Fiction Literature Books

This book is a fun read. It starts out with action and that action continues throughout. This is the quintessential pirates book. Classic characters like Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins come to life on these pages. The exploits of Jim and his cohorts aboard the Hispanola aare both believable (to a degree) and entertaining. Boys will thoroughly enjoy this book but it need not be gender specific (though there is but one female part in this book and that one a minor part at that). It is fast-paced and just a darn good read.

I read this book, here in Brazil, when I was a teenager.This book is a fiction and was writen while the author was sick, with tuberculosis in Davos, Switzerland, during XIX Century.
If you want to read a good fiction, this book is a good choice.Don't wait a book about history of real pirates.This is a fiction.A so good fiction that it was used by Hollywood to produce many movies, following this good book.

Although written primarily for boys, Treasure Island is one of the few books I remember being wildly excited about as a girl. I decided to share it with my 5 year old (who appreciates a pirate adventure) and I am reading a chapter at a time to him at bedtime. Although it is sometimes a little much for a 5 year old (some deaths and pirates with missing body parts) I can read it in a way that interests him. And, it is a great learning experienced due to this "enriched classic" version. I can tell my son about real pirates (who he now knows were actually "bad guys") and about the way things were in the mid 1700's. I explain a lot as I go, but he is fascinated- and we're learning a lot together! I highly recommend it... especially to read to kids slightly older than my 5 year old. However, this works as well!

I have not read this book since I was in 7th grade, but this summer my son wanted to read it. As a 5th grader it was a bit over his head, but we both enjoyed it very much. This book is the reason I became so fascinated with pirates. It's a story that just sticks with you. There are memorable characters and slippery plot complications that make this literally a genuine trip as you turn the pages. Some may consider this an unnecessary read given its time frame, but put in context, this is a delightful story that should resonate with young boys. It's a classic for the very reason that it endures. It finds a place in that little place in the mind called adventure and wanderlust. Jamestown: Journey Back in Time

While Treasure Island may have its detractors (usually those who were forced to read it as children or those who cannot handle the period speech) it is certainly a classic that can delight both young and old. Stevenson make a strong effort to catch the "tune of the time" and give vivid prose to the tedium of long sea journeys and the rapid pace at which life can offer strange events to deal with, as young Jim Hawkins discovers.

The story is set in mid-18th century western England where Jim helps to run a small out-of-the-way inn with his parents. They have a strange boarder: a grizzled sailor very fond of his shanties and rum. The sailor hides a secret map to a buried pirate treasure that comes into Jim's hands. The local squire recruits Jim and the village doctor to join him on a sea voyage to find the treasure for themselves.

They obtain a ship and a crew including the most iconic pirate of all: Long John Silver (created well before the seafood restaurant and Jack Sparrow!). Silver eventually betrays Jim, revealing himself as a longtime pirate, but makes good his escape in the end. Stevenson filled Treasure island with all of the--now cliche--paraphenalia: marooning, parrots, and such. The pirates have enough colorful language that even Robert Newton must have tired of it during his enthusiastic performance in the 1950 Disney film adaptation.

Perhaps my fondness is newfound since I only read it for the first time this year while I was on a week's cruise in the Caribbean, but Treasure Island now holds a favored spot on my bookshelves.

I ordered this book for my sister who was struggling with an online college English course. She could not understand Shakespeare and was really having a hard time. I found this book on Amazon and had it sent to her. She not only understands Shakespeare now, she actually enjoys it! The original writing is on one side of the page, and the plain English version is right beside it. Wonderful!! I have no doubt my sister will now make an A in her class as well as become a fan of Shakespeare!

I'm not ashamed to admit it. I find Shakespeare difficult. I need help. The Cambridge School Shakespeare editions, with the classroom activities and assignments on each facing page, give me the focus and direction I need to finally truly enjoy the text.

I thought I didn't like Shakespeare until I took a class on several of the plays. It turns out that I love Shakespeare when I'm doing close reading or studying it carefully but for whatever reason I find it extremely difficult to do on my own. The Cambridge School editions allow me to replicate the classroom experience on my own, providing enough background and questions for critical thought that I keep a close focus on the text. Previous times I've attempted to read 'Hamlet' I was struggling just to figure out what was going on; reading this edition I was analyzing the characters and considering different acting and directing choices. It's amazing.

As a college student who had to write a paper on Hamlet,Again,I of course had to get away from any classic ideas about the play. Being a student with a talent for writing I would never be able to "get away with," these common theories, as professor's expect much more. This book really helped me to create a rather ambitious and interesting thesis; one which went against the criticisms in the book, and was refreshingly new.

I like the individual criticisms in this book as they really force you to look harder for textual evidence. One of the BEST things about the book was that it included the whole play as well. That was so useful because I didn't have to juggle two books -one of them being the complete works of Shakespeare which weighs about 20lbs. I was able to take this book everywhere and work on it whenever I had spare time.

However, I would not sugesst this book for an individual who does not have a very strong background in Hamlet. You need to know the play Extremely well in order for this book to benefit you. If you do not know Hamlet inside and out, then this book will only cause confusion and you should probably stay away from it, as the theories may be difficult to comprehend.

Shakespeare Made Easy is a great tool for anyone interested in Shakespeare. It provides the inquisitive Shakespeare amateur with means of understanding passages they do not decipher in the original text. However, it is important to note, this is not the right book for a high school classroom. It allows students to "read one of Shakespeare's plays" without actually reading a word of what Shakespeare himself wrote. Half of what makes Shakespeare so captivating is his style and wordplay. Deprived of those two elements Shakespeare's plays are only stories with good plot. Ultimately, students who don't take the challenge of reading the original text before reading the translation will be less interested in Shakespeare after because they will not have experienced the witticism in his literature. In essence this version of Shakespeare provides a cheep way out for unmotivated students that ultimately rewards neither their teachers nor themselves.

With this generation's youth it is difficult to find many students interested in Shakespeare. Shakespeare Made Easy is the key. The general stories that William Shakespeare put down on paper are truly remarkable and quite fun to read. However, these days there is hardly any interest in deeply analyzing pages and pages of Shakespearian English, especially with his longest play, Hamlet.
With the original text on one page and a modern translation on the opposing page this version of Hamlet can be an insightful read as well as a pleasure read. By having the option of both translations the reader will be fully immersed in the story, rather than the text, and come out on the other end singing the praises of Shakespeare and Hamlet. This is a breakthrough version of Hamlet and should be the premier choice of teachers and students alike. Nothing, except perhaps the movie, will excite the adolescent world to Shakespeare more than this version of Hamlet.

The Odyssey of Homer is an incredible experience.

If you haven't read it, or aren't familiar with the story, it's about Odysseus, a veteran of the Trojan War, who upon embarking for his home on Ithaca experiences a series of trials (the Great Wanderings) that eventually lead to his marooning on Ogygia, Calypso's island. Pallas Athene (more commonly known simply as Athena) intervenes on the part of Odysseus (whose house is overrun by various suitors trying to win over his wife Penelope) and sends his son, Telemachos, on a journey to find news of him. Athena convinces Zeus to help Odysseus off of Calypso's island, which he does by sending his son Hermes. Odysseus leaves the island, lands on Scheria, and receives conveyance from Alkinoos and Arete, the King and Queen of the Phaiakians, respectively, back to his home on Ithaca. To make a long story short (the entire last half of the book takes place around Odysseus' contrivance against the suitors and their ultimate murder) Odysseus and Telemachos get to Ithaca (Odyssues disguised as a beggar), plan out how to punish the suitors, kill them, and kill their revenge-seeking relatives. This is obviously an incredibly short synopsis because the book is so rich and full of detail and minor - though incredibly interesting - stories (including Menelaos' journey and struggles against the Old Man of the Sea, Agamemnon's murder at the hands of Aegisthus and his traitorous wife, and the suitors' bow and arrow competition) that it's impossible to go into any great detail.

As for the translation, everybody knows that Lattimore did an incredible job; not often is there a translator whose name I actually remember after I read the work he/she translated. In Lattimore's case, I'll never forget, seriously: it's that good. He incorporates the nuances of modern English into Homer's epic masterpiece to create a rich interpretation that will probably never be duplicated. I would seriously recomend this book to all literate peoples. Like I said: it's an incredible experience that you'll never forget.

The Trojan War is over and one of our hero kings is lost. His son (Telemachus) travels to find any information about his father's fait. His wife (Penelope) must cunningly hold off suitors that are eating them out of house and home.

If he ever makes it home Odysseus will have to detect those servants loyal from those who are not. One absent king against rows of suitors; how will he give them their just deserts? We look to Bright Eyed Pallas Athena to help prophecy come true.

Interestingly all the tales of monsters and gods on the sea voyage was told by Odysseus. Notice that no on else survives to tell the tale. So we have to rely on Odysseus' word.

Many movies took sections of The Odyssey, and expanded them to make interesting stories those selves.

Not just the story but the way in which it is told will keep you up late at night reading.

Troy (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)

This is a requirment for 9th grade Honors class. We bought our own copy in addition to the school paperback that our son brings home daily. This way his father could read along and discuss it with him. We were glad to be able to buy the same translation.

This translation is very good. We enjoyed it although parts were boring and haed to read.

I own and have read translations of The Iliad & The Odyssey by Fagles, Fitzgerald, and Lattimore. I rate them as follows:
1. Lattimore
2. Fitzgerald
3. Fagles
Fitzgerald's translations are often the most enjoyable. However, I feel that Lattimore's clarity facilitates greater understanding of the story by the reader.

I've read three of Murakami's books, and quite frankly, I don't understand his appeal to so many people.
In this book Watanabe is a listless, dull, young man. To give you a taste for his depth, witness the following excerpt of a conversation he had with a friend who, according to Watanabe, had a profound insight into Mozart's music: "...with Itoh's smart and heartfelt commentary ('There - that part., "How about that?')...." Other conversations throughout the book are equally stimulating.
I struggled to get through this book filled with suicide and depression, without any insights.

I have read all Murakami's Books mostly in Japanese. I have been in love with the book ever since 16. I recently bought this book because I wanted to see how my favorite book is translated in English. I was deeply impressed by the translation - very accurate and great choice of words to preserve a tone of the book. I totally recommend this book.

"Norwegian Wood" tells of a college student's life in the 1960s in Japan. The narrative primarily concerns itself with the relationships of the narrator, Toru Watanabe.


Watanabe is a humble, self-described 'average' guy. In contrast to his perfectly plain self-depiction, he quietly questions the social mores and structure around him. His reluctance to mindlessly conform isolates him from most, but one-by-one he befriends a diverse cast of characters, all of whom are struggling with something. There's Naoko, the ex-girlfriend of Watanabe's dead best friend, the womanizing Nagasawa, Nagasawa's main squeeze Hatsumi, and the spark-plug Midori.


"Norwegian Wood" is a novel about love, it is a novel about youth. It explores passion, why we burn and feel for others, the context of sex in love, and so many other things. But it NEVER analyzes, it never stops and reflects upon itself. It keeps moving, allowing us to experience all these emotions for ourselves and make of them what we will. I can't express enough how much of an experience this book is.


Inevitably "Norwegian Wood" has been compared to its influences: 'Catcher and the Rye', 'The Great Gatsby', and Thomas Mann's 'The Magic Mountain.' While each novel has its own flavor, 'Norwegian Wood' is arguably the most affecting of the bunch. It hurts every time I read this book. This novel has life in it, and the more you perceive and are in touch with your own experiences in this world, the more meaningful and poignant your time with this book will be.

This book is my second favorite by Murakami. I think his strength lies in his style of writing. As if you read Bukowski without swearing and vulgar stuff.

I can't add anything that is not written, and I don't wanna spoil it for you. Go get it.

I am a huge Murakami fan, having read Wind-Up Bird, Kafka, After Dark and other works. Maybe it's because I became so enthralled by his "unreality" that the realism of Norwegian Wood did not captivate me the way his other works have. But that is not to say that this novel is in any way disappointing. As always, it contains the delicate, pensive and musical prose that defines Murakami.

This book about Ernest Hemingway is about his life in Paris during the memorable lost generation of writers. I have one hangup about him not writing enough about a close friend, journalist, and fellow writer, Janet "Genet" Flanner from the New Yorker. All he wrote was one sentence. He writes lovingly about Gertrude Stein and leaves out the name of her partner/companion Alice B. Toklas. He had a complicated relationship regarding Stein. He also writes about the lesbians, Sylvia Beach and Adrienne Monnier, a little about Natalie Clifford Barney also known as the Amazon, and other writers like Ezra Pound. The book is easy to read and is reminiscent about Paris during another time and generation before World War II when America was in the grips of the great depression and writers became expatriates to Paris and Europe much like Hemingway. World War II shattered the lost generation's control of Parisian expatriates like Hemingway, Flanner, Beach, Stein and Toklas. He describes Paris as a moveable feast but you could be poor and happy in Paris while struggling to be a writer. I think it's when Hemingway was the happiest along with the others. The phrase of "all good things come to an end" suits the lost generation of writers like Hemingway. They never found the happiness again.

If you've ever lived in Paris, visited Paris, or even just dreamt of Paris, then you need to read this book.

The title `A Moveable Feast' in its brevity tells a lot and is a good example of Hemingway's tight writing style. Hemingway exacted severe discipline upon himself regarding his work, and he set a personal goal, for himself, to write one story about each thing that he knew about. An important lesson he learned about writing was to not think about anything that he was writing from the time he stopped writing one day until he started again the next. That way the subconscious mind could be working on it and at the same time he'd be listening to other people, and noticing everything. He spent many hours at the Louvre studying the works of Cézanne, Monet and Manet as a way to feed his imagination. He had no close friends in Paris during those years although he had on and off relationships with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
One of the most traumatic times of his life, regarding his work, happened when his wife Hadley lost a suitcase containing all of his manuscripts, with the exception of two short stories, `My Old Man' and `Up in Michigan.' The suitcase was never found and one can only imagine the empty feeling he must have felt at the time.
In `A Moveable Feast' Hemingway draws a vivid word picture of Paris that only he could have drawn. Get a copy of the book and let Hemingway guide you through the Paris he knew in the 1920's.

Tom Barnes Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Find more at my website about books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews, my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday's Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
[...]

A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's memoir of his early days in Paris, is nearly bursting with rich, poignant details of what it was like to be young and hopeful and excited. It's all there--Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the horse chestnut trees in bloom. Perhaps more than the reminiscenses of actual people and places, however, is Hemingway's sense of how good it was to be young. At times, you almost feel that Hemingway's heart was breaking as he recalls the beauty of his youth. Whether the stories are fact or fiction doesn't matter--Hemingway creates an aching poetry in these lovely, long ago days in Paris.

Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets

Ah, Paris!!! "A Moveable Feast" is a memoire of Hemingway's poor but happy life as a young journalist turned novelist in 1920's Paris. Written in Hemingway's unique style, this book offers a variety of snapshots of the young author's life, Paris life in general and the people who comprised the Paris literary scene of the period.

I have only dreamed of Paris. Other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, I have only a passing knowledge of the people mentioned in this work. I am, however, a Hemingway fan, and I enjoy his efficient and straightforward style. The stories he tells and the scenes he describes make one want to be in Paris, and they make one want to learn more about the characters mentioned. In fact, while I applaud Hemingway's brevity, I actually wished for a little more depth--only Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein were discussed in any detail at all.

I enjoyed this book, but if you are going to read Hemingway, this is not the place to start. "The Sun Also Rises" contains much of the same feeling for 1920's Paris, plus it features a great description of the running of the bulls in Pamplona. His best works though are "The Old Man and the Sea" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls." Those are the starting points.

I had never read the book but reading it I remembered seeing the movie. The book is riviting, insightful and scary. There is so much said in so few pages. I can see where discussion of the book could be never ending.

Re-reading this book, it actually seems better than when I first read it a few years ago. Graham Greene was probably the best-ever writer of certain kinds of book about disaffected characters in actual historical and geographical situations. Many have written about the fact that the lead character, Thomas Fowler, embodied many characteristics of Greene himself, and the amazing thing about this is that Greene makes the character so unpleasant.
The writing is magnificent. Greene was a supremely economical writer who could create a mood or an impression in fewer words than anyone else I know. He was also a master of irony, and makes much of the fact that Pyle, the quiet American of the title, was actually more dangerous because of his innocence and basic goodness.
The Quiet American also fills a prophetic role, as we can look back on the many noisy Americans who arrived in Vietnam after the time of this fictional quiet one and amply justified Greene's feeling that they would make a great mess of things.
The other thing that struck me was the faithfulness of Philip Noyce's movie to the text. Many things that I thought the movie had created or changed completely were simply changes of emphasis or dramatisations of things that were too vague or abstract for the screen. Even the changes in Pyle's character were simply attempted clarifications of aspects that were ambiguous in the book - which ironically had the effect of making his character even more ambiguous.

I was in Vietnam for Vacation, and I came across this novel in a market store in Saigon. I remember there was a movie, but I had never seen it. I will have to say for a small little simplistic novel there was much to be enjoyed. The novel is narrated by Fowler, the British "OLDER" reporter who loves the space and madness occurring in 1950' Vietnam. Fowler is met by Pyle, an American on humanitarian mission to feed the war ravaged citizens of Vietnam. Pyle admits that he is in love with Fowler's Asian Girl friend and would like to steal her away. From this point on Greene continues the playful bantering back and forth between these two characters, but the novel soon becomes dark and more sinister as we learn these characters' deep dark secrets, they are not what they seem. Graham Greene has created an enjoyable novel that amounted to a love story, adventure story and Mystery all in this nicely written novel. I liked The Quiet American.

I recently read THE QUIET AMERICAN directly after having read Greene's THE COMEDIANS. It is striking how similar the two novels are, although they were written about ten years apart. They both deal with political intrigue in a "third world" country (Vietnam in "Quiet American", Haiti in "Comedians"); they both are critical of American intervention (although it is much more front and center in "Quiet American"); they both feature somewhat skewed love triangles; and they both are narrated by a worldly, shrewd, selfish, and almost repugnant narrator who it is easy to see (perhaps unfairly) as the alter ego of the author. Both novels are easy to read and wear well, but I give the nod to THE QUIET AMERICAN.

Written around 1955, it is remarkable for its foresight of America's misguided venture in Southeast Asia. The "quiet" American is Pyle. He is a fresh-out-of-school, supremely self-assured member of the Eastern-establishment on a somewhat nebulous mission for an American secret service, the "OSS" or whatever the current initials might be (Graham perhaps did not know that its new incarnation was the "CIA"). "Innocent" might be a more fitting adjective for Pyle than "quiet". In any event, Greene presents a scathing picture of Pyle and the United States as purblind crusaders for democracy, innocent but oh-so-dangerous in their determined self-righteous zeal. The worldly and jaded British narrator (Fowler) comments to himself about Pyle: "he'll always be innocent, you can't blame the innocent, they are always guiltless. All you can do is control them or eliminate them. Innocence is a kind of insanity."

Meanwhile the recipients of the undercover U.S. political activism and intrigue don't appreciate the efforts on their behalf. Instead, "They want enough rice. * * * They don't want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don't want our white skins around telling them what they want." When dozens of civilians are killed or maimed in a bombing set by subversive forces sponsored and provisioned with explosives by Pyle, he justifies the bloodshed to Fowler with the comment that the victims "were only war casualties. * * * It was a pity, but you can't always hit your target. Anyway, they died in the right cause. * * * In a way you could say they died for democracy." Fowler's response: "I wouldn't know how to translate that into Vietnamese."

The parallels with the current military mission in Iraq hardly need mention.

Another prominent theme of THE QUIET AMERICANS, later reprised and developed further in "The Comedians", is the impossibiity (or if possible, the immorality) of a neutral, un-involved stance when cruely, death, and destruction are going on all around one.

THE QUIET AMERICAN is worth reading, or re-reading, both as literate entertainment and as a sobering reminder of how little our national hubris and zeal for democracy have been moderated by wisdom and experience.

My name is Graham Greene but you can call me Mr. Grumpy. Greene suffered his entire life from depression and his cynical and dispirited worldview permeates and defines his take on Indochina in the early 50's. In short: there are no winners, only losers. The Quiet American is a short novel with three main characters and only a few minor characters. To call The Quiet American anti-American is not so much inaccurate as incomplete. Americans reading this book should not feel particularly aggrieved. The British, French, North & South Vietnamese are all treated to unflattering or deliberately dismissive portrayals. Graham Greene wants us to dislike the American (Pyle) and the Brit (Fowler) and feel a certain condescending sympathy for the beleagured third worlder (Phong). Communist and other belligerent forces are simplified into a vague indistinguishable "them".

Fowler is the cynical middle aged Brit who has sought refuge from the mess he's made of his life in a faraway land, opium and a low maitenance mistress. Self medication and escape. He is a one man relic of an exhausted empire. He claims nuetrality but betrays it with his open disdain. He is a pundit. He claims the high road without leaving the house, so to speak. Greene presents him in the first person so as to present an aspect of Greene's own outlook.

Pyle is the young, idealistic, overeducated and underinformed American who presumes to involve himself in affairs he does not understand. He is filled with other people's ideas and none of his own. He arrogantly assumes righteousness and assigns himself the so-called white man's burden. The white (adult) superior must show the Asian (child) inferiors the way. His is a smug, well-meaning racism but racism nonetheless. As one can tell, Greene was not fond of Americans.

Phong is a young beautiful South Vietnamese former prostitute turned mistress who must choose between a benevolent user (Fowler's European colonialism) or a well meaning but paternal provider (Pyle's New World Imperialism.) At no point is there any serious consideration that she may choose a third course: her own.

Inevitably, Greene cannot avoid oversimplifying extremely complex forces and motivations, not to mention history. In a mere 200+ pages, Greene presumes to present & comment on a situation involving several countries over several decades. Greene renders a compelling sketch but makes no real effort to provide details. He, like Fowler, is a cynical pundit.

While not as action-packed as "The Last Detective" (which follows "Indigo Slam" in the series, but I've not read a single one of them in order so why start now?), this is a strong book. Lots of smart comments, action and twists and turns, although the very last twist was so obvious that only the clinically brain dead couldn't see it coming. But, that didn't lessen the overall value of the book for me.

The audiobook is read by David Stuart who captures the voice of Elvis Cole perfectly. The entire book lasts about 7 hours.

Excellent story another Elvis Cole and Joe Pike detective agency winner, along with sad family plot about widower father and his three childen. Keeps you on your toes front start to finish

Mr. Crais knows how to write. If you enjoy detective suspense as a genre, you'll like this book. It has all you could want, a likeable hero, a fascinating sidekick, several emotionally appealing protagonists, some characters that fall into a gray love/hate area, and two different sets of antagonists, each scary-bad in totally different ways.

What starts out as a simple missing person case that should have been a snap, turns into a nightmare of complications, including three children desperate to avoid Child Protection Services, counterfeiting, the Russian mob, and the Federal Witness Protection program. At the same time, our hero's love life, seeming so rosy in the beginning of the story, becomes instead a bad dream, with the ex-husband creating an epic and nasty power struggle for control of his child and former wife. The action is fast, intricate, and the pages keep turning while time slips away.

The lead character, Elvis Cole, and his sidekick, Joe Pike, are extremely appealing characters. They are variously clever, witty, charming, stoic, morally upright, and very good at what they do. This is one of their best outings so far. Thank you, Mr. Crais.

Robert Crais is a highly skilled crime writer, and I think his "Elvis Cole" series is well worth reading. Unfortunately, INDIGO SLAM, the seventh novel in the series, is a flat and uninspired installment.

INDIGO SLAM starts out quite well, with three young children hiring Cole to find their missing father. But it doesn't take Cole very long to find out where he is, and all the mystery of the plot soon evaporates. The last two thirds of this book is pretty much a lot of action, mostly at the expense of characterization.

Cole doesn't have much at stake in the storyline, and you ever really worry about his safety. I also didn't really care for the father at all, and his three children are little more than stereotypes. In the end, I cared little for how things turned out for them.

Crais is ultimately a formulaic writer, albeit a very solid one. Still, INDIGO SLAM contains a bunch of scenes and situations that are pretty much identical to earlier installments of this series. Reading this novel is a bit like watching a TV show in its final few seasons, when it's way past its prime. My advice is to skip this novel, and try earlier Cole books like FREE FALL, LULLABY TOWN, or VOODOO RIVER.

This is another installment in the classic ongoing Elvis Cole and Joe Pike detective series. The story starts off with a three year flashback to a rainy night in Seattle as Clark Hewitt and his three children are being clandestinely extracted from their home by Federal Marshals. Gunshots are fired and one of the Marshals is killed. As the family is whisked away in a van, the then twelve-year-old eldest daughter Teri holds her trembling Father tightly and feels his shaking ease.

Three years later as Elvis sat in his Los Angeles office talking on the phone to his girl friend, the door opened and three children walked in. The oldest of the children said: "Mr. Cole, my name is Teresa Haines. This is my brother Charles, and our sister, Winona. Our Father has been missing for eleven days, and we'd like you to find him." Teri is now two months shy of being sixteen, Charles (one of the great characters in the story) is twelve, and Winona is nine. Charles is already creating problems by touching Elvis's Jiminy Cricket statuette and like every person who has ever entered this office, from FBI agents to lawyers to killers, is taken aback by Elvis's Pinocchio clock that hangs on the wall above the file cabinet. "The clock has eyes that move from side to side as it tocks and is a helluva thing to watch." Despite being only twelve years old, anytime Charles didn't like what he was told, or just didn't like an individual in his vicinity, he would cough and say "assh*le". Or cough and say "pri*k". Or cough and say "eat me". They had looked Elvis up in the phone book and chose him because his ad said "confidential investigations".

It turns out the kids Father is involved with counterfeiting, and after becoming a witness against the Russian mob entered the witness protection program. That was the reason for the multiple last names and his disappearance. Elvis develops a paternal fondness for the kids and takes the job despite the fact that he is losing money from his very first investigative flight to Seattle. The case winds up involving the Federal Marshals, Secret Service, Treasury Department, the Russian Mob, Vietnamese Revolutionaries, dope dealers and numerous other luminaries on both sides of the legal fence. This book is never dull with the combination of unknowns at every turn, the reader is also blessed with the author's non-stop parenthetical humorous thoughts and comments going on in Elvis's head. And throughout this epic tale, you can always count on Charles's "coughing-vulgarities" and twelve-year-old un-restrained machismo, whenever he appears in his "award-winning" supporting role. This is a non-stop fun ride from start to finish!

My 18 month old son loves this book! He watched me do the movements as I read it and now he does them on his own when I read the book! Very cute and interactive.

In this book, various animals and children move parts of their body and encourage other children to do so.

Eric Carle is truly a master of this kind of text. Each spread follows the same repetitive structure - "I'm a $ANIMAL and I can $VERB my $BODYPART - can you? I can do it!" - which makes it very suitable both for young children learning to speak and older children figuring out how to read.

The only part I don't like is at the end, when the little boy says to his parrot (in a neat turnaround) "I am I, and I can wiggle my toe". It doesn't sound very idiomatic to me - I would say, in normal speech "I am me", or perhaps (in the form followed in the rest of the book) "I am a child" or "I am a person" or "I am a human".

This book is also, obviously good to encourage kids to move during a rainy-day storytime, or to let them move if they always are fidgeting during storytime.

This is an excellent, fun book. My 2yr 7 month daughter mimics each of the animals. Its a lot of interactive fun!

My little boy started doing all the motions at about 10 months and now loves to read this book by himself, all the motions are great for learning body parts and animals.

We LOVE this book, we play out the little roles of each animal and along with it learn the parts of the body and the movements. We have a lot of fun with this and laugh every time we read it together.

I tried with this "classic" ... two times, then a third ... and as much as the first few chapters (the exchanges between Marlowe and the daughter) were brilliant, I couldn't finish the thing. Just couldn't. I have an issue with private eye books anyway, but this one (between the several characters and all the confusion) just didn't take hold. I thought the exchanges between Marlowe and the kid (who killed the guy who killed his boyfriend) were great also, but immediately after that scene, I folded. It's probably my issue with private eye novels anyway, but aside from the wonderful dialogue, I had a hard time swallowing and ultimately couldn't/didn't finish The Big Sleep ... i became too anxious to read what was waiting in the bin (The Leopard). This is just the 2nd novel I couldn't finish this year (2008).

For my money, the James Cain novels were pure gold by comparison.

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

"I went to bed full of whiskey and frustration and dreamed about a man in a bloody Chinese coat who chased a naked girl with long jade earrings while I ran after them and tried to take a photograph with an empty camera."

Only Raymond Chandler could write a sentence like that. He's easy to parody, but impossible to improve on. In "The Big Sleep" (1939) he leads us through a sleazy LA world of hookers, pimps, pornographers, blackmailers, gambling junkies, and floozies too many to mention.
Their indiscretions lead Philip Marlowe from one red herring to another. Marlowe manages to keep his head high and his standards out of the gutter that surrounds him.

It's easy to see how much Chandler influenced everyone who followed him, consciously or not-- Mickey Spillane, James Ellroy, Sue Grafton, Elmore Leonard and so on.

Some of his work is dated: Greater Los Angeles was still surrounded by Orange and Avocado groves, gang-bangers didn't rule neighborhoods, and the Papparazzi hadn't taken over Sunset Boulevard. Men still wore hats and dressed for dinner, and people went out to Clubs in the evening. There is male chauvinism, political incorrectness, racism, and homophobia, but those were part of the times.

Chandler's work was a natural for the movies, and for radio. His ear for dialogue was matchless. Written by Chandler and director Billy Wilder, the screenplay of James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity" became a classic with Fred MacMurry, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson. His later works, "T he Long Goodbye: and "The Lady in the Lake" show a bit more maturity and cohesiveness. But it's safe to say that books like "LA Confidential" and "T he Black Dahlia" wouldn't exist without the earlier works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

Although I understand the popularity of the genre, murder mysteries like The Big Sleep are not usually satisfying reading experiences for me. I frequently feel like I'm missing or overemphasizing clues: "Does that empty coffee cup mean something?" "Oh, his eyebrow went up! He must have done it!"

With The Big Sleep, I still experienced that feeling a bit, but the characters and voice were so strong and compelling that they more than made up for the plot twists and angles. Raymond Chandler's sentences are artistic masterpieces and clear influences on many 20th Century literary and cinematic archetypes.

Marlowe is a strong individual. The other Raymond Chandler characters are like Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, searching for meaning in all the wrong places.

The Big Sleep is Raymond Chandler's first novel featuring Philip Marlowe, the private eye who is the main character in most of Chandler's novels. The author immediatly thrusts the reader into the story without wasting any time on introductions or setting up characters. It's refreshing to read an author who gets straight to the point without wasting any words. The story begins with Marlowe being hired by a wealthy old man to discover the source of an extortion attempt, but the story quickly expands to include murder, pornography, and a few missing people. Marlowe is very methodical and impartial in his investigations, creating a stark contrast to the seedy and unpredictable cast of characters. Chandler does a wonderful job of portraying Los Angeles in the 1930's as it really was with its hidden dark side behind the beautiful exterior of fancy houses and nice suits. Although Chandler's style is a little dry, he has still created a thoroughly readable story without any unnecessary descriptions to slow it down. It's a shame that Chandler didn't start on his writing career until the age of 39. Even so, he was still able to write some other outstanding Marlowe novels to carry on his legacy.

Before Jim Thompson's nihilistic, tough guy crime fiction, and long before smart-talking private detectives like Robert Crais' Elvis Cole or Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie, there was Raymond Chandler and his prototype hard boiled PI, Phillip Marlowe. While Hammett's Sam Spade pre-dates Marlowe's 1939 debut here in "The Big Sleep", Chandler - through Marlowe - is arguably the standard by which all others are measured, the author who could credibly lay claim as the master of the irreverent maverick sleuth: the fast-fisted, impossibly clever, dame-magnet which so many have since sought to emulate. Less debatable is Chandler's mastery the style and the elegance of prose that he introduced to pulp fiction - sharp and lean as one would expect of the genre, but rich in simile and image and as readable today as it was nearly seven decades ago.

In "The Big Sleep", in what looks like a routine case, Marlowe is summoned by a fatally ill millionaire to track down a blackmailer holding compromising pictures of one of his two wayward adult daughters. Chandler gets right to the point in spinning a tale of thugs and hit men trading in pornography and gambling, leading to more murders than a Mel Gibson movie and dalliances sleazy enough to make Bill Clinton blush. Still, while the violence and sex is quaint by today's no-holds-barred onslaught, it is no less effective - consider the terror of the shower screen in Hitchcock's brilliant "Psycho" - one of film's most disturbing moments, though the knife is never seen striking flesh.

In fairness, "The Big Sleep" is not Chandler's finest moment. The initial transgression seems neatly wrapped up with nearly half of the book to go, and one wonders what Marlowe is doing as he aimlessly kicks around what seem to be meaningless loose ends in a rather muddled middle of the book. But Chandler's craft keeps the reader engaged, wrapping up with a few clever twists and enough (barely) of the irony these early masters of pulp fiction are so well noted for.

If you're a fan of pop crime fiction and haven't gone back to read Chandler (or Thompson, Hammett, Block, Westlake, McBain...), you've got some real treats ahead of you. Great entertainment, while at the same time a peak into the roots and inspiration for so many of today's best crime writers.

The Moviegoer is a worthwhile read for anyone who questions the tediousness and resultant boredom of life. It is certainly not outdated for being published in 1960; if anything, it is more relevant today than then. Life as we know it now is even more formulaic than then. It is now even more difficult (if not impossible)to escape the "everydayness" we experience. Binx questions, attempts to search for an escape, but ultimately succumbs by falling in line, by marrying, by becoming no longer the Moviegoer, but the director in creating not art, but the same everydayness that he at first tries to avoid. Fascinating read.

Nothing much happens as Binx Bolling searches for meaning in his life of malaise, albeit a comfortable malaise with plenty of money, a job, a home, and an extended family. He is rootless more in spirit than in reality, and his despair is existential, not in facing danger or struggling to survive. Therefore, his search is leisurely, through observation of the normal details of life around him, without ever engaging enough to escape what he perceives as a tedious existence.

There is more spark in most of the other characters, yet they fail to energize Binx as he hits 30. Kate serves as the most direct counter, with her own search running in parallel. Whereas Binx wants relief from malaise while drifting along, the near-suicidal Kate longs for stability amidst the occasional chaos she triggers.

Mr. Percy's writing showed exceptional grace and a light touch. Various scenes from a few paragraphs to a few pages long were the mark of a true craftsman, capturing a thought or a moment so beautifully. A favorite example was early on, when Binx observes a couple before and after a chance encounter with actor William Holden. Wonderful.

Mr. Percy's sketch of bygone New Orleans society and environs surely means more to one with personal memories of the south, especially New Orleans itself. Even so, the imagery was to me actually more interesting than Binx's search.

if you've never sat down and considered the meaning of your own life, this book may open a new door for you. but if you're even minutely familiar with existentialism, percy will offer no original insight, novelty, or anything remotely inspiring. it read to me like a weak attempt to emulate camus's the stranger, yet with a serious lack of plot, replaced instead by painful doses of supposedly acute observation of random everyday people which are spliced in between already dreadfully boring dialogue or binx's daydreaming. the book starts off with an explanation of his search with some keen quotes, yet falls off miserably as you begin to realize that binx is no unique individual.

I have been wanting to read this book for some time as it is on many of the top 100 lists for novels. While I was able to finish the work, I found myself questioning what it shares with greats such as The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, Huckleberry Finn, Crime and Punishment etc.
The narrating character, Binx Bolling, is like the boy next door, the rather dull and boring boy next door. While I can certainly appreciate the movie references etc., I just cannot make heads or tails of the point. The book did not leave me with a change in perspective, or even a recommendation to make to fellow readers. I would almost rather have hated the book, because hatred involves passion. In this case, I am left rather indifferent.
I am glad to have read it because it does offer a little piece of American history. As an avid reader, however, I am left feeling slightly cheated. If you want to read truly great southern literature, start with Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Save Percy's book for a rainy day (when you are broke and without a friend or a ride to someplace even remotely interesting).

If you wish to get a better handle of the general premise, your best bet is to read the reviews noted on this page. The book's description on the back cover does not provide an accurate account of the content. I did enjoy this book, and do understand its significance. However, the genre really isn't up my alley. Percy's prose is amazing, to say the least. His description of the environment (emotionally, socially, physically - and/or metaphysically) is almost Shakespearean. A technically brilliant writer.