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Brilliant...One of the best books of the season.ASSOCIATED PRESSA triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is brilliant, sensitive, honest, and cynical about everything except his profession. To identify the victims and uncover the truth, he must battle the KGB, FBI, and New York police as he performs the impossible--and tries to stay alive doing it.
Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005.
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Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005.
For personal use only.
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THE TALE OF GENJI, the world`s first novel, was written around A.D. 1000 and has often been called Japan`s greatest literary achievement. The author of this story of a Japanese prince and his many lovers was Shikibu Murasaki, the brilliant young governess to the Empress. The novel was read aloud at court and became wildly popular; its appeal has not abated in Japan, where it is still a good seller. Reminiscent of Jane Austen in its chronicling of the romantic trials of the young, it is also strongly feminist, and does not hesitate to protest the status of women at the time.
Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005.
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Boldly colored illustrations accompany this retelling of the West African legend that explains the annoying habit of mosquitoes. When a mosquito tells a ridiculous story to an iguana, the iguana gets so fed up with the mosquito's lies that he puts two sticks in his ears so he can block out the sound of the mosquito's voice. Unfortunately, this sets off a disastrous chain of events that ultimately results in all of the animals being very angry at the mosquito. Today, when mosquitoes buzz in people's ears they are asking if the other animals are still angry with them over their ancestor's long-ago bad behavior. The colorful illustrations were created with watercolors, pastel, and india inks on cut-out and shaped pieces of vellum. Winner of the 1976 Caldecott Medal.
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A surprisingly domestic novel, PIERRE is about a nuclear family and its claustrophobic emotional dependencies. Dealing with immensely controversial issues such as incest and moral relativism, PIERRE was savaged by critics upon its publication in 1852. ISRAEL POTTER tells the true story of a patriotic adventurer who, late in life, is a man forgotten by his country. The theme of unrecognized greatness that infuses ISRAEL POTTER is a recurring theme in Melville's work, and expresses his growing disillusionment with the direction American culture and politics were taking in the mid-19th century. THE CONFIDENCE MAN and his equally shifty victims are characters in a satirical allegory that is meant to expose what Melville saw as the smug, mindless materialism of mid-century America. The events take place on a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool's Day, reinforcing Melville's remark (in a letter to his friend Henry Savage) that all that happens to a man in this life is only by way of a joke. Unpublished in Melville's lifetime, BILLY BUDD is considered one of his greatest works. The ambiguous plot raises more questions than it answers about good and evil, justice and injustice. Billy Budd, a handsome, angelic, and beloved young sailor, is wrongly accused of inciting mutiny. He lashes out in a rage and accidentally kills his accuser, the demonic Claggart, with one blow. The ship's commander, Captain Vere, a conflicted man of principle, is forced to call for a court martial, which condemns the saintly Billy to death. Billy Budd is widely interpreted as a Christ figure, the victim of a kind of ritual sacrifice, after which order is restored. He is also seen as an innocent, Adam-like character who is destroyed by the evil that is inescapable in the world.
Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005.
For personal use only.
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