Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Sometimes I feel like I have walked into the middle of a movie. Maybe I can make my own movie. The film will be the story of my life. No, not my life, but of this experience. I'll call it what the lady who is the prosecutor called me. MONSTER. FADE IN: INTERIOR COURT. A guard sits at a desk behind Steve. Kathy O'Brien, Steve's lawyer, is all business as she talks to Steve. O'BRIEN Let me make sure you understand... (more)

New and Selected Poems: Volume One

by Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver has been writing poetry for nearly five decades, and in that time she has become America’s foremost poetic voice on our experience of the physical world. This collection presents forty-two new poems—an entire volume in itself—along with works chosen by Oliver from six of the books she has published since New and Selected Poems, Volume One. “Oliver’s poetry is of the Earth, and about the Earth, and as... (more)

John Donne's Poetry (A Norton Critical Edition)

John Donne's Poetry (A Norton Critical Edition)

by John Donne

“Donald Dickson's John Donne's Poetry is the best text of Donne now available. It is scrupulously edited, and equally useful for students and for scholars.”—Harold Bloom, Yale University The texts reprinted in this new Norton Critical Edition have been scrupulously edited and are from the Westmoreland manuscript where possible, collated against the most important families of Donne manuscripts—the ... (more)

The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation

The Basque History of the World: The Story of a Nation

by Mark Kurlansky

Straddling a small corner of Spain and France in a land that is marked on no maps except their own, the Basques are a puzzling contradiction-they are Europe's oldest nation without ever having been a country. No one has ever been able to determine their origins, and even the Basques' language, Euskera-the most ancient in Europe-is related to none other on earth. For centuries, their influence has been felt in... (more)

The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

by S. T. Joshi, Ambrose Bierce

A virtual onslaught of acerbic, confrontational wordplay, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary offers some 1,600 wickedly clever definitions to the vocabulary of everyday life. Little is sacred and few are safe, for Ambrose Bierce targets just about any pursuit, from matrimony to immortality, that allows our willful failings and excesses to shine forth. This is the most extensively annotated edition of a work by... (more)

The Monster Book of Manga: Draw Like the Experts

The Monster Book of Manga: Draw Like the Experts

by Estudio Joso, Fernando Casaus

The popularity of manga continues to row, inspiring interest in learning how to draw in this exciting style of comics. Estudio Joso creates the ultimate guide to illustration—384 pages of manga instruction. The Monster Book of Manga is divided into sections focusing on the most figures and themes—Girls, Boys, Samurais, Monsters, and more. Each illustration is broken down into six stages accompanied by... (more)

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star

The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star

by Nikki Sixx

In one of the most unique memoirs of addiction ever published, Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx shares mesmerizing diary entries from the year he spiraled out of control in a haze of heroin and cocaine, presented alongside riveting commentary from people who were there at the time, and from Nikki himself. When Mötley Crüe was at the height of its fame, there wasn't any drug Nikki Sixx wouldn't do. He spent days -- ... (more)

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Schlesinger, Arthur M.

The Book of Lost Things

by John Connolly

New York Times bestselling author John Connolly's unique imagination takes readers through the end of innocence into adulthood and beyond in this dark and triumphantly creative novel of grief and loss, loyalty and love, and the redemptive power of stories. High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone, with only the books on his shelf for company. But... (more)

Uzumaki: Book 3

Uzumaki, Vol. 3

by Junji Ito

With their town devastated by titanic hurricanes, the citizens of the spiral-haunted town of Kurôzu-cho--including Shuichi, Kirie and her family--find themselves cut off from the outside world. Reporters and rescue teams cross the mountain range into Kurôzu-cho only to find themselves unable to leave. Trapped inside the cursed ruins, the desperate survivors struggle and huddle together, waiting to run into giant... (more)

Fablehaven: Book 1

Fablehaven

by Brandon Mull

For centuries mystical creatures of all description were gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. The sanctuary survives today as one of the last strongholds of true magic. Enchanting? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet. Safe? Well, actually, quite the opposite. Kendra and her brother, Seth, have no idea that their grandfather is the current caretaker of Fablehaven. Inside the... (more)

The Mortal Instruments: Book 1

City of Bones

by Cassandra Clare

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder -- much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing -- not even a smear of blood -- to... (more)

James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

by Julie Phillips

James Tiptree, Jr. burst onto the science fiction scene in the 1970s with a series of hardedged, provocative short stories. Hailed as a brilliant masculine writer with a deep sympathy for his famale character, he penned such classics as Houston, Houston, Do You Read? and The Women Men Don't See. For years he corresponded with Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison,Ursula Le Guin. No one knew his true identity. Then the... (more)

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know

What should the vocabulary of a well-rounded high school graduate be like? These 100 words provide the starting point in answering that question. The list is representative of the words that serious students will encounter in their coursework and will come to use as adults, whether in conversation or while reading the daily newspaper. Each word is fully defined and shown in context with example sentences from... (more)

The Painted Veil

by W. Somerset Maugham

Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the heart of a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and the small but effective society she fought so hard to attain in Hong Kong, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to... (more)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

by Khaled Hosseini

After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most important literary writers today. Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an... (more)

Selected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson

Selected Poems of Edwin Arlington Robinson

by Edwin Arlington Robinson

Mary, Bloody Mary: A Young Royals Book

by Carolyn Meyer

The story of Mary Tudor's childhood is a classic fairy tale: A princess who is to inherit the throne of England is separated from her mother; abused by an evil stepmother who has enchanted her father; stripped of her title; and forced to care for her baby stepsister, who inherits Mary's rights to the throne. Believe it or not, it's all true. Told in the voice of the young Mary, this novel explores the history and... (more)

Collected Poems 1943-2004

by Richard Wilbur

With a distinguished career spanning more than sixty years, Richard Wilbur stands as one of America's preeminent men of letters. Collected Poems 1943-2004 is the comprehensive collection of Wilbur's astonishing, timeless work. It will serve as the most referenced trove of this beloved poet's best verses for many years to come. In Trackless Woods In trackless woods, it puzzled me to find Four great rock maples... (more)

100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses (The 100 Words)

100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses (The 100 Words)

The 100 Words series continues to set the standard for measuring and improving vocabulary, with a new title focusing on words that are best known for getting people into linguistic trouble. 100 Words Almost Everyone Confuses and Misuses is the perfect book for anyone seeking clear and sensible guidance on avoiding the recognized pitfalls of the English language. Each word on the list is accompanied by a concise... (more)

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by Walter Dean Myers