A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. It is his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. Mariam is an illegitimate child, and suffers from both the stigma (More) surrounding her birth along with the abuse she faces throughout her marriage. Laila, born a generation later, is comparatively privileged during her youth until their lives intersect and she is also forced to accept a marriage proposal from Rasheed, Mariam’s husband.
Hosseini has remarked that he regards the novel as a “mother-daughter story” in contrast to The Kite Runner, which he considers a “father-son story”. It continues some of the themes used in his previous work, such as the familial aspects, but focuses primarily on female characters and their roles in Afghan society.
A Thousand Splendid Suns was released on May 22, 2007, and received favorable prepublication reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Booklist, becoming a number one New York Times bestseller for fifteen weeks following its release. During its first week on the market, it sold over one million copies. Columbia Pictures purchased film rights in 2007 and confirmed intentions to create a movie adaption of the book.

Marte lleva siglos colonizado por la humanidad, que ha establecido un estricto sistema de castas condicionadas genéticamente para garantizar la explotación de las riquezas minerales y la supremacía de la clase gobernante. Los (More) Rojos son los mineros sometidos al poder de los Dorados, la clase superior de la sociedad, que dispone de todos los logros y adelantos de la civilización, mientras que la clase más baja sólo puede esperar una muerte lenta en los túneles de explotación o a manos de la policía.
Pero la rebelión se está incubando en el seno de esa sociedad. Darrow, un Rojo desesperado por el asesinato de su esposa, recibe una propuesta sorprendente: someterse a una serie de modificaciones para convertirse en un Dorado y participar en el brutal método de formación de la casta dirigente, que los convierte en máquinas de matar desalmadas, con el fin de dinamitar su poder desde dentro. El muchacho acepta y desde ese momento tendrá que luchar por sobrevivir en una sociedad sin moral y sin amigos.

Bécquer, prosista o poeta, poeta o prosista, siempre se manifiesta como artista completo e intemporal. La aparición de sus ‘Leyendas’, cuyos valores literarios son notablemente superiores a los de las leyendas predecesoras y (More) coetáneas, supone la culminación, superación y aniquilamiento de un género. La materia prima literaria es elaborada por Bécquer de acuerdo con sus propios parámetros estéticos, imprimiendo el sello de su microcosmos personal y la impronta identificadora de su lenguaje poético.

El Danubio, que ha sido calificado como «un maravilloso viaje en el tiempo y el espacio», enlaza con el «tourisme éclairé» de un Stendhal o un Chateaubriand, e inaugura un nuevo género, a caballo entre la novela y el ensayo, el (More) diario y la autobiografía, la historia cultural y el libro de viajes. En palabras de su autor, el libro es «una especie de novela sumergida: escribo sobre la civilización danubiana, pero también del ojo que la contempla», y fue redactado «con la sensación de escribir mi propia autobiografía».
Paisajes, pasiones, encuentros, reflexiones: El Danubio es, pues, el relato de un «viaje sentimental» a la manera de Sterne, en el que el narrador recorre el viejo río desde sus fuentes hasta el Mar Negro atravesando Alemania, Austria, Hungría, Checoslovaquia, Yugoslavia, Rumanía, Bulgaria mientras recorre al mismo tiempo la propia vida y las estaciones de una cultura contemporánea, sus certezas, sus esperanzas y sus inquietudes.
Un viaje que reconstruye en forma de mosaico, a través de los lugares visitados e interrogados, la civilización de la Europa Central, con la inmensurable variedad de sus pueblos y de sus culturas, captándolas en los signos de la gran Historia y en las mínimas y efímeras huellas de la vida cotidiana, e identificando las nervaduras precisas: la presencia alemana, el peso de las minorías étnicas y de las culturas olvidadas, la huella dejada por los turcos, la vigente presencia hebraica.

The extraordinary child-adult Prince Myshkin, confined for several years in a Swiss sanatorium suffering from severe epilepsy, returns to Russia to claim his inheritance and to find a place in healthy human society. The teeming St (More) Petersburg community he enters is far from receptive to an innocent like himself, despite some early successes and relentless pursuit by grotesque fortune-hunters. His naive gaucheries give rise to extreme reactions among his new acquaintance, ranging from anguished protectiveness to mockery and contempt. But even before reaching the city, during the memorable train journey that opens the novel, he has encountered the demonic Rogozhin, the son of a wealthy merchant who is in thrall to the equally doomed Natasha Filippovna: beautiful, capricious and destructively neurotic, she joins with the two weirdly contrasted men in a spiralling dance of death…

The Prince and the Pauper (1882) represents Mark Twain’s first attempt at historical fiction. The book, set in 1547, tells the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a pauper who lives with his abusive (More) father in Offal Court, London, and Prince Edward son of Henry VIII of England. Due to a series of circumstances, the boys accidentally replace each other, and much of the humor in the book originates in the two boys’ inability to function in the world that is so familiar to the other (although Tom soon displays considerable wisdom in his decisions). In many ways, the book is a social satire, particularly compelling in its condemnation of the inequality that existed between the classes in Tudor England. In that sense, Twain abandoned the wry Midwestern style for which he was best known and adopts a style reminiscent of Charles Dickens.

The Divine Comedy (in Italian, Divina Commedia, or just La commedia or Comedia) is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri in the first decades of the 14th Century, during his exile from his native Florence. Considered the most (More) important work of Italian literature, the poem has also has enormous historical influence on western literature and culture more generally. Dante represents the three realms of the afterlife in his three canticles (Inferno–Hell; Purgatorio–Purgatory; Paradiso–Paradise) in a way that reflects and, at the same time, goes beyond Christian tradition of the 14th Century. Dante is sometimes called “The father of the Italian language” for the linguistic influence of the Comedy, which helped to elevate his native Florentine Tuscan dialect to the level of national standard. The poem is written in the first person, and tells of Dante’s journey through the three realms of the dead, lasting from the night before Good Friday to the Wednesday after Easter in the spring of 1300. The Roman poet Virgil guides him through Hell and Purgatory; Beatrice, Dante’s ideal woman, guides him through Heaven.

Il modo più facile e divertente di esplorare il cielo notturno
Conoscete la differenza tra una gigante rossa e una nana bianca? Dagli asteroidi ai buchi neri, questa guida vi porterà per mano in un grand tour dell’Universo. Con (More) le sue mappe stellari, i grafici e una sezione a colori con meravigliose fotografie dei corpi celesti, Astronomia For Dummies è una risorsa chiara e preziosa per capire lo spettacolo del cielo notturno.
– Scrutiamo la notte: tutti i consigli per osservare gli oggetti celesti con e senza ottiche, scegliere un binocolo e un telescopio e trovare il luogo migliore per una vista perfetta
– Vicini di casa: facciamo un giro per vedere la moltitudine di pianeti, lune e detriti planetari che orbitano intorno al Sole
– Incontriamo qualche vecchio sole: troviamo gli oggetti celesti migliori e quelli più luminosi, impariamo a conoscere il ciclo di vita delle stelle per approfondire il nostro rapporto con l’Universo
– Riflettiamoci su: esploriamo concetti sfidanti come la ricerca dell’intelligenza extraterrestre o la natura della materia oscura e dell’antimateria
Stephen P. Maran, PhD, vanta una pluripremiata carriera sia come astronomo sia come divulgatore e quarant’anni di ricerca nel programma spaziale americano con la NASA per la quale è stato vicedirettore della sezione Space Sciences for Information and Outreach del Goddard Space Flight Center a Greenbelt. Ha ricevuto la NASA Medal per meriti eccezionali ed è stato addetto stampa della Società Astronomica Americana.

El conmovedor testimonio de una adolescente que quita el aire, captura el corazón y revela la milagrosa naturaleza del espíritu humano. ¿Alguna vez ha caído en vuestras manos en libro que no habéis podido soltar ni un instante? (More) Entre tonos de gris es uno de estos libros. No importa se tenéis doce, cuarenta o noventa años, esta novela os atrapará y hará que os olvidéis del mundo que os rodea.
La novela comienza cuando Lina y su familia son arrancadas a la fuerza de lo que había sido su plácida existencia hasta ese momento, y los acontecimientos se precipitan por una terrible espiral. Desde las primeras líneas, la poderosa voz de Lina, su joven y valiente protagonista, nos arrastra. Su fuerza de voluntad de mirar siempre hacia delante nos impresionan. Pero, sin duda, su dignidad y su determinación de ser ella misma a pesar de las circunstancias son lo que nos conquista para siempre. Entre tonos de gris nos muestra que incluso en la noche más oscura hay luz. Y que el amor es el arma más eficaz.

Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens is a juvenile fiction novel by Brandon Sanderson, published in December 2010 by Scholastic Press. It is the fourth book in the Alcatraz Versus series featuring the protagonist Alcatraz (More) Smedry.
Alcatraz and his companions head off to Mokia, one of the Free Kingdoms, to try and save it from a Librarian take over.
Alcatraz succeeds, but at great cost. Mokia is largely destroyed. Its King and Queen, over half of the fighting men, and even Alcatraz’s good friend and personal body guard Bastille are all left comatose with no known cure. The Smedry Talents have been broken. On top of it all Alcatraz had come to question his own motivations and reconsider his relationship towards his villainous mother.