Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

One of the most important philosophical works of our time -- a work that has had tremendous influence on philosophy, literature, and psychology, and has literally changed the intellectual map of the modern world.

Hocus Pocus

by Kurt Vonnegut

This novel tells the story of a devilish pair of twins whose enormous intellect is hidden behind a facade of idiocy.

Common Sense

by Thomas Paine

Written prior to the revolutionary war, "Common Sense" was a widely distributed phamphlet that argued for the complete independence of America from Britain. Its importance in terms of American history cannot by understated. The influence that this publication had on the American sentiment towards fighting the revolutionary war may have been more significant than any other single factor. Read for yourself the... (more)

The DANGEROUS SUMMER

by Ernest Hemingway

The Dangerous Summer is Hemingway's firsthand chronicle of a brutal season of bullfights. In this vivid account, Hemingway captures the exhausting pace and pressure of the season, the camaraderie and pride of the matadors, and the mortal drama as in fight after fight the rival matadors try to outdo each other with ever more daring performances. At the same time Hemingway offers an often complex and deeply... (more)

Of Mice and Men

by John Steinbeck

Tragic tale of a retarded man and the friend who loves and tries to protect him. With illustrations from the movie starring John Malkovich and Gary Sinise.

The Pearl

by John Steinbeck

A fisherman finds the great pearl, only to lose it again.

Exile and the Kingdom

by Carol Cosman, Albert Camus

From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society's expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in... (more)

The Closing of the American Mind

by Alan Bloom

The Closing of the American Mind, a publishing phenomenon in hardcover, is now a paperback literary event. In this acclaimed number one national best-seller, one of our country's most distinguished political philosophers argues that the social/political crisis of 20th-century America is really an intellectual crisis. Allan Bloom's sweeping analysis is essential to understanding America today. It has fired the... (more)

Death of a Salesman

by Arthur Miller

The tragedy of a typical American--a salesman who at the age of sixty-three is faced with what he cannot face; defeat and disillusionment.

The Human Comedy

by William Saroyan

The story of an American family in wartime.

Timequake

by Kurt Vonnegut

According to science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout, a global timequake will occur in New York City on 13th February 2001. It is the moment when the universe suffers a crisis of conscience. Should it expand or make a great big bang? It decides to wind the clock back a decade to 1991, making everyone in the world endure ten years of deja-vu and a total loss of free will - not to mention the torture of reliving every... (more)

In Cold BloodTruman Capote

In Cold Blood

by Truman Capote

Capote's riveting re-creation of events surrounding the 1959 murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, covers the subsequent police investigation and the capture, trial, and execution of the two young murderers. 2 cassettes.

A Farewell to Arms

by Ernest Hemingway

The best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Hemingway's frank portrayal of the love between Lieutenant Henry and Catherine Barkley, caught in the inexorable sweep of war, glows with an intensity unrivaled in modern literature, while his description of the... (more)

The Known World

by Edward P. Jones

One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, The Known World is a daring and ambitious work by Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones. The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual... (more)

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she... (more)

Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell

This unusual fictional account, in good part autobiographical, narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-out of two great cities. In the tales of both cities we learn some sobering Orwellian truths about poverty and society.

A Collection of Essays

by George Orwell

In this bestselling compilation of essays, written in the clear-eyed, uncompromising language for which he is famous, Orwell discusses with vigor such diverse subjects as his boyhood schooling, the Spanish Civil War, Henry Miller, British imperialism, and the profession of writing.

1984

by George Orwell

George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision of "Negative Utopia" is timelier than ever-and its warnings more powerful.

The Grapes of Wrath

by John Steinbeck

Forced from their home, the Joad family is lured to California to find work; instead they find disillusionment, exploitation, and hunger.

Animal Farm

by George Orwell

A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned - a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible. When Animal Farm was first... (more)

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: books i own and have read

by Martin Heidegger

by Kurt Vonnegut

by Thomas Paine

by Ernest Hemingway

by John Steinbeck

by John Steinbeck

by Carol Cosman, Albert Camus

by Alan Bloom

by Arthur Miller

by William Saroyan

by Kurt Vonnegut

by Truman Capote

by Ernest Hemingway

by Edward P. Jones

by Alice Walker

by George Orwell

by George Orwell

by George Orwell

by John Steinbeck

by George Orwell