Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury: a Personal Tour of Some of the World’s Best Books - Softcover

Kanigel, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0963124676 ISBN 13: 9780963124678

Publisher: Bancroft Press, 1998

Synopsis

Story Easton knows the first line of every book, but never the last.She never cries, but she fakes it beautifully.And at night, she escapes from the failure of her own life by breaking into the homes of others, and feeling, for a short while, like a different, better person.But one night, as an uninvited guest in someone’s empty room, she discovers a story sadder than her own: a boy named Cooper Payne, whose dream of visiting the Amazon rainforest and discovering the moonflower from his favorite book, Once Upon a Moonflower, died alongside his father.For reasons even she doesn't entirely understand, Story decides that she will help Cooper and his mother. She will make his dream come true.The Understory is a magical, moving, funny, and poignant story of failure and success; of falling apart and rebuilding; and of coincidences that never really are. Part comedy, part drama, and part fairy tale, Elizabeth Leiknes’s second novel is a wonder you won't soon forget.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Robert Kanigel's reviews may be about vintage books, but his insights are contemporary and his voice is witty, intelligent and gracious. His "personal tour of some of the world's best books" is a trip we should all take. -MICKEY PEARLMAN, Ph.D., author of What to Read: The Essential Guide for Reading Group Members and Other Books Lovers I am an inveterate collector of book lists and book reviews. If the lists are intelligent, they will contain many familiarities-enough to suggest the worthiness of those that are unfamiliar or not yet read. If the reviews are good, they add immediacy to the need to read or reread them now. Kanigel passes both tests, and my own list has now grown by several new names.

-CHRISTOPHER B. NELSON, President, St. John's College, Annapolis, MD, home of the Great Books Program

In a world beset with the often mindless clutter of television, films, the internet and other distractions, many of us long to renew our acquaintance with the great literature and thought of the ages-to read a book. But what book? Robert Kanigel's Vintage Reading, with its fascinating summaries of books, great and near-great, is the perfect guidepost. Kanigel, a distinguished writer, so effectively conveys his love of great books that one can envision his creating a new generation of readers.

-GWINN OWENS, former Baltimore Evening Sun editor & columnist I belong to two book clubs-one for women, one co-ed. Vintage Reading is a great source of ideas for books, as well as for topics of discussion. -LINDA FOX, member, Lake Falls & Roland Park Book Clubs

From Booklist:

A professional reviewer, Kanigel occasionally chose books to review for the Baltimore Sun that weren't new. He gathered those columns into this cozy and enlightening book. His divisions are revealing: everyone's classics; title appearing on many a list for burning; one-of-a-kinds; best-sellers; those dealing with the realm of the spirit. Because they were columns, their format and brevity sometimes are of a muchness: a boffo opening sentence and a catchy close. But Kanigel takes another look at titles as varied as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Nana; The Microbe Hunters and A Bell for Adano; and he makes us want to pick them up again and read what he read. He shares the odd little fact, like how caryatids got their name or what a sonata is. He offers a flash, now and then, of spot-on description (Malthus as "intellectual history's Gloomy Gus"). Fun to read and fine fodder for book-discussion groups. GraceAnne A. DeCandido

About this edition

• Publisher: Bancroft Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0963124676
• ISBN 13: 9780963124678
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 243