Bookey Best Book Summary App

The Five Love Languages Full Book Introduction

The Five Love Languages
The Five Love Languages Full Book Introduction
 
Many people think that marriage is the grave of love, and a lot of couples fight with each other or have marriage crises because of trivial things. But they are always close to each other when they are in love. So what turns these intimate relationships into ones ripe with conflict? This book will tell us why as well as discuss the primary reason why communication is so important, and how we can express love in proper ways. It also provides effective ways that will point us in the direction of how to resolve marriage crises.
 
Author : Gary Chapman
Gary Chapman is a prominent relationship coach and a popular lecturer. He has met tons of couples who were faced with marriage crises, but through deep communication he found out that the reason for the marriage crisis was that both the wife and husband used the wrong love languages to get along with each other. After this revelation, he decided to write this book as a way to help people discover their true love languages to enjoy a better marriage.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today, we will unlock the book by Gary Chapman called “The Five Love Languages.”
 
It is common that relationships change after marriage, even though many couples were happy when they were in love before that. They may fight with each other more frequently after marriage. More seriously, these conflicts can lead to emotional crises or even divorce. What’s going on? The problem is that we all have different love languages, which means we all have different ways of expressing love.
 
When getting along with our partner, we express our love based on our own ideas. These different ideas mean people will eventually end up with different love languages. This is the point: Does your partner understand your way of expressing love? Will he or she feel that you love him? This happens because we ignore the fact that everyone has different love languages. Your partner might not feel your love when you express love in your own ways.
 
Why are love languages important? In the book, the author says that giving and receiving love is at the center of every single adult’s sense of wellbeing. Marriage is designed to satisfy our needs for an intimate relationship and love. Feeling loved is the most important emotional need for us. In his book, the author uses a good metaphor: in every child’s heart, there is an “emotional love tank” waiting to be filled with love. It’s only when a child feels truly loved that he can grow up healthy and happy. However, when the love tank is empty, the child will exhibit problematic behaviors. Adults are the same. If our love tank is empty and we cannot feel loved, our marriage will have problems. So how can we fill our love tank and reap good results in a marriage? The love language teaches us how to fill our love tank in the proper ways, and this book will tell us how to do it in detail.  
 
Gary Chapman is a prominent relationship coach who has met lots of couples who were faced with marriage issues. Through deep communication, he found that the reason for the marriage crisis was that both partners used the wrong love languages to get along with each other. Therefore, he wrote this book to help people discover their love languages and have a better marriage. His other book, “Things I Wish I'd Known Before We Got Married” discusses common traps that can be found in a marriage. If you are interested in it, please listen to our bookey of that book.
 
Next, we will cover the essence of “The Five Love Languages” in six parts. We will learn how to discover our partner’s love language as well as our own to have a happy and healthy marriage.
 
Part One: Love Language #1: Words of Affirmation;
 
Part Two: Love Language #2: Quality Time;
 
Part Three: Love Language #3: Gifts;
 
Part Four: Love Language #4: Acts of Service;
 
Part Five: Love Language #5: Physical Touch;
 
Part Six: Discover Your Primary Love Language.
 

The Big Short Full Book Introduction

The Big Short
The Big Short Full Book Introduction
 
This book mainly tells the story of how several ordinary Wall Street workers found out the secret of the bond market, realized the crisis hidden under the "subprime" bubble, and got rich by shorting the market. The book also reveals the dark side of American financial institutions and financial rating agencies. It analyzes the various causes of the financial crisis.
 
Author : Michael Lewis
The author of this book is Michael Lewis. He graduated from Princeton University and the London School of Economics and Political Science. He served as a bond trader at Salomon Brothers, and was also a writer for The New York Times and an editor of The Observer. His famous book, Liar's Poker, is widely regarded as a classic depiction of Wall Street culture in the 1980s. He is also the author of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, and Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today, we will unlock for you the book, The Big Short.
 
Speaking of the U.S. subprime crisis, we believe you are already familiar with it. The crisis began in the spring of 2006. At the time, many Americans that borrowed money to buy homes couldn't afford their bank loans. They sold their homes, and housing prices plunged, which triggered an economic crisis that engulfed the housing and financial markets. By August 2007, the crisis had influenced the financial markets of the U.S., the European Union, and Japan. It also brought unimaginable damage to the famed Wall Street. However, some saw the crisis well before the bubble burst. While everyone else was dreaming of making money, they shorted the market and made handsome profits and became one of the few people to make a fortune during a financial disaster. They performed what the book calls the "big short." So, who are they? How did they manage to see the situation clearly? That is the story of The Big Short.
 
The book was written by American best-selling author, Michael Lewis. His bestselling books include Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, and The Big Short. Forbes chose both Liar's Poker and The New New Thing as "the 20 most influential business books of the 20th century." He is currently a contributing editor of Vanity Fair.
 
In The Big Short, Michael Lewis' ability to capture the ins and outs of financial trading and the way people think and behave has a lot to do with his own experience. In his early years at Wall Street’s top investment bank, Salomon Brothers, he gained deep insight into the financial industry. As soon as it was published, The Big Short became the go-to-book for people who wanted to study the financial crisis of 2008. In 2015, the book was adapted into a film that won the Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay. While the film focuses more on Wall Street’s greed, what we're going to unlock focuses more on what caused the financial crisis and how people responded to it.
 
Next, we will explain the core content of the book from three aspects.
 
Part I: What caused the U.S. subprime crisis?
 
Part II: The truth behind the bubble and why were people were so optimistic?
 
Part III: Who benefited from the financial disaster after the bubble burst?

Sapiens Full Book Introduction

Sapiens
Sapiens Full Book Introduction
 
Homo sapiens were once an inconspicuous group in the corner of Africa. How did they eventually make it to the top of the biological chain and take over the planet? Where did money and religions originate from? Why did the empires created by humankind rise and fall one after another? How did science and capitalism become the most crucial tenets of modern society? This book will help you sort out the journey of humankind from ancient times. By uncovering the origins of cultures, religions, laws, nations, and credit, humankind can reexamine itself.
 
Author : Yuval Harari
Born in Israel, Yuval Harari is a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a world-renowned historian and a rising star in the field of history. His focus areas incorporate history, anthropology, ecology, genetics, and other academic disciplines. From a macroscopic point of view in his research, he frequently yields perspectives that are innovative and can afford much food for thought. Hence, his works are highly sought after by readers from all walks of life. Once published, his Sapiens became an international hit and gained popularity in dozens of countries.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.
 
East Africa, 2 million BC. It was a stretch of lush grassland, covered by a sea of bright greenness after the rainy season. Above the distant horizon were a few pale cumulus clouds scattered across the azure sky. A gutted giraffe lied underneath a tall Acacia tree, while a pride of lions gnawed on it. In a secluded spot in the grass next to the tree, hounds and jackals waited quietly. By the time the lions had left the area, hounds and jackals swarmed and feasted on the giraffe until all that's left was a skeleton, then they departed contentedly. At this moment, another group of creatures, very humanlike and somewhat chimpanzee-like, walked out of the bushes a little further. The group of creatures had arms and legs but walked upright. After carefully gathering around the giraffe skeleton and vigilantly surveying their surroundings, the creatures chiseled the giraffe's bones with several sharp stones. They dug out the only edible tissue that remained: marrow.
 
The surface of the moon, 1969. The plains and plateaus composed of Plagioclase and basalt were dotted with meteor craters of breccia. Since the atmosphere was thin and almost nonexistent, the sunlight shining onto the grayish-white pitted ground was directly reflected into space. It not only resulted in considerable land surface temperature difference but also turned the sky pitch black. For billions of years since its birth, this place had been dead and quiet. Until this day, there had been no sign of life except for occasional visits by meteorites. A strange metallic device appeared in the distant sky and landed after quickly approaching. Two creatures in white but outlandish attire descended from the machine above. They bounced clumsily on the ground, inserted flags, and erected a metal tablet on this patch of land. Then one of them made a footprint in the ground and said, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
 
At this point, it should be clear to everyone that both stories are about ourselves as humans. Not so long ago, we were just weaklings on the prairie. We lived a life of fear and anxiety, feeding on raw, bloody meats. But in a short amount of time, we created a colossal global civilization.
 
By what force did we as a species rise to power? Where did humankind originate? And how was civilizations born? How did we stick out from many other species and jump to the top of this planet's food chain? How many more mysteries are there in the history of humankind? In today's review of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, we will clear these doubts and explore the essential questions of history and modern society.
 
The author of this book is Yuval Harari. Born in Israel, Harari is a history professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a world-renowned historian and a rising star in the field of history. His focus areas incorporate history, anthropology, ecology, genetics, and other academic disciplines. From a macroscopic point of view in his research, he frequently yields perspectives that are not only innovative but also afford much food for thought. Hence, his works are highly sought after by readers from all walks of life. We've already covered his bestselling books 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind that we're going to discuss today became an international hit once published. It is a phenomenal and unique work that has become popular worldwide.
 
Next, we will uncover the book through four parts:
 
Part one: The Cognitive Revolution;
 
Part two: The Agricultural Revolution;
 
Part three, The Unification of Humankind;
 
Part four, The Scientific Revolution.

Outliers Full Book Introduction

Outliers
Outliers Full Book Introduction
 
In every time period, there exist some "outliers" who possess exceptional abilities and achieve extraordinary feats. It is commonly believed that their success is attributed to personal factors, that they are either gifted or simply work much harder than the average person. However, this book uncovers the real secret to their success. They do not rely purely on their talent or hard work to achieve success; rather, their success is influenced by innate strengths, acquired opportunities, and cultural backgrounds.
 
Author : Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian author of Jamaican and English descent. In 2005, he was included in the TIME 100 Most Influential People list. In addition to this, Gladwell has been hailed as “a 21st-century Peter Drucker” by Fast Company. The New York Times described his influence on social thought as “the Gladwell Effect.” He is known for his books The Tipping Point, Blink, Talking To Strangers, and David and Goliath. Each of these books made a splash in the world of non-fiction literature. You can use our APP to find the bookeys for each of these titles.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today, we will unlock the book Outliers: The Story of Success.
 
In every era, we can find "outliers" who possess exceptional skills and achieve extraordinary feats. They become a symbol of that era, and their extraordinary performances are recorded in history books. It is commonly believed that their success is attributable to personal factors, that they are either gifted or work significantly harder than the average person. For example, we believe that due to Albert Einstein's superior IQ, he was able to become one of the world's greatest physicists. Similarly, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart practiced for 10,000 hours to compose the classic work Piano Concerto No. 9.
 
On the surface, it seems that having a high IQ and undertaking strenuous efforts will lead to success, but this book tells us that they did not rely purely on their talent or hard work to achieve success; their success was influenced by innate strengths, acquired opportunities, and cultural backgrounds. In other words, social and cultural factors gave them an edge over ordinary people. Furthermore, these strengths may be amplified under the effect of a virtuous circle, thus allowing them to outrank ordinary people in competition. So, in addition to their internal factors—superb talent and hard work—we also need to focus on the external factors that contributed to their success: hidden advantages, opportunities, and cultural influences. The author tells us that without these external factors, even someone who has a higher IQ than Einstein is still likely to fall into mediocrity.
 
By thinking out of the box, this book leads us towards more profound opportunities for success. Also, it gives us another way to interpret factors for success.
 
In this bookey, we'll discuss the book in three parts:
 
Part One: Innate strengths
 
Part Two: Acquired opportunities
 
Part Three: Cultural legacies

Oliver Twist Full Book Introduction

Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist Full Book Introduction
 
The novel Oliver Twist tells the story of Oliver, an orphan raised in a workhouse. When he cannot take any more abuse, he escapes to London. In London, he is hooked into a den of thieves and undergoes many hardships before getting free with the help of various kind Samaritans. Oliver doesn’t know the identity of his father but finally discovers the truth about his birth. The author Charles Dickens created this kind-hearted protagonist whose life is beset with tragedy. In so doing, Dickens won the love and sympathy of countless readers. By telling Oliver’s story, Dickens revealed darkness and injustices endemic in English society at the time.
 
Author : Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens is one of the most celebrated English novelists of the 19th century. During his life, he wrote a total of 15 full-length novels, more than a hundred short stories, dozens of novellas, and numerous essays, travel journals, and plays. He was one of the most prolific writers the world has ever known, creating works in almost every genre apart from poetry. Dickens’ novels reflect the social conditions of his times, evoking them in vivid detail. Through his works, Dickens articulated the views and outlooks of his contemporaries and exposed the stark societal conflicts and hypocrisies of his age.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the novel Oliver Twist.
 
In England, in 1837, when Victoria came to the throne, it signaled the dawn of the “Victorian era”. It was a period of relative domestic peace with few international conflicts. Tranquility and stability lasted, and in 1851, the Great Exhibition was staged in London, consolidating the achievements of the Queen’s reign and establishing England’s position as the leading power in the world. Charles Dickens was a rising star on the literary scene at the time. He had established his reputation with the publication of his novel The Pickwick Papers. In that founding year of the Victorian era, 1837, Dickens began writing a serialized novel for the monthly magazine Bentley’s Miscellany. The two-year-long series later became his novel Oliver Twist.
 
This book tells the story of an orphan raised in an abusive workhouse who later escapes to London. His name is Oliver Twist. In the city, Oliver chances upon a group of thieves who want to use him as an accomplice. In their company, he suffers many hardships. Finally, good Samaritans come to his aid and rescue him, and Oliver discovers the true circumstances of his birth. In Oliver, Dickens created a tragic but kind-hearted protagonist who won the love and sympathy of countless readers. In telling Oliver’s tale, Dickens also reveals the darkness and injustices common in English society at the time, especially when it comes to treating the underclasses. Although Victorian England is remembered today as a powerful state, Dickens’ writing presents the era as, in equal parts, good and evil. Under the same sun, the palatial estates of the wealthy sat beside the filthy slums of the poor. At any moment, both the upstanding and the wretched could be on their way up to heaven or on a descent toward the gates of hell.
 
Dickens was born in 1812 in the town of Portsmouth in the southeast of England. There, his father worked as a minor clerk at the Navy Pay Office. In 1823, the family moved to London, but their finances were in dire straits. The entire family of eight adults and children lived in a cramped little shack in Camden, a district in North London. Their situation was so grave that by the start of the following year, Dickens’ father was sent to the Marshalsea debtors’ prison, a working punishment for owing money. The family moved there with him, but not Dickens. He remained in London. Two weeks before his father was taken away, Dickens had entered Warren’s Blacking Warehouse near The Hungerford Stairs on the Thames. There he was put to work as a child laborer. He toiled 12 hours a day, sticking labels on bottles of shoe polish. Through this personal experience, he was able to easily empathize with the misfortunes of helpless and oppressed children suffering a similar plight. He gained first-hand experience of the filth and corruption in the underbelly of London. This would later inform his writing, providing him with a wealth of creative material for his future career as a writer.
 
Over almost two centuries, Oliver Twist has withstood the test of time. The book has become one of the world’s most highly celebrated English-language novels. It continues to be loved by countless readers to this day.
 
In this bookey, we will explain Oliver Twist’s significant and timeless appeal in three parts:
 
Part One introduces Oliver’s traumatic early life as a workhouse apprentice and at an undertaker’s premises. This part introduces the welfare system used in England at the time to support the poor.
 
Part Two recounts how Oliver accidentally ventures into a den of thieves after arriving in London. Along the way we will also analyze Dickens’ vivid depictions of London’s underbelly.
 
Finally, Part Three unravels the mystery surrounding Oliver’s birth and briefly discusses aspects of weakness in the novel.

Madame Bovary Full Book Introduction

Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary Full Book Introduction
 
Emma, the protagonist of the novel, was a farmer’s daughter. The education she received in the monastery and the influence of the Romantic movement had given her many fantasies about the wealthy aristocratic life. As a result, she was deeply disappointed with her mediocre husband and ordinary marriage, and lived through a gradual moral and financial degeneration. Through the course of what she considers an unworthy life, Emma becomes deeply indebted and her overall dissatisfaction with her own reality leads her to take her own life. This novel portrays one of the most classic female images in the history of literature and reveals the reality behind the French society during the mid-19th century.
 
Author : Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist and leading exponent of literary realism in the 19th century. He was very rigid with his works, often repeatedly revising every word and sentence until they looked perfect. Madame Bovary is his most famous work and is considered a literary masterpiece. Since its publication, the novel has been highly praised in the literary world. Czech writer Milan Kundera claims that “ever since Madame Bovary, the art of the novel has been considered equal to the art of poetry.”
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we’ll unlock the book Madame Bovary, written by the famous 19th-century French author Gustave Flaubert. One of the most influential works in the history of French literature, the novel is considered to have established a new paradigm of literary realism.
 
However, Madame Bovary was very controversial when it was first published. From 1856 to 1857, the novel was published as a series in the French magazine Revue de Paris. Shortly afterwards, it was under prosecution by the authorities of that time, accused for being an “outrage to public morality and religion”. Gustave Flaubert, an unknown novelist living in seclusion in the countryside at that time, was summoned to the court for trial. In the end, Flaubert was found not guilt, and because of this novel he gained a notable reputation and status in the history of literature.
 
You might be curious now; what’s this novel about and why did it cause such a wrath? The book was badly received by the public because it portrayed Emma Bovary, a depraved woman, as the main character. Flaubert did a good job portraying Madame Bovary’s path toward depravity and her affairs with multiple lovers. What’s more, Flaubert wrote the whole story with a soothing and objective tone, without any sense of judgement or criticism on Madame Bovary’s life. That’s why the public prosecutors at the time believed that this novel was "the poetics of adultery". The novel has been criticized for promoting the liberation of sexual desire, which would have a bad influence on young female readers. Many readers also thought this novel was shocking and that it went against their moral standards.  
 
Hearing this, you might be even more curious: What is this story about? How should we understand the literary image of a woman who’s considered immoral by traditional standards? What did Flaubert want to express when portraying Madame Bovary? Why is this novel considered a milestone in the history of world literature?
 
In this bookey, we will answer these questions one by one and interpret the book from the following three aspects:
 
Part One: The main plot of the novel;
 
Part Two: Understand Madame Bovary
 
Part Three: Gustave Flaubert's literary achievements
 

Gone With The Wind Full Book Introduction

Gone With The Wind
Gone With The Wind Full Book Introduction
 
The novel uses the American Civil War as a backdrop and the life of protagonist Scarlett O’Hara as its main plot to depict the war’s impact on Southern plantation owners, as well as the process of post-war reconstruction. In so doing, it paints the portrait of a resilient and intelligent female character who is unafraid to subvert unjust norms, and who always looks earnestly to the future without clinging to the past. Not only does it depict the classic love story between Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, but it also vividly portrays the profound changes in the politics, economy, ethics and everyday life that were unfolding in America’s Confederate South at the time.
 
Author : Margaret Mitchell
Margaret Mitchell, an illustrious American classic female writer, was born into a family of lawyers in Atlantic City, Georgia. She studied at various institutions, including Washington Seminary and Smith College in Massachusetts, and eventually earned the title of Doctor of Literature. She worked as a journalist at The Atlanta Journal, a job she quit after getting married to focus on writing. Then, after ten long years of work, she completed her classic novel, Gone with the Wind, the only masterpiece in her life, which secured her place amongst the greats in the history of literature forevermore.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we unlock the novel “Gone with the Wind”.
 
The novel’s author, Margaret Mitchell, was born in Atlantic City, Georgia in the southern United States. As a youth, she frequently overheard her father discussing the Civil War in the South with others, and as a result, she developed a keen interest in history. Thereafter, she devoted herself to studying the history of the Civil War, as well as what social life in the South, especially Georgia, was like during the Reconstruction era that followed. After she married, persuaded by her husband, she used her grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, as inspiration to create the classic literary female character Scarlett O’Hara as the heroine in her masterpiece Gone with the Wind. It was a phenomenon. In the year following its publication in 1936, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Award, and millions of copies have been sold. Shortly after winning the awards, the novel was adapted for the big screen and ultimately won a total of 10 Oscar Awards, becoming a movie classic in its own right.
 
Originally, the author titled the book Tomorrow is Another Day, a phrase that summed up the life philosophy of its protagonist, Scarlett. In the process of double-checking the book’s historical facts and plotlines, Mitchell decided to change the book’s title to Gone with the Wind, after being enchanted by a line from the poem Cynara by American poet Ernest Dowson which reads “I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! In my fashion, I have forgot much, Cynara! Gone with the wind.” Mitchell likened the war to a hurricane that swept across the South. Amidst this hurricane, the lives of the Southern nobility were irrevocably altered, and the book portrayed the challenging transition from slavery to capitalism in the region.
 
The novel’s portrayal of women as resilient, independent and willing to tirelessly fight for better lives for themselves and their families makes this novel a timeless classic. Upon its publication, the US was recovering from the Great Depression, a period of hardship that President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was unable to alleviate. As a result, the unrelenting spirit exemplified by Scarlett served as a great source of motivation for the public. At the same time, the feminist ideals embodied by Scarlett, a modern woman who dared to go against the patriarchal norms and pursue a life for herself, were also perfectly aligned with the feminist wave that was gaining momentum at the time.
 
Scarlett became the feminine representation of bravery, intelligence and independence. Even in the movies, Scarlett’s character comes across as indomitable, to the extent that people might feel that her life was not so difficult after all. However, if you take a close look at the novel, its intricate descriptions will present you with a more nuanced and realistic character portrayal.
 
Now, we will discuss this book for you in three parts, during which we will thoroughly explore the character of Scarlett as well as gain a deeper understanding of the social challenges that existed during those tumultuous times.
 
In Part One, using the timeline of the war as a basis, we will recount to you the major upheavals in the lives of Scarlett and those around her, as well as look at the relationship entanglements between her, Rhett Butler and Ashley Wilkes;
 
In Part Two, we will analyze the key aspects of Scarlett’s character, investigate how she embodies feminist ideals, as well as discuss the root cause of her tragic love affair with Rhett;
 
In Part Three, we will take you on a journey through the antebellum South and see how their traditional lifestyles went “gone with the wind”, and how the author perceived all these changes.  
 

Crime And Punishment Full Book Introduction

Crime And Punishment
Crime And Punishment Full Book Introduction
 
This is the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished and lonely university student. To improve his family’s living conditions and support himself, he robs and murders a selfish old woman. She is predatory and exploitative, amassing wealth and valuables as a loan shark. After the crime, he suffers excruciating remorse and inner torment. Raskolnikov becomes anxious and delirious. Finally, Sonia, a kindly and compassionate prostitute, inspires him to surrender to the authorities, and thus he experiences a tumultuous rebirth of the soul.
 
Author : Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Dostoevsky was a Russian realist writer born in 1821. He completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1845 and it received widespread acclaim. This early success paved the way for a brilliant literary career. His most renowned works include The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Insulted and the Injured, The Idiot, and The House of the Dead. Dostoevsky’s writings often focus on the inner dilemmas and suffering of underprivileged individuals from the lower strata of society. Dostoevsky uses in-depth psychological descriptions to create convincing character portraits.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the novel Crime and Punishment. Fyodor Dostoevsky, the work’s author, was a realist writer. Alongside Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev, he was one of the three towering figures of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Crime and Punishment is one of his most celebrated works and is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece.
 
The novel explores social psychology as well as telling the story of crime and detection. It takes place in Saint Petersburg around the middle of the nineteenth century. The narrative concerns Raskolnikov, a university law student.  After committing a murder, he is wracked by inner torment. Finally, he experiences a spiritual rebirth, but not until he has been inspired to turn himself in by Sonia, a kindly Christian soul. In the book, Dostoevsky masterfully details the psychological changes that occur after the murderer commits their crime.
 
In 1864, Fyodor Dostoevsky, with his brother Mikhail founded the literary magazine Epokha. The magazine published Fyodor’s and other authors’ works. After the death in the same year of both Fyodor’s first wife, Maria, and Mikhail, Dostoevsky fell into financial difficulty, running up huge debts with his creditors. It forced him to stop publishing the magazine and commit to an unfair contract with another publisher for his work. However, this unfavorable agreement led to the completion of this novel, Crime and Punishment.  
 
Many of Dostoevsky’s writings are introspective and discreet. His dissection of the human psyche is simultaneously comprehensive and profound, barbed and unforgiving, expansive and detailed. The Austrian writer Franz Kafka once said, “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.” Dostoevsky’s works can be considered as such axes. If Tolstoy has shown us the breadth of Russian literature, then it can be said that Dostoevsky represents its depth.
 
Through his writings, Dostoevsky, having himself experienced life’s hardships, attempts to expose society’s darkness and criminality. He describes the living conditions and sufferings of the underprivileged and expresses his heartfelt sympathy for their plight. He articulates the need for social change. As the Russian poet Merezhkovsky once said, Dostoevsky is sometimes closer to us than our loved ones. In sickness, he is a fellow patient. In both good and evil deeds, he is an accomplice. Nothing brings people closer than common weakness.
 
The topics, crime and punishment are recurring motifs in literature. They represent humanity’s fall from grace and the subsequent path to redemption. This novel raises many precise questions, such as “What is crime?”, “Why do people commit crimes?” and “after committing a crime, is it possible to be redeemed?” In the draft of his book, Dostoevsky states that his goal in writing is to expose these dilemmas. Did he succeed, and was he able to address all these problems? Let’s find out together in this bookey.
 
We will introduce this story of crime and redemption in three parts:
In Part One, we will introduce the plot of the story and experience the characters’ journey of crime and redemption together;
 
In Part Two, we will briefly analyze psychological descriptions as a writing technique, and discuss how they are used in the book to shape the character of Raskolnikov;
 
Finally, in Part Three, we will explore the religious ideology and humanitarian spirit of the novel.

A Beautiful Mind Full Book Introduction

A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Mind Full Book Introduction
 
A Beautiful Mind recounts the life of Nobel Laureate economist John Forbes Nash. The movie, adapted from the eponymous book, achieved massive popularity, taking home Best Picture in the 74th Academy Awards. Up until the age of thirty, Nash was hailed as a genius, a dazzling mathematician. However, mental illness turned his life upside down and tore apart his happy family. This book tells of Nash's life and the experiences of the people who were close to him. Undoubtedly, all of them shared his beautiful mind.
 
Author : Sylvia Nasar
Sylvia Nasar was a staff writer at Fortune, a columnist at U.S. News & World Report, and a New York Times economics correspondent. She was visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and at King’s College and Churchill College Cambridge. A Beautiful Mind is her inaugural work. It won the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography.
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today we will unlock the book A Beautiful Mind.
 
On May 24, 2015, the world was shocked by the news that John and Alicia Nash had died in a car crash in New Jersey.
 
You may not know the name John Forbes Nash. But many of you are likely to remember the film A Beautiful Mind, which won Best Picture at the 74th Academy Awards. In real life, the movie’s protagonist, Nash, was an eminent mathematician and economist; in fact in 1994, he was a Nobel Laureate economist.
 
In the film, Nash’s story is cleverly portrayed. The movie opens with Nash's university life, his roommate, and lodgings. Everything seems fine and peaceful. After his postgraduate studies, Nash obtains a professorship and falls in love with a beautiful young woman, Alicia. They are soon married. While Nash's academic career is blossoming, the U.S. Defense Department approaches him, and he is given an opportunity to work closely with them on top-secret national security projects. Until this point, undoubtedly, in the eyes of the world, Nash is a born winner with a successful career, romance, and a loving relationship. However, in a dramatic plot twist, it turns out that in Nash's life, everything is pure illusion. He does not have a roommate. No agents are commissioning his work, and there are no secret projects. His wife is the only real thing in his life. Only later does the story divulge that Nash suffers from schizophrenia. All he sees, the activities and scenes going on in his mind, are nothing but hallucinations.
 
The movie is adapted from the book that is the subject of this bookey. While the film inevitably dramatizes the story, embellishing it with additional fictional elements, the book is a matter-of-fact portrayal of Nash’s life. The mathematical genius had thirty years of splendor. He rose above his peers like the brightest star in the night sky. However, when he was thirty, schizophrenia struck, and it deprived Nash of all that was wholesome and assured in his life. There followed a harrowing battle. For 30 years Nash fought against the disease and, in the end, miraculously got the upper hand. He recovered, and at this time was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics.
 
The book’s author, Sylvia Nasar, was a staff writer at Fortune and a columnist at U.S. News & World Report. In 2002 she was a visiting fellow at King’s College and Churchill College Cambridge. Today’s book A Beautiful Mind is Nasar’s inaugural work, and it is the book that made her reputation. She received the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award for biography and the 2000 Joint Policy Board Mathematics Communications Award.
 
Now, let's review the book A Beautiful Mind in three parts:
 
Part One: An extraordinary genius;
 
Part Two: A mad schizophrenic;
 
Part Three: A sober Nobel laureate.
 
 
 

The Wolf Of Wall Street Full Book Introduction

The Wolf Of Wall Street
The Wolf Of Wall Street Full Book Introduction
 
This book is a memoir of a man who was once known as “The Wolf of Wall Street.” At one point, Jordan Belfort made a whopping $12 million in just three minutes. Forbes magazine called him “a twisted version of Robin Hood” in the stock market. He was later sentenced to prison for having swindled investors out of approximately $200 million. Through Belfort’s revelation of his life’s trajectory, we get a glimpse into the dazzling world of power, greed and excess.
 
Author : Jordan Belfort
Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker who built his career from nothing and became a multimillionaire by the age of 31. He once made a whopping $12 million in just three minutes. With his silver tongue and little conscience, he established himself as a prominent figure of Wall Street. He has been described as a passionate speaker, a cunning profit maker, and a helpless drug addict. His merciless business style earned him the title “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
 
Overview | Chapter 1
Hi, welcome to bookey. Today we will unlock the book The Wolf of Wall Street. It was 1998 in a luxury house on the coast of Long Island. The smell of cigarette smoke and alcohol hung over the place. Young men and women were dancing like there was no tomorrow. It was a lavish party. Suddenly, people heard the wail of a siren. Policemen entered the house, walked straight up to Jordan Belfort and handcuffed him. Belfort was once a prominent stockbroker of Wall Street, infamously known as what Forbes called the “twisted version of Robin Hood,” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” within the Wall Street circle. Born and raised in an ordinary family, Belfort has no academic background in finance. However, he was able to establish himself in the capital-driven world within a very short time. Through despicable schemes, he was able to make $12 million effortlessly in just three minutes. By the age of 31, Belfort was already a multimillionaire. But at 36, he was arrested on federal fraud charges. How did Belfort accomplish this primitive capital accumulation within such a short time? And how did he end up in jail, redeem himself later, and even get his life story on the big screen?
 
The Wolf of Wall Street is more than just an autobiography. Rather, it’s an intriguing story of mindset transformation. Belfort was encouraged by a fellow prisoner to write this book in jail. While he was in jail reflecting on his past, the outside world was still perturbed by what he had done. Several publishers competed to get the rights to publish his book. Later, Hollywood showed interest in making this book into a movie. It was reported that Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio competed to play the role of Belfort in the film of the same name. Leonardo DiCaprio got the role in the end, and the film was a blockbuster, grossing several hundreds of millions of dollars. It was nominated for several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture, and was also selected as one of the top 10 Movies of the Year at the 14th AFI Awards.
 
What makes the difference between a financial magnate and the average Joe investor? Are they born rich and tenacious? Are they always successful and do they never fail? We’ll find out the answers by following the foot steps of Belfort, a Wall Street’s legendary figure whose life was once defined by greed, sex, and drugs. We’ll unlock this book in the following four parts.
 
Part 1: The making of a business genius.
 
Part 2: Founding his own firm and making a mint.
 
Part 3: Fighting against the FBI.
 
Part 4: Self-redemption.