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Jurassic Park

2011-09-30T17:50:37Z

Summary:

{{Template:Bookrightcolumn01
|
| Title = Jurassic Park
| image01=[[Image:Jurassicpark.jpg|175px]]
| Author=[[wikipedia:Michael Crichton|Michael Crichton]]
| Country=[[wikipedia:United States|United States]]
| Genre(s)=Science fiction, Horror fiction
| Publisher=[[wikipedia:Alfred A. Knopf|Alfred A. Knopf]]
| Pages=399
|}}

I recall with considerable pleasure, a collector's golden moment, when I was walking up Third Street in [[wikipedia:Santa Monica, California|Santa Monica, California]] –long before the touristy Promenade replaced the street traffic. I was approaching Carlisles’ Bookstore, and glanced down at a book that was nestled with a dozen others on a circular promotional rack. The title, black-on-white, simply read, '''''Jurassic Park''''', and beneath that title, the author’s name, [[wikipedia:Michael Crichton|Michael Crichton]]. I knew, in a flash, what this new publication was all about, and I grabbed it off the rack, already anticipating the joy of reading it. The world of dinosaurs reborn in our modern age! Wow!

I spent the week savoring every word, every sentence, every paragraph, delighting in the unending surprises that awaited me as an island inhabited by the giant reptiles of long ago hosted their rebirth. And, I returned to the great adventure story time and again, over the years, to not only recapture the moments, but to use them to illustrate to my students what you can do with words. Finding a first edition of Jurassic Park was more than a golden moment in time, it is a treasure, captured on-screen as well, and now, deliciously etched on our memories forever.

==Background==
Jurassic Park is a 1990 [[wikipedia: science fiction| science fiction]] novel written by [[wikipedia: Michael Crichton| Michael Crichton]]. Often considered a [[wikipedia: cautionary tale| cautionary tale]] on unconsidered biological tinkering in the same spirit as [[wikipedia: Mary Shelley| Mary Shelley]]'s ''[[wikipedia: Frankenstein| Frankenstein]]'', it uses the mathematical concept of [[wikipedia: chaos theory| chaos theory]] and its philosophical implications to explain the collapse of an [[wikipedia: amusement park| amusement park]] showcasing [[wikipedia: Genetic engineering|genetically recreated]] [[wikipedia: dinosaur| dinosaur]]s. In 1993, [[wikipedia: Steven Spielberg| Steven Spielberg]] adapted the book into the blockbuster film ''[[wikipedia:Jurassic Park (film)|Jurassic Park]]'', which won 3 Oscars, 19 other awards, and 15 nominations. The book's sequel, ''[[wikipedia:The Lost World (Crichton novel)|The Lost World]]'' (1995), was also adapted by Spielberg into a [[wikipedia:The Lost World: Jurassic Park|film]] in 1997. A [[wikipedia:Jurassic Park III|third movie]], directed by [[wikipedia: Joe Johnston| Joe Johnston]], was also created that did not relate to either book.

A Tale of Two Cities

2009-08-04T04:34:30Z

Summary: Copied from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

[[Image:Tales serial.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Cover of serial Vol. V, 1859]]
'''A Tale of Two Cities''' (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With 200 million copies sold, it is the most printed original English book, the most printed and among the most famous works of fiction.

It depicts the plight of the French peasantry under the oppression of the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and a number of unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period (hence the work's title). It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events, most notably Charles Darnay, a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Sydney Carton, a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette.

The novel was published in weekly installments (not monthly, as with most of his other novels). The first installment ran in the first issue of Dickens' literary periodical All the Year Round appearing April 30, 1859; the thirty-first and final ran on November 25 of the same year.

== Plot summary ==
===Book the First: Recalled to Life===
It is 1775. Jarvis Lorry, an employee of Tellson's Bank, is traveling from England to France to bring Dr. Alexandre Manette to London. At Dover, before crossing to France, he meets seventeen-year-old Lucie Manette and reveals to her that her father, Dr. Manette, is not really dead (as she had been told) but has been a prisoner in the Bastille for the last 18 years.

Lorry and Lucie travel to Saint Antoine, a suburb of Paris, where they meet the Defarges. Monsieur Ernest and Madame Therese Defarge own a wine shop. They also (secretly) lead a band of revolutionaries, who refer to each other by the codename "Jacques" (drawn from the name of an actual French revolutionary group, the Jacquerie).

Monsieur Defarge (who was Dr. Manette's servant before Manette's imprisonment, and now has care of him) takes them to see Dr. Manette. Manette has withdrawn from reality due to the horror of his imprisonment. He sits in a dark room all day making shoes, a trade he had learned whilst imprisoned. At first he does not know his daughter, but eventually recognizes her through her long golden hair from locks of hair of hers Dr. Manette took before his imprisonment. Her eyes are blue also just like his. Lorry and Lucie take him back to England.

===Book the Second: The Golden Thread===
"The Golden Thread" redirects here. For the legal judgement, see Golden thread (law).

It is now 1780. French emigrant Charles Darnay is being tried at the Old Bailey for treason. Two British spies, John Barsad and Roger Cly, are trying to frame the innocent Darnay for their own gain. They claim that Darnay, a Frenchman, gave information about British troops in North America to the French. Darnay is acquitted when a witness who claims he would be able to recognise Darnay anywhere is unable to tell Darnay apart from one of the barristers defending Darnay, Sydney Carton, who just happens to look almost identical to him.

In Paris, the Marquis St. Evrémonde (Monseigneur), Darnay's uncle, runs over and kills the son of the peasant Gaspard; he throws a coin to Gaspard to compensate him for his loss. Monsieur Defarge comforts Gaspard. As the Marquis's coach drives off, Defarge throws the coin back into the coach, enraging the Marquis.

Arriving at his château, the Marquis meets with his nephew: Charles Darnay. (Darnay's real surname, therefore, is Evrémonde; out of disgust with his family, Darnay has adopted a version of his mother's maiden name, D'Aulnais.[3]) They argue: Darnay has sympathy for the peasantry, but the Marquis is cruel and heartless:

[[category:Charles Dickens]]

From Dawn to Decadence

2009-07-29T04:51:07Z

[[Image:FDtoDec0845 Spine.jpg|thumb|right|400px|From Dawn to Decadence Spine, First Edition]]
At 84 years of age, [[wikipedia:Jacques Barzun|Jacques Barzun]] began writing his [[wikipedia:swan song|swan song]], to which he devoted the better part of the 1990s. The resulting book of more than 800 pages, '''From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present''', reveals a vast erudition and brilliance undimmed by advanced age. Historians, literary critics, and popular reviewers all lauded ''From Dawn to Decadence'' as a sweeping and powerful survey of modern Western history, and it became a ''[[wikipedia:New York Times|New York Times]]'' bestseller. The book introduces several novel [[wikipedia:typographic|typographic]] devices that aid an unusually rich system of cross-referencing and help keep many strands of thought in the book under organized control. Most pages feature a [[wikipedia:sidebar (publishing)|sidebar]] containing a pithy quotation--usually little known, and often surprising or humorous--from some author or historical figure. In 2007, as Barzun approached his hundredth birthday, he remained intellectually and physically active but relied upon "a cane or walker to get around," according to Arthur Krystal, who visited him in San Antonio and wrote an article about him for [[wikipedia:The New Yorker|The New Yorker]] magazine. Barzun was fully "alert to the irony of aging," commenting from experience that "Old age is like learning a new profession. And not one of your own choosing."<ref>''Age of Reason'' by Arthur Krystal in ''[[wikipedia:The New Yorker|The New Yorker]]'', October 22, 2007, p. 103</ref>

== First Edition ==
[[Image:Dawncrlist8465.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Inside Cover, First Edition]]
The first edition was printed in 2000 by [[wikipedia:HarperCollins|HarperCollins]].

== Author's Note ==
[[Image:JacBarImgCob12.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Hard Cover Title, First Edition]]
"''It takes only a look at the numbers to see that the 20th century is coming to an end. A wider and deeper scrutiny is needed to see that in the West the culture of the last 500 years is ending at the same time. Believing this to be true, I have thought it the right moment to review in sequence the great achievements and the sorry failures of our half millennium.''"

== Awards and Honors ==
*National Book Critics Circle Award finalist (Criticism, 2000)
*National Book Award finalist (Nonfiction, 2000)
*New York Times bestseller (Nonfiction, 2000)

[[category:Jacques Barzun]]