The Solitaire Mystery: a novel about family and destiny

Average customer rating:

A Modern Fairy Tale

The Sticky Bun Mystery

A beautiful, heartwarming story of redemption through the ages

BUT HOW?

I had so much fun reading this!

The Solitaire Mystery: a novel about family and destiny
Jostein Gaarder
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy (Fsg Classics)

The Orange Girl

Maya Maya

Ringmasters Daughter

The Christmas Mystery

ASIN: 042515999X

Amazon.com

Jostein Gaarder had an unlikely international success with Sophie's World, a novelized exploration of western philosophy through the eyes of a young girl. This is an earlier work, translated from the Norwegian by Sarah Jane Hails. This fable-like story dabbles in philosophy too, though more lightly. It tells of a Norwegian boy traveling across Europe with his calm and reflective father in search of his long lost mother. The boy finds a tiny manuscript that reveals the secret of a magic deck of cards that can tell the future.

Customer Reviews:

A Modern Fairy Tale.......2007-01-13

A cross of Alice In Wonderland and ancient fairytales, I found this book hard to put down after turning page after page. It ranks up there with the others - The Little Prince, The Alchemist...

The Sticky Bun Mystery.......2007-01-03

Full of descriptive visuals, engaging concepts, soda and sticky buns, 'The Solitaire Mystery' is a page turner!
As the title indicates, the fifty-two card deck (including one Joker, of course!) is the vehicle for this story.
I found all Hans Thomas (the main character), his father, his fashion model mother, and all of the other characters easy to relate to, and any loose ends of the intricate plot are tied up neatly by the end of the book.

A beautiful, heartwarming story of redemption through the ages.......2006-05-11

A wonderful story to read aloud, as well.

BUT HOW?.......2006-05-09

The story is wonderful and keeps the reader wonder to the last page of the story.
Even at the very end there is a small complex that rise, eventually everything get solved but with open questions.

For myself, the only question left to answer is, How come that Thomas' grandfather knows that Thomas is his grandson at the same time the grandson realises that?
I mean the grandfather was the one who wrote the story and he added the last bit after forgetting German, but he still knew about his grandson from Joker's note before Thomas got to read it!

I had so much fun reading this!.......2005-09-23

Another fantastic book from Jostein Gaarder. It has some profound ideas disguised as light reading. I really identified with characters in both stories -- the island reminded me of the people I have to deal with on a daily basis! It certainly prompts you to examine the choices you make, and those of the people around you. Life can be more than just going through the actions to achieve some end. Also, it's not a terrible thing to question what's going on around you, though it may be frustrating. That's what I like about Jostein Gaarder's novels: they present some extremely thought-provoking questions in an extremely imaginative and entertaining way. I've recommended this book to many people, and they all loved it!

(buffysummers@excite.com)

Average customer rating:

Coming of Age in Solitaire
Excellent
This book was horrible.
Privacy or prison?
Excellent First Book

Solitaire: A Novel
Kelley Eskridge
Manufacturer: Eos
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0060086602
Release Date: 2004-01-20

Amazon.com

Ren Segura, Jackal to her friends, is the Hope of Ko Island, the world's only corporate nation state. Born at the right time, she is part of an elite group that will inherit powerful positions representing their nations in EarthGov. She has been groomed for the moment of her ascension her entire life--it is her birthright and her destiny. But a deadly secret makes her an inconvenient liability to her corporate masters and, in Solitaire, destinies are not always in the cards. Caught between corporate loyalty and self-doubt, Jackal finds herself cast away to an experimental, virtual solitary confinement program that will change her forever.

Author Kelley Eskridge's first novel is an intense and powerful tale of self-discovery set in a convincingly articulated future. She skillfully keeps the reader turning pages as Jackal's fate unravels. Meanwhile, Eskridge deals with issues of crime and punishment, corporate power, and even fame with a deft touch that keeps the reader painfully close to the young Jackal's journey into oblivion and back again. --Jeremy Pugh

Book Description

Ren "Jackal" Segura is a Hope -- a special child, a powerful symbol of a new world government destined for greatness. But two months before she is to assume the role she has been preparing for her entire life, Jackal discovers that everything she believes, everything she is, is a lie. Convicted of a terrible crime, she agrees to participate in a "rehabilitation" experiment: While her body lies comatose for eight months, a computer will convince her mind that she is spending eight long years in solitary confinement. But Jackal's history as a Hope has given her strengths and skills other prisoners lack -- powers she will need to endure the tormenting loneliness, to discover the truth about her betrayal, and to rediscover her life, her love, and her soul in a strange place of shattered hopes and new beginnings called Solitaire.

Download Description

Customer Reviews:

Coming of Age in Solitaire.......2007-02-02

Solitaire is an interesting effort by Eskeridge to explore the identity and coming of age of a young girl, Jackal. Born as a world "Hope", Jackal is being groomed by her corporate/nation-state sponsor for international fame, until a tragic accident occurs spinning her life out of control, and with it her sense of identity and belonging. After many "years" of solitary confinement Jackal finds her life turned upside down and must forge a place for herself without any of her former privileges - or confinements.

Eskeridge does a great job of creating a future where conglomerate multi-national businesses have taken on the characteristics and responsibilities of countries and experimental technologies are tried on hapless prisoner for commercial gain. Meanwhile humans are still exactly the same - desperate, noble, violent and loving.

I cannot help but be distracted by how disturbingly similar Eskeridge's main themes are to those in her partner Nicola Griffith's highly acclaimed book, Slow River. It was almost as if these two thought up the plot together and each wrote their own version in their own future. Fortunately Eskeridge does a much better job - her three dimensional characters and their unique predicaments make us sympathetic, anxious and relieved in turn. If she sometimes goes on about the business acumen of those who understand group dynamics we should forgive her as Solitaire is otherwise creative and compelling, is if not totally unique.

Excellent.......2006-06-17

I really liked this book. It has some similarities to Nicola Griffith's "Slow River," another one of my favorites. The main character is a young woman, overeducated and sheltered, suddenly betrayed and violently thrust out of her privileged environment, where she must learn what it's like to be just herself.

"Solitaire" attempts to answer the question: when you strip away all the external layers surrounding you, outside of your home, without family, love, friendship, future, or past, who are you? Is there something inalienably, inextricably YOU? Something that holds true. Then, if you do find that core of yourself, how do you make yourself fit back into the world? Once perfectly self-contained and self-content, what need do you have for other people, for connections, for love?

Those are the questions it probes, but what holds the book together is the well-done plot and the vivid, fascinating character of Jackal. As a science fiction buff and a corporate monkey with high aspirations, I also greatly enjoyed the technology and the details thrown in that held the plot together. It was a fast, breathless read for me (especially as you got to 1/2 of the book). I'll be insisting to all my friends that they read it too.

This book was horrible........2004-12-14

I'd rather read the entire Robert Ludlum collection in one sitting than read this book again. Have you ever been trapped with somebody who won't quit talking (at a dinner, a party, or whatever) and who thinks she is deep, smart, and interesting, but is just the opposite? If you have, this book will bring back that experience. I found the writing to be on par with that of a good high school student. For example, "She closed her eyes and let the noise of Solitaire spin around her, a tidal pool of words and glassware and background music, voices breaking against her like waves on a reef." Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I read this, but I really hope this is not what passes as a "tour de force" today.

Privacy or prison?.......2004-09-07

Jackal Segura is an overachieving teenager living and working under the auspices of the massive Ko Corporation. She is destined by her birthdate to become a Hope - a symbolic leader of the new World Government. She has a lover, a circle of friends, and a bright future - until a horrific accident turns her into a mass murderer. She is sentenced to forty years in prison, until an ironic choice is offered her - she can trade her sentence for participation in an experimental treatment based on Ko technology. Jackal will spend eight years locked in solitary Virtual Confinement within her own mind, while ten months of "real time" passes in the outside world.

Despite the overwhelming impact of her time in mental prison, very little space is actually appointed to Jackal's eight year solitude. This is a disappointment, given that the book is not overly long and more time could easily have been spent with Jackal in Solitary without sacrificing any of what comes after. The unique nature of Jackal's confinement - which becomes very different from what her jailors originally intended - is just not explored fully enough, in my opinion.

What does come after, however, is what kept me reading. Jackal is forcibly relocated to a North American slum, where she is supported by Ko hush money since no one will hire her. She finds herself in the company of other notorious mass murderers (most of them female), even engaging in a dangerous flirtation with one. Most importantly, she finds Solitaire - a bar/nightclub designed to cater to "solos" - former VC inmates - and the cult of adoring fans that has sprung up around them. As Jackal tries to hide the exact nature of her time in VC from her probation officer (she fears, justifiably, that she will become a lab rat), she begins to realize just how Solitary changed her forever.

Eskridge takes a good, long look at a complicated future that is neither Utopic nor Dystopic, but a frightening combination of both, where privacy can become prison, strangers can be closer than family, and that which does not kill you does indeed make you stronger.

Excellent First Book.......2004-03-07

I have finished reading Kelley Eskridge's Solitaire, and it was one of the best books I have read recently. Actually, I have been on a string of good books, and this one just happens to continue the trend. It features a young heroine, named Ren "Jackal" Segura. In the slightly futuristic world developed by Eskridge, Jackal is what is known as a "Hope". A "Hope" is someone born as the pre-designated time, in this case, the first second of the new year. Each pseudo-national entity has a "Hope" and Jackal is the "Hope" of Ko, the multi-national supercorporation that rules over the island of Hong Kong. Other pseduo-national entities include the NNA, Nations of North America. Sorry, Canada, looks like you got assimilated after all. When Jackal finds out her status as a "Hope" is a lie, she is devastated, but she keeps the secret and maintains the facade. Then, tragedy strikes. In a horrifying accident, 437 persons, including important senators as well as Jackal's best friends are killed and Jackal is blamed for the murders. Charged with 437 counts or murder and international terrorism, Jackal is sentenced to life imprisonment. She cuts a deal though and agrees to partake in an experimental program called Virtual Confinement, VC. Using electrodes hooked to the brain and a drug induced coma-like state, Jackal's mind will believe that she is spending 10 years in solitary confinement with absolutely no human contact, no amenities, and no way out. In reality, she will only be knocked out for eight months. During that time of VC, Jackal must confront her own inner demons, determine how she will survive and not go insane, figure out how to deal with the loved ones in her mind and generally come up with ways to pass the time. When she awakens, she is an entirely different person and must relearn how to negotiate the world and deal with people. But her trials are far from over - once Jackal is getting situated in her new life via a strange bar called "Solitaire" where ex-cons from the VC program go to hang out and test the social waters, her past resurfaces.

Book Description

Micah, a cut throat American businessman, is intent on taking over a floundering Japanese hotel chain and whipping it into shape. All that currently stands in his way is its clumsy yet endearing president, Yuki. Will this hostile takeover end up being a vehicle for love?

Customer Reviews:

Yummy Read.......2007-09-30

This book was wonderful! Four different stories of which the first two were subtly connected and the last two with some of the same characters. There is much yoai goodness and I recommend reading it! The scenes are wonderful and expressions adorable! It's a must for your yoai collection!

(slight spoilers, so if you dont want 'em dont' read my review)

First story-(high school setting) Shirou has a spectacle fetish and when he notices that Sataru Sorachi wears glasses he can't help but be mean to this man he's become attracted to, but its all a big missunderstanding between the two and this story comes to a climax after Shirou almost kisses Sorachi while he's asleep. (three chapters of their exciting relationship)

Second Story-(same school) After an embarrassing incident where Sawai, the super hot guy that every gril fawns over, stumbles upon his friend Minami, the two become quite closer. Minami becomes confused by his feelings-of jealousy?-from watching girls ask out his friend and Sawai having told him before that "I'm not interested in girls." Even though they help eachother reach a pinacle of physical pleasure, are they still just friends? And how could Sawai "not" be interested in girls? (1 chap)

Third Story- A gay detective meets a very handsome bartender at a cafe while eating lunch thier with his assistant and immediately falls for the attrctive man and his "sweet smile," but when Detective Noritaka stops coming in everyday Nanase gets worried and has to check up on him. (1 chap)

Fourth Story-Same assistant, Ichi is the main character. He is in love with his childhood friend, Tetsuji, who is two years younger than him but with far better grades and looks with pure talent in everything he does. After celebrating, (drinking), Tetsuji passing his exams, Ichi goes all brotherly, saying Tetsuji must still visit even though he's moving and wishing him the best only to be shocked by an "I'm sorry" and fleeting kiss good-bye (for the night). Moping at the office with confusion, he finally gets answers when he goes home to find guess who waiting for him? (1 chap)

My personal favorite was the 2nd story, second fav was the 3rd, and third fav the 1st! The stories are absolutely cute, hot, and loveable!

The Sky Over My Spectacles by Mio Tennohji.......2007-08-10

Four story, interconnected two by two.

Shirou has a fetish for spectacles. He thinks to be able to find attractive every person wears them. And so when he is drawn by Satoshi, he thinks cause he wears spectacles. But then he sees him without them and he has to admit that it is love, love for a guy.

Sawai and Minami have a friendship with benefit... they are lovers. Buth Minami fears that Sawai can fall in love for a girl and he is jelaous, even if he has never said I love you to him... he doesn't think Sawai can reciprocate the feeling.

Saegusa is a private investigator who falls in love for Nanase, the bartender he sees everyday at lunch. But Nanase seems so distant and never accepts his hints, until Saegusa lose one of their one o'clock lunch appointment.

Tetsuji and Ichi are childhood friends. Now Ichi has a work and Tetsuji wins a scolarship for a distant city: their friendship has to end and Ichi has never had the courage to admit his love for his friend. And then Tetsuji makes his move...

The first two story are about teens and the other two about young men. Still they are pretty innocent. Maybe I have endured much more by a lot of novel and also by the previous manga I have read, but I have found this one a little tamed.

I have found interesting the first person point of view that it is used first by a character and then by the other, like a ball in a gamefield... I feel so, game, what do you feel?, game, I love you, game, do you love me?, POINT.

Good stories.......2007-08-01

I enjoyed this compilation. There were great scenes in all the stories and they all had at least some plot line. The one I liked the least was the story about the cafe waiter and the investigator. It felt stuck in there with little back story about why the investigator likes the waiter. But over all I like this and would recommend it. There are explicit scenes and all are consenting.

Erotic Yaoi Read.......2007-05-10

Fans of Yaoi will enjoy the artwork and the erotic details in this book. There's also a very steamy scene that will surprise you.

Pretty Darn Good....actually.......2007-04-11

It's hard to explain why I like this book. The art is pretty good, the characters are decent, and the stories are sweet. But other than that, it's kinda average (even predictable). One thing that caught me off guard, though, was the details of the erotica in this book. When you first read it, you really get the feeling like it's a shonen-ai (a couple of sweet kisses here and there). But then "boom" you get hit with this very steamy, and oh so detailed imagery (phew). I mean, the author made absolutely NO attempt to censor out anything. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. But man, I was not expecting that.

The first story had a really nice ending. I really hope there's a second part to this book. But if not, I think the author wrapped it up nicely. I didn't care too much for the other 3 stories. Some of them even contained stuff that I wouldn't normally like. But the first one really makes it worth it. So to sum it all up: I'd say, get it. Personally, I won't add this to my permanent collection. But it was a nice read.

Average customer rating:

One of the best thrillers I have ever read
What the Sex Pistols did to rock music...
Where's Quiller when we need him?
More info on Quiller series at www.quiller.net fan site

Quiller Solitaire: A Novel
Adam Hall
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0688107303

Book Description

The unification of Germany has given Nemesis, a group of Euro-terrorists, more room to roam. Under cover as an international arms dealer, Quiller infiltrates Nemesis to pin down rumors of a bomb threat.

Then a Pam Am flight vanishes from the radar screen. On board are two suicidal fanatics along with Quiller, 20,000 pounds of explosives and 40 cylinders of nerve gas. The destination? Who knows? Quiller has never been so desperately alone...or needed!

"Stunningly well done, tense, elliptical, without a misplaced word." (The New Republic)

Customer Reviews:

One of the best thrillers I have ever read.......2006-03-21

This was the first "Quiller" novel I have read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a "thinking persons" book. It read a chapter at a time only to be put down to absorb the logic and planning of Quiller. I won't give anything away, but reading Robert Littel's endorsement was chilling...if the CIA didn't read this book, perhaps some others did. This is a good read and I hope you enjoy it as I did.

What the Sex Pistols did to rock music..........2004-08-24

...this author did to the spy thriller--don't be put off by the number of pages, each is fast-paced and the writing style is both accessible as well as being completely original--with all the hoopla over Brosnan quitting the Bond series, Broccoli and co. could do no wrong using this character and series as a template--HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Where's Quiller when we need him?.......2004-08-13

Elleston Trevor honored me with a rare author's proof and I have a particularly soft spot for this Q caper, not least because it demonstrates his nom-de-plume Adam Hall's absolute determination to give readers full value, starting with each story sending Q down an even more suicidal hole than the one before.

Of all the adventures, 'Solitaire' is the one that most resoundingly drives home a lesson taught by 9/11, namely that you can wire and bureaucratise your spook setup all you like, but it counts for naught unless you have the requisite 'ferrets' working the dark side and able to deliver the right intelligence for the automatons to crunch.

This is an assignment Q wants - badly. He owes a man a death and he'll get it. Mission: thwart a terrorist group, for which (as so often) Q needs to be drawn into the opposition's den.

The 9/11 connection takes the form of Quiller aboard a jetliner with only seconds to defuse a bomb.

My opinion is neither here nor there: everything this spymaster poet delivered was exquisite and brutal and this is one of his best. With book trade heros like Otto Penzler doing their thing, we'll perhaps see Hall recognized for the master he is, and a new generation of readers flock to the Quilliad.

Full marks to Amazon's editors of these reviews to permit the link to the fine homage page to Trevor's work.

Anyone who enjoys top-rate thrillers and hasn't yet discovered Quiller is in for a major treat.

More info on Quiller series at www.quiller.net fan site.......2004-07-09

There is a lot more info on the Quiller series at www.quiller.net, a fan site.

Average customer rating:

Les Rêveries du Promeneur solitaire
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0543898547
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Desert Solitaire: A Season In the Wilderness

Average customer rating:

Great writing from the old curmudgeon
Abbey's season in the wilderness ages well...
Solid writing about the Utah desert
"Resist much, Obey little"
Desert Solitaire

Desert Solitaire: A Season In the Wilderness
Edward Abbey
Manufacturer: Tx Bookman Remainders
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0860721426

Amazon.com

With language as colorful as a Canyonlands sunset and a perspective as pointed as a prickly pear, Cactus Ed captures the heat, mystery, and surprising bounty of desert life. Desert Solitaire is a meditation on the stark landscapes of the red-rock West, a passionate vote for wilderness, and a howling lament for the commercialization of the American outback.

Book Description

"A passionately felt, deeply poetic book. It has philosophy. It has humor. It has its share of nerve-tingling adventures...set down in a lean, racing prose, in a close-knit style of power and beauty."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOKREVIEW
Edward Abbey lived for three seasons in the desert at Moab, Utah, and what he discovered about the land before him, the world around him, and the heart that beat within, is a fascinating, sometimes raucous, always personal account of a place that has already disappeared, but is worth remembering and living through again and again.

Customer Reviews:

Great writing from the old curmudgeon.......2007-08-20

I think this is far and away Abbey's best book. The prose is careful, precise, thoughtful. In my first year teaching, I would read a short section of this book every morning before climbing into the trenches, to remind myself what beautiful prose could be--regardless of the subject matter. (As an animal lover and vegetarian, I still have a hard time with his description of beaning the rabbit.) The book, I think, is definitely a "guy" book--but that's how my taste in reading goes, so I loved it back then, still love it today.

Abbey's season in the wilderness ages well..........2007-06-11

Edward Abbey reflects and reports on a summer he spent as a ranger at Arches National Park in Utah. At that time, Arches was in a pre "industrialized park" state. Desert Solitaire is his tale of adventures and his book of memories. Below is a sprinkling of quotes to give you a taste, a flavor, of what you can expect.

"Every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary" (p. 1).

"... I have personal convictions to uphold. Ideals, you might say. I prefer not to kill animals. I'm a humanist; I'd rather kill a man than a snake" (p. 20).

"Don't actually care for ants. Neurotic little pismires" (p. 30).

"We need more predators. The sheepmen complain, it is true, that the coyotes eat some of their lambs. This is true but do they eat enough? I mean, enough lambs to keep the coyotes sleek, healthy, and well fed. That is my concern" (p. 35).

"We are kindred all of us, killer and victim, predator and prey, me and the sly coyote, the soaring buzzard, the elegant gopher snake, the trembling cottontail, the foul worms that feed on our entrails, all of them, all of us. Long live diversity, long live the earth!" (p. 38-39).

"An increasingly pagan and hedonistic people (thank God!), we are learning finally that the forests and mountains and desert canyons are holier than our churches. Therefore let us behave accordingly" (p. 60).

"A man could be a lover and defender of the wilderness without ever in his lifetime leaving the boundaries of asphalt, powerlines, and right-angled surfaces. We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it" (p. 148).

"'Ralph Newcomb', I say, 'do you believe in God?'
'Who?' he says.
'Who?'
'Who.'
'You said it,' I say" (p. 180).

"'Newcomb, for godsake where do we come from?'
'Who knows?'
'Where are we going?'
'Who cares?'
'Who?'
'Who'" (p. 185).

"But the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need - if only we had the eyes to see. Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us - if only we were worthy of it" (p. 190).

"What does [the desert] mean? It means nothing. It is as it is and has no need for meaning. The desert lies beneath and soars beyond any possible human qualification. Therefore, sublime" (p. 219).

"I am almost prepared to believe that this sweet virginal primitive land will be grateful for my departure and the absence of the tourists, will breath metaphorically a collective sigh of relief - like a whisper of wind - when we are all and finally gone and the place and its creations can return to their ancient procedures unobserved and undisturbed by the busy, anxious, brooding consciousness of man" (p. 300).

Enjoy. Abbey is a writer first, a naturalist second. He takes liberties as necessary to tell his story, so this only seems like an autobiography. Obviously, he was less concerned then about "political correctness." I suspect he would be as irreverent today.

Solid writing about the Utah desert.......2007-06-07

What makes this a highly readable book is the author's revelations about his own feelings and shortcomings. It made me feel like I was there in the desert with him.

"Resist much, Obey little".......2007-04-29

It's been almost 40 years since Desert Solitaire hit the bookshelves; and perhaps it is more appropriate reading now than it was in 1968; certainly "Industrial Tourism" has come to pass.

This book is not gibberish from some "eco-hermit", whatever that is. Yes, old Cactus Ed is cranky and contradictory, full of hyperbole at times. This is his stamp as a prose-poet and unsurpassed storyteller; if you don't get this, you may be reading the wrong books.

Abbey's iconoclastic philosophy of conservation over human "progress" has rendered Desert Solitaire as a true environmental classic. This book is most likely sitting on many home bookshelves between The Mountains of California and A Sand Country Almanac.

Ed Abbey was well steeped in philosophy and literature; when he muses on the civilization vs. culture subject, you can see the meld of anarchism and german existentialism occuring. His impassioned rants reflect his love of the solitary places - landscapes unscathed by that "turbo-monkey" known as man. The humor is as dry and sharp as the the landscapes he describes: episodes with his pet gopher snake; the search for a dead tourist; and the idiocies of The National Park Service.

Like many authors, Abbey's non-fictional writing outshines his fictional stuff. Hands down, Desert Solitaire is his finest work: Rough, Tough, and Combative. This classic is a must read if you are of the "Resist much, Obey little" mindset. Infinite thanks, Cactus Ed . . .

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

Desert Solitaire.......2007-03-08

A classic that should be read by all thinking Americans who care more for our country than they do about the exploitation of the earth for temporary gain.

Cheating at Solitaire: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Novels)

Average customer rating:

Cheating at Solitaire: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Novels)
Jane Haddam
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Glass Houses: A Gregor Demarkian Novel (Gregor Demarkian Novels)

ASIN: 0312343086
Release Date: 2008-04-15

$Journal d\'une solitaire$
Average customer rating:

Journal d\'une solitaire
Élise d\\\'Oulibicheff
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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

All French Books | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0543934993
Release Date: 2001-06-15

Book Description

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1853 edition by Alexandre Semen, Moscou.

Rousseau: Les Reveries Du Promeneur Solitaire (Critical Guides to French Texts)

Average customer rating:

Rousseau: Les Reveries Du Promeneur Solitaire (Critical Guides to French Texts)
David Williams
Manufacturer: Grant & Cutler
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

French | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0729301818

The Solitaire Mystery - A Novel About Family And Destiny

Average customer rating:

The Solitaire Mystery - A Novel About Family And Destiny
Jostein; Translated by Hails, Sarah Jane Gaarder
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus And Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JZRT2I

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books