books tagged “Non-Fiction” (non-fiction / non fiction)

books tagged “Non-Fiction”

English

via
1421: The Year China Discovered America
by Gavin Menzies

ISBN 006054094X (0-06-054094-X)
Softcover, Perennial

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: '1421: The Year China Discovered America'
Book summary:
The incredible true story of the discovery of America before Columbus was even born. Gavin Menzies's extraordinary findings rewrite history.
On March 8, 1421, the largest fleet the world had ever seen sailed from its base in China. The ships, huge junks nearly five hundred feet long and built from the finest teak, were under the command of Emperor Zhu Di's loyal eunuch admirals. Their mission was "to proceed all the way to the end of the earth to collect tribute from the barbarians beyond the seas" and unite the whole world in Confucian harmony. Their journey would last more than two years and circle the globe.

When they returned in October 1423, the emperor had fallen, leaving China in political and economic chaos. The great ships, now considered frivolous, were left to rot at their moorings and the records of their journeys were destroyed. Lost in China's long, self-imposed isolation that followed was the knowledge that Chinese ships had reached America seventy years before Columbus and circumnavigated the globe a century before Magellan. Also concealed were how the Chinese colonized America before the Europeans and transplanted to America, Australia, New Zealand and South America the principal economic crops that have fed and clothed the world.

Now, in a landmark historical journey, Gavin Menzies, who spent fifteen years tracing the astonishing voyages of the Chinese fleet, shares the remarkable account of his discoveries and the incontrovertible evidence to support them. His compelling narrative pulls together ancient maps, precise navigational knowledge, astronomy and the surviving accounts of Chinese explorers and the later European navigators to prove that the Chinese had also discovered Antarctica, reached Australia three hundred and fifty years before Cook and solved the problem of longitude three hundred years ahead of the Europeans. 1421 describes the artifacts and inscribed stones left behind by the emperor's fleet, the evidence of wrecked junks along its route -- discovered in locations ranging from the middle of the Mississippi River to tributaries of the Amazon -- and the ornate votive offerings left by the Chinese sailors wherever they landed, in honor of Shao Lin, goddess of the sea.

1421: The Year China Discovered America is the story of a remarkable journey of discovery that rewrites our understanding of history. Our knowledge of world exploration as it has been commonly accepted for centuries must now be reconceived due to this classic work of historical detection.
[via]
More editions of 1421: The Year China Discovered America:
- 1421: The Year China Discovered America: ISBN 0060537639 (0-06-053763-9)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- 1421: The Year China Discovered America: ISBN 006054094X (0-06-054094-X)
  Softcover, Perennial
via
1421: The Year China Discovered the World
by Gavin Menzies

ISBN 0553815229 (0-553-81522-9)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: '1421: The Year China Discovered the World'
Book summary:
If you're going to make a stir, you might as well do it in style. And Gavin Menzies has caused one, big time. In 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, this retired Royal Navy submarine commander, who only visited China for the first time on his 25th wedding anniversary, claims that the Chinese navigator Zheng He discovered America some 71 years before Columbus. And not content with this, he goes on to suggest that Zheng He learnt how to calculate longitude several centuries before John Harrison supposedly nailed the problem. Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down too well in some areas and the book has been the target of some scepticism.
Although Menzies has unearthed a few unknown primary sources, the bulk of his thesis depends on amalgamating several disparate areas of research into a grand unified theory. So he combines what we do know--principally that the Chinese built huge sailing ships with nine masts and that Asiatic chickens were discovered in South America--into what he considers compelling evidence. Menzies has also turned up some maps from the pre-Columbus era that appear to show the Americas, along with a few shipwrecks and Ming artefacts from along his supposed route.
It all makes for a gripping read, even if the sum doesn't quite add up to the whole. For all the detail, Menzies is some way off providing proof. None of the supposed 28,000 colonists has left any documentary evidence because all records, boats and shipyards associated with his voyage were burnt by imperial order in 1433. This surely begs the question--if we know so much of Zheng He's voyages around the Indian Ocean, how come we know nothing of his trips further east? Nor, conveniently for Menzies, did any of the colonists return home in triumph. They either died en route or skulked home to obscurity after they were disowned by the emperor.
So you either accept Menzies as an act of faith or brush him aside with scepticism. Either way, you'll have a lot of fun in the process as the book is never less than provocative. And even the sceptics will find themselves hoping Menzies has got it right, because there's something intrinsically uplifting about the notion of an amateur historian getting one over the professionals. --John Crace [via]
More editions of 1421: The Year China Discovered the World:
- 1421: The Year China Discovered the World: ISBN 0553815229 (0-553-81522-9)
  Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
via
1491: New Revelations Of The Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann

ISBN 1400032059 (1-4000-3205-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: '1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus'
Book summary:
A groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492.

Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus's landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last thirty years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.

In a book that startles and persuades, Mann reveals how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques came to previously unheard-of conclusions. Among them:

? In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe.
? Certain cities-such as Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital-were far greater in population than any contemporary European city. Furthermore, Tenochtitlán, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets.
? The earliest cities in the Western Hemisphere were thriving before the Egyptians built the great pyramids.
? Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process so sophisticated that the journal Science recently described it as "man's first, and perhaps the greatest, feat of genetic engineering."
? Amazonian Indians learned how to farm the rain forest without destroying it-a process scientists are studying today in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge.
? Native Americans transformed their land so completely that Europeans arrived in a hemisphere already massively "landscaped" by human beings. [via]
More editions of 1491: New Revelations Of The Americas Before Columbus:
- 1491: New Revelations Of The Americas Before Columbus: ISBN 140004006X (1-4000-4006-X)
  Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
- 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus: ISBN 1400032059 (1-4000-3205-9)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
All Creatures Great and Small
by James Herriot

ISBN 0816160953 (0-8161-6095-3)
Hardcover, G K Hall & Co

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'All Creatures Great and Small'
More editions of All Creatures Great and Small:
- All Creatures Great and Small: ISBN 0816160953 (0-8161-6095-3)
  Hardcover, G K Hall & Co
All Creatures Great and Small
by Laura Kelly

ISBN 0679872183 (0-679-87218-3)
Softcover, Random House Children's Books

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'All Creatures Great and Small'
More editions of All Creatures Great and Small:
- All Creatures Great and Small: ISBN 0679872183 (0-679-87218-3)
  Softcover, Random House Children's Books
via
The Art of Happiness
by Dalai Lama, Howard C. Cutler

ISBN 1573221112 (1-57322-111-2)
Hardcover, Riverhead Books

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Art of Happiness'
Book summary:
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sit down with the Dalai Lama and really press him about life's persistent questions? Why are so many people unhappy? How can I abjure loneliness? How can we reduce conflict? Is romantic love true love? Why do we suffer? How should we deal with unfairness and anger? How do you handle the death of a loved one? These are the conundrums that psychiatrist Howard Cutler poses to the Dalai Lama during an extended period of interviews in The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living.
At first, the Dalai Lama's answers seem simplistic, like a surface reading of Robert Fulghum: Ask yourself if you really need something; our enemies can be our teachers; compassion brings peace of mind. Cutler pushes: But some people do seem happy with lots of possessions; but "suffering is life" is so pessimistic; but going to extremes provides the zest in life; but what if I don't believe in karma? As the Dalai Lama's responses become more involved, a coherent philosophy takes shape. Cutler then develops the Dalai Lama's answers in the context of scientific studies and cases from his own practice, substantiating and elaborating on what he finds to be a revolutionary psychology. Like any art, the art of happiness requires study and practice--and the talent for it, the Dalai Lama assures us, is in our nature. --Brian Bruya [via]
More editions of The Art of Happiness:
- The Art of Happiness: ISBN 1573221112 (1-57322-111-2)
  Hardcover, Riverhead Books
via
The Autobiography and Other Writings
by Benjamin Franklin

ISBN 0451528107 (0-451-52810-7)
Softcover, Signet Classic

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography and Other Writings'
Book summary:
OTHER WRITINGS INCLUDE: A RECEIPT TO MAKE A NEW ENGLAND FUNERAL ELEGY; ADVICE TO A FRIEND ON CHOOSING A MISTRESS; THE SPEECH OF MISS POLLY BAKER; HOW TO SECURE HOUSES, &C. FROM LIGHTNING; THE KITE EXPERIMENT; THE WAY TO WEALTH; AN EDICT BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA; THE MORALS OF CHESS (EXCERPT); THE ELYSIAN FIELDS; INFORMATION TO THOSE WHO WOULD REMOVE TO AMERICA (EXCERPT); AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY; A MISCELLANY OF FRANKLIN'S OPINIONS. [via]
More editions of The Autobiography and Other Writings:
Autobiography and Selected Writings
by Benjamin Franklin

ISBN 0451522028 (0-451-52202-8)
Softcover, Penguin USA

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Autobiography and Selected Writings'
More editions of Autobiography and Selected Writings:
- Autobiography and Selected Writings: ISBN 0451522028 (0-451-52202-8)
  Softcover, Penguin USA
via
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin

ISBN 0300098588 (0-300-09858-8)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin'
Book summary:
One of the most popular works of American literature, this charming self-portrait has been translated into nearly every language. It covers Franklin's life up to his prewar stay in London as representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly, including his boyhood years, work as a printer, experiments with electricity, political career, much more.
[via]
More editions of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin:
via
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: With Related Documents
by Louis P. Masur

ISBN 0312404158 (0-312-40415-8)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: With Related Documents'
Book summary:
This new edition of "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" is built around J.A. Leo Lemay and P.R. Zall's text. Louis Masur's introduction sets the work in its historical context. Masur also discusses America after Franklin and why the autobiography has had such a tremendous impact on 19th- and 20th-century society and culture. The book prompts students to think critically about the text by raising fundamental issues, such as the inherent distortion that occurs in autobiography. The book also contains six portraits of Franklin. Louis Masur is the author of "Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865". [via]
More editions of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: With Related Documents:
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: With Related Documents: ISBN 0312084463 (0-312-08446-3)
  Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: With Related Documents: ISBN 0312404158 (0-312-40415-8)
  Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
via
Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994
by Sylvia Nasar

ISBN 0684853701 (0-684-85370-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994'
Book summary:
Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.
Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash's Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening." --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
More editions of Beautiful Mind: A Biography of John Forbes Nash, Jr., Winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, 1994:
via
A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash
by Sylvia Nasar

ISBN 0743224574 (0-7432-2457-4)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash'
Book summary:
Stories of famously eccentric Princetonians abound--such as that of chemist Hubert Alyea, the model for The Absent-Minded Professor, or Ralph Nader, said to have had his own key to the library as an undergraduate. Or the "Phantom of Fine Hall," a figure many students had seen shuffling around the corridors of the math and physics building wearing purple sneakers and writing numerology treatises on the blackboards. The Phantom was John Nash, one of the most brilliant mathematicians of his generation, who had spiraled into schizophrenia in the 1950s. His most important work had been in game theory, which by the 1980s was underpinning a large part of economics. When the Nobel Prize committee began debating a prize for game theory, Nash's name inevitably came up--only to be dismissed, since the prize clearly could not go to a madman. But in 1994 Nash, in remission from schizophrenia, shared the Nobel Prize in economics for work done some 45 years previously.
Economist and journalist Sylvia Nasar has written a biography of Nash that looks at all sides of his life. She gives an intelligent, understandable exposition of his mathematical ideas and a picture of schizophrenia that is evocative but decidedly unromantic. Her story of the machinations behind Nash's Nobel is fascinating and one of very few such accounts available in print (the CIA could learn a thing or two from the Nobel committees). This highly recommended book is indeed "a story about the mystery of the human mind, in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening." --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
More editions of A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash:
- A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John Nash: ISBN 0743224574 (0-7432-2457-4)
  Softcover, Simon & Schuster
via
Benjamin Franklin:a Biography in His Own Words: A Biography in His Own Words
by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas J. Fleming

ISBN 0060112867 (0-06-011286-7)
Hardcover

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Benjamin Franklin:a Biography in His Own Words: A Biography in His Own Words'
More editions of Benjamin Franklin:a Biography in His Own Words: A Biography in His Own Words:
- Benjamin Franklin:a Biography in His Own Words: A Biography in His Own Words: ISBN 0060112867 (0-06-011286-7)
  Hardcover
via
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
by Walter Isaacson

ISBN 074325807X (0-7432-5807-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Benjamin Franklin: An American Life'
Book summary:
Benjamin Franklin, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait. What's more, Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege. That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn't shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn't shy from enumerating Franklins occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of our time--none of which, however, stops him from considering Benjamin Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age," and one of the most admirable of any era. And heres one bit of proof: as a young man, Ben Franklin regularly went without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one--and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. --Gregory McNamee [via]
More editions of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life:
via
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds Criticism
by Benjamin Franklin

ISBN 0393952940 (0-393-95294-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds Criticism'
Book summary:
Franklins Autobiography is the only enduring best-seller written in America before the nineteenth century, as well as the most popular autobiography ever written.
As such it deserves to be offered to twentieth-century readers in the most accurate form possible, and so it is, in this Norton Critical Edition, the first text to be edited directly from the manuscripts, rather than perpetuating the errors of previous editions.

The text is fully annotated, and the reading is assisted by helpful footnotes, biographical sketches, and two maps.

In "Backgrounds", the editors collect Franklins most important reflections on the Autobiographys purpose, some anecdotes, and a number of Franklins statements on wealth, the art of virtue, and perfection. Materials in "Criticism" range from contemporary opinionswhich reveal that readers were divided then as they are now about the art of the Autobiographyto essays written in the twentieth century.

Nineteenth-century opinions include those of John Keats, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, and William Dean Howells, among others.

The twentieth-century materials include D. H. Lawrences celebrated essay, an excerpt from Max Webers Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, and the perspectives of such recent critics as Charles L. Sanford, Robert Freeman Sayre, John William Ward, and David Devin. [via]
More editions of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds Criticism:
- Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds Criticism: ISBN 0393017370 (0-393-01737-0)
  Hardcover, Norton
- Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: An Authoritative Text Backgrounds Criticism: ISBN 0393952940 (0-393-95294-0)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Blue Highways: A Journey into America
by William Least Heat Moon

ISBN 0816135967 (0-8161-3596-7)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Blue Highways: A Journey into America'
More editions of Blue Highways: A Journey into America:
- Blue Highways: A Journey into America: ISBN 0816135967 (0-8161-3596-7)
  Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
via
Chronicles
by Bob Dylan

ISBN 0743244583 (0-7432-4458-3)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Chronicles'
Book summary:
As the first volume of Chronicles, Bob Dylans long-anticipated autobiography, finally appears, we are given a forcible reminder how it has never been easy to be a Dylan admirer. How could the fiercely anti-establishment composer of With God on Our Side embrace (in turn) orthodox Judaism, then fundamentalist Christianity two religions absolutely antithetical to his celebration of the unfettered human spirit ? How could the demigod of folk (and disciple of Woody Guthrie) make his controversial move into electric rock? How could this man of the streets become the arch capitalist? If no answers to these questions are to be found within the pages of Chronicles, there is nevertheless a whole host of pleasures to be encountered: literary felicities, brilliantly etched pen portraits of musical personalities he has encountered, the biting wit one might expect not to mention a thousand surprises (how could a man hardly noted for the beauty of his vocal tones be such an admirer of composers whose work he could never tackle, such as Harold Arlen, composer of Over the Rainbow?.
Those who have loved Dylans lyrics (and thats a good chunk of the academic world these days) will find the same coruscating prose here: idea and image fused into brilliant (if often opaque) word pictures, as Dylan takes us back to his early days on the New York folk scene, before he became the face of rebellion in music. There are insights into his reluctance to conform to the image his fans have of him (hence his highly unlikely conversion to religious dogmas?), and this inaugural volume of his autobiography takes the reader up to the moment of his first real celebrity. Its a fascinating and infuriating read, of a piece with Dylan the Enigma. And perhaps answers to those unanswered questions will appear in succeeding volumes. --Barry Forshaw [via]
More editions of Chronicles:
via
Chronicles: A Bob Dylan Series
by Bob Dylan

ISBN 0786273410 (0-7862-7341-0)
Hardcover, Thorndike Pr

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Chronicles: A Bob Dylan Series'
Book summary:
One would not anticipate a conventional memoir from Bob Dylan--indeed, one would not have foreseen an autobiography at all from the pen of the notoriously private legend. What Chronicles: Volume 1 delivers is an odd but ultimately illuminating memoir that is as impulsive, eccentric, and inspired as Dylan's greatest music.
Eschewing chronology and skipping over most of the "highlights" that his many biographers have assigned him, Dylan drifts and rambles through his tale, amplifying a series of major and minor epiphanies. If you're interested in a behind-the-scenes look at his encounters with the Beatles, look elsewhere. Dylan describes the sensation of hearing the group's "Do You Want to Know a Secret" on the radio, but devotes far more ink to a Louisiana shopkeeper named Sun Pie, who tells him, "I think all the good in the world might already been done" and sells him a World's Greatest Grandpa bumper sticker. Dylan certainly sticks to his own agenda--a newspaper article about journeymen heavyweights Jerry Quarry and Jimmy Ellis and soul singer Joe Tex's appearance on The Tonight Show inspire heartfelt musings, and yet the 1963 assassination of John Kennedy prompts nary a word from the era's greatest protest singer.
For all the small revelations (it turns out he's been a big fan of Barry Goldwater, Mickey Rourke, and Ice-T), there are eye-opening disclosures, including his confession that a large portion of his recorded output was designed to alienate his audience and free him from the burden of being a "the voice of a generation."
Off the beaten path as it is, Chronicles is nevertheless an astonishing achievement. As revelatory in its own way as Blonde on Blonde or Highway 61 Revisited, it provides ephemeral insights into the mind one of the most significant artistic voices of the 20th century while creating a completely new set of mysteries. --Steven Stolder [via]
More editions of Chronicles: A Bob Dylan Series:
- Chronicles: A Bob Dylan Series: ISBN 0786273410 (0-7862-7341-0)
  Hardcover, Thorndike Pr
via
The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics
by C. S. Lewis

ISBN 0060506083 (0-06-050608-3)
Hardcover, Harper San Francisco

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics'
Book summary:
For the first time ever, these seven essential volumes by C. S. Lewis are available in a single edition. This remarkable book presents the classic works Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, A Grief Observed, and Lewis's prophetic examination of universal values, The Abolition of Man. Beautiful and timeless, this is a vital collection by one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. Lewis reached a vast audience during his lifetime, and books such as Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters continue to be regarded as among the best spiritual writing of all time. With his uncanny grasp of human nature, Lewis offers a refreshing antidote to the modern world's consumerism and moral relativism. This new edition of his most celebrated books highlights Lewis's compassion for humanity and his relevance for the twenty-first century. [via]
More editions of The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics:
- The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics: ISBN 0060506083 (0-06-050608-3)
  Hardcover, Harper San Francisco
via
The Consolations of Philosophy
by Alain De Botton

ISBN 0679779175 (0-679-77917-5)
Softcover, Vintage Books

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Consolations of Philosophy'
Book summary:
"It is common," Alain de Botton writes in The Consolations of Philosophy, "to assume that we are dealing with a highly intelligent book when we cease to understand it. Profound ideas cannot, after all, be explained in the language of children." While his easygoing exploration of philosophers from Socrates to Nietzsche isn't exactly written for the Blue's Clues set, few readers will cease to understand it. Furthermore, it's a joy to read. De Botton's 1997 How Proust Can Change Your Life forged a new kind of lit crit: an exploration of Remembrance of Things Past, delivered in the sweet-gummed envelope of an advice book. He returns to the self-help format here, this time plundering the great thinkers to puzzle out the way we ought to live.
What was stunning about the Proust book was de Botton's brazen annexing of a hallowed novelist to address lite emotional problems. That format is less arresting when applied to the philosophers, since which earnest philosophy major has not, from time to time, tried to apply the alpine heights of thought to his own humble worries? Usually, sophomoric attempts to turn to, say, Kant for advice on love tend to be unmitigated disasters. In de Botton's case, however, he is able to find consolation for a broken heart in Schopenhauer, consolation for inadequacy in Montaigne. Epicurus, usually associated with a love of luxury, is a solace for those of us without much money--and de Botton learns from him that "objects mimic in a material dimension what we require in a psychological one. We need to rearrange our minds but are lured towards new shelves. We buy a cashmere cardigan as a substitute for the counsel of friends."
Lest the reader become burdened by all this philosophizing, the book is peppered with illustrations--the section on Nietzsche of course includes a DC Comics drawing of Superman. And it's further leavened by the author's personal anecdotes and winning confessional tone. Early on, for instance, he admits his own gnawing need for popularity: "A desire to please led me to laugh at modest jokes like a parent on the opening night of a school play." Before he became a medicine man for the soul, de Botton was a first-rate novelist, and it shows in his writing. --Claire Dederer [via]
More editions of The Consolations of Philosophy:
- The Consolations of Philosophy: ISBN 0679442766 (0-679-44276-6)
  Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
- The Consolations of Philosophy: ISBN 0679779175 (0-679-77917-5)
  Softcover, Vintage Books
via
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon

ISBN 1853264997 (1-85326-499-7)
Softcover, Lb May & Assoc Inc

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Book summary:
British parliamentarian and soldier Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) conceived of his plan for Decline and Fall while "musing amid the ruins of the Capitol" on a visit to Rome. For the next 10 years he worked away at his great history, which traces the decadence of the late empire from the time of the Antonines and the rise of Western Christianity. "The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration," he writes. Despite these obstacles, Decline and Fall remains a model of historical exposition, and required reading for students of European history. [via]
More editions of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
via
Don't Panic
by Neil Gaiman

ISBN 1840235012 (1-84023-501-2)
Softcover, Perseus Distribution Services

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Don't Panic'
Book summary:
"It's all devastatingly true - except the bits that are lies. - Douglas Adams
Don't Panic celebrates the life of an ape-descended human called Douglas Adams who, in a field in Innsbruck in 1971, had an idea.
This is also the story of what that idea became: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - the original radio series which started it all, and the five book trilogy', the TV series, almost-film, computer game, towel and website that followed. Acclaimed author Neil Gaiman also tells the whole story of Liff, the Universe of Dirk Gently, and everything else Douglas ever worked on. [via]
More editions of Don't Panic:
- Don't Panic: ISBN 1840237422 (1-84023-742-2)
  Hardcover, Random House Inc
- Don't Panic: ISBN 1840235012 (1-84023-501-2)
  Softcover, Perseus Distribution Services
via
El Arte De LA Felicidad
by Dalai Lama

ISBN 9871138784 (987-1138-78-4)
Softcover, Random House Mondadori

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'El Arte De LA Felicidad'
More editions of El Arte De LA Felicidad:
- El Arte De LA Felicidad: ISBN 9871138784 (987-1138-78-4)
  Softcover, Random House Mondadori
via
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon, Rosemary E. Williams

ISBN 0831739061 (0-8317-3906-1)
Hardcover, Smithmark Pub

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
More editions of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0831739061 (0-8317-3906-1)
  Hardcover, Smithmark Pub
The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In History
by John Barry

ISBN 0143036491 (0-14-303649-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In History'
More editions of The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In History:
- The Great Influenza: The Story Of The Deadliest Pandemic In History: ISBN 0143036491 (0-14-303649-1)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
via
The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History
by John M. Barry

ISBN 0143034480 (0-14-303448-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History'
Book summary:
In the winter of 1918, at the height of WWI, historys most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, John M. Barry weaves together multiple narratives, with characters ranging from William Welch (founder of Johns Hopkins Medical School) to John D. Rockefeller and Woodrow Wilson. Ultimately a tale of triumph amid tragedy, this crisis provides a precise and sobering model for our world as we confront AIDS, bioterrorism, and other, as yet unknown, diseases. [via]
More editions of The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History:
- The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History: ISBN 0143034480 (0-14-303448-0)
  Softcover, Penguin Group USA
via
A Grief Observed
by C. S. Lewis

ISBN 0060652381 (0-06-065238-1)
Softcover, Harper San Francisco

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'A Grief Observed'
Book summary:
Written with love, humility, and faith, this brief but poignant volume was first published in 1961 and concerns the death of C. S. Lewis's wife, the American-born poet Joy Davidman. In her introduction to this new edition, Madeleine L'Engle writes: "I am grateful to Lewis for having the courage to yell, to doubt, to kick at God in angry violence. This is a part of a healthy grief which is not often encouraged. It is helpful indeed that C. S. Lewis, who has been such a successful apologist for Christianity, should have the courage to admit doubt about what he has so superbly proclaimed. It gives us permission to admit our own doubts, our own angers and anguishes, and to know that they are part of the soul's growth."
Written in longhand in notebooks that Lewis found in his home, A Grief Observed probes the "mad midnight moments" of Lewis's mourning and loss, moments in which he questioned what he had previously believed about life and death, marriage, and even God. Indecision and self-pity assailed Lewis. "We are under the harrow and can't escape," he writes. "I know that the thing I want is exactly the thing I can never get. The old life, the jokes, the drinks, the arguments, the lovemaking, the tiny, heartbreaking commonplace." Writing A Grief Observed as "a defense against total collapse, a safety valve," he came to recognize that "bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love."
Lewis writes his statement of faith with precision, humor, and grace. Yet neither is Lewis reluctant to confess his continuing doubts and his awareness of his own human frailty. This is precisely the quality which suggests that A Grief Observed may become "among the great devotional books of our age."
[via]
More editions of A Grief Observed:
via
A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603
by Simon Schama

ISBN 0786866756 (0-7868-6675-6)
Hardcover, Miramax

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603'
Book summary:
What do you get when you combine the resources and ethos of the BBC with the literary panache of one of the world's best narrative historians? The answer is Simon Schama's A History of Britain, the first volume of which accompanies the BBC-History Channel series of the same name. In a beautifully written and thoughtfully crafted book, studded with striking portraits, pictures, and maps, Schama, the bestselling author of books on European cultural history such as The Embarrassment of Riches and Citizens, as well as 1999's Rembrandt's Eyes, has managed to be both conventional and provocative.
He tells the official version of Britain's island story--from Roman Britain, through the Norman conquest, the struggles of the Henrys and Richards with their barons and clerics, Edward I and the subjugation of Wales, King Death (the plague), and on to the Henrician reformation, before closing with the remarkable reign of the virgin queen, Elizabeth I. But, while sticking to a script familiar to anyone who sat up and listened in history lessons at school, Schama brings it all alive, with memorable prose--Simon de Montfort's rebel parliament is described as inaugurating the "union between patriotism and insubordination"; with Henry VIII, Schama says, "you could practically smell the testosterone." And with fine sensitivity, too, particularly on the symbolism of buildings, memorials, language, and ceremonies, and on the complex relations between England and her Celtic and Catholic neighbors. If history must have gloss, then let it be written and presented like this. --Miles Taylor, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603:
- A History of Britain: At the Edge of the World? 3500 Bc-Ad1603: ISBN 0786866756 (0-7868-6675-6)
  Hardcover, Miramax
via
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon

ISBN 1404306978 (1-4043-0697-8)
Softcover, IndyPublish.com

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
Book summary:
This edition of Gibbon's classic history returns to manuscript and original sources. [via]
More editions of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 0713991240 (0-7139-9124-0)
  Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
- The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: ISBN 1404306978 (1-4043-0697-8)
  Softcover, IndyPublish.com
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
by John Grisham

ISBN 0739326732 (0-7393-2673-2)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town'
More editions of The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town:
- The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town: ISBN 0739326732 (0-7393-2673-2)
  Hardcover, Random House Large Print
via
J.S. Mill on Liberty in Focus
by John Gray, G.W. Smith

ISBN 0415010012 (0-415-01001-2)
Softcover, Routledge

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'J.S. Mill on Liberty in Focus'
Book summary:
This volume brings together J.S. Mills On Liberty and a selection of important essays by such eminent scholars as Isaiah Berlin, Alan Ryan, John Rees, C.L. Ten and Richard Wollheim. As well as providing authoritative commentary upon On Liberty, the essays reflect a broader debate about the philosophical foundations of Mill's liberalism, particularly the question of the connection betweenMill's professed utilitarianism and his commitment to individual liberty. Introduced and edited by John Gray and G.W. Smith, the book will be of interest to students of Mill, to ethical and political philosophers and to anyone interested in the contemporary status of liberalism. [via]
More editions of J.S. Mill on Liberty in Focus:
- J.S. Mill on Liberty in Focus: ISBN 0415010004 (0-415-01000-4)
  Hardcover, Routledge
- J.S. Mill on Liberty in Focus: ISBN 0415010012 (0-415-01001-2)
  Softcover, Routledge
via
Julie And Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, And Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living
by Julie Powell

ISBN 031610969X (0-316-10969-X)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Julie And Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, And Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living'
Book summary:
Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.
When we first meet Julie, she's a frustrated temp-to-perm secretary who slaves away at a thankless job, only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening. At the urging of Eric, her devoted and slightly geeky husband, she decides to start a blog that will chronicle what she dubs the "Julie/Julia Project." What follows is a year of butter-drenched meals that will both necessitate the wearing of an unbearably uncomfortable girdle on the hottest night of the year, as well as the realization that life is what you make of it and joy is not as impossible a quest as it may seem, even when it's -10 degrees out and your pipes are frozen.
Powell is a natural when it comes to connecting with her readers, which is probably why her blog generated so much buzz, both from readers and media alike. And while her self-deprecating sense of humor can sometimes dissolve into whininess, she never really loses her edge, or her sense of purpose. Even on day 365, she's working her way through Mayonnaise Collee and ending the evening "back exactly where we started--just Eric and me, three cats and Buffy...sitting on a couch in the outer boroughs, eating, with Julia chortling alongside us...."
Inspired and encouraging, Julie and Julia is a unique opportunity to join one woman's attempt to change her life, and have a laugh, or ten, along the way. --Gisele Toueg [via]
More editions of Julie And Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, And Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living:
- Julie And Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, And Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living: ISBN 031610969X (0-316-10969-X)
  Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
via
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
by Julie Powell

ISBN 0316013269 (0-316-01326-9)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously'
Book summary:
Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.
When we first meet Julie, she's a frustrated temp-to-perm secretary who slaves away at a thankless job, only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening. At the urging of Eric, her devoted and slightly geeky husband, she decides to start a blog that will chronicle what she dubs the "Julie/Julia Project." What follows is a year of butter-drenched meals that will both necessitate the wearing of an unbearably uncomfortable girdle on the hottest night of the year, as well as the realization that life is what you make of it and joy is not as impossible a quest as it may seem, even when it's -10 degrees out and your pipes are frozen.
Powell is a natural when it comes to connecting with her readers, which is probably why her blog generated so much buzz, both from readers and media alike. And while her self-deprecating sense of humor can sometimes dissolve into whininess, she never really loses her edge, or her sense of purpose. Even on day 365, she's working her way through Mayonnaise Collee and ending the evening "back exactly where we started--just Eric and me, three cats and Buffy...sitting on a couch in the outer boroughs, eating, with Julia chortling alongside us...."
Inspired and encouraging, Julie and Julia is a unique opportunity to join one woman's attempt to change her life, and have a laugh, or ten, along the way. --Gisele Toueg [via]
More editions of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously:
- Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously: ISBN 0316013269 (0-316-01326-9)
  Softcover, Little Brown & Co
Kon-Tiki
by Thor Heyerdahl

ISBN 039486364X (0-394-86364-X)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Kon-Tiki'
Book summary:
Six men on a small raft sail four thousand miles across the Pacific Ocean, from Peru to the Polynesian Islands. [via]
More editions of Kon-Tiki:
Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
by J. R. R. Tolkien

ISBN 0890112797 (0-89011-279-7)
Hardcover, Horizon Book Promotions

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'
More editions of Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien:
- Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien: ISBN 0890112797 (0-89011-279-7)
  Hardcover, Horizon Book Promotions
via
Men Are from Mars

ISBN 0060926422 (0-06-092642-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins

Find This Book

Book summary:
Relationship counselor John Gray focuses on the differences between men and women--men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, after all--and offers a simple solution: couples must acknowledge and accept these differences before they can develop happier relationships. In this unabridged version, Gray gives a spirited delivery of his message, especially when role-playing typical male/female interactions. Although it takes some time to adjust to his slightly nasal tone, the information is sound and gives both men and women helpful hints on improving themselves and their union. (Running time: 9.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --Sharon Griggins [via]
More editions of Men Are from Mars:
- Men Are from Mars: ISBN 0060926422 (0-06-092642-2)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
via
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
by John Gray

ISBN 0060574216 (0-06-057421-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus'
Book summary:
Relationship counselor John Gray focuses on the differences between men and women--men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, after all--and offers a simple solution: couples must acknowledge and accept these differences before they can develop happier relationships. In this unabridged version, Gray gives a spirited delivery of his message, especially when role-playing typical male/female interactions. Although it takes some time to adjust to his slightly nasal tone, the information is sound and gives both men and women helpful hints on improving themselves and their union. (Running time: 9.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --Sharon Griggins [via]
More editions of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus:
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: ISBN 0060574216 (0-06-057421-6)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
via
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships
by John Gray

ISBN 006016848X (0-06-016848-X)
Hardcover, Harpercollins

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships'
Book summary:
Popular marriage counselor and seminar leader John Gray provides a unique, practical and proven way for men and women to communicate and relate better by acknowledging the differences between them. Once upon a time Martians and Venusians met, fell in love, and had happy relationships together because they respected and accepted their differences. Then they came to earth and amnesia set in: they forgot they were from different planets. Using this metaphor to illustrate the commonly occurring conflicts between men and women, Gray explains how these differences can come between the sexes and prohibit mutually fulfilling loving relationships. Based on years of successful counseling of couples, he gives advice on how to counteract these differences in communication styles, emotional needs and modes of behavior to promote a greater understanding between individual partners. Gray shows how men and women react differently in conversation and how their relationships are affected by male intimacy cycles ("get close", "back off"), and female self-esteem fluctuations ("I'm okay", "I'm not okay"). He encourages readers to accept the other gender's particular way of expressing love, and helps men and women learn how to fulfill each other's emotional needs. With practical suggestions on how to reduce conflict, crucial information on how to interpret a partner's behavior and methods for preventing emotional "trash from the past" from invading new relationships, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is a valuable tool for couples who want to develop deeper and more satisfying relationships with their partners. [via]
More editions of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships:
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus: A Practical Guide for Improving Communication and Getting What You Want in Your Relationships: ISBN 006016848X (0-06-016848-X)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
via
Men, Women, and Relationships: Making Peace with the Opposite Sex
by John Gray

ISBN 0061010707 (0-06-101070-7)
Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Men, Women, and Relationships: Making Peace with the Opposite Sex'
Book summary:
John Gray, New York Times bestselling author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, reveals that the key to creating and maintaining successful relationships between men and women lies in accepting our differences. By trying to make our partners over in our own likeness, Gray reminds us we destroy what we first found so appealing.
Writing with the compassionate understanding that is his trademark, Gray draws on his wealth of experience from twenty years of work in couples therapy, his two mega-selling books, as well as his hugely popular national workshops and seminars. In Men, Women, and Relationships, he ably demonstrates that only through respecting, appreciating, and responding to our natural differences can we achieve real happiness and fulfillment in our relationships.
Discover the simple, practical techniques that can enable all of us to experience the healthy, supportive love we deserve. [via]
More editions of Men, Women, and Relationships: Making Peace with the Opposite Sex:
- Men, Women, and Relationships: Making Peace with the Opposite Sex: ISBN 0061010707 (0-06-101070-7)
  Softcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited
via
On Liberty
by John Stuart Mill, Gertrude Himmelfarb

ISBN 0140432078 (0-14-043207-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'On Liberty'
Book summary:
Since its first publication in 1859, few works of political philosophy have provoked such continuous controversy as John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty", a passionate argument on behalf of freedom of self-expression. This classic work is now available in this volume which also includes essays by scholars in a range of fields. The text begins with a biographical essay by David Bromwich and an interpretative essay by George Kateb. Then Jean Bethke Elshtain, Owen Fiss, Judge Richard A. Posner and Jeremy Waldron present commentaries on the pertinence of Mill's thinking to early 21st century debates. They discuss, for example, the uses of authority and tradition, the shifting legal boundaries of free speech and free action, the relation of personal liberty to market individualism, and the tension between the right to live as one pleases and the right to criticize anyone's way of life. [via]
More editions of On Liberty:
via
On Liberty
by Currin V. Shields, John Stuart Mill

ISBN 0024096903 (0-02-409690-3)
Softcover, Bobbs-Merrill Co

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'On Liberty'
Book summary:
Library of Liberal Arts title. [via]
More editions of On Liberty:
- On Liberty: ISBN 0024096903 (0-02-409690-3)
  Softcover, Bobbs-Merrill Co
via
On Liberty and Other Essays
by John Gray, John Stuart Mill

ISBN 0192833847 (0-19-283384-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'On Liberty and Other Essays'
Book summary:
Collected here in a single volume for the first time, On Liberty, Utilitarianism, Considerations on Representative Government, and The Subjection of Women show John Stuart Mill applying his liberal utilitarian philosophy to a range of issues that remain vital today--the nature of ethics, the scope and limits of individual liberty, the merits of and costs of democratic government, and the place of women in society. In his Introduction John Gray describes these essays as applications of Mill's doctrine of the Art of Life, as set out in A System of Logic. Using the resources of recent scholarship, he shows Mill's work to be far richer and subtler than traditional interpretations allow. [via]
More editions of On Liberty and Other Essays:
- On Liberty and Other Essays: ISBN 0192833847 (0-19-283384-7)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
via
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi

ISBN 037571457X (0-375-71457-X)
Softcover, Pantheon Books

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Persepolis'
Book summary:
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is an exemplary autobiographical graphic novel, in the tradition of Art Spiegelman's classic Maus. Set in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, young Satrapi is the six-year-old daughter of two committed and well-to-do Marxists. As she grows up, she witness first-hand the effects that the revolution and the war with Iraq have on her home, family and school.
Like Maus, the main strength of Persepolis is its ability to make the political personal.
Told through the eyes of a child (as reflected in Satrapi's simplistic yet expressive black-and-white artwork), young Marjane learns about her family history and how it is entwined with the history of Iran, and watches her liberal parents cope with a fundamentalist regime that gets increasingly rigid as it gains more power. Outspoken and intelligent, Marjane chafes at Iran's increasingly conservative interpretation of Islamic law, especially as she grows into a bright and independent teenager. Throughout, Marjane remains a hugely likeable young woman
Persepolis gives the reader a snapshot of daily life in a country struggling with an internal cultural revolution and a bloody war, but within an intensely personal context. It's a very human history, beautifully and sympathetically told. --Robert Burrow [via]
More editions of Persepolis:
- Persepolis: ISBN 0375422307 (0-375-42230-7)
  Hardcover, Random House Inc
- Persepolis: ISBN 037571457X (0-375-71457-X)
  Softcover, Pantheon Books
via
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard

ISBN 1568497067 (1-56849-706-7)
Hardcover, Buccaneer Books

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek'
Book summary:
The Pulitzer Prize-winning work by the author whom The Boston Globe called "one of the most distinctive voices in American letters today." [via]
More editions of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:
- Pilgrim at Tinker Creek: ISBN 1568497067 (1-56849-706-7)
  Hardcover, Buccaneer Books
via
Schindler's List
by Thomas Keneally

ISBN 0582788943 (0-582-78894-3)
Softcover, Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Schindler's List'
Book summary:
Oskar Schindler risks his life to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in the concentration camps of World War II. Based on a true story, the book was adapted by Steven Spielberg into one of the most important and powerful war films of all time. [via]
More editions of Schindler's List:
- Schindler's List: ISBN 0140067841 (0-14-006784-1)
  Softcover, Penguin Books
- Schindler's List: ISBN 0582788943 (0-582-78894-3)
  Softcover, Longman Cheshire Pty Ltd
Sybil
by Flora Rheta Schreiber

ISBN 0446359408 (0-446-35940-8)
Softcover, Grand Central Pub

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Sybil'
Book summary:
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Meet Sybil--and the sixteen selves, both men and women, to whom she played host, each with a different personality, speech pattern, and personal appearance. [via]
More editions of Sybil:
- Sybil: ISBN 0446794031 (0-446-79403-1)
  Hardcover, McGraw-Hill
- Sybil: ISBN 0446359408 (0-446-35940-8)
  Softcover, Grand Central Pub
via
Teacher Man: A Memoir
by Frank McCourt

ISBN 0743243781 (0-7432-4378-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Teacher Man: A Memoir'
Book summary:
For 30 years Frank McCourt taught high school English in New York City and for much of that time he considered himself a fraud. During these years he danced a delicate jig between engaging the students, satisfying often bewildered administrators and parents, and actually enjoying his job. He tried to present a consistent image of composure and self-confidence, yet he regularly felt insecure, inadequate, and unfocused. After much trial and error, he eventually discovered what was in front of him (or rather, behind him) all along--his own experience. "My life saved my life," he writes. "My students didn't know there was a man up there escaping a cocoon of Irish history and Catholicism, leaving bits of that cocoon everywhere." At the beginning of his career it had never occurred to him that his own dismal upbringing in the slums of Limerick could be turned into a valuable lesson plan. Indeed, his formal training emphasized the opposite. Principals and department heads lectured him to never share anything personal. He was instructed to arouse fear and awe, to be stern, to be impossible to please--but he couldn't do it. McCourt was too likable, too interested in the students' lives, and too willing to reveal himself for their benefit as well as his own. He was a kindred spirit with more questions than answers: "Look at me: wandering late bloomer, floundering old fart, discovering in my forties what my students knew in their teens."
As he did so adroitly in his previous memoirs, Angela's Ashes and 'Tis, McCourt manages to uncover humor in nearly everything. He writes about hilarious misfires, as when he suggested (during his teacher's exam) that the students write a suicide note, as well as unorthodox assignments that turned into epiphanies for both teacher and students. A dazzling writer with a unique and compelling voice, McCourt describes the dignity and difficulties of a largely thankless profession with incisive, self-deprecating wit and uncommon perception. It may have taken him three decades to figure out how to be an effective teacher, but he ultimately saved his most valuable lesson for himself: how to be his own man. --Shawn Carkonen [via]
More editions of Teacher Man: A Memoir:
Television and the Teaching of English
by Neil Postman

ISBN 0891974458 (0-89197-445-8)
Softcover, Ardent Media Inc

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Television and the Teaching of English'
More editions of Television and the Teaching of English:
- Television and the Teaching of English: ISBN 0891974458 (0-89197-445-8)
  Softcover, Ardent Media Inc
Three Essays on Liberty: Representative Government the Subjection of Women
by John Stuart Mill, Jack Stillinger

ISBN 0192830139 (0-19-283013-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

Find This Book

› Find signed collectible books: 'Three Essays on Liberty: Representative Government the Subjection of Women'
More editions of Three Essays on Liberty: Representative Government the Subjection of Women:
- Three Essays on Liberty: Representative Government the Subjection of Women: ISBN 0192830139 (0-19-283013-9)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr