FirstName

FirstName	LastName	Title	Pub date	First pub	Publisher	Category	Price	ISBN	:Prof Rating	Synopsis
Ralph	Ellison	Invisible Man	1995		Knopf Publishing Group	Novel	12.6	679732764	Must read	Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood", and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
Ralph	Ellison	Going to the Territory	1995		Knopf Publishing Group	Essays	14	679760016	Haven't read	The seventeen essays collected in this volume prove that Ralph Ellison was not only one of America's most dazzlingly innovative novelists but perhaps also our most perceptive and iconoclastic commentator on matters of literature, culture, and race. In Going to the Territory, Ellison provides us with dramatically fresh readings of William Faulkner and Richard Wright, along with new perspectives on the music of Duke Ellington and the art of Romare Bearden. He analyzes the subversive quality of black laughter, the mythic underpinnings of his masterpiece Invisible Man, and the extent to which America's national identity rests on the contributions of African Americans. Erudite, humane, and resounding with humor and common sense, the result is essential Ellison.
David	Brin	Startide Rising	1984		Spectra Books	Sci/Fi	2.95	055327418X	Good of its type	A space ship with a crew of dolphins--that have been "uplifted" in their evolutionary development along with all dolphins and chimpanzees--and one human must must flee the enemy Patrons and return to Earth with their gathered knowledge. The second book of the acclaimed "Uplift" series and the winner of both the 1983 Nebula and 1984 Hugo Awards.
David	Brin	Infinity's Shore	1997		Bantam Books	Sci/Fi	7.5	553577778	Good of its type	The Uplift War-a deep-future conflict that spans both galaxies and centuries-continues in this rich middle volume (after Brightness Reef) of Brin's second Uplift trilogy. On the planet Jijo, the painfully developed cooperation among six sapient races (humans included) is rapidly crumbling under the impact of contact from space. The visitors include the dolphin crew of the ship Streaker and the Rothen, the race who may have "uplifted" to intelligence most of the races of Jijo, except the humans, who because of their unique status are in greater peril than ever. The ensuing tale is well paced, immensely complex, highly literate-and a daunting read, particularly for those new to the series. On full display here is Brin's extraordinary capacity to handle a wide-ranging narrative and to create convincingly complex alien races that not only differ from humanity but also variegate internally. By novel's end, Jijo is irremediably altered, its status as a world of refugees from the political chicanery of the Five Galaxies likely gone forever. Once again, Brin has created a successful mix of social speculation and hard SF that puts him in the honorable company of such authors as Charles Sheffield and Gregory Benford. Undeniably, this is demanding SF; but just as undeniably, it is superior SF as well. (Dec.) FYI: Two Uplift novels have won major SF awards: Startide Rising, the 1983 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and The Uplift War, the 1988 Hugo for Best Novel.
Mark	Helprin	A Soldier of the Great War	2005		Harcourt	Novel	16	156031132	Outstanding	On his, last long walk, septuagenarian war hero, deserter,and professor Alessandro Giuliani shares his past with an illiterate young factory worker — spinning a remarkable tale of heart-stopping escapes, of loves unrequited and won, of madmen, dwarfs, and mafiosi. But overshadowing all is hismost miraculous and terrible adventure, the Great War — a surreal parade of horrors that devastated and defined Alessandro, yet enabled him to experience fully the magic and beauty of the absurd human comedy called life.
Mark	Helprin	Memoir from Antproof Case	1996		Avon Books	Novel	16	380727331	Hard to classify; I loved it	An old American who lives in Brazil is writing his memoirs. An English teacher at the navel academy, he is married to a woman young enough to be his daughter and has a little son whom he loves. He sits in a mountain garden in Niteroi, overlooking the ocean, and carries with him a Walther P-88. As he reminisces and writes, placing the pages carefully in his antproof case, we learn that he was a World War II ace who was shot down twice; an investment banker who met with popes and presidents; a multimillionaire; and a man who was never not in love. He was the thief of the century, a murderer, and a protector of the innocent. In his adolescence he spent years in an insane asylum in Switzerland. And all his life, he waged a valiant, losing, one-man battle against the world's most insidious enslaver: coffee. Mark Helprin's astounding prose combines adventure, satire, flights of transcendence, and high comedy with vivid and poignant memories of a Hudson Valley and New York City that no longer exist.
Isak	Dinesen	Out of Africa	1992		Random House	Novel	17	679600213	A classic	Out of Africa is Isak Dinesen's memoir of her years in Africa, from 1914 to 1931, on a four-thousand-acre coffee plantation in the hills near Nairobi. She had come to Kenya from Denmark with her husband, and when they separated she stayed on to manage the farm by herself, visited frequently by her lover, the big-game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton, for whom she would make up stories "like Scheherazade." In Africa, "I learned how to tell tales," she recalled many years later. "The natives have an ear still. I told stories constantly to them, all kinds." her account of her African adventures, written after she had lost her beloved farm and returned to Denmark, is that of a master storyteller, a woman whom John Updike called "one of the most picturesque and flamboyant literary personalities of the century."
Isak	Dinesen	Seven Gothic Tales	1991	1934	Knopf Publishing Group	Short stories	16	679736417	Fascinating	Originally published in 1934, Seven Gothic Tales, the first book by "one of the finest and most singular artists of our time" (The Atlantic), is a modern classic. Here are seven exquisite tales combining the keen psychological insight characteristic of the modern short story with the haunting mystery of the nineteenth-century Gothic tale, in the tradition of writers such as Goethe, Hoffmann, and Poe.
Colleen	McCullough	The First Man in Rome	1991		HarperCollins Publishers	Historical noven	7.99	380710811	Spell-binding	With astounding narrative power,Colleen Mccullough — author of the internationallyacclaimed #1 bestseller THE THORN BIRDS — sweeps the reader into the whirlpool of pageantry, passion, splendor, chaos and earth-shattering upheaval that was ancient Rome. Here is the story of Marius, wealthy but lowborn, and Sulla, an stocratic but, perinfless and debauched — extraordinary men of visionwhose ruthless ambition will lay the foundations of the most awesome and enduring enmpire known to humankind. A towering saga of great events and mortal frailties, it is peopled with a vast, and vivid cast of unforgettable men and women — soldiers and senators, mistresses and wives, kings and commoners — combined in a richly embroidered human tapestrV to bring a remarkable era to bold and breathtaking life.
Colleen	McCullough	The Thorn Birds	1978		HarperCollins Publishers	Historical noven	19.8	380018179	Historical soap opera	Family secrets, forbidden love, and the struggles of working in a hard new land intertwine in Colleen McCullough's bestselling romantic family saga, now in a 25th anniversary edition. This is the story of the Cleary family, who moved to Australia in the early 1900s to work Drogheda, a vast sheep station. Employing on a large canvas that encompasses two world wars and the Great Depression, McCullough lets the main characters take turns telling the story from 1915 to 1969. But the heart of the book is the forbidden love between Meggie -- Fee and Paddy Cleary's only daughter -- and Ralph de Bricassart, the handsome parish priest. It is a love with tremendous consequences for the future. When published, this novel received rave reviews; it holds up just as well for new and returning readers.
George	Eliot	The Mill on the Floss	2003	1860	Dover Publications	English novel	5	486426807	Maybe her best.	"One of George Eliot's best-loved works, The Mill on the Floss is a portrait of the bonds of provincial life as seen through the eyes of the free-spirited Maggie Tulliver, who is torn between a code of moral responsibility and her hunger for self-fulfillment. Rebellious by nature, she causes friction both among the townspeople of St. Ogg's and in her own family, particularly with her brother, Tom. Maggie's passionate nature makes her a beloved heroine, but it is also her undoing." The Mill on the Floss is a luminous exploration of human relationships and of a heroine who critics say closely resembles Eliot herself.
George	Eliot	Daniel Deronda	2005	1876	Barnes & Noble Books	English novel	8.95	1.593E+09	I liked very much	George Eliot’s last, most ambitious novel, Daniel Deronda aroused scandal when it first appeared in 1876. What begins as a passionate love story takes a surprising turn into the hidden world of the early Zionist movement in Victorian England. The story opens memorably at a roulette table, where we first meet the young and idealistic Daniel Deronda and the enchanting Gwendolen Harleth—whom many critics consider to be George Eliot’s finest creation. Although the two are immediately drawn to one another, Gwendolen—outwardly alluring and vivacious, inwardly complex and unsettled—is forced by circumstance into an oppressive marriage with the harsh aristocratic Henleigh Grandcourt. Deeply unhappy, she turns for friendship to Daniel, only to discover his involvement with Mirah Lapidoth, a talented young Jewish woman. Torn between his devotion to Gwendolen and his passion for Mirah and the plight of her people, Daniel is forced to look at his own mysterious past and find out who he really is—and who he wants to become.
J. R. R.	Tolkien	The Hobbit	2001		Houghton Mifflin Company	Fantasy	18	618162216	Super, if you like such books	Whisked away from his comfortable, unambitious life in his hobbit-hole by Gandalf the wizard and a company of dwarves, Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.
J. R. R.	Tolkien	Lord of the Rings	2005		Houghton Mifflin	Fantasy	13.6	618640150	Read the book; forget the movie.	In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell by chance into the hands of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. From Sauron's fastness in the Dark Tower of Mordor, his power spread far and wide. Sauron gathered all the Great Rings to him, but always he searched for the One Ring that would complete his dominion. When Bilbo reached his eleventy-first birthday he disappeared, bequeathing to his young cousin Frodo the Ruling Ring and a perilous quest: to journey across Middle-earth, deep into the shadow of the Dark Lord, and destroy the Ring by casting it into the Cracks of Doom. The Lord of the Rings tells of the great quest undertaken by Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring: Gandalf the Wizard; the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Sam; Gimli the Dwarf; Legolas the Elf; Boromir of Gondor; and a tall, mysterious stranger called Strider.