Authors Books - Page 11

Homage to Catalonia (Classic, 20th-Century, Audio)

George Orwell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 93 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Homage, Take 2: what about Aragon? 4 out of 5 stars.
32 of 33 people found this review helpful.

After re-reading Catalonia, some 20 years after my first encounter, I am disappointed. I do not think that this is Orwell's best work. It has many of his strengths, mainly the elegant, efficient and straightforward prose that he developed so impressively, but there are some flaws. Main flaw in my view is the fact that the main political theme has become dead and irrelevant. Stalin died some decades ago, the Soviet Empire collapsed, we don't need to dig in the little details of their abominable strategies any longer. Of course we can't blame Orwell for the fact that his concerns are not ours any more. But it shows that the book was not timeless in the sense of surviving its immediate subject, as his other non-fiction did.
Second main weakness of the book: the narration of the Barcelona street fighting and the attempts at understanding them are rather boring.
On the strong side: the tales from the Aragon front are much more interesting. Orwell saw less fighting than he was keen to experience, but he describes the trench routine with the same livelyness that he brought to Wigan coalmines and Paris restaurants previously.
He did see enough fighting to get dangerously injured. People said to him that few men survive a shot through the neck, so he was lucky. He thinks he would have been luckier if he had not been shot at all.
Orwell published the book a few months after his adventure, and before the Spanish Civil War was over. Surprisingly the book was a commercial failure then, and equally surprisingly it has later been named as one of the best non-fiction books of the century.
Why was it ignored in the early time? Possibly because he told the world things that the world didn't want to know. He busted the myth that there was a confrontation of the good and the bad in Spain, that democracy fought fashism. Orwell shows us that there were at least 3 camps, not 2. The most vicious fighting that he experienced was among the 'good guys'. The government side was influenced strongly by the communist party who had secured the support from Russia. Since no other country provided weapons to the government side, that secured a lot of mileage.
Orwell was a hopeless romantic, who loved the feeling of working class rule that he got when he first arrived in Barcelona. That must be the reason for the otherwise incomprehensible book title. That basically socialist attitude must also have put quite a few potential readers off at the time of publication.
Orwell later saw the few months in Spain as his political training period. It put him off communism and Stalin for good, but confirmed his socialist attitude, which however never found a political home in a party, though he did support Labor in his remaining years, from the outside.

Editorial Review:

In 1936, Geroge Orwell went to Spain to report on the Civil War and instead joined the P.O.U.M. militia to fight against the Fascists. In this now famous account, he describes both the bleak and the comic aspects of trench warfare.

'Tis: A Memoir

Frank McCourt

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Total reviews: 590 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Frank McCourt's glorious childhood memoir, Angela's Ashes, has been loved and celebrated by readers everywhere for its spirit, its wit and its profound humanity. A tale of redemption, in which storytelling itself is the source of salvation, it won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Rarely has a book so swiftly found its place on the literary landscape.

And now we have 'Tis, the story of Frank's American journey from impoverished immigrant to brilliant teacher and raconteur. Frank lands in New York at age nineteen, in the company of a priest he meets on the boat. He gets a job at the Biltmore Hotel, where he immediately encounters the vivid hierarchies of this "classless country," and then is drafted into the army and is sent to Germany to train dogs and type reports. It is Frank's incomparable voice -- his uncanny humor and his astonishing ear for dialogue -- that renders these experiences spellbinding.

When Frank returns to America in 1953, he works on the docks, always resisting what everyone tells him, that men and women who have dreamed and toiled for years to get to America should "stick to their own kind" once they arrive. Somehow, Frank knows that he should be getting an education, and though he left school at fourteen, he talks his way into New York University. There, he falls in love with the quintessential Yankee, long-legged and blonde, and tries to live his dream. But it is not until he starts to teach -- and to write -- that Frank finds his place in the world. The same vulnerable but invincible spirit that captured the hearts of readers in Angela's Ashes comes of age.

As Malcolm Jones said in his Newsweek review of Angela's Ashes, "It is only the best storyteller who can so beguile his readers that he leaves them wanting more when he is done...and McCourt proves himself one of the very best." Frank McCourt's 'Tis is one of the most eagerly awaited books of our time, and it is a masterpiece.

Truth & Beauty CD: A Friendship

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 126 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The author of Bel Canto -- winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize and long-running New York Times bestseller -- turns to nonfiction in a moving chronicle of her decades-long friendship with the critically acclaimed and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy.

What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when that person is not your lover, but your best friend? In her frank and startlingly intimate first work of nonfiction, Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett shines light on the little-explored world of women's friendships and shows us what it means to stand together.

Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and after enrolling in the Iowa Writer's Workshop began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In her critically acclaimed memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy wrote about the first half of her life. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life but the parts of their lives they shared together. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans 20 years, from the long cold winters of the Midwest to surgical wards to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined.

This is a tender, brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.

This Boy's Life: A Memoir

Tobias Wolff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

absorbing and painful with moments of comic relief 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'm about 2/3rds through this, and I find it entirely absorbing. Wolff's writing talent is not in using fancy words or complex forms...just one sentence after another of perfectly pitched prose that feels entirely true and believable. He gains the reader's trust and empathy early on and never loses them, even though, in my case, I wasn't much interested in the details of his somewhat sordid and pathetic early years. I keep asking myself this holds my attention, while most memoirs by people I have a lot more in common with don't. (Not to sound like a snob, but guns, dogs, smoking, drinking, etc. have never been my thing.) I think the reason is that his writing seems entirely transparent, plus you care about him. postscript: I've finished it now and towards the end I was increasingly pained by how f**ked up a person Wolff is--or was. It's troubling and yet the writing is still transparent. You might say he gives us a God's eye view: if there is a force that knows everything and can look at all our failings, faults and mistakes with simultaneous compassion and dispassion, then I think such a Being would write up Wolff's early life in the way he himself wrote it. You get a feeling that there is no self-judging or constrictions and nothing to hide: just the truth, the all too human truth.

Editorial Review:

In this unforgettable memoir of boyhood in the 1950s, we meet the young Toby Wolff, by turns tough and vulnerable, crafty and bumbling, and ultimately winning. Separated by divorce from his father and brother, Toby and his mother are constantly on the move. Between themselves they develop an almost telepathic trust that sees them through their wanderings from Florida to a small town in Washington State. Fighting for identity and self-respect against the unrelenting hostility of a new stepfather, Toby's growing up is at once poignant and comical. His various schemes--running away to Alaska, forging cheeks, and stealing cars--lead eventually to an act of outrageous self-invention that releases him into a new world of possibility.

The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story

Julia Reed

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Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Julia Reed went to New Orleans in 1991 to cover the reelection of former (and currently incarcerated) governor Edwin Edwards. Seduced by the city's sauntering pace, its rich flavors and exotic atmosphere, she was never entirely able to leave again. After almost fifteen years of living like a vagabond on her reporter's schedule, she got married and bought a house in the historic Garden District. Four weeks after she moved in, Hurricane Katrina struck.

With her house as the center of her own personal storm as well as the ever-evolving stage set for her new life as an upstanding citizen, Reed traces the fates of all who enter to wine, dine (at her table for twenty-four), tear down walls, install fixtures, throw fits and generally leave their mark on the house on First Street. There's Antoine, Reed's beloved homeless handyman with an unfortunate habit of landing in jail; JoAnn Clevenger, the Auntie Mame—like restaurateur who got her start mixing drinks for Dizzy Gillespie and selling flowers from a cart; Eddie, the supremely laid-back contractor with Hollywood ambitions; and, with the arrival of Katrina, the boys from the Oklahoma National Guard, fleets of door-kicking animal rescuers and the self-appointed (and occasionally naked) neighborhood watchman. Finally, there's the literally clueless detective who investigates the robbery in which the first draft of this book was stolen. Through it all, Reed discovers there really is no place like home.

Rich with sumptuous details and with the author's trademark humor well in the fore, The House on First Street is the chronicle of a remarkable and often hilarious homecoming, as well as a thoroughly original tribute to our country's most original city.

The Vorkosigan Companion

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Everything You Wanted to Know 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 14 people found this review helpful.

The Vorkosigan Companion (2008) is a guide to the Vorkosiverse. It includes a preface, seventeen articles divided into five Parts and three appendices. This work provides almost more than a reader would want to know about Miles Vorkosigan, his relatives, his friends, his world, his fans and his author.

Preface by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Part One: Creator of the Vorkosiverse

- Putting It Together: Life, the Vorkosiverse, and Everything by Lois McMaster Bujold.

- A Conversation with Lois McMaster Bujold by Lillian Stewart Carl.

- Publishing, Writing, and Authoring: Three Different Things by Lois McMaster Bujold.

- A Conversation with Toni Weisskopf by John Helpers.

Part Two: Aspects of the Vorkosiverse

- Romance in the Vorkosiverse by Mary Jo Putney.

- Biology in the Vorkosiverse and Today by Tora K. Smulders-Srinivasan.

- "What's the Worst Thing I Can Do to This Character": Technology in the Vorkosiverse by Ed Burkhead.

Part Three: Appreciations

- Through Darkest Adolescence with Lois McMaster Bujold, or Thank You, But I Already Have a Life by Lillian Stewart Carl.

- Foreword to Falling Free by James A. McMaster.

- Foreword to Shards of Honor by James Bryant.

- More Than the Sum of His Parts: Foreword to The Warrior Apprentice by Douglas Muir.

- Foreword to Ethan of Athos by Marna Nightingale.

Part Four: The Fans

- Come for the Bujold, Stay For the Beer: Science Fiction Writers as Occasions of Fandom by Marna Nightingale.

Part Five: The Vorkosiverse Itself

- A Pronunciation Guide to the Vorkosigan Saga by Suford Lewis.

- An Old Earther's Guide to the Vorkosigan Universe by Denise Little.

- The Vorkosigan Saga Novel Summaries by John Helfers.

- The Vorkosigan Saga Concordance by Kerrie Hughes, John Helpers, and Ed Burkhead.

Appendices

- A Map of the Vorkosigan Universe.

- Timelines of the Vorkosigan Saga.

- A Brief Guide to Barrayaran Genealogy.

Naturally, this compendium is not the last word on Miles Vorkosigan. Not only will he have new readers, but we can reasonably hope that there will be more stories about him. Enjoy!

Highly recommended for Vorkosigan fans and for anyone else who enjoys knowing more about a favorite author and character.

-Arthur W. Jordin

Editorial Review:

Lois McMaster Bujold’s best-selling Vorkosigan series is a publishing phenomenon, winning record-breaking sales, critical praise, four Hugo Awards and a Nebula award. And the thousands of devotees of the series now have a book that will be a goldmine of information, background details, and little-known facts about the Vorkosigan saga. Included are an all-new interview with Bujold as well as essays by her on crafting the Vorkosigan universe, articles on the biology, technology and sociology of the planet Barrayar, appreciations of the individual novels by experts, maps, a complete timeline of the series, and more. Readers can’t get enough of the Vorkosigan series and they’ll jump at the chance to read this story behind the stories. Baen has a new novel in the Vorkosigan series under contract.  

Roughing It (Enriched Classic Series)

Mark Twain

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Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Though known throughout the world for his fictional novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain was also a skilled chronicler of his own life and experiences. In his youth, Twain traveled extensively throughout the untamed American West with his brother, working his way from town to town in a variety of jobs, including gold prospector, reporter, and lecturer. Roughing It is Twain's personal recollection of his wanderlust years. It is a wildly humorous adventure yarn that combines hard facts with a healthy dose of the author's unique perspective, one that helped define the course of American literature.

Pocket Books' Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enriched for the contemporary reader. This edition of Roughing It has been prepared by Professor Henry B. Wonham of the University of Oregon. It includes his introduction, notes, selection of critical excerpts, and suggestions for further reading as well as a unique visual essay of period illustrations and photographs.

Black Boy (P.S.)

Richard Wright

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 156 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

incredible intelligence that can't be stopped. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The best autobiography EVER, in fact I am not even sure it should be called autobiography because it is much more than that for many reasons. Autobiographies are often flat and either self pitying or glorifying, but this one is completely at another level. I was so impressed by the brilliant mind that shines through all obsacles, and his writing is just so natural, logical and insightful, not just about his personal life experiences, but about human suffering, senseless oppression, and unyiedling human spirit. Wow!

Editorial Review:

Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi, with poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot.

Black Boy is Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment—a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.

Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota

Chuck Klosterman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

From a grown-up, then anti-metal, punker 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

While I think that this book is deservedly the black sheep of the Klosterman books, its still enjoyable. What this book lacks is any sense of flow... I never caught a real story or any purpose. It just seemed like a series of rants on liking metal (pop/ hair metal in particular) that were taped and then transcribed. Klosterman still has that really approachable style that's fun and thoguhtful.

While I'd like to laugh at him for liking crappy bands, Klosterman's experiences are similar to most any youth who feels a strong connection to music. I know that they're not unlike my feelings as a young teen becoming obsessed with hardcore records back then... though I had one up on Chuck 'cos I was living in Philly, and not rural North Dakota, back in the day.

Typical Klosterman; funny, absurd, and thoughtful... I suppose a lot of other readers are turned away by what they see as a lack of direction or movement in the book.

Editorial Review:

Empirically proving that -- no matter where you are -- kids wanna rock, this is Chuck Klosterman's hilrious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakotoa (population: 498). With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil. The fifth-grade Chuck wasn't quite ready to rock -- his hair was too short and his farm was too quiet -- but he still found a way to bang his nappy little head. Before the journey was over, he would slow-dance to Poison, sleep innocently beneath satanic pentagrams, lust for Lita Ford, and get ridiculously intellectual about Guns N' Roses. C'mon and feel his noize.

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her ... Living

Julie Powell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 195 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Hilariously yummy! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Oh. My. God. This was easily one of THE best books I have ever read! Who knew that hidden among the writings on food books was a gem of this caliber and magnificence.

Julie Powell was like many failed actresses who had moved to New York before her...stuck in a dead end job. She was unhappy in her secretarial work for some government agency as are many people who labor at such menial occupations.

On the cusp of her 30th birthday, Julie recognized the trivial existence she had been inhabiting and determined that she needed some purpose in life. She was beckoned to what would be become her Bible for the next year...Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Julie resolved to cook her way through this intimidating collection of recipes within one year. Not only did she take on this daunting task, she decided to blog about her experience, which resulted in a group of followers, several interviews, and an eventual book deal.

What follows the introduction into the premise is 300 astonishing pages of anger, pain, laughter, frustration, adoration, and...butter. Julie deliciously (and sometimes disgustingly) describes, in detail, her journey into the foray of French cooking. We are thrilled with her when she accomplishes tasks such as bone marrow scraping and crepe flipping. We are aggravated alongside her through the poaching of eggs and the ever elusive task of mayonnaise making. We are enraptured with tart-a-palooza and squirm our way through aspics. We are even with her when she attempts culinary seduction by way of pecan spice cake with pecan icing.

Not only is there are relationship built with Julie but through her, and the apartments in her brain pan, we come to know Julia Child as a culinary genius and one Hell of a woman. I was even saddened when in the final pages of the book I learned that Julia Child died on the eve of her 92nd birthday.

This book is not strictly about food, though that is the central theme, but is also about people. We get to know Sally and are somewhat creeped out by the David's, we worry over Isabel's life altering choices, and enjoy Gwen's sexy IM romance. We are thankful for husband's as supportive and composed as Eric and wish Julie's mother would just calm down. What is there to say about Heathcliff other than...that's Heathcliff.

What can I say to express the sheer pleasure and delight that filled me with each turn of the page? I laughed, I cried, and I toiled. This book is inspirational to say the least. I was ravenous through the majority of its duration and my cravings would change as we grew deeper into the cookbook, beginning with potato soup and ending with a stuffed, pastry-wrapped duck. I found myself overflowing with the hunger to cook. I kept walking to my kitchen bookshelf to find and flip through my copy of Julia Child's The Way to Cook. Not only have I found myself wanting to create culinary masterpieces, I also was inspired to write. Julie Powell's voice is blunt, brutal, and honest. She has no qualms about using the word f*** whenever she sees fit, and sometimes even if it doesn't fit. She does not sugar coat her life to make it seem more desirable. She offers the reader nothing other than her self and her life. Take her as she as or do not take her at all...and balls to you if you don't like her!

All in all, this was quite a delectable read. I recommend it to anyone who wants a good laugh and or if you simply want an uplifting, yet down and dirty read. I cannot wait to see what Julie comes out with next. Bon Appetite!!!

Editorial Review:

With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul.

Simultaneous Publication with Little Brown's Standard Print edition.