Cien años de soledad: Edición conmemorativa (The 40th Anniversary Edition)

Product Description

The Real Academia Española celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Garcia Marquez s masterpiece in this beautiful commemorative edition. Prologues by Carlos Fuentes, Alvaro Mutis, Mario Vargas Llosa and other intellectuals. One Hundred Years of Solitude is the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race. -New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

Maravilloso!.......2007-08-29

Inicia la historia con la boda de Ursula Iguaran y Jose Arcadio Buendia, la busqueda de un pueblo ideal donde vivir, la angustia de la espera de los hijos, angustia debido a la supersticion ya que eran primos y les habian dicho que sus hijos podrian nacer con cola de cerdo!...

Una historia completamente llena de cultura latinoamericana, donde la supersticion, hechiceria, leyendas, herencias, costumbres y etc's no fallan. Esta edicion viene acompañada entre otras cosas de un arbol genealogico que te es de gran ayuda, ya que despues de algunas generaciones de Jose Arcadios y Aurelianos.. pues es sabio recurrir a el.

Siempre he admirado la manera tan descriptiva de Garcia Marquez, pero con este titulo desde la primera persona hasta la ultima, arboles, esquinas y lo que gusten nombrar a todo se le otorga una historia, es un maestro!

Deception.......2007-08-25

I had a deception with this novel and this author. I thought it was first of all more organized in his thoughts, second, the theme was not one that lead to any valuable thought or of value to society, except just an invention of his imagination, which seems very convoluted. I read the one he wrote about the coronel did not have any answer or something like that, and that one I liked. But I thought this was his best novel, and I was far wrong. Gloria

An over-rated Nobel laureate.......2007-07-03

I read Spanish-language books to try to improve my Spanish vocabulary and reading ability. I had already read this author's "Putas tristes", and his autobiography, "Vivir para contarla". In the latter book García mentioned that he had read Romulo Gallegos when he was young. The latter's book, "Dóña Bárbara", which truly IS a classic of Latin American writing. I found García's book to have the same theme ("the struggle between landowners and peasants in L.A.), and even the style, to be essentially the same. Many other Latin authors, such as Isabel Allende, seem to also use the same plagiaristic ploy. Another thing annoying about García is his self-admitted tendency to employ outrageous exagerations with a straight face. In one episode of "Cien años" he describes a man so strong he carries a store counter from a store out into the street, and it too eleven men to get it back in. Come on now!!

One of my favourite books in a wonderful edition.......2007-07-01

I first read Cien años de soledad during my last year of high school, and I have read it several times again since then. Everytime I read it, I remember the words of my literature professor, after he asked us to buy the book: " I envy you all so much, so much - he said- because nothing compares to the feeling of reading Cien años for the first time. I wish I could feel like that again." He was right.

This is a magical book, and this anniversary edition one that deserves a place in the library of all those who love Gabo.

One hundred years of pleasure.......2007-06-13

Esta nueva edicion conmemorativa a cargo de la Real Academia Espanola en conjuncion con la Asociacion de academias de la lengua espanola pone en manos del lector la novela de Garcia Marquez consagrada ya como un clasico de la literatura universal. Aunque esta edicion tiene el merito de compilar una serie de ensayos de escritores de la talla de Carlos Fuentes, Vargas Llosa, Alvaro Mutis, Claudio Guillen, entre otros; una extensa bibliografia y un utilisimo glosario, el lector que se inicia en esta obra deberia complementar su lectura con la insuperable edicion critica de Catedra que trae, ademas, notas a pie de paginas, ausente desgraciadamente en la presente edicion. De todas maneras esta es una edicion muy cuidada que limpia las asperezas, erratas y expresiones dudosas de previas ediciones.

Captain America #25: The Death of Captain America (Captain America)

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Captain America #25: The Death of Captain America (Captain America)
Ed Brubaker
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic

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ASIN: B000O803J6

Product Description

Captain America Steve Rogers is shot and killed in this key issue. Things had already been bad for Cap he had been declared a fugitive after the Superhero Registration Act demanded all heroes be registered by the federal government. Captain America, seeing this as an invasion of civil rights, led a resistance against this movement, chronicled in Marvel Comics Civil War series. After Captain America discovered public opinion had turned against his resistance, he surrendered to authorities. This issue begins with a sniper firing at him on the steps of a federal courthouse on the way to his arraignment.

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol. 1)

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Three in one all thime classics
Amazing Adventures Of TINTIN
reliable
A rich part of this bilingual Canadian's heritage
The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol.

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol. 1)
Herge
Manufacturer: Little, Brown Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Action & Adventure | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0316359408

Customer Reviews:

Three in one all thime classics.......2007-10-10

Many of us grew up on Tintin and love them for their great nostalgia value, and reminisces of childhood, as well as the brave values of a simpler, more clarified world of yesteryear.
This volume brings together three of the best loved Tintin classic in one handy volume- and for not much more than the price of one.
They are:
Tintin in America
1931 , and gangsters rule the streets of Chicago. It is up to intrepid European journalist Tintin and his dog Snowy to tackle Al Capone , Mr Smiles and other gangsters, taking him from Chicago to the Wild West where he dodges Indians and Cowboys , and back again.

Cigars of the Pharoah

First published in Le Petit Vingtième between 8/12 1932 and 8/2 1934. The book appeared in 1934 . Redrawn in 1955. It was first published in English in 1971.

A colourful and detailed adventure , Tintin and his dog Snowy meet up with an eccentric Egyptologist on a cruise , taking Tintin on a danger-filled adventure from Egypt to Arabia to India , in a hunt for whoever is behind the mystery of the Cigars of the Pharaoh , he is framed for heroin possesion , caught up in an Arabian war and sentenced to be executed , lost in the desert , locked up in a mental assylum in India , before being led to an international ring of drug trafficers. It is amazing the amount of detail Herge worked into these adventure comics.

Many of us grew up on them and love them for the nostalgia value.
I loved the animation in the underground Pharaoh's tomb.
Written in 1936 , The Blue Lotus is the sequel to the colourful Cigars of the Pharaoh. In the Cigars of the Pharaoh , Tintin has almost succeeded in smashing an international gang of drug traffickers , managing to capture all of them except the leader who mysteriously crashes over a ravine.
His further investigations lead him to China , then under threat from Japanese agression.
Tintin comes up against a madman infected with a dart that sends the recipient insane , enraged British colonists out for revenge after having been humiliated by Tintin and the Japanese army , with the chief villain of the piece being Japanese businessman Mitsuhirato.
This album drew protest form the Japanese government of the time , and was praised by Chiang Kai Shek , President of the Republic of China.
However, it was banned by China's Communist regime until 1984 , due to some of their own insane Maoist reasoning-and even then was still chopped up and heavily edited.
Other albums having been banned by the Communist dictatorship in China where Tintin in tibet (for recognizing tibetan culture) , Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (for exposing Communism)and Tintin in the Congo ('Colonialist').

Amazing Adventures Of TINTIN.......2007-08-24

Since I was a little boy I liked to read TINTIN's adventures. Years later, that habbit hasn't changed at all.

reliable .......2007-03-11

I am satisfied first-time buyer. my seller agreed to mail my books to an alternative address. Kept in touch with me and kept me informed until I provided the address. mailed the books on time, and i am happy, so is my 13 year old. Thanks again, those books are not available in Trinidad and Tobago, they are great for reading.

A rich part of this bilingual Canadian's heritage.......2006-09-09

Among my very early memories is as one of several children sitting on the sloped lawn between two of my neighbour's houses, each of us reading a different story - and so, in no particular order - from "Les Aventures de Tintin." This was my introduction to the most extraordinary comics world ever created, a part of my French-language heritage, though the series has been translated into many languages including English. My goal with these reviews (one for each volume) is to explain to an American audience why Tintin is such a phenomenon in the rest of the world.

I'll be skimpy as to plot details so as not to give any spoilers. I won't even give the gist of the adventures. For those who don't mind spoilers, further details are abundantly available in other reviews or by simply Googling "Tintin." Any value judgements I give are, of course, subjective.

Volume 1: Tintin in America (1932), The Cigars of the Pharaoh (1934), The Blue Lotus (1936). This is the first instalment of my reviews of each of the seven volumes.

The seven-volume series contains 21 of the 24 adventures, omitting the first two -Tintin in the Land of the Soviets and Tintin in the Congo - and the last, incomplete one - Tintin and Alph-Art.

There is a leap forward from the Congo adventure with Tintin in America, further maturity with Cigars, and the series is in full bloom with The Blue Lotus. The first of the three is still amateurish and quite childish, but fun nonetheless; we see Chicago, Al Capone (the only appearance of a real-life character in the entire series, though Hergé does draw himself and some real-world people into the occasional panel, without giving them any identities), the plight of the Indians, and a ticker tape parade.

The Cigars of the Pharaoh introduces the recurring characters Rastapopoulos and the buffoonish Thom(p)son twins, gives us the first of the many mind-bending dream sequences in the series, and takes us to Egypt and to the India under the Raj (the story predates Indian independence) with a mystery that segues into the superb The Blue Lotus, which takes place in China under Japanese occupation. Already, after three adventures, children are enthralled by the exotic locations and adults are amazed by author Hergé's painstaking research and attention to detail.

The Adventures of Tintin: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus (3 Complete Adventures in One Volume, Vol. .......2006-08-31

Very good story for children and aldult as well

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Alexie Does It
Despite some turbulence, it is well worth the flight.
A typical boy in an untypical world...
Finally a Book that Goes Against the Grain
"We're all the same people. And we are all falling."

Flight: A Novel
Sherman Alexie
Manufacturer: Grove Press, Black Cat
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0802170374

Book Description

The best-selling author of multiple award-winning books returns with his first novel in ten years, a powerful, fast and timely story of a troubled foster teenager — a boy who is not a “legal” Indian because he was never claimed by his father — who learns the true meaning of terror. About to commit a devastating act, the young man finds himself shot back through time on a shocking sojourn through moments of violence in American history. He resurfaces in the form of an FBI agent during the civil rights era, inhabits the body of an Indian child during the battle at Little Big Horn, and then rides with an Indian tracker in the 19th Century before materializing as an airline pilot jetting through the skies today. When finally, blessedly, our young warrior comes to rest again in his own contemporary body, he is mightily transformed by all he’s seen. This is Sherman Alexie at his most brilliant — making us laugh while breaking our hearts. Simultaneously wrenching and deeply humorous, wholly contemporary yet steeped in American history, Flight is irrepressible, fearless, and again, groundbreaking Alexie.

Customer Reviews:

Alexie Does It.......2007-10-10

I've been reading Alexie's work lately and reading FLIGHT has lead me to be even more enthusiastic about his writing. His words suck you into the emotion of the main character, Zits, and takes you with him on his journey to find his identity as a foster, 21st century Indian boy. As a pre-service English teacher, I thought of how this book would be responded to in a high school classroom. Despite some of the provocative language (which really is a minute factor) used in certain situations, this is a great text to expose to high school students with its ability to raise topics for discussion and controversial issues that expand further than just adolescent identity.
A big aspect of FLIGHT is the idea of the 21st century Indian which has been a talked about issue recently. There are so may subjects and controversies packed into Alexie's book that it's possible to find a deeper meaning within each one of his words. I highly recommend this text to any high school student or adult.

Despite some turbulence, it is well worth the flight........2007-10-10

Sherman Alexie's Flight reminds us all that we seek love and need love. The novel's protagonist, "Zits" is a wayward teenager who is victimized by the foster-care system and as a result wrestles with shame, alienation and self. Zits draws the reader in as he narrates this tale with a matter-of-fact tone and a sardonic sense of humor that only a teenager of his circumstance could own. After another one of Zit's attempts at running away, the altruistic Officer Dave catches him; Officer Dave is Zits only true friend. In describing Dave, Zits claims, "the wounded always recognize the wounded. We can smell each other." These open wounds are the catalysts that turn a routine visit to kid jail into something more sinister; it is on this visit, that the susceptible Zits comes under the spell of another Juvenile Delinquent named "Justice" and decides to become his brother in arms. While faced with a critical decision, initiated by the charismatic Justice, Zits's conscience soars-literally. We find our selves taken along for the ride as Zits snatches bodies and thrusts us into a series of alternate consciousness. We become an FBI agent, an Indian boy, an Indian tracker, an adulterous man caught with his paramour and even Zits's own father. Aside from gripping action, all this body snatching serves a purpose; these characters act as vehicles for Zits to come to terms with his dubious and heart breaking past. If you want to know whether or not Zits follows Justice's flawed and mad reasoning to his own death, read this novel! Although getting to the destination is riddled with turbulence, it is well worth the flight.

A typical boy in an untypical world..........2007-10-10

This is how Alexie brings us in! He introduces us to a character that we are already familiar with no matter how old we are - the typical troubled, "bad boy" teen. Through the first few chapters, we begin with an, "Ah, I know this boy" attitude. Then, his "typical" bad boy life changes. He goes places none of us have before. But, we still want to follow him because we "know" him, or at least someone like him. On the surface, the entire novel seems like a young teenage boy and his unexpected journeys through time. However, we can look so much deeper than that. It seems, through his time travel, Zits is making commentary on real world and societal issues and is not afraid to say it. In the beggining, he uses the teenage language and laid back "I don't care" attitude to introduce concepts of murder, culture, citizenship, identity, friendship, etc. We may almost pass him off as a troubled teen with an attitude problem. However, his extreme detail and analysis of his time travel proves to us that in every time and place in the world there are major contradictions between what we are told/taught and what actually happens and how people actually feel.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I do feel that adolescents might have trouble with it. As a college student reading it for school, I had trouble stopping to jot down notes or putting the book down. In the begining, when I would leave the book, I felt like I had no idea what was going on. I could make new predictions every other chapter as to if this person really was Zits, if it was a dream, time travels, a nightmare, etc. and sometimes my predictions were way off. Just when I thought I knew what was happening I realized I didn't. Although predicting and repredicting was fun for me, I think it may cause the "anti-reading" adolescent student trouble. I enjoy being confused and I enjoy every twist and turn, but I'm not sure a majority of adolescents would. However, because of the literary beauty, terrific writing, great story and underlying commentary, I believe trying to get adolescents to read this novel is definitely worth a shot!

Finally a Book that Goes Against the Grain.......2007-10-10

What can't there be said about this book? If you want a book that sugar-coats language and hides hard-hitting issues, do not pick up "Flight" by, Sherman Alexie. However, if you enjoy reading real teen issues and are not resistant to language, (even profanities) then this book is definitely for you.

Alexie does a fantastic job in creating a teen who faces many problems that many teenagers today can relate to while also using language that many teens are accustomed to. The character "Zits" is the poster child for everything that can go wrong for a teenager in today's world while still maintaining an amazing sense of humor. His telling of the story and constant interruption of thoughts has readers literally "laughing out loud."

Open-minded adults and kids everywhere will most definitely enjoy this book!

"We're all the same people. And we are all falling." .......2007-10-10

"Call me Zits. Everybody calls me Zits...My real name isn't important." From the first few lines of Sherman Alexie's Flight, the reader is aware that this young adolescent struggles from a lack of self-worth. This adolescent boy of mixed blood (American and Indian)presents a bit of his past to the reader within the first chapter of the novel. Having lived with 20 foster families by age 15, he forces the reader to feel pity for him, regardless of his negative behavior. I found myself granting clemency for his actions due to his past experiences.
This boy is lonely, disappointed,scared, angry, unsure and longs to be loved. It is not until he takes "flight" on this journey that his life changes.
Zits represents and speaks to every adolescent who struggles with stereotypes, self identity, cultural identity, family and love for self. Where the novel is bit graphic and the language a bit vulgar, it is still a novel I would teach in a secondary classroom. The way Catcher in the Rye related to students years ago, Flight relates to students of today.
Flight embodies so many themes, that every English teacher desires to touch upon. A must read for everyone!

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Creepy and Comforting?
Moving Novel About Love and Loss
All Over The Place
Terrible writing
Sad and pointless

The Lovely Bones: A Novel
Alice Sebold
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0316666343

Amazon.com

Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue."

The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Book Description

On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue." The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife.Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Download Description

This edition of the New York Times best-seller and a Good Morning America "Read This" Book Club pick contains features available only in the electronic version! Included in this eBook edition are a Reading Group Guide, an exclusive interview with the author, and "The Oddity of Suburbia," Alice Sebold's comments on growing up in the suburbs of "Nowhere U.S.A." When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. (It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing set.) With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief-her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor-and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant new novelist, and through the eyes of her winning young heroine, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful, touching, even funny novel about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.

Customer Reviews:

Creepy and Comforting?.......2007-09-29

Everyone else is right. Th book is great in the beginning. It contains some odd scenes that are unnecessary and hurt, more than help, the story's momentum and punch. The author tried to wrap up too many loose ends too quickly in the end, and I felt so dissappointed that a book I really enjoyed and that had so much potential ended so poorly. However, I so enjoyed the beginning, that I got over the ending.

The aspect that I think I most enjoyed about the plot of this book, was that the main mystery was solved very close to the begnning.
You do not feel suspense waiting to find out "who did it?" The author tells you who did it right away. Then you don't feel suspense waiting to see when one of the other characters will figure it out, because another character figures it out right away. You feel suspense waiting to see when others will believe and if the murdered will ever get caught. Very non-traditional suspense.

I really appreciate books that make me FEEL. Good, bad, hapy, sad, scared,or totally creeped out. I just enjoy having my emotions provoked by a good book. This book made me feel every one of those things. I laughed and cried, sometimes one right after the other. I definitely felt completely creeped out and oddly comforted really close together. That's why this book is a winner.

This book will make you think. If you don't like to feel sad, or uncomfortable, this book is not for you. If you appreciate emotion and creativity, you will enjoy this different book. I look forward to the movie, hoping they don't massacre the story.

Moving Novel About Love and Loss.......2007-09-19

After fourteen year old Susie Salmon is raped and murdered, she goes to heaven where she is able to look down at her family and friends and the rest of the world. As she is adjusting to life in heaven and making friends there, she is also watching her family deal with her disappearance. She watches as both her parents struggle to accept the fact that she is gone and the affect it has on their marriage; she watches her younger sister Lindsay grow and become stronger as a person; and she watches her little brother Buckley, who is too young to understand what is going on. She also watches her friends Ray Singh and Ruth Connors, as they grow closer after Susie's death. As Susie watches her family and friends grow older and mature, she begins to realize how much she has lost and longs for one more chance for life on earth.

"The Lovely Bones" is a sad, moving, and at times odd novel. Extremely well written by Alice Sebold, it is told in the first person by Susie. This unique perspective means that we not only have insight into what Susie was like as a person, but who her killer was and how frustrating it is for her to not only watch the killer stalk other victims (including someone close to Susie) but watch the police try and find her body and determine who her killer is and prove it. Her ability to look down from heaven to see her family and others (and somehow be privy to their thoughts) adds poignancy to the novel, as each of her family members and friends struggle to cope with their loss in their own private ways. It is heartbreaking to read about how Susie's disappearance and the inability of the police to find her body affects her parents marriage, and how Susie begins to realize she didn't know them, especially her mother, all that well. It's equally heartbreaking to see Susie watch her sister Lindsay grow up and experience things that Susie never will, especially falling in love and having sex for the first time. Sebold makes the characters so believable that at times I wanted to hug them and say "I'm sorry" and at other times I wanted to shake them and make them aware of how their actions were hurting others. Although the book is sad, it's not as depressing as I thought it would be and there are some humorous moments in the book, mostly with Susie's Grandma Lynn. While I thought "The Lovely Bones" was well written for the most part, there was a truly odd section towards the end that felt out of place in the book.

"The Lovely Bones" is a moving novel about love and loss.

All Over The Place.......2007-08-29

I had heard great things about this book so decided to read it. I agree with a lot of the other reviews that say it started out really great and then fizzled out. I think the storyline was all over the place, and I couldn't understand what the point was, other than just to be a fly on the wall in the lives of Susie's family. I was also not happy with the bodily possession (a bit much in my opinion) or the weak ending. I think the concept was interesting, and I think I would have liked it better if it kept the same energy it had in the beginning. I did enjoy the fact that it was based in the Philadelphia suburbs, as I am familiar with that area.

Terrible writing.......2007-08-27

I couldn't finish reading this book after getting about 150 pages in. This turned out to be a fortunate decision. My wife tells me it got worse and worse. I'm shocked at how well-recieved it was... The writing is sloppy, we're given no descriptions of the characters, and the storyline makes you groan with its cliches. What really annoyed me were the incredibly strained metaphors tossed around, dice in a Yatzee game of literature, spinning like Disneyland teapots in the cosmos of ludicrousness. This was one gem: "leaden weights had been tied by anesthesia to the four corners of his consciousness".

Sad and pointless.......2007-08-24

I'm sorry to say it... I really wanted to like this book... but I didn't! In fact, I was quite stunned to discover how disappointing and unproductive this book is, considering the number of people who have read it. I read it on a recommendation from a friend whose book recommendations I usually agree with. Unfortunately, I wish I had gone with my gut instinct and put the book down after getting nowhere in the first 100 pages. Instead, I kept reading just to get through it. I really disliked this book! I'm not a book snob, but I like a book to be somewhat believable if the author is attempting to depict a real life scenario ie: a family's coping with the death of thier murdered child. The whole thing, start to finish, was so contained, so picture-perfect, so annoying!!!

It's funny, the person who recommended the book to me said the hardest part of the book was the first chapter because of the grisly details of poor Susie's death. I disagree. Though I am not a fan of horror or even CSI shows... I at least found the first chapters suspenseful and engaging... I cannot say that for the rest of the novel!

The concept of the narrator being in heaven is definitely an interesting one, but the story she tells is so contrived and meandering and really uninspired that her perspective hardly seems special.

I think this novel has the ability to be interesting or possibly helpful to someone who has had to deal with the death of a close family member because it so plainly shows that a family falls apart around such a loss and that this is sort of a natural process. But beyond that situation... I'm sorry, I would not recommend this book.

Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

Classic
Great literature in great binding
Amazing Grace
a lovely book
Just Read It All

Flannery O'Connor : Collected Works : Wise Blood / A Good Man Is Hard to Find / The Violent Bear It Away / Everything that Rises Must Converge / Essays & Letters (Library of America)
Flannery O'Connor
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0940450372

Customer Reviews:

Classic.......2007-05-11

Now that I've read everything by O'Connor (including works that were part of her thesis for her degree in writing) I am still amazed and inspired by her work. I'm not from the south or Catholic and I was not alive during the eras of which she wrote, but her writing transcends region and time. My favorites remain A Good Man is Hard to Find, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and Revelation, but I love all her stories, although I find the novels a bit more challenging - I think short story was her finest form. Her ability to mix desperation and violence with comedy is amazing, and often when I read her I think: "I shouldn't be laughing at that." I often wonder what additional work she would have produced if she had not died so young. Highly recommended.

Great literature in great binding.......2007-01-16

I am thoroughly enjoying this authoritative collection of O'Connor's writings. The writing speaks for itself as truly great and unique. This particular book is very classy and well put together; an excellent choice for someone with a significant interest in O'Connor.

Amazing Grace.......2006-01-21

How sweet the sound that saved this wreched human race. O'Connor writes of God's love and redemption of humanity. She uses exaggeration to make her point. Her characters are so very silly, obtuse, bigoted, loathsome they become cartoons, yet there is a deep integrity to their shallowness. She's not making fun of them, but giving them the justice of a pitiless description. Indeed they do not seem judged, but naked -- the fruits of their stupid, misguided ideas and actions on display. And these children of God do shocking things to others and themselves. And yet . . ..

And yet God allows them to live and learn, or not learn if that is their inclination. He gives them this freedom. He loves them. How can this be? How?

I love O'Connor for her art, her convictions, her courage, and her love. She is so very true and honest.

In addition to her novels and a thorough selection of short stories, there is a chronology of her life and a selection of her letters which are rewarding reading. The book itself is a wonderful object. The pages are of fine paper. The binding is such that you can lay it open on a table without breaking its back, and the pages will not move unless a breeze or you do so.

a lovely book.......2004-12-23

Oh yes! I adore her, and so do my mum and dad. They talk about her all of the time, and so I grew up with the prose ringing in my ears. I am so pleased to be reading her now.

Just Read It All.......2004-09-02

The complaints about the poor organization of the collection can be overcome by simply reading it from front to back. Surely it is that good.

My foray into the works of Flannery O'Connor, a southern, gothic author of darkly humorous novels and short stories came via a recommendation in Harold Bloom's, "What to Read and Why." As it turned ot, I had read one of her short stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," in a collection somewhere and had been surprised and shocked, by the turn of events and ending of the story, so much so, that I remembered it instantly, even though it has to have been thirty years since I read it. I enjoyed everything, short stories, novellas, and even her letters. She writes about southern Christ-haunted people, most backward, all damned, but many redeemed. Bloom says that according to her, we are all damned but one should put that aside and simply enjoy her beautiful, grotesque, and wonderful comedic stories. Her protagonist is often a woman, forced to take on a role and duties she didn't sign up for but resignedly and with no illusions playing and discharging both out of a sense of morality or necessity; those women are usually the most superior beings in her stories.

Many of her insights stick with me months afterwards. For example, O'Connor says in one of her letters, "...Hazel's integrity lies in his not being able to do so. Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen." That brought tears to my eyes -- perhaps because it is so beautifully put.

Travels with Charley in Search of America

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Travels With Charley
the hobo philosopher
"From start to finish, I found no strangers"
Vendor is 100% honest... would recommend highly
Another side of John Steinbeck

Travels with Charley in Search of America
John Steinbeck
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140053204

Book Description

Today, nearly forty years after his death, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck remains one of America's greatest writers and cultural figures. Over the next year, his many works published as black-spine Penguin Classics for the first time and will feature eye-catching, newly commissioned art.

Penguin Classics is proud to present these seminal works to a new generation of readers—and to the many who revisit them again and again.

Customer Reviews:

Travels With Charley.......2007-09-27

A wonderful read..a glimpse of America through the eyes of Steinbeck while driving his pick-up/camper with his dog.

the hobo philosopher.......2007-09-10

Travels with Charley was one of the inspirational books that lead me to write "Hobo-ing America". I had always read travel books. Everybody from Mark Twain to George Orwell. But Travels with Charley (his dog) ranks right up there in the inspiration category for me. I had always longed to travel America but I could never afford to do it. Finally my wife Carol and I took off with about $2,400 and a van with a homemade bed in the rear and hit the road. We paid our way by picking fruits and vegetables and we stayed on the road living under bridges and equipment shelters for a number of years. Carol says that it was the best time of her life. I am still hoping that the best time hasn't come yet. Though my time is running low.
I guess that the whole point of this review is that it was books like Travels with Charley that made our adventure a reality. I still have a tattered copy of Travels with Charley on my library shelf.

"From start to finish, I found no strangers".......2007-08-06

In the autumn of 1960, author John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968) felt that he was writing on the fumes of experience. That and the wanderlust that usually passes with youth still itched at age 58. He bought a camper truck he christened "Rocinante" after Don Quixote's horse and with his 10-year-old poodle named Charley he set off to find America. His route largely rimmed the 48 contiguous states: from his summer home on Long Island, he headed up to Maine, across to upstate New York and down US Route 90, out to Chicago, through the Badlands to Montana, over to Spokane, down the Oregon coast, to his native Salinas in Central California, cutting across the Mojave to Texas, onward into the Deep South and then a straight shot home to New York City.

In 1960, Steinbeck stood on a cusp of history and what he reveals, especially as regarded 47 years later, is the country coming and going on itself. He finds cities ringed by huge garbage piles created by the rise of a disposable culture that had yet to discover recycling. He uses the new highway system as well as the old back roads, encountering a country adapting to a new mobility. The people he met were timeless characters, though many were in age-old circumstances that have since passed. Despite the Pulitzer Prize, bestselling books and media coverage, he is never recognized and finds people at their most candid. His accounts on the road are episodic, some comic, some fodder for philosophical rumination. When he hits the Deep South, however, he collides with the opening salvos of the modern Civil Rights movement and tangles with racists as he watches "The Cheerleaders," the gang of middle-aged "respectable" white women obscenely haranguing a tiny black child being escorted to school. He is sickened. It is time to go home.

The insights to the human condition and what it means to be American as divulged by the journey are priceless. The beautiful thing about Steinbeck is his persistent curiosity in life outside of himself. Though he comes to realize the journey is as much internal as it is external, his inspiration was not to find himself but to connect with others. He was a most generous soul.

Vendor is 100% honest... would recommend highly.......2007-08-01

Had a problem with this low cost used copy... not as described
BUT vendor 100% honest ---
No problem FIX.. they stood 100% behind what they sell.
Tks!

Another side of John Steinbeck.......2007-07-09

Travels with Charley to me is first of all a perfect story of a man and his dog.

One of the best stories, I have ever read.

John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley and Later Novels 1947-1962: The Wayward Bus / Burning Bright / Sweet Thursday / The Winter of Our Discontent (Library of America)

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Fititng Conclusion to Series

John Steinbeck: Travels with Charley and Later Novels 1947-1962: The Wayward Bus / Burning Bright / Sweet Thursday / The Winter of Our Discontent (Library of America)
John Steinbeck
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1598530046
Release Date: 2007-02-01

Book Description

John Steinbeck was never content to repeat himself, and his restless search for new forms and fresh subject matter is fully evident in the books of his later years. This volume collects four novels that exhibit the full range of his gift, along with a travel book that has become one of his most enduringly popular works.

In The Wayward Bus (1947), Steinbeck leads a group of ill-matched passengers representing a spectrum of social types and classes, stranded by a washed-out bridge, on a circuitous journey that exposes cruelties, self-deceptions, and unsuspected moral strengths. The tone ranges from boisterous comedy to trenchant satirical observation of postwar America. Burning Bright (1950), an allegory set against shifting backgrounds (circus, sea, farm) and revolving around the fear of sterility and the desire for self-perpetuation, marks Steinbeck's involvement with the drama in its fusion of the forms of novel and play.

Sweet Thursday (1954) marks Steinbeck's return, in a mood of sometimes frothy comedy, to the characters and milieu of his earlier Cannery Row. A love story set against the background of the local brothel, the Bear Flag, Sweet Thursday is for all its intimations of melancholy one of the most lighthearted of Steinbeck's books. It was subsequently adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein into their musical Pipe Dream. Steinbeck's final novel, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) is set in an old Long Island whaling town modeled on Sag Harbor, where he had been spending time since 1953. The book breaks new ground in its depiction of the crass commercialism of contemporary America, and its impact on a protagonist with traditionalist values who is appalled but finally tempted by the encroaching sleaziness.

Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962) was Steinbeck's last published book. A record of his experiences and observations as he drove around America in a pickup truck, accompanied by his standard poodle Charley, it is filled with engaging, often humorous description and comes to a powerful climax in an encounter with racist demonstrators in New Orleans.

Robert DeMott, co-editor, is the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor at Ohio University and the author of Steinbeck's Typewriter, an award-winning book of critical essays. Brian Railsback, co-editor, is dean of the Honors College at Western Carolina University and the author of Parallel Expeditions: Charles Darwin and the Art of John Steinbeck.

Customer Reviews:

Fititng Conclusion to Series.......2007-04-12

This volume is up to the LOA's customary magnificient standards. This is not Steinbeck's best work (although I persist in viewing "Sweet Thursday" as under-valued), but still worth every penny.
Steinbeck fans should have this on their shelves. DeMott's previous editorial work on The Grapes of Wrath establishes him as the editor of choice for any edition, and these Library of America editions are becoming, justifiably, the "standard" texts.

Justice League of America Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions)

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Classic tales of teamwork, friendship, and justice.
Pricey, but Priceless!
DC's Modern JSA
When Heroes Were Heroes
Completely inferior to Marvel. Only has nostalgia value

Justice League of America Archives, Vol. 1 (DC Archive Editions)
Gardner Fox
Manufacturer: DC Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1563890437

Book Description

DC Comics has created some of the world's most legendarysuper-heroes. In the 1950s, they decided to bring them all together andform the Justice League of America. In this beautiful hardcover book,Batman, Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, WonderWoman, and Aquaman come together to form the most powerful super-hero groupof all time. Included in these stories is the origin of the League itselfas well as its first battle against the alien menace, Starro the Conqueror.

Customer Reviews:

Classic tales of teamwork, friendship, and justice........2007-03-21

I held off buying the DC Archive editions for years because of the hefty price. Then I bought a couple used and I saw that they are worth every penny. At least they are worth it if you grew up with these titles. It was amazing how many of these stories (and specific panels) that I personally remembered after nearly 50 years.

Volume one contains stories originally published in The Brave and the Bold #28-30, and Justice League of America #1-6. The highlights of this first volume are the first JLA story (with Starro the Conqueror), and later, the Green Arrow joining the team.

These stories look better on the high-grade, glossy paper than they did when first printed- and much, much better than they look on old, yellow newsprint. The maroon leatherette covers (with the Justice League of America logo embossed in silver) are first rate- though I would never take the heavy, glossy jackets off of them.

Treat yourself to the age of true heroes.

Pricey, but Priceless!.......2005-10-10

This is where the fun begins!

The Justice League of America represented the capstone of DC's silver-age superhero revival. All the major heroes had been revamped and revived, so all that remained was to bring back their classic team, the Justice Society! Slightly retooled as the "Justice League" instead, this version was magical from the beginning!

This Archive Edition starts off with a very interesting foreward by Paul Gambaccini which, among other things, points out the influence of these classic JLA stories on Salmon Rushdie (of all people). It's a great piece that sets things up nicely for the good stuff to follow.

The stories themselves contain some of Gardner Fox's most imaginative (sometimes surreal) stories, all ably drawn by the quirky Mike Sekowsky. Fox manages a perfect balance between the campy and the dramatic, producing stories that were both classic superhero stuff, but with a very fresh, almost satirical edge. Sekowsky's art complements this mood perfectly. Every character looks and feels like the hero they are supposed to be, but they are also distinctly Sekowsky characters in these stories too. These eccentric stories are definite products of the sixties. In a way, they are to superheroes what the Avengers (Steed and Peel) were to spies: a fresh, ecclectic spin on an old concept!

The stories occasionally become a bit campy, but not in a dumb way. It's more like the stories don't take themselves completely seriously; they possess an intelligence that transcends comics and recognizes what these tales are in the grand scheme of things: just good clean fun. That existential maturity is what makes the Justice League smarter than most other silver age comics.

A word about Mike Sekowsky. He was never a polished, slick artist in the mold of Alex Raymond (though Raymond did sometimes influence him on some character designs). But I will always argue that Sekowsky was the single best layout artist of the silver age. Even when his characters didn't look as good as another artist's, you can be sure that Sekowsky's panels told the story better than anyone's. It's like his stories read themselves, they pull you in to such an extent. Few comics artists undertand sequential storytelling well enough to accomplish this.

The stories in this volume are virtually all classics that have been homaged repeatedly by DC. They include the very first JLA story, "Starro the Conguerer", as well as classics like "Challenge of the Weapons Master", "The Case of the Stolen Super-Powers" (First appearance of Amazo), "World of No Return" (First appearance Despero), "Slave Ship of Space" (First apparance of Kanjar Ro, First appearance of Hyathis), "Doom of the Star Diamond" (Green Arrow joins the JLA) and "Wheel of Misfortune" (First appearance of Amos Fortune).

Given that these stories are four decades old, they can be a bit dated at times, but that only takes a brief while to get used to. After that, there's a lot of enjoyment to be found here. I admit that these comics may not be for everyone, but I can't help it, I love this stuff!

DC's Modern JSA.......2002-02-12

This review is about volume 1 of JLA Archives.

I have to say I love the JSA better than the JLA. JLA, at the time it was made, seemed like a campy version of the modern JSA. Still the issues contained in these books are good and entertaining.

This book is written by Gardner Fox, the same man who wrote for the early JSA - so it really is like a historical prespective to compare the two.

Warning: If you are buying this book thinking you'll get issues with Batman and Superman - don't count on anything substatial. Batman and Supes usally take a side route in these adventures, not participating, or appearing very little at all. I at first didn't like these issues becuase of the lack of Superman and Batman - but after that inital disapointment the issues become enjoyable.

These issues show the first appearences of many villians - like Amazo

For those of you afraid this is like the Superfriends, it is and it isn't. It's much smarter than the Superfriends (No Legion of Doom or any dumb ideas like that) but don't expect it to be that smart or intelligent - I emphizise the word: Campy!
Still you don't nessisasrily have to have been born durring 1960 to enjoy these books. They are good and entertaining. (And starting with Volume 3 have regular guest appearences of the JSA)

When Heroes Were Heroes.......2000-07-21

This book recalls the days of the sixties, when heroes were heroes, villains were villains, and reasoning and deduction were more useful in defeating evil than fists, guns, and gore. A treat for those of us who preferred the clever plots and cheerful camaraderie of the DC comics of the '60s to the sappy soap opera and relentless angst of Marvel.

Completely inferior to Marvel. Only has nostalgia value.......2000-05-01

If you enjoyed "The Super Friends" cartoon, then this book is for you. If you like reasonably intelligent comics like Silver Age Marvel comics, then skip on this.

I understand some people like these comics because it reminds them "of the good old days." Anyone needing a reminder about the good old days should pick up some EC classics.

Average customer rating:

One of the best Erdrich novels

I Enjoyed This Audiobook Very Much!

Pass on Erdrich's latest

erdrich rocks!

Engrossing

The Painted Drum: A Novel (P.S.)
Louise Erdrich
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse: A Novel

Love Medicine : A Novel (Perennial Classics)

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Four Souls : A Novel (Erdrich, Louise)

ASIN: 0060515112
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Book Description

While appraising the estate of a New Hampshire family descended from a North Dakota Indian agent, Faye Travers is startled to discover a rare moose skin and cedar drum fashioned long ago by an Ojibwe artisan. And so begins an illuminating journey both backward and forward in time, following the strange passage of a powerful yet delicate instrument, and revealing the extraordinary lives it has touched and defined.

Compelling and unforgettable, Louise Erdrich's Painted Drum explores the often fraught relationship between mothers and daughters, the strength of family, and the intricate rhythms of grief with all the grace, wit, and startling beauty that characterizes this acclaimed author's finest work.

Download Description

When a woman named Faye Travers is called upon to appraise the estate of a family in her small New Hampshire town, she isn't surprised to discover a forgotten cache of valuable Native American artifacts. After all, the family descends from an Indian agent who worked on the North Dakota Ojibwe reservation that is home to her mother's family. However, she stops dead in her tracks when she finds in the collection a rare drum -- a powerful yet delicate object, made from a massive moose skin stretched across a hollow of cedar, ornamented with symbols she doesn't recognize and dressed in red tassels and a beaded belt and skirt -- especially since, without touching the instrument, she hears it sound.

From Faye's discovery, we trace the drum's passage both backward and forward in time, from the reservation on the northern plains to New Hampshire and back. Through the voice of Bernard Shaawano, an Ojibwe, we hear how his grandfather fashioned the drum after years of mourning his young daughter's death, and how it changes the lives of those whose paths its crosses. And through Faye we hear of her anguished relationship with a local sculptor, who himself mourns the loss of a daughter, and of the life she has made alone with her mother, in the shadow of the death of Faye's sister.

Through these compelling voices, The Painted Drum explores the strange power that lost children exert on the memories of those they leave behind, and as the novel unfolds, its elegantly crafted narrative comes to embody the intricate, transformative rhythms of human grief. One finds throughout the grace and wit, the captivating prose and surprising beauty, that characterize Louise Erdrich's finest work.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best Erdrich novels.......2007-08-25

After reading many of Louise Erdrich's novels, I had become tired of their similarities -- until, that is, I decided to give The Painted Drum a chance. Erdrich's novel recaptures the originality of her earlier work and improves it with the maturity of a veteran novelist, succeeding with her multiple narratives as she never has before.

The author has been quoted as describing her writing style as a patchwork quilt, piecing scraps of stories together until they form a beautiful whole. In The Painted Drum, these scraps consist of two major plots: the present day story of Faye, a contemporary woman living with a sense of loss, and the history of a painted drum Faye acquires. The novel's structure is not as simple, however, as this division suggests, as individual stories abound. The throbbing resonance of the drum takes on haunting meaning as its history, traced back to its creation, is revealed. Although the lineage of the drum defines the novel's scope, the stories that surround it veer off in tangents.

Although the Ojibwe history and cast of characters (including the familiar Fleur Pillager) give this novel a complexity that goes beyond what Erdrich has accomplished in recent books, Faye's story steers the work in a new direction, one that gives the ancient spirituality of Native Americans an urgency in contemporary America. The connections between mothers and daughters, between the dead and the living, and among survivors lend this novel poignancy and hope, even if the hope seems less solid that the grief itself.

I highly recommend this novel, especially to fans of Love Medicine and The Beet Queen.

I Enjoyed This Audiobook Very Much!.......2007-07-01

I was drawn to this book because I have read Louse Edrich's books before and I enjoyed her treatment of American Indian history and lore. I do not know a lot about it myself, but I assume she researches these things quite a bit before she writes about them. It would be interesting to go back and check some of her historical background and presentations to see if they are accurate.

Loiuise Edrich's book, the Painted Drum is a story about a mother and daughter team of estate appraisers who find a treasure of a painted American Indian drum in someone's attic. The story is developed at first as part of the lives of the mother and daughter. The daughter has stolen the drum for a reason that she doesn't quite understand herself! Later on, the drum is returned to its rightful owners and we learn of its story as Bernard, the grandson of its creator tells it. The story of the drum kept me interested as it wove through the generations and told of the life and hardships of the drum's maker. It made the drum's creator seem like a real person to me, not just a person from a book.

As an audiobook, this is really special. That is because Anna Fields is really gifted in the way she uses her voice to depict the characters. Even when she does the voices of men, she does so very convincingly. I haven't heard an authentic American Indian accent, but I imagined hers were close to the real thing and I could almost see the characters in my mind.

I would really reccommend this book. I would especially reccomend it to someone who is interested in American Indian history and lore.

Pass on Erdrich's latest.......2007-05-17

I've got one word to sum up this book - yawn. I've been a fan of many of Erdrich's earlier novels, such as The Bingo Palace, and Love Medicine. Erdrich has made a name for herself as a writer who vividly portrays the balancing act of Native Americans in a westernized world. Sadly, The Painted Drum doesn't live up to her earlier writing, and is beyond boring. Erdrich seems to be following in the vein of movies these days, that is to say forgetting to include a plot. The book begins as a dull and detailed description of sifting through the junk in someone's attic, which is about as interesting as watching paint dry in someone's attic. I was so bored I couldn't even finish listening to the book. Do yourself a favor, and pass on The Painted Drum.

erdrich rocks!.......2007-01-30

as with all of her novels, louise erdrich weaves an unusual and original story about an ordinary object; in this case, a drum. she uses odd but real characters, diverse landscapes and geographical locations, and beautiful language to entertain us to the last page.

Engrossing.......2006-10-24

What I really appreciate about this book (as well as all Louise Erdrich's work) is the different cultural perspective on events, the difference in interpretation of those events, which I assume are Native American.

I couldn't put the book down - that is, when I wasn't listening to it on CD during commutes to work.

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