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Distant Thunder
By Wahei Tatematsu. 1999
Winner of the Noma Prize for New WritersSet in rural Japan at the height of the bubble economy, Distant Thunder…
tells of a farming village gradually effaced by urbanization, corruption, and greed. After Matsuzo Wada has sold off the family's lands and left his wife for another woman, his son Mitsuo is determined to support himself and his mother in the traditional manner, farming. All that remains of his ancestors' lands is a hothouse, in which he grows tomatoes to sell to the housewives from the nearby apartment complex, built on a former rice field. When his childhood friend, Koji, becomes entangled in an adulterous love affair which ultimately destroys him and those around him, Mitsuo begins to see how the town's hedonistic excesses are laying to waste not only the landscape, but also the communal and familial bonds and the values that once sustained them all.Translated from the Japanese by Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto.Gospel Choirs
By Derrick A. Bell. 1996
Just like the songs of a gospel choir, the pieces in this book give voice to the hardships faced by…
African Americans. Through allegorical stories and fictional encounters, dreams and dialogues, it presents fresh perspectives on the different issues that concern blacks. Despite their tough subjects, however, these stories resound with laughter and compassion and a continuing theme of Christian love.Kobo and the Wishing Pictures
By Yoshie Noguchi, Dorothy W. Baruch. 1964
Kobo is a small Japanese boy whose father paints ema, or wishing pictures, for so many customers that he finds…
no time to paint a single one for his own family-not even for Kobo, who wants one so badly to take to the shrine on Wishing Day. As the customers come and go, Kobo has a chance to observe many types of people and to consider many different kinds of wishes, none of which seems quite right for him. It is all very discouraging until, at last, he begins to get an idea, and then . . . But that is the secret of the story.In meeting Kobo and the many other interesting people in this book, the young reader is introduced to a number of the charming manners and customs of rural Japan, as well as to a number of situations that parallel those experienced by children almost everywhere. As the author expresses it in her introduction: "In this book there are many pictures of ema. We hope that the wishes shown with them, along with the story of Kobo and his family, will bridge customs and culture through our children's seeing that the children of Japan have the same human feeling of affection, of rivalry, of sadness and joy."29
By Mary Sojourner. 2014
"Ever-ascending Sojourner cooks up wrenching sorrow and hilarious banter, environmental and moral conundrums, magnetizing characters, and a place of transcendent…
beauty in this intoxicating, provocative, and gloriously told desert tale of wildness and community, unexpected bonds and deep legacies, trauma and healing."-Donna Seaman, BOOKLIST (starred review) "This standout ecological novel from Arizona author Sojourner (Going Through Ghosts) features picturesque prose, a vivid western setting, and sharply drawn characters."-PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review)"In Nell Walker, Mary Sojourner has created a character who discovers-in her own desperate way-the simple beauty in the interconnectedness of the natural world and the complexities we heap upon it. Written with passion and humor, 29 takes the reader on a journey of hope, humanity, and love."-Jana Richman, author of Riding in the Shadows of Saints, The Last Cowgirl, and The Ordinary Truth"29 is at the intersection of a local road to Nowhere and an interstate to Everywhere. Certainly Mary's prose and storytelling is crystalline and lovely, a kind of geode broth, filled with light and piquancy."-David Kranes, author of The Legend's Daughter and The National Tree"Sojourner's desert eyes not only see but transform what others dismiss and ignore. She brings readers deep into the dust and sparkle of the Mojave, forcing the reader to hear the people of the desert-their stories, their sorrows, and their fierce and fragile loves. 29 holds the ragged weeping desert open, then kisses closed her wounds. A love letter to what we frequently deem unloveable, 29 is a wide-armed triumph of hope."-Laraine Herring, author of Ghost Swamp Blues and Writing Begins with the Breath"This is a story that will stay with the readers and, perhaps, bring them home to their own place, and the importance of fighting for what you love."-Susan Lang, author of the Mojave novels trilogy"The language is sharp as a butcher's blade, the dialogue rings true and hard, and the story cuts deeply into its reader."-H. Lee Barnes, author of Cold Deck, The Lucky, and Car Tag"Sojourner's new novel, much like the desert landscapes in which it is set, will never speak to those who see the Mojave as an annoying blur between L.A. and Vegas, but those adventurous enough (or lost enough) to wander off I-15 will find a world bursting with fragile beauty, tenacious life, and rock hard truth."-Giles Carwyn, author of Queen of OblivionMolecular Biology and Cultural Heritage
By C. Saiz-Jimenez. 2003
This book contains forty reviewed papers delivered at the International Congress on Molecular Biology and Cultural Heritage held in Seville,…
March 2003. It is divided in four parts, the first one presents the state-of-the-art and reviews molecular techniques applied to the study of microbial communities colonizing monuments and cultural heritage assets. Part two covers specific molecular techniques used in biodetereoration studies, part three includes an updated overview on on-going biodetereoration European Commission projects, and part four presents selected biodetereoration case studies from all over the world.The Essential Clarence Major: Prose and Poetry
By Clarence Major. 2020
Clarence Major is one of America's literary masters. He has published numerous books, from novels to poetry and short story…
collections. Among his many accolades, he was a finalist for the National Book Award and a Fulbright scholar and received the PEN Oakland/Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award. His work has been featured in many literary journals, newspapers, and magazines, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, and Ploughshares.Whether you've known Major's work for decades or are new to his singular style, The Essential Clarence Major offers a thrilling overview of an exceptional career, from his early groundbreaking fiction to his most recent poems. Included here are excerpts from Major's best novels, a selection of his finest short stories and poetry, more than a dozen thought-provoking essays, a taste of his autobiography. Award-winning playwright, novelist, and screenwriter Kia Corthron introduces the collection, artfully illuminating Major's importance as one of the foremost and original voices in contemporary American literature.Empire of Wild: A Novel
By Cherie Dimaline. 2019
A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLEROne of the most anticipated books of the summer for Time, Harper's Bazaar, Bustle and Publishers Weekly'Deftly…
written, gripping and informative. Empire of Wild is a rip-roaring read!' Margaret Atwood'Empire of Wild is doing everything I love in a contemporary novel and more. It is tough, funny, beautiful, honest and propulsive' Tommy Orange, author of There There 'Dimaline turns an old story into something newly haunting and resonant' New York Times'Close, tight, stark, beautiful - rich where richness is warranted, but spare where want and sorrow have sharpened every word. Dimaline has crafted something both current and timeless' NPR'Revelatory... Gritty and engaging, this story of a woman and her missing husband is one of candor, wit and tradition'Ms. Magazine Broken-hearted Joan has been searching for her husband, Victor, for almost a year - ever since he went missing on the night they had their first serious argument. One hung-over morning in a Walmart parking lot in a little town near Georgian Bay, she is drawn to a revival tent where the local Métis have been flocking to hear a charismatic preacher. By the time she staggers into the tent the service is over, but as she is about to leave, she hears an unmistakable voice.She turns, and there is Victor. Only he insists he is not Victor, but the Reverend Eugene Wolff, on a mission to bring his people to Jesus.With only two allies - her Johnny-Cash-loving, 12-year-old nephew Zeus, and Ajean, a foul-mouthed euchre shark with deep knowledge of the old Métis ways - Joan sets out to remind the Reverend Wolff of who he really is. If he really is Victor, his life and the life of everyone she loves, depends upon her success.Inspired by traditional Métis legends, Cherie Dimaline has created a propulsive, stunning and sensuous novel.Red at the Bone: Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2020
By Jacqueline Woodson. 2019
THE TIMES '100 BEST SUMMER READS'NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2020'Sublime' Candice Carty-Williams'An epic in…
miniature' Tayari Jones 'A banger' Ta-Nehisi Coates'Generous and big-hearted' Brit Bennett 'A true spell of a book' Ocean Vuong 'A proclamation' R.O. Kwon'A little masterpiece' Paula Hawkins'I adored this book' Elizabeth MacNeal'Pure poetry' Observer'A sharply focused gem' Sunday Times'Will remind you why you love reading' Stylist'Haunting' Guardian'A wonderful, tragic, inspiring story' Metro'Prose that sings off the page... Gorgeous' Mail on Sunday'A nuanced portrait of shifting family relationships' Financial Times'As seductive as a Prince bop' O, The Oprah Magazine'Razor-sharp' Vanity Fair'Dazzling... With urgent, vital insights into questions of class, gender, race, history, queerness and sex' New York Times An unexpected teenage pregnancy brings together two families from different social classes, and exposes the private hopes, disappointments and longings that can bind or divide us. From the New York Times-bestselling and National Book Award-winning author of Another Brooklyn and Brown Girl Dreaming. Brooklyn, 2001. It is the evening of sixteen-year-old Melody's coming of age ceremony in her grandparents' brownstone. Watched lovingly by her relatives and friends, making her entrance to the music of Prince, she wears a special custom-made dress - the very same dress that was sewn for a different wearer, Melody's mother, for a celebration that ultimately never took place.Unfurling the history of Melody's family - from the 1921 Tulsa race massacre to post 9/11 New York - Red at the Bone explores sexual desire, identity, class, and the life-altering facts of parenthood, as it looks at the ways in which young people must so often make fateful decisions about their lives before they have even begun to figure out who they are and what they want to be. *** ONE OF THE BOOKS OF THE YEAR FOR: New York Times; Washington Post; Time; USA Today; O, The Oprah Magazine; Elle; Good Housekeeping; Esquire; NPR; New York Public Library; Library Journal; Kirkus; BookRiot; She Reads; The Undefeated ***Miss Pinkerton (The hilda Adams Mysteries Ser. #1)
By Mary Roberts Rinehart. 1932
'A literary celebrity with few rivals ... she wrote more bestselling novels ... over a longer period than almost any…
other American writer' WASHINGTON POSTEveryone agrees that Herbert Wynne wasn't the type to commit suicide. But he has been found, shot dead, the only other possible killer his bedridden aunt.Inspector Patton of the Homicide Division sees this as the perfect opportunity to send in Hilda Adams, a nurse with a very special talent for detection. But when the sleuthing nurse arrives at the mansion, she finds more intrigue than anyone outside could possibly have imagined - and a killer on the loose...Interpreter of Maladies
By Jhumpa Lahiri. 1999
Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories…
seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.When My Name Was Keoko
By Linda Sue Park. 2002
Sun-hee and her older brother, Tae-yul, live in Korea with their parents. Because Korea is under Japanese occupation, the children…
study Japanese and speak it at school. Their own language, their flag, the folktales Uncle tells them-even their names-are all part of the Korean culture that is now forbidden. When World War II comes to Korea, Sun-hee is surprised that the Japanese expect their Korean subjects to fight on their side. But the greatest shock of all comes when Tae-yul enlists in the Japanese army in an attempt to protect Uncle, who is suspected of aiding the Korean resistance. Sun-hee stays behind, entrusted with the life-and-death secrets of a family at war.The Spook Who Sat by the Door, Second Edition (African American Life Series)
By Sam Greenlee. 1969
A classic in the black literary tradition, The Spook Who Sat by the Door is both a comment on the…
civil rights problems in the United States in the late 1960s and a serious attempt to focus on the issue of black militancy. Dan Freeman, the "spook who sat by the door," is enlisted in the CIA's elitist espionage program. Upon mastering agency tactics, however, he drops out to train young Chicago blacks as "Freedom Fighters" in this explosive, award-winning novel. As a story of one man's reaction to ruling-class hypocrisy, the book is autobiographical and personal. As a tale of a man's reaction to oppression, it is universal.Tales of the Out & the Gone: Short Stories
By Amiri Baraka. 2007
Comprising short fiction from the early 1970s to the twenty-first century—most of which has never been published—Tales of the Out…
& the Gone reflects the astounding evolution of America’s most provocative literary anti-hero. The first section of the book, “War Stories,” offers six stories enmeshed in the vola-tile politics of the 1970s and 1980s. The second section, “Tales of the Out & the Gone,” reveals Amiri Baraka’s increasing literary adventurousness, combining an unpredictable language play with a passion for abstraction and psychological exploration. Throughout, Baraka’s unique and constantly changing literary style will educate readers on the evolution of one of America’s most accomplished literary masters of the past four decades.Tales: Short Stories (AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series)
By Leroi Jones. 2014
"We owe profound thanks to Akashic Books for reissuing this important collection of Amiri Baraka's short stories. Baraka was, without…
question, the central figure of the Black Arts Movement, and was the most important theorist of that movement's expression of the 'Black Aesthetic,' which took hold of the African American cultural imagination in earnest in the late sixties. While known primarily for his plays, poems, and criticism of black music, Baraka was also a master of the short story form, as this collection attests. Tales first appeared in 1967 and is an impressionistic and sometimes surrealistic collection of short fiction, showcasing Amiri Baraka's great impact on African American literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Tales is a critical volume in Amiri Baraka's oeuvre, and an important testament to his remarkable literary legacy."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr."A clutch of early stories from the poet, playwright, and provocateur, infused with jazz and informed by racial alienation...Worth reading to see the way [Baraka] feverishly tinkered with ways to explore a multiplicity of black experiences. An intense and button-pushing collection."--Kirkus ReviewsPraise for Amiri Baraka:"Baraka's stories evoke a mood of revolutionary disorder, conjuring an alternative universe in which a dangerous African-American underground, or a dangerous literary underground still exists...Baraka is at his best as a lyrical prophet of despair who transfigures his contentious racial and political views into a transcendent, 'outtelligent' clarity."--New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) on Tales of the Out & the GoneThe sixteen artful and nuanced stories in this reissue of Amiri Baraka's seminal 1967 collection fall into two parts: the first nine concern themselves with the sensibility of a hip, perceptive young black man in white America. The last seven stories endeavor to place that same man within the context of his awareness of and participation in a rapidly emerging and powerfully felt negritude. They deal, it might be said, with the black man in black America. Yet these tales are not social tracts, but absolutely masterful fiction--provocative, witty, and, at times, bitter and aggressive.All or Nothing: A Novel
By Preston L. Allen. 2007
Preston L. Allen's witty, charming, and very likable school bus driver--named P--is a desperate gambler. He has blown the hundred…
thousand dollars he won at the casino six months ago, but his wife and family still think he's loaded. P spins out of control on the addict's downward spiral of dependency, paranoia, and depression, as he must find ways to keep coming up with the money to fool his family and fund his growing addiction. The bets get bigger and bigger, until finally, faced with the ultimate financial crisis, he hits it really big. Yet winning, he soon learns, is just the beginning of a deeper problem.The one constant for P--who rises from wage-earner to millionaire and back again in his roller-coaster-ride of a life--is that he must gamble. That his son has died, that his wife is leaving him, that his girlfriend has been arrested, that he has no money, that he has more money than he could ever have dreamed--are all lesser concerns for P as he constantly seeks out new gambling opportunities.While other books on gambling seek either to sermonize on the addiction or to glorify it by highlighting its few prosperous celebrities, All or Nothing is an honest, straightforward account of what it is like to live as a gambler--whether a high-rolling millionaire playing $1,000-ante poker in Las Vegas or a regular guy at the local Indian casino praying for a miracle as he feeds his meager life savings into the unforgiving slot machine. All or Nothing is the first novel to dig beneath the veneer to explore the gambler's unique and complex relationship with money. If you've ever wanted to get into the heart and psyche of a compulsive gambler, here is your chance.Preston L. Allen is a recipient of a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship and author of the thriller Hoochie Mama, as well as the collection Churchboys and Other Sinners. His stories have appeared in numerous magazines and journals and have been anthologized in Brown Sugar (Penguin) and Miami Noir (Akashic). He lives in South Florida.New York Times Book Review, Sun., June 15, 2008"As a cartographer of autodegradation, Allen takes his place on a continuum that begins, perhaps, with Dostoyevsky's Gambler, courses through Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano, William S. Burroughs's Junky, [and] the collected works of Charles Bukowski and Hubert Selby Jr...Like Dostoyevsky, Allen colorfully evokes the gambling milieu...Like Burroughs, he is a dispassionate chronicler of the addict's daily ritual, neither glorifying nor vilifying the matter at hand. Yet he never wallows like Lowry nor amuses like Bukowski. His spare, efficient prose could be called medium-boiled."Library Journal, Nov. 15, 2007"Allen's new novel poignantly depicts the life of P . . . Told without preaching or moralizing, the facts of P's life express volumes on the destructive power of gambling. This is strongly recommended and deserves a wide audience; an excellent choice for book discussion groups."Kirkus Reviews, Sept., 15, 2007"A gambler's hands and heart perpetually tremble in this raw story of addiction . . . Allen's brilliant at conveying the hothouse atmosphere of hell-bent gaming."ForeWord, Jan/Feb. 2008"All or Nothing is funny, relentless, haunting, and highly readable."The Hungered One: Short Stories (AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series)
By Ed Bullins. 2012
"A richness of language and observation pervades this collection of short stories by a black writer about real black people."--The…
New York Times Book ReviewThese early writings from award-winning playwright Ed Bullins explore loneliness and despair in beautifully crafted stories.Ed Bullins has written numerous plays and fiction, including In the Wine Time, Goin' a Buffalo, Clara's Ole Man, and The Taking of Miss Janie, which received the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play of the 1974-1975 season. His book of short fiction, The Hungered One: Early Writings, was originally published in 1971.The Lunatic
By Anthony C. Winkler. 2007
In this outrageously out-of-order, hilarious novel, the reader discovers that lunacy is by no means restricted to the village madman,…
and that goodness and forgiveness may be rarer qualities, found in unexpected places.Aloysius is tolerated by neighbors but forced to eke out a living by doing odd jobs, using the hospitable woodlands for shelter. He is starved of human companionship; instead he has running conversations with trees and plants. Then love, or a peculiar version of it, comes to Aloysius in the form of a solidly built German lady, Inga Schmidt, who has come to Jamaica to photograph the flora and fauna.She's Gone
By Kwame Dawes. 2007
A prominent Jamaican reggae singer falls in love with an African American woman while on tour in South Carolina. The…
two struggle to forge a relationship across a cultural and psychological divide in a story that spans from Jamaica to South Carolina to New York City.Operation Rhino
By Lauren St John. 2015
Join Martine in her fifth African adventure in Lauren St John's bestselling THE WHITE GIRAFFE series.When Sawubona's white rhinos are…
attacked, the poachers leave behind a terrified calf. Devastated but determined to help, Martine and Ben agree to take the rhino baby to a sanctuary near the Golden Gate Highlands National Park.But the sanctuary is hiding a precious secret - one that must be guarded from the poachers at all costs. When the secret gets out, Martine and Ben find themselves in the fight of their lives to save one of the rarest animals on earth. But who can they trust?A magical and heartwarming adventure about saving endangered species.Performance at the Urban Periphery: Insights from South India (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
By Anindya Sinha, Sharada Srinivasan, Jerri Daboo, Cathy Turner. 2022
This edited volume considers performance in its engagement with expanding Indian cities, with a particular focus on festivals and performances…
in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The editors ask how performance practices are affected by urbanisation, the effects of such changes on their cultural economy, and the environmental impacts of performance itself. This project also considers how performance responds to its context, and the potential for performance to be critical of the city’s development, and of its own compromises. Bringing together perspectives from the humanities, natural and social sciences, the book takes a multi-faceted analytical view of live performance, connecting contemporary with heritage forms, and human with more-than-human actors. The three sections, themed around heritage, everyday life, and future ecologies, will be of great interest to students and scholars in performance, heritage studies, ecology and art history.