Book Description
A twentieth-century classic,
Appointment in Samarra is the first and most widely read book by the writer Fran Leibowitz called “the real F. Scott Fitzgerald.”
In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville social circuit is electrified with parties and dances, where the music plays late into the night and the liquor flows freely. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English—the envy of friends and strangers alike. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
Appointment in Samarra brilliantly captures the personal politics and easy bitterness of small-town life. It is John O’Hara’s crowning achievement, and a lasting testament to the keen social intelligence of a major American novelist.
Customer Reviews:
An extremely honest work........2007-07-26
O'Hara introduces his main character and drives straight and hard to the story's conclusion. He writes peceptively about marital relations, and about how men and women think about sexual acts. I was really surprised at how directly and perceptively he writes about sex.
He is in complete control of this work from beginning to end, and it never for a moment sounds false or romantisized.
Fear in a handful of dust.......2007-07-17
John O'Hara's first novel detailing the lives of the wealthy and the sordid among the smart set of Gibbsville (a thinly disguised Pottsville, PA) made a sensation when it came out in the early years of the Depression, and, reading it now, it's very easy to see why. Although O'Hara writes about the same sorts of characters here that his contemporary Fitzgerald detailed, he avoids for the most part Fitzgerald's chivalric sentimentalism. As in his later BUTTERFIELD 8, one character among O'Hara's assortment of the well-to-do makes a terrible dramatic gesture that sets off a chain of events that ultimately results in that character's doom, thus demonstrating the tremendous power of this social world (held together by its nasty array of prejudices, snobberies, and cruelties). Few writers could capture the rhythms of early 20th-century conversation so well as O'Hara did, and the give-and-takes between husband and wife, master and servant, mother and daughter are a real pleasure to read.
THE VOICE OF THE 'SMART SET' .......2007-04-22
John O'Hara is a novelist who has undeservedly faded from the top ranks of American writers. At one time he was, not without reason, compared most favorably with contemporaries like Dos Passos, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Well, so much for literary fashions. Here, in his first novel, O'Hara explores the trials and tribulations of three eventful days in the lives of a conventionally rich young Philadephais Main Line(fictional Gibbsville, to be exact, a scene for more than one of his later novels) country club set couple, Julian and Caroline English, and the narrowness of their little world and the poverty of their horizons. O'Hara always had a good ear for describing the contradictions and the frustrations of the essential meaninglessness of life for these denizens of the small town `smart set', a preview of the homogenization of business-oriented society that would burst out after World War II in the sagas of the men in the grey flannel suits and their families. Julian English is their father or older brother. And his fate is not pretty. Moreover, there is the catch. As expressed in an Arabian parable in the front of the book- you cannot escape your fate, even if you, as Julian desperately did, take action to move away the horror of it. Well, maybe. But read the book.
B O R I N G.......2007-04-09
Recommendation from HEmmigway which says it all. If you like Hemmingway, you MAY like O'Hara
Appointment reading..........2007-04-01
Some books listed on the MLA 100 are boring, bloated, monstrosities. This one isn't. It is art, but it is also accessible. You will finish it quickly, you will appreciate the style, and you will never find a dull passage. This may be a good gateway book...give someone Ulysses to start off with, and they may run screaming into the wilderness. Give someone Appointment in Samarra, and you may assist in the formation of a lifelong reader.
Book Description
Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?
Turn to "Novels for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the novel's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.
Why choose "Novels For Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Novels for Students."
Download Description
Term paper due tomorrow? Need to bone up for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?
Turn to "Novels for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by the Gale Group--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the novel's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.
Why choose "Novels For Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: The Gale Group--and "Novels for Students."
Book Description
Each of the twenty-two tales in this enchanting collection is a surprise and a delight, melding the poignant and the possible with the outrageous, the magical, and, sometimes, the eerily haunting. Wolf men, dolphin women, defiant old ladies, and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear -- in Jigs & Reels the miraculous goes hand in hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive, and the disturbing are never more than one step away. Whether she's exploring the myth of beauty, the pain of infidelity, or the wonder of late-life romance, Joanne Harris once again proves herself a master of the storyteller's trade.
Customer Reviews:
Quirky-charactered strange stories.......2007-06-21
Jigs and Reels starts out strong, with five, five-star reads out of the first ten stories: a high school reunion...of witches, endearing elderly escapees, Cinderella's sister side of the story, a fearsome free spirit and a wrongly accused man. But the rest rang from science fiction to weird to somewhere in between: number mania, an obsessed gamer, disabled swimmers, "Every Tuesday's Freak Day at the Body in Question;" and a writer encounters the castoffs characters of his never finished stories. Those who like the unusual, will probably love this collection. Best feature: the author provides a brief intro to each story telling how, when, where, or why the idea for it came about. Mainstream readers may prefer: New Sudden Fiction edited by Robert Shapard and James Thomas or Runaway by Alice Munro. Strange short story fans might also like: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami.
Dark & light, by the author of Chocolat.......2006-03-26
In this collection of 22 short stories and vignettes, Joanne Harris gives us insights into some strange stories and some strange people. Not all are strange, but those that aren't are at least out of the ordinary. Most will not give you nightmares or make the reader uneasy. Well, except . . .
"Waiting for Gandalf" may be a bit predictable, but maybe that's the problem. In "Fish" it seems like the newly married couple are getting what they deserve. The characters in "The Little Mermaid" are more than bizarre, but it's easy to be sympathetic to some. The most positive story is "Faith and Hope Go Shopping," whose elderly characters are delightful.
This collection is a quick read and very different from the usual run of short stories. Harris has a talent for making the bizarre seem almost ordinary.
An interesting collection.......2005-11-08
Like most short story collections, the individual stories vary in length and quality. It is hard to categorize the stories as they cover a range of topics and human emotions. Some deal with the supernatural and some with people's desires. The author notes that she finds it hard to write short stories. I have personally found that writing short stories is easy, but finding editors to publish them is extremely hard. Perhaps that is why the author has published them as a collection. Some are longer, complete stories; and some seem to be more in the category of short scenes.
I particularly liked the man contemplating suicide who decided to indulge himself in things he would have never otherwise have done, e.g., two leather-clad blondes in a parked vehicle. And then their is the story about the ugly sister, and her feelings about Cinderella. There is the woman trying to use an ancient cookbook who obtains some very, very strange results. There is the class reunion, but a class from a rather strange school.
Overall, the author is very creative, and has let her mind wander in some strange directions. But that makes for a collection of good stories.
Fantastical!.......2005-11-08
The stories in this book cover a wide range of subjects and styles, as others have noted. But all -- both the realistic and the magical stories -- are written with a magic touch. Some are darkly funny, some just plain dark, some are quirky, and some are sweet. All of them speak to the soul in some way.
Here are just a few examples: two women from a nursing home help each other bust out to go shopping; the actress who perennially plays an ugly stepsister (and comes to inhabit the role) explains why the stepsisters get a bum rap; a man undergoes a transformation while eating a meal in Naples; a class reunion of witches goes funnily awry, yet does not look that different from any other class reunion; a woman dares to try recipes from an old cookbook.
I enjoyed every story immensely, even if the transition from one to another was sometimes jolting. That jolt was actually part of the fun! And I did enjoy Ms. Harris's little quotes at the beginning of each story telling us what inspired her to write it. I'm always interested in how people come up with ideas for stories.
If you'd like a really fun collection of stories that will tickle your brain just a little as well as your funny bone, pick this one up!
Even if you don't normally like short stories..........2005-09-04
I have to admit, I am usually disappointed in short stories. I really like to sit down and relax with a book and I sometimes feel cheated with short stories. This book is not like that! Harris is a fabulous writer and each story is coupled with a little blurb about where she got the idea for the tale. This is the perfect book for anyone like me who normally doesn't like to read short stories and I promise you, like me, you'll go in search of another collection that will make you feel like this one did!
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Jigs & Reels: Stories
Manufacturer: Not Avail
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1405610832 |
Book Description
Wesleyan University Press has made a significant commitment to the publication of the work of Samuel R. Delany, including this recent fiction, now available in paperback. The three long stories collected in Atlantis: three tales -- "Atlantis: Model 1924," "Erik, Gwen, and D. H. Lawrence's Aesthetic of Unrectified Feeling," and "Citre et Trans" -- explore problems of memory, history, and transgression.
Winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, and Guest of Honor at the 1995 World Science Fiction Convention in Glasgow, Delany was won a broad audience among fans of postmodern fiction with his theoretically sophisticated science fiction and fantasy. The stories of Atlantis: three tales are not SF, yet Locus, the trade publication of the science fiction field, notes that the title story "has an odd, unsettling power not usually associated with mainstream fiction."
A writer whose audience extends across and beyond science fiction, black, gay, postmodern, and academic constituencies, Delany is finally beginning to achieve the broader recognition he deserves.
Customer Reviews:
The Extended Sam.......2002-01-14
Delany once again has delivered something new and different with these three tales of different Sams.
The first story, Atlantis: Model 1924 deals with a teenage Sam coming to New York for the first time in 1924 and details his early experiences and impressions of this modern stand-in for Atlantis (note that Delany was born in 1942). Rife with metaphor and allegory, and told using some post-modern literary techniques including multiple story lines on the same page and marginalized notes, the defining point of this story is Sam's first trip across the Brooklyn Bridge, and the poet/writer he meets there (who is possibly an older version of Sam himself?). While not an easy story to read due to its structure, by the end of the story all the various story threads, notes, observations, and characters come together in a defining moment of epiphany.
The second story time shifts us to the early fifties, where a middle-school age Sam is introduced to the world of music and art in what was, for that time, a very progressive school. His portrait of what art really is, how its definition has changed, and its importance to himself and to the world is neatly balanced by this Sam's early introduction into the vagaries of sex. Some fine, if brief, character portraits round out this quiet story.
The last story deals with a Sam in his early twenties in Greece, and is probably the most factually based of the three stories, given that he has mentioned some of the incidents of this story in several of his other works. It is a very dark and depressing story, and details a homosexual rape and the necessity for one of Sam's lady friends to kill her dog. Some very rough material here that may not be to everyone's taste, but delivered with Delany's typical fine sense of language, pacing, and character.
All three tales have much to offer, each in completely different ways, and each presents a different 'side' of Sam. How much is autobiographical, how much is pure fiction is almost impossible to define, but the reader will finish this book with a better understanding of not just Delany but also the entire world and the social interactions that help define what it is to be human.
Recommended by Michael Cunningham.......2000-04-27
I read this book on the recommendation of Michael Cunningham (The Hours), who said, "If Samual Delany were writing in the same innovative, intelligent way and his books were not science fiction, he'd be know to every serious reader and not just a relatively small band of us."
Need I say, "I agree?"
Book Description
Now Available in Paperback!The era of the New Brain is upon us! Already our brains are working differently than they did just one hundred years ago. Drugs are already available that work in the brain to prevent us from feeling drowsy, depressed, anxious, or fearful, or that enhance concentration and memory. Dramatic treatments to repair damage in the brain are becoming common. In The New Brain, neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, and bestselling author Dr. Richard Restak tells how technology and biology are converging to influence the evolution of the human brain. Dr. Restak describes the dramatic advances that now are possible, as well as the potential for misuse and abuse, examining such questions as: Is Attention Deficit Disorder a "normal" response to the modern world's demand that we attend to several things at once? What happens in our brains when images replace language as the primary means of communication? How does exposure to violent imagery affect our brains? Are we all capable of training our brains to perform at a superior level?
Customer Reviews:
Interesting Perspective on New Findings and the Effects of Technology.......2007-10-07
Richard Restak has published several books about the functioning of the human brain, all intended for a general audience. In my opinion, this is the best of them, covering a great deal of material in a manner that should be accessible to all.
The focus is on two aspects of the brain in the early twenty-first century: both the most recent research on the brain itself and the effects of new technologies in the areas of both biology and information technology on the brain.
The book covers such areas as the role of both talent and practice in achieving mastery in playing music, the effects of increased bandwidth of information transmission on our ability to pay attention, recent discoveries that the brain is far more plastic (able to "rewire" itself) than had previously been believed, and the ethical questions concerning prescribing psychoactive drugs for patients with no disorder that can be diagnosed.
I also found Dr. Restak's cautious attitude about what we really do know quite appealing.
Easy to Understand for Non-Science Types Like Me.......2007-01-17
Restak takes the wonder of the human brain and brings it down to earth for people like me who were non-science majors.
His books covers the latest findings in technology on how the brain works and shows how it relates to our everyday lives. For instance, scientist thought as recently as a decade ago that we learn most of what we are going to learn in childhood. But now we know the brain is "elastic" and that we can always learn new things no matter how old we are.
Also interesting are the findings on how TV violence affects young brains and why it does matter what all of our children watch on television.
There are other topics covered. Each chapter covers some aspect of the brain and what it means to us personally and culturally. I think every parent should read this book as it will help you in coaching your children on how to be better learners. It will also motivate you to try something new!
Good but basic overview of brain research.......2007-01-11
Perhaps my rating was a bit biased because I'm a psychologist and am familiar with most of the brain research and neuropsychology statistics. However for the layman this book is an excellent primer and in that respect it should be rated a five.
Great Examples.......2006-08-29
The New Brain is an excellent summary of current research and cutting edge technology. It does not go into depth about the different parts of the brain, but it does give interesting examples of how modern technology is affecting our brains. The book is well balanced illustrating the good, bad, and ugly of our current society. It also explores ethical issues that researchers are facing as new technology and understanding of the brain is developed. Fun examples to test some of the theories are given. Some of the activities are easy to translate into a classroom making interesting lesson plans.
Clear explaination of current brain research.......2006-05-11
This book surprised me with its clarity, accessibility, and objectivity. Restak lays out the latest brain research, focusing on what he calls the brain's 'elasticity', which is a fancy way of saying the brain adapts. Restak seemed surprised that the brain remains fairly elastic throughout someone's lifetime, instead of remaining fixed after a certain age (I think he mentioned 30). He, also, seems surprised that geniuses are made and not born. That while a person may have a knack for something, what will distinguish this person is how much effort he dedicates to his craft.
I think both of these observations are non-sequiters, since many, if not most, people know many old, or older people that adapt very well to new things and pick up new information as easily as anyone else who puts in the effort to learn it. Also, I think it's fairly obvious that people considered to be geniuses in a particular field are simply those that have worked hardest to master all aspects of it, especially the gritty, tediuos details, not just the cool parts.
Besides these not so surprising results, much of the book provides insight into some of the most fascinating aspects of the brain. For example, the fact that parts of the brain used for two separate tasks, but located next to each other, will have some sort of bleed over. Like associating colors with numbers. I associate red with the number 3 and a light green with the number 4, and so on. This is due to the proximity of the parts of the brain that process numbers and colors.
Another cool thing was the naming of letters. He gave as an example an alphabet with only two letters, one shaped like a circle, the other shaped like a five pointed star. Which one do you think has the name 'ooh' and which was is named (I think) 'ecka'. Either way, the letter you would name 'ooh' is the the same letter that over 99% of the world, across cultures and languages, would name 'ooh'. This is because of the roundness of your mouth when you say 'ooh' and the hardness of the 'ck' in 'ecka' that would be associated with sharp edges.
He, also, gives an interesting, and, I thought, surprisingly objective discussion of using pharmacology in a 'cosmetic' way, i.e., using drugs to diminish perfectly normal feelings that you don't want to feel. He uses the example of a person taking a Prozac like drug so he can handle a funeral, instead of feeling real grief.
The most surprising subject in the book talks about restoring the senses. The most striking story in the book is about a man born blind, but, through technology has his sight restored. Surprisingly, this does not make him whole. Because he got his sight so late in life, he never developed an emotional attachment to his sight. So instead of improving his life, he fell into depression because he thought the world was so 'drab'. I never thought of anything like this. It makes me think that if a deaf person had his hearing restored, he wouldn't enjoy music because he never developed an emotional attachment to sound.
I can't imagine either scenerio. I enjoy music and sound, and colors and sight so much that I never thought restoring those senses might cause an emotional dissonance.
I recommend reading this book. There's very little jargon and almost no wasted paper. Every sentence provides more information, instead of just filling up a book.
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The attention-deficit workplace.(Society)(The New Brain: How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind)(Book Review): An article from: The Futurist
Manufacturer: World Future Society
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This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 339 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The attention-deficit workplace.(Society)(The New Brain: How the Modern Age is Rewiring Your Mind)(Book Review)
Publication:
The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: 39
Issue: 2
Page: 13(1)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thompson Gale
Books:
- As a Driven Leaf
- At The Stroke Of Madness (Mira)
- Aunt Dimity's Death (Aunt Dimity Mystery)
- Bad Men: A Thriller
- Batman: Hush Returns
- Becoming Madame Mao
- Berlin Noir (Crime, Penguin)
- Born in Shame: The Born In Trilogy #3 (Born in Trilogy)
- Boss Lady: A Novel
- Casting The First Stone
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