Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum Novels)

Amazon.com

Stephanie Plum, Trenton's favorite bondswoman, is having a career crisis, which gives Janet Evanovich plenty of opportunities to showcase her series heroine in a variety of alternative vocations, from dry cleaner to factory worker. Most of them don't last a full working day, which is good for the reader, since it plunges Stephanie back into the always seedy, often dangerous, and always colorful world of fugitives who'd rather flee than face their day in court. She may be tired of having her life threatened, her cars torched or blown up, and her apartment broken into, but one thing she can say about her job is that it's never boring... and neither is she. Despite her intentions of going straight at a job with a little more security and a bit less excitement, an old client won't let her--he keeps leaving her threatening notes, stalking and scaring her, and making sure she needs the protection of the two men in her life--Joe Morelli, the sexy cop who's been bedding her since high school, and Ranger, the even sexier tough guy who can take down the meanest fugitive around but has a tender spot in his heart for the plucky Ms. Plum. All Evanovich fans' favorite characters people this sprightly caper novel, including Lula, the fast-food-chomping former hooker who's hot to take over Stephanie's job but really belongs in a WWE Takedown; Grandma Mazur, who'd rather go to a wake than a fancy-dress ball; Grandma Bella, the matriarch of the Morelli family whose evil eye frightens even the indomitable Stephanie; and Valerie, Stephanie's sister, who's about to embark on another trip to the altar. A great beach read, Eleven on Top is a guilty pleasure that will delight readers of the author's 10 earlier novels and should win her even more fans. --Jane Adams

Amazon.com Exclusive Content

Amazon.com's Significant Seven
Janet Evanovich kindly agreed to take the life quiz we like to give to all our authors: the Amazon.com Significant Seven.

Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: Uncle Scrooge adventures by Carl Barks. They gave me a lifelong love of the adventure story both in film and literature. And I wouldn't mind pushing my quarters around with a bulldozer in real life, either.

Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: Book: The Neiman Marcus holiday catalog (I can pretend I'm shopping.)
CD: MTV's Grind, Volume 1 (Happy music and I love the samba.)
DVD: Shrek 2 (Happy movie.)

Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: "No. Your butt doesn't look big in those pants." Said to myself.

Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: No phone. Locked door. Room service. Silence. My cat (Gus) on my lap.

Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: "Later, Dudes!"

Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets)

Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: The ability to eat Cheez Doodles and Krispy Kremes and never get fat.

The Stephanie Plum Series

One for the Money
Two for the Dough
Three to Get Deadly

Four to Score
High Five
Hot Six

See the entire Stephanie Plum series.

Book Description

Stephanie Plum is thinking her career as a fugitive apprehension agent has run its course. She's been shot at, spat at, cussed at, fire-bombed, mooned, and attacked by dogs. Stephanie thinks it's time for a change. So she quits. She wants something safe and normal. But the kind of trouble she had at the bail bonds office can't compare to the kind of trouble she finds herself facing now...Stephanie is stalked by a maniac returned from the grave for the sole purpose of putting her into a burial plot of her own. He's killed before, and he'll kill again if given the chance. Caught between staying far away from the bounty hunter business and staying alive, Stephanie reexamines her life and the possibility that being a bounty hunter is the solution rather than the problem. After disturbingly brief careers at the button factory, Kan Klean Dry Cleaners, and Cluck-in-a-Bucket, Stephanie takes an office position in security, working for Ranger, the sexiest, baddest bounty hunter and businessman on two continents. Tempers and temperatures rise as competition ratchets up between the two men in her life-her on-again, off-again boyfriend, tough Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and her boss, Ranger. Can Stephanie Plum take the heat? Can you?

Customer Reviews:

I love this book series!!!!!!!.......2007-10-01

Janet Evanovich is so awesome, the Plum series is my favorite! I can not
get enough of these books, can't wait till the next one comes out...
Everyone I have turned on to this series has enjoyed them too, from
my daughter in law who is 20 yrs. old, to my friend who is 49! These books are laugh out loud funny and just plain entertaining to read! You have to start with #1 and don't skip! They really build on eachother! Love them!

Stephanie Plum.......2007-09-11

This is number 11 in a series of books by Janet Evanovich about a girl in New Jersey that gets a job as a bounty hunter. She has many adventures both serious and funny as both a bounty hunter and as a woman in love. This series of books keeps up my interest in reading. It's hard to put them down. I can't wait to see what happens next to Stephanie Plum!

Eleven on Top - is the Tops!.......2007-09-10

Reading Janet Evonovich's books are always a lot of fun. Stephanie Plum is always fun - great imagination to keep putting her in jams that she has to get herself out of. I find myself laughing out loud. A lot of fun, entertaining, a quick, light read. A book you don't want to put down.

Still On Top!.......2007-09-06

Another winner by Janet Evanovich! The continuing saga of Stephanie Plum continues to hold me captive until I finish each book. It is great humor mixed in with a little intrigue and romping through New Jersey! Loved it, as usual!

Another fun read in the Stephanie Plum series.......2007-09-05

Very fun read. I have read all the Stephanie Plum novels and this is a lot of fun.

Janet Evanovich 3 Book Set: To the Nines, Ten Big Ones, & Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum)

Average customer rating:

NJ Fan

Janet Evanovich 3 Book Set: To the Nines, Ten Big Ones, & Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum)
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: St Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: B000MRN4SG

Product Description

Set of 3 mysteries in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. Includes: To the Nines, Ten Big Ones, and Eleven on Top.

Customer Reviews:

NJ Fan.......2007-06-08

Love Evanovich. Have read nearly all the Plum novels, and they never fail to give me a laugh. Nice, easy, light reading when you want to escape from the world. Of course NJ is my world, so they really speak to me.

Average customer rating:

Eleven On Top, a Stephanie Plum Novel
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OT1L5U

Average customer rating:

Eleven on Top
Evanovich Janet
Manufacturer: St Martins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000LBTK90

Average customer rating:

Eleven on Top
Evanovich Janet
Manufacturer: St martins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Twelve Sharp (Stephanie Plum Novels)

ASIN: B000KGK022

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Eleven on Top
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLJ0I8

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Eleven on Top
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: Sound Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000KHGIZY

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Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel)
Janet Evanovich
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OK99GM

Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum Mystery Series, #11)

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Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum Mystery Series, #11)
Janet Evanovich
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

Americas favorite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, is back in her eleventh adventure. Trouble seems to find Stephanie no matter where she goes, and once again shes struggling with her tangled love life, her chaotic family, and her God-given gift for destroying every car she drives. This time, Stephanie Plum has decided to quit her job as a bounty hunter. She wants something safe. She wants something normal. Shes tired of creeps, weirdos, and stalkers. But just when she thinks shes out, they pull her back in! This latest novel is packed full of Janet Evanovichs trademark wit, adventure, and sly comedy. So fasten your seatbelt and hang onStephanies back in town!

Average customer rating:

Eleven on Top [UNABRIDGED[ (Audio CD)

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Product Description

Hoping to discontinue her career as a bounty hunter for something safer, Stephanie Plum is inadvertently drawn into a case that is complicated by her tangled love life, her chaotic family, and her penchant for wrecking cars.

Book Description

Daria Morgan is a magic practitioner, one who uses spells to solve everyday problems.John Bent Benthausen is the CEO of a company with some very big problems.And theres an even bigger probleman ancient force, an irresistible compulsion that brings magic users and their mates together in a lifelong bond.Whether they like it or not.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing new here.......2007-07-08

I gave up at page 156. When only one new major plot development occurred by that point, I just decided the book had wasted enough of my time. This romance novel has a decent idea behind it, and a possibly fascinating story line. Here's a witch who uses her supernatural powers to help businesses flush out bad employees. There could be numerous uses for someone with these kinds of skills. But the story is slow going, and the color-by-numbers romance scenes wore on my nerves--with the heroine always pulling back at the last minute. How many times have we seen that before? The dialogue was completely unnatural and I don't know how many times the reader had to learn that the heroine didn't believe in soulmates. Okay, we get it! Really, this smacks of amateurish writing with its heavy dependence on adverbs and lack of good, strong action. Where was the editor in this project?
Let's just say it was a good idea that never lived up to its promise.

Flat Characters Ruin A Good Idea.......2007-05-02

Overall, the idea behind the book was good. A Soulmate Imperative that brings people together, an interesting kind of magic, and a underlying plot of intrigue in the corportate world.

The idea is good, but sadly Ms Macela could not follow through.

To be honest, I was only able to get to page 130 after repeated stopping and starting before I had to put the book down for good. I started disliking the characters from the start, and that ruined the story for me, pulling me out of what was happening again and again. One of my biggest problems was with the dialogue. No one says things like "that sounds exceedingly plausible" in normal everyday conversation. I could not find it in myself to believe that this supposedly everyday, average woman with some magical talent had the vocabulary of a university professor. Also, characters would too often launch into a conveniently placed explanation of what was happening that, sometimes by other character's own admission, was not the norm for them. The deviations from personality in an attempt to explain things ruined what little interest I had left in the characters.

Aside from the overly formal, stilted conversation I found it hard to see the chemistry between Bent and Daria. It could easily have been there and my dislike of the story colored by perception of it, but to me all the chemistry I noticed was them both rubbing their chests a lot at the same time, and Daria showing a complete lack of inhibitions and rational thinking when it came to having sex with Bent, when normally she is supposed to be a "logical and rational" woman.

I felt that the plot itself needed work as well. The corporate intrigue would normally have fascinated me, but I felt that it fell flat. The characters werent responding to the problem in a way to make me think it was serious. I was told by the author it was important and big, but the characters couldnt make me believe it. The set up of the problem failed to engage me, and from there I felt that Ms Macela couldnt recover.

Once the subplot was taken away, the only other issue was the Soulmate Imperative, which meant Daria and Bent climbing into bed together. At the time I threw down the story they had only reached the heavy groping stage, but I found it easy to predict what would happen if I had continued to read. Amazing sex, the issue of Bent not having magical powers, some third party (most likely the corportate intrigue evil person) causing issues, and Daria saving the day through some act of amazing, unexpected power. Or something like that.

All in all, I found it to be a standard romance plot that fell flat. The characters were too one dimensional and I could not believe that they were in any way real people. The dialogue was forced, and sounded like the author had gone through with a thesarus in an attempt to make the characters seem more intelligent. The storyline was predictable, and all in all completely unengaging.

If you really feel the need to read this book, dont waste your money. Borrow from the library, where at least you wont be upset when you realize what a waste of money it was.

The Oldest Kind of Magic.......2006-10-21

I loved the chemistry between Daria and Bent and the way the two tackled the problems together. It was a fun read and I never put it down. I can see why it's won so many recent contests and I'm looking forward to the sequel!

Boring...couldn't finish book.......2006-07-19

I'm the type of reader that can usually plow through a boring book, especially if I already spent time to reading half of it. (I read the other Amazon reviews) But I couldn't force myself to wasting anymore time to it-it wasn't getting any better. There is hardly any magic in it, the writing is stilting, the corporate intrigue boring and hardly any romance. (maybe it got better the 2nd half) There was WAY too much corporate intrigue going on-I'm just not the type of reader that enjoys that. I enjoy love, fantasy, magic, action and romance. ! However, it did have interesting premises with family members and loved the interactions with the cats!

Fantastic, magical debut novel from a talented author!!.......2006-06-04

Ann Macela has certainly gained a new reader in me. I'm putting this author on my auto-buy list. As I began reading the prologue of THE OLDEST KIND OF MAGIC, the story pulled me in. Dark and mysterious, the words came alive and the heroine, Daria's problems were mine. My heart beat faster when Daria's heart beat faster. Saying Ms. Macela has a way with words in an understatement. I loved the story, loved the paranormal slant, loved the strong hero and likable heroine, and loved the cats! I personally can't wait for the sequel to this book.

Daria is a magic practitioner, from a family of strong magic makers. The family doesn't want to admit it, but they've always thought it strange that Daria could only cast spells on herself. She didn't have the talents of her siblings. When her mother tells Daria her magical abilities will become more powerful after she finds her soulmate and loses her virginity, Daria balks at the idea. She likes the idea of stronger powers, but is her own woman and doesn't want to be dependent on a man to make it happen. Until she meets sexy John Benthausen (Bent for short).

Bent has his hands full trying to work out financial problems with his Houston based business and intends to hire Daria as a consultant. He's unable to reach her by phone, but they meet when mutual friends introduce them. Their attraction is immediate - like bolts of lightning. The hero and heroine are well thought out characters; the dialogue is good, the sexual tension riveting. Daria and Bent work together to solve the problems in Bent's business and to find who is behind the threats against Daria.

Ms. Macela's writing is fluid and keeps the reader turning pages until the very end. This story has witches, warlocks, magic, suspense, sensual love scenes, a believable and interesting plot - and the addition of the two sassy cats makes the story for me! This is a must read for all paranormal romance readers. Put this author on your favorite list!

Book Description

Bestselling, award-winning, author Kim Stanley Robinson continues his groundbreaking trilogy of eco-thrillers–and propels us deeper into the awesome whirlwind of climatic change. Set in our nation’s capital, here is a chillingly realistic tale of people caught in the collision of science, technology, and the consequences of global warming–which could trigger another phenomenon: abrupt climate change, resulting in temperatures...

When the storm got bad, scientist Frank Vanderwal was at work, formalizing his return to the National Science Foundation for another year. He’d left the building just in time to help sandbag at Arlington Cemetery. Now that the torrent was over, large chunks of San Diego had eroded into the sea, and D.C. was underwater.

Shallow lakes occupied the most famous parts of the city. Reagan Airport was awash and the Potomac had spilled beyond its banks. Rescue boats dotted the saturated cityscape. Everything Frank and his colleagues in the halls of science and politics feared had culminated in this massive disaster. And now the world looked to them to fix it.

Whatever Frank can do, now that he is homeless, he’ll have to do from his car. He’s not averse to sleeping outdoors. Years of research have made him hyperaware of his status as just another primate. That plus his encounter with a Tibetan Buddhist has left him resolved to live a more authentic life.

Hopefully, this will prepare him for whatever is to come....

For even as D.C. bails out from the flood, a more extreme climate change looms. With the melting of the polar ice caps shutting down the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, another Ice Age could be imminent. The last time it happened, eleven thousand years ago, it took just three years to start.

Once again Kim Stanley Robinson uses his remarkable vision, trademark wry wit, and extraordinary insight into the complexity between man and nature to take us to the brink of disaster–and slightly beyond.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

I

PRIMATE in FOREST

Nobody likes Washington D.C. Even the people who love it don’t like it. Climate atrocious, traffic worse: an ordinary midsized gridlocked American city, in which the plump white federal buildings make no real difference. Or rather they bring all the politicians and tourists, the lobbyists and diplomats and refugees and all the others who come from somewhere else, often for suspect reasons, and thereafter spend their time clogging the streets and hogging the show, talking endlessly about their nonexistent city on a hill while ignoring the actual city they are in. The bad taste of all that hypocrisy can’t be washed away even by the food and drink of a million very fine restaurants. No—bastion of the world government, locked vault of the World Bank, fortress headquarters of the world police; Rome, in the age of bread and circuses—no one can like that.

So naturally when the great flood washed over the city, wreaking havoc and leaving the capital spluttering in the livid heat of a wet and bedraggled May, the stated reactions were varied, but the underlying subtext often went something like this: HA HA HA. For there were many people around the world who felt that justice had somehow been served. Capital of the world, thoroughly trashed: who wouldn’t love it?

Of course the usual things were said by the usual parties. Disaster area, emergency relief, danger of epidemic, immediate restoration, pride of the nation, etc. Indeed, as capital of the world, the president was firm in his insistence that it was everyone’s patriotic duty to support rebuilding, demonstrating a brave and stalwart response to what he called “this act of climactic terrorism.” “From now on,” the president continued, “we are at a state of war with nature. We will work until we have made this city even more like it was than before.”

But truth to tell, ever since the Reagan era the conservative (or dominant) wing of the Republican party had been coming to Washington explicitly to destroy the federal government. They had talked about “starving the beast,” but flooding would be fine if it came to that; they were flexible, it was results that counted. And how could the federal government continue to burden ordinary Americans when its center of operations was devastated? Why, it would have to struggle just to get back to normal! Obviously the flood was a punishment for daring to tax income and pretending to be a secular nation. One couldn’t help thinking of Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophecies specified in the Book of Revelation, and so on.

Meanwhile, those on the opposite end of the political spectrum likewise did not shed very many tears over the disaster. As a blow to the heart of the galactic imperium it was a hard thing to regret. It might impede the ruling caste for a while, might make them acknowledge, perhaps, that their economic system had changed the climate, and that this was only the first of many catastrophic consequences. If Washington was denied now that it was begging for help, that was only what it had always done to its environmental victims in the past. Nature bats last—poetic justice—level playing field—reap what you sow—rich arrogant bastards—and so on.

Thus the flood brought pleasure to both sides of the aisle. And in the days that followed Congress made it clear in their votes, if not in their words, that they were not going to appropriate anything like the amount of money it would take to clean up the mess. They said it had to be done; they ordered it done; but they did not fund it.

The city therefore had to pin its hopes on either the beggared District of Columbia, which already knew all there was to know about unfunded mandates from Congress, to the extent that for years their

Customer Reviews:

Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-24

A good followup about the politics of rapid climate change. It certainly would have been interesting to see the difference between what would have happened in Washington D.C. had had the you know what kicked out of it, rather than New Orleans, for example, in real life.

A little bit about betting market modelling of key players and individuals as a surveillance tool is also thrown in.

Then there is whacky Frank, living in his tree house, dodging spooks, apart from his girlfriend, who he is actively undodging and connecting with, so to speak.

Disappointing.......2007-09-03

The book was not engaging .... I had to force myself to finish it, hoping it would redeem itself. More description of looming severe weather events and their effects would have made it a more interesting read. Also the political views are so unrealistic that they border on the unbelievable, and detract from the work.

KSR, the king of Bureaucratic Realism!.......2007-07-31

Just as Federico Garcia Lorca might be said to be a novelist of magic realism, so too, I would argue that Kim Stanley Robinson has established a new novelistic genre: bureaucratic realism.

The problem with this is that bureaucratic realism is as deadly dull in fiction as it is in real life.

If you cherish reading about the lives of people who spend most of their time in committees, worrying about committee politics, and alternate that with episodes of imagining themselves in the jungle as "paleolithic man," (Frank, the protagonist)... you're a more bored person than I.

Combine that with an incorrigible urge to promulgate the kind of '80's REI-camping-gear yuppie old-school health-nut chest-thumping that veers awfully close, awfully too often, to turning into Advertising for New Age Healthy Life Goodies, along with Frank's consummate urge to combine his self-important delusions about leading the paleolithic life with slumming among a cleaned-up, yuppified version of homeless street people (they're smart! they play chess! they play Frisbie! they're formerly Vietnam Vets so they're also heroes! the 21st-century Noble Savage Writ Large, indeed), and you have a novel that is barely tolerable to read without the strong urge to throw it into the gas-log fireplace. In the middle of summer.

There are a few moments of interesting speculation on actual global warming science, and a few moments of intended disaster-movie scenario painting. There is even a spy-vs.-spy chase scene, as if, along with all his hopelessly naive aspirations, the author is thinking this novel might make a good movie.

However, I had to force myself to complete this thing, and I'm sympathetic to KSR's causes, point of view, yuppie scientist Starbucks klatch clique, fascination with the actual processes of science, and so on. How sad.

I would rate this novel 5 stars on the scale of Most Likely to Infuriate Irrational Hillary-Clinton-Hating Rednecks, ahead of Hillary herself, actually. That is its main value as a work of literature, unfortunately.

I'm girding my loins to read the last of the trilogy, since I'm a completist; I hope it takes awhile to get into paperback.

Sigh.....

Colder and Colder, But Life Goes On.......2007-07-29

This is the second book in Robinson's cautionary trilogy on Global Warming. Readers who enjoyed Forty Signs of Rain can expect more of the same. Robinson's great strength is his ability to engross us with even the most trivial details - a technique that supports his understanding of modern science, which isn't all about stunning discoveries made by sleep-deprived monomaniacs who skip meals because they're too engrossed in their experiments to leave the Luh-bor-atory. Robinson sees modern science as tiny incremental gains made by people who work for vast consortiums by day, then go home at night to their quiet lives and needy families and personal exasperations just like the rest of us. On the down side, all this attention to intimate little details like paperwork and meetings and cooking dinner and watching the kids, etc. causes the main plot to move with an almost glacial slowness that will bore some readers beyond endurance. If you're seeking lots of action and adventure, maybe Robinson's just not the writer for you. If you're interested in subtle characterizations and extreme realism (as well as practical suggestions for how to survive in cold weather) this may be just the series you've been looking for. This reviewer can't wait for volume three.

Better than FORTY DAYS, but.......2007-07-15

After reading FORTY DAYS, I would not have bought or read FIFTY DAYS but since I already had it, I did read it. It is somewhat better than FORTY DAYS, but is still full of useless, pointless pages that do not relate or contribute to the story. The book is 603 pages long. Of the first 200 pages, perhaps 25 contribute to the story. Not all of the other pages contribute either. The book has much scientific information added that does not relate and many of the authors political comments that don't belong. Reading FORTY and FIFTY was a waste of time. There is no way I will read SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING. Don't waste your time either. There are a lot of better books ot there.

Average customer rating:

Fifty Degrees Below
Kim Stanley Robinson
Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound

Product Description

Full blue leather, signed by author,Easton Press, as new

Average customer rating:

Fifty Degrees Below
Kim Stanley Robinson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8SH1C

Average customer rating:

the koran really is garbage and he says it like it is!

Not at all scholarly

weakly constructed arguments

I'm an American Muslim, Hamid Rasool, and here's what the Koran says:

Critique of 'What the Koran Really Says'

What the Koran Really Says: Language, Text, and Commentary

Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Quran | Bible & Other Sacred Texts | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Bible & Other Sacred Texts | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Quran | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Religion & Spirituality | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Why I Am Not a Muslim

The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion

The Myth of Islamic Tolerance: How Islamic Law Treats Non-Muslims

Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out

The Quest for the Historical Muhammad

ASIN: 157392945X

Book Description

This collection of classical essays, some translated here for the first time, provide an objective, critical commentary on the traditions and language of the Koran, discussing its grammatical and logical discontinuities, its Syriac and Hebrew foreign vocabulary, and its possible Christian, Coptic, and Qumranic sources. Included among these essays are a comprehensive commentary on the discussion of the expression 'an yadin in Sura II; a discussion of the possible meanings of Sura IX.29, the longest sura in the Koran; and selections from the late Koranic scholar Richard Gell's INTRODUCTION TO THE QUR'AN and A COMMENTARY ON THE QUR'AN.

Customer Reviews:

the koran really is garbage and he says it like it is!.......2007-09-20

The koran is the most violent, disgusting pieces of garbage ever written by lunatics who were child molesters, caravan raiders, murderers and bandits. Islam, is a fanatical, cult-like belief that doesn't allow anyone to convert out and yet forces people in. Ibn Warraq, like myself, a former muslim, sheds excellent light, as usual, on the truth behind this demonic, cult-like evil ideology known as islam, not through his own opinion as these islamic lunatics will claim, but by the word of the koran itself. It is predictable taht the average mohammedan will sink into rage simply because mohammedans, being largely ignorant and uneducated, cannot stand having their ideology exposed through the very tenets fo their faith, which most don't even know how to translate into their native language. As predicted, muslim lunatics jumped on the opportunity to bash him and insult, which is what muslims always do since they are ignorant.

The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of muslims learn the koran's tenets by heart, as was also the custom in my familly before they left islam too. After reading and understanding that islam advocates murder, racism, genocide and war for an arabian moon god, many like myself and Ibn warraq leave islam. One thing the reader must appreciate aobut the author in general and in particular this work, is that he is trutuful, scholarly, honest and not critical for the sake of denouncing a violent cult.

He uses the koran ITSELF and tenets from it in order to expose its fallacy and violence, and correctly talks of the experience of millions of Persians, Turks, Indians and others who were made into obedient puppets, forced to accept an arabian cult withough really understanding the principles of hate towards other beliefs and the constant advocacy of war and strife against other communities. The review of lunatic, spiteful ignorant mohammedans on this book pretty much exposes their stupidity and ignorance, as Ibn warraq so eloquently does without resorting to name calling and hate as the mohammedans usually do. Ibn Warraq's extensive knowledge of the koran and its tenets, along with its meaning, make him an excellent authority on islam today as when he first published "why I am not a muslim".

Not at all scholarly.......2007-07-25

Herbert Berg has labelled him as polemical and inconsistent in his writing.[5] Fred Donner, a professor in Near Eastern studies, notes Ibn Warraq's lack of specialist training in Arabic studies, citing "inconsistent handling of Arabic materials," and unoriginal arguments. Donner also criticizes Ibn Warraq for what he describes as "heavy-handed favoritism" and "the compiler's [Ibn Warraq] agenda, which is not scholarship, but anti-Islamic polemic." -Wikipedia

This book is not at all interesting. It uses recycled material from other polemics. Not only that, his arguments have a weak base and are simply not at all scholarly. Taking a look at this other books, its no secret that Ibn Warraq is not in search of anything other than having people come to his side.

Since ibn warraq has an "inconsistent handling of Arabic materials," how can we accept this book as sound, seeing how the Quran is in Arabic?

weakly constructed arguments.......2007-07-18

I am not impressed... I was looking for something that was comprehensive in its argument and found this to be rather malicious and agenda-driven. If his arguments are indeed true in regards to Islam, intolerance, and jihad, then historically we must have lived in another world because applying these principles, as stated by the author, by the Muslims when they ruled the civilized world for 100s of years would have resulted in a much different world, not one where the European enlightenment got its spark and source of knowledge from.

I'm an American Muslim, Hamid Rasool, and here's what the Koran says:.......2007-06-14

I converted to Islam in Islamabad on 9/24/2000 and I have carefully read the Koran (King Fahd edition) twice, taking notes of the contents. The heart of the Koran is to enjoin the good and forbid the bad and to have faith. The Koran says, over and over, that these three things are required of an obedient Muslim (Islam means simply submission to the Will of God):
1. To show God that you love him, you must be constantly on the lookout for opportunities to do good deeds for your fellow man. The best good deeds are those that only God himself knows that you did. These deeds will help add weight to your storehouse above referred to as your "treasures in heaven" in the bible. The Koran says that one angel records each human's good deeds and another one records the person's bad deeds. The extensive record of the good and bad actions of the person will be examined on the last day of the existing systems to determine whether the person qualifies to enter into the renewed Garden of Eden where there will be no sickness or death, and where old people will become young, and waters will flow under the garden watering each living thing as necessary.
2. To show proper fear of God, you must avoid doing the acts which he has prohibited, such as illegal sexual intercourse, stealing, murder, etc. as per most religions, and most of all, not worshipping anything other than God himself; and
3. You must have strong faith in the munificence of God. This means you truly believe He is a good God with plans for good things in the future for his obedient ones such as mentioned in #1 above.

Read the Koran yourself and you will see this is the substance of the Koran.

Critique of 'What the Koran Really Says'.......2007-05-07

Tedious, academic, rarely really says what the Koran really says, just history of translation difficulties allowing much room for 'alternate' interpretation cop-out. More than a little disappointing, but scholarly veneer.

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