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books tagged “literature”
books tagged “literature”
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Achillesby Elizabeth CookISBN 0312311109 (0-312-31110-9)
Softcover, Picador USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Achilles'Book summary:This powerful, passionate, and beautifully crafted retelling of the epic tale of Achilles re-creates Homer's fated hero in a new and striking reality. Born of the Sea nymph Thetis by the mortal King Peleus, and hidden as a girl until Odysseus discovers him, Achilles becomes the Greeks' greatestr warrior at Troy. Into his story comes a cast of fascinating charactersamong them, Hector, Helen, Penthiseleia the Amazon Queen, and the centaur Chiron; and finally John Keats, whose writings form the basis of a meditation on the nature of identity and shared experience.[via]
An forgettable and deeply moving work of fiction, Achilles is also an affirmation of the story's enduring power to reach across centuries and cultures to the core of our imagination. -
Air: (or, Have Not Have)by Geoff RymanISBN 0312261217 (0-312-26121-7)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Air: (or, Have Not Have)'Book summary:Chung Mae is the only connection her small farming village has to culture of a wider world beyond the fields and simple houses of her village. A new communications technology is sweeping the world and promises to connect everyone, everywhere without power lines, computers, or machines. This technology is Air. An initial testing of Air goes disastrously wrong and people are killed from the shock. Not to be stopped Air is arriving with or without the blessing of Mae's village. Mae is the only one who knows how to harness Air and ready her people for it's arrival, but will they listen before it's too late?[via]More editions of Air: (or, Have Not Have):
Alice in Exileby Piers Paul ReadISBN 031230398X (0-312-30398-X)
Hardcover, Thomas Dunne Books
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The Angel with One Hundred Wings : A Tale from the Arabian Nightsby Daniel HorchISBN 0312284187 (0-312-28418-7)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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The Basic Eightby Daniel HandlerISBN 0312253737 (0-312-25373-7)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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The Bedford Anthology of World Literature Book 2: The Middle Period, 100 C.e.-1450by David Johnson, Gary Harrison, Patricia Clark Smith, Paul DavisISBN 0312248725 (0-312-24872-5)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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The Bedford Handbookby Diana HackerISBN 0312256310 (0-312-25631-0)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bedford Handbook'Book summary:[via]The Bedford Handbook carries on the Hacker tradition by responding to student writers needs and to the way students need their handbook to work. Still a full-size handbook that doubles as a reference, the Handbook features clear, straightforward advice, hand-edited sentences, a user-friendly index, and a handy format. The eighth edition combines classic Hacker usability with a next-generation focus on academic writing and research and new navigation that helps students pull together advice and models for each assignment. Developed with the help of students and teachers at more than 35 colleges and universities, the new edition reflects the ways students write and revise in their composition course and beyond. Whats more, The Bedford Handbook remains a portable size; its still a comprehensive reference thats as easy to consult as it is to carry. -
The Bedford Handbook: Updated With Mla's 1999 Guidelinesby Diana HackerISBN 0312247567 (0-312-24756-7)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bedford Handbook: Updated With Mla's 1999 Guidelines'Book summary:[via]The Bedford Handbook carries on the Hacker tradition by responding to student writers needs and to the way students need their handbook to work. Still a full-size handbook that doubles as a reference, the Handbook features clear, straightforward advice, hand-edited sentences, a user-friendly index, and a handy format. The eighth edition combines classic Hacker usability with a next-generation focus on academic writing and research and new navigation that helps students pull together advice and models for each assignment. Developed with the help of students and teachers at more than 35 colleges and universities, the new edition reflects the ways students write and revise in their composition course and beyond. Whats more, The Bedford Handbook remains a portable size; its still a comprehensive reference thats as easy to consult as it is to carry.More editions of The Bedford Handbook: Updated With Mla's 1999 Guidelines:
The Bride of Catastrophe: A Novelby Heidi Jon SchmidtISBN 0312281773 (0-312-28177-3)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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Can You Wave Bye Bye, Baby?by Elyse GascoISBN 0312263007 (0-312-26300-7)
Softcover, Picador
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Coffin on Murder Streetby Gwendoline ButlerISBN 0312291736 (0-312-29173-6)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Collectors : A Novelby Paul GrinerISBN 0312271905 (0-312-27190-5)
Softcover, Picador
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Damned If You Doby Gordon HoughtonISBN 0312262884 (0-312-26288-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Darjeeling : A Novelby Bharti KirchnerISBN 0312286422 (0-312-28642-2)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Educationby Liza PicardISBN 0312291531 (0-312-29153-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education'Book summary:The practical realities of everyday life are rarely described in history books. To remedy this, and to satisfy her own curiosity about the lives of our ancestors, Liza Picard immersed herself in contemporary sources - diaries and journals, almanacs and newspapers, government papers and reports, advice books and memoirs - to examine the substance of life in mid-18th century London. The fascinating result of her research, Dr. Johnson's London introduces the reader to every facet of that period: from houses and gardens to transport and traffic; from occupations and work to pleasure and amusements; from health and medicine to sex, food, and fashion. Stops along the way focus on education, etiquette, public executions as popular entertainment, and a melange of other historical curiosities.[via]
This book spans the period from 1740 to 1770-very much the city of Dr. Johnson, who published his great Dictionary in 1755. It starts when the gin craze was gaining ground and ends just before America ceased being a colony. In its enthralling review of an exhilarating era, Dr. Johnson's London brilliantly records the strangeness and individuality of the past--and continually reminds us of parallels with the present day.More editions of Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education:
- Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education: ISBN 0312276656 (0-312-27665-6)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press - Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education: ISBN 0312291531 (0-312-29153-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
- Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education: ISBN 0312276656 (0-312-27665-6)
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Draculaby Bram Stoker, John Paul RiquelmeISBN 0312241704 (0-312-24170-4)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dracula'Book summary:Dracula is one of the few horror books to be honored by inclusion in the Norton Critical Edition series. (The others are Frankenstein, The Turn of the Screw, Heart of Darkness, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Metamorphosis.) This 100th-anniversary edition includes not only the complete authoritative text of the novel with illuminating footnotes, but also four contextual essays, five reviews from the time of publication, five articles on dramatic and film variations, and seven selections from literary and academic criticism. Nina Auerbach of the University of Pennsylvania (author of Our Vampires, Ourselves) and horror scholar David J. Skal (author of Hollywood Gothic, The Monster Show, and Screams of Reason) are the editors of the volume. Especially fascinating are excerpts from materials that Bram Stoker consulted in his research for the book, and his working papers over the several years he was composing it. The selection of criticism includes essays on how Dracula deals with female sexuality, gender inversion, homoerotic elements, and Victorian fears of "reverse colonization" by politically turbulent Transylvania. [via]
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Education of a Felon: A Memoirby Edward Bunker, William StyronISBN 0312280769 (0-312-28076-9)
Softcover, Griffin
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Eight Modern Essayistsby William SmartISBN 0312239785 (0-312-23978-5)
Softcover, St. Martin's Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eight Modern Essayists'Book summary:Eight Modern Essayists differs from other essay anthologies in that it focuses the student's attention on just a few writers. This approach is based on the belief that, through studying a few outstanding writers in depth rather than a great amount briefly, the student's own writing will greatly improve. In the twenty years since Eight Modern Essayists was first published, the validity of this approach has been tested by thousands of instructors of composition and proved both successful and exciting. This volume focuses on Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, E. B. White, Lewis Thomas, James Baldwin, Edward Hoagland, Joan Didion, and Alice Walker. [via]
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Eleven On Topby Janet EvanovichISBN 0312306261 (0-312-30626-1)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eleven On Top'Book summary:Stephanie Plum, Trenton's favorite bondswoman, is having a career crisis, which gives Janet Evanovich plenty of opportunities to showcase her series heroine in a variety of alternative vocations, from dry cleaner to factory worker. Most of them don't last a full working day, which is good for the reader, since it plunges Stephanie back into the always seedy, often dangerous, and always colorful world of fugitives who'd rather flee than face their day in court. She may be tired of having her life threatened, her cars torched or blown up, and her apartment broken into, but one thing she can say about her job is that it's never boring... and neither is she. Despite her intentions of going straight at a job with a little more security and a bit less excitement, an old client won't let her--he keeps leaving her threatening notes, stalking and scaring her, and making sure she needs the protection of the two men in her life--Joe Morelli, the sexy cop who's been bedding her since high school, and Ranger, the even sexier tough guy who can take down the meanest fugitive around but has a tender spot in his heart for the plucky Ms. Plum. All Evanovich fans' favorite characters people this sprightly caper novel, including Lula, the fast-food-chomping former hooker who's hot to take over Stephanie's job but really belongs in a WWE Takedown; Grandma Mazur, who'd rather go to a wake than a fancy-dress ball; Grandma Bella, the matriarch of the Corelli family whose evil eye frightens even the indomitable Stephanie; and Valerie, Stephanie's sister, who's about to embark on another trip to the altar. A great beach read, Eleven on Top is a guilty pleasure that will delight readers of the author's 10 earlier novels and should win her even more fans. --Jane Adams
Amazon Exclusive Content
Amazon's Significant Seven
Janet Evanovich kindly agreed to take the life quiz we like to give to all our authors: the Amazon Significant Seven.Q: What book has had the most significant impact on your life?
A: Uncle Scrooge adventures by Carl Barks. They gave me a lifelong love of the adventure story both in film and literature. And I wouldn't mind pushing my quarters around with a bulldozer in real life, either.
Q: You are stranded on a desert island with only one book, one CD, and one DVD--what are they?
A: Book: The Neiman Marcus holiday catalog (I can pretend I'm shopping.)
CD: MTVs Grind, Volume 1 (Happy music and I love the samba.)
DVD: Shrek 2 (Happy movie.)
Q: What is the worst lie you've ever told?
A: "No. Your butt doesn't look big in those pants." Said to myself.
Q: Describe the perfect writing environment.
A: No phone. Locked door. Room service. Silence. My cat (Gus) on my lap.
Q: If you could write your own epitaph, what would it say?
A: "Later, Dudes!"
Q: Who is the one person living or dead that you would like to have dinner with?
A: Jim Henson (creator of the Muppets)
Q: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
A: The ability to eat Cheez Doodles and Krispy Kremes and never get fat.
The Stephanie Plum Series
One for the Money
Two for the Dough
Three to Get Deadly
Four to Score
High Five
Hot Six
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Fencing the Skyby James GalvinISBN 0312267347 (0-312-26734-7)
Softcover, Picador USA
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Forever Warby Joe W. HaldemanISBN 0312298900 (0-312-29890-0)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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The Forgerby Paul WatkinsISBN 0312276966 (0-312-27696-6)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Forger'Book summary:"I reached Paris early in the summer of 1939," begins narrator David Halifax. Following in the footsteps of another generation of American expatriates, he has come to Paris for the sake of art (in his case, at the atelier of the temperamental and brilliant Alexander Pankratov). And like those earlier artists, he has arrived at a particularly crucial moment, as France is simultaneously preparing for and ignoring the threat of war. David vows to ignore the vagaries of the quotidian, however, immersing himself in his painting, down to
the minutest detail, so that it would stop being the whole picture and would break down into its individual parts, which were different from what the parts had been in reality. Now they were fragments of a different thing, a thing all by itself. But the ghost of the canvas underneath, the reminder of it, would always bring you back into the world from which the painting had emerged, many incarnations ago.
And of course, he isbrought back to the world: far from being the muse of escape, his talent will be the siren that draws him irrevocably into the harsh world of war. When Pankratov recruits David as part of the movement to replace priceless French-owned paintings with forgeries before the Germans seize them, the young artist quickly becomes absorbed by the very idea of forgery, by the necessity to adopt another identity, to live and breathe and be the master he copies. But when their lives depend on a final forgery--one so audacious that it will strike to the core of Hitler's own artistic obsessions--philosophy gives way to breathless suspense, as the pair journey through Normandy at the moment of the Allied invasion, desperately searching for a treasured Vermeer.
The novel is so strong that its occasional moments of weakness seem an almost personal affront to the reader who has been bewitched by author Paul Watkins's quiet elegance. The narrative skims too quickly over David's life in Paris during the war years, and some of the most crucial facets of the generally well-balanced plot--Pankratov's diatribe to David on the German threat, for example, or David's decision to create that one last canvas--seem pale despite their avowed vigor. These moments feel as if Watkins has failed to prepare his own canvas properly, contenting himself with superficially dramatic strokes rather than carefully layering his foundation. But these flaws are minor detractions in an otherwise splendid work that balances canny portraiture with an unsentimentally evocative landscape. --Kelly Flynn [via]
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Fraternity of the Stoneby David MorrellISBN 0312303602 (0-312-30360-2)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fraternity of the Stone'Book summary:Drew MacLane was once an assassin. Then he withdrew from the world. For the past six years he has lived alone in his hermit's cell with no contact outside the monastery walls. But someone has tracked him down, at bloody cost. And now Drew must relearn his old killing instincts and go out to confront the deadly organisation that has destroyed his last hope of peace... [via]
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The Gatekeeper: A Memoirby Terry EagletonISBN 0312291221 (0-312-29122-1)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Gatekeeper: A Memoir'Book summary:Oxford professor, best-selling author, preeminent literary critic, playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, Terry Eagleton knows all about the claims of competing worlds. One of his earliest roles growing up Catholic in Protestant England was as "the gatekeeper"-the altar boy who at reverend mother's nod literally closed the door on young women taking the veil, separating the sanctity of the convent from earthly temptations and family obligations.[via]
Often scathingly funny, frequently tender, and always completely engaging, The Gatekeeper is Eagleton's memoirs, his deep-etched portraits of those who influenced him, either by example or by contrast: his father, headmasters, priests, and Cambridge dons. He was a shy, bookish, asthmatic boy keenly aware of social inferiority yet determined to make his intellectual way. "Our aim in life," he writes of his working-class, Irish-immigrant-descended family, "was to have the words 'We Were No Trouble' inscribed on our tombstones." But Eagleton knew trouble was the point of it all. Opening doors sometimes meant rattling the knobs. At both Cambridge and Oxford, he gravitated toward dialectics and mavericks, countering braying effeteness with withering if dogmatic dissections of the class system.
The Gatekeeper mixes the soberly serious with the downright hilarious, skewer-sharp satire with unashamed fondness, the personal with the political. Most of it all it reveals a young man learning to reconcile differences and oppositions: a double-edged portrait of the intellectual as a young man.More editions of The Gatekeeper: A Memoir:
The Ghost of Hannah Mendesby Naomi RagenISBN 0312281250 (0-312-28125-0)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Glory Goes and Gets Someby Emily CarterISBN 0312282516 (0-312-28251-6)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Hiroshima Joeby Martin BoothISBN 031226805X (0-312-26805-X)
Softcover, Picador USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hiroshima Joe'Book summary:One of the most powerful novels about the experience of war, first published in 1985[via]
Captured by Hirohitos soldiers at the fall of Hong Kong and transferred to a Japanese slave camp outside Hiroshima, Captain Joe Sandingham was present when the bomb was dropped. Now a shell of a man, he lives in a cheap Hong Kong hotel, scrounging for food and the occasional bar girl. The locals call him Hiroshima Joe with a mixture of pity and contempt. But Joehaunted by the sounds and voices of his past, debilitated by illness, and shattered by his wartime ordealis a man whose compassion and will to survive define a clear-eyed and unexpected heroism.More editions of Hiroshima Joe:
Hobbits, Elves, and Wizards: Exploring the Wonders and Worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien's the Lord of the Ringsby Michael N. StantonISBN 0312238266 (0-312-23826-6)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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A Hole in the Heartby Christopher MarquisISBN 0312306318 (0-312-30631-8)
Softcover, Griffin
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Hospital Sketchesby Alice FahsISBN 0312260288 (0-312-26028-8)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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Hot Night in the Cityby TrevanianISBN 0312242026 (0-312-24202-6)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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In the Bear's Houseby N. Scott MomadayISBN 0312263406 (0-312-26340-6)
Softcover, St. Martin's Press
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Industry of Soulsby Martin BoothISBN 0312267533 (0-312-26753-3)
Softcover, St. Martin's Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Industry of Souls'Book summary:The remarkably powerful and critically acclaimed novel that was chosen as A New York Times Notable Book of 1999 and shortlisted for The Booker Prize[via]
The Industry of Souls is the story of Alexander Bayliss, a British citizen arrested for spying in the Soviet Union in the early 1950's. Eventually freed from the gulag in the 1970's, he finds he has no reason to return to the West-he has become Russian in everything but birth.
Now, on the day of his 80th birthday, Russia has changed. Communism has evaporated. In the aftermath, information has come to light that Alex is still alive. This moving story weaves together the events of Alex's life, exploring this momentous day, his harrowing past in the camp and his life in the village. And it ends with his having to make a personal choice, perhaps for the first time in his life, and the climax is shattering. 
The Juniper Treeby Barbara ComynsISBN 0312302193 (0-312-30219-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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The Last English Kingby Julian RathboneISBN 0312242131 (0-312-24213-1)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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The Last Jewby Noah GordonISBN 0312300530 (0-312-30053-0)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Jew'Book summary:In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain.[via]
Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew.
On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain. Toiling at manual labor, he desperately tries to cling to his memories of a vanished culture. As a lonely shepherd on a mountaintop he hurls snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars, as an apprentice armorer he learns to fight like a Christian knight. Finally, as a man living in a time and land where danger from the Inquisition is everywhere, he deals with the questions that mark his past. How he discovers the answers, how he finds his way to a singular and strong Marrano woman, how he achieves a life with the outer persona of a respected Old Christian physician and the inner life of a secret Jew, is the fabric of this novel. The Last Jew is a glimpse of the past, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story. In it, Noah Gordon utilizes his greatest strengths, and the result is remarkable and moving. 
The Laying on of Hands : Storiesby Alan BennettISBN 0312290519 (0-312-29051-9)
Hardcover, Picador
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The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christieby Charles OsborneISBN 0312301162 (0-312-30116-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie'Book summary:Agatha Christie wrote over 100 plays, short story collections, and novels, which have been translated into 103 languages, and she has been outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare.No one has succeeded in copying her, though many have tried, and she remains the best selling modern writer throughout the world. For all her success and renown, however, Agatha Christie was a very private person. Over the years, many have attempted to capture her personality, her motivations, and the reasons for her enduring popularity, with little notable success. Now Charles Osborne, a lifelong student of Agatha Christie, has undertaken an examination of Christie and her accomplishments through her own work. The result is a comprehensive, illustrated guide to the world of Agatha Christie, featuring authoritative information on each book's provenance and on it's contemporary critical reception set against the background of the major events in the author's life.Illustrated with rarely seen photos and updated to include details of the publications, films and TV adaptations of her writings, this book provides fascinating reading for any Christie aficionado. AUTHORBIO: Charles Osborne is an internationally known expert on opera and theater who has written several books on the topics as well as novels, literary studies, and poetry.He is the author of three bestselling novelizations of Agatha Christie plays-Black Coffee (SMP, 1998), The Unexpected Guest (Minotaur, 1999), and Spider's Web (Minotaur, 2000). Osborne was born in Australia and lives in London. [via]
More editions of The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie:
- The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie: ISBN 0312281307 (0-312-28130-7)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr - The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie: ISBN 0312301162 (0-312-30116-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
- The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie: A Biographical Companion to the Works of Agatha Christie: ISBN 0312281307 (0-312-28130-7)
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Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Heeby Meera SyalISBN 031227856X (0-312-27856-X)
Softcover, Picador
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee'Book summary:Meera Syal's second novel features a trio of close and somewhat unlikely childhood friends. Sunita, a former law student and activist, has married her university sweetheart Akash, and is settled into a life of overweight, underappreciated motherhood. Tania is a raven-maned beauty who's rejected marriage and anything traditionally Asian for a high-flying TV career and a compliant Indophile boyfriend. And then there's Chila. Innocent, kind, funny Chila, with her simple soul and her glass animal collection, has just, to everyone's amazement, snared Deepak--the "most eligible bachelor within a twenty-mile radius."
A comedienne and actress as well as the author of the prize-winning Anita and Me, Syal expertly steers her characters through what we might call middle youth--that emotional roller coaster of an age when the real growing up is done. Everywhere her trademark wit and sensitivity are on display. There's the inevitable bitching at the wedding: "Now the sister is howling. I'd howl if I had a moustache like hers..." Then, after the ceremony, come the traditional tears:
Tissue-clutching matriarchs reattached themselves to harrumphing husbands, reaffirming their bonds to each other and the watching world. Single girls clucked in feverish groups, high on the drama of the departure, tossing their fancy dupattas at the single men, torn between the horror and the longing of it all.
What comes after that, alas, is infidelity and envy and betrayal. True to its stoic title, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee encompasses not only the strengths but the limits of female friendship. Yet the author retains her sense of humor and cross-cultural irony to the very end. One final note: if you're pregnant and have set your heart on natural childbirth, avoid pages 72 and 73. Or else book that elective cesarean and painkilling cocktail. Now. --Lisa Gee [via]More editions of Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee:
Literary Seductions: Compulsive Writers and Diverted Readersby Frances WilsonISBN 0312261934 (0-312-26193-4)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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Lord Minimus : The Extraordinary Life of Britain's Smallest Manby Nick PageISBN 0312291612 (0-312-29161-2)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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The Man Who Wasn't Thereby Pat BarkerISBN 0312275439 (0-312-27543-9)
Softcover, Picador USA
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McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Irelandby Pete McCarthyISBN 0312311338 (0-312-31133-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland'Book summary:The premise of Pete McCarthy's first book, McCarthy's Bar, is that you should never pass up the opportunity of having a drink in a bar that shares your name. There is clearly more to this plan than the obvious publicity stunt, since it could work with books as well--try reading Cormac McCarthy after reading this hilarious, informed and intelligent book, and you may well be tempted to buy books by every other McCarthy around.
Born in Warrington, Pete McCarthy decides to go back to rural Ireland, to rediscover his Irishness. The feeling that you have heard this sort of thing all before doesn't last for long. There is a serious writer struggling to make himself heard above the many excellent jokes and this is what makes McCarthy's book so distinctive. Although he can crack Brysonesque quips with the best of them ("I've often wondered how businessmen used to cope before [mobile phones] were invented. How did they tell their wives they were on the train?"), and take us through hilarious and largely drunken set-pieces, McCarthy is equally at home discussing Celtic standing stones and the potato famine.
The resulting book is a wonderful debut. By the end, we, too, would like to move to Ireland. You sense that McCarthy has such a genuine feeling for Ireland, Irishness and Irish history that he can only temper his writing with side-splitting humour. In this way, his first book successfully embodies much of what it is to be Irish. --Toby Green [via]
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McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in the West of Irelandby Pete McCarthyISBN 0312272103 (0-312-27210-3)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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The Needs of Strangersby Michael IgnatieffISBN 0312281803 (0-312-28180-3)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Needs of Strangers'Book summary:This thought provoking book uncovers a crisis in the political imagination, a wide-spread failure to provide the passionate sense of community "in which our need for belonging can be met." Seeking the answers to fundamental questions, Michael Ignatieff writes vividly both about ideas and about the people who tried to live by themfrom Augustine to Bosch, from Rosseau to Simone Weil. Incisive and moving,The Needs of Strangers returns philosophy to its proper place, as a guide to the art of being human.[via]More editions of The Needs of Strangers:
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The Northern Lightsby Howard NormanISBN 0312283377 (0-312-28337-7)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Northern Lights'Book summary:In the frozen wilderness of northern Manitoba, fourteen-year-old Noah Krainik lives with his mother and cousin. With his quirky, cheerful best friend, Pelly Bay, he explores this exotic, lonely landthe domain of Cree Indians, trappers, missionaries, and fugitives from the modern world. When tragedy strikes, Noah must go on alone, discovering a new life in the south and the bustling of Toronto. It is there in the Northern Lights movie theatrewith a Cree family taking up residence in the projection booth, and the reappearance of his elusive fatherthat Noah becomes an adult.[via]More editions of The Northern Lights:
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Ovid in Love: Ovid's Amoresby Ovid, Guy Lee, John WardISBN 0312268912 (0-312-26891-2)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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The Phantom of Manhattanby Frederick ForsythISBN 0312246560 (0-312-24656-0)
Hardcover, St Martins Pr
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The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945by Wladyslaw SzpilmanISBN 0312263767 (0-312-26376-7)
Softcover, Picador USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945'Book summary:Written immediately after the end of World War II, this morally complex Holocaust memoir is notable for its exact depiction of the grim details of life in Warsaw under the Nazi occupation. "Things you hardly noticed before took on enormous significance: a comfortable, solid armchair, the soothing look of a white-tiled stove," writes Wladyslaw Szpilman, a pianist for Polish radio when the Germans invaded. His mother's insistence on laying the table with clean linen for their midday meal, even as conditions for Jews worsened daily, makes palpable the Holocaust's abstract horror. Arbitrarily removed from the transport that took his family to certain death, Szpilman does not deny the "animal fear" that led him to seize this chance for escape, nor does he cheapen his emotions by belaboring them. Yet his cool prose contains plenty of biting rage, mostly buried in scathing asides (a Jewish doctor spared consignment to "the most wonderful of all gas chambers," for example). Szpilman found compassion in unlikely people, including a German officer who brought food and warm clothing to his hiding place during the war's last days. Extracts from the officer's wartime diary (added to this new edition), with their expressions of outrage at his fellow soldiers' behavior, remind us to be wary of general condemnation of any group. --Wendy Smith [via]
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- The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945: ISBN 0312311354 (0-312-31135-4)
Softcover, Picador - The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945: ISBN 0312244150 (0-312-24415-0)
Hardcover, Picador - The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945: ISBN 0312263767 (0-312-26376-7)
Softcover, Picador USA
- The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945: ISBN 0312311354 (0-312-31135-4)
Princeby Ib MichaelISBN 0312273258 (0-312-27325-8)
Softcover, Picador USA
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Queer Burroughsby Jamie RussellISBN 0312239238 (0-312-23923-8)
Softcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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Reading Critically, Writing Well: A Reader and Guideby Rise B. AxelrodISBN 0312250290 (0-312-25029-0)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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Rebellionby Joseph Roth, Michael HofmannISBN 031226383X (0-312-26383-X)
Softcover, Picador USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rebellion'Book summary:Readers of Joseph Roth's entre-les-guerres masterpiece The Radetzky March might reasonably take him for a peculiar kind of royalist. Again and again the author declares his nostalgia for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had gone down in flames in 1918, even as he lampoons the regime's stodginess and casual cruelty. In his youth, however, he was an ardent man of the left, who earned the nickname der rote Roth: Red Roth. And his third novel, Rebellion, is perhaps the closest thing he ever wrote to an engagé work of fiction. Chronicling the trials (literal and figurative) of a downtrodden prole, Roth seems sincerely indignant--and he even allows his protagonist a fiery speech in the final pages, during which the Almighty Himself gets an effective spanking: "How impotent You are in your omnipotence! You have billions of accounts, and make mistakes in individual items? What kind of God are you?"
Prior to this point, Andreas Pum hasn't exactly been a model of biblical eloquence. After losing a leg in World War I, he's made his living as a beggar with a hurdy-gurdy, soliciting coins from passersby. This pious lamebrain does have the luck to marry a voluptuous widow, and for a brief moment he partakes of "a new and numbing blissfulness, which armors us against the offenses and hurts of the world." But a quarrel with a middle-class snob on a tram soon deprives Andreas of his wife, his beggar's license, and his freedom.
Thus begins his descent, which Roth narrates in such a rapid-fire style that this Viennese Job seems to hit bottom almost overnight. Perhaps Andreas's final jeremiad--and indeed, his transformation into a quasi-anarchist--betrays the hand of an ideological stage manager. Yet Roth was far too brilliant a novelist to dabble in social realism, and even his portrait of Andreas's sentencing judge is deliciously equivocating:
The judge himself was clean-shaven. He had an impassive face of granite majesty, like a dead emperor's. It was gray as weathered sandstone.... It was a face that might have looked heartless and implacable, had the middle of its powerful masculine chin not held an appealing, almost childlike dimple.
For this diehard fan of the Dual Monarchy, of course, the comparison to a dead emperor was the highest of compliments. But it was the novelist in Roth, not the left-leaning polemicist, who decided to add the dimple. --James Marcus [via]More editions of Rebellion:
Robert Ludlum's the Cassandra Compactby Robert Ludlum, Philip ShelbyISBN 0312253435 (0-312-25343-5)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Round Ireland With a Fridgeby Tony HawksISBN 0312274920 (0-312-27492-0)
Softcover, Griffin
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Round Ireland With a Fridge'Book summary:On his only prior visit to Ireland, English songwriter-comic Tony Hawks had seen a man hitchhiking with a refrigerator. For years, he was wont to tell the tale during late-night drinking matches, and after one particularly heavy-duty night of partying, he awoke to find a bet scrawled pillowside: a friend wagered 100 pounds that Hawks wouldn't travel Ireland for a month with a refrigerator at his side.
Out of this stupid premise, a ridiculously amusing book was born. Quickly discovered by the Irish media, the thumbing Englishman finds that he and his box fridge are elevated to celebrity status, and there's no dearth of rides, places to stay, or goofy people to meet, from kings to spoons players to locals who take his fridge surfing. As insightful about the strange inner workings of Hawk's mind as it is about charming peculiarities of Irishmen--it's doubtful that Hawks would have been similarly embraced by Germans, Italians, or the French--Round Ireland with a Fridge is an entirely silly, heartwarming tale told in a rollicking funny and refreshing style. --Melissa Rossi [via]
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Rules for Writers: A Brief Handbookby Diana HackerISBN 0312241429 (0-312-24142-9)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rules for Writers: A Brief Handbook'Book summary:Rules for Writers succeeds because it has always been grounded in classroom experience. By looking at her own students needs, Diana Hacker created an affordable and practical classroom tool that doubles as a quick reference. Developed with the help of instructors from two- and four-year schools, the sixth edition gives students quick access to the information they need to solve writing problems in any college course.In the Hacker tradition, the new contributing authors Nancy Sommers, Tom Jehn, Jane Rosenzweig, and Marcy Carbajal Van Horn have crafted solutions for the writing problems of today s college students. Together they give us a new edition that provides more help with academic writing and research and one that works better for a wider range of multilingual students. Flexible content options in print and online allow students to get more than they pay for. [via]
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Saharaby Michael Palin, Basil PaoISBN 0312305435 (0-312-30543-5)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Sally Hemingsby Barbara Chase-RiboudISBN 0312247044 (0-312-24704-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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The Scheme for Full Employment : A Novelby Magnus MillsISBN 0312310293 (0-312-31029-3)
Softcover, Picador
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Shakespeare in Performanceby Robert Shaughnessy, Michael D. BristolISBN 0312233124 (0-312-23312-4)
Softcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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Sheepshaggerby Niall GriffithsISBN 0312300735 (0-312-30073-5)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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A Shortage of Engineers : A Novelby Robert GrossbachISBN 0312275544 (0-312-27554-4)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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Signal and Noise : A Novelby John GriesemerISBN 0312300824 (0-312-30082-4)
Hardcover, Picador
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Signposts in a Strange Landby Walker PercyISBN 0312254199 (0-312-25419-9)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Summerlandby Malcolm KnoxISBN 0312291663 (0-312-29166-3)
Softcover, Picador USA
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Super-Cannesby James Graham BallardISBN 0312306091 (0-312-30609-1)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Super-Cannes'Book summary:JG Ballard covers familiar territory in Super-Cannes: new social structures under pressure, new psychopathologies to be explored. As he did in his previous novel Cocaine Nights, he has avoided the more abstract imagery and plot of Rushing to Paradise or The Day of Creation to create, on the surface, a more mainstream novel, clearly concerned with modern issues of racism, random violence and sexuality. But familiar territory is always the most deeply subversive place in a Ballard novel.
Eden-Olympia is more than a mere business park. It is an expensive and intense hive, the modern "Dream Palace" of "a new elite of administrators, enarques and scientific entrepreneurs"; its aim, "to turn Provence into Europe's silicon valley". Paul Sinclair finds himself with time on his hands in this radical environment when his young wife takes a job at Eden-Olympia. She replaces a doctor who killed 10 executives with a rifle before shooting himself. He left no note and no explanation. Sinclair finds himself living in the same house and learning some of the same lessons as the killer.
There are the (un)usual Ballardian motifs; the injured airman, the swimming pools, the cars, the voyeuristic sex and violence, the perverse personal iconography of the central characters (the hothouse social environment even harks back to High-Rise from 1975), but in this new context they are even more profoundly unsettling than before. The apparently slick, professional characters are flawed and ambiguous, while strange events, as in the outstanding novella Running Wild from 1988, lead to extreme conclusions. Ballard is an expert in explaining how what at first appears perverse, amoral or simply wrong, is actually obvious, sensible and sane, and then going even further. From the beginning, the clues are all there. Eventually, both Sinclair and the reader are clear on what must be done. --John Shire [via]
The Tea Roseby Jennifer DonnellyISBN 0312288352 (0-312-28835-2)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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Three to See the Kingby Magnus MillsISBN 0312306105 (0-312-30610-5)
Softcover, Picador
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A Tragic Honesty : The Life and Work of Richard Yatesby Blake BaileyISBN 0312287216 (0-312-28721-6)
Hardcover, Picador
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Transvestism, Masculinity, and Latin American Literature: Genders Share Fleshby Ben Sifuentes-JaureguiISBN 0312294409 (0-312-29440-9)
Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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The Unexpected Guestby Agatha Christie, Charles OsborneISBN 031224262X (0-312-24262-X)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Unexpected Guest'Book summary:A novelization of the play written by Christie in 1958. [via]
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An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistanby Jason ElliotISBN 0312288468 (0-312-28846-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan'Book summary:Part historical evocation, part travelogue, and part personal quest, An Unexpected Light is the account of Elliot's journey through Afghanistan, a country considered off-limits to travelers for twenty years. Aware of the risks involved, but determined to explore what he could of the Afghan people and culture, Elliot leaves the relative security of Kabul. He travels by foot and on horseback, and hitches rides on trucks that eventually lead him into the snowbound mountains of the North toward Uzbekistan, the former battlefields of the Soviet army's "hidden war." Here the Afghan landscape kindles a recollection of the author's life ten years earlier, when he fought with the anti-Soviet mujaheddin resistance during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Weaving different Afghan times and visits with revealing insights on matters ranging from antipersonnel mines to Sufism, Elliot has created a narrative mosaic of startling prose that captures perfectly the powerful allure of a seldom-glimpsed world.
[via]More editions of An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan:
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Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writingsby V. Sackville-West, Nigel NicolsonISBN 031223760X (0-312-23760-X)
Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings'Book summary:Aristocrat, novelist, essayist, traveler, and lover of Virginia Woolf, Vita Sackville-West lived a fascinating and daring life on the periphery of the Bloomsbury circle. She wrote in an astounding variety of genres, including travel narrative, historical and literary studies, poetry, fiction, and essays, and is probably best known or her novels, The Edwardians and All Passion Spent, and incomparable writings about English country houses and gardens. Here, for the first time, is an anthology that represents the full expanse of her interests and styles. Over half of the works, including intimate diaries and a dream notebook, have never been published. Edited by a foremost expert on the Bloomsbury circle, Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings provides the best and most accessible introduction to this unique writer.[via]More editions of Vita Sackville-West: Selected Writings:
Ways of Making Literature Matter: A Brief Guideby John Clifford, John SchilbISBN 0312259131 (0-312-25913-1)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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Welding With Childrenby Tim GautreauxISBN 0312267924 (0-312-26792-4)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Welding With Children'Book summary:In Tim Gautreaux's pitch-perfect portraits of rural Louisiana life, there is no force stronger than a good Cajun-style chicken stew--except, perhaps, the vagaries of old age. Welding with Children has more than its fair share of the latter, beginning with the funny and moving title story, in which a grandfather drives around the four offspring of his four single daughters using what neighbors unkindly call "the bastardmobile." Raised on a steady diet of Icees and daytime talk TV, Bruton's grandkids finally inspire a housecleaning of truly spiritual dimensions, proving the adage that "everything worth doing hurts like hell." Other stories follow a hard-drinking priest sent on a strange errand of automotive atonement, a manic-depressive Creole princess playing cocktail piano in a motel lounge, and a one-armed feminist hitchhiker on a quest for academic tenure:
When a search committee member told me they'd received an application from a gay black female double amputee from Ghana, I reminded the committee that part of my childhood was spent in Mexico, and then I played my last card and came out as a lesbian.... But it did no good. The college found someone more specialized, foreign, and incomplete than I could ever be.
Fair enough. But while most of these tales rely on a certain tried-and-true Southern eccentricity to work their magic, two stories point to what Gautreaux can do when he seeks to do more than just charm. In "Sorry Blood," another old man loses his way--mentally and physically--in a Wal-Mart parking lot. An opportunistic con man poses as his son, then puts the kidnapped "Ted Williams" to work digging a ditch in the sun. Scary, yes, but not as scary as the old man's struggle to hold on to his memory: "This is an egg. What am I?" In the brief and powerful "Rodeo Parole," four inmates play a dangerous waiting game with an enraged bull, spurred on by the knowledge that a rodeo victory means scoring points with the parole board. The bull, after all, is no more or less than their fates, "like a judge saying something and you can't stop it or change it." Gracefully written and spiced with vivid regional detail, these are tales by a master storyteller who's not afraid to blend some darkness into his fictional roux. --Mary Park [via]More editions of Welding With Children:
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Werewolves in Their Youthby Michael ChabonISBN 0312254385 (0-312-25438-5)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Werewolves in Their Youth'Book summary:Wonder boy Michael Chabon's second collection of stories tackles the American family in all its tragic and often frighteningly funny dysfunction. In the title story, a self-professed "King of the Retards" tries to distance himself from his next-door neighbor and only friend, who has taken their games (Plastic Man, Titanium Man, Matter-Eater Lad) just a little too far. In "House Hunting," a drunk real-estate agent shows a young couple through a house far too expensive for them, pocketing knickknacks and demonstrating a strange familiarity with its rooms. The wrenching "Son of the Wolfman" follows the aftermath of a rape; after a long struggle to conceive, Cara Glanzman becomes pregnant by her rapist and decides to keep the child, even as her husband struggles with his violent thoughts. In spite of the potential for sensationalism in such a plot, "Wolfman" is moving, unsentimental, and like the rest of these tales, wholly original.
Chabon is a master of the lively and unexpected description, his prose studded with images that split these mostly conventionally themed stories wide open. Consider his burly Quebecois carpenter, who has "a face that looked as if it had been carved with a pneumatic drill by a tiny workman dangling from the sheer granite cliff of Olivier's forehead." Or the "local drunks" of a Chubb Island bar, "a close-knit population, involved in an ongoing collective enterprise: the building, over several generations, of a basilica of failure, on whose crowded friezes they figured in vivid depictions of bankruptcy, drug rehabilitation, softball, and arrest." Or, the narrator of "Mrs. Box" and his failed marriage: "...very soon they had been forced to confront the failure of an expedition for which they had set out remarkably ill-equipped, like a couple of trans-Arctic travelers who through lack of preparation find themselves stranded and are forced to eat their dogs." Werewolves in Their Youth is worth reading for such moments alone. When Chabon uses them to illuminate our darkest impulses and fears, the result is often revelatory. [via]
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Wherever Green Is Worn: The Story of the Irish Diasporaby Tim Pat CooganISBN 0312239904 (0-312-23990-4)
Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan
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Wintering : A Novel of Sylvia Plathby Kate MosesISBN 031228375X (0-312-28375-X)
Hardcover, St. Martin's Press
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Writing the World: Reading and Writing About Issues of the Dayby Charles R. Cooper, Susan Peck MacdonaldISBN 0312260083 (0-312-26008-3)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writing the World: Reading and Writing About Issues of the Day'Book summary:[via]Writing the World is a new reader and writing guide that will prepare students to join the conversations about important issues of the day. It offers provocative readings that will engage student interest along with extensive writing guidance to help them add their voices to the conversations about key social and cultural issues -- to write the world, if you will.More editions of Writing the World: Reading and Writing About Issues of the Day:
Wrong Information Is Being Given Out at Princeton : The Chronicle of One of the Strangest Stories Ever to Be Rumoured about Around New Yorkby J. P. DonleavyISBN 0312244991 (0-312-24499-1)
Softcover, St. Martin's Press
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