Book picks similar to
Wide Sargasso Sea: A Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism by Carl Plasa
literature
fiction
love-story
pile-oh-fiction
Marjorie Morningstar
Herman Wouk - 1955
Released from the social constraints of her traditional Jewish family, and thrown into the glorious, colorful world of theater, Marjorie finds herself entangled in a powerful affair with the man destined to become the greatest-and the most destructive-love of her life.Rich with humor and poignancy, Marjorie Morningstar is a classic love story, one that spans two continents and two decades in the life of its heroine. This unforgettable paean to youthful love and the bittersweet sorrow of a first heartbreak endures as one of Herman Wouk's most beloved creations.
Run With the Hunted: A Charles Bukowski Reader
Charles Bukowski - 1962
A must for this counterculture idol's legion of fans.
So Far from Heaven
Richard Bradford - 1973
The Tafoyas include a physician philosopher, a radical daughter with a degree from Bryn Mawr, a clumsy, stupid son, and a governor of New Mexico. From these elements Bradford creates a story as funny and tender as RED SKY AT MORNING, also set in New Mexico, also well worth reading.
How to Tell a Story and Other Essays
Mark Twain - 1996
A hilarious and cutting critique of what not to do, this deliciously wicked essay also lays out what writers should and must do if they wanttheir fiction to live and breathe--as Twain's own fiction always does. In How to Tell a Story, the title piece, Twain takes on such mysteries as the perfectly-timed pause and the uses of the dead-pan mask, and candidly describes his own efforts to hone his platform skills. In What Paul BourgetThinks of Us, Twain lays out a job description for the native novelist that is as fresh and accurate today as when Twain first wrote it. Anyone who cares about storytelling or writing will find Twain's sage suggestions in this volume compelling and engaging.
Filaree: A Novel of an American Woman
Marguerite Noble - 1980
Based on the life of the author's mother, it overturns every stereotype of western womanhood.Comes closer to the truth and the validity of the so-called winning of the West than anything I have ever read. It is terrifying, heartbreaking and remarkable. . . . Filaree is also one of the most magnificent portraits of a woman that exists in our literature.--Howard FastI loved Filaree, I didn't just read it, I crawled between the pages and lived it.--Lily TomlinAn extraordinary performance. . . . a powerful antidote to the romantic illusions some people have about ranch people and life on the range. . . . As a writer, Mrs. Noble makes no compromises. She tells her story in plain country American dialect, offers no exaggerated sex or violence, no vulgar talk. She is a realist in the best sense, a breath of fresh air in these free-wheeling times.--C. L. Sonnichsen
The Season to Be Wary
Rod Serling - 1967
Winner of six Emmys (he was nominated nine times), two Sylvania Awards, on Peabody Award, and one Christopher Award for his teleplays, Serling came as close as anyone to dominating an era that abounded with talented men. His plays "Requiem for a Heavyweight" and "Patterns" are usually the first items on the lips of television aficionados reminiscing about the good old days. Yet as television changed, Rod Serling kept pace. He became producer and chief writer for the famous "Twilight Zone" series. These bizarre and fantastic adventures into the occult and demonic were without doubt one of the most creative, imaginative and successful enterprises in the history of television.Now Rod Serling has applied his prodigious writing talents to a new medium: one in which he is perhaps destined to make his greatest mark. The three novellas that compromise THE SEASON TO BE WARY betray the skillful hand of a master storyteller and prose stylist. Fired with a savage yet disciplined irony, paced with deliberate cadence that rises to a starting denouement, each story explores the theme of a terrible vengeance delivered for terrible deeds performed.In "The Escape Route," ex-Gruppenfuehrer Joseph Strobe - ex-deputy assistant commander of Auschwitz, ex-confidant of Heinrich Himmler - putters about his little rathole in Buenos Aires chewing over the good times he had breaking Jews. Yet his snug little world is turned upside down b the capture of Adolf Eichmann, and Strobe soon finds himself on the wrong end of a terrifying hunt."Color Scheme" recounts the life and times of the great King Connacher, racist and rabble-rouser, who makes his living on the stump, preaching the lynching gospel, only to find himself one summer evening the victim of an extraordinary case of mistaken identity.In "Eyes," Miss Claudia Menlo, who in her fifty lifeless years has been denied nothing that she wanted - except her sight - manipulates people with the same purposeful indifference with which she fondles the expensive bric-a-brac in her lavishly cluttered dwelling. Yet her insistant will is brutally thwarted by the one set of circumstances she cannot control.Serling has infused these simple, forceful tales with an extraordinary richness of character and detail. There is, for example, the Prussian officer Gruber, who cannot stomach the pigs like Strobe he helped create and with whom he is forced to share his guilt. And there is Indian Charlie Hatcher, the most memorable portrait of a burned-out prizefighter since Serling's own justly famous Mountain Rivera.The power, the drive, the complexity and subtlety of these novellas mark Rod Serling as one of the most important and graceful fiction writers. Mr. Serling is a graduate of Antioch College and lives in Southern California with his wife and two children.
Circle of Friends
Maeve Binchy - 1990
Their one thought is to get to Dublin, to university and to freedom...On their first day at University College, Dublin, the inseparable pair are thrown together with fellow students Nan Mahon, beautiful but selfish, and handsome Jack Foley. But trouble is brewing for Benny and Eve's new circle of friends, and before long, they find passion, tragedy - and the independence they yearned for.
The Unfortunates
B.S. Johnson - 1969
Memories of one of his best, most trusted friends, a tragically young victim of cancer, begin to flood through his mind as he attempts to go about the routine business of reporting a football match.B S Johnson’s famous ‘book in a box’, in which the chapters are presented unbound, to be read in any order the reader chooses, is one of the key works of a novelist now undergoing an enormous revival of interest. The Unfortunates is a book of passionate honesty and dark, courageous humour: a meditation on death and a celebration of friendship which also offers a remarkably frank self-portrait of its author.
Joyride
Joan Brady - 2003
Marriage and motherhood have changed her identity and challenged her previous beliefs about love and romance. The demands of family and career have buried the truths she once knew beneath a mountain of resentment, dirty laundry, and endless bas of groceries. Then, on one of her late-night excursions to the supermarket, Christine runs into Joe again... and everything changes.
Pokémon: Diamond and Pearl Adventure! Box Set
Shigekatsu Ihara - 2011
But now he's depressed and hides in his room avoiding everyone—including his best friend Y. An attack on their hometown by Legendary Pokémon Xerneas and Yveltal, led by Team Flare, forces X outside… Now what?Contains all 8 volumes of the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure! series and a collectible poster
The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer Bradley - 1982
A spellbinding novel, an extraordinary literary achievement, THE MISTS OF AVALON will stay with you for a long time to come....
The Power of One
Bryce Courtenay - 1989
There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams, which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives and the power of one.
The Doors of Perception
Aldous Huxley - 1954
First published in 1954, it details his experiences when taking mescaline. The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon in May 1953. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell'. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion.