The Temptation of the Impossible:

Victor Hugo and Les Misérables

Mario Vargas Llosa

John King, translator

Princeton University Press

232 pages

Hardcover $24.95

978-0-691-13111-5

Here, in this compelling book, readers can enjoy the fascinating encounter between two literary giants: Mario Vargas Llosa and Victor Hugo.

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918; by G. J. Meyer

Delacourte; May 2006

ISBN 0-553-80354-9

Hardcover

On June 28, 1914, the relatively unimpressive heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were visiting the beautiful city of Sarajevo in the remote province of Bosnia at the southernmost tip of the Austro-Hungarian domains.

Next week is when I and my literature classes begin talking about Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood. I’ve assigned O’Connor’s brilliant novel to classes in the past, but I have never been satisfied about the students’ responses and their lack of engagement with the story of Hazel Motes’ reluctant conversion.

Wolf Point
By Edward Falco
Unbridled Books $

Meet T. Aloysius Walker. He has had an interesting professional and personal life, and now at the comfortable middle age of 57, Walker has been thinking quite a bit about his past successes, failures, and humiliations.

The Secret Life of Water by Masaru Emoto
Atria / Simon & Schuster, 2005
Hardcover

What can I say about Masaru Emoto’s very unusual book?

Let me first try to summarize Emoto’s thesis and presentation. Emoto begins by telling readers about hado, a concept introduced in his earlier book The True Power of Water.