literature

Hi, my name is Seth. I own the book Draw Cars. It's the best book I've ever read on art. Doug Dubosque makes drawing very complicated cars very easy!!! If you like drawing and you also like cars, this is the book for you!

This book is very well done. I searched for a book that wasn't "cartoonish" and I found it. I'm going to school for automotive engineering and I wanted to learn how to sketch concept cars quickly, and this book showed me how.

I dont like to read...so this book was great for the pictures and concise explainations. Again, a very well done book!

Great book, i drew almost all the carws in it and some on the way to my vacation in south carolina. it teaches you the basics on how cars are drawn by the format they give you its easy, my freind got the hang of it in 20 min! its worth your buy. you get a format for: BMW, Porche, Mercades, and all other brands like Corvette, Audi, etc.

Spent a whole evening on the porch with this fine book. Jen Hill has chosen a wonderful range of writing about birds and the people who watch them. The introduction and the selections on bird behavior were especially fascinating. As a bonus this book will make you laugh. The perfect gift for every birdwatcher and nature lover.

This book offers a wonderful look at the historical roots of bird watching. How refreshing to read truly emotional responses to the experience of learning about birds through observation. The wonderful blend of writings underscores the universality and agelessness of the sport.

This book is perfect for short reads -- great to pick up for a moment, either to refresh oneself or to share with a friend. It is a perfect gift for any bird lover -- I have purchased 6 copies to date!

This survey of the literature surrounding birdwatching gathers together some of the most intriguing writings under one cover, exploring the literary side of the observations of Muir, Audubon, and others. These take the form of paragraphs of information which explore sightings and bird ecology.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I bought this book, but it turned out to be pretty interesting. I had no idea that Mr. Wood had been acting for so long, and had accomplished so much. Certainly by comparison to DiCaprio, Wood has shown much greater breadth and range of acting. A lot of the book was predictible, [...] but it did cover the basics--biography, filmography, pictures, and trivia. Hopefully this won't be the last book written about this talented young actor!

This book was really outstanding because it gave me, an inquiring teen, the little tidbits that my everyday life depends on. I like to know at least a little bit about each star that I admire, and before I bought and read this book, I knew very little. Now I know a whole lot about a lot of aspects of Elijah's life. This book made my likeness of him grow to a love for this talented, very attractive, young actor.

I am a huge fan of Elijah Wood so for me this book wasbrilliant. I got to learn more about Elijah and see more of him.Even if you are not a big fan this book is great because it is really interesting to read about a celebraity and their success. END

This book is an exploration and attempted explanation of how white Anglo-Saxon Protestants fell from grace through American history. E. Digby Baltzell's "The Protestant Establishment" was a drier, more social scientific survey made decades ago. Nelson Aldrich's "Old Money" was, like Frazier's "Family", a more personal account, but dealt with the very rich of the East Coast. In "Family" you can follow the history of several WASP families that lead to Frazier's nuclear family. The various Frazier forebears went from being biggish to medium-size fish in the small bowl of 19th century Ohio to typical middle-class suburbanites in the mid- to late 20th century. I watched this steady dimunition with more empathy than I thought I would feel.

Frazier's style is almost telegraphic through certain passages where each consecutive sentence includes a story in miniature about some member of the family during a particular historical time-slice. For the most part this works as a way of imparting a lot of information in a condensed package and suggesting much more than is actually told.

The chapters of the book that I found the least interesting were those concerning the Civil War. Two of Frazier's Wickham ancestors happened to be participants in several pivotal battles, most notably Chancellorville. Frazier devotes a great many pages to Stonewall Jackson because the Confederate general's deathbed words ("Let us cross the river and find rest in the shade of the trees") come to represent the most important theme in American history for Frazier. He makes a case for the hypothesis that a belief in salvation and a promised land were the organizing principle for his ancestors and the gradual dimunition of that faith is at the root of our collective modern malaise. It seems like a hypothesis worth fleshing out, although not by supplying so many details about several Civil War battles.

I've been thinking about this, and I've decided this is my favorite book, at least my favorite that I have read in the past 5 or 10 years.

It's pretty hard to say why, but let me give it a shot: the way his writing conveys his affection for his near family and his ancestors without losing his sense of humour about them. (Ian Frazier started out as a humor writer.) His beautiful descriptions of the countryside he travels through, country you might otherwise think was much worth looking at. His wonderful details about his family history make you feel like everyone's family is important.

Since I first read this book, I have developed a true genealogy fixation, trying to recapture the feeling Frazier invokes in this wonderful book. I wish he would write more.

Frazier's gifts as a writer shine in this climb through his family tree. Deadpan, folksy, soulful, urbane, Frazier captures the complexities of his family's unique history within the context of our country's history. Lots of real people and their small eccentricities. The negative editorial reviews reflect a collective missing of the boat. "On the Rez" is another great Frazier book.

Muriel Spark is a writer's writer. Don't miss this quirky book with unforgettable characters that come together in a boarding house in odd and touching ways.
By turns hilarious, witty, sarcastic, and wryly endearing, it's a masterpiece.

Mrs. Hawkins, the narrator of A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON constantly offers the reader her advice. I can't hope to match her hilarious (and in the end, thought-provoking) precepts, but I humbly offer this: my advice is to read this book.

Muriel Spark playfully and skillfully manages the plot, characters, and voice here--her sound moral sense underpinning the entire structure, and her sense of fun keeping the reader engrossed. A (literally, as usual with Spark) devilish scheme by a literary fraud is the driving force behind Mrs. Hawkins' narrative, but the evil isn't allowed to take the book over, and it certainly isn't enough to daunt the narrator.

Indeed, her repeated dismissal of the plotter is one of the most enjoyable running jokes I've ever encountered, and is only improved in its humor by its fundamental truth. A FAR CRY FROM KENSINGTON is wise and witty and not a page too long.

In a novel narrated by a character who believes it her life mission to dispense advice, author Muriel Spark has her counsel a would-be writer to imagine confiding in a letter to a personal friend and to write the story that way. Spark has followed her own advice and it works delightfully. The best part of her approach is that she puts out some dramatic irony so that the reader is not just a passive listener accepting of everything the narrator asserts but is aware that not quite all of her advice, nor her assessment of herself, is always on target. There is a sly wit and spot-on social observations in full bloom here.

This is the story of a woman told looking back to 30 years before, to 1954, to a rooming house in Kensington, London, a far cry from her present circumstances. In 1954, she is "Mrs. Hawkins," no first name, with the heft of a zaftig figure and the tragedy of being a war widow. Everyone knows who she is though she does not always know them in return; she is expected, she believes, to hand out advice, to take care of others, and commensurate with this station in life, she is a mid-level editor in publishing. She has lots of plates twirling on sticks: her world at the rooming house, her job, herself. Then along comes Hector Bartlett who embodies what she hates the most: an ambitious but grossly untalented writer, a sycophant. The upright Mrs. Hawkins, loyal to the truth as she sees it, nails him with a particularly appropriate French vulgarism that becomes a refrain for her has he periodically intrudes on her life, a vulgarism that keeps costing her jobs. Because of Hector, her story becomes a series of reversals, from the tragic to the comic.

There are many characters, many amusing episodes, many trenchant observations going on in this book. I've been debating about how many stars to award only because Spark has outdone this book with others, including the recent REALITY AND DREAMS and the not-so-recent THE GIRLS OF SLENDER MEANS. What the heck, I'll give it 5. I wasn't disappointed in the least.

The book "Dorothy and the Wizard of OZ," is a great book,and should be recommended for anyone who likes to read. It starts out when Dorothy and Zeb are riding in a buggy, and then this huge earthquake comes, causing a big crack in the earth to form. they fall inside the earth, and end up landing in what we know as "munchkin City", but in the book it is called "The Glass City". They meet the munchkins, and then take off for the wizard. They get there, and then this sorcerer comes out, and starts talking them, as he turns into a funny looking thorny man. the wizard finds the sorcerer and cuts him in half. They take the cut in half sorcerer, and barry him in the vegetable garden. The prince of the vegetable kingdom, tells Dorothy to go and find him a princess. So she does. One night while the wizard and Dorothy are sleeping, they get a visit from the evil Mangaboos. They wernt goin to let them go, but then they did. They then went through a mountain, and came put on the other side, which was the Mangaboos's kingdom. While they were there, they ran into a man they called The Braided Man of Pyramid Mountain. The man then lead them to the Wooden gargoyles. They then made a great escape from them. After a few more stunts took place, all the old friends reunited. The wizard then did another trick, and then Zeb went back to the ranch, and after Dorothy gave them a kiss, and said goodbye, she was gone in a madder of seconds.

In this book the three main characters are, Dorothy, the wizard, adn Zeb. Dorothy was a little girl, who liked to take risk, and liked to have fun, but be careful about it at the same time. In this book, she was about eleven years old, she had blonde hair, and wore a shirt little white dress. instead of a dog, she onwned a cat named Eureka. The cat isn't mentioned very much, until the very end. Zeb is Dorothy's cousin, and he is pretty quite during the book. He is mentioned, and helps take care od buisness, and helps them get out of situations when they are in danger, or are trapped by somebody bad. In this book he is about thirteen, or so and does not talk very much. The wizard is very very talkitive. He likes to help people through times, and he likes to be in charge over everything. He knows alot about the land, and what is there, and what can happen. He is about in his fortys, but still is a great wizard, he helped out Dorothy from the funny looking thorney sorcerer by cutting him in half. In my opinion I think this book is really good, but can get a little confussing. So you have to pay atention to all of it, and read it when your not buissy, other wise it wont make any since.

I think Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is a exciteing book which is funny and intresting in a lot of ways.I read all the Oz books but I think this one is one of his best!I definetly rate this a 5 star book! From Hallie McPherson

While all of Baum's books are great, overall I think this was the one that I enjoyed the most. Like the very first book, the plot is simple. Dorothy gets pulled into a magical world against her will, and she wants to get home. She then goes through a series of adventures trying to achieve her goal. Although the book has "In Oz" in the title, Dorothy and the Wizard spend very little time actually in Oz. But don't let this put you off. The underground lands that they pass through are every bit as exciting and magical as the different lands actually in Oz. The ending (how they escape the underground world) is a bit weak, but the imaginative countries that they pass through and the adventures they have in each more than make up for this. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is a book that you will want to start reading again as soon as you finish, but don't. Go on to the next Oz book and then the next. While I believe that this was the best of the 14 original books in the series, they are all wonderful and I would recommend that everyone read the entire series from beginning to end. And then try the books written by some of the other authors. While none are as inspired as those written by Baum, many of them are very good.

And if you've read all the Oz books and are looking for other titles that are just as magical and just as inspired, try the Chronicles of Narnia, King Fortis the Brave or Abarat. All will introduce you to other magical worlds that are every bit as fun to visit as Oz.

Andre Brink,a white South African novelist, indicts the murderous intent of the apartheid system and how one man with his whole life invested in it finally comes to realize the true nature of the system after his black worker is killed. He shows us how once the truth is exposed this man's whole life is dramatically changed and profiles his struggles in tyring to confront the state apparatus. This story is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the political and racial climate of pre-Independence South Africa and the social dynamics that conspired to maintain the status quo of the day

André Brink's novel, A Dry White Season, is a captivating, yet realistic tale about the unfair treatment of blacks in Johannesburg, South Africa. I found it to be an excellent read because of how Brink is in touch with reality. He has his readers ponder a true-to-life question, an ongoing question about racism. Ben Du Toit, the protagonist, finds the deaths of his African-American friend, Gordon Ngubene, and Gordon's son, Jonathan, to be unusual. Both deaths appeared to be caused and covered up by the government. Ben spends his entire life in hopes of uncovering the truth behind these two mysterious deaths. Were they treated unjustly because they were black? This is the question that Ben solves throughout the novel and unfortunately, his quest draws him away from his family and friends. In the end, Ben, living in complete isolation and sadness, discovers that his country is unfair. He triumphs, however, because he is no longer ignorant of his country's behavior. This novel relates to us because we are well aware of racism and injustice. It is very true that Ben's family would leave him if he did not spend time with them. Brink did not falsify the truth with a happy ending but instead allowed the reader to feel Ben's loneliness.

i read this while i was a high school student and i can honestly say it has been one of the few books that have made an impact on the way i view society. read it! you'll love it!

The "Edge of Sadness" reflects the lives of a family and a recovering alcoholic priest in a undetermined New England city. (Personally I think it's O'Connor's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island.) The priest, Hugh Kennedy, reconnects with a family he knew well before his alcoholism forced him to leave his parish. The patriarch, a conniving man in his eighties, invites Kennedy to a party celebrating his alleged eighty-second birthday. (He's actually eighty-one.) O'Connor masterfully portrays the family during the celebration. Over time Kennedy draws closer to the patriarch and his eldest son, an old friend of Kennedy's. O'Connor also sharply portrays the varied characters in Kennedy's new parish, an old, decaying church in a slum of the unnamed city. O'Connor deftly weaves the tale of Father Kennedy with the unexpected trials and tribulations facing the family. This is a worthy book. It won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize in fiction; O'Connor was the first Irish-American writer to win this prize.

Edwin O'Connor is truly a wordsmith. He takes the reader into the thoughtful world of Father Kennedy, and by the end of the book each character is known and cherished for his or her own individuality. O'Connor recognizes that everyone has redeeming characteristics - the oafish curate is an example of someone who earns our respect for his unflinching honesty and loyalty. I was deeply touched by several characters and their deceptively simple presentation by O'Connor. This is a book that will stay with the reader - its values are timeless.

Every now and again I'm asked to list the 5 best books I've ever read. My list always starts with The Edge of Sadness. O'Connor's story is simple, but beautiful. Most readers will relate to it on some level and will have a better appreciation and understanding of the people in their lives who "are" O'Connor's characters. Don't be surprised if this book has a subtle yet profound effect on the way you perceive and interact with the people in your life. You will most likely understand them and their lonely struggles much better. This book will stay on your bookshelf for many years to come and you will undoubtedly return to its pages often.

This is an excellent compilation of good monochrome nude photography containing pictures of all the well known names in the field.

The quality and format of the book is very good and is a pleasure to read and page trough.

Some of the images find you looking for books made by the specific photographer...and there is the slight disappointment, I wish the makers of "Eros" could have had the insight to list photo art books by the authors of the great plates.

The black and white Photos are truly art, and the poetry is well suited to the photos. This is an adult book that stays where I can share it with my friends who enjoy beautiful art and poetry. This erotica is tastefully done and I am sorry that this book is no longer available it makes a great gift for special friends.

These are the most wonderful nude photographs imaginable. They are not as shocking as the Mapplethorpe photographs but they are as artistic and as sensuous as his are. Unfortunately, you have to buy your copy used. That's the way I had to buy mine. I have bought many other nude photography books new but, except for Mapplethorpe's work, none of them are as good as this book. I spent a small fortune on photographer David Hamilton's book new, for example, and I look in Hamilton's book one tenth of the time I look inside this book. This book contains both nude men and women plus couples. You can't go wrong buying this book. Get it while you can as my experience with great out of print books is that the price skyrockets before long.

I'm a Russian Language and Literature major in Yonsei Univ. in Korea. Having lived in Moscow for around 3 years, I'd heard there a lot about Pushkin and read many of his famous works. The most prestigious of his, however, must be "Onegin." It's a great mixture of verse and prose in its form. If possible, try to read this in Russian, as well. This long poetical prose was written for 8 years and the ending rhyme perfectly matches for the entire line until the very end. Compared to others, it is definitely a conspicuous and brilliant one. "Onegin" can be the author himself or yourself. The love between Onegin and TaTyana is neither the cheap kind of love that often appears in any books nor the tragic one that is intended to squeze your tears. As a literature, this book covers not only love between passionate youth, but also a large range of literary works in it, which can tell us about the contemporary literature current and its atmosphere. Calling Onegin "My friend", Pushkin, the author, shows the probability and likelihood of the work. Finally, I'm just sorry that the title has been changed into English. The original name must be "Yevgeni Onegin(¬¦¬Ó¬Ô¬Ö¬ß¬Ú¬Û ¬°¬ß¬Ö¬Ô¬Ú¬ß)." If you are a literature major or intersted in it, I'd like to recommand you read this. You can't help but loving the two lovers and may reread it, especially the two correspondences through a long period of time. Only with readng this book, you'll also learn a huge area of the contemporary literature of the 19th century from the books mentioned in "Onegin" that take part as its subtext. Enjoy yourself!

Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's favorite among all his works, and although it seems to take a back seat to some of the great late-19th century Russian novels among western readers, Russians themselves tend to prize it above all other works of their country's literature. In case you're not familiar with the story, it deals mainly with two of the title character's ill-fated relationships: one with his friend and neighbor Vladimir Lensky, which ends tragically due to a very unnecessary rivalry over Olga Larin; and the other with Olga's sister Tatyana, which never comes to fruition because Eugene initially rejects her, only to fall in love with her later. Interwoven among all this, Pushkin himself periodically appears to invoke his muse or to digress on such seemingly unrelated topics as his penchant for women's feet.

The work can't possibly be praised enough in a single review, and I won't try to do so; suffice it to say that Eugene's provincial boredom, Tatyana's passion, and Vladimir's poetic romanticism are all splendidly drawn, and many of Pushkin's digressions have justly become proverbs in his native land. Presumably much of the reason that the novel doesn't receive quite so much attention in the non-Russian speaking world is that, due to its verse structure (it consists of 14-line stanzas in iambic tetrameter with a consistent ababccddeffegg rhyme scheme), it's very hard to translate while still retaining both the meaning and the delightfully spirited rhythm of the original. Vladimir Nabokov asserted very emphatically back in the 1960s that any faithful translation would have to almost completely sacrifice the original's lyric quality, and Nabokov's translation is notoriously dull, if extremely adherent to Pushkin's exact meaning. Not speaking Russian, I haven't read the original, nor have I read any other translations than the one I'm reviewing, so I can't say for sure how it compares, but I can say that Falen's translation is extremely good. It adheres, for all intents and purposes, exactly to Pushkin's meter, and does so without any particularly awkward diction, resulting in an end-product that must at least approach the beauty of the Russian version. Some others seem to agree with me: in the preface to his own recent (1999) translation of Onegin, Douglas Hofstadter praises Falen's translation so highly that he has to spend a section explaining why he bothered with a translation when Falen had already done it so perfectly. While most bilingual readers would probably state that to call Falen's (or anybody else's) translation "perfect" would be a stretch, it is still a delightful work, and hopefully other English-speaking readers will acquire, as I have, a better appreciation of the beauty of Pushkin's greatest work as a result of it.

James Falen has offered his version of the Russian classic, and has captured both the meaning and the verse. The stanzas flow effortlessly in Falen's hands, it may very well be the best translation yet. Of course, Nabokov is not around to cast his judgement on it. He panned every other translation that had been printed and penned his own in prose, so as not to stray too far from original meaning. But, even he said it was no more than a crib, as what Puskin had achieved in Eugene Onegin was a restructuring of the Russian language, giving it a beauty few had thought it possessed.

Orlando Figes similarly noted that Onegin was the first truly Russian lyrical novel. Pushkin had forsaken the standard French and sought to find the words expressive enough to convey the contradictory nature of the Russian soul. The novel in verse ebbs and flows as Pushkin takes you from St. Petersburg to Moscow to the Russian countryside, weaving a charming tale with many fascinating asides. The texture is so rich and the characters so enduring that this lyrical novel has attained mythological status in Russian literature. No understanding of the subject is complete without having read Eugene Onegin.

But, if language is essential to understanding Onegin then any translation will ultimately come up short. However, Falen has shown great respect for the novel and its language, unlike Douglass Hofstadter's juvenile attempt to translate it. Falen offers copious endnotes and a fascinating introduction. He tips his hat to Nabokov and the others who have translated this novel in the past. The language Falen uses is modern, giving Onegin a freshness lacking in other translations.