literature

I need more stars.

J. California Cooper is one of the best authors of our time who doesn't receive the praise due to her. Her short stories are filled with colorful characters that keep you turning the pages. I'll read anything she releases. Ms. Cooper is in a class by herself. Much love and support to you. I can't wait for your next release.

J. California Cooper has a way of crafting a story that makes you feel as if you are sitting in the room with the characters as they go about their daily lives.

These stories make you actually FEEL what the characters are going through, and when the stories end, you feel like a friend has walked away.

I definitely recommend this book and any others by this author.

This book is a wonderful mosaic of characters, perspectives, and lifestyles. I've always seen Cooper's books in the store, but didn't pick one up until "The Matter is Life." I haven't been able to put the book down and am looking forward to picking up more of her short story collections.

Out of 200 books in my personal library on Christ's life, this would definately make my "top 5" list. Ken Gire writes so clearly and powerfully that at times I felt like I could smell and taste what was happening in Christ's life. Gire hooked my heart and my mind and my soul and left me closer to JESUS than ever before. GO BUY THIS BOOK NOW! What a blessing it will be to you. One more thing. If you have a friend or relative who is a believer and you want to touch their life forever, give them this book. I promise you, JESUS will touch them in a new place in their heart and soul that He never has before. God bless. Mike

This book has had a great inpact on the way I view scripture and mediate on the depth of God's Word. Ken Gire is a word artist making the life of Christ more vivid and powerful than I have been able to see before! I have bought 15 of these to give to everyone as a precious devotional gift! I also recommend Ken Gire's "The Reflective Life"!

This book is a wonderful way to experience incredible life of Jesus on earth. You feel like you are right in the crowd or one of his close disciples when he is speaking or performing a miracle. I have given away at least 6 copies of this book as gifts.

I used this book to help my daughter learn a multitude of words in English and ASL signs when she was *very* young. Now that she's a preschooler, we're looking at it again from the Spanish perspective. And even though I am fluent in Spanish, I learned a *lot* of very specific vocaublary from this book (the names of all different kinds of vehicles and tools, for instance). I would recommend this book not only for parents of very young children, but also for students of the Spanish language of *any* age, as a vocabulary builder. If I were teaching a high school language class, I would want to copy pages out of this book, blank out the names, and challenge students to label each picture. What a great resource!!

Nice photos, not cheaply put together. Very clear.

This is a wonderfully colorful and fun book. My newborn is going to love learning Spanish with this book, so will I! The photographs are of real things -- not drawings, so children can relate directly to the words and pictures. It is a large and sturdy hardcover so it will withstand tiny fingers turning from page to page. If you buy only one book to introduce the language to your youngster, make it this one.

I've read that book countless of times when I was a teenager, it still remains one of my absolute favorites up to the point that I can recite the plot to minute detail. It is one of these beautiful yet not sappy stories that transcends any cultural or national limits, grips your heart and does not let go. Odd as it is, I initially read a translation from Russian in Lithuania. Now, however, that I know quite a few Iranians quite well, I have to say that the book gives an unparalleled insight into Persian mentality.

I watched the TV series based on this book on Iranian TV when i was 3 or 4 years old. As another reviewer mentioned, this book and the TV show are part of Iranian culture now. Iranians usually take themselves very serious, but this book dares to make fun of the Iranian life. After the revolution, it was banned by the Islamic Republic. I even heard that one of the actors who played in the movie went to jail after the revolution because of a scene when his character makes fun of Islam! Ayatollah Khomeini and his entourage, who unfortunately are still ruling in Iran, had a very limited set of mind and they didn't understand what comedy means! But people still had the show on Video tape and and watched it. It was still great. It's a true Iranian classic!

My Uncle Napoleon is a hilarious examination of a part of Iranian society in the 1940's. The character development is the strongest aspect of the book and the situational comedy is also very good. I recently read A Confederacy of Dunces; these two novels share many qualities.

My Uncle Napoleon gives a portrayal of Iran that is very different from what is provided by the mainstream press. While the aristocratic characters belong to a place and time that is long gone, the mannerisms and character types satirized in the book are still present to some degree in many Iranians.

Read this book if you want a good laugh or a glimpse of Iranian culture you could not otherwise get.

This is one of the manga series of evangelion. I jsut bought the first 4 graphic novels. While reading this one, I was plesantly suprised to see that it showed many pictures of REI naked (at least topless). Wow was i shocked, but damn she has a nice body! I know many of you are horny, so this issue you may want to get.

This is vol. 3 of the Sadamoto adaptation of the Neon Geneis Evangelion manga. It is perfect for any fan of the anime series, but be warned, it is not a substitute for watching the show. Sadamoto did some interpreting of his own and everything is not the same as it was. Nonetheless, if you keep that in mind, this is an excellent buy.

This is one of the best manga I've ever read. It has excellent plot and character devlopement, and sucks you in completely. This particular volume is my personal favorite, because it's mostly about Rei Ayanami, my favorite character. She has got to be one of the best characters I've ever had the pleasure of reading about. Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of the best manga out there.

Eggerton successfully blends humor and tragedy in this, his debut novel. While weaving three sets of seemingly unrelated characters into one neat package, Eggerton takes the reader on an emotional ride of spiritual discovery. His characters are likeable, and the type that we, as readers, come to care about and share in their ups and downs. Altogether, a great read.

I picked up this book and could not put it down. It kept me up most of two nights. The stories of three very different characters whose lives intertwine in unexpected ways take us on a journey of the discovery of our true human nature, a God at work behind the scenes, and inverted expectations. A nice dose of magical realism in Marshall's character creates some delightful and poignant moments which are metaphors for how easily we delude ourselves about what we really believe. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good story.

This author is as aware of conflict and drama as he is of the magic of the rhythm in a sentence, and that makes for some beautiful reading.

Egerton's characters and his story are equally strong and thoughtful, and his unique sense of humour makes for a terrific navigator. The emotions of each character ring true, and each situation seems natural to identify with, no matter how bizarre or dreamlike.

This novel is a shiny pebble you want to keep in your pocket, its wisdom executed with style and skill. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys having their wet head wrapped in a big, soft, warm towel.

Este libro nos muestra el genio de Miguel de Unamuno. Su tecnica en crear Augusto Perez y su mundo es brillante. Niebla representa el elite de la prosa Espanola...Cada palabra ocupa su propio lugar y lo que resulta es una obra con pasion, humor, un lirismo hermoso, tragedia , y sabidura universal.

" Ni los recuerdos ni los suenos son tan efimeros como la NIEBLA"

This book deals with human emotions, thoughts and fears in a deep, meaningful and funny way. It has a little bit of everything, private conversations with God, the search for the true meaning of life, the quest to find an everlasting love, the fear of facing death, and the hardships that every single human faces during a lifetime.

I read it in Spanish, and I have to say it is one of the best written books I have read so far. Every single word is where it should be, and the story flows magnificently.
Although it deals with very serious topics, the story is simple, well written, funny, easy to read and with a very unexpected twist at the end...

It simply belongs to a class of its own.

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Niebla... es un libro maravilloso, que toca temas muy profundos y valiosos para cualquier ser humano, de una manera unica, original e incluso graciosa.
Incluye conversaciones privadas con Dios, la busqueda incanzable por encontrar el verdadero significado de la vida, la necesidad de encontrar el amor, el miedo a la muerte.... en fin.... un poco de todo, y sin embargo la historia es simple, facil de seguir, divertida y con un personaje principal con el que cualquiera puede identificarse.

Definitivamente uno de los mejores libros que he leido... Unamuno tiene una manera unica de escribir y de mantener al lector interesado a lo largo de toda la historia.

The book is absolutely wonderful. It is funny as well as powerful. Unamuno effectively uses the construct of the book to criticize aspects of Spanish society.

this book is ok...that's about as far as i would go. there were some interesting quirks but i felt this was all too shallow.
it did provide some interesting cocktail banter and it does give value for money.
you'll finish it within half an hour and forget it under your bed.

This book is both a useful resource and an enjoyable way to past a rainy day. Ideal for all age groups - preteens will love learning about 'famous' mistakes - teens will get interested in thinking of ones left out of the book and adults we be amazed.
Overall fun book.

My mom always told me that you can't make anything if you can't make mistakes. This book proves the point aptly, highlighting several mistakes that turned into common and often-loved inventions (chocolate chip cookies, Coca-Cola, the Slinky). This is an enlightening book to share with kids, encouraging them to realize that taking risks, learning to improvise and experiment is often the best way to learn, even if you don't end up creating something new and wonderful.

MOTEL CHRONICLES was recommended on a website devoted to journal writing. It is non-sequential and many of the entries have the shape of honed work but all the same it is a good example of a writer's sketchbook, one used for practice and inspiration. More importantly, it is a window on Shepard's frame of mind in the years immediately following the Pulitzer Prize for BURIED CHILD. The seeds of later works can be found in this book.

The entries swim back and forth from 1978 -1982, mapping the writer's peripatetic movement around the country, mostly in California and the west. It captures bits of his early identities, military childhood on the move, waiter, cowboy, actor, writer, friend, lover, husband, father. It is framed by portraits of being a child, the first entry is one of his earliest childhood memories in his mother's arms; the last is the adult caring for a mother felled by a brain aneurysm. This is no confessional or revealing autobiographical piece, however, just a writer at work pulling out inspiration from experience. Shepard is highly articulate, his portrayal of the contemporary west is priceless, and his poetry is not bad at all. The writing has an honest, non-star-turn quality to it.

One of my favorite collections of playwright-actor Sam Shepard (the others being CRUISING PARADISE and HAWK MOON). This is a collection of short stories, poetry, rants, observations, etc., from Shepard's own life. Each section is separated by date and city (though NOT in any particular order, as sections skip from the '70s to the '80s and back again to the '70s); my favorite is "9/24/80, San Francisco, Ca." (in my edition, pp. 43-46), a short story detailing a boy's train ride to his grandparents' home in Chicago, during which he meet a beautiful barefoot girl who looks like Tuesday Weld.

Some of the other stories in this collection formed the basis of Wim Wenders' 1984 film PARIS, TEXAS, which Shepard wrote, and which happens to be one of my all-time favorite films. MOTEL CHRONICLES would be a wonderful introduction to Sam Shepard; I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered about the desert, the road, and America (the beautiful & the ugly).

Ok, you haven't read this? Order it. NOW. Your life is not complete without this book. Sam Shepard is, simply, one of the very best living writers, right next to Cormac McCarthy, friends. This is a boo full of dreams, memories, travel, chance, and ghosts. Each sotry-poem will stick with you, often returning tot he front of your mind when you least ecpect it. Go on, dig in.

There are actually two versions of this book- an newer one with illustrations by Alan Tiegreen, who has been doing the illustrations for Beverly Cleary's books since the 70's, and the original, which had illustrations by George Porter. I guess Mr. Porter was the intermediate link between Tiegreen and Louis Darling, the illustrator of Mrs. Cleary's books in the 50's and early 60's. It's a matter of personal taste over which illustrations are better. I grew up reading the version with Mr. Porter's illustrations, which depicts the characters as definitely children of the 1960's. On the other hand, Mr. Tiegreen's depictions of Beverly Cleary's characters are less realistic looking, but because of their rather cartoony appearance are not as susceptible to looking as dated as those by Porter and Darling.

Beverly Cleary always took experiences from her own life to include in her books, but "Mitch & Amy" is probably the most personal of her fictional books. She, herself, was the mother of boy-girl twins and actually lived in the San Franisco setting of the book. Maybe because it was about two subjects so close to her real life, her twins and her adopted hometown, that she never did a follow-up story. Thus, "Mitch & Amy" is one of Mrs. Cleary's very few "stand-alone" books.

It's the story of a twin sister and brother, Amy and Mitchell, who live in San Francisco. Despite their shared birthday, they are seemingly exact opposites who constantly squabble with one another. However, deep-down there is a very strong bond between the two of them and each one truly understands the other. Sometimes they forget that bond. Yet when a bully targets each twin individually, the two of them bond together to help each other overcome this mutual menace.

This is a typical Cleary novel- told with her usual sense of humor and wonderful ability to capture what really matters to children. Regardless of whether the illustrations show Porter's 60's era children with their flat-top haircuts and short pants or Tiegreen's pug-nosed characters, most kids will probably enjoy reading about these two regular kids who just happen to be twins.

My b/g twins and I read this book together. They are soon to be 9 and the book describes the life of twins so well. Well we read this book I kept saying boy they sound like you two to my twins. This is a fun book to read. My twins would tell you it's a must have book.
We all know Beverly Clearly is an awesome writer and she wrote this book so well.

REVIEW- Mitch And Amy- Beverly Clearly- ISBN- 0-688-10807-5
"Being twins are harder then you think." Mitch and Amy said in unison. Trying to be able to win the argument over who got the bathroom this morning. I can believe it is. Mitch and Amy is one of my favorite books of all time. It has family life, twin arguments, and school issues. Over their summer vacation, Amy would brag on what page she is on, she knows Mitch has problems with reading. Then on the first day of fourth grade, Mitch brags about multiplication tests on the fist few days of school. Mitch knows Amy has problems with multiplication. , Mitch and Amy would often feel bad for each other.

I found this book tops because I can relate to it. Even though, my two little brothers, (5 and 7) equal one Mitch and my older (15) sister is another Mitch. I, unfortunately (13) am just one Amy. Only, just like Mitch and Amy, we do get along, sometimes. I do believe that it was a page-turner. I just had to know what Amy did at fights. So now when my two Mitches start a fight, like they always do, I will do just what Amy did. I would certainly say that the end of the chapters had a cliffhanger. Examples, "You'd be surprised, Amy." Amy went into her room and put "Mitchell was a pest," before drawing a skull with cross bones below it. Another ending was he did not want them to see him come with a broken skateboard and...