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Life of Pi Review

With over 1250 reviews already registered for LIFE OF PI, I first thought there could be nothing more to say about this marvelous novel. But after scanning the most recent 100 reviews, I began to wonder what book many of those reviewers had read. Had I relied on 98 of those reviews, I would have expected a far different book than the one I actually read.
Let's begin with what LIFE OF PI isn't. It's not a Man against Nature survival story. It's not a story about zoos or wild animals or animal husbandry. It's not ROBINSON CRUSOE or SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON. It's not a literary version of CASTAWAY or OPEN WATER, and it's not a "triumph against all odds, happily ever after" rescue story. To classify it as such would be like classifying THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA as a story about a poor fisherman or MOBY DICK as a sea story. Or THE TRIAL as a courtroom drama, THE PLAGUE as a story of an epidemic, HEART OF DARKNESS as a story about slavery, or ANIMAL FARM as an animal adventure.
Martel's story line is already well-known: a fifteen-year-old boy, the son of a zookeeper in Pondicherry, India survives a shipwreck several days out of Manila. He is the lone human survivor, but his lifeboat is occupied by a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, an injured zebra, a hyena, and an orangutan. In relatively short order and true Darwinian fashion, their numbers are reduced to just two: the boy Piscene Molitor Patel, and the tiger, Richard Parker. By dint of his zoo exposure and a fortuitously positioned tarpaulin, Pi (as he is called) manages to establish his own territory on the lifeboat and even gains alpha dominance over Richard Parker. At various points in their 227-day ordeal, Pi and the tiger miss being rescued by an oil tanker, meet up with another shipwreck survivor, and discover an extraordinary algae island before finally reaching safety.
When Pi retells the entire story to two representatives of the Japanese Ministry of Transport searching for the cause of the sinking, they express deep disbelief, so he offers them a second, far more mundane but believable story that parallels the first one. They can choose to believe the more fantastical first one despite its seeming irrationality (Pi is, after all, an irrational number) and its necessary leap of faith, or they can accept the second, far more rational version, more heavily grounded in our everyday experiences.
LIFE OF PI is an allegory, the symbolic expression of a deeper meaning through a tale acted out by humans, animals, and in this case, even plant life. Yann Martel has crafted a magnificently unlikely tale involving zoology and botany, religious experience, and ocean survival skills to explore the meaning of stories in our lives, whether they are inspired by religion to explain the purpose of life or generated by our own psyches as a way to understand and interpret the world around us.
Martel employs a number of religious themes and devices to introduce religion as one of mankind's primary filters for interpreting reality. Pi's active adoption and participation in Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity establish him as a character able to relate his story through the lens of the world's three major religions. Prayer and religious references abound, and his adventures bring to mind such Old Testament scenes as the Garden of Eden, Daniel and the lion's den, the trials of Job, and even Jonah and the whale. Accepting Pi's survival story as true, without supporting evidence, is little different than accepting New Testament stories about Jesus. They are matters of faith, not empiricism.
In the end, however, LIFE OF PI takes a broader view. All people are storytellers, casting their experiences and even their own life events in story form. Martel's message is that all humans use stories to process the reality around them, from the stories that comprise history to those that explain the actions and behaviors of our families and friends. We could never process the chaotic stream of events from everyday life without stories to help us categorize and compartmentalize them. Yet we all choose our own stories to accomplish this - some based on faith and religion, some based on empiricism and science. The approach we choose dictates our interpretation of the world around us.
LIFE OF PI bears a faint resemblance to the movie BIG FISH, also a story about storytelling and how we understand and rationalize our own lives through tales both mundane and tall. Martel's book is structured as a story within a story within a story, planned and executed in precisely 100 chapters as a mathematical counterpoint to the endlessly irrational and nonrepeating value of pi. The book is alternately harrowing and amusing, deeply rational and scientific but wildly mystical and improbable. It is also hugely entertaining and highly readable, as fluid as the water in which Pi floats. Anyone who enjoys literature as a vehicle for contemplating the human condition should find in LIFE OF PI a delicious treat.

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38% Off Discounts: Purchase Cheap The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition Review

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The Color of Water 10th Anniversary Edition Review

This book is, indeed, a tribute to the author's mother. In it, the author, a man whose mother was white and his father black, tells two stories: that of his mother and his own. Tautly written in spare, clear prose, it is a wonderful story of a bi-racial family who succeeded and achieved the American dream, despite the societal obstacles placed in its way.
The author's mother was a Polish Orthodox Jew who migrated to America at the age of two with her family during the early nineteen twenties. They ultimately settled down in Virginia, where she led an isolated and lonely life; shunned by whites because she was Jewish and shunned by blacks because she was white. She was raised in a predominantly black neighborhood, where her father, a despicable and harsh man who brutalized his handicapped wife, ran a local grocery store, where he priced gouged his black clientele.
She left home and moved to New York when she was nineteen and never looked back. She met and married the author's father, a black man, when mixed race marriages were still frowned upon by both whites and blacks. Still, she always felt more comfortable around blacks than around whites. When he died sixteen years later, she married another black man who nurtured her eight children by the author's father and proceeded to give her four more children.
The author tells of his childhood, of his family, and of the issue of race that ultimately colored his life while growing up in predominantly black neighborhoods, where his mother stood out like a sore thumb because of the color of her skin. It was always an issue his mother avoided discussing with him, as for her it was not an issue. It was not until the author wrote this book that his mother discussed the issue of race within the context of her own life. From this dialogue emerges a fascinating look at the issues of race, as well as religion, and how it impacts on an individual's identity within our race conscious society.
It is also a very personal story. While the author's family was economically disadvantaged, his eccentric and independent mother always stressed education. She was a strict disciplinarian who brooked no nonsense from her twelve children. A convert to Christianity through her first husband, with whom she founded a Baptist church, she provided her children with the will to succeed. Consequently, all twelve eventually went to college and did her proud. The story of this unique family is told from two distinct, parallel perspectives: that of the author and that of his mother. While both are interesting, it is his mother's story that dominates this beautifully written book, which is, indeed, a tribute to her. It is truly a story told from the heart, as the love that the author has for his mother is evident with every written word.

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Purchase Cheap Mama Don't Like Ugly Review

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Mama Don't Like Ugly Review

A great book. will not tell story but u will enjoy to fullest.I highly suggest reading. job well done. Makes u sad for the girl, but she becomes strong & prevails. GREAT BOOK

Mama Don't Like Ugly Overview

Mama Don't Like Ugly takes readers on a journey of Dana Calhoun's life growing up in Nautica, Louisiana - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her Mama, a young light-skinned pharmacist, holds the title as her number one hater, all because she dislikes her dark skin. Regardless of her unconditional love for her Mama, she encounters a cycle of torment.When Mama bathes Dana, she tries to scald her with hot water. She neglects her to the point where she is malnourished. She tosses her around like a doll. Out of shame, she relaxes her hair two days in row. She watches a pedophile grab her. She steals money from her just to prove a point. Once Dana challenges her, she finds Mama's hands wrapped around her neck - praying that she does not die.These snapshots of Dana's life give insight into the abuse and neglect that she endures growing up. Still, she longs for her Mama's acceptance before she goes off to college. Will Mama finally realize that Dana is a beautiful person in spite of her dark skin or will she spew those hateful words, "Mama Don't Like Ugly!"

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A Visit from the Goon Squad Review

After reading a few chapters of Jennifer Egan's latest novel, A Visit from the Goon Squad, I'd determined it was really a collection of linked stories more than a novel. Reading further, however, I saw the larger themes and the cohesiveness of the whole. It is, indeed, a novel, and an excellent one at that!
The book opens sometime in the recent past, and kleptomaniac Sasha is recounting a story to her therapist. Her former boss, record producer Benny Salazar, is mentioned in passing. The next chapter takes place several years earlier. Here Sasha is still Benny's assistant, and now it is he that is the first person narrator. Benny's just trying to get through a visit with his pre-teen son while mentally stifling a lifetime's worth of shame. He reflects, in passing, on his old high school gang, and in the next chapter we're back in San Francisco, circa 1980, with them. Benny wants Alice, but Alice wants Scotty. Scotty wants Jocelyn, but teenage Jocelyn is seeing Lou, a record producer more than twice her age. Don't worry, he'll get his chapter.
They all get a chapter or two or three. The story skips back and forth in time and place. The voice moves from first person to third person and even to second. Asides or characters that seemed tangential become central. And eventually several themes become apparent. The main one is not even subtle, as the traversing between points A and B is referenced several times in various ways. Scotty at one point asks, "I want to know what happened between A and B." An aging rock star's comeback album is entitled A to B. Even the two sections of this book, which might have been labeled "Part I" and "Part II" in another book, are here "A" and "B."
Another theme is the passage of time. The novel, as I mentioned earlier, moves back and forth freely along the timeline of characters' lives. Ranging from around 1980 to some point in the 2020's, we see the (often ravaging) effects of time.
One character states, "Time's a goon, right? Isn't that the expression?"
Another responds, "I've never heard that. 'Time's a goon?'"
"Would you disagree?"
"No."
The episodes that Egan spotlights are all, in some way, transformative for her characters. And let's talk about those characters. Reviewers like me will often extol "richly-drawn characters." It isn't until I read a novel like this--with insight so deep that you feel you know everything it's possible to know about these people based on brief snippets of their lives--that it really hits home what characterization is all about. Egan is THAT good.
Plus, there's the language. Her prose is truly a pleasure to read, no matter how absurd or at times unpleasant the subject matter. Egan's pointillistic novel roams from the New York music scene to an African safari; from the affluent suburbs to life on the edge in Naples, Italy; from a dictator's palace to our collective future. And in careening from place to place, time to time, and character to character in these linked lives, Jennifer Egan takes us from point A to point B.

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Lowest Price The Old Man and the Wasteland Review

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The Old Man and the Wasteland Review

I've never heard of Nick Cole. I had just purchased my and kindle and had a hand full of books ready for a nine hour flight. On a whim I bought this. I finished the book in my terminal. I didn't touch any of the other books in those nine hours. I just read this one over and over. Its that good.
I really didn't know what I had purchased. Beyond the description all I really expected was something along the lines of The Road meets The old man and the sea. And it has elements of both. But it takes the idea of the Old man and the sea and truly makes it its own. It tells a tale of of hope in hopeless times. And the way it is written will draw you in. I'm staying vague because you should experience if for yourself instead of reading another review. Its an outstanding novel. Honestly the less you know the better. Its short and cheap you have nothing to lose in purchasing it. When I return home I will definitely be buying the paper back and telling everyone I know. This author needs more attention.

The Old Man and the Wasteland Overview

Forty years after the destruction of civilization...Man is reduced to salvaging the ruins of a broken world. One man's most prized possession is Hemingway's classic ‘The Old Man and the Sea.' With the words of the novel echoing across the wasteland, a survivor of the Nuclear Holocaust journeys into the unknown to break a curse. What follows is an incredible tale of survival and endurance. One man must survive the desert wilderness and mankind gone savage to discover the truth of Hemingway's classic tale of man versus nature.Part Hemingway, part Cormac McCarthy's The Road, a suspenseful odyssey into the dark heart of the Post-Apocalyptic American southwest. A book lover's action flick.

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Best Buy for The Bathtub Spy (Kindle Single) Review

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The Bathtub Spy (Kindle Single) Review

I enjoyed this story. It did have some good moments. It is the story of a man who lives in Washington DC doing translation work who deals with an unbearable boss. Minor spoiler here but it turns out his boss actually loves literature. It took me all of about 15 minutes to read this so this is much shorter than most of the Kindle shorts I have read.
The story didn't move me as much as I would have liked for a literary work but it did have its moments. I liked how the author explained how our feelings for imaginary characters can be more important to us than real people. I loved how the main character's opinion of his boss changes after a bad book recommendation. I have felt the same way when it has happened to me. It was a good diversion for a few minutes but I don't think that I will be thinking of the story in a years time.

The Bathtub Spy (Kindle Single) Overview

Returning to America after years abroad, Paul Tregwynt takes work at an intelligence agency near the Pentagon, translating wiretaps for decorated military officers and desk-jockey spies. But life in espionage turns strange when his boss gives him a book and an order: read this. Tom Rachman is the bestselling author of The Imperfectionists, a novel set at a struggling newspaper in Rome. His writing has been published in The New York Times, Slate, The International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere. He lives in London.

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Cutting for Stone Review

This brilliant novel revolves around what is broken -- limbs, family ties, trust -- and the process of rebuilding them. It starts with the birth of twin boys to a nursing nun, Sister Mary Praise Joseph, in a small hospital on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; an event which no one had expected: "The everyday miracle of conception had taken place in the one place it should not have: in Sister Mary Praise Joseph's womb." The delivery rapidly becomes a debacle when it's clear that Mary Praise Joseph can't deliver her baby normally; the last minute arrival home at "Missing" (the Mission Hospital) by Indian obstetrician Hema saves the children, but their mother dies and their presumed father father, surgeon Thomas Stone, disappears into the night.
That brief summary does no justice to Verghese's powerful and remarkable prose style or the structure of the first part of the book which, although it revolves around the tragedy that claims the life of the twins' mother, also introduces the other main characters who will take the place of their biological parents. Darting back and forth between the events in the surgical theater (as Thomas Stone, horrified at what he sees, first tries to save Mary Joseph Praise's life by collapsing the skull of the infant he believes cannot be born alive), the mundane daily activities of his fellow doctor, Ghosh (trying to escape what he believes is a hopeless love for Hema) and Hema's struggle to get home to Missing from her annual holiday in India, the reader will find it impossible to put the book down and wants only to find a way of reading faster and faster to discover what happens next. By the time the twins are born, attached by a blood vessel at the head and separated at the last moment by Stone and Hema to save their lives, the reader will find himself or herself resenting every moment not spent following this story until the tale is told. And even when you are finished, the novel and its more-than-compelling characters will linger on in your mind...
Separated at birth, the twins grow up in the Ethiopia of the Emperor Haile Selaisse's reign, and Verghese introduces the reader to an ancient world that will be new to most readers, with all its flavors, colors, scents and sounds. His remarkable artistry ensures that this is never jarring but always intriguing and that the characters -- Indian expatriate doctors raising their two foster children, born to an Indian nun and an American surgeon, with the help of an Eritrean caretaker and her own daughter -- feel as familiar to us as if they were members of our own family. In the manner of a classic epic, Verghese picks his themes -- separation, the intersection of sex and death, wounds and what surgery can and can't accomplish -- and sticks to them throughout. And yet, those themes -- sweeping ones for any novelist to tackle -- never overshadow the fact that this is, at its core, the story of two brothers, Shiva and Marion -- or ShivaMarion, as Marion, the narrator, describes their single-minded unity in their youngest years.
Ultimately, the political events in Ethiopia and family betrayals send Marion fleeing to the United States. His odyssey seems to rupture all these ties and yet by the time the novel ends, we realize that every step has, in fact, been bringing Marion, Shiva and their extended family closer together as well as toward a resolution of the various plot twists. Training as a surgeon in a Bronx hospital where the only interns are from overseas ("the bloodlines from the Mayflower hadn't trickled down to this zip code", Marion reflects wryly), the finally encounters his birth father in person -- with dramatic consequences -- and has a chance to make peace with Thomas Stone, Shiva -- and himself.
Anyone familiar with Veghese's non-fiction writing (two very compelling memoirs, My Own Country: A Doctor's Story and The Tennis Partner) knows that he is an impeccable prose stylist. But relatively few non-fiction writers can also write wonderful fiction, much less produce this kind of complex drama. Rarer still is that this is a debut novel. Even the remarkable coincidences of the final third of the book never feel anything less than pitch-perfect: a real tribute to both Verghese's carefully-constructed plot and his eloquent, pitch-perfect writing.
It is rare for me to stumble over a novel of such a high caliber, one that creates the kind of characters I have never met before, characters who now are as vividly alive in my mind as any of the real individuals who populate my world. May this be only the first of many novels that Verghese produces for us, his lucky readers.

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Best Price Shanghai Girls: A Novel Review

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Shanghai Girls: A Novel Review

I'm a fan of Lisa See's two earlier novels, "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" and "Peony in Love", both of which were set in 19th and 17th century China respectively. In "Shanghai Girls", the author moves the setting of the novel to Shanghai and later to the US. Lisa See paints a vivid portrait of life in pre-World War II Shanghai and takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through the Japanese invasion of China and its aftermath.
The protagonists in this novel are two sisters - Pearl and May. Pearl is the older sister, born in the auspicious Year of the Dragon, yet frowned upon by her Baba [father] who dislikes her tall appearance. Pearl is also educated, having completed college, and is proficient in a few languages and dialects. In contrast, younger sister May, born in the Year of the Sheep, is shorter yet lovely, and has only managed to complete high school. Yet, for all Pearl's accomplishments, it is May that is the apple of her parent's eyes, and uses this partiality to her advantage. Both sisters live a life of privilege, yet they work as 'beautiful girls' posing for pictures used in ads and posters and earn a good living. This may appear surprising given their parent's conservative outlook [the girls' mother has bound feet], yet not altogether strange as later events bring to light the family's dire financial straits.
When the girls are told their father has huge debts and has decided to marry them off to a pair of brothers, Gold Mountain Men residing in LA [men who have left China to go to America to seek their fortunes, returning to find China Brides], they realize their days of freedom are over and decide to revolt. Unfortunately, the Japanese invasion of Shanghai puts an end to any of their plans. Fleeing the Japanese is not without its horrors and ultimately Pearl and May find themselves alone except for one another.
Even after leaving China, the pair find their situation is still dire as upon arrival in the United States, Pearl and May are detained on Angel's Island for months undergoing untold suffering. They finally meet their 'spouses' but life for the sisters still has many trials in store, and a secret shared between them threatens their future.
"Shanghai Girls" is a well-woven narrative that flows well and Lisa See credibly evokes the bond between two sisters, whose love for one another is strong, yet also fraught by rivalries. This is not just a story about siblings for it is also about the clash between East and West as the sisters struggle to find their footing in a new world, even as the bonds of their old world remain strong. Lisa See is truly a gifted author for being able to portray both the old world of 17th and 19th century China [as seen in Peony and Snow Flower] and the new as seen in "Shanghai Girls". Final verdict: a compelling read.

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Sarah's Key Review

Having been long interested in the Holocaust [and having taught it for about 8 years], I was eager to read this new novel by Tatiana de Rosnay that though a work of fiction, is fact-based.
July 1942 marked a dark period in the history of France where thousands of Jewish families were rounded up and forcibly kept in the Velodrome d'Hiver. They were then sent off to transit camps in France such as Drancy, before being packed off to Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp. What is so unnerving about this whole incident is that the rounding up and mobilisation of Jews for deportation was done by the French authorities.
Based upon this seldom mentioned, little known piece of French history, author Tatiana de Rosnay has crafted a well-written novel that alternates between the past in 1942, and the present. The past centers around a 10 year old Jewish girl Sarah Strazynski who is forced to go to the Velodrome d'Hiver with her mother and father, innocently leaving behind a 4 year old brother Michel locked in a secret cupboard with the assurance that she would return to let him out when it was safe.
The present revolves around writer Julia Jarmond, a transplanted American who is married to a frenchman and finds herself being consumed by the story of the Vel d'Hiv incident. As she digs deeper, she uncovers dark secrets surrounding her husband's family which are connected to the deportations of Jews from France. As the truth emerges, the author deftly handles the question of guilt caused by supressed secrets and how the truth can sometimes not only bring about pain and disrupt the regularity of life, yet also have the ability to heal and move forwards into the future.
The method employed by the author, which alternates between the past [1942] and the present is an effective tool for it ties both periods together and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. I do confess though that I found the story of the past much more dramatic and interesting than the one which deals with Julia in the present. On the whole though, it was an engrossing read and I would recommend it, especially to those interested in the genre. I'd also recommend the following books which deal with the Holocaust and France:
The Holocaust, the French, and the Jewsby Susan Zuccoti (non-fiction)
One Step Ahead of Hitler: A Jewish Child's Journey Through Franceby Fred Gross(memoir)
France: The Dark Years, 1940-1944 (Modern World)by Julian Jackson (non-fiction and more for those already familiar with the history of the period)
There is also a movie adaptation of the novel starring Kristin Scott-Thomas (summer 2011)

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36% Off Discounts: Best Buy for Dreams of Joy: A Novel (Random House Large Print) Review

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Dreams of Joy: A Novel (Random House Large Print) Review

"Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See continues the story of sisters Pearl and May, and of Joy, the daughter they share. The story began in "Shanghai Girls" which I very recently read, so the story was fresh in my mind. Pearl and May were once rich and pampered young women who modeled for an artist who painted calendars and ads in 1930s China. The story of how the sisters came to America in the 1930s was riveting and I wasn't ready for their tale to end, so I was happy to learn that Lisa See was already at work on a sequel and "Dreams of Joy" is it.
Told in alternating first-person narratives by Joy and Pearl, we first meet nineteen year old Joy, who recently discovered a huge secret about her past and decides to go to the People's Republic of China to find her birth father and to help Chairman Mao's Communist cause. Pearl is hot on her trail to China, returning to places once familiar now quite changed. The alternating points of view are an effective way to show how both idealistic, Joy, and cynical Pearl, adjust to their new environments. At first, Joys is quite enamored with the new Communist ideal of sharing and equality. Pearl, on the other hand, can easily see the cracks, fissures and hypocrisies in the new regime.
As Mao's "Great Leap Forward" begins to bring famine and death, the novel includes descriptions of suffering as horrible as any zombie movie I've ever seen. These passages are shattering and difficult to read. But the novel is also full of fascinating bits of arcane information, such as that the Maoists thought that bras were oppressive and confiscated them. Also, that returning Chinese scientists had to sign a confession admitting that the Chinese moon was larger than the American moon.
I expect this newest Lisa See novel will be quite popular. See has written several interesting and bestselling historical novels and certainly fans of "Shanghai Girls" will be avid to read this sequel. See does not disappoint.

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Best Buy for Classic American Literature: The Works of Mark Twain, 24 books in a single file, improved 6/1/2011 Review

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Classic American Literature: The Works of Mark Twain, 24 books in a single file, improved 6/1/2011 Review

[Edit March 27, 2011] I have updated my previous rating and have changed the title of this review. The publisher was attentive to the issues raised earlier (just below in this message). We corresponded about them, and they are now fixed. As I understand it the next update of the collection will appear shortly. Thanks to the publisher for his assistance.
========
I was pleased to be able to find this collection in a single file and at a low cost. But after looking through it for only a few minutes I realized I would have been willing to pay not $0.89, but $8.90, for a version without the serious typographic problems this one has.
There are a lot of er- rors with hy- phenation; they cre- ate quite a dis- traction (just like that). These aren't hyphenations at line breaks. Hyphens appear incor- rectly in the middle of sen- tences and the incorrectly placed hy- phens are always fol- lowed by spaces, as shown in this paragraph. (Though the problems don't appear as many times in a sentence as I'm showing here.)
In some Kindle books that kind of typographic problem is infrequent and can be overlooked. In this collection, the error occurs so many times that it's seriously distracting -- and on some pages it's completely maddening. As someone who once paginated books for a living, I know that a compositor who put together pages in such a way would have been let go, quick-like. And no book publisher would ever try putting a book in print, prepared that way, on the shelves.
I appreciate the efforts of the person who prepared the Twain collection, but in my opinion it is severely flawed, and these flaws should be fixed ASAP.

Classic American Literature: The Works of Mark Twain, 24 books in a single file, improved 6/1/2011 Overview

B&R Samizdat Express Edition, with active links from tables of contents to every book, chapter, story, and essay. This file includes 8 novels: The Gilded Are, Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Huckleberry finn, a Connecticut Yankee in King Arhtur's Court, The American Claimant, Pudd'nhead Wilson, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc; 5 book-length collections of stories: The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories, The Curious Republic of gondour and other Whimsical Sketches, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories, and A Mysterious Stranger; 11 individual stories: 1601, Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heave, The Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut, A Dog's Tale, A Double Barreled Detective, Extracts from Adam's Diary, Godsmith's Friend Abroad Again, A Horse's Tale, Those Extraordinary Twins, Tom Sawyer Abroad, and Tom Sawyer Detective; 6 travel books and memoirs: Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Life on the Mississippi, A Tramp Abroad, Following the Equator, Chapters from My Autobiography; a book of Mark Twain's speeches, plus 3 book-length collections of essays: What is Man? Sketches New and Old, and Christian Science. It also includes the following short collections and individual essays: Editorial Wild Oats, Essays on Paul Bourget, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences, and In Defence of Harriet Shelley. According to Wikipedia: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, lecturer and writer. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel,[2] and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is also known for his quotations.[3][4] During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European royalty. Twain enjoyed immense public popularity, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. American author William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature."

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60% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap Devil at My Heels : A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II Review

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Devil at My Heels : A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese POW in World War II Review

All of these television personalities who fancy themselves "survivors" for having undergone challenges of one kind or another on the various survival programs now popular might have a different perspective on survival if they read this book. Lou Zamperini is the "ultimate survivor."

To Zamperini, surviving meant starving and thirsting while confined to a life raft for 47 days. That ordeal included fighting off sharks while enemy planes shot at him. Surviving meant living with the tryanny, torture, and torment of his captors, including the threat of decapitation. It meant living through two cold winters as a prisoner of war, his body weight dropping to as low as 66 pound.

Zamperini was forced to survive in the rigid domain of despair, beyond the reach of help, or rest, or pity. Survival meantmeant living from day to day with the heart tearing itself between hope and fear, merely subsisting under a cloud of doom with no end in sight.

Yet, Zamperini was able to call upon the inner strength that had been nurtured in his days as an Olympic runner, and to endure.

Some of Zamperini's greatest challenges came after the war was over, the biggest one being overcoming the anger and hate he felt for this Japanese captors.
With God's help, "Lucky Louie" succeeded in every one of his challenges. It's a fascinating story, a story of real survival.

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60% Off Discounts: Buy Cheap Deep Down True: A Novel Review

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Deep Down True: A Novel Review

As a male elder, I seldom am able to enjoy "chick lit." When my wife suggested that Fay's book was definitely not in that category, I decided to give it a try. Almost immediately I find myself drawn into Dana's world. It brought back such strong memories of my own junior high days. Even more valuable, I felt it gave me insights into how that time in life feels for girls and women. Sure, it's funny, but this book also has a wisdom about it that I found deeply appealing. If one of your goals in reading serious fiction is a deeper understanding of the human condition, this book is definitely for you -- no matter what your gender!

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60% Off Discounts: Lowest Price Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain Review

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Unbearable Lightness: A Story of Loss and Gain Review

As the previous reviewer has pretty much summarised the entire book (!) I'll just say that this is an honest, moving and well written account of a dark time in Portia's life. It was hard to read how she brought herself close to death, keeping herself on a tiny allowance of calories and strenuous exercise (in high heels at times). I know Hollywood expects women to be thin, but I was saddened to read her accounts of costume fittings - where she was humiliated for being anything other than 'stick thin'.
I loved the story about meeting Ellen in 2001 at a concert, when Ellen invited her over to her house along with other guests. Portia thought she was just being polite, but it turned out that Ellen had only invited the other people over so she would have the excuse of a party to invite Portia. So Ellen was stuck with having to entertain all those people that night!
I think coming out as a lesbian in Hollywood is still a risky move (how many others are there? not many) and Portia is an inspiration to other women who are coming to terms with their sexuality and trying to live their life honestly. Well done Portia, from a fellow Aussie :)

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60% Off Discounts: Lowest Price Winter Garden Review

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Winter Garden Review

"Winter Garden," by Kristin Hannah, is a surprising book. I say this as someone who has been deeply impressed by Ms. Hannah's writing before -- her "When Lightning Strikes" is on my short list of favorite novels to re-read often, and whenever I pick that book up, I always find something new to appreciate. So I was well aware of how vividly Ms. Hannah envisions history ("When Lightning Strikes" is a paranormal set, for the most part, in 1896), and of how fine her use of language, culture, mores, tone, and description. All of those are again on display in "Winter Garden," a more traditional straight-up family history and memoir, along with the themes of sacrifice, sisterhood, families, and secrets.
At the start of "Winter Garden," we meet two pre-teen sisters, Meredith and Nina Whitson. We see them briefly act in a play, a story their mother has told them that seems to be of a worthy, yet poor, young woman, her sister, and the prince who rescues her. But the play angers and upsets their mother, Anya, who cannot tell them why; this makes them vow never to try to please their mother again.
Then we see them as full-fledged adults -- Meredith, the nurturer, someone who takes on difficult jobs around the house and at her job without praise or fanfare and is running herself into the ground, and Nina, the prize-winning and world-renowned photojournalist, who takes on difficult jobs in various countries photographing people (mostly in war zones) and is running herself into the ground in a wholly different way. Meredith is married, with two children in college, but her marriage is in trouble because she can't communicate; Nina is in a long-term relationship but can't admit she loves her boyfriend because she isn't able to communicate. Both place their problems in communication solely on their cold, quiet mother Anya's shoulders, and both idolize their father, Evan -- a bluff, hearty, good-humored man who brings out the best in his wife and daughters. Neither daughter knows why Evan married Anya, nor why Anya seems to hate them.
But the story of Evan and Anya rests squarely on the shoulders of a deeper, richer and more profound love story of another, younger woman -- a story neither Nina nor Meredith knows, but Evan knows and accepts. This is the reason why Evan, on his deathbed, asks both his daughters to please try to get Anya to tell them the rest of the story about the prince, the worthy young woman and her sister -- all of it. And this promise changes everything . . . .
Because so very much of "Winter Garden" relies heavily on the story Anya tells her daughters in fits and starts, I am unable to give you too much information because it would spoil your reading experience. I will say, however, that this novel is not to be missed; Anya's far more than a cold, reserved woman, and her love story with Evan is only a small part of what she's endured over time and throughout her life. And once her daughters figure this out, their view of their mother -- as well as their view of themselves -- changes. Forever.
I believe this is a story that women, their daughters, their friends, and most men will enjoy; it is a story of hope, fear, death, friendship, sacrifice, honor, and history. It is also about fate, second chances, and personal redemption; it is a profoundly satisfying reading experience.
Just a shade under five stars (I rounded up for Amazon's purposes), highly recommended.
Barb Caffrey

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33% Off Discounts: Best Buy for The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance Review

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The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance Review

Imagine you are the descendant of one of those families of 19th-century Jewish financiers who spread around the major capitals of Europe to forge a continental empire. Along the way, the family comes to feature an art collector who served as a patron for the Impressionists and inspired Proust's Swann. A later generation includes one of the first women to attend university in the early twentieth century; she graduates as a lawyer, becomes a writer and corresponds with Rilke. Imagine that the family's wealth disappears in the blink of an eye when Germany annexes Austria. That is in a nutshell the story of the Ephrussi clan, which Edmund De Waal chronicles in "The Hare with Amber Eyes." That is only a peek at the material that the author had at his disposal, which should have made the work relatively simple to write. But the author set himself a challenge. He refused to produce a straightforward history: "It could write itself, I think, this kind of story. A few stitched-together wistful anecdotes, more about the Orient-Express, of course, a bit of wandering around Prague or somewhere equally photogenic, some clippings from Google on ballrooms in the Belle Epoque. It would come out as nostalgic. And thin."
Instead of a predictable tale from Mitteleuropa about lost grandeur, the author takes a (slightly Proustian) shortcut that leads to unexpected and sometimes deeply moving places. One of the illustrious ancestors collected tiny but incredibly intricate Japanese carvings called netsuke used in early modern Japan as toggles for purse strings. The book traces the story of these sculptures as they are passed down from one generation of Ephrussi to the next. Along the way, the author interrogates subtle ways in which the netsuke's meaning shifts when they move from Third Republic Paris to Harry Lime's Vienna and beyond. Through this device, De Waal manages to both narrate the story of the rise and fall of the Ephrussi and also sketch the myriad objects they owned and collected during their century and a half of eminence. The book manages to write an elegant history not just of people but also of the places they inhabited and the things they loved and touched. Nothing thin about that.

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