Classic literature is always popular. People love books that maybe as old as grand grandpa. So called classic, it has literature significance and value in it. It is the great achievement to humanity.

Parramatta City Library has recently renewed its classic literature section by new purchasing. Here are some titles

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain, Mark

The age of innocence by Edith. Wharton

Animal Farm: a fairy story by George Orwell

Big sleep by Raymond Chandler
Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

The brothers Karamazov : a novel in four parts and an epilogue by Fyodor Dostoyevsky ; translated with an introduction and notes by David McDuff

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann ; translated from the German by H.T. Lowe-Porter

The castle by Kafka, Franz

The chimney sweeper’s boy by Vine, Barbara, pseud

A clockwork orange by Anthony Burgess ; with an introduction by Blake Morrison

Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, 1810-1865

Crime and punishment by F. Dostoevsky ; translated from the Russian by C. Garnett

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1812-1870

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak ; translated from the Russian by Max Hayward and Manya Harari

Dubliners by James Joyce

Everything is illuminated : a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer

Far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy

A farewell to arms by Ernest Hemingway, 1899-1961

Fathers and sons by Ivan Turgenev

The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders & c…. by Daniel Defoe ; edited by David Blewett

The grapes of wrath by John Steinbeck

Great expectations by Charles Dickens

The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Gulliver’s travels by Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745

A handful of dust by Evelyn Waugh

Hard times: for these times by Charles Dickens

The harp in the south novels by Ruth Park

Hero of our time by Mikhail Lermontov

The hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

The importance of being earnest and other plays by Oscar Wilde ; introduction by Terrence McNally ; notes by Michael F. Davis

The ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ; translated with an introduction and notes by John Rutherford

Innocent traitor by by Alison Weir

Intruder in the dust by William Faulkner

Lady Chatterley’s lover by D.H. Lawrence ; with an introduction by Richard Hoggart

Light in August by W. Faulkner

Love in a cold climate by Nancy Freeman Mitford

Love in the time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1928- translated from the Spanish by Edith Grossman

The mayor of Casterbridge : an authoritative text, backgrounds criticism by Thomas Hardy ; edited by James K. Robinson

Middlemarch by George Eliot ; edited with an introduction and notes by Rosemary Ashton

Les miserables by Victor-Marie Hugo, 1802 -1885

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert ; translated with an introduction and notes by Geoffrey Wall ; preface by Michèle Roberts

Moby Dick by Herman Melville ; with an introduction by Patrick McGrath

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf ; with an introduction and notes by Elaine Showalter ; text edited by Stella McNichol

North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Of mice and men by John Steinbeck

On the road by Jack Kerouac ; introduction by Ann Charters

One flew over the cuckoo’s nest by Ken Kesey ; text and criticism edited by John Clark Pratt

One hundred years of solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez 1928-

A passage to India by E.M. Forster

Perfume : the story of a murderer Patrick Suskind

The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

The plague by Albert Camus

The portrait of a lady by Henry James ; editd and with an introduction by Geoffrey Moore and notes by Patricia Crick

The quiet American by Graham Greene ; with an introduction by Zadie Smit

Rabbit, run by John Updike, 1932 -2009

The red badge of courage by Stephen Crane ; edited with an introduction and notes by Gary Scharnhorst

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1661-1731

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow murders by John Mortimer, 1923-

The secret book of Grazia dei Rossi : a novel by Jacqueline Park

Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817

Sons and lovers by by D.H. Lawrence

The sound and the fury by William Faulkner

A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens

Tales of the unexpected by Roald Dahl

Tender is the night by F. Scott (Francis Scott) Fitzgerald, 1896-1940

The three musketeers by Alexander Dumas ; translated and with an introduction by Lord Sudley

To kill a mockingbird Harper Lee, 1926-

To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

The trial by Franz Kafka, 1883-1924

Uncle Tom’s cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe ; edited with an introduction and notes by Jean Fagan Yellin

Vanity fair: a novel without a hero by William Makepeace Thackeray

Victory by Joseph Conrad

War and peace by Leo Tolstoy, translation by Anthony Briggs

Washington’s lady : a novel by Nancy Moser

The way by Swann’s by Marcel Proust ; translated and with an introduction and notes by Lydia Davis ; general editor Christopher Prendergast

The woman in white by Wilkie Collins ; edited with an introduction and notes by Matthew Sweet

Women in love by D.H. Lawrence, edited with an introduction and notes by David Bradshaw

A man, an old man, 79 years old, actually, was murdered, striped, and displayed in a shop window, under minors 20 C°. Who was the murderer and why was he/she so brutal?

It is a gruesome scene at the beginning of the book ‘The man in the window’, written by a Norwegian author K. O. Dahl. It is a quite well knitted but easy reading crime fiction. 79 years old Reidar Folke Jespersen had a very busy day. First he watched his 54 years old wife Ingrid went to the usual route to meet her lover Eyolf for a Friday afternoon sex exchange. Then he went to meet his two brothers Arvid and Emmanuel and refused to sale off their antique shop to Hermann Kirkenær couple. Later, he phoned his wife and interrupted them in the middle of their action. In the evening he called young actress Gro Hege Wyller to act for his past. He quarrelled with his business associate Jonny Stokmo. The old man was restless and a little craze.

The following morning, Reidar’s naked body was found in his shop window, frozen. Who was the killer and why he was killed? The detectives Gunnarstranda and Frolich began a meticulous investigation.
Everyone had motive. For example, his brothers, along with his son Karsten could have killed him for the sale. The taxi driver who drove the actress to Reidar’s office was jealously watching from outside and stalked Reidar all the way around to his home. The wife or her lover? They were highly suspected, of course. The book is well plotted and twisted as well. Reidar’s life, past and current, tears up layer by layer with the plot.

Actually it reminded me of some old English detective/mystery stories. Let people talk and then the killer would be caught nonetheless.

Social or historical background is always presentable for plotting stories, which this one certainly has, a background of WWII, that enables the author to interwoven or twist plots much further. War doesn’t only destroy people but it also ruins individual’s soul.

A good reading, this book, has certain level of satisfaction for crime fiction lovers.

In July, the 1st Wednesday Reading Group has dicussed the book A long way gone written by Ishmael Beah.

In A LONG WAY GONE, Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a riveting story. At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. Eventually released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he struggled to regain his humanity and to reenter the world of civilians, who viewed him with fear and suspicion. This is, at last, a story of redemption and hope. From http://www.alongwaygone.com/

The reading group questioned it’s controversy over authorship detracted from authernticity.
The brighter section is covering UN rehabilitation.

Some members thought it was written quite dispassionately. It is surprising and upsetting to find how easily it was written, almost in 3rd person.

Some people were untouched by the violence described. Others found violence very disturbing.

General discussion about violence and bullying followed by the group. Most people would not recommend the book to others because of writing style and questions over whether the events all occurred, but it worth reading as an insight.

Some members couldn’t finish the reading.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/bestseller/

The economy might be bad enough. However, the USA probably still remains as the biggest book market in the world. The New York Times has its top 5 for some type of books which surely would inspire some Australian readers.

Hardcover Fiction

1. KNOCKOUT, by Catherine Coulter
2. THE BOURNE DECEPTION, by Eric Van Lustbader3. THE ANGEL’S GAME, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
4. RELENTLESS, by Dean Koontz
5. THE PHYSICK BOOK OF DELIVERANCE DANE, by Katherine Howe

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. LIBERTY AND TYRANNY, by Mark R. Levin
2. HORSE SOLDIERS, by Doug Stanton
3. OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
4. A BOLD FRESH PIECE OF HUMANITY, by Bill O’Reilly
5. RENEGADE, by Richard Wolffe

Paperback Trade Fiction

1. THE SHACK, by William P. Young2. MY SISTER’S KEEPER, by Jodi Picoult
3. THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
4. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES, by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith
5. THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, by Garth Stein

Paperback Mass-Market Fiction

1. MY SISTER’S KEEPER, by Jodi Picoult
2. DEAD UNTIL DARK, by Charlaine Harris
3. SAIL, by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
4. LIVING DEAD IN DALLAS, by Charlaine Harris
5. ANGELS AND DEMONS, by Dan Brown

Paperback Nonfiction

1. GLENN BECK’S ‘COMMON SENSE’, by Glenn Beck
2. THREE CUPS OF TEA, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
3. WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES, by David Sedaris
4. AN INCONVENIENT BOOK, by Glenn Beck
5. BLINK, by Malcolm Gladwell

Hardcover Advice

1. EXCUSES BEGONE!, by Wayne W. Dyer
2. ACT LIKE A LADY, THINK LIKE A MAN, by Steve Harvey with Denene Millner
3. THE LAST LECTURE, by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow
4. DIVINE SOUL SONGS, by Zhi Gang Sha
5. MASTER YOUR METABOLISM, by Jillian Michaels with Mariska van Aalst

Paperback Advice

1. COOK YOURSELF THIN, by the staff of Lifetime Television
2. THE LOVE DARE, by Stephen and Alex Kendrick with Lawrence Kimbrough
3. WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING, by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel
4. NATURALLY THIN, by Bethenny Frankel with Eve Adamson
5. MARTHA STEWART’S CUPCAKES, by the editors of Martha Stewart Living

Children’s Books

1. GOLDILICIOUS, written and illustrated by Victoria Kann
2. LISTEN TO THE WIND, by Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth
3. GALLOP!, written and illustrated by Rufus Butler Seder
4. EXPLORER EXTRAORDINAIRE!, by Jane O’Connor
5. THE CURIOUS GARDEN, written and illustrated by Peter Brown

Man Booker International Prize goes to a Canadian writer Alice Munro.

The new Man Booker International Prize is awarded every two years in recognition of a writer’s overall contribution to fiction on the world stage.

This year’s winner was chosen from a shortlist of 14 authors from 12 countries, which included Peter Carey (Australia), EL Doctorow (USA), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru) and VS Naipaul (Trinidad/India).