Classics Books

Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisIt Can''t Happen Here. Are we so sure? Many would suggest that it certainly could happen ''here,'' which is precisely the point that Sinclair Lewis was making when he wrote this book in 1935. This, incidentally, was still a few years before the worst fears would unfold in Germany, giving the book a somewhat prophetic flair. Based on the American Democrat, Huey Long, it has been, despite that, often been associated with ''right wing'' movements. This is ironic, as only a few years later it would be the Democrat FDR that would put American-Japanese citizens into concentration camps using ''emergency powers,'' much as the book''s protagonist, Berzelius Windrip, was portrayed as doing, after beating FDR in 1936.  In case you miss the irony: the real-life FDR actually did what the fictional Windrip was portrayed as doing!The long history of abandoning civil rights using emergency powers was reprised more recently during the COVID pandemic, when Western nations and individual US states, ostensibly ''democracies,'' nonetheless invoked emergency powers to enact all sorts of authoritarian measures.Thus, when pondering whether or not ''it can happen here'' (which all assume it can) we are perhaps left with a more intriguing question: Why hasn''t it happened here? And then, once this has been answered, work to ensure that the factors that have prevented a full-blown authoritarian regime from materializing in the United States are retained and strengthened.

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Book SynopsisFans of The House of Seven Gables and Grimm Tales will love this “eerie and tense” thriller. (Screencraft)“666 Gable Way has everything. Witches, horror, thrills, supernatural entities, and even a touch of romance. ” —CB Writer, Amazon reviewerSomething evil hides within the House of Seven Gables...Phoebe Pyncheon hasn’t had an easy life. Alone and out of work, she does her best to make ends meet while she finishes her debut novel. But when even the monthly rent becomes too much for the struggling young writer to afford, she is forced to move into her Great Aunt Hester’s boarding house. Known as the House of Seven Gables, this Victorian mansion is a maze of decrepit halls, musty old furniture, and faded glamour.At first, Phoebe feels at home in the strange, quirky old house. But soon she senses a presence lurking in the shadows, just out of sight.She hears it breathing in the darkness, feels its cold touch on her skin at night.Then the police knock on her door with news of a dead body found nearby. And Phoebe discovers the terrifying truth...The House of Seven Gables is a temple to an ancient evil, a terrifying power unleashed by Hester and her coven of friends. This dark entity haunts the stones of the old mansion, plotting its revenge upon the living. But a secret power hides within Phoebe as well.And releasing it may be her only chance to survive the terror that awaits her...“There is nothing like a book full of evil witches, satanic rituals, and dark family histories!” —Chelsea Hannah, horror reviewer“[A] written version of an episode of ‘Twilight Zone,’” —Dennis T. Faleris, Amazon reviewer“OMG, loved this book. It sucks you in and you cannot put this book down. Hands down one of my absolute favorites!” —Ashley, Amazon reviewer

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Book SynopsisIlya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Feinsilberg) (1897–1937) and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev/Katayev) (1902–1942) were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s. They did much of their writing together, and are almost always referred to as 'Ilf and Petrov'. They were natives of Odessa. Ilf and Petrov gained a high profile for their two satirical novels: The Twelve Chairs (1928) and its sequel, The Little Golden Calf (1931). The two texts are connected by their main character, Ostap Bender, a con man in pursuit of elusive riches. Both books follow exploits of Bender and his associates looking for treasure amidst the contemporary Soviet reality. They were written and are set in the relatively liberal era in Soviet history, the New Economic Policy of the 1920s. The main characters generally avoid contact with the apparently lax law enforcement. Their position outside the organized, goal-driven, productive Soviet society is emphasized. It also gives the authors a convenient platform from which to look at this society and to make fun of its less attractive and less Socialist aspects. These are among the most widely read and quoted books in Russian culture. The Twelve Chairs was adapted for ca. twenty movies, in the USSR (by Leonid Gaidai and by Mark Zakharov), in the US (in particular by Mel Brooks), and in other countries.From the late 1920s to 1937, the co-authors wrote several theatrical plays and screenplays, as well as many humorous short stories and satirical articles in the magazines: Chudak, 30 days, Krokodil, Ogoniok, the newspapers: Pravda, Literaturnaya Gazeta. In the first years of joint creativity Ilf and Petrov published their stories and satirical under parodic pseudonyms: Tolstoevsky (composed of the names of writers Tolstoy and Dostoevsky), Don Busilio (from Don Basilio, character in the opera The Barber of Seville, and the Russian verb busa – scandal, noise), Cold philosopher and others.The two writers also traveled across the Great Depression-era United States. Ilf took many pictures throughout the journey, and the authors produced a photo essay entitled 'American Photographs', published in Ogoniok magazine. Shortly after that they published the book 'One-storied America', translated as Little Golden America (an allusion to The Little Golden Calf). The first edition of the book did not include Ilf's photographs. Both the photo essay and the book document their adventures with their characteristic humor and playfulness. Notably, Ilf and Petrov were not afraid to praise many aspects of the American lifestyle in these works. (wikipedia.org)

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