literature

Our daughter has loved all of the I Spy books since about 20 months of age. (Before that we only gave her the board book versions). She "reads" them even more than our 4 year old who loves them too. Little ones this age enjoy sitting with an adult identifying familiar objects while learning new ones. She gets so excited trying to find all of a paticular multiple object on one page. I would give the I Spy books ten stars if I could!

A+++++++ books!

The I spy school Days is a great beginner book from this series. This doesn't mean it isn't challenging by any means but the pictures.... the wonderful photos even the youngest child can relate to. I know it sounds simple, but you will have to see for yourself it sound easier said then done but these are so much fun! It is very challenging, fun, and social, an excellent family event! There are extra credit riddles at the end of the book but it also is fun to make your own. The youngest little learner can really benefit from the photos in this book as it gets them going on letter, numbers and objects which they know or soon will! I can't rave enough about these books they totally intrigue me!

This is great! Also, in the "Be My Valentine" page, there's one that you should look for- a queen. It took me hours! Recommended.

I thank you and you very much for taking the time to read my first book. Inspired by the Light will show you how to smile even when you don't think you need one. It turns your "I thought, I can't", into "I can do all things through Christ." These inspirational poems will show you how I trust God to do everything in my life. Be Inspired Today! Please order my book from Amazon.com today!! "Comeon" Inspired by the Light will guarantee you a big smile, and you will feel good because you order my smile today. I thank you from my heart to your heart for reading Inspired by the Light.

I am the printer Hanna Liles chose for her new book, "Inspired by the Light." During the time we were negotiating the printing contract, my step-father passed away and Hanna presented me with a poem from her book titled, "Going Home to be with my Heavenly Father." This poem put my feelings in order and I can't thank Hannah enough for helping me through this difficult time.

Why haven't you bought this lovely inspirational poetic journal. You know who you are. This book should be read by you and everyone else who love the Lord and need to hear the Lord's words. Amen.

A first rule of thumb when approaching Cabell's 18-volume opus, the Biography of Manuel; every book will be about Cabell's relationship with his wife. Cabell is obsessed with marriage, and objectifies all of his female characters to fit one of his imagined female roles; nag, whore, or unapproachable beauty. Cabell's characters always return to their nagging wives, for familiarity's sake if nothing else, with never a suggestion that it might be possible to have a long-term relationship between a man and a woman in which both are creators and in which both learn from each other.

The book Jurgen is from the same mold. Jurgen the pawnbroker moves from one of Cabell's stereotypical women to another. The book became well-known because of the godawful sex sequences, in which Cabell archly refers to Jurgen's sword, staff, or stick -- the resulting call for censorship made the book famous, but that doesn't mean it was Cabell's best. I thought The Silver Stallion and, in some respects, even The Cream of the Jest or The High Place to be better examples of Cabell's writing.

I would recommend that anyone who likes fantasy read at least one of Cabell's books, because he writes like no one else. This book had the usual Cabell wittiness and sardonic feel, so if it's the only one you can find, certainly try it.

In the 1920s, James Branch Cabell (rhymes with "rabble") was considered by many to be one of the greatest American writers, based on this novel. Tastes changed with the coming of the Great Depression; worse, Cabell never again came close to writing a book of this quality, despite his many attempts. Whether or not Cabell is a great writer (and I incline to the view that writers should be judged by their best rather than their mediocre works), Jurgen is a great book, full of insight and a joy to read. The eponymous protagonist is a middle-aged pawnbroker who is given an opportunity to relive his youth. In his travels he encounters, among others, Guenevere, the Master Philologist, the Philistines, his father's Hell, and his grandmother's Heaven. In the end he has an opportunity to question Koshchei who made all things as they are. I heartily recommend this novel. Although it is in an older fantasy tradition, it is at least as readable and enjoyable as the best contemporary fantasy, and its literary quality is far greater. I have re-read it many times.

After 20 years of reading single-voice narrations, it was one of
my few exposures to multi-voice dramatizations.

I did find the inevitable range of loudness of a dramatization
to be a bit of a problem with my hearing. Struggling with the
overly-complex user interfaced tone controls on my JVC in-dash
CD/MP3 player finally got that mostly under control.

They fellow who played "the black guy" reminded me and my fellow
listener ever so much of Burgess Meredith. I didn't see a cast

listing on the printed enclosure, I would have appreciated it.
That way, I wouldn't have to say "the black guy" to avoid my
uncertainty of the spelling of the character's name.
(Kothschai?).

I just love banned books, and Jurgen is a fine early example.
(Right now, I'm reading "Harmful to Minors", there's nothing
like finding out that people are trying to keep me away to make
me want to read it...)

The story is full of nuance and implication. The phrase
"treating fairly" will always have a new meaning for me.

The accompanying music was added in just the right amounts and
at the right times. I'm resentful of Jurgen's whistling, as I
thought that I was preeminent at tuneless whistling, but be that
as it may...

A delightful read in all, and my thanks to Yuri.

David H. Straayer
The Self-Appointed CD/MP3 Audiobook Gadfly...

This one will be short and sweet. I just completed reading all five of the boxed set. I feel I knew the Ingalls family as I shared their lives, dangers, joys, and challenges. But, why, oh why, did I wait over fifty years to discover these wonderful stories. Laura waited until she was 65 years old to start writing them, so I think it safe to say that 65(my age) is not too late for me to read them.

To say this is about a pioneer family moving west, or about a little girl who lived in the big woods, on the prairie, near a creek, on the shores of a lake, and in various structures including a sod house dug into the side of a hill - misses the point. These stories are about adventures and goodness and have successfully warmth the hearts of generations of all ages since they were written.

I recommend anyone of any age read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Series. The best part of all is that the stories are based on her family and her life and capture the time and a spirit of those strong and determined folks who moved west in the 19th Century.

I remember devouring these books as a young girl, I'm 35 now and have begun reading the books with my 5 year old daughter. The first in the series is written so that she can read a great deal herself. Laura wrote such a wonderful recount of her life that you can really imagine, even if you are five, how much simpler life was . . . or complicated depending on how you look at it. We've had several discussions about the husstle and busstle of our life, brought on by the togetherness and importance of family that these books demonstrate.

Have you ever been trapped in your home the whole winter and only getting out between blizzards? The author Laura Ingalls Wilder has in the book The Long Winter. Laura's family had to move off of the lonesome praire into pa's builing in town for the long winter. Ma told Laura and Carrie that they would have to go to school while they were living in town. After a while they loved school. They didn't go to school for long because blizzards hit and it was only clear for one day or less between blizzards. There was also no coal in town. One night it snowed so bad that there was snow all the way up to the second floor window. Laura saw the wild hores's hooves pass the window. With all the blizzards the train was stopped till the Spring. There was hardly any food left in town. There was no meat, crackers, wheat, flour and nothing left in the shops. The townspeople thought Spring would be in March but it didn't come till April. Laura's family and the Boasts had Christmas dinner in May. They got a barrel from the church in the big woods. How long could you be trapped indoors with only bread and potatoes for every meal?

Being an adaptation by and with the great Martin Jarvis, I thought it would be absolutely excellent, as I have found his audio efforts to be always. But in his performance there is something lacking, Sir Robert Chiltern should be played with a bit more pathos. Jacqueline Bisset is formidable, and Alfred Molina also as Lord Goring.

As to being a live recording, this is a mixed blessing. This public seems to misunderstand some lines, and there are misplaced laughs, for example when Robert Chiltern says: "I did not sell myself for money. I bought success at a great price. That is all". I'm sure Wilde didn't intend this to be a joke. Chiltern is not bought, he is not changed, it is he who buys something, therefore his character, his person, is not altered. The public dismisses this important nuance and bursts into a hearty fit of laughter.

There are three o four more like that. But on the whole, this recording by L.A. Theater Works is highly enjoyable.

Wilde, in part, attempts to portray the relativity of truth, power, and character, things we often take as absolutes, while also entertaining his audience with witty dialogue and comical mishaps.

Oscar Wilde gives us here one of his best plays. He explores the political world in London and how a young ambitious but poor man can commit a crime, which is a mistake, to start his good fortune. But he builds his political career on ethical principles. Sooner or later someone will come into the picture to blackmail him into supporting an unacceptable scheme, by producing a document that could ruin his career if revealed. His past mistake may come back heavily onto him. But he resists and sticks to his moral reputation. He prefers doing what is right to yielding to some menace. He may lose though his political ambition and career and his wife's love. But love is saved by forgiveness and the man's career is also saved by the work of a real friend who recaptures the dubious document and destroys it. In other words love and an ethical career are saved by the burrying of the old mistake into oblivion. In other words love and friendship are stronger than the scheming action of a blackmailer. This is a terrible criticism of victorian society which is based more on appearances than principles and yet able to destroy a man's absolutely ethical present life with a mistake from his youth, throwing the baby along with the water of the bath. It is also a criticism of the victorian political world where you cannot have a career if you are not rich, money appearing as the only way to succeed, at least to succeed fast. But it is a hopeful play because love and friendship are beyond such considerations and only consider the best interest of men and women, in the long run and in the name of absolute purity. Better be a sinner and be forgiven when you have reformed than see a reformed sinner destroyed by the lack of forgiveness. Oscar Wilde advocates here a vision of humanity that necessitates forgiveness as the essential fuel of any rational approach. Real morality is not the everlasting guilt of a sinner without any possible reform. Real morality is the recognition that forgiveness is necessary when reform has taken place. Otherwise society would be unlivable and based on hypocrisy and the death or rejection of the best people in the name of (reformed) mistakes. One must not be that sectarian, because man can learn from his mistakes and improve along the road : one can learn how to avoid mistakes and repair those oen has committed. If condemnation is absolute, no progress is possible. A very fascinating play, a very modern play. And yet when can one be considered as reformed, when can we consider one has really corrected one's mistakes and improved ? And who can deem such elements ? The very core of political and ethical rectitude is concerned here and Oscar Wilde embraces a generous approach.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

Once you get past the basic premise -- sex between a 40 year old woman and a very young boy, there's nothing especially shocking, or even interesting, about this short novel.

Despite its brevity, individual scenes are described in far too much detail -- I think we get about a page and a half devoted to someone brushing his teeth, and there are similar scenes in which we learn the intricacies of trimming nose hairs, ear hairs, etc.

And while I was mildly surprised by the twist ending, I wasn't touched by it emotionally or intellectually.

To sum up, I've seldom read a book that left me feeling so uninvolved on so many levels.

For North Americans and Europeans, In Praise of the Stepmother is no doubt the best known and most controversial of all of Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa's books. Wickedly witty and fun, this is a strange and beautiful little gem and a truly masterful and original piece of erotic storytelling.

Lucrecia, newly married to Lima resident, Don Rigoberto, an older, wealthy collector of erotic paintings, suddenly finds her position jeopardized by her husband's young son, Alfonso. She honestly wants the boy to love her, but at what cost? When Fonchito's hard won affection becomes hopelessly entangled with precocious--and dangerous--desire, the fun certainly begins, but the price, we see, may prove to be all too high.

As the relationship progresses into absurdity during Don Rigoberto's all-too-often absences, Vargas Llosa provides thematic commentary in the form of selections from the Don's art collection, included as full-color reproductions of famous paintings, from the Renaissance to the present day, each accompanied by a story to which the painting is to be an illustration. As the book progresses, so does the parade of paintings, twisting and expanding the concept of erotica.

For a small book, In Praise of the Stepmother has an enormous potential to enthrall and, yes, provoke. You might wonder how anyone could have written a book as good as this one. The only answer, of course, is that it is Vargas Llosa...at his best.

Strangely enough, in South America, it is Vargas Llosa's political novels that cause controversy; in North America, it is the sexual content. The cover of this little gem, Exposure of Luxury by Bronzino, was enough to make the censors want to go to work.

Anyone who loves wickedness, fun, wit or Vargas Llosa with fall in love with this book at the drop of a...stepmother.

This book has so much beauty and sheer writing virtuosity that it must stand separate and alone. Like the Chaconne, or the suites for unaccompanied cello, or Shakespeare's sonnets, this book takes your breath away.

An integral part of the narrative are the six paintings (handsome reproductions of world art by Fra Angelico and Francis Bacon, among others) which are woven as counterpoint to the storyline. Nowhere in literature does one encounter such a masterful and extraordinary melding of two art forms: it produces a delectable, erotic, and frightening little masterpiece.

It is a story of lust, love, revenge, of Eros, of sexual awakening, and of the punctilious attention to one's body parts. It can be spiritual or gross, refined or vulgar, hilarious or tragic, depending on who you are, how you look at it, and the mood you are in. Every time I have read it (five, so far) it has again shocked, and delighted and made me humble by the sheer force of its beauty. The flawless translation by Helen Lane detracts not one iota from the Spanish original. Of course you should read it.

Where did he grow up?How many points does he average a game?These are just two of the many questions answered in the book all about Kobe Bryant in the new biography "The Air Apparent Kobe" by Joe Layden. You will find out the history of Kobe by Joe Layden like how he scores an average of 50 points a game and grew up in Philidelphia.When he was three years old Kobe put on an old clippers jersey worn by his dad and dribbled a foam ball around practicing every move he learned from watching his dad play and from then on Kobe's mother knew he would have plenty of basketball talent. In his teens Kobe started playing basketball on his highschool basketball team and from then to the Philidelphia 76er's where he scored an average of 42 points a game.The Air Apparent Kobe also tells the lifestory of Kobe's father like how he played on the Philidelphia 76er's before Kobe did. After the Philidelphia 76er's Kobe had a chance to go to North Carolina or even Duke to show off his talent,but instead he chose to go to the Los Angeles Lakers where he is now "a star" and scores 50-60 points a game.Kobe went for a record that had never been broken,but failed by only making 42 points when the record was 50.4 points.I would give this book 5 stars because I think Joe Layden did a very good job telling Kobe's life story. If you would like to know about Kobe's whole life story check out the book by Joe Layden "The Air Apparent Kobe."

Kobe Bryant had a very interesting life. My favorite team is the Lakers. Kobe even knows fluent Italian because he lived there.

"The Story of the NBA's Rising Young Star Kobe Bryant" great for Lakers' fans. If you like basketball you will like this nonfiction book. Joseph Layden .I thought that the book was very easy to read and young children could read it by themselves. In my mind he is the best player ever. It the best book I ever read. I like the book, because I like to play basketball too.
In the beginning of the book it talks about his father and mother how they met each other. The book talked a bit about his family and also where he attend at school. I like the book, because you can image in your mind what it is talking about, and you can learn a little bit of vocabulary.
The setting of the book is in Philadelphia and also in Los Angeles. The author wrote the book very well, because it gives a lot of important information, it the best book I ever read. I like the book, because I like to play basketball too. I want to read more byJoseph Laden.
I want to recommend to book to people that like the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant and who like to play basketball. The book makes you think that you could be a great basketball player like Kobe, if you keep on practicing. I would recommend this book to grade school and also high school students.

The rise of department store culture in late 19th century Paris is the subject of this wonderful novel. It's quintessential Zola, in that the book is a top-notch combination of realistic writing and soap opera. Like other classics by Zola - "L'Assomoir," "Germinal" - "The Ladies Paradise" uses a somewhat overheated storyline to comment on social change and how a rapacious capitalism changed the lives of everyone it touched. The novel is especially poignant in its depiction of small, family-owned businesses which are eventually destroyed by the kind of modern marketing techniques that created the department store. A real page-turner, "The Ladies Paradise" works as both exceptional trash novel and social critique. Zola is a real genius and this, one of his more obscure works, is also one of his best.

"The Ladies Paradise" or "Au Bonheur des Dames" is the continuation of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. The series' purpose, according to Zola, is to study how environment effects the character of one family line. Three "environments" have appeared in Zola's work: the first is the idyllic countryside, the second is the harsh countryside, and the third is Paris--the city. "Au Bonheur des Dames" is situated in the third of the "environments", Paris.

From his previous works, Paris is already known for its potential as a corruptionist of morality and goodness. Thus, the heroine already is facing an insurmountable task of remaining adverse to Paris' degradation of moral values. She is the ultimate martyr: her sacrifices to her younger brothers seem endless. She scrapes money together to have the youngest in a boarding house for children, and always manage to find money (even in desperate times)to give to the other spendthrift brother. All of these sacrifices she did out of love.

With such heart and of such noble spirit, she enters Paris. She is struck by the first sight she sees in Paris. A gigantic structure has swallowed an entire block of old and fading smaller stores. She is astounded, awed, and fascinated by it. Her loyalty is divided between her Uncle's small clothier and her fascination and desire to work in the store.

"Au Bonheur des Dames" has two stories: (1) the spread of the popularity of department stores and the death of smaller family owned stores in "modern" Paris, and (2) the noble heroine. Will the heroine be crushed by Paris and swallowed up by the department store? Will her nobler spirit defeat all the odds that have been predestined to be against her?

The most surprising event I find was that I did not have to answer with pessimism about "Au Bonheur des Dames". The usual gloom and sense of helplessness and resignation of being human did not reverberate in this novel. Yes, the department thrives and therefore consumed all the "moms and pops" stores along its path, but our heroine conquers that depraved city Paris with her courage, innocence, and nobility.

What a truly remarkable book, as all of Zola's magnificent work. I find this book different from any of the series, because there is more than a sense of hope for humanity in our struggle against corruption, against technological advancement, and our own weakness of spirit.

With his Rougon-Macquart series, Emile Zola established the family saga. He put into naturalistic prose and photographic narrative the tales of a family and how their lives are affected by their surroundings. In L'Assomoir, he focused on the lives of the Provencals, those who live in the French countryside, whose lives may appear peaceful and orderly but might not be at a closer look. In Nana, he wrote about the world of the courtesan or high class prostitute operating in the beauty and sex-obscessed French culture of Paris. In "Au Bonheur Des Dames" (The Lady's Paradise) Zola exposes the capitalism and consumer culture of fashion, as expressed in the sales at the department stores.

It was the time of Karl Marx, a time when conservative elements came into conflict with those of individual expression and equal rights. Previously, Emile Zola's novels were bleak, Dickensian and depressing, making a cynical social commentary that progress and idealism is stifled under staunch older generations of Republican power (in this case the French Second Empire under Louis Napoleon III). He conveyed so much pain and suffering in "Germinal" about the coal mine workers in rural France. Like John Steinbeck of the 19th century, Emile Zola immersed himself in what he wrote, treating people as humanly real as possible, touching a chord to so many for his unabashed truths.

In The Ladies Paradise (the title refers to the name of the high class department store in downtown Paris), Zola portrays the fetish and profitable business of women's fashion. Octave Mouret, who at fist comes off as a money-loving, greedy, corporate seducer learns the value of progress and the rights of the individual. Where as he had always dominated women, manipulating them to buy his endless carrousel of hats, silks, gowns and shoes, he cannot win the affections of the newcomer sales girls Denise.

Denis eyes become our eyes as we see into the sexist world of consumer capitalism. Even today, this holds true. Women are encouraged, enforced and expected to be beautiful and attractive, with 0 size dresses, with fashionable tastes and so forth. Those who cannot meet society's self-imposed ideals of beauty crack under the pressure, becoming anorexic, anxious and sick. Super models, department stores, fashion magazines and the latest trends to look like Britney Spears (and behave just as shallow and air-headed) is the way to happiness they say. Emile Zola completely transports you to Paris of the 1870's and 1880's a time when the world seemed to be losing its better values. Is it still losing its values ? Only through advocating women's rights, individual expression, equality, and less stifling elements in society are we truly to be happy.

I must admit that this book didn't pick my interest when I started reading it in My Spanish AP class in high school. Now after reading it I have to say that this book is wonderfully written and very educational.
Marianela is a girl who lives in The Mines of Socartes, she is the guide of a rich boy who suffers fom blindness Pablo. I loved Marianela's character since the first pages, she is so full of life, so innocent. All her life she lived out of the pity of others but it didn't matter to her. Pablo "said" he loved her and she lived in this illusion where she thought that she would finally be loved and not criticized by her looks.
Then, everything changed when Teodoro Golfin, a miracle doctor gave Pablo his sight. That's when everything changed. When Pablo saw what Marianela really looked like, he just started treating her horribly. Where did all his love go? I have to say that by the end of the book I hated Pablo with a passion. How can someone be so cynical as to tell a person how beautiful she is without really seeing the exterior appearance and then being disgusted by what he sees when he looks at how that person really looks? Sadly that's what happens with Pablo and it would have been better if he had stay blind.
This book bring some things that are really important. True beauty is on the inside, never judge someone by their exterior appearace because you might be surprised. True beauty is not something that you can see or touch, beauty has to be felt.
I highly recomend this book, it will touch your heart I promise

Pablo, a rich blind boy is madly in love with poor Marianela. Things go smooth until renowned Doctor Teodoro Golfín offers to cure up Pablo's eyes. Marianela, who thinks she is ugly is afraid that when he starts seeing, he'll see how ugly(on the surface) she really is. Her fears are confirmed when he falls for his beautiful cousin Florentina, who doesn't treat Marianela too well. She is so attached to Pablo that if she doesn't look beautiful for him, she won't be any use to him. A very destructive point of view which she sticks to. It's a tragic ending but it's common in most Spanish-language stories.

Seeing as though I couldn't get the real Marianela quickly, this one suited quite well, perhaps even better. I had to write a paper on it and the simplified language made mush easier to understand.

Perhaps I am biased. Mayhap I am gushing. I don't mind- I have read a good couple thousand books in my lifetime, and I have reviewed a few dozen for Amazon.com. Yet this is the one I keep coming back to read, year after year. As time goes by I find myself revising the scale of Mencken's achievement upwards and upwards, especially knowing that the only comparison is to other mere mortal writers.

What makes this book brilliant is its terse structure- it is fragmented and in short pieces, and this produces his intense compact wit in wave after wave of the finest observations and thoughts to come out of mortal man since Tom Sawyer. A Mencken Chrestomathy utterly fails to do badly at every turn.

If you have glanced at this book, and have even a tiny thought at not buying at least two copies, shoot yourself in the foot for punishment, then go buy a dozen copies and pass them out to your superior friends as rewards for their sagacity and charm and as a reward for their loyalty. But if you have little humanity and wish to punish a friend or make their lives more miserable, do not tell them of this book, and leave it right where it is.

I give no book this high a regard. But I give this one my complete, unconditional support. If you have the means, I suggest buying a thousand copies and distributing it among the hungry of mind for the wonderful elixer of an effect Mencken has upon the mind.

The only thing bad about this book is the covers are too close together.

This book, like all of Mencken's writings, is a lesson in delivering devastating criticism in the form of highly literate and beautifully flowing prose. It helps, of course, to be able to side with the author on his opinions, but is no impediment to enjoyment if you can't -- unless, I presume, you're one of his targets. Basically, no one writes like this anymore. Many believe that if you're going to insult people, crass and vulgar expression is the way to go. Mencken not only shows a better way, but demonstrates the level of intelligence necessary for harsh criticism to have an impact -- it's very difficult to fault someone with such obvious gifts. It also helps to have a dictionary to hand while you're reading, preferably a large and perhaps old one. Mine doesn't have "buncombe" in it, although the way it's used leaves little doubt as to what's meant. Also, the sheer variety of subject matter both here and in the Second Mencken Chrestomathy allows you to jump around freely. I couldn't find a duff article in either book, whether I agreed with his opinions or not, and I couldn't possibly recommend it any higher.

This book changed my life. It is the first of the dozen or so books that I have read by Mencken, but still my favorite. Mencken has opened up a whole new world for me. His irreverent debunking of favorite quacks have prompted me to look anew at a few of my own. His incredible knowledge of the English language has raised the standards I expect others to meet, not a little. And my vicarious contact with his world has made me work to improve my own.

Mencken, I am convinced, was a genius whose writings will live long even into the next century. His writing is the only one that I feel compelled to read aloud to my wife, arms raised in excitement and for emphasis, daring her to contradict the glory of his prose.

What contemporary American writer can match his mastery? I've read a lot, but I can't give even an approximation. His style is elegant, distinctively American, and a joy to read. Something like listening to a singer who you know has an absolute control of her material, a voice that does exactly what she intends, and the aesthetic sense of an angel.