Truly Modern and destined to be a classic
353188
This is simply the best graduate textbook for Quantum Mechanics available. It is NOT a first book in quantum mechanics just as Weinberg's book is not a first book on Field Theory. The approach to the subject is a superb synthesis of the approaches of Schwinger and Feynman and to great effect. The presentation is clear, concise and the intention, especially in the first few chapters is to draw the reader into mastering quantum mechanics through the gem of exercise sets, and NOT spoon feeding the reader like Griffiths or rambling on and on like Shankar.  Unless one does the exercises, one would/should learn NOTHING by reading the chapters (this is meant especially for those who gave single star reviews).  Its a delight especially for students who were aspiring theorists like this reviewer and were/are aware of the joys of understanding a subject through short, may be not so rigorous derivations and extensive problem-solving. This book (partly authored by San Fu Tuan) is NOT MEANT TO BE AN ENCYCLOPEDIA and at times needs to be supplemented by other older and broader texts like Cohen-Tanauji or even Shankar (I used the classics by Schiff, Landau-Lifshitz and Messiah) as mentioned in the bibliography. Would have given five star had it not have negligent expostions of WKB (the non-coupling constant perturbation approximation but equally important as in nonperturbative approximation methods prevalent today), omitting Magnetism/Quantum Hall effect, Hubbard Model.
185281
Cleverly written!! De Marco had my attention from the beginning.  I finished the book while sitting on the floor in an airport waiting for the last leg of my flight home.  I couldn't help but gasp and laugh in surprise at the ending to the extent that I wondered who might've heard me. This book is multidimensional.  You'll find love and hope countered by disdain and much more.  If you can't identify with the characters you, most certainly, know someone like them. I agree with KellyNutty's review on May 8.  It IS a "modern classic."  You won't soon forget these characters or their experiences. Future generations of readers will read this book and catch a glimpse of our present day reality.
70369
As a fan of classics, I dare say they could be "boring" to inexpert readers, yet this one can easily fill your expectations as well as a modern bestselling novel. In the course of the story you learn to understand the characters and why they made the mistakes they made. Also the story is fairly unpredictable, which is a great quality if you do not intend to fall asleep while reading, so be sure to keep in mind all the names because they may reappear later as an important character to the story. You'll must likely pity all the characters at some point because they'll all go through tough stuff, notwithstanding at the end you may shed tears of happiness rather than of sorrow.
4038562
I decided to pick up this contemporary based off the hype (which tends to backfire, at least for me) and found another 5 star contemporary that left an emotional impact on me.

The novel deals with issues that we are facing today but do not talk about enough. Angie Thomas did a great job of awakening the readers to the negatives of racism and prejudice. It would be a good idea to have young kids read this book or even make it required reading in school.

The writing was amazing, the author made the characters come alive and I was able to emotionally connect with them. The sign of an amazing author/contemporary is when they are able to create meaningful and diverse side-characters. Starr's friends and family (most of all her family) were such great well-rounded characters that it was hard to let them go at the end of the novel. I hope that Thomas revisits Starr or even writes from a different characters point of view like Seven in the future,

It was also refreshing that the narration is old solely from Starr's point of view because the trend of multiple or duel povs has started to get on my nerves.

Plus, contemporary now tend to be solely focused on romance and it was great that Thomas did not do that instead the novel focuses more on friendship and family.

I recommend reading this, however, I suggest not reading it in public because it may bring the waterworks like it did for me.
3656828
This is a beautiful novel, one of the very best I have read in a long time.  It's not only fast moving and laugh out loud funny, it's also deeply poignant and -- something all too rare -- politically savvy.  The mix of time travel and social satire wrapped around a moving and beautifully structured (another rarity in too much fiction these days) story with multi-dimensional characters you truly care about is expert on every level.  If the NY Times or any of the other outlets for serious book criticism do not give this book the coverage it so richly deserves, then they will, sadly, have moved one giant step closer to irrelevancy.  I sure hope that's not true for them -- or for this wonderful novel. Bravo, Bob!
4030533
I was provided an advance copy of this novel from the publisher through Netgalley.

An American Marriage read like modern-day classic. I can see that this is a novel that will continue to influence readers for generations, if it gets the attention it deserves. Before I read this novel, I checked a few reviews on Goodreads, and one of them suggested reading this novel as blindly as possible. As soon as I read that, I stopped reading reviews and began reading the book. I think that is good advice. I think picking this one up without knowing too much information helps it to unfold organically, without any preconceived ideas. And while there were some aspects of the novel that seemed too coincidental at times, I found myself deeply enthralled by each page. I think it's a story I won't soon forget.
1749431
I read this over a decade ago so I thought it was high time to return to what is widely regarded as Daniel Clowes' masterpiece and one of the finest comics to crossover to mainsteam literature. I thought on re-reading it with my teen years behind me that the book would seem silly but I was pleasantly surprised to find the book still remains funny, clever, heart-wrenching, and compulsively vibrant throughout.

The story follows two teenage girls, Edie and Becca, as they contemplate the void following high school graduation and the uncertain future that lays ahead. The book is also a brilliant portrait of two best friends and their complex relationship and is a paean to friendships held in our youth, and how finding out our true selves and desires can break these friendships and lead us far from the people we once were.

Edie rages against growing up but can't help but drift closer towards it by filling out college forms, learning to drive, taking holidays away from her hometown, and moving further away from her dad and his string of ex-wives. She tries to hang onto her youth by finding old records she listened to as a kid while wishing she were in a relationship with a boy she doesn't know how to reach.

Clowes does a fantastic job of creating these two rich characters, giving them moments of pathos, levity, and reality. There are some genuinely funny moments like when Edie goes to the sex shop, the Satanists in the caf, and the way Clowes inserts himself into the story depicting himself as this sexually depraved weirdo. And there are heart-breaking scenes like the final pages when Edie can't speak to Becca anymore and sees her through a window before getting on a bus out of town, or when Josh and Edie try to express their feelings for each other.

I felt that Edie could be construed as hipster-ish with her moments of over-cutesiness and quirky fashion choices but I also felt that Edie wouldn't care what label you gave her, she's that well written, you could imagine having a conversation with her. And anyway there are too many excellent points about this book for any hipster nonsense to overshadow.

"Ghost World" is rightly considered a modern masterpiece of literature, not just for comics, but for all books. Edie and Becca are perfectly realised characters and their story is real, haunting, relatable, tragic, and wonderful. Clowes' subtle storytelling and perfect layouts of the panels makes this story far deeper than you would imagine and all the more memorable for it. If you know anyone who scoffs when you mention comics, tell them to read "Ghost World" and then ask them if comics are all men in tights. It's easily one of the best books ever written about growing up and an utterly absorbing read.
724031
There's so much in this slim volume that I'm not sure where to start.  Here's the TLDR version:  it's an utter delight, and you should buy it immediately.

Our hero is a graphic designer with some meager programming skills who is left jobless by the recession.  He finds new work as a bookstore clerk, and soon discovers that the store is much more than it seems.  His quest to uncover its secrets leads only to mysteries, eventually sending him not only across the country but (figuratively) back in time to when the technology to make books widely accessible first became available.

The "I love the smell of glue" crowd is represented, as are the "print is already dead" folks.  Neither are wrong, because the book as object *and* the book as text are important in different ways.  The vast power of the Internet is harnessed, often to great effect, but human handcraft is also vital.

That would be plenty, but there's so much more.  For instance, consider the idea -- so casually tossed off -- that the world is simply filled with secret societies, the only hitch being that most of them don't realize that they're secret.  Or ponder how the standard adventuring party from role-playing games, when the roles are translated into modern terms, actually is a fine combination of human resources for accomplishing a goal quickly.  Or think on how movable-type presses were, in their day, the equivalent of a young Internet -- a new technology with limitless and thrilling potential to open vistas theretofore undreamed-of.

It's missing a few things, most notably combat and sex.  I didn't miss them.  I didn't even really notice their lack until I sat down to write this review.  There's no need for faux excitement when there's so much genuine excitement.  The book is so full of *story,* not to mention ideas, that the pages very nearly turn of their own accord.

Buy it.  Read it.  Rethink parts of your world.
4124512
This is an excellent deal on a wonderful modern classic.

Rowling plays with the English language on so many levels; names (look up "Lupin" "Draco") and items (look up "pensive" and see its relationship with pensieve) come to mind.  She brings in ancient myths (goblins, centaurs, fairies, etc.) and blends them with contemporary issues (fascism, bullying, bigotry, and many more).  With each book, Harry matures and Rowling's expertise in the subtleties of adolescent angst, arrogance, impulsiveness and naivete are well displayed.  The characters, and there are quite a few, manage to stay separate, with many written well beyond flat, static traits. Seldom mentioned is her inclusion of nonwhites throughout the books; an excellent depiction of England's contemporary heritage. Her attention to detail is darn near Dickensian and the storylines are fabulous.

So, this educator recommends the books with caveats; the reader will need to manage vocabulary, some Britishisms, and some accented dialogue.  The books include references to murders and characters do die... but certainly with less gore than most video games... and there is sorrow, fear and grief.  If you are buying the set for a child, I strongly recommend that you (the alleged adult) read them also.  You'll bond as readers and share the books culture of the wizarding world.

Five big bright stars.
1966132
No doubt about it. David Levithan's new book, "Two Boys Kissing", is a revolutionary text that will be lauded  as a milestone in young adult and gay literature for decades to come. That's a pretty hefty statement, yet its not hyperbole by any means. The book commends such praise for its beautiful originality, its poignancy, its realness and rawness.

Meet Harry and Craig, two boys who decide to break the world kissing record. Meet Avery and Ryan, two small town teens who meet at an ersatz prom and discover much about each other. Meet Cooper, who's version and vision of gay life is warped by family and the internet. Meet Tariq, who's bashing inspires the kissing. Meet Neil and Peter, two boys navigating their love. And meet the chorus of gay men who died from the AIDS epidemic, who omnisciently narrate the lives of the characters throughout the story, and well as their own, through the ingenious use of "we".

It's through the characters and this "gay Greek chorus" that Levithan manages to make his story compelling. As the men watch the kissing, and the lives of the other characters, they reflect on their own existence. Levithan honors both the reality of today's experience of being gay in our society as well as the lives of the men and women who came before us. This powerful dichotomy creates emotional, stunning moments in the novel that will cause you to reach for a Kleenex.

Levithan also manages to obliterate stereotypes through the novel. The stereotype shattering aspect of two boys kissing would be enough, but Levithan expands that throughout his story. If you think you know how the characters in the book should act, be prepared to be pleasantly and wonderfully surprised. Levithan has painted with words a more complex picture of people's reactions to two boys kissing, a vision almost of how life can be, and for some of us, how life is.

When asked about what this book is about, one could simply say two boys kissing, because that is the act that drives this story. But its more. Its so much more. In it, I see where I came from, where I am today, and where I will be in the future. This book is narrated with "we", but in reality, it's the story of us.
2213810
The introduction to this excellent Modern Library edition says, "The long journey of Edmond Dantes is one that we should all take at some point in our lives."  I couldn't agree more.  This novel easily ranks among the greatest epics--The Odyssey, Don Quixote, Les Miserables, War & Peace and The Brothers Karamazov come to mind as works of comparable scope and moral grandeur.
My only advice is: set aside some time.  With 1500 pages, a complex web of characters (including many with shifting identities) and more than a few dispensible subplots, this unabridged edition is a challenge--albeit a rewarding one.
The novel tackles all the great themes: war, revolution, love, power, money, justice, evil, God.  But in a word, it's subject is REVENGE.  A good-natured young man of exceptional promise, Edmond Dantes is betrayed by his erstwhile friends, unjustly imprisoned by an ambitious magistrate, and left for dead by the woman he loves.  The first three hundred pages of the story are fast-paced and almost cinematic, from the wrenching scenes of betrayal and imprisonment, down to Dantes' miraculous escape and rebirth as a remarkable new man, the Count of Monte Cristo.
The Count is part 007, part Stoic philosopher.  He'll drop you in a duel, match wits with you in the salon, concoct potions from recipes in a dozen languages, be in three places at once, with three different identities, and exercise a kind of foresight and control over human events that we normally associate with gods and conspiracy theories.  Oh yeah--and he's loaded, too.
Dantes burns with a desire for revenge, but it's an entirely different sort than the Clint Eastwood/Charles Bronson variety.  Instead of blasting his way into Paris with a semi-automatic (or less anachronistically, with a really big sword), Dantes methodically plots the downfall of his enemies using even more lethal weapons: the evil that lurks in their own hearts.
All this takes a long time.  There is a big drop off in intensity in the middle chunk of the novel, as Dumas transitions from the swashbuckling Napoleonic days to a more traditional European novel of manners set in the 1830s.  A whole new set of characters are introduced.  Later, we discover their relationship to Dantes' earlier antagonists--but for a time we are totally at sea.  Meanwhile, Dumas launches various digressions that will occasionally cause the reader to wonder whether he was getting paid by the word (probably).
But don't despair.  The last half of the novel gathers steam like a freight train, as Count of Monte Cristo moves in for the kill.  The suspense builds--not because we wonder whether Dantes will get his revenge, but whether he can avoid turning into a monster in the process.
Ultimately, Dumas offers as sane and humane a message as you can hope for from 1500 pages of injustice and vengeance.  In a novel where fortunes shift, names and titles are granted and extinguished, and identities are transformed on turns of luck, the old Stoic wisdom shines through.  It's not what happens to you, good or bad, but how you respond to it, that determines true virtue in this world.  One suspects this would be true even without an avenging Providence, even if Edmond Dantes' triumph were less complete.
3510597
This novel is deserving of all the praise and awards heaped on it. It's expertly written and narrated, it's politically explosive, it's imaginative, and it's blending of the real and surreal could only have been done by such a great writer. It's completely and utterly different from any of the "classics" you have ever read. It's modern and a relic at the same time. There surely are dozens of other reviews outlining the plots and characters of the novel, so let this one just recommend it as a must-read and one of the true masterpieces in all aspects of the word.
818463
I adored this book. With so many glowing reviews already here there's little left for me to say; I just want to add my voice to the chorus of appreciation.

_Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell_ is a complete delight from beginning to end: vivid characters and a rich alternate 19th-century setting are wrapped up in smooth, confident prose. There are definite shades of Austen in the narrative voice - arch, witty, clever, self-aware - but it's much more than just an intelligent pastiche. It's a tightly-controlled novel with an absorbing plot that simultaneously manages to evoke interesting themes from both its historical (social hierarchy and its discontents, rationality vs. spirituality) and its fantasy (the morality of magic-use) aspects. 'Real-life' characters turn up, but are used carefully and sparingly - and, in the case of Byron, hilariously.

Those who like their books rapid-fire and dare I say a little more obvious may rail against its apparent lack of 'action' - but to do so is to miss the point. This is a book about rather more than just plot (although, frankly, it has plenty of that, too...). It is a character-study and a period-piece, and any dissimilarities with contemporary fiction in terms of pacing are entirely in keeping with the style and form the author intends. You're unlikely to find a more elegant, amusing and intelligent fantasy novel this year. Highly recommended!
3714808
A modern day masterpiece. This will go down as one of the greatest books of this current generation. It's so encouraging to see such vivid and engaging writing nowadays.
1305866
We All Looked Up is an excellent coming-of-age novel that evokes John Hughes and is quite simply one of the most compelling contemporary novels Ive read in years. Tommy Wallach writes some of the most realistic, flawed characters out there and he isn't afraid to show what actual teenagers are like. This novel is a beautiful portrait of humanity and it doesnt stray from showing the highs and lows of life. We All Looked Up is an impressive feat of literature that will give readers a glimmer of hope and inspire them to live life to the fullest.

We All Looked Up follows four high school seniors as they try to live with the impending collision of an asteroid called Ardor. No one knows for sure if it will strike the Earth, but what they do know is that life cant go on anymore. Anita is tired of being the perfect child with straight As, who vies for her fathers acceptance. Eliza doesnt want to be the slut everyone thinks she is, she doesnt want to be herself. Peter has had the time of his life being a teenager and fears that hell never experience anything more.  Andy doesnt want to be an adult, he just wants to live his life without any sort of responsibility.

This book is extremely character-driven and rides on the emotions and tension that surrounds our cast.  WALU reads extremely fast and I couldn't stop reading as Ardor drew closer and closer. Readers will need to find out what happens to each of the four main characters and will love watching them develop and grow all in the matter of a few pages. Theres such a sharp difference between who Andy, Eliza, Peter and Anita are at the beginning of this novel and who they are at the end. This novel is an exemplary coming-of-age novel and has pitch-perfect characterization.

WALU follows a group of teens in Seattle and this book features a wide variety of characters with different ethnicities and sexualities. Most of the main characters are Caucasian, but I was pretty happy to see Hispanic, trans* and African American characters in this book. This is a step in the right direction and it was refreshing to see a book where America is shown as the melting pot it truly is. People should see themselves in literature and I think WALU will resonate with countless readers.

Im usually not a fan of ambiguous endings because Im a very concrete person who needs to know everything and anything. Tommy Wallach leaves WALU on such a note that is both hopeful and satisfying, I absolutely loved how it ended. This isn't the kind of ending everyone will love, but its the right ending for this novel; nothing else wouldve worked so effectively. Wallach lets readers decide for themselves what happens next without giving any hints as to what happens next. Its a ballsy ending for sure and it was a perfect way to wrap up all loose ends in this one.

We All Looked Up is an excellent stand-alone from a promising writer who will enthrall readers from start to finish. Wallach writes excellent prose that hooks readers in like catchy song lyrics so it was no surprise to me that hes a musician. This novel truly shines and has the most lifelike and flawed characters Ive ever read about, making this one bound to be a hit with massive cross-over appeal.
807489
Growing up, there are certain stories that you are told are classics.  Your parents have read them, your teachers suggest them and all the critics continually laud them.  `The Swiss Family Robinson' is one of those books.  Just the very title causes one to take notice, and if you have ever read the book or happened to see the Disney film, you are taken to a lovely place of nostalgia whenever someone mentions it.

The great thing about books like this one is that these stories and the way they are shaped, molded and ultimately told are timeless.  Any age, sex or domination can and will enjoy this.  There are so many themes broached, but in a beautiful package that never feels overwhelming or too stuffed.  Everything feels relaxed and natural.  It is also a testament to real storytelling that the novel remains exciting and intriguing no matter how familiar you are with the story.  Settling in this past month to read this to my kids was a great way to relive the beauty and grace of this novel, watching it captivate them as well as me (new ears and old).

The language is fluid (which is not always so in these older classics) and the action is always present, even during seeming mundane situations.  My children were always intrigued, and I loved plowing through the chapters with them.  The lush imagery presented by Wyss is unforgettable and really a notch above most of what we have to read today.  There is truth in the idea that one cannot beat a classic, and `The Swiss Family Robinson' is a classic for a reason.
3706284
Classics don't get that way based on fleeting popularity. Excellent writing, wonderfully complex characters, entertaining tales, and poignant life lessons are key ingredients in providing the reader with a reading experience that will stand the test of time. Charles Dickens creates a world of rich characters who will draw you into their lives; some tug at your heartstrings; some outrage you with their deceptive behaviors. All will make an impression that will remain long after the final page of this book has been turned.