About: War and Peace by Leo Tol­stoy is a fic­tional book first pub­lished in 1869. The work is regarded as one of the most impor­tant works of world lit­er­a­ture. The copy I read was trans­lated by Louise and Aylmer Maude. 1350 pages Pub­lisher: Oxford Uni­ver­sity Press, USA; New edition ISBN: 0199232768 My rating for War & Peace – 5 Great price on this book in paper or elec­tronic format More books by Leo Tolstoy Thoughts: It took me a while to read War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy, not only for the obvious reason (1,024 pages) but also because I read it in spurts, between reading other books. If you didn’t read War & Peace you should, not only is it full with studies of the human condition, but also full of wisdom which is still relevant to this day. I felt that I learned a lot from reading this book, not only about history, but also about culture and human intelligence. It’s too bad that if Tolstoy would have lived today, War & Peace wouldn’t even have been published. It’s not popular, too long and too tiresome – they would say. But this is real literature, with validity and…

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have a great appreciation and interest in World War II. Please read and share this post with everyone you know. And think of the media circus, flags at half staff, and all the things that were said of Whitney Houston when she died and Michael Jackson when he died. . This hero died with barely anyone’s notice. “Shifty” By Chuck Yeager Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you’ve seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them. I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn’t know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the “Screaming Eagle,” the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat. Making conversation, I asked him if he’d been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He…

Roald Dahl, the adored children’s author wrote 19 children’s books including James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Even though Nikolas Rokoff, Tarzan’s enemy from previous books, died, his henchman Alexis Paulvitch is very much alive and wants to even the score. Rokoff lures the son of Tarzan & Jane, Jack, away from London but the resourceful young man escapes with the help of Akut the ape.

The pub­lisher is giv­ing away one copy to three (3) winners of The Gods of Heavenly Punishment–to enter fill out the Raf­fle­copt­ter form at the end of the post. On Writing Unlikable Places A few months back, like many writers—and women writers in particular, I suspect–I followed the literary debate over “likable” characters with some interest. For those who might have missed, it all started with an interview Publishers Weekly sat down to with novelist Claire Messud, and their guileless assertion that Nora, the unambiguously furious main character of Messud’s novel The Woman Upstairs, wasn’t someone they’d “want to be friends with.” As Jennifer Weiner later put it in Slate in her thought-provoking response to the exchange, Messud all but “flipped the table”: For heaven’s sake, what kind of question is that? Would you want to be friends with Humbert Humbert? Would you want to be friends with Mickey Sabbath? Saleem Sinai? Hamlet? Krapp? Oedipus? Oscar Wao? Antigone? Raskolnikov? Any of the characters in The Corrections? Any of the characters in Infinite Jest? Any of the characters in anything Pynchon has ever written? Or Martin Amis? Or Orhan Pamuk? Or Alice Munro, for that matter? If you’re reading to find friends,…

An account of the assassination of President James A. Garfield. Mr. Garfield was the 20th President of these US and the second to be assassinated in office.

Jason Mott, author of The Returned and newly minted New York Times best seller list has been kind enough to take some time out from his successful career and answer a few questions for this blog.

Robert Pirsig is known for his book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance telling of a motorcycle trip he and his son Chris from Minneapolis -San Francisco.

“The merchandise was not the thing, and neither, for that matter, was the nostalgia. It was all about the neighborhood, that space where common sorrow could be drowned in common passion as the talk grew ever more scholarly and wild.” Represent for Brokeland in this limited-edition tee by Michael Chabon. Authentic vintage-label flavor meets a spiral groove sampled from the New York Times bestseller Telegraph Avenue (now out in paperback from HarperCollins). Check out my thoughts on Telegraph Avenue. Brokeland: it’s a record store, it’s a neighborhood, it’s an independent, if fictional, state of mind. All profits to be divided between 826 National and The MacDowell Colony. Get your LIMITED EDITION Tee Today!

While visiting the blog River City Reading, I noticed a post about 21st Century Novels which were destined to become classics published by The Inquisitr (original post). As with any list, it is a point of contention and debate. I don’t feel that reviewers decide what is or what is not a classic, but the people do as well as time. After all, many books which we consider classics these days were serialized adventure stories in newspapers (The Three Musketeers for example). But first – here is the list: 15. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen 14. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green 13. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver 12. A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin 11. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 10. The Help by Kathryn Stockett 9. Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron 8. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon 7. American Gods by Neil Gaiman 6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling 5. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson 4. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 3. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 2. The Road by Cormac…