Fiction Literature Books

I just finished reading about Oscar & his familia - real characters I know that I've met. Wonderful storytelling - weaving in DR history (that I didn't know) - and sending me to the Spanglish dictionary several times. Truly a great book!

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, was a very different kind of book for me. I enjoyed it very much, however, I found it very difficult as well. I attribute this to the fact that I had the audio version for this Pulitzer-Prize winner. There was a lot of use of Spanglish, and for someone without a Spanish background this was tough. The story itself was wonderful.

Told through the eyes of various narrators, readers enter the frightening world of a Dominican Republic family living in New Jersey. The characters' lives are overflowing with injustices, unrequited love, lost opportunities, physical cruelties, and as one narrator points out, an ancient Dominican curse called Fukú.

Oscar Wao, is a nice guy, who longs for love but he finds a lot of road blocks along the way: he's fat, a comic book, sci-fi, and fantasy nerd, and a loser. These undesirable characteristics diminish his chances of finding love. The love he so desperately craves, continues to elude him, and we witness the lengths Oscar is willing to endure just for the opportunity, however brief to feel love. Oscar is a poignant, painful, and lovable character who is in constant battle with his delusions. The female characters: Oscar's mother and sister, were very memorable as well. Their own brutal histories and sacrifices are heartbreaking.

I highly recommend this luminous, and humorous book, however, I would recommend the print version as opposed to the audio version, simply because of the English/Spanish difficulty I had.

Fast paced, interesting language...a great book that makes you care for Oscar and his little life. Knowing nothing about the culture of the Dominican Republic, I learned a lot...which is always a good thing! The book has many footnotes which bothered me at first, but it just becomes part of the reading and you can easily dip in and out of them. Well done Junot Diaz...he has done a masterful job on many levels...story, DR culture, NJ culture and the crazy pace of this novel.

Worst book I ever tried to read. Put it down in disgust after only 4 chapters. Lots of Spanish words not translated and huge boring footnotes trying to explain situations or references to people.

Diaz's Pulitzer Prize winning novel didn't get any awards for its plot--it shines for its language. The intricate web of family history in a traditional Dominican upbringing is slowly unfolded with each long and eloquent sentence. Every sentence could be re-read four times over and still be appreciated for every deliberate diction choice Diaz makes. I often found myself pausing in the middle of a paragraph thinking, "How does he think like that?" Spanglish is a large part of Diaz's writing because it further emphasizes the messy transition from Dominican to American, from ancient curses to modern realism and how an awkward, chubby, adolescent dork gets caught up in the confusion of it all. However, the Spanglish isn't a roadblock for any reader, Spanish speaking or not. The words are expressive through tone and sound, so that the literal meaning of the short phrases that were precisely thrown into the story is not vital to comprehension of the plot. The novel flies by because Diaz writes in a conversational manner, a storyteller of sorts. As readers, we sympathize for Oscar and all his social failures but also question the source of his inabilities. Adolescent angst, or a curse of his family? Regardless of who causes Oscar to suffer from nerdiness, obesity and unrequited love, we sit enthralled in his story, his sister's story, his mother and grandmother's story, and the Dominican story. The sarcasm and ease with which the book is written makes The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao less of a novel and more of a movie. A story that hits every emotion, crying at points, laughing at others, Oscar Wao is a true gem in modern literature because it's focus is the language and not some convoluted and yet trite plot. A great light read, one of the best I've read this year.

This book is SO boring. It took me 2 weeks to get past the first 2 pages, then another 3 months to read half the book. I have to finish this piece of crap by the end of summer (school assignment), and the district is making us do an 8 page packet! However, this book is good for something. If your having trouble sleeping, don't take pills, read this book, I guarantee you'll be asleep by the end the fist paragraph.

Hairs chapter is my favorite.....it's short and sweet.....as a latina, i can really appreciate having immediate family so rich in differences....that is the beauty of being latino, is that we are so unique!

The House on Mango Street / 0-679-73477-5

The House on Mango Street is a touching collection of short vignettes centering around the author's childhood and childhood home. The vignettes take a long, hard look at the lives of these children and young women who find themselves lost in a poverty and a culture which makes them feel reduced in value. Basic services such as a home, clothing, and education are provided, but without love - the children feel intensely aware of the fact that they are unwanted, the designated dregs of society (the white children tell them that they are leaving the neighborhood because too many of the 'wrong types' of people are moving in.

The girl children are also introduced - sometimes violently - to the painful realities of womanhood in a poverty stricken culture. One girl is denied by her much-older husband any right to leave the house, ever, because he worries that she might find a life, interests, even love outside of him. She wastes away slowly, trapped in a life of unhappiness and monotony. Other girls are coerced into sexual activity by their peers, and the parents turn a blind eye, figuring that it has always been this way and always will.

The author's despair is evident in every word. She wants to escape, to get away, but she also feels guilty for hating so intensely her community and culture. She cannot separate the good parts of her culture from the bad parts which are less a matter of culture and more a matter of poverty, lack of education, and disease. In the end, she vows to leave, but to never forget - and, perhaps, someday to return, and help.

I remember reading this book in seventh grade with my entire class. Perhaps I should have enjoyed it; it appears to be directed towards that age group exactly. Instead, I, an avid reader, struggled with this odd, rather poor book.

"The House on Mango Street" is recommended for girls in middle school, and point in fact, that's exactly when this teen read it, just a few years ago. Yet as I look back on those two months in English class, it occurs to me that perhaps the fault in this book lies there. It's written as though for young readers - simplistic, short, and pale - and yet the comments about the quality and importance are all things that even the smartest and brightest pre-teen readers would be entirely unable to appreciate and enjoy.

To me, these stories symbolized what was wrong with literature. This book is entirely disorganized, chaotic, and very difficult to follow. The writing style is stupid, simplistic, and simply confusing, providing no room for thought or even interesting analysis. Looking back on it, the stories probably have another level of meaning aside from the story themselves - symbolism or even just hard, cold facts. Yet this book, directed towards this specific age group (Amazon itself recommends this for pre-teens), simply fails to impress. The writing is the kind some might love and others hate. Most young readers will most likely hate it, as I did, failing to see how this could possibly mean something more.

I can see myself returning to this collection of random stories and appreciating it, understanding its literary worth and simplistic importance. And yet it is still a children's book masquerading as an adult book, or an adult book masquerading as a teen book. Either way, it fails to capture either audience.

I'd say absolutely NOT recommended to middle-school age kids, and for anyone else, do some extensive research before reading this loosely written, confusing collection of vignettes.

this is by far one of the worst books i have ever encountered. Cisneros is a horrible author who knows nothing about writing a well organized book that actually makes sense. I wouldn't reccommend it to my worst enemy

Why do books such as this keep being required reading in high schools? Havent there been any authors in more recent time that would provide students more relevancy? Obviously this appeals to those who are truly literature lovers--and that's fantastic. But for most kids, give them something they'll enjoy reading and maybe they'll learn to love literature more. Books like this just antagonize and demoralize those who are not naturally literature lovers.

I agree with just about everything that has been said about this book. It is a classic and I love it. I'm going into 10th grade and I read it to get ahead in school. I found that once I started I could not set this book down.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a great American novel!

In this powerful and moving piece by Hawthorne, he reveals the presence of societal pressures which affect character judgment. Set in the late 1840s and published around that time, Hawthorne's story takes place in Salem and Concord, Massachusetts. He writes in an omniscient point of view, revealing the thoughts and prejudices of each character while interjecting his opinion along with the side.

After the rather boring and tedious introduction which made me almost not want to read the book, the story opens with Hester Prynne holding an infant begat by immoral means emerging from the prison door and onto a scaffold for all to bear witness to the letter "A" for adulteress on her chest. Throughout the story, the focus will be on this symbol, and how it evolves over time with different perspectives.

I won't get into much detail as that may ruin the book for your readers, so I'll move on to Hawthorne's awesome and abundant use of imagery used as symbols for the hypocrisy of the times and so forth. With his use of imagery, he criticizes the mankind for their ignorance In addition he adds transcendentalist views into the story the show the ability of nature being able to outlast and survive over some of the whimsical presumptions of man, such as what the symbol represents.

Much of the book rely on symbols and what the characters represent. Reading and deciphering their meaning is not hard, but is not entirely obvious. What makes Hawthorne so clever is the way he shows the attributes of each character that define their symbol.

Initially, I almost gave up on the book due to the rather long and tedious introduction about the narrator of the story, but I stuck through since it was part of a reading assignment for my reading class. When I finished, I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I provides an insightful view of mankind's ways and our faults. Hawthorne created a timeless masterpiece and I suggest you guys to read it.

I was always skeptical when teachers used the term "classic" when referring to a book. It always seemed to me to be a term to describe books I had to read that were going to suck. The Scarlet Letter was a happy exception; one that actually has meaning today as it did when written.

I really enjoy historical fiction. Hawthorne easily puts a reader into the time period by laying out the facts of puritan life and laws, the dress of the time, as well as with the old-fashioned dialog. Hestor's husband is "away" at sea and she has become pregnant. Normally, adultery would carry a very severe punishment, but the town can't prove her husband is alive. So, she is forced to wear a scarlet "A" (for adultery) on her chest whenever she's in public. This stigma will pass on to her daughter, despite her innocence in the matter. Hestor's stoic perseverence in the face of this humiliation is even more poignant when you learn who the father of her baby really is. This tale of a town forcing its morality on a person is still valid today. Women aren't forced to wear a scarlet A (at least in the US), but we still label people who are different or don't conform to our values.

Unfortunately, at the time this was written, authors were paid by the number of pages in their books. Readers can easily guess this caused uncessary bloating in stories and this book suffers the same. There is a lot of description and fluff that I found myself skimming over, but the heart of the story is still excellent. This tale is powerful and meaningful. Highly recommended!

i can't more strongly urge you to read this hilarious (matter of fact) book about war and the human condition . beyond brilliant .

The book jumps all over the place in a captivating way. I wouldn't necessarily call it SF though.

This is a great book and an interesting insight into Kurt's world. The long awaited Dresden Novel that he claimed to be working on for so many years. I didn't find it funny, but sobering. There are many many great quotes to be taken from it and I'm sure they have been taken many times. It is worth reading for it's history alone, but deeper still there are tidbits of meaning and reality for the reader. The ending is a bit different than I would have expected, but I really enjoyed it, and consumed it in less than a day ( as I did also, with Mother Night). It is sobering and somber, but a great book, either way. It deserves it ranking with the top 100 novels of all time, and should be allowed in High Schools as required reading with or without the cussing.
I am happy to have added it to my collection. But sad that there will not be more books like it.

Like a lot of people who love this book, I first read Slaughterhouse Five when I was a teenager. I was young, unsuspecting, and worse yet, innocent. Many years have now gone by. But unlike Billy Pilgrim, I did not need prompting from a flying saucer to become unstuck in time. I did it with my own free will. By itself, the feat was easy. All I had to do was dig out my old pocket size copy of the novel. It has chew marks in the upper left corner, left by a beloved dog. He's long gone, too. Tralfalmadorean years. Earthling years. So it goes.

Time does have a strange effect on someone rereading Slaughterhouse Five. This isn't nostalgia so much as a renewed conviction of that book's contribution to literary culture. After all, it introduced the Planet Tralfalmadore. What's lovely about the creatures who live there is that nothing much bothers them--not bombs, not hunger, not crowds, and least of all, history--although Billy Pilgrim is plagued by them all. That's because unlike Pilgrim (an Earthling), the Tralfalmadoreans don't believe in free will. They don't even believe in Time. They claim it's all in our minds. To help us understand this, they compare Time to bugs trapped in amber. At any given point, "here we are, ...trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why."

Upon getting sucked into the Tralfalmadoreans' flying saucer, Billy Pilgrim is compelled to relinquish his Earthling traits of free will and time stuckness. This is a mixed blessing mainly because he gets to relive the horrors of a prisoner of war train in Germany, and subsequently, the carpet bombing of Dresden.

From billions of possible Earthlings, Billy Pilgrim was selected for no explicable reason by Tralfalmadoreans who don't need reasons. In fact, they are deeply perplexed at the Earthling compulsion to explain things. For example, I like to figure out why I like this writer or that one--then write about it. I'm getting better, though. I'm learning from the Tralfalmadoreans to say, "I just do." Ironically, I'm still tempted to explain, at the very least, why I love this particular writer, Kurt Vonnegut--the best Tralfalmadorean translator we have. It's his gift for irreverence, second only to his talent for inventing absurd names. Take the porn star, Montana Wildhack. There's no improving on that. Montana, by the way, was abducted by Tralfalmadoreans. In captivity she was kept in a zoo and mated to the most hapless Earthling her captors could find--Billy Pilgrim. So it goes.

Vonnegut joked that he didn't know if people read his books after high school. With that in mind, trying to get re-acquainted with Slaughterhouse Five can bring up a vague feeling of dread. I didn't think I'd be able to enjoy the book as I did when I was nineteen, assuming the inbetween years have left me as jaded as Earthling years do. Back then, Slaughterhouse Five had been endearing (buffoonish, but endearing). But other than the funny parts, what I remembered most were the parts that made me cry.

Goofery aside, there are profound moments in this book. They tend to involve violence. In the German prison camp, a guard takes offense at a remark uttered by one of the American soldiers--and roughs him up. The prisoner is stunned, having intended no harm by what he said. Likely, though, it implied self-pity. Rising from the ground with two teeth missing, the boy asks, "Why me?" Shoving him back into the prisoner ranks, the guard replies, "Vy you? Vy anybody?"

Along with the raging humanity, Vonnegut offers self-mockery to spare. A bit turns up in the fictitious, embittered science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout. By happy coincidence, Trout lives in the same home town as Billy Pilgrim--one of his most avid fans. The problem is that the literary hero is a hack. "His prose was frightful. Only his ideas were good." So it goes.

Slaughterhouse Five is still best read with a dose of innocence. It is innocence, after all, that inspires a nineteen-year-old to sign personal letters, "Yours Truly, From Tralfalmadore." I haven't done that in years (more evidence that I truly am jaded). This is, of course, a time thing. All I know is that quite a lot's gone down in the amber since Dresden, enough accumulated calamity to leave even the Tralfalmadoreans in awe--if they believe in calamity, that is. It just so happens they don't. For Tralfalmadoreans, everything just is.

But there's a warp and I'm back on Earth again. More hours have gone by, which bestows on me the privilege of reporting "I done it" (a phrase I will forever connect with Kurt, see his short story, "Great Day" in Armageddon In Retrospect). I've reread Slaughterhouse Five and still manage to laugh. Better yet, the big sleep of adulthood has not altered Tralfalmadorean love as much as I thought it would have. I appreciate (and need) the wisdom of those creatures as much as ever. It might be faith, denial, or blindness. Some say there's not much difference. I have a deeper suspicion. It's the Tralfalmadorean spell. Time passes, and doesn't. The glob of amber is real.

I don't care who you are, you absolutely need to read this book. It's justly considered a classic. The thing about it is that it isn't really a "humor book" like some of Vonnegut's other, justly famous works (Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater). Parts of it are funny - I especially like the segments with the bitter Kilgore Trout, a sci-fi author reputed to be one of the worst ever - but humor isn't the focus of this book. Rather, it focuses on creativity and a solid message. Most if not all of Kurt's work is topical to some extent, but here his message comes to the fore.
Vonnegut's view of time here is fascinating. Rather than present it as a straight line, as most other authors do, he explores its more abstract natures. To him, time is not a line, but a complex network of points that anybody at any time can travel arbitrarily amongst. This is prime creativity. Some of the most memorable segments of the book involve hapless hero Billy Pilgrim becoming "unstuck in time." The first time he describes it, he takes a beautiful, "poetic-prose" approach. He floats freely through ideas, ideas that intentionally don't connect but are still beautifully written. Billy actually experiences both his birth and his death over the course of the book.
But here is the REAL reason why you need to read Slaughterhouse-Five. It's very much an anti-war book, and the central message it communicates is that there are no heroes in war. The war Vonnegut focuses on is World War II, specifically the Allies' firebombing of Dredsen, Germany, an event that killed more people than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It's clear that Vonnegut holds Nazi Germany in the utmost of contempt. But he also makes the claim that the Allies were not flawless, wonderful supermen. It's obvious that he believes in their ideals, but he also argues that they could be just as bad as their enemies. After all, countless German civilians were killed during the Dredsen firebomings, and I'm going to guess most of them had nothing to do with the Axis powers. In today's world, in today's wars, things aren't so black-and-white, and I think our President desperately needs a reminder of that. This conviction of his that America is the heroic cowboy, shooting down them no-good varmints with a gun in every holster, then mounting his horse and riding off into the sunset, is simply delusional. Don't get me wrong, I have as much if not more hatred for the terrorists our soon-to-be-ex-President (hopefully to be replaced by Barack Obama, but that's irrelevant) is so staunchly opposed to. They certainly are psychopaths, and the world would be a better place without them. But I can at least see where they're coming from. After all, hasn't America stolen their culture with its obsession with a globalist economy? There are no clear-cut heroes or villains in this war. Both sides have understandable motives, and while I admittedly side with the U.S. on this matter (though the Iraq War is at least as unnecessary as the Vietnam War, and has arguably done more damage to our country's reputation), the terrorists do have a point, I suppose. And that's why you need to read this book. Because war isn't as simple and clear-cut as certain presidents would like to believe it is. This is a fine example of preaching to the choir, since I'm a pacifist (except in extreme cases, like World War II), but I simply love this book on many, many levels. Vonnegut's masterpiece. If you wanted proof that he was an author of real literary merit and not just some weirdo - though if that's the case, you can't be my friend - this is a sure bet.

there's really not much more i wish to add , except i think this should be requied reading in all our schools in the nation . a beautifully heartbreaking story of humanity . timeless and true .

In my opinion I thought this book was extremely sad and unpleasant. First, almost every other word was a swear word. Yes, I realize that a lot of the population swears, but I don't understand why novels have to have so much of it. Second, I was very appalled at all of the deaths. The death of one of the worker's dogs, the death of Curley's wife, and finally the death of Lennie. Lennie happened to be my favorite character, so obviously I was sad to read that his companion, George, shot him. I was also sad that Lennie didn't get to tend to his furry rabbits.

steinbeck is awesome for pulling this through.....he was able to pack so much information in this short book.....that is some REAL talent right there!

I love this book. This was my first Steinbeck novel, and I thought it was great

Before I begin my criticisms, I will mention that my focus of this review is not on my personal preferences regarding characterizations, settings, themes, authors, etc. I understand that I cannot expect all authors to write a story that I personally enjoy and can relate to. Even if the subject matter of Of Mice and Men had interested me, I still would have given the novel a one star rating because of my criticism that I will explain in this review.

I am giving this novel a one star rating because it has a lot of vulgar dialogue. There is an average of about 4 profanities per page.

Secondly, even if I were to set aside my moral views of this novel, I still would choose to give this novel a one star rating. In my opinion, the plot structure is not all that good. The climax and resolution could have followed directly after the first 1/3 of the novel. There are too many conversations that seem to fill up space with unnecessary dialogue which describes the backgrounds of characters and personalities that do not play a significant role (if even a role at all) in the outcome of the story.

Furthermore, Of Mice and Men has too many characters for its very simple plot. In my opinion, the advantage to having a lot of characters is to create intricate subplots which play a significant role in the outcome of the story

I do not insist on reading action-packed stories. In fact, I sometimes prefer stories that are mainly comprised of dialogue. However, I do always want to see that there is a CLEAR DIRECTION in the conversations that progressively leads to the climax. In my opinion, the dialogue in Of Mice and Men did not meet these criteria. In fact, mid-way through the novel, I really felt as though the story was approaching a dead-end, and I think that John Steinbeck probably felt the same way. Therefore, he made the climax take a sharp turn off course just so the plot would not slam into a wall.

Due to the offensive content and weak plot structure, I do not recommend Of Mice and Men.

i really enjoyed this translation of homers epic poem. it was very informative and touched on the key points from the original. and i would know because i speak greek and have read the original text!

Robert Fagles' translation of The Odyssey puts the text into modern language that makes this book ideal for teaching in a high school English classroom. I read this in my high school English classroom and, contrary to most students my age, enjoyed it immensely. He keeps the flow of Homer's prose while making the text easy to understand.

This is a great book, and as a Kindle owner, I was happy to see it available. I would also like to see The Iliad as translated by Fagles available for the Kindle.

Outstanding value, good quality book for the price and outstanding translation by Robert Fagles. I highly recommend the Odyssey and Iliad combination by same publisher and both are translated by Fagles.

First of all, don't buy this book if you don't have a college-level reading level.

This book is of excellent quality! I love it. Buy this book if you want a copy of the Odyssey.

About the Odyssey itself, I can add no greater praise than that which has already been deservedly heaped onto one of humankind's greatest literary creations. This particular version is graced with an excellent introduction and notes by Bernard Knox, and what I consider to be a very good translation by Robert Fagles.

The translation style stirs up controversy, with one highly rated review here going so far as to suggest that Fagles' version is not even worthy of being called a translation. In his enlightening translator's postscript, Fagles argues that being too literal results in "too little English" and that being too literary means "too little Greek". In his attempt to create a modern English version, Fagles seeks a happy medium between the two: whether this results in a middle ground or a no-man's-land is up to the reader to decide.

While others clearly disagree, I find Fagles' style immensely satisfying and readable, with an appropriate mix of ancient nobility and modern accessibility. More so than with the Iliad, I found a number of phrases that were perhaps a bit "too colloquial" for my tastes (e.g. it is a bit jarring to see idiomatic modern phrases like "cease and desist" in a translation of a ~3000 year old text) but for me these were few and far between and did not distract from the overall elegance of his translation. Many who prefer a more literal style take issue with Fagles' liberties regarding the syntactic order of epithets, but I felt that he was very effective in conveying the substance of these epithets while converting their style into a form more palatable to the reader of English, a language which seeks to avoid the kind of formulaic repetition which is a necessary convention in ancient Greek.

Above all, Fagles is very clear and explicit about his choice of style, making it easy for the reader to decide whether this style matches his or her expectations. Any translation is ultimately a retelling, and given the gulf of millennia and culture between Homer's Greece and the modern reader, even reading the original in ancient Greek will not faithfully recreate the experience of Homer's contemporaries hearing this tale for the first time. Therefore, assuming technical accuracy exists (which appears to be the case with all of the well known translations of Homer's works), the choice of which one to read ultimately is one of style. The philosophy of translating is a murky realm, with no definitive conclusions about the merits of staying true to the letter of the original versus the spirit of the original--tradeoffs are inevitable. So in the end, find the version that speaks most clearly to you. For me, that version was Fagles'.

I purchased Brave New World after reading 1984, and while I must confess that I enjoyed Orwell's book just a little bit more, Huxley's work was still an immediately compelling read. I think what I liked best was just how "british" this future was, by which I mean, everything seemed so very posh and hip and how we Americans would tend to see the British, as opposed to (sorry to keep drawing comparisons) 1984, whose depictions of England were much more how they might be viewed by say, South Africa.

Another thing I liked about the story was that I didn't particularly care for any of the characters that much. I actually enjoyed the disappointment of having each character let me down just when I thought their basic goodness would shine through. Initial protagonist Bernard Marx is far from the jaded idealist that one wants to believe he is, instead vying for vapid acceptance in the shallow society that he is ostracized from; Lenina Crowne does not become enlightened to Marx or the Savage's wyas of living and remains blissfully baffled by each of them, and wistfully goes on enjoying the meaningless sex and soma holidays; even John the Savage becomes unrelatable, turning into something of a zealous monk who becomes so averse to any feelings of personal satisfaction that he... well, read the book.

I thoroughly enjoyed Brave New World and will in all likelihood pick up Brave New World Revisited in the near future.

An excellent book with an excellent plot and perfect examples of external and internal conflicts among the characters and the society in which the characters live in.

The moment you read the first page of this book, you know you are in trouble. There is no clear explaining done about any of the super natural things going on in this utopian society the book tells about. The author seems to just assume that everyone will just imagine the same thoughts that popped into his own head as he was writing this book.
The book seems to have no point either. First you have a weird society in the future. Then a man who was actually born from a former member of that society makes his way there. He doesn't adapt, and after his mother dies, he becomes a hermit and at the very end hangs himself.
I will give credit for the author's imagination, given that the book was written in 1932. He talks about television and helicopters and jet planes as if they were an everyday thing.

Huxley takes science fiction and satire to a new level with his novel, Brave New World. Brave New World provides an anti-utopian perspective taken place in the future in which technology, totalitarianism, and control rule. The story begins in a factory in which embryos are being genetically made. In this scene the Director show how people are conditioned and placed into classes and also forced to be subjected to meaningless sex. Unfortunate for them!!!!!. As the book continues Bernard Marx, Carl Marx, is later introduced as an unfit member of his social caste and till John is introduced he is our main character. He is later joined with Helmholtz, who is his best friend. Both have distinct discontent of the World State. Bernard's character begins to unfold in his love stricken attitude towards Lenina, which offers a sense of disfunctionality in a society in which love is not to be shown and we finally get a sense of emotion. While his love and lust for Lenina continues her character begins to spread as they travel to the savage world, New Mexico. In the Savage World they meet John, the main character. John reveals an incriminating secrete that forces the Director to resign. Furthermore, john leaves the wild to come to civilization with Bernard and Lenina. John begins to fall for Lenina and displays true affection towards her, but she only wants to have sex with him. In his stay in the city he becomes a show and tell by Bernard. Bernard becomes very famous and popular through his relationship with John. John and Bernard fall out and feud. While in civilization he has many altercations with angry mobs over soma, a drug that everyone takes when feeling depressed or overwhelmed. Unable to handle all the horrid actions of a World State, John runs away to a secluded island. He begins to reconcile with his actions in the world until citizens finally recognize him and force him to recount his stay in the World State. Overcome with disgust he commits suicide. Thorugh all the accounts of the main characters, Huxley proves that totalitarianism is an unsuccessful form of government by using satire, technology, and drugs.

The beginning is like swimming up current; the reader has to kind of force his/her way into the story, which is made hard by the boring torrents of Huxley's writing style and I often found myself wishing I'd be lodged under a rock to drown in the river that is this book, to just die there and be free from the thoughts that spill into these pages. But, I make it a point to always finish a book, and surprisingly, at times I found myself captivated in the story. The first few chapters make this book hard to get into, but, on the bright side, it picks up a little and there are some beautifully written descriptions that erase my regret for ever picking up this book. However, if you are impatient or easily bored, you won't make it far. If you want a story that'll captivate you from the first page, don't even bother with this book. Try "The Alchemist."

Once Upon A Time, there was a farm called the Manor Farm, and the animals on the farm are very mistreated. One day, the animals rise up against their human masters, and establish a near-utopian society. But promises of equality and plenty soon begin to be forgotten... until conditions are worse than they were under the humans.
A cautionary tale of the corrupting effects of power, George Orwell intended this to be a commentary on the depradations of the Soviet Union. A very facinating book.

Animals Gone Wild...
By Lily Starbuck

George Orwell's fable, Animal Farm, tells the tale of frustrated animals who overthrow their master Mr. Jones, who owns the Manor Farm. Through many hard times and conflicts it comes down to who can survive the new farm life. New leaders, new problems, new jobs, everything is changing for the better. Or is it? Orwell is able to portray the idea "absolute power corrupts absolutely." Animal Farm is a quick read and has a loud and clear message, which Orwell shows through a microcosm of the 1917 Russian revolution.

The animals have one goal in mind after they defeat Mr. Jones. That goal would be change. And through this change there will be laws, the Seven Commandments that will help keep the animals equal with one another and make sure the animals don't acquire human-like habits, because the animals don't want to become like the humans who have treated them so terribly and striped them of their freewill. While reading the book you see some animals are starting to create a different status for themselves on the farm, making them more important and able to instruct as well as make decisions for the other animals. I know that while reading Animal Farm I felt angry at the animals that let a new leader control them. Only some of the characters didn't remain loyal to their new leader, and that to me showed bravery, for standing up for something they knew had to be stopped.

George Orwell used farm animals to illustrate the struggle for the control of the Soviet Union. The two pigs, Snowball and Napolean, from Animal Farm resemble Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stallin who both fought over power in Russia. Both Napolean and Stallin took all the power for themselves and became greedy and selfish, therefore not fulfilling their promises to their followers. The struggle for authority, throughout history, is an ongoing process.

I truly enjoyed reading Animal Farm. It wasn't a book where you couldn't put it down but one you find time to read in the oddest moments. George Orwell was an amazing writer. He made learning a life lesson and learning part of history simple and enjoyable. And I don't even like reading books about talking animals and yet I'm recommending this fabulous piece of literature.

It is the rare political book that is both entertaining and thought provoking. Rarer still to be unforgettable and insightful and life-changing. Animal Farm, for me was all this.

The allegory is powerful and the use of farm animals both clever and entertaining, and helped makes the story all the more vivid and memorable. The story is well know, a group of farm animals eventually led by the boar Napoleon, overthrow the capitalist farmer and create an idealistic worker's paradise. Little by little and bit by bit they become not only as corrupt as the former system, but even worse as exemplified by their ruthlessness and hypocrisy. The reader comes away much more cynical about utopian ideals, which sounds like a bad thing but is actually a good thing. Incredibly powerful book, with the weight of truth and some kind of native energy that makes a despairing fairy-tale into a life-changing lesson. I've read plenty of books that I've enjoyed more, but few I've been so drastically impacted by. This book is a must for an adolescent, and if you missed it then even if you're eighty-five pick it up and read it now. It's both historical and timeless.

So Communism is bad because it becomes, in the end, like Capitalism. What destroyed Communism in Europe? Lech Walensa and the trade union Solidarity. Why won't Communism in China come to an end? Because capitalist companies like Walmart won't support unionization in China. Chinese communism survives in China because of support from American companies; alone it would tumble to despair. The rich brotherhood of Capitalism and the slavery of Communism are in alliance in China and it has put American Democracy in its greatest jeopardy ever, prophetic of the classic ending of this book. Democracy has to be protected and nurtured on its own terms, beyond economic theory and systems.

How did I not receive this book as required reading back in high school? Well now that I've picked it up, I realize that I would have enjoyed it then as much as I did now. This thinly veiled (perhaps obvious) critique on the government at the time in Russia provokes many questions on the legitimacy of any government and the inability for communism to operate effectively. The animals band together to overthrow the evil "human" to form their own government - animalism, where all animals are created equal. This belief is reinforced in the seven commandments of animalism. However, corruption and power struggles quickly impede on the central tenets of animalism.

This story reads like an extended Aesop's Fable with messages much more poignant than "slow and steady wins the race" adding a biting satiric wit to it all. This is altogether a facinating allegory to the way Soviet Russia was; yet, it still remains unbelievably revelant in today's society. After all, "All animals are equal (but some animals are more equal than others)."

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a great book to read with a mother-daughter book club. It provides an outlet to talk about issues the girls are covering in school, and to find out about how their perspectives differ from those of their moms. The issues of witchcraft and socially sanctioned violence against a targeted group seem eerily relevant to some of the things going on in our world today. This book challenged all of us to think about the most important things in our lives and what we're willing to sacrifice to achieve a higher cause.

Daughter needed it for a project for an accelerated class. It came in time and she was able to complete her assignments with a new book.

I really enjoyed reading this classic tale. I found it interesting from an historical and literary point of view. It forces you to think about very real moral dilemmas, like what you might or might not give your life for.

This short play dives deep into the minds of those who participated in the Salem Witch Trials during the 1600's. Miller focuses entirely on human emotions as he attempts to discover the real reason for these ridiculous witch accusations. "The Crucible" is intriguing and mind-bottling as readers realize the severity of the trials. Many people's lives were changed and it leaves one to question: "Why didn't anyone verify the claims?" The play centers around a man named John Proctor and his relationship with the young Abigail Williams. John commits adultery, cheating on his wife Elizabeth with Abigail. In the Puritan society, adultery is a major sin in which the individual would face a severe punishment if convicted. When Proctor tells Abigail he does not love her, she takes revenge by accusing Elizabeth of doing witchcraft. The claims are absurd, yet not a single person in the town attempts to clear Elizabeth's name. Abigail uses her manipulative powers to get the other girls in on her plan. The play shows that both fear and revenge can cause people to do horrible things. The townspeople are involved in this "witch hunt" and add to society's ignorance. They fail to challenge authority even though they know what is right. I found this book engaging as I tried to fathom the events that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. Miller does an excellent job of trying to understand why this happened. I learned that Puritan society was weak and that many individuals feared speaking out against authority. The entire Puritan society was based on control. By instilling fear in people, the Puritan leaders could maintain leadership over the rest of them. This is a great read if you want to try to understand history and apply it to our world today.

On my walk through the LoA edition of Arthur Miller plays I bypass The Enemy of the People, the Ibsen adaptation, which I think is a waste of everyone's time, and go straight to the Crucible, which I had never read, nor watched on stage or screen. Very odd. It is a truly gripping piece of modern classic stage writing.
Of course AM needed to educate us always, so this story is not just a story about the witch trials of Salem, when perfectly harmless people, including some citizens of standing in the community, got identified as witches and hanged for it. (Which somehow looks like progress over the burnings in Europe.)
No, this is generally about fundamentalism and totalitarianism and theocracy, and more specifically about McCarthy and I wouldn't be surprised if it was also about the Ayatollah Khomeini, whatever you may say regarding anachronisms, and the Taliban. Let's not forget the Cultural Revolution of China.
If I seem to mock the play just a little bit, I haven't made up my mind yet, not quite. There is something strangely wrong in the tone of the dialogues. Can't quite nail it. Anachronistic for sure; is that all? Have to think about it.
The message that AM put into his morality tale is that power and property interests are behind the maddest manifestations of disinterestedness and righteousness. That was sure true in the other historical witch hunts that we know about. Whether it is an accurate reflection of the Salem case, I do not know. (I will definitely look for the DVD and give DDL a chance for redemption in my eyes.)

i read this book a few years ago it was an extremly good book i would read again!!!! A+++++++++++

this is a truly inspiring book, Kidd is an incredible author. Gives readers a view into what life was like back in the 60's for black people. Inspiring tale of self journey, and family

After being decidedly unimpressed with the first Sue Monk Kidd book I read (The Mermaid Chair), I was afraid this one would be similarly the literary equivalent of a Lifetime movie. I was pleasantly surprised: while it has the same airy style that enables you to motor through the pages, it has substantially more weight.

The characters are engaging and believable (another reviewer questions why the protagonist doesn't act terribly mature, but she IS only a teenager after all!), and the plot includes historical and personal drama (African Americans gaining the right to vote and socially oppressed people's responses to racism).

This is also a rare novel in that while many would consider it to be in the genre of Beach Book, the women depicted are not superficial and do not seem like 2-dimensional "yay, girl power!" characters. They are strong, smart, conflicted women who are determined to make the world what they want it to be, whether questioning racism, letting newfound sexuality develop, or even creating a new religion.

I enjoyed this so much. It has a "To Kill A Mockingbird" feel to it. I couldn't put it down. I hope everyone enjoys this as much as I did.

The book is more aimed at someone between the ages of 12-16, particularly female. Kidd portrays well the frailty of this girl, coupled with her insecurities and joys. Her relationships to the people around her are those I find unreal a little bit- saintly people who are completely forgiving. although the main character is real enough, the people around her settings seem fake, enough so that it makes it hard to relate. your call people!