Literature & Fiction Books

The Art of Racing in the Rain LP

Garth Stein

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

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Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.

Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.

On the eve of his death, Enzo takes stock of his life, recalling all that he and his family have been through: the sacrifices Denny has made to succeed professionally; the unexpected loss of Eve, Denny's wife; the three-year battle over their daughter, Zoë, whose maternal grandparents pulled every string to gain custody. In the end, despite what he sees as his own limitations, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family, holding in his heart the dream that Denny will become a racing champion with Zoë at his side. Having learned what it takes to be a compassionate and successful person, the wise canine can barely wait until his next lifetime, when he is sure he will return as a man.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life . . . as only a dog could tell it.

Bulfinch's Mythology - Deluxe Edition

Thomas Bulfinch

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Wonderful Classic on the Classics 5 out of 5 stars.
38 of 39 people found this review helpful.

Myths represent everything that's magical and unlikely - and yet we cannot but admire their underlying wisdom. Ever since they sprung up, man has delighted in analyzing, telling and retelling these stories, which we now see as an inextricable part of our civilization. However, and maybe because it so-well mirrors our own nature, mythology is as self-contradictory as it is timeless. Not surprisingly, those contradictions have turned the subject into another academic battleground. This could be the reason why Bullfinch's version of the myths stills stands out a century and a half after it was written: amidst a sea of dry scholarly works, it is easily the most charming and inviting compendium of mythology available.

Thomas Bulfinch, an art-loving bank clerk, had a very clear purpose when he started to write his books: he simply set out to supply the general reader with an approachable, enticing account of those ancient fables that were so often quoted or alluded to in literature. This approach ended up being very convenient. On the one hand, it gave him the freedom to purge whatever he thought to be in disagreement with "good taste", since he claimed such things were alien to "elegant literature". On the other hand, he could trim his sources down to Ovid and Virgil, who were the ones most English writers read in the first place. Because of such limitations, it may seem easy to dismiss his work as biased, quaint and incomplete; yet, time has turned what once was a book on the classics into a classic itself. Nowadays, when we read Bulfinch, we get not only a look into ancient mythology, but a delightful glimpse of 19th Century writing and mentality, too. Furthermore, Bullfinch's narrowness in approach is more than compensated by the resulting self-consistency, lacking in most similar works.

Those who fear Bulfinch might have deprived the myths of their piquancy shouldn't worry. Zeus still makes Don Juan look like a eunuch; Oedipus's story keeps all its shocking elements of incest and patricide; Queen Guenever isn't any less obvious in her feelings towards Sir Launcelot; and, on the whole, more blood is spilled than on the goriest Clive Barker novel. Though things like how the Minotaur was conceived are left in the dark, such omissions are the exception rather than the rule. Just like Galland's translation of The Thousand And One Nights hasn't lost its place as arguably the most enjoyable version of them all (even after a thousand-and-one more "faithful" translations have been published), Bulfinch's quirks aren't enough to spoil what's obviously a wonderful work. Of course, like most Victorians, he can be very pompous at times ("...and struck him a fiercely-wounding, severely-venomous, and sternly-smiting blow upon the crown of his head, so that he clove him in twain..."), but his approach is hardly at odds with the material. Overall, what one finds in Bulfinch is a source of endless, childlike wonder.

The volume is divided in three parts: The Age of Fable; The Age of Chivalry; and Legends of Charlemagne. The first one deals with Greek and Roman mythology, although it also contains a short section on the Norse gods and a dab of Easter Mythology; the second retells the stories of King Arthur, the Round Table, and the Mabinogeon; the third one goes over the romances of the Middle Ages. To illustrate the strong connection between myth and English poetry, Bulfinch has spread snippets from poems by authors such as Milton and Spenser, and specially contemporaries Byron, Shelley, and Longfellow (to whom the volume is dedicated)throughout the book.

As regards this particular edition, it just might be the most beautiful one yet. Not only is it leather-bound, with gilt-edged pages and a golden ribbon marker, but it also includes numerous maps, charts and illustrations. I was particularly taken aback by the quality of the latter, since publishers usually have the most uncanny ability to choose for each and every occasion the worst drawings available. Here, on the contrary, every one is a treasure. The Index was expanded into a classical and mythological dictionary, in an attempt to turn Bulfinch's work into better reference material - a goal it certainly achieves. Some sections were also added to "add to the rounded completeness of the work", as well as a few verse extracts that came after Bulfinch's time, which blend in seamlessly with the rest. You can rest assured that, if you are looking for a durable, good-looking complete edition of this classic, Gramercy's is the best you will find, especially if you consider its affordable price. (Modern Library's paperback is probably best if you want a copy to carry around, though.)

It goes without saying that many wonderful books have been written on mythology, some of which in many respects tower over Bulfinch's. Nevetheless, there is something that still makes his stand out. Hamilton may be more careful about her sources and analytical in her approach; Graves may be incomparable in his deeply personal, creative interpretation (and "embellishment") of the myths; but Bulfinch is the only one that endeavors to make his love for mythology infectious and the old fables endlessly amusing - and succeeds.

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

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Total reviews: 1259 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

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Like the one-time bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Alchemist presents a simple fable, based on simple truths and places it in a highly unique situation. And though we may sniff a bestselling formula, it is certainly not a new one: even the ancient tribal storytellers knew that this is the most successful method of entertaining an audience while slipping in a lesson or two. Brazilian storyteller Paulo Coehlo introduces Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who one night dreams of a distant treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. And so he's off: leaving Spain to literally follow his dream.

Along the way he meets many spiritual messengers, who come in unassuming forms such as a camel driver and a well-read Englishman. In one of the Englishman's books, Santiago first learns about the alchemists--men who believed that if a metal were heated for many years, it would free itself of all its individual properties, and what was left would be the "Soul of the World." Of course he does eventually meet an alchemist, and the ensuing student-teacher relationship clarifies much of the boy's misguided agenda, while also emboldening him to stay true to his dreams. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself," the alchemist replies. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." --Gail Hudson

The Mercedes Coffin LP: A Decker and Lazarus Book

Faye Kellerman

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Billionaire genius Genoa Greeves never got over the shocking death of her favorite teacher, Bennett "Dr. Ben" Alston Little, murdered execution-style and stuffed into the trunk of his Mercedes-Benz. No arrests were ever made, no killer charged for the brutal crime. Fifteen years later, the high-tech CEO reads about another execution-style murder; this time the victim is a Hollywood music producer named Primo Ekerling. There is no obvious connection, but the case is eerily similar to Little's and Genoa feels the time is right to close Dr. Ben's case once and for all—offering the L.A.P.D. a substantial financial "incentive" if justice is finally served for Little.

Lieutenant Peter Decker resents having to commit valuable manpower to a fifteen-year-old open case simply because a rich woman says "Jump!" Still, the recent murder of Primo Ekerling does bear a disturbing resemblance to Little's case, even though two thug suspects are currently behind bars for the Ekerling murder. Decker can't help but wonder about a connection. His first phone calls are to the two primary investigators in the Little case, retired detectives Calvin Vitton and Arnie Lamar. Lamar is cooperative, but Vitton is not only reluctant to talk, he winds up dead of a suspicious suicide twelve hours later. Plunging into this long-buried murder, Decker discovers that even though the two slayings are separated by a decade and a half, there is still plenty of greed, lust, and evil to connect the dots.

Decker's team of top investigators not only includes his favorite homicide detectives, Scott Oliver and Marge Dunn, but also his newly minted Hollywood detective daughter, Cindy Kutiel, whose help proves to be invaluable. His wife, Rina Lazarus, continues to be his backbone of support, offering a cool, rational outlook despite her growing concern for her husband's welfare and safety. Rina's worries and fears begin to build at a fevered pitch as past and present collide with a vengeance, catapulting an unsuspecting Peter Decker closer and closer to the edge of an infinite dark abyss.

A relentlessly gripping tale spun by a master, Faye Kellerman's The Mercedes Coffin races through a dangerous urban world of fleeting fame and false dreams, making heart-pumping hairpin turns at each step of a terrifying journey, where truth and justice are fine lines between life and death.

Suite Francaise (Large Print Press)

Irene Nemirovsky

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Two Unfinished Facets of a Gorgeous Diamond in the Rough Set in World War II Tragedy 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

Suite Française contains two unfinished sections, Storm in June and Dolce, of a planned five-part work about the invasion and occupation of France in World War II. The appendices contain the author's notes for what the other three sections would contain, her correspondence and correspondence about her (especially after she was sent to Auschwitz where she died), and preface to the French edition that outlines her personal history.

This work only recently came to light after Ms. Nemirovsky's surviving daughter, Denise Epstein, began typing out her mother's long-ignored notebook for a memory project.

As you read this work, you'll be responding at two levels: To the monumental tale of a nation unexpectedly brought to its knees and beholden and exposed to its conquerors . . . and to the real human tragedy of a family that would lose both parents while the two daughters survived by being hidden by their governess and those who opposed the Nazis.

Ms. Nemirovsky was a keen observer of the French. All of their quirks from the 1940s are present here, often lampooned into very funny extremes.

Those quirks are first beautifully displayed as a large number of characters are followed while they flee Paris at the last minute before the Germans arrive to evade what they fear will happen to those who stay. With the roads clogged and resources running out, each must cope in her or his own way to find food, lodging, and a safe haven. Not everyone succeeds. In those moments where the realities of the uncivilized aspects of human nature are exposed, you'll feel a chilling presage of the author's ultimate fate.

New dimensions of the quirks are exposed by putting the characters into close contact with German soldiers who are billeted in their homes. Some can make a great show of having no contact, while someone must interact with the Germans to gain benefits that everyone needs. Can you treat an enemy soldier as a person without compromising your own morality, your relationship with your family, and your own integrity? Those are all nice questions that the book raises in Dolce, which covers the period after the invasion through to the beginning of the Russian campaign.

A great strength of these materials can be found in the intense character development. You'll feel like you've always known these people. Even the superficial ones will capture your interest: What selfish, ridiculous actions will they take next?

Even more significantly, the book challenges our notions that groups of people are an entity. Their differences under a label (such as "French" or "German") are much wider than the differences in the labels. You also get a strong message of how dangerous it is for humanity to accept labels rather than considering each person as an individual, as God does.

Rarely have I read any fiction that's so funny, profound, and so enlightening at the same time . . . in the context of great tragedy. You'll find the range of your emotional experiences to be stretched in helpful new ways by this remarkable work.

Writers will take special joy from the book as they gain insights into the working methods of a major novelist.

Bravo!

Knights of the Round Table (A Stepping Stone Book)

Gwen Gross

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Awful writing, terrible grammar, bad for children 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

In addition to the ham-handed telling of the story, the writing in these Bullseye books is just terrible. Half-sentences. Written like this. Or this. Part of the value of such books is that young readers will learn to read "chapter books." But the English and grammar in these books is so abysmal as to render them useless for this task. I was very disappointed.

Textbook example of how NOT to write sentences 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

It is hard to believe a book this poorly written could make past the editors! There were so many run-on and incomplete sentences I had trouble reading it to my daughter. I can only imagine what my second grade daughter went through reading on her own. We will keep this book if only to serve as an example of how NOT to construct sentences. There is a year's worth of grammar exercises in this book.

Editorial Review:

imagine a mythic kingdom in England of wizards and witches, fire-breathing dragons, and dreadful giants. Who can rule this magical land? Who can overcome the powers of evil? It is the destiny of King Arthur and his noble knights, who protect and serve the people of Camelot. A perfect introduction to the Arthurian legends.

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Scott O'Dell

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Still a true classic 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This classic was voted one of the top 10 American children's books of the last 200 years by the Children's Literature Association. Although modern readers may find it a little dated in some ways and the pacing a little slow, it's still an absorbing and beautiful story about how a resourceful Indian girl survives alone on an island off the California coast for 18 years.

The story is a lot like Robinson Crusoe only told from the girl's point of view, but that's okay. (Coincidently Crusoe was rescued after 17 years on his island, if I remember correctly).

The book is still worth reading today by young readers and O'Dell does a great job of telling this resourceful young woman's story. The story was inspired by true events, when the girl's people were evacuated from the island of Ghalas-At and she jumped ship to stay behind with her abandoned brother (who tragically dies shortly thereafter, leaving, Karana, the girl, all alone).

Overall, still a great classic and worth your child's time and effort.

Editorial Review:

This is the story of Karana, the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Year after year, she watched one season pass into another and waited for a ship to take her away.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

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Total reviews: 1754 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

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"When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.... When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out."

Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Though her story explores big themes, Harper Lee chooses to tell it through the eyes of a child. The result is a tough and tender novel of race, class, justice, and the pain of growing up.

Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. She, her brother, and Dill Harris, a boy who spends the summers with his aunt in Maycomb, while away the hours reenacting scenes from Dracula and plotting ways to get a peek at the town bogeyman, Boo Radley. At first the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape of Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a drunk and violent white farmer, barely penetrate the children's consciousness. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them." By turns funny, wise, and heartbreaking, To Kill a Mockingbird is one classic that continues to speak to new generations, and deserves to be reread often. --Alix Wilber

Rules of Deception (Random House Large Print (Cloth/Paper))

Christopher Reich

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Lee Child on Rules of Deception
Lee Child has crafted one of literature's most popular anti-heroes in the form of Jack Reacher, the iconic ex-military policeman of his bestselling novels. The author of Nothing to Lose talks about what makes a good thriller -- and why Christopher Reich is a novelist worthy of a gold medal.

I discovered Christopher Reich exactly ten years ago. His first book came out around the same time my second book was published. The modest prosperity that one's first book deal brings allowed me to pick up hardcovers that caught my eye. And Numbered Account caught my eye. And it lived up to its promise. It was fast, fresh, glossy, and very exciting. I thought: Reich is a keeper.

And then he got better. It was always clear that he had talent to burn, but he chose to accompany it with a real work ethic. His second, third and fourth books built and built until the release of the next one was an event to be anticipated. (And right there is my only complaint: Reich doesn't write fast enough.)

His fifth book - The Patriot's Club - was a real achievement. It was a slam-dunk winner of the International Thriller Writer's first annual Best Novel award. Awards are often awkward. There's usually a measure of grumbling, because often people don't agree with the choice of winner. But not a word was heard against "The Patriot's Club." In fact nothing was heard, because the applause was too loud.

So I was really looking forward to Rules of Deception. I got an advance copy. I cracked it open. I started reading. Mostly I read like any other reader, but a small part of me reads like a writer. I think all writers experience the same thing. We sense things between the lines, especially energy and inspiration.

And ambition.

Rules of Deception starts with a short prologue, and then the first chapter introduces Jonathan Ransom, the main character. Two pages, and then nine pages. The prologue is a teaser. It baits the hook. It's a two-page masterpiece. It's intriguing, and then it's really intriguing. It promises big things ahead. Then chapter one introduces the guy who's going to have to deal with them. And why, indirectly.

Eleven pages. The reader in me wanted to race ahead. But the writer in me had to pause a moment. Because between the lines I was sensing something. Maybe because it's an Olympic year I can only explain it like this: picture the high jump event. Six competitors are still in. Then five, then four. Then three. Then the gold, the silver, and the bronze are settled. But the rules of track and field allow the winner to go on. The bar is raised. A personal best. The Olympic record. The bar is raised again. World record height. The stadium goes quiet. The jumper stills himself on the runway. Intense concentration. The gold medal is already in the bag. Uncharted territory. The jumper rocks from foot to foot, his mind on nothing except jumping higher than he has ever jumped before.

That's exactly the between-the-lines feeling I was getting from Reich, eleven pages into Rules of Deception - a world-class writer preparing to accomplish something truly noteworthy.

There are a further 377 pages. They live up to the promise.

--Lee Child

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Christopher Reich on Thrillers
Name your five favorite books.

For me they're all thrillers. The Day of the Jackal, Eye of the Needle, The Bourne Identity , Noble House, and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. My life stopped when I picked up each of those books and it didn't start again until I finished the last page. I didn't actually read them so much as disappear between their covers. That was me trying to catch the Jackal before he assassinated Charles De Gaulle, and me again at the wheel of a Jaguar XKE convertible racing down the Peak in Hong Kong. The fact is that for me life is somehow better when I'm reading a great book. Richer, more exciting…heck, I don't know, just better.

About two years ago, I decided that it was my turn to write the thriller I'd always wanted to read. I knew exactly where to start. All I had to do was "write what I know." These days, I know a lot about the intelligence community. Not the stuff you read about in the papers -- the stuff you never read about. Over the years, I've made a lot of friends in Washington and overseas. Diplomats, spies, soldiers, politicians - men and women at the highest levels of government. And, I can assure you that what they've taught me about how the world really works is a lot more interesting and a lot more frightening than you'd ever imagine.

That's where my newest book, Rules of Deception, comes in. It's a story about an honest and courageous doctor named Jonathan Ransom. He's a surgeon who works for Doctors Without Borders in some of the toughest parts of the world. He's a happily married man with a big heart and a beautiful English wife he deeply loves named Emma who works with him. What Jonathan doesn't know is that nothing about his life is what it seems. In fact, it's all a web of lies and he's caught in the middle of something extraordinarily dangerous.

I can't say more than that, and I shouldn't have to, because if I've done my job right, when you get to page five you'll be hooked and you won't come up for air until it's all said and done.

--Christopher Reich

Water for Elephants (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers)

Sara Gruen

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Total reviews: 1437 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

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Jacob Jankowski says: "I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One or the other." At the beginning of Water for Elephants, he is living out his days in a nursing home, hating every second of it. His life wasn't always like this, however, because Jacob ran away and joined the circus when he was twenty-one. It wasn't a romantic, carefree decision, to be sure. His parents were killed in an auto accident one week before he was to sit for his veterinary medicine exams at Cornell. He buried his parents, learned that they left him nothing because they had mortgaged everything to pay his tuition, returned to school, went to the exams, and didn't write a single word. He walked out without completing the test and wound up on a circus train. The circus he joins, in Depression-era America, is second-rate at best. With Ringling Brothers as the standard, Benzini Brothers is far down the scale and pale by comparison.

Water for Elephants is the story of Jacob's life with this circus. Sara Gruen spares no detail in chronicling the squalid, filthy, brutish circumstances in which he finds himself. The animals are mangy, underfed or fed rotten food, and abused. Jacob, once it becomes known that he has veterinary skills, is put in charge of the "menagerie" and all its ills. Uncle Al, the circus impresario, is a self-serving, venal creep who slaps people around because he can. August, the animal trainer, is a certified paranoid schizophrenic whose occasional flights into madness and brutality often have Jacob as their object. Jacob is the only person in the book who has a handle on a moral compass and as his reward he spends most of the novel beaten, broken, concussed, bleeding, swollen and hungover. He is the self-appointed Protector of the Downtrodden, and... he falls in love with Marlena, crazy August's wife. Not his best idea.

The most interesting aspect of the book is all the circus lore that Gruen has so carefully researched. She has all the right vocabulary: grifters, roustabouts, workers, cooch tent, rubes, First of May, what the band plays when there's trouble, Jamaican ginger paralysis, life on a circus train, set-up and take-down, being run out of town by the "revenooers" or the cops, and losing all your hooch. There is one glorious passage about Marlena and Rosie, the bull elephant, that truly evokes the magic a circus can create. It is easy to see Marlena's and Rosie's pink sequins under the Big Top and to imagine their perfect choreography as they perform unbelievable stunts. The crowd loves it--and so will the reader. The ending is absolutely ludicrous and really quite lovely. --Valerie Ryan