Amazon.com
Question: What do Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear and Doris Lessing's Mara and Dann have in common? Answer: an ice age. Not the same ice age, of course--Auel's series of prehistoric adventures took place 35,000 years ago, during the last global freeze; Lessing's tale, on the other hand, is set several thousand years in the future, during the next one. Nevertheless, both books are concerned with profound shifts in the development of humankind. In Lessing's imagined world, the Northern Hemisphere is completely covered with ice and humanity has retreated south. In a land called Ifrik, young Mara and her even younger brother, Dann, are kidnapped one night from their family home and taken to live among strangers: "The scene that the child, then the girl, then the young woman tried so hard to remember was clear enough in its beginnings. She had been hustled--sometimes carried, sometimes pulled along by the hand--through a dark night, nothing to be seen but stars, and then she was pushed into a room and told, Keep quiet." We soon learn that the children have been stolen for their own good, though it will be some time before we discover why. Growing up in a drought-parched land, Mara and Dann learn at an early age how to survive both the hostile environment and enemy peoples.
Eventually, conditions grow so bad in Ifrik that an entire continent of people begin a great northern migration. As Mara and Dann walk the length of the land, Lessing takes the opportunity to comment on the lost cities and vanished civilizations whose remains dot the landscape. That these ancient ruins belong to our civilization makes Mara's curiosity about them resonate eerily. Danger dogs every step; the children are captured by different, warring groups and their destinies take very different paths. A political novelist first and foremost, Lessing uses her futuristic fable to comment on the sins and foibles of humanity as it is now--on war and slavery, sexism and racism--and on its one saving grace, the ability to love. --Margaret Prior
Book Description
Thousands of years in the future, all the northern hemisphere is buried hundreds of feet deep under the ice and snow of a new Ice Age. At the southern end of a large landmass called Ifrik, two children of the Mahondi people, seven-year-old Mara and her younger brother, Dann, are abducted from their home and family in the middle of the night. Left in the care of a sympathetic Mahondi woman, Mara and Dann are raised as outsiders in a poor rural village. They learn to survive the hardships and dangers of a life threatened as much by an unforgiving climate and menacing animals as by a hostile community of Rock People who wish them ill. Eventually they join the great human migration North, away from the drought that is turning the southern land to dust, and in search of a place with enough water and food to support human life.
Trekking through a barren countryside, Mara and Dann discover different people and places and survive a series of hazardous adventures. They outwit hostile travelers and city dwellers who would kill them for a pittance, and join the increasingly desperate struggle for subsistence in a world transformed by unpreditable climatic change. Captured and enslaved by the Hardon people, they eventually escape and continue North, through the wet heat of the River Towns, only to be captures again by a military commander in the country of Charad. Dann becomes a general in the army, while Mara is recruited as a spy and even abducted for breeding purposes by a rival ethnic group. Traveling across the continent, the siblings enter cities rife with crime , power struggles, and corruption, learning as much about human nature as about how societies function.
Mara's mind is as restless as her feet, and she hungers after knowledge and answers to her questions: Who are my parents? Where do Dann and I come from? Who once lived in these ruined cities we find in Ifrik, and when? And why did they disappear? What will we find up North, and where, exactly, is the North? All the while she dreams of water, trees, and beautiful cities, and of gentle, friendly people. Powerful natural forces, indifferent to human life but essential to its survival, determine the course of Mara and Dann's journey. And Marawith a thirst to learn almost as strong as her thirst for water, and a compassionate, loving nature that survives despite the cruelty of the environment and of human behavioris one of Doris Lessing's most appealing heroines. Filled with shrewd observations and a clear-eyed vision of the human condition, Mara and Dann is imaginative fiction at its best from a master of the genre.
Customer Reviews:
Read about our future world.......2007-03-10
When this book was first published, in 1999, the issue of global warming was, if not exactly fringe, certainly not the accepted concept that it is today. Doris Lessing, who has written visionary works before, has done it again here. With a compelling story taking place thousands of years in Earth's future, she has created a horrifying scene of what may be our climate in the not too distant future. Although we and our offspring may not see the extremes depicted in the book, Lessing may have overestimated the number of years it will take to have abysmal conditions on Earth by several thousand years.
Read it and you may have nightmares. I did.
Everything I've ever wanted...........2006-11-16
Everything I ever wanted in a novel is right here in "Mara and Dann." This book appeals to my love of fantasy, of science fiction, of feminism, of adventure, drama and human interest. There are portions of the book that read like a fable - an ancient remembering told in generalizations and without detail - while other aspects are as immediate and detail driven as if I were experiencing it myself. Lessing's skillful writing, her narrative and prose is extraordinary and inspiring.
I won't explain the plot; Amazon.com and Publisher's Weekly do that well enough - though I would just skim it lest they reveal too much. I have to say though that the character development in this book is amazing. Mara as a heroine is achingly true, there is nothing contrived in her actions or feelings. Her characters in this tale demonstrate the pain and frustration, compassion and confusion of people faced with hardships, abuse, deprivation and ignorance. Yet she makes them unique. Along with her characters, I felt thirsty and dry; I felt hungry and scared, wariness and trepidation. When I began to read my surroundings disappeared and I was there, with Mara and Dann.
The ending, though somewhat anti-climactic, felt appropriate as well; authentically mirroring real life which can also be anti-climactic. It wasn't a neat, pat, happily ever after ending. Rather it left room for speculation, interpretation and thought. This too was something I appreciated.
This was my first Doris Lessing book and right now it's my favorite book by any author.
I keep thinking about this book..........2006-09-21
I have just finished this book and keep thinking about it. It's a real adventure, with a pair of wonderful brother and sister characters whose journey was so touching and real. I rate this book up with the Four Gated City and the Children of Violence series. It's just a great, totally relevant story, especially considering issues of civilization, climate change, and progress. Read it!
Will Read More Than Once in a Lifetime.......2006-08-09
This is a futuristic story of the world taken to the brink of time. The characters are Doris Lessing's most unforgetable.I place Mara as being one of the most unforgetable heroines of all times and Dann- the troubled boy child of a civilization on the brink of non-existance. The trials they endure ,the peoples they meet and conquer, all add up to a very fine read indeed. The story is gripping with the world in utter chaos at the end of an Ice Age. Doris Lessing has managed to play with mental illness in a futuristic world, showing how the depth of unease can mar a child for all time. I can't believe I missed this book for so long. It truly is a good read and not easily put down.
A marvellous story.......2006-03-17
I enjoyed this book very much. It gives a clear-eyed vision about what can happen in the future, although I think the changing of the climate in this way would take much more than thousands of years. The description of the qualities of character of Mara, Dann and the other persons in this book is unsurpassed. My advice: read the book, it is a masterpiece!
Margreet de Kloe
Book Description
A stunning literary survival story, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a "moving, beautifully written account, by turns raw and tender."
Across Sudan, between 1987 and 1989, tens of thousands of young boys took flight from the massacres of Sudan's civil war. They became known as the Lost Boys. With little more than the clothes on their backs, sometimes not even that, they streamed out over Sudan in search of refuge. Their journey led them first to Ethiopia and then, driven back into Sudan, toward Kenya. They walked nearly one thousand miles, sustained only by the sheer will to live.
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky is three boys' account of that unimaginable journey. With the candor and the purity of their child's-eye-vision, Alephonsion, Benjamin, and Benson recall by turns how they endured hunger and strength-sapping illnesses. How they dodged the life-threatening predators-lions, snakes, crocodiles and soldiers-that dogged their footsteps. How they grappled with a war that threatened continually to overwhelm them. Their story is a lyrical, captivating portrait of a childhood lost to war, and of the perseverance of the human spirit.
Customer Reviews:
A life-changing experience.......2007-10-04
I never thought that a book could move me in the way that this has. It is gripping, inspirational, horrifing, beautiful tear-jerker that will keep your jaw dropped. You will be forever changed by this true account of a tragedy that sadly many Americans do not know about. Amazing book. Make sure to have a box of tissues by your side!
A must read.......2007-09-26
I couldn't put the book down and at the end I cried. It was hard to believe that boys so young had been through so much. If your interested in whats going on in Sudan than I think its a must read.
True, Real, Humbling.......2007-09-26
This book is so powerful, these boys journey is so humbling, there is no way that you could read this book and not look at your life in a different way. The crazy thing about it is that it is ALL TRUE, this is thier account of their lives, this book has encouraged me more to want to fight for social injustices.
Must Read.......2007-08-11
I have a BA in English and taught high school literature courses for seven years before becoming the administrator of an alternative school. I consider myself well read. Therefore, when I say this was the most moving book I have ever read, I do not say so lightly. I had the honor of meeting one of the authors, Benjamin Ajak, at a recent conference. While his English is not articulate, his message is gut wrenchingly moving. This book is not for the faint of heart. It is not a summer beach romance. It is the story of the survival of the human spirit at its most base level. It is both appalling and inspiring. It is a must read. If you are not a humanitarian before you read it, you will be after you read it.
Must Read.......2007-06-27
Amazing!
This sad true account of the lives of the people of Southern Sudan is a must read.
Book Description
Two beloved novels and an extraordinary novella, brought together for the first time in this special trade edition...
The Demon's Mistress-A wealthy widow hires a war-torn hero to pretend to be her fiancé, but what will happen when he learns the truth about the woman he has come to love? The Dragon's Bride-The new Earl of Wyvern arrives at his fortress on the cliffs of Devon to find a woman from his past waiting for him-pistol in hand. Will they find a way to reclaim the love in their hearts?
The Devil's Heiress-No one needs Clarissa Graystone's fortune more than Major George Hawkinville...but how will he ignore the hunger in his heart when Clarissa boldly steps into his trap?
Customer Reviews:
Great Bonds.......2006-01-03
I just recently begun to read Jo Beverley books. So far so good. In three heros, the quick book combo is alright and interesting. It was a good idea to write the individual stories of each hero.
3 handsome, troubled heroes that u like to love but.............2004-12-26
I like stories of friendships esp male bonding like jo beverley's "rogues". They prove that strong men can and do have deep feelings and deep friendships. Because of the relationship of these 3 heroes it made sense to republish as an anthology. The problem is, it is a huge book that take forever to read because it is so wordy. The characters are great and have depth.But where I liked "the devils heiress", I hated the "dragons' bride" and demon's mistress was only so-so. Thus the overall rating for the book is low.Definitely not worth the price..........
Loved these guys!.......2004-10-13
These three heroes are super. They are friends and each has a story. Good character development, good plots, good romance. I'll definitely be looking for more stories by Jo Beverley.
Average customer rating:
- Good follow up to war Games
- Not a bad book, despite the art
- Bats Aplenty
- Totally Out Of Character Storyline
- Batman, as dark as it comes
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Batman: War Games, Act Three - Endgame
Ed Brubaker ,
Andersen Gabrych ,
Devin Grayson ,
Dylan Horrocks , and
A.J. Leiberman
Manufacturer: DC Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Superheroes | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Batman | Characters | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
DC Comics | Publishers | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Batman | Media | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
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Batman: War Games, Act Two - Tides
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Batman: War Games, Act One - Outbreak
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Batman: War Drums (Prelude to War Games)
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Batman: Under the Hood, Vol. 1
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Batman: Under the Hood, Vol. 2
ASIN: 1401204317 |
Customer Reviews:
Good follow up to war Games.......2007-09-27
I was out of comics for a while, and picked this Graphic Novel, great way to catch up! Batman finally gets some answers following the WAR GAMES saga
Not a bad book, despite the art.......2007-02-13
This tale of the aftermath of Rha's al Ghul's death is great for fans of the character. It provides some excellent insights into his motivations and origins. I don't think it will be spoiling things to tell you he was always nuts! The tale is told between flashbacks to the past and scenes in modern Gotham, where people have become mysteriously unable to die. Besides an overly brisk pace, my problem with this book is the art. The artist does not have a good understanding of the human body, resulting in many panels where people have oversized heads. Look for it and you'll see it. Also, despite the "Year One" in the title, there was no direct connection with Batman Year One, a disappointment. Anyway, still a good read if those quibbles don't bother you.
Bats Aplenty.......2006-03-28
WAR GAMES -- a year-plus serialized event in the history of Batman -- was a terrifically compelling yarn. Everything that could've gone wrong WENT wrong: alliances were forged and fell apart, enemies were made that shouldn't have been made, and people died. That's rare in the comic book universe, but it's one of the traits that strongly separates the Batman and his stories from most other DC "superhero" tales ... Batman is human, and, as a result, he's bound to make mistakes, just like any other character within the Bat-universe.
WAR CRIMES -- at the most basic level -- is about just that: mistakes. Gotham City is well on the road to recover now that the games have ended, and yet the Batman finds himself looking back in order to try to continue piecing together much of what still doesn't quite add up. In doing so, he uncovers a startling secret that sheds light on the disappearance of one of his oldest confidantes, and this discovery shakes him to his foundation.
Compared against the entirety of the WAR arcs, CRIMES fits nicely but perhaps the shock that such discovery should've sent through the Batman wasn't significant enough for my tastes. While I've always appreciated any tale of the Bats largely because of the human factor, there's still a larger-than-life presence to some of his villains (such as the Black Mask) that borders on immortality. CRIMES has a terrific, almost cinematic feel to most of it, and some of that payoff is sacrificed in the conclusion involving the Joker and the Black Mask taking on one another and then involving Batman because the Black Mask has been impersonating the Dark Knight. In cases such as this, I'd rather Batman pull up his sleeves a bit more and rough'n'tumble these two blokes instead of arbitrarily turning them over to the police: sometimes, that solution just grows a bit too safe for my tastes, and it feels out of touch here especially given all that's happened in the past year with these two villains.
Still, it's a solid reliable effort all around.
Totally Out Of Character Storyline.......2006-03-19
I'm not sure why the two previous reviewers thought they were reviewing War Games. This book actually collects the War Crimes arc from the regular Batman and Detective comics series. It's like an aftermath to War Games, but it doesn't measure up to the books that precede it.
In this book, we learn that one of Batman's most devoted allies...someone who had been elevated in recent years to be at the same level as Alfred in terms of mentoring Batman/Bruce Wayne...allowed a key character from the War Games books to die. (This is lifted from Batman#644 in the regular comics.)
It was, without a doubt, one of of the stupidest comic book endings I've read in a long time. I'm all for surprise endings, but not at the expense of a character we know would never do a thing like this based on years and years of back story. In the end, the character is exiled to Africa or somewhere and warned by Batman never to return.
Is DC really this hard up for creativity? No, they aren't, because many of their other products are very satisfying in terms of plotting and characters. They just dropped the ball on this one.
Batman, as dark as it comes.......2006-03-01
Yes, the Bat is struggling to stop the damage that happened in the beginning of the story line, Hush came and go just to remind us about him, so that an introduction for Hush returns takes place.
I was very sad when a certain member of the bat family was killed, but it was logical to happen since that member has done his role, and has no other thing to add.
DC insists that people used to treat him as an urban legend, as if no one knows about JLA or about what he has done in his previous storylines, but any how that is not a big issue, and is not related to this volume.
Book Description
Nine-year-old Alaina Walker is being abused. Christina McIntyre is sure of it. But as Chris tries to help her young friend, she finds herself deep in a personal struggle—with forgiveness. Chris has battled forgiveness since the first moment of her faith, but now she must choose. Can she forgive the one person who hurt her more than anyone in her life? If not…how can she still cherish her new and fragile faith?
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic!.......2006-04-27
The third book in this series is the best so far. Chris's past is exposed and she is challenged to confront it by Jason Sloan, a man with his own heartache. Will they have the courage to relive the past to enable them to look to the future with hope? Buy this book - you won't be disappointed!
Average customer rating:
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The Three Tragic Heroes of the Vilnius Ghetto: Witenberg, Sheinbaum, Gens
N. N. Shneidman
Manufacturer: Mosaic Press (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Holocaust | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Lithuania | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Holocaust | Jewish | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0889627851 |
Book Description
Since the Middle Ages, Vilnius, Lithuania, has been a main center of Jewish cultural, religious, social and political activity. At one time, half of the population was Jewish, but everything changed during the Holocaust: the Jewish community was destroyed by the Nazis and their collaborators--but some refused to surrender without a fight. Witenberg and Sheinbaum were the leaders of the Jewish underground resistance in Vilnius; the Germans appointed Gens as Jewish Head of the ghetto. Each of them had the same objectives: personal and communal survival--yet all three perished. This book compares the * different approach of each man to the issues of resistance and survival * illuminates the specific problems of Jewish resistance * considers the larger dilemma of survival during the Nazi era
Book Description
This book advances the thesis that memorials are fundamentally rhetorical and cultural forms of expression, that a careful examination of American memorializing discloses the contours of at least three distinct American cultures, and that shifting visual and discursive memorial patterns across time reveal the ascendancy and subordination of these three cultures and their cultural memories. It unveils a mode of human expression that embodies the ethoi and world views of divergent American cultures--each of which has possessed and continues to seek to possess America's hegemonic voice and to become (or remain) the custodian of America's collective memory.
The unveiling of memorializing as a mode of expression proceeds diachronically and synchronically. Diachronically tracing the contours of American memorial traditions from 1630 to the present provides a nearly cinemagraphic representationof the ebb and flow, the movement and moment of cultural transformation and dominance. This demonstrates why the content of public memory at any given moment in a multicultural society depends largely on the needs and inclinations, the values and the norms, the ethos and the world view of the culture that is dominant at that moment. Within this interpretive frame, responses to Lincoln's assassination--considered as a synchronic balance--provide images akin to still photographs of a specific moment and place that deepen our understanding of memorializing. Taken together, these twin focal points reveal a historically embedded cultural struggle that has significant implications for how we interpret cultural conflict in past, present, and future America.
Book Description
Journey back to an age of aces! Their familiar war cry rings out: "Let's Go!" And the greatest fighting war-birds on the Western Front are once again roaring into action - The Three Mosquitoes! Flying in their usual close V, the three khaki colored spads were piloted by U.S. Intelligence's finest. In the lead Spad was their impetuous young leader Kirby, while flanking him were "Shorty" Carn, the mild eyed, corpulent little Mosquito and lanky Travis, eldest and wisest of the trio. These three men were always raring for action, always recklessly anxious to go out and match thier wings against any odds! Although Ralph Oppenheim had never had a flying lesson, he created one of the longest running aviation series to grace the pages of Popular Publications. The Three Mosquitoes flew for twelve years, through nine different magazines in over five dozen stories! Here we present a trio of 1933 Mosquito adventures from Dare-Devil Aces: The Wizard Ace, The Cannonball Ace & The Midnight Ace....
Books:
- McSweeney's Issue 15 (Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern)
- Mother of Sorrows
- Nova Express
- Oracle Night: A Novel
- Our Nig: or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black
- Pears on a Willow Tree
- Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent
- Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists (Radical Thinkers)
- Prologos De La Biblioteca De Babel/ Introduction to the Library of Babel (Biblioteca De Autor / Author Library)
- Quakers in the founding of Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Books Index
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