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books tagged “Non-Fiction” (non-fiction / non fiction)
books tagged “Non-Fiction”
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The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versaby Michael KimmelmanISBN 0143037331 (0-14-303733-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Against Depressionby Peter D. KramerISBN 0143036963 (0-14-303696-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Against Depression'Book summary:Written as an answer to the question, "What if van Gogh had been on anti-depressants," Against Depression manages to be more of an exploration than a polemic, regardless of its title. While author Peter Kramer (Listening to Prozac) expresses a definite opinion--that disease of any sort should be treated as effectively as possible--he manages to express sympathy along with frustration about the recurring idea that soulful creativity often goes hand-in-hand with depression. Without ever being dismissive or particularly angry, his writing makes his point abundantly clear after the first chapter: The pervasive idea of depression serving a creative purpose is preposterous, as well as highly damaging.
While he draws from a number of recent studies on depression, the book is not meant to assist in the diagnosis or treatment of individuals, except in a very general sense. Instead, Kramer adds the findings of those studies into his thoughts on how patients modify medication doses for depression as they wouldn't for purely physical diseases, and looks into future possibilities of genetically modified stress hormone transmitters that could work to prevent a slide into chronic depression. In the arts, he examines the work of philosophers, painters and writers in relation to the reputation their personal lives have earned (critics and consumers alike believe that pain equals genius and lack of pain equals lack of depth). Adding Dineson, Bellow, Updike and Kierkegaard to the list headed by van Gogh, Kramer shows a variety of ways we live with the assumption that creative genius does not function without severe emotional strain.
While he does include a few stories from a patient to illustrate specific treatments, most of the book is slow and thoughtful, without ever being dry or pedantic. Useful to families or individuals who have encountered depression, this book offers excellent support for anyone--creative genius or otherwise--who struggle to define their talents as existing separately from their illness. Jill Lightner [via]
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Alexander Hamiltonby Ron ChernowISBN 0143034758 (0-14-303475-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alexander Hamilton'Book summary:[via]In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, National Book Award winner Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. According to historian Joseph Ellis, Alexander Hamilton is a robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all.
Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernows biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of todays America is the result of Hamiltons countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. To repudiate his legacy, Chernow writes, is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world. Chernow here recounts Hamiltons turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washingtons aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.
Historians have long told the story of Americas birth as the triumph of Jeffersons democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than weve encountered beforefrom his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamiltons famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.
Chernows biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of Americas birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.
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Alexander The Greatby Robin Lane FoxISBN 0143035134 (0-14-303513-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alexander The Great'Book summary:[via]Tough, resolute, fearless. Alexander was a born warrior and a ruler of passionate ambition who understood the intense adventure of conquest and of the unknown. When he died in 323 B.C.E. at age thirty-two, his vast empire comprised more than two million square miles, spanning from Greece to India. His achievements were unparalleledhe had excelled as leader to his men, founded eighteen new cities, and stamped the face of Greek culture on the ancient East. the myth he created is as potent today as it was in the ancient world.
Robin Lane Fox's superb account searches through the mass of conflicting evidence and legend to focus on Alexander as a man of his own time. Combining historical scholarship and acute psychological insight, it brings this colossal figure vividly to life.
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Animal Farmby George Orwell, Ralph SteadmanISBN 0151002177 (0-15-100217-7)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Animal Farm'Book summary:Since its publication in 1946, George Orwell's fable of a workers' revolution gone wrong has rivaled Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea as the Shortest Serious Novel It's OK to Write a Book Report About. (The latter is three pages longer and less fun to read.) Fueled by Orwell's intense disillusionment with Soviet Communism, Animal Farm is a nearly perfect piece of writing, both an engaging story and an allegory that actually works. When the downtrodden beasts of Manor Farm oust their drunken human master and take over management of the land, all are awash in collectivist zeal. Everyone willingly works overtime, productivity soars, and for one brief, glorious season, every belly is full. The animals' Seven Commandment credo is painted in big white letters on the barn. All animals are equal. No animal shall drink alcohol, wear clothes, sleep in a bed, or kill a fellow four-footed creature. Those that go upon four legs or wings are friends and the two-legged are, by definition, the enemy. Too soon, however, the pigs, who have styled themselves leaders by virtue of their intelligence, succumb to the temptations of privilege and power. "We pigs are brainworkers. The whole management and organisation of the farm depend on us. Day and night, we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples." While this swinish brotherhood sells out the revolution, cynically editing the Seven Commandments to excuse their violence and greed, the common animals are once again left hungry and exhausted, no better off than in the days when humans ran the farm. Satire Animal Farm may be, but it's a stony reader who remains unmoved when the stalwart workhorse, Boxer, having given his all to his comrades, is sold to the glue factory to buy booze for the pigs. Orwell's view of Communism is bleak indeed, but given the history of the Russian people since 1917, his pessimism has an air of prophecy. --Joyce Thompson [via]
Aristotle's Children: How Christians, Muslims, and Jews Rediscovered Ancient Wisdom and Illuminated the Dark Agesby Richard E. RubensteinISBN 0151007209 (0-15-100720-9)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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Autobiography, and Other Writingsby Benjamin Franklin, Kenneth SilvermanISBN 0142437603 (0-14-243760-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Autobiography, and Other Writings'Book summary:Benjamin Franklin's writings represent a long career of literary, scientific, and political efforts over a lifetime which extended nearly the entire eighteenth century. Franklin's achievements range from inventing the lightning rod to publishing Poor Richard's Almanack to signing the Declaration of Independence. In his own lifetime he knew prominence not only in America but in Britain and France as well. This volume includes Franklin's reflections on such diverse questions as philosophy and religion, social status, electricity, American national characteristics, war, and the status of women. Nearly sixty years separate the earliest writings from the latest, an interval during which Franklin was continually balancing between the puritan values of his upbringing and the modern American world to which his career served as prologue. This edition provides a new text of the Autobiography, established with close reference to Franklin's original manuscript. It also includes a new transcription of the 1726 journal, and several pieces which have recently been identified as Franklin's own work.[via]More editions of Autobiography, and Other Writings:
Backstory: Inside The Business Of Newsby Ken AulettaISBN 0143034634 (0-14-303463-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniquenessby Ian TattersallISBN 0151003408 (0-15-100340-8)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness'Book summary:Monogamy. Bipedalism. Tools. Language. Intelligence. Why on Earth did we develop all those tricks? Though it's trendy to diminish the differences between humans and other species, most of us just can't help noticing our often-striking peculiarities and wondering how they arose. Paleontologist Ian Tattersall's story of human origins is as compelling as a well-designed museum exhibit--no surprise, as he is Curator of Anthropology for the American Museum of Natural History. His prose, while not flashy, is satisfyingly clear and unapologetically fascinated with its topic. Covering genetics, evolutionary theory, primate anatomy, and archaeology, Becoming Human explains how and why our ancestors adapted to their surroundings to produce such clever, talented, immodest progeny. If you find it preposterous that a dumb, skinny ape can go from foraging for fruit and fleeing from lions to splitting the atom and solving Rubik's cube in just five million years, this book might change your mind. --Rob Lightner [via]
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Black Lamb And Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslaviaby Rebecca West, Christopher HitchensISBN 014310490X (0-14-310490-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Black Lamb And Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia'Book summary:Part travelogue, part history, part love letter on a thousand-page scale, Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon is a genre-bending masterwork written in elegant prose. But what makes it so unlikely to be confused with any other book of history, politics, or culture--with, in fact, any other book--is its unashamed depth of feeling: think The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire crossed with Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. West visited Yugoslavia for the first time in 1936. What she saw there affected her so much that she had to return--partly, she writes, because it most resembled "the country I have always seen between sleeping and waking," and partly because "it was like picking up a strand of wool that would lead me out of a labyrinth in which, to my surprise, I had found myself immured." Black Lamb is the chronicle of her travels, but above all it is West following that strand of wool: through countless historical digressions; through winding narratives of battles, slavery, and assassinations; through Shakespeare and Augustine and into the very heart of human frailty.
West wrote on the brink of World War II, when she was "already convinced of the inevitability of the second Anglo-German war." The resulting book is colored by that impending conflict, and by West's search for universals amid the complex particulars of Balkan history. In the end, she saw the region's doom--and our own--in a double infatuation with sacrifice, the "black lamb and grey falcon" of her title. It's the story of Abraham and Isaac without the last-minute reprieve: those who hate are all too ready to martyr the innocent in order to procure their own advantage, and the innocent themselves are all too eager to be martyred. To West, in 1941, "the whole world is a vast Kossovo, an abominable blood-logged plain." Unfortunately, little has happened since then to prove her wrong. --Mary Park [via]
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A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitutionby Carol BerkinISBN 0151009481 (0-15-100948-1)
Hardcover, Harcourt Trade Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution'Book summary:"The majority of historians seem to suggest that the founders knew just what to do--and did it, creating a government that would endure for centuries," writes CUNY historian Carol Berkin in the introduction to A Brilliant Solution. Sitting atop the pedestals we've placed them on, these figures would be "amused" by such notions, she says, because in reality the Constitutional Convention was gripped by "a near-paranoid fear of conspiracies" and might easily have succumbed to "a collective anxiety" over its daunting task. The story of the birth of the U.S. Constitution has been told many times, perhaps best by Catherine Drinker Bowen in Miracle at Philadelphia. Berkin's rendition of these well-known events is clear and concise. It does a bit more telling than showing, but this seems to be in the service of brevity--the main text is only about 200 pages. (Another 100 pages of useful appendices follow, including the full texts of the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution, plus short biographies of all the convention delegates.) Berkin is an opinionated narrator, unafraid, for instance, to call Maryland's Luther Martin "determinedly uncouth." She also points out that American government has evolved in ways that would make the founders cringe: they believed the presidency would be a ceremonial office (rather than the locus of the nation's political power) and that political parties were bad (when, in fact, they have served democracy well). Readers who want a sure-footed introduction to America's founding would do well to start here. --John J. Miller [via]
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The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C.S. Lewisby C. S. Lewis, Walter HooperISBN 0151149836 (0-15-114983-6)
Hardcover, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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A Call to Service: My Vision For a Better Americaby John KerryISBN 0143034987 (0-14-303498-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Closing the Leadership Gap: Why Women Can and Must Help Run the Worldby Marie C. WilsonISBN 0143034782 (0-14-303478-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Conundrumby Jan MorrisISBN 015122563X (0-15-122563-X)
Hardcover, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
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The Crisisby Thomas PaineISBN 014600101X (0-14-600101-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Cross And The Crescent: The Dramatic Story of the Earliest Encounters between Christians and Muslimsby Richard FletcherISBN 0143034812 (0-14-303481-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Cruise of the Snarkby Jack London, R. D. MadisonISBN 0142437735 (0-14-243773-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Demon and the Angel: Searching for the Source of Artistic Inspirationby Edward HirschISBN 0151009589 (0-15-100958-9)
Softcover, Harcourt Trade Publishers
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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesiaby Elizabeth GilbertISBN 0143038419 (0-14-303841-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia'Book summary:If wisdom could be traded like currency, author Elizabeth Gilbert would be a wealthier woman by far, though it's likely her fabulous memoir, Eat Pray Love, racked up a few bucks during its stay on the New York Times bestseller list. What Gilbert imparts in her story--basically, bracing self-knowledge acquired during a year of travel following a bitter divorce and a shattered rebound romance--is at once astounding yet totally obvious. As Gilbert would attest, albeit more eloquently, the most important stuff in life is pretty much under our noses, but we occasionally have to shake ourselves senseless in order to see it (enlisting a guru and a medicine man are highly recommended).
Take this simple but devastating observation posited while Gilbert was on the final leg of a global tour. "I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and then I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been the victim of my own optimism."
Ten million women are smiling wry smiles and nodding their heads in agreement (men too, probably, but the book has a definite female skew). Such emotional bulls-eyes are hit early and often in Eat Pray Love, each seemingly more poignant than the last. Alternately funny and heartbreaking and always deeply resonant, Eat Pray Love, takes the reader on two epic journeys one through Italy, India and Indonesia and the other deep inside Gilbert's intense psyche. Charles Montgomery's towering The Last Heathen: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia notwithstanding, travel memoirs just don't get any better than that. --Kim Hughes [via]
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The Education of Frederick Douglassby Frederick DouglassISBN 0146001834 (0-14-600183-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistanby Michael IgnatieffISBN 0143014919 (0-14-301491-9)
Softcover, Penguin Canada
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Everything I'm Cracked up to Be: A Rock and Roll Fairy Taleby Jen TryninISBN 0151011486 (0-15-101148-6)
Hardcover, Harcourt Trade Publishers
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Fear And Tremblingby Soren Kierkegaard, Alastair HannayISBN 0143037579 (0-14-303757-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fear And Trembling'Book summary:[via]
The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.Regarded as the father of Existentialism, Kierkegaard transformed philosophy with his conviction that we must all create our own nature; in this great work of religious anxiety, he argues that a true understanding of God can only be attained by making a personal "leap of faith."
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Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraqby Thomas E. RicksISBN 0143038915 (0-14-303891-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq'Book summary:Fiasco is a more strongly worded title than you might expect a seasoned military reporter such as Thomas E. Ricks to use, accustomed as he is to the even-handed style of daily newspaper journalism. But Ricks, the Pentagon correspondent for the Washington Post and the author of the acclaimed account of Marine Corps boot camp, Making the Corps (released in a 10th anniversary edition to accompany the paperback release of Fiasco), has written a thorough and devastating history of the war in Iraq from the planning stages through the continued insurgency in early 2006, and he does not shy away from naming those he finds responsible. His tragic story is divided in two. The first part--the runup to the war and the invasion in 2003--is familiar from books like Cobra II and Plan of Attack, although Ricks uses his many military sources to portray an officer class that was far more skeptical of the war beforehand than generally reported. But the heart of his book is the second half, beginning in August 2003, when, as he writes, the war really began, with the bombing of the Jordanian embassy and the emergence of the insurgency. His strongest critique is that the U.S. military failed to anticipate--and then failed to recognize--the insurgency, and tried to fight it with conventional methods that only fanned its flames. What makes his portrait particularly damning are the dozens of military sources--most of them on record--who join in his critique, and the thousands of pages of internal documents he uses to make his case for a war poorly planned and bravely but blindly fought.
The paperback edition of Fiasco includes a new postscript in which Ricks looks back on the year since the book's release, a year in which the intensity and frequency of attacks on American soldiers only increased and in which Ricks's challenging account became accepted as conventional wisdom, with many of the dissident officers in his story given the reins of leadership, although Ricks still finds the prospects for the conflict grim. --Tom Nissley
A Fiasco, a Year Later
With the paperback release of Thomas Ricks's Fiasco, a year after the book became a #1 New York Times bestseller and an influential force in transforming the public perception (and the perception within the military and the civilian government as well) of the war in Iraq, we asked Ricks in the questions below to look back on the book and the year of conflict that have followed. On our page for the hardcover edition of Fiasco you can see our earlier Q&A with Ricks, and you can also see two lists he prepared for Amazon customers: his choices for the 10 books for understanding Iraq that aren't about Iraq, a collection of studies of counterinsurgency warfare that became surprisingly popular last year as soldiers and civilians tried to understand the nature of the new conflict, and, as a glimpse into his writing process, a playlist of the music he listened to while writing and researching the book. Amazon.com: When we spoke with you a year ago, you said that you thought you were done going back to Baghdad. But that dateline is still showing up in your reports. How have things changed in the city over the past year?
Thomas E. Ricks: Yes, I had promised my wife that I wouldnt go back. Iraq was taking a toll on both of us--I think my trips of four to six weeks were harder on her than on me.
But I found I couldn't stay away. The Iraq war is the most important event of our time, I think, and will remain a major news story for years to come. And I felt like everything I had done for the last 15 years--from deployments I'd covered to books and military manuals Id read (and written)--had prepared me to cover this event better than most reporters. So I made a deal with my wife that I would go back to Iraq but would no longer do the riskiest things, such as go on combat patrols or on convoys. I used to have a rule that I would only take the risks necessary to "get the story." Now I don't take even those risks if I can see them, even if that means missing part of a story. Also, I try to keep my trips much shorter.
How is Baghdad different? It is still a chaotic mess. But it doesn't feel quite as Hobbesian as it did in early 2006. That said, it also feels a bit like a pause--with the so-called "surge," Uncle Sam has put all his chips on the table, and the other players are waiting a bit to see how that plays out.
Amazon.com: One of the remarkable things over the past year for a reader of Fiasco has been how much of what your book recommends has, apparently, been taken to heart by the military and civilian leadership. As you write in your new postscript to the paperback edition, the war has been "turned over to the dissidents." General David Petraeus, who was one of the first to put classic counterinsurgency tactics to use in Iraq, is now the top American commander there, and he has surrounded himself with others with similar views. What was that transformation like on the inside?
Ricks: I was really struck when I was out in Baghdad two months ago at how different the American military felt. I used to hate going into the Green Zone because of all the unreal happy talk I'd hear. It was a relief to leave the place, even if being outside it (and contrary to popular myth, most reporters do live outside it) was more dangerous.
There is a new realism in the U.S. military. In May, I was getting a briefing from one official in the Green Zone and I thought, "Wow, not only does this briefing strike me as accurate, it also is better said than I could do." That feeling was a real change from the old days.
The other thing that struck me was the number of copies I saw of Fiasco as I knocked around Iraq. When I started writing it, the title was controversial. Now generals say things to me like, "Got it, understand it, agree with it." I am told that the Army War College is making the book required reading this fall.
Amazon.com: And what are its prospects at this late date?
Ricks: The question remains, Is it too little too late? It took the U.S. military four years to get the strategy right in Iraq--that is, to understand that their goal should be to protect the people. By that time, the American people and the Iraqi people both had lost of lot of patience. (And by that time, the Iraq war had lasted longer than American participation in World War II.) Also, it isn't clear that we have enough troops to really implement this new strategy of protecting the people. In some parts of Baghdad where U.S. troops now have outposts, the streets are quieter. Yet we're seeing more violence on the outskirts of Baghdad. And the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk make me nervous. I am keeping an eye on them this summer and fall.
The thing to watch in Iraq is whether we see more tribes making common cause with the U.S. and the Iraqi government. How long will it last? And what does it mean in the long term for Iraq? Is it the beginning of a major change, or just a prelude to a big civil war?
Amazon.com: You've been a student of the culture of the military for years. How has the war affected the state of the American military: the redeployments, the state of Guard and Reserves troops and the regular Army and Marines, and the relationship to civilian leadership?
Ricks: I think there is general agreement that there is a huge strain on the military. Essentially, one percent of the nation--soldiers and their families--is carrying the burden. We are now sending soldiers back for their third year-long tours. We've never tried to fight a lengthy ground war overseas with an all-volunteer force. Nor have we ever tried to occupy an Arab country.
What the long-term effect is on the military will depend in part on how the war ends for us, and for Iraq. But I think it isn't going to be good. Today I was talking to a retired officer and asked him what he was hearing from his friends in Iraq about troop morale. "It's broken," he said. Meanwhile, he said, soldiers he knows who are back home from Iraq "wonder why they were there." Not everyone is as morose as this officer, but the trend isn't good.
Amazon.com: You quote Gen. Anthony Zinni in your postscript as saying the U.S. is "drifting toward containment" in Iraq. What does containment of what will likely remain a very hot conflict look like? You've written in your postscript and elsewhere that you think we are only in act III of a Shakespearean tragedy. I wouldn't describe Shakespeare's fifth acts as particularly well contained.
Ricks: I agree with you. Containment would mean some sort of stepping back from the war, probably beginning by halving the American military presence. You'd probably still have U.S. troops inside Iraq, but disengaged from daily fighting. Their goals would be negative ones: prevent genocide, prevent al Qaeda from being able to operate in Iraq, and prevent the war from spreading to outside Iraq. (This was laid out well in a recent study by James Miller and Shawn Brimley, readable at http://www.cnas.org/en/cms/?368.)
Containment probably would be a messy and demoralizing mission. No one signs up in the U.S. military to stand by as innocents are slaughtered in nearby cities. Yet that might be the case if we did indeed move to this stance and a full-blown civil war (or a couple) ensued. And there surely would be refugees from such fighting. Either they would go to neighboring countries, and perhaps destabilize them, or we would set up "refugee catchment" areas, as another study, by the Brookings Institute, proposed. The open-ended task of guarding those new refugee camps likely would fall to U.S. troops.
The more you look at Iraq, the more worrisome it gets. As I noted in the new postscript in the paperback edition, many strategic experts I talk to believe that the consequences of the Iraq war are going to be worse for the United States than was the fallout from the Vietnam War.
Amazon.com: A year and a half is a long time, but let's say that we have a Democratic president in January 2009: President Clinton, or Gore, or Obama. What prospect would a change in administration have for a new strategic opening? Or would the new president likely wind up like Nixon in Vietnam, owning a war he or she didn't begin?
Ricks: Not such a long time. President Bush has made his major decisions on Iraq. Troop levels are going to have to come down next year, because we don't have replacements on the shelf. So the three big questions for the U.S. government are going to be: How many troops will be withdrawn, what will be the mission of those who remain, and how long will they stay? Those questions are going to be answered by the next president, not this one.
My gut feeling is the latter: I think we are going to have troops in Iraq through 2009, and probably for a few years beyond that. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if U.S. troops were there in 15 years. But as I say in Fiasco, that's kind of a best-case scenario.
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Five Moral Piecesby Umberto Eco, Alastair McEwenISBN 0151004463 (0-15-100446-3)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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For Spacious Skies : The Uncommon Journey of a Mercury Astronautby Scott Carpenter, Kris StoeverISBN 0151004676 (0-15-100467-6)
Hardcover, Harcourt Trade Publishers
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Four Essaysby Michel De Montaigne, M. A. ScreechISBN 0146000374 (0-14-600037-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Four Essays'Book summary:Four essays from Michel de Montaigne's "The Complete Essays." [via]
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Free Culture: The Nature And Future Of Creativityby Lawrence LessigISBN 0143034650 (0-14-303465-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Free Culture: The Nature And Future Of Creativity'Book summary:[via]Lawrence Lessig, the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era (The New Yorker), masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers- that-be been able to exert such control over what we can and cant do with the culture around us. Our society defends free markets and free speech; why then does it permit such top-down control? To lose our long tradition of free culture, Lawrence Lessig shows us, is to lose our freedom to create, our freedom to build, and, ultimately, our freedom to imagine.
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Gag Rule: On The Suppression of Dissent and The Stifling of Democracyby Lewis H. LaphamISBN 0143035029 (0-14-303502-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gag Rule: On The Suppression of Dissent and The Stifling of Democracy'Book summary:Award-winning columnist Lewis Lapham issues an urgent new polemic about the strangling of meaningful dissentthe lifeblood of democracyat the hands of a government and media increasingly beholden to the wealthy few. Never before, Lapham argues, have voices of protest been so locked out of the mainstream conversation, so marginalized and muted by a government that recklessly disregards civil liberties. In the midst of the "war on terror," we face a crisis of democracy as serious as any in our history. Gag Rule is a rousing and necessary call to action in defense of the right to raise our voices and have those voices heard. [via]
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The Galapagos Islandsby Charles Darwin, Janet Browne, Michael NeueISBN 0146001443 (0-14-600144-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Galapagos Islands'Book summary:One of 60 low-priced classic texts published to celebrate Penguin's 60th anniversary. All the titles are extracts from "Penguin Classics" titles. [via]
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Gorgon: The Monsters That Ruled the Planet Before Dinosaurs and How They Died in the Greatest Catastrophe in Earth's Historyby Peter D. WardISBN 0143034715 (0-14-303471-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Hannibal's Crossing of the Alpsby Titus Livy, Aubrey De SelincourtISBN 0146001478 (0-14-600147-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Hip Hop Americaby Nelson GeorgeISBN 0143035150 (0-14-303515-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hip Hop America'Book summary:Although it's been part of the cultural soundscape for over 25 years, hip-hop has been the focus of very few books. And when those books do pop up, they tend to be either overtly scholarly, as if the writer in question has just landed on some alien planet, or a bit too much like a fanzine. If there's anyone qualified to write a solid, informative, and entertaining tome on the culture, politics, and business of hip-hop, it's Nelson George. A veteran journalist, George is one of the smartest and most observant chroniclers of African American pop culture. Much as he broke down and illuminated R&B with his acclaimed book The Death of Rhythm and Blues, George now tackles hip-hop with the clarity of a reporter and the enthusiasm of a fan--which is fitting, because George is both. A Brooklyn native, he began writing about rap back in the late 1970s, when the beats and the lifestyle were not only foreign to most white folks, they were still underground in the black communities. Hip Hop America is filled with George's memories of the scene's nascent years, and it tells the story of rap both as an art form and a cultural and economic force--from the old Bronx nightclub the Fever to the age of Puffy. Highlighting both the major players and some of the forces behind the scenes, George gives rap a historical perspective without coming off as too intellectual. All of which makes Hip Hop America a worthwhile addition to any fan's collection. --Amy Linden [via]
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Homosexuality in Historyby Colin SpencerISBN 0151002231 (0-15-100223-1)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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How to Achieve True Greatnessby Baldesar Castiglione, George Anthony BullISBN 0143037552 (0-14-303755-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'How to Achieve True Greatness'Book summary:The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguins Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of historys most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmakers art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world. [via]
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The Ice Museum: To Shetland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greenland, And Svalbard in Search of the Lost Land of Thuleby Joanna KavennaISBN 014303846X (0-14-303846-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Iliad/the Odysseyby Robert Fagles, Bernard KnoxISBN 0147712556 (0-14-771255-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Iliad/the Odyssey'Book summary:[via]
Gripping listeners and readers for more than 2,700 years, The Iliad is the story of the Trojan War and the rage of Achilles. Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. If The Iliad is the world's greatest war story, then The Odyssey is literature's greatest evocation of every man's journey through life. Here again, Fagles has performed the translator's task magnificently, giving us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. Each volume contains a superb introduction with textual and critical commentary by renowned classicist Bernard Knox.
@RageAgainstTheAchaean Pissed. I am so, so very pissed.
First I have to go to this beach. Then I have to kill all these dudes. And NOW now! This prick stole my biscuit. Who does that? Am I right?
Cant resolve this problem on my own calling Mom!
From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less about The Iliad
@IthacaStateOfMind Uh oh. This cave is a giants lair. He has a taste for cheese, and my companions. He also has only one eye. Trying to keep from laughing.
Got him drunk. Put a hot poker in his ONE EYE when he blacked out. That will show him if he could see. LOL. Time to leave.
Damn. Poseidon pissed. How was I supposed to know One-Eye was his son? What Olympian whore did he sleep with to get an issue like that?
From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less about The OdysseyMore editions of The Iliad/the Odyssey:
Impressionist Quartet: The Intimate Genius Of Manet And Morisot, Degas And Cassattby Jeffrey MeyersISBN 0151010765 (0-15-101076-5)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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In Light of Indiaby Octavio Paz, Eliot WeinbergerISBN 0151002223 (0-15-100222-3)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'In Light of India'Book summary:Anyone who knows India, or simply dreams of her, will find Octavio Paz's fascinating new book In Light of India spellbinding. Paz was Mexico's Ambassador to India from 1962 until 1968; during his six years in that ancient and multicultural country, he befriended poets, politicians, and ordinary Indians, and soaked up quite a bit of India's history and tragedy in the process. The eleven essays collected here are framed by an introduction and a farewell, and divided among three sections entitled "Religions, Castes, Languages," "A Project of Nationhood," and "The Full and the Empty." In each, Paz weaves the strands of religion, art, culture, and politics as he takes the reader on a tour of India's past and present.
Paz writes with great authority on a variety of subjects, from architecture and poetry to the history of Hindu-Muslim relations on the subcontinent. But some things are beyond the comprehension of an outsider. Though he makes a heroic attempt to explain the intricacies of the caste system, the tragedy of the untouchables remains problematic. This book conveys an India at once seductive and perilous, one that will hold your interest and inspire your wanderlust until the very last page. [via]
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Jane Eyreby Charlotte Bronte, Michael MasonISBN 0142437204 (0-14-243720-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jane Eyre'Book summary:Orphaned into the household of her Aunt Reed at Gateshead and subject to the cruel regime at Lowood charity school, Jane Eyre nonetheless emerges unbroken in spirit and integrity. She takes up the post of governess at Thornfield Hall, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers the impediment to their lawful marriage in a story that transcends melodrama to portray a woman's passionate search for a richer life than that traditionally allowed women in Victorian society.
Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Mason [via] 
John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Fatherby Peggy NoonanISBN 0143037943 (0-14-303794-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconsciousby Sigmund Freud, John Carey, Joyce CrickISBN 0142437441 (0-14-243744-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious'Book summary:[via]Why do we laugh? The answer, argued Freud in this groundbreaking study of humor, is that jokes, like dreams, satisfy our unconscious desires. The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious explains how jokes provide immense pleasure by releasing us from our inhibitions and allowing us to express sexual, aggressive, playful, or cynical instincts that would otherwise remain hidden. In elaborating this theory, Freud brings together a rich collection of puns, witticisms, one-liners, and anecdotes, which, as Freud shows, are a method of giving ourselves away.
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The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Meby Ralph SteadmanISBN 0151012822 (0-15-101282-2)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Cultureby José Saramago, Amanda Hopkinson, Nick CaistorISBN 0151005877 (0-15-100587-7)
Hardcover, Harcourt Trade Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture'Book summary:When José Saramago decided some twenty years ago to write a book about Portugal, his only desire was that it be unlike all other books on the subject, and in this he has certainly succeeded. Recording the events and observations of a journey across the length and breadth of the country he loves dearly, Saramago brings Portugal to life as only a writer of his brilliance can. Forfeiting sources of information such as tourist guides and road maps, he scours the country with the eyes and ears of an observer fascinated by the ancient myths and history of his people. Whether an inaccessible medieval fortress set on a cliff, a wayside chapel thick with cobwebs, or a grand mansion in the city, the extraordinary places of this land come alive with kings, warriors, painters, explorers, writers, saints, and sinners. Always meticulously attentive to those elements of ancient Portugal that persist today, Saramago examines the country in its current period of rapid transition and growth.[via]
Infused with the tenderness and intelligence that have become familiar to his readers, Saramago's Journey to Portugal is an ode of love for a country and its rich traditions.More editions of Journey to Portugal: In Pursuit of Portugal's History and Culture:
Kafka: The Decisive Yearsby Reiner Stach, Shelley FrischISBN 0151007527 (0-15-100752-7)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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Lesser Evil: Political Ethics In An Age Of Terrorby Michael IgnatieffISBN 0143017357 (0-14-301735-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group Canada
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Let Me Finishby Roger AngellISBN 0151013500 (0-15-101350-0)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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Letters from Italyby W. H. Auden, Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elizabeth MayerISBN 0146001982 (0-14-600198-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Lives of Three Renaissance Artistsby George Bull, Giorgio VasariISBN 0146001494 (0-14-600149-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Maharanis: A Family Saga Of Four Queensby Lucy MooreISBN 0143037048 (0-14-303704-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Maharanis: A Family Saga Of Four Queens'Book summary:A rare, exotic portrait of the matriarchs of a brilliant Indian family
Ranging from the final days of the Raj and the British Empire to the present, Lucy Moore vividly re-creates a splendid lost world and describes Indias national growing pains through the sumptuous, audacious lives of four ravishing, influential women of the same familySunity Devi, friend to Queen Victoria; Chimnabai, fierce nationalist; Indira, her flamboyant daughter; and Ayesha, her equally fashionable daughterwho fought tirelessly and with incomparable grace to turn an ancient tradition of noblesse oblige into a progressive democracy. [via]More editions of Maharanis: A Family Saga Of Four Queens:
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The Means and Manner of Obtaining Virtueby Benjamin FranklinISBN 0146001974 (0-14-600197-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Means and Manner of Obtaining Virtue'Book summary:One of 60 low-priced classic texts published to celebrate Penguin's 60th anniversary. All the titles are extracts from "Penguin Classics" titles. [via]
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Menagerie Manorby Gerald Malcolm Durrell, Ralph ThompsonISBN 0143038532 (0-14-303853-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Mind At Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Workerby Mike RoseISBN 0143035576 (0-14-303557-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mind At Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker'Book summary:Read Mike Rose's posts on the Penguin Blog.[via]
As did the national bestseller Nickel and Dimed, Mike Roses revelatory book demolishes the long-held notion that people who work with their hands make up a less intelligent class. He shows us waitresses making lightning-fast calculations, carpenters handling complex spatial mathematics, and hairdressers, plumbers, and electricians with their aesthetic and diagnostic acumen. Rose, an educator who is himself the son of a waitress, explores the intellectual repertory of everyday workers and the terrible social cost of undervaluing the work they do. Deftly combining research, interviews, and personal history, this is one of those rare books that has the capacity both to shape public policy and to illuminate general readers.
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Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sisterby Maggie De VriesISBN 0143013718 (0-14-301371-8)
Hardcover, Penguin Canada
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Multitude: War And Democracy In The Age Of Empireby Antonio Negri, Michael HardtISBN 0143035592 (0-14-303559-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Multitude: War And Democracy In The Age Of Empire'Book summary:Complex, ambitious, disquieting, and ultimately hopeful, Multitude is the work of a couple of writers and thinkers who dare to address the great issues of our time from a truly alternative perspective. The sequel to 2001's equally bold and demanding Empire continues in the vein of the earlier tome. Where Empire's central premise was that the time of nation-state power grabs was passing as a new global order made up of "a new form of sovereignty" consisting of corporations, global-wide institutions, and other command centers is in ascendancy, Multitude focuses on the masses within the empire, except that, where academics Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri are concerned, this body is defined by its diversity rather than its commonalities. The challenge for the multitude in this new era is "for the social multiplicity to manage to communicate and act in common while remaining internally different." One may already be rereading that last sentence. Indeed, Empire isn't breezy reading. But for those aren't afraid of wadding into a knotty philosophical and political discourse of uncommon breadth, Multitude offers many rewards. --Steven Stolder [via]
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My Centuryby Gunter Grass, Michael Henry HeimISBN 015100496X (0-15-100496-X)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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Natureby Ralph Waldo EmersonISBN 0146001036 (0-14-600103-6)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nature'Book summary:Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. [via]
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The Odysseyby Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard MacGregor Walker KnoxISBN 0143039954 (0-14-303995-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Odyssey'Book summary:Robert Fagles's translation is a jaw-droppingly beautiful rendering of Homer's Odyssey, the most accessible and enthralling epic of classical Greece. Fagles captures the rapid and direct language of the original Greek, while telling the story of Odysseus in lyrics that ring with a clear, energetic voice. The story itself has never seemed more dynamic, the action more compelling, nor the descriptions so brilliant in detail. It is often said that every age demands its own translation of the classics. Fagles's work is a triumph because he has not merely provided a contemporary version of Homer's classic poem, but has located the right language for the timeless character of this great tale. Fagles brings the Odyssey so near, one wonders if the Hollywood adaption can be far behind. This is a terrific book. [via]
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Of Empireby Francis BaconISBN 0143037560 (0-14-303756-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Mealsby Michael PollanISBN 0143038583 (0-14-303858-3)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals'Book summary:One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year Winner of the James Beard Award Author of #1 New York Times Bestsellers In Defense of Food and Food Rules Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from what can only be described as a national eating disorder. Will it be fast food tonight, or something organic? Or perhaps something we grew ourselves? The question of what to have for dinner has confronted us since man discovered fire. But as Michael Pollan explains in this revolutionary book, how we answer it now, as the dawn of the twenty-first century, may determine our survival as a species. Packed with profound surprises, The Omnivore's Dilemma is changing the way Americans thing about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating. Coming from The Penguin Press in 2013, Michael Pollan's newest book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation--the story of our most trusted food expert's culinary education "Thoughtful, engrossing ... You're not likely to get a better explanation of exactly where your food comes from." -The New York Times Book Review "An eater's manifesto ... [Pollan's] cause is just, his thinking is clear, and his writing is compelling. Be careful of your dinner!" -The Washington Post "Outstanding... a wide-ranging invitation to think through the moral ramifications of our eating habits." --The New Yorker "If you ever thought 'what's for dinner' was a simple question, you'll change your mind after reading Pollan's searing indictment of today's food industry-and his glimpse of some inspiring alternatives.... I just loved this book so much I didn't want it to end." -The Seattle Times [via]
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On Literatureby Umberto Eco, Martin McLaughlinISBN 0151008124 (0-15-100812-4)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'On Literature'Book summary:In this collection of essays and addresses delivered over the course of his illustrious career, Umberto Eco seeks "to understand the chemistry of [his] passion" for the word. From musings on Ptolemy and "the force of the false" to reflections on the experimental writing of Borges and Joyce, Eco's luminous intelligence and encyclopedic knowledge are on dazzling display throughout. And when he reveals his own ambitions and superstitions, his authorial anxieties and fears, one feels like a secret sharer in the garden of literature to which he so often alludes.[via]
Remarkably accessible and unfailingly stimulating, this collection exhibits the diversity of interests and the depth of knowledge that have made Eco one of the world's leading writers.More editions of On Literature:
An Ordinary Man: An Autobiographyby Paul Rusesabagina, Tom ZoellnerISBN 0143038605 (0-14-303860-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Plato Phaedrusby Plato, Walter HamiltonISBN 0146001796 (0-14-600179-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Plato Phaedrus'Book summary:Phaedrus is widely recognized as one of Plato's most profound and beautiful works. It takes the form of a dialogue between Socrates and Phaedrus and its ostensible subject is love, especially homoerotic love. This new translation is accompanied by an introduction, further reading, and full notes on the text and translation that discuss the structure of the dialogue and elucidate issues that might puzzle the modern reader. [via]
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The Pleasures and Pains of Opiumby Thomas De Quincey, Alethea HayterISBN 0146001826 (0-14-600182-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Portable Beat Readerby Ann ChartersISBN 0142437530 (0-14-243753-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Portable Beat Reader'Book summary:The Portable Beat Reader is an excellent and thorough study of the Beat Generation, compiled and edited by Ann Charters, biographer of Jack Kerouac and one of our most notable experts on Beat literature and ideas. This lively work of scholarship goes deeply into the history of the Beat movement, investigating events such as the discovery (by writer William Burroughs) of the word beat to describe this literary generation. The reader includes essays on all the major prose and poetry writers, such as Allen Ginsberg, and offers rare insight into the literary-historical context of the movement. [via]
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Probability 1: Why There Must Be Intelligent Life in the Universeby Amir D. AczelISBN 0151003769 (0-15-100376-9)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Probability 1: Why There Must Be Intelligent Life in the Universe'Book summary:In a universe infinitely large, what is the probability of intelligent life on another planet? Sounds like a trick question, but for anyone versed in cosmology and statistics, the answer is 1; that is, there must be life on at least one other planet in the universe. This is Amir Aczel's theorem. But, as physicist Enrico Fermi once asked, if that's true, where is everyone? Aczel tackles that paradox after he goes through the statistical calculations for the probability of intelligent life, considering factors such as how many stars are in a galaxy, how many of those stars might be hospitable, how many might have planets, and how many planets might have environments suitable to support life as we know it (or as we don't). Aczel also provides an overview of the relevant developments in astronomy and biology--laying the groundwork to show that the universe's chemistry must add up to life. Whether life was spread through the universe by chunks of debris like ALH84001--the enigmatic meteorite from Mars that contained tantalizing hints of the possibility of life--or arose independently, Aczel is sure it is out there. After teasing readers with scientific history, Probability 1 delivers on its promise to prove Aczel's conjecture through a clearly explained application of known statistical theory to the chaos of the universe. --Therese Littleton [via]
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Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Foreverby Mem Fox, Judy HoracekISBN 0151006245 (0-15-100624-5)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever'Book summary:Bestselling author and literacy expert Mem Fox reveals the incredible emotional and intellectual impact reading aloud to children has on their ability to learn to read.[via]
All parents want and expect their children to learn to read, but few realize they can get their kids on the road to reading long before they start school simply by reading aloud to them every day. With passion and humor, acclaimed author and internationally respected literacy expert Mem Fox tells readers how she herself became aware of the astonishing effects that reading aloud and bonding through books have on very young children.
She speaks of when, where, and why to read aloud and demonstrates how to read aloud to best effect and how to get the most out of a read-aloud session. She walks readers through the three secrets of reading which together make reading possible. She gives guidance on defining, choosing, and finding good books and closes with tips on dealing effectively with the challenges that sometimes arise when children are learning to read.
Filled with practical advice, activities, and inspiring true read-aloud miracles, this book is a must for every parent-and for anyone interested in how children learn to read.More editions of Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever:
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Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyamby Omar Khayyam, Edward FitzgeraldISBN 0146000951 (0-14-600095-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'Book summary:The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a collection of poems authored by Persian astronomer and mathematician Omar Khayyam. The poems in this title are written into quatrains, Rubaiyat being arabic for root of four, as in four line verses of which quatrains are made up of. This popular edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is the edition by Edward Fitzgerald, who translated this work in the late 19th century. [via]
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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranesby Eleanor CoerrISBN 0142404403 (0-14-240440-3)
Softcover, Puffin
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Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranesby Ronald Himler, Eleanor CoerrISBN 0142401137 (0-14-240113-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes'Book summary:[via]Born in Hiroshima in 1943, Sadako was the star of her school's running team, until the dizzy spells started and she was forced to face the hardest race of her life-the race against time.
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School of Dreams: Making the Grade at a Top American High Schoolby Edward HumesISBN 0151007039 (0-15-100703-9)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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The Schreber Case: Sigmund Freud ; Translated by Andrew Webber, With an Introduction by Colin McCabeby Sigmund Freud, Andrew J. WebberISBN 0142437425 (0-14-243742-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Schreber Case: Sigmund Freud ; Translated by Andrew Webber, With an Introduction by Colin McCabe'Book summary:[via]Freud rarely treated psychotic patients or psychoanalyzed people just from their writings, but he had a powerful and imaginative understanding of their conditionrevealed, most notably, in this analysis of a remarkable memoir. In 1903, Judge Daniel Schreber, a highly intelligent and cultured man, produced a vivid account of his nervous illness dominated by the desire to become a woman, terrifying delusions about his doctor, and a belief in his own special relationship with God. Eight years later, Freud's penetrating insight uncovered the impulses and feelings Schreber had about his father, which underlay his extravagant symptoms.
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Secret Daughter: A Mixed-Race Daughter and the Mother Who Gave Her Awayby June CrossISBN 0143112112 (0-14-311211-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Snakebite Survivors' Club : Travels among Serpentsby Jeremy SealISBN 0151005354 (0-15-100535-4)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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The Social Contractby Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maurice CranstonISBN 0143037498 (0-14-303749-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Social Contract'Book summary:[via]The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.
Rousseau's explosive cry for human liberty helped to spark the French Revolution and has haunted our discussions of how we should rule one another ever sinceseen as both a blueprint for political terror and as a fundamental statement of democracy.
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Speer: The Final Verdictby Joachim C. Fest, Ewald Osers, Alexandra DringISBN 0151005567 (0-15-100556-7)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Speer: The Final Verdict'Book summary:Albert Speer is a great enigma. An unemployed architect when Hitler came to power in 1933, he was soon designing the Third Reich's most important buildings. In 1942 Hitler appointed him Armaments Minister and he quadrupled production, an astonishing achievement that kept the German Army in the field and prolonged the war.[via]
Yet Speer's life was full of contradictions. The only member of the Nazi elite with whom Hitler developed more than a purely functional relationship (he has even been called "Hitler's unrequited love"), Speer was always an outsider in Hitler's inner circle. He saw himself as an artist, above the crass power struggles of the roughnecks around him, but his enormous ambition blinded him to the crimes in which he played a leading role.
Brilliantly illustrated, this gripping account of one man's rise and fall helps explain how Germany descended so far into crime and barbarism.More editions of Speer: The Final Verdict:
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Sun Dancing: A Medieval Visionby Geoffrey MoorhouseISBN 0151002770 (0-15-100277-0)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Sun Dancing: A Medieval Vision'Book summary:Combining narrative re-creations with scholarly reflections, Moorhouse brings to life the monks of the Skellig Islands and the spirituality of medieval Ireland in a highly original, gracefully written book (Boston Globe) that is sure to fascinate lovers of Celtic history (Boston Herald). A Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist.[via]More editions of Sun Dancing: A Medieval Vision:
Surviving The Extremes: What Happens to the Body and Mind at the Limits of Human Enduranceby Kenneth KamlerISBN 0143034510 (0-14-303451-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Testament of Youthby Vera Brittain, Mark BostridgeISBN 0143039237 (0-14-303923-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Testament of Youth'Book summary:When war broke out in August 1914, 21-year-old Vera Brittain was planning on enrolling at Somerville College, Oxford. Her father told her she wouldn't be able to go: "In a few months' time we should probably all find ourselves in the Workhouse!" he opined. Brittain had hoped to escape the Northern provinces, but the war seemingly dashed her plans. "It is not, perhaps, so very surprising that the War at first seemed to me an infuriating personal interruption rather than a world-wide catastrophe."
Her father eventually relented, however, and she was allowed to attend. By the end of her first year, she had fallen in love with a young soldier and resolved to become active in the war effort by volunteering as a nurse--turning her back on what she called her "provincial young-ladyhood." Brittain suffered through 12-hour days by reminding herself that nothing she endured was worse than what her fiancé, Roland, experienced in the trenches. Roland was expected home on leave for Christmas 1915; on December 26, Brittain received news that he had been killed at the front. Ten months later Brittain herself was sent to Malta and then to France to serve in the hospitals nearer the front, where she witnessed firsthand the horrors of battle. When peace finally came, Brittain had also lost her brother Edward and two close friends. As she walked the streets of London on November 11, 1918--Armistice Day--she felt alone in the crowds:
For the first time I realised, with all that full realisation meant, how completely everything that had hitherto made up my life had vanished with Edward and Roland, with Victor and Geoffrey. The War was over; a new age was beginning; but the dead were dead and would never return.
First published in 1933, Testament of Youth established Brittain as one of the best-loved authors of her time. Her crisp, clear prose and searing honesty make this unsentimental memoir of a generation scarred by war a classic. --Sunny Delaney [via]
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They Would Never Hurt A Fly: War Criminals on Trial in The Hagueby Slavenka DrakulicISBN 0143035428 (0-14-303542-8)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'They Would Never Hurt A Fly: War Criminals on Trial in The Hague'Book summary:[via]"Who were they? Ordinary people like you or meor monsters? asks internationally acclaimed author Slavenka Drakulic as she sets out to understand the people behind the horrific crimes committed during the war that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Drawing on firsthand observations of the trials, as well as on other sources, Drakulic portrays some of the individuals accused of murder, rape, torture, ordering executions, and more during one of the most brutal conflicts in Europe in the twentieth century, including former Serbian president Slobodan Miloaevic; Radislav Krstic, the first to be sentenced for genocide; Biljana Plavaic, the only woman accused of war crimes; and Ratko Mladic, now in hiding. With clarity and emotion, Drakulic paints a wrenching portrait of a country needlessly torn apart.
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The Third Reich in Powerby Richard J. EvansISBN 0143037900 (0-14-303790-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation The Great Liberation by Hearing In the Intermediate Statesby Graham Coleman, Thupten Jinpa, Gyurme DorjeISBN 0143104942 (0-14-310494-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation The Great Liberation by Hearing In the Intermediate States'Book summary:Hailed as a "tremendous accomplishment," the first complete translation of a classic Buddhist text[via]
Graced with opening words by His Holiness The Dalai Lama, the Penguin Deluxe Edition of The Tibetan Book of the Dead is "immaculately rendered in an English both graceful and precise." Translated with the close support of leading contemporary masters, this book faithfully presents the insights and intentions of the original work. It includes one of the most detailed and compelling descriptions of the after-death state in world literature, practices that can transform our experience of daily life, guidance on helping those who are dying, and an inspirational perspective on coping with bereavement. The vivid, embossed cover and beautiful, deckled-edged pages also make this the perfect gift for a loved one.More editions of The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation The Great Liberation by Hearing In the Intermediate States:
Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisaby Nicholas ShradyISBN 0143034502 (0-14-303450-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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To Be a Slaveby Julius Lester, Tom FeelingsISBN 0142403865 (0-14-240386-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'To Be a Slave'Book summary:[via]What was it like to be a slave? Listen to the words and learn about the lives of countless slaves and ex-slaves, telling about their forced journey from Africa to the United States, their work in the fields and houses of their owners, and their passion for freedom. You will never look at life the same way again.
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Transparent: Love, Family, and Living the T with Transgender Teenagersby Cris BeamISBN 0151011966 (0-15-101196-6)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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Upon the Altar of the Nation: A Moral History of the Civil Warby Harry S. StoutISBN 0143038761 (0-14-303876-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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A Vindication of the Rights of Womanby Mary WollstonecraftISBN 0143037501 (0-14-303750-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'Book summary:[via]The perfect books for the true book lover, Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve more groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers. Each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-driven design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped our world.
Mary Wollstonecraft's passionate declaration of female independence shattered the stereotype of docile, decorative womanhood, anticipated a new era of equality and established her as the founder of modern feminism.
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Virginia Woolf: An Inner Lifeby Julia BriggsISBN 0151011435 (0-15-101143-5)
Hardcover, Harcourt
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The Voyages of Odysseusby Homer, D. C. H. Rieu, E. V. RieuISBN 0146001516 (0-14-600151-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Voyages of Odysseus'Book summary:One of 60 low-priced classic texts published to celebrate Penguin's 60th anniversary. All the titles are extracts from "Penguin Classics" titles. [via]
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The Waste Land and Other Poemsby T. S. Eliot, Frank KermodeISBN 014243731X (0-14-243731-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Waste Land and Other Poems'Book summary:After sitting through T.S. Eliot's reading of "The Waste Land," listeners may be inclined to hang up the earphones for a spell. There are no flaws to Eliot's steady-toned interpretation; in fact, his delivery is quite remarkable in its ability to match the poem's constant, somber mood. It's just that 25-plus minutes of Eliot's desolate landscapes--rendered even more real by the author's incessant tones--can wear on the emotions.
In addition to the full-length version of "The Waste Land," this recording includes Eliot's stirring narration of "The Hollow Men," "Sweeney Among the Nightingales," and "Macavity the Mystery Cat." Listen to Eliot read from "The Waste Land." Visit our audio help page for more information. (Running time: 47 minutes, 1 cassette) --Rob McDonald [via]
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What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industryby John MarkoffISBN 0143036769 (0-14-303676-9)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scripturesby Jaroslav PelikanISBN 0143036777 (0-14-303677-7)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Whose Bible Is It?: A Short History of the Scriptures'Book summary:[via]Jaroslav Pelikan, widely regarded as one of the most distinguished historians of our day, now provides a clear and engaging account of the Bibles journey from oral narrative to Hebrew and Greek text to todays countless editions. Pelikan explores the evolution of the Jewish, Protestant, and Catholic versions and the development of the printing press and its effect on the Reformation, the translation into modern languages, and varying schools of critical scholarship. Whose Bible Is It? is a triumph of scholarship that is also a pleasure to read.
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Working Fire: The Making of a Firemanby Zac UngerISBN 0143034952 (0-14-303495-2)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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Zoo in My Luggageby Gerald Durrell, Ralph ThompsonISBN 014303524X (0-14-303524-X)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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