Fiction Literature Books

My son is 4 years old and we read to him a lot. Now, before bed, he announces, "Mom, you know what kind of book to read....ONLY SCIENCE!" He loves science, and the Magic School Bus is a great, fun way to introduce it, even to a preschooler!

Kids (of all ages) ask the darndest things. When we work fairs or are identified as beekeepers in public, we are bomberded with basic questions regarding honeybees. This book was bought for my mother as much as for my brother's son. He asks her questions difficult to answer without pictures, "How do bees make wax...?" This book goes into enough detail to answer all the "How do...?'s" likely to come up regarding honeybees. A fine book for any child interested in insects. Also a good selection to temper the fears of those children that may fear bees. The pages are a little busy, otherwise would have gotten 5 stars.

The full details in this book are simple enough to keep children's interests (mine are ages 4 and 8) but still provide more data than even I knew. The subject matter is of particular interest to kids, not only because bees are encountered nearly every day, but this book helps this overcome the fear that some children have of bees by showing them as peaceful, otherwise occupied and busy creatures. Don't miss this, or any other Magic School Bus book if you have kids!

"The Magic School Bus: Inside a Beehive" represents a slight departure for author, Joanna Cole, and illustrator, Bruce Degen. Written in 1996, this book could easily have been all about our friends, the insects. Because, as student Dorothy Ann explains in the opening pages, "There are more insect species on earth than all other animals put together!" Indeed, you need look no farther than your own backyard (or a few dusty corners of your home) to find bugs of all shapes and sizes crawling around, buzzing about, and foraging for food.

However, Cole and Degen chose to shine their respective spotlight on one insect in particular. Not that this is a bad thing. In fact, it's the exact opposite. According to Florrie, another student of Ms. Frizzle, "There are more than 20,000 different kinds of bees." And the word "bee" itself conjures up all sorts of emotions in people. Some are deathly afraid of them; others have been stung and know the pain a sting induces; and then there are those who are allergic to these insects.

But is that all there is to the bee? Is it really the little stinging monster we think it is? Or is there something more to this delicate creature than we know? And this, readers, is where Cole, Degen, a band of students, and some teacher nicknamed the Friz, enter the picture. For they are going to set the record straight, once and for all, about what the nature of bees really entails.

Our latest adventure starts out with Ms. Frizzle and her students studying insects, such as ants and cockroaches and goliath beetles. She has also arranged a field trip to a local honeybee hive.

"The beekeeper is visiting his hives today," says the Friz. "We'll meet him there." And with that she sweeps out the door.

"Maybe this will be a normal field trip for a change," one student expresses to another.

With Ms. Frizzle, only the most adventurous teacher in the entire known universe, at the helm? Don't bet on it! However, as it turns out, she does have a normal field trip in store this time. She even brings along a picnic basket while she and the students wait for the beekeeper to arrive.

Then it happens. The moment at which this otherwise regular field trip takes a sharp turn into irregular. While attempting to open a jar of honey -- "Some light refreshments will pass the time while we wait," says the Friz -- she accidentally knocks her elbow against a strange lever. The bus shrinks faster than a student can say, "Great galloping gargoyles!" And, to no one's surprise, students and teacher are magically transformed into bees.

Readers and students alike learn all sorts of bee-utiful facts about these insects in Cole and Degen's latest entry into science for children. Did you know the average bee visits thousands of flowers every day? Or that, sometimes, an entire hive may "adopt" a lost bee if it is carrying a lot of food? How, exactly, does a bee, while gathering nectar for the hive, manage to pollinate all those flowers at the same time? What tasks are different bees assigned once inside the hive? Do they really communicate with one another by performing a bee dance? Readers will be amazed when they discover how many eggs the queen bee lays each day, and they'll be even more surprised when they see what happens when two queen bees are born at the same time inside the hive.

By focusing on just one insect in particular, Cole and Degen manage to "humanize" the bee. Meaning, through their research and attention to detail, they have made the bee less scary than it actually is. Do bees go around looking for people to sting? Of course not. As explained in the story, a sting is not particular conducive to the bee giving it or the person on the receiving end of it.

Besides the excellent writing and fabulous artwork (a staple of any collaboration between Cole and Degen), there are two other aspects of this story that work well for it. Borrowing a page out of Jan Brett's playbook ("The Hat" and "The Mitten"), Cole uses the "story within a story" technique to great effect here. While Ms. Frizzle and her students are buzzing around, we see snippets of why the beekeeper is late, as well as hints of danger to come for teacher, students and the bees! Anyone who's read the "Jesse Bear" series (also wonderfully illustrated by Degen) will instantly recognize the bear invading this story.

Not wanting to break with tradition, Cole and Degen explain, at the end of their latest offering, what was fact in the story and what was made up. They also provide a subtle -- or not so subtle -- hint of what lays in store for the Friz and her students for their next field trip. It will be a shock, no doubt; one readers will definitely get a charge out of!

As Ms. Frizzle herself would say, "Bee of good cheer, class. We're on our way!"

The first half of the book was kind of slow, but by the middle I couldn't put it down! It was wonderful and had a few surprises. I am trying to read all of Jane Austen's books...so far I have only read this, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. I would have to say I like both P&P and Emma better than Mansfield Park, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this book!

I ordered all the books at once and they came in in a very timely matter. Not to mention the books were in excellent shape as if I just picked them up from Books a Million down the street.

I just finished this novel after having read Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion. It took me a while to get pulled into this novel because I really was not expecting that much from reading other opinions. Slowly I became absorbed by the personality of Fanny. She was doing an incredible job of turning Fanny gradually toward Henry Crawford and you were starting to like him when all of a sudden it was like she just got tired of the story and decided to contrive an ending. It did not fit into the ending she was developing. Edmund was starting to look like milk toast and Crawford and Fanny's relationship was starting to warm up. I think it was by far her best writing but how disappointing an ending. Someone should rewrite it.

Jane Austen finished "Mansfield Park" in 1813, after "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice." It is a more complex novel than either of its precedessors or its successors ("Emma", "Persuasion", and "Northanger Abbey"). Its heroine, Fanny Price, is rather the middle child in Austen's sisterhood, often overlooked when compared to her more attractive older sisters or more interesting younger sisters. Still, Fanny Price is worth getting to know.

One of a growing brood of children in a lower middle class family in Portsmouth, Fanny is placed for raising with her much wealthier Aunt and Uncle Bertram at Mansfield Park in the English countryside. The ten year-old Fanny is painfully shy, physically sickly, and less educated than her Bertram cousins, who mostly ignore or make subtle fun of her. Her Aunt Norris, responsible for the day-to-day raising of her cousins, thrives on tormenting Fanny. Only her cousin Edmund takes an interest in her. Under his guidance, she begins to catch up to her cousins as she matures into an attractive young woman. Most importantly, she fortifies a strong sense of morality.

The prolonged absence of Fanny's Uncle, Sir Thomas Bertram, to tend to his estates in Antigua, leaves the household under the uncertain leadership of Aunt Norris, just as the wealthy Mary and Henry Crawford arrive from London. Mary and Henry are the same age as the older Bertram children, but worldly, manipulative, and less grounded in solid values. Henry flirts shamelessly with Fanny's engaged cousin Maria and trifles with Maria's younger sister Julia, while Mary flaunts her considerable charms at Edmund. The Bertrams are tempted into inappropriate behavior, which only Fanny resists.

Sir Thomas re-imposes order upon his return from the Caribbean. Maria is married off to a wealthy if rather stupid neighbor. Edmund courts Mary Crawford, to the distress of Fanny, who has an interes in Edmund and who sees Mary for the shallow manipulator she is. Fanny herself is courted by Henry Crawford, who starts by trifling with her emotions but comes to seek her as a wife. Great pressure is placed on Fanny by Sir Thomas, by Edmund, and by Mary to accept Henry as an advantageous match.

The anguished Fanny holds her ground, and is effectively exiled to Portsmouth, where she finds little to love in her vulgar birth family except a promising younger sister. In her absence, the Bertram family falls to pieces in sickness and scandal. Fanny will be summoned back to Mansfield Park, with a final opportunity for personal happiness.

As Tony Tanner's excellent introduction makes clear, Fanny is unique among Austen heroines in her invariably good moral sense. Her attraction as a character is based less on the personal growth and maturation we expect in a Austen heroine and more on her perseverence in the face of very attractive temptations and seemingly reasonable pressures. It is Austen's genius to insert complex characters into the subtle relationships between four families in the story. The story provides a fascinating venue for social commentary and compelling domestic drama. The witty and enthusiastic but morally flawed Crawfords, for example, seem more attractive than the shy, vulnerable, and withdrawn Fanny or the understated Edmund.

"Mansfield Park" is very highly recommended to fans of Jane Austen's romances. Its complex characters and storyline may ultimately be as rewarding to the reader as the more popular novels.

If all the Austen books were sisters, Mansfield Park would be the quiet, pensively courageous sibling of the six. Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion all seem to glow like ladies at a ball. (Northanger Abbey would, I guess, be the sister who plays piano and can't really sing...although she tries...)

I felt this novel to have a wonderfully theatrical feel, a closet drama of sorts. The above novels are like social epics whereas Mansfield Park appears stately, stoic and unto itself, thoughtful in a way the others aren't. I still think the other novels are excellent but there is something reserved about this one in particular. I am not a dedicated Austen lover but I would chose this one over the others simply because it is the less popular and to me, the most fascinating. The social-relationship dynamics are similar to the other novels - i.e. learning that the pretty face doesn't always have a pretty soul.

Let's put it this way, I'll probably read this novel again before the others. This is the sister I would like to know, to talk with and share philosophy with. The other sisters, in my opinion are great to dance with and they'll certainly entertain you. Nothing wrong in that.

To clarify, the Modern Library edition also contains "The Dead", so if you have it you'll be getting another, and if you don't--don't go finding another.

Because "Ulysses" is so imposing with its epic length and pages of solid, tiny text I decided to get my feet wet with "Dubliners," which is not quite half the other's length. From what I read with "Dubliners", I'll have to give "Ulysses" a shot in the near future.

Normally I'd do an obligatory plot summary, but that would be a pointless exercise because A) There are 15 short stories that comprise the book and B) None of them really has a traditional "plot" to speak of. Rather, "Dubliners" is a serious of what we in modern parlance would call "character sketches." Think of it as each story being a portrait of some person or scene done in painstakingly vivid detail. Each story focuses on some small moment that often leads the character to discovering a melancholy truth about life.

The first stories focus on children encountering the harsh realities of the adult world--a priest dying and an encounter with a creepy, crazy old man--and then move on to teenage love and then more adult problems of marriage, family, and politics before a final meditation on death in the aptly-titled "The Dead."

The way Joyce captures the humanity of each character is so stunning; he taps into the soul of these people to expose the secrets, wishes, hopes, and fears that reside within each of us. It's hard not to see a part of yourself in one or more of these characters, almost as if Joyce knew you over 90 years ago better than you know yourself right now. Because while the technology may change, the human psyche remains the same.

The reason I can't give this four stars is that like any short story collection there's a fatigue that sets in upon reading "Dubliners." The longer the collection goes on, the more similarities can be seen in the characters and the situations, the descriptions and the dialog. It's like listening to an album of music and noting that song 10 sounds a lot like song 5, which sounds a lot like song 2. There's really no way to avoid that fatigue unless the writer uses a completely different style each time.

As well, reading a book written over 90 years ago that's set in Ireland can be a challenge for a modern (not quite 90) year old American. Footnotes and such can be helpful, but it also interrupts the flow of the reading.

Still, Joyce's uncanny knowledge of humanity is well worth any fatigue or nuisances.

That is all.

I enjoyed four of the fifteen stories in this book immensely. The others were great for their prose, depiction of people at certain junctures in their life, and reflection of Dublin at the turn of the Century, but otherwise not compelling.

"The Dead," his most enduring and evocative piece of short fiction, did nothing for me. I loved A Little Cloud, Couterparts, A Painful Case, and Eveline.

I read the Barnes&Noble Classic edition. The maps at the beginning of each story added no value.

After reading this book I'm ready for some contemporary fiction.

Admittedly Joyce's better known works can seem quite daunting to the uninitiated but here in these short character sketches a reader can begin to understand what all fuss is about and enjoy some wonderfully written short stories in the bargain.

The stories are consistently good and from the very first where a young boy encounters the death of someone he knows for the first time the tales and the characters are engaging. Highly recommended !

I don't really have anything thoughtful to say exept that after reading this book multiple times, I think that it is tight, but breathes, and is choreographed as best as a human being could do, and in that regard, it is very much like a Beatles album, and should be esteemed in like manner.

This is a most excellent fantasy and perhaps James Hilton's greatest work. Where his other books have not survived, this modern version of Camelot or Utopia lost someplace in Asian mountains is an answer for a perfect society. His style is pleasant easy reading, while being thoughtful and provactive, making a person consider that perhaps industrialization is not the answer for the ills plaguing humanity. I only wish the movie and the musical had portrayed the book exactly as written.

What a beautiful and wondrous book! I was completely captivated by the mysteries of Shangri-la. Our hero Conway's adventure was an awe-inspiring tale of a monastery hidden deep in a Tibetan mountain range, where the llamas lead extraordinary existences. Theirs are privileged lives steeped in wisdom and secrecy. Their isolation and longevity allows them a unique position in the world and very few outsiders are privy to their secrets. Hilton's use of the high llama's telepathy is certainly prophetic, considering the book was written prior to World War II.

Lost Horizon was a great adventure story as well as a picture of an ideal society. Hilton's dream on utopia was brilliantly written and enchanting.

I first read LOST HORIZON many years ago, after I'd seen the film (which, frankly, rather ruins the tale for me, but not enough to destroy the pleasure in reading it). When on a trip to China, staying in the Xian Shangri-La Hotel and having run out of my own books, I picked up their copy (a very nice little hard-cover available for sale at the Horizon Club).

It was a joy to be transported back in time... when the British Empire was slowly collapsing and world-weary consul, Conrad, is escaping a revolution with 3 others (an American, a missionary and a junior diplomat) when their plane is mysteriously hi-jacked. They find themselves crash-landing with a soon-deceased pilot somewhere in the Himalayas and are rescued by a party of Tibetans carrying an aged Chinese man. He leads them to Shangri-La--a lammasery beneath a high moutain, above a particularly lush, cultivated valley.

Shangri-La has become a sort of archetype for hidden/lost utopian societies. The echoes of this book are discernible in many latter works. But here is the original (or one of the originals, since Shangri-La itself is naturally based on previous ideas). Hilton's work is spare, but still magical, depicting a time of turmoil, just before the death and destruction of the Second World War. Conrad, the hero who is not a hero, has lived through WWI and it has both taken something from him... and given him something--something that seems to culminate in his finding peace and wisdom and himself at Shangri-La. But can modern man truly find peace? Or will the world and its madness be a call that's too strong to ignore?

Visit Shangri-La and see for yourself!

I read this book because quite a few Lost fans believe the series is based on this book. I thought the book was a quick read and interesting. I could see the parallels with the series. I did get some insight but I also believe there are numerous references in the series to other story lines - like Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. If you are a Lost fan I recommend this book.

Lost Horizon is a very introspective book. Metaphors abound perhaps, but what I'm inclined to take from the book each time I read it are the questions asked. Questions of purpose and what it all means. It's very thought provoking without being tendentious.

Stylistically, Hilton is economical, but very capably sets a mood that permeates the entire narrative whether in describing the landscape or the more subtle aspects of the different characters. For me, the mood is one of relaxed contemplation.

In another context, it's a wonderful travel book. It takes the reader to a faraway place and implicitly invites him to make choices and contemplate weighty issues in this most unlikely of settings.

Lost Horizon is not a literary masterpiece, but it's a good story and very clever in its presentation.

Pay no attention to the negative reviews, Anthem is pure genius. A timeless warning to humans not to give into the slavery of collectivism, be it of the socialist or mystic variety, and to cherish their individual rights and freedoms. Freedom is a central theme, with clarity that freedom is freedom from men.

This book should be mandatory reading for every high school student.

The basic premise of the book is that society had at some point become so collective that individuality had been essential banned. This included the right to make personal decisions and to pursue ones own happiness. It also meant a select group decided everything for the masses, creating an almost brain dead society, with the exception of a few with strong spirit. One of these strong of spirit is Equality 7-2521.

When finally realizing the evils of collectivism and political correctness, of the great "We", Equality 7-2521 delivers a hard hitting, to the point, in your face speech regarding the right to liberty, happiness, freedom of association, and freedom to use our own mind as the only guiding light.

First published in 1938, it borrowed from Zamyatin's We (1921) and Huxley's Brave New World (1932) and anticipated Orwell's 1984 (and much less significantly, Lowry's The Giver (1993)).

I found the first dozen pages slightly difficult to slog through, but after that the novella (about 100 pages in all) really picked up.

The main character is Equality 7-2521, a 21 year old male who, despite his obvious intelligence, is assigned a lifetime position as a street-sweeper. Anthem takes place in a future that has regressed in knowledge after a cataclysmic battle. Society is run by a bunch of anti-intellectuals, who stifle innovation and regiment every aspect of life. Everything is meant to celebrate the group. Individualism is not discouraged, because it does not exist (there is a word that is not even known in this society - I will leave the reader to find it out for themselves).

Rand has stated that the last two chapters are actually her "anthem," and that all the rest of her novella is just building up to it. My favorite part is chapter 7, where the narrator brings a discovery before the council of scholars. They react....well, again, I leave it to you.

Ayn Rand's disturbing and compelling look into a dark egalitarian future where individuality and creativity have been crushed and ignorant barbarism is triumphant.

Highly recommended!

I just read this book for a school project and I thought it was just OK. The story started off really STRONG and I believe the ideas are quite new for that era. I actually admired Rand's modern visions of the future and I thought it is so unfair that George Orwell's 1984 is much more famous.

After I finished, I find that this book isn't quite as good as I hoped it should be:
1. Sometimes, Rand suddenly adds some rules for the future just to make the story flow.
2. The main character, Equality, is like a saint. He has plenty of dreams for the human kind and he believes that he can save the universe from the WE world. He is perfect in any sense of ways. In the end of the story, he simply reminds me of one of those politicians. The truth is, Rand has chosen a character who isn't human enough to humanize others.
3. Lastly, the point I am most upset about, is Liberty, the girl Equality loves. Rand is a woman! I can't imagine that she could make her protagonist a beautiful but very submissive person to men (no offense though). Not only is she obedient, there is a scene when she can't help admiring her own body in the mirror (gosh!). That is the most out-of-date part in this novel. Instead of being a dumb beauty, I think she can be the person to give Equality courage and good advice and still be faithful!

Still, there are good parts in the story like the regressive future and generally the concept of WE. And the book does not have boring sections that sometimes appear in 1984.

I would recommend it to people who haven't read 1984. Save the better one for later.

If you read only one book this year, read this one. Thought provoking, moving, soul stirring.

Pan Yuliang, one of China's finest and most controversial painters, lived in the early part of the 20th century. Forced into prostitution when her uncle sold her to pay for his opium habit, she is later unexpectedly rescued by a man who comes to love her and make her his second wife. Though she is only a concubine, he treats her with love and respect, and encourages her to study painting, both in China and in France.

"...no matter how we long for the past, we are rooted in the present," Pan Yuliang tells her husband, Pan Zanhua. Jennifer Cody Epstein brings this concept home to us in her use of present tense in telling Yuliang's story. Based on the limited knowledge of the painter's life, she has captured this turbulent time period in China, and some of the experiences she imagined Yuliang may have had.

The Painter From Shanghai pulls the reader into Yuliang's life, sharing the horrors of Hall life, the joy in discovering her ability to paint, and the hunger and loneliness of her life in France. Though most of the public never understood her need to paint nudes, Epstein suggests her monsters were what produced her art. In creating beautiful female bodies on canvas, she may have been able to deal with the memories of offering her body in a way no fourteen year-old girl should.

Haunting, compelling, and masterfully written, The Painter From Shanghai invites the reader into Pan Yuliang's world. Although this a work of fiction, you'll feel you've had a glimpse into the life of this intriguing and talented woman.

Reviewer: Alice Berger, Bergers Book Reviews

I picked this book up during my recent infatuation with early 20th century China, expecting something exciting and probably over-the-top romantic (especially with a sticker on the cover boasting "If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, you'll love this!"). The reality, however, leaves something to be desired.

Perhaps the most disconcerting part of the book is that it is written entirely in the present tense. I'm sure the author was aiming to give the reader a sort of first-hand impression of the events, but it's actually quite difficult to read. More than that, it is used incorrectly; rather than building suspense, it ends up killing it, and the resulting story is flat and lifeless.

The author chooses to either spell out letter-by-letter every event so that the reader doesn't ever have to think, or to skip the event entirely. The latter was an interesting plot device the first two or so times it happened, leaving the reader with a sense of anticipation about the eventual return to and conclusion of these events. It becomes apparent early on, however, that even when there are conclusions, they usually occur as an afterthought and so briefly one might wonder why they were mentioned at all. Even some of the book's most "important" characters are swept under the rug, out of sight, out of mind. When the reader comes to realize that almost EVERY major plot point is going to be built up and then skipped (to be mentioned again, possibly, in a brief flashback), it becomes tiresome. The story is gutted of any emotional bonds between characters because they might vanish at any time, never to be mentioned again. The reader ends up caring as little about the secondary characters as the emotionally vacant main character does.

Amazingly, a story that should be extremely interesting-- set in one of the most turbulent periods of China's history and focusing on a talented and driven young woman who defies the odds-- is in this book incredibly dull. I could barely get myself through to the last page, and by the time I arrived I was just glad to be finished with the book.

Pan Yuliang has lived and taken care of her uncle, ever since her mother died when she was young. At fourteen years Pan Yuliang was sold to The Hall of Eternal Splendour to become a prostitute. Her uncle did it to play off some loans he had accrued for his habit of opium. After two years of working at The Halls of Eternal Splendour, Pan Yuliang was saved. A young man by the name of Pan Zanhua, who is an inspector. He is so fascinated by Pan that he offers to take her away from Eternal Splendour and make her his wife. For once Pan Yuliang sees Shanghai through a different light. Pan Zanhua recognizes Pan Yuliang interest and talent for painting. He encourages her to become a professional painter but is Pan Yuliang to free spirited for the school and will they even accept a woman.


The Painter from Shanghai is based on true events of Pan Yuliang life. I have to admit that I had never heard of Pan Yuliang. After reading The Painter from Shanghai, I found Pan Yuliang to be a very remarkable woman. She could find beauty in everything around her. This included even during the two years Yuliang was at The Halls of Eternal Splendour. Pan Zanhua was a good husband to Yuliang. He helped Pan Yuliang pursue her dreams no matter what people thought. For this fact Pan Yuliang was able to stand up for what she wanted to paint and not just what sold. I feel Jennifer Cody Epstein did Pan Yuliang justice in this creative masterpiece of a book titled The Painter from Shanghai.

Jennifer Cody Epstein's engaging if blandly titled biographical novel, THE PAINTER FROM SHANGHAI, presents a fictionalized but chronologically straightforward account of the life of one of China's most controversial painters of the early Twentieth Century, Pan Yuliang. Born Zhang Yuliang in Anhui Province, the outlines of Ms. Pan's life are readily available on dozens of Internet sites - orphaned as a child, sold into prostitution at age fourteen by her opium-addicted uncle, saved from her fate by a government officer who takes her as his second wife, talented but unlikely admission to an art school in Shanghai and from there to Paris, celebrated for her adaptation of Western Post-Impressionism to Chinese themes and styles, condemned in her native country for her paintings' moral decadence, her brief and largely unhappy return to China in the 1930's, and her eventual return to Europe in 1937 where she lived until her death in 1977.

The challenge for Ms. Epstein was what to make of such a life, how to cast it against its own remarkably volatile cultural/historical backdrop while still positioning her biographical subject's place in the 20th Century art world. She fairly successfully meets the first part of that challenge in her book, infusing Ms. Pan's life with the sense of an artist's vision and tortured soul against a background of violent historical movement - the end of imperial rule, the portioning of Shanghai by Western powers, the birth of Sun Yat-Sen's Republic, the advent of Chang Kai-Shek's Nationalist Party, the early signs of the evolving Communist Party (embodied by multiple appeareances of Zhou Enlai), and the Japanese intrusions paving the way for its 1937 invasions and massacres in Shanghai and Nanjing.

It is not so clear whether she succeeds in the second challenge, that of defining Ms. Pan's importance to the history of art, either China's or the world's at large. Ms. Epstein provides no substantial sense of Pan Yuliang's artistic style, seemingly settling for the notion that female nudity alone was enough reason to signify her work. While this may well have been true in 1930's China, Ms. Pan's actual work (not included in the book) are strikingly different - far more Rubensesque, for example - than the impressions left by Ms. Epstein's writing. I chose not to survey Ms. Pan's oeuvre until after reading the book, only then to be astonished at the difference between the mental picture I had formed and the reality of Pan Yuliang's work. It seemed surprising that paintings with such strong 17th Century influences would have found an accepting critical audience in a European art world already under the thrall of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp, and so many other Modernists. To a modest extent, I feel compelled to fault Ms. Epstein for both the perception gap (literary impression versus artistic reality) and the reasons for Ms. Pan's acceptance in the Paris art world. How much of the latter, for example, could have been simply a product of her "Oriental exoticism?"

Nevertheless, Ms. Epstein effectively brings her subject to life, casting her as a heroic victor over extraordinary odds by sheer force of talent and will. As an author, she has much material from which to choose - Ms. Pan's cruel childhood (including footbinding), her "Memoirs of a Geisha" adolescence, her insistent self-education, her strong feminist leanings, her cultural iconoclasm, and her unshakable belief in her own artistic vision. There are suggestions of deeper veins to be mined, particularly references to Ms. Pan's homesexual relationship to another prostitute, Jinling, that can hardly fail to be connected with the artist's later focus on the nude female form in much of her work, but Ms. Epstein appears content to introduce them without further examination. In addition, the male characters in Ms. Pan's life - her uncle Wu, her youthful revolutionary friend Xing Xudun, and of course her "savior" husband, Pan Zanhua - are perhaps less thoroughly exploited for their perspectives on Ms. Pan than they could have been. Alternating chapters seen through Ms. Pan's eyes and those of the various males in her life might have provided for more critical, arm's length view of the artist's actions and their effects on others within the broader social and cultural context of early 20th Century China.

Likely unknown to most Western readers of THE PAINTER FROM SHANGHAI is an earlier, fictionalized account of Ms. Pan's life in subtitled cinematic form. A SOUL HAUNTED BY PAINTING was released in 1994, directed by Huang Shuqin and starring China's incomparable Gong Li as the tortured painter. While the movie suffers numerous flaws - underexplained character motivation, storytelling choppiness from multiple continuity breaks, and melodramatic acting, among others - it fairly mirrors Ms. Epstein's story while providing a much greater sense of Pan Yuliang's artistic style and works.

The Painter from Shanghai by Jennifer Cody Epstein is the story of famed Chinese artist Pan Yuliang. If the book was fiction (it is a fictionalized biography), it would be impossible to believe that it's true. Yuliang was sold into a brothel at the age of 14 by her opium-addict uncle. The girl initially believed that she was going to do embroidery to support the family. Trained by the brothel's top girl, she shuts down her emotions in order to deal with daily degradations. At seventeen, she meets a Republican official, Pan Zanhua, who quickly makes her his concubine, and eventually second wife. Zanhua supports her interest in art and allows her to enter art school, even when it endangers his position with the government. Yuliang continues to keep her emotions hidden and only allows them to show through her artwork, many of which are self-portrait nudes. Yuliang's story takes place on the sweeping canvas of Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. As as her home country tries to determine its new identity (making the book very timely), Yuliang has to determine her own as well. Epstein tackles this amazing story deftly and with compassion, Yuliang suffered much, torn between art and love and was deeply scarred by the sexual abuse she faced for three years. Many artists have faced hunger and poverty, but Yuliang faced so much more, the reader can't help but be awed by the obstacles she faced and overcame, including the destruction of an entire exhibition by anti-Communist forces. The book is well-written and compelling.

The structure of the book has been well thought out,with short sections of the text above the vocabulary for that text and at the bottom there is a full commentary with grammatical explanations. There are full explanations of the progress of the story, with interludes explaining the action to come and explanations of both gods and humans. Altogether, I would recommend this book to any sixth form or university classics student.

This Latin textbook provides the first half of the Aeneid in Latin, along with plenty of footnotes and appendices to guide you as you translate the great epic. Each page contains five to fifteen lines of the Aeneid, and the remaining two-thirds of each page contains the vocabulary, grammar notes, and miscellaneous footnotes. You never need to turn a page or refer to another dictionary, so the tedious aspect of translating is removed. (My fellow students love this awesome aspect and therefore call it the "Pharr Out" edition.) The appendices provide all the grammar rules you may have forgotten or have yet to learn. Beginner and Intermediate Latin students can't go wrong with this book if they need or want to tackle Virgil's Aeneid.

This book is a great guide when translating the Aeneid. It has all of the poetic figures, grammatical notes, and vocabulary one needs for preparation for the AP Latin test.

I have found this text to be helpful, although at times somewhat misleading. Pharr's edition of Virgil's Aeneid is renowned for its extensive annotations throughout the entirety of the text (intended to assist students as well as intermediate translators). At times these annotations are more harmful than helpful. Many are either unclear or offer too much impertinent information. For this reason, students often miss the relevant information contained within and simply accept Pharr's translations of various phrases/words without actually translating for themselves.

I recommend this book for any Latin 3, or Ap Class! The vocabulary fold out in the back is very useful! Although some may argue Barbara Boyd's Book 10 and 12 Pallas and Turnus book is exactly the same, the vocabulary lists are scarce. Pharr also has vocabulary on the pages you are translating, that do not occur as often. He also has interesting points that refer to the latin in interpretation, and he points out examples of literary devices. This book is EXCELLENT for a latin student in any grade!

I, too, was surprised how relevant and easily modern the issues presented in 'Medea' could be. I mean, gender, power, betrayal and revenge are universal and timeless, but Euripides' Medea is breaking all the rules: she's constantly exploding into feminist manifestos, seeking to (figuratively) neuter herself one moment and irradiating torrid womanpower the next, and spitefully slaughters her own family with impunity. In comparison to such a powerful character, the rest of the characters seem mere shades with vague wills and blurred senses of human values- except, perhaps, for Jason, who is so convinced of his own sexual superiority that he doesn't grasp what's going on until it's too late.

The whole thing seemed rather mythic to me, though not immediately because it's an ancient Greek fable with Furies and sun-gods and pervertedly creative murder weapons. I feel that the sheer amount of catharsis in the plotline (which, according to the notes, Euripides practically invented) makes it almost rudimentary and sensationalized. Why does Euripides (figuratively) transform the multifaceted Medea into a demon, rather than allowing her humanity and complexity to show through, perhaps even affirm her demonic actions? It's more daring to deify Medea, which is perhaps why the play seems to smack of modernity. But (to me, anyway) this seems to carve Medea into an archetype, lessening the value of the human realities of the play. It finishes like an allegory, and I think that limits it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I was reading "Medea". About halfway through the play, I realized that the themes of revenge, depression, and female empowerment are still relevant. Infidelity and vengeance are things witnessed everyday: in movies, in the news, maybe even in our own lives. This string of themes proves further that human kind hasn't changed too much.
Though I did have some problems with the plot and some of the overdramatics. Medea revealed to the audience a vulnerable, passionate woman who has a bit of a drama problem and needs just a little too much attention. I think any reader can appreciate the pain she suffered and the disgusting way people in power dealt with her. But is there a line being far over-stepped by killing one's own children just to make a man feel guilty?
Though there is some undeniable hyperbole, it is a story a reader or audience member can empathize, and is totally plausible in a modern setting.

Having read a decent amount of classical poems and plays, I drew from previous experience and started "Medea" with the expectation of appreciating but not neccessarily loving it. But "Medea" pleasantly surprised me with its timeless story of a woman's revenge driven by her own selfish pride and the disgusting lengths she goes to hurt her husband. I found myself completely fascinated by Medea's manipulative antics and sociopathic tendencies. This play has definitely conquered time and remains thrilling a couple thousand years later with themes like betrayal, justice and honor which are still prevalent in modern stories. As a crime show junkie, I constantly drew parallels from recent story lines on a million shows on television to Medea's chilling story. I highly recommend this play.

Euripides' Medea is a story about a woman's heartbreak and the revenge she consequently seeks on her husband. After her spouse takes another wife Medea is torn apart, unable to distinguish right from wrong. She plots to kill the new wife and eventually Medea murders her own children, all in order to spite her former lover.
Euripides expresses the power of passion without reason especially when it comes to love. Medea is willing to kill her own children out of despair, although they are the only people she really has. She has feelings of trepidation before killing the children, revealing her humanity, but appears triumphant after completing the murders. She appears at the top of a building at the end of the show which is usually reserved for divine appearances (intro), which is a metaphor for Medea's strength and even her unyielding brutality, qualities that many deities were believed to possess.
I really enjoyed this play because of Euripides' representation of the woman. Although tragic, Medea's dramatic actions express her passion, stubbornness, power, as well as her godliness and simultaneous humanity.

I think this is one of the better compilations I've seen. I've really been impressed with all of the Oxford World's Classics series. The information given in the Introduction as well as the maps and reference materials mentioned are very helpful. In addition I like having the notes listed at the end of the compilation rather then interspersed, I find it less distracting that way. A must have for any Greek Literature Scholar.

This is a wonderful novel for Spanish I students in High School. I could even use it with 7th and 8th graders, I believe. We sue it during the summer to keep their Spanish abilities active, and also to build confidence and comprehension. This book does many things for a student: 1) builds vocabulary 2) improves comprehension level 3) motivates students to find out "what happens" 4) provides a new way to increase Spanish knowledge.

As a teacher of ages 3 to 18 year olds, I use excerpts from these books here and there, and use them for a Summer Spanish reading program each summer. Great idea and execution!

Sra. Gose
Author of Flip Flop Spanish: Ages 3-5: Level 1

I teach first-year high school Spanish and I use Pobre Ana near the end of the course. I could use it earlier as well.

The chapters are short. The story contrasts life in California with life in Tepic, Mexico, all through the eyes of Ana.

Ana is from California and doesn't think her quality of life is adequate since she doesn't have a new Mustang, et.al. However, once in Mexico she sees that relationships and the things she can control (like knowing Spanish well) are more important.

The story is a good language learning tool, especially the obviously necessary use of the indirect object pronouns throughout with all the "she said to them", "he said to her" tags.

I would have given 5 stars, but my early edition had a couple of character's names mixed up. I assume that this has been corrected by now.

This is an excellent 'beginning' book for anyone who wants to increase their Spanish learning.

It consists of 300 of the most frequently used words in a first year Spanish class that make up a wonderful story.

It is suitable, I feel, for anyone from Middle School to adult.

Whoosh! You see a hat pin sail across the room, much like a javelin, and pin onto the lace curtain. Then, a small man no more than six inches tall scurries across the room.

Welcome to the world of the Borrowers; Pod, Homily, and Arrietty Clock. They live under the floorboards and borrow anything from potatoes to blotting paper. The tiny people live in an old country house, inhabited by `human beans'.
All goes well for the small family until Arrietty is `seen' by a boy. The Borrowers think that `human beans' are always vicious and bad, but this boy turns out to be friendly.
The boy befriends the Clocks and even helps them borrow.
Then, Pod makes the mistake of borrowing precious knick-knacks from the mistress.
Mrs. Driver, the housekeeper, is getting suspicious. Who could be stealing these things?
She sprouts a plan to trap the thieves.
Will the Clocks be caught? Will they have to emigrate?

I thought this book was funny. The Borrowers have limited knowledge on the outside world making the way they act and think seem silly. The book is entertaining, and it is not action packed all the way. It gives you time to think about what you just read, and doesn't zoom through everything. This book is good for all ages. Mary Norton did a great job writing this book.

A classic from my childhood, I enjoy giving this to pre-teen girls and all of them have said they enjoy it, too.

I love this book - I got it for my granddaughter, who will love it as well.

Have you ever pondered where your hairclips, bobby pins and thimbles have gotten to? Do you wonder why small quantities of your father's tobacco and Madeira seem to smoke themselves or evaporate? Did your wooden knight ever ride off the chessboard never to be seen again?

You don't even know what I'm talking about, do you? OK, so have you ever lost your iPod Nano? Maybe the Borrowers needed a stereo for their home entertainment system. The same thing happened to your Nintendo Gameboy.

Mary Norton's "The Borrowers" published in 1952 is about a race of little people living beside a rain pipe, over the mantel, behind the harpsichord and in all the nooks and crannies of the house. These little people "borrow" from us, the big people. They use blotting paper for their carpets, a single onion ring for their cooking and postage stamps for wall portraits.

In the book, Pod, Homily and Arriety are the last Borrowers left in Aunt Sophy's house. They lived in the floorboards under the kitchen ad entered and exited their home from a hole behind the grandfather clock. They weren't rich but they had everything they needed - potatoes for their supper, a gas pipe leak for their cooking, a foie gras dish for their bath. Pod, the father, ventures into the house every now and then for supplies.

This is the story of how Arriety, after being allowed to go borrowing with her father, befriended a nine-year old boy who was a visitor in the house. Then their lives change forever: They discover news about their Borrower relatives, gain new riches and then lose everything they own.

This is a good story to read in a big house on a rainy afternoon. Perhaps you can explore the house for little corners where a Borrower may be living. Or you can guess which of the little things lying around the house are useful for them.

Even if you live in an apartment in the big city with the most modern furniture and high tech gadgets, it would still be fun to imagine what a Borrower family would be using these days. What would a Borrower your age be playing with? What would they use for furniture? Where would they be living?

I bought a package of IKEA tealight candles once and some of them have disappeared. Perhaps a family of Borrowers illuminate their cozy little home with them. Well, they can buy their own iPhone if they need to surf the internet; I'm not letting mine out of my sight.

The Borrowers are tiny little guys, but otherwise people. They get along by using junk that is lying around and adapting it for their own use. This book is about what happens when a human boy actually discovers them, after moving into their area.

Not a particularly uncommon theme, and this one is pretty dull.