Books Ive Read (part II)
Explore a curated reading list of classic and contemporary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. From Proust's *Swann's Way* and Flaubert's *Madame Bovary* to Vonnegut's *Galapagos* and Christopher Moore's *Lamb*, discover the standout books, authors, and thought-provoking reads featured in this personal literary journey.
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Villa Incognito
by Tom Robbins
Imagine there are American MIAs who chose to remain missing after the Vietnam War. Imagine a family in which four generations of strong, alluring women share a mysterious connection to an outlandish figure from Japanese folklore. Imagine them part of a novel that only Tom Robbins could createâa magically crafted work as timeless as myth yet as topical as the latest international threat. But no matter how hard you try, youâll never imagine what youâll find inside the Villa Incognito: a tilt-a-whirl of identity, masquerade, and disguise that dares to pull off âthe false mustache of the worldâ and reveal the even greater mystery underneath. For neither the mists of Laos nor the Bangkok smog, neither the overcast of Seattle nor the fog of San Francisco, neither the murk of the intelligence community nor the mummery of the circus can obscure the pure linguistic phosphor that illuminates every page of one of Americaâs most consistently surprising and inventive writers.
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Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
An Englishman's two voyages carry him to Lilliput, a land of people six inches high, and Brobdingnag, a land of giants.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J. K. Rowling
Collects the complete series that relates the adventures of young Harry Potter, who attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he and others of his kind learn their craft.
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Bastard Out of Carolina
by Dorothy Allison
Ruth Anne Boatwright--a South Carolina bastard who is attached to the indomitable women in her mother's family--is tired of being labeled white trash and longs to escape from her hometown, and especially from Daddy Glen and his meanspirited jealousy.
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Galapagos
by Kurt Vonnegut
âA madcap genealogical adventure . . . Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain.ââThe New York Times Book Review GalĂĄpagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the GalĂĄpagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, Americaâ s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awryâand all that is worth saving. Praise for GalĂĄpagos âThe best Vonnegut novel yet!ââJohn Irving âBeautiful . . . provocative, arresting reading.ââUSA Today âA satire in the classic tradition . . . a dark vision, a heartfelt warning.ââThe Detroit Free Press âInteresting, engaging, sad and yet very funny . . . Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician.ââSusan Isaacs, Newsday âDark . . . original and funny.ââPeople âA triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic . . . a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegutâs entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades.ââThe Philadelphia Inquirer âWild details, wry humor, outrageous characters . . . GalĂĄpagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison.ââSt. Louis Post-Dispatch âA work of high comedy, sadness and imagination.ââThe Denver Post âWacky wit and irreverent imagination . . . and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] Americaâs preeminent experimental novelist.ââThe Minneapolis Star and Tribune
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For colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enuf
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Beowulf
by Seamus Heaney
Presents a new translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic chronicling the heroic adventures of Beowulf, the Scandinavian warrior who saves his people from the ravages of the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother.
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No Exit and Three Other Plays
by Jean-Paul Sartre
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER ⢠Four seminal plays by one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. An existential portrayal of Hell in Sartre's best-known play, as well as three other brilliant, thought-provoking works: the reworking of the Electra-Orestes story, the conflict of a young intellectual torn between theory and conflict, and an arresting attack on American racism.
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A Confederacy of Dunces
by John Kennedy Toole
Set in New Orleans, the protagonist is nearly arrested for being a suspicious character and encounters many unfortunate events.
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Lies My Teacher Told Me
by James W. Loewen
Examines the reasons why wrong information has been provided in American history textbooks.
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The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Be on your guard ⌠and take care not to fall in love!" Visiting an idyllic German village, Werther, a sensitive and romantic young man, meets and falls in love with sweet-natured Lotte. Although he realizes that Lotte is to marry Albert, he is unable to subdue his passion for her and his infatuation torments him to the point of absolute despair. The first great âconfessionalâ novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther draws both on Goetheâs own unrequited love for Charlotte Buff and on the death of his friend Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem. The book was an immediate success and a cult rapidly grew up around it, resulting in numerous imitations as well as violent criticism and even suppression for its apparent recommendation of suicide. Goetheâs sensitive exploration of the mind of a young artist at odds with society and ill-equipped to cope with life is now considered the first great tragic novel of European literature. This edition includes notes and an introduction by Michael Hulse who explores the origins of the novel in the authorâs life and examines its impact on European culture. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
The notorious and celebrated novel that established modern realism For this novel of French bourgeois life in all its inglorious banality, Flaubert invented a paradoxically original and wholly modern style. His heroine, Emma Bovary, a bored provincial housewife, abandons her husband to pursue the libertine Rodolphe in a desperate love affair. A succès de scandale in its day, Madame Bovary remains a powerful and scintillating novel. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes and an introduction by Geoffrey Wall. It includes a preface by Michele Roberts. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Swann's Way
by Marcel Proust
The first volume of one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, in Lydia Davis's award-winning translation Marcel Proustâs In Search of Lost Time is one of the most entertaining reading experiences in any language and arguably the finest novel of the twentieth century. But since its original prewar translation there has been no completely new version in English. Now, Penguin Classics brings Proustâs masterpiece to new audiences throughout the world, beginning with Lydia Davisâs internationally acclaimed translation of the first volume, Swannâs Way. Swann's Way is one of the preeminent novels of childhood: a sensitive boy's impressions of his family and neighbors, all brought dazzlingly back to life years later by the taste of a madeleine. It also enfolds the short novel "Swann in Love," an incomparable study of sexual jealousy that becomes a crucial part of the vast, unfolding structure of In Search of Lost Time. The first volume of the work that established Proust as one of the finest voices of the modern ageâsatirical, skeptical, confiding, and endlessly varied in his response to the human conditionâSwann's Way also stands on its own as a perfect rendering of a life in art, of the past recreated through memory.
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Pedro PĂĄramo
by Juan Rulfo
Deserted villages of rural Mexico, where images and memories of the past linger like unquiet ghosts, haunted the imaginations of the author. In one such village of the mind, Comala, he set his classic novel Pedro PĂĄramo, a dream-like tale that intertwines a man's quest to find his lost father and reclaim his patrimony with the father's obsessive love for a woman who will not be possessed, Susana San Juan.
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Lamb
by Christopher Moore
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years -- except Biff, the Messiah's best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer). Verily, the story Biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. Even the considerable wiles and devotion of the Savior's pal may not be enough to divert Joshua from his tragic destiny. But there's no one who loves Josh more -- except maybe "Maggie," Mary of Magdala -- and Biff isn't about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.
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The Chronicles of Narnia (adult)
by C. S. Lewis
Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil -- what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, written in 1949 by C. S. Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. For the past fifty years, The Chronicles of Narnia have transcended the fantasy genre to become part of the canon of classic literature. Each of the seven books is a masterpiece, drawing the reader into a world where magic meets reality, and the result is a fictional world whose scope has fascinated generations. This edition presents all seven books -- unabridged -- in one impressive volume. The books are presented here according to Lewis's preferred order, each chapter graced with an illustration by the original artist, Pauline Baynes. This edition also contains C. S. Lewis's essay "On Three Ways of Writing for Children," in which he explains precisely how the magic of Narnia and the realm of fantasy appeal not only to children but to discerning readers of all ages. Deceptively simple and direct, The Chronicles of Narnia continue to captivate fans with adventures, characters, and truths that speak to all readers, even fifty years after the books were first published.