Authors, A-Z Books - Page 5

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Test

List Price: $23.00 By: Pantheon Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $4.52

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( L ) -> Lamott, Anne
Subjects -> Reference -> Foreign Languages -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 307 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. [It] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said. 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'"

With this basic instruction always in mind, Anne Lamott returns to offer us a new gift: a step-by-step guide on how to write and on how to manage the writer's life. From "Getting Started,' with "Short Assignments," through "Shitty First Drafts," "Character," "Plot," "Dialogue." all the way from "False Starts" to "How Do You Know When You're Done?" Lamott encourages, instructs, and inspires. She discusses "Writers Block," "Writing Groups," and "Publication." Bracingly honest, she is also one of the funniest people alive.

If you have ever wondered what it takes to be a writer, what it means to be a writer, what the contents of your school lunches said about what your parents were really like, this books for you. From faith, love, and grace to pain, jealousy, and fear, Lamott insists that you keep your eves open, and then shows you how to survive. And always, from the life of the artist she turns to the art of life.

"An inspiring book about writing as a way of finding the truth

-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Surpasses all the other books on writing already out there -- even the wonderful stuff by Natalie Goldberg, John Gardner, and Annie Dillard."

-- Seattle Times

"Well-written, funny, and useful." -- Denver Post

"I ended up reading it twice and expect to dip into it again in times of need. I recommend this book to other writers without reservation....This woman is uncanny."

-- Marie Winn, Wall Street Journal

"A quirky, personal, mordant, down-to-earth guide to fiction writing by a wonderful novelist essayist. Lamott makes writing seem like something you could actually enjoy."

-- The Nation

Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien

Amazon Price: $17.63 List Price: $22.60 Usually ships in 7 to 12 days By: Perfection Learning Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $2.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( O ) -> O'Brien, Tim
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> War

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 708 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Entertaining and Enlightening Introduction to Story Telling 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Sections of this book were assigned to me as coursework. What I read was so entertaining that I immediately purchased the book and had read and reread it within a weekend. I admit that I'd not have seen the depth of O'Brien's true literary genius had my professor not shed light on some of the subtle issues addressed herein (i.e. the retelling of The Lemon Tree story as a portrait of literary progression through history, etc.). Still, even without an appreciation of or interest in top quality literature, the interested reader will find great insight into character and plot development within this literary masterpeice.
Be warned though that this story is not a historical account of a soldier's horrific experience in Vietnam. Instead, the author's experience in Vietnam is used to illustrate the true purpose of the piece: how a story teller accurately transmits a message to the audience. To all of those who criticize this book as being poorly written because of its historical inaccuracies, I kindly paraphrase the author's own words: you obviously weren't listening.

Editorial Review:

In 1979, Tim O'Brien's Going After Cacciato--a novel about the Vietnam War--won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America two decades later.

Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief)

Anne Rice

Amazon Price: $21.09 List Price: $31.96 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $19.11

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rice, Anne
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Horror -> Authors, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rice, Anne -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Horror -> Authors, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rice, Anne -> Paperback

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 131 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good prices on a good set 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Overall you can see and judge for yourself which of the stories work and which don't. In Queen of the Damned (which was a so-so movie by the way), the author moved away from the first person point-of-view (POV) which added a richness to the story to the omniscient POV.

She recovers nicely in other stories!

Overall a great series if you like vampires. Nice to get them all in one shot!!

Recommended.

speedy delivery + perfect packaging 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

same as the title...even this is an international shipment.

amazon, thank you!

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

It was a great product. I was very happy that there were four books in the box set, it was very cheap, it got here in excellent time, and everything was in perfect condition.

Warning: if you have not yet read.. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have not read these books for a while, but when I did, I, like many others, fell in love with the words, the characters and the world they inhabit. Yes, the stories are complex and dark, somewhat disturbing- they are not for everyone. They are also well written, smoothly read, and while fiction, incorporate much historical research.

I would like to point out that I think it was very smart that Memnoch the Devil was not included in this set. With Memnoch, the series changed considerably, and most people either loved it or hated it. If you are a skeptical person, if you love lestat's character in the first books and want to see him in all his brattish, cynical glory continue- and if you are not interested in Christian dogma being incorporated into the series as a forefront, decidedly changing the characters, then STOP before you reach Memnoch. I know its tempting to find out what happens, but honestly it will ruin it for you. The Chronicles dont need to be concluded, and considering many people find the series goes downhill from Memnoch on, spare yourself the pain and let the story live on in your imagination as you want it to.
And go read Rice's Violin, Feast of All Saints, and Cry to Heaven- all magnificent, singular novels that arent bogged down by being part of a never-ending series.

Editorial Review:

Set includes: Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, and The Tale of the Body Thief.

Adv of Huck Finn

Mark Twain

List Price: $3.50 By: Laurel Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $1.57

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Twain, Mark -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Twain, Mark -> Paperback
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Twain, Mark -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 511 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Huck Finn 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is required reading for my 16 yr old son....the
book arrived quickly & in great shape! Saved me driving all
over town to compete w/ other parents also looking!! Thanks!

Huckleberry Finn 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Huckleberry Finn is a classic. Simple as that. It provides a look into what life was probably like for a 19th century boy. It was different than the life of children today, because today life centers around education. Back then, it was a regular thing to play hooky, even though they got in trouble for it when they were caught. And when they were punished, usually it was with a beating instead of `You're Grounded!'.

The book shows us how badly slaves were treated. They weren't even considered humans! It was like they didn't have feelings, and didn't see things the same way white people did. They way the slaves actually did think was odd. It was sad to see that they could slap a slave for no reason, and the slave would accept it either because they were used to it or they thought that whites were better than them.

Huck Finn is rather unrealistic in the aspect of adventure. I'm guessing most boys back then didn't run off with an escaped slave to Cairo. The way that Mark Twain wrote the book was different than other first/second person books I've seen. The dialogue was very much like the 19th century southern Mississippi talk. Sometimes it got hard to decipher what a paragraph in slave-speak meant because it was so obscure.

All in all, Mark Twain's writing style is different than the traditional Southern book, but that doesn't detract at all from the story. I liked it!

Editorial Review:

'Cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle, and lawless, vulgar, and bad - and because all their children admired him so', Huckleberry Finn, the fourteen-year-old son of the town drunkard, joins runaway slave Jim on an exciting journey down the mighty Mississippi River on a raft.

Nothing to Be Frightened Of

Julian Barnes

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Knopf Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $11.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Two years after the best-selling Arthur & George, Julian Barnes gives us a memoir on mortality that touches on faith and science and family as well as a rich array of exemplary figures who over the centuries have confronted the same questions he now poses about the most basic fact of life: its inevitable extinction.

If the fear of death is “the most rational thing in the world,” how does one contend with it? An atheist at twenty, an agnostic at sixty, Barnes looks into the various arguments for and against and with God, and at the bloodline whose archivist, following his parents’ death, he has become—another realm of mystery, wherein a drawer of mementos and his own memories (not to mention those of his philosopher brother) often fail to connect. There are other ancestors, too: the writers—“most of them dead, and quite a few of them French”—who are his daily companions, supplemented by composers and theologians and scientists whose similar explorations are woven into this account with an exhilarating breadth of intellect and felicity of spirit.

Deadly serious, masterfully playful, and surprisingly hilarious, Nothing to Be Frightened Of is a riveting display of how this supremely gifted writer goes about his business and a highly personal tour of the human condition and what might follow the final diagnosis.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scribner Amazon Marketplace: 148 new & used starting at $3.87

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Hemingway, Ernest -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Hemingway, Ernest -> Paperback
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( H ) -> Hemingway, Ernest -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 271 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. In his portrayal of Jordan's love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of El Sordo's last stand, in his brilliant travesty of La Pasionaria and his unwillingness to believe in blind faith, Hemingway surpasses his achievement in The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms to create a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise. "If the function of a writer is to reveal reality," Maxwell Perkins wrote Hemingway after reading the manuscript, "no one ever so completely performed it." Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author's previous works, it stands as one of the best war novels of all time.

Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC)

Ayn Rand

Amazon Price: $25.07 List Price: $39.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Dutton Adult Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $24.79

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rand, Ayn -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rand, Ayn -> Hardcover
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( R ) -> Rand, Ayn -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 45 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Rand goes to extremes so that we don't have to 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

`Atlas Shrugged' follows the lives of great Americans as their country deteriorates from a capitalist democracy into a socialist communism. It is not a joy ride. In fact, it is a grueling, plodding process, filled with convolutions, and ultimately ending in a chaotic mess. But the story shows us how such a disaster might occur and thus grants us a tool for avoiding it. Meanwhile, the book plunges headfirst into man's all-time greatest political, cultural, and spiritual challenges, offering a fascinating look at each if not quite resolving any of them.

The central challenge focuses on where virtue is lodged. Is it in the Self or in Society as a whole? It is a staggering question when one really thinks about it and Rand sets up scenario after scenario to help us think about it, pitting a troop of protagonists for the Self against an army of antagonists for the Society.

Of course, Rand has reached her conclusion before we sink our teeth into the question. Those for the Self are confident, logical, productive, and industrious while those for Society are pathetic, lazy, tetchy, and smarmy. There really is no question about which is right when you look at it through these characters and so there really is no conflict.

This is unfortunate because people on both sides have good, well-founded arguments. Simply writing off all socialists as crass nincompoops may feel right to the capitalist, but it does nothing to resolve the differences between the two sides and certainly doesn't help the case for self-interested industrialism. Nor can one say that all capitalists have the virtuous motives that Dagny and Rearden maintain. There are those who support the free market and industrialism for the wrong reasons, and neglecting that fact limits the effectiveness of the argument. In the end, a conflict between two reasonable foes is much more entertaining than a conflict between a master and a fool anyway.

Rand sees things characteristically in black and white; there are no shades of gray. At least, the grays that do pop up in this book are cut down by one of the two sides of the conflict. Such absoluteness defies modern standards of literature and many a grain of salt must be consumed while reading `Atlas'.

Granting it is in the Classical style, one can really enjoy the book for what it is. And it is Classical in every sense of the word. The story is heroic--you can take your pick among her many heroes and heroines although only one stands out as the flawless kind. Like a good Homeric epic, the narrative is long-winded and repetitive. One walks away with useful if silly clichés--`who is John Galt?', `looters', `A is A'. Actions are deliberate and spelled out for the reader and every action is related to the lesson being told with nothing irrelevant coming into view. And finally, the characters are very one-dimensional with no development or change whatever. These are charming aspects that can be appreciated by those willing.

Less forgivable are the inconsistencies that arise in the philosophy. Rand is making a case for self-interest, but throughout the book one will find instances where the protagonists seek validation from others, often to the deprecation of the self. The most notable example of this is in the romantic relationships. The two love each other and will do anything for the other person even if that means becoming vulgar animals and sacrificing the integrity of one's work. The couple receives selfish pleasure from the affair, but it comes at the expense of self-dignity.

Rand eliminates the only true way to resolve this inconsistency (is it a contradiction?) by rejecting the ultimate reason for romantic relationships: procreation and raising a family (completely absent from the book). This is the inevitable consequence of fusing self-interest with atheism. When there is nothing to strive for but material gain, the world necessarily becomes a contradiction. One fights the immoral with immorality and gains the respect of others by denigrating them.

The latter is actually a central theme in `Atlas'. Indeed, the protagonists who despise the masses require their patronage to be successful. Industry in general is worth-while only if there are other people willing to buy the product and enough people to make it useful. Even when it is not explicit, the need for validation is present. The driving force of the book, the strike, is designed to force other people to behave properly so that the protagonists can succeed. John Galt's speech is accusatory and insulting, underscoring the negative tone of the book. His purpose (as is Rand's) is to crush the looting society, which is rational because of the burden it places on the producers. But in the end, that purpose relies on there to be a society to crush--it relies on other people.

By the time Rand endorses coercion in the most direct manner (use of guns and killing) toward the end of the book, thus completely contradicting her libertarian argument, the reader is willing to give up on her completely. But the extremes to which she takes her story should not undermine the insight she lends on man's great challenges. Indeed, it is her willingness to identify the faults in society and rhetorically crush them that frees us to be constructive and wholly creative.

Despite its major flaws, `Atlas Shrugged' is possibly the only fictional work that addresses the kind of challenges it does. You will need to work for this book, but it will be worth it. Read it and discuss as they might have done in Aristotle's day.

Editorial Review:

The year 2005 marks Ayn Rand’s Centennial Year.

The astounding story of a man that said that he would stop the motor of the world—and did. Tremendous in scope, breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is unlike any other book you have ever read.

A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole

Amazon Price: $17.79 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Louisiana State University Press Amazon Marketplace: 39 new & used starting at $9.79

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Toole, John Kennedy
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> World Literature -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 962 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Smart, Funny, Without the Usual Conceit 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The story in A Confederacy of Dunces revolves around Ignatius J. Reilly, a hypochondriac former grad student living in New Orleans with an obsession with modern culture and the Middle Ages. The book made its way to press by Toole's mother sending it to Walker Percy (author of The Moviegoer) with a request that he read her late son's work; sadly, Toole committed suicide a couple of years earlier.

Most of the book concerns the utterly unemployable Reilly's attempts to join the working world. As you can imagine, hijinks ensue, but everyone is different for having made Reilly's acquaintance. The conclusion of the book is both completely fulfilling and, considering the weirdness of many of the characters, surprisingly hopeful.

The bottom line: A Confederacy of Dunces is a great novel; parts of it made me laugh out loud, which is something of a rarity these days. And it's not funny in a conceited, "look how smart I am that I get the in-jokes" kind of way; it's just a great story about the kind of person every English major in the world is one quirk away from becoming. It's the classic tale of a person over-educated and sent into the world armed and dangerous.

A Confederacy of Dunces is readable, funny, and has something to say about the human condition. I highly recommend it.

Editorial Review:

A popular Pulitzer Prize-winning comedy follows the adventures of New Orlean's lower denizens of the French Quarter.

A Walk to Remember

Nicholas Sparks

Amazon Price: $11.19 List Price: $13.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Grand Central Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 71 new & used starting at $3.64

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> ( S ) -> Sparks, Nicholas
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Genre Fiction -> Movie Tie-Ins
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Contemporary

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1301 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the prologue to his latest novel, Nicholas Sparks makes the rather presumptuous pledge "first you will smile, and then you will cry," but sure enough, he delivers the goods. With his calculated ability to throw your heart around like a yo-yo (try out his earlier Message in the Bottle or The Notebook if you really want to stick it to yourself), Sparks pulls us back to the perfect innocence of a first love.In 1958 Landon Carter is a shallow but well-meaning teenager who spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and trying hard to ignore the impending responsibilities of adulthood. Then Landon gets roped into acting the lead in the Christmas play opposite the most renowned goody two-shoes intown: Jamie Sullivan. Against his best intentions and the taunts of his buddies, Landon finds himself falling for Jamie and learning some central lessons in life.Like John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, Sparks maintains a delicate and rarely seen balance of humor and sentiment. While the plot may not be the most original, this boy-makes-good tearjerker will certainly reel in the fans. Look for a movie starring beautiful people or, better yet, snuggle under the covers with your tissues nearby and let your inner sap run wild. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

Shakespeare: The World as Stage (Eminent Lives)

Bill Bryson

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $7.10

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Authors
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Entertainers
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> British -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

If there be nothing new * 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

It's a hard thing to produce a groundbreaking book about Shakespeare, and Bill Bryson makes no claim to it. This small book is part of Harper Collins' Eminent Lives series; their website describes Eminent Lives as "brief biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures." That said, SHAKESPEARE: THE WORLD AS STAGE is an entertaining and informative little package.

Bryson catalogues the few facts known about Shakespeare's personal life and whereabouts, and some of the arcana -- word and line counts, for example, and how many plays were prepared by which typesetters, and all the different ways Shakespeare spelled his surname on legal documents. These facts have a certain WOW factor of their own, but mostly demonstrate the thoroughness with which the available information has been mined by hordes of Shakespeare scholars. Bryson devotes a chapter to theories that someone else wrote the plays, and debunks them. Again there are many facts presented in a wry and entertaining way; Bryson does that very well. A reader knowing little about 16th and early 17th century England would learn some interesting things from this little book, which is probably well crafted for its target audience of "survey readers."

There was less analysis of the plays than I expected; I found this a disappointment and took off a star for it.

The audio presentation finished with an interview of Bryson, in which he stated that he's not present in this book as he is in most of his writing; he kept himself out of it. That's true to the extent that he's not playing for humor, but it's clearly in his style: a bit like interesting vacation photos artfully arranged in an album and not for one second trying to integrate themselves into a video. He achieves what he sets out to do but if you're not crazy about his levity, this book may not appeal to you; I enjoyed it. The author reads this audio version, as he usually does, and his Midwestern/British fusion may not be what you care for. In that case, choose the print version.

* Subject line is from Sonnet LIX:

If there be nothing new, but that which is
Hath been before, how are our brains beguiled,
Which, labouring for invention, bear amiss
The second burden of a former child!
...

Linda Bulger, 2008

Editorial Review:

William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time.