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books tagged “philosophy”
books tagged “philosophy”
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : And, Through the Looking Glassby Lewis Carroll, Jenny ThorneISBN 0361028008 (0-361-02800-8)
Hardcover, Purnell, Alice Kelly
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland : And, Through the Looking Glass'Book summary:That Alice. When she's not traipsing after a rabbit into Wonderland, she's gallivanting off into the topsy-turvy world behind the drawing-room looking glass. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll's masterful and zany sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she makes more eccentric acquaintances, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the White Queen, and a somewhat grumpy Humpty Dumpty. Through a giant and elaborate chess game, Alice explores this odd country, where one must eat dry biscuits to quench thirst, and run like the wind to stay in one place. As in life, Alice must stay on her toes to learn the rules of this game. Through the Looking Glass immediately took its rightful place beside its partner on the shelf of eternal classics. And luckily for generations of enraptured children, Carroll was again able to persuade John Tenniel to create the fantastic woodblock engravings that have become so indelibly associated with the Alice stories. For almost 130 years, Alice's curious adventures have amused, perplexed, and delighted readers, young and old. This gorgeous, deluxe boxed set of both volumes contains engravings from Tenniel's original woodblocks that were discovered in a London bank in 1985, and reproduced for the first time here. "'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures?'" What indeed? (All ages) [via]
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, and the Hunting of the Snarkby Lewis CarrollISBN 0370109279 (0-370-10927-9)
Hardcover, Random House of Canada Ltd
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, and the Hunting of the Snark'Book summary:, 292 pages including Prefatory Notes at rear, illustrated throughout with numerous black and white illustrations within the text [via]
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American Odyssey : Letters and Journals, 1940-1947by Wilhelm Reich, Mary Boyd Higgins, Derek Jordan, Inge Jordan, Philip SchmitzISBN 0374104360 (0-374-10436-0)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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The Bacchae of Euripides: A New Versionby Euripides, C.K. WilliamsISBN 0374107947 (0-374-10794-7)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
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The Bestby Peter Passell, Leonard RossISBN 0374112274 (0-374-11227-4)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Best'Book summary:Hardcover with dust jacket. 1974 edition. Farrar, Straus and Girouix, Publishers. Peter Passell and Leonard Ross. Covers are cloth red/black with gilded lettering. Dust jacket is lightly faded, age toned with edges browning lightly, has scratches on back of cover. Jacket design by Irving Bogen. Original sales price is on the top inside of the jacket flap. Book includes The Best of many things. Interesting read. [via]
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Beyond the Chains of Illusion: My Encounter With Marx and Freudby Erich FrommISBN 0349113440 (0-349-11344-0)
Softcover, Abacus
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The Black Bookby Orhan Pamuk, Guneli GunISBN 0374113947 (0-374-11394-7)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Borderlinersby Peter Hoeg, Barbara HavelandISBN 0374115540 (0-374-11554-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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A Case of Conscienceby James BlishISBN 0345438353 (0-345-43835-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Case of Conscience'Book summary:The citizens of the planet Lithia are some of the most ethical sentient beings Father Ramon Ruiz-Sanchez has ever encountered. True, they have no literature, no fine arts, and don't understand the concept of recreation, but neither do they understand the concepts of greed, envy, lust, or any of the sins and vices that plague humankind. Their world seems darned near perfect. And that is just what disturbs the good Father.
First published in 1959, James Blish's Hugo Award-winning A Case of Conscience is science fiction at its very best: a fast-paced, intelligent story that offers plenty of action while at the same time explores complex questions of values and ethics. In this case, Blish has taken on the age-old battle of good vs. evil. Lithia poses a theological question that lies at the heart of this book: is God necessary for a moral society? The Lithians are nothing if not moral. Not only do they lack the seven deadly sins, they also lack original sin. And without any sort of religious framework, they have created the Christian ideal world, one that humans would be eager to study and emulate. But is it too perfect? Is it in fact, as Father Ruiz-Sanchez suspects, the work of The Adversary? And what role does Egtverchi, the young Lithian raised on Earth, play? Is he an innocent victim of circumstance, or will he bring about the Dies Irae, the day of the wrath of God, upon the earth? The fate of two worlds hinges on the answers to these questions, and will lead to an ancient earth heresy that shakes the Jesuit priest's beliefs to their very core.
A Case of Conscience is a brilliant piece of storytelling, and it packs a lot into a scant 242 pages. Most readers will probably finish the book in one sitting, unable to stop until the spectacular denouement. But the questions posed by this little-known gem will stay with you for days afterward. --P.M. Atterberry [via]
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The Chess Garden or the Twilight Letters of Gustav Uyterhoevenby Brooks HansenISBN 0374160155 (0-374-16015-5)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Count of Monte Cristoby Alexandre Dumas, Lorenzo CarcaterraISBN 0345483545 (0-345-48354-5)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Count of Monte Cristo'Book summary:Set against the tumultuous years of the post-Napoleonic era, The Count of Monet Cristo recounts the swashbuckling adventures of Edmond Dantes, a dashing young sailor falsely accused of treason. The story of his long imprisonment, dramatic escape, and carefully wrought revenge offers up a vision of France that has become immortal.
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Dante's Equationby Jane JensenISBN 0345430379 (0-345-43037-9)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dante's Equation'Book summary:Powerful . . . A combustible mixture of science and mysticism, a high-altitude
thriller fizzing with intrigue. JOHN CASE, Author of The Eighth Day
In a breathless thriller that explores the relationship between science and the divine, good and evil, space and time, Jane Jensen takes us from the world we know into a reality we could only scarcely imagine. Until now.
Rabbi Aharon Handalmans expertise with Torah coderearranging words and letters in the Biblehas uncovered a mans name. Who is Yosef Kobinski, and why did God hide his name in His sacred text? To find the answers, Aharon begins an investigation, and discovers that Kobinski, a Polish rabbi, was not only a mystic but also a brilliant physicist who authored what may be the most important lost work in human history.
In Seattle, Jill Talcotts work with energy wave equations is being linked to Yosef Kobinski, now deceased, who claimed nearly fifty years ago that he discovered an actual physical law of good and evil. But when Jills lab explodes, she is forced to flee for her life, realizing that her cutting-edge research is far more dangerous than she ever has imagined. And that powerful people have a stake in what she may have uncovered.
Now Jill, her research partner, and a writer fascinated by Kobinski are about to meet Handalman in Polandall four desperate to solve the astonishing riddle. Searching through the past, they trace Kobinski to a clearing in the woods near Auschwitz. And in that clearing they come face-to-face with the inexplicable: that Kobinski, drawing on his own alchemy of science and the Kabbalah, made himself vanish from the death camp in a blaze of fire. Now, with intelligence agents hot on their trail, the investigators have no choice. They must follow Kobinski to wherever he may have gone. . . .
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]-
Dave Barry's Greatest Hitsby Dave BarryISBN 0345419995 (0-345-41999-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dave Barry's Greatest Hits'Book summary:A Greatest Hits package to die for, in which the inimitable, Pulitzer-packing humorist applies himself to taxes, toilets, airbags, baseball, beer commercials, and numerous other American artifacts. A typical bit, from a piece on legalized gambling: "Off-Track Betting parlors are the kinds of places where you never see signs that say, 'Thank You for Not Smoking.' The best you could hope for is, 'Thank You for Not Spitting Pieces of Your Cigar on My Neck.'" Happy? There's plenty more where that came from. [via]
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The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus And the World of Renaissance Magic And Scienceby Philip BallISBN 0374229791 (0-374-22979-1)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Disputed Questionsby Thomas MertonISBN 0374140618 (0-374-14061-8)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Dragons in the Watersby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374318689 (0-374-31868-9)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dragons in the Waters'Book summary:A thirteen-year-old boy's trip to Venezuela with his cousin culminates in murder and the discovery of an unexpected bond with an Indian tribe, dating from the days of Simâon Bolâivar. [via]
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Drinking the Rainby Alix Kates ShulmanISBN 0374144036 (0-374-14403-6)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Eclogues of Virgil: A Translationby Virgil, David FerryISBN 0374146349 (0-374-14634-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Epistles of Horaceby Horace, David FerryISBN 0374148562 (0-374-14856-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Epistles of Horace'Book summary:The great legacy of Rome's Golden Age, revoiced.
My aim is to take familiar things and make
Poetry of them, and do it in such a way
That it looks as if it was as easy as could be
For anybody to do it . . . the power of making
A perfectly wonderful thing out of nothing much. --from "The Art of Poetry"When David Ferry's translation of The Odes of Horace appeared in 1997, Bernard Knox wrote in The New York Review of Books that it was "a Horace for our times." Now Ferry has translated Horace's two books of Epistles, in which he perfected his dazzling conversational verse medium, speaking with directness, wit, and urgency, to young writers, to friends, to his patron Maecenas, to Emperor Augustus himself. It is the voice of a free man, talking about how to get along in a Roman world full of temptations, opportunities, and contingencies with one's integrity intact.
Horace's world, so unlike our own and yet so like it, comes to life in these poems. And there are also the poems -- the famous "Art of Poetry" and others -- about the tasks and responsibilities of the writer: truth to the demands of one's medium, fearless clear-sighted self-knowledge, and unillusioned, uncynical realism, joyfully recognizing the world for what it is. [via]
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The Erotic Artsby Peter WebbISBN 0374148635 (0-374-14863-5)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
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The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn from Each Otherby Sara Lawrence-LightfootISBN 0345475801 (0-345-47580-1)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn from Each Other'Book summary:With the insights she has gleaned from her close and subtle observation of parent-teacher conferences, renowned Harvard University professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot has written a wise, useful book about the ways in which parents and teachers can make the most of their essential conversationthe dialogue between the most vital people in a childs life.
The essential conversation is the crucial exchange that occurs between parents and teachersa dialogue that takes place more than one hundred million times a year across our country and is both mirror of and metaphor for the larger cultural forces that define family-school relationships and shape the development of our children. Participating in this twice-yearly ritual, so friendly and benign in its apparent goals, parents and teachers are often wracked with anxiety. In a meeting marked by decorum and politeness, they frequently exhibit wariness and assume defensive postures. Even though the conversation appears to be focused on the student, adults may find themselves playing out their own childhood histories, insecurities, and fears.
Through vivid portraits and parables, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot captures the dynamics of this complex, intense relationship from the perspective of both parents and teachers. She also identifies new principles and practices for improving family-school relationships. In a voice that combines the passion of a mother, the skepticism of a social scientist, and the keen understanding of one of our nations most admired educators, Lawrence-Lightfoot offers penetrating analysis and an urgent call to arms for all those who want to act in the best interests of their children.
For parents and teachers who seek productive dialogues and collaborative alliances in support of the learning and growth of their children, this book will offer valuable insights, incisive lessons, and deft guidance on how to communicate more effectively. In The Essential Conversation, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot brings scholarship, warmth, and wisdom to an immensely important cultural subjectthe way we raise our children.
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Ether God and Devilby Wilhelm ReichISBN 0374149070 (0-374-14907-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Ether God and Devil'Book summary:Dust Jacket intact with with several edge/corner chips/tears and scuffing. No markings/notations. Spine/binding tight and pages in good cond. [via]
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Ether, God and Devil and Cosmic Superimpositionby Wilhelm Reich, Therese PolISBN 0374509913 (0-374-50991-3)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The First Immortalby James L. HalperinISBN 0345421825 (0-345-42182-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyronby Roger ShattuckISBN 0374157553 (0-374-15755-3)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus Giroux
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Generation Xby Douglas CouplandISBN 0349103313 (0-349-10331-3)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Generation X'Book summary:A riotous, raunchy tale about three 'twenty somethings' who inhabit adjoining bungalows in Palm Springs. [via]
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Gertrude : A Novelby Hermann Hesse, Hilda RosnerISBN 0374508127 (0-374-50812-7)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gertrude : A Novel'Book summary:With Gertrude, Herman Hesse continues his life-long exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artistshis friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn's opera, the most important success of his artistic career.[via]More editions of Gertrude : A Novel:
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Gileadby Marilynne RobinsonISBN 0374153892 (0-374-15389-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gilead'Book summary:In 1981, Marilynne Robinson wrote Housekeeping, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and became a modern classic. Since then, she has written two pieces of nonfiction: Mother Country and The Death of Adam. With Gilead, we have, at last, another work of fiction. As with The Great Fire, Shirley Hazzards's return, 22 years after The Transit of Venus, it was worth the long wait. Books such as these take time, and thought, and a certain kind of genius. There are no invidious comparisons to be made. Robinson's books are unalike in every way but one: the same incisive thought and careful prose illuminate both.
The narrator, John Ames, is 76, a preacher who has lived almost all of his life in Gilead, Iowa. He is writing a letter to his almost seven-year-old son, the blessing of his second marriage. It is a summing-up, an apologia, a consideration of his life. Robinson takes the story away from being simply the reminiscences of one man and moves it into the realm of a meditation on fathers and children, particularly sons, on faith, and on the imperfectability of man.
The reason for the letter is Ames's failing health. He wants to leave an account of himself for this son who will never really know him. His greatest regret is that he hasn't much to leave them, in worldly terms. "Your mother told you I'm writing your begats, and you seemed very pleased with the idea. Well, then. What should I record for you?" In the course of the narrative, John Ames records himself, inside and out, in a meditative style. Robinson's prose asks the reader to slow down to the pace of an old man in Gilead, Iowa, in 1956. Ames writes of his father and grandfather, estranged over his grandfather's departure for Kansas to march for abolition and his father's lifelong pacifism. The tension between them, their love for each other and their inability to bridge the chasm of their beliefs is a constant source of rumination for John Ames. Fathers and sons.
The other constant in the book is Ames's friendship since childhood with "old Boughton," a Presbyterian minister. Boughton, father of many children, favors his son, named John Ames Boughton, above all others. Ames must constantly monitor his tendency to be envious of Boughton's bounteous family; his first wife died in childbirth and the baby died almost immediately after her. Jack Boughton is a ne'er-do-well, Ames knows it and strives to love him as he knows he should. Jack arrives in Gilead after a long absence, full of charm and mischief, causing Ames to wonder what influence he might have on Ames's young wife and son when Ames dies.
These are the things that Ames tells his son about: his ancestors, the nature of love and friendship, the part that faith and prayer play in every life and an awareness of one's own culpability. There is also reconciliation without resignation, self-awareness without deprecation, abundant good humor, philosophical queries--Jack asks, "'Do you ever wonder why American Christianity seems to wait for the real thinking to be done elsewhere?'"--and an ongoing sense of childlike wonder at the beauty and variety of God's world.
In Marilynne Robinson's hands, there is a balm in Gilead, as the old spiritual tells us. --Valerie Ryan [via]
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The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bibleby Jonathan KirschISBN 0345418824 (0-345-41882-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible'Book summary:"The stories you are about to read are some of the most violent and sexually explicit in all of Western literature. They are tales of human passion in all of its infinite variety: adultery, seduction, incest, rape, mutilation, assassination, torture, sacrifice, and murder. . . ."
Sex. Violence. Scandal. These are words we rarely associate with the sacred text of the Bible. Yet in this brilliant book, Jonathan Kirsch recounts shocking tales that have been suppressed by religious authorities throughout history. Kirsch places each story within the political and social context of its time, delves into the latest biblical scholarship to explain why each one was originally censored, and shows how these ancient narratives hold valuable lessons for all of us. [via]More editions of The Harlot by the Side of the Road: Forbidden Tales of the Bible:
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The History of Danish Dreamsby Peter Hoeg, Barbara HavelandISBN 0374171386 (0-374-17138-6)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The History of Danish Dreams'Book summary:One of Scandinavia's most talented young authors follows an eccentric family as they try to cope with the transition of Denmark from medieval society to modern welfare state. By the author of Smilla's Sense of Snow. [via]
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The Hobbitby J.R.R. Tolkien, David Wenzel, Charles Dixon, Sean DemingISBN 0345445600 (0-345-44560-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hobbit'Book summary:"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
The hobbit-hole in question belongs to one Bilbo Baggins, an upstanding member of a "little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves." He is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and best pleased when sitting by his own fire with a pipe, a glass of good beer, and a meal to look forward to. Certainly this particular hobbit is the last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey; indeed, when Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, "looking for someone to share in an adventure," Baggins fervently wishes the wizard elsewhere. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves have arrived on the hobbit's doorstep in search of a burglar, and before he can even grab his hat or an umbrella, Bilbo Baggins is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.
The dwarves' goal is to return to their ancestral home in the Lonely Mountains and reclaim a stolen fortune from the dragon Smaug. Along the way, they and their reluctant companion meet giant spiders, hostile elves, ravening wolves--and, most perilous of all, a subterranean creature named Gollum from whom Bilbo wins a magical ring in a riddling contest. It is from this life-or-death game in the dark that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork, The Lord of the Rings, would eventually spring. Though The Hobbit is lighter in tone than the trilogy that follows, it has, like Bilbo Baggins himself, unexpected iron at its core. Don't be fooled by its fairy-tale demeanor; this is very much a story for adults, though older children will enjoy it, too. By the time Bilbo returns to his comfortable hobbit-hole, he is a different person altogether, well primed for the bigger adventures to come--and so is the reader. --Alix Wilber [via]
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A House Like a Lotusby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374333858 (0-374-33385-8)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A House Like a Lotus'Book summary:"Seventeen-year-old Polly can accept her dying patron's lesbianism until Max, overcome by pain and alcohol, attempts to seduce her. While on a working trip to Greece and Cyprus, previously arranged by Max, Polly learns what forgiveness and love really are. Polly is a remarkable heroine." --Children's Book Review Service[via]
"Compelling." --Starred, BooklistMore editions of A House Like a Lotus:
How Reading Changed My Lifeby Anna QuindlenISBN 0345422783 (0-345-42278-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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How to Be Alone: Essaysby Jonathan FranzenISBN 0374173273 (0-374-17327-3)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'How to Be Alone: Essays'Book summary:Jonathan Franzen is smart and brash, the kind of person you want as your social critic but not as a brother-in-law. Many of the 14 essays in How to Be Alone, by the author of the critically acclaimed novel The Corrections, first appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, and elsewhere. A long, much-discussed rumination on the American novel, (newly) titled "Why Bother?," is included, as well as essays on privacy obsession, the U.S. post office, New York City, big tobacco, and new prisons. At his best, as in "My Father's Brain," a piece on his father's struggle with Alzheimer's, Franzen can make the ordinary world utterly riveting. But at times, it can be difficult to discern where Franzen stands on any particular subject, as he often takes both sides of an argument. Valid attempts to reflect ambiguity s! ometimes lead to obfuscation, especially in his essays on privacy and tobacco, although his belief that small-town America of years gone by offered the individual little privacy certainly rings true. Franzen can write with panache, as in this comment after he watched, without headphones, a TV show during a flight: "(It) became an exposé of the hydraulics of insincere smiles." A few of the shorter pieces appear to be filler. Franzen shines brightest when he gets edgy and a little angry, as in "The Reader in Exile": "Instead of Manassas battlefield, a historical theme park. Instead of organizing narratives, a map of the world as complex as the world itself. Instead of a soul, membership in a crowd. Instead of wisdom, data." --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca [via]
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I Chingby Edward L. ShaughnessyISBN 0345421124 (0-345-42112-4)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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The Illuminated Prayer: The Five-Times Prayer of the Sufisby Coleman Barks, Michael GreenISBN 0345435451 (0-345-43545-1)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Illuminated Prayer: The Five-Times Prayer of the Sufis'Book summary:The Prayer is a drawing of the curtain, an invitation to a secret place that is discovered and explored. . . .
According to tradition and the testimony of Sufi mystics, The Prayer--or Salat--was first taught by the angels, who themselves practiced it in celestial adoration. The Prayer is God's gift to all humankind, and in this gorgeously illustrated volume, its simple, archetypal practice unfolds like a fragrant, many-petaled flower, joining words and movements into a single luminous event that engages our entire being.
These ancient rituals are presented here as a gift for anyone with a heartfelt desire to set aside for a moment the concerns of every day and enter a sacred time and space in which to explore the beckonings of the spirit. The authors take us through the words, movements, and hidden meanings of the Call to Prayer, the Ablutions, The Prayer itself, and the Peaceful Embrace afterwards. Faithful practice lends a sacred rhythm to each day and creates a psychological force that helps us nurture and express a profound inner harmony.
This first, marvelously accessible interpretation of The Prayer also offers a compelling introductin to the wisdom and teachings of the beloved contemporary Sufi master Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, who brought new life to this mystical tradition by opening a passage to its deepest, universal realities. It is the loving handiwork of two of Bawa's best-known students, Coleman Barks and Michael Green, who also created The Illuminated Rumi.
Like a jewel given extra brilliance by its setting, The Prayer is surrounded by the wisdom and understanding of the thirteenth-century Sufi master Rumi, whose generous poetry has become an essential canon for modern-day seekers in the West. The final gift is the Primeval Kalima, the core practice and most profound teaching of the Sufi, the "open secret" that leads to Divine Luminous Wisdom. [via]More editions of The Illuminated Prayer: The Five-Times Prayer of the Sufis:
In the Land of Second Chancesby George ShaffnerISBN 0345484983 (0-345-48498-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Interview with the Vampireby Anne RiceISBN 0345476875 (0-345-47687-5)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Interview with the Vampire'Book summary:In the now-classic novel Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice refreshed the archetypal vampire myth for a late-20th-century audience. The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale--with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy--transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns--the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception--in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator.
While Rice has continued to investigate history, faith, and philosophy in subsequent Vampire novels (including The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand), Interview remains a treasured masterpiece. It is that rare work that blends a childlike fascination for the supernatural with a profound vision of the human condition. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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The Irrational Seasonby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374177333 (0-374-17733-3)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Irrational Season'Book summary:The third volume of L'Engle's autobiography is a gifted and courageous writer's personal odyssey through the seasons of the Christian year. A great evil of our time, she convincingly asserts, is the ever-widening rift between intellect and intuition, sadly reflected in the division of Christendom, the breaking up of our families, and the loss of community everywhere.[via]More editions of The Irrational Season:
Jivamukti Yoga: Practices for Liberating Body and Soulby Sharon Gannon, David LifeISBN 0345442083 (0-345-44208-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Land of Ulroby Czesaw MioszISBN 0374183236 (0-374-18323-6)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Land of Ulro'Book summary:This major prose work, originally published in English in 1985, is both a moving spiritual self-portrait and an unflinching inquiry into the genesis of our modern afflictions. A man who was raised a Catholic in rural Lithuania, lived through the Nazi occupation of Poland, and emerged, first in Europe and then in America, as one of our most important men of letters, speaks here of the inherited dilemmas of our civilization in a voice recognizable for its honesty and passion.[via]More editions of The Land of Ulro:
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The Lexus and the Olive Treeby Thomas L. FriedmanISBN 0374185522 (0-374-18552-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree'Book summary:One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree.
Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.
Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.
No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler [via]
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The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalizationby Thomas L. FriedmanISBN 0374192030 (0-374-19203-0)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization'Book summary:One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree.
Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.
Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.
No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler [via]
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Liberating Everyday Genius : A Revolutionary Guide for Identifying and Mastering Your Exceptional Giftsby Mary-Elaine JacobsenISBN 0345427718 (0-345-42771-8)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Looking Glass Universe: The Emerging Science of Wholenessby John Briggs, F. David PeatISBN 0346125944 (0-346-12594-4)
Softcover, Cornerstone Library
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Love and Livingby Thomas Merton, Patrick Hart, Naomi Burton StoneISBN 0374192375 (0-374-19237-5)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
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The Male Body: A New Look at Men in Public and Privateby Susan BordoISBN 0374280657 (0-374-28065-7)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Mists of Avalonby Marion Zimmer BradleyISBN 0345441184 (0-345-44118-4)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mists of Avalon'Book summary:Even readers who don't normally enjoy Arthurian legends will love this version, a retelling from the point of view of the women behind the throne. Morgaine (more commonly known as Morgan Le Fay) and Gwenhwyfar (a Welsh spelling of Guinevere) struggle for power, using Arthur as a way to score points and promote their respective worldviews. The Mists of Avalon's Camelot politics and intrigue take place at a time when Christianity is taking over the island-nation of Britain; Christianity vs. Faery, and God vs. Goddess are dominant themes.
Young and old alike will enjoy this magical Arthurian reinvention by science fiction and fantasy veteran Marion Zimmer Bradley. --Bonnie Bouman [via]
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Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essaysby Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah HeschelISBN 0374199809 (0-374-19980-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Move Closer: An Intimate Philosphy of Artby John ArmstrongISBN 0374105960 (0-374-10596-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Moving Zen: Karate as a Way to Gentlenessby C.W. NicolISBN 0370103769 (0-370-10376-9)
Hardcover, Bodley Head
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Murder of Christby Wilhelm ReichISBN 0374504768 (0-374-50476-8)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Murray Kash's Book of Countryby Murray KashISBN 035230443X (0-352-30443-X)
Softcover, Star
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The Newlywedsby Elizabeth BevarlyISBN 0373613938 (0-373-61393-8)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Newlyweds'Book summary:Follow the investigation by a "husband and wife" team as true crime turns to true love. . .
Known more for her work ethic than for her romantic history, FBI agent Bridget Logan landed an assignment that involved issues too close to home-and a "husband" as part of the sting. If Agent Samuel Jones weren't so sexy, Bridget would have had no problem handling this case. But he was, and for the first time in her career, Bridget had trouble keeping a cool head under fire. A lot was at stake, though, and Bridget was determined to solve this case and move on, no harm done. But then her "husband" made love to her. . .and suddenly their role as a devoted couple transformed into a passion over which neither had control! [via]
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Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religionsby Jeffrey MosesISBN 0345457633 (0-345-45763-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Painted Wordby Tom WolfeISBN 0374228787 (0-374-22878-7)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Painted Word'Book summary:In 1975, after having put radical chic and '60s counterculture to the satirical torch, Tom Wolfe turned his attention to the contemporary art world. The patron saint (and resident imp) of New Journalism couldn't have asked for a better subject. Here was a hotbed of pretension, nitwit theorizing, social climbing, and money, money, money--all Wolfe had to do was sharpen his tools and get to work. He did! Much of The Painted Word is a superb burlesque on that modern mating ritual whereby artists get to despise their middle-class audience and accommodate it at the same time. The painter, Wolfe writes, "had to dedicate himself to the quirky god Avant-Garde. He had to keep one devout eye peeled for the new edge on the blade of the wedge of the head on the latest pick thrust of the newest exploratory probe of this fall's avant-garde Breakthrough of the Century.... At the same time he had to keep his other eye cocked to see if anyone in le monde was watching."
The other bone Wolfe has to pick is with the proliferation of art theory, particularly the sort purveyed by postwar colossi like Harold Rosenberg, Clement Greenberg, and Leo Steinberg. Decades after the heyday of abstract expressionism, these guys make pretty easy targets. What could be more absurd, after all, than endless Jesuitical disputes about the flatness of the picture plane? So most of them get a highly comical spanking from the author. It's worth pointing out, of course, that Wolfe paints with a broad (as it were) brush. If he's skewering the entire army of artistic pretenders in a single go, there's no room to admit that Jasper Johns or Willem DeKooning might actually have some talent. But as he would no doubt admit, The Painted Word isn't about the history of art. It's about the history of taste and middlebrow acquisition--and nobody has chronicled these two topics as hilariously or accurately as Tom Wolfe. --James Marcus [via]
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A Philosophical Investigationby Philip KerrISBN 0374231761 (0-374-23176-1)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Philosophical Investigation'Book summary:A powerful, thought-provoking thriller set in London in 2013 with a difference that takes the reader on a terrifying journey into the head of a serial killer and to the heart of murder itself. Kerr has produced an unusual work of suspense which puts him at the front ranks in the genre. Movie rights optioned by Paramount Pictures. [via]
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Planning in East Europe: Industrial Management by the Stateby Michael Charles Kaser, Janusz G. ZielinskiISBN 0370003977 (0-370-00397-7)
Hardcover, Bodley Head
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The Playful World: How Technology Is Transforming Our Imaginationby Mark PesceISBN 0345439430 (0-345-43943-0)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Playful World: How Technology Is Transforming Our Imagination'Book summary:Are Furbies avatars of future pets? Mark Pesce, Chair of USC's Interactive Media Program and creator of VRML, thinks that technological development and recreational activity inform each other and are converging into a strange new immersive environment. The Playful World: Interactive Toys and the Future of Imagination is a thoughtful peek into the guts of toys like Lego Mindstorms and Sony's PlayStation 2; by extrapolation, Pesce sees them driving research in nanotechnology and virtual reality, but nobly refuses to succumb to the temptation to make precise predictions.
Looking at the history of play and taking care to knock down whatever resistance we might have left to considering it less worthwhile than other activities, the book shows that play is a form of learning--perhaps the most natural form. Toy tech is catching up with current research very rapidly; many households have more powerful computers playing Crazy Taxi with the kids than working on budgets with parents. The presumption that we are creating new ways of learning, knowing, and being that are rapidly overtaking our means to understand and control them could be frightening if explored by an author less familiar with the technology and its users. Rather than "game over", Pesce says, we should get ready to "play again". --Rob Lightner [via]
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The Queen of the Damnedby Anne RiceISBN 0345419626 (0-345-41962-6)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Reich Speaks of Freudby Wilhelm Reich, Chester M. RaphaelISBN 0374506728 (0-374-50672-8)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Reich Speaks of Freud'Book summary:Reich Speaks Of Freud, by Higgins, Mary And Chester M. Rap [via]
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Required Reading: Why Our American Classics Matter Nowby Andrew DelbancoISBN 0374230072 (0-374-23007-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Required Reading: Why Our American Classics Matter Now'Book summary:In his deeply felt new book, the author of the highly acclaimed Death of Satan shows why classic American writers remain indispensable in our age of uncertainty over what constitutes our common heritage. In superb chapters touching on Thoreau, Melville, Wharton, Richard Wright, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, and others, Delbanco shows how each writer has enlarged the expressive range of the American language, as well as our imagined sense of American possibilities. [via]
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The Scalpel and the Butterfly: The War Between Animal Research and Animal Protectionby Deborah RudacilleISBN 0374254206 (0-374-25420-6)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinsonby Emily Dickinson, Billy CollinsISBN 0345472411 (0-345-47241-1)
Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson'Book summary:The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Archibald MacLeish has noted the "curious energy" which pervades Emily Dickinson's work. She, along with Walt Whitman, helps make up the very foundation of American poetry. This Modern Library edition from Random House is an excellent overview of Dickinson's work, divided by theme, including "Life," "Nature," "Love," and so forth. This volume of selected poems is a must for any serious reader of American poetry. [via]
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Selected Writings of Wilhelm Reichby Wilhelm ReichISBN 0374501971 (0-374-50197-1)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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A Severed Waspby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374261318 (0-374-26131-8)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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Signposts in a Strange Landby Walker PercyISBN 0374263914 (0-374-26391-4)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Signposts in a Strange Land'Book summary:At his death in 1990, Walker Percy left a considerable legacy of uncollected nonfiction. Assembled in Signposts in a Strange Land, these essays on language, literature, philosophy, religion, psychiatry, morality, and life and letters in the South display the imaginative versatility of an author considered by many to be one the greatest modern American writers.[via]More editions of Signposts in a Strange Land:
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The Solitude Of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stantonby Vivian GornickISBN 0374299544 (0-374-29954-4)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Solitude Of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton'Book summary:Elizabeth Cady Stantonalong with her comrade-in-arms, Susan B. Anthonywas one of the most important leaders of the movement to gain American women the vote. But, as Vivian Gornick argues in this passionate, vivid biographical essay, Stanton is also the greatest feminist thinker of the nineteenth century. Endowed with a philosophical cast of mind large enough to grasp the immensity that womens rights addressed, Stanton developed a devotion to equality uniquely American in character. Her writing and life make clear why feminism as a liberation movement has flourished here as nowhere else in the world.[via]
Born in 1815 into a conservative family of privilege, Stanton was radicalized by her experience in the abolitionist movement. Attending the first international conference on slavery in London in 1840, she found herself amazed when the conference officials refused to seat her because of her sex. At that moment she realized that In the eyes of the world I was not as I was in my own eyes, I was only a woman. At the same moment she saw what it meant for the American republic to have failed to deliver on its fundamental promise of equality for all. In her last public address, The Solitude of Self, (delivered in 1892), she argued for women's political equality on the grounds that loneliness is the human condition, and that each citizen therefore needs the tools to fight alone for his or her interests.
Vivian Gornick first encountered The Solitude of Self thirty years ago. Of that moment Gornick writes, I hardly knew who Stanton was, much less what this speech meant in her life, or in our history, but it I can still remember thinking with excitement and gratitude, as I read these words for the first time, eighty years after they were written, We are beginning where she left off.
The Solitude of Self is a profound, distilled meditation on what makes American feminism American from one of the finest critics of our time.More editions of The Solitude Of Self: Thinking About Elizabeth Cady Stanton:
Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Lifeby Terry BrooksISBN 0345465512 (0-345-46551-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Stories of Five Decadesby Hermann HesseISBN 0374510954 (0-374-51095-4)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Summer of the Great-Grandmotherby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374271747 (0-374-27174-7)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, And Beyondby Pankaj MishraISBN 0374173214 (0-374-17321-4)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, And Beyond'Book summary:[via]A vivid, often surprising account of South Asia today by the author of An End to Suffering
In his new book, Pankaj Mishra brings literary authority and political insight to bear on travels that are at once epic and personal. Traveling in the changing cultures of South Asia, Mishra sees the pressuresthe temptationsof Western-style modernity and prosperity, and teases out the paradoxes of globalization. A
visit to Allahabad, birthplace of Jawaharlal Nehru, occasions a brief history of the tumultuous post-independence politics Nehru set in motion. In Kashmir, just after the brutal killing of thirtyfive Sikhs, Mishra sees Muslim guerrillas playing with Sikh village children while the media ponder a (largely irrelevant) visit by President Clinton. And in Tibet Mishra exquisitely parses the situation whereby the Chinese governmentofficially atheist and strongly opposed to a free Tibethas discovered that Tibetan Buddhism can be packaged and sold to tourists.Temptations of the West is a book concerned with history still in the makingessential reading about a conflicted and rapidly changing region.More editions of Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, And Beyond:
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This Side of Paradiseby F. Scott Fitzgerald, Susan OrleanISBN 0345481224 (0-345-48122-4)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'This Side of Paradise'Book summary:Fitzgerald's first novel, reprinted in the handsome Everyman's Library series of literary classic, uses numerous formal experiments to tell the story of Amory Blaine, as he grows up during the crazy years following the First World War. It also contains a new introduction by Craig Raine that describes critical and popular reception of the book when it came out in 1920. [via]
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Thoreau in the Mountainsby Henry David Thoreau, William L. HowarthISBN 0374276439 (0-374-27643-9)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus, Giroux
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Thou Shalt Not Be Aware: Psychoanalysis and Society's Betrayal of the Childby Alice Miller, Hunter Hannum, Hildegarde HannumISBN 0374276463 (0-374-27646-3)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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To Your Scattered Bodies Goby Philip Jose FarmerISBN 0345419677 (0-345-41967-7)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'To Your Scattered Bodies Go'Book summary:To Your Scattered Bodies Go is the Hugo Award-winning beginning to the story of Riverworld, Philip José Farmer's unequaled tale about life after death. When famous adventurer Sir Richard Francis Burton dies, the last thing he expects to do is awaken naked on a foreign planet along the shores of a seemingly endless river. But that's where Burton and billions of other humans (plus a few nonhumans) find themselves as the epic Riverworld saga begins. It seems that all of Earthly humanity has been resurrected on the planet, each with an indestructible container that provides three meals a day, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, a lighter, and the odd tube of lipstick. But why? And by whom?
That's what Burton and a handful of fellow adventurers are determined to discover as they construct a boat and set out in search of the river's source, thought to be millions of miles away. Although there are many hardships during the journey--including an encounter with the infamous Hermann Goring--Burton's resolve to complete his quest is strengthened by a visit from the Mysterious Stranger, a being who claims to be a renegade within the very group that created the Riverworld. The stranger tells Burton that he must make it to the river's headwaters, along with a dozen others the Stranger has selected, to help stop an evil experiment at the end of which humanity will simply be allowed to die. --Craig E. Engler [via]
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Treasure Islandby Edwards, N. C. WyethISBN 0361027966 (0-361-02796-6)
Hardcover, Heinemann/Raintree
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Treasure Island'Book summary:Climb aboard for the swashbuckling adventure of a lifetime. Treasure Islandhas enthralled (and caused slight seasickness) for decades. The names Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins are destined to remain pieces of folklore for as long as children want to read Robert Louis Stevenson's most famous book. With it's dastardly plot and motley crew of rogues and villains, it seems unlikely that children will ever say no to this timeless classic. --Naomi Gesinger [via]
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Trumpby Tony Schwartz, Donald TrumpISBN 0345479173 (0-345-47917-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriageby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374280207 (0-374-28020-7)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage'Book summary:This moving memoir documents a marriage of more than forty years between two gifted people, a long term marriage that was: "full of wonderful things, terrible things, joyous things, grievous things, but ours."[via]More editions of Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage:
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The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyby Douglas AdamsISBN 0345453743 (0-345-45374-3)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'Book summary:At last in paperback in one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adamss beloved Hitchiker series.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide. Together they stick out their thumbs to the stars and begin a wild journey through time and space.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Facing annihilation at the hands of warmongers is a curious time to crave tea. It could only happen to the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his comrades as they hurtle across the galaxy in a desperate search for a place to eat.
Life, the Universe and Everything
The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals can avert Armageddon: mild-mannered Arthur Dent and his stalwart crew.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Back on Earth, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out imagination. But a gift-wrapped fishbowl with a cryptic inscription conspires to thrust him back to reality. So to speak.
Mostly Harmless
Just when Arthur Dent makes the terrible mistake of starting to enjoy life, all hell breaks loose. Can he save the Earth from total obliteration? Can he save the Guide from a hostile alien takeover? Can he save his daughter from herself? [via]More editions of The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
The Unity of Natureby Carl Friedrich WeizsackerISBN 0374281009 (0-374-28100-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus Giroux
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The Vampire Lestatby Anne RiceISBN 0345419642 (0-345-41964-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Vampire Lestat'Book summary:After the spectacular debut of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, Anne Rice put aside her vampires to explore other literary interests--Italian castrati in Cry to Heaven and the Free People of Color in The Feast of All Saints. But Lestat, the mischievous creator of Louis in Interview, finally emerged to tell his own story in the 1985 sequel, The Vampire Lestat.
As with the first book in the series, the novel begins with a frame narrative. After over a half century underground, Lestat awakens in the 1980s to the cacophony of electronic sounds and images that characterizes the MTV generation. Particularly, he is captivated by a fledgling rock band named Satan's Night Out. Determined both to achieve international fame and end the centuries of self-imposed vampire silence, Lestat takes command of the band (now renamed "The Vampire Lestat") and pens his own autobiography. The remainder of the novel purports to be that autobiography: the vampire traces his mortal youth as the son of a marquis in pre-Revolutionary France, his initiation into vampirism at the hands of Magnus, and his quest for the ultimate origins of his undead species.
While very different from the first novel in the Vampire Chronicles, The Vampire Lestat has proved to be the foundation for a broader range of narratives than is possible from Louis's brooding, passive perspective. The character of Lestat is one of Rice's most complex and popular literary alter egos, and his Faustian strivings have a mythopoeic resonance that links the novel to a grand tradition of spiritual and supernatural fiction. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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The Virtues of Agingby Jimmy CarterISBN 0345425928 (0-345-42592-8)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Virtues of Aging'Book summary:"We are not alone in our worry about both the physical aspect of aging and the prejudice that exists toward the elderly, which is similar to racism or sexism. What makes it different is that the prejudice also exists among those of us who are either within this group or rapidly approaching it. When I have mentioned the title of this book to a few people, most of them responded, 'Virtues? What could possibly be good about growing old?' The most obvious answer, of course, is to consider the alternative to aging. But there are plenty of other good answers--many based on our personal experiences and observations. "
--from THE VIRTUES OF AGING [via] -
The Volcano Loverby Susan SontagISBN 0374285160 (0-374-28516-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Volcano Lover'Book summary:A romance set in eighteenth-century Naples follows the fortunes of a British ambassador, the ravishing woman he marries, and the young British admiral with whom she falls in love. By the author of The Way We Live Now. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. [via]
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War and Peaceby Leo TolstoyISBN 0345472403 (0-345-47240-3)
Softcover, Bantam Classic & Loveswept
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› Find signed collectible books: 'War and Peace'Book summary:Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic Wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoys genius is seen clearly in the multitude of fully realized and equally memorable characters that populate this massive chronicle. Out of this complex narrative emerges a profound examination of the individuals place in the historical process, one that makes it clear why Thomas Mann praised Tolstoy for his Homeric powers and placed War and Peace in the same category as the Iliad: To read him . . . is to find ones way home . . . to everything within us that is fundamental and sane. [via]
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Watermarkby Joseph BrodskyISBN 0374148120 (0-374-14812-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Where Joy Residesby Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, James P. WhiteISBN 0374123322 (0-374-12332-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Wilhelm Reich Selected Writings: An Introduction to Orgonomyby Wilhelm Reich, Mary Boyd HigginsISBN 0374501963 (0-374-50196-3)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Wisdom of Heschelby Abraham Joshua HeschelISBN 0374291241 (0-374-29124-1)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Wise Bloodby Flannery O'ConnorISBN 0374505845 (0-374-50584-5)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wise Blood'Book summary:Wise Blood is a comedy with a fierce, Old Testament soul. Flannery O'Connor has no truck with such newfangled notions as psychology. Driven by forces outside their control, her characters are as one-dimensional--and mysterious--as figures on a frieze. Hazel Motes, for instance, has the temperament of a martyr, even though he spends most of the book trying to get God to go away. As a child he's convinced that "the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin." When that doesn't work, and when he returns from Korea determined "to be converted to nothing instead of evil," he still can't go anywhere without being mistaken for a preacher. (Not that the hat and shiny glare-blue suit help.) No matter what Hazel does, Jesus moves "from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark..."
Adrift after four years in the service, Hazel takes a train to the city of Taulkinham, buys himself a "rat-colored car," and sets about preaching on street corners for the Church Without Christ, "where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way." Along the way he meets Enoch Emery, who's only 18 years old but already works for the city, as well the blind preacher Asa Hawks and his illegitimate daughter, Sabbath Lily. (Her letter to an advice column: "Dear Mary, I am a bastard and a bastard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven as we all know, but I have this personality that makes boys follow me. Do you think I should neck or not?") Subsequent events involve a desiccated, centuries-old dwarf--Gonga the Giant Jungle Monarch--and Hazel's nemesis, Hoover Shoats, who starts the rival Church of Christ Without Christ. If you think these events don't end happily, you might be right.
Wise Blood is a savage satire of America's secular, commercial culture, as well as the humanism it holds so dear ("Dear Sabbath," Mary Brittle writes back, "Light necking is acceptable, but I think your real problem is one of adjustment to the modern world. Perhaps you ought to re-examine your religious values to see if they meet your needs in Life.") But the book's ultimate purpose is Religious, with a capital R--no metaphors, no allusions, just the thing itself in all its fierce glory. When Hazel whispers "I'm not clean," for instance, O'Connor thinks he is perfectly right. For readers unaccustomed to holding low comedy and high seriousness in their heads at the same time, all this can come as something of a shock. Who else could offer an allegory about free will, redemption, and original sin right alongside the more elemental pleasure of witnessing Enoch Emery dress up in a gorilla suit? Nobody else, that's who. And that's OK. More than one Flannery O'Connor in this world might show us more truth than we could bear. --Mary Park [via]
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Writing the Mind Alive: The Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your Authentic Voiceby Tobin Simon, Linda Trichter MetcalfISBN 0345438582 (0-345-43858-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Sourceby D. C. Lau, Roger T. AmesISBN 0345425685 (0-345-42568-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source'Book summary:Is it a backhanded compliment to recommend a book more for its introduction than for the main text itself? Not if the introduction turns out to be twice the length of the text, as it is in Lau and Ames's collaboration Yuan Dao. The first chapter of the early Chinese Taoist text Huainanzi, Yuan Dao is similar to the Tao Te Ching in its elaboration of the natural Tao and the actions (or inaction) of the sage. It is worth reading for its limpid lyricism alone. With Ames's prefatory remarks, not only the text, but the whole of early Chinese thought comes more into focus. The reason we see ancient Chinese works as wisdom literature is that the Chinese were more interested in the how of the world than the what of it, and so Ames takes Yuan Dao as a jumping-off point for examining a world-view that contrasts sharply with ours but is still surprisingly modern. The original author (or sponsor) of Yuan Dao lost his life partly because it is a work that proposed pluralism and noncoercion in a time of forced consolidation. In our time, this message rings still rings true. --Brian Bruya [via]
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The Zen Of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Lifeby John Daido LooriISBN 0345466330 (0-345-46633-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Zen Of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life'Book summary:For many of us, the return of Zen conjures up images of rock gardens and gently flowing waterfalls. We think of mindfulness and meditation, immersion in a state of being where meaning is found through simplicity. Zen lore has been absorbed by Western practitioners and pop culture alike, yet there is a specific area of this ancient tradition that hasnt been fully explored in the West. Now, in The Zen of Creativity, American Zen master John Daido Loori presents a book that taps the principles of the Zen arts and aesthetic as a means to unlock creativity and find freedom in the various dimensions of our existence. Loori dissolves the barriers between art and spirituality, opening up the possibility of meeting life with spontaneity, grace, and peace.
Zen Buddhism is steeped in the arts. In spiritual ways, calligraphy, poetry, painting, the tea ceremony, and flower arranging can point us toward our essential, boundless nature. Brilliantly interpreting the teachings of the artless arts, Loori illuminates various elements that awaken our creativity, among them still point, the center of each moment that focuses on the tranquility within; simplicity, in which the creative process is uncluttered and unlimited, like a cloudless sky; spontaneity, a way to navigate through life without preconceptions, with a freshness in which everything becomes new; mystery, a sense of trust in the unknown; creative feedback, the systematic use of an audience to receive noncritical input about our art; art koans, exercises based on paradoxical questions that can be resolved only through artistic expression. Loori shows how these elements interpenetrate and function not only in art, but in all our endeavors.
Beautifully illustrated and punctuated with poems and reflections from Looris own spiritual journey, The Zen of Creativity presents a multilayered, bottomless source of insight into our creativity. Appealing equally to spiritual seekers, artists, and veteran Buddhist practitioners, this book is perfect for those wishing to discover new means of self-awareness and expressionand to restore equanimity and freedom amid the vicissitudes of our lives. [via]More editions of The Zen Of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life:
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