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A Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole

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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.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Forget WE, The Iron Heel and every other dystopian novel. Read this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Put simply this is the greatest work of dystopian literature ever created. It's not filled with useless details like Atlas Shrugged and is more vivid than anything Huxley or London have ever created.Nineteen Eighty- Four shows the ultimate consequences of government intervention into the individual's life. The book takes place in a totalitarian state called Oceania where even the thoughts of the citizens are controlled and punished by the ruling party.Follow the life of Winston Smith, a mal adjusted government propagandaist, as he struggles to keep his mind, body and soul free for the death grip of the all encompassing state.A must read for all who value individuality, liberty and non-comformity.Come and discover why Orwell is one of the most influential and referenced author of the last century.

Editorial Review:

Thought Police. Big Brother. Orwellian. These words have entered our vocabulary because of George Orwell's classic dystopian novel, 1984. The story of one man's nightmare odyssey as he pursues a forbidden love affair through a world ruled by warring states and a power structure that controls not only information but also individual thought and memory, 1984 is a prophetic, haunting tale.

More relevant than ever before, 1984 exposes the worst crimes imaginable-the destruction of truth, freedom, and individuality.
With a new forward by Thomas Pynchon.

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 486 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The most famous book you've never read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

How did I go 34 years without picking up and reading this gem? I'll tell you...It is not included on any public school reading list that I have ever seen and every college literature course that I took (just for fun) never examined Sylvia Plath's writing. Instead I had the misfortune of several lit. courses that focused on less talented modern poets/writers.

In 1963, this book would have been shocking. The main theme is mental disturbia, suicide, losing virginity, (an all out attack on the quiet suburban status quo.)

As I read this book with the jaded perspective of a modern day American citizen, I couldn't shake the overwhelming feeling of innocence this 40 year old story emits.

This book is like a three year old child attempting to shock her parents with something "provocative" but falling short of the parental outrage so desired and ending up with parental amusement.

It is only a sign of the times. In 1963 this story of Esther Greenwood most likely provided the 1-2 punch. (Only a feeling on my part, as I was not around in those days.)

Don't think I am putting this book down in my review. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading this story. There was a time that I would read a book in two days. I haven't done that in several years. Too busy, too tired, too distracted.
I couldn't stop reading the Bell Jar. My laundry, dishes, and vacuuming took a hit on this one. I was tempted to take it to work with me. Thankfully it was not a 1000 page book. I am back to full capacity once again.

I suggest you read this classic and keep one thing in mind, Sylvia Plath based this on her own crack-up in college. It is a heavy thought to me,the reader, knowing that she eventually lost her battle to her mental demons years later while living with her two young children.

Editorial Review:

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palpably real, even rational—as accessible an experience as going to the movies. A deep penetration into the darkest and most harrowing corners of the human psyche, The Bell Jar is an extraordinary accomplishment and a haunting American classic.

Relic (Pendergast, Book 1)

Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 284 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Taunt, exciting thriller 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

After the death of two museum visitors, the museum of Natural History calls in the Police, headed by truculent hard-nosed Lt. D'Agosta, also FBI Agent Pendergast, a quirky and unorthodox investigator from the south. What they discover? They believe a serial killer is on the loose- perhaps intending to derail the museum's new "Superstition" exhibit. What they don't know is something far more sinister lives in the basement of the museum. As the date of the exhibit nears, can the agents and a team of museum scientists get to the bottom of the museum murders before its too late?

I listened to the unabridged audio edition of Relic. The characters were well thought out, the monster interesting and the story exciting. I particularly liked D'Agosta and Dr. Frock. The monster itself was fascinating, and the museum was very cool as the background for this taunt story.

5 stars. Excellent.

Editorial Review:

Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who-or what-is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

Edgar Allan Poe Complete Tales and Poems

Edgar Allan Poe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Best Poe Collection 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've bought a few complete Poe collections over the years, and this one is my favorite. The font size is not squashed down to save pages at the expense of my eyes, and it does seem to be complete. It's also an attractively put together book.

Poe is essential reading for anyone interested in horror, and for any apsiring writer. He not only is a master of horror, but he's credited as being the inventor of the detective story.

"The Raven", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Cask of Amontillado", "The Black Cat", "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", and everything else you're looking for plus stories and poems you may never have heard of yet are all in here.

This is a great volume at a great price. I'd also recommend: The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, Cold Streak, It (Signet Books), Coraline, & Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance.

Editorial Review:

This collection of 73 short stories and 48 poems includes such masterpieces as The Fall of the House of Usher, The Purloined Letter, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Reliquary (Pendergast, Book 2)

Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 184 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Into the Deep ... 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

'The Reliquary' is a sequel (of sorts) to 'The Relic', but you don't have to read 'The Relic' first to enjoy this associated but independent novel. It's time to get together again with Dr. Margo Green - Assistant Curator of New York Museum Of Natural History, Lt. Vincent D'Agosta - a New York City Detective, Agent Pendergrast from the FBI, Bill Smithback - crime reporter for the New York Post, and Dr. Whitney Frock - now retired Evolutionary Biologist and wheelchair bound.

It's been eighteen months since the Mbwun beast terrorized the Museum Of Natural History, when two skeletons are pulled from the Humboldt Kill canal (called The Cloaca because of its murky raw sewage). One is discovered to be that of wealthy debutant Pamela Wisher (a Paris Hilton type society girl), but the other doesn't even seem to be human. Dr. Margo Green is called in by the Medical Examiner to attempt to identify the skeleton. When the remains are identified to be those of Margo's old colleague Greg Kawakita, Lt. D'Agosta and Agent Pendergrast join her in her search to find out what Greg had been up to, and how his bones became so deformed. The answer lies in two places; the remnants of Greg's burnt out laboratory, and in the tunnels underneath New York from which the two skeletons were flushed from.

Margo's old friend Bill Smithback heads straight to Pamela's upper crust mother to get an exclusive scoop from her. Amazingly, she takes him in and obtains his help with her Take Back Our City campaign. He also manages a meeting with Mephisto, leader of the underground community called Route 666. Mephisto tells Smithback of a new group of "mole people" living deeper, below the Devil's Attic, that he calls "Wrinklers".

When Margo, D'Agosta, Pendergrast, and Smithback put their heads together, they discover a connection between the Wrinklers and what Greg Kawakita was working on before he died. They must unravel the puzzle before the city is torn apart by Mrs. Wisher's Tack Back The City campaign, the angry "mole people" who live far beneath Wisher's elegant apartments, and a police department under pressure to solve the grisly rash of murders. In order to do this, the four must travel deep below New York, into the subterranean tracks, tunnels, aqueducts, old sewers, abandoned stations, and once elegant private waiting rooms.

What really heightened my enjoyment of this book is that prior to it, I read an interesting non-fiction book called 'The Mole People' by Jennifer Toth. Written in 1993, she actually went into the tunnels and spoke with members of the underground society called "moles" or "mole people". In the author's notes at the end of 'Reliquary', Preston and Child also mention Toth's work. If you have the chance or are interested, read 'The Mole People' first and it will enhance what Preston and Child have written about the society in 'Reliquary'. It's just a suggestion, along with reading 'The Relic' first. Both books really augment the pleasure of reading 'Reliquary'. Enjoy!

Editorial Review:

Hidden deep beneath Manhattan lies a warren of tunnels, sewers, and galleries, mostly forgotten by those who walk the streets above. There lies the ultimate secret of the Museum Beat. When two grotesquely deformed skeletons are found deep in the mud off the Manhattan shoreline, museum curator Margo Green is called in to aid the investigation. Margo must once again team up with police lieutenant D'Agosta and FBI agent Pendergast, as well as the brilliant Dr. Frock, to try and solve the puzzle. The trail soon leads deep underground, where they will face the awakening of a slumbering nightmare.

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Enduring Master of the Macabre 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, died October 7, 1849.

What is it that makes an author famous? I don't mean famous in the sense a news article reports that "Jack Greylea's novels sold 15 million copies last year," but in the sense that he is thought of as being profound, and seminal. That he is quoted, and scholars analyse his works, and he is looked upon as being the original voice of his style, or the font from which many imitators have drawn inspiration.

Edgar Allan Poe is one such. The very hint of his name calls up images of midnight graveyards, of crumbling mansions lit by wax candles, the home of strange and tormented aristocrats, till the description "Poe-like" can draw as vivid a picture in our minds as "elephant-like."

Yet his output was not great. Basically a short story writer and poet, he produced only one full-length novel, which received more censure than praise, and which very few people today can name. Without wishing to run him down as an author (what he did, he did well, but what he did well, was to be Poe) he was a limited writer, and all of his works over twenty-two years can be contained in one thickish book.
So what is the secret of Poe, whereby a scanty writer becomes the cult-centre of a world of horror that carries his own stamp? It lies I think in two things.

Not to place these two in any order of importance as regards his continuing fame - I leave this to you - but I would say....
Firstly, that it was his choice of subject and execution of it. The mournful, weird and macabre, in which man becomes little more than an instrument of darkness, and that usually the worst darkness, that which wells up from within, whose black light shows us as being not the pawns of evil, but the source of evil itself. But to seize on this idea - or any other idea - as inspiration is nothing, merely the starting point from which the quill hits the paper. It is in the execution of his vision that Poe's genius emerges. Not with a great deal of subtlety, nor a much complexity, but with great and disciplined fixity on the horror of his intentions, Poe moves relentless to the nasty culmination of his stories, and they come to us with all the rawness of unconsoled misery. His art was that of the short story writer, and as such he wrote little, but when reading Poe a little is more than enough.

Secondly, that Poe more than any other author is identified as a man with his works. An orphan and an outcast from his adopted family, overly sensitive and reckless, he lived wildly, lied readily, lived in poverty, married strangely to his thirteen-year old cousin, was widowed miserably, and finally died mysteriously at age forty, from uncertain causes that speculation has named as anything from drug addiction to murder. As if this were not enough, his works were controlled after his death by his executor, who attempted to blacken his name. More than any other author that I can readily think of, Poe was his own tormented, tragic hero, and his oppressed characters were him.

In the nineteen-sixties, several of Poe's stories and poems - The Pit and the Pendulum, The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven, The Tomb of Legeia and others - were made into popular, low budget films, cementing Poe's reputation firmly into the mythology of modern horror movies. It's common of course for movies to be nothing like the original written work, but all of these are based on not on fully worked out novels, but ideas that Poe dealt with in comparatively few pages.

Incidentally, the principal actor in many of these was Vincent Price, whose tall, mournful frame instantly springs to mind as well nigh inseparable from Poe's weird gems.

Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven

Editorial Review:

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

This single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history.

101 Great American Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)

Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, T S. Eliot, Marianne Moore

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Quite a Bang for Your Buck!.......... 4 out of 5 stars.
23 of 23 people found this review helpful.

............this small book of poetry contains the work of nearly forty of the best known American poets. From Emily Dickinson to Walt Whitman to Edgar Allan Poe to Robert Frost, there are poems in this collection that are sure to appeal to everyone! Also represented in this collection are ten women poets and eight African Americans including Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes and Phyllis Wheatley. There's even a poem by Abraham Lincoln that reveals his thoughts about his childhood experiences.

This collection is a simple, inexpensive way to introduce oneself to the wonderful world of American poetry. Each poet is introduced with a short biography followed by his or her most memorable work. Great buy!

Editorial Review:

Rich treasury of verse from the 19th and 20th centuries, selected for popularity and literary quality, includes Poe's "The Raven," Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," as well as poems by Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, many other notables.

Poetry Speaks to Children (Book & CD) (Read & Hear)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 35 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the tradition of Poetry Speaks, the anthology named a Best Book of 2002 by School Library Journal, and praised by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as "a volume to delight longtime lovers of poetry and to spark new love for poetry, especially among the young," Sourcebooks MediaFusion is proud to introduce the joy of the written and spoken word in Poetry Speaks to Children.

Parents, educators, librarians, and poetry enthusiasts have wondered for years how to get children really interested in poetry. Until now, there hasn't been a collection of poems and poets that spoke directly to that elusive audience. Poetry Speaks to Children cracks through that barrier by packaging the best poems by the best authors along with a CD-making the engrossing and often mischievous verses come alive in the voices of many of the creators.

Poetry Speaks to Children reaches into the world of poetry and pulls out the elements children love: rhyme, rhythm, fun and, every once in a while, a little mischief.

More than 90 poems, for children ages six and up, celebrate the written word and feature a star-studded lineup of beloved poets, including: Roald Dahl; J. R. R. Tolkien; Robert Frost; Gwendolyn Brooks; Ogden Nash; John Ciardi; Langston Hughes; Sonia Sanchez; Seamus Heaney; Canada's best-loved children's poet, Dennis Lee; Rita Dove; Billy Collins; Nikki Giovanni and X. J. Kennedy.

On the accompanying CD, 50 of the poems are brought to life--most read by the poets themselves--allow the reader to hear the words as the poets intended.

Hear Gwendolyn Brooks growl her rhyming verse poem "The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves, or, What You Are You Are" with verve and inflection-relaying the story of the striped cat who "rushed to the jungle fair for something fine to wear," much to the hoots of his jungle peers. Amid jeers, sneers and sighs, the tiger eventually learns to be comfortable in his own striped skin (or fur as it were!).

Follow Ogden Nash as he tells of the brave little Isabel, who "didn't worry, didn't scream or scurry" when confronted with a ravenous bear, a one-eyed giant or a troublesome doctor. Her clever solutions to problems ("She turned the witch into milk and drank her") will keep even the most reluctant readers interested.

Listen to James Berry, who quells a little girl's anxieties about her color by celebrating the marriage of "night and light," emphasizing how all colors are necessary in nature, in "Okay, Brown Girl, Okay."

Turn the page and tune in . . . kids won't be the only ones hooked!

The Chosen (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

Chaim Potok

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 312 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

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

The Chosen is a book that will, not only produce a full, rich, exhilarating experience, but stays with you for quite some time. There can be no doubt that this book, along with its author have reached the pinnacle of the literary world and achieved what few books can: Masterpiece. The book is set in Brooklyn and the premis is of two young boys who have traveled very different roads, who have seen life through very different views, come together at a baseball game where these two unlikely souls form a close friendship that lasts a life-time and shapes their path toward manhood. The time is set just prior to WWII and Reuven and Danny are Orthodox Jews who will capture your hearts as Chaim Potok pens his masterpiece. This is definetly one book that should find a home on everyone's must read list.

Editorial Review:

"Anyone who finds it is finding a jewel. Its themes are profound and universal."
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again....


From the Paperback edition.