Books Similar To "my favourites:)"
Merchant of Venice (2010 edition): Oxford School Shakespeare
“The Merchant of Venice is a popular text for study by secondary students the world over. This edition includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites) and classroom notes.
The Catcher in the Rye
“Since his debut in 1951 as <I>The Catcher in the Rye</I>, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,<br> <p> "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them." <p> His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation.
The Tulip Touch
“Nobody wants Tulip in their gang. She skives off school and cheeks the teachers. None of this matters to Natalie who finds Tulip exciting. At first she doesn't care that other people are upset and unnerved by Tulip's bizarre games, but as the games become increasingly sinister, Natalie realises that Tulip is going too far.
The Search for the Dice Man
“The sequel to the cult classic The Dice Man, this book can also change your life!
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Modern Classics)
“Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time.
Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem (Penguin Modern Classics)
“Examining American life and consumerism, this play sets forth what happens when a man does not have a grip on the forces of life.
The Bridge
“A man lies in a coma, his body broken, his memory vanished. He finds himself in the surreal world of the bridge - a world free of the usual constraints of time and space, a world where dream and fantasy, past and future, fuse. The author's previous novels include 'The Wasp Factory'.
The Bell Jar
“Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. <I>The Bell Jar</I> tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly- written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity.
Exposure
“Revered as a national hero... married to the desirable Desmerelda... cherished by the media... soccer star, Otello, has it all. But a sensational club transfer sparks a media frenzy, and when he is wrongly implicated in a scandal, the footballer's life turns into a tragic spiral of destruction.
Lolita
“Despite its lascivious reputation, the pleasures of <I>Lolita</I> are as much intellectual as erogenous. It is a love story with the power to raise both chuckles and eyebrows. Humbert Humbert is a European intellectual adrift in America, haunted by memories of a lost adolescent love. When he meets his ideal nymphet in the shape of 12-year-old Dolores Haze, he constructs an elaborate plot to seduce her, but first he must get rid of her mother. In spite of his diabolical wit, reality proves to be more slippery than Humbert's feverish fantasies and Lolita refuses to conform to his image of the perfect lover. Playfully perverse in form as well as content, riddled with puns and literary allusions, Nabokov's 1955 novel is a hymn to the Russian-born author's delight in his adopted language. Indeed, readers who want to probe all of its allusive nooks and crannies will need to consult the annotated edition. <I>Lolita</I> is undoubtedly, brazenly erotic, but the eroticism springs less from the "frail honey-hued shoulders ... the silky supple bare back" of little Lo than it does from the wantonly gorgeous prose that Humbert uses to recount his forbidden passion: "<I>She was musical and apple-sweet ... Lola the bobby-soxer, devouring her immemorial fruit, singing through its juice ... and every movement she made, every shuffle and ripple, helped me to conceal and to improve the secret system of tactile correspondence between beast and beauty--between my gagged, bursting beast and the beauty of her dimpled body in its innocent cotton frock. "</I> Much has been made of <I>Lolita</I> as metaphor, perhaps because the love affair at its heart is so troubling. Humbert represents the formal, educated Old World of Europe, while Lolita is America: ripening, beautiful, but not too bright and a little vulgar. Nabokov delights in exploring the intercourse between these cultures and the passages where Humbert describes the suburbs and strip malls and motels of post-war America are filled with both attraction and repulsion: "Those restaurants where the holy spirit of Huncan Dines had descended upon the cute paper napkins and cottage-cheese-crested salads." Yet however tempting the novel's symbolism may be, its chief delight--and power--lies in the character of Humbert Humbert. He, at least as he tells it, is no seedy skulker, no twisted destroyer of innocence. Instead, Nabokov's celebrated mouthpiece is erudite and witty, even at his most depraved. Humbert can't help it--linguistic <I>jouissance</I> is as important to him as the satisfaction of his arrested libido. --<I>Simon Leake</I>
Brighton Rock
“A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Seventeen-year-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold. This book aims to expose a world of loneliness and fear, of life lived on the 'dangerous edge of things'.
Bright Lights, Big City
“You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. So begins our hero's trawl through the brightly lit streets of Manhattan, sampling all this wonderland has to offer yet suspecting that tomorrow's hangover may be caused by more than simple excess. This is a classic 80s novel.
Scar Tissue: The Autobiography
“* The frank, shocking and inspiring autobiography of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers - 'the world's biggest band' (MOJO) * 'Book of the Year' N.M.E.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Harper Perennial Modern Classics
“Heralded as the "best book on the dope decade" by the <I>New York Times Book Review</I>, Hunter S. Thompson's documented drug orgy through Las Vegas would no doubt leave Nancy Reagan blushing and D.A.R.E. (US anti-drugs organisation) founders rethinking their motto. Under the pseudonym of Raoul Duke, Thompson travels with his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in a souped-up convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark." In its boot, they hide "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicoloured uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser [and] a pint of raw ether" which they manage to consume during their short tour. <p> On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first- rate sensibility twinger, <I>Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas</I> is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --<I>Rebekah Warren</I>
The Kite Runner
“The remarkable debut novel from Khaled Hosseini, now out in paperback in a stunning new package
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Wordsworth Classics)
“A lush, cautionary tale of a life of vileness and deception or a loving portrait of the aesthetic impulse run rampant? Why not both? After Basil Hallward paints a beautiful, young man's portrait, his subject's frivolous wish that the picture change and he remain the same comes true. Dorian Gray's picture grows aged and corrupt while he continues to appear fresh and innocent. After he kills a young woman, "as surely as if I had cut her little throat with a knife", Dorian Gray is surprised to find no difference in his vision or surroundings. "The roses are not less lovely for all that. The birds sing just as happily in my garden." <p> As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happy friend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest with any number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, <I>The Picture of Dorian Gray</I> is an imperfect work. Compared to the two (voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever new sensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-room discussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novel contradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boy gets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it both ways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its own punishment."
The Great Gatsby (Penguin Popular Classics)
“Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing and debating his mysterious character.
Brave New World
“Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free.
A Spot of Bother
“At 57, George Hall is settling down to a retirement. Then Katie, his daughter, announces that she is getting remarried, to Ray. Her brother Jamie observes that Ray has 'strangler's hands'. This book features a portrait of a dignified man trying to go insane politely. It also talks about the people who fall apart and come together as a family.
Fight Club
“Every weekend, in basements and parking lots across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything.
Nineteen Eighty-four
“Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When Winston finds love with Julia, he discovers that life does not have to be dull and deadening, and awakens to new possibilities.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
“This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
“A murder mystery like no other, this novel features Christopher Boone, a 15 year-old who suffers from Asperger's syndrome. When he finds a neighbour's dog murdered, he sets out on a terrifying journey destined to turn his whole world upside down.
Dracula
“This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Lear (Methuen Student Editions)
“'Bond's greatest (and biggest) play ... it is even more topical now and will become more so as man's inhumanity gains subtle sophistication' The Times
Complicity (Abacus Paperback)
“An exploration of the morality of greed, corruption and violence. When several prominent people die mysteriously, the police beat a path to the door of an Edinburgh journalist known for his drug abuse and total commitment to computer games. By the author of 'The Wasp Factory' and 'The Crow Road'.
Great Gatsby, The [DVD] [1974]
“Perhaps no movie could capture F Scott Fitzgerald's novel <I>The Great Gatsby</I> in its entirety, but this adaptation, scripted by Francis Ford Coppola, is certainly a handsome try, putting costume design and art direction above the intricacies of character. Robert Redford is an interesting casting choice as Gatsby, the millionaire isolated in his mansion, still dreaming of the woman he lost. And Sam Waterston is perfect as the narrator, Nick, who brings the dream girl Daisy Buchanan back to Gatsby. <p> The problem seems to be that director Jack Clayton fell in love with the flapper dresses and the party scenes and the jazz age tunes, ending up with a <I>Classics Illustrated</I> version of a great book rather than a fresh, organic take on the text. While Redford grows more quietly intriguing in the film, Mia Farrow's pallid performance as Daisy leaves you wondering why Gatsby, or anyone else, should care so much about his grand passion. The effective supporting cast includes Bruce Dern as Daisy's husband, and Scott Wilson and Karen Black as the low-rent couple whose destinies cross the sun-drenched protagonists. (That's future star Patsy Kensit as Daisy's little daughter.) The film won two Oscars--not surprisingly, for costumes and musical score. --<I>Robert Horton</I>
Pirates!
“<I>Pirates!</I> is a classy and welcome addition to Celia Rees's successful oeuvre, that of novels with a historical background, such as the phenomenally bestselling <I>Witch Child</I> and <I>Sorceress</I>. Swashbuckling in the tradition of every pirate tale, from <I>Treasure Island</I> to <I>Pirates of the Caribbean</I>, <I>Pirates!</I> is truly gripping from first page to last and never fails to be totally entertaining throughout. <p> Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharp are two young women from very different backgrounds who, in time, become united in a common, pirating cause. Nancy, the daughter of a successful Bristol ship owner, had her life all planned out. She lived in comfort and hoped to marry her childhood sweetheart William. But disaster strikes and she is aghast to experience her circumstances turning upside down when her father dies. Soon she finds herself shipped out to land they own in the West Indies to marry for the good of the remaining family. <p> Minerva is part of the staff at her new plantation home and they immediately become friends--despite the delicate nature of their differing positions as merchant's daughter and slave. But Minerva has complications of her own--particularly from an abusive overseer. Nancy is eventually driven to murder him, and together they become fugitives. Joining a pirate ship comes naturally to both of them and a wild, wild life of seafaring and adventure begins. <p> With detailed research that leaps from every page, Rees's narrative is atmospheric but never heavy. She moves the story along at a jaunty pace, making it impossible for the reader to get bogged down. Rich and exciting, <I>Pirates!</I> is another triumph and unlikely to be bested by another pirate novel for some years to come. (Recommended for ages 12 and over.) --<I>John McLay</I>
Espedair Street
“Daniel Weir was a famous - not to say infamous - rock star. Maybe he still is. At 31 he has been both a brilliant failure and a dull success. He's made a lot of mistakes that have paid off and a lot of smart moves he'll regret for ever. The author's previous novels include 'The Wasp Factory'.
The Mayor of Casterbridge
“This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story
“Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has been recognized as a classic of modern political satire. Fuelled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, <I>Animal Farm</I> is a nearly perfect piece of writing--both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire <I>Animal Farm</I> may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy. --<I>Joyce Thompson</I>
The Crow Road
“Prentice McHoan has returned to the bosom of his complex but enduring Scottish family. Full of questions about the McHoan past, present and future, he is also deeply preoccupied - mainly with death, sex, drink, God and illegal substances. By the author of 'The Wasp Factory'.
The Importance of Being Earnest (Penguin Popular Classics)
“Mr Worthing invents a brother, Earnest, as an excuse to leave his dull life behind him to pursue Gwendolyn. While across town Algernon Montecrieff decides to take the name Earnest, when visiting Worthing's young ward Cecily. The real fun and confusion begins when the two end up together and their deceptions are in danger of being revealed.
Catch-22
“Features a satirical indicement of military madness and stupidity, and the desire of the ordinary man to survive it. This work tells a tale of the dangerously sane Captain Yossarian, who spends his time in Italy plotting to survive.
Crime and Punishment (Penguin Popular Classics)
“Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law.
Kurt Cobain: Journals
“Presents the author's diaries, which were found after his death in 1994. This title provides an account of the rise and fall of a great popular artist and icon.
The Great Gatsby: York Notes Advanced
“'York Notes Advanced' offer an accessible approach to English Literature. This series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, 'York Notes Advanced' introduce students to sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.
Yes Man
“Having been dumped by his girlfriend, Danny really wasn't doing the young, free and single thing very well. Instead, he was avoiding people. Texting them instead of calling them. Calling them instead of meeting them. This is the story of what happened when Danny decided to say yes to everything, in order to make his life more interesting.
American Psycho
“Brett Easton Ellis established a reputation as the <I>enfant terrible</I> of American fiction in the 1980s with his controversial novel <I>Less than Zero</I>, but with the publication of <I>American Psycho</I> he became established as one of the most notorious and reviled novelists currently writing. <I>American Psycho</I> deserves its controversy. The novel opens with a sign scrawled above a New York subway station: "Abandon hope all ye who enter". So begins a hellish descent into the world of Patrick Bateman, the novel's protagonist. Bateman is a handsome 26-year-old Wall Street yuppie, who spends his days listening to Whitney Houston and working out which exclusive restaurant to eat in and what clothes to wear in a dizzying parody of 1980s consumerism run mad.<p> However, Bateman also has a darker side; he is a psychopathic serial killer, with a penchant for torturing and sexually abusing young women before killing them in the most gruesome and explicit fashion. The novel contains little actual plot, and consists of extended descriptions of exclusive restaurants, designer clothes, TV shows and the minutiae of Bateman's vacuous world, relieved only by clinically described scenes of torture and mutilation which are not for the faint-hearted. Bateman makes little attempt to justify his actions, merely claiming that "this is the way the world--my world--moves". As a satire on the bankrupt, money-driven world of the 1980s, <I>American Psycho</I> is a successful, if rather heavy-handed piece of fiction, whose controversy seems only set to increase. --<I>Jerry Brotton</I>
Enduring Love: Now a major motion picture
“One windy spring day in the Chilterns Joe Rose's calm, organized life is shattered by a ballooning accident. The afternoon, Rose reflects, could have ended in mere tragedy, but for his brief meeting with Jed Parry.
Room Full of Mirrors
“Presents an account of the life of the greatest guitarist in the history of rock.
Under The Net (Vintage Classics)
“Jake Donaghue is a drifting, clever, likeable young man who makes a living out of translation work and sponging on his friends. A meeting with Anna, an old flame, leads him into a series of fantastic adventures. Jake is captivated by a majestic philosopher, Hugo Belfounder.
A Clockwork Orange (2 Disc Special Edition) [DVD] [1971]
“Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a landmark. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. <I>A Clockwork Orange</I> works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that holds up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colourfully arresting images, he also stylises the film by utilising classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical score) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --<I>Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com</I>
Cambridge Wizard Student Guide The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Cambridge Wizard English Student Guides)
“A student's guide to Mark Haddon's 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time'.
Sovay
“Witch Child, Sorceress, Pirates! and now Sovay - the pulse-quickening story of a young woman drawn into a world of highway robbery, dark intrigue and dangerous passions
Walking on Glass
“By the author of 'Canal Dreams' and 'The Wasp Factory', this novel is about three men - Graham Park, Steven Grant and Quiss. No trio of people could be further apart, but their separate courses are set for collision.
The Vanished
“The dark stuff sent to Fraser and Cassie's student newspaper is disturbing. Old tales are being rewritten. Tales of plague graves, and forbidden woods where children vanish. Hidden steps leading to a decaying underworld. Old songs used to ensnare the innocent. But they're just horror stories - aren't they? Then the first child is taken...
"Nirvana": The True Story
“An honest, moving, incisive, heartfelt re-evaluation of a band that have been misrepresented time and time again since their untimely demise in April 1994.
The Sterkarm Handshake
“<I>The Sterkarm Handshake</I> by Susan Price is an extraordinarily detailed historical-modern science fiction novel in which members of a team of researchers from the 21st century travel through a time tube into the lives of the Sterkarm clan in 16th-century England. At first the narrative concerns itself with the creation of a realistic and believable portrayal of the living conditions and the relationships of a tough, violent group of people whose feelings for each other are not that dissimilar from those of human beings living 500 years later. As the novel progresses, the relations between the 21st-century individuals and the Sterkarms simultaneously deteriorate and deepen. Incidents pile one upon the other, the sense of conflict increases and the action becomes both increasingly violent and increasingly complicated. External action is balanced by the development of internal feelings and one of the modern team, a young girl named Andrea, falls deeply in love with a young Sterkarmer. This is a novel for sci-fi bookworms with a love of history, a touch of romance and masses of action. --<I>Tamsin Palmer</I> (Ages 10 and over)
Blood Sinister
“Ellen hasn't seen Andy for years - and the transformation is incredible. He's tall, with high cheekbones and tousled hair. If Ellen was normal, she'd have a crush on him. But Ellen is dying. Her illness is a mystery. It's as if all the strength is being sucked from her. What dark force is reaching out to claim her, draining her lifeblood away?
Whit
“Isis Whit is a member of the 'Elect of God', a religious cult based near Stirling. When her cousin Morag renounces her faith, it falls to Isis to venture out into the techno-ridden barreness of nineties Britain to save her. But Morag has embraced the ways of the 'unsaved' with surprising vigour.
A Streetcar Named Desire (Penguin Modern Classics)
“Fading southern belle Blanche Dubois depends on the kindness of strangers and is adrift in the modern world. When she arrives to stay with her sister Stella in a crowded, boisterous corner of New Orleans, her delusions of grandeur bring her into conflict with Stella's crude, brutish husband Stanley.