Fiction Literature Books

honest seller i never received my book i contacted the seller and he had me a refund within 24hrs would buy from seller again

We needed this Big Book for Science class. I found it immediately at Amazon. The book was perfect, and just what was needed for our lessons at school. It arrived quickly and in perfect condition!
Thank you!

"The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth" immediately picks up where its predecessor, "At the Waterworks", left off. At the end of each book, Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen provide a subtle clue as to the nature and content of their next collaboration - a sly wink to those of us who catch such details.

"At the Waterworks" concludes with Ms. Frizzle looking at a map of a volcano, which tells us the next book in the series will probably be about our world's physical structures. And that's where "Inside the Earth" steps into the spotlight. Written in 1987, Cole and Degen prove in their second effort that there is no such thing as the dreaded sophomore jinx. This story is just as, if not more, educating and entertaining than "At the Waterworks."

The book starts out with the kids in Ms. Frizzle's class appearing restless over their current learning topic, animal homes. They've been researching the subject for almost a month and "were pretty tired of it." So the class jumps for joy when the Friz announces they're starting something new. "We are going to study about our earth!" she exclaims.

However, things don't go exactly as planned. Only four kids actually bring their homework to class the next day - "Each person must find a rock and bring it to school," said Ms. Frizzle. So she decides to take them on a field trip to collect rock specimens . . . and that's when the fun begins!

Ms. Frizzle lives up to the expectations she set in "At the Waterworks." By the time this field trip is done, her class has learned all about the physical features of the earth. The kids discover how rocks are made of minerals. They delve deep into the ground, getting up close and personal with Earth's crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core. Ms. Frizzle educates them on the three classes of rocks - igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. She relates to the kids how processes inside the earth take millions of years. She even takes them on a tour through a volcano! All throughout the field trip, the class receives hands-on experience with various rocks - basalt, granite, limestone, obsidian, pumice, sandstone, shale, etc.

And these details are only scratching the surface of what Cole and Degen, not to mention Ms. Frizzle, have lined up for readers in this book. Blending comedy with truth, this is a welcome addition to any children's bookshelf, either in the classroom or at home. And just as they did with their first story, Cole and Degen use the final pages to distinguish what things were accurate in the story and what things were made up.

As is her fashion, Ms. Frizzle leaves readers a hint at what is to come in her next adventure. My guess is that it has something to do with the human body. Talk about an inside-job!

Cole and Degen surpass the benchmark they set in "At the Waterworks" with "Inside the Earth." There are facts and figures, hilarity and humor, bursting from every page. Don't miss out on a chance to ride the magic school bus.

As Ms. Frizzle herself would say, "This way, class!"

This storyis about a class of students that is bord then one day they all go on a journey inside the earth and the kids have all these questions that all get answered. the reason I like this book so much is because it tells so much about the earth in a way that is fun for the students.

This book was about Miss Frizzle's class. Miss Frizzle's classes are always taking wild journeys everyone. On minute they are in the classroom like a normal class, the next they are somewhere very unusual. In this book they traveled inside the earth to study about it. The book talks about all the things inside the Earth and there are great explanations to many questions that children might have about the earth.
I like this book because it teaches children a lot about what the earth is made up of and it does it in such a way that children will stay interested and amused. A lot of children are really fond of science and things and this book teaches them about science in a fun way. Even children that don't really enjoy science would like this book because it's a fun book. Things happen that wouldn't really happen in real life so in a way it is fantasy like and a lot of children would like that.
I think the author was trying to teach children something and do it in such a way that it is fun. They will enjoy the story of the class traveling into the middle of the earth but there is a lot of science in there for the children to learn also.

This book is a great book to teach kids about the inside of the earth, and other scientific stuff. It gets your imagination flowing! Its fun and interesting; I always loved the Magic School Bus series! Ms. Frizzle is so funny!

I bought this book with some others that I needed, but without being able to page through it. I was hoping for a book with few words but great photos that show the different aspects of pumpkins and growing to share with my preschool special education classroom before our visit to the pumpkin farm. What a happy surprise to find out it was Perfect! It contained some photos of planting that I had no pictures of yet. Plus the written text accentuated the photos. It was short enough that I didn't have to "paraphrase" to my class. Excellent choice!

Pumpkins is a beautifully done book for children, ages 4 - 8. It details through photography a pumpkin from the beginning to the final carved product.

It shows and tells how the farmer plants the seeds, what the new plants look like, how pumpkins form and what they look like and even the many colors, shapes and sizes they come in.

I was really impressed by this beautiful book. The only thing that really bothered me is that there were photography of trick-or-treaters dressed in some really scary costumes-considering the age it is geared to.

If you celebrate Halloween, then you will not want to miss Pumpkins. It will be a wonderful treat for your favorite child.

Armchair Interviews: Special look at a pumpkin as it becomes a jack-o-lantern.

The photographs in this book are beautiful. My favorite, by far, is the one on the cover. I sure hope this wasn't photo-shopped- it would take the magic out of it.

Written by Ken Robbins, Pumpkins is a picturebook celebration of the edible plant that is cherished as a Halloween symbol. Full-color photography offers a tour of the life of a pumpkin plant, from seeding to flower to fruit and harvest, and finally being carved into a scary jack-o-lantern. The perfect seasonal read-aloud book for Halloween, Pumpkins is especially fun to page through for young pumpkin lovers eagerly looking forward to the holiday season.

THis book is pretty cute. My daughter is 5 and liked it. She wanted me to change the names in the book to read her as the main character. This book tells about little things like small objects and toys to keep away from the baby and what the baby should play with and little details of how important the big sister is too. It also shows a little about how the baby is born.

This book is very informational on a child's level. My daughter will be 4 in a couple of weeks and she understands it well. The book gets your child to know 'amanda' the character in the book whose mommy is expecting. It tells about mommy's physical changes and the developing baby's changes. It also eases the mind by telling your older child that she will get to spend time with grandma while mommy's at the hospital. Great book! Highly recommended!!

My little girl is about to become a big sister for the first time and this book was excellent to help her understand the changes that are coming. We love reading it together.

When preparing my first child for the birth of her sister I had read some literature that recommended this as a good place to start. Thank goodness I listened! My daughter loved it and wanted to read it over and over. It really got her excited about her new baby sister and helped her understand that there were going to be some changes (not all easy either), but that it was a great blessing. The one thing I would have preferred be left out was 'how the baby is born'... First of all, don't want my 3 year old knowing about the uterus and birth canal, but also, I was a planned C-Section, so it didn't even apply and I still had to explain it separately, and now the difference between the two. Overall though, she loved it and it was a great choice! Be prepared to read it often.

My daughter is three and had just started to get interested in my pregnancy when we got her this book. Her eyes lit up when I read her the title and she has not stopped talking about being a big sister since we read through the book. It answered some of her questions about the new baby that is coming and gave her more things to think about that we hadn't talked about with her yet (such as having to put up toys that are dangerous for the baby). I think this was the perfect book to help make the new baby talk more concrete for her and to get her excited about the new baby. She is eagerly anticipating her little sibling's birth and now knows that she will have to keep dangerous toys away from the baby, wash her hands before handling the baby, and that Mommy and Daddy will go to the hospital for a few days when the baby is born, but someone will take care of her while we are gone. She is also looking forward to all the ways she can help take care of the baby and the things she will be able to teach him or her.

I think it is a very sweet book that nicely balances factual information in a format young children can absorb. It makes reference to the baby growing in the mother's uterus and coming out the birth canal, which explains things just enough for my three-year-old without being too detailed and graphic. I don't mind reading it over and over again, which is required with any favorite book at our house.

Proust's philosphical epic creates an aesthetic of time lost, of emotion's catalytic role in spiritual memory, of the fetish that is sexual jealousy, of the silliness of snobbery, and of the consoling beauty to be found from close observation to art and to life. And it is a seemingly infinite chain of self-referential patterns which spell out those themes. In brief, it's a perfect literary fractal.

These books are a MUST read, but you totally overestimate my reading ability. Reading 6 "books" in a month is an accomplishment in itself; reading ONE Proust in a month, letting it settle and sit and read nothing else would deserve gold medal in my opinion.

For everyone who loves literature reading Proust and benefiting from his art is as important as breathing.

rkr

If someone told me ten years ago that one day I would read 4,000 pages of dense, hypeliterate ramblings, filled with single sentences that sometimes go on for at least ten pages, I would have thought myself more crazy than the guy who wrote them. Two years after reading all of Proust, incredibly, I find myself longing to spend afternoons again immersed in it. Such is the beauty of this momumental work.

While James Joyce's Ulysses deserves to be considered the best and greatest novel of the 20th century, I think it's fair to say that it's doubtful that any writer will ever reach the majesty and breathtaking beauty found in Proust's "In Search of Lost Time". Proust is not great for the 20th c., it's great for all time.

Seven books, six volumes, 4300 pages--makes "war and peace" look like a short story. That's marcel proust's "in search of lost time". It is an excellent read and is highly recommended to the lover of quality literature.

Simply put, it is the story of the protagonist and how he became an author. although some feel its sense of time makes it a difficult book to read, that is not my perception. It starts somewhere near the end and then comes back to the beginning where it proceeds in a generally chronological order. It is therefore a fairly easy book to read but for the sometimes very long sentences and paragraphs. There is much more observation than conversation. It is an extremely insightful book that makes you look philosophically at almost all aspects of your life. It doesn't preach; it makes you think.

the novel covers a myriad of topics: maternal love, heterosexual love, homosexuality, time, memory, jealousy, social class, old age, death and many others. It does so beautifully, insightfully and humorously. To call the writing poetic is really to sell it short. These books have some of the most beautifully written segments that I have ever read. The best is the author's recollection of his waiting for his mother to come up and kiss him good night. ("swann's way", page 15). If you are ever in a book store, pick up the modern library version of the book and just read that paragraph. I guarantee that you will buy the book and bring it home.

I also particularly like the modern library 6 volume collection. What makes it so good are the references at the end of each volume and particular the references that cover all the volumes that are in the last book, "time regained". This section lets you look back at all the characters and themes that you have encountered in the book and go directly to the pages where they are referenced. With a story this long, this reference material is essential.

Don't think you have to read each book one after the other. They were written years apart, with the end written before many of the later books. I read 2-3 books between each of the volumes and had no difficulty picking up where I had left off.

I would also suggest that you read up on the dreyfus case as it plays a central role in the social interactions that take place in the story.

This is a great book that every lover of good literature should read.

I finished Proust's magnum opus a couple of years ago. I read Swann's Way, then got about a quarter of the way through Within a Budding Grove, before stopping and taking a year's hiatus. When I returned to it I read straight through the remaining 6 volumes. Proust became for me, not so much a duty, or even a quest, but an addiction. There is really not much to add other than the fact that these books affected me more than any other books I have read. Once you are drawn in there is no escape. What one encounters within are some of the most fascinating and frustrating people one can imagine, and the most profound ideas and greatest insights on human nature ever recorded.

There are a number of themes explored here..memory, fidelity, love, obsession, jealousy, homosexuality, and the nature of art. It has been designated as semi autobiographical, but maybe it is the greatest autobiography ever written, since it portrays in detail, the truest possible representation of the author's heart, mind, and soul. It is perhaps, the most important and influential literary work of the 20th century.

The story goes, that when Ernest Hemingway's parents first received copies of In Our Time, they were horrified and furious. His old man sent the books back to the publisher. A year later, in a letter to his father, Hemingway explained to his father what it was he was attempting as a young writer: "You see I am trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across - not to just depict life - or criticize it - but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me you actually experience the thing. You can't do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful."

We know Hemingway more for his off-the-page exploits than those he published, but in these short pieces, peppered with very short (mostly one page) pieces, Hemingway first introduces his hard-boiled style to an American audience. An earlier, much shorter version of this book was published the year before in Paris. Hemingway expects something of his readers. Much remembered for his belief that a good writer can say much more by employing omission than by saying too much, he leaves the job of applying sentiment and emotion to the reader.

Hemingway is the master of the understated short story. He takes simple themes and without use of superlatives, makes it real. This book is a collection of short stories where most feature a man name Nick, from his time as a young boy to manhood as it closes with two stories about him fishing. There is one story where no male name is given, so it may also be about Nick.
The most gripping story is "Soldier's Home", which features a character called Krebs. He is back in Kansas after serving in the European theater in World War I. Unlike many of his fellow Americans, he did not return until the middle of 1919, so he missed most of the ecstasy of the welcome-home parades. Krebs has difficulty coming back to what he left in Kansas. He has no interest in women, a job or anything that could lead to a bettering of his current condition. Living with his parents, they are growing disturbed at his listlessness, his mother sits down with him and wants to pray for his changing. While Krebs vows to change, it is not a heartfelt pronouncement, rather it is more of a "whatever" change in his attitude.
Given his experience, Hemingway knew war. But he also knew the difficulties of peace for men of war and a great deal about the simpler challenges of life. Much of that knowledge and experience is demonstrated in these stories.

It is not true that Hemingway would go on to create works better than some of the stories in this work. In some of these short pieces we have the essential Hemingway, the best that he has to give. In fact his whole picture of the world, the emphasis on 'grace under pressure' the devastating effect of war and violence, the presentation of a kind of code hero, above all the simplicity and beauty of the language are here.
This is the beginning of Hemingway but it is also the essence and the best.

Reading the assembled vignettes and short stories of In Our Time, "Hemingway's American debut," is like taking a look at an artist's working sketches that eventually evolve into masterpieces. The reader finds all of the usual denizens of Hemingway's world: anglers, ex-patriates, toreadors, soldiers, men and women who are in love, and those who have fallen out. And, of course, Nick Adams. In these tales, Hemingway demonstrates the superfluousness of semicolons and the superiority of spartan sentences for which he is famous.

While it isn't my favorite of Hemingway's works, it makes a good sampler for those wishing to get short doses of Hemingway, especially for those whose only exposure to Hemingway was reading The Old Man and The Sea in high school.

This is a fine collection of (exceedingly) short stories that deal with existential themes: nature, alienation, and death. In between the stories Hemingway includes even shorter vignettes of cruelty. Brief comments on the stories (with some plot spoilers) follow:

"On the Quai at Smyrna" - An American encounters casual cruelty among the Turks and Greeks during World War I.

"Indian Camp" - Nick Adams and his father, a scientific man who is quite detached from other people, visit an Indian camp where his father performs a Caesarian without anesthetic. While he performs the operation, the baby's father kills himself by cutting his throat with a straight razor.

"The Doctor and the Doctor's Wife" - Nick's mother is revealed to be weak willed and self-deceiving, and we are not too surprised to learn that Nick prefers his father's company.

"The End of Something" - The adolescent Nick ends a relationship with a girl. Before the end comes, Hemingway provides a typically economical but touching depiction of Marjorie, his girlfriend, as they row across a lake with their lines in the water: "She was intent on the rod all the time they trolled, even while she talked. She loved to fish. She loved to fish with Nick."

"The Three-Day Blow" - Nick and his friend Bill drink quietly in front of a fireplace during a storm - they are just learning to drink - and later disregard an important gun safety precaution.

"The Battler" - Nick encounters a damaged former prizefighter.

"A Very Short Story" - (Well, they almost all are.) An American develops an affection for an Italian nurse and expects to marry her, but she loses interest after the end of the war.

"Soldier's Home" - A young man returns home after World War I, disillusioned and alienated.

"The Revolutionist" - Not really a story at all but a very brief character sketch of a young communist traveling through Italy after World War I.

"Mr. And Mrs. Elliot" - A young poet supposes himself to be a superior sort of person but turns out to be ordinary.

"Cat in the Rain" An American wife tries to rescue a kitten from the rain.

"Out of Season" - A young man wants to go fishing but then decides not to.

"Cross-Country Snow" - Nick Adams and a friend go skiing in Switzerland and find it to be a very satisfying experience.

"My Old Man" - A man's father dies in an accident, tragically, since his son knows that he is crooked.

"Big Two-Hearted River: Part I" - Nick Adams returns to his home ground for a solitary camping trip.

"Big Two-Hearted River: Part II" - He goes fishing too.

Though many of you would already know this, I think it's important that lay readers realize that this book contains direct translations of these tablets--so chunks of text will be missing from the stories. This is not a transliteration, so you're not going to have a series of stories that read particularly easily.

However, if you need to do research on ancient Mesopotamian mythology this book is a true treasure to behold. I'm writing a novel that requires me to dig deep into everything we truly know about these ancient civilizations, and I feel very confident that the book makes the most truth-preserving claims as the author could make, regarding what we can say for certain. She puts relevant background information as well as brief histories on the studies of each myth, then tells the tales while preserving the poetic style that the mythical originators wrote with.

Revised review: I read the revised edition of 2000 - with 10 new primary sources - of the originally 1989 book. The author chose rather the Akkadian versions over the Sumerian ones. Included are ten stories of variating length: Atrahasis, The Epic of Gilgamesh*, The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld, Nergal and Ereshkigal*, Adapa, Etana, Anzu*, The Epic of Creation, Theogony of Dunnu, Erra and Ishum. (* = including standard version and older & shorter version). As you see, there isn't a story called "The Flood" as suggested by the title of the book. However, the flood is a recurring theme in several of the other stories.

Usually I detest footnotes, however, it makes perfect sense to use them here, as a translated text by someone else, from a distant civilisation has to be explained. Lost in translation puns and alliterations are pointed out. Also variating translations, which differ considerably. If the Bible translations via various languages have been done in a similar vagueness, I am not surprised that one or the other message has been misinterpreted. This book now uses modern English, which I am very thankful for, as it wouldn't make any sense to indulge in some sort of pretentious antique "translation". Stephanie Dalley is a perfectionist in the sense that she meticulously includes any missing line and lost word. Which sometimes leaves only a word per line extant. That is frustrating for sure occasionally, but unavoidable, if a reliable translation is sought. With some pages I was happy that I still have 99% of human vision, this tiny the text has been printed.

Though at times purposefully repetitious, the stories themselves are mostly interesting or/and indeed worthy to read. Not only for themselves, but also for the origin of some Western-known stories. However, one should be careful to draw direct lines of origin, as for one thing the same subject may be very different or, as the author points out, may variate considerably WITHIN the very long time of the Mesopotamian culture(s). In fact, the longer stories have largely been pieced together from different sources.

What she fails to mention is that the Mesopotamian culture(s) are derived from the Egyptian culture, as she avers the Mesopotamian one would be the first of mankind. That's an old Western urban legend attempting to dissociate from African culture, from Black culture as far as possible. Which is rather futile as Mesopotamia is located in Africa in geological reality for one thing and for the other, these specific ancients had been Black just the same. Which doesn't become clear at all in this book. Read The Africans Who Wrote the Bible or When We Ruled: The Ancient and Medieval History of Black Civilisations among many other books elaborating on that. However, I find it amazing that the derivations of the goddess Ishtar are mentioned, but she herself is presented as the original. Whereas it is long and officially accepted fact, even by the conservative science establishment that Ishtar in turn is derived from the Egyptian "Isis". In other words the Mesopotamian version may just be a sister derivation from Egypt, not the direct source for Western culture. In some instances that sister culture got remarried into the sources for later Western culture.

Speaking of conservatism and pseudo-origins: Elsewhere, the Epic of Gilgamesh is fancied as the first homosexual story in the world. To begin with, again, the Egyptians are able to top that. (For example with the story of Horus and Seth, though of course the concept of "homosexuality" differs from the modern one.) For another, the Gilgamesh story is rather bisexual, using modern Western terminology, as that concept was viewed differently back then and there as well. However, I find it remarkable that Stephanie Dalley isn't including that information in her veneration list. Accordingly, one can almost read this translation without noticing its however homosexual content. Gilgamesh's mother clearly speaks of Enkidu as if a son-in-law, but in the rest of the text he is translated in the like-a-brother routine. Well, maybe a "warm brother" as dated German slang would term him. Personally, I don't care about the translator's or my own view on this issue. It's even fun and safe for me, no matter my personal opinion, as in Rasta terminology, homosexuals happen in "Babylon" anyway (smile)... It's just interesting that she obviously leaves her path of perfectionism as soon as it comes to her bias. As I am a layperson on this, I wouldn't know, where else she missed some points. But maybe the reason for this is that the running gag in this story is that as soon as it turns homosexual, further text has been lost... Sure interesting to read in the ancient text that God made some humans nonbreeders to slow overpopulation. That almost sounds like modern slang.

I do recommend this book. Be sure to get the latest revision or another more recent book respectively.

This is a thorough compilation of Akkadian myths. These are modern translations based on up to date scholarship. While Dalley does a good job of bringing out the poetry of these myths, these are direct translations of the original texts showing all omissions and as yet untranslated words and phrases. This approach gives a very good idea of both the character of the myths and also of the difficulties encountered by scholars in reconstructing these texts from the fragmentary available records. Readers will end numerous echoes of better known myths in these translations. The introductory essays, footnotes, and background information are excellent.

A collection of the major Mesopotamian myths translated by a respected scholar. This is an excellent source for those desiring an authoritative translation. Even so, these myths can be somewhat awkward to read given Dalley's use of square brackets to indicate gaps in the text and omission dots to indicate an unknown word or phrase. No doubt these are accepted academic techniques for translating ancient texts, but I do hope someone will come along and render these myths in a more enthralling format. For just such an example of how ancient texts can be made to come alive for the modern reader, see "Gilgamesh: A New English Version" by Stephen Mitchell . Nonetheless, I give Dalley five stars, but also highly, highly recommend Mitchell's new version of Gilgamesh.

This is an excellent collection of several ancient Mesopotamian mythical stories. The original sources used for these translations were all written in Akkadian (which includes Semitic Babylonian and Assyrian dialects). Included in this collection are "Atrahasis", "The Epic of Gilgamesh" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld", "Nergal and Ereshkigal" (standard and Amarna versions), "Adapa", "Etana", "Anzu" (standard and Old Babylonian versions), "The Epic of Creation", "Theogony of Dunnu", and "Erra and Ishum".

This large collection of stories, along with the well written introductions and notes provided, enables the reader to put these epic stories into context, and recognize the parallels within the different stories. I prefer this book to those that concentrate only on the Gilgamesh epic.

good equipment, meets or exceeds specifications and looking forward to its use and enjoyings its capabilities

He's reading them all and logging into Amazon to check for when the rest of them will be out in paperback. He gets through these books in under a week because he can't put them down. He's also hoping that they will one day be made into movies....

The first three books in the Sisters Grimm series might be a little more exciting, but book 4 is another adventure ride with all the fairy tale characters you can imagine. What a great idea to bring fairy tale characters into the present interacting with these two independent Grimm girls whose personal story is as unusual as it is heartfelt.

This whole series has been wonderful to read. As a grandmother, I have learned to read at least the first book in any "childrens" series to make sure that I will be giving my grandchildren good books to read. This series has me preordering books just to find out what happens next to the delightful sisters and the fairytale beings who inhabit their world - willingly or not! My nieces and granddaughter have enjoyed these books and look forward to receiving the next one, once grandmother is finished!Magic and Other Misdemeanors (The Sisters Grimm, Book 5)

This book 4 of the Sisters Grimm series continues the entertaining adventures of Sabrina and Daphne. There is humor, mystery, and some degree of romance, but on a child's level--nothing to scare kids away from the series. In this book, the reader and Sabrina become better acquainted with Sabrina's mother's "secret" life. Sabrina and Daphne basically must eventually choose whether to stay in the Grimm family business. Another entertaining read!

I purchased this book knowing from the past that I had difficulty comprehending Shakespeare. This book is about 300 pages long, and on the right side page there is standard english, and on the left the older english (still considered modern, but confusing). I was able to read through the book and actually enjoy what I was reading by simply reading the new english side of the book. Then when I go back for excerpts or pages assigned by a teacher I can look at the English translation along with the original text. It is a little bit of a bad way to learn it, but starting with the original text has put me no where, i simply don't comprehend what I am reading.

As my first introduction to Shakespeare working in a senior high school collaborative English class, this book helped me enormously with its Modern Day English interpretation on one side of the book and the Shakespearean writing on the other which follows the regular novels. This proved to be a lifesaver!

The Play, the Book, the Format---all outstanding, absolutely outstanding...With the original text on the left page and a modern easy to read and understand text on the right, Shakespeare reads like a Vince Flynn novel--well, almost. It really opens up the story, the ideas, the characters and the struggles. (Iago is still reprehensible! In any time, in any format!!) And in Act 5, "Othello" turns into a page turner, like a modern day novel. Who would have ever thought it!!! Good way of doing it, well done. The Bard is alive and well...And we are all the better for it.