List price: $11.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $4.49
Buy one from zShops for: $5.99
A good example of the saga form in modern literature indeed, and yet, despite the finely tuned prose of this novel, capturing the nuances and understatement of the saga voice with masterly strokes, there is an underlying stridency here, an almost emotional overreaching which is not, itself, true to the saga form. In some ways this book is too modern and its author's sensibility, at this juncture in her career, almost too young and unseasoned. Undset seems to be reaching for the tragic denouement of the Greek classics to end her tautly told tale rather than content herself with the flatly understated and finely nuanced wrap-up more appropriate to the saga form. But this Greek-like ending left me much colder than the drily tossed-off afterthought of a true saga might have done. And yet, for all that, Undset has here given us one of the best modern novels done in saga form. My hat is off to her.
I suppose that anything that sells books makes it to the top of the page, although I appreciate that the first review I read about this book was straightforward, unbiased and sans agenda. I have been reading the great writers of the world since I learned to read. I began to explore the works of Undset, Lagerlof, Bjornson, Hamsun, Gustafsson, etc., thirty years ago and it irks me no end that the works of a Scandinavian writer like Undset, who lived in a time when women had all the rights in the world, should be referenced by your commentator from Brattleboro, VT as womens fiction. If she has read "The Master of Hestviken" or "Kristen Lavransdatter", then she must have missed all the suffering endured by the men and women. Great works of creativity do not address personal agendas. They are wrought from the soul. Lagerlofs' "Saga of Gosta Berling", another masterpiece, explores the same moral questions with a male protagonist. I say to you, dear lady from Vermont, that feminism is dead; we are all feminine and masculine regardless of our plumbing, and the last GREAT female poet, Sylvia Plath, lived the pain of that polarity until it killed her. Shame on you Amazon.com for using divisiveness and the promulgation of hatred, fear, and misunderstanding to make a buck. Publish this!!
List price: $16.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $5.00
Collectible price: $17.99
Buy one from zShops for: $11.22
Used price: $10.54
Buy one from zShops for: $10.54
In Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake the Cake, Christmas is soon approaching, and Mr. Putter must decide what to give Mrs. Teaberry, his fruit-cake-loving next-door neighbor. Mr. Putter does not understand how anyone could enjoy a fruit cake, and so he sets out to make Mrs. Teaberry a "light and airy" cake for Christmas, one that "could not break her toe if she dropped it." Young readers will follow along with Mr. Putter and his good cat Tabby as they try to make Mrs. Teaberry's cake, from start to finish. Mishap prevails, leaving you to wonder if they will ever get through in time. It all adds up to a cheery Christmas story about giving and the saying, "It's the thought that counts!"
Mr. Howard's cartoon-style illustrations greatly enhance this wonderful story, which is written in such a format to be used as either a 3-chapter book for the beginning reader, or a bedtime story that is longer in length. Either way, the Mr. Putter and Tabby books would be a great find for emerging readers' shelves. Like having a kindly old grandpa next door, they only make life richer!
List price: $22.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $13.95
Buy one from zShops for: $14.88
If Golding's Ovid is not, "the most beautiful book in the language," it's among the top two-dozen "most beautiful books" you can find in English. I've searched for a second-hand copy of the 1965 Simon and Schuster edition since the late sixties, ever since I read Pound's ABC of Reading. I never had any luck finding it, though I did come across a non-circulating copy in a university library once. Its title page explained that only 2500 copies had been printed and that the previous edition -- the one Pound must have used -- was a small, deluxe Victorian production, itself unattainable by 1965.
After all my years lurking in second-hand bookshops, Paul Dry Books has finally done the decent and brought Golding's Ovid out again, this time as a beautifully printed, well-bound, but inexpensive paperback. I grabbed up my copy at first sight.
Is this an "accurate" translation of Ovid? As a previous reviewer has said, if you really want accuracy, you should read Ovid in Latin and leave the wild Elizabethan translators alone. Unlike that reviewer though, I'd say that, if you want Ovid in perfectly accurate modern English, with his poetry and voice included, you should read him in Mandelbaum's beautifully rendered version; but if you want an accurate modern English translation -- the type of thing your Latin prof would give you excellent marks for -- then read him in Melville's able, though sometimes sightly flat translation.
But if you love Elizabethan literature, then you should read Golding. You read his Ovid for the ripe, quirky, full-on Elizabethan English, deployed in his long, rambling fourteeners. Golding's metre was becoming antiquated in his own day but, as with a good deal of his rustic vocabulary, he didn't seem to care much about literary fashion. Reading him now, I find it's his joy with his original that matters. Open the volume anywhere -- at the Cyclops Polyphemus singing to the Nymph Galatea for example -- and there is Golding rolling magnificently on:
"More whyght thou art then Primrose leaf, my Lady Galatee.
More fresh than meade, more tall and streyght than lofy Aldertree.
More bright than glasse, more wanton than the tender kid forsooth.
Than Cockeshelles continually with water worne, more smoothe."
Where "forsooth" is outrageous metrical padding, and "forsoothe/smoothe" was probably a forced rhyme even in 1567. But who cares? Golding's music carries the reader past any such concerns, and the beauty and energy of the thing are undeniable.
So buy the book! Make sure it sells tens-of-thousands of copies! Give the publisher a reason to keep reprinting, so it never disappears again.
List price: $19.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $14.64
Buy one from zShops for: $14.35
career pathway that applies only to the individual concerned about his or her future endeavors in life. The work provides real life examples to illustrate how people have correctly adjusted their careers utilizing the principles put forth by
Hansons and Associates. This career reference is very readable
and may well create a lifetime of fulfillment for a great many persons.
Used price: $11.98
Collectible price: $10.84
This book had the feel of a classic! The style and language literally transported me to the 1800's during the time of the French Revolution. Smith's first rate talent as a writer will keep you in bone-chilling suspense as Morivania enters ghastly catacombs and numerous dark wooded trails. There are plenty of moments which will make your hair stand on end and which develop into outright terrifying events!
The Prey is a magnificent novel that is sure to please fans of classic horror. I can't recommend it highly enough!
List price: $24.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $13.98
Collectible price: $21.18
Buy one from zShops for: $16.23
This is a fun medium and an inexpensive one. If you are truly interested in learning the ins and outs of pen and ink drawing and can only afford one book, this is the book.
C.
Used price: $1.35
Collectible price: $2.95
The narrator is the oft-maligned Sir Kay, the grouchy but well-meaning seneschal of Arthur's court. He's not a bad guy. He *is* a sarcastic curmudgeon, but that's because he's seen so many self-serving buffoons win glory and adulation while his own hard work goes unnoticed. He is also secretly in love with the Queen. Kay shares an uneasy friendship with a wonderfully written, morbid, fatalistic, and somehow sympathetic Sir Mordred. Together they set out to clear Guenevere's name of the murder charges, meeting fascinating characters right and left. Morgan and Iblis are especially engaging, and Karr puts some deep words into their mouths. Morgan's defense of her mixed Christian and pagan ways cuts right to the heart of things, and Iblis's observation that justice is different for women than for men, is shocking just because it is so true of the times.
If you're an Arthurian buff, read this book. It's a quick read, and a great way to spend a lazy afternoon or two.
If you're looking for something different, be it fantasy or mystery, I recommend "Idylls of the Queen" you won't be disappointed!
A fast, suspenseful novel that should stand up to multiple readings, "The Idylls of the Queen" is an ingenious work that should please all fans of Arthurian literature.
Used price: $4.99
There aren't really any plot twists or surprises in this story. What seems to me to be the biggest clue to the whole mystery flops out at you like a dead fish right in the middle of the book, and you have to wait until the end to see Jupiter finally seize upon it. Overall, though, it is still a pretty good story. It's hard to go wrong when you are writing about pirates, ghosts, and treasure. My childhood obsession with the secret headquarters at the Salvage Yard obviously continues because I certainly missed it in this book. The boys seemed to be somewhat out of their element here, and it shows. Of course, nothing can stop them from solving a mystery once they are on the case.