to-read

Dios mío de mi vida, ¿y este libro es para niños? Debería ser lectura obligatoria para adultos, porque madre mía, ¡me ha dejado flipada! Es hermoso, da para pensar, te hace sentir muchas cosas y te hace pensar otras.Para otras reseñas más detalladas entrad en mi blog de VeroWorld:https://veroworldblog.blogspot.com/

Today, F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his novels, but in his lifetime, his fame stemmed from his prolific achievement as one of America's most gifted story writers. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," a witty and fantastical satire about aging, is one of his most memorable stories. In 1860 Benjamin Button is born an old man and mysteriously begins aging backward. At the beginning of his life he is withered and worn, but as he continues to grow younger he embraces life -- he goes to war, runs a business, falls in love, has children, goes to college and prep school, and, as his mind begins to devolve, he attends kindergarten and eventually returns to the care of his nurse. This strange and haunting story embodies the sharp social insight that has made Fitzgerald one of the great voices in the history of American literature.

In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.

”Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world. I cannot conceive of any other explanation. I am convinced that there is no other, and that if the world has indeed, as I have said, been built of sorrow, it has been built by the hands of love, because in no other way could the soul of man, for whom the world was made, reach the full stature of its perfection. Pleasure for the beautiful body, but pain for the beautiful soul."Το «De profundis» γράφτηκε στη φυλακή, σε διάρκεια τριών μηνών το 1897. Είναι μια περίεργη εξομολόγηση. Ένα ξεχωριστό έγγραφο. Μια θρησκευτική μαρτυρία. Μια φιλοσοφική διατριβή. Μια κραυγή απελπισίας και θάρρους. Το οξύμωρο στην επιστολή αυτή αποτελεί το γεγονός πως απευθύνεται αυστηρώς προσωπικά σε κάποιον αποδέκτη ενώ παράλληλα είναι ένα εξαιρετικό λογοτεχνικό έργο για δημόσια προβολή. Στην ουσία είναι μια «εκ βαθέων» ψυχής εξομολόγηση του Όσκαρ Ουάιλντ. Το κύκνειο άσμα ενός τεράστιου πνευματικού δημιουργού με μια αφοριστικά καταραμένη κραυγή πάθους και εσωτερικής ποιότητας του Ουάιλντ προς τον ίδιο του τον εαυτό. Το θέμα του είναι μια τραγωδία πάθους. Μια εκφραστική δυνατότητα ενός απίστευτα ρομαντικού και ερωτευμένου με τη ζωή και τα πάθη ανθρώπου που αισθάνεται γράφοντας το, ότι μιλάει απο τα βάθη της τελικής του ήττας. Διαβάζοντας το αισθάνεσαι το σπαραγμό και την πτώση μιας τόσο ευαίσθητης και ευφυέστατης καλλιτεχνικής φύσης. Συμπονάς θαυμάζοντας παράλληλα την απόλυτη καταστροφή μιας υπεροχής προσωπικότητας, που άλλαξε τη φιλοσοφία και την ποιότητα της τέχνης.Έναν μοναχικό γίγαντα της αγάπης και της μετάνοιας που ακολουθώντας την καρδιά του, τον απεγνωσμένο έρωτα, τον βίαια εθιστικό δρόμο της απολαυστικής ηδονής, κατέληξε να μη γνωρίζει πλέον αν τον ζηλεύουν ή αν τον λυπούνται. Αν τον συμπονούν με θλιβερή κατανόηση ή τον χλευάζουν με ρηχή ευχαρίστηση. Ταπεινώθηκε, θυσιάστηκε, έχασε τα όσα πλουσιοπάροχα του είχε χαρίσει η ζωή απλόχερα -απο κοινωνική θέση, οικογενειακή ευτυχία, οικονομική ευμάρεια, πνευματική καλλιέργεια, εως καλλιτεχνική ανύψωση στο θρόνο της τέχνης. Και παραδόθηκε στην τιμωρία άνευ όρων. Αποδέχτηκε τον δημόσιο εξευτελισμό. Τον χλευασμό των εχθρών του. Την προδοσία των φίλων του. Το χαμό αγαπημένων του προσώπων και προσωπικές απώλειες ανυπολόγιστης αξίας. Συνηθισμένος να μιλάει με αβίαστη ανωτερότητα, φαίνεται να προκαλεί την τραγωδία της μοίρας και τη γεμίζει με μια σύγχρονη φάρσα που πηγάζει απο το κοινωνικό καθεστώς. Όταν γράφει ειναι σαν να μιλάει με νότες, σαν να συνθέτει τη μουσική που ταιριαζει ακριβώς στην ανομία και την κατάντια της ζωής του. Είναι ένας άρχοντας υψηλής πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς και διαχρονικής αξίας. Ο διασυρμός, η βιαιότητα, τα αισχρά και φθηνά κουτσομπολιά, η στέρηση πνευματικής εμπειρίας και το ρηχό αίσθημα, όσο κι αν αρμόζουν στην κατάσταση που αναγκάστηκε να ζει, δε του ταιριάζουν, είναι ψεύτικα, σαν το χρυσάφι του Μήδα. Προσπαθεί μέσα απο την εξομολόγηση του να εκλογικεύσει τα δεινά του. Για να αντέξει. Βιώνει κατάψυχα και κατάσαρκα τη θλίψη. Πιστεύει πως πίσω απο κάθε πόνο, κάθε θλίψη, υπάρχει μια ψυχή που αξίζει να αγαπιέται, που στέκεται σε συμβολική θέση με το ίδιο το μυστικό της ύπαρξης. Αναγάγει τη μοίρα του σε κοινή και πανανθρώπινη. Δεν υπάρχει κανείς, διατείνεται, που να είναι τόσο άθλιος όσο ο ίδιος, να ζει σε παρόμοια αθλιότητα με τη δική του και να μην «πάσχει» για το μυστικό της ζωής. Πιστεύει στην πνευματική μορφή του αγνωστικισμού και του προσδίδει μια τελετουργική γλώσσα και μια κοσμική αξίωση, όπως αξίζει σε κάθε θρησκεία. Είναι βαθιά ατομιστής, όπως ήταν κατά την άποψη του και ο ίδιος ο Χριστός. Ισχυρίζεται πως η φυλάκιση του τον αποδέσμευσε απο κάθε υλική αναγκαιότητα και ενίσχυσε την αυτοπεποίθηση του. Η απόλυτη ιδέα που κάνει την αυτοκαταστροφή του ενα όνειρο επανεκκίνησης είναι η λογική της τέχνης. Η τέχνη, που κάνει το φανταστικό πραγματική ύπαρξη και ενώνει την ύλη με το πνεύμα. Ιδανικός επαγγελματίας της ανώτατης τέχνης σύμφωνα με τον Ουάιλντ είναι ο Χριστός.Ο Χριστός που έκανε τα πάντα για να καταλάβουν οι άνθρωποι πως το βασίλειο των ουρανών ειναι η ίδια η ψυχή τους. Δίδαξε πως η αγάπη ειναι ομορφότερη απο το μίσος και η μετάνοια ο μοναδικός τρόπος για να αλλάξει κανείς το παρελθόν. Αγάπησε τους αμαρτωλούς περισσότερο απο τους ευσεβείς και τα σκοτάδια τους. Η τελική αποτίμηση του συγγραφέα είναι η αποφασιστικότητα και η θέληση να μεταμορφώσει την ψεύτικη αξία του υλικού σε αισθητικό θησαυρό. Μέσα απο τη διαρκή αξία της τέχνης η χάρη της πίστης είναι μια διαρκής υπενθύμιση και μια προτροπή για να ξεφύγει απο το βάθος της δυστυχίας του μέσω της δημιουργίας. Το De profundis δεν είναι μια δήλωση εξομολόγησης ή μετανοίας. Αποτελεί ίσως μια εύθραυστη πρώτη ύλη που θα μπορούσε να δημιουργήσει τη βάση στήριξης ενάντια στην καταβαράθρωση της ανθρώπινης ζωής. Καλή ανάγνωση. Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!!

An alternative cover for this ISBN can be found hereOne day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

And Then There Were None: A Mystery Play in Three Acts, Agatha Christie And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by English writer Agatha Christie, widely considered her masterpiece and described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after the British blackface song, which serves as a major plot point. The US edition was not released until December 1939; its American reprints and adaptations were all re-titled: And Then There Were None, after the last five words in the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Indians". Ten guilty strangers are trapped on an island. One by one they are accused of murder; one by one they start to die.عنوانها: ده بچه زنگی؛ ده بومی کوچک؛ ده سیاهپوست کوچولو؛ دیگر کسی آنجا باقی نماند، و آنگاه دیگر هیچ؛ کسی نماند دیگر؛ و سپس هیچ کس نبود؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز بیست و سوم ماه ژوئن سال 1977میلادیعنوان: ده سیاهپوست کوچولو؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: بهمن فرزانه، تهران، کتابهای جیبی، 1345، در 203ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای کارآگاهی از نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده 20معنوان: و آنگاه دیگر هیچ؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: بهرا افراسیابی، تهران، سخن، 1372، در 204ص؛ چاپ دوم 1373؛عنوان: ده سیاهپوست کوچولو؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: محمد قصاع، تهران، آبنوس، 1373، در 271ص؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، صبورا، 1374، شابک 9649175109؛ چاپ دوم 130؛عنوان: دیگر کسی آنجا باقی نماند؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: پروانه دادبخش، مشهد، جاودان خرد، 1375، در 279ص؛ عنوان: و سپس هیچکس نبود؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: ثریا قیصری، تهران، سمیر، 1375، در 248ص؛ عنوان: ده بچه زنگی؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: خسرو مهربان سمیعی، تهران، هرمس، 1378، در 245ص؛شابک: 9646641733؛ چاپ دوم 1379؛ چاپ سوم 1386، شابک 9789646641730؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، هرمس، چاپ پنجم 1392، چاپ ششم 1393؛عنوان: ده بومی کوچک؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: ذبیح الله منصوری، تهران، دنیای کتاب، 1384، در 286ص؛ شابک 9643461947؛عنوان: کسی نماند دیگر؛ نویسنده: آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: سپیده حبیبی، تهران، نگارش کتاب الکترونیک، 1394، در 94ص؛ ای.بوک؛ مصور، شابک 9786008075509؛ده تن، هفت مرد، و سه زن، توسط افرادی به ظاهر متفاوت، دعوت می‌شوند، تا تعطیلات خود را، در جزیره‌ ای دور افتاده، به نام «جزیره ی زنگی» بگذرانند؛ بعضی از آن‌ها، پیشتر همدیگر را سر موضوعی می‌شناخته‌ اند؛ ولی بیشترشان، پیش از رفتن به جزیره، هیچ‌گاه یکدیگر را ندیده‌ بودند؛ این ده نفر، هر یک به گونه‌ ای، در گذشته ی خود، باعث قتل یک فرد شده‌ اند؛ پس از گذشت مدتی در جزیره، آن‌ها متوجه می‌شوند، که همه، از سوی یک فرد به آن جا دعوت شده‌ اند؛ فردی که، با اینکه در جزیره نیست، از راز همه ی آن‌ها آگاه است؛ و اوضاع آشفته می‌شود؛ «گاه که این فرد آغاز به کشتن و قتل، تک‌ تک آنها، به روشی عجیب می‌کند، و قربانیان خود را، با اقتباس از یک شعر کودکانه، به نام: ده سرخپوست کوچک، به قتل می‌رساند؛ ...؛ ا. شربیانی

Oscar Wilde's madcap farce about mistaken identities, secret engagements, and lovers entanglements still delights readers more than a century after its 1895 publication and premiere performance. The rapid-fire wit and eccentric characters of The Importance of Being Earnest have made it a mainstay of the high school curriculum for decades.Cecily Cardew and Gwendolen Fairfax are both in love with the same mythical suitor. Jack Worthing has wooed Gwendolen as Ernest while Algernon has also posed as Ernest to win the heart of Jack's ward, Cecily. When all four arrive at Jack's country home on the same weekend the "rivals" to fight for Ernest's undivided attention and the "Ernests" to claim their beloveds pandemonium breaks loose. Only a senile nursemaid and an old, discarded hand-bag can save the day!This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and reader's notes to help the modern reader appreciate Wilde's wry wit and elaborate plot twists.

Herman Hesse's classic novel has delighted, inspired, and influenced generations of readers, writers, and thinkers. In this story of a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life of privilege to seek spiritual fulfillment. Hesse synthesizes disparate philosophies--Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Western individualism--into a unique vision of life as expressed through one man's search for true meaning.

When the novel Brave New World first appeared in 1932, its shocking analysis of a scientific dictatorship seemed a projection into the remote future. Here, in one of the most important and fascinating books of his career, Aldous Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with his prophetic fantasy. He scrutinizes threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion, and explains why we have found it virtually impossible to avoid them. Brave New World Revisited is a trenchant plea that humankind should educate itself for freedom before it is too late. Brave New World Revisted (first published in 1958) is not a reissue or revision of 0060850523 Brave New World. Brave New World is a novel, whereas Brave New World Revisted is a nonfiction exploration of the themes in Brave New World.

Librarian's note: An alternate cover edition can be found hereThis short novel, already a modern classic, is the superbly told, tragic story of a Cuban fisherman in the Gulf Stream and the giant Marlin he kills and loses—specifically referred to in the citation accompanying the author's Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.

In The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. The Four Agreements are: Be Impeccable With Your Word, Don't Take Anything Personally, Don't Make Assumptions, Always Do Your Best.

A short, sleek novel of encounters set in Tokyo during the witching hours between midnight and dawn, and every bit as gripping as Haruki Murakami’s masterworks The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore.At its center are two sisters—Eri, a fashion model slumbering her way into oblivion, and Mari, a young student soon led from solitary reading at an anonymous Denny’s toward people whose lives are radically alien to her own: a jazz trombonist who claims they’ve met before, a burly female “love hotel” manager and her maid staff, and a Chinese prostitute savagely brutalized by a businessman. These “night people” are haunted by secrets and needs that draw them together more powerfully than the differing circumstances that might keep them apart, and it soon becomes clear that Eri’s slumber—mysteriously tied to the businessman plagued by the mark of his crime—will either restore or annihilate her.After Dark moves from mesmerizing drama to metaphysical speculation, interweaving time and space as well as memory and perspective into a seamless exploration of human agency—the interplay between self-expression and empathy, between the power of observation and the scope of compassion and love. Murakami’s trademark humor, psychological insight, and grasp of spirit and morality are here distilled with an extraordinary, harmonious mastery.

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of modern bureaucracy wedded to the madness of totalitarianism, The Trial has resonated with chilling truth for generations of readers.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes." With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."

Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante plunges to the very depths of Hell and embarks on his arduous journey towards God. Together they descend through the twenty-four circles of the underworld and encounter the tormented souls of the damned - from heretics and pagans to gluttons, criminals and seducers - who tell of their sad fates and predict events still to come in Dante's life. In this first part of his Divine Comedy, Dante fused satire and humour with intellect and soaring passion to create an immortal Christian allegory of mankind's search for self-knowledge and spiritual enlightenment.

In Gustave Doré, one of the most prolific and successful book illustrators of the late 19h century, Edgar Allan Poe's renowned poem The Raven found perhaps its most perfect artistic interpreter. Doré's dreamlike, otherworldly style, tinged with melancholy, seems ideally matched to the bleak despair of Poe's celebrated work, among the most popular American poems ever written.This volume reprints all 26 of Doré's detailed, masterly engravings from a rare 19th-century edition of the poem. Relevant lines from the poem are printed on facing pages and the complete text is also included. Admirers of Doré will find ample evidence here of his characteristic ability to capture the mood and meaning of a work of literature in striking imagery; lovers of The Raven will delight in seeing its mournful musing on love and loss given dramatic pictorial form.

Kafka’nın Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nın karanlık günlerinde yazdığı Ceza Kolonisinde isimli öyküde, bilinmeyen bir adadaki koloniyi ziyarete giden bir gezgin, orada tüyler ürpertici bir sistemle karşılaşır. Kişinin suçlu olup olmadığına bakılmaksızın, ona kendini savunma hakkı bile verilmeden, acımasız bir zekânın ürünü olan tuhaf bir makineyle cezalandırıldığına tanık olur. Tüm gücü elinde tutan ve geçmişe körü körüne bağlı subayın anlattıklarıyla içinden çıkılması zor bir ikilemde kalır.Gözlem ise, Kafka’nın 1904-1912 yılları arasında yazdığı on sekiz kısa öyküyü topladığı ilk kitabıdır. Birbirinden kaotik anlara ışık tutan bu eser, yakından bakıldığında aslında herkes için bir yerlerde var olan umudu anlatır.İnsanın sıkıştığı cendereyi kendine has bir acımasızlıkla ele alarak Avrupa’nın içinde olduğu şiddet dolu atmosferi okurun iliklerine kadar işleten bu öyküleri, Ahmet Arpad’ın özenli çevirisiyle sunuyoruz.(Tanıtım Bülteninden)