Used price: $2.79
Collectible price: $7.50
Used price: $4.95
Collectible price: $12.00
Buy one from zShops for: $18.95
Used price: $5.29
But this 1934 title is a break-out novel, a dark and amazingly believable depiction of a woman from a loveless upper class home, and the choices that take her life to the precipice. Elinor's husband, Lloyd, has his own psychological damage, drawn by the author with superb insight. The interplay between the couple, as they each try to do the right thing, hampered by their demons, is the stuff great suspense is made of. Elinor's tragic infatuation with another man keeps the tension high. Once her husband dies in a hunting accident -- or was it? -- the tension keeps up as she tries to forge a life with the other man, blind at first to his flaws, and, later, as realization grows and she realizes that she's trapped. The amazing thing about this novel is the way Rinehart can make the reader understand Elinor's feelings, as a function both of her self-loathing, and of the morals of the era -- even though today most of us would just dump the jerk! But is she truly guilty of his murder?
Rinehart keeps you turning the pages, in a novel worthy of discussion groups about The Modern Crime Novel!
Used price: $3.15
Collectible price: $3.25
Buy one from zShops for: $10.67
Used price: $7.82
Collectible price: $8.00
Buy one from zShops for: $16.95
It has some biographical material and some maps of England and London at the time Blake lived. There are also a good helping of black and white as well as color plates of Blake's illuminated works. The color plates are only good - the color is not produced beautifully. The student will only get an impression of the true power of Blake's artistry. However, a good teacher will point the student to the Blake Archive at:... so the students can see the works more completely with variants and in better color (if you have good video cards and monitors).
One of the best parts of this book begins on page 176 where working drafts are shown and compared to the final versions. There is also a nice selection of critical writing on Blake - criticism from Blake's time through the present. There is also a useful bibliography.
In some ways this is "Erdman Lite", but it is much more portable than Erdman and for an introductory course on Blake it is probably sufficient. I am glad that I have it in my library.
But please don't stop here!
Used price: $3.93
Collectible price: $6.00
Buy one from zShops for: $3.94
As with the last book, this one contains a charming story that is well accompanied by illustrations that add a lot to the simple words. These books are considered children's classics, and it's easy to see why. My children loved this book, and yours will, too.
Used price: $6.95
Life has never been easy for the borrowers, but now times are changing for the worse. The Sink family in the scullery, the Broom Cupboards, the Rain-Pipes and even Uncle Hendreary and his family have emigrated. Only the Clock family remain, living in fear of Mrs Driver, the housekeeper upstairs. When Pod comes home and says that a boy is living upstairs and that the boy has `seen' him, Pod's wife, Homily, is thrown into panic.
Arrietty, however, is intrigued. While her parents cling to the dubious safety of the life they know, Arrietty wonders about the world outside and dreams of adventure. She persuades her reluctant parents to let her accompany her father on his borrowing expeditions. On her first venture out, she meets the boy upstairs. A dangerous friendship develops. Meanwhile, Mrs Driver stalks the borrowers, full of the sort of cruelty Roald Dahl would have been proud to create. It is only with the boy's help that Arrietty and her parents narrowly escape Mrs Driver's attempts to destroy them. At the end of the book, Arrietty faces the dangerous adventure of emigration.
Like all great books for the young, The Borrowers can be read as an enthralling story of adventure, but also contains many layers of meaning. Mary Norton's creation of the tiny race of borrowers is an imaginative achievement in itself, but she does not stop there. She gives poignance to her tale by telling it through the voice of the boy's sister, now an old lady, who tells us at the start that her brother has long since grown up and died a `hero's de!ath' on the North-West frontier. The old lady seems to believe her brother's tale of the borrowers, and yet at the end of the book she provides evidence to suggest that the borrowers may have been nothing but a product of her brother's imagination. The reader is left wondering about reality and truth. On another level, in the relationship between the borrowers and the human world, parallels with the misunderstandings and confusions which occur between different cultures can be discerned. The uncertainties the borrowers face and their final exile mirror the plight of our world's increasing number of displaced people. Long after the book is finished, the characters and the questions their story raises reverberate around the mind. The Borrowers is a book which will fascinate, intrigue and entertain.
This is such a wonderful book. The story is charming, with the illustrations showing a realistic (if tiny) family. My children loved this story, and even have developed some games based on the story. If you have children, then please consider buying this book for them.
Used price: $23.29
Buy one from zShops for: $48.88
Used price: $1.70
Collectible price: $4.75
I'm currently reading The Beastmaster and it's already good.
Starman's Son was a good, fun, fast read full of action and adventure, full of cool and rich characters of both human and animal. A must read!
The cause of the catastrophe is unknown, but the effect are quite obvious. Much of the population was killed by the immediate effects of nuclear bombs, many others died later from the direct radiation and fallout from those bombs, and many more died from induced radioactivity, plague and starvation. Many plants and animals had been mutated into unrecognizable and deadly forms. Only a few humans survived and many of these were also mutated into Beast Things and other horrible creatures in the "blue cities" where radioactivity lingered. A very few survivors, however, received beneficial mutations that improved their chances of survival, but the seemingly normal survivors generally feared and hated any and every mutant.
Fors is the son of Langdon, a Star Man, a far ranging explorer and leader of the Eyrie, and a woman that Langdon had meet down on the plains. Although Langdon was seemingly normal, Fors has inherited white hair from his mother, a mutation viewed with suspicion by the other residents of the Eyrie. While Langdon was alive, he protected Fors from most of the fear and hatred, but then Langdon was killed by Beast Things on an exploration into a far city and the men who find him bring back only a few of his belongings.
After that, Fors was mostly ignored in his efforts to become a Star Man like his father. He has been adopted by Lura, a great hunting cat, and has made his own sword, knive, bow, and arrows as required. His father, a master teacher among the Star Men, had already ensured before his death that Fors knows all that is required. Nevertheless, the Council has passed over him for five years and tomorrow he will have to give up his weapons and become a tiller of the soil. As he ponders his options, Fors conceives a bold plan and immediately starts gathering supplies and equipment, including his father's pouch, for a great journey to search for the lost city in the north that was never bombed and thus is safe for scavengers.
Although Fors has tried to hide them, he has some unusual talents that will help him on his trek: he is able to communicate empathically with Lura and he has much better night vision that most humans. Moreover, he has other, more subtle talents that manifest as he travels.
This story is based on the premise that mankind will come close to destroying himself and this premise is found in many other works by the author. In many respects, it is a reflection of the worldview of the Cold War era, but it persists even in recent SF stories. In most of Norton's tales, this apocalyptic vision was like Pandora's box, in that there was an element of hope among all the horrors of war.
Recommended for Norton fans and anyone who enjoys a mostly optimistic story of the possible future.
Used price: $0.02
Collectible price: $3.95
Buy one from zShops for: $3.50
The story is fun, beleivable, and full of mystery surrounding the ancient citizens of the planet, the vanished ones. It is fairly easy to read because the authors did not add too much description, or confusing topics, which often take away the pleasure of reading.
The charcters came to life for me because their personalities were so human. Also, although I am not a feminist, I enjoyed the fact that the main characters Kadiyah, Haramis, and Anigel are women, which is a good change from many other fantasy stories that have either men as the lead characters or super-strong and unrealistic women running around and beating everyone up, (*cough*Xena-wannabees*cough), excuse me.
Black Trillium has all the elements that make an excellent story. The only problem that I had with it is that the ending seemed to be a little slapped together because it was so short.
This is when all three sisters confront The bad guy, Orogastus, together for the first time. About two short chapters later, the story ends. This dosen't create any loose ends, but it does take some of the momentum that the story had built up.