Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America    by Jay Parini Order:  USA  Can Anchor, 2010 (2008) Hardcover, Softcover, e-Book Read an Excerpt      Reviewed by Kelly Thunstrom A family member recently received a Kindle as a gift and was eager to show it to me. He was confused when I ran kicking and screaming from the room (I exaggerate only a little). Is nothing sacred? Does everything on this beautiful place we call Earth have to be completely technological? Is the closing of libraries and bookstores right around the corner? Books have been around forever, not the 'download this bestseller for $7.99 kind', but the good, old-fashioned, turn-the-page kind. Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America is not your average Best Books Ever list. There is no The Fountainhead in sight. What Parini does do is come up with a very interesting list of books that, when introduced to popular culture, changed life as we know it. When Harriet Beecher Stowe met Abraham Lincoln after the release of Uncle Tom's Cabin, he is famously quoted as saying 'So you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!' In addition, who can argue that Dr. Benjamin Spock changed child rearing as we know it when he published his The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care? Promised Land is the kind of book you can pick up in March and finish in June. It will not appeal to everybody (I can't see the average American going into Barnes & Noble and picking up a copy of The Federalist Papers), but it is fine reading for those who love literary history. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews