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Identity

Milan Kundera, Translated By Linda Asher

On Amazon.com

Identity takes the reader into the minds of the lovers Chantal and Jean-Marc. Through their thoughts we see how little Chantal and Jean-Marc really know each other, how they fail to understand each other and communicate their feelings. Each incident of the story is told from twice, one from Chantal’s point of view and once from Jean-Marc’s point of view. The wide gulf between the two’s perception of the situation is an insight into the problems lack of communication causes in our relationships.

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Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy, Translated By Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky

On Amazon.com

Leo Tolstoy’s novel about love and life is as poignant today as ever. Anna’s stormy affair with Count Vronsky speaks to today’s world of unhappy marriages and struggles of divorce. While Levin pushes through the hurtles life sets down before him, as well as those he sets down for himself in a struggle to find happiness. No character is one-dimensional in Tolstoy’s Russia. Marriage for love is a concept that has really only been employed in a large scale for a few hundred years and Tolstoy shows us that the struggles we endure in the name of love today are nothing new, his characters are caught between social tradition and popular ideas and they can teach us all something.

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Catch-22

Joseph Heller

On Amazon.com

Catch-22 is a hilarious account of life as a bomber pilot during WWII. Yossarian’s classic struggle to survive his tour of duty is beset on all sides by crazy people and people who want to kill him. The tongue-n-cheek humor and hilarious situations that Yossarian finds himself in are set against the all-too-real tragedy and horror of war. Many of the situations are humorous, but they are black humor and we need only turn our TV to CNN to be frightened into thinking how close we are to living those horrors out yet again.

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books

The Alchemist

Paulo Coehlo, Translated By Alan Clarke

On Amazon.com

The Alchemist is short, simple and profound. The idea of following your dreams is simple but in the hands of Paulo Coelho it is profound. Santiago leaves his life as an Andalusian shepherd behind to follow fate in search of his treasure. Only after many adventures and when his journey has come full circle does he discover what the true treasure is. The Alchemist is uplifting and reaffirms all that is truly good in life, a true fable—timeless in it’s themes.

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ranting

quarter century

Yea me!