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The Count of Monte Cristo (Signet Classics) 388 reviews
Alexandre Dumas
Signet Classics, 2005
Great copy of unabridged Count of Monte Cristo
+ The Count of Monte Cristo
+ It's All Good
+ Now I know why it's a classic
+ Difficult to read but well worth it.
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Rabbit, Run 104 reviews
John Updike
Ballantine Books, 1996
A sophisticated but playful Rabbit we have!
In the beginning, I was sort of depressed. the subject matter, the darkly setting, uneasy texture. However, I liked to read gradually. I loved it. And the main character of the novel is portrayed with sophisticatedly. A complex personality but somewhat amusing and certainly playful. I look forward ...
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Junky: The Definitive Text of Junk (50th Anniversary Edition) 92 reviews
William S. Burroughs
Penguin (Non-Classics), 2003
a different Burroughs
+ Not what you may expect
+ A Serious High.
+ Wildly Original - An Impressive First Novel
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You Can't Go Home Again 36 reviews
Thomas Wolfe
Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1998
Literary marvel; not for everyone
+ You Can't Go Home Again
+ It leaves you wanting more
Before you read "You Can't Go Home Again," make sure you have read "Look Homeward Angel." Wolfe's novels are essentially romanticized autobiographies, and although Eugene Gant and George Weber are not exactly the same character, they both represent the author struggling with incredible but ...
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Crime and Punishment36 reviews
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Vintage, 1993
Crime and Punishment
+ A true masterpiece
+ Awesome Insight into the mind and heart of a criminal
+ Masterful work, worthy of every accolade it's received, and worthy of accolades it has yet to receive....
+ One of my favorites
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Ham on Rye: A Novel127 reviews
Charles Bukowski
Ecco, 2007
"Was I the only person who was distracted by this future without a chance?"
+ Great work from a disciplined writer
+ When men were men
+ More genius from Bukowski.
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The Sportswriter106 reviews
Richard Ford
Vintage, 1995
sports for the mind
Last night I finished reading Richard Ford's The Sportswriter. I read it a couple years after reading Independence Day. Although I didn't love Independence Day, I was curious to get back to the main character of both books, Frank Bascombe, and see what he had done earlier in his life.
I think ...
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Jesus' Son: Stories by92 reviews
Denis Johnson
Harper Perennial, 1993
Children of loneness
+ I read the first couple stories...
+ Aimless Days of the Addicted
In Denis Johnson's stunning collection of short stories "Jesus' Son", there is an image that stays with you most of the time. This is the picture of loneness and desolation. In one of the best tales, called "Emergency", the main character whose name goes by FH and a friend drive through the ...
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The Bell Jar7 reviews
Sylvia Plath
Bantam Books, 1972
The Bell Jar, Reviewed by Phoebe Young
+ intriguing, amazing
+ The Descent of Eve
+ Locked in her own head
+ I loved it!
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The Fountainhead (Centennial Edition Hardcover)967 reviews
Ayn Rand
Plume, 2005
More traditionally novelistic, tells the backstory of Atlas Shrugged
+ Fountainhead
+ Why Was This Book Written?
+ Fairy Tale
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Still Life with Woodpecker168 reviews
Tom Robbins
Bantam, 1990
Amazing
+ Out There, but that's its charm
+ Amazing!
+ Birthday gift
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The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)12 reviews
Jack Kerouac
Penguin Classics, 2006
Kerouac's best novel
+ It's Kerouac...
+ The Dharma Bums
If you're new to Jack Kerouac, this might be the place to start. Many people's first introduction to Kerouac is On The Road. While I love On The Road, I've read pretty much all of Kerouac's novels, and I have to say that The Dharma Bums is my favorite.
Indeed, I loved the book enough to write a ...
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Friday6 reviews
Michel Tournier
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997
Inside Crusoe
+ A Study in Self Justification
+ white man on an island
Rewriting Robinson Crusoe? Tournier tells an entirely different story, although the outward details are mostly the same as in Defoe's novel. The interest has shifted to what's going on inside Crusoe. And instead of the self-confident Christian who steadily builds up a colony, Tournier shows us a ...
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Revolutionary Road102 reviews
Richard Yates
Vintage, 2000
Classic tale of the suburban nightmare.
+ Revolutionary Writing
+ Makes Mad Men look like Happy Days
Richard Yates' 1961 novel, "Revolutionary Road", is a classic that has taken far too long to get the recognition it deserves (considering Yates died in 1992).
With the Hollywood version coming out the best way to describe this haunting novel in cinematic terms would be: "American Beauty" meets ...
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The Sparrow458 reviews
Mary Doria Russell
Ballantine Books, 1997
wonderful
+ The Sparrow
+ brillliant introspection in outer space
I have read thousands of books... This is THE best books I have ever read. I am not a religious person, I have no God, I have read the bible, the Koran and alot of other religious texts. This being said and stated above.
This is a story of love, discovery, and the search for faith in the most ...
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Blood Meridian: Or, the Evening Redness in the West (Picador Books)1 review
Cormac McCarthy
Picador, 1994
A Cormac McCarthy vocabulary quiz
As I read Blood Meridian, I jotted down words that were either unusual or new to me or familiar yet not quite recognizable. This is the case with every McCarthy book one reads - astonishment at the writer's extensive vocabulary. I've deliberately left out most of the directly Spanish terms or ...
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Journey to the End of the Night (New Directions Paperbook)94 reviews
Louis-Ferdinand Celine
New Directions, 2006
Great Buy
+ travel is useful
+ Bleak and yet hilarious
+ You Can't Ignore Genius
+ Razor Sharp
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Sometimes A Great Notion
Ken Kesey
Bantam, 1972
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey
Signet, 1963
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Lord of the Flies, Educational Edition3 reviews
William Golding
Faber and Faber, 2004
See it for what it is . . .
+ The Head of an Animal . . .
+ "All we have is the rules"
Just a note that this particular book is a work of background and criticism ABOUT "Lord of the Flies" and not the novel itself, which has over 1,200 amateur reviews on Amazon.
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