Best Books

This is a novel written as a heuristic device to address the revolution in social thought slowly winding its way into the social sciences. The novel uses the revolutionary approach and brings students, guided by the instructor in humanistic and phenomenological psychology, to recognize their own life experiences by living through the tragedy and the triumph recounted in the novel.

Recounts the adventures of the Emerson family in 1907 and 1908, a period following their banishment from the Valley of the Kings, during which Ramses, hopelessly in love with Nefret, finds his plans interrupted by a plea for help from Prince Tarek from the Lost Oasis. By the author of Children of the Storm. Simultaneous.

When an adolescent boy is found murdered under bizarre circumstances, New Scotland Yard acting superintendent Thomas Lynley and his colleagues tie the crime to a series of killings but find the case complicated by racial issues. By the author of A Place of Hiding. (Mystery)

'Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon' features nearly 50 of Neruda's poems and brings them to life for a whole new generation of readers. Unlike most other anthologies of his work, this edition is bilingual, with Mitchell's translation faced by Neruda's original Spanish-language work.

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in post-colonial Africa. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the 20th century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium; the murder of its first elected prime minister; the CIA coup to install his replacement; and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy.

In the aftermath of World War II, Martha Quest finds herself completely disillusioned. She is losing faith with the communist movement in Africa, and her marriage to one of the movement's leaders is disintegrating. Determined to resist the erosion of her personality, she engages in the first satisfactory love affair and breaks free, if only momentarily, from her suffocating unhappiness. 'Landlocked is the fourth novel of Doris Lessing's classic Children of Violence sequence of novels, each a masterpiece in its own right, and collectively an incisive, all encompassing vision of our world in the twentiethcentury.

At the height of the 1810 battle of Bussaco, Captain Richard Sharpe finds himself separated from his company and lured into a trap from which he must escape in order to rejoin the conflict at the Lines of Torres Vedras and to stop French invaders at Lisbon. By the author of Sharpe's Havoc. Reprint.

Reading Guide Introduction The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their usual antidepressants to placebos, so naturally -- well, to be accurate, artificially -- business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with a, shall we say, thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly morose Pine Cove turns libidinous, is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what's wrong and what, if anything, to do about it. Topics for Discussion In Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove, more than a third of the people in town are taking antidepressants, and many of those who aren't have their own medicine for melancholy. Does anything ring true about this? Do you think Dr. Val Riordan's decision to take her patients off of antidepressants was correct? Are we too eager to engineer our moods by the use of drugs? Both Mavis Sand, the bartender, and Catfish Jefferson the blues singer, talk about the value of sadness. Is there a real value to sadness in human experience? Are the blues an expression, a celebration, or a cure for sadness? Molly Michon is a has-been, Theo Crowe is a never was-which is harder to be? What does the author seem to be saying about expectations by his portrayal of these two characters? Steve, the sea monster, seems to appeal to that part of the human mind that is left over from the reptiles. Do you believe that we have evolved past being ruled by our instincts, or is our culture just a means to obtain our basic desires? What do you think the religious feelings in Steve's followers in the cave say about our animal nature? Estelle has used her art to escape from the sadness of the death of her husband and her frustration as a teacher. What is it about the old blues singer that attracts her? Does romance have an age limit? About the author Christopher Moore is the author of Fluke, Lamb, Practical Demonkeeping, Coyote Blue, Bloodsucking Fiends, Island of the Sequined Love Nun, and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.

Taking a magazine questionnaire written by her roommate, Maggie learns that she is likely to die prematurely as a result of her own unhappiness and embarks on a three-month quest to change her circumstances, an endeavor that results in an unforeseen flight with her newborn nephew. A first novel. Reader's Guide available. Reprint.

Seventeen mystery stories deal with an enigmatic note, seven milk bottles, a fire, an apparent suicide, a secret grave, and an unexpected confession

Losing her apartment when she breaks up with her boyfriend, Michelle Benamou faces the difficult task of locating an affordable New York City apartment and considers a relationship with a soon-to-be-divorced old friend, a situation that is compromised by her career ambitions, busybody relatives, and an ex-boyfriend's efforts to reconcile. Original. 25,000 first printing.

' 'I was a paratrooper in the 2nd 304 Scout Reconnaissance Platoon, 82nd Airborne Division. You don't know me without that. It's where I come from.' So begins Raul Correa's raw, mesmerizing tale of a peacetime soldier. To escape trouble at home, the young narrator enlists in the U.S. Army. Soon he's one of Fort Bragg's Recon Dogs, wild, scrappy, and jumping from airplanes -- after taking mescaline to heighten the experience. He is also discovering the power of stories told by bull-slinging buddies and Vietnam vets to give him a connection to the past, a place in the world, and a sense of self -- even when they're not true. But drawn to shady schemes and seedy bars, the narrator and the Recon Dogs get shipped to Panama, where something unexpected happens to give the soldier a heart-wrenching story of his own. A cathartic free fall of a novel,' I Don't Know But I've Been Told captures the cadences of real men talking to create a portrait of the military that is dead-on, funny, harsh, and true.