Literary Analysis

In this updated edition of the popular textbook An Introduction to the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt introduce the listener to the broad theological scope of the Old Testament, treating some of the most important issues and methods in contemporary biblical interpretation. This clearly written textbook focuses on the literature of the Old Testament as it grew out of religious, political, and ideological contexts over many centuries in Israel's history.

Unique among books that examine the bible as literature, this brilliantly compact introduction offers an intriguing double-edged look at this universal text - a religiously informed literary analysis. The book first explores the major sections of the New Testament - the gospels, Paul's letters, and Revelation - as individual literary documents. Keefer shows how, in such familiar stories as the parable of the Good Samaritan, a literary analysis can uncover an unexpected complexity to what seems a simple, straightforward tale.

While exploring Shakespeare's plays with her students, Paula Marantz Cohen discovered that teaching and discussing his plays unlocked a surprising sense of compassion in the classroom. In this short and illuminating book, she shows how Shakespeare's genius lay with his ability to arouse empathy, even when his characters exist in alien contexts and behave in reprehensible ways.

Dr. Bessel van der Kolk explores the often elusive topic of trauma, PTSD, and recovery in his well-researched and supported book, The Body Keeps the Score. In his book, he offers tested methods for treatment along with cutting-edge therapies. This FastReads Summary & Analysis offers supplementary material to help you distill the key takeaways, review the book's content, and further understand the writing style and overall themes from an editorial perspective.

Esme Singer is a resilient girl from Los Angeles, new to Manhattan, who takes better care of her beautiful, alcoholic mother than her mother does of her. A former fashion model and extra in the movies, her mother attracts a series of husbands and boyfriends as Esme watches in fascination and sometimes horror. Esme's father comes and goes, forever riding the wave of the latest get-rich-quick scheme.

We are what we read, according to Robert DiYanni. Reading may delight us or move us; we may read for instruction or inspiration. But more than this, in reading we discover ourselves. We gain access to the lives of others, explore the limitless possibilities of human existence, develop our understanding of the world around us, and find respite from the hectic demands of everyday life. In You Are What You Read, DiYanni provides a practical guide that shows how we can increase the benefits and pleasures of reading literature by becoming more skillful and engaged readers.

The Bible is the most influential book in Western history. As the foundational text of Judaism and Christianity, the Bible has been interpreted and reinterpreted over millennia, utilized to promote a seemingly endless run of theological and political positions. Adherents and detractors alike point to different passages throughout to justify wildly disparate behaviors and beliefs. Translated and retranslated, these texts lead both to unity and intense conflict.

In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore - the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career.

Don't miss Oprah's latest Book Club pick, Love Warrior by best-selling author, Glennon Doyle Melton. This powerful audiobook will move you with its raw honesty, while giving you new perspective on the emotional journey that each of us must take through life.

El pavoroso espectro de la desolación y el triunfo de la solidaridad narradas de manera fantástica en esta joya de la literatura. Albert Camus (1913-1960) narra los avatares del doctor Rieux y de toda una ciudad, Orán, contra una peste de dimensiones sobrecogedoras.

In Cross of Snow, the result of more than 12 years of research, including access to never-before-examined letters, diaries, journals, and notes, Nicholas Basbanes reveals the life, the times, the work - the soul - of the man who shaped the literature of a new nation with his countless poems, sonnets, stories, essays, and translations, and whose renown was so wide-reaching that his deep friendships included Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Julia Ward Howe, and Oscar Wilde.

Steven Kotler and and Jamie Wheal provide decades of research along with centuries of human knowledge to make their case for the future of transcendent experiences in their book, Stealing Fire. This is a summary, analysis, and review of the book and not the original book

The Gospel according to John has always been recognized as different from the "synoptic" accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But what explains the difference? In this new translation and verse-by-verse commentary, Michael Pakaluk suggests an answer and unlocks a 2,000-year-old mystery. Mary's Voice in the Gospel According to John reveals the subtle but powerful influence of the mother of Jesus on the fourth Gospel.

Award-winning children's author Mitali Perkins grew up steeped in stories - escaping into her books on the fire escape of a Flushing apartment building and, later, finding solace in them as she navigated between the cultures of her suburban California school and her Bengali heritage at home. Now Perkins invites us to explore the promise of seven timeless children's novels for adults living in uncertain times: stories that provide mirrors to our innermost selves and open windows to other worlds.

Whether you are currently aspiring, succeeding, or failing, ego is always lurking around. It limits your attempt to build, to maintain, or to recover. Ryan Holiday's best-selling book, Ego Is The Enemy offers practical wisdom to overcome your inner ego and find real success.

Since its publication on September 30, 1868, Little Women has been one of America's favorite stories. While we now think of it as a girls' book, it was initially read by both boys and girls, men and women of all ages. Professor Anne Boyd Rioux, who read it in her 20s, tells us how Louisa May Alcott came to write the book and drew inspiration for her story from her own life. Rioux sees the novel's beating heart in its honest look at adolescence and its inspiring vision of young women's resilience and hope.

Please note: This is a summary, analysis, and review of the book and not the original book. Dr. David D. Burns offers practical advice to dealing with the thoughts that lead to depression, rather than going straight to medication to solve your problems in his groundbreaking look into mood and depression, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. This Sumoreads summary and analysis offers supplementary material to Feeling Good to help you distill the key takeaways, review the book's content, and further understand the writing style and overall themes.

This is extreme examination of fiction books. We take excerpts from popular novels (one page in length) from various chapters and we read them, trying to understand the writer's voice, writing structure, and more. Over time we'll have a clearer definition of how we do our analysis. This book will have notes every now and then. Enjoy! Oh, and if you were wondering, the main purpose of this is to learn how to write better fiction.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction - and the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature - novelist, orator, and outspoken public intellectual Toni Morrison is best known for her novels. In Playing in the Dark, however, she enters the realm of literary criticism. Morrison, an African American, draws attention to the often-overlooked significance of race in literature, demonstrating "the impact of racism on those who perpetuate it". Reading the racial language between the lines of classic American fiction, Morrison shows that literature is never raceless.

Author and worry coach Dr. David Carbonell uses a combination of the evolutional concepts of acceptance and commitment therapy as well as cognitive behavioral therapy to teach you how to get hold of your worry trend by leaning and avoiding the trick that your brain uses to get you worried and anxious. This FastReads Analysis offers supplementary material to The Worry Trick to help you distill the key takeaways, review the book's content, and further understand the writing style.