When I set out to write a book about the natural history of breasts, I knew I'd have to answer some awkward questions about my book topic. At a...
Continue »
After my son & I watched The Simpson's episode where Homer is Odysseus, Marge is Penelope and Bart, their son Telemachus, we came across this gem at Powell's and decided to further his classics education using similar unconventional materials: Gareth Hind's graphic novel, and adaptation of The Odyssey. We'd done this with much of Shakespeare, reading Hamlet and McBeth together in this way and thought this a solid method for The Odyssey as well. Thing is: Hinds is such an amazing artist that we spent much of our time gazing at the artwork! My son did enjoy and absorb the text, too, but it was the panels which captivated him fully, being in rich color, from awesome perspectives. The Cyclops! Neptune arising from the sea! Odysseus's Great Bow! We always assumed that the tale was from The Classics, but it makes a far better comic book than we ever thought! It IS the stuff of comics, truly. I'd recommend it not only for adults who either want to brush up on their Classics or want to encounter the Tale is a new way; but also for parents who want a great story to read to and with their kids...it's text is ample enough and written well enough to be an enriching bed-time reader, read in chapters or segments, over the course of a month or so...or, why relegate it to just bedtime? It's a good side-by-side read for the daytime,with just the book between adult and child. Having read many graphics, this is amoung The Best, and it as wide appeal. I can't imagine anyone not liking this in some way.
After my son & I watched The Simpson's episode where Homer is Odysseus, Marge is Penelope and Bart, their son Telemachus, we came across this gem at Powell's and decided to further his classics education using similar unconventional materials: Gareth Hind's graphic novel, and adaptation of The Odyssey. We'd done this with much of Shakespeare, reading Hamlet and McBeth together in this way and thought this a solid method for The Odyssey as well. Thing is: Hinds is such an amazing artist that we spent much of our time gazing at the artwork! My son did enjoy and absorb the text, too, but it was the panels which captivated him fully, being in rich color, from awesome perspectives. The Cyclops! Neptune arising from the sea! Odysseus's Great Bow! We always assumed that the tale was from The Classics, but it makes a far better comic book than we ever thought! It IS the stuff of comics, truly. I'd recommend it not only for adults who either want to brush up on their Classics or want to encounter the Tale is a new way; but also for parents who want a great story to read to and with their kids...it's text is ample enough and written well enough to be an enriching bed-time reader, read in chapters or segments, over the course of a month or so...or, why relegate it to just bedtime? It's a good side-by-side read for the daytime,with just the book between adult and child. Having read many graphics, this is amoung The Best, and it as wide appeal. I can't imagine anyone not liking this in some way.
Fresh from reading Livability, Raymond's collection of short stories that fit so comfy as a pair of your best faded jeans, Half Life also displayed Raymond's preternatural talent for inhabiting diverse characters, settings, time periods and cultures. As he did in Livability, Raymond goes from characters ranging in age from childhood to chronologically challenged, gender to gender and back again, as if it were just another day in the park. How can he so completely understand the mind of two very different teenaged girls (something that he could market in a different way to thus afflicted parents!) and then jump back a century in time and do the same to a military camp cook in the mid-nineteenth century?!? It's amazing, truly. In doing so, he allows us to see the heart of humanity, and that, despite all the external, environmental changes, we human beings as a species, have changed very little, still all basically want the same things: to be loved, cherished and understood. This is a loving look at friendship placed in the guise of a mystery story of sorts, when two highschool girls in the late 2oth century live on communal land where one of the resident adults (and landlord) makes a discovery, unearthing two intertwined, not-too-recently deceased skeleton, holding hands. Amid escalating controversy about what racial group these skeletons come from and therefore who has the rite to claim them, the story of the lives of these two individuals, while still alive, is told, framed through the lens of the two girls' friendship, the wacky things that they plan, and eventually, it's demise as well. My favorite scene is when the girls finally find the right camera for their filmmaking project...the description of the store and its owner are absolutely fantastic! It's a very good and gratifying story, but it's heart is, well, all heart...the human one, and how friendship is a powerful and enduring force in our lives.
In tracing McEwan's literary style back to its roots, I chose to read this earlier work of his immediately after reading his latest novel, Solar. In the years in between, McEwan has only added depth and breadth and more eloquence to his stories and prose, but his ascerbic writing style was in full presence even 30 years ago. He's the master of holding his reader to the bitter end, not releasing him until McEwan's bloody well good and ready, making sure that before he does, every last breath, every vital drop of blood, has been licked up and then and only then, does he drop you limp and shivering and unworthy back to yourself. Cement Garden is the same. The subject matter is shocking and not for the faint of heart: don't gift this to your weakhearted grandma, for instance, nor give it to your putative in-law in a welcome basket. Upon the interesting deaths of their parents, four siblings attempt to maintain residence in their family home, trying to keep up all appearances to all who might be peering. This is the sexual tale not told in Lord of The Flies, if it had been set in the modern, Western world, inside a family home with no parents. Imagine what sorts of things could happen with 2 opposite sexed teenagers and 2 elementary school-ages younger ones! I'm just glad I didn't read this at the time when it was written as it would have seriously f**ked me up, and for those who did read it then, who knows if it wasn't the impetous for the whole Inner Child/ Healing From Incest psycho-movement that followed it into the next two decades? A GREAT READ. (the only reason it's not 5 starred is due to the subject matter)
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
A born story-teller and physician, Dr. Sacks can write with the best of them, making complex neurology a completely understandable as well as thouroughly enjoyable subject matter. This isn't just about eyes and brains; it's about perception and the basis of consciousness itself, provoking far more thought long after the last page is turned than the average book, one that will stay in the working consciousness for decades to come, as in his past offerings. Sacks causes us to question how we see, how we interprete what we see, and how we take all of this complexity for granted. He gives us portraits of the brave, ones who've been dealt a harsh hand and through ingenuity,determination and sheer grit create marvelous ways to carry on with life...maybe not just as before, but in a new way, a way that often leaves us in amazement, wondering if we could have done the same. We come to appreciate and marvel at what we have, but are able to stretch our definition of what it is to be human, and see. Plus, Dr. Sack finally revels to us why he's been so fascinated with the mind, and bares to us the face of his own affliction, something most physicians are loathe to do, hence they become less than Gods. Ask yourself: what would you do if you couldn't recognize your mother's own face? Your spouse's? Child's? You OWN? If any spark of curiousity results, then read this book.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
Don't Miss
Customer Comments
thegreenangel has commented on (7) products.
The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds
thegreenangel, February 1, 2011
After my son & I watched The Simpson's episode where Homer is Odysseus, Marge is Penelope and Bart, their son Telemachus, we came across this gem at Powell's and decided to further his classics education using similar unconventional materials: Gareth Hind's graphic novel, and adaptation of The Odyssey. We'd done this with much of Shakespeare, reading Hamlet and McBeth together in this way and thought this a solid method for The Odyssey as well. Thing is: Hinds is such an amazing artist that we spent much of our time gazing at the artwork! My son did enjoy and absorb the text, too, but it was the panels which captivated him fully, being in rich color, from awesome perspectives. The Cyclops! Neptune arising from the sea! Odysseus's Great Bow! We always assumed that the tale was from The Classics, but it makes a far better comic book than we ever thought! It IS the stuff of comics, truly. I'd recommend it not only for adults who either want to brush up on their Classics or want to encounter the Tale is a new way; but also for parents who want a great story to read to and with their kids...it's text is ample enough and written well enough to be an enriching bed-time reader, read in chapters or segments, over the course of a month or so...or, why relegate it to just bedtime? It's a good side-by-side read for the daytime,with just the book between adult and child. Having read many graphics, this is amoung The Best, and it as wide appeal. I can't imagine anyone not liking this in some way.The Odyssey by Gareth Hinds
thegreenangel, February 1, 2011
After my son & I watched The Simpson's episode where Homer is Odysseus, Marge is Penelope and Bart, their son Telemachus, we came across this gem at Powell's and decided to further his classics education using similar unconventional materials: Gareth Hind's graphic novel, and adaptation of The Odyssey. We'd done this with much of Shakespeare, reading Hamlet and McBeth together in this way and thought this a solid method for The Odyssey as well. Thing is: Hinds is such an amazing artist that we spent much of our time gazing at the artwork! My son did enjoy and absorb the text, too, but it was the panels which captivated him fully, being in rich color, from awesome perspectives. The Cyclops! Neptune arising from the sea! Odysseus's Great Bow! We always assumed that the tale was from The Classics, but it makes a far better comic book than we ever thought! It IS the stuff of comics, truly. I'd recommend it not only for adults who either want to brush up on their Classics or want to encounter the Tale is a new way; but also for parents who want a great story to read to and with their kids...it's text is ample enough and written well enough to be an enriching bed-time reader, read in chapters or segments, over the course of a month or so...or, why relegate it to just bedtime? It's a good side-by-side read for the daytime,with just the book between adult and child. Having read many graphics, this is amoung The Best, and it as wide appeal. I can't imagine anyone not liking this in some way.The Half-Life by Jonathan Raymond
thegreenangel, January 31, 2011
Fresh from reading Livability, Raymond's collection of short stories that fit so comfy as a pair of your best faded jeans, Half Life also displayed Raymond's preternatural talent for inhabiting diverse characters, settings, time periods and cultures. As he did in Livability, Raymond goes from characters ranging in age from childhood to chronologically challenged, gender to gender and back again, as if it were just another day in the park. How can he so completely understand the mind of two very different teenaged girls (something that he could market in a different way to thus afflicted parents!) and then jump back a century in time and do the same to a military camp cook in the mid-nineteenth century?!? It's amazing, truly. In doing so, he allows us to see the heart of humanity, and that, despite all the external, environmental changes, we human beings as a species, have changed very little, still all basically want the same things: to be loved, cherished and understood. This is a loving look at friendship placed in the guise of a mystery story of sorts, when two highschool girls in the late 2oth century live on communal land where one of the resident adults (and landlord) makes a discovery, unearthing two intertwined, not-too-recently deceased skeleton, holding hands. Amid escalating controversy about what racial group these skeletons come from and therefore who has the rite to claim them, the story of the lives of these two individuals, while still alive, is told, framed through the lens of the two girls' friendship, the wacky things that they plan, and eventually, it's demise as well. My favorite scene is when the girls finally find the right camera for their filmmaking project...the description of the store and its owner are absolutely fantastic! It's a very good and gratifying story, but it's heart is, well, all heart...the human one, and how friendship is a powerful and enduring force in our lives.The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
thegreenangel, January 31, 2011
In tracing McEwan's literary style back to its roots, I chose to read this earlier work of his immediately after reading his latest novel, Solar. In the years in between, McEwan has only added depth and breadth and more eloquence to his stories and prose, but his ascerbic writing style was in full presence even 30 years ago. He's the master of holding his reader to the bitter end, not releasing him until McEwan's bloody well good and ready, making sure that before he does, every last breath, every vital drop of blood, has been licked up and then and only then, does he drop you limp and shivering and unworthy back to yourself. Cement Garden is the same. The subject matter is shocking and not for the faint of heart: don't gift this to your weakhearted grandma, for instance, nor give it to your putative in-law in a welcome basket. Upon the interesting deaths of their parents, four siblings attempt to maintain residence in their family home, trying to keep up all appearances to all who might be peering. This is the sexual tale not told in Lord of The Flies, if it had been set in the modern, Western world, inside a family home with no parents. Imagine what sorts of things could happen with 2 opposite sexed teenagers and 2 elementary school-ages younger ones! I'm just glad I didn't read this at the time when it was written as it would have seriously f**ked me up, and for those who did read it then, who knows if it wasn't the impetous for the whole Inner Child/ Healing From Incest psycho-movement that followed it into the next two decades? A GREAT READ. (the only reason it's not 5 starred is due to the subject matter)(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks
thegreenangel, January 30, 2011
A born story-teller and physician, Dr. Sacks can write with the best of them, making complex neurology a completely understandable as well as thouroughly enjoyable subject matter. This isn't just about eyes and brains; it's about perception and the basis of consciousness itself, provoking far more thought long after the last page is turned than the average book, one that will stay in the working consciousness for decades to come, as in his past offerings. Sacks causes us to question how we see, how we interprete what we see, and how we take all of this complexity for granted. He gives us portraits of the brave, ones who've been dealt a harsh hand and through ingenuity,determination and sheer grit create marvelous ways to carry on with life...maybe not just as before, but in a new way, a way that often leaves us in amazement, wondering if we could have done the same. We come to appreciate and marvel at what we have, but are able to stretch our definition of what it is to be human, and see. Plus, Dr. Sack finally revels to us why he's been so fascinated with the mind, and bares to us the face of his own affliction, something most physicians are loathe to do, hence they become less than Gods. Ask yourself: what would you do if you couldn't recognize your mother's own face? Your spouse's? Child's? You OWN? If any spark of curiousity results, then read this book.1-5 of 7next