AlbumsnBooks Previews

Cheryl Strayed - Wild: From Lost to Found

2015-05-21T06:02:00.000-07:00

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. After her mother died, Cheryl Strayed left for the Pacific Crest Trail, a world “two feet wide and 2,663 miles long".

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Memoirs Bestsellers Books - Cheryl Strayed's Wild: Info, Plot Summary, Review and Cheryl Strayed Biography.

Author: Cheryl Strayed

Book: Wild: From Lost to Found (336 Pgs.)

Cheryl Strayed - Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Cheryl Strayed: Wild - Review
Reviewed by Melanie Rehak

When did you know you weren’t going to like Eat, Pray, Love? For me, it was the moment when Elizabeth Gilbert—weeping on the bathroom floor of the perfect house she shared with the lovely man she no longer wanted to be married to for reasons she couldn’t really explain—looked in desperation to God, asking for help. What he told her, gently, in his beneficent Godlike way, was to go back to bed. And just like that, she knew everything would work out.

In other words, she was sure in her belief that the world was a place of comfort, and that her spot in it, while temporarily in chaos, was ultimately safe. For what else are our perceptions of God, after all, if not reflections of what we know to be true about the universe he created? That comforting conclusion made, as it had to, for a story that was pleasant, mild, romantic, and completely lacking urgency.

When Cheryl Strayed asks God for help early in her memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, the result is somewhat different. The scene is the hospital room where her adored mother will soon die at 45, a merciless 49 days after her diagnosis of lung cancer. “I prayed to the whole wide universe and hoped God would be in it, listening to me,” Strayed writes. “I prayed and prayed, and then I faltered. Not because I couldn’t find God, but because suddenly I absolutely did: God was there, I realized, and God had no intention of making things happen or not, of saving my mother’s life. God was not a granter of wishes. God was a ruthless bitch.”

Despite a bedside vigil, Strayed just misses her mother’s death. “I howled and howled and howled,” she writes, “rooting my face into her body like an animal. She’d been dead an hour. Her limbs had cooled, but her belly was still an island of warm.” Her book is crammed with moments like this—passages of vicious discomfort with herself, her family, and her physical surroundings that are almost painful to read. Her childhood was scrappy and impoverished, including a long stint in a house in the Minnesota north woods without electricity or running water. Her biological father was abusive, and it was years before her mother finally managed to leave him. In the aftermath of her mother’s death, her much-loved stepfather distances himself and remarries quickly. Her two siblings drift away, and her young marriage fails as well, in a kind of hideous slow motion punctuated with affairs and constant moving. Four years later, Strayed is 26 years old, divorced, a veteran of innumerable meaningless sexual encounters, plenty of bad waitressing jobs, and a fortunately short-lived heroin addiction.

She survived it all by adding a literal burden to her many psychological ones. Saddled with a backpack so heavy with useless gear that she names it Monster, Strayed sets out to walk 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon and into Washington state. The first time she tries to put Monster on, in a chapter appropriately titled “Hunching in a Remotely Upright Position,” she literally can’t lift it. Why did she fill it with things like a foldable saw and a huge camera flash, you might ask? Strayed has your answer: “Because I was a big fat idiot and I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, that’s why.”

But Strayed is not the sort of person who will let an enormous pack deter her for long. She hoists the beast onto her back at last and heads out of her hotel room toward the trail, “a world I’d never been to, and yet had known was there all along, one I’d staggered to in sorrow and confusion and fear and hope,” she recalls in philosophical mode, looking back to the spring of 1995 when her hike began. And then she summarizes for us, in a single, elegant sweep of a sentence, both her problem and its only possible resolution: “The wanting was a wilderness and I had to find my own way out of the woods.”

It is this voice—fierce, billowing with energy, precise—that carries Wild. (It is also the voice that has made Strayed so loved as Sugar, the pseudonymous advice columnist for The Rumpus. After two years in the job, she went public on Valentine’s Day.) In it, there is room for emotional breakdowns on the PCT; longings for Snapple lemonade that one imagines rival the ones she previously reserved for drugs; descriptions of the beauty, misery, and danger—not to mention moose and rattlesnakes—she encountered on her 100-day walk. By turns both devastating and glorious, Strayed uses it to narrate her progress and setbacks on the trail and within herself, occasionally flashing back to fill in the events that brought her to this desperate traverse.

Cheryl Strayed - Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail * Most Popular Non-Fiction-Memoirs Bestsellers Books * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken

2015-05-21T03:52:00.000-07:00

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. The story of World War II hero Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic track star who survived a plane crash in the Pacific theater, spent 47 days drifting on a raft and then survived more than two and a half years as a prisoner of war in three brutal Japanese prisoner-of-war camps.

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Biographic Bestsellers Books - Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: Info, Plot Summary, Review and Laura Hillenbrand Biography.

Author: Laura Hillenbrand

Book: Unbroken (473 Pgs.)

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken - Review
Reviewed by Gary Krist

"If I knew I had to go through those experiences again," Louis Zamperini once said of his years as an Army bombardier in World War II, "I'd kill myself." That's a rash statement, but after reading "Unbroken," Laura Hillenbrand's powerful new book about Zamperini's life, few people are likely to doubt him. In the decades since the war's end, publishers have churned out so many "epic tales of endurance" and "amazing sagas of survival" that a reviewer can be excused for approaching yet another one with a certain skepticism. But Zamperini's story has a legitimate claim as one of the most remarkable - and appalling - to emerge from those perilous times. Sometimes the publisher's press release doesn't need to exaggerate.

Not that there's much in "Unbroken" that will be unfamiliar to devotees of wartime narrative nonfiction. Readers of books like James Bradley's "Flyboys," Doug Stanton's "In Harm's Way" and Hampton Sides's "Ghost Soldiers" will recognize many of Zamperini's tribulations, from the harrowing episodes of air combat over the Pacific to the long weeks battling sharks and hunger on a flimsy life raft to the mind-boggling brutalities of incarceration in a Japanese POW camp. Rarely, however, has a single man had to endure such an extraordinary array of woes.

Hillenbrand, whose previous book was "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," seems drawn to underdogs who must struggle against extreme adversity, and in Zamperini she has found an example even pluckier than the little racehorse that could. This time, moreover, she has a subject who can actually speak to her. Zamperini has published his own memoir - "Devil at My Heels," written with David Rensin (2003) - but he cooperated fully with Hillenbrand's project, and much of "Unbroken" is based on extensive telephone interviews with him and those close to him.

This heavy reliance on personal reminiscence does have drawbacks; Hillenbrand presents as fact a few too many stories that seem like family legend. (Did a neighbor really sew little Louie's severed toe back on his foot?) Such improbable anecdotes, though, are largely confined to the book's early pages. Judging by the ample end notes, Hillenbrand has tried hard to verify Zamperini's memories in the written historical record.

The book's early chapters unfold like a "Seabiscuit Redux," as Hillenbrand sketches the career of an undisciplined misfit who starts to find redemption by learning to run very, very fast. After a childhood in Torrance, Calif., notable mostly for flagrant misbehavior ("Louie," Hillenbrand writes, "couldn't bear to be corralled."), Zamperini achieves early success as a high-school miler. Eventually, he qualifies for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and although he doesn't win a medal, he performs well enough to attract the notice of Adolf Hitler himself. ("Ah," the FÃ¼hrer remarks when they are introduced, "you're the boy with the fast finish.")

Zamperini's troubles begin when war breaks out and he joins the Army Air Forces. After surviving several furious engagements with Japanese forces, his plane goes down on a routine search mission, leaving Zamperini and two other airmen adrift on the Pacific with little more than a handful of chocolate bars. This ordeal proves difficult enough, as the men face thirst, exposure and the rigors of sensory deprivation for 47 days. But the real test comes when they are finally captured by the Japanese. Shuttled through a series of increasingly hellish POW camps, Zamperini must endure two years of intense physical and psychological cruelty. One notoriously sadistic jailor - nicknamed "the Bird" - singles Zamperini out for special attention, subjecting him to a campaign of abuse so severe that its effects continue to plague him long after his liberation by American troops.

As the title "Unbroken" suggests, however, the book has an upbeat ending. I won't reveal specifics here, but suffice it to say that Zamperini is still alive as of this writing, having spent much of his postwar life as an inspirational speaker. Now 93, he claims that he hasn't gotten angry about anything for some 40 years. So what is it that enables a man to endure such trials and emerge unbroken? Hillenbrand credits Zamperini's defiance and irrepressible spirit. "The same attributes that had made him the boy terror of Torrance," she contends, "[sustained] him in the greatest struggle of his life."

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken * Most Popular Non-Fiction-Biography Bestsellers Books * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Top Non-Fiction Best Sellers Books

2015-05-20T17:12:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books (including Biographies, Memoirs and Historical): Info, Synopsis, Reviews and Author's Biographies.

Top Non-Fiction Best Sellers Books

Ayn Rand
The Virtue of Selfishness
Booker T. Washington
Up from Slavery
Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl

Truman Capote
In Cold Blood
Daniel James Brown
The Boys in the Boat
Laura Hillenbrand
Unbroken

Cheryl Strayed
Wild: From Lost to Found

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt: Top Non-Fiction Best Sellers Books

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat

2015-05-20T16:30:00.001-07:00

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat Info, Plot Summary, Review and Daniel James Brown Biography.

Author: Daniel James Brown

Book: The Boys in the Boat (416 Pgs.)

The non-fiction book is about the University of Washington 8-oared crew which represented the United States in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, and narrowly beat out Italy and Germany to win the Gold Medal.

There are 2 backstories, firstly that all 9 members of the Washington team came from lower middle class families and had to struggle to earn their way through school during the depths of the Depression. Along with the chronicle of their victories and defeats in domestic competition the reader learns the importance of synchronization of the 8 rowers as they respond to the commands of the coxswain and his communications with the stroke, consistent pacing, and sprint to the finish so that all team members are left completely exhausted and in pain at the end of a competitive race.

The second backstory begins with a depiction of Hitler decreeing construction of the luxurious German venues at which the Games would take place. Along the way the book also explains how the Nazis successfully covered up the evidence of their harsh and inhumane treatment of the Jews so as to win worldwide applause for the 1936 Olympic Games, duping the United States Olympic Committee among others.

The townspeople of Holcomb and other friends of the Clutters are deeply affected by the murders. This includes Nancy's best friend, Sue, and Nancy's boyfriend, Bobby. The townspeople perceived the Clutters as the family "least likely" in the world to be murdered. Unable to conceive that the killers were strangers, many of them become suspicious of everyone and anxious about their own safety in the company of their neighbors. The man who heads the murder investigation, Al Dewey, becomes obsessed with both the murderers and the Clutter family. His need to find the killers becomes his driving force in life.

All comes together with a description of the final race. During the 1930s rowing was a popular sport with millions following the action on the radio. The victorious Olympians became national heroes. In accordance with the strictures of amateur athletics the boys sank into relative obscurity after their victory, but still better off than their parents, and for the rest of their lives proud of their accomplishment.

Source: Wikipedia

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat - Review
Reviewed by Bernard von Bothmer

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown, chronicles the University of Washington's nine-man crew-with-coxswain's enormous success during the Great Depression. Brown's tale is a thrilling read. This book would be of interest to anyone interested in the history of sports, collegiate competition, Seattle and the Northwest, America during the 1930s, and the rise of Fascism in Germany.

The Boys in the Boat focuses on the improbable and riveting life of Joe Rantz, and the many hardships he faced. When he entered the University of Washington as a freshman, he had already overcome enormous odds, among them extreme poverty, a fractured family, the early death of his mother, and being virtually abandoned by his father, Harry, when he was a young teenager. His journey to adulthood by itself is a truly amazing story.

Brown's writing flows effortlessly across the page, gliding the reader smoothly along, with all the grace and rhythm of, well, a rowing shell out on a clear, brisk morning. Here's how Brown describes "the most important quality" that the University of Washington's crew coach, Al Ulbrickson, looked for as he chose his boat members. In addition to "raw power, the nearly superhuman stamina, the indomitable willpower, and the intellectual capacity necessary to master the details of technique," what was needed most was "the ability to disregard his own ambitions, to throw his ego over the gunwales, to leave it swirling in the wake of his shell, and to pull, not just for himself, not just for glory, but for the other boys in the boat".

After tracing Joe's utterly improbable journey to college, Brown's focus turns to the intense collegiate rowing rivalry between Washington and the University of California at Berkeley, who won gold in 1932 in Los Angeles and in 1928 in Amsterdam. In addition to defeating California, Washington would have to vanquish the accomplished Eastern crews as well in order to earn their spot in Berlin.

Here, Brown skillfully illustrates the snobbery of the Eastern crews, most from elite universities, and the contempt they held for the Western crews, whom they thought unsophisticated and uncouth. This condescension manifests itself in all sorts of ways, and makes the boys from Seattle's victories all the more satisfying to the reader.

The contrast painted by Brown between the values and ideals of Nazi Germany and the United States were equally striking. In his narrative, Brown pays special attention to Nazi propagandist film director Leni Riefenstahl's movie Olympia. I would urge the reader to go to YouTube to see clips of these powerful films, including film she took of the 1936 Olympic rowing competition itself.

Implied in Brown's enthralling tale is the notion that the 1936 Washington shell becomes a metaphor for the best that America has to offer: meritocracy, teamwork, humbleness, and true grit. Brown writes that the rowers in Washington's top shell "had been winnowed down by punishing competition, and in the winnowing a kind of common character had issued forth: they were all skilled, they were all tough, they were all fiercely determined, but they were all good-hearted. Every one of them had come from humble origins or been humbled by the ravages of the hard times in which they had grown up. Each in his own way, they had learned that nothing could be taken for granted in life, that for all their strengths and good looks and youth, forces were at work in the world that were greater than they. The challenges that they had faced together had taught them humility--the need to subsume their individual egos for the sake of the boat as a whole--and humility was the common gateway through which they were able now to come together and begin to do what they had not been able to do before".

Brown later expands upon this theme, writing that the crew "were now representatives of something much larger than themselves--a way of life, a shared set of values. Liberty was perhaps the most fundamental of those values. But the things that held them together--trust in each other, mutual respect, humility, fair play, watching out for one another--these were also part of what America meant to all of them".

The reader is swept away not only by the tale Brown tells, but the way he makes the reader feel as if he were there: rowing in the shell, out on the frigid waters of Seattle; in the minds of the rowers, full of self-doubt and anxiousness about their status on the team; in Berlin in 1936, with the Nazi Party at the height of its power. You can almost feel the extreme discomfort the rowers felt on those shells, the pain from the icicles on their hands and the lack of oxygen in their lungs.

Brown's writing is utterly majestic when describing the sheer beauty of the sport of rowing. Returning to the Washington shell house early one moonless evening finishing practice, Joe's boat slowly but steadily moved ahead of the other boats on Washington's squad. Soon, the crewmates "couldn't hear anything at all except for the gentle murmur of their blades dipping in and out of the water. They were rowing in utter darkness now. They were alone together in the realm of silence and darkness. Years later, as old men, they all remembered the moment. Bobby Moch recalled, 'You couldn't hear anything except for the oars going in the water ... it'd be a 'zep' and that's all you could hear ... the oarlocks didn't even rattle on the release.' They were rowing perfectly, fluidly, mindlessly. They were rowing as if on another plane, as if in a black void among the stars, just as Peacock [the English-born boat builder and U.W. rowing guru] had said they might. And it was beautiful".

Brown has a remarkable eye for the vivid detail, and brings the reader into the world of the 1930s with tremendous ease. As but one example, Brown's remarkably colorful and dramatic description, step by step, of the rowers spontaneous attempt while competing on the Hudson in New York to go on foot to find Hyde Park and--no, I am not making this up--try to personally meet President Roosevelt is one that the reader will long remember. Brown's writing is so clear, so suspenseful, so evocative, that the scenes cannot help but linger in the reader's mind.

Among many other things, The Boys in the Boat is a reminder that the popularity of certain sports changes over time. One hundred years ago, for example, rowing, cycling, and boxing were all hugely fashionable and were followed intensely by the general public, far more so than today.

(The decline of boxing raises the question: how long will football be king? It has dominated the sports world for the past 25 years, and has never been more popular. Might the concussion issue make football go the way of boxing? Boxing was a part of many school's physical education programs in the mid-twentieth century; does any school allow it today?)

How to explain rowing's popularity during the first part of the 20th century? As a rower friend of mine pointed out, in the early twentieth century, people had a closer relationship to boats and to water. Most all immigrants came to America by boat. Many commuted to work by boat, especially by ferries. Many transported goods by water. A greater percentage of Americans than today lived near the water. Rowing on water was something that more Americans could understand.

While Brown vividly captures America in the 1930s, and Washington's remarkable athletic achievements, this reader had wished that Brown had drawn even shaper distinctions between Hitler's Germany and FDR's America. Facing similar economic conditions, each turned to radically different types of leaders. Perhaps Brown could have touched on the reasons why each people put their faith in such diametrically opposite figures.

Brown also has a tendency to at times show-off a bit his very fluid writing skills, as there are a few slightly overly-written descriptions of the wind blowing through the rowers' hair, the whitecaps forming on the waves, and of the skill needed to shape the perfect rowing shell. And despite the extensive end notes provided, there are also a few instances when readers might question the full accuracy of all the many details of certain scenes, even if Joe Rantz did possess an almost super-human memory.

But these are very minor quibbles. Both elite and weekend-warrior athletes alike will find tremendous inspiration in Brown's tale, and will find it impossible to put the book down. The author astutely captures the nobility of athletics, and its potential to shape character among its participants. - See more at: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/158244#sthash.dxLCiGFd.dpuf

Readers who savored Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption will feel equally moved by Brown's tale of Joe Ranke and his fellow crewmates. (In fact, the hero of Hillebrand's book, the great runner Louis Zamperini, even makes an appearance in the book as the only man on the ship taking the 1936 U.S. Olympic Team across the Atlantic to Germany who could consume more food during the three daily all-you-can eat meals than Joe.)

The astonishing tale of the University of Washington's improbable quest for Olympic gold in 1936 promises to capture the attention of readers for years to come, and will stand alongside with David Halberstam's The Amateurs: The Story of Four Young Men and Their Quest for an Olympic Gold Medal, and Brad Alan Lewis's Assault on Lake Casitas, as perhaps the greatest book about rowing, or, for that matter, amateur athletics generally.

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat * Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood

2015-05-20T15:29:00.001-07:00

In Cold Blood, the true story about the 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife, and two of their four children.

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Info, Plot Summary, Review and Truman Capote Biography.

Author: Truman Capote

Book: In Cold Blood (343 Pgs.)

In Cold Blood tells the true story of the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. The book is written as if it were a novel, complete with dialog, and is what Truman Capote referred to as "New Journalism" — the nonfiction novel. Although this writing style had been used before, the craft and success of In Cold Blood led to its being deemed the true masterwork of the genre. For Truman Capote, it was the last in a series of great works, which included Breakfast at Tiffany's, Other Voices, Other Rooms, and The Grass Harp. In Cold Blood was originally published in four parts in The New Yorker and then released as a novel in 1965. In Cold Blood took six years for Capote to research and write, and it took an incredible toll on Capote, personally — so much so that he never published another book again. In Cold Blood is said to have been his undoing.

The book tells the story of the murder of the Clutter family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy (two older daughters were grown and out of the house), and the events that lead the killers to murder. The family was living in Holcomb, Kansas, and in November 1959, they were brutally killed, with no apparent motive, by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The family was discovered bound and shot to death, with only small items missing from the home. Capote read about the crime in The New York Times soon after it happened, and before the killers were caught, he began his work in Kansas, interviewing the people of Holcomb and doing extensive research with the help of his friend Harper Lee, who would go on to write the classic To Kill a Mockingbird.

Perry and Dick initially get away with the murder, leaving behind scant clues and having no personal connection with the murdered family. Capote explores the motive again and again within his text, eventually concluding that any real motive for the crime lays within Perry — his feelings of inadequacy, his ambiguous sexuality, and his anger at the world and at his family because of his bad childhood. Dick plays the role of true outlaw, but the impact of the killings weighs heavily on him, and his own role in the murders remains unexplained and unclear.

The townspeople of Holcomb and other friends of the Clutters are deeply affected by the murders. This includes Nancy's best friend, Sue, and Nancy's boyfriend, Bobby. The townspeople perceived the Clutters as the family "least likely" in the world to be murdered. Unable to conceive that the killers were strangers, many of them become suspicious of everyone and anxious about their own safety in the company of their neighbors. The man who heads the murder investigation, Al Dewey, becomes obsessed with both the murderers and the Clutter family. His need to find the killers becomes his driving force in life.

While the anxiety in Holcomb grows, the killers move on with their lives. The book follows Perry and Dick to Mexico and back, and incredibly, it seems that they might never be found out and brought to justice. Ultimately, a living witness who can tie the two men to the Clutters, footprints at the crime scene, and the possession of a pair of binoculars and a radio from the Clutter home become the pair's undoing. They are arrested and both confess to their part in the crime. They are tried for murder and convicted; after many years on death row, both men are hanged. During their time on death row, Perry slowly reveals his personal thoughts, his ambitions, and the motives that contributed to his life choices, including the fateful night he and Dick entered the Clutter home.

Source: Cliffsnotes.com

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood - Review
Reviewed by KATE COLQUHOUN

When Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' was first published in 1966, he characterised it as the first "non-fiction novel". What remains remarkable about it, even in a market suffused with narrative history, is Capote's ground-breaking ability to fuse fact with the hard-won skills of fiction. The book – for which he made a reputed 8000 pages of research notes – is plotted and structured with taut writerly flair. Its characters pulse with recognisable life; its places are palpable. Careful prose binds the reader to his unfolding story. Put simply, the book was conceived of journalism and born of a novelist.

Capote engages us from the outset with forensically precise detail that leaves no peeling flake of old Kansas paint unnoticed. First Holcomb, a small town on the limitless wheat plains; then the weather, "ideal for apple-eating, the whitest sunlight descending from the purest sky"; then the house, with spongy carpets, gleaming floors, the whiff of lemon-scented polish and crushed tissues in the corners of its bedroom drawers. In thus slowing the pace, Capote ramps up the tension. We know that this space and its bright silence will be violated. We know that the "certain foreign sounds" are gunshots that will snuff out the lives of four members of the kindly, Methodist Clutter family.

Like the finest crime thrillers, Capote's narrative is rooted in place while the rhythm of the narrative is constantly manipulated. He switches focus between the Clutters and their murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, marking their differences while binding their fates together. Tenses and time frames are intercut and slippery; perspectives are distorted so that the reader is taunted by what she knows yet does not know and, when it comes, the crime itself unfolds in a series of episodes – snapshots of an open purse, cut telephone wires, a bloody footprint. We are voyeurs, peering through a fractured glass pane, powerless to intervene. Holcomb's cop, Al Dewey, reminds us that this is real: "when it comes to murder" he says "you can't respect grief".

Capote is a deeply sympathetic narrator and his apparent detachment is deceptive. Holcomb festers with distrust as, far distant, Perry Smith's boots soak in a washbasin, tinting the water pink. Frustration grows among the officers investigating the apparently motiveless crime; blind alleys are fretfully negotiated. In parallel, the backgrounds of the ex-con drifters emerge. Then, once arrested, it is their fates on which we are fixed and through their eyes that we revisit the murder. "I thought he was a very nice gentleman... I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat". Presenting the crime as a virtually impersonal act, the soft, whispery rush of Smith's voice smacks us in the solar plexus.

Vivid, painstakingly constructed, simultaneously fevered and lingeringly sad, 'In Cold Blood' is a transfixing read. In 1966, this was a new kind of journalism; now, Capote's revolutionary and compelling approach to narrative non-fiction has been much copied, but rarely bettered.

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood * Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Fall Out Boy: American Beauty/American Psycho

2015-05-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

Best Pop Rock-Alternative Rock Albums - Fall Out Boy's album, American Beauty/American Psycho, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Fall Out Boy Profile.

Artist: Fall Out Boy

Album: American Beauty/American Psycho (2015)

Fall Out Boy rose to the forefront of emo pop in the mid-2000s, selling more than four million albums thanks to the band's tabloid-grabbing bassist, able-voiced frontman, and handful of Top 40 hits. The group's four members first came together in suburban Wilmette, a bedroom community 14 miles north of Chicago, around 2001. Vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, drummer Andrew Hurley, and guitarist Joe Trohman had all taken part in various bands connected to Chicago's underground hardcore scene. Most notably, Hurley drummed for Racetraitor, the furiously political metalcore outfit whose brief output was both a rallying point and sticking point within the hardcore community.

As Fall Out Boy, the quartet used the unbridled intensity of hardcore as a foundation for melody-drenched pop-punk, with a heavy debt to the emo scene. They debuted with a self-released demo in 2001, following it up in May 2002 with a split LP (issued on the Uprising label) that also featured Project Rocket, for which Hurley also drummed. The band remained with the label for the release of a mini-LP, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girl, but a bidding war of sorts was already in full swing.

Fall Out Boy eventually signed a deal with Fueled by Ramen, the Florida-based label co-owned by Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Fiorello, but also received an advance from Island Records to record a proper debut album. The advance came with a right of first refusal for Island on Fall Out Boy's next album, but it also financed the recording of Take This to Your Grave, which occurred at Butch Vig's Smart Studios compound in Madison, Wisconsin, with producer Sean O'Keefe (Lucky Boys Confusion, Motion City Soundtrack) at the helm. Take This to Your Grave appeared in May 2003, and Fall Out Boy earned positive reviews for subsequent gigs at South by Southwest and various tour appearances.

Their breakout album, the ambitious From Under the Cork Tree, followed in spring 2005, quickly reaching the Top Ten of Billboard's album chart and spawning two Top Ten hits with "Sugar We're Going Down" and the furiously upbeat "Dance, Dance." The album went double platinum and earned the musicians a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.

Fall Out Boy's underground star status -- driven by the especially extroverted Wentz, who also gained exposure with his clothing line, his Decaydance record label (an imprint of Fueled by Ramen), and eventually a celebrity relationship with Ashlee Simpson -- had boiled over into the mainstream. They toured extensively, supporting the album with international tours, arena shows, TRL visits, late-night television gigs, and music award shows. Without taking a break, the guys then hunkered down to work on their follow-up record with From Under the Cork Tree producer Neil Avron (and, somewhat surprisingly, Babyface). Infinity on High, whose title was taken from a line in one of Van Gogh's personal letters, appeared in early February 2007, spearheaded by the hit single "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race." The album continued Fall Out Boy's streak, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts and going platinum one month later. Released in early 2008, the CD/DVD package Live in Phoenix documented the band's strength as a flashy live act, while the full-length studio effort Folie à Deux followed later that year.

Recording sessions for Folie à Deux were tough, prompting the band to take an open-ended hiatus soon after the album's release. Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley joined a new band, Damned Things, during the interim, while Wentz teamed up with a new vocalist, Bebe Rexha, to form Black Cards. Stump took the opportunity to launch a solo career, ditching his band's emo pop music in favor of a more electronic, R&B-influenced sound.

Stump released his debut solo album Soul Punk in 2011 and, despite some positive reviews, the album didn't catch fire. Pete Wentz spent time with a new band called Black Cards, but that also didn't really go anywhere, and it wasn't long before rumors of a Fall Out Boy reunion began to swirl. In February 2013, the band confirmed that the rumors were true: they had reunited for a new album called Save Rock and Roll and an accompanying tour.

Preceded by the single "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)," Save Rock and Roll was released in April of 2013 and promptly debuted at number one on the U.S. charts. The band kept busy as well during the subsequent year, creating a video for each song on the album, recording the punk-inspired EP Pax-Am Days (with production from Ryan Adams), and headlining tours that reached America, Europe, and Australia.

In late 2014, Fall Out Boy premiered a new single, "Centuries," the first glimpse of their sixth album, 2015's American Beauty/American Psycho. Produced in part by J.R. Rotem and SebastiAn, it combined Fall Out Boy's core punk-pop sound with elements of electronica, R&B, and hip-hop.

Source: Billboard.com

Fall Out Boy-American Beauty/American Psycho (2015) - Front

Fall Out Boy-American Beauty/American Psycho (2015) - Back

Play Album @ Rdio

Fall Out Boy-American Beauty/American Psycho (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Best Pop Rock-Alternative Rock Albums: Fall Out Boy: American Beauty/American Psycho * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Imagine Dragons-Smoke + Mirrors (Deluxe Edition)

2015-05-19T04:47:00.003-07:00

Best Alternative Rock Albums - Imagine Dragons's album, Smoke + Mirrors (Deluxe Edition), including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Imagine Dragons Profile.

Artist: Imagine Dragons

Album: Smoke + Mirrors - Deluxe Edition (2015)

Imagine Dragons-Smoke + Mirrors (2015) - Front

Imagine Dragons-Smoke + Mirrors (2015) - Back

Play Album @ Rdio

Imagine Dragons-Smoke + Mirrors (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Best Alternative Rock Albums: Imagine Dragons: Smoke + Mirrors (Deluxe Edition) * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Anne Frank-The Diary of a Young Girl

2015-05-18T17:34:00.002-07:00

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl AKA The Diary of Anne Frank Info, Plot Summary, Review and Anne Frank Biography

Author: Anne Frank

Book: The Diary of a Young Girl (304 Pgs.)

On her thirteenth birthday, Anne Frank’s parents give her a diary. She’s excited because she wants someone, or something, in which to confide all of her secret thoughts. Even though she has a rich social life, she feels misunderstood by everyone she knows. Anne starts writing about daily events, her thoughts, school grades, boys, all that. But, within a month, her entire life changes.

As Jews in German-occupied Holland, the Frank family fears for their lives. When Anne’s sister, Margot, is called to appear before the authorities, which would almost surely mean she was being sent to a concentration camp, Anne and her family go into hiding. They move into a little section of Anne's father's office building that is walled off and hidden behind a swinging bookcase. The little diagram of the office building and "Secret Annex" along with the Thursday, July 9, 1942 entry gives us the layout.

For two years, the Frank family lives in this Secret Annex. Mr. and Mrs. van Daan and their son Peter (who is a few years older than Anne) are also in hiding with the Franks. Later, Mr. Dussel, an elderly dentist moves in, and Anne has to share her bedroom with him. Anne’s adolescence is spent hidden from the outside world. She’s cooped up in tiny rooms, tiptoeing around during the day and becoming shell-shocked from the sounds of bombs and gunfire at night.

Luckily, the Franks have tons of reading material and a radio. Anne grows in her knowledge of politics and literature, and she puts tons of energy into studying and writing. At the same time, she grows further and further away from the other members of the Annex.We see a real change in Anne when she begins hanging out in the attic with Peter van Daan. Around this time she starts having dreams about a boy she was in love with, another Peter, Peter Schiff. She sometimes even gets the two Peters confused in her head.

She comes to see Peter (of the Annex) as much more than she first thought. She finds him sensitive and caring, and they talk about everything, including sex. Eventually their relationship changes. Anne and Peter’s passion turns into a friendship and a source of comfort for them both.

Another big change for Anne happens when the war seems to be ending. She hears that personal accounts such as her diary will be in demand after the war ends. We see a return to her earlier optimism as she begins editing her diary with vigor and excitement.

Unfortunately, this does not last. Even as Anne becomes more and more sensitive to the suffering going on in the world, her own suffering becomes unbearable. She feels completely alone. She thinks everyone hates her. She feels constantly criticized. And there is no escape. At one point, she thinks it might have been better if she and her family had all died instead of hiding in the Annex. As Anne becomes harder on those around her, she also becomes harder on herself, berating herself for being mean to the other members of the Annex.

There her diary ends. Two short months after Anne’s fifteenth birthday, and two days after he last diary entry, the Secret Annex is raided. We don’t know Anne’s thoughts or feelings at that point or any time after, but we know things got worse.

As you probably already know, Anne and the other members of the Annex were sent to various concentration camps. Anne's father, Otto Frank, was the sole survivor.

Source: Shmoop.com

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Review
Reviewed by Meyer Levin

ANNE FRANK'S diary is too tenderly intimate a book to be frozen with the label ''classic,'' and yet no lesser designation serves. For little Anne Frank, spirited, moody, witty, self-doubting, succeeded in communicating in virtually perfect, or classic, form the drama of puberty. But her book is not a classic to be left on the library shelf. It is a warm and stirring confession, to be read over and over from insight and enjoyment.

The diary is a classic on another level, too. It happened that during the two years that mark the most extraordinary changes in a girl's life, Anne Frank lived in astonishing circumstances: she was hidden with seven other people in a secret nest of rooms behind her father's place of business in Amsterdam. Thus, the diary tells the life of a group of Jews waiting in fear of being taken by the Nazis. It is, in reality, the kind of document that John Hersey invented for ''The Wall.''

There is no lugubrious ghetto tale, no compilation of horrors. Reality can prove surprisingly different from invented reality, and Anne Frank's diary simply bubbles with amusement, love, discovery. It has its share of disgust, its moments of hatred, but it is so wondrously alive, so near, that one feels overwhelmingly the universalities of human nature. These people might be living next door; their within-the-family emotions, their tensions and satisfactions are those of human character and growth, anywhere.

Because the diary was not written in retrospect, it contains the trembling life of every moment -- Anne Frank's voice becomes the voice of six million vanished Jewish souls. It is difficult to say in which respect the book is more ''important,'' but one forgets the double significance of this document in experiencing it as an intimate whole, for one feels the presence of this child-becoming-woman as warmly as though she was snuggled on a near-by sofa.

Her father had already brought the family out of Germany in 1933. In June, 1942, a few weeks after the diary begins, the SS sends a call-up for Anne's sister, Margot, and the family goes into hiding. ''I began to pack some of our most vital belongings into a school satchel . . . this diary, then hair curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb, old letters.'' The Van Daans, with their 16-year-old son Peter, join the Franks. Later, because ''Daddy says we must save another person if we can,'' an elderly dentist named Dussel is squeezed into the Secret Annex. He gets Anne's bed; she sleeps on a settee lengthened by chairs.

A born writer, Anne zestfully portrays the Annex inhabitants, with all their flaws and virtues. The common life effect which Mr. Hersey sought to suggest in ''The Wall'' here flowers with utter spontaneity. But Anne Frank's diary probes far deeper than ''The Wall'' into the core of human relations, and succeeds better than ''The Wall'' in bringing us an understanding of life under threat.

And this quality brings it home to any family in the world today. Just as the Franks lived in momentary fear of the Gestapo's knock on their hidden door, so every family today lives in fear of the knock of war. Anne's diary is a great affirmative answer to the life-question of today, for she shows how ordinary people, within this ordeal, consistently hold to the greater human values.

Two years passed in disciplined activities. The hidden ones kept busy with smuggled correspondence courses in speed shorthand, in Latin, in nursing; Dussel even attempted dental operations, hilariously described by Anne. She herself studied mythology, ballet, ''family trees,'' while keeping up her schoolwork. She records the family disputes -- Mrs. Van Daan violently resisting the sale of her fur coat, only to see it smoked up in black market tobacco! And the comic moments, as when her father lies on the floor trying to overhear an important business conference downstairs; Anne flattens herself beside him, lending a sharp ear. But business is so dull, she falls asleep.

Most wondrous of all is her love affair. Like a flower under a stone fulfilling itself, she came to her first love in her allotted time. ''I give myself completely. But one thing, He may touch my face, but no more.'' All is told, from her potato-fetching devices for going up to Peter's attic lair, to the first misplaced kiss, on her ear. And the parents worrying about the youngsters trysting up there in the dusk, sitting by the window over the canal. And her fears that her older sister is lonely and jealous, leading to an amazing exchanges of letters between the two girls, in those hidden rooms. Finally, there is even the tender disillusionment with Peter, as Anne reaches toward maturity, and a character understanding replaces the first tug of love. In all this there are perceptions in depth, striving toward mother, father, sister, containing love-anguish of the purest universality.

It is this unfolding psychological drama of a girl's growth, mingled with the physical danger of the group, that frees Anne's book from the horizontal effect of most diaries. Hers rises continuously, with the tension of a well-constructed novel.

The girl's last entries rather miraculously contain a climactic summation, a maturing self-analysis: ''If I'm quite serious, everyone thinks it's a comedy, and then I have to get out of it by turning into a joke,'' she remarks with typical adolescent self-consciousness. ''Finally, I twist my heart around again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside. . . . I am guided by the pure Anne within, but outside I'm nothing but a frolicsome little goat who's broken loose.''

This frolicsome little goat could write, ''It's twice as hard for us young ones to hold our ground, and maintain our opinions, in a time when all ideals are being shattered and destroyed, when people are showing their worst side, and do not know whether to believe in truth and right and God.

''It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. . . .

''I want to go on living even after my death,'' Anne wrote. ''I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.'' Hers was probably one of the bodies seen in the mass grave at Bergen-Belsen, for in August, 1944, the knock came on that hidden door in Amsterdam. After the people had been taken away, Dutch friends found Anne's diary in the debris, and saved it.

There is anguish in the thought of how much creative power, how much sheer beauty of living, was cut off through genocide. But through her diary Anne goes on living. From Holland to France, to Italy, Spain. The Germans too have published her book. And now she comes to America. Surely she will be widely loved, for this wise and wonderful young girl brings back a poignant delight in the infinite human spirit.

Most Popular Non-Fiction Autobiographical Bestsellers Books - Anne Frank:The Diary of a Young Girl AKA The Diary of Anne Frank * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Booker T. Washington-Up from Slavery

2015-05-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery Info, Plot Summary, Review and Booker T. Washington Biography

Author: Booker T. Washington

Book: Up from Slavery (160 Pgs.)

Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery

Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery - Review
Reviewed by Brad Nelson

After having put this book aside for a while, I finally finished Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery.” You realize just how destructive and pathetic the “civil rights” movement has become (filled with race-mongers such as Jesse Jackson) when you see the approach of a good and decent man. As Allan West says, blacks today really are on another type of plantation.

Booker T. Washington was fresh off the old one. And he did something you just don’t see these days. He worked hard to unite the races instead of fomenting grievance. Instead of telling his race that they were owed a living by whitey, he told them they must work hard and get an education.

Had the South followed his lead (and many white Southerns did and joined in the cause) instead of following the Democrat Party-backed KKK and the entire attitude of marginalizing blacks, we would be a hundred years ahead of where we are now.

This biography is not quite as gripping as that of the one written by Frederick Douglass, but they don’t overlap. Douglass’ biography mainly covers his life as a slave. Washington’s takes a look at that unique post-war period when nobody knew what to do. There were millions of uneducated former slaves who somehow how to make it in a society that was also filled with its share of uneducated white people.

Washington was a practical man. His philosophy was that if members of his race got a good education and made themselves useful, the rest would take care of itself. He wanted economic opportunity and wasn’t as concerned with social equality. I think it was a smart move. We see that today. Things such as affirmative action simply breed resentment. But when someone of any race can fix your car or whatever, that is the road to putting little emphasis of race.

By the sheer will of his eloquence and good ideas, Booker T. Washington gained adherents from all races, north and south. It is a forgotten time. Now race and victimhood are the mainstay of Democrat Party politics. A man such as Washington would have been considered a dreaded enemy of the party. Washington stressed hard work and education, not grievance and hand-outs. I wonder how many blacks are aware of their own history. The only choice they have is not the cancerous grievance-mongers that are so prevalent today.

Most Popular Non-Fiction Autobiographical Bestsellers Books - Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Ayn Rand-The Virtue of Selfishness

2015-05-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness Info, Plot Summary, Review and Ayn Rand Biography

Author: Ayn Rand

Book: The Virtue of Selfishness (176 Pgs.)

Ayn Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness

Ayn Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness - Review

The title of this book may evoke the kind of question that I hear once in a while: "Why do you use the word 'selfishness' to denote virtuous qualities of character, when that word antagonizes so many people to whom it does not mean the things you mean?" To those who ask it, my answer is: "For the reason that makes you afraid of it." But there are others, who would not ask that question, sensing the moral cowardice it implies, yet who are unable to formulate my actual reason or to identify the profound moral issue involved. It is to them that I will give a more explicit answer.

It is not a mere semantic issue nor a matter of arbitrary choice. The meaning ascribed in popular usage to the word "selfishness" is not merely wrong: it represents a devastating intellectual "package-deal," which is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the arrested moral development of mankind. In popular usage, the word "selfishness" is a synonym of evil; the image it conjures is of a murderous brute who tramples over piles of corpses to achieve his own ends, who cares for no living being and pursues nothing but the gratification of the mindless whims of any immediate moment. Yet the exact meaning and dictionary definition of the word "selfishness" is: concern with one's own interests. This concept does not include a moral evaluation; it does not tell us whether concern with one's own interests is good or evil; nor does it tell us what constitutes man's actual interests. It is the task of ethics to answer such questions.

The ethics of altruism has created the image of the brute, as its answer, in order to make men accept two inhuman tenets:

that any concern with one's own interests is evil, regardless of what these interests might be, and

that the brute's activities are in fact to one's own interest (which altruism enjoins man to renounce for the sake of his neighbors).

For a view of the nature of altruism, its consequences and the enormity of the moral corruption it perpetrates, I shall refer you to Atlas Shrugged-or to any of today's newspaper headlines. What concerns us here is altruism's default in the field of ethical theory.

There are two moral questions which altruism lumps together into one "package-deal":

What are values?
Who should be the beneficiary of values? Altruism substitutes the second for the first; it evades the task of defining a code of moral values, thus leaving man, in fact, without moral guidance.

Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value-and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes. Hence the appalling immorality, the chronic injustice, the grotesque double standards, the insoluble conflicts and contradictions that have characterized human relationships and human societies throughout history, under all the variants of the altruist ethics.

Observe the indecency of what passes for moral judgments today. An industrialist who produces a fortune, and a gangster who robs a bank are regarded as equally immoral, since they both sought wealth for their own "selfish" benefit. A young man who gives up his career in order to support his parents and never rises beyond the rank of grocery clerk is regarded as morally superior to the young man who endures an excruciating struggle and achieves his personal ambition. A dictator is regarded as moral, since the unspeakable atrocities he committed were intended to benefit "the people," not himself.

Observe what this beneficiary-criterion of morality does to a man's life. The first thing he learns is that morality is his enemy: he has nothing to gain from it, he can only lose; self-inflicted loss, self-inflicted pain and the gray, debilitating pall of an incomprehensible duty is all that he can expect. He may hope that others might occasionally sacrifice themselves for his benefit, as he grudgingly sacrifices himself for theirs, but he knows that the relationship will bring mutual resentment, not pleasure -and that, morally, their pursuit of values will be like an exchange of unwanted, unchosen Christmas presents, which neither is morally permitted to buy for himself. Apart from such times as he manages to perform some act of self-sacrifice, he possesses no moral significance: morality takes no cognizance of him and has nothing to say to him for guidance in the crucial issues of his life; it is only his own personal, private, "selfish" life and, as such, it is regarded either as evil or, at best, amoral.

Since nature does not provide man with an automatic form of survival, since he has to support his life by his own effort, the doctrine that concern with one's own interests is evil means that man's desire to live is evil-that man's life, as such, is evil. No doctrine could be more evil than that.

Yet that is the meaning of altruism, implicit in such examples as the equation of an industrialist with a robber. There is a fundamental moral difference between a man who sees his self-interest in production and a man who sees it in robbery. The evil of a robber does not lie in the fact that he pursues his own interests, but in what he regards as to his own interest; not in the fact that he pursues his values, but in what he chose to value; not in the fact that he wants to live, but in the fact that he wants to live on a subhuman level (see "The Objectivist Ethics").

If it is true that what I mean by "selfishness" is not what is meant conventionally, then this is one of the worst indictments of altruism: it means that altruism permits no concept of a self-respecting, self-supporting man-a man who supports his life by his own effort and neither sacrifices himself nor others. It means that altruism permits no view of men except as sacrificial animals and profiteers-on-sacrifice, as victims and parasites-that it permits no concept of a benevolent co-existence among men that it permits no concept of justice.

If you wonder about the reasons behind the ugly mixture of cynicism and guilt in which most men spend their lives, these are the reasons: cynicism, because they neither practice nor accept the altruist morality-guilt, because they dare not reject it. To rebel against so devastating an evil, one has to rebel against its basic premise. To redeem both man and morality, it is the concept of "selfishness" that one has to redeem. The first step is to assert man's right to a moral existence-that is: to recognize his need of a moral code to guide the course and the fulfillment of his own life.

For a brief outline of the nature and the validation of a rational morality, see my lecture on "The Objectivist Ethics" which follows. The reasons why man needs a moral code will tell you that the purpose of morality is to define man's proper values and interests, that concern with his own interests is the essence of a moral existence, and that man must be the beneficiary of his own moral actions. Since all values have to be gained and/or kept by men's actions, any breach between actor and beneficiary necessitates an injustice: the sacrifice of some men to others, of the actors to the non-actors, of the moral to the immoral. Nothing could ever justify such a breach, and no one ever has. The choice of the beneficiary of moral values is merely a preliminary or introductory issue in the field of morality. It is not a substitute for morality nor a criterion of moral value, as altruism has made it. Neither is it a moral primary: it has to be derived from and validated by the fundamental premises of a moral system.

The Objectivist ethics holds that the actor must always be the beneficiary of his action and that man must act for his own rational self-interest. But his right to do so is derived from his nature as man and from the function of moral values in human life-and, therefore, is applicable only in the context of a rational, objectively demonstrated and validated code of moral principles which define and determine his actual self-interest. It is not a license "to do as he pleases" and it is not applicable to the altruists' image of a "selfish" brute nor to any man motivated by irrational emotions, feelings, urges, wishes or whims.

This is said as a warning against the kind of "Nietzschean egoists" who, in fact, are a product of the altruist morality and represent the other side of the altruist coin: the men who believe that any action, regardless of its nature, is good if it is intended for one's own benefit. Just as the satisfaction of the irrational desires of others is not a criterion of moral value, neither is the satisfaction of one's own irrational desires. Morality is not a contest of whims. (See Mr. Branden's articles "Counterfeit Individualism" and "Isn't Everyone Selfish?" which follow.)

A similar type of error is committed by the man who declares that since man must be guided by his own independent judgment, any action he chooses to take is moral if he chooses it. One's own independent judgment is the means by which one must choose one's actions, but it is not a moral criterion nor a moral validation: only reference to a demonstrable principle can validate one's choices.

Just as man cannot survive by any random means, but must discover and practice the principles which his survival requires, so man's self-interest cannot be determined by blind desires or random whims, but must be discovered and achieved by the guidance of rational principles. This is why the Objectivist ethics is a morality of rational self-interest-or of rational selfishness.

Since selfishness is "concern with one's own interests," the Objectivist ethics uses that concept in its exact and purest sense. It is not a concept that one can surnder to man's enemies, nor to the unthinking misconceptions, distortions, prejudices and fears of the ignorant and the irrational. The attack on "selfishness" is an attack on man's self-esteem; to surrender one, is to surrender the other.

Top Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books-Ayn Rand-The Virtue of Selfishness-2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Top Country-Folk Music Albums

2015-05-11T12:58:00.000-07:00

Top Country-Folk Music Albums

Find everything about the best Country-Folk albums - The lyrics, the audios, the videos, the covers, the profiles...

Darius Rucker
Southern Style (2015)
Zac Brown Band
JEKYLL + HYDE (2015)

Top Country-Folk Albums * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Darius Rucker-Southern Style

2015-05-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Best Country Albums - Darius Rucker's album, Southern Style, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Darius Rucker Profile.

Artist: Darius Rucker

Album: Southern Style (2015)

As the frontman of Hootie & the Blowfish, Darius Rucker was one of the most popular frontmen in mainstream pop/rock during the mid-'90s. The band's debut album, Cracked Rear View, was virtually inescapable in 1995, eventually selling more than 16 million copies and becoming one of the most successful albums of all time. Hootie & the Blowfish couldn't re-create that magic on future albums, though, and the band took a break from the studio after releasing 1998's Musical Chairs. Rucker used his free time to launch a solo career, which allowed the singer to explore his R&B and country influences.

Growing up in Charleston, South Carolina, Rucker was exposed to the sounds of Otis Redding, Al Green, and Gladys Knight at an early age. Those R&B icons helped influence Hootie & the Blowfish's recordings, all of which featured Rucker's soulful baritone at the forefront, but it wasn't until his solo career that Rucker truly paid homage to the sounds of his youth. He initially planned to launch his solo career with The Return of Mongo Slade, which was scheduled for a summer 2001 release by Atlantic Records, but contractual changes prevented the album's release. A few months later, Rucker jumped ship for Hidden Beach Recordings, which then acquired the master recordings of his debut from Atlantic.

After making a cameo in the Farrelly brothers' film Shallow Hal, Rucker introduced his mellow, R&B-influenced music with 2002's Back to Then (essentially The Return of Mongo Slade with a different title), which featured collaborations with Jill Scott and Snoop Dogg. Rucker then returned his focus to Hootie & the Blowfish, releasing two albums with the group during the early 2000s before revisiting his solo career. This time, he opted for a country approach, and the twangy Learn to Live found an appropriate home among country music fans, who sent both the album and its flagship single, "Don't Think I Don't Think About It," to the top of the Billboard country charts. "It Won't Be Like This for Long" and "Alright" also peaked at number one, pushing the album to platinum status within a year of its release. Rucker smartly stayed in the country mold for his follow-up album, Charleston, SC 1966, which appeared in fall 2010; it also spawned two number one singles in "Come Back Song" and "This." His third solo album in a country vein, True Believers, followed in early 2013 and it generated a massive hit in the form of "Wagon Wheel," a number one country single that crossed over to 15 on the pop charts on its way to triple-platinum certification. As he prepped a fourth country album, Rucker released the "Homegrown Honey" single in the fall of 2014, along with the seasonal album Home for the Holidays. Southern Style appeared in March 2015.

Source: Billboard.com

Darius Rucker-Southern Style (2015) - Front

Darius Rucker-Southern Style (2015) - Back

Play Album @ Rdio

Darius Rucker-Southern Style (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Not available yet.

Best Country-Albums Darius Rucker-Southern Style * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE

2015-05-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

Best Country Albums - Zac Brown Band's album, JEKYLL + HYDE, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Zac Brown Band Profile.

Artist: Zac Brown Band

Album: JEKYLL + HYDE (2015)

Zac Brown is a country singer, songwriter, and bandleader, one of the brightest stars in a generation of performers set on changing the paradigm of the country music business. He's also a record producer, record label head, and philanthropist set on making the world a better place for as many people as possible. With his winning combination of country, bluegrass, reggae, and Caribbean music, he appeals to country fans and jam band hippies, and could well cross over to lovers of world music and pop. He sold over 30,000 copies of the first two self-produced albums he made for his own Southern Ground label, and "Chicken Fried," the Zac Brown Band's first single to get national distribution, went platinum with over a million downloads. His first nationally distributed album, The Foundation, sold 300,000 copies within weeks of its release in late 2008.

Brown was born in 1978 in Atlanta, Georgia, and grew up in Dahlonega, Georgia, a small town in the north Georgia mountains. He was the 11th child in a family of 12 kids, and grew up in a split family. His father worked for Coca-Cola and ran health clubs, his mom sold insurance, his stepdad was a dentist, and his stepmom was an office manager. Brown's oldest brother was 21 years his senior, so he was exposed to a wide variety of music growing up. His siblings' record collections included country, pop, bluegrass, reggae, folk, and singer/songwriter albums by Cat Stevens, James Taylor, the Eagles, Bob Marley, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings. His brother Wynn played bluegrass guitar and banjo, his mother liked old pop singers like Sinatra, and his dad played folk guitar and led the family in campfire singalongs. Brown sang as soon as he could talk, and started classical guitar lessons at age seven, which helped his fingerpicking skills when he switched to bluegrass and country in middle school. Seeing Shawn Mullins at a local coffeehouse made Brown realize he wanted to be a performer. He started playing solo gigs while he was in high school, doing covers of pop and country songs as well as his few original tunes. Attending a summer camp and working with mentally and physically challenged kids made him aware of how lucky he was. He vowed he'd open his own camp someday. Brown went to college on a vocal scholarship and studied classical voice, but shifted his major several times to biology, then business, and finally psychology. He had a band in college and alternated between band gigs and solo restaurant dates to pay his way through school. His college band, Far from Einstyne, made an eponymous CD to sell at gigs in 1998. When the band fell apart during the recording sessions, Brown and the drummer continued on as a duo. When 9/11 occurred, Brown reevaluated his life. For years he'd been playing solo and full-band gigs at night and going to classes during the day. He decided life was too short to do things he wasn't interested in, and left school to perform full-time.

He toured for a few years in a two-piece -- acoustic guitar and drums -- as Far from Einstyne. In 2002, he put together the first Zac Brown Band, looking for players with a high level of musicianship who wanted to be equal partners in a band with a communal vibe. They played about 200 gigs their first year, a pace the band keeps up to this day. In 2003, he started his own Home Grown label -- today called Southern Ground for legal reasons -- and released Home Grown in 2003 and Live from the Rock Bus Tour in 2005. The albums have moved over 30,000 units, an impressive showing for an unsigned band. Brown runs the label, manages and books the band, and produces its albums with the help of bass player John Hopkins. In 2004, he opened a music club and restaurant with his father to serve gourmet Southern-style food. The Zac Brown Band played weekends and Brown played solo on Tuesday nights, and when he wasn't in the kitchen overseeing the staff, he was on the road with the band doing other gigs.

When a developer bought the restaurant, Brown and the band got a tour bus and hit the road full-time, playing country and rock clubs and folk and jam band festivals. With the personnel settled down to the cohesive unit of bassist Hopkins, fiddler Jimmy De Martini, guitarist/organist Coy Bowles, and drummer Chris Fryar, the band cut The Foundation with producer Keith Stegall in 2006. The songs had been road-tested and were laid down live in the studio with minimal fuss. The album came out first on Southern Ground and was picked up by Live Nation, the giant concert promoter, for their new record label in 2007. When Live Nation folded, Atlantic stepped up and released The Foundation nationally in November of 2008. "Chicken Fried," the first single, was a cross-genre platinum-selling hit. Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Clay Cook joined the band in January of 2009.

With the album doing well, Brown expanded Southern Ground Records and signed the Sonia Leigh Band, fronted by country singer/songwriter Leigh, a cross between Joan Jett and Johnny Cash; Levi Lowrey, an Americana singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist; and Nic Cowan, a pop singer/songwriter with a Ben Harper-meets-Chris Robinson vibe. Brown toured with his labelmates in support of The Foundation during 2009, the same year in which the Zac Brown Band cut 20 tunes for their next project, and Brown bought land for his own summer camp, a venture he planned to run in cooperation with Brain Balance, an organization that works with kids with autism and ADD. He also used the recipes he developed at his restaurant for a line of barbecue sauces and other food products. In 2010, Brown and his band were awarded the Grammy for Best New Artist. Also in 2010, the live Pass the Jar, recorded at a performance at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, was released. The studio follow-up to The Foundation, You Get What You Give, which featured new songs that the band honed on the road, appeared later that same year.

The group's third major-label studio album, 2012's Uncaged, the first with new member percussionist Daniel de los Reyes and featuring guest spots from Amos Lee and Trombone Shorty, as well as songs co-written with Jason Mraz and fellow Southern Ground artists Nic Cowan and Sonia Leigh, was conceived and recorded as a whole, not just as a collection of songs. Uncaged performed well, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 on its way to earning a platinum certification; it also generated the Top Ten country hits "Goodbye in Her Eyes," "Sweet Annie," and "Jump Right In." While the Zac Brown Band worked on their fourth album, they released the compilation Greatest Hits So Far... in time for the holiday season of 2014. In early 2015 the band dropped the chart-topping single "Homegrown" in anticipation of the full-length Jekyll + Hyde, released in April of that year.

Source: Billboard.com

Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE (2015) - Front

Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE (2015) - Back

Play Album @ Rdio

Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Best-Country-Albums-Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE * 2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt

Emigrate-Silent So Long

2015-05-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

Best Metal Albums - Emigrate's album, Silent So Long, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Emigrate Profile.

Artist: Emigrate

Album: Silent So Long (2014)

Kruspe started the band in 2005, when Rammstein decided to take a year off from touring and recording. In many interviews, Kruspe says the idea for Emigrate came to him around Rammstein's Mutter era.

On September 5, 2006, members of the Rammstein.de newsletter were sent an invitation to the Emigrate newsletter and given the chance to download the song "Wake Up", a sneak peek of the upcoming album. Three song samples were also posted on Emigrate's website: "My World", "Babe", and "Temptation". Fans voted "Babe" as being their favorite, and newsletter recipients were allowed to download “Babe” in its entirety starting November 29, 2006. On May 21, 2007 the Emigrate Official Website opened and “My World” was made available for download, in its entirety, to newsletter subscribers.

The video for "My World" has been released and can be viewed on the official website. The video was also included on the limited edition release of the album Emigrate. In addition to the video, My World is featured on the soundtrack to the third Resident Evil movie, Resident Evil: Extinction. The soundtracks to the previous two movies contained "Halleluja" and "Mein Teil" from Rammstein, respectively. On July 27, 2007 Richard made an appearance on Bruce Dickinson rock show on BBC. A video for "New York City" has been released. Richard then left the Emigrate project aside due to Rammstein reuniting in the fall of 2007 to work on their new album Liebe ist für alle da which was released in October 2009, and also to take part in the subsequent Rammstein tour.

Joe Letz, who had appeared in the video for "My World", updated the Emigrate Facebook page on June 24, 2011, stating that Richard has been working on a new record.

On December 5, 2012, an announcement posted on the Emigrate Facebook page announced that demos were being recorded and reviewed, and studio time was being set up in January 2013 to begin official recording of an untitled second album.

In January 2013, Kruspe stated via the Emigrate Facebook page that drums were beginning to be mixed for the new record.

In January 2014, Kruspe, on the Emigrate Facebook page, posted that twenty tracks had been recorded for Emigrate and that mixing would be performed in Los Angeles, California, alongside Ben Grosse, with a projected release in the summer of 2014.
On March 7, 2014, Kruspe announced the second album was complete and he is departing back to Berlin.

On July 22nd, 2014, a post was made to Emigrate's official Facebook page with a teaser trailer to Emigrate's new album, titled Silent So Long and an official release date of October 17th, 2014.
On December 9th, 2014, Emigrate's second album titled Silent So Long was released.[

Source: Wikipedia

Emigrate-Silent So Long (2014) - Front

Emigrate-Silent So Long (2014) - Back

Play Album @ Rdio

Emigrate-Silent So Long (2014) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Best Metal-Albums Emigrate-Silent So Long

Seether-Isolate and Medicate

2015-05-10T09:40:00.002-07:00

Best Alternative-Rock Albums - Seether-Isolate and Medicate, including Album covers, lyrics, audios and videos. Seether Profile.

Artist: Seether

Album: Isolate and Medicate (2014)

Hailing from South Africa and comprising members Shaun Morgan (vocals, guitar), Dale Stewart (bass), and John Humphrey (drums), Seether embraces a brand of heavy metal mostly associated with the post-grunge era of alternative music, complete with crunchy distortion and brooding textures.

The band emerged in 1999 as Saron Gas (a name taken from the back of a sound effects CD) and released their debut album, Fragile, the following year on Musketeer Records. In a country whose musical tastes center around pop and indigenous music, Fragile found impressive chart success. Across the Atlantic, the U.S.-based Wind Up Records caught wind of the band's growing popularity and signed the South African bandmates, who changed their name to Seether in light of Saron Gas' similarity to the lethal nerve agent sarin gas.

An EP release and a spot on the Ozzfest tour preceded the unveiling of Seether's full-length debut in the summer of 2002. Issued that August, Disclaimer featured the modern rock single "Fine Again" and led to a year-long tour, during which singer Morgan's relationship with Evanescence siren Amy Lee blossomed. But while the tour ensured increasing commercial status for Seether, it also delayed the band's return to the studio.

In March 2004, a few tracks appeared on the Punisher soundtrack, including a duet version of Disclaimer's "Broken" featuring vocal contributions from Lee. Disclaimer II appeared that June, pairing a handful of new tracks with remixed or re-recorded versions of the previous album's tracks. Seether viewed the album as an opportunity to re-evaluate their debut's release (whose mix was, according to the band, subpar) and gave listeners new content as a holdover until the band's proper follow-up.

The promised sophomore effort, Karma and Effect, was released in May 2005 and entered the Top Ten, while the acoustic CD/DVD package One Cold Night appeared in 2006. Following Morgan's breakup with Amy Lee and a successful stint in rehab, Seether returned in 2007 with Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, introducing the album with the snide and catchy single "Fake It."

In 2009 the band took a break from touring to head into the studio with producer Brendan O'Brien to work on their fifth album. They went back out on the road for another year before eventually releasing Holding Onto Strings Better Left to Fray in 2011. Isolate and Medicate, the band's sixth studio long-player, followed in 2014.

Source: Billboard.com

Seether-Isolate and Medicate (2014) - Front

Seether-Isolate and Medicate (2014) - Back

Play Album @ Rdio

Seether-Isolate and Medicate (2014) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Best Alternative-Rock Albums - Seether-Isolate and Medicate

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Book 3

2015-05-08T10:05:00.002-07:00

The Most Popular Classic-High Fantasy Bestsellers Books - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King: Info, Plot Summary, Review and J. R. R. Tolkien Biography

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Book 3: The Return of the King (490 Pgs.)

Volume #3 of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Book V: The War of the Ring

Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Minas Tirith in the kingdom of Gondor, delivering the news to Denethor, the Lord and Steward of Gondor, that a devastating attack on his city by Sauron, the Dark Lord of Mordor is imminent. Pippin then enters the service of the Steward as repayment of a debt he owes to Boromir, Denethor's dead son and preferred heir. Now clad in the uniform of the tower guard, Pippin watches the fortunes of war unfold, while Denethor descends into madness as the hosts of Mordor press ever closer to Gondor's capital city of Minas Tirith. Faramir, Boromir's younger brother, returns from his campaign with the shattered remnants of his company and is soon ordered to ride out and continue the hopeless defence of Osgiliath against a horde of orcs. Osgiliath is soon overrun and a gravely wounded Faramir is carried back to Denethor. His people seemingly lost and his only remaining son all but dead, Denethor orders a funeral pyre built that is to claim both him and his dying son. Minas Tirith stands encircled and besieged by Sauron's main host, composed of well over 200,000 orcs.

Meanwhile, in Rohan, Théoden and his Rohirrim are recovering from the Battle of the Hornburg, in which they defended Rohan against the forces of Saruman at great cost. Aragorn, having confronted Sauron through the palantír of Isengard, sets out to find the lost army of the undead oathbreakers who dwell in the Paths of the Dead, a mountain hall, cursed because they did not help Isildur during the War of the Last Alliance. Helped by his companions Legolas and Gimli as well as a Company of Rangers from Arnor in the north (the "Grey Company"), he sets out to recruit the Army of the Dead to his cause. As Aragorn departs on his seemingly impossible task, King Théoden musters the Rohirrim (mounted cavalry) to come to the aid of Gondor. Merry, eager to go to war with his allies, is refused by Théoden several times. Finally Dernhelm, one of the Rohirrim, takes Merry up on his horse so that he can accompany the rest of the Rohirrim. Aided by a tribe of Wild Men of the Woods, Théoden's forces travel a long-forgotten forest path to avoid an Orc ambush on the main road and reach Minas Tirith stealthily.

The hosts of Mordor, led by the dreaded Witch-king of Angmar, succeed in breaking through the gates of Minas Tirith, but are in turn crushed by the arriving cavalry of Rohan. The battle is also joined by a "black fleet with black sails". The forces of Mordor initially rejoice at its arrival; and then are horrified to see the banner of the King upon the ships. Aragorn has succeeded in using the Oathbreakers to defeat the Corsairs of Umbar; the men of Gondor who were once slaves on the ships are brought back to fight the host of Mordor. In the following Battle of the Pelennor Fields the Witch-king is slain by Dernhelm, revealed to be Éowyn the niece of King Théoden, with help from Merry. Thus the siege is broken, but at heavy cost: many warriors of Gondor and Rohan fall, among them King Théoden. Denethor attempts to immolate himself and Faramir on his funeral pyre, but Gandalf and Pippin succeed in saving Faramir. Then Denethor reveals that he has used the palantír of Minas Tirith and declares the situation hopeless.

Gandalf realizes that Denethor—in his desperation—looked into the stone several times. Unlike Saruman, Denethor was too noble of purpose and great of will to submit to the will of Sauron, but the Dark Lord duped the Steward into despairing of the situation. In addition, Denethor revealed that he would not accept Aragorn as the new king and then burns himself on the pyre. Faramir, though, is brought to the Houses of Healing where he is subsequently healed by Aragorn. Aragorn also heals Merry and Éowyn, who were hurt by the Witch-king before he fell. Knowing that it is only a matter of time before Sauron rebuilds his forces for another attack, Gandalf and Aragorn decide to draw out the hosts of Mordor with an assault on the Black Gate, providing a distraction so that Frodo and Sam may have a chance of reaching Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring, unseen by the Eye of Sauron.

Gandalf and Aragorn lead an army to the Black Gate of Mordor and lay siege to Sauron's army. A messenger from The Black Gate called "The Mouth of Sauron" shows the Captains Frodo's mithril shirt, elven cloak, and barrow blade and then demands their surrender and obeisance to Sauron as conditions for Frodo's release. However, Gandalf perceives that the emissary is lying, seizes the items, and rejects the terms. The battle begins and Pippin kills a Troll, which then falls onto him, and he loses consciousness just as the Great Eagles arrive.

Book VI: The Return of the King

Bearing the One Ring in Frodo's place, Sam rescues his master from torture and death by Orcs in the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Frodo and Sam navigate the barren wasteland of Mordor and are overtaken by a company of Orcs but escape and are forced to disguise themselves in Orcish armour. Gandalf's plan to distract Sauron from the Ring is successful: Mordor is almost empty as all the remaining Orcs have been summoned to defend the land against the assault of the army led by Gandalf and Aragorn. After a weary and dangerous journey, Frodo and Sam finally reach their final destination of the Crack of Doom. As Frodo is preparing to throw the Ring into Mount Doom, he succumbs to the Ring's power and claims it as his own. Just then, Gollum, who had been following Frodo and Sam still, attacks Frodo and bites off his finger and the Ring. Gollum gloats over getting his precious back, but he ends up losing his balance and falls to death and takes the Ring with him. The Ring is finally destroyed, freeing Middle-earth from Sauron's power. Mount Doom erupts violently, trapping Frodo and Sam among the lava flows until the Great Eagles rescue them. Upon Sauron's defeat, his armies at the Gate flee. Sauron finally appears as a gigantic shadow trying to reach out for the armies of men, but is now powerless and is blown away by a wind. The men under Sauron's command that surrender are forgiven and allowed to return to their lands in peace. Frodo and Sam are saved from the lava, meet again with the other surviving members of the Fellowship, and then honoured on the Field of Cormallen in Ithilien.

In Minas Tirith, Faramir and Eówyn meet in the Houses of Healing and fall in love with each other. Aragorn comes to Minas Tirith and is crowned King of Gondor outside the walls of the city in a celebration during which Frodo brings Aragorn the ancient crown of Gondor, and Gandalf places the crown on Aragorn. A healed Faramir is appointed Prince of Ithilien, and Beregond—who saved Faramir's life from the madness of Denethor—is named captain of Faramir's guard. Gandalf and Aragorn go off high above the city and find a seedling of the White Tree, which Aragorn then plants in Minas Tirith in place of the dead tree. Soon after, Arwen, daughter of Elrond of Rivendell, as well as Celeborn and Galadriel come to Minas Tirith, and Aragorn marries Arwen. After a series of goodbyes, the Hobbits finally return home to the Shire, only to find that the Shire was in ruins, its inhabitants oppressed by Lotho Sackville-Baggins (usually called "The Chief" or "The Boss") who is in reality controlled by a shadowy figure called "Sharkey". Sharkey has taken complete control of the Shire using corrupt Men, and begins felling trees in a gratuitous programme of industrialization (which actually produces nothing except destruction and misery for the locals).

Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam make plans to set things right once more. They lead an uprising of Hobbits and are victorious at the Battle of Bywater which effectively frees the Shire. At the very doorstep of Bag End, they meet Sharkey, who is revealed to be the fallen wizard Saruman, and his servant Gríma.Saruman abuses Gríma and he then jumps on Saruman's back and cuts his throat. Gríma is himself slain by hobbit archers as he attempts to escape. Saruman's soul is blown away into the east, and his body decays instantly into a skeleton. Over time, the Shire is healed. The many trees that Saruman's men cut down are replanted with Galadriel's gift of dust used to facilitate growth and a small nut that is planted to replace the party tree; buildings are rebuilt and peace is restored. Sam marries Rosie Cotton, with whom he had been entranced for some time. Merry and Pippin lead Buckland and Tuckborough to greater achievements. However, Frodo cannot escape the pain of his wounds, having been stabbed by the Witch-king and poisoned by Shelob in addition to losing a finger. Frodo departs for the Undying Lands in the West with Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and many Elves, including Elrond, and Galadriel. With the departure of Elrond, the Third Age ended. Sam, Merry, and Pippin watch Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo, and the Elves depart and return home. Now heir to all of Frodo's possessions, Sam returns to Bag End, saddened by Frodo's departure. When Sam returns home at the end of the book, he is greeted by Rosie and his daughter, Elanor, and is gratified and happy when he realizes he still has something left to fight for.

Source: Wikipedia

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Return of the King

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Return of the King - Review
Reviewed by W. H. AUDEN

In "The Return of the King," Frodo Baggins fulfills his Quest, the realm of Sauron is ended forever, the Third Age is over and J. R. R. Tolkien's trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" complete. I rarely remember a book about which I have had such violent arguments. Nobody seems to have a moderate opinion: either, like myself, people find it a masterpiece of its genre or they cannot abide it, and among the hostile there are some, I must confess, for whose literary judgment I have great respect. A few of these may have been put off by the first forty pages of the first chapter of the first volume in which the daily life of the hobbits is described; this is light comedy and light comedy is not Mr. Tolkien's forte. In most cases, however, the objection must go far deeper. I can only suppose that some people object to Heroic Quests and Imaginary Worlds on principle; such, they feel, cannot be anything but light "escapist" reading. That a man like Mr. Tolkien, the English philologist who teaches at Oxford, should lavish such incredible pains upon a genre which is, for them, trifling by definition, is, therefore, very shocking.

The difficulty in presenting a complete picture of reality lies in the gulf between the subjectively real, a man's experience of his own existence, and the objectively real, his experience of the lives of others and the world about him. Life, as I experience it in my own person, is primarily a continuous succession of choices between alternatives, made for a short-term or long-term purpose; the actions I take, that is to say, are less significant to me than the conflicts of motives, temptations, doubts in which they originate. Further, my subjective experience of time is not of a cyclical motion outside myself but of an irreversible history of unique moments which are made by my decisions.

For objectifying this experience, the natural image is that of a journey with a purpose, beset by dangerous hazards and obstacles, some merely difficult, others actively hostile. But when I observe my fellow-men, such an image seems false. I can see, for example, that only the rich and those on vacation can take journeys; most men, most of the time must work in one place.

I cannot observe them making choices, only the actions they take and, if I know someone well, I can usually predict correctly how he will act in a given situation. I observe, all too often, men in conflict with each other, wars and hatreds, but seldom, if ever, a clear-cut issue between Good on the one side and Evil on the other, though I also observe that both sides usually describe it as such. If then, I try to describe what I see as if I were an impersonal camera, I shall produce not a Quest, but a "naturalistic" document.

Both extremes, of course, falsify life. There are medieval Quests which deserve the criticism made by Erich Auerbach in his book "Mimesis":
"The world of knightly proving is a world of adventure. It not only contains a practically uninterrupted series of adventures; more specifically, it contains nothing but the requisites of adventure... Except feats of arms and love, nothing occurs in the courtly world-and even these two are of a special sort: they are not occurrences or emotions which can be absent for a time; they are permanently connected with the person of the perfect knight, they are part of his definition, so that he cannot for one moment be without adventure in arms nor for one moment without amorous entanglement... His exploits are feats of arms, not 'war,' for they are feats accomplished at random which do not fit into any politically purposive pattern."
And there are contemporary "thrillers" in which the identification of hero and villain with contemporary politics is depressingly obvious. On the other hand, there are naturalistic novels in which the characters are the mere puppets of Fate, or rather, of the author who, from some mysterious point of freedom, contemplates the workings of Fate.

If, as I believe, Mr. Tolkien has succeeded more completely than any previous writer in this genre in using the traditional properties of the Quest, the heroic journey, the Numinous Object, the conflict between Good and Evil while at the same time satisfying our sense of historical and social reality, it should be possible to show how he has succeeded. To begin with, no previous writer has, to my knowledge, created an imaginary world and a feigned history in such detail. By the time the reader has finished the trilogy, including the appendices to this last volume, he knows as much about Tolkien's Middle Earth, its landscape, its fauna and flora, its peoples, their languages, their history, their cultural habits, as, outside his special field, he knows about the actual world.

Mr. Tolkien's world may not be the same as our own: it includes, for example, elves, beings who know good and evil but have not fallen, and, though not physically indestructible, do not suffer natural death. It is afflicted by Sauron, an incarnate of absolute evil, and creatures like Shelob, the monster spider, or the orcs who are corrupt past hope of redemption. But it is a world of intelligible law, not mere wish; the reader's sense of the credible is never violated.

Even the One Ring, the absolute physical and psychological weapon which must corrupt any who dares to use it, is a perfectly plausible hypothesis from which the political duty to destroy it which motivates Frodo's quest logically follows.

To present the conflict between Good and Evil as a war in which the good side is ultimately victorious is a ticklish business. Our historical experience tells us that physical power and, to a large extent, mental power are morally neutral and effectively real: wars are won by the stronger side, just or unjust. At the same time most of us believe that the essence of the Good is love and freedom so that Good cannot impose itself by force without ceasing to be good.

The battles in the Apocalypse and "Paradise Lost," for example, are hard to stomach because of the conjunction of two incompatible notions of Deity, of a God of Love who creates free beings who can reject his love and of a God of absolute Power whom none can withstand. Mr. Tolkien is not as great a writer as Milton, but in this matter he has succeeded where Milton failed. As readers of the preceding volumes will remember, the situation n the War of the Ring is as follows: Chance, or Providence, has put the Ring in the hands of the representatives of Good, Elrond, Gandalf, Aragorn. By using it they could destroy Sauron, the incarnation of evil, but at the cost of becoming his successor. If Sauron recovers the Ring, his victory will be immediate and complete, but even without it his power is greater than any his enemies can bring against him, so that, unless Frodo succeeds in destroying the Ring, Sauron must win.

Evil, that is, has every advantage but one-it is inferior in imagination. Good can imagine the possibility of becoming evil-hence the refusal of Gandalf and Aragorn to use the Ring-but Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself. Sauron cannot imagine any motives except lust for domination and fear so that, when he has learned that his enemies have the Ring, the thought that they might try to destroy it never enters his head, and his eye is kept toward Gondor and away from Mordor and the Mount of Doom.

Further, his worship of power is accompanied, as it must be, by anger and a lust for cruelty: learning of Saruman's attempt to steal the Ring for himself, Sauron is so preoccupied with wrath that for two crucial days he pays no attention to a report of spies on the stairs of Cirith Ungol, and when Pippin is foolish enough to look in the palantir of Orthanc, Sauron could have learned all about the Quest. His wish to capture Pippin and torture the truth from him makes him miss his precious opportunity.

The demands made on the writer's powers in an epic as long as "The Lord of the Rings" are enormous and increase as the tale proceeds-the battles have to get more spectacular, the situations more critical, the adventures more thrilling-but I can only say that Mr. Tolkien has proved equal to them. From the appendices readers will get tantalizing glimpses of the First and Second Ages. The legends of these are, I understand, already written and I hope that, as soon as the publishers have seen "The Lord of the Rings" into a paper-back edition, they will not keep Mr. Tolkien's growing army of fans waiting too long.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Classic-High Fantasy Bestsellers Books - J. R. R. Tolkien-The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Book 2

2015-05-08T09:25:00.002-07:00

The Most Popular Classic-High Fantasy Bestsellers Books - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Two Towers: Info, Plot Summary, Review and J. R. R. Tolkien Biography

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Book 2: The Two Towers (416 Pgs.)

Volume #2 of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Book III: The Treason of Isengard

As Aragorn searches for Frodo, he suddenly hears Boromir's horn. Aragorn finds Boromir mortally wounded by arrows and his assailants are gone. Before Boromir dies, Aragorn learns that Saruman's Uruk-hai have kidnapped some of the hobbits, in spite of his efforts to defend them, and that Frodo had vanished after Boromir had attempted to take the Ring from him and that he truly regretted his actions. In his last moments, Boromir charges Aragorn to defend Minas Tirith from Sauron. With Legolas and Gimli, who had been fighting Orcs by themselves, Aragorn pays his last tributes to Boromir and sends him down the Great River Anduin on a funeral boat, the usual methods of burial being impractical. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli later resolve to follow the Uruk-hai captors and save Merry and Pippin. Meanwhile, after some hardship, Merry and Pippin escape when the Uruk-hai are attacked by the horsemen of Rohan, called the Rohirrim or "Riders of Rohan". Merry and Pippin escape into the nearby Fangorn Forest, where they encounter the giant treelike Ents. The Ents resemble actual trees, except they are able to see, talk, and move. These guardians of the forest generally keep to themselves, but after a long contemplation on whether or not the Hobbits were friends, or foes, their leader Treebeard persuades the Ent council to oppose the menace posed to the forest by the wizard Saruman, as suggested by Merry and Pippin, as Treebeard realizes that Saruman's minions have been cutting down large numbers of their trees to fuel the furnaces needed for Saruman's arming of his dark army.

Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas come across the Riders of Rohan led by Éomer, nephew of King Théoden. The trio learn that the horsemen had attacked a band of Orcs the previous night, and that they had left no survivors. However, Aragorn is able to track a small set of prints that lead into Fangorn, where they see an old man who disappears almost as soon as they see him — they assume him to be Saruman. Shortly afterward, the three meet Gandalf (again, they at first take him to be Saruman), whom they believed had perished in the mines of Moria. He tells them of his fall into the abyss, his battle to the death with the Balrog and his resurrection and his enhanced power. Gandalf tells them that Merry and Pippin are safe, and the four ride to Rohan's capital Edoras, where Gandalf rouses King Théoden from inaction against the threat Saruman poses. In the process, Saruman's spy in Rohan (and King Théoden's trusted advisor) Gríma Wormtongue, is expelled from Rohan. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas then travel with Théoden's troops to the fortress of Hornburg, in the valley of Helm's Deep. Gandalf rides away before the battle begins, though he gives no reason for doing so. At the Hornburg, the army of Rohan led by King Théoden and Aragorn resist a full-scale onslaught by the hosts of Saruman. Yet, things begin to go ill with Rohan, until Gandalf arrives with the remains of the army of Westfold that Saruman's forces had previously routed. The tide now turns in Rohan's favour, and Saruman's orcs flee into a forest of Huorns, creatures similar to Ents, and none escape alive. Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, along with King Théoden and Éomer, head to Saruman's stronghold of Isengard.

Here, they reunite with Merry and Pippin and find Isengard overrun by Ents, who had flooded it by breaking a nearby dam of the river Isen, and the central tower of Orthanc besieged, with Saruman and Wormtongue trapped inside. Gandalf offers Saruman a chance to repent, but is refused, and so casts Saruman out of the Order of Wizards and the White Council. Gríma throws something from a window at Gandalf but misses, and it is picked up by Pippin. This object turns out to be one of the palantíri (seeing-stones). Pippin, unable to resist the urge, looks into it and encounters the Eye of Sauron, but emerges unscathed from the ordeal. Gandalf and Pippin then head for Minas Tirith in Gondor in preparation for the imminent war against Mordor, while Théoden, Merry, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas remain behind to begin the muster of Rohan, to ride to the aid of Gondor.

Book IV: The Journey to Mordor

Frodo and Sam discover and capture Gollum, who has been stalking them in their quest to reach Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring, as Gollum attempts to reclaim the Ring for himself. Sam loathes and distrusts him, but Frodo pities the poor creature. Gollum promises to lead the pair to the Black Gate of Mordor and for a time appears to be like his old self Sméagol. He leads them through a hidden passage of the Dead Marshes in order to avoid being spied by Orcs. Frodo and Sam learn that the Dead Marshes were once part of an ancient battlefield, upon which the War of the Last Alliance was fought. Upon reaching the Black Gate, Gollum persuades Frodo and Sam not to enter, where they would have been surely caught. Gollum tells them of a secret entrance to Mordor. Thus, they head south into Gondor's province of Ithilien, where they are accosted by a group of Gondorian rangers led by Faramir, the brother of Boromir. Frodo learns from Faramir of Boromir's death. Faramir and the Rangers lead Frodo and Sam into a secret hideout where Sam accidentally reveals to Faramir that Frodo carries the One Ring. As a result of this, Frodo reveals the plan to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Later that night, Gollum is captured diving for fish into the sacred pool. Frodo negotiates Gollum's freedom with Faramir. The following morning Faramir allows them to go on their way, but warns them that Gollum may know more about the secret entrance than he has been telling them.

Gollum leads them past the city of Minas Morgul and up a long, steep staircase of the Cirith Ungol and into the lair of an enormous spider named Shelob. Gollum hopes to get the Ring from Frodo's bones after Shelob is done with him. The hobbits escape Shelob in her lair and mistakenly assume that they are safe. However, Shelob sneaks up on Frodo. Sam attempts to warn Frodo but is attacked by Gollum. Shelob stings Frodo in the back of the neck and he collapses to the ground. Sam fends off Gollum, who runs off back towards Shelob's cave. Sam then drives off Shelob by wounding her with Frodo's blade, Sting. After seeing Frodo lifeless and pale, Sam assumes that Frodo is dead and debates chasing Gollum and abandoning the Quest in favour of vengeance. Sam resolves to finish the Quest himself and takes the Ring, but when Orcs take Frodo's body, Sam follows them. He learns that Frodo is not dead, but only unconscious, and is now a prisoner. Sam falls into a swoon as the orcs reach the undergate of the Tower of Cirith Ungol. The book ends with the line, "Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy."

Source: Wikipedia

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Two Towers

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Two Towers - Review
Reviewed by Jill Marshall

It was a desperate enterprise, to form a Fellowship of Nine Walkers to accompany Frodo son of Drogo, Ring Bearer, on his hopeless quest to return the Ring of Power to the fires of Mount Doom, to destroy it utterly for all time.

As you will know by now, the fellowship failed at the end of the first part of this trilogy. Gandalf fell into the abyss in the Mines of Moria as he battled with the Balrog; Boromir fell under the evil influence of the Ring and attempted to take it from Frodo by force. The company was attacked by orcs and scattered. Boromir died defending Pippin and Merry, but at the end they were taken hostage by orcs and carried away, and in the tumult Frodo and Sam set off alone on the final stage of their desperate journey to Mordor

When The Two Towers opens Aragorn has lost control of the situation:

'This is a bitter end. Now the Company is all in ruin. It is I that have failed. Vain was Gandalf's trust in me. What shall I do now? Boromir has laid it on me to go to Minas Tirith, and my heart desires it; but where are the Ring and the Bearer? How shall I find them and save the Quest from disaster?'
It is an evil choice which lies before him:

'Let me think!' said Aragorn. 'And now may I make a right choice, and change the evil fate of this unhappy day!' He stood silent for a moment. 'I will follow the Orcs,' he said at last. 'I would have guided Frodo to Mordor and gone with him to the end; but if I seek him now in the wilderness, I must abandon the captives to torment and death. My heart speaks clearly at last: the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played its part. Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left. Come! We will go now. Leave all that can be spared behind! We will press on by day and dark!'
The three companions, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, who represent the three great races of Middle Earth, begin a relentless chase from the Falls of Rauros across the Vale of Rohan to the very eaves of Fangorn Forest in a bid to rescue the two hobbits from their merciless captors. It is a heroic effort:

'This deed of the three friends should be sung in many a hall.'
Thus says Eomer of Rohan, who meets them on the plain and tells them that he and his men have already intercepted and killed the orcs on the border of the ancient forest. The three companions are still in some doubt about the fate of Pippin and Merry, when they encounter Gandalf, who has returned from death in order to continue the battle against the evil shadow. He is now presented as the White Rider, mounted on Shadowfax, so that the companions are momentarily confused as to his true identity, but it is a joyful, if hasty, reunion.

There is much to do. The traitor Saruman must be dealt with. Saruman is the leader of Gandalf's order, but he has spent too long studying the ways of the enemy and he has succumbed to the power of the Dark Lord. He seeks the Ring for his own use, and he has raised his own fighting force. Gandalf and the three companions ride across Rohan to rally King Theoden of the Mark. King Theoden makes his stand at the Hornburg against the forces of Saruman, and it it a hard-fought battle, but they receive unexpected assistance from the Ents out of Fangorn. If you want to know what kind of help a group of ancient shepherds of trees can render in this situation, you'll have to read the book, and you might find out what happens to Merry and Pippin too.

Now, what has become of Frodo and Sam? They have chosen a bitter route through the Emyn Muil hills and the Dead Marshes. They are heading, without hope, straight for the Black Gate of Mordor. Still Frodo does not know the way and cannot find his way, until he and Sam fall in with Gollum, who has secretly pursued them all the way from the Mines of Moria. Gollum is drawn by the power of the Ring and an uneasy truce is maintained between him and the hobbits. Gollum agrees to lead Frodo into Mordor through a secret entrance that he claims to have discovered during his wanderings alone.

If you want to know how Gollum keeps his promise, you will have to read the book for yourself. It is a grievous story of treachery illumined only by the love of Samwise for his master. Do you remember what Elrond said to Frodo, as the Company of the Ring prepared to leave Rivendell?

'I can foresee very little of your road; and how your task is to be achieved I do not know. The Shadow has crept now to the feet of the Mountains, and draws nigh even to the borders of the Greyflood; and under the Shadow all is dark to me. You will meet many foes, some open, and some disguised; and you may find friends upon your way when you least look for it ...'
Another nerve-shredding episode of The Lord of the Rings.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Classic-High Fantasy Bestsellers Books - J. R. R. Tolkien-The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Book 1

2015-05-08T06:37:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Fantasy Bestseller Books - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring Info, Plot Summary, Review and J. R. R. Tolkien Biography.

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Book 1: The Fellowship of the Ring (480 Pgs.)

Volume #1 of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Book I: The Ring Sets Out

The first chapter in the book begins in a light vein, following the tone of The Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins celebrates his 111th (or eleventy-first, as it is called in Hobbiton) birthday on the same day, 22 'September', that his younger cousin and adopted heir Frodo Baggins celebrates his coming of age at 33. At the birthday party, Bilbo departs from the Shire, the land of the Hobbits, for what he calls a permanent holiday. Bilbo does so by using the magic ring (that he had found on his journey) to disappear and is aided by Gandalf with a flash and puff of smoke, leading many in the Shire to believe he has gone mad. He leaves Frodo his remaining belongings, including his home, Bag End, and (after some persuasion by the wizard Gandalf) the Ring. Gandalf leaves on his own business, warning Frodo to keep the Ring secret.

Over the next 17 years Gandalf periodically pays short visits to Bag End. One spring night, he arrives to enlighten Frodo about Bilbo's ring; it is the One Ring of Sauron the Dark Lord. Sauron had forged it to subdue and rule Middle-earth, but in the War of the Last Alliance, he had been defeated by Gil-galad the Elven King and Elendil, High King of Arnor and Gondor, though they themselves perished in the deed. Isildur, Elendil's son, cut the Ring from Sauron's finger. Sauron had thus been overthrown, but the Ring itself was not destroyed as it should have been; Isildur kept it for himself. Isildur was slain soon afterwards in the Battle of the Gladden Fields, and the Ring was lost in Great River Anduin. Thousands of years later, it had been found by the hobbit Déagol; but Déagol was thereupon murdered by his friend Sméagol, who coveted the Ring for himself. Sméagol subsequently possessed the Ring for centuries, and under its influence he became the creature named Gollum. The Ring was found by Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit, and Bilbo left it behind for Frodo.

Gandalf reveals that Sauron has risen again and returned to his stronghold in Mordor, and is exerting all his power toward the hunting of the Ring. Gandalf details the evil powers of the Ring and its ability to influence the bearer and those near him if it is worn for too long. Gandalf warns Frodo that the Ring is no longer safe in the Shire; he has learned through his investigations that Gollum had gone to Mordor, where he was captured and tortured until he revealed to Sauron that a hobbit named Baggins from the Shire possesses the Ring. Gandalf hopes Frodo can reach the elf-haven Rivendell, where he believes Frodo and the Ring will be safe from Sauron, and where its fate can be decided. Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's gardener and friend, is discovered listening in on the conversation. Out of loyalty to his master, Sam agrees to accompany Frodo on his journey.

Over the summer Frodo makes plans to leave his home at Bag End, under the pretence that he is moving to a remote region near the Shire to retire. Helping with the plans are Frodo's friends Sam, Peregrin Took (Pippin for short), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry), and Fredegar Bolger (Fatty), though Frodo does not tell them of the Ring or of his intention to leave the Shire. At midsummer, Gandalf leaves on pressing business, but promises to return before Frodo leaves. Frodo's birthday and departure date approach, but Gandalf does not appear, so Frodo decides to leave without him. Black Riders pursue Frodo's party; these turn out to be Nazgûl or Ringwraiths, "the most terrible servants of the Dark Lord" (men who have been corrupted by Sauron through the Nine Rings), who are searching for "Baggins" and the Ring. In fact, one of the Riders comes to the door of Sam's father, the Gaffer, that very evening before they depart. With help of some elves and Farmer Maggot, they reach Crickhollow beyond the eastern border of the Shire. There Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Fatty reveal that they know of the Ring and of Frodo's plan to leave the Shire. Sam, Merry, and Pippin decide to accompany Frodo, while Fatty stays behind as a decoy. In hopes of eluding the Nazgûl, the hobbits travel through the Old Forest and the Barrow-downs. There in the forest, the group fall asleep by a tree and wake up to realize that its roots are trying to suffocate them, and Tom Bombadil comes to their aid. Within the Barrow-downs, they are captured by a barrow wight but escape and are able to reach the village of Bree, where they meet the ranger Aragorn, a friend of Gandalf who becomes their guide to Rivendell.

At the hill of Weathertop, five of the Nazgûl attack the travellers, and the chief of the Nazgûl stabs Frodo in the shoulder with a cursed knife before Aragorn drives off the Nazgûl with torches. Part of the blade remains within the wound, causing Frodo to fall increasingly ill as they travel to Rivendell; Aragorn warns them that, unless treated soon, Frodo will become a wraith himself. As the travellers near their destination, they meet Glorfindel, an elf-lord from Rivendell, who helps them reach the River Bruinen near Rivendell. But the Nazgûl, all nine now gathered together, ambush the party at the Ford of Bruinen. Glorfindel's horse outruns the pursuers and carries Frodo across the Ford. As the Nazgûl attempt to follow, a giant wave commanded by Elrond, the lord of Rivendell, sweeps them away.

Book II: The Ring Goes South

Book II opens in Rivendell at the house of Elrond. Frodo is healed by Elrond and discovers that Bilbo has been residing there. Bilbo asks to see the Ring again, but Frodo resists because of the ring's power, which leads Bilbo to understand at last. Frodo also meets many interesting figures, including Glóin—one of the dwarves who accompanied Bilbo on his journey to the Lonely Mountain—and Legolas, Prince of the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood. Frodo learns about the remaining dwarves, including Balin, Ori, and Óin who had not been heard from in some time. Elrond convenes the Council of Elrond, attended by Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo and many others, including Boromir, son of Denethor, the Steward of Gondor. Glóin explains that Balin had led an expedition to reclaim the old dwarf kingdom of Moria, but they had not heard from him in years. Furthermore, Glóin tells the group that the Nazgûl had come to Dale and the Lonely Mountain looking for Bilbo and the Ring. Legolas then tells the council that Gollum had escaped from his captivity with the Elves and was also abroad and hunting for the Ring. Boromir then stands and relates the details of a dream he and his brother Faramir both received, telling them to seek "the Sword That Was Broken" and "Isildur's Bane" in Rivendell. Elrond then has Frodo bring out the Ring, which is revealed as "Isildur's Bane."

Gandalf explains that he had gone to Isengard, where the wizard Saruman, the chief of all wizards in Middle-earth, dwells, to seek help and counsel. However, Saruman had turned against them, desiring the Ring for himself. Saruman imprisoned Gandalf in his tower, Orthanc, rightly suspecting that Gandalf knew where the Ring was. Gandalf, however, did not yield and managed to escape from Orthanc. He learns that Saruman is not yet in Sauron's service, and is mustering his own force of Orcs. In the Council of Elrond, a plan is hatched to cast the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor, which will destroy the Ring and end Sauron's power for good. Boromir objects and argues for using the Ring to overcome Sauron and relieve Gondor, but Elrond says that the Ring cannot be used for good because of its intrinsic evil and its corrupting power even on those with the best intentions. Frodo offers to undertake this dangerous quest, and is thus chosen to be the Ring-bearer. He sets forth from Rivendell with eight companions: two Men, Aragorn and Boromir; Legolas; Gandalf; Gimli the Dwarf, the son of Glóin; and Frodo's three Hobbit companions. These Nine Walkers (called the Fellowship of the Ring) are chosen to represent all the free races of Middle-earth and as a balance to the Nazgûl. They are also accompanied by Bill the Pony, whom Aragorn and the Hobbits acquired in Bree as a pack horse.

The Fellowship attempt to cross the Misty Mountains is foiled by heavy snow, and then they are attacked by a host of Wargs that have moved west of the Mountains to hunt for the Ring. Thus, they are forced to take a path under the mountains, through the mines of Moria, the ancient dwarf kingdom. There, they discover that Balin, Ori, and Óin were all killed by Orcs and other evil creatures that thwarted their attempt to retake Moria. Those same orcs then attack the travellers, and during the battle that ensues, Gandalf encounters a Balrog of Morgoth, an ancient demon of fire and shadow. Gandalf challenges the Balrog, but both fall into an abyss. The remaining eight members of the Fellowship escape from Moria and head toward the elf-haven of Lothlórien, where they are given gifts from the rulers Celeborn and Galadriel that in many cases prove useful later during the Quest. As Frodo tries to decide the future course of the Fellowship, Boromir succumbs to the Ring's corruptive influence and tries to take it for himself, and Frodo ends up putting on the Ring to escape from Boromir. While the rest of the Fellowship scatters to hunt for Frodo, Frodo decides the Fellowship has to be broken, and he must depart secretly for Mordor alone to prevent the rest of his companions from becoming enslaved by the influence of the Ring. Sam insists on coming along, however, and they set off together to Mordor. The Fellowship is thus broken.

Source: Wikipedia

J. R. R. Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring - Review
Reviewed by W. H. AUDEN

Seventeen years ago there appeared, without any fanfare, a book called "The Hobbit" which, in my opinion, is one of the best children's stories of this century. In "The Fellowship of the Ring," which is the first volume of a trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkien continues the imaginative history of the imaginary world to which he introduced us in his earlier book but in a manner suited to adults, to those, that is, between the ages of 12 and 70. For anyone who likes the genre to which it belongs, the Heroic Quest, I cannot imagine a more wonderful Christmas present. All Quests are concerned with some numinous Object, the Waters of Life, the Grail, buried treasure etc.; normally this is a good Object which it is the Hero's task to find or to rescue from the Enemy, but the Ring of Mr. Tolkien's story was made by the Enemy and is so dangerous that even the good cannot use it without being corrupted.

The Enemy believed that it had been lost forever, but he has just discovered that it has come providentially into the hands of the Hero and is devoting all his demonic powers to its recovery, which would give him the lordship of the world. The only way to make sure of his defeat is to destroy the Ring, but this can only be done in one way and in one place which lies in the heart of the country; the task of the Hero, therefore, is to get the Ring to the place of its unmaking without getting caught.

The hero, Frodo Baggins, belongs to a race of beings called hobbits, who may be only three feet high; have hairy feet and prefer to live in underground houses, but in their thinking and sensibility resemble very closely those arcadian rustics who inhabit so many British detective stories. I think some readers may find the opening chapter a little shy-making, nut they must not let themselves be put off, for, once the story gets moving, this initial archness disappears.

For over a thousand years the hobbits have been living a peaceful existence in a fertile district called the Shire, incurious about the world outside. Actually, the latter is rather sinister; towns have fallen to ruins, roads into disrepair, fertile fields have returned to wilderness, wild beasts and evil beings on the prowl, and travel is difficult and dangerous. In addition to the Hobbits, there are Elves who are wise and good, Dwarves who are skillful and good on the whole, and Men, some warriors, some wizards, who are good or bad. The present incarnation of the Enemy is Sauron, Lord of Barad-Dur, the Dark Tower in the Land of Mordor. Assisting him are the Orcs, wolves and other horrid creatures and, of course, such men as his power attracts or overawes. Landscape, climate and atmosphere are northern, reminiscent of the Icelandic sagas.

The first thing that one asks is that the adventure should be various and exciting; in this respect Mr. Tolkien's invention is unflagging, and, on the primitive level of wanting to know what happens next, "The Fellowship of the Ring" is at least as good as "The Thirty-Nine Steps." Of any imaginary world the reader demands that it seem real, and the standard of realism demanded today is much stricter than in the time, say, of Malory. Mr. Tolkien is fortunate in possessing an amazing gift for naming and a wonderfully exact eye for description; by the time one has finished his book one knows the histories of Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and the landscape they inhabit as well as one knows one's own childhood.

Lastly, if one is to take a tale of this kind seriously, one must feel that, however superficially unlike the world we live in its characters and events may be, it nevertheless holds up the mirror to the only nature we know, our own; in this, too, Mr. Tolkien has succeeded superbly, and what happened in the year of the Shire 1418 in the Third Age of Middle Earth is not only fascinating in A. D. 1954 but also a warning and an inspiration. No fiction I have read in the last five years has given me more joy than "The Fellowship of the Ring."

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Fantasy novel-J. R. R. Tolkien-The Fellowship of the Ring

Ayn Rand-Atlas Shrugged

2015-05-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Classic Bestsellers Books - Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Info, Plot Summary, Review and Ayn Rand Biography

Author: Ayn Rand

Book: Atlas Shrugged (1,168 Pgs.)

As the novel opens, protagonist Dagny Taggart, the Operating Vice President of Taggart Transcontinental, a railroad company established by her grandfather, attempts to keep the company alive against collectivism and statism. Her brother, James Taggart, the railroad's President, is peripherally aware of the company's troubles, but seems to make irrational decisions, such as preferring to buy steel from Orren Boyle's Associated Steel, rather than Hank Rearden's Rearden Steel, despite the former continually delaying delivery of vital rail. In this as in other decisions, Dagny simply continues her own policy; but is herself disappointed to discover that Francisco d'Anconia, her childhood friend and first love, appears to be destroying his family's international copper company without cause.

Hank Rearden, a self-made steel magnate, has developed an alloy called Rearden Metal, now the most reliable metal in the world; but keeps its composition secret, sparking jealousy among competitors. As a result, pressure is put on Dagny to use conventional steel; but she refuses. Hank's career is hindered by his feelings of obligation to his wife, mother, and younger brother. Dagny also becomes acquainted with Wesley Mouch, a Washington lobbyist initially working for Rearden, whom he betrays; and later notices the nation's most capable business leaders abruptly disappearing, leaving their industries to failure. The most recent of these is Ellis Wyatt, the sole founder and supervisor of Wyatt Oil, who leaves his most successful oil well spewing petroleum and fire into the air (later named "Wyatt's Torch"). Each of these men remains absent despite a thorough search by politicians. While economic conditions worsen and government agencies enforce their control on successful businesses, the citizens are often heard repeating "Who is John Galt?", in response to questions to which the individual has no answer. It sarcastically means, "Don't ask important questions, because we don't have answers", or more broadly, "What's the point?" or "Why bother?".

Having demonstrated the reliability of Rearden Metal in a railroad line named after 'John Galt', Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart become paramours; and later discover, amongst the ruins of an abandoned factory, an incomplete motor that transforms atmospheric static electricity into kinetic energy, of which they seek the inventor. Eventually this search reveals the reason of business-leaders' disappearances, when Dagny pursues a scientist to 'Galt's Gulch', where the character John Galt is leading an organized "strike" of business leaders against the government.

Reluctant to forsake her railroad, Dagny leaves Galt's Gulch; but Galt follows Dagny to New York City, where he hacks into a national radio broadcast to deliver a long speech (70 pages in the first edition), to explain the novel's theme and Rand's Objectivism.[27] As the government collapses, the authorities capture Galt; but he is rescued by his partisans, while New York City loses its electricity. The novel closes as Galt announces that they will later re-organize the world.

Source: Wikipedia

Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged - Review
Reviewed by William R Thomas

Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is a collection of thirty-six essays on Rand’s monumental novel and its meaning. The essays range from basic primers and plot summaries—competent book reports, more than anything else—to romps by scholars exercising their favorite theoretical hobby horses. Most of the writers are not literary scholars, nor is the editor: Edward Younkins is a professor of accountancy at Wheeling Jesuit University. So the book is not a piece of literary scholarship as the term is currently understood—most of the essays focus on political economy, philosophy, or practical psychology. And though a kind of love for the novel is present in all the essays, the result is a big, mixed bag.

The best essays in the collection offer insightful analysis: They accurately represent Rand’s distinctive worldview while bringing something new to the table, such as a fresh perspective or a connection between Rand’s work and other literature, philosophy, or social theory. In this way, they allow people familiar with Rand’s work to approach it anew, and they encourage those who don’t know Rand well to inquire further.

In “Forced to Rule,” philosopher Roderick Long looks at how Atlas Shrugged may have been in part a response to Plato’s dialogue the Republic. The Republic portrays a collectivist utopia where material life and education are sharply controlled by the government. All must act from duty, not self-interest—even the rulers, who should be wise men forced to rule against their inclinations. Long points out that this is strange, since Plato’s ethics appear to focus on individual flourishing. How can there be individual happiness without any freedom? But Plato was a dualist, holding that real knowledge, truth, and virtue proceed from a realm of Ideas only dimly reflected in material reality, and this made him pessimistic about practical affairs. Long shows how Ayn Rand strikes back at this conception of man in Atlas Shrugged and details implicit references to Plato in the text. Ayn Rand rejected the dichotomy of mind versus body and its attendant splits of spirit versus matter, love versus sex, and art versus engineering. In the climax of Atlas, Rand put Plato’s doctrine to the test as the villains try to torture John Galt—the best and wisest of men, “an engineer and philosopher”—to make him rule them. (Spoiler: It doesn’t work.)

In an essay subtitled “Virtuous Sexuality in Atlas Shrugged ,” anthropologist Susan Love Brown argues that Rand’s view of sex developed over the course of her career. Rand always presented sex as channeled violence and a dance of dominance and submission. But in Atlas, Brown says, we see a philosophical view of sex as a “celebration of life” that was not fully present before. It’s an aspect of the novel’s theme of mind-body unity: Sexual desire should be a response to the whole person one loves—physical traits, of course, but mental traits, too, such as intelligence and virtuousness. Also, sex should be based on particular knowledge of the loved one. In Rand’s earlier novels, the characters make full sexual commitments based on a love-at-first-sight perception. In The Fountainhead , hero Howard Roark sexually assaults his lover Dominique Francon, certain that’s just what she wants—though she doesn’t know it herself. Contrast this with the sexual affairs of heroine Dagny Taggart in Atlas: Dagny knows each of her lovers well before sleeping with them.

In a related meditation, “Friendship in Atlas Shrugged ,” avocational Rand scholar Peter Saint-Andre puts some of the friendships in the novel under critical scrutiny, bringing to bear a wide reading of the psychological and philosophical literature on friendship. Like several of the writers in this book, Saint-Andre finds Rand’s ideal man, John Galt, too much like a god, and he finds Galt’s friendships unbalanced. Even his two closest friends seem to worship and follow him. That doesn’t sound healthy. But one of those strikers, Francisco d’Anconia, has a “more interesting and instructive” relationship with “scab” industrialist Hank Rearden. Their friendship is a relationship of equals founded on shared values and mutual esteem. Saint-Andre accurately describes Rand’s theory of friendship, imports insights from Aristotle and others in a clear and intelligible fashion, and has us looking at the novel afresh.

Let me also mention economist Bryan Caplan’s “ Atlas Shrugged and Public Choice: The Obvious Parallels.” Public-choice theory is the economics of democratic policy-making: It posits that “politicians maximize votes, just as firms maximize profits.” Caplan ties together a variety of plot developments distributed throughout the novel that show public-choice effects at work. For example, when businessmen use government power to loot competitors, they gain in the short run while greater losses are spread throughout society. The “aristocracy of pull” in Atlas Shrugged rules through access to Washington, trading favors and back-stabbing in a destructive political competition that eventually leads to economic collapse.

A problem with the book is that many of the essays are nothing much to write home about. If the book is intended to serve as (among other things) a resource for teachers and students, it needs basic textbook material that identifies main themes, structural elements, and characters. An example in this volume that does the job nicely is philosopher Fred Seddon’s tour through the chapter titles. Ayn Rand chose every one purposefully, and Seddon shows why and how. But few of contributions of this type are really rock-solid.

Editor Younkins writes an overview essay that reads like a mash-up of the various extant surveys and studies of Atlas. Summaries crash into summaries, and we zig-zag over deep issues. Because I’m a Rand scholar, I know what Younkins is getting at, but I doubt that most readers would be able to fill in the needed details and connect the dots. Fortunately, the next essay, by researcher and editor Chris Sciabarra, offers a comprehensible overview of Rand’s view of man and society.

Then there’s the problem of the “book reports.” The volume has several essays that summarize what happens to a single character, such as Cheryl Brooks. A good character study, however, not only gives an overview of the character and his role in the novel but also sheds light on the author’s choices by bringing in comparisons with other characters or relating the character’s behavior to heroic models or psychological truths. The character studies here don’t do that, by and large; instead, they are just summaries: what the character did and why, in terms internal to the novel. As a promoter of Ayn Rand ’s philosophy, I’m pleased to see these accurate summaries, but I don’t think they add much that an attentive reader couldn’t notice on his own.

By contrast, consider psychologist Robert Campbell’s study of Eddie Willers. It’s the best of the character studies in the volume. Campbell surveys the main role of Willers in the plot and theme (he is a decent, mediocre Everyman who comes to a tragic end because he lacks the ability to survive independently). Campbell points out a fact that I had never much considered: Willers is well-known to three of the heroes, and yet they never offer him the chance to join their strike and enter their hidden utopia. Did Rand bar him from salvation consciously, or sub-consciously? And what does that mean for most Rand readers, who, Campbell points out, are more like the decent-yet-unremarkable Eddie than they are like his companions, the world-beating achievers Dagny Taggart and John Galt?

So this is a hit-and-miss collection, with a few really wild pitches to complete the mix. For example, did you know that Sundays in Massachusetts induce lassitude and a neither-here-nor-there attitude—universally, across the state, every Sunday? Well, novelist Karen Michalson seems to believe so—or at least she takes a whimsical notion much, much too far in her memoir “Dagny and Me.” In this appalling piece of self-indulgence, Michalson offers thoughts on those Sundays, followed by some snarky recollections of her first meeting with some ardent Rand fans (on a Sunday). Then, on to Dagny. Michalson admired Dagny Taggart, the heroine of Atlas Shrugged , but has since given up comparing herself to the character now that she realizes Dagny “had inherited her position” and thus is not a model of a self-made woman. But that’s just an inaccurate reading of the novel. Michalson claims to be a literature scholar, but she can’t discern that a woman wouldn’t rise to the head of operations at a big industrial firm in the 1950s—or even today—no matter how much stock she owned? Yet that’s what Dagny does. And, er, “Sundays” are a man-made institution; they don’t have metaphysical effects.

In “The Non-Fictional Robert Stadlers: Traitors to Liberty,” anarchist economist Walter Block indulges in a petty exercise of rationalistic nit-picking and movement in-fighting. Using hyperbolic language, he lambastes the few figures who actually made a case for greater freedom in our times, like Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, and Alan Greenspan. Since these folks studied free-market theory, he claims, they should have known better than to compromise it. Well, too true. But Stadler isn’t just a compromiser: Over the course of the novel he betrays everything good he had stood for, abandoning even his own reason in the end. These men aren’t Stadlers; they all made substantial efforts to increase our political freedom. Even Block admits as much in the conclusion of his essay, so what was the point? The reader has learned little about Atlas and less about how its principles should be put into practice.

Many of the essays use Atlas Shrugged as the occasion for their authors to retail theories of their own that are not really an analysis of Rand’s work. An entertaining example is Roger Bissell’s presentation “My Music: Why It’s Romantic, and Why I Write It That Way,” which purports to be a lecture given by Richard Halley “on the 25th anniversary of the Great Strike.” This sounds like a fun fan-fic idea: Halley is a minor character in Atlas, a composer of heroic music who joins the strike against the mystic-altruist-collectivist culture that dominates America. But this isn’t Halley’s speech, it’s Bissell’s, retailing his own theory of how melody functions in music. I know that Bissell’s theory is one of several that try to develop esthetic ideas along Randian lines. But you wouldn’t know that from reading this disguised essay. Like many of the ingrown and self-referential essays in this book, the Halley “speech” is less than it could have been.

I’ve not discussed many of the essays in Younkins’ volume, though for someone well-versed in Rand’s works and Rand scholarship, there are many juicy tidbits to pick up. I must mention philosopher Douglas Den Uyl’s investigation of Ayn Rand ’s view of America—had she become more pessimistic since writing the paean to the American sense of life in The Fountainhead —and also another essay I enjoyed, literature professor Stephen Cox’s discussion of “Ayn Rand’s Debt to Isabel Paterson.” Cox is Paterson’s biographer, and his essay is more about Paterson than Rand. But it calls attention to one of Rand’s mentors and reminds us that her biographers still have work to do tracing her intellectual development.

In the end, whom is this book for? I couldn’t imagine college students getting much out of it; they might benefit from Sciabarra’s overview, I suppose, and Seddon’s study of the chapter headings. Most of the other essays are too idiosyncratic, too “in-movement,” too scholarly, or too much like a paper that a college student would write. Ayn Rand fans may find many of them stultifying, though I’ve tried to indicate some that had gold in them. Philosophers, I suspect, will find something to root around in, but again, they will have to be choosy. Still, I must admit that reading these essays got me thinking about Rand and Atlas. It’s a useful volume for anyone who would enjoy a hunt around the attic of Rand scholarship.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Classic Novels-Ayn Rand-Atlas Shrugged

Harper Lee-To Kill a Mockingbird

2015-05-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Classic Bestsellers Books - Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird Info, Plot Summary, Review and Harper Lee Biography

Author: Harper Lee

Book: To Kill a Mockingbird (320 Pgs.)

The story takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional "tired old town" of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. It focuses on six-year-old Jean Louise Finch (Scout), who lives with her older brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified of, and fascinated by, their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and, for many years few have seen him. The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone leaves them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.

Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. This danger is averted when Scout, Jem, and Dill shame the mob into dispersing by forcing them to view the situation from Atticus' and Tom's points of view.

Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial. No seat is available on the main floor, so by invitation of Rev. Sykes, Jem, Scout, and Dill watch from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that the accusers—Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, the town drunk—are lying. It also becomes clear that the friendless Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, and that her father caught her and beat her. Despite significant evidence of Tom's innocence, the jury convicts him. Jem's faith in justice becomes badly shaken, as is Atticus', when the hapless Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison.

Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial, Atticus explaining that he "destroyed [Ewell's] last shred of credibility at that trial."[11] Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to break into the judge's house, and menacing Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks the defenseless Jem and Scout while they walk home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant. One of Jem's arms is broken in the struggle, but amid the confusion someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley.

Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers that Bob Ewell has died during the fight. The sheriff argues with Atticus about the prudence and ethics of charging Jem (whom Atticus believes to be responsible) or Boo (whom Tate believes to be responsible). Atticus eventually accepts the sheriff's story that Ewell simply fell on his own knife. Boo asks Scout to walk him home, and after she says goodbye to him at his front door he disappears again. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective, and regrets that they had never repaid him for the gifts he had given them.

Source: Wikipedia

Harper Lee-To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird - Review
Reviewed by Thcreviews

I usually prefer to enjoy my reading material rather than having to parse it's deeper meaning, so I can sometimes be rather reluctant to read books that are critically acclaimed and/or considered classics, since they are often difficult to understand. I'd heard so many wonderful things about To Kill a Mockingbird that I finally decided to take a chance on it when it was chosen as a book club read for the GoodReads Readers Against Prejudice and Racism group of which I am a part. I was very pleasantly surprised at what an easy read it was, while at the same time conveying a deep and layered message, not only about prejudice but also about standing up for what's right, that I know will stay with me, probably for the rest of my life. Another astonishing thing about the book to me was the number of lighthearted if not downright funny moments it contained. This is something I never would have expected from a book that tackled such a serious and controversial issue for its time. In my opinion, Harper Lee is an amazing writer, and I was absolutely stunned to discover that To Kill a Mockingbird was the only novel she ever wrote. However, I suppose there's nowhere else to go once you've won the highest honor in the writing world, a Pulitzer Prize, and she certainly made her one shot count in a huge way.

Young Scout Finch is the first-person narrator of the story. She is only about six or seven when it opens, but more than two years pass by as Ms. Lee builds up to the penultimate events of the book, by which time Scout is nine years old. She is a tomboy who's as smart as a whip and a precocious reader. When her first grade teacher told her she had to stop reading because her daddy was teaching her all wrong and first-graders weren't supposed to read, I had to laugh. It was ludicrously funny but also a sad commentary on our educational system. I just loved Scout's enthusiasm for reading. She joked that her brother, Jem, said she was born reading and she couldn't remember a time when she couldn't read. In this way, Scout very much reminded me of myself. I thought it was fascinating how Scout, in her child's mind, thinks of her father as old, decrepit, and thoroughly boring. She doesn't think he has any real skills or has accomplished anything. It was an absolute joy to watch Scout's opinion of Atticus gradually grow and change as she matures and begins to see him in an entirely new light through, not only the big trial, but all the little things he does.

I loved Scout's relationship with her brother. She and Jem fight like siblings often do, but at the same time they were very close. I like how Jem is a little gentleman, always looking out for Scout. It was wonderful how closely he actually watches their father, and subtly emulates him. When their summertime friend and neighbor, Dill, gets in on the action, these three can get into lots of amusing mischief. Seeing the world through these kids eyes was a positively delightful experience. Dill is quite good at creating wild yarns. I just knew he was destined to be a writer someday;-) (for anyone who doesn't know Dill is patterned on Harper Lee's childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote). The lessons that the kids learn are deeply touching. Whether it's how they go from being scared of their reclusive neighbor Boo Radley to beginning to understand why he stays away from people; or learning from Mrs. Dubose, the cranky old lady who likes to hurl insults at them, that things aren't always as they seem; or the tough lessons they learned about injustice through Tom Robinson's trial, they are on a constant journey of discovery, both of the world around them and themselves that often brought tears to my eyes.

If I were Scout, I'd think that I had the best dad in the world, but since I'm much, much closer to Atticus's age than Scout's, I'd have to say that he has become my latest literary crush. He is just quite simply an amazing man. Some people think that he's a questionable father who lets his kids run wild, because he doesn't spank them and they have a tendency to speak their mind. To the contrary, I believe he was a man who led by quiet example, and showed his kids how to be good citizens by teaching them to think critically for themselves. I love how Atticus just naturally speaks with "bigger" words and doesn't dumb it down for his children, but instead allows them to ask for clarification if they don't understand something, always answering their questions with complete honesty. That's how I tend to be, and I think kids can learn more that way. Atticus is a very wise man who sees many facets to the world around him. He is a kind, loving, gentle soul who always seems to see the good in people. He's a true gentleman, a brilliant attorney, an honorable and humble man who fights for what's right no matter what. If more men were like Atticus Finch, the world, without a doubt, would be a much better place.

To Kill a Mockingbird is another of those books which sadly, over fifty years after its release, is still found at the top of the ALA's most banned/challenged books list. It does contain some profanities, mostly mild, but a couple of more moderate ones including taking the Lord's name in vain twice. There is also a number of instances where the derogatory "n" word is used for African Americans, but given the time and setting of the book, it never seemed overdone or out of place to me. There is also the mature subject matter of a black man being wrongly accused of raping a white girl, but since it is all told through the eyes of a nine year-old child, everything has a certain air of innocence to it, with nothing ever really being spelled out explicitly. In spite of this potentially objectionable content, I still feel that the book is fully appropriate for high school level students. In my opinion, the positive role model that Atticus presents and the positive messages contained within the book's pages, far outweigh any possible detractors. I personally think it would be an absolute travesty to ban a book as thought-provoking as this one, and in fact, would encourage everyone, teens and up, to read it at least once.

I'm so glad I finally picked up To Kill a Mockingbird. The courtroom scenes were extremely well-written and appear to reflect Ms. Lee's personal experience with the law. Some parts of the story were a little slow at times, but never boring and always worth the wait for something more exciting to happen. Every character and every little side story added flavor, color and depth to this wonderful tale. The message it conveys is a timeless one. It is one of the most, if not the most, affecting book I've ever read centering around the themes of prejudice and racism. To Kill a Mockingbird has without a doubt earned a spot on my keeper shelf and has become a new all-time favorite book for me.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Classic Novels-Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Great Gatsby

2015-05-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Classic Bestsellers Books - F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Info, Plot Summary, Review and F. Scott Fitzgerald Biography

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Book: The Great Gatsby (180 Pgs.)

The main events of the novel take place in the summer of 1922. Nick Carraway, a Yale graduate and World War I veteran from the Midwest – who serves as the novel's narrator – takes a job in New York as a bond salesman. He rents a small house on Long Island, in the (fictional) village of West Egg, next door to the lavish mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who holds extravagant parties but does not participate in them. Nick drives around the bay to East Egg for dinner at the home of his cousin, Daisy Fay Buchanan, and her husband, Tom, a college acquaintance of Nick's. They introduce Nick to Jordan Baker, an attractive, cynical young golfer with whom Nick begins a romantic relationship. She reveals to Nick that Tom has a mistress, Myrtle Wilson, who lives in the "valley of ashes":[11] an industrial dumping ground between West Egg and New York City. Not long after this revelation, Nick travels to New York City with Tom and Myrtle to an apartment they keep for their affair. At the apartment, a vulgar and bizarre party takes place. It ends with Tom breaking Myrtle's nose after she annoys him by saying Daisy's name several times.

As the summer progresses, Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Gatsby's parties. Nick encounters Jordan Baker at the party, and they meet Gatsby himself, an aloof and surprisingly young man who recognizes Nick from their same division in the war. Through Jordan, Nick later learns that Gatsby knew Daisy from a romantic encounter in 1917 and is deeply in love with her. He spends many nights staring at the green light at the end of her dock, across the bay from his mansion, hoping to one day rekindle their lost romance. Gatsby's extravagant lifestyle and wild parties are an attempt to impress Daisy in the hope that she will one day appear again at Gatsby's doorstep. Gatsby now wants Nick to arrange a reunion between himself and Daisy. Nick invites Daisy to have tea at his house, without telling her that Gatsby will also be there. After an initially awkward reunion, Gatsby and Daisy reestablish their connection. They begin an affair and, after a short time, Tom grows increasingly suspicious of his wife's relationship with Gatsby. At a luncheon at the Buchanans' house, Daisy speaks to Gatsby with such undisguised intimacy that Tom realizes she is in love with Gatsby. Though Tom is himself involved in an extramarital affair, he is outraged by his wife's infidelity. He forces the group to drive into New York City and confronts Gatsby in a suite at the Plaza Hotel, asserting that he and Daisy have a history that Gatsby could never understand. In addition to that, he announces to his wife that Gatsby is a criminal whose fortune comes from bootlegging alcohol and other illegal activities. Daisy realizes that her allegiance is to Tom, and Tom contemptuously sends her back to East Egg with Gatsby, attempting to prove that Gatsby cannot hurt him.

When Nick, Jordan, and Tom drive through the valley of ashes[11] on their way home, they discover that Gatsby's car has struck and killed Tom's mistress, Myrtle. Nick later learns from Gatsby that Daisy, not Gatsby himself, was driving the car at the time of the accident but Gatsby intends to take the blame anyway. Myrtle's husband, George, falsely concludes that the driver of the yellow car is the secret lover he recently began suspecting she has, and sets out on foot to locate its owner. After finding out the yellow car is Gatsby's, he arrives at Gatsby's mansion where he fatally shoots both Gatsby and then himself. Nick stages an unsettlingly small funeral for Gatsby, ends his relationship with Jordan, and moves back to the Midwest, disillusioned with the Eastern lifestyle.

Source: Wikipedia

F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby - Review
TheGuardian

There are many novels which claim that they are the greatest love story of all time. It is only in the case of this novel that that statement can be applied and be true.

The novel is set during the roaring 20s in America, narrated by Nick Carraway, a man from a well-to-do family just out of fighting the war and looking to sell bonds. He moves to East Egg, the slightly less grand area in comparison to West Egg, right opposite Gatsby's mansion. Gatsby is rich, mega-rich, and throws magnificent parties every weekend which the whole town attend. However the host is never seen during these parties, and is never completely known by any one person. Gatsby holds a dark secret about his past and how he became so great, a deep lust that will eventually lead to his demise.

The Great Gatsby is in many ways similar to Romeo and Juliet, yet I believe that it is so much more than just a love story. It is also a reflection on the hollowness of a life of leisure. Both stories are obsessed with controlling time: Juliet wants to extend her present, as her future prospects with Romeo are bleak and Gatsby wants to create a beautiful future by restoring the past. This is what leads Gatsby to say his most famous line "Can't change the past? Why, of course you can." I could very much relate to this - there have been many moments where I've wished that I could go back to the past and just remain there, for it was a better place.

Similarly to Romeo and Juliet, Fitzgerald's writing is almost like a work of poetry, with waves of literary brilliance creating a rich and lush rhythm which you can almost tap your foot to. The descriptions are jarringly, magnificently beautiful so that it almost made my heart ache.

However, unlike in Romeo and Juliet, the characters in The Great Gatsby are in themselves very flawed and very hard to sympathise with. But that is the beauty of the book. Of course you hate Daisy Buchanan! Of course you hate Tom! You even begin to slightly dislike Gatsby, to whom it is not enough for Daisy to say that she loved him, but requires her to state that she never in her five year marriage loved her husband Tom. But Gatsby, to me, remains Great right until the end of this book.

It is ironic that only the idle rich survive this novel, and Fitzgerald through this further enrages the reader about the cruelty and the injustice of the world. The rich are allowed to continue to be careless, for that is the dream, is it not? To live a carefree life? Yet Fitzgerald highlights the horrors of being a careless person: "They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness." What's amazing in this line is that Tom and Daisy aren't careless to be malicious - that is just their nature. And that in itself is a very sad thing. They do not care for their daughter, for Myrtle, for Gatsby nor even each other. Their inability to care is what makes The Great Gatsby the stark opposite to Romeo and Juliet where the lovers are sacrificed and Verona is healed. In Fitzgerald's masterpiece nothing is made whole by this tragedy.

Many consider The Great Gatsby to be depressing because, in the end, those who dream do not achieve their aspirations. However, the main message that Fitzgerald sends to us isn't that dreaming will lead to despair, but that chasing an unworthy dream will lead to tragedy.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Classic Novels-F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

John Steinbeck-The Grapes of Wrath

2015-05-07T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Classic Bestsellers Books - John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath Info, Plot Summary, Review and John Steinbeck Biography

Author: John Steinbeck

Book: The Grapes of Wrath (619 Pgs.)

The narrative begins just after Tom Joad is paroled from McAlester prison for homicide. On his return to his home near Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Tom meets former preacher Jim Casy, whom he remembers from his childhood, and the two travel together. When they arrive at Tom's childhood farm home, they find it deserted. Disconcerted and confused, Tom and Casy meet their old neighbor, Muley Graves, who tells them the family has gone to stay at Uncle John Joad's home nearby. Graves tells them that the banks have evicted all the farmers, but he refuses to leave the area.

The next morning, Tom and Casy go to Uncle John's. Tom finds his family loading a Hudson saloon converted to a truck with the remains of their possessions; with their crops destroyed by the Dust Bowl, the family defaulted on their bank loans. As their farm is repossessed, the Joads have no option but to seek work in California, described in handbills as fruitful and offering high pay. The Joads put everything they have into making the journey. Although leaving Oklahoma would be breaking parole, Tom decides it is worth the risk, and invites Casy to join him and his family.

Traveling west on Route 66, the Joad family find the road crowded with other migrants. In makeshift camps, they hear many stories from others, some returning from California, and worry about lessening prospects. Along the road, Granpa dies and they bury him in a field; Granma dies close to the California state line; and both Noah (the eldest Joad son) and Connie Rivers (the husband of the pregnant Joad daughter, Rose of Sharon) split from the family. Led by Ma, the remaining members realize they can only continue, as nothing is left for them in Oklahoma.

Reaching California, they find the state oversupplied with labor, so wages are low and workers are taken advantage of. The big corporate farmers are in collusion, and smaller farmers suffer from collapsing prices. Weedpatch Camp, one of the clean, utility-supplied camps operated by the Resettlement Administration, a New Deal agency, offers better conditions, but does not have enough resources to care for all the needy families. As a Federal facility, the camp protects the migrants from harassment by California deputies.

In response to the exploitation, Casy becomes a labor organizer and tries to recruit for a labor union. The remaining Joads work as strikebreakers in a peach orchard where Casy is involved in a strike that eventually turns violent. When Tom Joad witnesses Casy's fatal beating, he kills the attacker and flees as a fugitive. The Joads later leave the orchard for a cotton farm, where Tom is at risk of arrest for the homicide.

He bids farewell to his mother, promising to work for the oppressed. Rose of Sharon's baby is stillborn. Ma Joad remains steadfast and forces the family through the bereavement. With rain, the Joads' dwelling is flooded, and they move to higher ground. In the final chapter of the book, the family take shelter from the flood in an old barn. Inside they find a young boy and his father, who is dying of starvation. Rose of Sharon takes pity on the man and offers him her breast, so that he can be saved from starvation.

Source: Wikipedia

John Steinbeck-The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck-The Grapes of Wrath - Review
Reviewed by Eli Bendersky

It is not easy to write a review for a book you liked so much. Where do you start ? "The grapes of wrath" tells the story of the Joads - a family of farmers from Oklahoma during the great depression, who like many people of their class were pushed from the bank-owned land they lived on by the advances in farming machinery and drove to California in a search of a better life.

Hundreds of thousands of poor people flocked into the western state, where fruit-farm owners promised jobs in fruit picking. The problem was that in order to lower the labor wages, the farm owners tried to find many people for each single place of work, and because of this many of the newcomers were left living in hunger and terrible conditions, ready to grope any work available just to put food in the mouth of their children.

The storytelling is beautiful. Chapters of the family's progress in their quest are interspersed with chapters providing a more general view of the situation of those times - the misfortunes of so many in search of a respectable living. This book is full of criticism on the cutthroat capitalism that leaves so many people without food in their mouths and roof over their heads. However, contrary to many other works, the criticism here is implicit, and it doesn't present any other alternative as a clearly better one (like in more explicitly social works).

There's something very honest about it - the author just presents the situation as it is. The farm-owner cuts wages to the level at which people can hardly eat, but he has no choice - if he raises the wages, he won't be able to compete, and then his family won't be able to feed itself. It's that simple. I guess that to a thoughtful reader this book presents the problems of capitalism, but also hints that while it's no perfect, there is probably no better way to manage things. Another interesting point to which the author keeps returning is the dangerous saturation point at which there are hordes of hungry people around. When this happens, wrath and unrest are impossible to sustain and it may become an unmanageable problem. This is indeed something to consider.

One delightful aspect of the book is the language. All conversations are written in heavy southern-state American accent, which is a real pleasure to read - "this here car", "they's fellas", "should of figgered somepin'", "git drunk purty hard" and so on. I originally planned to write a part of this review humoristically using this accent, but when I finished the book it was obvious that there is nothing funny about it. The last third of the book is very sad, even tragic. Steinbeck has a knack for describing human misery which I can only compare to Hugo in Les Miserables. To conclude - this book is excellent, highly recommended.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Classic Novels-John Steinbeck-The Grapes of Wrath

Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead

2015-05-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Classic Bestsellers Books - Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead Info, Plot Summary, Review and Ayn Rand Biography

Author: Ayn Rand

Book: The Fountainhead (720 Pgs.)

In the spring of 1922, Howard Roark is expelled from his architecture school for refusing to adhere to the school's conventionalism. Despite an effort by some professors to defend Roark and a subsequent offer to continue, Roark chooses to leave the school. He believes buildings should be sculpted to fit their location, material and purpose elegantly and efficiently, while his critics insist that adherence to historical convention is essential. He goes to New York City to work for Henry Cameron, a disgraced architect whom Roark admires. Peter Keating, a popular but vacuous fellow student, has graduated with high honors. He too moves to New York to take a job at the prestigious architectural firm of Francon & Heyer, where he ingratiates himself with senior partner Guy Francon. Roark and Cameron create inspired work, but rarely receive recognition, whereas Keating's ability to flatter brings him quick success. To hasten his rise to power, Keating bends his skills in manipulation towards the removal of rivals within his firm. His actions culminate in the unintended manslaughter of Lucius Heyer, a senior partner, who dies of a stroke when threatened with blackmail by Keating. Though he occasionally feels guilt for his unethical actions that lead to his partnership within the firm, Keating demonstrates that he will always pursue his lust for prestige regardless of personal cost.

After Cameron retires, Keating hires Roark, who is soon fired for insubordination by Francon. Roark works briefly at another firm and then opens his own office. However, he has trouble finding clients and eventually closes it down. He takes a job at a granite quarry owned by Francon. Meanwhile, Keating has developed an interest in Francon's beautiful, temperamental and idealistic daughter Dominique, who works as a columnist for The New York Banner, a yellow press-style newspaper. While Roark is working in the quarry, he meets Dominique, who has retreated to her family's estate in the same town. There is an immediate attraction between them. Rather than indulge in traditional flirtation, the two engage in a battle of wills that culminates in a rough sexual encounter that Dominique later describes as a rape. Shortly after their encounter, Roark is notified that a client is ready to start a new building, and he returns to New York before Dominique can learn his name.

Ellsworth M. Toohey, author of a popular architecture column in the Banner, is an outspoken socialist who is covertly rising to power by shaping public opinion through his column and his circle of influential associates. Toohey sets out to destroy Roark through a smear campaign he spearheads. Toohey convinces a weak-minded businessman to hire Roark to design a temple dedicated to the human spirit. Given full freedom to design it as he sees fit, Roark includes a nude statue of Dominique, which creates a public outcry. Toohey manipulates the client into suing Roark. At the trial, prominent architects (including Keating) testify that Roark's style is unorthodox and illegitimate. Dominique speaks in Roark's defense, but he loses the case.

Dominique decides that since she cannot have the world she wants, in which men like Roark are recognized for their greatness, she will live completely and entirely in the world she has, which shuns Roark and praises Keating. She offers Keating her hand in marriage. Keating accepts, breaking his previous engagement with Toohey's niece Catherine. Dominique turns her entire spirit over to Keating, doing and saying whatever he wants. She fights Roark and persuades his potential clients to hire Keating instead. Despite this, Roark continues to attract a small but steady stream of clients who see the value in his work.

To win Keating a prestigious commission offered by Gail Wynand, the owner and editor-in-chief of the Banner, Dominique agrees to sleep with Wynand. Wynand then buys Keating's silence and his divorce from Dominique, after which Wynand and Dominique are married. Wynand subsequently discovers that every building he likes was designed by Roark, so he enlists Roark to build a home for himself and Dominique. The home is built, and Roark and Wynand become close friends, although Wynand does not know about Roark's past relationship with Dominique.

Now washed up and out of the public eye, Keating realizes he is a failure. He pleads with Toohey for his influence to get the commission for the much-sought-after Cortlandt housing project. Keating knows his most successful projects were aided by Roark, so he asks for Roark's help in designing Cortlandt. Roark agrees to design it in exchange for complete anonymity and Keating's promise that it will be built exactly as designed. When Roark returns from a long trip with Wynand, he finds that the Cortlandt design has been changed despite his agreement with Keating. Roark dynamites the building to prevent the subversion of his vision.

The entire country condemns Roark, but Wynand finally finds the courage to follow his convictions and orders his newspapers to defend him. The Banner's circulation drops and the workers go on strike, but Wynand keeps printing with Dominique's help. Wynand is eventually faced with the choice of closing the paper or reversing his stance. He gives in; the newspaper publishes a denunciation of Roark over Wynand's signature. At the trial, Roark seems doomed, but he rouses the courtroom with a speech about the value of ego and the need to remain true to oneself. The jury finds him not guilty and Roark wins Dominique. Wynand, who has finally grasped the nature of the "power" he thought he held, shuts down the Banner and asks Roark to design one last building for him, a skyscraper that will testify to the supremacy of man. Eighteen months later, the Wynand Building is under construction and Dominique, now Roark's wife, enters the site to meet him atop its steel framework.

Source: Wikipedia

Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead - Review
Reviewed by Eli Bendersky

Wow, what a book ! I don't usually express a strong opinion in the beginning of a review, but here I'll have to make an exception, as "The Fountainhead" is definitely one of the best books I've ever read. If I'm asked what's the best book, in my opinion, I can never name one book, I name a group that I think are the best. "The Fountainhead" is from now on in this group.

I bought it from a used-books store, as it appears on that "best books of the century" list I'm trying to follow. It is more than 700 pages long, and with a few sections being a little "philosophically heavy", it's a real task to read it. But it's a task every minute of which I enjoyed.

Enough praises for now, let me say in brief what the book is about...

"The Fountainhead" tells the story of a few people in New York of the 20s-30s. There are 5 characters about whom a lot is written, and these are the main characters of the book. The characters are, in short: Howard Roark - a brillian architect. THE main character of the book. He keeps faithful to his beliefs and ideology. It's a story of his struggle against people and opinions that oppose that ideology. Dominique Francon - a newspaper woman. Daughter of the most famous architect in the city. Throughout the book she gets married with most of the main characters Keating, Wynand, Roark. Each marriage is, in my eyes, a symbol of a different union. She magnifies the difference between the people she marries. Gail Wynand - one of the most influential people in the city. Owner of a huge press empire, and in particular of "The New York Banner" - the most widely circulated paper in the city. Peter Keating - begins as an excellent architecture student (he finishes Uni with Roark), rises as a famous architect. Eventually falls to pieces. Ellsworth Toohey - a reporter, and organizer of communities in unions (which all has quite a clear goal, as we later find out).

The main theme of "The Fountainhead" is the struggle of the free mind, creativeness and individualism (all symbolized in Roark) against the common opinion, "second-handers", people who think only about what other people think (mostly symbolized in Keating). This main theme is very important, as it is THE philosophical main idea of the book, and most of the characters revolve around it. Roark is the spirit itself. He is an independent architect, caring little about the opinion of others. He builds in order to build, to create "right" buildings. Dominique, Wynand and Toohey all "understand" the theme, but differently. Dominique seemingly thinks that she's not really fit in that world, in which "second-handers" rule. Therefore, she really tries to make herself suffer. It's not always clear why she is sacrificing so much, by the way. Wynand raises himself about all others. He is a freak of power, caused by a difficult childhood. He despises all "second-handers" and aspires to rule them, bending their opinions at his will. Toohey is a wird bird, and his intentions are unclear until the very end. He is a very smart and sleek man. He understand how to influence "second-handers", and builds a great supporting around himself, which isn't really expliciltly felt as supporting by anyone. Eventually, it becomes clear that he wants to take over Wynand's empire. Perhaps his intentions are also to achieve power. He fears Roark, seeing in him everything he doesn't want the "second-handers" to understand, and tries to destroy him at every opportunity.

The ideas are exciting, the writing is excellent (sometimes when I read it, I found myself as-if waking up from a trance after half an hour, remembering nothing around me bar the printed words). The only bad thing about the book, is IMHO a little unreal presentation of events, but that can be easily forgiven as the main point of the book lies elsewhere, as I said before. Howard Roark should have been a hacker. Really, had he lived in our times, his talent, devotion to the work and excitement is what values best in hackers.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading "The Fountainhead". Bar a good entertainment, it's also very inspiring, partly in ways I find hard to express. I warmly recommend it to everyone. (especially in our profession when people can actually really love their jobs).

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Classic Novels-Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand-We the Living

2015-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

The Most Popular Classic Bestsellers Books - Ayn Rand's We the Living Info, Plot Summary, Review and Ayn Rand Biography

Author: Ayn Rand

Book: We the Living (528 Pgs.)

The story takes place from 1922 to 1925, in post-revolutionary Russia. Kira Argounova, the protagonist of the story, is the younger daughter of a bourgeois family. An independent spirit with a will to match, she rejects any attempt by her family or the nascent Soviet state to cast her into a mold. At the beginning of the story, Kira returns to Petrograd with her family, after a prolonged exile due to the assault of the Bolshevik revolutionaries. Kira's father had been the owner of a textile factory, which was seized and nationalized. Having given up all hopes of regaining their past possessions after the victories of the Red Army, the family returns to the city in search of livelihood. They find that their home has also been seized and converted to living quarters for several families.

Kira's family eventually manages to find living quarters, and Kira's father gets a license to open a textile shop, an establishment that is but a shadow of his old firm. Life is excruciatingly difficult in these times. Rand portrays long queues, weary citizens and low standards of living. With some effort, Kira manages to obtain her Labor Book, which permits her to study and work. Kira also manages to enroll in the Technological Institute, where she aspires to fulfill her dream of becoming an engineer. At the Institute, Kira meets Andrei Taganov, a co-student, an idealistic Communist and an officer in the Soviet secret police. The two share a mutual respect and admiration for each other in spite of their differing political beliefs, and become friends.

In a chance encounter, Kira meets Leo Kovalensky, an attractive man with a free spirit. It is love at first sight for Kira, and she throws herself at Leo, who initially takes her to be a prostitute. He is also strongly attracted to her and promises to meet her again. Kira and Leo are shown to be united by their desperate lives and their beliefs that run counter to what is being thrust on them by the state. After a couple of meetings, when they share their deep contempt for the state of their lives, the two plan to escape the country together.

From this point on, the novel slowly cascades into a series of catastrophes for Kira and Leo. They are caught while attempting to flee the country, but escape imprisonment with the help of an official who knew Leo's father before the revolution. Kira leaves her parents' apartment and moves into Leo's. Soon the state decides to expel any college students of a bourgeois background, and Kira is also fired from her job. The relationship between Kira and Leo, intense and passionate in the beginning, begins to deteriorate under the weight of their hardships and their different reactions. Kira keeps her ideas and aspirations alive, but decides to go along with the system until she feels powerful enough to challenge it. Leo, in contrast, sinks slowly into indifference and depression. He contracts tuberculosis and is prescribed treatment in a sanatorium. Kira's efforts to finance his treatment fail, and her appeals to the authorities to get state help fall on deaf ears.

As Kira's relationship with Leo evolves, so does her relationship with Andrei. Despite their political differences, she finds Andrei to be the one person with whom she could discuss her most intimate thoughts and views. Andrei's affection and respect for Kira slowly turns into love. When he confesses his love to Kira, she is dismayed but also desperate, so she feigns love for Andrei and agrees to become his mistress. She uses money from Andrei to fund Leo's treatment.

Leo returns cured of tuberculosis and healthy, but a changed man. He opens a food store that is a facade for black market trade. Andrei, who is concerned that corruption is damaging the communist state, starts investigating Leo's store. He arrests Leo and in the process discovers that Kira has secretly been living with Leo. Disillusioned about both his personal relationship and his political ideals, Andrei secures Leo's release and shortly thereafter commits suicide. Kira, perhaps the only genuine mourner at his state funeral, wonders if she has killed him. Having lost any moral sense that he may have left, Leo leaves Kira to begin a new life as a gigolo. After Leo's departure, Kira makes a final attempt to cross the border. Almost in sight of freedom, she is shot by a border guard and dies.

Source: Wikipedia

Ayn Rand-We the Living

Ayn Rand-We the Living - Review
Reviewed by John Gray

Back in the 1980s, there was a story circulating on the American right, according to which the Russian émigré novelist and thinker Ayn Rand had pronounced on the correct way of dancing. Only one dance form was truly rational, she was supposed to have declared. Some dances she viewed as semi-instinctual physical performances lacking intellectual content: the tango, perhaps. Others - the foxtrot, possibly - she condemned as too contrived and abstract.

So what was the dance form that best combined mind and body? Why, tap-dancing. Fred Astaire may not have known it, but he embodied the Apollonian and the Dionysiac, the opposing forces of reason and instinct which, according to Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy, shaped life and culture in an ideal synthesis.

Whether the story is true, I cannot say, but it may well have had some basis in fact. Like all cults, Rand's aimed to embrace every aspect of life, so it is not surprising that it might have prescribed the way to dance. Rand, an assiduous promoter of her own ideas, helped set up the Foundation for the New Intellectual to disseminate them. After she died in 1982, her followers established an Ayn Rand Institute to protect her legacy. In politics, she was a right-wing individualist: the state should be minimal and people should be left to organise their own lives in the free market. But Rand's religion - a brand of evangelical atheism so extreme that Richard Dawkins's version sounds almost reasonable - required that everyone think alike and live in the same way. She was a dedicated smoker, so everyone else had to smoke, too. She also used a cigarette holder. The result, described to me by a former disciple, could have been a scene from Monty Python: when Rand addressed the faithful, a thousand cigarette holders would move in harmony with hers. Not for nothing were her followers sometimes referred to as "the Collective".

Rand claimed that her ideology was based on pure reason - just as the rationality of tap-dancing could be deduced from indisputable first principles, so was the free market. It is this crackpot rationalism that distinguishes her cult from other fringe religions and explains its influence, especially in America. Though anathematised by purists for backsliding on the virtues of the gold standard, Alan Greenspan was an early devotee who has never renounced her philosophy. Greenspan has acknowledged how an a priori view of the free market shaped his policies, even admitting - in testimony to a Senate committee in October 2008, after the crash occurred - that what he described as his "ideology" was "flawed" as an account of "how the world works". Greenspan's admission illustrates something progressives prefer to forget: the maddest ideas are very often those with the largest historical consequences.

We the Living (1936), Rand's first published novel, recounts the struggles of a romantic heroine in the early years of the Soviet Union. Neither the story nor the writing is in any way remarkable. The heroine, Kira, an idealised version of the author, has a number of personal entanglements and decides to leave the Soviet Union. Rand left Russia on a tourist visa in 1926, aged 20, never to return. Unlike the author in real life, Kira dies in the attempt. The characters are thin and cartoonish; the historical background is only vaguely sketched.

If Rand had not gone on to found her cult and to give it a bible in the form of the 1,200-page Atlas Shrugged (1957), there would likely never have been a second edition of We the Living. Yet the book deserves its place in the Penguin World Classics series, and not only as a prelude to Rand's later work, because even by its omissions it tells us something important about her "philosophy" - a pastiche of myths and assertions that she called, with unwitting humour, "Objectivism".

In her foreword to We the Living, written for its republication in 1959 and reprinted in the new Penguin edition, Rand tells the reader that in some places she has "reworded the sentences and clarified their meaning, without changing their content. All the changes are merely editorial line-changes. The novel remains what and as it was." Her insistence that nothing of substance has been blanked out is disingenuous, to say the least. The first edition has long been a rare book. Years ago, coming across a copy while browsing in the stacks of an American university library, I was amused to read passages that had disappeared in the second edition. Most have faded from memory, but Wikipedia reminds me of some of them. The heroine tells a Bolshevik admirer, "I admire your methods. I loathe your ideals", and later asks him, "What are the masses but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?" One of the few writers of fiction to succeed in making the Bolsheviks seem attractive, Rand did not hate the new Soviet regime because it oppressed the masses. She hated it because she believed it did not oppress the masses enough.

The Nietzschean quality of the deleted passages is not accidental. She belonged to a generation of young Russians whose view of the world was shaped largely by Nietzsche. Just about every literate Russian teenager had read or heard about the excitable German thinker. Where Rand was original was in transmuting his ideas, in her later work, into an American myth. Nietzsche's absurd Superman became a heroic entrepreneur - John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, for example - and an explicitly elitist ideology merged with the American folk religion of laissez-faire capitalism.

Reprocessed as Americanised myth, Rand's vulgar-Nietzschean world-view fuelled a publishing phenomenon (Atlas Shrugged has sold millions). More significantly, her bizarre confection had some influence on US public policy. Greenspan may have deviated from the strict Randian faith, but he retained one of its craziest tenets: get rid of government interference, and freedom and prosperity will inevitably follow. As much as reckless greed, it was this ideology that led to the crash whose first act has been playing out over the past two years.

Rand is easily mocked - and rightly so - but the type of thinking she exemplified is to be found not only on the right. Her capitalist superman is a ludicrous conception, but no more so than Trotsky's idea that, in a future socialist society, the human animal would be replaced by a higher species whose average member, he predicted, would far exceed Aristotle in abilities. It is childish to argue, as right-wing ideologues do, that the failures of global capitalism derive from there never having been a truly free market; but it is just as silly to maintain that the horrors of Soviet communism occurred only because real socialism never existed in Russia. In each case, disaster predictably followed from attempting to impose a dream of reason on society.Left-wing progressives are not as remote from Rand as they like to think. They also aim to remake society through reason. And they, too, dream of turning the shifts and turns of history into a rational dance.

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Classic Novels-Ayn Rand-We the Living

David Baldacci-The Escape

2015-05-06T17:04:00.001-07:00

The Most Popular Bestsellers Books - Thriller Novels - David Baldacci's The Escape Info, Plot Summary, Review and David Baldacci Biography

Author: David Baldacci

Book: The Escape (480 Pgs.)

Book #3 of the John Puller Book Series

David Baldacci-The Escape

David Baldacci-The Escape - Review
Reviewed by DOUG CHILDERS

David Baldacci’s new thriller, “The Escape,” opens with a scene that takes readers from zero to 60 in six pages.

Two large storms converging over Kansas knock out the power to the United States Disciplinary Barracks (“America’s foremost military prison,” Baldacci writes), and soon — despite all precautions — the prison’s massive backup generator fails, too. Then, you guessed it: the automatic cell doors pop open, and the prisoners step out.

In the chaos that follows, guards hear shots fired — “undetermined location, unknown source,” a guard says, shouting into his radio.

“And since none of the guards had guns, that meant one of the prisoners must,” Baldacci writes. “Maybe more than one.”

In the mounting hysteria, something explodes. Military police in riot gear flood in from nearby Fort Leavenworth, and they eventually corral the prisoners back into their cells.

A head count turns up a problem, though: Robert Puller, a former Air Force major and a brilliant cyber-security expert serving a life sentence for treason, is missing. And a dead man is lying in Puller’s bunk. No one knows who the dead man is … or where Puller has gone.

It’s a heck of an opening chapter, guaranteed to jettison readers into hours of addictive reading. And since this is a Baldacci thriller, they’re likely to finish “The Escape” in a state of heightened, government-wary paranoia.

After all, Richmond native Baldacci has built a bestselling career out of a reliable chestnut: Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and while the federal government is full of dedicated, hard-working good guys, there are enough bad eggs to fill a bookshelf of thrillers.

Meanwhile, post-escape, the government enlists the escapee’s brother, John, in the manhunt. John Puller, a combat veteran and an agent in the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, has saved the world in two previous Baldacci thrillers, and he’s a bona fide good guy. (Robert Puller has made appearances in the series as well, albeit prison-bound.) But an investigator from the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command tags along to keep an eye on him, given his relationship to the escapee.

Soon, John Puller’s investigation convinces him — and ultimately his skeptical minder/partner, too — that his brother (now “the most wanted man in America”) is neither a traitor nor a murderer. Staying alive long enough to prove it might be difficult, though. As always in a Baldacci thriller, it’s tough to tell the good guys from the bad ones, and they’re all armed and ready to fight.

Baldacci’s last few books have been among the best in his long, busy career, and “The Escape” stands near the top for sheer adrenalin-fueled entertainment. It’s alarmingly topical, too, taking us into the intelligence community and raising questions about privacy rights in the age of government surveillance and other buzz-worthy issues (no spoilers here).

Indeed, the crime at the center of “The Escape” could have been pulled from recent newspaper headlines. Who says thrillers have to be the stuff of escapist fantasies?

2015@http://albbookspreviews.blogspot.pt-Top Bestsellers Books-Thriller novel-David Baldacci-The Escape

AlbumsnBooks Previews

Cheryl Strayed - Wild: From Lost to Found

Author: Cheryl Strayed

Book: Wild: From Lost to Found (336 Pgs.)

Cheryl Strayed: Wild - Review Reviewed by Melanie Rehak

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken

Author: Laura Hillenbrand

Book: Unbroken (473 Pgs.)

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken - Review Reviewed by Gary Krist

Top Non-Fiction Best Sellers Books

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books (including Biographies, Memoirs and Historical): Info, Synopsis, Reviews and Author's Biographies.

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat Info, Plot Summary, Review and Daniel James Brown Biography.

Author: Daniel James Brown

Book: The Boys in the Boat (416 Pgs.)

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat - Review Reviewed by Bernard von Bothmer

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood, the true story about the 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife, and two of their four children.The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Info, Plot Summary, Review and Truman Capote Biography.

Author: Truman Capote

Book: In Cold Blood (343 Pgs.)

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood - Review Reviewed by KATE COLQUHOUN

Fall Out Boy: American Beauty/American Psycho

Best Pop Rock-Alternative Rock Albums - Fall Out Boy's album, American Beauty/American Psycho, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Fall Out Boy Profile.

Artist: Fall Out Boy

Album: American Beauty/American Psycho (2015)

Play Album @ Rdio

Fall Out Boy-American Beauty/American Psycho (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Imagine Dragons-Smoke + Mirrors (Deluxe Edition)

Best Alternative Rock Albums - Imagine Dragons's album, Smoke + Mirrors (Deluxe Edition), including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Imagine Dragons Profile.

Artist: Imagine Dragons

Album: Smoke + Mirrors - Deluxe Edition (2015)

Play Album @ Rdio

Imagine Dragons-Smoke + Mirrors (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Anne Frank-The Diary of a Young Girl

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl AKA The Diary of Anne Frank Info, Plot Summary, Review and Anne Frank Biography

Author: Anne Frank

Book: The Diary of a Young Girl (304 Pgs.)

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Review Reviewed by Meyer Levin

Booker T. Washington-Up from Slavery

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery Info, Plot Summary, Review and Booker T. Washington Biography

Author: Booker T. Washington

Book: Up from Slavery (160 Pgs.)

Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery - Review Reviewed by Brad Nelson

Ayn Rand-The Virtue of Selfishness

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Ayn Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness Info, Plot Summary, Review and Ayn Rand Biography

Author: Ayn Rand

Book: The Virtue of Selfishness (176 Pgs.)

Ayn Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness - Review

Top Country-Folk Music Albums

Top Country-Folk Music Albums

Find everything about the best Country-Folk albums - The lyrics, the audios, the videos, the covers, the profiles...

Darius Rucker-Southern Style

Best Country Albums - Darius Rucker's album, Southern Style, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Darius Rucker Profile.

Artist: Darius Rucker

Album: Southern Style (2015)

Play Album @ Rdio

Darius Rucker-Southern Style (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE

Best Country Albums - Zac Brown Band's album, JEKYLL + HYDE, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Zac Brown Band Profile.

Artist: Zac Brown Band

Album: JEKYLL + HYDE (2015)

Play Album @ Rdio

Zac Brown Band-JEKYLL + HYDE (2015) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Emigrate-Silent So Long

Best Metal Albums - Emigrate's album, Silent So Long, including covers, lyrics, songs audios / videos and Emigrate Profile.

Artist: Emigrate

Album: Silent So Long (2014)

Play Album @ Rdio

Emigrate-Silent So Long (2014) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

Seether-Isolate and Medicate

Best Alternative-Rock Albums - Seether-Isolate and Medicate, including Album covers, lyrics, audios and videos. Seether Profile.

Artist: Seether

Album: Isolate and Medicate (2014)

Play Album @ Rdio

Seether-Isolate and Medicate (2014) - Tracklist, Lyrics 'n' Videos

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Book 3

The Most Popular Classic-High Fantasy Bestsellers Books - J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King: Info, Plot Summary, Review and J. R. R. Tolkien Biography

Author: J. R. R. Tolkien

Book 3: The Return of the King (490 Pgs.)

Volume #3 of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Cheryl Strayed: Wild - Review
Reviewed by Melanie Rehak

Laura Hillenbrand: Unbroken - Review
Reviewed by Gary Krist

The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Daniel James Brown's The Boys in the Boat Info, Plot Summary, Review and Daniel James Brown Biography.

Daniel James Brown: The Boys in the Boat - Review
Reviewed by Bernard von Bothmer

In Cold Blood, the true story about the 1959 murders of Herbert Clutter, a farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, his wife, and two of their four children.

The Most Popular Non-Fiction Bestsellers Books - Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Info, Plot Summary, Review and Truman Capote Biography.

Truman Capote: In Cold Blood - Review
Reviewed by KATE COLQUHOUN

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Review
Reviewed by Meyer Levin

Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery - Review
Reviewed by Brad Nelson

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Return of the King - Review
Reviewed by W. H. AUDEN

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Two Towers - Review
Reviewed by Jill Marshall

J. R. R. Tolkien: The Fellowship of the Ring - Review
Reviewed by W. H. AUDEN

Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged - Review
Reviewed by William R Thomas

Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird - Review
Reviewed by Thcreviews

F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby - Review
TheGuardian

John Steinbeck-The Grapes of Wrath - Review
Reviewed by Eli Bendersky

Ayn Rand-The Fountainhead - Review
Reviewed by Eli Bendersky

Ayn Rand-We the Living - Review
Reviewed by John Gray

David Baldacci-The Escape - Review
Reviewed by DOUG CHILDERS