Literature & Fiction Books

To Kill A Mockingbird Cassette

Harper Lee

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

To Kill a Mockingbird. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

My wife and I listened to the cassette on an auto trip to Oregon to visit with our grandsons. Although we had read the book before, the audio tapes made the miles fly by thanks to Sissy Spacek.

Tightly written with a message for everyone 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Harper Lee was encouraged to write some of her childhood memories. What in the beginning seems like the story of three childhood friends in depression era Macomb, Alabama, turns out to be packed with insights to the makeup of human kind.

This story is intriguing on many levels from the history of the area to the stereotyping of people. Most of all every turn was a surprise as told in the first person from the view of Scout Finch. And instead of telling the story in a six year old vocabulary she uses an exceptionally large repertoire to describe the people and events. This story is not as slow passed as one may guess from first glance as every remark and every action will be needed for a future action.

A major controversial part of the story is the trial of Tom Robinson. Hoverer this is just a catalyst to help Scout understand the nature of people including her father Atticus and you will find that as important as it is it is just a part of the story with other major characters such as Arthur "Boo" Radley.

Even thought it appears that Scout is the recipient of the insights, I believe we the reader is the real recipient.

I can truly say that this book has changed my outlook in life.

Editorial Review:

Harper Lee's classic novel of a lawyer in the deep south defending a black man charged with the rape of a white girl

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has earned many distinctions since its original publication in 1960. It won the Pulitzer Prize, has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, and been made into an enormously popular movie. Most recently, librarians across the country gave the book the highest of honors by voting it the best novel of the twentieth century.

Performed by Sissy Spacek

Pearl (Classics on Cassette)

John Steinbeck

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 498 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Keeping It Sad And Simple 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Walking through middle school corridors, I'd spy kids in the grade above mine carrying John Steinbeck's "The Pearl" and think them lucky. Judging from the cover it was some kind of sea adventure, probably involving sharks and Jacqueline Bisset. This was back in the 1970s, and I was obviously confused.

Flash forward to the present. Feeling nostalgic, I decide to take the book on after years of wondering. It was certainly short, and Steinbeck is a classic writer, so it seemed a good idea.

A terse morality play about the pitfalls of materialism and the depravity of man, "The Pearl" is clearly a think piece rather than a conventional novel focused on characters and storyline. It made me think, too: However bad middle school was, it could have been worse.

Kino is a poor Mexican Indian who lives off the meager pearls he finds swimming for oysters in the Gulf. One day, desperate for a miracle as his infant son squirms from a scorpion bite, he finds the largest pearl anyone has ever seen, large as a gull's egg and jet black. Kino sees a brighter future for himself and his family, but the jealous villagers and the plutocratic pearl buyers conspire to keep him in his place.

"The pearl has become my soul", Kino tells his wife, who begs him to get rid of it before someone gets hurt. "If I give it up I shall lose my soul."

Steinbeck does nothing to make you care about Kino, his soul, or his wife and child, other than relate their poverty. They aren't people with personalities, but constructs designed to trot out points Steinbeck wants to make. Published in 1947, when socialism was fashionable and Steinbeck a recognized purveyor of the worker ideal, "The Pearl" might pass as a message about the folly of wealth and the value of living within one's means. Yet Kino and his family are clearly living below any decent standard. Collectivist comradeship may be the hallmark of socialist society, but the village Kino lives in is full of thieves and cheats.

As the novel moves slowly on to a finale obvious from the midpoint of the book, one wonders what Steinbeck is trying to say. "The Pearl" is not supposed to be just a story, it's so unsatisfying in that department its clear the Bard of Salinas had other fish to fry. But what?

You are left in the end not really knowing. As a classroom exercise, I guess it can provide some lively discussions if the teacher isn't too much of a tool. There's bits of good Steinbeck prose here and there, like his description of a watering hole where cats take their prey and lap water "through their bloody teeth" and the last image of the pearl itself, which captures a sense of otherworldly menace quite unexpected from this otherwise realist story. As an account of cruel nature, it works in a reductivist way.

But I can't see it as a "classic" in the same sense as other Steinbeck novels I've read. It's no "Grapes Of Wrath". Maybe because it's short it makes for a more popular scholastic reading assignment than "Grapes Of Wrath". But "The Pearl" is no easy read, nor is it satisfying.

Editorial Review:

A Mexican pearl-fisher finds a pearl of great value--far more than what he needs to pay the doctor to save his child's life. But the pearl brings only evil and tragedy. 2 cassettes.

Nora Roberts Collection 3: Homeport, The Reef, and River's End (Nova Audio Books)

Nora Roberts

List Price: $19.95 By: Nova Audio Books Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $4.85

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Homeport - read by Erika Leigh, directed by Sandra Burr

Dr. Miranda Jones welcomed the distraction offered by a summons to Italy to verify the authenticity of a Renaissance bronze of a Medici courtesan known as "The Dark Lady." However, instead of cementing Miranda's reputation as a leading authority in her field, the bronze nearly destroys it when her professional judgment is called into question and the bronze is declared a hoax. Desperate to restore her credibility and prove "The Dark Lady" is really a previously unknown work of Michelangelo, Miranda turns to Ryan Boldari, a seductive - and supposedly reformed - art thief.

The Reef - read by Sandra Burr, directed by Bill Weideman

The Reef is the story of Tate Beaumont, a beautiful young student of marine archeology - and of Matthew Lassiter, a sea-scarred young man who shares her dream of finding Anguelique's Curse, the jeweled amulet surrounded by legend and said to be long lost at the bottom of the sea. Forced into a reluctant partnership with Matthew and his uncle, Tate soon learns that her arrogant but attractive fellow diver holds as many secrets as the sea itself.

River's End, read by Sandra Burr, directed by Laural Merlington

Olivia's parents had been one of Hollywood's glittering golden couples . . . until the night the monster came. The monster who destroyed their beautiful home and took her mother away from her forever. The monster with the face of her father . . . Now a young woman, Olivia finds her memory of that night has faded. Her mother's grieving family spared no effort to keep Olivia safe from the publicity, taking her to grow up in the beautiful natural splendor of the Pacific Northwest. But, despite the terror and the years that have passed, a part of her still yearns to recall those horrifying events, to know the truth about her childhood. With the help of a young writer named Noah Brady, she could have the chance.

The Christmas Box Collection: The Christmas Box, Timepiece, the Letter

Richard Paul Evans

List Price: $30.00 By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $8.93

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Whatever the reason, I find that with each passing Christmas the story of the Christmas box is told less and needed more. So I record it now for all future generations to accept or dismiss as seems to them good. As for me, I believe." So begins the sentimental tale of romance and family that Richard Paul Evans went to a copy shop and self-published a few years back. Readers decidedly accepted the saga, spending millions of dollars and clamoring for more, so Evans wrote two more heart-rending episodes, Timepiece and The Letter. (The original's megasuccess sparked a TV movie and inspired a parody, Revenge of the Christmas Box.)

At last, all three are collected in one of the most popular holiday-themed tearjerkers since Dickens. Can David Parkin, a hard-working man, learn from a cache of old love letters that there's more to life than work--such as his relationship with his wife, MaryAnne? What becomes of the Parkins' angelic daughter, Andrea? When a bent and bereft old lady is spotted crouching over a snowy grave, and the night watchman tells her the cemetery is closed, what can it mean that she mysteriously disappears, leaving behind one red rose and a letter? Could it have something to do with calamitous family tragedy, with David's mother and the key to healing his hardened heart?

It sure could. Scrooge-like critics did not swoon over Evans's trilogy, but they are quite outnumbered by fans. Evans made millions of readers feel touched, as if by an angel.

Secret Life of Bees

Sue Monk Kidd

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1451 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, 14-year-old Lily Owen, neglected by her father and isolated on their South Carolina peach farm, spends hours imagining a blissful infancy when she was loved and nurtured by her mother, Deborah, whom she barely remembers. These consoling fantasies are her heart's answer to the family story that as a child, in unclear circumstances, Lily accidentally shot and killed her mother. All Lily has left of Deborah is a strange image of a Black Madonna, with the words "Tiburon, South Carolina" scrawled on the back. The search for a mother, and the need to mother oneself, are crucial elements in this well-written coming-of-age story set in the early 1960s against a background of racial violence and unrest. When Lily's beloved nanny, Rosaleen, manages to insult a group of angry white men on her way to register to vote and has to skip town, Lily takes the opportunity to go with her, fleeing to the only place she can think of--Tiburon, South Carolina--determined to find out more about her dead mother. Although the plot threads are too neatly trimmed, The Secret Life of Bees is a carefully crafted novel with an inspired depiction of character. The legend of the Black Madonna and the brave, kind, peculiar women who perpetuate Lily's story dominate the second half of the book, placing Kidd's debut novel squarely in the honored tradition of the Southern Gothic. --Regina Marler

Nora Roberts Irish Trilogy: Jewels of the Sun, Tears of the Moon, Heart of the Sea (Irish Jewels Trilogy)

Nora Roberts

List Price: $29.95 By: Brilliance Audio Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $2.93

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

damaged goods 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I received this item and was joyfully listening to it when I came to tape two of Heart of the Sea- it is all jumbled up- twisted and totally un fixable- I've tried to contact Amazon about this but all I get is the runaround on their AWFUL "return system" on their website. This is a warning to any others who order from Amazon- check your order CAREFULLY. Now I'm stuck with this defective tape and Amazon WON'T LET ME CONTACT THEM!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't given up yet. There's got to be a way to return defective merchandise without being sent to one dead end after another. Sincerely wmclement@yahoo.com

Editorial Review:

Jewels of the Sun (Jill Sovis, engineer)

Determined to re-evaluate her life, Jude Murray flees America to take refuge in Faerie Hill Cottage, where she immerses herself in the study of Irish Folklore, and discovers hope for the future in the magic of the past.

Tears of the Moon (Melissa Coates, engineer)

A talented songwriter, Shawn Gallagher spends his days lost in reverie and wonder, oblivious to the wiles of women and the ways of the world. He claims that he's content with his life, but his music tells a different story - one of loneliness and desperate longing...

Heart of the Sea (Jill Sovis, engineer)

Darcy Gallagher has always believed in the pull of fate, the magic of legend . . . and the importance of money. She longs to find a rich man who will sweep her away - into a world filled with glamour and adventure, and the exotic life that is her destiny.

The Lion's Game

Nelson DeMille

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 472 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

John Corey and Asad Khalil have both lived hard-knock lives. As revealed in Nelson DeMille's monster bestseller Plum Island, the gruff, wisecracking NYPD homicide cop Corey stopped a hail of bullets--but he couldn't stop his wife from walking out on him. Asad, raised under Muammar Qaddafi's eye after his dad's murder, lost his surviving family in the 1986 bombing of Libya. He's heard the nasty rumors about his mom and the colonel, but he aims his rage at the infidels. The boy's got such a gift for terrorism he's earned the nickname "the Lion," and Boris, his vodka-sozzled, sex-addicted émigré mentor, knows precisely how to conduct a murder tour of America one step ahead of the police, the FBI, the CIA, and the ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force), which combines members of all three. A pity Boris must die, but hey, he's an infidel too.

Asad pretends to defect, handcuffed to agents aboard a 747 bound for JFK, and he proves to be a worse seatmate than a siding salesman. Corey and his ATTF colleagues (most conspicuously the FBI's sexy Kate Mayfield, Corey's match in badinage and bad-guy busting) strive to halt Asad's methodical yet unpredictable bloodbath. Skillfully, DeMille alternates chapters told from Asad's and Corey's points of view. DeMille did his authenticity homework: when we're not savoring his gift for wiseacre dialogue in the Corey-Kate chapters, we're sweating alongside Asad on his ghastly, ingenious jihad.

The New York Times put DeMille's social satire on a par with Edith Wharton's, and he's great on the colliding folkways of the feuding, mutually doublecrossing crimebuster institutions. Naturally, he's on the side of the regular-guy flatfoots. "Cops sit on their asses and flip through their folders," he writes. "Feds sit on their derrieres and peruse their dossiers." And the CIA gets it in the shorts, satirically speaking. One deplores the mass murderers, but the book's real bad guys wear the priciest suits.

DeMille reportedly has a $25 million book contract. With fast, funny, absorbing thrillers like The Lion's Game, he's earned it. --Tim Appelo

Captive Secrets

Fern Michaels

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

What a great book! You will love it. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Captive Secrets is so wonderful, have read all these Captive series books & they are just great. Highly recommend the series. You will love them all.

Dull 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Implausible story involving hawks that can steer ships and wipe tears from the heroine's face. Love story wasn't believable or interesting.

Editorial Review:

"This bestselling author is as polished as they come."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fury van der Rhys is the daughter of Sirena, the beautiful Sea Siren, who rode the high seas as commander of a frigate, plundering the ships of the Dutch East India Company. Brandishing her mother's sword, Fury sets sail for the coast of Africa to challenge Amalie, the gorgeous black-hearted pretender to her mother's legacy, and to fight for the tall, dark-eyed Spaniard they both love and have sworn to have....

The Crucible

Arthur H. Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A classic of the American Theatre - Arthur Miller's tense, ingeniously multi-layered drama of principle and paranoia.

The place is Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, an enclave of rigid piety huddled on the edge of a wilderness. Its inhabitants believe unquestioningly in their own sanctity. But in Arthur Miller's edgy masterpiece, that very belief will have poisonous consequences when a vengeful teenager accuses a rival of witchcraft and then when those accusations multiply to consume the entire village.

First produced in 1953, at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witch hunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving, but that compels listeners to gather their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theater ever can.

A full-cast performance by The Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center featuring Robert Foxworth, Pamela Payton-Wright, Stuart Pankin, and Jerome Dempsey and cast.

 

Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. His first theatrical success occurred in 1947 with All My Sons, which earned him the Drama Critic's Circle Award. In 1949, Death of a Salesman was given the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critic's Circle Award. The Crucible won a Tony Award four years later. His other plays included A View from the Bridge, The Price, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, The American Clock, Danger Memory, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, and Broken Glass.

The Lord of the Rings: Trilogy Gift Set

J.R.R. Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien

List Price: $89.99 By: Recorded Books Unabridged Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $35.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 61 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Lord of the Rings for car trips? 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

It's hard to add more than other reviewers have done. Most of the comments are right-on, but I think it's nice for a potential buyer to hear a lot of people voicing their opinions. This is a long set but perfect for a devoted fan. I love listening to it while doing other things or in the car on the way to work, probably also for an airplane. Rob Inglis did a great job, and while a few of the female voices are a bit odd, you soon forget about such things when you get wrapped up in the story.

He adds the right emphasis to the right parts and I think his voice is well-suited to this work. For hardcore LotR fans, it's hard to find something that meets our high expectations as this is a simply amazing work of art that will last for years - it's hard to find a voice that meets every (somewhat unreal, I think) expectation. But Rob Inglis comes extremely close.

Books are great... 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I have all the parts (Fellowship of the ring, Return of the King & The Two Towers). I have loved the audiobooks.

I only have 1 problem with the audiobooks and that is when I converted the discs so I could listen to them on my ipod, the names of each track varied.

On some it ists the name of teh chapter and followed by a number(part of the chapter, others it names the book and the track number without the chapter title name, and on others it says the track number...

They should have been consistent with the track names.