Friday, August 27, 2010

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Memoirs of a Geisha
by
Arthur Golden

An alluring tour de force: a brilliant debut novel told with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism as the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.

Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love, always elusive, is scorned as illusion.

Sayuri's story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. Through her eyes, we see the decadent heart of Gion--the geisha district of Kyoto--with its marvelous teahouses and theaters, narrow back alleys, ornate temples, and artists' streets. And we witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. But as World War II erupts and the geisha houses are forced to close, Sayuri, with little money and even less food, must reinvent herself all over again to find a rare kind of freedom on her own terms.

Memoirs of a Geisha is a book of nuances and vivid metaphor, of memorable characters rendered with humor and pathos. And though the story is rich with detail and a vast knowledge of history, it is the transparent, seductive voice of Sayuri that the reader remembers.

A dazzling literary achievement of empathy and grace by an extraordinary new writer.


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The Life of Pi: From Archimedes to Eniac and Beyond

The Life of Pi: From Archimedes to Eniac and Beyond
The Life of Pi: From Archimedes to Eniac and Beyond

The desire to understand , the challenge, and originally the need, to calculate ever more accurate values of , the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, has challenged mathematicians–great and less great—for many many centuries and, especially recently, has provided compelling examples of computational mathematics. Pi, uniquely in mathematics is pervasive in popular culture and the popular imagination

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Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne


Around the World
in 80 Days
by
Jules Verne


A journey around the Earth.... in eighty days? Surely such a thing is not possible. Yet this is the bet taken up by Phileas Fogg in Around The World In Eighty Days. Jules Verne was a great admirer of the British Empire. The wealth, the splendour and the engineering, products of the greatest empire in the world fascinated him in his writing.
This novel is primarily about a race. For Fogg and a bet that could double his fortune or leave him penniless and for his servant Paspartout who faces a similar crisis over a gas burner he left on before leaving on the journey. Together the two men travel the many cultures of the British Empire with the police on their tales over a misunderstanding but threatening to stop their endeavor in it's tracks. The presence of the two men in different cultures exposes the English regard to foreigners and the detachment of such men to foreign cultures.

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Monday, August 23, 2010

AREOPAGITICA - John Milton

AREOPAGITICA by John Milton
AREOPAGITICA
by
John Milton

Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England) Pamphlet by John Milton, published in 1644 to protest an order issued by Parliament the previous year requiring government approval and licensing of all published books. Four earlier pamphlets by the author concerning divorce had met with official disfavor and suppressive measures. The title of the work derives from "Areopagus" ("Hill of Ares"), the name of the site from which the high court of Athens administered its jurisdiction and imposed a general censorship. In a prose style that draws heavily on Greek models, Milton argues that to mandate licensing is to follow the example of the detested Papacy. He defends the free circulation of ideas as essential to moral and intellectual development. Furthermore, he asserts, to attempt to preclude falsehood is to underestimate the power of truth.

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Animal Farm - George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm
by
George Orwell

Animal Farm is easily the most famous work of political allegory ever written. The animals take over the running of a farm, and everything is wonderful for a while — until the pigs get out of hand. It is a brilliant description of what happens when the revolution goes astray. Allegory is hard to do gracefully, but Orwell manages it superbly: while true appreciation of Animal Farm requires an understanding of the history of the Russian revolution, those without it will still get the point. And Animal Farm can even be appreciated as a story by children with no understanding of the political message at

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Candide - Voltaire

Candide by Voltaire
Candide
by
Voltaire

In "Candide", Voltaire satirizes the idea of philosophical optimist, championed by philosophers like Gottfried Leibniz, who argued that at the point of creation, God had before him a choice of many possible worlds. God, in his infinite wisdom, necessarily chose to create the best of all possible worlds.

Through Candide's tribulations, Voltaire presents the reader with the many forms of evil and suffering in our world. He ridicules the notion that we live in the best of all possible worlds, illustrating plainly how individuals must endure unspeakable indignity in the course of their lives. Like Candide, we are forced to re-examine our personal philosophy of life when faced with evil.

What, then, is the cause of evil, original sin, or bad karma? Voltaire is not interested in that question. Instead, he focuses on the individual's response to evil, as he advocates a practical, pragmatic way of looking at life, one that is not caught up in "metaphysico-thelogo-cosmolonigology" ( la métaphysico-théologo-cosmolonigologie ) or needless philosophizing. The value of life is in the living. Only when Candide realizes this fact does he arrive at a state of emotional equilibrium.

Beneath its absurdist veneer, Voltaire's "Candide" masks a great deal of philosophical thought, which makes you stop and ponder.


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The Mummy - Anne Rice

The Mummy by Anne Rice
The Mummy
by
Anne Rice

The Mummy is the story of an immortal Eygptian king, Ramses, who drank the elixor of life and now has to forever walk the earth. A lover of the great Queen Cleopatra, Ramses interred himself in a tomb after her death hoping to never be disturbed from his grief. Awakened by an English Archeologist who is murdered shortly after unearthing the ancient king, the mummy is sent to Edwardian England to the archeologist's daughter Julie.

He is displayed for polite society. When a murderer tries to kill Julie too the Mummy awakens and saves her life. Julie and Ramses begin to fall in love but he decides that he must put his past to rest. The two soon to be lovers, and friends set out on a ship to Eygpt. However, once there Ramses comes face to face with his past in a way no one could ever imagine. His actions change his world forever and let loose a creature of unstoppable evil on a helpless population. "

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
by
Douglas Adams

"The British author of the Hitchhiker trilogy and other immensely popular lunacies, Adams
permits no whiff of common sense to spoil his new novel, which combines fantasy, hilarity
and creeping horrors," remarked PW . Here, sleuth Dirk Gently investigates a lawyer and an
advertiser who possess the soul of the god Odin. "The plot's ramifications are marvelous,
bloody and irresistible."

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Audio 8 parts
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8







The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams

The Meaning of Liff by Douglas Adams
The Meaning of Liff
by
Douglas Adams


It is a "dictionary of things that there aren't any words for yet"; all the words
listed are place names, and describe common feelings and  objects for which there
is no current English word.  Examples are Shoeburyness ("The vague uncomfortable
feeling you get when sitting on a seat which is still warm from somebody else's
bottom") and Abinger ("One who washes up everything except the frying pan, the
cheese grater  and the saucepan which the chocolate sauce has been made in").

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Mostly Harmless

Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
Mostly Harmless
by
Douglas Adams

In this installment of the The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy saga, Ford Prefect of the planet Betelgeuse relies on serendipity and his own quick wits to protect a new edition of the Hitchhiker's Guide from the loathsome Vogons.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish

So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish by Douglas Adams
So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish
by
Douglas Adams

Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription, the mysterious disappearance of Earth's dolphins, and the discovery of his battered copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy all conspire to give Arthur the sneaking suspicion that something otherworldly is indeed going on. . . .

God only knows what it all means. And fortunately, He left behind a Final Message of explanation. But since it's light-years away from Earth, on a star surrounded by souvenir booths, finding out what it is will mean hitching a ride to the far reaches of space aboard a UFO with a giant robot. But what else is new?

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Audio 8 parts
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 3 - Life, the Universe, and Everything


Life, the Universe, and Everything by Douglas Adams


Life, the Universe, and Everything
by
Douglas Adams

The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads--so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the white killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total annihilation.
They are Arthur Dent, a mild-mannered space and time traveler, who tries to learn how to fly by throwing himself at the ground and missing; Ford Prefect, his best friend, who decides to go insane to see if he likes it; Slartibartfast, the indomitable vicepresident of the Campaign for Real Time, who travels in a ship powered by irrational behavior; Zaphod Beeblebrox, the two-headed, three-armed ex-head honcho of the Universe; and Trillian, the sexy space cadet who is torn between a persistent Thunder God and a very depressed Beeblebrox.
How will it all end? Will it end? Only this stalwart crew knows as they try to avert "universal" Armageddon and save life as we know it--and don't know it!
"ADAMS IS ONE OF THOSE RARE TREASURES: an author who, one senses, has as much fun writing as one has readings


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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 2- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe


The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
by
Douglas Adams

Warning! This second volume in the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series is definitely not a standalone book. Enjoying, or even understanding, the continuing adventures of Earthling Arthur Dent, his strange pal Ford Prefect, and the very, very odd Zaphod Beeblebrox requires previous study and preparation. Confusion and possible insanity awaits the poor soul who tries to figure out the second title without having read the first. Arthur and Ford, having survived the destruction of Earth by surreptitiously hitching a ride on a Vogon constructor ship, have been kicked off that ship by its commander. Now they find themselves aboard a stolen Improbability Drive ship commanded by Beeblebrox, ex-president of the Imperial Galactic Government and full-time thief.

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy




The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by
Douglas Adams

Join Douglas Adams's hapless hero Arthur Dent as he travels the galaxy with his intrepid pal Ford Prefect, getting into horrible messes and generally wreaking hilarious havoc. Dent is grabbed from Earth moments before a cosmic construction team obliterates the planet to build a freeway. You'll never read funnier science fiction; Adams is a master of intelligent satire, barbed wit, and comedic dialogue. The Hitchhiker's Guide is rich in comedic detail and thought-provoking situations and stands up to multiple reads. Required reading for science fiction fans, this book (and its follow-ups) is also sure to please fans of Monty Python, Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and British sitcoms.


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GOOD OMENS


GOOD OMENS
by
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Pratchett and Gaiman may seem an unlikely combination, but the topic (Armageddon) of this fast-paced novel is old hat to both. Pratchett's wackiness collaborates with Gaiman's morbid humor; the result is a humanist delight to be savored and reread again and again. You see, there was a bit of a mixup when the Antichrist was born, due in part to the machinations of Crowley, who did not so much fall as saunter downwards, and in part to the mysterious ways as manifested in the form of a part-time rare book dealer, an angel named Aziraphale. Like top agents everywhere, they've long had more in common with each other than the sides they represent, or the conflict they are nominally engaged in. The only person who knows how it will all end is Agnes Nutter, a witch whose prophecies all come true, if one can only manage to decipher them. The minor characters along the way (Famine makes an appearance as diet crazes, no-calorie food and anorexia epidemics) are as much fun as the story as a whole, which adds up to one of those rare books which is enormous fun to read the first time, and the second time, and the third time..


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SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE


SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
By
KURT VONNEGUT, JR.

Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.


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Manifesto of the Communist Party


Manifesto of the Communist Party
By
Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels


A spectre is haunting Europe..." Marx and Engels' hugely influential pamphlet, briefly summarising key communist ideas and the policies of the Communist League.


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