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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

· Author: Stieg Larsson · Binding: Paperback · Creator (Role: Translator): Reg Keeland · Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738 · EAN: 9780307454546 · Feature: ISBN13: 9780307454546 | Condition: New | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed · ISBN: 0307454541 · Label: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard · Manufacturer: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 600 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2009-06-23 · Publisher: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard · Release Date: 2009-06-23 · Studio: Vintage Crime / Black Lizard
» An international publishing sensation, Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.highly overrated
2010-09-02
Although I am not really a mystery fan, if a book is well written, I am more than happy to dig in. With all the hype surrounding this series and friends who loved this book I was really hoping to enjoy this book. I thought it would be somehow different. From the very beginning I found it to be quite formulaic, very much a mystery novel. Which is fine if that's what you're in to. The title character is interesting, and parts of the book are engrossing, but on the whole I found it to be very unevenly written and really not that good. I liked the second book even less. I was really expecting more.
The next one is even better
2010-09-02
The first half of the book is tough to get through and I almost gave up but my wife pushed me on promising it gets better and books two and three in the series are must reads. And so many people were raving I figured I couldn't just give up. I'm glad I kept going. There are just so many characters with difficult Swedish names to track that is what made the first half of the book tough for me....but once I got in the groove there was no looking back. The next book in the series is better...(I saved it for precious vacation / beach reading)and I look forward to number three!

List: $27.95
New: $11.49
Used: $11.79
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

· Author: Stieg Larsson · Binding: Hardcover · Creator (Role: Translator): Reg Keeland · Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738 · EAN: 9780307269997 · Edition: First American Edition · Feature: ISBN13: 9780307269997 | Condition: New | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed · Format: Deckle Edge · ISBN: 030726999X · Label: Knopf · Manufacturer: Knopf · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 576 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2010-05-25 · Publisher: Knopf · Release Date: 2010-05-25 · Studio: Knopf
» The stunning third and final novel in Stieg Larsson’s internationally best-selling trilogy

Lisbeth Salander—the heart of Larsson’s two previous novels—lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She’s fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she’ll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge—against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

Once upon a time, she was a victim. Now Salander is fighting back.Disappointing Third Act (2.5 stars)
2010-09-02
Have to agree with all the two- and three-star reviews of this, the third act in the Millenium (Blomkvist-Salander) Trilogy. The first hundred pages or so are okay, as are the last 100 or so... but my goodness, the middle (bulk) of this story is tedious and mind-numbing for the most part, with tons of 'bit players' entering the plot, which focuses endlessly on uncovering the sordid timeline of 'the Section' and the 'Zalachenko Affair' -- most of these players having difficult-to-keep-straight Swedish last names, which decreases the overall pleasurability (and increases the confusion) in plowing through this third installment. Ultimately I'm sure most fans of the first two books -- both of which I give a solid 4 or 5 stars -- will be glad they finished the trilogy, and the ending is satisfying (if somewhat predictable).
But overall I have to tell it like it is: this one was not up to the same standards of story-telling and pacing as the first two.
Not Close to As Good As the First Book
2010-09-01
Honestly, if you want the long and the short of it, without spoilers, this book comes nowhere close to being as good as the first novel in Larrson's series, much like the second novel. It just doesn't. Way too much summary, lots of rehashing events three or four times through the perspectives of multiple characters, for what effect I have no idea, but it becomes so redundant that it fails to move the plot forward and it's painful in a novel that is billed as a "thriller". It's a much slower read with much fewer heart racing moments. It seems like the product of an author who was trying to milk a good idea for way too long. It's a very Salander centric novel, which normally would be a good thing, accept she spends almost the entire time in a hospital bed awaiting trial. She's not allowed to go out and cause havoc like in the first two, which would be a blast. The Salander moments are what make the series.

The ultimate killer of this novel is that there is no mystery. Unlike Dragon Tattoo and even a little bit of "Played with Fire", there is utterly no mystery either as a central plot point, or even in the conflicts themselves. What this amounts to is absolutely no suspense. The reader knows where the book is going even before the book knows its going there, and that's a death knell. It really is. This is one of the most predictable books I have ever read, and maybe that is partially intentional, but it shouldn't have been. People will rate this novel high because it is the sequel of maybe one of the greatest pure mysteries ever written, but the reality is, it doesn't deserve to stand along side Dragon Tattoo. Its not in the same league, not even the same sport, and I suspect on some level if Larsson had not died it would have been reworked and rewritten. It does have the feel of being in manuscript form, or possibly even being unfinished, a draft if you will of something that could have been much better. We will never know, and that's the ultimate tragedy of Larsson's passing, that we will never really get a "true" sequel that does the first novel justice. Ultimately I think the final two novels illustrate the pitfalls of serializing a character in that you can never really maintain the punch and suspense of when they were originally introduced. It's just too hard. If the first novel was a superb hollywood film then books two and three are like a TV series spin off...they may capture some of the zeitgeist of the original idea, but they verge into self parody far too often to do the characters justice.

This will fuel debate in literary circles that Larsson was just an amateur writer who got lucky with his first novel, captured lightning in a bottle, and was never able to do so again. I don't believe this. I think he could have been a major heavyweight and could have gone on to duplicate the success of Dragon Tattoo. Sadly he didn't get that chance, and we are all poorer for it. But to pretend that he did it in this novel or the one before it, would be an equal dishonor, as it is not his best work.



List: $17.99
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Used: $10.00
Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)

· Author: Suzanne Collins · Binding: Hardcover · EAN: 9780439023511 · ISBN: 0439023513 · Label: Scholastic Press · Manufacturer: Scholastic Press · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 400 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2010-08-24 · Publisher: Scholastic Press · Reading Level: Young Adult · Release Date: 2010-08-24 · Studio: Scholastic Press
»

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12. Powerful and haunting, this thrilling final installment of Suzanne Collins’s groundbreaking The Hunger Games trilogy promises to be one of the most talked about books of the year.

 

AWESOME!!!!!
2010-09-03
This book is like a roller coaster! I could never predict what was going to happen! She kept me hanging up til the very last page! A little sad at the ending, but isn't that how it usually ends in real life? Someone has to bow out gracefully. Knowing the characters like I feel I do, a mushy, talk about it ending would not have worked. Some feelings are just too deep to talk about. It was easier to just leave. (Trying not to spoil it for some!) These books gave me so much to think about as far as the human spirit, what happens when we let the government have too much power, how we can all turn to savages when our lives are in danger, how far would I go to protect someone I love, and on and on. An awesome set of books!!!
Best one of the series
2010-09-03
I loved The Hunger Games, and I thought Catching Fire was a good follow-up. Mockingjay might be the best of the three. The playing field is wide open now - we're not going to have another Hunger Games to dictate the story line. We get war, more Gale, and yes, a lot of dark material. We also get some great character development. I love the way Katniss is constantly strategizing, analyzing the people around her, but all the while trying to maintain an high sense of morality and ethics in impossible situations. She has a wonderful sense of honor during war. You might go into the book thinking it's going to be largely about which guy she's going to pick in the end, but it's ultimately a story about survival against all odds, with honor intact.

List: $15.95
New: $7.40
Used: $6.75
The Girl Who Played with Fire (Vintage)

· Author: Stieg Larsson · Binding: Paperback · Creator (Role: Translator): Reg Keeland · Dewey Decimal Number: 839.738 · EAN: 9780307454553 · Edition: 1 Reprint · Feature: ISBN13: 9780307454553 | Condition: New | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed · ISBN: 030745455X · Label: Vintage · Manufacturer: Vintage · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 630 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2010-03-23 · Publisher: Vintage · Release Date: 2010-03-23 · Studio: Vintage
» Part blistering espionage thriller, part riveting police procedural, and part piercing exposé on social injustice, The Girl Who Played with Fire is a masterful, endlessly satisfying novel.
 
Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander’s innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past. 


From the Paperback edition.Could not put it down
2010-09-02
A great suspense story with characters who are so very interesting. How this author's mind must have worked to craft this story....It's a shame we'll only get the trilogy. I can't wait to read number three in the series.
Much better than the first book.. but still annoyingly flawed
2010-09-02
Here on , another person wrote that he felt "bad" criticizing the first book, because trashing the book of a "dead" author, is unfair... (obviously he cant explain or fight back).
I also share that feeling.
So, I'm going to trash the Editor and the Translator.
What kind of idiot editor... leaves in mind numbing, boring details starting with the first 50 (plus) pages?!?
(This problem is not isolated to just the beginning of the book, but the "beginning" is the most boring part of the book).

The beginning is a "very" detailed "re-hash" of the first novel. So much so.. you almost don't have to read the first book to understand the second.
That said... if you drink 10 cups of coffee and smack yourself in the face several times,(without hurting yourself) ... after the first 50 or 60 pages, the story actually gets interesting!
Why?
Because the book focuses on the most interesting character, which is Lisbeth Salander.
(Mikael Blomkvist is a snore and his character dominated the first book).

I just don't believe a man can write a "truly believable" book about a woman's perspective. (abused or not).
That said.... Stieg Larsson did an O.K. job.
But, the Editor and Translator did a lousy job.
I'm 56 years old and an avid lifetime reader... 100% heterosexual woman,.... and I have never stopped being amazed at what a "screwed-up" distortion a mans perspective is ... on what they think women feel and think.
Ladies... are we that mysterious!?!
Or is the DNA in men simply clueless ?

Don't get me wrong. I adore men!
But damn, do they always think only with their penis when it comes to a woman? (no pun intended).

The only reason I even bought the second book... I found it in a discount store for only $3:00 Dollars.
I'm glad I spent the 3 bucks. It was worth it. (once I got past the first 60 pages).

Seriously, the middle of the book is very good. The ending of the book... is "a man's" ending.
I'm not saying that a woman can't be "far more" intelligent, determined and vicious than a man.
(Ladies, you know we are).
But, Lisbeth is a woman. (sexual presence changes nothing)... She is fascinating, strong and resilient...
yet, she is written like a man inside a woman.

Bottom line.... I liked the second book.... and I will read the third... with the aid of 10 cups of coffee.

List: $0.00
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

· Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle · Binding: Kindle Edition · Format: Kindle Book · Label: Public Domain Books · Manufacturer: Public Domain Books · Product Group: eBooks · Product Type Name: ABIS_EBOOKS · Publication Date: 1999-03-01 · Publisher: Public Domain Books · Release Date: 1999-03-01 · Studio: Public Domain Books
» This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Good, but what's the big deal
2010-08-10
Numerical corruption and 140 year old english aside, this is a pretty good book, but I prefer my crime mysteries to present the facts so that I might be able to solve it as well. Sherlock Holmes would be much more a hero in my mind if all of the evidence was presented, and yet it was still difficult to solve the issue at hand.

An entertaining read, nonetheless.
Short stories for short attention spans
2010-08-03
Bonus points to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes for being a free kindle book and for being one of the greatest firsts of its kind. That being said, the quality of the book is not quiet as "timeless" as I had hoped. I read Sherlock Holmes right after finishing Treasure Island and before that, Around the World in 80 Days. Needless to say, these other "classics" I had picked up were more impressive than I could have imagined and easily hold their own to anything written in modern adventure/thriller novels. I wish the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes gave the readers a little more freedom to venture other possible solutions and to really stir the imagination but, sadly, it does not.

List: $16.00
New: $7.54
Used: $6.98
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

· Author: Elizabeth Gilbert · Binding: Paperback · Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4 · EAN: 9780143118428 · Edition: Reissue · Feature: ISBN13: 9780143118428 | Condition: New | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed · ISBN: 0143118420 · Label: Penguin (Non-Classics) · Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics) · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 352 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2010-06-29 · Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) · Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
» This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls "Anne Lamott’s hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sister") is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.Not worth the hype
2010-09-02
I wanted to like this book. Everyone I knew loved it and said I had to read this book. I didn't make it past Italy. I was disappointed that she was paid to take this trip (book advance) and wondered how much of it was manufactured for the book. Also, to me, her tone seemed haughty and self-important.
Poor little Rich girl
2010-09-02
I am trying to get through this "book" because it is an assignment. It is slow, boring and depressing. She quits her job and dashes around the globe to find herself. Rich family and friends meet her in distant countries as she travels. Can you say spoiled brat with rich rich rich friends and family. She had no worries she just wanted to get out of her marriage and flit around with no responsibilities and no boundries. She is shallow and lacks any admirable characteristics.
I am glad I was able to get this book on .com for pennies. It will not be too much of a loss when I throw it in the trash.

List: $28.00
New: $14.98
Used: $18.66
Freedom: A Novel

· Author: Jonathan Franzen · Binding: Hardcover · Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 · EAN: 9780374158460 · ISBN: 0374158460 · Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux · Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 576 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2010-08-31 · Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux · Release Date: 2010-08-31 · Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
»

Patty and Walter Berglund were the new pioneers of old St. Paul—the gentrifiers, the hands-on parents, the avant-garde of the Whole Foods generation. Patty was the ideal sort of neighbor, who could tell you where to recycle your batteries and how to get the local cops to actually do their job. She was an enviably perfect mother and the wife of Walter’s dreams. Together with Walter—environmental lawyer, commuter cyclist, total family man—she was doing her small part to build a better world.

But now, in the new millennium, the Berglunds have become a mystery. Why has their teenage son moved in with the aggressively Republican family next door? Why has Walter taken a job working with Big Coal? What exactly is Richard Katz—outré rocker and Walter’s college best friend and rival—still doing in the picture? Most of all, what has happened to Patty? Why has the bright star of Barrier Street become “a very different kind of neighbor,” an implacable Fury coming unhinged before the street’s attentive eyes?

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire. In charting the mistakes and joys of Freedom’s characters as they struggle to learn how to live in an ever more confusing world, Franzen has produced an indelible and deeply moving portrait of our time.

Jonathan Franzen and Rich White People Problems
2010-09-02
I have a literary hard-on for James Joyce. Not so much the author - he wore an eye patch, and (for the millionth time) I'm not into dudes - but his characters, his prose. Ulysses, the sprawling tome of a text he was best known for, gave more than a little to David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, which in turn, arguably, begat Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections (they were close friends before Wallace offed himself - depression - a few years ago). Following this logic, it's pretty safe to say Franzen's new novel Freedom is exactly what Joyce did with Finnegan's Wake: a highly anticipated follow up to a popular work, sharing the same themes, but in a broader spectrum. Freedom studies a couple and their stressors, in the same way that Franzen's 2001 release, The Corrections, focused on the same topic; however, the couple's stressors now expand from Alzheimers and the disappointments of their grown children, to rape survival and Bush (Dubya)-era Conservatism-cum-Environmentalism.

If The Corrections was the overeager Yale MBA grad, Freedom is the wizened Wall Street CEO. Franzen's prose still dazzles, alternating between page-length sentences and note-perfect teenage-to-parent dialogue. The characters, Twin Cities transplants and the hipster rock star who tries to do them in, are flesh and blood. The title - I get just as turgid for perfect titles as I do for Joyce - couldn't have been anything else, even if it does come off as cliche at first blush.

The only complaint I have about Franzen is his stubborn refusal to say something new; if there's one thing to take away from Freedom, it's that rich White people have problems. (It's the same thing you see in almost everything Franzen writes - How To Be Alone is basically, "I'm well-read, successful, and corn-fed: life is tough because everyone around me isn't.") Maybe this isn't exactly a complaint, though, because it's also a reason why Franzen holds a place on the (small) list of my favorite contemporary writers.
Heartbreaking and inspiring, with unforgettable plot twists and credible characters
2010-09-02
Barack Obama went to Martha's Vineyard and there obtained, a week before its release, a copy of Jonathan Franzen's novel. That same week, my family was heading to the Bahamas, and because we'd be isolated on a island three miles long and half a mile wide, with spotty internet access and even more problematic electricity, I was able to convince the publisher to give me an embargoed copy of the book.

I doubt that the President has made his way through all 562 pages of "Freedom." My wife and I have made it to the end. It required no effort of will, just a little negotiation ("I'll take the kid to the beach if you'll use the time to read"). That is how, on our final morning overlooking the pink sands where Corona makes its wish-you-were-there beer commercials, I staggered to the end, sobbing as I read the last ten pages. My wife finished the book while we waited for our baggage in New York, and then couldn't speak for most of the cab ride home.

What's the big deal?

The people.

Not the characters. The people. Men and women we come to know and care about, not because they're so admirable but because they're so real.

Like Patty Berglund, a former college basketball star, now a stay-at-home mom. In her slowly gentrifying neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, she was, Franzen writes, "already fully the thing that was just starting to happen to the rest of the street." That is: "a morning of baby-encumbered errands, an afternoon of public radio, the Silver Palate Cookbook, cloth diapers, drywall compound and latex paint, and then Goodnight Moon, then zinfandel." The questions that plagued her: "Where to recycle batteries? ... How elaborate did a kitchen water filter need to be? ...Could coffee beans be ground the night before you used them, or did this have to be done in the morning?"

Like Walter Berglund, her husband. Son of a man who owned a small motel in Hibbing --- yes, that Hibbing, where Bob Zimmerman grew up and dreamed himself into Bob Dylan --- he was the very nice guy you never really knew in college because he was studying so hard and working his way through school. He'd met Patty there and knew she was The One, and waited for her to know it. And when she said yes, and shared that her dream was motherhood, he shelved every exalted ambition to get a job in Corporate Communications at 3M. When we meet him, he's the executive director of Minnesota's Nature Conservancy, having trouble with his teen-aged son, about to move to Washington for a new job --- he'll sell his St. Paul house "near the bottom of the post-9/11 slump."

One more character drives this novel, Walter's college roommate and unlikely best friend. Richard Katz is the leader of nihilistic rock bands, and he's made for the part: talk, dark and arrogant, deadly attractive to women and eager to exploit that attraction. You don't want the truth served up with nasty spin? Keep away from Richard.

Patty keeps away. Not because she dislikes Richard --- she craves him. But she's made her choice: a man who will do anything to create a home with her. Hot sex? It passes. It has to. Except that....

This is Fiction 101: Building Characters, and if you're surprised how hard it grabs you, it's because today's most acclaimed fiction is too "literary" to care more about people than language or structure or the next definition of fiction. Franzen, like Balzac and Dickens, is a journalist at heart --- what he's created in "Freedom" is this generation's "Bonfire of the Vanities."

The mark of this kind of novel is not only that it feels true but that it becomes true. There's a sequence here about American profiteering during the early days of the Iraq War that's excruciating in its account of American officials who didn't give a damn. Now, as the war "ends, recent articles --- like this one, among many --- remind us of billions lost and unaccounted for. These crimes, for the government, are consigned to a memory hole. But there's no lack of accountability here. Not on Franzen's watch.

Look anywhere in this novel, and you'll see how it defines our time. Like that bird on the cover. It's not decorative. It's going to have its own preserve in West Virginia, courtesy of a billionaire who will, in exchange for a few protected acres, get to blow up mountains and harvest coal. And just as we're reading this, here is Jane Mayer's revelatory New Yorker profile of David and Charles Koch, the billionaires whose companies pollute and despoil while David gives hundreds of millions to Lincoln Center, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Let's consider the title. Franzen's characters are not like the Koch brothers or the coal magnate or the Iraq fraudsters. They are their victims, living in an America where we make our biggest choices as shoppers. It's a dreary, ugly culture. Even Walter --- staid Walter --- comes to make a surprising indictment: "As long as you've got your six-foot-wide-plasma TV and the electricity to run it, you don't have to think about any of the ugly consequences. You can watch Survivor: Indonesia till there's no more Indonesia!"

The personal quarrels? Just as lacerating. I can't imagine having a fight with my wife as ugly as the ones in these pages. But they're not set-pieces. They're the intimate moments of people whose conflicts, though maybe not ours, are recognizable to us. And when those fights end, sometimes there is clarity, even beauty:

"She cried then, torrentially, and he lay down with her. Fighting had become their portal to sex, almost the only way it ever happened anymore. While the rain lashed and the sky flashed, he tried to fill her with self-worth and desire, tried to convey how much he needed her to be the person he could bury his cares in. It never quite worked, and yet, when they were done, there came a stretch of minutes in which they lay in the quiet majesty of long marriage, forgot themselves in shared sadness and forgiveness for everything they'd inflicted on each other, and rested."

"The quiet majesty of long marriage" --- that phrase stopped me cold and led me back to the ultimate subject of this book, which is, I think, the challenge of building a functional romantic partnership when you're carrying the legacy of your flawed family and your country's dishonest and exploitative culture. Again, I suspect this challenge isn't unique to Patty and Walter Berglund. It's mine, for sure. And, just maybe, yours.

And that is why the end is so devastating. It's richly symbolic --- and, for once, the symbol works. It sets our fond hopes against our hard realities. It reminds us of the limits of our personal power. It redefines what "freedom" is for people like us, in a time like this. And it suggests, after our big dreams have been crushed, that we may still make smaller dreams come true.

I wish I could be more specific, but that would spoil your experience of "Freedom." Let me just say that the end is everything you want from a great book --- it's not rushed or tacked on or phony or commercial or cynical. It's at once heartbreaking and inspiring, and it makes you both elated and very, very sad. But, most of all, it immortalizes Patty and Walter and confirms what you are, by then, already feeling --- these imaginary people are in your heart, the way your closest friends are.

List: $0.00
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

· Author: Lewis Carroll · Binding: Kindle Edition · Format: Kindle Book · Label: Public Domain Books · Manufacturer: Public Domain Books · Product Group: eBooks · Product Type Name: ABIS_EBOOKS · Publication Date: 1997-05-01 · Publisher: Public Domain Books · Release Date: 1997-05-01 · Studio: Public Domain Books
» This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.lil wet pants
2010-07-26
yo digitty dogs this book is a ham jam yo it was like diggity dawg i pump up the rappin chains it was hizel of the shizel i like thight dawg i reaaly wnt 2 go dawg its like oh yeeah dawg it was of the izzle ghizzle dawgy wawgy frawgy im a shilzzling dawg dawg shizel man just chain off the hook shizel my nizzle
awesome read
2010-07-18
I could just see the movie playing in my head as I read. every detail was visible it was amazing! I loved this book!

List: $6.99
New: $3.24
Used: $0.01
Bake Sale Murder (Lucy Stone Mysteries, No. 13)

· Author: Leslie Meier · Binding: Mass Market Paperback · Dewey Decimal Number: 813 · EAN: 9780758207029 · ISBN: 0758207026 · Label: Kensington · Manufacturer: Kensington · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 288 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2007-12-01 · Publisher: Kensington · Studio: Kensington
» Ever since local developer Fred Stanton and his wife, Mimi, built five modular homes next door to Lucy Stone's farmhouse, life just hasn't been the same. With Mimi complaining about everything from the state of Lucy's lawn to another neighbor's lovable dog, quaint Tinker's Cove, Maine, is now entangled in cul-de-sac politics and backstabbing. And when Mimi doesn't show up for her shift at The Hat and Mitten Fund bake sale, the scent of burnt sugar leads Lucy to a shocking discovery: Mimi, face down on her kitchen floor--with a knife in her back.

While the police start their investigation, Lucy gets busy writing up the murder for the local Pennysaver--and following a few leads of her own. Lucy knows the women in her neighborhood didn't like Mimi, but they certainly didn't want her dead...right?

"I like Lucy Stone a lot, and so will readers." --Carolyn Hart

"Leslie Meier writes with sparkle and warmth." --Chicago Sun Times

"Mothers everywhere will identify with Lucy Stone and the domestic problems she encounters." --Publishers Weekly

Sweet, Likeable Mystery
2010-09-02
This novel was thoroughly enjoyable and easy, light reading. The mystery is woven thoroughout sub plots that focus on family life and specifically the relationships between mothers and daughters, and to some extent the relationships between neighbors as well.

The novel reads like much of Kensington Books' products: think Shopaholic and Jennifer Crusie novels. It's fun, escapist reading that makes up for its cliches and lack of realism with humor and heartfelt dialogue. The whole novel was read in one evening (about 3 hours) and was a great, free Kindle read.
Bake Sale Murder
2010-08-21
I have read all of Leslie Meier's books, always enjoy them. Well written mysteries.

List: $17.99
New: $9.64
Used: $8.75
The Hunger Games

· Author: Suzanne Collins · Binding: Hardcover · EAN: 9780439023481 · Edition: 1st · Feature: ISBN13: 9780439023481 | Condition: New | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed · ISBN: 0439023483 · Label: Scholastic Press · Manufacturer: Scholastic Press · Number Of Items: 1 · Number Of Pages: 384 · Product Group: Book · Product Type Name: ABIS_BOOK · Publication Date: 2008-09-14 · Publisher: Scholastic Press · Reading Level: Young Adult · Studio: Scholastic Press
» Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

Grammatical Flotsam and Jetsam
2010-09-03
I'm a big fan of "Survivor" so I hardly had to read any of the back flap of THE HUNGER GAMES before I was hooked. 24 kids in a fight to the death on live TV sounds gruesome, and it was, but it was also intriguing. I was in Katniss Everdeen's head from the beginning; I felt her desperation and I understood the misery of her life in a future North America that requires adolescent participation in these annual games. Yet I enjoyed her clever survivor skills, her strategies and the little self-discoveries she made along the way. This is a YA book that adults will be just as keen for as kids, though some of the shocking and dreadful parts may be too much for some. My only criticism is that the editor dropped the ball on catching typos, poor sentence structure and fragments. I can take a few fragments now and then when they fit the flow of the story, but sometimes the author, Suzanne Collins, pulled me right out of the action and slapped me with grammatical flotsam and jetsam. Still, it was an excellent read.
Thrilling
2010-09-02
I LOOVED this book. I could not put it down. I definitely recommend it to anyone. It's a great quick read and keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Well done!
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