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1.Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by: Patrick Suskind February 13, 2001
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $13.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $3.47
Humans that are deprived of one or more of the senses naturally compensate by focusing and overdeveloping the remaining senses. Suskind brilliantly chose to deprive Grenouille of something other than senses, the ability to be recognized. I don't believe any human in history had a complete absence of a body scent, whether it's a pleasant or unpleasant one; we all associate places, loved ones, memories and incidents with special scents. Jean Baptiste Grenouille was born a strange baby who lacked a body scent and emitted a freaky feeling to every body around him, so much so, that even his "mother" tried to get rid of him soon after his birth. Surprisingly, baby Grenouille survives all the hardships associated with growing up poor in an orphanage, deprived of any human affection. ... Read More

2.The Big Sleep by: Raymond Chandler July 12, 1988
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $13.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $1.03
What more can or needs to be said about Raymond Chandler and The Big Sleep? Not much. The Big Sleep was his first novel, introduced Philip Marlowe, and is often considered his best work. The Big Sleep is a good whodunit, but Chandler shines when he examines the corruption that bubble up from the underworld of pornography, drugs, and illegal gambling. Chandler also takes the reader on a tour of a now-long gone Los Angeles. Is Chandler's work `literature'? Chandler thought so. Here's how Chandler defined literature: "When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance it becomes literature. That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea, or half a dozen other things. It may also be a perfection of control over the ... Read More

3.My Name Is Red by: Orhan Pamuk August 28, 2001
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $26.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $17.79 You Save: $9.16 (34%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.78
I find this to be a very special book for different reasons. One reads novels and stories, and one may find them engaging and interesting. But this is different. It is more than just this. One must 'get' into the style before starting to enjoy the reading and appreciate its beauty and dept. What caught my spirit most was the many reflections on the philosophy of art that Pamuk expounds along the way. Particularly, I was very much impressed by his views on what one may call the 'darkness of God'. One may find literature on the 'silence' of God, or even on the 'humility', and 'suffering', of God - all paradoxical concepts of a somewhat mystical nature. But one may rarely, if ever, come across reflections, and, moreover, so simple and profound, on the 'darkness' of God. This book is just one of them. Most of us are ... Read More

4.The Alienist by: Caleb Carr June 01, 1995
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $0.01
I agree with "Engish Teacher"( I am one) that this story is flat and wordy. I was attracted by the hisory and the period. What a let down! Ugh! Life is too short for such lifeless writing. I'm sure it will be a fine movie.

5.The Name of the Rose by: Umberto Eco October 15, 1995
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: $24.95 Prices subject to change. Used Price: $13.47
This is a very beautiful novel, the first 50 pages are bit hard to digest as the writer delves deeply into Christian theology, but go ahead and there awaits you an incredible novel about a priest and his neophyte trying to solve a murder that takes place at a monastery in the world that is just on the verge of tipping to the Renaissance period. I found in-depth discussions on various sects of Christianity profoundly interesting and their annihilation, if they went against the dictates of the Pope (what a villanious authority), most illuminating. In fact, the book has it all, sex (of all hues), murder, mystery and the futility of wanting more than you need including, yes, even knowledge!!!!!

6.Maisie Dobbs by: Jacqueline Winspear July 01, 2003
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $24.00 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $16.32 You Save: $7.68 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $2.01
I actually bought this book for my aunt, because I knew she would enjoy the charming Maisie Dobbs and the wonderful writing of the author. I look forward to the next Maisie and I will read it as slowly as the others, to savor the rich descriptions and characters. The descriptions of city and countryside settings and of time periods, as each book moves forward in time, is a door to the past for me.

7.The Tenderness of Wolves by: Stef Penney 2006-08
Average Rating: >>More Details		Used Price: $19.38
This book was one of those precious few where you just want the story to keep on going without end. This is not true of life or books. What a good read ! I didn't expect it to be so but was pleasantly surprised while mourning the end.I hope you have a similar experience. Read this book.

8.Lord John and the Private Matter by: Diana Gabaldon September 30, 2003
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $23.95 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $16.29 You Save: $7.66 (32%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $0.23
And I hate to say that! I LOVE the Outlander stories and have devoured every one printed since a friend suggested the series last November. Being out of Gabaldon reading material for the first time in 10 months and headed for vacation, I ordered the first two in this series and was just really dissapointed in this one. I had to make myself finish it and that is just not usually the case with her stories. I will read the second one and see if it works any better for me. If a fan, for sure give it a try, but my experience was not what I'd hoped for with it.~mz

9.The Janissary Tree: A Novel by: Jason Goodwin May 15, 2007
Average Rating: >>More Details		List Price: $14.00 Off The Bookshelf's Price: $11.20 You Save: $2.80 (20%) Prices subject to change. Used Price: $1.11
Interesting setting for a mystery novel. The descriptions of 19th century Istanbul are vivid, but the story is lacking. I was looking for an interesting historical novel and this caught my attention. The author is obviously familiar with Ottoman history and culture and the backdrop to the story is intriguing. I did need to spend some time on Wikipedia making sense of the Ottoman setting though. I found the attention paid to the main character's interest in cooking a bit hard to believe. From what I know of 19th century cooking practices, it's unlikely anyone from that time period would find that laborious process to be a pleasant diversion. As for the story though, a major plot line involves solving a puzzle. That's fine, but when solved, it leads to, well, nothing. When a plot line ends, it should advance the story ... Read More

10.Crocodile on the Sandbank by: Elizabeth Peters 2001-01
Average Rating: >>More Details		Off The Bookshelf's Price: $44.95 Prices subject to change. Used Price: $34.44
Amelia Peabody is not your typical Victorian-age woman. When she inherits her father's sizable estate, she decides to fulfill a life-long dream of traveling the world rather than doing something more conventional - like getting married. She heads to Egypt where she meets Evelyn, a young lady with more than her share of baggage. The two join forces, and soon Amelia must discover the sinister forces seeking to destroy Evelyn, or risk losing her closest friend. This book is so much fun! It's as if Agatha Christie wrote a female Indiana Jones-style character, with a dash of the humor and spunk that characterizes the character of Evelyn from The Mummy movies. My favorite Christie mysteries were always the ones set in Egypt, and since the number of those books are finite I'm thrilled to have a new historical Egyptian mystery series to explore. ... Read More

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