Best Classic American Fiction
Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Sympathetic , emotional and profoundly moving , To Kill a Mockingbird seethes to the bases of human conduct -to blamelessness and experience, generosity and savagery , love and scorn, puerility and tenderness."
"Not only is Lee's writing filled with beautiful sentences (though often stunningly economical...) the book deals with many critically important issues, even for today's reader. She examines many social issues -- race and economic inequality, sexual inequality, mental illness, child abuse, and the inequity sometimes found in our judicial system."
"It is written from a child's point of view when children were shielded from knowledge by their parents and allowed to run free and become caught up in their imaginations. But it also includes a secondary plot of the racism that is pervasive in America and gives the reader a lot to think about even in 2015 (especially in light of current events)."
"Considering the time frame when this was written, Ms Lee addresses the problem of hate for someone's race as the terrible scar that it is in a unique and gentle but firm way that draws you into the story."
"Told in the first person, Scout, Jean Louise Finch, introduces to life in he small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the early 1930's."
"Absolutely delightful book that gives the reader a view of the world in the 1930s through the eyes of children. By using the perspectives of Scout, Jem, and Dill, Harper Lee is able to bring to light serious social issues using the wit only a child character could get away with and still be sincere."
The exemplary novel of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgeralds' third book, The Great Gatsby (1925), stands as the supreme achievement of his career. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--" Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream. to the poetry of Fitzgerald's ending about "the dark fields of the republic" and "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past," Robbins conjures up a sublime portrait of a lost world. And as a bonus, the excellent audio actor Robert Sean Leonard reads a selection of Fitzgerald's letters to editors, agents and friends which focus on the writing and selling of the novel. Listeners will revel in learning random factoids, e.g., in 1924, Scott and Zelda were living in a Rome hotel that cost just over $500 a month, and he was respectfully suggesting that his agent Harold Ober ask $15,000 from Liberty magazine for the serial rights to Gatsby.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The story begins with Nick moving to West Egg, the rich part of Long Island. He finds out that he is living next door to the mysterious, rich philanthropist, Jay Gatsby. Nick has his connections of the East Egg and he begins to gain trust with his cousin, Daisy, who lives there. On the drive home Gatsby kills Tom's lover, Myrtle, in a car accident. One thing that stands out to me even more is the fact that Gatsby was no longer accepted after his secret was revealed."
""To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life." This third trek through it had the added benefit of revealing even more texture and richness than I had previously experienced. This time around I understood more about Nick Carraway and identified with his ability to become a confidant, privy to others' secrets. He has complexity thrust upon him when he would rather look at life from "a single window" but ends up a forced chronicler. Carraway's observation that Gatsby's biography was "like skimming hastily through a dozen magazines" is comically astute, yet he too gets sucked in."
"There are four things I want from a novel and this has all of them: - Richly developed characters, honestly portrayed with flaws, people we end up interested in, if not caring about. I see myself in these broken characters -- how I have treated wealth and being accepted, the lengths we go to find love and when that's missing, to find a level of acceptance that suffices for love."
As Walker Gibson looks at her, then at the damage to his precious truck (that she may or may not have accidentally inflicted), she knows she’s in trouble. The damage to Walker’s truck is the first of many mistakes between the two of them, ending with truths that rock Sienna’s world. Nothing can fix her broken heart except the love of a man that won’t, maybe even can’t, love her back. Nobody writes small town romance like Locke . Whether it's old money or blue collar like Crank, she has a way of bringing the story to life in the most romantic and relatable way. Her stories are small town magic. Crank was everything I needed, everything I wanted, everything that's good and right about a sweet, sexy, and heartwarming contemporary romance. These Gibson boys will DESTROY hearts and ovaries . Adriana Locke can write romance like no one else . There is nothing better than a well written family dynamic in a love story. This is the first book in a very long time that has absorbed me.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I loved this book. This story is full of jokes, laughter, truths, questions, hurt, pain, lies, friendship, family, and love. Sienna sneaks up on him. He might be Walker's cousin, but he is team Sienna all the way. Sienna has always stood outside her family while still being a part of it."
"Get Locke(d) and loaded, not to mention ready to be Cranked to the maximum, people because you’re about to discover a brand new world. From the sexy as f*** hero, Walker Gibson to the sweetest heroine, Sienna Landry, we have one kick-a** story. It revolves around Walker’s garage where Sienna ends up working to pay off an unexpected debt. He meets Sienna when she gets caught after accidentally smashing his truck’s headlight with a baseball stick. But, the chemistry when that meeting took place could have set fire to a wet stick, it was so incendiary. When Sienna shows up next day to pay for the damages, Walker isn’t prepared for the effect she has on him. She’s trouble with a capital T, something she proves when he leaves her alone of a few minutes and she lets two customers drive off with the cars without paying their bills. Walker’s unsure if he wants Sienna there, she’s a distraction he could well do without, but she makes a great impression on him and he relents. This is where Adriana shines the most, the way she portrays her characters, the way they just climb off the pages and into our hearts. Walker’s family is great, the dynamics of it was simply awesome, the banter, joking and pure ‘caring’ just draws you in."
"They have everyday jobs and close relationships with their siblings, cousins and their grandma. They live in a small town where everyone knows your business. They have normal struggles like money, loss, relationship issues, work stress and nosy family members. Crank is Walker and Sienna's story. He's a grease monkey who took over his dad's auto shop. She's strong, sassy, smart and is just trying to find her way. Walker's precious trunk meets Sienna's practice swing. She's going to see him every day in his tight t-shirts and jeans and rough, sexy hands. The attraction has Sienna's skin sizzling. These brothers are going to make us all swoon to death! When I start a new series, I always have a favorite, but I can't decide between these Gibson boys. Those guys are clean-shaven, hair gelled, politically-correct boys I’ve met at a fashion event or political rally."
Best Read & Listen for Less
A special 25th anniversary edition of the extraordinary international bestseller, including a new Foreword by Paulo Coelho. "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy confides to the alchemist one night as they look up at a moonless night. "And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity." The charming tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy, who dreams of seeing the world, is compelling in its own right, but gains resonance through the many lessons Santiago learns during his adventures.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"After deciding to travel to a Romani fortune-teller in a nearby town to discover its meaning, a gypsy woman tells him that there is a treasure in the Pyramids in Egypt. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is.”. The Alchemist Physical CoverAlong the journey, Santiago meets an Englishman who is in search of an Alchemist and together they continue their search for treasure. The essential message is that treasure is more worthy than gold."
"I purchased and began reading this book 2 years ago and, for whatever reason, I couldn't get into it."
"I knew I would love this book."
"Sometimes - I ask myself whether the "magical" moments in the book were symbolic or literal --- I would venture out to say that Paulo intended for those moments to be perceived and interpreted by his readers as both symbolic and real."
"The boy makes connections with various people and nature and the ebb and flow of life learning to listen to omens or signs as well as his heart."
"Perhaps I am dense but I did not see such profound things there."
"Reading this a couple weeks after I moved to a new state for the first time really opened my eyes."
Best Teen & Young Adult Literary Criticism & Collections eBooks
5 books with over 1,000 pages of dragons, jaw dropping twists, and adventure filled with simmering romance! With over 8 million pages read in Kindle unlimited, readers are raving about the dragon kings.... While most people avoid the national parks because of the resident dragons, Aspen spends most of her free time in search of the feared and misunderstood creatures. She’d rather track dragons in the wild and through the lens of her camera than talk to real people. But even as she feels strangely drawn to the mysterious boy, she senses he’s hiding his own set of dark and powerful secrets. When hikers start turning up dead in the park, everyone suspects the formidable predators.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Each character has their own story or book and its all good."
"Before reading this series, any book with Dragons drew my attention."
"Yes some of these books are so predictable but then there are other aspects that are shockers."
"Good set of books."
"Really enjoyed these books."
"I was absolutely addicted to this series though without saying too much the overall ending was flat considering how well the first 4 books left you, If I had been left a little more dropped from a great height, let's say it would have received 5 stars."
"Love Dragons, the fantasy of mine to meet or be Dragon rider or Shifter."
Best Legal Thrillers
His drug-addicted sister has just been released from prison and his mother is succumbing to Alzheimer's, but Dillard's commitment to the case never wavers despite the personal troubles and professional demands that threaten to destroy him. "Pratt's richly developed characters are vivid and believable, especially the strong Southern women who fight their male-dominated culture from behind a facade of vulnerability in this brilliantly executed debut."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Other writers will use long descriptions of what the landscaping is like as someone enters a driveway to a house, or a long paragraph describing what a woman is wearing and the scent of her perfume and the necklace she is wearing. And that is exactly what Scott Pratt avoids and makes his books such a delight to read. Each of his books in this series has a great plot that makes them a such page turner."
"He is totally fed up with the system of laws and courts, of police and prosecutors, of judges and juries and defenders wherein the truth never rises to the surface and justice is rarely found."
"While I am reading, I am inserted into the world he creates."
"This is an interesting start to a crime series."
"I thoroughly enjoyed this book..."
"The story involves a small town attorney, his family, his ambivalence to his career and a changing plot line of legal cases."
"She's innocent, ...or not."
"The story moves at a quick clip and the plot has enough twists and turns to keep the reader interested."
Best United States Drama & Plays
Miranda, along with Jeremy McCarter, a cultural critic and theater artist who was involved in the project from its earliest stages--"since before this was even a show," according to Miranda--traces its development from an improbable performance at the White House to its landmark opening night on Broadway six years later. This glorious, oversize testament to the multiple Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton is a joy to anyone who loves the sound track or who has been lucky enough to score tickets to the show.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I've read the Chernow biography, listened to the cast recording non-stop (ha) since September, and been an avid follower of Lin's tweets, Facebook posts, interviews, #Ham4Ham shows, and Genius annotations. Among other delights, it includes: the full libretto of this sung-through (and rapped-through) show, with extensive annotations from LMM that give new insights, meaning, and historical context to the words that you might already know by heart; more than 30 essays about the cast members, the production team, the creative process, and the facts of Hamilton's life; copies of relevant historical documents referenced in the show; pages from LMM's notebooks with early drafts and outlines; and a stunningly beautiful array of production photographs, cast portraits, and backstage candids. There is the American Revolution that is brought to life in this show, and there is the revolution of the show itself - "a musical that changes the way that Broadway sounds, that alters who gets to tell the story of our founding, that lets us glimpse the new, more diverse America rushing our way.""
"Giddy with excitement, I pulled back the packaging tab and inside was this glorious tome. Looking forward to enveloping myself in this Hamilton word and pictures story, that is until I actually get to see the show... A girl can dream :-). Edited to add: and the dream is almost a reality... Used this gorgeous book to deliver surprise tickets to my niece who turned 18 today."
"It's not a love that's died down over the past few weeks - indeed, it's only continued to grow - so it's no surprise that I picked up Hamilton: A Revolution, which tells the story of the writing of the musical, as well as providing Miranda's annotations for all of the show's songs and lyrics. The fact that the book alternates between short essays and songs from the show allows the pictures to nicely complement the text at all times, giving the reader a sense of how the show might play out, and giving us the chance to pair images with the songs that so many of us already know by heart. More than that, though, they give you a sense of the care that went into the staging of the show; from the set to the costuming, from the insanely detailed props to the intricate stage layout, the book conveys the fact that the show is every bit as carefully crafted and intricately constructed as the album and the songs. Even with all the time I've spent on Genius reading the show's annotations can't replace the glee of reading the lyrics in a beautifully made book, and getting to savor all of Miranda's wonderful prose - the wordplay, the historical allusions, the shout-outs to old school rap and Broadway staples, all of it."
"It is not in Kindle format; it's just photocopies of double columned pages that doesn't fit the screen and is very hard to read."
Best Classic Historical Fiction
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. Yes, there is fear and fighting and disappearance and death, but the author’s focus is on the interior lives of his two characters. Never mind that their paths don’t cross until very late in the novel, this is not a book you read for plot (although there is a wonderful, mysterious subplot about a stolen gem). It is through their individual and intertwined tales that Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably re-creates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.High-Demand Backstory: A multipronged marketing campaign will make the author’s many fans aware of his newest book, and extensive review coverage is bound to enlist many new fans.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It has been a while since I have found a book that I wanted to read slowly so that I could soak in every detail in hopes that the last page seems to never come. When reading the synopsis of this novel, I never imagined that I would feel so connected to a book where one of the main characters is blind and the other a brilliant young German orphan who was chosen to attend a brutal military academy under Hitler's power using his innate engineering skills. I was invited into the pages and could not only imagine the atmosphere, but all of my senses were collectively enticed from the very first page until the last. In most well-written books you get of a sense of what the characters look like and follow them throughout the book almost as if you are on a voyage, but with this novel, I could imagine what it was like to be in Marie-Laure's shoes."
"On the other hand, as the author describes it, “It’s also a metaphorical suggestion that there are countless invisible stories still buried within World War II.” Add in a newly blinded French girl who is forced to leave her familiar surroundings, and you’ll soon find yourself in literary heaven. There are lessons about the brain, sitting inside the darkness of our skull, interpreting light; there are lessons about coal having been plants living millions of years ago, absorbing light, now buried in darkness; lessons about light waves that we cannot see—all applicable as the story unfolds. The author also includes connections to the song Clair de Lune, the book 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, and a fictional story about a priceless diamond called the Sea of Flames, whose owner “so long as he keeps it, the keeper of the stone will live forever.”. I cannot proclaim loud enough how much this book means to me; I have been left awe-inspired."
Best Classic Humor Fiction
William Goldman's modern fantasy classic is a simple, exceptional story about quests—for riches, revenge, power, and, of course, true love—that's thrilling and timeless. Anyone who lived through the 1980s may find it impossible—inconceivable, even—to equate The Princess Bride with anything other than the sweet, celluloid romance of Westley and Buttercup, but the film is only a fraction of the ingenious storytelling you'll find in these pages. William Goldman describes it as a "good parts version" of "S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure." Much admired by academics, the "Classic Tale" nonetheless obscured what Mr. Goldman feels is a story that has everything: "Fencing. Goldman frames the fairy tale with an "autobiographical" story: his father, who came from Florin, abridged the book as he read it to his son. Now, Goldman is publishing an abridged version, interspersed with comments on the parts he cut out. Is The Princess Bride a critique of classics like Ivanhoe and The Three Musketeers , that smother a ripping yarn under elaborate prose? A wry look at the differences between fairy tales and real life? A 'classic' medieval melodrama that sounds like all the Saturday serials you ever saw feverishly reworked by the Marx Brothers." -- Newsweek "One of the funniest, most original, and deeply moving novels I have read in a long time."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"William Goldman's story telling is pure genius, writing from a satirical 1st person perspective of how he created an abridged version of an old non-fictional book from a fictional country written by a fictional author. As you read through the "abridged version" you will frequently stumble across familiar lines you've come to love from the film ("INCONCEIVABLE!"). After reading the book you'll have a newfound appreciation for the movie which you'll see is a fantastic adaptation, and you'll have a fantastic time wrapped around Goldman's hilarious finger as he guides you through a truly wonderful story that feels exactly like the timeless classic we've enjoyed watching for years."
"I ordered the 30th anniversary edition, thinking it would have bonus special features in honor of the anniversary, but as far as I can tell, it's just an earlier DVD version...with a new cover literally attached to the outside of the case."
"kids left home. Vizzini, you simply love to hate him. Billy Crystal, Carol Kane . .this movie is a treasure trove of faces, one liners, and fabulous entertaining family fantasy fun! No filth, no foul language, but romance, adventure, chivalry, honor and a Holocaust Robe!"
"This is my all time favorite movie. It's just a really fun movie for all ages."
"I heard Mandy Patinkn tell the story of Rob Reiner summing up the movie as a boy searches for his true love, and that pretty much sums it up! Rob Reiner loves satire and has filled this film with many of his friends in guest star roles."
Best Classic Romance Fiction
VISION IN WHITE Wedding photographer Mackensie “Mac” Elliot is most at home behind the camera for Vows, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into Carter Maguire—the bride-to-be's brother—in an encounter that has them both seeing stars. “Funny sparks fly...[Roberts’] gentle humor and likable cast will immediately endear this series to readers.”— Publishers Weekly.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"2) Rated 5★ Emma & Jack prove that friends can turn into love and even with the misunderstandings, makes for lasting love!"
"This series will take you away on a journey into the lives of the women of “Vows”."
"I enjoyed the Bride Quartet Series immensely."
"This is such a great book, that I look forward to going back and reading these stories again like some that I already have, and I am impatient to read the rest of Nora Roberts' stories right now. Hot, Hot, Hot, love scenes, a well written, creative and intriguing story about family plus inventive, vivid characters, all on top of seriously wonderful love and romance."
"I read this series in paperback and love them though my favorite all time set was time was and time and again."
"After planning my wedding and helping a friend plan hers, this quartet about a wedding business built up with four friends was a nice read to be back in the moment of planning - for others and for myself."
"I have just finished these four wonderful books the only thing that could make them better would be having the other weddings."
"The books are probably the best books I have read in a really long time."
Best Classic Literary Fiction
Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Told in the first person, Scout, Jean Louise Finch, introduces to life in he small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the early 1930's."
"Set in the days of segregation and racial hatred in America, it was a telling example of how justice was not for black people."
"Where Gone by the Wind elaborates in a dramatic and sentimental manner, To Kill a Mockingbird stays level-headed and down-to-earth, told as it is, in a genuinely naïve and innocent voice."
"I was just a young teen and too wrapped up in myself to. understand that civil rights were only granted to white men. Atticus, a rather distant but loving. father, accepts his children for who they are -- ornery, smart and little left of center."
"...what was wrong with GCHS that didn't make us read these wonderful stories?"
"I somehow managed not to read this as a kid, but I'm glad I was inspired by my current 7th grader to read it now."
"It can be kind of hard to read books that are written with regional slang on every page. It's a must read for Americans to help get our race relations and biases in perspective. It's a must read for anyone who's human and wants to understand what that means just a little bit more."
"Those of us whom want a change or for those of us who have teens that don't want to read it....this performance will turn that around..."
Best Classic Coming of Age Fiction
Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book. Set in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird follows three years in the life of 8-year-old Scout Finch, her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus--three years punctuated by the arrest and eventual trial of a young black man accused of raping a white woman. Like the slow-moving occupants of her fictional town, Lee takes her time getting to the heart of her tale; we first meet the Finches the summer before Scout's first year at school. Then Atticus is called on to defend the accused, Tom Robinson, and soon Scout and Jem find themselves caught up in events beyond their understanding. During the trial, the town exhibits its ugly side, but Lee offers plenty of counterbalance as well--in the struggle of an elderly woman to overcome her morphine habit before she dies; in the heroism of Atticus Finch, standing up for what he knows is right; and finally in Scout's hard-won understanding that most people are essentially kind "when you really see them."
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Told in the first person, Scout, Jean Louise Finch, introduces to life in he small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the early 1930's."
"Set in the days of segregation and racial hatred in America, it was a telling example of how justice was not for black people."
"Where Gone by the Wind elaborates in a dramatic and sentimental manner, To Kill a Mockingbird stays level-headed and down-to-earth, told as it is, in a genuinely naïve and innocent voice."
"I was just a young teen and too wrapped up in myself to. understand that civil rights were only granted to white men. Atticus, a rather distant but loving. father, accepts his children for who they are -- ornery, smart and little left of center."
"...what was wrong with GCHS that didn't make us read these wonderful stories?"
"I somehow managed not to read this as a kid, but I'm glad I was inspired by my current 7th grader to read it now."
"It can be kind of hard to read books that are written with regional slang on every page. It's a must read for Americans to help get our race relations and biases in perspective. It's a must read for anyone who's human and wants to understand what that means just a little bit more."
"Those of us whom want a change or for those of us who have teens that don't want to read it....this performance will turn that around..."
Best Western Fiction Classics
Along with his dog Jimbo, Running Wolf his Ute partner and their wives they travel to Rendezvous, where they battle the dreaded Blackfeet and Zach fights for both justice and honor.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book, the second in the series with "Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man" being the first, is a welcome and refreshing change from the modern genre of urban mayhem and street violence."
"There is a little repetition of regiments and duties of safe camping in the wilderness and great humanizing of indian life on the prairie, as well as insight into real mountain man/trapper life in the early western expansion. We need REAL heroes again like in the best westerns of the past, and the author gives one in this series!"
"Really enjoyed this, an excellent continuation of the Grizzly Killer saga."
"Warenski is a very good story teller, much like the Native Americans that are so much a part of his books."
"Great read, both books."
"I didn't post a review of book #1 because I wanted to read #2 asap just finished the second one in the series and it's 12:46 AM."
"I really like the mountain man genre and this book is a real page turner!"
"A particularly good tale, fairly accurate, reasonably predictable, a lot of editing errors (spelling errors, their instead of they're and such) but you can't have everything."
Best Classic Short Stories
A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Werner is a German orphan, destined to labour in the same mine that claimed his father’s life, until he discovers a knack for engineering. Yes, there is fear and fighting and disappearance and death, but the author’s focus is on the interior lives of his two characters. Never mind that their paths don’t cross until very late in the novel, this is not a book you read for plot (although there is a wonderful, mysterious subplot about a stolen gem). It is through their individual and intertwined tales that Doerr masterfully and knowledgeably re-creates the deprived civilian conditions of war-torn France and the strictly controlled lives of the military occupiers.High-Demand Backstory: A multipronged marketing campaign will make the author’s many fans aware of his newest book, and extensive review coverage is bound to enlist many new fans.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"It has been a while since I have found a book that I wanted to read slowly so that I could soak in every detail in hopes that the last page seems to never come. When reading the synopsis of this novel, I never imagined that I would feel so connected to a book where one of the main characters is blind and the other a brilliant young German orphan who was chosen to attend a brutal military academy under Hitler's power using his innate engineering skills. I was invited into the pages and could not only imagine the atmosphere, but all of my senses were collectively enticed from the very first page until the last. In most well-written books you get of a sense of what the characters look like and follow them throughout the book almost as if you are on a voyage, but with this novel, I could imagine what it was like to be in Marie-Laure's shoes."
"On the other hand, as the author describes it, “It’s also a metaphorical suggestion that there are countless invisible stories still buried within World War II.” Add in a newly blinded French girl who is forced to leave her familiar surroundings, and you’ll soon find yourself in literary heaven. There are lessons about the brain, sitting inside the darkness of our skull, interpreting light; there are lessons about coal having been plants living millions of years ago, absorbing light, now buried in darkness; lessons about light waves that we cannot see—all applicable as the story unfolds. The author also includes connections to the song Clair de Lune, the book 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, and a fictional story about a priceless diamond called the Sea of Flames, whose owner “so long as he keeps it, the keeper of the stone will live forever.”. I cannot proclaim loud enough how much this book means to me; I have been left awe-inspired."
"“All the Light We Cannot See” is a World War II story told from the experiences of two children; each gifted in their own way."
Best Religious Fiction Classics
VISION IN WHITE Wedding photographer Mackensie “Mac” Elliot is most at home behind the camera for Vows, but her focus is shattered moments before an important wedding rehearsal when she bumps into Carter Maguire—the bride-to-be's brother—in an encounter that has them both seeing stars. “Funny sparks fly...[Roberts’] gentle humor and likable cast will immediately endear this series to readers.”— Publishers Weekly.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"2) Rated 5★ Emma & Jack prove that friends can turn into love and even with the misunderstandings, makes for lasting love!"
"This series will take you away on a journey into the lives of the women of “Vows”."
"I enjoyed the Bride Quartet Series immensely."
"This is such a great book, that I look forward to going back and reading these stories again like some that I already have, and I am impatient to read the rest of Nora Roberts' stories right now. Hot, Hot, Hot, love scenes, a well written, creative and intriguing story about family plus inventive, vivid characters, all on top of seriously wonderful love and romance."
"I read this series in paperback and love them though my favorite all time set was time was and time and again."
"After planning my wedding and helping a friend plan hers, this quartet about a wedding business built up with four friends was a nice read to be back in the moment of planning - for others and for myself."
"I have just finished these four wonderful books the only thing that could make them better would be having the other weddings."
"The books are probably the best books I have read in a really long time."