Love it or hate it, "Atlas Shrugged" still inspires passion a half-century after it was first published. It's not just that the book was well read, but that is has been so influential in the intellectual development of so many people. Ayn Rand challenged the smelly orthodoxy of her time, the one that says the pursuit of entrepreneurship and capitalism are an evil, and the expansion of government to promote altruism is good.

Read the whole article here. A response from ARI here. And reader response here.

For the mother of a co-sleeping toddler - finishing this book in under 48 hours means it had to be excellent!

Description:

Turning Angel marks the long-awaited return of Penn Cage, the lawyer hero of The Quiet Game, and introduces Drew Elliott, the highly respected doctor who saved Penn's life in a hiking accident when they were boys. As two of the most prominent citizens of Natchez, Drew and Penn sit on the school board of their alma mater, St. Stephen's Prep. When the nude body of a young female student is found near the Mississippi River, the entire community is shocked -- but no one more than Penn, who discovers that his best friend was entangled in a passionate relationship with the girl and may be accused of her murder.

On the surface, Kate Townsend seems the most unlikely murder victim imaginable. A star student and athlete, she'd been accepted to Harvard and carried the hope and pride of the town on her shoulders. But like her school and her town, Kate also had a secret life -- one about which her adult lover knew little. When Drew begs Penn to defend him, Penn allows his sense of obligation to override his instinct and agrees. Yet before he can begin, both men are drawn into a dangerous web of blackmail and violence. Drew reacts like anything but an innocent man, and Penn finds himself doubting his friend's motives and searching for a path out of harm's way.

More dangerous yet is Shad Johnson, the black district attorney whose dream is to send a rich white man to death row in Mississippi. At Shad's order, Drew is jailed, the police cease hunting Kate's killer, and Penn realizes that only by finding Kate's murderer himself can he save his friend's life.

With his daughter's babysitter as his guide, Penn penetrates the secret world of St. Stephen's, a place that parents never see, where reality veers so radically from appearance that Penn risks losing his own moral compass. St. Stephen's is a dark mirror of the adult world, one populated by steroid-crazed jocks, girls desperate for attention, jaded teens flirting with nihilism, and hidden among them all -- one true psychopath. It is Penn's journey into the heart of his alma mater that gives Turning Angel its hypnotic power, for on that journey he finds that the intersection of the adult and nearly adult worlds is a dangerous place indeed. By the time Penn arrives at the shattering truth behind Kate Townsend's death, his quiet Southern town will never be the same.

The story begins when young Daniel no longer remembers his mother's face, and his father takes him to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. There he finds The Shadow of the Wind, a novel by Julian Carax. Enchanted by the book, Daniel embarks on a search for other works by Carax, and eventually for Carax himself. During his quest, Daniel becomes enveloped in murder, intrigue, and love.

I adore this book.  There are many greats stories in print but few are as beautifully written as Shadow of the Wind.

Filming has not yet begun, but a script has been drafted, and the plan is to shoot the epic as a trilogy. I agree it needs to be a trilogy to capture all the elements and philosphy in the book - but how many regular people who have never read the book will be lured to watch Atlas Shrugged in three parts?

Read the article here.

I want to take back the hours I spent reading it. DeMille states in the acknowledgements that his 24 year-old son helped him with the ending - - and it shows!   more »

Ok I love everything Greg Iles. But this book was over-drawn and lack-lustre compared to his previous novels. That being said, it was still an enjoyable read!   more »

Great story, wonderful story telling, a tad repeative in parts. A good read but not great!   more »

From Amazon.com... If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova's long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian.   more »

With a 14 month old you can appreciate how little reading time I actually get.   more »

It's a lovely board book that has illustrations of toddler's breastfeeding and a nice story to go along with it.   more »