Fiction Literature Books

After months of "patiently" waiting for this title to come out in paperback, my almost 10 year old was thrilled to see its delivery from the UPS man. He LOVED this book, as he has the previous books and thinks they should all be made into movies and/or tv shows. He reads every night before bed, but usually only for about 20 minutes before falling fast asleep. With this book, he was up 2 hours after "lights-out" not wanting to put it down. Now he begins the wait for the next installment to be available in paperback.

I absolutely love this series. I have read them all but book 6, and can't wait for it to be released. I can see this series becoming very popular.

The 5th book is wonderful, but the end bit, which has to do with the Scarlet Hand, is extremely confusing. Furthermore, the 6th book (yes, its out!)has a plot that doesnt really match up with the 5th. Still, its an extremely compelling read, I suggest that you buy it!

I am sure that I am not the target market for this series, as I will turn 56 in less than a week. In spite of that I have to say that I love this series of books. The sisters and their extended family keep me entertained, crying and rolling on the floor with laughter.
I recently discovered these books when reading a newspaper article about the frenzy around the release of the sixth book.

I was a huge fan of the Harry Potter books and since there probably will never be another one am glad to find a replacement that is just as good and sometimes better.

I can't wait for the 7th installment, to find out what myths and fairy tale stories will have new light shed on them.

The adventures never seem to end for fairy-tale detectives Sabrina and Daphne Grimm. This time they are investigating a series of thefts of magical items like Baba Yaga's Wand of Merlin, Morgan le Fay's Wonder Clock, and water from the Fountain of Youth. Usually Granny Relda and Mr. Canis help them solve mysteries, but Sabrina and Daphne are pretty much on their own this time. Granny Relda is busy trying to raise money to pay her property tax and Mr. Canis is finding it harder and harder to stop turning into the Big Bad Wolf. Will Sabrina and Daphne be able to find the thief before they run out of time?

"Magic and Other Misdemeanors" is another great entry in Michael Buckley's delightful "The Sisters Grimm" fairy-tale detective series. Sabrina and Daphne continue to grow as characters in each book, especially Sabrina, 12 years old by the end of the book and not nearly as angry as she was in the earlier books. Buckley does a great job of incorporating fairy tale and other legendary characters such as Cinderella, Goldilocks, some of the seven dwarfs, the Queen of Hearts, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and many more. It's always fun to see how he tweaks the various characters - for example, Puss `N Boots is an exterminator, Cinderella hosts a radio talk show called The Dr. Cindy Show, and the witch from Hansel and Gretel is a (not very good) dentist. There's a wonderful sense of humor throughout the book (the magic mirror's computer still being on dial-up and Granny Relda's "recipes" are just two examples of that humor). There are some scary moments, but nothing too frightening. The reason for the theft of the magical items has been done before, but Buckley somehow makes it seem fresh.

"Magic and Other Misdemeanors" is aimed at ages 9 - 12, but readers young and old will enjoy it.

First of all, this review does not in any way reflect my opinion of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in itself. It is a fantastic book, and deserves a worthy hardcover edition. Unfortunately, I cannot endorse this edition. The first copy I purchased had a severe printing defect: The pages were not cut properly, many were oddly shaped and disordered. Thinking it was just a fluke error, I returned it for a fresh copy. As I read my new copy, I realize that it too suffered from defects. Several pages were missing in the first few chapters alone! Two flaws of that magnitude in a row is absolutely unacceptable from any professional printing company. I would suggest looking for another edition, or, if you want this one, inspect it *very carefully* when you receive it to make sure everything is as it should be (not an easy feat with a book over 1,000 pages long!).

This is a great book for any fan of Lord of the Rings. It has wonderful illustrations, maps, and easy to read pages. The only problem is that it is a bit heavy, otherwise everything is fabulous!

The three volume set shipped included two copies of "The Two Towers" and no copt of "The Fellowship of the Ring". Having dealt with amazon customer support before it was easier just to have their mother buy the absent copy at Wal-mart.

I first received *The Lord of the Rings* as part of a boxed set, complete with *The Hobbit,* for Christmas in 1985. I also received a boxed set of the first four *Dune* books. I was 13 and in 8th grade.

Like many 13-year olds, I loved *The Hobbit* but I thought *The Lord of the Rings* was simply awful. For one thing, the plot was not immediately obvious to me. (Keep in mind that at the time my enjoyment reading primarily comprised Doctor Who novelizations and Choose Your Own Adventure books.) Instead of the short chapters of plot and dialogue to which I was accustomed, Tolkien provided page after page of exposition, describing the local color and history with any "action" provided almost as an afterthought. And then there is what may have been the biggest problem of all with *The Lord of the Rings,* the scores of strangely named characters and places, some of whom are central to the story and others of whom are purely peripheral and which is which is unclear. I mean, sheesh, who names their two main villains Sauron and Saruman, names that differ by only one syllable?

It should be here noted that while I loved reading at age 13, I was also not the best reader. Memories of reading what I managed to of the trilogy consist mainly of reading a single page over and over and over again just to follow the main thread of the story. Somehow I managed to finish *The Fellowship of the Ring* and made it a few dozen pages into *The Two Towers* before I threw up my hands and abandoned Tolkien to the realm of "authors I think are overrated." I still have a vague recollection of giving a a pretty worthless presentation on the first book in front of Mrs. Fox's English class, the same class I was in when the Challenger exploded. (I also have an even vaguer memory of reviewing some disposable piece of genre SF called Dushau (Dushau Trilogy, No 1), but that's another story.) In short, I never thought I would ever read this book again, and considered all those folks who worshiped Tolkien to be little short of fools.

Fast-forward sixteen years. It's Christmas time in Champaign, and I'm attending *The Two Towers* with my coworkers, mainly because the bosses gave us cinema tickets for the holidays. As the movie begins to unfold, I remember those few dozen pages that I read at 13, and I slowly begin the journey of reappraising Tolkien. While I agree with those who urge reading the book as well as simply seeing the movie, I think that in this case I could not have done the former if I had not done the latter. Peter Jackson's trilogy allowed me to familiarize myself with the overall story arch (something that was hard for me to do from within the perspective of the novel, at least at first) and also helped me to handle the enormous cast of strangely named characters. (Finally Saruman and Sauron were decidedly distinct characters in my mind's eye, and the logic behind their naming, based as it is on Tolkien's invented languages, became more apparent.) So in fall of 2007 I finally decided to give the damned book another chance, mooched the one-volume "trilogy" (apparently Tolkien always considered it one big novel) through BookMooch, chose it over the New Testament for 2008's "big book" (sorry Mom), and devoured it in January, 2008.

In short, I loved it, particularly the exposition and the bizarre names for characters and places. Strange, huh, how the passage of time will do that to one's sensibilities? The very features of the novel that I found off-putting in 1985, I found absolutely ingenious in 2008. The names and locations in *The Lord of the Rings* all figure into a much-vaster cosmology and narrative history, and this becomes more apparent when the reader peruses the voluminous appendices. All the details that seemed arbitrary and distracting from "the action" were in fact anything but arbitrary, deriving as they did from a comprehensive mythology (of a world that did not exist until Tolkien wrote it into existence!). Take for example the appendix on the "translation" of the text explaining why Tolkien chose English words like "elf" and "dwarf" and "halfling" to "translate" the "original" Elvish words. Apart from the implication that there is really an original manuscript written in Elvish, this appendix also implies that the "elves" in this story aren't really elves, the "dwarves" aren't really dwarves, etc., but that these are the closest analogs that the translator could find in fantastic literature.

That these 1,000+ pages, with all their hyper-detailed exposition, are merely the tip of the iceberg of Tolkien's invented world, makes the novel all the more amazing. This really is a masterpiece of storytelling and myth-making. I can understand now why so many people love this book. I think I'm now one of them.

I recently purchased the single volume illustrated version of the Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Illustrated Edition). This is probably only for the (at least) semi-fanatical Tolkien fan.

I had owned a set of soft cover individual books (all four: Hobbit, Fellowship, Two Towers, Return) that were published in 1964 (before I was born), and they had, unfortunately, deteriorated, both from age and rough use (read in the bathtub, at the park just before a rain shower, jammed in a briefcase to be read at lunch, etc.) I thought about simply buying the new individual paperbacks, but researched and found this illustrated version, published in 1991, on the 100th anniversary of Tolkien's birth.

The bad news: this thing is massive! Holding one giant volume and actually reading it presents some problems.

That being said, this is THE version of the story, presented as Tolkien intended it: "One book to rule them all" to paraphrase the master. The size of the book emphasizes that this is the definitive work of twentieth-century fantasy. The red sash bookmark is classy. The illustrations are nice, and add an excellent counter-point to the words. To again paraphrase Tolkien's critique of his own work, "I only wish there were more [illustrations]." (Of course, there are plenty of books out there with a great deal of artwork, enough to satisfy just about everyone.)

In the end, this is like buying your mixed drinks in a bar, and insisting on top shelf alcohol. A real devotee can appreciate the difference, but to the average person is it really worth the extra money? As a bit of a Tolkien fanatic (I have read the story about fifteen times in the last thirty years), the $40+ bucks was worth it, even though I could have purchased a whole new set of the four in paperback for at least $10 less.

For each potential buyer, take the advice of Galadriel and look inside yourself. If you don't get that reference, this is probably not for you. If you do, and are nodding your head as you read this, call now and have your credit card ready!

Chuck Hinton

I resisted this book for a long time. I heard negative and positive things about it. Then the movie or series came out and again I heard negative and positive things.

I am an Egyptian living in the US. I am specializing in Middle Eastern Studies. My sister sent me a copy of the Arabic version and my husband a copy of the English version.

Today I was bored for an hour or so, that's when I started reading the book and finished it the same day.

First of all, I can see how it is controversial and how it can be seen as threatening to some people. It deals with characters as a matter of fact and without trying to tip toe. Homosexuality is out in the open. (Though I can see the author believing that homosexuality is a psychological disease or due to trauma. Not as genetic)

The book has a Naguib Mahfouz feel to it, but lacks in complexity of scenario, language (Mahfouz managed to write in classical Arabic and having the reader read dialect). This book was a little awkward sometimes. There was no flow between classical and dialect.

I think the fact that I was raised in Egypt and actually know about the places that he mentioned in the book and how downtown looks like, I can also imagine the characters of the book cause they do exist in real life has made reading this book very interesting.

If you read Arabic, I recommend that you read it in Arabic.

This book was published in Arabic in 2002 and for a few years thereafter was one of the world's best-selling novels in that language. It was translated into English in 2004. I didn't open it looking for a masterpiece of style or psychological depth, but for a window into another society's values, types, behaviors and problems. On that level, it satisfied.

It followed the lives of five main characters who lived or worked in a once-grand, now-decaying building in downtown Cairo: male/female, young/old, rich/poor, devout/secular, educated/working class, straight/gay. The author introduced the five as individuals, then paired them off with each other or with the secondary characters around them. The action jumped back and forth between the pairs as the novel progressed, contrasting the characters' behavior up through the conclusion.

With this structure, the author was able to touch on many aspects of society, one after another. He depicted political corruption, the scheming for advantage among the powerful and powerless, sexual repression and obsession, the benefits that flowed from money and connections, the lack of democracy and opportunity, the frustration that led to religious fundamentalism, and the search of so many for love and respect.

In interviews, the author has said he saw the majority of the characters in his novel as oppressed, and that he believed in the long run a repressive government would generate terrorism. In the book, one of the protagonists argued that the country's curse was dictatorship, that it led inevitably to poverty, corruption and failure in all fields, and that a step forward must include progress toward democracy.

I was struck particularly by the book's ending, where the main characters' various fates might hint at the author's view of the way toward a brighter future: joining the tolerant outlook of the old with the aspirations and vitality of the young, in a relationship of mutual trust and respect. And an avoidance of religious extremism and unbridled sensuality, both of which seemed to lead to wasted potential and a dead end.

The story was very readable, and the plot raced along. Toward the end, the pace was sustained at the cost of some believability. I found the characters' behavior credible or interesting enough a good deal of the time, except for the sudden anger and class scorn expressed by one of the characters that led to violence. Or the love that developed so quickly between a younger character and an older one.

Finally, I was left wondering how the author really felt about the religious beliefs of the sheikh who became the mentor of one of the young main characters. How evolution toward democracy would incorporate people like the sheikh is something I'm still trying to understand.

Al Aswany populates the Yacoubian Building with a set of socially diverse characters and then relates a set of stories involving various residents. This device allows him to create a portrait of life in Cairo; the injustices suffered by the poor, the corruption of the elite, the political and economic realities of a repressed society and the way religion is used by different players to achieve their purposes.

The main characters are each introduced in some detail and because there are a large number of them, this means that lengthy digressions into the background of characters are still taking place halfway through the book. This tends to almost bog the narrative down in places. The other disadvantage of having so many central characters is that it makes it difficult to develop them in any real way. Though a number of them do emerge by the end of the book as having the necessary depth to make them interesting, others remain close to being stereotypes. The novel is an interesting slice of modern Cairo life and as such is a rewarding read, but it doesn't quite ever become totally engrossing.

with few characters, the author depicts contemporean Cairo with a palette of nuances: tragic, nostalgic, cruel and soft at the same time.

Reading literature about a particular city gives you insight into the mores and character of that community. This is true of Alaa Al Aswany's novel from 2002, The Yacoubian Building (ImaratYa'qubyan). I found the novel both well written and structured. Using the title building as his center Aswany portrays a diverse group of contemporary Cairenes to demonstrate the experience of living in the world of Egypt today. The author presents the issues of political corruption, class conflict and the "science" of love in a believable narrative; however, I found his portrayal of homosexuality less effective: sensitive at times but ultimately concluding with a stereotypically brutal end for the spurned lover. The difficulties of living in this society are highlighted as the novel moves smoothly from episode to episode building toward a climax that, while somewhat melodramatic, brings the story to an effective conclusion. Overall the complex narrative and view of the city of Cairo made this an engaging and satisfying read.

This was a wonderful shopping experience. The item was in pristine condition and arrived in the time specified.

This book has an excellent compilation of authors, writers, poets, and essayists. Here are some of them below;

Sherman Alexie; Sherwood Anderson; Margaret Atwood; Rolfe Aggestam; W.H. Auden; Anna Akhmatova; Matthew Arnold; John Ashbery; Thomas Bailey Aldrich; Aristotle;

Wayne Booth; James Baldwin; Toni Cade Bambara; Russell Banks; Robert Brinkmeyer; Cleanth Brooks; Elizabeth Bishop; Lord George Gordon Byron; Emily Bronte; Sterling A. Brown; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Robert Bly; Basho; Buson; Amiri Baraka; Buson; William Blake; Anne Bradstreet; Gwendolyn Brooks; Joseph Brodsky; GEoffrey BUllough;

Raymond Carver; Ann Charters; Anton Chekhov; Kate Chopin; Amy Clampitt; Lewis Carroll; Hart Crane; Countee Cullen; Billy Collins; Wendy Cope; A. Cinna; Adelaide Crapsey; Stephen Crane; Lucille Clifton; Marilyn Chin; Samuel Charters; e.e. cummings; Samuel Taylor Coleridge;

Edwidge Danticat; Joan Dayan; Emily Dickinson; Robert Duncan; Hilda Doolittle; John Donne; Rita Dove; Paul Laurence Dunbar; James Dickey; Jill Dolan;

Ralph Ellison; Louise Erdrich; T.S. ELiot;

William Faulkner; Richard Ford; Sally Fitzgerald; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Carolyn Forche; Robert Frost; Rose C. Feld; Jessie Fauset; Francis Ferguson; Sigmund Freud;

Sandra Gilbert; Susan Gubar; Gabriel Garcia Marque; Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Susan Glaspell; Nadine Gordimer; James Gargano; Louise Gluck; Thomas Gray; Richard LEighton Green; Allen Ginsberg; Linda Gregg; Philip Gerber; Sir John Gielgud;

Nathaniel Hawthorne; Ernest Hemingway; Zora Neale Hurston; Toby Hiller; A.E. Housman; Robert Herrick; George Herbert; Robert Hass; T.E. Hulme; Thomas Hardy; Jim Harrison; Robert Hayden; Seamus Heaney; Langston Hughes; Anthony Hecht; Thomas Wentworth Higginson; Lorraine Hansberry;

Issa; Henrik Ibsen;

Shirley Jackson; James Joyce; Tom Jenks; Ben Jonson; Erica Jong; Randall Jarrell; Thomas H. Johnson;

Franz Kafka; Jamaica Kincaid; J. Gerald Kennedy; John Keats; Galway Kinnell; Jack Kerouac; Yusef Komunyakaa; Etheridge Knight; Hugh Kingsmill; H.D.F. KItto;

Jhumpa Lahiri; D.H. Lawrence; Audre Lorde; Mina Loy; Denise Levertov; Primo Levi; Robert Lowell; John Lahr;

J. Hillis Miller; Katherine Mansfield; Guy De Maupassant; Herman Melville; Rick Moody; Bobbie Ann Mason; Dorothy Tuck McFarland; Archibald MacLeish; Marianne Moore; Edwin Morgan; Andrew MArvell; ANdrew Motion; W.S. Merwin; Leonard Mustazza; Arthur Miller;

Jim Naughton; Lorine Niedecker; Ogden Nash; Helge Normann Nilsen; Benjamin Nelson;

Flannery O'Connor; Joyce Carol Oates; Tim O'Brien; Tillie Olsen; Frank O'Hara; Wilfred Owen; Alicia Suskin Ostriker; Sharon Olds;

Grace Paley; Edgar Allan Poe; Annie Proulx; Dorothy Parker; Alexander Pope; Francesco Petrarca; Ezra Pound; Marge Piercy; Allen Polite; Linda Pastan; Sylvia Plath;

David Reynolds; Christina Rossetti; Lou Reed; Edwin ARlington Robinson; Theodore Roethke; Norman Rosten; Dudley Randall; Ishmael Reed; Adrienne Rich; ARnold Rampersad; Willy Russell;

Leslie Marmon Silko; John Steinbeck; Kathleen Westfall Shute; A.O. Scott;
Stevie Smith; Carl Sandburg; Percy Bysshe Shelley; William Shakespeare; Shiki; Wallace Stevens; Ann Stevenson; Wislawa Szymborska; Gary Snyder; Anne Sexton; Gary Soto; Sophocles; Sir Tom Stoppard; Sir GEorge Bernard Shaw;

Amy Tan; Cheryl B. Tornsey; Lord Alfred Tennyson; Dylan Thomas; Joan Templeton;

John Updike;

Helena Maria Viramontes; Paula Vogel;

Eudora Welty; Alice Walker; William Carlos Williams; Robert Penn Warren; Sir Thomas Wyatt; Big Joe Williams; Richard Wilbur; William Wordsworth; J. Walker; Richard Wright; Miller Williams; Phyllis Wheatley; Walt Whitman; James Wright; Virginia Woolfe; Tennessee Williams;

Susan Yuzna; William Butler Yeats;

I ordered this book for my 8 year old niece. She really likes it, especially the tornado page at the beginning. She is just discovering the world of books and is always thrilled when she can actually keep one versus having to return it to the library!

This book was recommended by a friend who has it and reads it to her granddaughter. I bought it to give as a gift to my granddaughter, but was so thrilled at the charming and spectacular content, I have kept it for myself. The pop ups have such amazing color and are on heavy enough paper that it should last a long time. I have been a great fan of all the Oz books (which I Have, some printed in the early 1900's) and believe this will be a great addition to my collection.
Sincerely, Lise Jones

My father got my sister and I some beautiful fairy tale popup books from Europe when we were children. We have never seen a popup book come even close to the details in those books. I took a chance after reading the reviews and ordered the Wizard of Oz popup for my sister for Christmas. Well, it comes very close to the books we had as children. Its very entertaining, even for us "older" kids.

Purchased item for my niece who adores the wizard of oz. The item was as described. Shipped promptly and she LOVED it.

I BOUGHT THIS BOOK FOR A 2 MONTH OLD BABY FOR WHEN SHE GETS OLDER.I OPENED THE BOOK WHEN IT CAME IN THE MAIL AND I FELT LIKE A LITTLE KID IT WAS SO AWESOME. EACH PAGE IS FILLED WITH AMAZING DETAIL. IT WILL REALLY PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE

Just picked it up on a whim a year or so back - very interesting underrated book that we can all relate to in some manner, but still retains an air of mystery (since his "crime" is never disclosed) to make you think a bit.

Hopefully I don't sound pretentious, but shortly after I read Ivan Illich Deschooling Society. While justice systems aren't schools, I think the phrase "We confuse teaching with being taught...police for security...politics for order...and overall trained to confuse service in place of value" comes into play with The Trial.

Maybe I'm off, but to me, I think Kafka's main goal was illustrating this concept, even though it predates Illich by quite some time.

By stripping away the actual accusation, it doesn't become a book about stopping a murderer, thief, rapist, embezzler. If the accusation were revealed, you would be tricked into confusing service over value - ie you'd naturally feel the protagonist was guilty if accused of something, or you'd naturally feel the court is in perfect right to investigate a SPECIFIC CRIME...and automatically trust that it's order.

But without an accusation, all you are left to examine is what has been accomplished...ie you question the value, no longer blinded by the service. As the book progresses, you see it's just a show people are tricked buying into - judges are important by title alone not because they stop criminals, defendants are automatically in fear of something they haven't done and question their guilt despite it being ambiguous if it's good or bad, and people automatically judge you on what they're told vs. what they believe and abandon any practical thought of their own to the point where strangers can convict someone you've known for quite some time. In the end, you see little is accomplished and people are just following a 9-5 routine uninspired by actual productivity, actual right or wrong, and everyone trapped into the service, not value, mindset.

Interesting to see what others think,but to me, The Trial is a verbatim portrayal of Illich's books.

Kafka depicts a terrifying world, a man lost in a world of utter unintelligibility - it is the horror story of the 20th century, where man has sought to negate both his own intelligibility and that of the world. Kafka pre-empts the regimes of Stalin, Hitler and all the other crazies of the 20th Century.

So I read this book for a small book club and I could NOT make myself finish it. The whole "no paragraph" thing totally made it unreadable for me. I got through like 2 or 3 chapters before shuting it closed and throwing it on the floor. It had the potential to be a good story too. I say skip it.

Behind Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, this is perhaps the greatest book in which the author immerses his reader into the protagonist's soul. The damnable truth of the matter is there is little absurd in Kafka's "absurd" prose. This book grips you in the protagonist's fear, despair, despondency, boldness, and indecisiveness. He can trust no one, and everyone turns out to be his enemy. Just imagine how great the story would be if the author lived to complete it. Alas, maybe it would not be as good at all. Anyway, enjoy this classic tale, and learn how little stands between Kafka's written word, and current day.

I can't "review" The Trial. As George Steiner writes in the introduction: "The thought that there is anything fresh to be said of Franz Kafka's The Trial is implausible." I will however, comment on this particular edition. I have not read any other translation of the novel, but I was satisfied by the job done by Willa and Edwin Muir. The so-called "Definitive Edition" is worth having, not only for the classic translation, but also for the supplemental material: the introductory essay, unfinished chapters, passages deleted by Kafka, excerpts from Kafka's diaries, drawings by Kafka, and Max Brod's postscripts to previous editions.

Maxwell: Later Novels and Stories is the second volume of The Library of America's quality presentation of author William Maxwell's classic stories and novels. The writings presented were selected by editor Christopher Carduff, who also wrote the extensive notes on text, which are eminently useful for placing references to historical figures or events in context. The stories and improvisations largely come from Maxwell's writing career later in his life, dating from 1957 to 1999; selections include the novels "The Chateau" and "So Long, See You Tomorrow" and stories "The Value of Money", "Billie Dyer", "The Room Outside", and many more. A thoroughly accessible and beautifully bound edition of tales by an author exquisitely skilled at rendering tragedy with a distinctively American cultural style. Also highly recommended for public library and private literature collections is the companion volume, "William Maxwell: Early Novels and Stories" (9781598530162, $35.00).

This series teaches skills that all of us should learn. It helps me as a parent to reinforce principles that I feel my child needs to understand. It's also great that given the choice between the Get Along books and classics such as Hercules...my four year old boy will choose to read the Get Along Series books.

--Mike (Father of three)

I would highly recommend any of the books in this series by Cheri Meiners. Join In and Play is a great book for parents whose children are shy or may avoid social interactions. It offers a variety of ways they can be included and have fun with their classmates and friends, even illustrating how to ask to join a game or play quietly beside another child. It also would be helpful in helping a more confident, popular child to reach out to quieter, less engaged peers.
These books caught my eye because the writing level is just right for pre-K and kindergarten children. Truthful without being preachy or overly wordy, the series shows children and family members from many different ethnic groups in the colorful illustrations, and each book addresses issues which are developmentally critical to this particular age group: sharing, taking turns, being afraid, listening, respecting others, helping out at home, etc. These books have given us a starting point to discuss problems at school or interacting with others, and have helped my son to have more empathy for his peers....I am hopeful that this quality will serve him well as he continues on to kindergarten and elementary school. It is exciting to hear him use ideas from this series to problem solve.

I have all the books from the Learning to Get Along series. They are wonderfully illustrated and written. These are great social story books to help kids. I use them for my son and for the kids I work with at school. My son (5) will just sit and read this books on his own. I absolutely recommend Cheri J Meiners books. (I even have a link on my website for her books)

This is such a wonderful book. It is very thoughtful, respectful and kid friendly. The book spells out very clearly how to "join in and play." There is a wonderful teacher/parent guide in the back with activities for children to practice on how to make friends. The book is very well written and the illustrations are so dynamic. You can really tell how the children are feeling in the book by their facial expressions. (My only caveat is that the illustrator wasn't given credit on the byline. I don't know how the publisher go away with this but it is an egregious error in my perspective.) All the books in the series are wonderful! My daughter reads them over and over again.

Mr. DuBois gave a harsh reality on the struggles of the African American people. He left no stone unturned and no points missed.

I love this book. It is part of the best of the works of the great W.E.B. DUBOIS. My active reading of this book expanded my knowledge more on what it takes to be a blackman in America. It is a piece of identification that everyblack person in America is looking to verify about their race in the U.S.
It's a great book.

In 1903, two years after Booker T. Washington's autobiography, "Up from Slavery", W.E.B. Du Bois published "The Souls of Black Folk", a series of essays which today most consider a seminal work in African-American Sociology literature. Du Bois view of race relations in American at the dawn of the 20th century was clear, critical and deeply profound.

Throughout the fourteen chapters Du Bois uses a metaphor, the veil, with considerable deftness:
"...the Negro...born with a veil...gifted with second sight...double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others."

Du Bois shares his thoughts on Emancipation & the Post-Emancipation era, "...there was scarcely a white man in the South who did not honestly regard Emancipation as a crime and its practical nullification as a duty." In other chapters he covers: the education of the Negro, Negro suffrage, tenant farming, and Negro spirituals a.k.a Sorrow Songs. In the chapter, "Of the Black Belt", we take a journey with him as he travels through the Black Belt of Georgia - which is not a reference to the large number of people of color in the area but to the color of the soil. In "The Coming of John", the lone fictional chapter, Du Bois relates a short story of two Johns, one white and one Negro, both coming home to the South after attaining an education in the North.

I could go on and on but this one relevant text that you must read for yourself.

was worthless...was not the correct match for my class book requirement. Never used it...if someone wants it you can have it for free

"The Soul Of Black Folk" Is a book I think everyone should read regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, color, or creed simply because there's something in it for all. W.E.B. Dubois' engaging book falls more inline with the panorama of all American experiences, not just the Black experiences alone: if that makes any sense?
This fine book was originally published in 1903 and is still a significant piece of literature today. The anecdotes that are shared in this book belong in the lexicon of American history, but what's most striking are Dubois' references to Negro music called the sorrow songs, which of course spanned through hundreds of years of sanguineous slavery. And it was these same songs that set the foundation of Gospel, the Blues, Rock n Roll, and the American dream.
The reason I'm using this terminology is because in-spite of the torture blacks suffered they still managed to sing amazing songs such as "Steal Away," and "Poor Rosy." (Some songs were in reference to allegorical content).
Furthermore, the British rock-band Led Zeppelin is a fine example of individual intellectualism insofar as embracing American Negro culture considering they were influenced by this book because in 1968, Led Zeppelin's first album debuted and not only did they cover blues favorites written by Willie Dixon, but they also covered Negro spirituals, which Du Bois referred to as the "Sorrow Songs."
Led Zeppelin's song "How Many More Times" is an opus of Negro "Sorrow Songs." It's amazing that it took the bluesy cadence of an English rock band to pay homage to the very people whose hardship and strife inspired them to borrow the lyrics and the music from this book. It's a wonderful sight to see when people like Jimmy Page and Robert Plant take the time to learn about Black Americanism and about themselves. It just goes to show that all Americans should embrace their African heritage because without acknowledging the Black experience it's impossible to be a true American.
It's upsetting to note that in today's America racism is so rampant that the subject of Rock n Roll history can't even be encroached upon like it was in the 1960's civil rights movement, due to the fact that the political language has significantly changed.
(In layman's terms we can't be honest with ourselves and discuss the sheer fact that racism still dictates our everyday lives simply because the corporate world creates the phony left/right paradigm and ad-hominems through the media, which leaves America with an erroneous history).
Anyway, music played a major role during the 1960's. It helped people prosper through the horrific struggle for independence. The poetry that the slaves introduced over two-hundred years ago would yet again set the recalcitrant atmosphere that was needed when Blacks won the right to vote in 1965. And it was that moment in history that systemic change began. It was almost like an ancestral eidolon cascading over America with the strength and perseverance of a god in love with his people.

Moreover, Dubois elaborates on many subject matter with a linguistic style coming across as the perfect salubrious prolepsis for today's readers.

Sorry to digress, but another high point in the book was Dubois' rebuttal to Booker T. Washington's bourgeois attitude. Even today many Black scholars quote Booker T, but the inquiry was...is that wise? Well, according to Dubois, promulgating Booker T's message was rather pernicious and would only lead to more draconian virulence. Booker T's stance on waiting for White America to become simpatico to the needs of the Negro, while hoping for acceptance to proliferate from them in due time was not realistic at all.
Dubois strongly felt that Booker T's ideas were a depravity, a mummery, and an insult. Waiting for the bully to stop picking on you never works; for some reason Booker T couldn't contemplate that this scenario he was promulgating was ambiguous. If the powers that be are unwilling to negotiate with you then you have no other recourse but recalcitrancy. Booker T was in favor of slow progression, but just imagine what America would be like if Blacks took on Booker T's mindset? Life would be very different that's for sure.
Dubois hits on many touching moments in his memoirs and the personal lives of his students, which everyone reading this will enjoy. "The Soul Of Black Folk" is required reading for all. Give this book a chance! Dubois' writings are an inspirational experience!

I started reading this book knowing very little about it other than its reviews calling it "beautiful" "disturbing" "morally devastating" and "speaks straight to the heart." Although perhaps not as disturbing or morally devastating as some reviews claim, I did find the story to be beautiful and one that spoke to my heart. I found myself truly caring about the characters, however bizarre they were (and the strange relationships they were part of).

Anyone interested in post-war Germany and the aftermath of the Holocaust would enjoy this book. I found myself wondering several times whether this was a piece of non-fiction, considering how it certainly reads that way (it IS fiction, however).

The print is fairly large and the pages narrow. I read this book in one day easily. I was drawn into the story easily. The questions of morality, ethics, and philosophy that this book brings up left me thinking long after putting this book down.

Although highly recommended it took me a while to finally read this book. The story seemed too hard to me, but anyway I read it.
It is a very compelling book . The style is clean and direct without, apparently, any concesion to warmth. But at the end just as Hanna accepts her culpability the reader understands the feelings hidden in the remembrances of Michael.
Hanna as a character is not specially sympathetic but the diference is that we can see her as a a human being while for her the prisioners were nothing. Maybe the book is so attractive because we can develope that humanity to someone who did inhuman things.

After reading the Los Angeles Times' cover note that The Reader is a "disturbing and finally morally devastating novel," I postponed reading it till I thought I could handle 'moral devastation.' I have to say that was quite an overstatement, in my opinion: part of the self-righteousness that appears in the trial in the latter half of the book.

Bernard Schlink created a delightful afternoon read that included erotic interludes reminiscent of The Graduate (1967 Film), intellectual and moral arguments and a decision on the best way to honor someone you love in difficult circumstances.

A bit of an insider's view (Nazi's) of the holocaust toys with conventional horror at what was perpetrated. Were guards in fear for their lives if they did not cooperate fully?

Far from theoretical analysis, Schlink forces us to new analyses by asking, "What is law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actually enacted and obeyed in a society? Or is law what must be enacted and obeyed, whether or not it is on the books, if things are to go right?"

Showing a keen understanding of humanity, Schlink writes, "Even when the facts took our breath away, we held them up triumphantly. Look at this!" (That could account for part of the passion surrounding Schindler's List (Widescreen Edition).)

Are we all doomed to punish ourselves if society doesn't punish us enough? Or to punish ourselves for the crimes society does not even hold against us?

If you want a fun book, this will do it. If you want a book that will haunt you for months or even years, this will do it. If you want a book with characters and actions about which you can argue and philosophize way into the night, this one will do that, too!

I read this book years ago [prior to Oprah's endorsement]. Five stars are not enough for this well written, engaging story that stays with the reader for years & years. In many ways, this is a morality tale; however, it is also so much more. Schlink provides a thought-provoking evocation of one of history's darkest times. Everyone I've given to this has had only positive things to say. Recommended without hesitation!!

This book is an oddity. Its international success is a complete surprise to me. The fact that it has provoked over 760 reviews here with a broad and even spectrum of responses demonstrates that it hits a nerve. Many different ones actually.
I like Schlink as a writer of detective novels. He invented a great PI, an aging reformed Nazi called Selb, a name which enabled great titles like Selbs Justiz or Selbs Mord. A writer and a hero with their hearts on the right spot, with interesting cases in post war Germany.
But the Reader is something else. The story is 'simple' enough: a teenage boy has a love affair with an older woman, a tram ticket collector; part of the charm of the affair is that the boy reads to the woman after sex. Then they lose contact when she moves away. Later, he is a student at university, he finds out that she is an accused in a Nazi trial, she was a KZ guard, and it becomes apparent that she is illiterate, and too proud to admit it. She can not even read the dossier of the prosecution.
Which reminds me of Monty Python's Meaning of Life: the fish in the aquarium in the restaurant watch the guests eating fish and ask themselves in excitement: what does it mean? Exactly. What is Schlink's point? Till now I have no clue.
Are the Nazi criminals just illiterates too proud to admit their lack of education? That can't be it, obviously, so what is 'it'?
Schlink pokes into a deep well of ambiguity, but there ends his contribution. He goes no further in clarifying anything. What do we conclude from his story? I wish I knew.