"One day, 14-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find two notes in her mailbox, with one question on each: 'Who are you?' and 'Where does the world come from?'
From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning— but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined."
"The first prequel in Larry McMurtry's beloved Lonesome Dove series features the early adventures of Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, two of the most memorable heroes in contemporary fiction.
As young Texas Rangers, Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call ('Gus' and 'Call' for short) have much to learn about survival in a land fraught with perils: not only the blazing heat and raging tornadoes, roiling rivers and merciless Indians, but also the deadly whims of soldiers. On their first expeditions—led by incompetent officers and accompanied by the robust, dauntless whore known as the Great Western—they will face death at the hands of the cunning Comanche war chief Buffalo Hump and the silent Apache Gomez. They will be astonished by the Mexican army. And Gus will meet the love of his life."
"Many kids write stories, but only a few of them grow up to be successful authors. Before there was Carrie, there was ' Johnathan and the Witchs.' And before there was Rabbit Angstrom, Toyota dealer, there was Manuel Cirarro, famous detective. Could we have seen the seeds of success in Stephen King's and John Updike's juvenilia? These young writers are the same people who dominated the best seller lists and occupy the most celebrated spots on bookshelves in our stores, libraries, and homes. Here is a funny and surprisingly informative gathering of childhood creations by celebrated writers— authors who were amused by and happy to share their own early efforts.
• Kevin McCarthy reads Allan Gurganus
• Judith Ivey reads Margaret Atwood
• Andre Braugher reads Amiri Baraka
• Alfre Woodward reads Gloria Naylor
• Elliott Gould reads Pat Conroy
• Susan Anspach reads Joyce Carol Oates
• Roger Rees reads Gore Vidal
• Daphne Zuniga reads Susan Minot
• Nana Visitor reads Ursula K. Le Guin
• Kevin McCarthy reads John Hersey
• Melissa Manchester reads Rita Dove
• Elliott Gould reads Stephen King
• Amy Tan reads Amy Tan
• David Ackroyd reads Norman Mailer
• Joel Grey reads Paul Bowles
• Maxine Hong Kingston reads Maxine Hong Kingston
• Arte Johnson reads Roy Blount Jr.
• Andre Braugher reads Charles Johnson
• Roger Rees reads William Styron
• Harvey Fierstein reads Stanley Elkin
• Samantha Eggar reads Madeleine L' Engle
• David Ackroyd reads Louis Auchincloss
• Jeff Fahey reads Fred Chappell
• Harvey Fierstein reads Tobias Wolff
• Tim Matheson reads W.P. Kinsella
• Jean Smart reads Gail Godwin
• Jeff Fahey reads Stephen Dixon
• Andre Braugher reads Vance Bourjaily
• Elliott Gould reads John Updike
Kevin McCarthy reads Allan Gurganus
Judith Ivey reads Margaret Atwood
Andre Braugher reads Amiri Baraka
Alfre Woodward reads Gloria Naylor
Elliott Gould reads Pat Conroy
Susan Anspach reads Joyce Carol Oates
Roger Rees reads Gore Vidal
Daphne Zuniga reads Susan Minot
Nana Visitor reads Ursula K. Le Guin
Kevin McCarthy reads John Hersey
Melissa Manchester reads Rita Dove
Elliott Gould reads Stephen King
Amy Tan reads Amy Tan
David Ackroyd reads Norman Mailer
Joel Grey reads Paul Bowles
Maxine Hong Kingston reads Maxine Hong Kingston
Arte Johnson reads Roy Blount Jr.
Andre Braugher reads Charles Johnson
Roger Rees reads William Styron
Harvey Fierstein reads Stanley Elkin
Samantha Eggar reads Madeleine L' Engle
David Ackroyd reads Louis Auchincloss
Jeff Fahey reads Fred Chappell
Harvey Fierstein reads Tobias Wolff
Tim Matheson reads W.P. Kinsella
Jean Smart reads Gail Godwin
Jeff Fahey reads Stephen Dixon
Andre Braugher reads Vance Bourjaily
Elliott Gould reads John Updike"
"The Gump phenomenon continues!
Forrest Gump is back!
The lovable man for all ages, who captured America's heart in the #1 bestselling novel Forrest Gump and in the blockbuster film, returns in the long-awaited sequel to the book hailed by Larry King as 'the funniest novel I have ever read.' A little older, and wiser in his own unique way, he is still running through the kaleidoscopic events of our times -- and straight into the age of greed and instant gratification known as the 1980s.
When Gump & Co. begins, the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. has gone bust and Forrest is flat broke, sweeping floors in a New Orleans strip joint and trying to raise his son, little Forrest, who needs his father more than ever. As always in Forrest's easy-come-easy-go life, a change in the weather is never far off...and when the opportunity to play championship football comes his way once more, Forrest is back in the limelight and in the money.
Forrest's remarkable, touching, and utterly comic odyssey has just begun: in store for him is his own dubious recipe for adding life to New Coke; an encounter with Ollie North; and a chance yet again to unwittingly twist the nose of history.
The Rollicking Sequel to the # 1 New York Times Bestseller Forrest Gump."
"Imagine this: When the stock market crashes on the Thursday before Easter, you—an ambitious, although ineffectual and not entirely ethical young broker—are convinced that you're facing the Weekend from Hell. Before the market reopens on Monday, you must scramble and scheme to cover your butt, but there's no way you can anticipate the baffling disappearance of a 300-pound psychic, the fall from grace of a born-again monkey, or the intrusion in your life of a tattooed stranger intent on blowing your mind and most of your fuses. Over these fateful three days, you will be forced to confront everything from mysterious African rituals to legendary amphibians, from tarot-card bombshells to street violence, from your own sexuality to outer space. This is, after all, a Tom Robbins novel—and the author has never been in finer form."
"Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, The Scarlet Letter tackles the subjects of social stigma, shame, and judgment. Hester Prynne is at the forefront of the scandal, subject to public humiliation for bearing a child out of wedlock. Forced to wear a scarlet 'A' on her clothing for the rest of her life, she cannot run from her sin. Hester refuses to name her daughter's father, a local reverend whom she is in love with, a timid man who keeps his secret from the community. Hester's husband—presumed lost at sea for two years—returns, seeking to exact revenge on the child's father, whoever he may be. One of the most important novels in American literature, The Scarlet Letter is a tragic tale about sin, punishment, misplaced judgment, and non-conformity to social pressure and religious power."
"One of the century’s most challenging novels of ideas, The Fountainhead champions the cause of individualism through the story of a gifted young architect who defies the tyranny of conventional public opinion.
The struggle for personal integrity in a world that values conformity above creativity is powerfully illustrated through three characters: Howard Roarke, the genius who is resented because he creates purely for the delight of his own work and on no other terms; Gail Wynand, the newspaper mogul and self-made millionaire whose power was bought by sacrificing his ideals to the lowest common denominator of public taste; and Dominique Francon, the devastating beauty whose desperate search for meaning has been twisted, through despair, into a quest to destroy the single object of her desire: Howard Roarke.
Dramatic, poetic, and demanding, The Fountainhead remains one of the towering books on the contemporary intellectual scene."
"Emma Bovary is the original desperate housewife. Beautiful but bored, Emma is not content to be the mere dutiful wife of a French country doctor. She believes she was meant for something more—a life of luxury, leisure, and, above all, true and passionate love. She spends lavishly on clothes and on her home and throws herself headlong into a reckless series of doomed affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, she takes drastic action, with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter."
"It was a wonderful summer, a great memory, the kind of love everybody ought to have. It changed my life -- or almost did -- and I think about it more than I should, but that was a long time ago.
In the summer of 1955, Madison Lee 'Bobo' Murphy was a waiter at the Catskills' Pine hill inn, where the eccentric Avrum Feldman became his unlikely friend. A rural Southerner on his exciting first journey north, Bobo learned from Avrum that each life is marked by one grand, undeniable moment of change that never stops mattering. It came for Bobo in his first meeting with Amy Lourie, the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. But for a wealthy Jewish girl and a Georgia farm boy, the summer had to end, leaving Bobo to learn another painful lesson.
Now thirty-eight years later, Avrum's death beckons Bobo to the Catskills once more. When Amy unexpectedly appears, they discover that two lifetimes and a thousand Catskills sunsets stand between who they were and who they have become -- until mysteriously, miraculously, Bobo hears the dreams of his youth, of the young man who went forth and became part of a love larger than himself...."
"Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is the saga of a clean-cut, 'upper-class' couple who increasingly find their post-WWII world and traditional belief systems challenged by a changing society. For Walter Bridge, an ambitious lawyer, and his wife, whose focus is her household, affluence and material comforts create a cocoon of community respectability that cloaks the void within. Mr. Bridge is dominated by reason and common sense but is vaguely aware that something is missing from his life. Mrs. Bridge, now that her children have grown up, is slowly going mad from boredom. They wonder why there is no joy. As adventurous, free-thinking friends introduce new ideas into their household, they come close to making tiny steps toward change. Will they be able to break free of their traditional roles? Read by husband-and-wife actors, Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman—who starred in the 1990 film adaptation of Connell's novels—Mr. & Mrs. Bridge is a tour-de-force of contemporary American realism."
"Heart of Darkness tells of the conflicting drives of two men—Charles Marlow, the captain of a steamboat, and Mr. Kurtz, a mysterious figure who oversees a trading post in Africa. After an arduous journey, Marlow finally encounters Kurtz, and the men come to grips with their differences—and their similarities. Joseph Conrad's most famous work is a searing tale of one of the strangest and most memorable voyages ever taken—a journey to the heart of a geographical and psychological wilderness from which no one returns unscarred. For this isn't simply a journey up an uncharted river into a geographical wilderness; rather, it's a trip deep into our collective subconscious."
"This swashbuckling epic of intrigue, romance, and swordplay has earned a reputation as one of the most thrilling adventure novels ever written. A young Gascon nobleman, D'Artagnan, makes his way to Paris, hoping to join the Musketeers, a legion of heroes held in high esteem by the king. D'Artagnan quickly proves he has the heart of a Musketeer and earns himself a place beside Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Relying on their wits and skills with the sword, the Musketeers set out to preserve the honor of the king and foil the nefarious schemes of the wicked Cardinal Richelieu."
