels in Scotland and then found herself imprisoned as the "guest" of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his indomitable wife, Bess of Hardwick.

The newly married couple welcome the doomed queen into their home, certain that serving as her hosts and jailers will bring them an advantage in the cutthroat world of the Elizabethan court. To their horror, they find that the task will bankrupt them, and as their home becomes the epicenter of intrigue and rebellion against Elizabeth, their loyalty to each other and to their sovereign comes into question. If Mary succeeds in seducing the earl into her own web of treachery and treason, or if the great spymaster William Cecil links them to the growing conspiracy to free Mary from her illegal imprisonment, they will all face the headsman.

Philippa Gregory uses new research and her passion for historical accuracy to place a well-known heroine in a completely new tale full of suspense, passion, and political intrigue. For years, readers have clamored for Gregory to tell Mary's story, and The Other Queen is the result of her determination to present a novel worthy of this extraordinary heroine.

Midnight: A Gangster Love Story

Sister Souljah

Amazon Price: $17.79 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Atria Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $16.55

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Sister Souljah, the hip-hop generation's number one author and most compelling storyteller, delivers a powerful story about love and loyalty, strength and family. In her bestselling novel, The Coldest Winter Ever, Sister Souljah introduced the world to Midnight, a brave but humble lieutenant to a prominent underworld businessman. Now, in a highly anticipated follow-up to her million-selling masterpiece, she brings readers into the life and dangerously close to the heart of this silent, fearless young man.

Raised in a wealthy, influential, Islamic African family, Midnight enjoys a life of comfort, confidence, and protection. Midnight's father provides him with a veil of privilege and deep, devoted love, but he never hides the truth about the fierce challenges of the world outside of his estate. So when Midnight's father's empire is attacked, he sends Midnight with his mother to the United States.

In the streets of Brooklyn, a young Midnight uses his Islamic mind-set and African intelligence to protect the ones he loves, build a business, reclaim his wealth and status, and remain true to his beliefs.

Midnight, a handsome and passionate young man, attracts many women. How he interacts and deals with them is a unique adventure. This is a highly sensual and tremendous love story about what a man is willing to risk and give to the women he loves most. Midnight will remain in your mind and beat in your heart for a lifetime.

Her "raw and true voice" (Publishers Weekly) will both soothe and arouse you. In a beautifully written and masterfully woven story, Sister Souljah has given us Midnight, and solidified her presence as the mother of all contemporary urban literature.

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Center Point Large Print Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $6.65

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2517 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“I sat on a bench near a willow tree and watched a pair of kites soaring in the sky. I thought about something Rahim Khan said just before he hung up, almost as an afterthought, ‘There is a way to be good again.’”

Now in paperback, one of the year’s international literary sensations -- a shattering story of betrayal and redemption set in war-torn Afghanistan.

Amir and Hassan are childhood friends in the alleys and orchards of Kabul in the sunny days before the invasion of the Soviet army and Afghanistan’s decent into fanaticism. Both motherless, they grow up as close as brothers, but their fates, they know, are to be different. Amir’s father is a wealthy merchant; Hassan’s father is his manservant. Amir belongs to the ruling caste of Pashtuns, Hassan to the despised Hazaras.

This fragile idyll is broken by the mounting ethnic, religious, and political tensions that begin to tear Afghanistan apart. An unspeakable assault on Hassan by a gang of local boys tears the friends apart; Amir has witnessed his friend’s torment, but is too afraid to intercede. Plunged into self-loathing, Amir conspires to have Hassan and his father turned out of the household.

When the Soviets invade Afghanistan, Amir and his father flee to San Francisco, leaving Hassan and his father to a pitiless fate. Only years later will Amir have an opportunity to redeem himself by returning to Afghanistan to begin to repay the debt long owed to the man who should have been his brother.

Compelling, heartrending, and etched with details of a history never before told in fiction, The Kite Runner is a story of the ways in which we’re damned by our moral failures, and of the extravagant cost of redemption.

Harry Potter Schoolbooks: Quidditch Through The Ages and Fantastic Beasts & Wher

Kennilworthy Whisp, and Newt Scamander J.K. Rowling

By: Scholastic Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $6.99

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Literature -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror -> Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 459 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Walk in Harry's Shoes for a Great Cause 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Brought to the muggle world for the first time, these two school books bring the reader one step closer to the world of Hogwarts and provide additional information not found in the beloved series. "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is a replica of Harry Potter's own school book and includes his scribbles in the margins as well as those of Ron and Hermione. This book reads a little like an encyclopedia with entries for many of the magical creatures met during the series as well as some that are not included. "Quidditch Through the Ages" is taken straight from the Hogwarts library and includes a list at the beginning of those who have checked it out over the years. This book provides a history of the sport, how it began and evolved. If you ever wondered where the golden snitch came from, this slim book provides all of the answers.

Both books are quick and easy reads that provide a great supplement for the avid Harry Potter fan. Rich with information, they are relatively inexpensive; binding is cardboard, but some effort is made to make them appear more authentic. Introductions by Professor Dumbledore, fantastic sketched by JK Rowling, and commentary from the trio make these books a treasure. If you needed any further inspiration to purchase these books, proceeds benefit Comic Relief, an organization that helps disadvantaged children throughout the world.

My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Chelsea Handler

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 257 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Laugh! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I loved this book! It's super funny to read about all her one nights stands !!

must-read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Hilarious. A must-read for all who have loved and lost- in the same night.

laugh til your head hurts!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Way to go Chelsea!! This is by far the funniest book I have ever read! I could not put it down!! Every woman on my Christmas list is getting a copy of this book!!

Amazing 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book could very well be the funniest book that i have ever read. I def. recommend it for a funny read!

Good but not great 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As Chelsea's first book, it was ok, but it was not as good as her latest one, "Hello Vodka, It's Me Chelsea". If you are going to read them both, read this one first and then Hello Vodka. If you read it, the other way around, you may be disappointed.

Editorial Review:

In this raucous collection of true-life stories, actress and comedian Chelsea Handler recounts her time spent in the social trenches with that wild, strange, irresistible, and often gratifying beast: the one-night stand.

Sea of Poppies: A Novel

Amitav Ghosh

Amazon Price: $17.16 List Price: $26.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $15.73

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China’s vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts.  In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a freespirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races, and generations.  The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, the exotic backstreets of Canton. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, that makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive—a masterpiece from one of the world’s finest novelists.

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

Stacey O'Brien

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 57 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

enlightening 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Enlightening insight into the life and emotions of an owl. I've always admired owls and wonder how it would be to have an owl. It's a magnificent book on Wesley's behavior and a really credit to the patience and love of Stacy O'Brien. Wonderful.
gloria

Fantastic! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is truly inspirational! I thought it would just be about the life of an owl, but it was really about so much more. It touched me deeply and I don't think I will ever forget this book.

Owls don't mess 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I had an owl once. I had a cat before I had an owl but the owl changed that. I wish I still had a cat instead of still having an owl that wants to kill me and my family. Owls make horrible pets and this book is ridiculous and wrong. 5 stars.

a story that inspired more than love 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Couldn't put it down".
Seriously. I picked up this book at my local library on a whim.. basically being I like birds, especially birds of prey. So, this cute little owl covered book caught me and I took it home and did noththing but read from start to finish.
The author intrigued me by simple education of the biology of barn owls while wrapping it all up in a mothering love nest of emotion.
I cried and laughed and I felt I was there through the 20 years. Wonderful.
I bought this book (Amazon) and sent it to my dad across the country. I have never done that before. I just wanted him to share this great story with me.

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.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

Khaled Hosseini

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Riverhead Amazon Marketplace: 435 new & used starting at $3.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1307 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today.

Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them-in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul-they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.