British & Irish Books

Tuesdays with Morrie

Jeffrey Hatcher, Mitch Albom

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2118 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague.  Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it.

For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago.

Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder.  Wouldn't you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger?

Mitch Albom had that second chance.  He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man's life.  Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college.  Their rekindled relationship turned into one final "class": lessons in how to live.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie's lasting gift with the world.

William Golding's Lord of the Flies

Nigel Williams, William Golding

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1275 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

An Old Book Revisited 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I couldn't remember if I had read this book at an earlier age so I downloaded it and read it again. I enjoyed this book. What can I say that hasn't already been said. If you haven't read this book, I encourage you to do so. This isn't a book you want to miss.

A brutal, horrifying masterpiece 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I had to read this book while I was in high school and thought it was just OK. I just reread it on my own and now that I'm an adult, it touched me more deeply. The bullying and cruelty these boys exhibit, the casual schadenfreude that escalates into violence, had a greater impact on me this time around. I'm glad I reread it, appreciated the message, but did not enjoy it. Some facts of life aree too awful and I prefer not think of them.

School review 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Lord of the Flies is a very different book. Though the words are clear and easy to read it isn't exactly the easiest book to understand. The story line has so many different symbols, that u have to read each and every line to understand. There were times while i read this book that i had to go back and re-read what i had previously read.
Even though this book is hard to understand i still say it was a good book. I loved the vivid images that Golding described. I was able to create pictures in my mind as i read. Again i did have difficulty with some of the symbols but when I thought about it for a while it got easier. It really shows just how destructive mankind can be in situations that require calmness. I'm glad to have read this book though not by choice I still think that it was an amazing book proving that no matter how we act or how someone might think they act even the hardest of situations can tear you down to that savage instinct that everyone has.
-K.D. Mrs.Strey honors english III

Editorial Review:

A dramatization, suitable for schools and amateur dramatic groups, of Golding's bestselling novel. The book contains notes and diagrams for staging, including lighting and sound cues and a full properties list.

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children: Adapted for the Theatre by Salman Rushdie, Simon Reade and Tim Supple (Modern Library Paperbacks)

Salman Rushdie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 181 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The original stage adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, winner of the 1993 Booker of Bookers, the best book to win the Booker Prize in its first twenty-five years.

In the moments of upheaval that surround the stroke of midnight on August 14--15, 1947, the day India proclaimed its independence from Great Britain, 1,001 children are born--each of whom is gifted with supernatural powers. Midnight’s Children focuses on the fates of two of them--the illegitimate son of a poor Hindu woman and the male heir of a wealthy Muslim family--who become inextricably linked when a midwife switches the boys at birth.

An allegory of modern India, Midnight’s Children is a family saga set against the volatile events of the thirty years following the country’s independence--the partitioning of India and Pakistan, the rule of Indira Gandhi, the onset of violence and war, and the imposition of martial law. It is a magical and haunting tale, of fragmentation and of the struggle for identity and belonging that links personal life with national history.

In collaboration with Simon Reade, Tim Supple and the Royal Shakespeare Society, Salman Rushdie has adapted his masterpiece for the stage.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

ANTHONY BURGESS

By: NORTON, W.W. & COMPANY, INC. Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $8.25

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 618 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Clockwork Orange 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I can see how people would find this book to be neat. It's defintely unique. I didn't enjoy it, though. I am a reader who likes to get swept onto the page and become the protagonist's shadow, and with this book's inventive language I found that impossible. I could never get into a flow because too often (every paragraph for at least the first seven chapters) I had to stop and figure out what the protagonist was trying to say. I nearly put it down for good when I got about halfway through it. I'm glad I pushed on, though, because the last third of the book--the point in which I had finally figured out enough of the protagonist's language to not have to work so hard--was pretty good.

If you like Shakespeare, you'll probably like this book.

Good but have to work to get into 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is very good. It hass undertones as to the situations that are presented in society now even though it was written so long ago. The disregard of youth for the laws that are put in place to protect them and ourselves leads to their inability to function in society and their eventual decomposition to vagrants that put weight on the already weighted prison system. Upon finding a seemingly just punishment and solution the spin doctors find a way not only to persecute the "afflicted" youth but also use it to defeat their own enemies. Very good book however the slang that he was praised for using and developing was very difficult to get into. It actually made me not want to read it at first but getting into it and eventually learning it allowed me to really enjoy the read.

Much Ado about Nothing (Cambridge School Shakespeare)

William Shakespeare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 289 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Much Ado about...Nothing 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

It's as the title implies..nothing this film did nothing for me. None of the actors really seemed to sparkle or stand out (maybe that guy from House but barely). This movie also features Keanu Reeves in one of his worst acting roles since Bram Stoker's Dracula. It seems to me I get Shakespeare's dramas better than I get his comedies.The lines are supposedly witty and funny, funny to who an audience from ol' Willie's century? Maybe, or maybe the performance was too dumbed down to make it either but I digress.
There are some scenes I find totally pointless and dumb. The opening shot of the menfolk returning homes from a battle or something riding thier horses over the hill to some extremely corny triumph music "RIDING HORESES YAH! WOO look how cool we look riding slow-mo on our horses while making constipated faces. And another shot of the men and women getting ready to go greet each other by getting cleaned up, they show [...] shots of both sexes (though I think they linger disturbingly longer on the women) just for the sake of having [...] shots. And be warned the lighting for the mens shot has you seeing a little more than you want to.
Tell me when there's a good Shakespeare adaptation I can rave about Ciao!

Editorial Review:

This new edition of Much Ado About Nothing is part of the established Cambridge School Shakespeare series and has been substantially updated with new and revised activities throughout. Remaining faithful to the series' active approach it treats the play as a script to be acted, explored and enjoyed. As well as the complete script of Much Ado About Nothing, you will find a variety of classroom-tested activities, an eight-page colour section and an enlarged selection of notes including information on characters, performance, history and language.

The Bfg (Big Friendly Giant) (Play)

David Wood

List Price: $14.40 By: Samuel French Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $4.32

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 321 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

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

Great story for a read aloud. Kids love listening to and reading along with the descriptive language.

The BFG 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Roald Dahl is the author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Matilda," and "The Witches" and other children's classics. The BFG is about a girl who lives at an orphanage named Sophie. When Sophie sees a giant, when she shouldn't have, the giant has no other choice but to snatch her. But the giant isn't like the other giants. Good thing or otherwise he might have eaten Sophie after taking her from the orphanage. In the giant's world, things are very different for Sophie. After she learns about the other giants who do eat people, she creates a plan to save the world from them with the BFG's help of course.

Editorial Review:

"Well, first of all, " said the BFG, "human beans is not really believing in giants, is they? Human beans is not thinking we exist."

Sophie discovers that giants not only exist, but that there are a great many of them who like to guzzle and swallomp nice little chiddlers. But not the Big Friendly Giant. He and Sophie cook up an ingenious plot to free the world of troggle-humping -- forever.

Performed by Natasha Richardson

Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare)

William Shakespeare

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Utter Tripe 1 out of 5 stars.
6 of 14 people found this review helpful.

What kind of idiot writes this tripe? This is allegedly a "Play" by some long-dead "Master".

Well, let me tell, you: it's boring and derivative. It's about this Prince who doesn't get his father's throne, and feels all depressed about it for a while, and fights back against his uncle (who took the throne and married the prince's mother), to show everyone that it was actually the uncle who killed his father the king.

Excuse me? Haven't we heard this before?

Yep: Disney's "The Lion King".

This is "The Lion King" dressed up in period clothes. Instead of "Simba", we've got "Hamlet". Instead of "Scar", we've got "Claudius". Instead of "Nala", we've got "Ophelia".

And it's in "Denmark", instead of the African Plains. Denmark? Is that even a real country anymore? Anyways, it's called Europe, now; That's a part of London.

And don't get me started on the language this writer used! It's all like it's from the Bible and stuff. Get rid of that, and use real words: Take a lesson from someone like Stephen King.

Don't waste your time with this; watch "The Lion King", and you'll get it. And while you're at it, there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'm selling.

Editorial Review:

Each edition includes:

• Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

Essay by Michael Neill

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.

Rebecca

Daphne, Dame Du Maurier

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 491 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten—a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.

This special edition of Rebecca includes excerpts from Daphne du Maurier's The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, an essay on the real Manderley, du Maurier's original epilogue to the book, and more.

Confessions (The World's Classics)

Saint Augustine

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Total reviews: 47 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood.
Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context.
The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

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Total reviews: 260 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Wilde sees the world more clearly than any writer of fiction in the last century. It is for that reason that his work is so filled with countless paradoxes and contradictions that challenge the mind and titillate the senses. Wilde lived in an infinitely ironic age, when society had grown so influential as to crowd out the individuals that made it up. Today, we have taken for granted this incongruity and so our writers cannot express the kind of irony that Wilde mastered, despite the fact that we all know that something is amiss.

`The Picture of Dorian Gray' is filled with this irony. The plot shows us the ultimate irony of a man giving up his soul for the beauty of youth--the condition that is exalted in the modern age above all else, intellect, truth, justice, life itself. Interspersed are dialogues and epigrams that persist one hundred years later as some of the finest word handling ever recorded. Even a few samples should compel the potential reader:

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

"A man cannot be too careful in his choice for his enemies."

"The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little bit longer."

"Men marry because they are tired, women marry because they are curious. Both are disappointed."

"I love acting, it is so much more real than life."

- "I am on the side of the Trojans, they fought for a woman."
- "They were defeated."

The mastery of wit that Wilde displays must be seen in its context. He was a decadent as much as the characters he portrays are. Ultimately, the disillusion that the decadent faces comes through in the story and the reader is left with a very uneasy feeling upon completing `Dorian Gray.' Is life as absurd as it seems? Is there a solution? Or are we stuck with a life of paradox? Perhaps our current period of decadence will show us an alternative. Until it does, we can enjoy the astounding word play offered here.

Editorial Review:

Enthralled by an exquisite portrait of himself, Dorian Gray makes a Faustian bargain to exchange his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Thus is he able to indulge his desires while only his picture bears the traces of his decadence and the gradual corruption of his soul.

Wilde's only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray was a succès de scandale. Early readers were shocked by its hints at "unspeakable sins," and the book was later used as evidence against Wilde in the trials for "acts of gross indecency" that would make him the most notorious sexual outlaw of his time. A knowing account of a secret life and an analysis of the darker side of late Victorian society, Wilde's compelling examination of art and morality still fascinates readers more than a hundred years after its first publication. This edition has all new apparatus, but retains Peter Ackroyd's introduction from the previous edition as an appendix.