Save Thirteen Reasons Why for a rainy day, when you're feeling down and prepared to read about teen suicide and the effects of rumors on teenagers. This is a dark, tragic novel, predicated on the suicide of teenager Hannah Baker. Before her death, she records cassette tapes with 13 stories about people and events that led to her decision. We follow along with these stories along side one of the tape's recipients, the likeable Clay Jenson. While the book tackles tough topics, the writing and plot is suspenseful, and readers will find the book difficult to put down, and fast to read. Review of Thirteen Reasons Why Photo: Penguin Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 at 07:03:09. Permalink | Comment | Email this
From Laurie Viera Rigler, the author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com.) 
Discuss Mansfield Park in your book club, and your friends, like most readers, will tend to differ over a variety of points. The most typical one is this: Is the heroine, Fanny Price, a model of moral integrity, or a self-righteous prude? Is the marriage that ends the story (and Austen's stories always end with a marriage) between the right two people? And what's up with that part about the play? The story begins when nine-year-old Fanny Price is taken from the home of her impoverished parents and moved to the estate of Mansfield Park to be brought up by rich relatives. This is no clear-cut Cinderella story, however. Although there are a couple of mildly wicked stepsisters (Fanny's cousins Maria and Julia) and a stand-in for a wicked stepmother in the form of her Aunt Norris, Fanny's central nemesis--and rival in love--is the saucy, sassy anti-heroine Mary Crawford. In Mansfield Park, Jane Austen is clearly at the height of her storytelling mastery, deftly playing with reader loyalties and expectations while serving up the delicious social satire and suspenseful plotting that keep us coming back for more. Read more of this guest post, from Laurie Viera Rigler, the author of Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (http://janeaustenaddict.com.) Mansfield Park: Jane Austen's Most Controversial Novel originally appeared on About.com Classic Literature on Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 at 01:01:58. Permalink | Comment | Email this
In The Future of Us, which occurs in the early-Internet days of the 1990s, neighboring teens Josh and Emma are able to access Facebook, even though it doesn't exist yet, and see the posts they write in the future. Cowritten by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, The Future of Us explores how teenagers would respond to an influx of information about their futures - is it really your actions in high school that determine your happiness in your 30s? Can changes in behavior lead to changes in the future... and will those changes be for the better? Review of The Future of Us Photo: Razorbill The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 06:51:11. Permalink | Comment | Email this
 Kurt Vonnegut became a cultural legend with novels like Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Galapagos, and many others. His novels and even his artwork is iconic, but less known is his personal life. Until now. Charles Shields, who was working with Vonnegut on this biography when the author died at the age of 85, has delivered an engaging and definitive biography in And So It Goes. Review of And So It Goes, Kurt Vonnegut: A Life Photo: Henry Holt & Company And So It Goes, Kurt Vonnegut: A Life originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 06:44:10. Permalink | Comment | Email this
 So much has been said (and written) about the simplest of gestures: a kiss. Is it a kiss to say hello? Goodbye? Is it the kiss of betrayal, or an expression of friendship? Perhaps, it express some spoken (or unspoken) passion? It could be the author's way of building passionate intensity.
We want and need to know: Where do we go from here. Is the kiss an end, or just a beginning of everything that will unfold for the characters in the pages to follow? For some characters, it would appear safer to let the story unfold--without analyzing the kiss too much. At least we--as readers--are not in danger of jinxing the relationship as we try to decipher the lines. We can let our imaginations go wild, and then let ourselves be drawn back to the text: the poem, story, novel--to see what the final authorial intent is. There's so much imagery surrounding the advent of a kiss... Victor Hugo wrote: "How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said." Percy Bysshe Shelly wrote, "What are all these kissings worth, / If thou kiss not me?" In The Kiss, Kate Chopin's Harvey quietly tells the girl, "I've stopped kissing women; it's dangerous." Yes, books must be dangerous too. We are haunted by the most beautiful passages--so many experiences, seen through the lives of those indelibly and artfully drawn lovers. So, let the lines draw you forward. Dream a little dream, and imagine all those moments in literary history. Which one is your favorite? Do you remember a particular kiss? In Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand wrote: "And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever.'" Sealed With a Kiss originally appeared on About.com Classic Literature on Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 04:04:55. Permalink | Comment | Email this
 Do you remember the first novel you picked up? Was it for school, or did you take it off a shelf somewhere and start to fumble through the words? What are your early memories of reading?
It's easy to forget those early glimpses into novel explorations. Even if a few years have passed, I hope the time has been filled with many more adventures in in reading. If we look back at those early works, we're sometimes able to find books that will still touch us--even now, even years later. If you're bored with reading, or having a hard time finding a book that sparks your attention, why not return to books you've loved before? Read them again, or find books by the same author. Even if you've already devoured all the books before, you may find that revisiting those favorites is just what you need to re-inspire your passion for reading. Remember when...? In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith writes: "Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time." The First Time... originally appeared on About.com Classic Literature on Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 04:04:38. Permalink | Comment | Email this
 James Joyce is one of the masters of world literature. Exiled from Ireland, he was fated to write, revise and re-work his greatest masterworks--in his mission to create perfect exemplifications of literary styling. He wasn't bothered by controversy--his famous Ulysses is one of the most famously banned novels of its time (it's got sex, violence, inner turmoil/angst...).
Today, we celebrate the 130th birthday of James Joyce and the 90th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses. To commemorate the illustrious events of the day, Frank Delaney is reading part of Ulysses in Madison Square Park, as well as via video. He's been dubbed "The Most Eloquent Man in the World" by NPR--you can listen to his podcast, Re: Joyce, a eloquent deconstruction of James Joyce's Ulysses in 5-minute, bite-size pieces. He also created a rap tribute to James Joyce. In his memoir, Stanislaus Joyce writes, "In our world today, serious literature has taken the place of religion. People with liberty of choice go... to literature for enlightened understanding... And it answers in parables." Occupy 'Ulysses' originally appeared on About.com Classic Literature on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 02:07:04. Permalink | Comment | Email this
 In Hisham Matar's Anatomy of a Disappearance, Kamal is a Cairo widower; Nuri is his son. When they both fall in love with the same woman, it is Kamal who gets the girl, but then shortly thereafter disappears under mysterious circumstances. Read more.
Photo: The Dial Press Anatomy of a Disappearance by Hisham Matar originally appeared on About.com Contemporary Literature on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 07:15:19. Permalink | Comment | Email this
 In this book, Lauren Henderson tiptoes through the minefields of love and relationships with some of Jane Austen's most vivacious and unforgettable characters. Read what to do (and not to do) in dating, based on the examples from Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice), Fanny (Mansfield Park), Emma (Emma), Anne (Persuasion), Elinor (Sense and Sensibility), or Catherine (Northanger Abbey).
Read more about Jane Austen at the movies: Jane Austen in Hollywood.
Also read Jane Austen Humor Books. Don't forget to join our discussion: Which is Your Favorite?
Explore the world of Jane Austen. Cover Art © Hyperion. Romance w/Austen originally appeared on About.com Classic Literature on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 01:01:44. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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