Books

Average customer rating:

Strange but slow
Overwrought, anticlimactic, and in need of an editor
Boring and hard to read
What a great book this turned out to be
Olde English Magick

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
Susanna Clarke
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature & Fiction | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Bargain Books | Stores | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

American Gods
The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories
The Historian
Paladin of Souls
Spin

ASIN: B000ENWIJO

Amazon.com

It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust. --Regina Marler

Book Description

English magicians were once the wonder of the known world, with fairy servants at their beck and call; they could command winds, mountains, and woods. But by the early 1800s they have long since lost the ability to perform magic. They can only write long, dull papers about it, while fairy servants are nothing but a fading memory.

But at Hurtfew Abbey in Yorkshire, the rich, reclusive Mr Norrell has assembled a wonderful library of lost and forgotten books from England's magical past and regained some of the powers of England's magicians. He goes to London and raises a beautiful young woman from the dead. Soon he is lending his help to the government in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte, creating ghostly fleets of rain-ships to confuse and alarm the French.

All goes well until a rival magician appears. Jonathan Strange is handsome, charming, and talkative-the very opposite of Mr Norrell. Strange thinks nothing of enduring the rigors of campaigning with Wellington's army and doing magic on battlefields. Astonished to find another practicing magician, Mr Norrell accepts Strange as a pupil. But it soon becomes clear that their ideas of what English magic ought to be are very different. For Mr Norrell, their power is something to be cautiously controlled, while Jonathan Strange will always be attracted to the wildest, most perilous forms of magic. He becomes fascinated by the ancient, shadowy figure of the Raven King, a child taken by fairies who became king of both England and Faerie, and the most legendary magician of all. Eventually Strange's heedless pursuit of long-forgotten magic threatens to destroy not only his partnership with Norrell, but everything that he holds dear.

Sophisticated, witty, and ingeniously convincing, Susanna Clarke's magisterial novel weaves magic into a flawlessly detailed vision of historical England. She has created a world so thoroughly enchanting that eight hundred pages leave readers longing for more.

Customer Reviews:

Strange but slow.......2007-06-27

I'm plowing through this one, but it is a labor. Lots of cutesy period detail but an abundance of characters who drive me to wishing awful fates upon them. Technically very very throrough, but I need some positive feedback every now and then.

Overwrought, anticlimactic, and in need of an editor.......2007-06-16

Susanna Clarke's debut novel begins promisingly, but by about page 500 the book is starting to bog down beneath its own weight. The footnotes have by now worn on the reader's patience (they're either needlessly discursive or else pointless in their obviousness), and the dead-end plot lines are mounting (cf. the backstory of Jeremy and Strange's father, the old lady with the cats, and whatever happened to Lady Pole and Sir Walter?) After nearly 800 pages, one would think that Clarke could reward her readers (who have by now forgiven her meanderings and heavyhandedness) with some resolution. No. There is no resolution and the ending is far too 'cinematic' (and I mean that in the worst way possible). The possibility of a regrettable sequel is left wide open (though I won't bother reading it).

Boring and hard to read.......2007-06-11

The first half of the book is devoted to Mr. Strange, who is a thoroughly unlikeable character. Well, I thought, once Jonathan appears on the scene,it will pick up. It didn't.

Bottom line: it's just not enjoyable. Very little plot. No interesting characters. A few howling anachronisms in the characters' mouths that just break the spell (no pun intended)

What a great book this turned out to be.......2007-05-24

At first I was a little hesitant having read so much praise for this book. The first 100 pages seem to drag along. Clarke seems to find her story after that rather long setup. I won't say the plot kicks into high gear, that doesn't really happen until about the last 1/3 of the book, but the characters and their interactions as well as the build up of the story make it a page turner.

There's alot of humor hidden in this story, not the kind that grabs you and hits you over the head, but the kind of humor you get a little chuckle or say that was clever to yourself.

As for the footnotes, I loved them. Some were stories within the story and were very entertaining. The others helped to go in to more details on things that you didn't necessarily have to know to keep up with the plot.

I'll definitely be looking for more works from Clarke and hoping she decides to revisit this world.

Olde English Magick.......2007-05-13

I found this book a bit difficult to get into, but once it grabbed me I could not let it go. It mixes a delightful tale of English magic and faeries with human virtues and failings.

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (The Sailor's Classics #4)

Average customer rating:

The psychology of Round the world races
BUY THIS BOOK!!!
A Sea-Tinged Madness
Aquatic madness
Tragedy at Sea

The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst (The Sailor's Classics #4)
Nicholas Tomalin , and Ron Hall
Manufacturer: International Marine Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Boating | Water Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books

General | Sports | Subjects | Books

A Voyage for Madmen
Alone through the Roaring Forties (The Sailor's Classics #5) (Sailor's Classics Series)
The Long Way
Gipsy Moth Circles the World
Close to the Wind

ASIN: 0071376127

Book Description

In the autumn of 1968, Donald Crowhurst set sail from England to participate in the first single-handed nonstop around-the-world sailboat race. Eight months later, his boat was found in the mid-Atlantic, intact but with no one on board. In this gripping reconstruction, journalists Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall tell the story of Crowhurst's ill-fated voyage, up to his apparent decision to take his own life rather than be discovered as the would-be perpetrator of one of the biggest hoaxes in sailing history.

Customer Reviews:

The psychology of Round the world races.......2006-12-22

I was led to this book through "A Voyage for Madmen". This book looks at the same Golden Globe race but focuses practically solely on Donald's trip. It gives you actual pages from his log and takes you all the way up to his last minutes. This book kept me really interested. It shows you Donalds trip from sanity to insanity and all in bewteen. It goes in depth on how he faked his progress and what he actually did. If you like sailing or psychology or you want to read some of the philosophy of a man on the brink on insanity, this is a great read. It kept me up all night and it has changed the way I think of solo circumnavigations.

BUY THIS BOOK!!!.......2004-12-16

This is an amazing book, carefully and wonderfully crafted by its authors. Crowhurst was an amazingly complicated man, driven by his intellect and confined by his shortcomings. The sea was the ultimate challenge for him to face his personal demons. Setting out on a voyage inspires a whole range of emotions and feelings for those who choose to embark on such a journey. It is a study in contrasts: hope & fear; order & chaos; skill & luck; triumph & defeat. Crowhurst experienced each of these at such a deep level. He was on the world stage, yet confined by his own machinations. He set out to conquer the last great solo feat and relied on his own abilities. This is the story of how that played out. Along with this text, I would also recommend reading Peter Nichol's "A Voyage For Madmen." It provides an excellent overview of the men involved in the first solo-around-the-world-race and each of their fates. I was unable to put either of these books down.

A Sea-Tinged Madness.......2004-03-16

A true "Sailor's Classic." Reading this book it is impossible not to feel compassion for Donald Crowhurst who set out to win the Golden Globe challenge as the first man to nonstop circumnavigate the world alone in a sailboat.

Crowhurst's early years are well-documented and give us a picture of a driven and compulsive man with some serious character flaws and an aversion to failure. Yet failure was a condition which dogged him throughout his life.

Crowhurst's decision to undertake the circumnavigation was both dramatic and ill-considered. With relatively little sailing experience and a lot of bluff he convinced his sponsors to fund the building of a revolutionary trimaran, the "Teignmouth Electron" equipped with all manner of electronic wizardry (Crowhurst had invented a sort of early GPS, the Navicator, in the mid-60's).

Unfortunately, the "Teignmouth Electron" was never properly completed, the race deadline having intervened, and Crowhurst sailed in a boat that was unfinished, poorly provisioned, and untested, having done miserably in what passed for sea trials.

Setting out on the latest possible day, Crowhurst found himself limping along at a ridiculously slow pace three weeks later. Plagued by equipment failures, the "Teignmouth Electron" was taking water due to design flaws, and had no real chance of completing the race. Having staked all on a successful outcome, the tension and isolation of his predicament attacked Crowhurst's mind.

In a fit of brilliant madness, Donald Crowhurst spent hours working out and logging false positions, sun sights, weather reports, and sailing notations to make it seem he was circling the earth while in fact he meandered pointlessly through the South Atlantic for months. He even secretly put in to port for repairs, a fact which was not discovered until after the race, when his "real" logs were reviewed by investigators.

Crowhurst's position reports and daily runs were diligently reported onshore; he was (falsely) credited with a record run of 243 miles in one day, a record he actually matched in reality once he decided to begin sailing in earnest again.

In the meantime, for all the world knew, Crowhurst was going to be the winner of the Golden Globe. As he turned toward home, the media hoopla grew wilder, and so did his delusions. His log entries degenerated into irrational philosophic and religious ramblings in which he began to believe himself God. In the end, tortured by his demons and consumed by guilt, Donald Crowhurst jumped into the sea, leaving his boat to sail on without him.

Brilliantly and sensitively written, without tendering excuses the authors Tomalin and Hall never lose sight of the essential humanity and frailty of their subject, as well as his consuming but undirected brilliance. Relying heavily on Crowhurst's logs, it is devastating to watch the man's mind unravel in the face of his aloneness.

Crowhurst's singlemindedness got him far, but it ultimately proved his undoing as he was unable to see any but the options he had limited himself to, the ultimate one being his own destruction. As Camus wrote, "In the end there is but one serious philosophical question, and that is suicide." Crowhurst's answer is his legacy.

Aquatic madness.......2003-08-23

To echo an earlier reviewer, this is also my favourite book of all time. I tracked down a dog-eared and stained copy from the early 1970's, read it in just over a day then started back at the beginning.

The fascination of the book lies with Crowhurst. Here is a man who made a couple of wrong turns in life and just kept on going. A man who may, like many of us, have lived a long life had he not taken to the sea in a white elephant on a goose chase.

Tomalin and Hall had access to Crowhurst's logs and, through them, his thinking - however fuzzy that may be. From this, they constructed a well-written and gripping true-life novel.

FYI, The Teignmouth Electron now lies on a beach near a liquor store on the island of Cayman Brac.

Tragedy at Sea.......2003-06-17

Thanks to the authors' well balanced account of Donald Crowhurst's early years and his participation in the first non-stop sailing race around the world, this book transcends the nautical genre by far. As such, the story of a rather inexperienced sailor starting a grueling endeavor on a poorly designed and only partially finished boat contains elements from some eminent literary precursors and evolves into a true to life version of crime and punishment.

Devoid of any attempt to overanalyze, the authors start this book with an account of Crowhurstýs early years. The daredevil character that is portrayed is well in line with a personality that would feel challenged by an impossible task like the one facing Crowhurst later. On top of that, the recurrent theme of a person breaking into new territory to leave tangled situations behind gives an important clue to his behavior under the stress of his sailing voyage.

Having burned his bridges and created a presumed win or lose all situation, Crowhurst sets out ill-prepared on a partially finished boat, that has already shown clear design flaws and was put together in too much of a hurry. Rather than face obvious defeat Crowhurst chooses the risk and the impossible mission of sailing around the world. Although he initially tries to make the most of the situation, he soon realizes that he will not win the race and possibly not survive a trip through the rough waters beyond the Cape. In a Shakespearean ýto be or not to be situationý this Hamlet decides to perpetrate fraud rather than admitting failure. Making up false nautical positions along the way and forced to radio silence not to give away true position, Cowhurst never leaves the Atlantic Ocean, makes some repairs in Argentina and bides his time while some competitors drop out or make real progress. Ending up in winning position Crowhurst turns himself in a real life Raskolnikov and philosophizes himself into madness and ultimately suicide.

Especially, since the approach in this book is entirely journalistic, analytical and objective this story gives a rare detailed ýplay-by-playý account of someone going of the deep end. Based on a twisted interpretation of a line in Einsteinýs own book on Relativity, decent skills in mathematics and analytical reasoning and quite a bit of creativity, Crowhurst sets his mind on a track that degenerates in self destruction. While this is in no way the first account of advancing psychopathology, both Crowhurst isolation and hardships and the impossible task he has set himself make this a heart wrenching story. Thanks to the excellent introduction there is ample indication that both Crowhurst nurture and nature on the one hand, and Mother Nature on the other, provided him with a challenge he failed to meet.

Thanks to the journalistic approach and excellent writing this story is still gripping in a world whose technical advances have made a repetition of Crowhurstýs attempt at pulling a fast one all but impossible. Thus, the portrayal of the sailorýs slow mental degradation competes with the very best accounts in fiction.

Misfit:: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley

Average customer rating:

this sad bastard exley
Resolutely superficial
EXCELLENT
An enigma remains elusive.
a polite quickie

Misfit:: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley
Jonathan Yardley
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Biographies | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

A Fan's Notes
Pages From A Cold Island
Last Notes from Home
Crazy As Chocolate
Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times

ASIN: 0679439498
Release Date: 1997-08-05

Book Description

Frederick Exley was at once unique and prototypical. He inhabited his own bizarre universe and obeyed no rules except his own, yet he was a familiar and characteristic American literary type: an author whose reputation rests on a single book. His life, which he described, and disguised, and distorted in all three of his books, rivaled his "fiction. Everything he did involved a struggle, and the most important struggle of his life was his writing; out of that strife came A Fan's Notes, which Jonathan Yardley believes is one of the best books of our time.

Exley was an alcoholic who drank in copious amounts, yet he always sobered up when he was ready to write. In his younger days he did time in a couple of mental institutions, which imposed involuntary discipline on him and helped him start to write. He was personally and financially irresponsible--he had no credit cards, no permanent address, and ambiguous relationships with everyone he knew--yet people loved him and took care of him.

The center of Fred's strange world was Watertown in upstate New York, where he was born and grew up. Other important points of his compass included various places in Florida and Hawaii, and a funky bar in New York's Greenwich Village called the Lion's Head. No matter where he was, in the dark of night he phoned friends and subjected them to interminable monologues. To many, these were a nuisance and an imposition, but later, in the light of day, they were remembered with affection and gratitude.

In Misfit, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic of The Washington Post portrays in full one of the most tormented, distinctive, and talented writers of the postwar years. Exley's story, which in Yardley's telling reads as if it were a novel, reveals a singular personality: raunchy, vulgar, self-centered, and even infantile, yet also loyal, self-deprecating, and unfailingly humorous. Sympathetic and affectionate, honest and unsparing, Yardley's portrait gives us a man who sacrificed everything in order to write and who becomes, even more than before, his own most memorable creation.

Customer Reviews:

this sad bastard exley.......2005-02-11

exley managed to write, amidst the tumultuous and chaotic uncertainty of his own life, one legendary and immortal book, which everyone who cares about modern american literature must explore. yardley, here, gives us a portrait of the man, who must have been among the most exasperating creatures ever to walk the earth. yet his goodness and talent shine through, and i can't say that i wouldn't have been one of the willing multitude sucked into his web. if you hold 'a fan's notes' sacred, as i do, this is a necessary bookend.

Resolutely superficial.......2002-02-05

Frederick Exley was perhaps the quintessential one-book wonder, though he did write a few decent magazine articles along the way. A Fan's Notes is a terrific read and deserves the accolades it has received from Yardley and others. But Yardley is the wrong guy to write a biography of Exley. He is so obtusely literal and middle-brow that he does something I would have thought impossible: make Exley boring. Maybe Nick Tosches should have a crack at this subject. His hallucinatory method would be far more apt than Yardley's plodding fact-after-fact approach.

EXCELLENT.......2000-10-26

Jonathan Yardley has scored with this very readable story of a very different man's life. Frederick Exley (author of A FAN'S NOTES)is someone who would normally be hard to write three paragraphs about - but a whole book? Yes. And with style. MISFIT isn't a full-blown biography, it is a story of a man's life without learning where his grandparent's were born, etc. Yardley gives us much insight into an author who hit the long ball with A FAN'S NOTES and then well.....after reading this book, you'll know why that was the only book in him. Exley authored two other novels, but they are hardly worthy to be mentioned in the same review as Yardley's MISFIT. My suggestion - unless you are a huge Exley fan, read A FAN'S NOTES and then read MISFIT. Then if you feel you must, read the other two - but don't miss this one.

An enigma remains elusive........1999-11-04

I'm divided on "Misfit." I'm relieved that the book isn't an 800 page hagiography, relentless detailing every awful event in Exley's life. What a candidate he would be for that kind of treatment, apparently! Yet in abandoning traditional biographic approaches like chronicling dates and places and keeping it freeform, Yardley goes up against some awesome competition for chronicling Exley's life: Exley himself, in A Fan's Notes, Pages from a Cold Island, and Last Notes from Home. I enjoyed this book but it seemed a little breezy, an homage to the elusive Exley rather than any definitive tackling of his "strange" life. A Fan's Notes still rules!

a polite quickie.......1999-09-08

Mr. Yardley admits at the outset that he was, in a telephonic way, a friend of Exley's. This gives you the immediate expectation that you are going to get a kid-gloves treatment of the late author. That expectation is borne out completely by this brief book.

In _The Culture of Narcissism_ Christopher Lasch used _A Fan's Notes_ as Exhibit A in the development of a narcissistic culture in late 20th century America. Lasch defined a narcissist as someone who has no real self, but instead cobbles one together based on the continually and desperately solicited approval of others. This project of manufacturing a self is all-consuming and leaves the narcissist with little energy to direct toward paying attention to the existence of other people. In _A Fan's Notes_ Fred Exley attempts to construct a self that is "not-Frank Gifford"; he is a nobody. That he was able to get this down on paper in a coherent form was the achievement of his lifetime and he deserved all the recognition he got, but of course the recognition merely fed his narcissism.

Yardley mentions Exley's famous monologues (given in person and over the phone) many times and says only that they consisted of disjointed stories of people that Exley knew and interacted with. He hints, but never states, that these narratives were more real to him than his own life. Yardley also mentions the negative review by Alfred Kazin of _Pages from A Cold Island_, the second Exley book; Kazin nailed Exley for living his life solely for the purpose of having something to write about. That is, Kazin outed Exley as a narcissist. Yardley completely misses this dimension of the Exley character and therefore his "analysis" of the man goes nowhere.

If you were unfamiliar with the basic details of Frederick Exley's life, then this book will supply them for you. The interpretive aspect of this book is too kind to an old friend and allows Exley to remain an enigma when, in fact, he is has been explained better elsewhere by Christopher Lasch.

Average customer rating:

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel
Susanna Clarke; Portia Rosenberg
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MC4ER6

Average customer rating:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
Susanna Clarke
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0641690193

Product Description

When Susanna Clarke set out to write her sensational first novel, she determined to write a book about magic that would keep readers from their coveted sleep. She has certainly succeeded. A hefty doorstop of a book, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell has already drawn comparisons to works by Dickens, Austen, and the Harry Potter books. Set in early-19th-century England, Clarke's novel introduces readers to a group of magicians from whom the "magic" has departed. Enter Mr. Norrell, a misanthropic, book-hoarding magician who takes up a challenge to prove that magic still exists. After Mr. Norrell succeeds at his ambitious endeavor, he takes on a pupil, the charismatic Jonathan Strange, and together they begin to restore the sorry state of English magic. But a rift opens between these two allies, leading them to turn their magic on each other, and a darker, more sinister magic begins to reveal itself.

Jonathan Strange Y El Senor Norrel (Narrativa)

Average customer rating:

Jonathan Strange Y El Senor Norrel (Narrativa)
Susanna Clarke
Manufacturer: Salamandra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

THE KNIFE (U.S. title: The Strange Murder of Hatton, K.C.)

Average customer rating:

THE KNIFE (U.S. title: The Strange Murder of Hatton, K.C.)
Herbert (also wrote as Jonathan Gray) Adams
Manufacturer: The Crime Club - Collins White Circle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GVWIEY

Average customer rating:

The Incredibly Strange Film Book
Jonathan Ross
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster (Trade Division)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0671712969

Average customer rating:

Coventry City FC (Classic Matches)
Jonathan Strange
Manufacturer: NPI Media Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Soccer | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0752427180

Average customer rating:

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
Manufacturer: BLOOMSBURY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GYHGX4

Books:

Books