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books tagged “Americas”
books tagged “Americas”
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1776by David McCulloughISBN 0743226720 (0-7432-2672-0)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: '1776'Book summary:In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence-when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King's men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known. At the center of the drama, with Washington, are two young American patriots, who, at first, knew no more of war than what they had read in books-Nathanael Greene, a Quaker who was made a general at thirty-three, and Henry Knox, a twenty-five-year-old bookseller who had the preposterous idea of hauling the guns of Fort Ticonderoga overland to Boston in the dead of winter. But it is the American commander-in-chief who stands foremost-Washington, who had never before led an army in battle. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough's 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history. [via]
The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congoby Ernesto Guevara, Richard Gott, Patrick Camiller, Aleida Guevara MarchISBN 0802138349 (0-8021-3834-9)
Softcover, Grove Pr
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Aguirre: The Re-Creation of a Sixteenth-Century Journey Across South Americaby Stephen MintaISBN 0805031049 (0-8050-3104-9)
Softcover, Henry Holt & Co
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All Souls' Rising : A Novelby Madison Smartt BellISBN 0679439897 (0-679-43989-7)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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America Before Columbusby Barry FellISBN 0671679740 (0-671-67974-0)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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America in 1492: The World of the Indian Peoples Before the Arrival of Columbusby Frederick E. Hoxie, Alvin M. JosephyISBN 0679743375 (0-679-74337-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'America in 1492: The World of the Indian Peoples Before the Arrival of Columbus'Book summary:When Columbus landed in 1492, the New World was far from being a vast expanse of empty wilderness: it was home to some seventy-five million people. They ranged from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego, spoke as many as two thousand different languages, and lived in groups that varied from small bands of hunter-gatherers to the sophisticated and dazzling empires of the Incas and Aztecs. This brilliantly detailed and documented volume brings together essays by fifteen leading scholars field to present a comprehensive and richly evocative portrait of Native American life on the eve of Columbus's first landfall.
Developed at the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian and edited by award-winning author Alvin M. Josehpy, Jr., America in 1492 is an invaluable work that combines the insights of historians, anthropologists, and students of art, religion, and folklore. Its dozens of illustrations, drawn from largely from the rare books and manuscripts housed at the Newberry Library, open a window on worlds flourished in the Americas five hundred years ago. [via]More editions of America in 1492: The World of the Indian Peoples Before the Arrival of Columbus:
Americasby Peter Winn, WGBH Education Foundation StaffISBN 0679411690 (0-679-41169-0)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Astronomy Across Cultures : The History of Non-Western Astronomyby Helaine SelinISBN 0792363639 (0-7923-6363-9)
Hardcover, Springer London, Limited
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Banditti of the Plainsby A. S. Mercer, Willaim H. KittrellISBN 0806113154 (0-8061-1315-4)
Softcover, Univ of Oklahoma Pr
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Bellocq : Photographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleansby E. J. Bellocq, John Szarkowski, Susan SontagISBN 0679449752 (0-679-44975-2)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Beyond the Mexique Bayby Aldous HuxleyISBN 0701107898 (0-7011-0789-8)
Hardcover, Chatto and Windus
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Blake, Prophet Against Empire: A Poet's Interpretation of the History of His Own Timesby David V. ErdmanISBN 069106010X (0-691-06010-X)
Hardcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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Cien Anos De Soledadby Frederic SeamanISBN 0785950109 (0-7859-5010-9)
Softcover, French & European Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cien Anos De Soledad'Book summary:A dense jungle of magic and literary gusto, this book pulls you in and engulfs you with its richness and beauty. Saying it is a story of a family is like saying the New Testament is a book about a carpenter. Following the family here reveals the history of several generations, and the passions, thoughts, and myths of a labyrinth of people, related and not. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a gifted writer, and nowhere does he write with the fervor that he does in One Hundred Years of Solitude, a pleasurable ride unmatched in modern literature. [via]
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Common Sense: Library Editionby Thomas Paine, Gregory TietjenISBN 0760712026 (0-7607-1202-6)
Softcover, Barnes & Noble
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Common Sense: Library Edition'Book summary:"These are the times that try men's souls," begins Thomas Paine's first Crisis paper, the impassioned pamphlet that helped ignite the American Revolution. Published in Philadelphia in January of 1776, Common Sense sold 150,000 copies almost immediately. A powerful piece of propaganda, it attacked the idea of a hereditary monarchy, dismissed the chance for reconciliation with England, and outlined the economic benefits of independence while espousing equality of rights among citizens. Paine fanned a flame that was already burning, but many historians argue that his work unified dissenting voices and persuaded patriots that the American Revolution was not only necessary, but an epochal step in world history. [via]
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Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexicoby Hugh ThomasISBN 0671511041 (0-671-51104-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico'Book summary:The author of The History of the Cuban Revolution draws on newly discovered sources to present a full and balanced history of Corte+a7s's conquest of Mexico. 35,000 first printing. [via]
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Getting to Know the General: The Story of an Involvementby Graham GreeneISBN 0671541609 (0-671-54160-9)
Hardcover, Simon and Schuster
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Guerilla Warfareby Che GuevaraISBN 0803270100 (0-8032-7010-0)
Softcover, Univ of Nebraska Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Guerilla Warfare'Book summary:Case studies that apply Che's theories on revolution to political situations in seven Latin American countries from the 1960s to the present. [via]
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Guerrilla Warfare: Che Guevaraby Ernesto GuevaraISBN 0803270755 (0-8032-7075-5)
Softcover, Univ of Nebraska Pr
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The Hard Road to Klondikeby Michael MacGowanISBN 071007686X (0-7100-7686-X)
Hardcover, Routledge and Kegan Paul
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius : A Memoir Based on a True Storyby Dave EggersISBN 0684863472 (0-684-86347-2)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius : A Memoir Based on a True Story'Book summary:Dave Eggers is a terrifically talented writer; don't hold his cleverness against him. What to make of a book called A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: Based on a True Story? For starters, there's a good bit of staggering genius before you even get to the true story, including a preface, a list of "Rules and Suggestions for Enjoyment of This Book," and a 20-page acknowledgements section complete with special mail-in offer, flow chart of the book's themes, and a lovely pen-and-ink drawing of a stapler (helpfully labeled "Here is a drawing of a stapler:").
But on to the true story. At the age of 22, Eggers became both an orphan and a "single mother" when his parents died within five months of one another of unrelated cancers. In the ensuing sibling division of labor, Dave is appointed unofficial guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher. The two live together in semi-squalor, decaying food and sports equipment scattered about, while Eggers worries obsessively about child-welfare authorities, molesting babysitters, and his own health. His child-rearing strategy swings between making his brother's upbringing manically fun and performing bizarre developmental experiments on him. (Case in point: his idea of suitable bedtime reading is John Hersey's Hiroshima.)
The book is also, perhaps less successfully, about being young and hip and out to conquer the world (in an ironic, media-savvy, Gen-X way, naturally). In the early '90s, Eggers was one of the founders of the very funny Might Magazine, and he spends a fair amount of time here on Might, the hipster culture of San Francisco's South Park, and his own efforts to get on to MTV's Real World. This sort of thing doesn't age very well--but then, Eggers knows that. There's no criticism you can come up with that he hasn't put into A.H.W.O.S.G. already. "The book thereafter is kind of uneven," he tells us regarding the contents after page 109, and while that's true, it's still uneven in a way that is funny and heartfelt and interesting.
All this self-consciousness could have become unbearably arch. It's a testament to Eggers's skill as a writer--and to the heartbreaking particulars of his story--that it doesn't. Currently the editor of the footnote-and-marginalia-intensive journal McSweeney's (the last issue featured an entire story by David Foster Wallace printed tinily on its spine), Eggers comes from the most media-saturated generation in history--so much so that he can't feel an emotion without the sense that it's already been felt for him. What may seem like postmodern noodling is really just Eggers writing about pain in the only honest way available to him. Oddly enough, the effect is one of complete sincerity, and--especially in its concluding pages--this memoir as metafiction is affecting beyond all rational explanation. --Mary Park [via]
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Herman Melville's Moby-Dickby Harold BloomISBN 0791040674 (0-7910-4067-4)
Hardcover, Facts on File
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Herman Melville's Moby-Dick'Book summary:In his introduction Harold Bloom suggests that the tragic protagonist of Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab, has only a few peers among American literary characters--though none wholly of his eminence. This text includes a brief biography of Melville, thematic and structural analysis of the work, and numerous essays by the best critics of the novel.
This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School. These texts are the ideal aid for all students of literature, presenting concise, easy-to-understand biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on a specific literary work. Also provided are multiple sources for book reports and term papers with a wealth of information on literary works, authors, and major characters. [via]
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The History of the Conquest of Peruby William H. PrescottISBN 0679602992 (0-679-60299-2)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The History of the Conquest of Mexico'Book summary:=
"It is a magnificent epic," said William H. Prescott after the publication of History of the Conquest of Mexico in 1843. Since then, his sweeping account of Cortés's subjugation of the Aztec people has endured as a landmark work of scholarship and dramatic storytelling. This pioneering study presents a compelling view of the clash of civilizations that reverberates in Latin America to this day.
----"Regarded simply from the standpoint of literary criticism, the Conquest of Mexico is Prescott's masterpiece," judged his biographer Harry Thurston Peck. "More than that, it is one of the most brilliant examples which the English language possesses of literary art applied to historical narration. . . . Here, as nowhere else, has Prescott succeeded in delineating character. All the chief actors of his great historic drama not only live and breathe, but they are as distinctly differentiated as they must have been in life. Cortés and his lieutenants are persons whom we actually come to know in the pages of Pres-cott. . . . Over against these brilliant figures stands the melancholy form of Montezuma, around whom, even from the first, one feels gathering the darkness of his coming fate. He reminds one of some hero of Greek tragedy, doomed to destruction and intensely conscious of it, yet striving in vain against the decree of an inexorable des-
tiny. . . . [Prescott] transmuted the acquisitions of laborious research into an enduring monument of pure literature." [via]More editions of The History of the Conquest of Peru:
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In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequencesby Truman CapoteISBN 0679745580 (0-679-74558-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences'Book summary:"Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans--in fact, few Kansans--had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there." If all Truman Capote did was invent a new genre--journalism written with the language and structure of literature--this "nonfiction novel" about the brutal slaying of the Clutter family by two would-be robbers would be remembered as a trail-blazing experiment that has influenced countless writers. But Capote achieved more than that. He wrote a true masterpiece of creative nonfiction. The images of this tale continue to resonate in our minds: 16-year-old Nancy Clutter teaching a friend how to bake a cherry pie, Dick Hickock's black '49 Chevrolet sedan, Perry Smith's Gibson guitar and his dreams of gold in a tropical paradise--the blood on the walls and the final "thud-snap" of the rope-broken necks. [via]
More editions of In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences:
- In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences: ISBN 067960023X (0-679-60023-X)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences: ISBN 0785777636 (0-7857-7763-6)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences: ISBN 0679602593 (0-679-60259-3)
Hardcover, Random House Inc - In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences: ISBN 0679745580 (0-679-74558-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- In Cold Blood : A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences: ISBN 067960023X (0-679-60023-X)
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In Patagoniaby Bruce ChatwinISBN 0671400452 (0-671-40045-2)
Hardcover, Summit Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In Patagonia'Book summary:Fascinated by Patagonia since an early childhood lust for Grandma's scrap of hairy Giant Sloth skin, Chatwin's also intrigued by odd miners and the log cabin built by Butch Cassidy in Cholila. In 1977 the London Observer called it "a brilliant travel book," and while Chatwin's no longer alive (he died in 1989), his book still glows. From Rio Negro to the southernmost town of Ushuaia, Chatwin depicts all in writing as spare as the Patagonian desert itself, and as vibrant as the purple clouds off Last Hope Sound. [via]
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The Massacre at El Mozote: A Parable of the Cold Warby Mark DannerISBN 067975525X (0-679-75525-X)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Pathby Linda Schele, David Freidel, Joy ParkerISBN 0688140696 (0-688-14069-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Maya Cosmos: Three Thousand Years on the Shaman's Path'Book summary:Through a system of warriors, shamans, scribes, and kings, the ancient Maya created a worldview of power and enduring beauty. In this fascinating and revealing history, the Maya stand out as a remarkable example of a culture that has preserved its most sacred beliefs despite centuries of oppression. 250 illus., some in full color. [via]
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Me Talk Pretty One Dayby David SedarisISBN 0783892799 (0-7838-9279-9)
Softcover, G K Hall & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Me Talk Pretty One Day'Book summary:"It's a pretty grim world when I can't even feel superior to a toddler." Welcome to the curious mind of David Sedaris, where dogs outrank children, guitars have breasts, and French toddlers unmask the inadequacies of the American male. Sedaris inhabits this world as a misanthrope chronicling all things petty and small. In Me Talk Pretty One Day Sedaris is as determined as ever to be nobody's hero--he never triumphs, he never conquers--and somehow, with each failure, he inadvertently becomes everybody's favorite underdog. The world's most eloquent malcontent, Sedaris has turned self-deprecation into a celebrated art form--one that is perhaps best experienced in audio. "Go Carolina," his account of "the first battle of my war against the letter s" is particularly poignant. Unable to disguise the lisp that has become his trademark, Sedaris highlights (to hilarious extent) the frustration of reading "childish s-laden texts recounting the adventures of seals or settlers named Sassy or Samuel." Including 23 of the book version's 28 stories, two live performances complete with involuntary laughter, and an uncannily accurate Billie Holiday impersonation, the audio is more than a companion to the text; it stands alone as a performance piece--only without the sock monkeys. (Running time: 5 hours, 4 cassettes) --Daphne Durham [via]
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Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Yearsby Felipe Fernandez-ArmestoISBN 0684803615 (0-684-80361-5)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years'Book summary:An engaging work by a prize-winning historian traces the progress and regress of the world's civilizations over the past thousand years and shows how the capacity of one people to influence another has shifted geographically. 35,000 first printing. [via]
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Millenniumby Fernandez Armesto, Felipe Fernandez-ArmestoISBN 0684825368 (0-684-82536-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Millennium'Book summary:There is simply no other book like it--an Oxford scholar presents a genuine global history, spanning ten centuries and examining and weaving together events and movements in every part of the world. 400 photos and illustrations. [via]
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Moby Dickby Herman Melville, Larzer ZiffISBN 0679405593 (0-679-40559-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Moby-Dick'Book summary:An award-winning author and illustrator bring Melville's masterpiece to life for a new generation of readers in a stunning gift edition.
A tragic tale of obsession and revenge set against the unforgiving sea, Herman Melville's MOBY-DICK has now been expertly edited and generously illustrated for the twenty-first-century reader. Here are the mad whaling captain Ahab, the all-observant narrator Ishmael, and the mysterious, invincible white whale himself, and here are scenes of peril and carnage, nobility and redemption presented in Melville's original language, threaded together with passages of summary by renowned author Jan Needle. Lavish artwork by Patrick Benson, one of the finest children's illustrators working today, captures the timeless spirit of this extraordinary classic. [via]More editions of Moby Dick:
- Moby Dick: ISBN 0763630187 (0-7636-3018-7)
Hardcover, Candlewick Pr - Moby Dick: ISBN 0766607194 (0-7666-0719-4)
Hardcover, Modern Pub - Moby Dick: ISBN 0791091066 (0-7910-9106-6)
Hardcover, Facts on File - Moby Dick: ISBN 0791093638 (0-7910-9363-8)
Hardcover, Facts on File - Moby Dick: ISBN 0671836706 (0-671-83670-6)
Softcover, Pocket Books - Moby-Dick: ISBN 0679725253 (0-679-72525-3)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group - Moby Dick: ISBN 0804900337 (0-8049-0033-7)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co - Moby-Dick: ISBN 0679602909 (0-679-60290-9)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group - Moby Dick: ISBN 0785819134 (0-7858-1913-4)
Hardcover, Castle Books Inc - Moby-Dick: ISBN 0679405593 (0-679-40559-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
- Moby Dick: ISBN 0763630187 (0-7636-3018-7)
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Moby Dick Or, the Whaleby Herman Melville, Rockwell KentISBN 067978327X (0-679-78327-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Moby Dick Or, the Whale'Book summary:Avec Moby Dick, Melville a donné naissance à un livre-culte et inscrit dans la mémoire des hommes un nouveau mythe : celui de la baleine blanche. Fort de son expérience de marin, qui a nourri ses romans précédents et lui a assuré le succès, l'écrivain américain, alors en pleine maturité, raconte la folle quête du capitaine Achab et sa dernière rencontre avec le grand cachalot. Véritable encyclopédie de la mer, nouvelle Bible aux accents prophétiques, parabole chargée de thèmes universels, Moby Dick n'en reste pas moins construit avec une savante maîtrise, maintenant un suspense lent, qui s'accélère peu à peu jusqu'à l'apocalypse finale. L'écriture de Melville, infiniment libre et audacieuse, tour à tour balancée, puis hachée au rythme des houles, des vents et des passions humaines, est d'une richesse exceptionnelle. Il faut remonter à Shakespeare pour trouver l'exemple d'une langue aussi inventive, d'une poésie aussi grandiose. --Scarbo [via]
Moon, Sun, and Witches: Gender Ideologies and Class in Inca and Colonial Peruby Irene SilverblattISBN 0691022585 (0-691-02258-5)
Softcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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Mornings on Horsebackby David G. McCulloughISBN 0671447548 (0-671-44754-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mornings on Horseback'Book summary:FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF JOHN ADAMS
Winner of the 1982 National Book Award for Biography, Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as a masterpiece by Newsday, it is the story of a remarkable little boy -- seriously handicapped by recurrent and nearly fatal attacks of asthma -- and his struggle to manhood.
His father -- the first Theodore Roosevelt, "Greatheart," -- is a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. His mother -- Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt -- is a Southerner and celebrated beauty.
Mornings on Horseback spans seventeen years -- from 1869 when little "Teedie" is ten, to 1886 when he returns from the West a "real life cowboy" to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and begin anew, a grown man, whole in body and spirit.
This is a tale about family love and family loyalty...about courtship, childbirth and death, fathers and sons...about gutter politics and the tumultuous Republican Convention of 1884...about grizzly bears, grief and courage, and "blessed" mornings on horseback at Oyster Bay or beneath the limitless skies of the Badlands. [via]
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Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Rooseveltby David Willis McCulloughISBN 0743217381 (0-7432-1738-1)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt'Book summary:Winner of the 1982 National Book Award for Biography, Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as a masterpiece by Newsday, it also won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography. Now with a new introduction by the author, Mornings on Horseback is reprinted as a Simon & Schuster Classic Edition.
Mornings on Horseback is about the world of the young Theodore Roosevelt. It is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and nearly fatal attacks of asthma, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household (and rarefied social world) in which he was raised.
His father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, "Greatheart," a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. His mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, Teddy Roosevelt's first love. And while such disparate figures as Abraham Lincoln, Mrs. John Jacob Astor, and Senator Roscoe Conkling play a part, it is this diverse and intensely human assemblage of Roosevelts, all brought to vivid life, which gives the book its remarkable power.
The book spans seventeen years -- from 1869 when little "Teedie" is ten, to 1886 when, as a hardened "real life cowboy," he returns from the West to pick up the pieces of a shattered life and begin anew, a grown man, whole in body and spirit. The story does for Teddy Roosevelt what Sunrise at Campobello did for FDR -- reveals the inner man through his battle against dreadful odds.
Like David McCullough's The Great Bridge, also set in New York, this is at once an enthralling story, with all the elements of a great novel, and a penetrating character study. It is brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship, which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. For the first time, for example, Roosevelt's asthma is examined closely, drawing on information gleaned from private Roosevelt family papers and in light of present-day knowledge of the disease and its psychosomatic aspects.
At heart it is a book about life intensely lived...about family love and family loyalty...about courtship and childbirth and death, fathers and sons...about winter on the Nile in the grand manner and Harvard College...about gutter politics in washrooms and the tumultuous Republican Convention of 1884...about grizzly bears, grief and courage, and "blessed" mornings on horseback at Oyster Bay or beneath the limitless skies of the Badlands. "Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough," Roosevelt once wrote. It is the key to his life and to much that is so memorable in this magnificent book. [via]
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The Mythology of Mexico and Central Americaby John BierhorstISBN 0688067212 (0-688-06721-2)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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Native Resistance and the Pax Colonial in New Spainby Susan SchroederISBN 080329249X (0-8032-9249-X)
Softcover, Univ of Nebraska Pr
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The New Archaeology and the Ancient Mayaby Jeremy A. SabloffISBN 071676007X (0-7167-6007-X)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The New Archaeology and the Ancient Maya'Book summary:Using high-tech equipment, chemical analyses and sampling strategies, archaeologists are learning more about how and why cultures change. Using the study of the Maya as a test case, this book shows how the transformation of archaeology has brought new understanding of past civilizations. [via]
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One Hundred Years of Solitudeby Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gregory RabassaISBN 0679444653 (0-679-44465-3)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'Book summary:"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."
It is typical of Gabriel García Márquez that it will be many pages before his narrative circles back to the ice, and many chapters before the hero of One Hundred Years of Solitude, Buendía, stands before the firing squad. In between, he recounts such wonders as an entire town struck with insomnia, a woman who ascends to heaven while hanging laundry, and a suicide that defies the laws of physics:
A trickle of blood came out under the door, crossed the living room, went out into the street, continued on in a straight line across the uneven terraces, went down steps and climbed over curbs, passed along the Street of the Turks, turned a corner to the right and another to the left, made a right angle at the Buendía house, went in under the closed door, crossed through the parlor, hugging the walls so as not to stain the rugs, went on to the other living room, made a wide curve to avoid the dining-room table, went along the porch with the begonias, and passed without being seen under Amaranta's chair as she gave an arithmetic lesson to Aureliano José, and went through the pantry and came out in the kitchen, where Úrsula was getting ready to crack thirty-six eggs to make bread.
"Holy Mother of God!" Úrsula shouted.The story follows 100 years in the life of Macondo, a village founded by José Arcadio Buendía and occupied by descendants all sporting variations on their progenitor's name: his sons, José Arcadio and Aureliano, and grandsons, Aureliano José, Aureliano Segundo, and José Arcadio Segundo. Then there are the women--the two Úrsulas, a handful of Remedios, Fernanda, and Pilar--who struggle to remain grounded even as their menfolk build castles in the air. If it is possible for a novel to be highly comic and deeply tragic at the same time, then One Hundred Years of Solitude does the trick. Civil war rages throughout, hearts break, dreams shatter, and lives are lost, yet the effect is literary pentimento, with sorrow's outlines bleeding through the vibrant colors of García Márquez's magical realism. Consider, for example, the ghost of Prudencio Aguilar, whom José Arcadio Buendía has killed in a fight. So lonely is the man's shade that it haunts Buendía's house, searching anxiously for water with which to clean its wound. Buendía's wife, Úrsula, is so moved that "the next time she saw the dead man uncovering the pots on the stove she understood what he was looking for, and from then on she placed water jugs all about the house."
With One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez introduced Latin American literature to a world-wide readership. Translated into more than two dozen languages, his brilliant novel of love and loss in Macondo stands at the apex of 20th-century literature. --Alix Wilber [via]
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One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forestby Wade DavisISBN 0684834960 (0-684-83496-0)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest'Book summary:Best known for The Serpent and the Rainbow, Wade Davis is an ethnobotanist interested in the native uses of plants, especially psychotropics. He finds many such plants in the travels he recounts in One River, especially coca and curare. (The first, famously, is a curse in the First World but is a necessity in the Andes, where it promotes the digestion of many kinds of food plants.) Framing Davis's narrative is an account of the dangerous World War II-era Amazonian expeditions undertaken by his mentor, Harvard biologist Richard Evans Schultes. Davis describes a few hair-raising encounters of his own, making this a fine book of scientific adventure. [via]
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The Orchid Thief : A True Story of Beauty and Obsessionby Susan OrleanISBN 0679447393 (0-679-44739-3)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Orchid Thief : A True Story of Beauty and Obsession'Book summary:Orchidelirium is the name the Victorians gave to the flower madness that is for botanical collectors the equivalent of gold fever. Wealthy orchid fanatics of that era sent explorers (heavily armed, more to protect themselves against other orchid seekers than against hostile natives or wild animals) to unmapped territories in search of new varieties of Cattleya and Paphiopedilum. As knowledge of the family Orchidaceae grew to encompass the currently more than 60,000 species and over 100,000 hybrids, orchidelirium might have been expected to go the way of Dutch tulip mania. Yet, as journalist Susan Orlean found out, there still exists a vein of orchid madness strong enough to inspire larceny among collectors.
The Orchid Thief centers on south Florida and John Laroche, a quixotic, charismatic schemer once convicted of attempting to take endangered orchids from the Fakahatchee swamp, a state preserve. Laroche, a horticultural consultant who once ran an extensive nursery for the Seminole tribe, dreams of making a fortune for the Seminoles and himself by cloning the rare ghost orchid Polyrrhiza lindenii. Laroche sums up the obsession that drives him and so many others:
I really have to watch myself, especially around plants. Even now, just being here, I still get that collector feeling. You know what I mean. I'll see something and then suddenly I get that feeling. It's like I can't just have something--I have to have it and learn about it and grow it and sell it and master it and have a million of it.
Even Orlean--so leery of orchid fever that she immediately gives away any plant that's pressed upon her by the growers in Laroche's circle--develops a desire to see a ghost orchid blooming and makes several ultimately unsuccessful treks into the Fakahatchee. Filled with Palm Beach socialites, Native Americans, English peers, smugglers, and naturalists as improbably colorful as the tropical blossoms that inspire them, this is a lyrical, funny, addictively entertaining read. --Barrie Trinkle [via]More editions of The Orchid Thief : A True Story of Beauty and Obsession:
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Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914by David Willis McCulloughISBN 0671244094 (0-671-24409-4)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914'Book summary:On December 31, 1999, after nearly a century of rule, the United States officially ceded ownership of the Panama Canal to the nation of Panama. That nation did not exist when, in the mid-19th century, Europeans first began to explore the possibilities of creating a link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the narrow but mountainous isthmus; Panama was then a remote and overlooked part of Colombia.
All that changed, writes David McCullough in his magisterial history of the Canal, in 1848, when prospectors struck gold in California. A wave of fortune seekers descended on Panama from Europe and the eastern United States, seeking quick passage on California-bound ships in the Pacific, and the Panama Railroad, built to serve that traffic, was soon the highest-priced stock listed on the New York Exchange. To build a 51-mile-long ship canal to replace that railroad seemed an easy matter to some investors. But, as McCullough notes, the construction project came to involve the efforts of thousands of workers from many nations over four decades; eventually those workers, laboring in oppressive heat in a vast malarial swamp, removed enough soil and rock to build a pyramid a mile high. In the early years, they toiled under the direction of French entrepreneur Ferdinand de Lesseps, who went bankrupt while pursuing his dream of extending France's empire in the Americas. The United States then entered the picture, with President Theodore Roosevelt orchestrating the purchase of the canal--but not before helping foment a revolution that removed Panama from Colombian rule and placed it squarely in the American camp.
The story of the Panama Canal is complex, full of heroes, villains, and victims. McCullough's long, richly detailed, and eminently literate book pays homage to an immense undertaking. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Popol Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kingsby Dennis TedlockISBN 067145241X (0-671-45241-X)
Hardcover, Simon and Schuster
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Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Lifeby Dennis TedlockISBN 0684818450 (0-684-81845-0)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life'Book summary:Popol Vuh, the Quiché Mayan book of creation, is not only the most important text in the native languages of the Americas, it is also an extraordinary document of the human imagination. It begins with the deeds of Mayan gods in the darkness of a primeval sea and ends with the radiant splendor of the Mayan lords who founded the Quiché kingdom in the Guatemalan highlands. Originally written in Mayan hieroglyphs, it was transcribed into the Roman alphabet in the sixteenth century.
This new edition of Dennis Tedlock's unabridged, widely praised translation includes new notes and commentary, newly translated passages, newly deciphered hieroglyphs, and over forty new illustrations. [via]
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Rain Forestby Barbara Taylor, Frank GreenawayISBN 0789429713 (0-7894-2971-3)
Softcover, Dk Pub
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Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed Americaby John M. BarryISBN 0684840022 (0-684-84002-2)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America'Book summary:When Mother Nature rages, the physical results are never subtle. Because we cannot contain the weather, we can only react by tabulating the damage in dollar amounts, estimating the number of people left homeless, and laying the plans for rebuilding. But as John M. Barry expertly details in Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, some calamities transform much more than the landscape.
While tracing the history of the nation's most destructive natural disaster, Barry explains how ineptitude and greed helped cause the flood, and how the policies created to deal with the disaster changed the culture of the Mississippi Delta. Existing racial rifts expanded, helping to launch Herbert Hoover into the White House and shifting the political alliances of many blacks in the process. An absorbing account of a little-known, yet monumental event in American history, Rising Tide reveals how human behavior proved more destructive than the swollen river itself. [via]
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The Road to Home: My Life and Timesby Vartan GregorianISBN 0743255658 (0-7432-5565-8)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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![Coe, Ralph T.: Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art Exhibition Organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain with the Support of the British-American Associates, [held at The] Hayward Gallery, London, 7 October 1976-16 January 1977 Catalogue](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/0728700956.01._SL160_SCLZZZZZZZ__.jpg "Coe, Ralph T.: Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art Exhibition Organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain with the Support of the British-American Associates, [held at The] Hayward Gallery, London, 7 October 1976-16 January 1977 Catalogue")
Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art Exhibition Organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain with the Support of the British-American Associates, [held at The] Hayward Gallery, London, 7 October 1976-16 January 1977 Catalogueby Ralph T. Coe, Arts Council of Great Britain, Hayward Gallery, British-American AssociatesISBN 0728700956 (0-7287-0095-6)
Hardcover, Arts Council of Great Britain
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The Search for El Doradoby John HemmingISBN 0718117549 (0-7181-1754-9)
Hardcover, Joseph
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Secret History : The CIA's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954by Nick Cullather, Piero GleijesesISBN 0804733104 (0-8047-3310-4)
Hardcover, Stanford University Press
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Secret History: The Cia's Classified Account of Its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-1954by Piero Gleijeses, Nick CullatherISBN 0804733112 (0-8047-3311-2)
Softcover, Stanford Univ Pr
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Sexuality and Marriage in Colonial Latin Americaby Asuncion LavrinISBN 080327940X (0-8032-7940-X)
Softcover, Univ of Nebraska Pr
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Speak, Memoryby Vladimir NabokovISBN 0679723390 (0-679-72339-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Speak, Memory'Book summary:The late Vladimir Nabokov always did things his way, and his classic autobiography is no exception. No dry recital of dates, names, and addresses for this linguistic magician--instead, Speak, Memory is a succession of lapidary episodes, in which the factoids play second fiddle to the development of Nabokov's sensibility. There is, to be sure, an impressionistic whirl through the author's family history (including a gallery of Tartar princes and fin-de-siècle oddities). And Nabokov's account of his tenure at St. Petersburg's famous Tenishev School--where he counted Osip Mandelstam among his schoolmates--offers a lovely glimpse into the heart of Russia's silver age. Still, Nabokov is much too artful an autobiographer to present Speak, Memory as a slice of reality--a word, by the way, that he insisted must always be surrounded by quotation marks. [via]
Two Years Before the Mastby Richard Henry DanaISBN 080490085X (0-8049-0085-X)
Softcover, Airmont Pub Co
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Violinby Anne RiceISBN 0679433023 (0-679-43302-3)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Violin'Book summary:In the grand manner of Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice's new novel moves across time and the continents, from nineteenth-century Vienna to a St. Charles Greek Revival mansion in present-day New Orleans to the dazzling capitals of the modern-day world, telling a story of two charismatic figures bound to each other by a passionate commitment to music as a means of rapture, seduction, and liberation.At the novel's center: a uniquely fascinating woman, Triana--who once dreamed of becoming a great musician--and the demonic fiddler Stefan, tormented ghost of a Russian aristocrat, who begins to prey upon her, using his magic violin first to enchant, then to dominate and draw her into a state of madness through the music she loves. But Triana understands the power of the music perhaps even more than does Stefan--and she sets out to resist Stefan and to fight not only for her sanity but for her life. The struggle draws them both into a terrifying supernatural realm where they find themselves surrounded by memories, by horrors, and by overwhelming truths. Battling desperately, they are at last propelled towards the novel's astonishing and unforgettable climax.Violin is crowded with the history, the drama, the invention, and the romantic intensity that have become synonymous with Anne Rice at her incomparable best. [via]
Voyagers to the New World / Nigel Davies.by Nigel DaviesISBN 0688033962 (0-688-03396-2)
Hardcover, William Morrow & Co
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War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and Mesoamericaby Kurt A. Raaflaub, Nathan RosensteinISBN 0674006593 (0-674-00659-3)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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The Way to the Western Sea: Lewis and Clark Across the Continentby David LavenderISBN 0803280033 (0-8032-8003-3)
Softcover, Univ of Nebraska Pr
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When I Was Puerto Ricanby Esmeralda SantiagoISBN 0679756760 (0-679-75676-0)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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The World of the Ancient Mayaby John S. HendersonISBN 0801482844 (0-8014-8284-4)
Softcover, Cornell Univ Pr
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- The World of the Ancient Maya: ISBN 0801492572 (0-8014-9257-2)
Softcover, Cornell Univ Pr - The World of the Ancient Maya: ISBN 0801412323 (0-8014-1232-3)
Hardcover, Cornell University Press - The World of the Ancient Maya: ISBN 0801431832 (0-8014-3183-2)
Hardcover, Cornell Univ Pr - The World of the Ancient Maya: ISBN 0801482844 (0-8014-8284-4)
Softcover, Cornell Univ Pr
- The World of the Ancient Maya: ISBN 0801492572 (0-8014-9257-2)
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The World's Great ClassicsISBN 0717200019 (0-7172-0001-9)
Hardcover, Xs Books
Find This BookBook summary:Odyssey, The: The World's Great Classics, by Homer; tr. by S.H. Butcher and Andrew Lang [via]
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenanceby Robert M. PirsigISBN 0688032079 (0-688-03207-9)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'Book summary:In his now classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig brings us a literary chautauqua, a novel that is meant to both entertain and edify. It scores high on both counts.
Phaedrus, our narrator, takes a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip with his son during which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details--be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle.
In his autobiographical first novel, Pirsig wrestles both with the ghost of his past and with the most important philosophical questions of the 20th century--why has technology alienated us from our world? what are the limits of rational analysis? if we can't define the good, how can we live it? Unfortunately, while exploring the defects of our philosophical heritage from Socrates and the Sophists to Hume and Kant, Pirsig inexplicably stops at the middle of the 19th century. With the exception of Poincaré, he ignores the more recent philosophers who have tackled his most urgent questions, thinkers such as Peirce, Nietzsche (to whom Phaedrus bears a passing resemblance), Heidegger, Whitehead, Dewey, Sartre, Wittgenstein, and Kuhn. In the end, the narrator's claims to originality turn out to be overstated, his reasoning questionable, and his understanding of the history of Western thought sketchy. His solution to a synthesis of the rational and creative by elevating Quality to a metaphysical level simply repeats the mistakes of the premodern philosophers. But in contrast to most other philosophers, Pirsig writes a compelling story. And he is a true innovator in his attempt to popularize a reconciliation of Eastern mindfulness and nonrationalism with Western subject/object dualism. The magic of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance turns out to lie not in the answers it gives, but in the questions it raises and the way it raises them. Like a cross between The Razor's Edge and Sophie's World, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance takes us into "the high country of the mind" and opens our eyes to vistas of possibility. --Brian Bruya [via]
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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valuesby Robert M. PirsigISBN 0688002307 (0-688-00230-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values'Book summary:In his now classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig brings us a literary chautauqua, a novel that is meant to both entertain and edify. It scores high on both counts.
Phaedrus, our narrator, takes a present-tense cross-country motorcycle trip with his son during which the maintenance of the motorcycle becomes an illustration of how we can unify the cold, rational realm of technology with the warm, imaginative realm of artistry. As in Zen, the trick is to become one with the activity, to engage in it fully, to see and appreciate all details--be it hiking in the woods, penning an essay, or tightening the chain on a motorcycle.
In his autobiographical first novel, Pirsig wrestles both with the ghost of his past and with the most important philosophical questions of the 20th century--why has technology alienated us from our world? what are the limits of rational analysis? if we can't define the good, how can we live it? Unfortunately, while exploring the defects of our philosophical heritage from Socrates and the Sophists to Hume and Kant, Pirsig inexplicably stops at the middle of the 19th century. With the exception of Poincaré, he ignores the more recent philosophers who have tackled his most urgent questions, thinkers such as Peirce, Nietzsche (to whom Phaedrus bears a passing resemblance), Heidegger, Whitehead, Dewey, Sartre, Wittgenstein, and Kuhn. In the end, the narrator's claims to originality turn out to be overstated, his reasoning questionable, and his understanding of the history of Western thought sketchy. His solution to a synthesis of the rational and creative by elevating Quality to a metaphysical level simply repeats the mistakes of the premodern philosophers. But in contrast to most other philosophers, Pirsig writes a compelling story. And he is a true innovator in his attempt to popularize a reconciliation of Eastern mindfulness and nonrationalism with Western subject/object dualism. The magic of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance turns out to lie not in the answers it gives, but in the questions it raises and the way it raises them. Like a cross between The Razor's Edge and Sophie's World, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance takes us into "the high country of the mind" and opens our eyes to vistas of possibility. --Brian Bruya [via]
More editions of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values:
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values: ISBN 0688052304 (0-688-05230-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values: ISBN 0688171664 (0-688-17166-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values: ISBN 0688002307 (0-688-00230-7)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values: ISBN 0688052304 (0-688-05230-4)
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Cuando Era Puertorriquena / When I Was Puerto Ricanby Esmeralda SantiagoISBN 0679756779 (0-679-75677-9)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cuando Era Puertorriquena / When I Was Puerto Rican'Book summary:Magia, tensión sexual, comedia e intenso drama se mueven dentro de ésta encantadora pero a la vez dura autobiografía; es la historia de una niña que deja a su pueblo en puerto rico por la atracción de nueva york, y una oportunidad para el éxito. "clara, calladamente poderosa y muy lírica: una historia de verdadera valentía." - kirkus reviews [via]
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