The Folded Leaf8 reviews William Maxwell Vintage, 1996 An understated masterpiece about an intensely intimate friendship + The Folded Leaf + One of my all time favorites Long before he was editing the likes of Nabokov, Updike, Salinger, Welty, and Cheever at The New Yorker, William Maxwell had established himself as a moderately successful novelist and story writer. Although "The Folded Leaf" is not his most acclaimed or famous novel, it probably has the most ...             Housekeeping: A Novel146 reviews Marilynne Robinson Picador, 2004 Artistic and moving + This Book Will Change You + One of the best novels of this century "Housekeeping" is not a novel for the faint of heart. Although at its surface it the fantastic tale of two girls it is, in reality, a comment on our relationship to place and home and our conception of the meaning of family. Robinson's writing is such that the reader never entirely falls under ...             Tender Is the Night (Penguin Modern Classics)135 reviews F. Scott Fitzgerald Penguin Books, 2001 Tough Times on the Riviera + More personal than The Great Gatsby + mastery of language + Story without an ending             Tree of Smoke: A Novel84 reviews Denis Johnson Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007 On The Cutting Edge of Reality + The American Anabasis "Tree of Smoke" is long, yes, and mostly talk. Especially for a war book, keep in mind that it's mostly talk. It's also compelling and riveting in its own unique way. I don't know what I would compare it too, but it's dense like Ken Kesey or Charles Dickens and epic like, say, "Catch 22." It works ...             The Welsh Girl24 reviews Peter Ho Davies Mariner Books, 2008 One of the most Evocative Novels I have Read in Years + The Welsh Girl This story of a Welsh girl, a German POW, and the complicated social strictures of small-town life during World War II is one of the most moving stories I have read in years. In prose that is simple in the way that the best poetry often is, Peter Ho Davies delivers Wales in evocative detail, and ...             Madame Bovary (Oxford World's Classics)196 reviews Gustave Flaubert Oxford University Press, USA, 2005 Wow, what a prescient novel + Humanity Captured in Prose + Over the years... still a great book + Interesting story!             Tropic of Cancer (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)159 reviews Henry Miller HarperPerennial, 2005 don't go crazy + Original For Its Time--crude and rude + Fountain of youth + Puerile, vulgar, and tawdry.             Bel Canto (P.S.)580 reviews Ann Patchett Harper Perennial, 2005 Stunning and Emotional + Patchett Delivers Again + simply wonderful + Bel Canto             Franny and Zooey222 reviews J. D. Salinger Back Bay Books, 2001 Fun Fanaticism + Entertaining and intelligent It was always a little embarrassing to admit that I hadn't read Franny and Zooey. In the literary world, I guess it's kind of the equivalent of a beauty queen admitting she wears dentures. Somewhere in between that admission and the other one (that I found `Catcher in the Rye' tolerably okay but ...             Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West (Modern Library)303 reviews Cormac McCarthy Modern Library, 2001 America's God + literary landmark + Brutal but exhilarating. + Wow. This One Has Stuck With Me For Years + How the West Was Won: Behind the Blow             Portnoy's Complaint101 reviews Philip Roth Vintage, 1994 Funny, Influential, Modern, Psychological Jewish Novel -- that's well worth your time... + Laugh-out-loud hilarious! + I thought this was a book about gangsters + Great Reflection of 1969 and Jersey Jews [52][T]             White Teeth353 reviews Zadie Smith Random House, 2000 White Teeth I loved this book. It is sooo clever. A truly witty, engrossing read. The author is not afraid to go places where other writers might fear to tread. Five stars.             Grendel162 reviews John Gardner Vintage, 1989 Civilization Ruins Everything + Distrubed.... This is not the simple tale of what moves the monster to attack the mead hall. Yes, this is the classic Beowulf tale told from Grendel's perspective, but it's no easy narrative of me-against-him. There is an awful lot more going on here. Grendel is the basic human, the proto-human animal ...             Crime and Punishment (Enriched Classics)464 reviews Fyodor Dostoyevsky Pocket, 2004 A towering work of criminal psychology + Good, but overrated + A masterpiece from cover to cover + Crime and Punishment + Crime and Punishment ~ Kindle eBook             The Good Soldier (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics) Ford Maddox Ford Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005 The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford , is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics : New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and ...             The Annotated Lolita: Revised and Updated72 reviews Vladimir Nabokov, Alfred Appel Jr. Vintage, 1991 Adds a new dimension to a novel I admired already + Duelling opinions + The essence of perfect writing + What is pornography?             The Turn of the Screw, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions)107 reviews Henry James W. W. Norton, 1999 Turn of the screw... I found this to be a rather boring classic. I just couldn't really get interested in it enough to not be confused. I didn't even understand what happened in the end. I stayed confused for most of the book. I started over several times but still couldn't keep up with who was speaking who they were ...             The Folded Leaf8 reviews William Maxwell Vintage, 1996 An understated masterpiece about an intensely intimate friendship + The Folded Leaf + One of my all time favorites Long before he was editing the likes of Nabokov, Updike, Salinger, Welty, and Cheever at The New Yorker, William Maxwell had established himself as a moderately successful novelist and story writer. Although "The Folded Leaf" is not his most acclaimed or famous novel, it probably has the most ...             The Turn of the Screw, Second Edition (Norton Critical Editions)107 reviews Henry James W. W. Norton, 1999 Turn of the screw... I found this to be a rather boring classic. I just couldn't really get interested in it enough to not be confused. I didn't even understand what happened in the end. I stayed confused for most of the book. I started over several times but still couldn't keep up with who was speaking who they were ...             Grendel162 reviews John Gardner Vintage, 1989 Civilization Ruins Everything + Distrubed.... This is not the simple tale of what moves the monster to attack the mead hall. Yes, this is the classic Beowulf tale told from Grendel's perspective, but it's no easy narrative of me-against-him. There is an awful lot more going on here. Grendel is the basic human, the proto-human animal ...