Gin Palace, The

Thursday, May 15th, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

Gin Palace, The

"Unsurpassable…heroically big…the intensity of her creator’s vision…of the dense sordid life…is one of the great things the modern novel has been able to do."–Henry James

"The Gin Palace delighted me…full of color, movement, and life."–Anatole France

"A born writer, marvelously gifted."–Guy de Maupassant

The Gin Palace is the seventh novel in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle, about two branches of a French family traced through several generations. Introducing one of the most sympathetic heroines in nineteenth-century literature, it is also the work that made his reputation.

Abandoned by her lover and left to bring up their two children alone, Gervaise Macquart has to fight to earn an honest living. When she accepts the marriage proposal of Monsieur Coupeau, it seems as though she is on the path to a decent, respectable life at last. But with her husband’s drinking and the unexpected appearance of a figure from her past, Gervaise’s plans begin to unravel tragically.

Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Author: Emile Zola
Narrator: Frederick Davidson
ISBN: 0-7861-1636-6
Download Price: $16.95

Posted in Drama and Culture | No Comments »
Tags: Anatole France, Author Emile, Blackstone, Emile Zola, Frederick Davidson, French Family, Generations, Gin Palace, Guy De Maupassant, Henry James, Heroines, Intensity, Life Quot, Marriage Proposal, Narrator, Nineteenth Century Literature, Respectable Life, S Vision, Sordid Life, Unexpected Appearance

Secret Language of Dolphins, The

Monday, May 5th, 2008 by Book Guy | No Comments »

Secret Language of Dolphins, The

"The stare, direct and aggressive, was from Spray, an Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin….I realized I’d never known such an intellectual gaze in my life."–from the book

In her extraordinary work with dolphins, Patricia St.John has broken new ground in opening little known worlds, all in pursuit of what she fiercely believes in: learning the languages of those who have been unreachable. Using what she has discovered from her years of work with dolphins, St.John is able to break through to autistic children. Her story is a remarkable one.

Said the author: "When I left the pool that first day, I had no way of knowing I was taking the first steps toward breaking the barriers of dolphin-human communication…[or that] I would go on to find a way to use what I’d learned to improve the condition of other humans. At that first meeting, I had no idea how this information would enable me eventually to free autistic children to communicate with those who cared for them and about them."

Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc
Author: Patricia St.John
Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
ISBN: 0-7861-3020-2
Download Price: $16.95

Posted in Biographical | No Comments »
Tags: Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin, Autistic Children, Blackstone, Bottlenose Dolphin, Dolphin, Dolphin Communication, Dolphins, Dunne, First Meeting, First Steps, Gaze, Human Communication, Learning Languages, Life Quot, Narrator, New Ground, Pool, Secret Language, St John