Fiction Literature Books

I was extremely disappointed in SULA, I had to force myself to read the entire book. I found it to be very boring.

I have read a lot of books, but this has to be one of the worst that I have ever read! I found it to be terribly slow and very hard to get interested in, not to mention that there are several parts that are downright offensive. Don't waste your time, there is much better reading out there!

Toni Morrison writes so well it just flows out, but the horror it leads to is both disturbing and unexpected.

Written in 1973, Toni Morrison's second novel explores themes of life, love, sex, and death, contrasting Sula Peace and Nel Wright, best friends from childhood who grow up to lead totally different adult lives. Living in the Bottom, an ironically named, poverty-stricken black community in the hills of Medallion, Ohio, Sula and Nel, opposites in personality, share their thoughts, feelings, and secrets, some of them of life-and-death importance. Part of a family with a long history of violence, Sula believes she owes nothing to anyone except herself, while Nel's strict mother imposes limits and insists on her adherence to social values.

Though Sula eventually escapes the Bottom in the 1920s to attend college and travel from Georgia to California, Michigan to Louisiana, she always does what is expedient, having no real values or ambitions, other than her own pleasure. When Sula returns to the Bottom in 1937, the stable Nel is a wife and mother trying to keep her family fed and clothed, a woman who no longer has anything in common with Sula, though she becomes Sula's innocent victim. Morrison develops Sula's character through her dysfunctional relationships and selfish actions, showing her connections to her family's past but never blaming it for her later abhorrent behavior.

The novel is a series of cycles and follows a circular structure, opening in 1965, as whites decide they want the Bottom land for golf courses and hilltop views and the blacks who have always lived there move to the valley with its more fertile land. The cyclical nature of life is also borne out in the lives of the characters, especially that of Sula, who escapes Bottom but returns inevitably to the community of her mother and grandmother. Racial segregation, accepted as a given, underlies all facets of the novel, but Morrison focuses on character here, avoiding polemics and creating a novel which manages to be tough but often darkly humorous, emotionally sensitive but often brutal, compassionate but realistic about human nature.

Rich with imagery and symbolism, the novel is also accessible and involving. Morrison creates characters with whom the reader identifies, even in Sula, who is a less than sympathetic protagonist; Shadrack, the shell-shocked war veteran who opens and closes the novel, wrings the heart even as he lives a life of absurdity. Filled with irony, intricate in structure, and well-developed in its themes, Sula is less complex than some of Morrison's later novels, but satisfying in its vividly drawn view of a struggling black community unified in its poverty. n Mary Whipple

Song of Solomon
Beloved
JazzThe Fiction Of Toni Morrison: Reading and Writing on Race, Culture, and IdentityConversations With Toni Morrison (Literary Conversations Series)

Morrison's writing style is unique and demanding - and most readers like it like that.

"Sula" is a simple story about complicated people which Morrison paints in terribly artful language. It is drama, it is insightful prose, and it is a great reading novel.

Bad versus good are the constant theme. Sula is theoretically bad. And, the starched personalities of the town in which they live, Medallion, are the good. But, at the very end, Sula's once best friend has an epiphany and seems to recognize that Sula is not bad, and that other's perceptions of her were wrong, terribly wrong. But, Sula is selfish. Most of the others are anything but. And, that divide creates many of the problems, and more.

Selfishness includes getting something others cannot obtain. Sula gets an education. Sula gets to travel. Sula gets her grandmother's money and does not need to work. Sula gets her grandmother's home - large. Her life is easy. She has it all. And, the others cannot see her doing anything constructive with it. And they are right. In fact, she can be outright destructive - but not necessarily by ill will. She is just too self absorbed.

Each chapter commences with a year - indicating the calendar year of the growth of the girls - Sula and Nel, Sula's best friend who later has the inconceivable violation by Sula separate them for the rest of their lives. Before their 1910 birth, we learn something about their respective parents and Sula's maniacal grandmother. And, along the way Medallion's other "far out" characters like Shadrack (whose eccentric January 3 annual suicide celebration reminds me of the strange idiosyncracies displayed by people of John Berendt's "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"(Modern Library)).

But, as you turn pages of this book, you learn these uncommon people in the common town of Medallion are people you would love to learn and learn to love. People like these characters are the bedrock of America.

Like Morrison's novels, this book includes more eye-opening accounts of the white man's cruelty to man with behavior that people today find hard to believe was countenanced by our forefathers. For example: trains had no bathrooms for blacks so they had to run to fields at certain stops and use leaves for paper; no blacks of Medallion were hired for construction which was located at their town; black people who ran through white cars would be threatened to be "red lighted" by conductors; black men would be arrested and beaten for matters which caused white women to commit torts upon other white women (car accident caused by jaywalker); and a drowned boy who floated down river would not be returned for three days because whites would not carry his corpse back the two miles until a ferry was available.

Depressing is something which is not uncommon in Morrison's novels, but being black in the wrong time in America's history may be more the cause of this result than Morrison's style or focus. And, the topics she addresses are serious topics which deserve to be aired, deserve to be read, and are honored to be written about by someone of her literary acclaim.

This is a very good book by a Nobel laureate - it is a must read.

In Athens, during the fifth century B.C., the Sophists were wise men. They were not philosophers, or scientists, they were itinerant teachers. Socrates was a moralist and a religious man. Plato was forty years younger than Socrates. THE APOLOGY and the CRITO are founded on fact, shaped by Plato's artistry, (he was a poet, also).

Socrates was indicted for impiety. A public action was brought against him as a menace to society. Orators and poets disliked Socrates's influence on the young. He asserted in THE APOLOGY that the true champion of justice must confine himself to private life. Socrates received the death penalty. He did not think he should stoop to servility because he was in danger.

Death is either annihilation or migration of the soul. Crito visited Socrates in prison. Crito urged him to escape. He claimed that Socrates was throwing away his life when he might save it. Socrates argued with Crito that he had no problem with the laws and, thus, he had a duty to be law-biding. Aiding Socrates's escape would be a breach of faith.

PHAEDO is the last conversation. Socrates believed a man should be cheerful in the face of death. A love of wisdom, not the body, makes a person cheerful. Soul resembles the divine, body resembles what is mortal. No soul which has not practiced philosophy may attain the divine nature. Pythagoreans have a theory of the soul. The soul is imperishable. Friends were admonished by Socrates to just be themselves. The philosopher faced death handily.

Amazing and wonderful, the three titles are a compelling work.

...a 2400 year old work of philosophy? The question, itself, is not without philosophic interest.

Rather than presume to judge Plato, or Socrates, or Plato-as-Socrates, I will simply add my own voice to the chorus of general opinion and say: TLDoS is as resonant and, in its way, relevant, today as it was so many aeons ago. Though hardly a work of unassailable logic it is, nonetheless, a deeply thoughtful, imaginative, and passionately argued one. As I made my way through it, I had to remind myself, from time to time, that what I had before me was a work of ancient literature. Tredennick and Tarrant are to be commended for their eminently readable translation. As I am not a classicist, I cannot speak to the quality of the translation, but if the quality of the endnotes serves as any indication, I would venture to guess that the translation is first-rate.

A very complex Socrates -- as remembered, as imagined, and perhaps also as invented -- emerges from the four dialogues in TSDoS. That this same Socrates still has power to reach across the ages to confound, inspire, frustrate, entertain, and teach is as sure a testament to his legacy, and to the legacy of classical Greek philosophy, as any.

Read and learn.

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES is a very inspiring book to read, especially now, when many of us may be facing the same situation he faced--though with a crucial difference. Whatever distortion of the real Socrates may have been introduced by Plato or other writers, enough comes through to paint a portrait of the first true individual in history-- the first person to be guided by his own individual conscience to do what is right, regardless of the consequences. Reading the Apology, one thrills to Socrates intransigence in the face of the Athenian jury which sentenced him to death. CRITO presents the best argument for government under law ever offered, and thus the beginning of the tradition of civil disobedience later taken up by Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. When Socrates' friend Crito urges him to flee, saying that most people will think he was really guilty if he does not, Socrates says, "Why should we pay so much attention to what most people think?" Then he engages in a symbolic dialogue with the Law of Athens, which can be thought of as comparable to the US Constitution. It is clear that he is grateful to the Laws for having given him the opportunity to be a dissenter. The crucial fact is that they have permitted him the right to attempt to persuade his fellow citizens by permitting him free speech. Even when he was arrested for his teachings, he was allowed to speak in his own defense. Although the verdict was unjust, he was a victim not of the Laws but of his fellow men. (p. 95)

However, the tradition of civil disobedience which Socrates founded is only meaningful in a democracy, where people have the right to dissent and to have a fair and public trial. And it is rapidly becoming obsolete. For on October 17, 2006, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act, initiating the gravest crisis in US history, not excepting the Civil War, Pearl Harbor, and 9/11 itself. Congress has had over a year to repeal or amend that act but has failed to do so. Now it is up for review by the Supreme Court. If that body, now nearly half-filled with "rubber stamp" justices, fails to strike down the law as unconstitutional we shall have to resort to a very different tradition than that of Socrates, one which has its roots in medieval England, and was transformed in the 17th century into John Locke's social contract theory. Jefferson expressed it in the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence: speaking of the American colonists, he wrote, "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them to absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security." Faced with the prospect of living in a society which would have made his dissenting individualism impossible, I'm sure Socrates would have agreed.

In this simply-organized compilation of Socratic Dialogues, I would offer that the way Penguin Classics presents them cannot be outdone. The playfully loquacious dialogues are pure-gold bricks of logic, and should therefore be cherished greatly. This book is easy to understand because there are endnotes on every page. Spanning the entirety of over 200 juicy pages, Harold Tarrant and Hugh Tredennick present The Last Days of Socrates to the reader in an easy to follow pattern of notes. These final works of Plato should not be thought of as poor entertainment, but rather highly intense and compelling Greek discussions. It is very well-done and should be read over and over again.



Although every Socratic dialogue is absolutely riddled with complacent people for Socrates to question, this collection actually reveals the largest variety of listeners. From crazy commoners to cynical and court-goers, a critical criminal and the crowd of conflicting friends, Socrates caught every category and class of character off guard. At first, the evidence that hints at Socrates' trial is a mere conviction and nothing more. He had been free then. He had boldly questioned commoners at the very steps to the courthouse that he would defend himself in later. This penniless philosopher inquired of many people during his spare time.



In this collection, the second and third dialogues are the ones that depict the powerful defense of Socrates using logic to its full extent. In brilliantly defending himself, Socrates caressed, persuaded, and rallied only just under half of the jury. Unfortunately, he had failed to win the jury over completely, but he had come so close. Sleeping in the cell that was later constructed for him, Socrates was aroused by Crito, a man who had been a believer in Socrates. The extent of the discussion is contained in the third dialogue titled Crito. Anyhow, the general public hated Socrates so much that only death would avenge their flaming lust for revenge. The second and third dialogues depict Socrates' infamous apologetics and must be read. That is not all, however.



In Phaedo, Socrates calmly awaited his own death by hemlock, in a full chamber of the courthouse. He first addressed his followers and comrades alike concerning the meaning of life. He wanted to reassure them that there was indeed life after death, and that he would be going to a better place. Before he drank the poison, however, Socrates spurred a discussion of the soul and its immortality, or at least as logic had presented it to him. (Of course he had to argue it.) When two of his followers timidly provided Socrates with their opposing views, he only smiled and destroyed each argument consecutively. This he did because he wanted to share his hopes with his friends and did not want them to doubt his reincarnation. Nobody could fight back tears as he took the poison and perished. Socrates' legend now carries from there on. In Phaedo, the philosopher convinced his pals that his soul had not been dying, but had rather been transcending.



I love how Penguin has organized these significant conversations. Socrates is much easier to comprehend because of this book. Socrates had been last heard saying, "Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Asclepius. (This is because Asclepius had been the god of pleasure.) See to it and don't forget." Buy this book. See to it and do not forget. When I purchased this book, which was in a used condition, it only cost two cents and has not disappointed me. Since it is known that Socrates is always welcome to thinkers, the price feels reduced even further for those who love logic. You will deprive yourself if you miss out on this intellectual classic of the Father of Greek philosophy.

Although many accounts of Socrates' trial are known to have existed for some time after the actual events described by Plato, only Plato's and Xenophon's accounts survive. Both writers were sympathetic to Socrates, and so are somewhat suspect as to whether they adequately and accurately describe the full nature of the charges against Socrates. Plato, a 27-year-old admirer of Socrates at the time of the trial, describes the charges as being impiety (questioning the state sanctioned [poly]theology) and, thereby supposedly corrupting the minds of Athens' youth. A similar charge had, years earlier, driven Anaxagoras from Athens, but many scholars believe there were probably other factors involved in the case against Socrates. Here we find an intractable mystery (and some unwarranted speculations that are merely libelous)*.

Plato's telling of Socrates' last days consists in four parts:
(1.) Euthyphro: Socrates in Action. (2.) The Apology: Socrates on Trial. (3.) Crito: Socrates in Prison. (4.) Phaedo: The Last Conversation.

Euthyphro, The Apology, and Crito are better paced and more interesting than Phaedo, which is a long Socratic argument that the soul must possess some extra-material existence, which continues, or is somehow renewed, beyond corporeal death. I suspect that most readers will enjoy the first three sections of this text, but find the last (and longest) more of a chore; at least that is my opinion. Throughout the text, Plato presents Socrates as a man of both relentless curiosity and an admirable ethical heroism.

* As to the rather facile side bar discussion that seems to have been present in earlier reviews in this forum (while noting the forensic evidence indicating that the worst of these comments was deleted): Given the full weight of the available evidence, Socrates' supposed bisexuality can add up to nothing more than idle speculation. As to his relationships with young men, it cannot be confirmed that they involved males that were considered to be below an age at which they could accountably assent--and even more importantly, IF any such relationships were of a sexual nature at all. Given the available accounts, arguments that these were NOT sexual relationships seem clearly more defensible than (slanderous?) accusations that they were. In other words, as regards this charge, we simply enter an arena of irresolvable facts and potential slander. Why go there?! What we CAN glean from the only extant accounts of Socrates' character is that he considered himself to be one who strove to consistently abide by the highest ethical standards, and that this is consistent with Plato's account here. As cited in Phaedo, these comments of Socrates' seem particularly relevant to this [particular slander]: ". . . true philosophers abstain from all bodily desires and withstand them and do not yield to them. . . those who care about their souls and do not subordinate them to the body dissociate themselves firmly from these others and refuse to accompany them on their haphazard journey; and, believing that it is wrong to oppose philosophy with her offer of liberation and purification, they turn and follow her wherever she leads."

This book was amazing. I'm only giving it 4 out of five stars because you need to be a fairly well read, a very literate person to understand and read, to truly enjoy the genius that Delillo portrays. It was wonderful. I found myself sad at parts, shocked at others, but mostly just incredibly interested at how Delillo is able to grab that part of life that we all see but don't acknowledge.

Starts off being funny in absurd and macabre ways with blended family, a Professor of Hitler studies and a would be Professor of Elvis and slowly transforms itself into a Kafkaesque nightmare. Much easier to read than his later novels and well worth the effort.

White Noise / 0-14-007702-2

White Noise, arguably Delillo's best work, carefully explores a world where consumerism has, almost literally, consumed us all, to the point where we become empty shells of people.

The extended family in the book have been reduced by consumerism to two-dimensional beings, dependent upon television and other cultural stimuli to tell them how to think and behave. Occasionally, they act out against this emptiness (or is it that a wire has been crossed in the brain?) with idiosyncrasies such as a pronounced preference for the smell of burnt toast, or a tendency to find frumpy jogging outfits attractive. On the weekends, they shop at the local supermarket, under the soporific thrall of the overhead neon lights.

When their consumer culture literally threatens to kill them, via a toxic waste spill on the town railroad, they are ill-prepared to respond and look to their customary authorities (television and radio) on how to react to the emergency. When fire trucks storm through town, broadcasting an evacuation notice, the mother wonders absently whether the evacuation is a suggestion or a command. And in the aftermath of the toxic cloud, even when many have died and many more have had their lives shortened by exposure to the poison, the town feels no outrage, only numbness that what is normally confined to the television news stories nevertheless happened in their idyllic town. Actors themselves, they practice emergency evacuations, determined to perform better "next time".

Despite the shallowness of their lives, they fear death. Some self-medicate with dangerous experimental drugs in an attempt to control that fear. Others take up death-defying hobbies in the hope that this will deaden their fear. They discuss which food preservatives will kill them, whether the phones lines will cause cancer, which yoga poses will prolong their lives, and how to squeeze every drop of life out of their lives. When a character points out how much energy is wasted in daily life (carrying things that don't need to be carried, making extra trips, etc.), another asks what would one do with all the saved energy. The answer: Live longer. In this way, Delillo paints a stunning and frightening portrait of a community that fears death yet has no love for life.

Turn your radio to AM and randomly switch from channel to channel. Record the snippets of call-in questions, sports reports, legal advice, and advertising slogans that follow. Read it as you would a story. It's disjointed, sure, but every once in awhile, you'll find a moment of transcendent brilliance. Like this book by Don DeLillo. He's taken nutrition labels, manufacturer specs, commercials, newscasts, popular music, history, religious polemics (I could go on) and woven his soundbytes into a story of a man and a woman who are terrified of death, a toxic cloud, speculation on the similarities between Elvis and Hitler, and ultimately, the question of meaning.

I can't believe how many negative reviews there are of this book here. Don't listen to these naysayers. This book is unbelievable! Not only is it written in an awe-inspiring prose, but it also has a lot to say. It is a very big book, considering the mere 326 pages of text.

This book reads like an epic, and is critical of media, consumer culture, the modern family unit, violence, fear of death, and probably a hell of a lot more.

An interesting quote from a Delillo interview: " I see contemporary violence as a kind of sardonic response to the promise of consumer fulfillment in America."

This is one of the few modern books to make it on Professor's reading lists throughout the country's campuses, which is saying a lot considering the names of postmodern sensibility- Pynchon, Kundera, Vonnegut, Erickson, Danielewski, McCarthy, etc.

This is the only Delillo book I have read, but I'm psyched to read the slew of others he has-- Libra, Underworld and Mao II, to name a few. Do yourself a favor and read this postmodern masterpiece. This is sure to be talked about in classrooms and coffeehouses for the next fifty years or so. Don't be afraid, accept its' chaos.

Can the tale of murder and cowardice and fatal pride be enjoyable? No. Can it be telling, instructive, and artful? Yes.
There are times--when guts are spilled and meanness revealed--this chronicle is difficult to read. But, human nature is sometimes difficult to stomach.
Thanks to Marquez's artistry, I have felt a local, visited a time, and experienced a culture foreign to me. And, at that local and time, I have seen my universal brothers act shamefully.

Cold blooded murder as Spanish honor... by twins with butcher knives.
A transplanted Arab who took a maiden's virtue, so that her husband took her back to her mother's house on their wedding night.
This novel is very well written so that you feel like you have been transported to a past time.
The Spanish male has two sets of morals: one for the public image
and the other for private life.
In a way the young Arab man met an end of his own making?
Death sentence for consenting sex is just not a very modern American attitude.

This was the first Marquez book I read when I was in my teens and it made me a fan. It also started a literary love affair with the South American writers. Having been raised with English, American, & Russina literature, magic realism opened my eyes to a new and different way of seeing/imagining the "underpinnings" of events. This is not Marquez's finest book, but it is certainly a great story and worth a read. Some of the other reviews mentioned that something was lost in translation, I don't remember what version I read, but it certainly captured my attention from the opening "death" until the inevitable conclusion/pay-off to the story. It is short enough to be read in an evening, so if you want a taste of Marquez this is a good place to start.

I fear the heart of this novel was lost in translation. Nothing in the book made me care about the characters, some of whom seemed less than believable. Motives were not entirely clear for actions taken. If I had not needed to read it for my book club, I would not have finished it.

I think this is an excellent book to start reading Marquez. The book is short enough to allow a hesitant reader to finish it and see the full effect of his work.

This is a great book...fun for both kids and adults. I love how the pages have cut outs that clue you in to the next page. Fun!

Great simple illustrations with bold colors - neat thinking - leaves age-old question unanswered, which does come first - chicken or the egg?

I love the book. I bought it for my son last Christmas, but it's a little too conceptual for a three year old. Still, it's beautiful. I'll try this out with him in a year.

A lovely book for young people, with die cut pages that explain some of life's mysteries in an age appropriate way.

Which came first--the chicken or the egg? Finally, someone is here to tell us. But the answer later.

"First the egg," written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, is a Caldecott honor winner for 2008 and an honor book for the Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) Award. What makes it special? Both the artwork and the story, or actually, in this case, concepts that lead from one transformation to the next. Two previous clever winners are Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book) by David Wiesner and Black and White, an earlier Caldecott by David Macauley.

I took this book from a display in our bi-annual Book Fair. I read it in just one minute. Then reread it. And reread it. Every time I pick up this seemingly simple book, I see something else I missed. Even the covers are part of the story. This book is more than clever--it is brilliant, as in illuminating.

Listen, here is the story. Get comfortable and let me read it to you:

First the EGG
then the CHICKEN
First the TADPOLE
then the FROG
First the SEED
then the FLOWER
First the CATERPILLAR
then the BUTTERFLY
First the WORD
then the STORY
First the PAINT
then the PICTURE, First the CHICKEN
then the EGG!

Well? Exactly! Without the bold colors and almost in-your-face images in the background, the words are fine, but...? A Caldecott Award is given to the most distinguished picture book of the year. Please look at the cover image with this review. That gives an idea of the power of the colors and paint technique, which is impasto on canvas, providing two layers of texture. That is what this book has--texture: layers of texture in the art and the concepts.

Art? A creative, bold enterprise that can make the chicken or the egg first. Think it, do it. Create. That is exactly what Ms Seeger did. She created a bold, creative way to examine this age-old riddle.

"First the egg" is highly recommended, not only for children, who will adore it, but also for adults, who will be reminded of the grandeur of creation in all its many forms. Great children's books belong in the collection of adults as well as in children's.

As a senior citizen and former New Yorker, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book after all these years
Although it takes place in the 1910-1920 era, there were many things that came to my memory ( or what's left of it! )
I did a lot of reminiscing.
I highly recomend it.
especially if your an old timer and a New Yorker

My grandmother, who I adore/admire in words I am not able to convey, passed this book onto me years ago. It still remains in my top 10.
It is intensely emotional and affirmative for a woman of any age... and, for those who want to be around them.
I can't imagine anyone being disappointed.

ATGIB is a great classic novel full of memorable characters and touching emotion. I have and will continure to reread this book often.

I just finished reading this book a few minutes ago. I am not trying to be against the grain here at all but I don't understand how this book is so reputably powerful and a classic. It's not terrible reading because this story was by far very well written and my vocabulary has increased by atleast 13 new words. Overall though, this book felt like a auto biography, too close to reality to really wow me. As the reader, I was experiencing poverty, hunger, bulleying, chronic rejection and loss of innocence through Francie's eyes and yet, she progressed beautifully by independently finding ways to be educated and learning about the world and the people in it. I did find myself physically reacting to certain parts like when this young woman whom had a baby but was unwed was bedeviled by the neighbors and having rocks thrown at her and her child. Also, an important character in my mind passed on which changed my mood from then on. For the record, I feel the need to defend Francies Father Johnny. Yes, he did drink but I don't feel like he deserved to be treated like an acute alcoholic. He was never biligerent or hurtful to his family. Johnny wasn't the type to pour whiskey in his morning cereal and he was always singing and being chipper. But because every night when he performed he had gotten inebriated this is how he was remembered. Luckily, Francie saw past it because he was the only one that truely understood her and supported her ideas and dreams. Katie, Francie's mother lacked a sense of humor, obviously favored Francie's younger brother Neely, and could not let go of her control issues. It was her way or the highway. I don't want to give away the entire story but I must say that although I did enjoy reading this book, it did not satisfy my hunger from what I expected based on all the reviews I read about it. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is an adventure and will more than likely relate to you in some way, this book just illustrated what we all must go through... Life.

I am in total awe after reading this book. In the beginning I thought it was going to be a boring and long novel. But throughout my reading I became to grow more attached to the story. The main character Francie was an intriguing and delightful creation that anyone would want as their best friend, should she not be a fictional person. I enjoyed reading how the poor family made ends meet and continued surviving when it seemed they couldn't hang on much longer. It seems that you shouldn't find it entertaining to read of suffering, but the author writes it in such a ingenious way as to that you're really reading about the magnificence of life, living, and death. As the family encounters dilemma after dilemma you find yourself encased in the wonder of how they do it. Throughout all the sadness and suffering the Nolans are still kind and considerate, loving and caring, fair and just; overall good people! Don't get me wrong, this is not a sad story, although some parts are on the sadder side. This is a marvelous writing about why people live and how. It shows a young girl growing up and changing into a woman. I was so in tune with the story I found myself laughing, crying, cheering, and feeling scared! The Nolans are resourceful and caring people, although they do have their faults. You learn about them from birth to middle aged and curiously watch them change, grow, and develop their ways. You see where each person gets their character traits from and why they do certain things. The setting is early twentieth century Brooklyn, NY. The Nolans live in a neighborhood of old flats. Electricity has not yet been invented and the value of the dollar is way higher than the present. Its interesting reading about how their insurance was twenty-five cents and that four people could eat on ten cents a day! The author provides you with outstanding descriptions of looks, feelings, and mood as to that you feel you are really there. You feel as if you have known the characters forever and are close friends with all of them. This is because you learn more about them throughout the story as if you really were their friends, and they were alive and you got to know them better as time goes on. While you read this book, you will discover how lucky we are, and what some people went through to cope with the daily mandatory needs of humans. I am completely convinced anyone who reads this book will fall in love with the gentle rhythym of the flowing sentences. When I finished I didn't want it to end, the author could've kept writing until Francie died and you would've ever get bored. Yet all books have to end. With a touch of history, I am positive anyone who reads this will be more than satisfied. This novel definitely deserves more than five stars!

When I viewed the sample pages of the book, I was excited. I became even more thrilled by the positive reviews others gave. However, when I received the book and quickly flipped through the pages, I was highly disappointed. I was under the impression that the pages would be colored. My assumption was wrong. Nonetheless, as I took a better look at the ideas presented, I became more assured that I made a great purchase. The authors provide a brief bio on the artist and simple projects related to the artists' style. Therefore, I am not too sad about the book being in black and white. As a teacher who loves to teach art, I know I will use this book as a resource for art projects.

*There is now a link available for this book to view colored copies of the artwork, but now for every artist.

Filled with information on both artists and schools of art with simple projects for each, this book will be very useful at home or in the classroom.

I've read some of the reviews for this book that complain it is not in color. If you know anything about being an educational publisher, you know that they don't make a lot of money, and publishing in color is not a easy option. I think if you use this book, and work with the website that shows all the art in color ([...]), you'll be fine. This is an excellent book and well worth the price. I just reviewed MaryAnn Kohl's newest book, and it IS in full color, so it appears that she listened and did what she could to answer your comments, which is impressive, because it must have been a financial challenge. Good for you, Bright Ring Publishing! i hope it sells well!!! I think if you rethink what this book is for, then you can just let the color come from the children's expression of their own art works. Don't worry about what is on the book page other than the idea of an art project that is AMAZING as well as easy for you to put together for the kids. The kids are more interested in what they can create than in what your book has in it. Again,go to Bright Ring's website and all the color you ever dreamed of will be there for your enjoyment.

This is a great book to have on hand to teach art or for a rainy day. I love how she goes through various artistic means of expression: buildings, sculpting, painting, etc. She talks about an artist (and includes a picture & some info) and then you create! Very, Very clever! LOVE it! But then again, I love all of the Mary Ann Kohl books we've bought!

I have taught elementary art for over 20 years... I wouldn't be without this book. It is a fantastic resource on some of the more famous artists. I highly recommend this book

The novel, The Outsiders, written by S.E. Hinton was a very intriguing book. This novel shows the differences of two gangs, the Socs and the Greasers. It is also a story about three brothers who lost their parents in a car accident. All the characters in this book will have to go through very interesting challenges and obstacles in this book.

The main character in this book is Ponyboy Curtis. Ponyboy is the younger brother of Sodapop and Darry. Sodapop is the middle sibling of the Curtis family. When Ponyboy's parents died, Darry, the older sibling, takes care of Ponyboy and Sodapop. Ponyboy is very academic and is a star on the school track team. Ever since Ponyboy's parents have died in a car crash, he became very rebellious to Darry. Ponyboy and Darry fight very often. Throughout the novel Ponyboy will realize that Darry is not that bad as a parent figure and he will learn to live with him. Sodapop is a high school dropout and is the happy-go-lucky sibling of the family. Every character in the book shows great respect for Sodapop because most of the time, he kids around but when he is serious, people listen to him and take his advice. Sodapop always listens to problems that Ponyboy is having. He also makes sure that Darry is not too hard on Ponyboy. Throughout the novel Sodapop became more serious and did not kid around as much. Darry had to drop out of school and work two jobs ever since his parents died so he can take care of Pony and Soda. Darry gave up his dream of attending college so he can be the father of the family. At first, Darry was not a good parent because he was letting Pony and Soda eat chocolate cake for dinner and stay out for as long as they wanted but later on in the novel, Darry will learn how to become a caring parent. When Ponyboy is sick, Darry will bring him soup and sleep with him to make sure he is okay. Ponyboy's best friend is Johnny and Johnny is part of the Greasers. Johnny's parents do not care for him as much as Darry cares for Sodapop and Ponyboy. Johnny really did not know much about the world until he read the book Gone With the Wind. Johnny started realizing the good parts of life through nature. Dally is probably the most troubled Greasers of them all. Dally does not care for anything but he does feel guilty for other people's mistakes. Two-Bit is also part of the Greasers and he is the joker of the group.

The chapters of The Outsiders were broken down very well. I would say that the turning point of the novel happened in chapter 4. In chapter 4, the Socs were drowning Ponyboy in a fountain but Johnny did something extreme to help save Ponyboy's life. In another chapter, Ponyboy and Johnny saved a bunch of kids from a burning church. This really showed how brave and caring Ponyboy and Johnny really are. Even though Johnny was brutally injured in the fire, he said it was all worth it saving those kids. When Johnny was recovering from his injury, all the Greasers went to his hospital room and made sure that Johnny had every thing he wanted. In another chapter, the Greasers and the Socs wanted to settle everything for the last time with a big rumble. This was a very exciting part of the book because it finally solved all the problems between the Socs and the Greasers. At the end of the book, the Curtis family realized that when times are tough, that they should stick together.

A major theme in this novel is loyalty. Johnny showed how loyal he was by saving Ponyboy when he was drowning in fountain. Another example of loyalty is when the Greasers helped Johnny recover from his injury by getting him anything he wanted. Another theme in this novel is leadership. Johnny showed a great deal of leadership when he saved the kids from the burning church. Darry is also a leader because he helps take care of Ponyboy and Sodapop. The last theme in this novel is the separation of social classes between the Greasers and the Socs. The Greasers are the lower class and the gang that lives on the east side. The Socs are the higher class that lives on the west side of town. Throughout the novel, you will learn that even though the Socs and the Greasers look like two completely different gangs but the main character Ponyboy will learn that everyone has problems and people are not always different on the inside.

The Outsiders really shows the importance of friendship and how friends are always there for you. I liked everything in this book except that there are too many characters in this book to remember. I would still recommend this book and I think it is a must-read.

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is an inspirational story of the lives of low society. This book teaches alot about friendship and to always look on the goodside of things.

Ponyboy lives with his two brothers Darry and Steve along with all of his other brotherly like friends. Ponyboy and his friends/family are all known as the greasers, while there southside rivals are known as the socs. Life is hard and dangerous were Ponyboy lives and gets to be preety frustrating. One night Ponyboy and his friend Jhonny get into some real trouble with socs and have to flee town or go to jail. Both Ponyboy and Jhonny face hard decitions and have life changing expieriences. I think this book is very moving in a way in which makes you feel good of the things you can do for others. I think that this book is ment for any person who has a little time to put their heart into something. And you would be suprised by how much you can get out of it.

Things don't turn out quite as Ponyboy wanted when waking home from the movies. The rival gang, the Socs, jump him. But of course Ponyboy's brothers Darry and Sodapop are there to save the day. Throughout The Outsiders Ponyboy will run into trouble with his fellow Greaser friends and without the help from his brothers will have to survive at his own will. What Ponyboy does not know is that he will get into a suspenseful situation that will put his and his friends lives in danger as well as keeping his family together.
The Outsiders is a one of a kind book that all ages can enjoy. I have read this book a while ago and was my favorite book and is still my favorite piece of literature. I believe the reason for my liking of the book is that it is action packed and full of suspense. Once you pick up The Outsiders you will not be able to put it down, for you will want to find out what happens next. One quote from the book that will make you eager to keep reading is on page 75. "We could take whatever was coming now". I strongly encourage you to read this book because it is fun, enjoyable, eye raising, and may even leave you in tears.

the book arrived in excellant time and the compostion of the print was great. Have AMD and it is hard to read some of the print in the booksthese days but this was fine.
Enjoyed the story and the talk with the author

I've seen the movie a dozen times. I was Ponyboy's age when it came out, but I had never read the book. I wondered how a 15 year old could write something so well it would be considered for the "big screen". Well, it's now years later and I just read the book, and now I have my answer. S.E. Hinton sheds light upon differences not only in classes at school but social classes as well with her well written story. Even though I am in my thirties now I can still relate to it all as if I was young again. A major thing I learned as I've become older is no matter what kind of clothes we wear, songs we sing, or crowd we run with, we're not that different from one another even if we do appear to be. If you're young and want to give this book a try, please do and read it with an open mind and heart. Although we might not ever think of putting grease in our hair these days the message should still be a valid one that Ms. Hinton delivers: Stay Gold!

You can read other Amazon reviewers and the synopsis from the Washington Post here for an overview of the themes and their author. What no other previous entry has conveyed is the power of Akpan's language. He rarely pauses from dialogue or moving the story along often intricate lines, so when he does notice the landscape, it's for a telling detail. These scenes allow the narrative to "catch its breath" and to pause for dramatic effect. Since most of the stories included here rush along often into truly harrowing scenarios, these momentary shifts towards the horizon only intensify the punch of these unflinchingly brutal, poignant tales.

My favorite comes on p. 74, about thirty pages into the novella (130 pp.) "Fattening for Gabon." The children do not know yet why they are being fussed over and threatened alternately. But, note how the details compress traditional with globalized Africa near the border that separates them from their fate, and match the transition from pastoral safety to menacing journey under powerful forces-- a trail that Yewa and the narrator Kotchikpa follow unwittingly:

"The fisherman at sea spangled the water with their lanterns, like stars. Yet there was no sea, no sky, no land, only points of light dangling in a black chasm. The night had eaten the coconut vistas too, except when the canoe lanterns, moving, were periodically blotted out behind the trees. The sea blew a strong kiss of breeze, warm and unrelenting, through our neighborhood. In the distance, we could hear the hum from the no-man's-land market fizzling out for the night. We could also hear the semitrailers and trucks coming and going from the border, backing up or parking. Sometimes, from where we sat, we saw the beams of their headlights sweeping the skies of neighboring villages, like searchlights."

Akpan's skilled at what his Jesuit founder, St. Ignatius, called the practice of "discernment." The author's able to imagine himself into the scenes he depicts, and they unfold from his imagination weighted on imaginative levels that deepen their immediate references. They convey a spiritual gloss that reminds me of many of the stories of similarly "paralyzed" youngsters and adults in Joyce's "Dubliners." Perhaps the difference is that Fr. Akpan believes in what James Joyce sought to transmit by literary rather than salvific means to the reader seeking, along with the characters, enlightenment. For both Akpan and Joyce, we get the machinations of the grown-up world filtered often unbearably through the perspectives of those too young, too powerless, or too overwhelmed to cope with pure evil and utter chaos.

In each story, often subtly and deftly, he manages to refer to Christian themes that his characters briefly recall within their terror or wonder. I only gave this four stars because "What Language" to me while a good story fell short of the mark set by the other four, and out of these, the other novella, "Luxurious Hearses," appeared at times to be too schematic, almost as if "Things Fall Apart" by his predecessor Chinua Achebe (also reviewed by me) needed to be updated within a framework either too long or too short for the pages given to it. Yet, the story ends as gracefully, or as awfully, as most of the others here. Akpan spares no sense in making you feel, as potently as did the Jesuit preacher in Joyce's "Portrait," the hold the imagination can have over the pinioned and gibbering soul.

Other places in his fiction, luckily, Akpan shifts towards a degree of grace, if often tempered with irony as the expectations of faith are always tested to their utmost, and many of the characters find their fate one of flight, exile, or a kind of martyrdom for their convictions. The earlier Amazonian comparing Akpan to Flannery O'Connor hit the mark. A quick example later in the story: "The plantations and sea loomed behind the road, and sometimes it looked as if the plantation were on the sea or as if the people on the road were walking on the water, like Jesus." (130)

This writer, I predict, will only improve with his next stories, and a five-star rating will surely be earned. The stories demand attention, and the unfamiliarity that Western readers will have with the Africanized syntax, loan words, French and untranslated native dialogue, plunge you in, appropriately, to the dilemmas of a continent undergoing dramatic upheaval. His characters may not find much luck; but we are lucky that Fr. Akpan can convey their drama to us in stories that often prove to be, despite the risk of cliché, ones you cannot put down much as you wish you could forget their carefully described patterns of darkness and light, despair and hope, grace and damnation.

Uwem Akpan has created an astonishing collection of five short stories; two of them are over 100 pages and can easily be termed novellas. Each employs a different tone, but all of them have one thing in common: they focus on young children and how they're faring in the endless conflicts that define many countries in Africa.

The strongest of the stories, I believe, is My Parent's Bedroom, written in first person from a Rwandan girl who is the child of a Tutsi mother and a Hutu father. Within the course of the story, her father is forced to make an excruciating choice and she will need to gather all her courage to survive. The sheer power of this story took my breath away and made me cringe about the unspeakable acts that humans do to other humans.

Fattening for Gabon -- the novella -- is also an astonishing literary achievement, partially because Akpan pieces together the various dialects -- English, French, and African dialects -- to create characters that are distinctly memorable. Here, a ten year old brother and his five year old sister slowly realize that their uncle is attempting to sell them into slavery. As the story unfolds with all its horrors, the young boy must make decisions that someone three times his age would struggle with. It's survival...but at what cost?

The reader meets young Kenyan children in makeshift shanties who are forced to sniff glue to quell their hunger and prostitute themselves to survive; young Christians and Muslims who must sacrifice friendship because of forces they don't understand; a Muslim amputee who has only his faith and his wits to survive.

In this story, Akpan writes, "This was not the time to think about Islam or Christianity or God too much. It was a time just to be a human being and to celebrate that. What mattered now was how to get people to lay down their weapons and biases, how to live together." As it is throughout history, a belief that one's religion is right and the other is wrong leads to agonizing conflicts. Combine poverty and chaos and situations arise that defy the human brain.

These immersions into children's minds in the worst of situations will stay with me and haunt me for a long, long time. This author writes with a perspective that is rare, a humanity that is great, and an openness that is authentic and harrowing.

This collection of stories introduces the horrors of the wars in Africa to a public largely ignorant of the details. The most moving was In My Parents Bedroom, in which the people come alive in a vivid and terrifying manner. I found most of the others a bit too heady and felt they could have had more impact.

I was attracted to this book after hearing an interview on NPR with the author. The interviewer mentioned that it was written in the voice of the children, as children. I was not disappointed. Here we see a child's eye view of some of the horrific political situations in Africa without the politics. It is written from the perspective of those who remain innocent in a world that is not innocent, even when they are swept up in the horrors themselves and become part of it.

"Say You're One of Them" is a powerful collection of five short stories written by a Jesuit priest, Nigerian-born Uwem Akpan, who is currently a seminary teacher in Zimbabwe. The five stories contained within this book are all narrated by children, and it is a credit to Akpan that he is able to tell us these incredibly poignant and heartwrenching stories through the points of views of children, and to be able to so in an authentic manner.

Among the stories that really affected me emotionally was "An Ex-Mas Feast", the story of a family that suffers from poverty [as is the case in most parts of Africa], a family where the mother resorts to giving her kids glue to sniff just to stave off hunger, and where the main source of income is through prostitution by the 12-year-old daughter. We know these things happen, yet reading about it here just makes it all the more real and cries out for some sort of action. The stories in this book cover a myriad of problems in Africa - poverty, hunger, AIDS and its repercussions, the sexual exploitation of the young,genocide etc.

It is my fervent hope that this book will help give a true voice to the children of Africa, and be a call to action to help the people in Africa move from suffering and hopelessness towards a future with hope.