He conceived of the four parts–The Stories of Jacob, Young Joseph, Joseph in Egypt, and Joseph the Provider–as a unified narrative, a “mythological novel” of Joseph’s fall into slavery and his rise to be lord over Egypt. Deploying lavish, persuasive detail, Mann conjures for us the world of patriarchs and pharaohs, the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, and the universal force of human love in all its beauty, desperation, absurdity, and pain. The result is a brilliant amalgam of humor, emotion, psychological insight, and epic grandeur.Now the award-winning translator John E. Woods gives us a definitive new English version of Joseph and His Brothers that is worthy of Mann’s achievement, revealing the novel’s exuberant polyphony of ancient and modern voices, a rich music that is by turns elegant, coarse, and sublime.--front flap

    Drifting from town to town and from state to state, the violent, ruthless Bo seeks out his fortune—in the hotel business, in new farmland, and, eventually, in illegal rum-running through the treacherous back roads of the American Northwest. Stegner portrays more than thirty years in the life of the Mason family in this masterful, harrowing saga of people trying to survive during the lean years of the early twentieth century.

    Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

    The final solution, however, surprises the Five Find-Outers almost as much as it surprises Mr Goon the village policeman.

    The novel, written in a stream-of-consciousness style reminiscent of the English-language Modernists, centers around the childhood and early adulthood of a character named Joana, who bears strong resemblance to her author: "Madame Bovary, c'est moi", Lispector said, quoting Flaubert, when asked about the similarities. The book, particularly its revolutionary language, brought its young, unknown creator to great prominence in Brazilian letters and earned her the prestigious Graça Aranha Prize.Joana, a young woman very much in the mode of existential contemporaries like Camus and Sartre, ponders the meaning of life, the freedom to be one's self, and the purpose of existence. Near to the Wild Heart does not have a conventional narrative plot. It instead recounts flashes from the life of Joana, between her present, as a young woman, and her early childhood. These focus, like most of Lispector's works, on interior, emotional states of mind.

    The first draft was written while Genet was incarcerated in a French prison; when the manuscript was discovered and destroyed by officials, Genet, still a prisoner, immediately set about writing it again. It isn't difficult to understand how and why Genet was able to reproduce the novel under such circumstances, because Our Lady Of The Flowers is nothing less than a mythic recreation of Genet's past and then - present history. Combining memories with facts, fantasies, speculations, irrational dreams, tender emotion, empathy, and philosophical insights, Genet probably made his isolation bearable by retreating into a world not only of his own making, but one which he had total control over.

    The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's -- a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants.. In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw. Gentle, poignant and richly autobiographical, this delightful novel shows us the boy becoming the man in a world that even in the midst of war, appears sweeter, safer and more livable than out own.

    Beginning in 1905 with ninety-year-old Celia Dunne, it delightfully portrays the bustling life of her heir and grand-nephew, Humphrey Dunne, and his family of five rambunctious children. It follows the family over forty years -- through their youthful antics, merry parties, heartbreaks and loves and marriages, as each in turn comes to maturity and an understanding of the enduring satisfaction Dunnian gives to their lives.

    --The New York Times Book Review

    Written in 1943, this book was written as an act of revenge against the woman who nearly destroyed the author's life with the celebrated philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre.

    But things turned out worse than expected, and in her forties, the gifted artist found herself shoveling coal and cleaning up other people's messes. The House of All Sorts is a collection of forty-one stories of those hard-working days and the parade of tenants -- young couples, widows, sad bachelors and rent evaders. Carr is at her most rueful, but filled with energy and an inextinguishable hope.Carr also ran a small kennel and bred bobtails to help out her meagre income. In an additional twenty-five stories, she lovingly describes the mutual bonds of affection and companionship between her and her dogs.Her writing is vital and direct, aware and poignant, and as well regarded today as when The House of All Sorts was first published in 1944 to critical and popular acclaim.

    One of those good-to-read-before-you-go-to-bed books. Ending was a bit lackluster

    But treachery had crept into the plant -- parts were mysteriously defective, and trucks were hijacked. Then a strange woman eluded the guards to warn of sabotage. Was she telling the truth, or was she hysterical because her son was missing?

    by Agatha Christie!1. The Moving Finger, 2. A Murder is Announced, and3. 4:50 from Paddington (aka What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!)If readers have time for only three of the twelve Miss Marple novels, why not take in those that have been ranked among the best? Let's look at the three: poison pen letters are making the rounds in Lymstock; someone placed an advertisement in the personal section of the local paper giving the time and place for a murder, and an elderly woman saw a murder being committed on a passing train but no one, except Jane Marple, believed her.Librarian's note: this entry is for the collection "The Amazing Miss Marple." Each of the individual titles, and the 9 other novels and 20 short stories, can be found elsewhere on Goodreads.

    As fresh today as it was then, Rand’s provocative novel presents one of the most challenging ideas in all of fiction—that man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress...“A writer of great power. She has a subtle and ingenious mind and the capacity of writing brilliantly, beautifully, bitterly...This is the only novel of ideas written by an American woman that I can recall.”—The New York Times

    When the great Florida Boom was just a dream....The time was the 1880's -when Miami was little more than a mangrove swamp, Palm Beach was still looking for a name, dangerous beachcombers threatened respectable folk, and whole communities could live off goods from storm-wrecked ships thrown up by the waves.It was in this rough and ready Florida that young Steven Pierton took the job of "barefoot mailman" -carrying letters barefoot over 100 miles of gleaming white sand between Jupiter Lighthouse and Miami, trying to cope with the elusive, enticing girl called Adie and fighting to thwart the schemes of the unscrupulous land spectator, Sylvanus Hurley.

    A very touching story, taking place from the outbreak of WWII, in New England, this is the story of the Farman family, who had lived quiet, industrious lives On Farman Hill for generations until war came. Keyes, herself married to a Washington politician, revealed, in this book, the failings of Congress as she wrote about a congressman who betrayed his country because of his sympathy for Germany. Beautifully written, with well-drawn characters and scenic imagery.

    First published in Greek in 1943, the book has been continuously in print in Greece ever since. This is the first complete English translation.

    When Linda Morse in the display department took her on as assistant, she learned something new every minute, from checking windows to writing sign copy. But keeping the job when Linda was taken ill was complicated by Bonita Giorno, who shared her room at home and competed for her job at the store. However, Kim, an artist in display work, helped her keep her head and use it, too. Matters were further complicated by Glenn, the good-looking young man whom Julie had liked from days before her new job. How Julie finally settled matters with Glenn and won not only her career but an interest in an even greater job in our present world, makes an entertaining and swiftly moving story.

    Arriving in Sydney just before World War II, Shannon, a dreamer and idealist, takes on the world of politics, business, religion... and men. The consequences are challenging and unpredictable.