Archive for March, 2008

A Beautiful Mind : Sylvia Nasar

A Beautiful Mind is an unauthorized biography of Nobel Prize-winning economist and mathematician John Forbes Nash by Sylvia Nasar, a New York Times economics correspondent. It inspired the 2001 film with the same name.
The book is a biography of Nash, starting with his childhood, over his years at Princeton and MIT, his work for the [...]

Sixth Grade Secrets : Louis Sachar

Sixth Grade Secrets is a novel by Louis Sachar that follows sixth-grader Laura Sibbie and her friends as they create a secret club in violation of school rules. Laura aspires to be a leader and learns the three Rs of what leadership can entail – Relationships, Rivalries and Responsibility.
 Plot summary
Laura Sibbie, a sixth-grader, is the [...]

The Rule of Four : Ian Caldwell

The Rule of Four is a novel written by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, and published in 2004. Caldwell, a Princeton University graduate, and Thomason, a Harvard University graduate, are childhood friends who wrote the book after their respective graduations. Both Caldwell and Thomason attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, [...]

The Outsiders : S. E. Hinton

The Outsiders is a novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1967 by Viking Press. Hinton was 15 when she began writing the novel and 18 when it was published. The Outsiders is an account of a traumatic time in the life of fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis. Hinton explores the themes of class conflict, brotherly [...]

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns : By Frank Miller

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is a Batman comic book miniseries written and drawn by Frank Miller and published by DC Comics from February to June 1986. It reintroduced Batman to the general public as the psychologically dark character of his original 1930s conception and helped to usher in an era of “grim and gritty” [...]

Densha Otoko : all based on the purportedly true story of Otaku

Densha Otoko (電車男, Densha Otoko translated as Train Man) is a Japanese movie, television series, manga, novel, and other media, all based on the purportedly true story of a 23 year old otaku (Japanese geek) who intervened when a drunk man was harassing several women on a train. The otaku ultimately begins dating one of [...]

The 33 Strategies of War : Robert Greene

The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene is a “guide to the subtle social game of everyday life informed by the … military principles in war.”.  It consists of discussions and examples on offensive and defensive strategies from a wide variety of people and conditions such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Lawrence of Arabia, Alexander the [...]

Death Note : NISIOISIN

Death Note (デスノート, Desu Nōto) is a Japanese manga series created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata. The series centers around a high school student who discovers a supernatural notebook that allows him to kill anyone by writing the victim’s name and picturing his or her face. The plot follows his attempt to [...]

The Devil Wears Prada : Lauren Weisberger

The Devil Wears Prada (2003) is a best selling novel by Lauren Weisberger about a young woman who, freshly graduated from college, is hired as a personal assistant to a powerful fashion magazine editor, a job that becomes hellish as she struggles to keep up with her boss’s capricious and demeaning requests. It was greatly [...]

Running with Scissors : Augusten Burroughs

Running with Scissors is a 2002 memoir by American writer Augusten Burroughs. The book tells the story of Burroughs’ bizarre childhood life after his mother, who had an obsession with Anne Sexton, sent him to live with her psychiatrist
Plot
Running with Scissors covers the period of Burroughs’ disturbed adolescent and teenage years, starting at age twelve. [...]