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Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover. --Brangien Davis

Having just saved a large dog ( a beautiful Staffordshire Bull Terrier), training became a reality. I aquired a number of dog training books and by far Cesar's is the best of the lot. This is not so much a training manual as a way to change your mind and create a better relationship between owner and dog. Cesar instantly establishes the pack mentality and the obligation we as owners have to assume the role of pack leader. As you go through the book you realize that when we do not we actually do a disservice to our pets.

Wow, Having been away from Virginia Woolf since college, I forgot the poetic beauty with which she writes. The more I read the more I sensed I was viewing a painting. Her eloquence and her description manage to paint beyond the individual words on the page. The story follows the Ramsey family and their struggle through the war years. We see the dynamic between the men and the women as they shift power. The Story is sandwiched with the artistic work of Lily Briscoe and her painting of Mrs. Ramsey.

In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.

A gripping account of the immigrant experience in America. More about immigation than the meat industry, one wonders why the Roosevelt Administration chose to focus on the meat industry. Sinclair creates such a humane character in Jurgis Rudkos. He makes some of the smae mistakes that any of us would under these circumstances. As we watch him rise and fall, in the end the viewer watches with pride as he takes his stand.

Book Description

For nearly a century, the original version of Upton Sinclair's classic novel has remained almost entirely unknown. When it was published in serial form in 1905, it was a full third longer than the censored, commercial edition published in book form the following year. That expurgated commercial edition edited out much of the ethnic flavor of the original, as well as some of the goriest descriptions of the meat-packing industry and much of Sinclair's most pointed social and political commentary. The text of this new edition is as it appeared in the original uncensored edition of 1905. It contains the full 36 chapters as originally published, rather than the 31 of the expurgated edition. A new foreword describes the discovery in the 1980s of the original edition and its subsequent suppression, and a new introduction places the novel in historical context by explaining the pattern of censorship in the shorter commercial edition.

The orphaned Amabelle comes to assume almost messianic proportions, but she is entirely fictional, as is the town of Alegría where the tale begins. The genocide and exodus, however, are factual. Indeed, the atrocities committed by Dominican president Rafael Trujillo's army back in 1937 rival those of Duvalier's Touton Macoutes. History has rendered Trujillo's carnage much less visible than Duvalier's, but no less painful. As Amabelle's father once told her, "Misery won't touch you gentle. It always leaves its thumbprints on you; sometimes it leaves them for others to see, sometimes for nobody but you to know of." Thanks to Danticat's stellar novel, the world will now know. --Jean Lenihan

An interesting debut novel by a Yale student. Despite the controversy surrounding the publication of this novel, Pessl stil pens a solid novel. It is not without flaws, yet she still has a convincing novel. First off, the novel does not need to span the length it spans. We have a novel which truly does not need to be 528 pages. Much of the beginning of the novel rambles in an attempt to attach the reader to characters; with all this effort I still felt that i did not have an emotional connection with the characters until more than half way through the novel.

Once Pessl came to the second half of the book, the reader is taken on a whirlwind course of intrigue and excitement. It is in the second half that this becomes the couldn't put down novel it should have been all along. The only other area which bothered me were the constant allusions and metaphors which far too often felt force and artificial.

With those criticisms laid out, I still found this to be a wonderful debut novel by a young author and look forward to watching her grow and develop as a true literay force.

An interesting debut novel by a Yale student. Despite the controversy surrounding the publication of this novel, Pessl stil pens a solid novel. It is not without flaws, yet she still has a convincing novel. First off, the novel does not need to span the length it spans. We have a novel which truly does not need to be 528 pages. Much of the beginning of the novel rambles in an attempt to attach the reader to characters; with all this effort I still felt that i did not have an emotional connection with the characters until more than half way through the novel.

Once Pessl came to the second half of the book, the reader is taken on a whirlwind course of intrigue and excitement. It is in the second half that this becomes the couldn't put down novel it should have been all along. The only other area which bothered me were the constant allusions and metaphors which far too often felt force and artificial.

With those criticisms laid out, I still found this to be a wonderful debut novel by a young author and look forward to watching her grow and develop as a true literay force.

Book Description
Dubliners is arguably the best-known and most influential collection of short stories written in English, and has been since its publication in 1914. Through what Joyce described as their "style of scrupulous meanness," the stories present a direct, sometimes searing view of Dublin in the early twentieth century. The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based on renowned Joyce scholar Hans Walter Gabler's edited text and includes his editorial notes and the introduction to his scholarly edition, which details and discusses Dubliners' complicated publication history.

"Contexts" offers a rich collection of materials that bring the stories and the Irish capital to life for twenty-first century readers, including photographs, newspaper articles and advertising, early versions of two of the stories, and a satirical poem by Joyce about his publication woes.

"Criticism" brings together eight illuminating essays on the most frequently taught stories in Dubliners—"Araby," "Eveline," "After the Race," "The Boarding House," "Counterpoints," "A Painful Case," and "The Dead." Contributors include David G. Wright, Heyward Ehrlich, Margot Norris, James Fairhall, Fritz Senn, Morris Beja, Roberta Jackson, and Vincent J. Cheng.

Midwest Book Review
Rudall’s new translation returns a notable play to a new audience...an excellent version emerges from the shadows of greatness. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description
A Doll's House is a play written in 1879 by Norweigian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This play, being Ibsen's most famous, is a required reading in many high schools and colleges around the world. Although the play was considered controversial when it was originally published, it's critical view of victorian marriage is now seen as being educational. This work is known for its unconventional ending, which ends in a discussion instead of an unraveling, which are common in most plays.

Midwest Book Review
Rudall’s new translation returns a notable play to a new audience...an excellent version emerges from the shadows of greatness. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description
A Doll's House is a play written in 1879 by Norweigian playwright Henrik Ibsen. This play, being Ibsen's most famous, is a required reading in many high schools and colleges around the world. Although the play was considered controversial when it was originally published, it's critical view of victorian marriage is now seen as being educational. This work is known for its unconventional ending, which ends in a discussion instead of an unraveling, which are common in most plays.