 | The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History by Robert Darnton
Buy used from: $0.01 Not nearly as intriguing as its title. The author uses unusual facts to support plodding theories.
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 | A History of the Jews by Paul M. Johnson
Buy new: $12.95 / Used from: $3.99 Well written, rational but overly focused on the last 150 years.
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 | Daniel Deronda (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot
Buy new: $7.92 / Used from: $0.18 Curious departure from the standard Victorian era novel.
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 | Nibelungenlied (Sammlung Metzler ; Bd. 7 ; Abt. D, Literaturgeschichte) (German Edition) by Gottfried Weber
Buy used from: $0.01 Not sure if this is the translation I read. Good story, but what I read was a bad translation.
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 | The Prose Edda: Tales from Norse Mythology by Snorri Sturluson
Buy new: $16.95 / Used from: $3.19 A sort of bipartite work - beautiful norse legends and icelandic poetry textbook.
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 | The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by Roberto Calasso
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $0.62 Refreshing and thoughtful retelling/analysis of Greek mythology.
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 | Martin Chuzzlewit (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) by Charles Dickens
Buy new: $13.60 / Used from: $7.70 Classic Dickens. Amusing American excursion.
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 | Oliver Twist (Tor Classics) by Charles Dickens
Buy new: $4.99 / Used from: $0.01 One of his best. I think Dickens would have been horrified at what's been done with it since.
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 | The Collected Stories (Everyman's Library) by Alexander Pushkin
Buy new: $16.32 / Used from: $4.50 The Shakespeare of Russia. Enormous range and dramatic ability.
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 | Rights of Man (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Paine
Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $0.01 Seems like common sense now but ahead of its time then.
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 | Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution by Simon Schama
Buy new: $19.77 / Used from: $2.97 History the way it should be written. Dramatic narrative. Reads like a novel but is (presumably) true.
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 | The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Bollingen Series, No. 17) by Joseph Campbell
Buy used from: $2.59 Universalist approach to mythology. More believable than The White Goddess but can't help feel it has some of the same defects.
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 | Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Buy used from: $1.32 For WWII Unix geeks with conspiracy theories.
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 | God's Playground: A History of Poland, Vol. 1: The Origins to 1795 by Norman Davies
Buy used from: $7.65 Strangely organized history of Poland. Seems to start in the middle and expect that you are either Polish or an expert on the area already. Ditto for volume 2..
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 | Religions of Tibet in Practice
Buy used from: $3.90 As with the other books in this series an excellent look at actual religion.
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 | The Bostonians (Penguin Classics) by Henry James
Buy new: $9.00 / Used from: $1.99 Witty, biting book. Definitely not PC by today's standards.
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 | The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Buy used from: $0.01 Not the greatest American author (?Melville) but still worth the read.
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 | Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond
Buy new: $12.21 / Used from: $1.30 Interesting theories with some value -but mostly poorly supported in my opinion.
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 | The Life of Greece (The Story of Civilization, Vol. 2) by Will Durant
Buy used from: $1.02 A good overview of Greek history,philosophy,art and science.
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 | The Box Garden by Carol Shields
Buy new: $10.95 / Used from: $0.01 Don't usually read modern Canadian fiction but this is quite good..
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 | A Deepness in the Sky (Zones of Thought) by Vernor Vinge
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Had been eagerly awaiting Vernor Vinge's new novel. Was not disappointed.
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 | Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $3.07 Great depth of spiritual insight but the ending was a little disappointing.
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 | Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250-1400 (The Yale University Press Pelican History of Art) by John White
Buy new: $40.00 / Used from: $8.83 Fairly good overview of art of this period. A little wordy.
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 | The Golden Age of Persia by Richard N. Frye
Buy used from: $58.00 Densly packed with political history, this book is best when describing the society.
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 | Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
Buy new: $10.80 / Used from: $0.01 Beautiful book about joie de vivre in Tuscany - Will make you envious and exhausted by stages.
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