Best American Literature Criticism
A Goodreads Choice Awards nominee. David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These are the three stages that all artists - with some variation - go through in their careers...So it's encouraging to read 25 years of David Sedaris's diaries, and not just because he manages to defeat Bloat. But through all 25 years of "Theft by Finding" - of soap opera addictions and spider feeding, family kookiness (Sedaris notes the day Charles Addams dies; it feels like the passing of a baton) and language lessons - Sedaris's developing voice is the lifeline that pulls him through the murk." Yet David Sedaris has somehow pulled it off...with eviscerating wit and radiant humanity...Fans will no doubt delight in the entries that will turn into Sedaris's most beloved essays." "Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances." "Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist." "A David Sedaris book is always a welcome addition to any personal library - his hilarity, his self-deprecation, his compassion for (and amusement with) the human condition, and his clear joy at making his readers laugh out loud are all what make a David Sedaris book great.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"David has become the PG Woodhouse of his era."
"Love David and his writing, and this book doesn’t disappoint."
"Loved this look into David Sedaris' early years, before he was "famous"!"
"Not his best, but good enough if you are a fan."
"All the wit and charm and wry wonder you expect from David Sedaris is here."
"Didn't expect this to be as entertaining as it was."
"Bought for my husband who loves David sedaris and he didn’t like it."
A delightful Christmas storybook for adults based on the action-packed Die Hard movie. All John McClane wants for Christmas is to reunite with his estranged family. Author: Doogie Horner is a comedian, author, and illustrator.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"which is the most amazing part of this book."
"It's a must buy for Die Hard fans and an "Hmm, I'm not sure" buy for parents who want to introduce their toddlers to Die Hard."
"Written in the style of the classic "Twas the Night Before Christmas" this hilarious story sets the ongoing argument to rest, proving once and for all that Die Hard is indeed a Christmas movie."
"I bought this for my fiancé for Christmas because we both love Die Hard and I thought this would be a cute gift idea and he loved it."
"Doogie Horner is genius."
"If you love the greatest Christmas movie ever and have any sense of humor, you MUST get this book."
"Got it as a joke gift and a card for the entire family."
"Well drawn, funny, and rhymes!"
Everyone’s favorite houseguest who never left, Leon Black (played by award-winning comedian JB Smoove on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm ) drops his wisdom and good-bad advice for the masses. For centuries bespeckled dorks have pored over the scrolls of the ancients, read tea leaves, and looked to the stars for philosophy, wisdom, and advice. The kind of unfiltered blunt straight talk that pounds on your door, invites itself in, makes itself at home, helps itself to your food, security pass code, your expensive organic beet juice, and finally makes itself comfortable on that twin bed in your guest room. Whoever you are and whatever your reasons, clearly you made the right damn decision to sit your ass down and read the most important book of your life! You’re about to read a whole lot of shit in this book, and trust me, this knowledge isn’t for all of you, but I know for a fact that some of you will get what I’m talking about. The problem with that is that if you don’t know where the fuck you’ve been, you’re gonna have a hard time figuring out where the hell you’re going. He’s always sitting somewhere reflecting on his life as he stares at something like a clock or a glass of water or some shit. All of a sudden everything goes black for a second, and then across the screen we see the name of some tiny ass town like “Broken Foot, Alabama,” or “Chipped Tooth, Tennessee,” and a date from years ago. At this point, we know we are in a flashback, so we are treated to bits of that man’s tragic ass life, complete with all his fuck-ups. That’s what we see, but the part that we don’t get to see is that old ass man sitting there staring at a glass of water for two hours while people tap the fuck out of him to get him to snap out of it. That’s a movie I would like to see: the day James Brown’s concerned friends tapped the shit out of his shoulder for two damn hours.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Funny Stories."
"It’s was too slow for my liking;however, it was an okay read."
"Very funny, especially for curb fans."
"It was a gift and he loved it ."
"The lesson in the chapter "The good, the bad, and the ugly" was so ridiculous, and so far my favorite part."
"Leon is a great character on curb your enthusiasm and this book reflects the character."
Best African American Literary Criticism
His brilliant and provocative essays made him the literary voice of the Civil Rights Era, and they continue to speak with powerful urgency to us today, whether in the swirling debate over the Black Lives Matter movement or in the words of Raoul Peck's documentary "I Am Not Your Negro." Here are the complete texts of his early landmark collections, Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961), which established him as an essential intellectual voice of his time, fusing in unique fashion the personal, the literary, and the political. Novelist Morrison's editing of this omnibus, which includes a chronology and notes, should help rekindle interest in Baldwin, whose recurrent themes?the African American search for identity, the hypocrisy of white America, the urgent necessity for love?make his work timely and challenging.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"They continue to influence writers and Baldwin's stature as a deeply sophisticated observer of presence and meaning of race in the fabric of America is still growing."
"I can add nothing to what has already been said about James Baldwin's writing."
"strong, enduring, unforgettable."
"Baldwin's nuanced insight on issues is honest, and so eloquently expressed!"
"Great edition, great essays."
"Baldwin is a master of language."
"Very intellectually inspiring."
Best Asian American Literary Criticism
In this provocative and original exploration of racial subjugation during slavery and its aftermath, Saidiya Hartman illumines the forms of terror and resistance that shaped black identity. Saidiya Hartman is Associate Professor of English at the University of California-Berkeley.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is the most profoundly important text in Black Studies."
"Saidiya Hartman is clearly a genius."
"Rather, Hartman shows how the belief that Black women were inviolable, the culture myths that Black men becoming "men" through domesticity, toil, and sites of capitalist heteropatriarchy, and more were codified to create a belief in citizenship that kept Black people from real freedom."
"This book is intense."
"Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians."
"Scenes of Subjection provides a fascinating view of slavery and its effects."
"I haven't read this book yet by Saidiya Hartman, but, if this is a poweful as "Lose Your Mohter'", it must make people very uncomfortable, which it should, regarding the genocide, rape,and torture of Africans in the land of bigoty, racism and hypocrisy."
Best Hispanic American Literary Criticism
Meet Special Agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock in these exciting novels of intrigue and suspense—and watch the sparks fly as their relationship heats up amid cases that could destroy everything they hold dear... Praise for Catherine Coulter’s FBI Thrillers “Fast-paced.”— People “This terrific thriller will drag you into its chilling web of terror and not let go until the last paragraph…A ripping good read.”— The San Francisco Examiner “A good storyteller...Coulter always keeps the pace brisk.”— Fort Worth Star-Telegram “With possible blackmail, intra-judiciary rivalries and personal peccadilloes, there’s more than enough intrigue—and suspects—for full court standing in this snappy page-turner…A zesty read.”— Book Page “Twisted villains...intriguing escapism...The latest in the series featuring likable married FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich.”— Lansing (MI) State Journal “Coulter takes readers on a chilling and suspenseful ride...taut, fast-paced, hard to put down.”— Cedar Rapids Gazette “The perfect suspense thriller, loaded with plenty of action.”—The Best Reviews. “The newest installment in Coulter’s FBI series delivers...a fast-moving investigation, a mind-bending mystery.”— Publishers Weekly “Fast-paced, romantic...Coulter gets better and more cinematic with each of her suspenseful FBI adventures.”— Booklist Catherine Coulter is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the FBI Thrillers featuring husband and wife team Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Savich and Sherlock are such a great team and this tells how they became a team."
"The Maze is one of my favorite stories in this series."
"I'm starting from book one in the series and will listen to the entire series."
"I'd read these before, but enjoyed the antics of Savich and Sherlock as much again as the first time."
"I really enjoyed this set and really liked the characters."
"am a big Coulter fan , but I didn't realize that it was boxed set , my bad."
"Two books , two mysteries, lots of fun and excitement all through both books."
"This is why I love these books."
Best Regional American Literature Criticism
In his passionate, luminous novels, David James Duncan has won the devotion of countless critics and readers, earning comparisons to Harper Lee, Tom Robbins, and J.D. Duncan claims that each person owns scores of river teeth and that they have the potential to guide, wound, and withstand time's erasure.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Duncan's writing, his story telling, is wonderful."
"Bought for a class, this book makes nonfiction writing interesting for those of us who would've never read the genre otherwise."
"A collection of poignant stories, intriguing and entertaining."
"So many wonderful word journeys within this volume of stories."
"I found the stories and essays relating to the authors experience and spiritual insights relating to nature to be very profound."
"That is the way these short stories that go from a person's youth to his mature years."
"great read when fishing is slow."
"Wonderful Pacific Northwest Writer who captures the culture and spirituality of the regions natural places."
Best Literary Criticism
One of The New York Times Book Review 's 10 Best Books of the Year Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls―the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. It was only in her sixties, after losing nearly everything in the Great Depression, that she turned to children’s books, recasting her hardscrabble childhood as a celebratory vision of homesteading―and achieving fame and fortune in the process, in one of the most astonishing rags-to-riches episodes in American letters. “An absorbing new biography [that] deserves recognition as an essential text.... For anyone who has drifted into thinking of Wilder’s ‘Little House’ books as relics of a distant and irrelevant past, reading Prairie Fires will provide a lasting cure.... Richly documented (it contains 85 pages of notes), it is a compelling, beautifully written story.... One of the more interesting aspects of this wonderfully insightful book is its delineation of the fraught relationship between Wilder and her deeply disturbed, often suicidal daughter. We’ve long understood the Little House series to be a great American story, but Caroline Fraser brings it unprecedented new context, as she masterfully chronicles the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family alongside the complicated history of our nation.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The Zumbro river runs under my porch and canoeing downstream takes me to South Troy where Laura and her cousins waded, and where baby Freddie is buried. But that book is dominated by Laura's narrative, and there's only so much that editorial commentary can correct or expound when entire facets of her life were simply omitted. Enter Caroline Fraser and "Prairie Fires," a biography of two women, a textual history of their work, and the historical context of their times skillfully interwoven as a narrative. The Prairie Queen, New York Review Books, circa 1994) to learn everything that can be known about Laura Ingalls Wilder, including her family, her daughter, her times, and even the natural history of the Midwest. Prairie Fires starts strong, with genealogical research harking back to the colonial Pilgrim era, then flashing forwarding to the Dakota War of 1862 (a skirmish of which wiped out the Dustin family just ten miles from my childhood home, six months *after* the mass-execution at Mankato). For me the book was literally a page turner, I couldn't put it down, took it on vacation, read it in every spare moment, several times hiding in the bathroom just to get to the end of a chapter. But Prairie Fires is not only about Laura, spilling a considerable amount of ink on her daughter Rose Lane, a very unflattering picture: selfish, immoral, manipulative, petty, mentally ill (manic depressive), dishonest, modestly talented, irreligious (flirting with Islam her whole life), plagiarizing, economically incompetent, politically hypocritical, casually anti-semitic. You will finish Prairie Fires in no doubt whatsoever about the absurdity of charges that Rose Lane ghost-wrote the LIW series, and you will wonder how it was possible for such a hack to ever make a dime as an author. Ms. Fraser seems generally in favor of collective politics, supportive of Roosevelt's New Deal programs, and bothered by Wilder's criticism thereof. She spends a great deal of energy detailing the misguided attempts by Laura's successors to corral her work into the Conservative/Libertarian cause, and in this she is somewhat successful. But her attempts to explain away the fundamental reasons why people like Laura Wilder resented the very New Deal programs intended to help them come across as feeble and condescending. But we hear again and again and again the litany of supposed hypocrisies: the homestead act was a Government Program after all, everyone necessarily took jobs off the farm, the bank where Laura worked administered Government Lending, the frontier was only open thanks to the Army, Pa cheated the Railroad, Almanzo lied on his Homestead Application... and that's about it. It's a mighty thin list to set against decades of hard toil, thrift and scrupulous morality, and it doesn't bear the weight of being Exhibit A in Wilder's Real Politics On Trial."
"Wilder struggled to turn her family's pioneer story into the inspiring, heart-warming, heroic tale that fills the Little House books. And yet, Fraser's affection for the books and their author shows through her admission of their myopic worldview, omissions, and outright fabrications. My own grandmother was born in a log cabin in Wisconsin, and she married my grandfather, whose family homesteaded not far from Walnut Grove. When Wilder presents the pioneer story while minimizing or totally ignoring the plight of the displaced and murdered Native Americans, she is telling the tale as my family would have told it. Fraser expands the view to encompass what we must admit if we are honest: our success and wealth were built on the suffering of real people."
"I am a Wilder fan, having visited her home twice, taught her books many times, and been quotingly familiar with them since the age of seven. After all this valuable light brought to our subject, which is a rocky life covering nearly a century, one comes away, if anything, even more impressed by the resilience of Laura Ingalls. And she did it, in league with her daughter, beginning in later life, in a farmhouse, on Big Chief nickel tablets that are a handicap to write on, besides."
"Wonderfully entertaining, touching and very enlightening."
"Fascinating back story of my favorite childhood author."
Best Literary Beat Generation Criticism
Hit man "Jimmy The Hat" finds unexpected fame in the most unlikely of places, as Big Red, “Crazy Joey Gallo,” and his brothers break away from the Profaci family and go rogue. AWARDED THE SILVER FOR THE 2012 ELIT BOOK CONTEST IN THE TRUE CRIME CATEGORY. THE STARLIGHT CLUB ALSO RECEIVED A SILVER 5 STAR RATING FROM READER'S FAVORITE. The characters are so believable that I can't wait for Starlight ll....keep up the good work. The way that Joe Corso starts the book by telling a story to hisdaughter captured my attention. joe corso six******.keep them coming I started this book by reliving memories of when I was a young man. I knew of a man called Trenchie who had just been released from prison after having served 10 years. He was a big strong silent guy who hardly ever spoke and he was married to a real fine lady - and I always wondered about that. He was a small time bookmaker who operated out of a little restaurant near the piers in lower Manhattan.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Books, newspaper stories and archives, court transcripts (and anything else I could get my hands on) about the Cosa Nostra in Sicilia, Italia and Stati Uniti d'America (the United States of America) have always intrigued me if they are written well — and this one was. I am thrilled to have discovered this series while searching through the Kindle Unlimited Member programme for a new series to read — I downloaded the remaining seven books after reading about twenty five percent of "The Starlight Club: The Mob"... For example: "Room service had delivered coffee and assorted doughnuts and rolls earlier in the morning, along with a large pot of coffee." I am looking forward to this entire series!"
"While at times, it’s obvious the story is being told in flashback, Corso does an excellent job of crafting a story that has the reader feeling like we are sitting in the Starlight Club watching all this take place."
"Bobby Valentine used to deliver meat to The Starlight Club a place where deals are made and hits are ordered. He has just been released from prison serving ten years for a murder he didn’t commit to protect his boss Yip."
"This was a good read about the Mafia...some good guys and some not so good. I actually stayed up all night reading the book on my Kindle and most unlikely for me to read a 'mob' story."
Best Literary Criticism & Theory
Our modern image of Santa Claus as a bearded, plump, jolly figure can be traced back to Moore’s famous description of St. Nick: "He had a broad face, and a little round belly, that shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly." PreS Up–Spirin's richly colored and ornate colored-pencil and watercolor illustrations opposite each page of text place this version of the classic poem in a nostalgic, 18th-century European town.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It is the night before Christmas, what other story is appropriate to read to my grandson."
"I didn't read the dimensions, this is a pocket size book."
"Very nice book."
"Perfect gift for infants book collection."
"The illustrations in this book are fantastic."
"Great book and beautiful pictures!"
"I cannot explain the excitement I felt being able to share "the night before Christmas" story with my only grandchild I'd never met in person."
"the book is very small in size."
Best Gay & Lesbian Biographies
A Goodreads Choice Awards nominee. David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These are the three stages that all artists - with some variation - go through in their careers...So it's encouraging to read 25 years of David Sedaris's diaries, and not just because he manages to defeat Bloat. But through all 25 years of "Theft by Finding" - of soap opera addictions and spider feeding, family kookiness (Sedaris notes the day Charles Addams dies; it feels like the passing of a baton) and language lessons - Sedaris's developing voice is the lifeline that pulls him through the murk." Yet David Sedaris has somehow pulled it off...with eviscerating wit and radiant humanity...Fans will no doubt delight in the entries that will turn into Sedaris's most beloved essays." "Sedaris fans will thrill to this opportunity to poke around in the writer's personal diaries, which he has faithfully kept for four decades and used as raw material for his hilarious nonfiction as well as his performances." "Sedaris' diaries are the wellspring for his cuttingly funny autobiographical essays, and he now presents a mesmerizing volume of deftly edited passages...Sedaris is caustically witty about his bad habits and artistic floundering...A candid, socially incisive, and sharply amusing chronicle of the evolution of an arresting comedic artist." "A David Sedaris book is always a welcome addition to any personal library - his hilarity, his self-deprecation, his compassion for (and amusement with) the human condition, and his clear joy at making his readers laugh out loud are all what make a David Sedaris book great.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"David has become the PG Woodhouse of his era."
"Love David and his writing, and this book doesn’t disappoint."
"Loved this look into David Sedaris' early years, before he was "famous"!"
"Not his best, but good enough if you are a fan."
"All the wit and charm and wry wonder you expect from David Sedaris is here."
"Didn't expect this to be as entertaining as it was."
"Bought for my husband who loves David sedaris and he didn’t like it."
Best Mystery Reference
The Sherlock Holmes Book , the latest in DK's award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series, tackles the most "elementary" of subjects — the world of Sherlock Holmes, as told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. "All in all, it's an absolute stunning resource for any Sherlock fan, and a perfect companion to offer any new reader of the original Doyle stories." "[A]n encyclopedic, illustrated exploration of the entire canon of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of Sherlock and Dr.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The book is laid out to give an overview of Doyle himself and narratives on major characters - Sherlock, Watson, Moriarity, Lestrade. There are some good pieces on the influence that Doyle's writings and characters continue to have on his readers and other writers as well."
"If you're a Holmes fan you need this in your library."
"Gave this as a gift."
"Purchased for my wife."
"Great book for all fans of Sherlock."
"Great book for anyone interested in learning more about Sherlock Holmes, his origins & stories."