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Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories (Modern Library) 100 reviews
Truman Capote
Modern Library, 1994
Pure Genius
Arguably the greatest writer of the 20th century, the only misfortune of Capote's work is that there is not more of it. In this somewhat peculiar collection of stories, Capote demonstrates his command of the written word. While one tale gives the book its title, another story shines even brighter in this collection.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" is a legendary work in the cinema, though fewer ...
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In Search of Lost Time: Proust 6-pack (Proust Complete) 14 reviews
Marcel Proust
Modern Library, 2003
On reading Proust.
I've just finished reading The Search for Lost Time and I'd like to share a few thoughts.
First, commit to reading the whole thing, all seven volumes, all million+ words. However if the commitment frightens you (as it should) first read Swann's Love, the middle part of the first volume.
Second, if you commit don't be afraid to take a break and leave the book aside. I began reading it ...
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Basic Writings of Nietzsche (Modern Library Classics)30 reviews
Friedrich Nietzsche
Modern Library, 2000
Flashes of Genius
I picked up this book to get a feel for Nietzsche and have reviewed several commentaries on the other works available on or translated from Nietzsche. For those of you who are not intimately familiar with his work, let me summarize what I've learned:
From a modern point of view, Nietzsche is racist, sexist, anti-religious (including Jews, Christians/Catholics, etc.), and sometimes even ...
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Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (Modern Library)279 reviews
Cormac McCarthy
Modern Library, 2001
A dark and provocative book.
A dark tale that includes one of the most evil villains imagineable, Blood Meridian takes the reader on a journey with a motley gang of indian hunters through the American southwest of 1848. McCarthy uses graphic descriptions that really put the reader in touch with the violence of the book, and the violence is not nearly as disturbing as the ending. However, he tells the story in a way that ...
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In Cold Blood413 reviews
Truman Capote
Modern Library, 2002
In Cold Blood
After seeing the movie, "Capote", I knew I had to read Truman Capote's book "In Cold Blood", a book I never before had the desire to read. I was struck by the almost unpeakable saddness bordering on rage that I felt over the wanton and utterly senseless murder ot the Clutter family. It is a deeply affecting book, so much so that it interrupted my sleep more than a few nights!
Having read the ...
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The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Modern Library Classics) 17 reviews
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Modern Library, 2000
Nietzsche's Mentor
Ralph Waldo Emerson could be called America's first Great Man of Letters (sorry Washington Irving). He is the one who started the transendentalist movement in America, influenced Whitman and Thoreau to name a few, and was one of the first framers of the idea and the character of the American man.
This very generous volume contains the best selection of Emerson's essays, poems and other ...
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Crossing to Safety (Modern Library Classics)108 reviews
Wallace Earle Stegner
Modern Library, 2002
Fabulous!
Beautifully written, provocative, and enduring. Hated for it to end. Wanted to reread it immediately.
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The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Modern Library Paperbacks)153 reviews
Edmund Morris
Modern Library, 2001
The Greatest of the all
While the debate over the who the best president was, you could put Theodore Roosevelt on the top of the list. Genuine, Respected, Hard Working and an inteltual. One of the smartest to hold the office next to Thomas Jefferson.
His talent far out way what he did in office and he only wanted the best for the country. After the book was writen, he earned the Medal of Honor and has been give ...
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Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) 137 reviews
Karen Armstrong
Modern Library, 2002
Fascinating Book
This was a great book for trying to understand a very complicated religion. I found it easy to read and very insightful.
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Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)110 reviews
Hunter S. Thompson
Modern Library, 1999
Not one of my favorite HST titles but still required reading for all HST fanatics!
I was born in 1962 and was too young to appreciate the special generation that the 60's spawned. The Hell's Angels were definitely NOT to be messed with in that time period. But he hung out with them and wrote a compelling book about the demons on Harleys with deft mastery. They actually almost killed him when they found out they were not getting paid for the information gleaned from HST. The ...
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Northanger Abbey (Modern Library Classics)87 reviews
Jane Austen
Modern Library, 2002
Northanger Abbey: Janeites rejoice in this light and lively tour de force
Northanger Abbey is a gem. Jane Austen (1775-1817)has written a charmiing little novel about a charming little lady named Catherine Moreland. Catherine is 15 as the novel begins in Wiltshire. She and the hilariously stupid Mrs. Allen go on a six week trip to nearby Bath to take the waters. Catherine meets the fashionable and fast Isabella Thorpe. Catherine dances with the clergyman Henry Tilney ...
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The Basic Works of Aristotle (Modern Library Classics)10 reviews
Aristotle
Modern Library, 2001
Good collection of Aristotle
After Plato, Aristotle is by far the greatest Athenian Greek Philosopher. A polymathic genius whose interests ranged from poetry to theology to astronomy, physics and biology, Aristotle systematized Western thought and laid down many of the basic rules for argument and rationality which still stick with us today.
This collection includes Aristotle's major works including logic, metaphysics, ...
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series)60 reviews
Modern Library, 1993
EXCELLENT AND TIMELESS IN HER EVALUATION OF OUR URBAN ENVIRONMENT
WELL WORTH READING, TIMELESS IN HER LOOK CITY LIFE AND HOW THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT BOTH INFLUENCES HOW WE LIVE, WORK, PLAY. TERRIFFIC BOOK.
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Modern Library Classics)61 reviews
Edward Gibbon
Modern Library, 2003
Gibbon's Magnum Opus
It's a literary work of art. Gibbon's style of narration is breathtaking. On every page he comes out as the true scholar that he really is. His choice of words and his style of sentence construction is consummate on every level.
Other than that, the whole account is Gibbon's perspective of the Roman Empire on a strict level. While most will concur with him on the insanity of the likes of say, ...
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The Christian World: A Global History (Modern Library Chronicles)
Martin Marty
Modern Library, 2008
In this cogent volume, renowned Christian historian Martin Marty delivers a brief yet sweeping account of Christianity and how it spread from a few believers two thousand years ago to become the world’s largest religion. Comprising nearly one third of the world’s population–more than two billion followers–Christianity is distinctive among major faiths in that it derives both its character and its authority from the ...
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War and Peace (Modern Library Classics)37 reviews
Leo Tolstoy
Modern Library, 2002
Magnificent Achievement
"Well, Prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now just family estates of the
Buonapartes. But I warn you, if you don't tell me that this means war,
if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by
that Antichrist--I really believe he is Antichrist--I will have
nothing more to do with you and you are no longer my friend, no longer
my 'faithful slave,' as you call yourself! But how ...
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Plutarch's Lives, Volume 2 (Modern Library Classics)6 reviews
Plutarch
Modern Library, 2001
essential reference
I have now plowed through the second and final volume of this series, and though my energy began to flag, I still think this is one of the great classics of all time. Though not exactly chronological, the stories in this volume tend to occur later than in the first volume and are often longer, which is understandable given that Julius Caesar and Alex the Great are covered in this volume. THe ...
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Shadow Country (Modern Library)
Peter Matthiessen
Modern Library, 2008
Peter Matthiessen’s great American epic–Killing Mister Watson, Lost Man’s River, and Bone by Bone–was conceived as one vast mysterious novel, but because of its length it was originally broken up into three books. In this bold new rendering, Matthiessen has cut nearly a third of the overall text and collapsed the time frame while deepening the insights and motivations of his characters with brilliant rewriting throughout. ...
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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (Modern Library)473 reviews
John Berendt
Modern Library, 2005
One of my favorite books
If you are planning on taking a trip to Georgia and have time to stop in Savannah I suggest you read this book. I have passed it to three of my friends already and they loved it.
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Theodore Rex (Modern Library Paperbacks)192 reviews
Edmund Morris
Modern Library, 2002
Roosevelt Jumps Off The Page
Theodore Roosevelt was such an engaging personality that it would've been very hard to make this book anything less than terrific, and the well-written prose takes things to a very high level. The pages rolled by quickly, and I regularly found myself thinking "How in the world did this man accomplish so much with his life and his Presidency?" From the early battles with Mark Hanna to the final ...
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